Oh come on…from a distance, not having any awareness of the character, he could look like a big yellow Swiss cheese.  And that’s just as likely as a sponge!

Fast forward to 2008 and I understand Spongebob is visiting Millcreek Mall again, in early December.  At least, so I am reliably informed by our 5-year old daughter who already has plans for the occasion.  In the years in-between our family has been invaded by this yellow peril.  Why?  I don’t know.  Anyone in their right mind can see that the character is pathetic.  Patrick should have the lead role

We spent Thanksgiving round at family, so we didn’t cook.  yesterday in Wegmans we saw free-range, top notch fresh turkeys at 99c a pound.  So guess what we had for a meal today?  We invited some family round and recreated Thursday.  I used local (US) stuffing.  We’ve got some Paxo stuffing hidden away but I’m saving that for Christmas!

So, slow progress, but progress.  Inch by inch we are moving towards settling in a family home.

Occasionally (twice, I think) I have been embarrassed by legitimate transactions on my cards being blocked as being suspicious.  In each case the embarrassment has been caused by having the transaction rejected and having to explain to the seller that I really do have the funds.  Honest.  Really.  

Today the bank’s fraud detection software was right.  That’s 1 out of 3 correct.  Is that a good ratio?  I think so.  By erring on the side of caution this latest, real fraud was spotted very quickly and although it took a trip to the bank this afternoon to complete all the paperwork it should now all be dealt with.  Minimal inconvenience to me.  I’d rather have the odd false alarm than not have fraud spotted quickly.

So, all I have to do now is remember all the online merchants that have that particular card held in their databases so I can place orders with ease (!) and go round them all changing the details.  What a fun time!

Wonderful!  We went to my cousin’s house and she very kindly did all the hard work.  The kids had a wonderful time with their cousins.  I had a wonderful time with my cousin, Aunt, mom and sister.  Hubby watched some football with my cousin’s husband and the Cowboys won.  (Cousin’s hubby is a Cowboys fan…it would have been a less happy Thanksgiving if they had lost.)

We all ate too much (of course), laughed a lot and really enjoyed each others company.  This is one of the main things that I wanted to move back to the US for…holidays with family.  Every year on the Isle of Man we would celebrate Thanksgiving, but it was just us, the kids were at school so we have to wait to eat until they got home and some years we couldn’t even get a fresh turkey!  (Turkey is the de facto Christmas meal in the UK, so in November they are all still busy being fattened up for the big day.)

I am really hoping that next year everyone can come to Buffalo and have Thanksgiving at our house.  If we have a house, and furniture, and…everything.

Meanwhile the paperwork for the mortgage we want is growing daily.  We only want a small percentage of the purchase price, but we may as well be asking for the moon.  Even with corporate assistance, we can’t magic up a credit history.  Nor can I provide tax returns etc. from the US Government.  And don’t get me started on the 208 disclosure papers that need to be read and signed.  We may need to simply pay cash, live frugally for a few months then get a homeowner’s loan, or whatever they call it.

Still, despite all the whinging, we are making progress.  No chance of being in the house before Christmas, but it is good to see the end of our migration approaching.

And yes, we have been very lucky with the weather this last couple of weeks, shuttling back and forth to Buffalo!

Okay, so the Christmas we are planning is not strictly an American one, but while we were in the UK we always tried to introduce US elements of Christmas to the overall family experience.  So it is only fair that Christmas in the US should have British elements.

Back to Buffalo tomorrow to look at a couple of houses that we liked on Monday.  The second visit will be a much more thorough examination.

Meanwhile, a gentleman from the removals firm dropped round today to carry out a survey of the stuff to be moved.  I did warn him beforehand, and it did indeed take a lot less time than he was planning.  The new house, whichever one it turns out to be, is going to feel very empty until we go on a furniture buying spree.

Busy, busy!

On the one hand this is a very big decision, on the other hand we ideally need to move fairly fast.  Finding the right balance between those two positions is the difficult bit!  We think we’ll head back on Wednesday to take a closer look at these two properties, but there’s a lot of debating to do between now and then - starting as soon as the DVD has been burned.

The new bluetooth headset worked fine.  It did exactly what it said on the box.  Whether that was due 100% to the headset itself, or in some part to the quality of the phone it was paired with (an iPhone, of course) is debatable.  The end result is what counts, and the end result was great.

