So it's occurred to me that I haven't posted in a while when I spoke to my Grandmother this morning, so I thought I'd write today. I guess nothing too interesting has happened since the move, so it's hard for me to find things to talk about. We did get another car...a 2010 Toyota Prius. So now we have two hybrids. I am happy about our purchases. We are taking one step more to helping save the planet, but no, we didn't buy American. It's all about give and take.
Today I turned down my first interview for a job. This was for an analytical position that didn't even require a Chemistry degree. Although they paid decent, I don't want to get stuck doing something I don't like just because it was the first opportunity that paid decent. So I told him to keep me in mind for future opportunities, but I was going to pass on this one. I have a feeling other opportunities will arise. I've already applied to about 5 jobs myself, and this guy found me on Careerbuilder.com. So if I'm patient, I'm sure a good job will come along that I would enjoy. I definitely need to start doing something because this just sitting around the house all day long is starting to get boring.
The mosquitoes haven't gotten any better. We went to Galveston this past weekend, and after 10 minutes of getting bitten by mosquitoes on the beach, I had to leave. And a few days ago while it was raining at the house, these guys were still out searching for blood...and they got me too! I've never heard of mosquitoes on the beach OR out while it's raining. These are probably mutant mosquitoes that have super-mosquito abilities since living around all these oil refineries and chemical plants. I'm just waiting for one cold front to come through and freeze all these buggers off. The problem is that the first cold front may not come for quite some time.
I'm currently fighting a little cold. I don't think I have H1N1. I don't have a fever (or at least not a high grade one). I have some chest congestion and body aches. And I'm tired. But I think today is a little better than yesterday, so I think that if I keep resting, I'll get back to 100% soon.
Tomorrow we have the garage door people coming for the second time in a week to fix our left side garage door...again. One of the wire bands that raise and lower the door keeps coming off of the spool. And since last time they "fixed" this by just putting the wire back on the spool and the problem happened again so quickly, I'm sure there's an underlying issue. Hopefully tomorrow they will send someone who can actually speak some English so I can communicate to the guy better than last time.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
So I guess I'm a Texan...
Since my last blog, we have made the two day drive to Baytown, lived in a hotel for 10 days, closed and moved into our new 3800 sq foot home, bought a bunch of new furniture, bought a new car, sold the Honda Civic since it's transmission was about to die, started putting away our stuff, got bitten about 30 times by the ferocious Texan mosquitoes, got my stitches out of my thumb, found out I can't feel anything on that spot that was cut, and eaten a lot of Tex-Mex.
We are liking our new home even though we have a ways to go before it is completely put together. Since our new furniture has been brought in, it's starting to feel whole, but we still have pictures to put up on walls and stuff to put away. The move in was pretty painless, but we had the movers dump out all of our stuff on the floors so they could take all the boxes and packing paper with them, so putting our things away is taking some time. The kitchen is the room I worked on first so that I could start cooking again. It's the only room that's really complete. The rest of the rooms will be finished in due time. I'm not one to rush anything...quite the opposite as I am the ultimate procrastinator.
Mike's 2005 Honda Civic VP started having transmission problems on the way down from VA, and when we brought it in to check it out, the estimate to fix it was going to be around $3000, so instead, we traded it in for a new 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. This car gets 34 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg in the city. And Mike has already said he's surpassed those numbers. Pretty good for a large sedan. We are still looking for another car to replace my old Pontiac, but so far have not purchased anything. We are going to be back in the hole again with our new home purchase, and two new cars. I hope I can get a job soon to help with all these unplanned costs. I know Mike really wants a couple flat screen LCD TVs, but right now would be difficult for us to purchase.
We now have satellite TV which gives us way too many channels. On the up side, I've gotten to view some movies I've been wanting to see for a few years now. HBO and Showtime are free for the first 3 months and Cinemax is 1 cent. The downside to all these channels is all the porn. It's pretty gross to be searching for something to watch and then you get to view some girl on girl action. Or on two occasions already, I've fallen asleep watching a movie only to wake up to more girl on girl action. No thank you. I don't think we will be renewing that service.
