It's dangerous, I know... but lay the comments on me, because I'll need something enjoyable to read come this weekend!
(oh, and this is a heads up that my internet access goes down this evening until sometime this weekend)
--------
Some of you I hardly know at all, but you friended me and I thank you. But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...she wears mismatched socks." I'd love it if every single person who friended me would do this. Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal...
28 June 2005
25 June 2005
This is not a news flash
I am a packrat, and I really need to start learning how to throw things out right away. *sigh*
To beat the near 100 degree heat today, we stayed in the apartment... specifically in the living room, and worked through it. Erich and I decided that our goal for the weekend should be to pack up the living room and kitchen, since that's really the most amount of work. After we get that done, packing the other rooms and the closets should be fairly easy. We should have the living room done before noon tomorrow, and then we'll start working on the kitchen.
In a strange portion of perfect timing, the fridge seems to have crapped out on us here. We may lose everything in the freezer and fridge, which annoys me... but I also have to remind myself that it's simply less stuff to move if that happens. We need to call the landlord on Monday to let them know, though. We don't want to get charged for a new fridge on our security deposit. Especially when we have to cover the last two months of our lease already. *sigh*
Somewhere in the next four days, we also want to try to paint the bedroom at the house. Erich thinks we're going to have plenty of time. I'm not so sure about that... but I suppose we could make trips down in the evening and do a step of the work each evening.
I've uploaded some of the photos of the house, and will add more of them sometime next weekend once we're moved in. The pictures so far are here. The floors are now done and dry. They look beautiful. :) Before we move in on Thursday, we just have to do some sweeping on the kitchen steps, where a lot of sawdust and nails are still sitting. And then we need to move the furniture that was in some of the rooms back to their original spots, so the movers can get through the different rooms (or at least the kitchen).
Otherwise, I'm doing okay. Still coughing from the post-cold bronchitis. I have an inhaler, and it seems to work a bit. Hopefully once all of this moving and dust disturbing work is done, my lungs will start healing up.
Off to bed...
To beat the near 100 degree heat today, we stayed in the apartment... specifically in the living room, and worked through it. Erich and I decided that our goal for the weekend should be to pack up the living room and kitchen, since that's really the most amount of work. After we get that done, packing the other rooms and the closets should be fairly easy. We should have the living room done before noon tomorrow, and then we'll start working on the kitchen.
In a strange portion of perfect timing, the fridge seems to have crapped out on us here. We may lose everything in the freezer and fridge, which annoys me... but I also have to remind myself that it's simply less stuff to move if that happens. We need to call the landlord on Monday to let them know, though. We don't want to get charged for a new fridge on our security deposit. Especially when we have to cover the last two months of our lease already. *sigh*
Somewhere in the next four days, we also want to try to paint the bedroom at the house. Erich thinks we're going to have plenty of time. I'm not so sure about that... but I suppose we could make trips down in the evening and do a step of the work each evening.
I've uploaded some of the photos of the house, and will add more of them sometime next weekend once we're moved in. The pictures so far are here. The floors are now done and dry. They look beautiful. :) Before we move in on Thursday, we just have to do some sweeping on the kitchen steps, where a lot of sawdust and nails are still sitting. And then we need to move the furniture that was in some of the rooms back to their original spots, so the movers can get through the different rooms (or at least the kitchen).
Otherwise, I'm doing okay. Still coughing from the post-cold bronchitis. I have an inhaler, and it seems to work a bit. Hopefully once all of this moving and dust disturbing work is done, my lungs will start healing up.
Off to bed...
20 June 2005
Movies, appliances, jet planes, and sleepless nights...
Sums up my weekend. More on that later...
The first official day of the packing vacation has gone slowly, but we've been getting things done. Our change of address forms are taken care of. We picked up smaller boxes for books and kitchen stuff.
Since it was a beautiful day, I took advantage of the weather to get one area of the apartment completely accomplished-- the balcony. I cleaned out the pots that still had twigs and such from last year, and discovered a plethora of catnip that has grown out of the ashes of last year's disaster... in two pots, no less... and neither pot was the one I planted it in originally. (yes, it is catnip. *sigh*). Said pots will be transferred into the ground at the house, once I get some plastic black pots that I can cut the bottoms out of... that way the catnip won't spread quite as badly.
