Okay, technically there have already been a couple games played in Japan, and last night’s Atlanta/Washington game was the first official game here at home, but today is the REAL official real genuine opening day of baseball. I managed to accrue nine points from last night’s game, which now puts my total number of points at negative four. Yeah! Only four more points and I’ll break even! And I’m anticipating at LEAST four points by the end of the day today… (I’m purposely being conservative, because I’m afraid if I say “a lot more than four points,” Sabathia will break his arm, the entire Yankee lineup will be afflicted with bird flu, and the rest of my players will quit baseball to pursue their dreams of opening frozen yogurt shops and espresso cafes…) So hopefully I’ll have positive points in a few hours, and begin my long and arduous climb from tenth place…
Well, I started typing this earlier this morning, so I now know that the Yankee game has been postponed due to rain in the northeast. Grrrrrr… I’ve waited all winter for the first Yankee game of the season, and now it’s been rained out. Sigh… And this is, by the way, the final season of baseball at Yankee Stadium. Next year they’ll have a brand new stadium, and “The House That Ruth Built” will be used for who-knows-what. (I really hope they use it for SOMEthing – they wouldn’t tear it down, would they? Tearing it down would go against all laws of nature…)
Eric and I are using this extra time before the first Yankee game to really work on our Yankee voodoo – we’ve been managing pretty well the last few years, but something’s always been missing. I mean, sure, it’s obviously been because of our help that the Yankees have consistently made the playoffs… but the voodoo is juuuuuuust missing the mark. We’ve devised a new system this year, and I’m really excited about it – I think we may have found the perfect voodoo ritual to add to our already-effective arsenal. I of course can not disclose our methods (as we can’t have any Boston fans stealing our voodoo), but I will say it involves a very catchy song, a totally misspelled word, and an old car. We are SO going to the World Series this year!! :)
Well, I suppose I’ll go check on my fantasy players… very tentatively, just in case they’ve all run off to their espresso cafes…
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Run, bunny! Run to freedom!
So last night we ate dinner with Rick's parents, and Rick's mom gave us a couple Dove chocolate bunnies as a belated Easter treat. SOLID dark chocolate bunnies, by the way -- when I was kid, they always sold those hollow chocolate bunnies. They were so deceptive... you'd find yourself in possession of a beautiful giant chocolate bunny -- the sight of which was enough to bring on sugary jitters and mouth-watering anticipation -- and that first blissful bite would be interrupted by a cavernous air pocket, mere millimeters beyond the chocolate shell. (What the-- ?? Hey! Where's the rest of my chocolate???) So what you imagined would provide you with chocolate happiness for weeks to come would, instead, be completely devoured within an hour or two... Chocolate-covered air, that's what those were...
Anyway, as I was saying, we now have a couple delectable dark chocolate bunnies. And I couldn't help but sample a bit of one after we returned home last night. I am a bit disturbed, however, by the image I am left with now that part of my bunny is gone:
Bunny before...
Bunny after...
Should I be concerned by the fact that I went straight for the head? Or is this, in fact, the way most people eat chocolate bunnies? It does seem rather logical -- I mean, the ears are the smallest part, and therefore easy to bite into. It would be harder, for instance, to chomp on a leg right off the bat... Of course, this being SOLID chocolate, and not that air-filled confection of my youth, it's more difficult to simply take a bite of ANY part of the bunny. I actually had to chop the poor thing's head off with a kitchen knife -- now, don't tell me THAT'S not disturbing...
Perhaps someone needs to start manufacturing Easter chocolate in a form that conjures up fewer "adorably fluffy" reminiscences. Like flowers, or trees, or rainbows, or other suitably "springy" symbols.
But in the meantime, I'm just going to be happy that someone finally realized chocolate-covered CHOCOLATE is way better than chocolate-covered air...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
I'm walking AND typing...
Eric and Debbie and Patrick and Matthew left yesterday afternoon (on a flight that was delayed a couple hours… they had rather bad luck with airline timeliness on this trip – the flight down here was also delayed. Ah, flying is such fun… :)). Actually, on the subject of fun flights – the day they flew out of Newark was a very windy day. I heard on the weather channel that they were getting gusts of 50 MPH. Not necessarily optimal weather if you happen to be on a plane. And Debbie was saying they were a bit worried because it was Matt’s first time on a plane – and you never know how kids might react, right? So after they’d been delayed several hours, their plane finally took off in the windy weather and began a very bumpy ascent into the heavens. Apparently the first twenty minutes or so was pretty turbulent – until that plane could leave the gusty winds behind, it was destined to be tossed about like a ping pong ball. Many of the travelers on board, I’m assuming, were tightly gripping their armrests (or the knee of the person next to them, which is what Rick always does on plane when there’s turbulence… it can get rather awkward if he happens to be sitting next to someone other than me…). But Matt – the kid who’d never been on a plane before – thought the whole thing was some kind of Six Flags ride. According to Debbie, he was laughing and having a great time and entertaining all the other passengers with his carefree attitude. That’s exactly what every turbulent flight needs – a little kid like Matt who can laugh through all the bumpy parts. :)
So Eric D. requested that I mention how they all went to Sea World on Monday and wore pedometers JUST so they could all brag about how they got more steps than me. (At least that’s what I think they were trying to do…) I think Eric said he ended up with about 12,000 steps… and true, that WAS a higher number of steps than I had on Monday. I only ended up with about 11,000 that day. BUT, that was actually a rather light day for me, as I only walked about 20 minutes on the treadmill in the morning and then never got in a “real” workout in the afternoon. (And did I mention how when we were moving I was averaging about 18,000 steps a day??) Anyway… so yeah, congratulations to all the Sea World people who BARELY managed to accumulate more steps than me for one whole day. (Heehee… just kidding, you guys… I’m sure Shamu was very proud… :))
So now it’s quiet and uneventful around here again, which means I should probably be tackling all of my home organization projects. I think I’ve done a pretty decent job so far, although the closet is still a mess (I’ve made the closet my last priority, since no one really sees it when they come into the house). One thing I really want to do is buy a bunch of frames for some photographs I have that Aimee took. I think it was some sort of college assignment from when she lived in Florida. She attached a note to the back of each picture to describe the photographs… and what I want to do is frame the pictures, and then frame the notes, as well. And then I’ll hang the pictures and the notes together. (If that makes any sense… it’ll be cool once I’m finished… :))
Anyway, I’m off to add some steps to my pedometer… I will not be out-stepped again…
So Eric D. requested that I mention how they all went to Sea World on Monday and wore pedometers JUST so they could all brag about how they got more steps than me. (At least that’s what I think they were trying to do…) I think Eric said he ended up with about 12,000 steps… and true, that WAS a higher number of steps than I had on Monday. I only ended up with about 11,000 that day. BUT, that was actually a rather light day for me, as I only walked about 20 minutes on the treadmill in the morning and then never got in a “real” workout in the afternoon. (And did I mention how when we were moving I was averaging about 18,000 steps a day??) Anyway… so yeah, congratulations to all the Sea World people who BARELY managed to accumulate more steps than me for one whole day. (Heehee… just kidding, you guys… I’m sure Shamu was very proud… :))
So now it’s quiet and uneventful around here again, which means I should probably be tackling all of my home organization projects. I think I’ve done a pretty decent job so far, although the closet is still a mess (I’ve made the closet my last priority, since no one really sees it when they come into the house). One thing I really want to do is buy a bunch of frames for some photographs I have that Aimee took. I think it was some sort of college assignment from when she lived in Florida. She attached a note to the back of each picture to describe the photographs… and what I want to do is frame the pictures, and then frame the notes, as well. And then I’ll hang the pictures and the notes together. (If that makes any sense… it’ll be cool once I’m finished… :))
Anyway, I’m off to add some steps to my pedometer… I will not be out-stepped again…
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Well, THIS doesn't bode well...
