The week in review
May. 9th, 2003 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreOkay, I've owed y'all a content post for quite some time. We've been in the new place for a week, and it's time to tell the tales. By the way, in case you haven't heard, we've named the place Off Hand Manor. You may laugh or groan, as suits you. (Does anybody know a site or person who can do coats of arms? We have some fun ideas.)
I'm not going to go into the details of our moving day. Those of you who have heard the story know why. To put it briefly, the movers were 2.5 hours late, took their own sweet time getting down here and scratched our furniture.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kshandra's stress and frustration led to her driving through our new garage door, and the stress from that led to me getting slugged in the jaw. Like I said, not one of the better days any of us have ever had. But onward!
After all the stress of the day, and a long talk, Kiri and I settled in for some well deserved sleep.. and learned the guy next door has both a guitar and bass. He seems to favor AC/DC. At least he played Back in Black over and over.. on both instruments.
But that was the worst of it. On Friday Kirsten and David took off so Kiri could pick up her work van. That is one of the very nice things about living here.. her commute is the walk to the curb. The money we'll save on gas alone is enough to make this place worth it. They also went to the old place to pick up some of the things that the movers refused to take.
Meanwhile, I started unpacking. My Ghod, we have a lot of boxes. My packing style had devolved over the weeks from getting all the books by the same author into the same box to making hook shots with random objects from across the room. So each box is a new adventure. One of the first things I tackled was our dishes; amazingly enough, we only lost one dish and a single glass. Working at JDM Packing paid off I guess.
One of the reasons I was home was I was waiting for the cable guy. I had a foretaste of what lies in store for us. He couldn't find us. This requires an explanation. We live on Almaden Road. This is a frontage road that is right on Almaden Expressway.. no divider or anything. So it makes it difficult to figure out exactly where we are. It seems the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't believe in us either. The guy eventually showed up, and although I no longer have the History Channel, I get ESPN2. You win some, you lose some.
Saturday was spent at the old place getting out the last of our old stuff and getting ready for the exit walk through. We filled the Ford to the gills.. I swear, I couldn't fit another item in that car.murphymom came up to help, and did wonderful work keeping us on track. Kirsten kick ass with the vacuum and carpet cleaner. Finally Ng the Merciless showed up (with rosefox a few minutes after) and all he cared about was the ceiling. He never even looked at the carpets. We could have painted them with human blood and he probably wouldn't have noticed. Frustrating, after all the effort we put into the place.
With everything packed,murphymom offered to take us out for an early anniversary dinner at Olive Garden. Not being fools, we accepted. I thought I wasn't hungry, then I ordered their pizza. Oh, my. By the time we got home (great word, that is) and unloaded the van, we were pretty whacked.
Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by lying in bed groaning, and not in a good way. Most of the early part of the day was spent being dead. But we needed many things, so to Costco we did go (after unloading the car.)
Costco is amazing. Just the amounts people will buy things in.. who needs a five gallon jar of pickle relish? But we made our needed purchases, plus two things that weren't on the list. Kiri grabbed this nice grooming kit so my beard can be brought under control. Also, once I get my hair cut (the experiment in long hair has been declared a failure) we can trim it at home. Then as we were in line, Kiri asks me "Do you want the DVD player?" We had looked at a few while exploring our new store. "Sure." Say I, not being a fool. "It's our anniversary present to each other." She says as she goes off to fetch one. We managed to get out of the store just four bucks over out budget. Yay us. Of course, we later had to make a run to Radio Smack for a coax and RF adaptor, but that's another thing entirely.
After loading the car (again!) we decide to go "borrow" some DVDs fromdafydd. This is easy, since he's not home. We get home, put away all out swag, and I set out to hook up the new toys. This is when the aforementioned RS run took place. But I get it working, which shocks me, since technology and I have a growling relationship at best. Our "test shot" is Animusic which I highly recommend.
Monday arrives, and Kiri must go back to work. This is much easier for her. She calls in learns when her first run is, and then can actually have a moment to breathe. Saves money for SuperShuttle, since the van is already in the South Bay, it doesn't have that far to drive.
I spend the day getting into boxes. We bought 25 1.5cu ft boxes for heavy objects.. like books.. and we filled them all. Since books are easy to put away, I tackled them first. Just getting through these took a few days,
So that's where things stand basically. Unloading, putting things away.. I did have a pleasant surprise when I went down to the laundry room yesterday. Both machines are brand new, and cost only $2 for a complete load. Back in the City it was $3.25 for much smaller and older machines.
Today, I walked down to Almaden Lake Park (everything is named "Almaden" something here.) It's a nice walk, and the kind I should do as often as possible. The park is very nice, with a good population of ducks and Canadian Geese. One bonus to my walk was the large number of goslings about. Avoiding the goose crap was something of an exercise at times. Tonight I believe I have the place to myself, so I'm going to watch a couple of war movies on the DVD (Blackhawk Down and Enemy at the Gates) Tomorrow, more work getting the place in shape.