Each year it gets harder and harder to be a Scrooge.  This year the five-year old leaps around in the snow singing ‘Jingle Bells’.  How can I not smile?  There are more activities over here in the US aimed at giving to others, such as the Marine Toys for Tots program.  That is a terrific idea and it is great to see the personal touch of Marines at stores, in some cases interacting wonderfully with the children.  There are various schemes in the UK too, but more of them over here, or more evident.

All our family Christmas stuff is in storage, awaiting a house of our own.  That won’t be before Christmas, so the kids will not have their boxes, containing their own collection of ornaments built up over the years that go on their trees.  What’s their reaction?  They understand fully and have made no fuss.  That means I have to try extra hard to make this Christmas special for them.  Curse them!  :-)

As I type this the kids are in the living room, watching ‘Frosty the Snowman’ on TV.  And enjoying it!  I’m now outnumbered in this household when it comes to Christmas.  Sigh.

Personally I think many people look daft going through life with a gizmo wrapped around their ear.  I’m sure some people think it looks great / stylish / modern / etc. but no…it just doesn’t, okay?  However, to chat while driving it seemed the simplest solution.

So, needs must.  I promise, here in public, not to wear it outside the car.  I promise not to wear it walking around shops, the mall, etc.  If you see me doing any of those things, please rip it off my head, throw it to the ground and stomp on it, because it will have taken me over.

I’m sure many of you have undergone drugs tests as it seems to be very common in the US.  However, it is very rare in the UK and this was my first drugs test.  Ever!  I have to say the process was very quick and very clinical.  I hope the laboratory that does the processing is as efficient as the staff at the Center.

Getting back to the weather, being unused to the lake effect snow I find it amazing how distinct the boundary can be between the area that got tons of snow and the adjacent area that didn’t.  There’s really no gradual build up of snow as you walk / drive along, it suddenly just “is there”.  Quite strange (to me) and yet quite wonderful at the same time.  As yet we’ve got off relatively lightly at the rental house but our time will come, sooner or later.

The snow does make for some dramatic photos though.

Somewhere in Buffalo a realtor has our details and should be in touch soon to learn what we are looking for in a house.  The sooner they can arrange a grand tour of some possible houses the better, as far as we are concerned.

All our personal effects, in storage in a warehouse somewhere since they arrived by sea from the UK, are prepaid to a PA address.  Seems the company concerned will ask for around $250 more to deliver to a Buffalo, NY address.  Can’t win them all.

Now I must get studying for my blood test tomorrow…

Last night on my travels a panel of the car dashboard lit up orange with words and a strange symbol that looks something like a…..not sure, really.  It all became clear once I’d read the manual - pressure in one of the tires was too low.  Fascinating.  I didn’t even know I had that technology in the car!

The conundrum was caused by a quick inspection of the tires not identifying a particular suspect.  I quickly interrogated each tire, but none owned up to feeling a little down.  I figured the safest thing was to head home and deal with it in the garage and in daylight.

Today I inflated all 4 tires to the recommended pressure and…the warning light has now gone.  Magic.

I wonder how much it would cost to upgrade the system to inform you which tire was the problem?  Too much, clearly, but it would have been so nice to know.  Anyway, everything was in the manual, but the manual itself is the size of a small novel only nowhere near as interesting.  And when we checked the manual for my wife’s car….yes, the same feature is present.  I wonder what else these cars can do?

Today we bought a load of Calphalon cookware.  We haven’t bought much while living in the rental house because we didn’t want to be cluttered up with stuff that we had to move, but as a removal firm will be doing the work we can buy the stuff and simply pile it up ready to go.  We also picked up a set of knives.  Exciting, huh?

Because of moving Celtic Grid has to be shut down.  Some time in the future it may get resurrected but for now, in Erie, it closes.  Putting the shutters up on the website was easy, now the bank account needs tidying up, the PO Box closing, etc.

We need to spend time in and around Buffalo this week looking at neighborhoods.  I need to get a medical and a drug test (I didn’t realize I’d have to take drugs!)

Lots of snow pictures to process ready for the kids’ November web pages.

So much to do…not sure I have time for a job!

So, the question becomes what name should the blog operate under?  Clearly ‘Erieversible’ would no longer be quite so appropriate, though it doesn’t actually become a ‘lie’ unless we were to return to the Isle of Man or the UK?  Should the new title reflect a move from the Isle of Man to Buffalo?  Or from Erie to elsewhere?

The family still have close ties to Erie and will be returning here quite often - we’ll have to get a frequent flyer deal with Homewood Suites (the 5-year old just loves the pool there).

