Stick a Steak Knife in It, It's Done.

Well, the actual move went really well. We packed up various cars with boxes and small things before the truck arrived. Once the truck arrived the guys moved pretty quickly and the living room and kitchen were gone. The next trip saw the basement including the behemoth toy cupboard go and finally the bedrooms came over. We were done with the moving truck by 3pm and we dismissed Lyle, Jeff, Arn, and Steph. The rest of us (Jeannette, Gretchen, Gordon, Megan, mom, and I) kept working and we made a few more trips to the old house. Jeannette left a little while later. We got the TVs and the computer hooked up but we had no cable and no phone line, so we were pretty much dead in the water. We were all exhausted and after a quick trip to Cici's we turned in early. I decided to sleep on mom's brand new queen size elevated Aero bed in the basement and problem started right away.

First it blew up funny; there seemed to be a large bump on the bottom running down the middle of the bed which caused it to rock back a forth. I perched myself directly in the middle and tried to sleep. It was then that I realized that I was freezing cold. I only had one blanket on, but I would have to get out from under that one blanket in order to get more. I decided on a different path; I crawled into bed with mom. When I reported to her how uncomfortable the bed was she decided to return it to QVC and I went down to deflate it. I hit the "quick release" button and got a satisfactory woosh of air and went off to do something else. When I came back a little while later half of the bed (the top half) was still inflated. So I laid on it and rolled it, but nothing seemed to be happening. Gordon came over to help and we got a little bit of air out but not nearly enough. We worked on that damn bed for hours with Megan, Gordon, and I pulling off all manor of contortions trying to release the air from the damn bed. We tried to call the help number left by Aero in the box and were told "Due to high volume your call may be delayed up 10 minutes or more; at that time we will disconnect the call." I was on my cell, since mom did not have phone service yet, so I disconnected the call myself and went back to the bed. We tried customer service at QVC but were unable to get to a person to explain our dilema. We were able to get on-line (another long story) and I went to the QVC site and started a live chat with a "real" person. I explained our problem and she said to try to loosen the valve. I did not know what that means so I explained that the valve was fully open but no air was coming out. She said that once we deflated the bed we could certainly return it. I retorted "short of sticking it with a steak knife, we would not be able to get it back into the box." She said "that may be what you need to do." That was all I needed to hear, we went back down to the basement, cut a hole in the damn thing and still spent another half hour trying to fold it into a bundle small enough to fit in our biggest box. I did a screen shot of the "live chat" so that I would have a record of someone telling me that it was OK to kill the beast.

We have had many more adventures today from the cable company ("we can't drill holes and connect TVs mam") to the phone company ("well, you are scheduled for today so it should be done by Thursday"). We lost the hardware to all of the hanging stuff in mom's kitchen (you know how she loves her mushroom drawer) but then we found it again. I drilled about 16 holes for two screws but the damn drawer is up. We returned a giant cabinet and a small TV. We bought lumber and drawer organizers. We got almost everything unpacked on the first floor (leaving only the basement) and it really looks like a home. Mom is very happy (when she isn't terribly frustrated) and the house is wonderful.

Movin' On Out

I got a lot done in the last few days at mom's. I have almost everything out of the basement; everything that is left will have to go on the truck. It took a long time to clean out the filing cabinet because we wanted to go through and read so many things. I took her copies of all the letters I used to send (the blog before the blog) and hopefully I will be able to scan them in and post them here sometime so that we can all have a blast from the past. I also cleaned out her computer desk and only left her the bare essentials. I tried to pack up the kitchen but I met with some resistance (I am going to need that), so that may have to be done on the 24th and 25th. Her new cabinets are up and they look great. Gretchen and I put in shelf liner on Thursday night so whenever the dishes come over they will have a place to live. There will have to be some tough decisions made since she has far fewer cupboards in the new place.

Mom also had two people come to look at the old place. The first woman came on Thursday night and did not seem impressed. But the guy that came today was great. He was maybe mid-50s and seemed unconcerned with any of the problem areas (I removed the changing table and there are big holes in the wall below the window now). He just said "I'm a pretty handy guy" and left it at that. He is the guy we are rooting for.

Pocket Mush

Here is the recipe for pocket mush:

Two weeks before you need the pocket mush buy a bag of McDonald's cookies, give two cookies to a small boy (preferably cute) and put the bag your coat pocket.