But all of the pots are ready to be transferred to the house. Due to the obnoxiously cold spring, the Christmas lights FINALLY got taken down today (yes... we were those people this year *meep*). They're all packed and ready to go. All that needs to be done out there is a good sweeping, which I'll do later this week once we move the pots to the house.
Erich spent some time packing up our gaming books, since we won't be playing D&D before the move. He also got all of my audio CD's packed and all of the remaining DVD's and X-box games, save Halo 2, which he needs for stress relief.
And now I'm making a last-ditch effort to get any swapping stuff out of here before I call it a day and pack everything else up for the house on Wednesday. I have a lot to do, but I'll do some serious work on it tonight and tomorrow morning before we go out to do errands. Hopefully I can get almost everything done. Personal letters will wait until we're at the house.
I have company to support me in the paper insanity-- Colley has implausably stuffed himself onto a narrow window sill to look out at the cars going by. Gus is curled up on the futon between some swapping boxes, comfortably resting on my Ren Faire garb and giving it a good dose of black cat fur. My boys. Gotta love them.
We have about a dozen boxes packed and taped shut. Some we're going to take down to Providence ourselves tomorrow, since they take up valuable packing space that we desperately need right now. By the weekend, we should have the computer room mostly packed up so it can be used as box storage... hopefully. Erich remarked that it doesn't look like we've done that much yet, but I think once we get the kitchen packed up and I get my penpalling and swapping stuff packed up, it will make a HUGE difference in this place. Come Thursday, it's going to look dramatically different.
And tomorrow is the trip to the paint store, so we can get our bedroom paint priced/ordered/bought (whatever winds up being the case). My parents have both strongly recommended Benjamin Moore... and there's one only a mile and change from the house. Perfect.
So it's coming. Slowly, but it's coming together.
******
The weekend was insane. Busy as hell. Fun for most of it. But absolutely insane.
Friday night, the Mendon Twin Drive-In had a double feature of Batman Begins followed by Episode III. We invited everyone in our Providence & gaming circle of friends, and wound up having a cozy group of ten go. Front row, Jeep pulled backward with the seats down and pillows in the back... a group of good friends and some beers. We had a great time. Gina was excited when I told her the "dancing hot dog from Grease" was the intermission feature. And she confessed that all the way down, she and the girls in her carload were singing "Stranded at the Drive In." (heh. COuld you imagine if they played Grease at the drive in? Oh my god what a goofy camp fest that would be!)
Anyway... the rest of us were making the appropriate sexual remarks to the hotdog as it flipped for the bun. Gina was shocked, but died laughing... apparently she'd never had the "stick that meat in between the buns" reference that the rest of us sick puppies had developed over the years.
And there were fireflies all evening glittering in front of the screen.
*sigh*
Oh-- and I thought Batman rocked this time. So much better than the previous four. And so much better than Episode III, too.
The drive-in adventure ended at 2 a.m., and rather than head home to Randolph, Erich and I had to spend a very brief night at the house in Providence. Sears had told us that they'd be delivering our fridge and stove between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m.
The fun with this was that we have no bed at the house, and all of the rooms save the kitchen and bathroom are an absolute disaster of sawdust right now. But we borrowed an air mattress from Frank, planning to plop it in the center of the kitchen.
No dice-- the kitchen is full of stuff for the flooring guys.
So we found the least sawdust-filled bedroom (Erich's den), and put it up there for our whopping 3 hour nap.
They arrived within minutes of 7:30. Fridge works great--the stove hookup looks loose, so we've called the electricians to come out to check it out (since we just had everything updated... it might have been overlooked).
Erich decided to take a bit more of a nap, but I could not sleep any more on that mattress. So I decided to take my pillow and a blanket and try crashing out in the back of the Jeep (since it's actually comfortable for me, as proven by the drive in). But I discovered something about trying to sleep in a car... it gets very stuffy very quickly if you don't have something cracked open. But I was too tired to think logically about such things at the time, and rather than get the keys to crack the window, I stayed awake.
We got home around 3 p.m, and I slept until almost 9. Erich was shocked... I never sleep like that.
