Job x 2

Good news: Yesterday, I was offered a job at the IEA starting in June. Yay! I am really excited and happy to be (seemingly) gainfully employed. This means no lounging around in my pajamas until 11am. It also means that Molly and Stella won't be getting the 4 walks per day as promised. However, I will get to travel. There are rumors about trips to Chinese-Taipei and South Africa. Wocka-wocka, as Fozzy used to say.

On a related note, we are coming up flat in the flat department. Apparently, apartment hunting is slightly different and more complicated in Germany than in the U.S. In Germany, you "compete" with other interested renters for the privilege of renting the apartment and the owner chooses whoever he likes. This is unlike the "You want the place? You willing to pay the rent? Your credit report is relatively clean? Ok, you can move in on the first" approach that is the norm in the States. I know some condos in U.S. cities use this approach, particularly in NY, but it is rampant in Germany and apparently we are not fitting the bill for these landlords. We have a couple of other prospects and if these don't work out, we'll set up a tent in the park. You can do that in socialist countries, right? Molly and Stella sure won't mind, rest assured.

On the moving front, I chickened out and decided to go with the full service mover. The a la carte places were getting a little overwhelming and the amount of savings was nearly pathetic ($300) for a lot of uncertainty. I knew it was about time to throw in the old "do-it-yourself" towel when I found I was spending about the same amount of time trying to put this move together as I was editing my dissertation. The dissertation won out, as it always does. Ho hum.

But, this adventure is nearly ready for a chapter change. We have three weeks left until we defend. David and I are scheduled for the 9th of May. Did I mention this in an earlier post? Anyway, he is scheduled from 10-12am and I am scheduled from 12:15-2:15. We'll have just enough time to slap high-fives as he comes out of one room and I go in another. We are calling it the "double-header." Let's just hope we win, or come out relatively unscathed.

Molly torture

It has been dawning on me that we have a problem: Molly is going to get us kicked out of our apartment. Not because she will gnaw through door frames, poop on carpeting and spread it around or because she is inclined to attacking children. If you know Molly, you know all of that is pretty laughable; however, she is a chronic howler - particularly if she feels personally wronged. Molly feels wronged often, hence the problem. Reading and talking with Germans has illuminated the fact that Germans are nearly mad for their privacy, peace and quiet. This means no dumping glass recycling after 8pm, no wild dance parties and no, absolutely no, howling Bassets.

Unfortunately, I can't reason with Molly. And largely due to my own personal negligence, she is nearly untrainable at 10 years old. This severely limits my options. In fact, I am left with precisely 3 options, 2 of which are not really feasible and have to do with a one way trip to the pound or a one way trip to a sympathetic family member. I wouldn't wish my beloved hound on people I don't really like. I'm certainly not pawning her smelly butt off on family. Soooo, David and I opted for a behavior modification device. David likes to call it Molly's torture device. He says it with an unhealthy grin. That's what 10 years with a Basset hound does to you.

Anyway, the "device" is a collar that has a small box filled with citronella spray and a sound sensitive trigger. You just flip the switch and when she bays - tssssssssssssssssssss, right in her snout. It makes her jump the first time and she does that frustrated sneeze thing that she likes to do when she is upset. The house smells very fresh and citrus-y, kind of like lemon Pledge. I think it will be a slow process because Molly is so very untrained and also kind of dopey, but I am hopeful that doggy association will kick in and she is going to figure out that her racket is what is causing the offending spritz.

I need to price citronella refills - this is going to be a long process, I have no doubt. Hopefully, though, she'll get it and we won't get the boot from an indignant landlord that is wondering what the heck he was thinking when he rented to two Americans with dogs.