14-VII-2003.

This from the Orion today:

I just spoke with Jack and he is going to begin the process for you. We're looking at around 6K$ in fees, just so you know. I don't know what your arrangement is on this - maybe it was included in the initial cost. We're pretty much neophytes when it comes to this stuff here, so these fees may not have even been discussed. However, I'm sure we'll come to some agreement. He promised to call next week and give me a progress report so I should be able to tell you something while you're here.

BTW - congratulations to your daughter on the visa lottery. That will make your life somewhat easier!

Nina is the only one in the family ever to have any luck with any kind of lottery. She once got a bicycle on something (never delivered, though), and now this... It would be better, of course, had one of us got that diversity visa, because then it would extend to Lena as well, but one doesn't check a gift horse's teeth.

Inexplicably, there are no photos between 30th june and 16th july, except a few of mine and then a series of rather random shots on 11th, all made by Lena.

This shot is just an add-on to the previous series, to show how they patched the inner side of the closet wall, where the inner AC unit and the water heater are. Because it was near impossible to patch it otherwise in this tight space. Over time we'll find more examples of this spit and polish technique in various places around the apartment. And these guys charge us 800$ a month for this. They could have paid some honest majstor to fix them.

Everything is still in bags and boxes. We simply don't have enough furniture to keep them. We'll add two shelves later. Metal, chinese nickel plated steel. And then I'd see the exact same shelves in Cueblo, the servers were on them. Years later, the same shelves could be found in another galaxy, in Stargate Atlantis.

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Mentions: Cueblo, Jack Baran sr, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), majstor, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Orionware (Orion), in serbian