Did you guys know you have to pre-order Euros at your bank before you can go in and get them? You can’t just go in an exchange money. I did NOT know that. We wanted to have some Euros on us for tipping and such for when we get to Europe, so I hit up my bank at lunch yesterday. Friends advised that if I have an account with the bank, the service fee would be waived. Well, THAT much was true, but the teller said that none of the branches would have Euros in them without my prepaying and preordering first. Mr. W tried calling his bank branch to ask if they have an inventory of foreign money. He was told that 5-7 days were required to order the Euros, but was pointed to one particular branch that would have them, so off we went. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were told that the lady who handles the Euros had gone to lunch and would be back in an hour. We couldn’t come back in an hour; we both had to get back to work, so the teller said they’re open till 6pm. We both went there after work, and were told by another teller that the money exchange shuts down at 4pm. Mr. W was peeved. We don’t have 3-5 business days from this point to order the Euros, so Mr. W took two hours off work in the afternoon and presumably he’s at that bank right now getting the Euros, after calling and explaining his wild Euro goose chases to the Euro lady and making sure she’d be there to wait for him. The two bank chains, mine and his, give nearly identical exchange rates of 1 Euro to $1.45 (which is slightly worse than the actual foreign exchange rate of 1 to $1.29), so they’re still making money off us even without the service charge. We hear the currency exchange at the airports give worse rates with high service charges, and didn’t want to chance it.

We were also advised by many Europe-savvy friends that the best exchange rates would be in the country of that currency’s origin, and ATM machines are the easiest access to that. Some people also suggested using credit cards wherever possible for the best exchange rate moment-by-moment, but with the caveat that some places only take cash, and most places only take Visa or Mastercard. I’m fine leaving my American Express at home, since the one time I used it for a foreign purchase (bought my dad a stingray carving in Tahiti), my $75 purchase became a $110 purchase after fees and foreign surcharges. There’s also talk of Europe switching their credit card system into microchipped cards instead of magnetic strip cards like we have, so there may be some locations that won’t be able to process our credit cards. Given that, I think I’ll just be bringing my ATM/debit/Visa card.

My travel agent called this morning. Even tho France is still having civil unrest, Air France says all international flights yesterday and today came and went as scheduled without delay. So things look good.

I’m just a little freaked now about Dodo. He was acting weird yesterday. He left some vomit blobs here and there throughout the house in the past week, which isn’t unusual for when there’s hairball issues, but last nite he was hiding under the bed and refused to come out. He’s not usually so antisocial. I dragged him out to show him the new spot for the litter box since we changed the location to make the box easier for the Stepdaughter to access and clean out while we’re gone. He seemed weak and listless. He also immediately barfed when I put him downstairs, twice. And he drank a lot of water but didn’t eat food last nite. This morning the food appeared untouched, when he normally did most of his eating in the wee hours of the night. Also, he seemed to strain a bit going up the stairs and had to stop and space out a long time. He also wasn’t very responsive to my petting him, and wasn’t as violently opposed to my touching the no-no areas of his back paws and tummy. I just kept thinking, “Oh my gawd, is he sick? Right before I have to leave for 2 weeks?” Maybe he’s just sad cuz he saw the suitcases out. 🙁

Okay, I’ll stop rambling now. It’s been a long stressful day.