I'm not going to go into the details of our moving day. Those of you who have heard the story know why. To put it briefly, the movers were 2.5 hours late, took their own sweet time getting down here and scratched our furniture.
kshandra's stress and frustration led to her driving through our new garage door, and the stress from that led to me getting slugged in the jaw. Like I said, not one of the better days any of us have ever had. But onward!After all the stress of the day, and a long talk, Kiri and I settled in for some well deserved sleep.. and learned the guy next door has both a guitar and bass. He seems to favor AC/DC. At least he played Back in Black over and over.. on both instruments.
But that was the worst of it. On Friday Kirsten and David took off so Kiri could pick up her work van. That is one of the very nice things about living here.. her commute is the walk to the curb. The money we'll save on gas alone is enough to make this place worth it. They also went to the old place to pick up some of the things that the movers refused to take.
Meanwhile, I started unpacking. My Ghod, we have a lot of boxes. My packing style had devolved over the weeks from getting all the books by the same author into the same box to making hook shots with random objects from across the room. So each box is a new adventure. One of the first things I tackled was our dishes; amazingly enough, we only lost one dish and a single glass. Working at JDM Packing paid off I guess.
One of the reasons I was home was I was waiting for the cable guy. I had a foretaste of what lies in store for us. He couldn't find us. This requires an explanation. We live on Almaden Road. This is a frontage road that is right on Almaden Expressway.. no divider or anything. So it makes it difficult to figure out exactly where we are. It seems the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't believe in us either. The guy eventually showed up, and although I no longer have the History Channel, I get ESPN2. You win some, you lose some.
Saturday was spent at the old place getting out the last of our old stuff and getting ready for the exit walk through. We filled the Ford to the gills.. I swear, I couldn't fit another item in that car.
murphymom came up to help, and did wonderful work keeping us on track. Kirsten kick ass with the vacuum and carpet cleaner. Finally Ng the Merciless showed up (with rosefox a few minutes after) and all he cared about was the ceiling. He never even looked at the carpets. We could have painted them with human blood and he probably wouldn't have noticed. Frustrating, after all the effort we put into the place. With everything packed,
murphymom offered to take us out for an early anniversary dinner at Olive Garden. Not being fools, we accepted. I thought I wasn't hungry, then I ordered their pizza. Oh, my. By the time we got home (great word, that is) and unloaded the van, we were pretty whacked.Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by lying in bed groaning, and not in a good way. Most of the early part of the day was spent being dead. But we needed many things, so to Costco we did go (after unloading the car.)
Costco is amazing. Just the amounts people will buy things in.. who needs a five gallon jar of pickle relish? But we made our needed purchases, plus two things that weren't on the list. Kiri grabbed this nice grooming kit so my beard can be brought under control. Also, once I get my hair cut (the experiment in long hair has been declared a failure) we can trim it at home. Then as we were in line, Kiri asks me "Do you want the DVD player?" We had looked at a few while exploring our new store. "Sure." Say I, not being a fool. "It's our anniversary present to each other." She says as she goes off to fetch one. We managed to get out of the store just four bucks over out budget. Yay us. Of course, we later had to make a run to Radio Smack for a coax and RF adaptor, but that's another thing entirely.
After loading the car (again!) we decide to go "borrow" some DVDs from
dafydd. This is easy, since he's not home. We get home, put away all out swag, and I set out to hook up the new toys. This is when the aforementioned RS run took place. But I get it working, which shocks me, since technology and I have a growling relationship at best. Our "test shot" is Animusic which I highly recommend.Monday arrives, and Kiri must go back to work. This is much easier for her. She calls in learns when her first run is, and then can actually have a moment to breathe. Saves money for SuperShuttle, since the van is already in the South Bay, it doesn't have that far to drive.
I spend the day getting into boxes. We bought 25 1.5cu ft boxes for heavy objects.. like books.. and we filled them all. Since books are easy to put away, I tackled them first. Just getting through these took a few days,
So that's where things stand basically. Unloading, putting things away.. I did have a pleasant surprise when I went down to the laundry room yesterday. Both machines are brand new, and cost only $2 for a complete load. Back in the City it was $3.25 for much smaller and older machines.
Today, I walked down to Almaden Lake Park (everything is named "Almaden" something here.) It's a nice walk, and the kind I should do as often as possible. The park is very nice, with a good population of ducks and Canadian Geese. One bonus to my walk was the large number of goslings about. Avoiding the goose crap was something of an exercise at times. Tonight I believe I have the place to myself, so I'm going to watch a couple of war movies on the DVD (Blackhawk Down and Enemy at the Gates) Tomorrow, more work getting the place in shape.
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no subject
no subject
Date: 9 May 2003 14:15 (UTC)Animusic is awesome!
no subject
Date: 9 May 2003 15:19 (UTC)The washer & dryer here at the apartments are 75 cents a load. They were 50 cents until a couple years back. Eat your heart out. :-)
ps. Eventually, you *will* have to replace that ancient TV. But try to hold off until the widescreen/HDTV sets get more reasonable. Because eventually the non-digital TVs are going to be unusable (current "target date" for getting rid over non digital broadcasting is 2007). Which is why I haven't upgraded my set yet. At least mine has video in and out.
no subject
Date: 9 May 2003 16:16 (UTC)