We are liking our new home even though we have a ways to go before it is completely put together. Since our new furniture has been brought in, it's starting to feel whole, but we still have pictures to put up on walls and stuff to put away. The move in was pretty painless, but we had the movers dump out all of our stuff on the floors so they could take all the boxes and packing paper with them, so putting our things away is taking some time. The kitchen is the room I worked on first so that I could start cooking again. It's the only room that's really complete. The rest of the rooms will be finished in due time. I'm not one to rush anything...quite the opposite as I am the ultimate procrastinator.
Mike's 2005 Honda Civic VP started having transmission problems on the way down from VA, and when we brought it in to check it out, the estimate to fix it was going to be around $3000, so instead, we traded it in for a new 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. This car gets 34 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg in the city. And Mike has already said he's surpassed those numbers. Pretty good for a large sedan. We are still looking for another car to replace my old Pontiac, but so far have not purchased anything. We are going to be back in the hole again with our new home purchase, and two new cars. I hope I can get a job soon to help with all these unplanned costs. I know Mike really wants a couple flat screen LCD TVs, but right now would be difficult for us to purchase.
We now have satellite TV which gives us way too many channels. On the up side, I've gotten to view some movies I've been wanting to see for a few years now. HBO and Showtime are free for the first 3 months and Cinemax is 1 cent. The downside to all these channels is all the porn. It's pretty gross to be searching for something to watch and then you get to view some girl on girl action. Or on two occasions already, I've fallen asleep watching a movie only to wake up to more girl on girl action. No thank you. I don't think we will be renewing that service.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Packed up and ready to move
We are down to the bare minimum at the house now and we leave for the first leg of our move to Texas in the morning. We are stopping in Birmingham, AL for the night which should be a little over half way to Baytown. If Google Maps is correct, we should be to Birmingham in about 11 hours. On Saturday, it should take us about 10 hours to get to Baytown. The cats are not going to be having fun the next couple days. We did get a tranquilizer from the vet, so we will try those out. This is not the Valium that they had last time so hopefully this one will work better and not have many side effects. Half a day is a long time to be screaming in a car!
On Monday, I was replacing a pane of glass in a french door at our house. This pane has been broken since moving in and we had planned to fix it, then tried to get a new door and when that plan didn't work out, we went back to trying to fix it. I removed all of the broken old glass, took off the trim work around that pane, cleaned up the inside of the wood and got it ready for the new pane of glass. I was being safe and wearing gloves this entire time. Well, once I was ready for the new pane, I had to put in this puddy to make the glass stick so I removed my gloves. After placing the puddy inside the wood, I put the pane inside and was trying to maneuver it into place when it shattered on my right hand. I immediately had the thought that if I didn't get cut by that then I was really lucky. About the same time I started bleeding from my thumb. When I looked down I realized that I had a large flap of skin that was slipping back and forth beneath my other hand trying to grip it to stop the bleeding. I managed to get to the back door and call for help from Mike. Luckily he was home when I was doing this. All the blood and what I had seen on my thumb was making me queasy, so I laid down outside while Mike got together everything to head to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 9pm. Four hours later around 1pm I was discharged and had 11 new stitches in my thumb. They had gauzed and splinted me up and I was unable to take off the dressing until this morning. It looks pretty gross, but it really doesn't hurt. The only time I feel pain or discomfort is when the stitches get pulled or my thumb gets bumped. I get to have the stitches removed 10 days from the accident. I'll need to find a new doctor quick once we get down to Baytown!!!
So, I'm going to close this blog now. We will have no internet starting in about 30 minutes, so I will blog again once I'm an official resident of Texas.