For Father's Day, Erich's dad wanted to go to the Quonset Point air show south of Providence. We met up around 11:30 and headed down, having a bit of a driving adventure since "craptastic" doesn't begin to explain how bad the traffic on I-95 was. The show was fun. We watched the Snowbirds (from Canada) and the Blue Angels (U.S. Navy) perform, as well as an insane guy in a bi-plane who must worry his mother absolutely sick. They had a semi attached to a jet plane engine called the Shockwave (which was crazy... but very cool). I later saw it again that night on Discovery Channel as I went to bed. And as always, lots of military stuff on display. The weather was perfect. We hung out, we had a good time.
And now I should get back to the insanity...
We need a flame thrower.
The first official day of the packing vacation has gone slowly, but we've been getting things done. Our change of address forms are taken care of. We picked up smaller boxes for books and kitchen stuff.
Since it was a beautiful day, I took advantage of the weather to get one area of the apartment completely accomplished-- the balcony. I cleaned out the pots that still had twigs and such from last year, and discovered a plethora of catnip that has grown out of the ashes of last year's disaster... in two pots, no less... and neither pot was the one I planted it in originally. (yes, it is catnip. *sigh*). Said pots will be transferred into the ground at the house, once I get some plastic black pots that I can cut the bottoms out of... that way the catnip won't spread quite as badly.
But all of the pots are ready to be transferred to the house. Due to the obnoxiously cold spring, the Christmas lights FINALLY got taken down today (yes... we were those people this year *meep*). They're all packed and ready to go. All that needs to be done out there is a good sweeping, which I'll do later this week once we move the pots to the house.
Erich spent some time packing up our gaming books, since we won't be playing D&D before the move. He also got all of my audio CD's packed and all of the remaining DVD's and X-box games, save Halo 2, which he needs for stress relief.
And now I'm making a last-ditch effort to get any swapping stuff out of here before I call it a day and pack everything else up for the house on Wednesday. I have a lot to do, but I'll do some serious work on it tonight and tomorrow morning before we go out to do errands. Hopefully I can get almost everything done. Personal letters will wait until we're at the house.
I have company to support me in the paper insanity-- Colley has implausably stuffed himself onto a narrow window sill to look out at the cars going by. Gus is curled up on the futon between some swapping boxes, comfortably resting on my Ren Faire garb and giving it a good dose of black cat fur. My boys. Gotta love them.
We have about a dozen boxes packed and taped shut. Some we're going to take down to Providence ourselves tomorrow, since they take up valuable packing space that we desperately need right now. By the weekend, we should have the computer room mostly packed up so it can be used as box storage... hopefully. Erich remarked that it doesn't look like we've done that much yet, but I think once we get the kitchen packed up and I get my penpalling and swapping stuff packed up, it will make a HUGE difference in this place. Come Thursday, it's going to look dramatically different.
And tomorrow is the trip to the paint store, so we can get our bedroom paint priced/ordered/bought (whatever winds up being the case). My parents have both strongly recommended Benjamin Moore... and there's one only a mile and change from the house. Perfect.
So it's coming. Slowly, but it's coming together.
******
The weekend was insane. Busy as hell. Fun for most of it. But absolutely insane.
Friday night, the Mendon Twin Drive-In had a double feature of Batman Begins followed by Episode III. We invited everyone in our Providence & gaming circle of friends, and wound up having a cozy group of ten go. Front row, Jeep pulled backward with the seats down and pillows in the back... a group of good friends and some beers. We had a great time. Gina was excited when I told her the "dancing hot dog from Grease" was the intermission feature. And she confessed that all the way down, she and the girls in her carload were singing "Stranded at the Drive In." (heh. COuld you imagine if they played Grease at the drive in? Oh my god what a goofy camp fest that would be!)
Anyway... the rest of us were making the appropriate sexual remarks to the hotdog as it flipped for the bun. Gina was shocked, but died laughing... apparently she'd never had the "stick that meat in between the buns" reference that the rest of us sick puppies had developed over the years.
And there were fireflies all evening glittering in front of the screen.
*sigh*
Oh-- and I thought Batman rocked this time. So much better than the previous four. And so much better than Episode III, too.
The drive-in adventure ended at 2 a.m., and rather than head home to Randolph, Erich and I had to spend a very brief night at the house in Providence. Sears had told us that they'd be delivering our fridge and stove between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m.