The first game of the baseball season started this morning at 5 a.m. A strange time for a baseball game, certainly… but the Red Sox and the A’s were in Japan – and in Japan, when it’s 5 a.m. Tuesday morning HERE, it’s like 8 o’clock next Friday evening over THERE. (Okay, that’s not true… they’re 14 hours ahead of us. So 5 a.m. here would be 7 p.m. in Japan… :)) I had a dream at some point during the night that the Red Sox won the game with a score of 6-0. And when I finally got around to turning on the TV this morning (at about 8:45 a.m. Texas time/10:45 p.m. Japan time), I noticed the score was 6-4 Red Sox. Hey! I thought, I was right about the six runs! I was feeling quite impressed with my amateur psychic abilities. And then I realized the game was in the tenth inning… which meant that at SOME point, the game had been tied, and the Red Sox managed to break the tie and go ahead. And THEN I realized that for this inaugural game of the glorious baseball season, I’d been sure to play every Boston and Oakland player on my fantasy baseball team. Three altogether… INCLUDING the Oakland closer. The Oakland closer who allowed the Red Sox to go ahead in the tenth inning, and earned himself a nice little loss because of it.
OH C’MON! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??
Sigh… first game of the season, and my closer ALREADY screws up. A blown save loss means I’ll have like negative fifty billion points tomorrow, and it’s only the FIRST DAY. When all of our fantasy baseball points have been accumulated and our teams are ranked accordingly, I’ll be looking up from the very bottom. Even the guys who had NO players today will start tomorrow with zero points… and even ZERO is better than whatever I’ll end up with. I’m sitting on the floor of a very dark barrel, where I can lift my head and just barely manage to see the light at the top…
(Go toward the light, Lisa! GO TOWARD THE LIGHT!)
Wait a minute… I may have negative fifty billion points right now, but I have to remember – this was the FIRST DAY of the baseball season. And this first day only consisted of ONE game. One day, one game… in the grand scheme of baseball seasons, that is merely a drop in the bottom of the bucket where I now reside. This is not the end… it’s only the beginning…
Isn't baseball great? :)
OH C’MON! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??
Sigh… first game of the season, and my closer ALREADY screws up. A blown save loss means I’ll have like negative fifty billion points tomorrow, and it’s only the FIRST DAY. When all of our fantasy baseball points have been accumulated and our teams are ranked accordingly, I’ll be looking up from the very bottom. Even the guys who had NO players today will start tomorrow with zero points… and even ZERO is better than whatever I’ll end up with. I’m sitting on the floor of a very dark barrel, where I can lift my head and just barely manage to see the light at the top…
(Go toward the light, Lisa! GO TOWARD THE LIGHT!)
Wait a minute… I may have negative fifty billion points right now, but I have to remember – this was the FIRST DAY of the baseball season. And this first day only consisted of ONE game. One day, one game… in the grand scheme of baseball seasons, that is merely a drop in the bottom of the bucket where I now reside. This is not the end… it’s only the beginning…
Isn't baseball great? :)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Just a few more days...
There is a baseball in our house that we leave on the floor for the cats – we’ve discovered that they both enjoy batting it around and chasing it from room to room as it rolls across the floor. So I’ve decided, from observing this behavior, that my cats are baseball fans. Therefore, it came as no surprise that for the first half hour of the draft last night, Allegro perched herself on the second-story ledge overlooking the living room, gazed down at everyone in curiosity, and continually meowed quite loudly as we made our picks. (Was she approving our choices? Warning us against bad decisions? Wondering aloud whether or not she would actually land on her feet if she leapt from the second floor onto the couch below?) Fortunately, she eventually returned to the safety of her couch cushion and spent the rest of the draft napping… (I can’t say the same for skittish Piva, who was hiding under the bed for most of the evening. About 45 minutes before we finished, she finally decided she needed either food or a litter box, so she scampered across the floor as quickly as she could and took cover in the laundry room for the rest of the night…)
The draft began pretty much as I expected – with lots of pizza, Tim displaying last year’s first place champion baseball, and plenty of testosterone. Also as expected, my first pick was C.C. Sabathia, which I’m quite happy with. I love me some C.C. :) By the seventh round, I realized that no one had taken Jeter yet – and since I needed a shortstop, how could I pass him up? Towards the end of the draft, I realized my roster was stocked with Yankees – Jeter, Matsui, Cano and Cabrera. And I hadn’t even MEANT to choose that many. I wasn’t attempting to draft the entire Yankee lineup for my team – but they kept popping up at opportune times. When the best player available happens to be a Yankee, well, that’s just serendipity…
By the end of the draft, when all the “good” players had been chosen, people were making obscure picks and Rick and I were frantically trying to keep up with the unfamiliar names – we were entering players into a spreadsheet, to keep track of which ones had been chosen and who had made the choice. It was about this time that Eric and Debbie (in town from New Jersey this week) popped in to observe the mayhem. I imagine they found the obvious seriousness of the proceedings in my kitchen to be rather amusing – ten people in deep concentration on laptop computers, Rick frenetically searching for random baseball players and shouting “slow down for a second!” every time someone called out another pick, Echo struggling up from her napping position on the floor to bark, “get me away from all these crazy people” (at least I THINK that’s what she was saying…). And even though this is the third year I’ve done this, I’m STILL not used to how LONG it takes to get through twenty-five rounds of draft picks…
All in all, I’m pretty happy with my team, and I’m really looking forward to the start of baseball season – it’s like the harbinger of a nice, warm spring after a long, cold Texas winter. Oh wait… we don’t get long, cold winters… nevermind… Well, whatever… I’m still looking forward to it… :)
The draft began pretty much as I expected – with lots of pizza, Tim displaying last year’s first place champion baseball, and plenty of testosterone. Also as expected, my first pick was C.C. Sabathia, which I’m quite happy with. I love me some C.C. :) By the seventh round, I realized that no one had taken Jeter yet – and since I needed a shortstop, how could I pass him up? Towards the end of the draft, I realized my roster was stocked with Yankees – Jeter, Matsui, Cano and Cabrera. And I hadn’t even MEANT to choose that many. I wasn’t attempting to draft the entire Yankee lineup for my team – but they kept popping up at opportune times. When the best player available happens to be a Yankee, well, that’s just serendipity…
By the end of the draft, when all the “good” players had been chosen, people were making obscure picks and Rick and I were frantically trying to keep up with the unfamiliar names – we were entering players into a spreadsheet, to keep track of which ones had been chosen and who had made the choice. It was about this time that Eric and Debbie (in town from New Jersey this week) popped in to observe the mayhem. I imagine they found the obvious seriousness of the proceedings in my kitchen to be rather amusing – ten people in deep concentration on laptop computers, Rick frenetically searching for random baseball players and shouting “slow down for a second!” every time someone called out another pick, Echo struggling up from her napping position on the floor to bark, “get me away from all these crazy people” (at least I THINK that’s what she was saying…). And even though this is the third year I’ve done this, I’m STILL not used to how LONG it takes to get through twenty-five rounds of draft picks…
All in all, I’m pretty happy with my team, and I’m really looking forward to the start of baseball season – it’s like the harbinger of a nice, warm spring after a long, cold Texas winter. Oh wait… we don’t get long, cold winters… nevermind… Well, whatever… I’m still looking forward to it… :)
Friday, March 21, 2008
24 hours...