So maybe we just keep the domain name and simply keep typing.  Decisions, decisions

Having made one move this year I hope the move to Buffalo region will be easier.  After all, it’s 100 miles rather than 3,500 miles - but moving states seems to be almost as much hassle as moving countries.

But so far, so terrific.  We’ve visited the general area in which we would probably live and even viewed a potential house.  We’ve looked at a taekwondo club.  We’ve checked out the malls (yes, there’s a Build-a-Bear Workshop nearby, one of the key criteria for the 5-year old).  We’ve driven around large chunks of the city and surrounding area.  And yes, we even dropped in at the zoo.  And they have the 5-year old’s favorite animal - elephants!

So, what could be better?  Nothing really.  I’m not suggesting the situation is perfect - no situation is, even if you think so!  However, the job offer is good, the area has lots of opportunities for the family and our migration can come to an end as we settle.

Perhaps…

First of all a big thank you to David Sims for taking the time to get involved.  The overall situation I and many others find ourselves in is a mixture of technical issues with the rewards process, for which David is responsible, and some more general customer service issues.

On the technical issues, a key page on the Rewards R Us website has been taken down temporarily until that problem is fixed.  This is great, as it prevents more and more customers running into the same problems, and is a far better approach than simply leaving it online.  A much more customer focused approach.  I won’t bore you with the technical details of the problem, but I understand it has been properly identified, which is more than half the battle in sorting it out.

On the general customer service issues David has been provided with all the necessary details and will pass them on to the areas concerned.

So, I now fully understand why they’ve got the problems they’ve got and a key step (taking down the Retro-Credit page) has been taken towards reducing the pain for other customers.  I believe the technical problems with the scheme itself will be overcome quickly now, though suspect the more general customer service issues noted in the 11th November article will take a little longer.

Sometimes when a fundamental problem happens in a project it is all too easy to put all the effort into sorting out the root of the problem and not enough effort into recognizing and dealing with the effects.  Now there is evidence Toys R Us are indeed concerned about how this is affecting customers - I hope others see the evidence too.

I understand the response to the scheme has been quite astounding so let’s hope all problems are sorted soon and Toys R Us have a successful seasonal period.  The economy needs schemes like this to succeed in parting us from our money in these harsh times!

I guess I didn’t expect job hunting here to be so hard, to take so long.  I certainly didn’t foresee the collapse of the world economy, which has seen hiring freezes implemented in so many places.  So, strangely, there’s partly a feeling of ‘but why did it take so long’ foreshadowing the offer.  Which is ridiculous, because it’s a great firm and a great offer!

Anyway, doom and gloom aside, there’s one offer on the table in black and white.  That job is in Buffalo.  And today I interviewed for a local, Erie company.  I felt it went well, but I did advise them of the other offer and they need to move fast if they are to make an offer, because I simply cannot turn down the Buffalo job on a hope.  If I turn that down, and there’s no local offer, then we are back to square one in a declining economy.

Decisions, decisions.  If only one offer was on the table, with no prospect of any others, we’d be delighted.  The Buffalo job is a really good one, and the offer is great.  We’re taking the kids there at the weekend so they can have a look round.  While they will, if necessary, move wherever we deem necessary, I’d love to have them as fired up about it as we are.

But…

…putting the kids through another upheaval is not high on our wish-list.  Both companies involved are cracking employers and I would recommend them to anyone.  (I might name them, after this is all resolved.)  I don’t suppose anybody reading this has anything useful to contribute, such as Saturday’s Powerball numbers?

An email asking for clarification, sent via an online form (so one has to assume it got there) to the Toys R Us corporate HQ has disappeared into a black hole.  Not even an automated response.

As a Brit I had a notion that Toys R Us was good at Customer Service.  Not sure where that notion came from.  Right now I can’t think of any company worse at Customer Service than Toys R Us.  Sad.  Another myth is dashed.

When we moved over here we got an average of around 2.04 USD for every pound we exchanged.  So 100 pounds would get us 204 dollars.  Today those 204 dollars would buy 137 pounds.  That’s a 37% rate of return, less a few bank charges, in 3 months.  That’s scary.  And the even scarier thing is, I bet there’s not a human on the planet who would put their neck on the line and tell us what the exchange rates will be in another 3 months.

Not sure why I picked up on these numbers today.  Probably because I remain stunned by how badly the whole banking sector has gone wrong so quickly.  It’s like scratching an itch, you just can’t help it.

UPDATE:  Thursday 13th (just one day after the entry) there’s BBC headline news that the pound is at its lowest rate against the dollar for 6 years!