The fun with this was that we have no bed at the house, and all of the rooms save the kitchen and bathroom are an absolute disaster of sawdust right now. But we borrowed an air mattress from Frank, planning to plop it in the center of the kitchen.
No dice-- the kitchen is full of stuff for the flooring guys.
So we found the least sawdust-filled bedroom (Erich's den), and put it up there for our whopping 3 hour nap.
They arrived within minutes of 7:30. Fridge works great--the stove hookup looks loose, so we've called the electricians to come out to check it out (since we just had everything updated... it might have been overlooked).
Erich decided to take a bit more of a nap, but I could not sleep any more on that mattress. So I decided to take my pillow and a blanket and try crashing out in the back of the Jeep (since it's actually comfortable for me, as proven by the drive in). But I discovered something about trying to sleep in a car... it gets very stuffy very quickly if you don't have something cracked open. But I was too tired to think logically about such things at the time, and rather than get the keys to crack the window, I stayed awake.
We got home around 3 p.m, and I slept until almost 9. Erich was shocked... I never sleep like that.
For Father's Day, Erich's dad wanted to go to the Quonset Point air show south of Providence. We met up around 11:30 and headed down, having a bit of a driving adventure since "craptastic" doesn't begin to explain how bad the traffic on I-95 was. The show was fun. We watched the Snowbirds (from Canada) and the Blue Angels (U.S. Navy) perform, as well as an insane guy in a bi-plane who must worry his mother absolutely sick. They had a semi attached to a jet plane engine called the Shockwave (which was crazy... but very cool). I later saw it again that night on Discovery Channel as I went to bed. And as always, lots of military stuff on display. The weather was perfect. We hung out, we had a good time.
And now I should get back to the insanity...
We need a flame thrower.
16 June 2005
Getting things settled
Today is my last full day of work until after the July 4th holiday. I only work until noon tomorrow, and then I'm free for nearly three weeks. I cannot wait.
Granted, taking two weeks of my allotted yearly vacation time to move isn't the ideal way to spend the time. BUT... it's making me feel much more in control and relaxed about the whole moving process. I have two weeks to devote myself to cleaning and throwing shit out, packing up boxes, moving what we can down to the house by ourselves, and then finishing everything off on June 30th.
We've spent the last couple weekends almost exclusively down in Providence. Erich's been tackling the mowing (now under control, save a few areas that we need to get an edger to get into). I've done tons of laundry, and helped pick up branches and stuff to get it out of Erich's way. The house doesn't feel like it's ours, though. Probably because it's empty, and not renovated. I feel like I'm going over to care for the house of an aunt who has gone away on extended holiday overseas.
The flooring guys had a cancellation on the job they had scheduled ahead of ours, so they've started working on the floors. I drove down on Monday to let them in, and gave them the extra set of keys. At this point, we're not worried if they have them. There's nothing in the house of value, AND... once they're done with the flooring, we'll be going to change the locks (we're still using the old set) in preparation for our move.
I have to say, though, that I had a wonderful surprise as I watched them pull up the first carpets on Monday. I saw the area that they have to replace (that we knew about before buying the house). I also saw the gorgeous wood that's on the floors next to it. When they were originally laid, it was done with a lot of time and care-- we have essentially one big parquet square in the dining room and one big square in the living room. All of the boards are placed in a pattern to square inward toward the center. Interestingly, though, the area where we need to reboard suggests that it was originally straight-boarded and will look just fine if we do that again. (and it will be cheaper to do that instead).
The floors in the dining and living rooms are a warm honey maple. They're darker upstairs, and a bit lighter in the Florida room. I didn't see all of the floors on Monday, but since then the company has pulled up everything and has done some of the sanding upstairs.
I seriously cannot. wait. I'll see them Saturday, and will be bringing the camera. Because having looked again at our original viewing of the house, it's amazing to me how perspective of those photos has already shifted. :) I think it's been very handy to have the photos to compare the before, during, and after shots.
Amazingly, this move is coming together just fine. All of our utilities are squared away at the new house. Basic stuff is already up and running-- electricity, water, sewer, and heating oil. The cable company is coming out the last week of June to hook up our phone, digitial cable, and high-speed internet. The flooring guys are at work. Our new kitchen appliances arrive on Saturday. And the movers are booked and scheduled to arrive on the morning of the 30th.