A week later try to retrieve two more cookies for the small boy and rip the bag to shreds.

A few days later decide that the bag is history and just dump the cookies into your pocket. This will make dispensing one or two to the small boy easier.

A few days later brush six inches of snow off the car. In a few hours your pocket mush will be ready. You may discover it when you pull your glove out of your pocket and find that it is now covered in pocket mush.

You can clean your pocket as much as you want, but I caution, do not, I repeat DO NOT, put your very expensive digital camera in that pocket ever again, because the next time you brush snow off your car, remnant pocket mush will re-activate filling every little nook and cranny of the camera. Not that I would know that from personal experience or anything.

I better get a toothpick out of the fridge.

Race

I know I am a little late with this, but I am so glad those sisters are gone. Sisters should not be that mean to each other. It is fine to make comments in fun (or occasionally in anger), but they were not having fun; not one little bit. At least they were honest about it in the end "We though it would bring us closer; it didn't."

I have to remember to set up for Survivor on Sunday.

Here are a couple of links to a blog that had me laughing my head off at 6am yesterday morning. It is a good thing there was nobody else in the office.

http://www.shotgundaddy.com/2005/11/ive_got_a_secre.html

http://www.shotgundaddy.com/2005/12/santas_watching.html

Moving the Mommy

We got some stuff moved this weekend at mom's, but not everything. She needs boxes, Gretch. All of the ones in the basement are very shallow. They will be good for things like individual drawers in the kitchen, but she will need more deep boxes for real stuff.

Since we had Jackson we had a limited moving schedule. On Friday night I packed up her TV stand. I wish we had time to watch all of the videos that I packed, but it was already late. We did watch one with a one-year-old Megan taking a bath; what a cute little naked baby she was. I left a giant basket full of pictures that mom is sending to Gretchen's. I also packed up the table next to the couch and some of the front closet. On Saturday morning we were able to move these boxes and the linen boxes that Stephie helped pack up over to the new house. I unpacked the linen boxes and took them back over to pack again.

When Jackson went down for his nap I headed to the basement and packed up the toy cupboard and the bookcase. We found more things from grandpa's house (grandma and grandpa's immigration papers and passports) and more decks of cards than you could (or should) shake a stick at. When Jackson woke up from his nap we headed back over and these boxes are just stacked in the basement at the new place. Have I mentioned that the new basement is huge. It is shocking after being used to the old basement. My basement is big, but it is divided up into rooms, while this one is wide open.

After the little guy went to bed mom and I started on her closet. We emptied all of the cubbies in the shoe rack (there is a large bag for Goodwill in her room that will need to be handled) and then started on the top shelf or mostly receipts and liquor. Some of the liquor looked older than me and all but two of the bottle had never been opened. Unfortunately, one of the open bottles leaked and that box had to be unpacked and repacked when I got downstairs. Sunday morning we moved all of these boxes over to the new place and I was able to unpack all but the shoes and send the empty boxes home with mom.

Jackson was starting to protest getting in and out of the car so much, so we just hung out at the new house until it was time for us to head home. I had his new snowpants with me and we decided to let him out back to "play" in the snow. After a few misses getting him into the pants, he was packed up and I dropped him out the patio door to "play." He stood there for a very long time, not moving and then proceeded to eat his own weight in snow. Luckily, he is pretty light.
"Do you want to come in?"
"Yes." Pull him in (there is no step right now, but we are working on that).
"I wan out"
"You just came in"
"I wan out" Drop him back out.
Knocking on the window.
"Do you want to come in?"
"Yes." Pull him in.
"I wan out"
"How about a cereal bar?"
"Yeah!"

Things that I would have packed if I had had more time (and more boxes): the filing cabinet and steel shelves in the basement; the desk in mom's room; some of her dresser drawers (sheets, etc.); the cupboards in both bathrooms. Some small things like pillows and footstools in the basement can be moved over in advance too. Anything that will give us less to move on the 26th would be good.

I am so excited. This is a good move and we are going to love the new house. My plans (in my own head) are to head to mom's on the 22nd (after Jackson's two-year tune up). I plan to fill Gretchen's room with balloons for him on the 23rd and have a small celebration for his birthday, maybe inviting Mrs. and Anna, etc. We will probably do grandma's on the 24th and the Zynda's on the 25th. I will then leave him with Mrs. for a few days while we do the heavy lifting.

Damn this post got long, it is a good thing I got to work at 6am.