Monday, July 31, 2006

Apartment Pictures!

Well, we don't have it all organized quite the way we want yet, but it at least looks like a home now instead of a collection of boxes, so I thought I'd take some pictures to share! So let's start the grand tour, shall we?

Here is the living room. The dresser which is doubling as an entertainment center was made by my stepdad, and I think it may be the most awesome dresser in existence. The quilt which is serving as the tablecloth was made by my great-grandma.
Another angle of living room. The coffee table, by the way, is actually an ancient steamer trunk which belonged to Tirithien's grandparents.
And one more living room shot. I figured I should show off my huge collection of Red Wings bobblehead guys, who now have Tirithien's two U of Toledo bobbleheads to keep them company.The dining room, which is the messiest room as of yet, since the table just makes such a good place to put random things we aren't sure where else to put. I realize that a milk can is not the traditional method of storing hockey sticks, but it just seems to work. The kitchen. So many cabinets! The stove now has a sign over it that proclaims it to be an Area 51 Top Secret Research Facility.
The all-important bathroom. If you look carefully, you can see me trying to keep my reflection out of the picture and not succeeding! Here is our office/study/computer room. We can both be online at the same time!
Here's the closet of the study (okay, it's technically a bedroom, if you ask the people in the apartment office), which has been filled with bookcases. The laundry room, conveniently doubling as a walk-in closet off the bedroom. No more lugging laundry up and down multiple flights of stairs! Our nice, comfy bed. The bedroom from another angle. Apparently Winnie the Pooh wants to be Indiana Jones when he grows up. He's a very silly bear.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Observations on Moving

1. Don't rent from U-haul! Let me tell you all what those creeps did. I had reserved myself a 14-foot truck and an appliance dolly online. The day before the scheduled pickup, they were supposed to call me and tell me where I could pick the stuff up. Meanwhile, I had gone ahead and changed my cell phone number to an Ohio number, so I called them, since they still had my Michigan number. The woman I talked to told me I would be picking up my stuff at their location on Seven Mile Rd. Wait a minute, that's 30 miles from my home... er, my old home. I don't think so! Somewhat in shock, I asked her to please try to find something closer.

A couple of hours later, I called back and was told that I could now pick things up from the location at Thirteen Mile Rd. and Ryan Rd. To which my response was, "I wanted something closer, not further away!" Plus they still had my wrong phone number, even though I'd given the correct number to the first woman. I asked this person to please try again, since that would be a 40 mile trip one-way. (Did I mention that you're only allowed a certain number of miles when you rent a U-haul?)

About an hour later, I received a call from a man who told me I could pick up my truck from their Michigan Avenue location. Fifteen miles from home. I figured that would be the best I could get from these people and told him, "Okay, fine." Tirithien and I picked up the truck at 11:00 as scheduled, only to be given a very small utility dolly instead of the nice, big appliance dolly I'd actually requested. But at least we had the truck.

2. I cannot believe they just let people rent these gigantic trucks without any training on how to drive them! My car is a Saturn. It's tiny. I've driven a big van before, but that's nothing like a 14-foot moving truck! My poor brother rode down with me, brave soul that he is. We made the trip without incident, until we were almost to the new apartment. A wide one-lane street becomes a narrow two-lane street, and the lane was just a little too narrow for the U-haul. I was trying to keep as far to the right as possible, so as not to interfere with other cars, but bumped the tires up on the curb. This causes a U-haul to wobble and weave like a drunken frat boy on the way home from a party. Not fun! I was screaming, my brother was screaming, and I think my stuffed animals were probably also screaming. It probably lasted less than 2 seconds before I got the truck back under control, but oh, that was terrifying!

3. Moving on a day when it is 95 degrees out is a bad idea.

4. If you do have to move when it is 95 degrees, you need to purchase more than one pack of Propel. (Electrolytes... gone!)

5. When you've been moving heavy stuff in 95 degree heat all day, Waffle House seems like gourmet food. Besides which, they were probably the only place that would have let us in, as grubby as we were.

6. When you have your door open all day to carry stuff in, flies will probably also come in. If one of the flies is in the bathroom with you while you are getting ready for bed, and you attempt to kill it with your bare hand, make sure you do not hit the bathroom counter at full force. The fly will fly away laughing at you, and you will have a sprained ring finger which swells up and turns a very interesting purply color.

Observations on life in Ohio to come later. :-)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Moving Weekend!

Yes, folks, that's right, this is the weekend of moving to Ohio! (And it just figures-- we've had a mild summer so far, but this weekend it's in the 90s with high humidity.)

So anyway, I won't be around for awhile, since of course internet contact is not possible while moving. Talk to you all in a few days. I'm sure I'll have some wondrously comedic moving disaster stories to tell.

Friday, July 07, 2006

What the...?!?

Ladies and gentlemen, bloggers of all ages, I present to you...

The Weirdest Sign Ever!



Apparently somewhere in the world, it is necessary to warn people not to let go of their wheelchair-bound grandpa at the top of the steep hill because there are hungry gators waiting with open mouths at the bottom.

8:26 PM - In email conversation with my Evil Friend Joe today, he suggested that maybe this is not a warning sign, but an advertisement for gators that they can find food easily here. So I have developed a commercial for the gators' fast food:

Hi. Are you an alligator between the ages of zero and infinity? Do you find that your diet lacks that satisfying 'crunch' every gator longs for? Try our new RUSH Old Person Delivery Service! Your tasty snack will be delivered to you in its own wheelchair. All you have to do is open your mouth and wait!

I am so going to hell for this. :-o

Monday, July 03, 2006

Movin', movin', movin'....

WOOT!

Yes, we are officially approved for the apartment. On Saturday we go to choose which apartment we want, sign papers, and leave our security deposit.

Now to pack. Oh dear lord, to pack. Didn't I just do this?

Guess I'm doing it again!