Take Me to the River

[Tripp]

I guess I don't 'get' Hold Steady.  Which is too bad cause I always liked Craig a lot.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the PMAs yesterday, friends.

I am sort of zen about the whole immigration situation now. Either it goes through or I move to Europe. I can live with either.

The one thing I can say detail-wise, is that they are already ruling on cases filed six months after ours and ours has been held up in review. And while that doesn't necessarily spell doom, it is not a good thing.

[captqitn]

I hope fate sends you exactly where you'll both be happiest. 

[captqitn]

Who's got Wall-E fever?!?!


(raising hand immediately)

[Jeff]

Who's got Wall-E fever?!?!


(raising hand immediately)

M______ is all over that thing. We're planning half our weekend around it.

[captqitn]

Yay!   Yeah, I'm dying to go tonight, but we decided to make it an outing on Sunday.  Its playing at a gorgeous old historic theater a few towns away.    They have the live pipe organ before the show and all that stuff.    I'm making myself not read any reviews.

(giddy smiley)

[Jeff]

Also, an update on the insane Romanian real estate saga...^* The Romanian government, in an attempt to protect itself against litigation, has decreed that those who bought condos from the state may either keep them or accept 200k Euro in exchange for them. We are waiting to see what happens next, but if this holds up the family home (worth 500-750k in Euro, not to mention its sentimental value) will stay the family home.


^*During the pre-communist days, rich aristocrats typically owned dozens of homes each. When the communists took over, they seized these and turned them into apartments for regular families. Then, after the revolution, the new government raised money by selling these apartments as condos. M______'s family bought one of these, a lovely 3 bedroom in the heart of the city in what was once a consular house for the equivalent of several thousand US dollars. Then, after the economy got better and these condos were suddenly worth substantial sums, the descendants of the aristocrats who owned these buildings  pre-Communism (most of which families no longer even live in Romania) started suing to get them back, almost always winning. They would then cheerfully evict the families and sell the properties to developers for a tidy sum. Fifteen+ years of appeals and countersuits followed. Last year, M______'s family was told they were to be evicted and compensated only with a 1 BR in a communist block building for "a reasonable rent." (They own other property they could live in, but still... that sucks. Also, the rental income on the other property is how they support themselves.) They sued the Romanian government in the Hague with many other families for attempting to seize property they had themselves sold.

[Jeff]

Legal/real estate gossip from around the globe!

    

[matthew]

Still suffering from Ceausescu. Meaningless aside: I work with a Romanian woman. I never know how to pronounce Romanian family names. 

My work is pretty international...with several of the workers being recent immigrants in their 30s and 40s. I also work with a Shkarmantseva (Russian), Bozhinova (Bulgarian), Golabi (Iranian), and a...whatever Frank's last name is (he is German).

[matthew]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/cgbaGBrd6Ow" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/cgbaGBrd6Ow</a>

But oil prices are too high!

[Tripp]

I wish I had a bunch of mounted animal heads that would all laugh maniacally  on cue like in Evil Dead 2.

[Jeff]

Still suffering from Ceausescu. Meaningless aside: I work with a Romanian woman. I never know how to pronounce Romanian family names. 

Nee-Coh-LAY-tah Geh-OR-Gyoo

i=ee, o=oh, e=ay, a=ah, gh=g, eo=yo (sort of ay slurred into oh), iu=yoo (sort of ee slurred into oo)

Sort of.

[matthew]

Nee-Coh-LAY-tah Geh-OR-Gyoo

i=ee, o=oh, e=ay, a=ah, gh=g, eo=yo (sort of ay slurred into oh), iu=yoo (sort of ee slurred into oo)

Sort of.

OR maybe I do. That is how I was pronouncing it. I was more frustrated with Ceausescu than anything.

[Jeff]

More weird details about M_____'s family place...

When they bought it, it came with an old woman in it.

Basically, there was a woman in her 80s who'd lived there for decades. The place was way too big for her and she had no family to take her in. So the deal was, M_______'s family got to move in and claim ownership and as part of the deal, they had to care for this old woman until she died. They called her "Rosica Nini" (Little Old Lady Rosie, basically) and she lived for something like 6 or eight years.

Anybody wanna hear the story about M______'s condo and how she bought it via a pyramid scheme, or is this all too weird/boring?

[Tripp]

I'm game.