...until the fantasy baseball draft!
Argh!! (Panic is indicated by switch to bold font and Yankee blue color...)
I can't remember what a baseball is! What's a baseball?? WHAT'S A BASEBALL??? (Am I overreacting? Perhaps just a bit...)
I shall update about my hopes for my fantasy team (and this year's baseball season) soon... in the meantime, have a great weekend, everyone! :)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Life is hard...
It must be really difficult to be a cat... case in point:
Allegro this morning, after she found a nice patch of sun on the couch (apparently she'd been reading a magazine and watching some TV before her nap...)
Later, when the patch of sun moved to the floor, Allegro also moved (and then kept on napping even after the sun kept traveling to the left...)
Aaaaawwwww... c'mon -- how CUTE is that face??
Once Allegro had moved to the floor, Piva decided to steal her napping spot on the couch...
She even baaaaaarely opened her eyes to acknowledge my camera...
Allegro this morning, after she found a nice patch of sun on the couch (apparently she'd been reading a magazine and watching some TV before her nap...)
Later, when the patch of sun moved to the floor, Allegro also moved (and then kept on napping even after the sun kept traveling to the left...)
Aaaaawwwww... c'mon -- how CUTE is that face??
Once Allegro had moved to the floor, Piva decided to steal her napping spot on the couch...
She even baaaaaarely opened her eyes to acknowledge my camera...Gosh, I'm glad MY life isn't this complicated. :)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
My religion can beat up your religion...
So I was reading some message boards earlier today, and one of the people posting went on a rant about one of her co-workers. Apparently, this guy was complaining about how Good Friday is not an “official” holiday in this country, and he felt that it should be. He then went on to lament the fact that many Muslims in this country have expressed a desire for their OWN holidays to be recognized, and he then said that recognizing Muslim holidays would be “un-American.” (Well, that’s interesting, seeing as America HAS no official religion… you know, according to that trivial little document called the Constitution…) Since this country has no official religion, it really DOESN’T make sense to whine about the possibility of some other religion acquiring a legal holiday, and then gripe about one of your OWN religious holidays.
At this point, I was agreeing with the poster, and understanding why she might find her co-worker just a bit narrow-minded and stubborn. However, immediately after complaining about this man, the poster decided to throw in a little Christian-bashing for good measure. Something about how “Bible-thumpers” don’t even understand that the Easter and Christmas holidays are celebrated on days that coincide with pagan holidays, and we all go around trying to push our views on everyone else. Gasp! You mean Jesus wasn’t LITERALLY born on December 25? Well, I shall cease to celebrate the Christmas holiday forthwith! (I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of the argument de jour from Christian-bashers – the idea that Christians are apparently so stupid we don’t even understand our holidays were originally designated to occur at the same time as pagan holidays… I guess for some reason, this fact is supposed to shock us all into atheism or make us abandon our long-standing respect for our religious holidays…)
I see this sort of thing far too often – someone will espouse their claimed belief that “all religions should be respected… no one religion has a right to be more important than another”… and then in the next breath, will make disparaging remarks about Christianity. So what’s it gonna be? Respect ALL religions or not? There are certainly so-called “Christians” out there who give the rest of us a bad name – the despicable Westboro “Baptist Church” comes to mind. (These are the people who show an unbelievable disregard for Christian values by picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and claiming that “God hates homosexuals.” Uh, sorry, but my Bible says that God LOVES EVERYONE… weird… they must be reading a misprinted copy…) But I would think that most people would understand that TRUE Christianity is NOT the “Bible-thumping,” gay-hating, pedophile priest-infested, intolerant-of-every-other-religion religion it’s often made out to be. And just as I’ve always believed I should learn about OTHER people’s religions so I can truly understand my own, I expect the same consideration from people before they spout off a bunch of anti-Christian nonsense.
Of course, I think we’re ALL guilty of making generalizations now and then, and (perhaps inadvertently) pushing our beliefs on others. Whether it’s religion, politics, social issues, environmental issues, etc. – sometimes, when we honestly believe that “our way” is the best way, we take it upon ourselves to enlighten others. How often do we see this sort of thing in those “chain” emails people are constantly forwarding? (Don’t vote for Obama, he’s a liar! Don’t vote for McCain, he’s a liar, too! Don’t drive SUVs, they’re bad for the environment! Drink soy milk! Go vegan! Eat more red meat! Turn all your lights on next Tuesday in support of our troops! Turn all your lights off next Wednesday to conserve energy! Global warming is a myth! Global warming will kill us all! Obama and McCain conspired together to create global warming!!) Isn’t it all just belief and opinion wrapped around an honest wish for a happier, healthier, more productive planet? Sure, sometimes it’s misguided and based on nothing but hearsay, but the desire is the same – everyone wants to fix the many, many parts of our existence that happen to be broken…
This is one of the reasons I hate politics so much – I honestly believe that BOTH sides of most political arguments want the exact same END. It’s the MEANS to achieve that end that they differ on. But it IS thanks to our (oftentimes screwed up) political system that we are even ABLE to share our beliefs and opinions on internet message boards and blogs and through crazy chain emails and wherever else we want to share them. And hopefully, that’s something that EVERYONE can agree to be thankful for…
It's my belief that the Yankees are awesome... and if you think otherwise, well, you're obviously just ignorant...
