Latest status:

Ship is gone, left me behind to take care of business. Weee!!

One car stays on base, because I can't drive two cars.

B and the Baby get here on Monday at 5:30pm local.

No telephone or internet because there is a problem with the wall/entry point into the house.

Cats are going into quarantine for 4 months each, because B forgot to get 1 piece of paperwork done. It's going to cost $1375 each for kennel fees, plus almost $100 each in permits.

Moved into the house Tuesday. It's pretty nice. But with a house 30 years old, there is a certain amount of jury rigging expected. Coping with some of that now, hence the telephone/internet in a wall that wasnt there before issue.

OMFG its hot! I took a temperature reading of my ceiling from inside the house at 8pm at night, and it was 112 degrees. At midnight it was almost 90 degrees still. I need to find a way to keep the roof cool, it's baking the house!

It's the dry season, so not much rain. Weather.com says the temperature doesnt change despite having no rain these few months, and getting half-a-foot of rain per month starting in November. That will be lovely.

I'm not going to lower the Mini here.

I've seen a 2" flying cockroach. Yes, I screamed like a girl.

The Guam greeting is "Hafa Adai", pernounced by myself and many other as "Half-a-day", because whenever you need to get something done, that is at least how long it will take. I spent 1 full day waiting in lobbys to get water and telephone service started, and the buildings are literally next to each other.

It's hot.

It's hot at night.

There's no AC or vents in the bathrooms, so the bathrooms are like saunas. And no vents for when your done, so the hot humid funk lingers, while you run out of there dripping like you just got out of the shower.

The sky is pretty.

The water is pretty.

There's lots of critters. And with lots of critters, lots of roadkill.

The girls aren't so hot. Either fat or anorexic.

The cable guy had an abcess on his face. He was nice and all tho. And about my age. Pretty clean complexion aside from the quarter sized half golf-ball with a white head on the side of his face. I think it was MRSA (google/wikipedia it), thats supposedly common around here.

EB games marks up all the games 10%. But at least you can still buy newish used games from there, for cheaper than MSRP.

There's a coldstone here. Yay!

The market next to my house has bags and bags and bags of Dorritos and other potatoes chips that say use by Dec06-March07. I think we're a little passed that.

My neighbors hang out in their yard/garages, all evening, until midnightish, shooting pool, playing music (not too loudly), and being a bit rowdy... As most outside gatherings can be. Figured out why yesterday. BECAUSE MY CEILING WAS 112 DEGREES AT 8pm! And not that I'm boasting, but I think my AC situation is a lot more fortunate than theirs... So they are avoiding being baked, not being dirtbags. Good to know.

That's it for this edition of the Bat Brief. Will post the updates as they come.

 

Glad you are ok and still posting.

Good to hear that B is getting there soon.

Sorry to hear about the cats

I guess the FAT people there have AC

Good luck.

 

Glad to hear your life is going to start settling down into some normalcy - has it been since March that you and Beatrice have lived together and now you have this kid.... in a strange place.... with strange bugs.... and it's hot.

I'm sitting on the front porch of my parents and it's a beautiful 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and the sun is reflecting off the ripples off the lake.

 

Hope everybody is doin well in that heat. How is the baby takin the heat?

2" flying cochroaches are the worst! you definately will not see those in most parts of the US. But they have them in other countries. I saw one of those in india once, and i ran out of the house screaming.

half a foot of rain a month? maybe you should get your self some nice rain tires for the MINI. better yet, throw some 16"s on there with some higher profile tires. I think you should get your MINI raised again so it will be able to clear all the water.

good luck with everything there!

 

Bad B..poor kitties

Better buy lots of fans, especially one for the baby's room.

Is water cheap and your roof flat? Get a hose, and spray your roof down after the sun sets...it may help.

Better get Raid for those roaches.

Don't eat the chips.

Make nice with the neighbors..ya never know...

Get rain tires for the wet season..tho' 6" a month doesn't seem excessive.

Keep in touch.

 

Please control the public demonstrations of heartbreak...

Cloning!!!
Best news yet!
Bummer...
But we do love our pets!
May be worth getting the roof shot with foam and painted white. 40' x 60' x 2 inches thick was about $1300 in Hawaii 3 years ago... Makes a huge difference.
Ehhh.... Whats a little drizzle now and then...
Probably a good idea between the roads and the water.
Name Them!
Like you said... Fans!
Ahhh, the islands!
You mean the The First National Bank of Ice Cream?

