Crunch time

4 November 2007-- It is crunch time. Saturday the 10th is departure date from the US. Getting everything squared away is hard. Giving everything a price is hard. How much is the replacement cost for a bath mat in France? No ideas here either. Don't tell the moving company, I wrote down 10 euro. Figure I might get something nicer than the IKEA one I have used for years if it should fall off the boat. The hardest thing is keeping track of everything. What is going to be packed into luggage, what is air freight, what is container shipment, what is storage. And my favorite, why on earth do I still have this? Goodwill? I swear the lady at the donation center is going to see me drive up and say no more!
And it is not like we can start piling up stuff. With the house showings coming frequently, we can't sell the house with piles of air freight and container stuff. Please house sell so I can finish my inventory and leave the bed unmade!
One very important tip I had forgotten is money. We got euros before we left and from an ATM in Paris. The ATM gave a much better exchange rate and did have a 6 USD fee associated with it. Cash is best. Check out the euro homepage to see the money. The bills are sized and the coins are from all the countries of the EU. Using credit cards is a bit tricky. See the French are almost socialist at heart. There is really no such thing as credit in France. Debit they love. If you run your credit card at a cafe, the receipt has a signature line but no tip. Remember the service was included. Gift card is a foreign concept. They just don't get it. Even the account we set up came with two options -immediate withdrawl or deferred to the 5th of the next month. don't worry about going negative, the bank will carry you. Yes that is what they bank told us. Once again Viva la France.
More giftcards to spend in the US and the giant end all be all Costco trip is this afternoon. I can hardly wait to see how much money we spend there today. Any guesses?