At this point, I was agreeing with the poster, and understanding why she might find her co-worker just a bit narrow-minded and stubborn. However, immediately after complaining about this man, the poster decided to throw in a little Christian-bashing for good measure. Something about how “Bible-thumpers” don’t even understand that the Easter and Christmas holidays are celebrated on days that coincide with pagan holidays, and we all go around trying to push our views on everyone else. Gasp! You mean Jesus wasn’t LITERALLY born on December 25? Well, I shall cease to celebrate the Christmas holiday forthwith! (I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of the argument de jour from Christian-bashers – the idea that Christians are apparently so stupid we don’t even understand our holidays were originally designated to occur at the same time as pagan holidays… I guess for some reason, this fact is supposed to shock us all into atheism or make us abandon our long-standing respect for our religious holidays…)
I see this sort of thing far too often – someone will espouse their claimed belief that “all religions should be respected… no one religion has a right to be more important than another”… and then in the next breath, will make disparaging remarks about Christianity. So what’s it gonna be? Respect ALL religions or not? There are certainly so-called “Christians” out there who give the rest of us a bad name – the despicable Westboro “Baptist Church” comes to mind. (These are the people who show an unbelievable disregard for Christian values by picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and claiming that “God hates homosexuals.” Uh, sorry, but my Bible says that God LOVES EVERYONE… weird… they must be reading a misprinted copy…) But I would think that most people would understand that TRUE Christianity is NOT the “Bible-thumping,” gay-hating, pedophile priest-infested, intolerant-of-every-other-religion religion it’s often made out to be. And just as I’ve always believed I should learn about OTHER people’s religions so I can truly understand my own, I expect the same consideration from people before they spout off a bunch of anti-Christian nonsense.
Of course, I think we’re ALL guilty of making generalizations now and then, and (perhaps inadvertently) pushing our beliefs on others. Whether it’s religion, politics, social issues, environmental issues, etc. – sometimes, when we honestly believe that “our way” is the best way, we take it upon ourselves to enlighten others. How often do we see this sort of thing in those “chain” emails people are constantly forwarding? (Don’t vote for Obama, he’s a liar! Don’t vote for McCain, he’s a liar, too! Don’t drive SUVs, they’re bad for the environment! Drink soy milk! Go vegan! Eat more red meat! Turn all your lights on next Tuesday in support of our troops! Turn all your lights off next Wednesday to conserve energy! Global warming is a myth! Global warming will kill us all! Obama and McCain conspired together to create global warming!!) Isn’t it all just belief and opinion wrapped around an honest wish for a happier, healthier, more productive planet? Sure, sometimes it’s misguided and based on nothing but hearsay, but the desire is the same – everyone wants to fix the many, many parts of our existence that happen to be broken…
This is one of the reasons I hate politics so much – I honestly believe that BOTH sides of most political arguments want the exact same END. It’s the MEANS to achieve that end that they differ on. But it IS thanks to our (oftentimes screwed up) political system that we are even ABLE to share our beliefs and opinions on internet message boards and blogs and through crazy chain emails and wherever else we want to share them. And hopefully, that’s something that EVERYONE can agree to be thankful for…
It's my belief that the Yankees are awesome... and if you think otherwise, well, you're obviously just ignorant...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
It's that time again...
So I was thumbing through a fantasy baseball magazine Rick bought a few days ago, and on the last page was an article written by the resigned-sounding wife of a fantasy-baseball-playing husband. She wrote about how her husband had been playing fantasy baseball for years, and she finally realized that the best thing she could do for her husband when his fantasy draft rolled around was to completely vacate the premises and flee to Florida. Presumably so she could be “out of his hair” and allow him to participate in his manly endeavors without the interruptions of her feminine presence.
Uh, yeah right. Forget THAT. Bring on the fantasy baseball!
The draft has actually managed to sneak up on me this year. I’ve been so busy with the new house and the old house and packing and unpacking and cleaning and organizing… I’ve barely had time to think about baseball. I can hardly believe there are only nine days left until opening day, and, therefore, less than a week until the draft. So I have less than a week to figure out who I should be drafting and what sort of strategy I should use (if I use ANY kind of “strategy”… perhaps “winging it” IS my strategy…). And then I get to look forward to another glorious season of baseball – when I will, no doubt, obsess over my pitching points (or lack thereof) and methodically scroll past game scores every night to see who won which game and how many of my players had anything to do with every run scored. Gosh, I love baseball…
And what I find interesting (or perhaps weird, or disturbing, or upsetting) about those fantasy baseball magazines that Rick purchases is how FEW women seem to contribute to any of them. An entire magazine, and the only female input to the entire thing was a single column about GETTING AWAY from the fantasy baseball experience. I’ve actually quite enjoyed throwing myself right into it… I would think there might be more girls out there who felt the same way. Then again, maybe I really AM the only one. And if that’s the case, then I really ought to be writing some articles for these fantasy baseball magazines…
But in the meantime, I will, once again, throw myself right into the melee and see what happens…
Uh, yeah right. Forget THAT. Bring on the fantasy baseball!
The draft has actually managed to sneak up on me this year. I’ve been so busy with the new house and the old house and packing and unpacking and cleaning and organizing… I’ve barely had time to think about baseball. I can hardly believe there are only nine days left until opening day, and, therefore, less than a week until the draft. So I have less than a week to figure out who I should be drafting and what sort of strategy I should use (if I use ANY kind of “strategy”… perhaps “winging it” IS my strategy…). And then I get to look forward to another glorious season of baseball – when I will, no doubt, obsess over my pitching points (or lack thereof) and methodically scroll past game scores every night to see who won which game and how many of my players had anything to do with every run scored. Gosh, I love baseball…
And what I find interesting (or perhaps weird, or disturbing, or upsetting) about those fantasy baseball magazines that Rick purchases is how FEW women seem to contribute to any of them. An entire magazine, and the only female input to the entire thing was a single column about GETTING AWAY from the fantasy baseball experience. I’ve actually quite enjoyed throwing myself right into it… I would think there might be more girls out there who felt the same way. Then again, maybe I really AM the only one. And if that’s the case, then I really ought to be writing some articles for these fantasy baseball magazines…
But in the meantime, I will, once again, throw myself right into the melee and see what happens…
Thursday, March 13, 2008
A few house pics...
Well, we are officially moved out of our old house – all my furniture has arrived and is in place. I’m especially glad the kitchen table is here, because I was continually worried about banging my head on the low-hanging breakfast area lighting fixture. (In fact, Rick’s dad did just that the other night when he and Rick’s mom were here to see the new house.) I hate it when there’s a hazardous lighting fixture in a house – like one that obviously needs a large piece of furniture underneath it to prevent head injuries.
