27Jun05 - It's packing day

Well we got a phone call on Friday to let us know that the packers would be coming on Monday. The weekend was a blur of respite clients (kids with developmental disabilities that I work with), sorting, donating and tossing items from the past. Rayne spent the better part of Sunday burning old documents that we no longer needed (old taxes, receipts.....golf score cards). It's amazing how much crap you accumulate in a few years.

Brodie and Kyla (the dogs) are a little unnerved, I suspect I would be too if I saw bags of things leaving my house and I had no idea why. I keep telling them that soon we'll have a house and that I'll be around for a month (or so) for them to play with, but I think it's all lost on them.

I also managed to rip some 300 audio cd's onto my computer so we can leave those here and save about 100lbs. Our good friends Dan and Allison came by and took a dresser and bureau that we were planning to donate, for their son Robbie. Nice when you can give things to people you know! They also ended up filling up the truck with all sorts of food stuffs and other things that we foisted on them as they left....thanks guys!

Rayne is going to go to the border again today in hopes that th INS will give her a TN VIsa this time around. If they don't, we will have to fax it to the moving company from Toronto (if we can) in the middle of the night (or morning) on the 2nd/3rd to get our belongings moving. The moving company said our things won't be leaving the area until the 3rd. Anyone else find it strange that they are packing our things on the 27th but that they won't be leaving the area until the 3rd? We still haven't heard when our things will be arriving in Connecticut.

The Victoria wedding is set for the 1st of July. The Marriage Commissioner sent a copy of the vows, we made some changes and sent them back....a little too flowery for Rayne's tastes. My niece Krista will also be singing a song....looking forward to that! Other than the time and place we really haven't made any arrangements for the wedding. It'll be casual and there will be a barbecque and with any luck the only Rayne (puns are fun) will be standing to my left.

Well we will likely lose our computer(s) today, (in packing) so I will have to continue the blog from an internet cafe. We have an appointment with a tax accountant today and dinner with friends later. Hopefully everything goes smoothly with the packers and Rayne gets the TN Visa (that would be a smooth day!).

Ciao

Kevin & Rayne

20Jun05 - Well the hurdles have started coming fast and furious now. We have tentatively decided to become non-residents in order to pay tax at an American rate. There is a long and involved process to this which includes, renting our apartment at an arms length agreement, severing ties with most financial institutions (including credit cards), giving up any club memberships and such, surrendering your BC drivers license (and obtaining one in Connecticut). We are planning to see a tax accountant next week to ensure we have all or iii's dotted and our ttt's crossed. Here's hoping....

Rayne decided to get a jump on things and drove to the Blaine border crossing today to get her TN (work) Visa processed. Unfortunately the very polite INS officer informed her that they could not process the Visa prior to our moving to the US.....Now this one is a doozy. You see we have been told, the moving company will not even so much as pack our things without a copy of the TN Visa. We had arranged to have out belongings packed on the 28th or 29th of June and moved on the 30th. We are planning to fly out on the 2nd of July after the aforementioned wedding ceremony.

So now we are in an akward bit. We may have to have the moving company store our things for a few days (for an additional fee I'm sure), fly to Toronto and get the TN Visa on the 2nd and then fax a copy of it to the moving company to get our things moving. All this will add to the projected 7 - 12 days that we will be spending sleeping on an airbed waiting for the moving truck. This is of course assumes they will even move our stuff without the Visa.....hmmm, maybe we should have asked for a hassle and annoyance entitlement from the company.

Ciao for Now!

Kevin and Raynes Big Adventure

aka How to leave everything you know in 30 days

16Jun05 - well time is getting short and the list of tasks seems to be getting longer. I decided to start a blog (weblog) to keep everyone up to date on what's happening for the next few weeks. It's kinda like writing a letter or making a phone call but easier.

Blogging has become pretty popular with the young and hip (of which I am neither) so here goes.

Rayne decided to accept a position with her Parent company (in Connecticut), Open Solutions on the long weekend in May. That day (23rd May), we were walking down the street and looked at each other while walking the dogs. I asked Rayne "so do you wanna get married", to which she replied "do you?". How utterly romantic eh? We had a good chuckle and continued walking. The fact is we both knew we had to get married or Rayne was going to Connecticut and I was staying in Vancouver. Neither of us could deal with the fact that Brodie and Kyla (our West Highland Terriers) may have to be split up if this happened, so we decided to get hitched for the sake of the dogs.

Truthfully I adore Rayne and moving to the East Coast where winters are long and frigid, and people speak like the Kennedy's seemed like a small price to pay to keep hanging out together.

So the next day we decided to plan our wedding. Only problem was we needed to get a wedding certificate before we left on the 2nd of July. Complicating things was the fact that Rayne's parents were about to take off for a month to the Yukon. Hmmmmm, what to do. We decided to have a "quickie"........wedding ceremony. We called our friends Don and James and asked if we could get married in their back yard. Don and James are fantastic lanscapers and have a great yard. They agreed so we were set.

We decided to have the ceremony that Saturday (remember it's Monday). So Tuesday we got the rings. Then Wednesday Rayne got the marriage license and went dress shopping. Thursday, we called a few friends (about 10 or 12), and I got a marriage commisioner. Don and James offered to look after everything for the wedding except for the booze (good looking and smart these guys!). Saturday came and Rayne had a dress but it was white (and so was she) so Saturday morning we went dress shopping and found a beautiful orange sun dress for Rayne and Bermuda shorts and a short sleeved shirt for me. Lucky thing too, the temperature outside hit 32C that day!

So Saturday came and we went to Don and James' house. The backyard was decked out with a long table and there were wedding bells in the plum tree. The boys had really outdone themselves. I was thinking backyard barbecque and we ended up with outdoor banquet hall. Everyone showed up and the Marriage Commissioner turned out to be exactly what we were looking for (not too fluffy). The ceremony was quick (just the way I like em, especially when I'm in one at 32C) and went without a hitch except for the "awfully leaded wife" part I tripped over with my tongue.

We all had a few laughs and some punch and then dinner was served, and what a dinner it was! A four course dinner was served by Don and James' neighbors Sue and Calvin (and Sue made the most amazing wedding cake!). The guests started clinking glasses right away (I fixed them though, by giving my new wife a sloppy wet kiss, they never clinked again). The rest of the night was a blur of hugs and kisses, good wine and fun stories.

So now we're married. Since then Rayne went to Connecticut for 2 weeks to work and find a place to live. We rented our place to a really nice couple who sold their place in Coquitlam and are planning to enjoy downtown Vancouver for a couple of years before building a house on the Sunshine Coast. We have arranged for movers (ouch 7,000 USD), started pearing down our belongings, arranged for flights with our puppies, found a marriage commisioner for another wedding ceremony on July 1st (for family and Island friends, mostly), begun the process of severing ties in our beloved Canada (to avoid the draconian Revenue Canada) all while working fulltime and taking puppies out 4-6 times a day.

That's it for now folks....K&R