Hafa Adai!

 

Well, glad to hear that things are finally getting into place for you.

Hope Betty has a safe trip out, and the baby too.

Sucks about the cats. guess she didn't read all the paperwork

Fans, fans, and more fans. Sounds like a great idea.

I have FOND memories of the cocroaches that lived with me in Costa Rica...NOT I HATED them! but you learn to put all your shoes UPSIDEDOWN!! Or you have some squishy/crunchy toes

 

ew

 

That is why my shoes were ALWAYS upside down!

 

Wow - makes me think of the days when we first arrived in the Philippines..however - we did have pretty good AC. We had LOTS of snakes and very LARGE lizards..how fun that was - NOT

I know you'll be excited to see Betty and that new baby...wish them a safe trip from us..

Hope all gets worked out with the internet, etc....

Donna

 

My brother lived in Italy for 6 years and this reminded me of his experiences. No matter what it was that needed to be fixed/installed/hooked up, the response was "Domani, domani"(tomorrow, tomorrow). Unfortunately, 'tomorrow' never gets here, because then it's 'today', and the response is still 'domani'.

 

I came into this thread expecting to find Bat themed baby-briefs, but it's glad to know things are moving ahead for you settling down in Guam.

Looking forward to briefs v2.0

 

Bugs and Geckos.

Everyone has AC. Just some people can't afford to run it as much as others I think.

Hehe, I did the opposite, I ran into the housing screaming.

There are 6 AC units in the house. 1 in each bedroom, 1 in the dining room, and 1 in the living room. The small bedroom ones are 9000 btu, the master bedroom 12000 btu, and the living/dining room units are 24000 btu.

Water is not cheap. First 5000 gallons per month are a certain price, and then the price goes up like 50% for ever gallon over that. Will let you know the exact rates once I get my bill if you're interested. But also note, water out of the faucet isn't exactly 'cold'. I thought about cooling the roof that way too, but doing it every day could get extremely expensive. I've got like 1900sqft of flat roof.

She did and she didn't. She had a list of exactly what needed to be done, and I put her in charge of it, since I would be taking care of everything else, and since she would have the cats with her in California the whole time. Basically what happened was, she made the mistake of trusting the vet to do everything, without verifying it line for line on the list. She brought them the list, and said do this, and then just assumed it was all done. The thing she was missing, the FAVN test, has do be done no less than 90 days before coming to Guam... So even if she had it done now, it would still be the 4 month quarantine because they only have 3 programs. 0-5 day, 60 day, and 120 day. 0-5 and 60 both require that FAVN. So if the results came in at 85 days, they'd still already have been disqualified for and enrolled into the 120 day program. :/


Briefs 2.0:

Betty and the Baby get here today. Landing at 5:30 pm. The kennel is going to pick up the cats from the airport. Visiting hours are limited to 2 hour windows on Tuesdays and Sundays only. Today is Monday, so we can check in on them tomorrow to see how things are going.

The battle with the ants is on-going. I cleaned up about 1300 ants I killed in our M.BDRM and lo and behold more decided to scout through. I went and bought some expanding/sealing foam, and did our window pretty well. It's not sealed through, because it's old and theres still a gap between the two panes of glass... But thats not where they were coming from. They were coming from 1cm holes in the frame to let water/moisture drain I believe. All the holes are filled, and I laid down another layer of insectiside. I killed about 30 ants by hand last night as they were scouting about. Last night, about 10pm, I went into the m.bdrm, turned the lights on, and saw specks on the ceiling. Closer examination revealed those f****rs were coming out of the ceiling fan. BAH! Insectiside on the ceiling. BOOO!!!! This morning, there were dead ants on the bed (no sheets yet), and about 200-300 on the window sill and floor near the wall with the window. Apparently the insectiside is working, because I left the cap of the foam stuff on the sill, and there were dead ants inside of that too. So they crawled in, and died. Good sign for protection, bad because now I have another mess to clean before Betty and the Baby get here.

The Master Bedroom AC unit stopped putting out cold air. Pain in the ****.