I spent much of the day yesterday cleaning the old, empty house. It’s rather scary to see the random debris left behind once a refrigerator or washer or dryer is moved. I mean, there were actual dust BUNNIES under my fridge. They had eyes and ears and I’m pretty sure I saw one of them try to hop away when I approached it with a plethora of paper towels. I also ended up sneezing all day long – I guess I was releasing allergens with reckless abandon every time I swept the floor with my Swiffer. Today I’m not sneezing as much, but my legs feel as if I recently finished a strenuous workout… all that crouching on the floor and standing back up did a number on my quads (and to think that I thought all my muscle soreness would subside as soon as I stopped carrying heavy boxes up the stairs…).
So now comes the tedious task of organizing the new house. When I look around at all the boxes sitting in the foyer and the piles of clothes stacked in the closet, it seems like a job that might take a very long time. The kitchen, thankfully, is completely unpacked. I even found a box of unopened glasses in one of my old cupboards – apparently it was a box that made the move from New Jersey back to Texas, and for some reason I just tucked it away in a cabinet and never emptied it. (And no, my old cutting board was NOT in there… I swear I shall not rest until the cutting board has been found…) So now I have about six new (well, actually old) drinking glasses to use.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from the parts of the house that look relatively okay:
The kitchen (well, the clean part... the counter by the sink is still covered with random boxes and stray items that have yet to find a permanent home).
I spent much of the day yesterday cleaning the old, empty house. It’s rather scary to see the random debris left behind once a refrigerator or washer or dryer is moved. I mean, there were actual dust BUNNIES under my fridge. They had eyes and ears and I’m pretty sure I saw one of them try to hop away when I approached it with a plethora of paper towels. I also ended up sneezing all day long – I guess I was releasing allergens with reckless abandon every time I swept the floor with my Swiffer. Today I’m not sneezing as much, but my legs feel as if I recently finished a strenuous workout… all that crouching on the floor and standing back up did a number on my quads (and to think that I thought all my muscle soreness would subside as soon as I stopped carrying heavy boxes up the stairs…).
So now comes the tedious task of organizing the new house. When I look around at all the boxes sitting in the foyer and the piles of clothes stacked in the closet, it seems like a job that might take a very long time. The kitchen, thankfully, is completely unpacked. I even found a box of unopened glasses in one of my old cupboards – apparently it was a box that made the move from New Jersey back to Texas, and for some reason I just tucked it away in a cabinet and never emptied it. (And no, my old cutting board was NOT in there… I swear I shall not rest until the cutting board has been found…) So now I have about six new (well, actually old) drinking glasses to use.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from the parts of the house that look relatively okay:
The kitchen (well, the clean part... the counter by the sink is still covered with random boxes and stray items that have yet to find a permanent home).
Breakfast area (with cool and previously dangerous lighting fixture...)
Sunroom (which was SUPPOSED to have a seat by the bay window, but they neglected to put it in when they built the house... we might have it added later...)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Don't drink the water...
So the other day my mom emailed me a video from some sort of “hidden camera” news show. They were visiting various hotels and placing their cameras in the bathrooms, to see how the housekeeping staff handled the dirty glasses. And of course it wouldn’t be good TV to show the housekeepers placing freshly-washed and sanitized glasses on the counter – so I knew nothing good could be on those hidden recordings. And sure enough, the video footage showed housekeepers taking dirty glasses, rinsing them with water, and wiping them off with towels (the same towels they were supposed to be replacing)… or worse, some housekeepers would place the glasses in the sink, spray them with blue glass cleaner (some sort of generic Windex, I suppose – clearly labeled “do not drink” on the bottle), and then wipe them with towels… and even worse than THAT, one of the housekeepers haphazardly “cleaned” the drinking glasses immediately after she’d been cleaning the toilet – she didn’t even remove her rubber gloves.
And all I could think as I was watching this video was, “why, oh why did my mom have to send me this? Oh vile hotel housekeeping – how many ways will you find to encourage my germ phobia? Will you not be happy until I have crossed the fine line between ‘good sense’ and ‘obsessive-compulsive’?” Apparently it’s not enough to know that they never wash those hotel bedspreads – now I have to live with the knowledge that my shiny, crystal-clear hotel glass may be harboring E coli and cold viruses and possibly an ammonia-based industrial cleaner.
This is horrible news for a hotel junkie such as myself. I am already in the practice of immediately removing the bedspread as soon as I get to a hotel room. It makes me cringe to see anyone lazily flop onto a fully-made-up hotel bed, because all I can think about is all the OTHER people who were lazily flopping on the bed previously. And lately, I’ve also embraced the habit of wiping down the TV remote with hand sanitizer when I get to the room. And sometimes the light switches and door handles. I mean, forget that mysterious blue glass cleaner – housekeeping doesn’t even ATTEMPT to clean the TV remote. And what do most people do as soon as they get to a hotel room? First, they lazily flop onto the unwashed bedspread… and then they pick up the remote and turn on the TV. And then they sneeze… and change the channel… and wipe their nose… and turn up the volume… you see where this is headed, right? Must… clean… remote…
I just hope that no matter how many “hidden camera” hotel room reports the news shows broadcast, I’ll never be deterred from getting out and seeing the world. Okay, so I have to toss the bedspread on the floor when I get to the room… and clean the TV remote… and possibly bring my own disposable paper cups… But those are just small inconveniences to put up with for the very great privileges of traveling and discovering new places and experiencing new things. And hopefully those “new things” will not include a remote control-borne illness…
And then I think about all the times I’ve traveled, and all the hotels I’ve stayed in, and the innumerable sips of water I’ve taken from (possibly) shoddily-cleaned glasses, and I realize – I can’t remember EVER ending up sick after a stay in a hotel. Even the ones with hundred year-old bowl-shaped mattresses… or the practically-bare rustic cabin we slept in at Yellowstone Park… or the Travelodge in Waxahatchie with the roach under the sink and the phone ripped out of the wall… I’ve always emerged unscathed, even if I’ve accidentally touched the bedspread or forgotten to clean the remote. So really, are those “hidden camera” exposes all that “informative”? Or are they just deliberately searching for the worst of the worst, to spread fear and paranoia amongst the general public?
For the sake of my borderline-OCD hotel rituals, I’d like to assume it’s the latter…
And all I could think as I was watching this video was, “why, oh why did my mom have to send me this? Oh vile hotel housekeeping – how many ways will you find to encourage my germ phobia? Will you not be happy until I have crossed the fine line between ‘good sense’ and ‘obsessive-compulsive’?” Apparently it’s not enough to know that they never wash those hotel bedspreads – now I have to live with the knowledge that my shiny, crystal-clear hotel glass may be harboring E coli and cold viruses and possibly an ammonia-based industrial cleaner.
