My New Next-Door-Neighbors Are Canadian, And They Moved In On Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day. Unless you're Canadian like me, or live in Canada, you probably don't know that July 1st is Canada Day. And, imagine the cooincidence - our new neighbors are from Canada, and they moved in today! How about that? I picked up on it right away. In the first minute of speaking with my new neighbor - Eli - I heard him say "abooot" instead of about, and he said "eh" 3-4 times...dead giveaway.
Going back to yesterday and the dryer saga, one of the last orders of business for my now ex-next-door-neighbor James was to call the appliance repair company for me. James is the rare breed of native English speaker (he's an Aussie) who has actually learned to speak Swiss-German rather well while living here. I told him about the dryer dilemma, and he volunteered to call the repair service for me. When he hung up, he told me that I'm getting a new dryer in 1-2 weeks - and that's a good thing. Luckily for us, one of the units is empty and the caretaker gave me the key to the apartment so that I can use the dryer until my new one arrives. According to James, I'm going to have to pay for the dryer and then send the bill to the landlord for reimbursement. In America, there would be about a 0% chance of me doing that. Here in Switzerland, I don't really have a problem with it. People aren't really out to screw you. For example, one time I accidentally double-paid the rent. I realized it after about a week, and I contacted the management company. The double-payment was wired into our bank account the same day. How's that for service?
Today, I picked Jo Ann up at Basel Airport. She flew back from New Jersey via London, and she arrived in Basel a little after noon. She worked from home during the afternoon, and I did some grocery shopping, we had some dinner, and then we watched (I watched and Jo Ann watched through her eyelids on the sofa) the Greece vs. Czech Republich Euro 2004 semi-final (which Greece won). It's going to be Portugal vs. Greece in the final on Sunday. Who would have predicted that one before the tournament. For that matter, who would have predicted before the tournament that I would even care. I have to say, soccer is OK. I was almost able to watch the whole game. But, as my luck would have it, during the extra time (with the score 0-0), Dominque showed that she had to go out. So, I took her for a walk. When I was about 15 feet from the door on the way back in, I heard a bunch of screaming throughout the neighborhood. Greece scored the winning goal, AND I MISSED IT!!!! At least I saw the replay. As it turned out, Dominique didn't really need to go out afterall. She kind of just walked around and sniffed. I'm going to make sure I take her out for a walk right before the final on Sunday evening.