And yes I've disappeared for a while. Life just has a way of of being all or nothing and in the past two weeks, it's been both. As of August 31, I was cut off from IBM Canada and while I expected it to happen it became apparent that IBM CZ did not. As of today, Sept 13, I am mostly functional again. And it has taken that long to get me a CZ ID card, CZ email, a new computer and an application for a corporate credit card. I am however still missing my lunch vouchers. I'm not exactly sure what they are but I think that, by law, IBM has to subsidize my eating. I expect that there are not enough vouchers to subsidize my drinking. Sigh....

Still in the all or nothing category, Mike and Christina arrived with Bailey the dog on the exact same day that we finally got our furniture. I was away when it all happened but from what I understand, Bailey was more than a little annoyed that we left her and moved to another continent. I really don't get it. Not only did we leave her at the Ross Dog Spa in Smiths Falls where she was in more than capable hands, I made it a point to tell her what was happening. I opened a bottle of red and sat her down and explained that we were moving and that she would follow. Apparently, she has the selective hearing of any other child and only heard blah, blah, blah, leaving, blah, blah, 9 hours in a crate, blah, blah, pee on your blanket while in the crate at 36,000 ft. As you can see I really glammed it up but she was having none of it.

We spent the weekend in Czesky Raj again and this time we packed a lunch rather than chance the larded chleb and chicken smoz from a couple of weeks back. We took Mike and Christina there and they found it just as beautiful as we did. We stayed in a lovely chateau built on a sandstone overhang with a gorgeous view. Miles from nowhere. Which becomes important when you arrive at recepce and they point politely to the 'we do not accept credit cards' sign and wait while you try to find the billion Czech krown from your pockets to prepay the bill. Alas, lint is not legal tender so off we go back to town to find a bank machine that will give us enough cash. 45 minutes later we are back at the chateau and can actually continue our day as all debts have been paid - including 100 ck for Bailey the dog to stay with us.

After hiking for a bit we decided to drive to Jicin which is a town about 30 mins south of where we were staying. Jicin was hosting the annual Fairies festival under the stars and we all thought it would be neat to go see. Hmmmm...

Any guesses as to what we got?

Take a small town square. Add one heavy metal band. 20 Czech fast food kiosks. Too many teenagers in tight jeans, white tennis shoes and some kinda t-shirt. A generous dose of mullet hair cuts. Cheesy dollar store stuff. And the entire town population..and you got yourself a Fairies festival. We lasted long enough to try some of the food. I had some kinda potato thing with onions and sauerkraut and cheese and a whole lot of yum. There was also smoked ham on the spit served with a slice of rye and horseradish. It reminded me of the Food Building at the Ex. Good, fast and cheap but mostly regrettable within 12 hours of consumption.

All in all though a very good weekend.