This is horrible news for a hotel junkie such as myself. I am already in the practice of immediately removing the bedspread as soon as I get to a hotel room. It makes me cringe to see anyone lazily flop onto a fully-made-up hotel bed, because all I can think about is all the OTHER people who were lazily flopping on the bed previously. And lately, I’ve also embraced the habit of wiping down the TV remote with hand sanitizer when I get to the room. And sometimes the light switches and door handles. I mean, forget that mysterious blue glass cleaner – housekeeping doesn’t even ATTEMPT to clean the TV remote. And what do most people do as soon as they get to a hotel room? First, they lazily flop onto the unwashed bedspread… and then they pick up the remote and turn on the TV. And then they sneeze… and change the channel… and wipe their nose… and turn up the volume… you see where this is headed, right? Must… clean… remote…
I just hope that no matter how many “hidden camera” hotel room reports the news shows broadcast, I’ll never be deterred from getting out and seeing the world. Okay, so I have to toss the bedspread on the floor when I get to the room… and clean the TV remote… and possibly bring my own disposable paper cups… But those are just small inconveniences to put up with for the very great privileges of traveling and discovering new places and experiencing new things. And hopefully those “new things” will not include a remote control-borne illness…
And then I think about all the times I’ve traveled, and all the hotels I’ve stayed in, and the innumerable sips of water I’ve taken from (possibly) shoddily-cleaned glasses, and I realize – I can’t remember EVER ending up sick after a stay in a hotel. Even the ones with hundred year-old bowl-shaped mattresses… or the practically-bare rustic cabin we slept in at Yellowstone Park… or the Travelodge in Waxahatchie with the roach under the sink and the phone ripped out of the wall… I’ve always emerged unscathed, even if I’ve accidentally touched the bedspread or forgotten to clean the remote. So really, are those “hidden camera” exposes all that “informative”? Or are they just deliberately searching for the worst of the worst, to spread fear and paranoia amongst the general public?
For the sake of my borderline-OCD hotel rituals, I’d like to assume it’s the latter…
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Where does the time go?
Did everyone remember to spring forward or fall forward or march onward or whatever it is that helps everyone remember to set their clocks ahead? (If not, it’s now an hour later than you think it is… go change your clocks…) Where does our lost hour go, anyway? I guess it waits until we set the clocks back an hour in the fall, and then it shows up again…
Well, tomorrow (or today, depending on when anyone is reading this) is dad’s birthday – happy birthday, dad!! Let’s see… I’m only twenty-something, so that would make dad fifty-something, right? Yep, I think that’s right. :) Hey, dad consistently surpasses the “ten thousand steps a day” recommendation, and can pretty much walk circles around people half his age, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume he’s younger than he is (which would, therefore, make ME younger than I am… it works out great for everyone). We had a birthday dinner tonight at mom and dad’s house, where I presented dad with his very own copy of “Galaxy Quest” (one of our favorite movies – Eric and I both own copies, but dad didn’t have one… it’s the kind of movie that can be viewed over and over again and still be hilarious. Greatly underrated, in my opinion. :)). We also gave him the “Planet Earth” series on Blue Ray – I’ve heard so many people say that series looks AWESOME in high definition, so hopefully dad will think it’s cool…
So I think we sold our house – there were twelve families who showed up for the open house on Sunday (last time we had an open house, only ONE family looked at the house), and one of them put in an offer this week. It’s less than we were hoping for, but honestly, at this point, we’d rather just sell the house and not have to worry about it anymore. SO many houses in this neighborhood have been on the market for six, seven, eight, (etc.) months – so to sell it after only three months would be great. The movers are coming on Tuesday to move all of our big furniture (we bought a new bedroom set and some living room furniture for the new house, but all our other furniture is still over at the old house). So we’ll finally have a kitchen table and a washer and dryer and some bookcases – I have so many boxes of books that I’ve been unable to empty because there’s no place for them. Moving is such a slow, gradual process… (wouldn’t it be hilarious if Rick suddenly got a job offer in Chicago next week? I would laugh and laugh… okay, maybe not…) Anyway, if everything goes as planned, the people who are buying the house will close on Thursday, and then we’ll only own ONE house…
Well, since we’re springing or jumping or hurling ourselves forward tonight, I should get to bed so I can make up that mysteriously missing lost hour…
Well, tomorrow (or today, depending on when anyone is reading this) is dad’s birthday – happy birthday, dad!! Let’s see… I’m only twenty-something, so that would make dad fifty-something, right? Yep, I think that’s right. :) Hey, dad consistently surpasses the “ten thousand steps a day” recommendation, and can pretty much walk circles around people half his age, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume he’s younger than he is (which would, therefore, make ME younger than I am… it works out great for everyone). We had a birthday dinner tonight at mom and dad’s house, where I presented dad with his very own copy of “Galaxy Quest” (one of our favorite movies – Eric and I both own copies, but dad didn’t have one… it’s the kind of movie that can be viewed over and over again and still be hilarious. Greatly underrated, in my opinion. :)). We also gave him the “Planet Earth” series on Blue Ray – I’ve heard so many people say that series looks AWESOME in high definition, so hopefully dad will think it’s cool…
So I think we sold our house – there were twelve families who showed up for the open house on Sunday (last time we had an open house, only ONE family looked at the house), and one of them put in an offer this week. It’s less than we were hoping for, but honestly, at this point, we’d rather just sell the house and not have to worry about it anymore. SO many houses in this neighborhood have been on the market for six, seven, eight, (etc.) months – so to sell it after only three months would be great. The movers are coming on Tuesday to move all of our big furniture (we bought a new bedroom set and some living room furniture for the new house, but all our other furniture is still over at the old house). So we’ll finally have a kitchen table and a washer and dryer and some bookcases – I have so many boxes of books that I’ve been unable to empty because there’s no place for them. Moving is such a slow, gradual process… (wouldn’t it be hilarious if Rick suddenly got a job offer in Chicago next week? I would laugh and laugh… okay, maybe not…) Anyway, if everything goes as planned, the people who are buying the house will close on Thursday, and then we’ll only own ONE house…
Well, since we’re springing or jumping or hurling ourselves forward tonight, I should get to bed so I can make up that mysteriously missing lost hour…
Thursday, March 06, 2008
No one told me I'd need skates in the kitchen...
