me talking out loud

If you follow the MySQL world, you have probably heard of the plight of Andrii Nikitin and his son Ivan. But for those in the PHP world who may not have, I ask you to please help.

Andrii Nikitin is a MySQL support engineer in the Ukraine and his son desperately needs a bone marrow transplant operation. Unfortunately where he is, they do not have the facilities to handle it - so he must go outside his country to get Ivan the medical help he needs. This, of course, will be very expensive. Estimated costs are 150000 - 250000 EUR.

MySQL and all of it’s employees are working to help Andrii raise the money he needs. Many of us (myself included) have given money to help him. Will you join us? If every person that has used MySQL over the years gave just a single dollar to help Andrii, he would have the money to get Ivan the medical treatment he needs to survive.

For more information on Andrii Nikitin and Ivan or to donate via Paypal please go here

it has been a crazy week. Started out pretty good - but then my mom got sick. Very sick. She is doing well now but I have to admit to being a bit of a basket case for a while, until I knew more. Add to that missing almost 2 days of work (because I wanted to be ready to go to her if needed) that I chose to make up rather then use my vacation (moving to the house we are buying - need the vacation time then) and Kayla coming out… and it has been none stop. Sad to say - but I need the move just to relax.

Well we made the flight and the drives (though I was hallucinating by the end of the first day - was kinda fun), picked up the dogs and dropped them off at my dad’s and finally made it to Georgia. All is going well except we have no home - but that will take time to find and organize. Luckily we have a room at the TVQ (Temporary Visitors Quarters) on the Kings Bay base - and I have to say - it isn’t to shabby for $30/night.

Today was a busy day. We hit up the Housing office (only got lost twice trying to find it) to see if they have any referrals for the area we want to live in (they don’t). So we took a drive to the area to just look around the area and maybe for a realtor. Liked the area (on a clear drive it is only 20 minutes away from the base) and found a real estate company that seems nice. Got a number of potential places to cruise through the neighborhoods to see if we like them. Talked to the bank about getting a mortgage and need to call a number to get a pre-qualifying value so we have a better idea of how much we can spend. Took a base tour to see some of the base’s services (gas is 2.96 on base) only to find they aren’t many and they are much smaller then we are used to but that is OK since we will primarily getting stuff out in town.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so everything will be closed. Sounds like a wonderful time to just sit back and relax for the day. Friday is soon enough to run around some more.

Well we have finished moving out of the house and are now in the hotel - 2 days and a wake up left until we go. Only one problem - the hotels internet in the rooms is out… and with the dogs in the room - I can’t sit around the lobby all day (the lobby internet doesn’t allow irc either) … *sigh*. So I will primarily be offline for a while, least until the get the room internet back up (heavan only knows how long that will be) or we get to the states - whichever happens first.

Yep - in less then one week we will be back in the states. So many things to still get done before the end of the week but everything seems to be organized and scheduled…

1) house - final pack out (Tuesday), final cleaning (in progress), yard cleaned (due by Monday) and final mowing, carpets cleaned (todo this weekend);
2) appliances - picked up on Tuesday;
3) bags packed - mostly - due by Tuesday;
4) dogs - tickets (done), crates (done), flight itinerary (done)… need to contact continental cargo for info on how to turn them in at 4AM, heath certificates (Vet Tuesday 10:20), need to drop that off at Dept of Agriculture for Guam vet to sign - pick up in 24 hours;
5) hotel reservations (accepts dogs) for the few days between when we move out and fly out - done;
6) hotel reservations for when we get there - done - need to reconfirm;
7) car - rented and can be dropped off at the airport when we fly out;
family notified - some - need to complete this weekend;
9) landlord final walk through inspection - Sunday;
10) sell the last car - dependent on husband;
11) Our tickets - bought and paid for - have passports available - fly out Sat the 17th at 07:30

Hope that is everything… If not - I am so screwed.