There's one little problem in the plan, and that's Jury Duty on the 28th. But it's county jury duty, and as of now, I'm on Standby status. There's a chance (however slight) that I might not have to show up at all. And if I do have to report, there's a good chance that I can explain that I am, in fact, moving out of state in two days, and therefore will become ineligible. (I'll be bringing a copy of our sales paperwork and my paystubs, which are already going to the house, as proof). But eh, I'll deal. I hope to have a very good deal of the packing done by next Friday anyway.
In two weeks from today, we move into the house. Our. House.
How long, I wonder, until that idea really sinks in.
I'm betting as I wake up on July 1st in a new bedroom.
Granted, taking two weeks of my allotted yearly vacation time to move isn't the ideal way to spend the time. BUT... it's making me feel much more in control and relaxed about the whole moving process. I have two weeks to devote myself to cleaning and throwing shit out, packing up boxes, moving what we can down to the house by ourselves, and then finishing everything off on June 30th.
We've spent the last couple weekends almost exclusively down in Providence. Erich's been tackling the mowing (now under control, save a few areas that we need to get an edger to get into). I've done tons of laundry, and helped pick up branches and stuff to get it out of Erich's way. The house doesn't feel like it's ours, though. Probably because it's empty, and not renovated. I feel like I'm going over to care for the house of an aunt who has gone away on extended holiday overseas.
The flooring guys had a cancellation on the job they had scheduled ahead of ours, so they've started working on the floors. I drove down on Monday to let them in, and gave them the extra set of keys. At this point, we're not worried if they have them. There's nothing in the house of value, AND... once they're done with the flooring, we'll be going to change the locks (we're still using the old set) in preparation for our move.
I have to say, though, that I had a wonderful surprise as I watched them pull up the first carpets on Monday. I saw the area that they have to replace (that we knew about before buying the house). I also saw the gorgeous wood that's on the floors next to it. When they were originally laid, it was done with a lot of time and care-- we have essentially one big parquet square in the dining room and one big square in the living room. All of the boards are placed in a pattern to square inward toward the center. Interestingly, though, the area where we need to reboard suggests that it was originally straight-boarded and will look just fine if we do that again. (and it will be cheaper to do that instead).
The floors in the dining and living rooms are a warm honey maple. They're darker upstairs, and a bit lighter in the Florida room. I didn't see all of the floors on Monday, but since then the company has pulled up everything and has done some of the sanding upstairs.
I seriously cannot. wait. I'll see them Saturday, and will be bringing the camera. Because having looked again at our original viewing of the house, it's amazing to me how perspective of those photos has already shifted. :) I think it's been very handy to have the photos to compare the before, during, and after shots.
Amazingly, this move is coming together just fine. All of our utilities are squared away at the new house. Basic stuff is already up and running-- electricity, water, sewer, and heating oil. The cable company is coming out the last week of June to hook up our phone, digitial cable, and high-speed internet. The flooring guys are at work. Our new kitchen appliances arrive on Saturday. And the movers are booked and scheduled to arrive on the morning of the 30th.
There's one little problem in the plan, and that's Jury Duty on the 28th. But it's county jury duty, and as of now, I'm on Standby status. There's a chance (however slight) that I might not have to show up at all. And if I do have to report, there's a good chance that I can explain that I am, in fact, moving out of state in two days, and therefore will become ineligible. (I'll be bringing a copy of our sales paperwork and my paystubs, which are already going to the house, as proof). But eh, I'll deal. I hope to have a very good deal of the packing done by next Friday anyway.
In two weeks from today, we move into the house. Our. House.
How long, I wonder, until that idea really sinks in.
I'm betting as I wake up on July 1st in a new bedroom.
14 June 2005
** NEW EMAIL ADDRESS **
Anyone who emails me privately, please delete my comcast email accounts and begin using the following email address(es):
measi@measi.net
Or, if that one is having problems, measiwitch@hotmail.com.
My comcast account will be deleted in the next two weeks-- we won't have Comcast cable at our house in Rhode Island, so our email accounts go bye-bye.
Thanks,
Mel.
measi@measi.net
Or, if that one is having problems, measiwitch@hotmail.com.
My comcast account will be deleted in the next two weeks-- we won't have Comcast cable at our house in Rhode Island, so our email accounts go bye-bye.
Thanks,
Mel.
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