Yesterday was the first day we had both blinds AND working television throughout the house. And I have to shamefully admit – I rather missed having a TV in the living room. You’d think I could make do with my iPod and a few books… but nope. I really missed the mind-numbing entertainment that emanates from that seductive black box. The siren calls of American Idol and Lost sucked me right back into the churning water and smashed me against the jagged rocks. Ah… TV…
That’s not to say I am glued to the cursed thing 24/7 – now, for instance, I AM listening to my iPod (and writing a blog post to boot… I’m such a multi-tasker…). But tonight, after we’ve returned from dinner at Rick’s parents’ house, I will take great delight in curling up on my couch, retrieving my recorded Lost episode, and watching it on my now-functional television…
So we’re starting to feel a little more settled in the new house. Seriously, the blinds and television have helped. It’s weird to live in an eerily quiet house with an unwanted (and literal) window to the world outside (knowing that everyone has a window to YOUR world INSIDE). So now I just have to work on unpacking boxes and finding a place for all that “stuff” that seems to be scattered throughout the house at the moment. Oh, and everyone will be happy to hear that my cutting board survived the move safe and sound – my mom kept a close eye on it to make sure it wouldn’t wander off, like my previous cutting board. I still haven’t found that one… I was hoping it might turn up at some point during THIS move, just so I would know it DID, in fact, exist. Because sometimes I wonder… perhaps the cutting board was merely a figment of my overactive imagination. Perhaps I created a fantastical world of helpful kitchen appliances in my mind. (Is my can opener real? What about my coffee press?? Oh, I hope the coffee press is real…)
There’ve been a few little annoyances throughout the moving process. Last week, before we even started moving things into the house, we had some people come in to seal the tile in the kitchen and sunroom. It’s travertine, which is a natural stone and tends to be rather porous – so if you spill, say, grape juice on it, the stone will soak up some of that purple color and never let it go. So we wanted to make sure we sealed it before we started living here, and that way we wouldn’t have to worry about spilling anything on the tile. After the sealant was applied, Rick asked one of the floor-sealing crew how long we should stay off the tile. “About an hour or two,” was his response. Well, the next DAY – after a full 24-hours of staying off the tile – we carefully stepped onto our meticulously-sealed travertine and just about skidded from one side of the kitchen to the other. The tile was like ICE. And not only that, but any time anyone stepped from the tile onto the hardwood floor in the hallway, they would leave waxy footprints on the wood. At first, I was running around with my Swiffer, frantically scrubbing up the marks… but eventually I gave up and realized I’d just have to wait until the stupid sealant was TOTALLY dry. Otherwise I’d be Swiffering constantly…
We bought a new fridge for our kitchen, and I really like it. But I was worried when I first started using it, because it seemed like something wasn’t quite right with it. A fan somewhere inside it was making a rather loud rattling noise, and condensation kept building up on the ice dispenser. It also seemed like everything in the fridge was slightly damp – like condensation was building up on the shelves and on my bottled water and on the condiments in the refrigerator door. I was worried we’d have to put in a service call, and we’d only had the thing for two days. And then, as I was showing my mom and Rick how it seemed to be acting weird, Rick noticed there was a loaf a bread on a shelf in a plastic bag. And the plastic bag had settled over a little vent thingy (hey, I’m not a refrigerator expert… I don’t know the “technical” name…), and apparently it had been affecting the circulation of cool air throughout the fridge. As soon as we moved the plastic away from the vent thingy (whatever it’s called…) everything started working perfectly – the fan no longer rattles, the condensation on the ice dispenser is gone, the food in the fridge is properly chilled. How sad would it have been if Rick hadn’t noticed it and we called out some refrigerator repairman? He would’ve moved aside the piece of plastic, turned around, and handed us a bill for 95 dollars…
Well, the more I write, the more I avoid unpacking. So it’s probably time to stop writing and start getting organized… :)
That’s not to say I am glued to the cursed thing 24/7 – now, for instance, I AM listening to my iPod (and writing a blog post to boot… I’m such a multi-tasker…). But tonight, after we’ve returned from dinner at Rick’s parents’ house, I will take great delight in curling up on my couch, retrieving my recorded Lost episode, and watching it on my now-functional television…
So we’re starting to feel a little more settled in the new house. Seriously, the blinds and television have helped. It’s weird to live in an eerily quiet house with an unwanted (and literal) window to the world outside (knowing that everyone has a window to YOUR world INSIDE). So now I just have to work on unpacking boxes and finding a place for all that “stuff” that seems to be scattered throughout the house at the moment. Oh, and everyone will be happy to hear that my cutting board survived the move safe and sound – my mom kept a close eye on it to make sure it wouldn’t wander off, like my previous cutting board. I still haven’t found that one… I was hoping it might turn up at some point during THIS move, just so I would know it DID, in fact, exist. Because sometimes I wonder… perhaps the cutting board was merely a figment of my overactive imagination. Perhaps I created a fantastical world of helpful kitchen appliances in my mind. (Is my can opener real? What about my coffee press?? Oh, I hope the coffee press is real…)
There’ve been a few little annoyances throughout the moving process. Last week, before we even started moving things into the house, we had some people come in to seal the tile in the kitchen and sunroom. It’s travertine, which is a natural stone and tends to be rather porous – so if you spill, say, grape juice on it, the stone will soak up some of that purple color and never let it go. So we wanted to make sure we sealed it before we started living here, and that way we wouldn’t have to worry about spilling anything on the tile. After the sealant was applied, Rick asked one of the floor-sealing crew how long we should stay off the tile. “About an hour or two,” was his response. Well, the next DAY – after a full 24-hours of staying off the tile – we carefully stepped onto our meticulously-sealed travertine and just about skidded from one side of the kitchen to the other. The tile was like ICE. And not only that, but any time anyone stepped from the tile onto the hardwood floor in the hallway, they would leave waxy footprints on the wood. At first, I was running around with my Swiffer, frantically scrubbing up the marks… but eventually I gave up and realized I’d just have to wait until the stupid sealant was TOTALLY dry. Otherwise I’d be Swiffering constantly…
We bought a new fridge for our kitchen, and I really like it. But I was worried when I first started using it, because it seemed like something wasn’t quite right with it. A fan somewhere inside it was making a rather loud rattling noise, and condensation kept building up on the ice dispenser. It also seemed like everything in the fridge was slightly damp – like condensation was building up on the shelves and on my bottled water and on the condiments in the refrigerator door. I was worried we’d have to put in a service call, and we’d only had the thing for two days. And then, as I was showing my mom and Rick how it seemed to be acting weird, Rick noticed there was a loaf a bread on a shelf in a plastic bag. And the plastic bag had settled over a little vent thingy (hey, I’m not a refrigerator expert… I don’t know the “technical” name…), and apparently it had been affecting the circulation of cool air throughout the fridge. As soon as we moved the plastic away from the vent thingy (whatever it’s called…) everything started working perfectly – the fan no longer rattles, the condensation on the ice dispenser is gone, the food in the fridge is properly chilled. How sad would it have been if Rick hadn’t noticed it and we called out some refrigerator repairman? He would’ve moved aside the piece of plastic, turned around, and handed us a bill for 95 dollars…
Well, the more I write, the more I avoid unpacking. So it’s probably time to stop writing and start getting organized… :)
Monday, March 03, 2008
The Engineer Whisperer (and other moving tales...)