As evidenced with the ceiling fan, I think the ants are in the conduit. The electrical panel (for the house) is in the laundry room outside, and when I was washing sheets last night (red not white, fyi) I saw ants scouting in and out of the panel. No trail, just 1's and 2's here and there coming and going. I'm going to need to open that wall in the front of the house, and insectiside the bajeezus out of it. I hope I don't shock myself. That would suck. Alot. Both 120 and 220 in that panel.

Kmart here isn't cheap, per se. There is stuff you can get there, that you can't get at the stores on base... But some of the stuff geared towards the middle class is way overpriced. I went to the comissary (military food store) to get a swiffer wet-jet. Had one in DC, loved it. They were sold out. Went to Kmart, and it was $35. I knew that was way overpriced, but I didn't really know by house much, and I knew I needed something to mop with, and I hate traditional style mops and buckets. And in this humid climate, traditional mopping would take a long time to dry. So I went ahead and bought it, knowing B and the Baby would be here today, and I needed to make sure no insecticide was on the floor. I stopped by the exchange to get a couple things and uniform items today, and they had the swiffer there. $17. Bastards. I didn't think they carried that stuff at the exchange here. Oh well, now I know better. So yeah, biggest normal Kmart in the world, but it isn't the cheapest.

Ummm... Not really much else for now. Still tons to do... Need to open that front wall, need to power-wash the algae off the roof to help keep the temps down and see if I need new roof paint, need to get B and the Baby settled, tons of unpacking left to do, need to get the telephone company back out and internet service setup once I get that wall open... Lots and lots and lots and more. Oh, and I need to get my Mini from on-base. 2 cars, I'm not working at the moment (2 week house hunting/setup leave) so I can't have someone help me, leaving me the only stick-shift driver in the household. So that has to be done this week to, driving lessons for B. Lots to do. This is far from the best place to learn how to drive too. Did I mention there's no street signs? They blew down in 2002 during a supertyphoon, and were never put back up. It rains often, we live in a hilly area, and people drive like retards. No, not the best place for someone who's scared to learn how to drive a stick, with a baby in the car. But we will prevail... Or perish.

 

Whats the time difference between DC and Guam Will?

 

Carrie was watching a thing about ants and they say that certain types of ants are attracted to electricity. BTW... we both wish you well out there.

 

<<snicker>> Seriously you'll be fine - think of it as frontiering on a big giant rock in the middle of the Pacific.

As far as time zone - they are the same time as Sydney Australia - right now it is 07:35 in Eagle Lake Maine and 21:35 in Guam/Sydney (that's 9:35 PM for you non-military types).

 

They're in the future?

 

man...stupid ants...what about ant traps? That way you're not spraying insecticide all over the place.
Ortho makes a home barrier defense type spray. Supposedly, you spray it around the outside of the foundation and it keeps bugs out of the house. Dunno if it's available there, but it might be worth checking out....

Too bad we can't pipeline stuff to you, but I imagine shipping costs to Guam are prohibitive..

Fans are cheaper to run than AC.

Bummer about the water..perhaps peter's suggestion might be feasible?
Good luck with B and the beebee....and the learning to drive a stick part.

Bad vet...poor kitties.

remember, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger....we hope.

 

It's good to hear that things are going well. Except for the heat, the ants, the cockroaches, the cats and the humid crapper.

I laughed out loud when I read about the humid crapper.

I hope B and the baby got there ok.

Take care and I look forward to hearing more from guam.

 

Oh, btw, When I saw the title I was scared I was gonna see this:



or worse, this

 

Hooray Coldstone!

 

With it being a new purchase..... and,
Having a new baby there.......

How about getting a professional exterminator in there for an opinion and possibly a treatment?

 

Gotta love "stay-behind!"

HAH! You got dodged by a palmetto bug!!! Those things are soooo disgusting!!

Thanks for the UIC info The new reqs come out on the 10th.

Good to know the info on what you posted on the cats. Where did you find the quarentine and shot info? Still sucking on the internet, but I'm able to at least read the forums at work.

Don't get toooo crispy

 

So, do you miss DC and the States yet?

 

15 hours and next day since its across the IDL. I have clients there and its tough to schedule conf. calls and stuff with them. It seems like the people there are pretty laid back to.