This last week has been quite exhausting (although on the plus side, I’ve managed to surpass the “recommended” 10,000 steps a day quite easily this week). Rick had the flu all last week, so most of the moving duties seemed to fall on me (except for Rick’s study, which is like a swirling vortex of chaos that I avoid at all costs – lest I be unwillingly drawn into some sort of unorganized black hole from which there is no escape…). I don’t even know how many trips I made last week between the old house and the new one… packing up items at the old house until the MDX was full of boxes, carting it all over to the new house, and unpacking as much as I could so I could return to the old house with more empty boxes. And since we now have the unfortunate privilege of owning TWO houses, we scheduled an open house for Sunday. This probably didn’t seem like a very big deal when we planned it, however, we didn’t count on Rick running a fever for six days straight or on me wearing myself out to the point of collapse every evening. Needless to say, we found ourselves in a marathon of packing, moving, and cleaning on Saturday, which, even with the help of my parents, threatened to stretch into an all-nighter. Good thing we had coffee. Lots and lots of coffee…
So now that I’ve rested a little bit, and my limbs no longer feel like they might fall off at any moment, I can actually sit down and write something for the blog, which has been sorely neglected all week. Perhaps when things in this house are looking a bit more “put together” I’ll take some pictures so you all can see the new house. But in the meantime, I present a list of Things I’ve Learned During the Move:
1) You can never have too many paper towels.
Somehow, I had the foresight to purchase a package of a dozen rolls of paper towels right before we began moving, and I made sure to stash a few at the old house as well as at the new house. Once we started cleaning for the open house, it became apparent that I’d need at least one more roll of towels. So when I brought one of the carloads of boxes to the new house, I placed a roll of paper towels right next to my car keys so I would have no chance to forget them. Unfortunately, I forgot them. (My mom brought some over a little while later, so a paper towel crisis was averted…)
2) I know why the bowled fish swims… or, er, something like that.
Our windows were measured for blinds last week, and hopefully they’ll be here tomorrow – I can’t wait, because it’s been like living on a stage all week. I feel like people are buying tickets to watch the show, and I’m the act they’ve all come to see. Happily, the blind lady (I mean the lady who sells the blinds… she’s not actually a BLIND lady…) left behind a few “temporary” blinds for the bedroom windows…
3) My dad can fix anything.
I know lots of kids think their dads can fix anything, but seriously – my dad really CAN. Whether it was replacing an unwieldy shower rod or devising a way to move some unwieldy futons, my dad managed to figure it out. If it’s unwieldy, it’s no match for my dad and his engineer mind. Rick has dubbed him “The Engineer Whisperer.”
4) You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but apparently old cats become new cats.
We moved all the pets over on Thursday, which I wasn’t looking forward to. Echo always gets stressed out by new situations, and Allegro has never appreciated a change of venue, either. And I had no idea how Piva would handle things. Echo behaved pretty much as I expected – nervously panting and drinking copious amounts of water the first 24 hours in the new house. And Piva spent several hours huddled near the sink in the laundry room (and IN the sink in the laundry room). But Allegro – the cat who used to run under the bed every time the doorbell rang or a stranger came into the house – simply meandered out to the living room, casually eyed our new couch and loveseat, and lazily planted herself on a cushion. It’s already become “her” couch location, and she seems quite comfortable. In her old age, Allegro has become a totally different cat…
5) You have WAY more stuff in your house than you realize.
This is something I figure out every time I move, and then I seem to forget about it until I move again. I just can’t believe all the books and knickknacks and random papers and small appliances in my house – a few of which are STILL back at the old house because I haven't had a chance to move them yet. Where does all that stuff COME from???
Well, I'm off to make dinner in the new kitchen... IF I can remember where I put all the pots and pans and dishes...
So now that I’ve rested a little bit, and my limbs no longer feel like they might fall off at any moment, I can actually sit down and write something for the blog, which has been sorely neglected all week. Perhaps when things in this house are looking a bit more “put together” I’ll take some pictures so you all can see the new house. But in the meantime, I present a list of Things I’ve Learned During the Move:
1) You can never have too many paper towels.
Somehow, I had the foresight to purchase a package of a dozen rolls of paper towels right before we began moving, and I made sure to stash a few at the old house as well as at the new house. Once we started cleaning for the open house, it became apparent that I’d need at least one more roll of towels. So when I brought one of the carloads of boxes to the new house, I placed a roll of paper towels right next to my car keys so I would have no chance to forget them. Unfortunately, I forgot them. (My mom brought some over a little while later, so a paper towel crisis was averted…)
2) I know why the bowled fish swims… or, er, something like that.
Our windows were measured for blinds last week, and hopefully they’ll be here tomorrow – I can’t wait, because it’s been like living on a stage all week. I feel like people are buying tickets to watch the show, and I’m the act they’ve all come to see. Happily, the blind lady (I mean the lady who sells the blinds… she’s not actually a BLIND lady…) left behind a few “temporary” blinds for the bedroom windows…
3) My dad can fix anything.
I know lots of kids think their dads can fix anything, but seriously – my dad really CAN. Whether it was replacing an unwieldy shower rod or devising a way to move some unwieldy futons, my dad managed to figure it out. If it’s unwieldy, it’s no match for my dad and his engineer mind. Rick has dubbed him “The Engineer Whisperer.”
4) You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but apparently old cats become new cats.
We moved all the pets over on Thursday, which I wasn’t looking forward to. Echo always gets stressed out by new situations, and Allegro has never appreciated a change of venue, either. And I had no idea how Piva would handle things. Echo behaved pretty much as I expected – nervously panting and drinking copious amounts of water the first 24 hours in the new house. And Piva spent several hours huddled near the sink in the laundry room (and IN the sink in the laundry room). But Allegro – the cat who used to run under the bed every time the doorbell rang or a stranger came into the house – simply meandered out to the living room, casually eyed our new couch and loveseat, and lazily planted herself on a cushion. It’s already become “her” couch location, and she seems quite comfortable. In her old age, Allegro has become a totally different cat…
5) You have WAY more stuff in your house than you realize.
This is something I figure out every time I move, and then I seem to forget about it until I move again. I just can’t believe all the books and knickknacks and random papers and small appliances in my house – a few of which are STILL back at the old house because I haven't had a chance to move them yet. Where does all that stuff COME from???
Well, I'm off to make dinner in the new kitchen... IF I can remember where I put all the pots and pans and dishes...
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