On Monday, I was replacing a pane of glass in a french door at our house. This pane has been broken since moving in and we had planned to fix it, then tried to get a new door and when that plan didn't work out, we went back to trying to fix it. I removed all of the broken old glass, took off the trim work around that pane, cleaned up the inside of the wood and got it ready for the new pane of glass. I was being safe and wearing gloves this entire time. Well, once I was ready for the new pane, I had to put in this puddy to make the glass stick so I removed my gloves. After placing the puddy inside the wood, I put the pane inside and was trying to maneuver it into place when it shattered on my right hand. I immediately had the thought that if I didn't get cut by that then I was really lucky. About the same time I started bleeding from my thumb. When I looked down I realized that I had a large flap of skin that was slipping back and forth beneath my other hand trying to grip it to stop the bleeding. I managed to get to the back door and call for help from Mike. Luckily he was home when I was doing this. All the blood and what I had seen on my thumb was making me queasy, so I laid down outside while Mike got together everything to head to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 9pm. Four hours later around 1pm I was discharged and had 11 new stitches in my thumb. They had gauzed and splinted me up and I was unable to take off the dressing until this morning. It looks pretty gross, but it really doesn't hurt. The only time I feel pain or discomfort is when the stitches get pulled or my thumb gets bumped. I get to have the stitches removed 10 days from the accident. I'll need to find a new doctor quick once we get down to Baytown!!!
So, I'm going to close this blog now. We will have no internet starting in about 30 minutes, so I will blog again once I'm an official resident of Texas.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Busy busy busy
Our trip to Costa Rica was a fun time. It was good to see Jamie and the family. Little Allison is very cute. She looks just like her daddy! Nathan is very smart. But he's still very small. He also thinks that the world is his toilet as he showed no qualms about pulling out his penis at any moment and peeing. Probably OK in Costa Rica. No so OK in the USA.
When we returned from Costa Rica, we had one day before leaving for Beaumont on our house hunting trip. We went that Sunday to visit the cats at the boarder's house. Well, upon arrival, the cats were being crated and looked so scared. They were not supposed to be in cages as the room I was told they would be in was a large one. No mention of ever crating them. They also had a bowl full of dry food (something I never mentioned in my feeding schedule) and a bunch of opened cans of wet food but no bowl to put the food in. After apparently insulting the lady who had been taking care of them, we immediately grabbed them up and took them home. Sabrina had acquired an eye infection so we had to bring her to the emergency clinic which is opened on Sundays. Whether the viral infection was present and never came up before, or she got it there, Sabrina's right eye had conjunctivitis. The vet told us that it was probably herpes viral eye infection so she sent us home with instructions to watch her. Since we were leaving the next day, I instructed the cat sitter who was coming by twice a day, that if she was not looking better by Wednesday, that she would have to be brought back to the vet per the emergency vet's instructions. Well, I was comforted middle of the week when I received a phone call that Sabrina's eye looked great. A couple days later I received another phone call with the same information. When we returned home the following Sunday, her eye looked worse than when we left and we had to bring her back to the emergency vet. I don't know if the cat sitter just didn't know what she was looking for, or if she just wasn't looking at all, but her eye was obviously NOT getting better. This time at the vet, they diagnosed her the same way, but sent her home with an antibiotic/antifungal/steroidal eye drop to fend off any secondary infection and help her red and swollen eye to go down. After day one, her eye began looking better. We are 3 days in, and although a little crusty still, I think we are on the right path. She will be on this for another 6 days. Hopefully at that time, once the medicine stops, her eye will be better.
Our trip to Beaumont was kind of a success. I hated Beaumont itself. We got there on Monday morning, drove around some and looked for things to do. We found nothing. There were hundred's of chain restaurants, and tons of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants that I can't eat at because their food is not vegetarian friendly, so I was not a happy girl. On Tuesday we met with our realtor and looked at homes. We did the same on Wednesday and had narrowed our 20-something home choices down to 4. The houses were very nice and relatively inexpensive compared to the market we are in now in DC. By Thursday morning, I was mad at Mike and he decided to search for other cities to possibly live. He found Baytown, TX. This city is about 50 minutes West of Beaumont and about 25 minutes East of Houston. We cancelled our appointment with our realtor that morning and went out to Baytown. The few houses Mike had found online looked very nice and were even cheaper than in Beaumont. Once we got to Baytown, and looked around a couple communities of new houses, we decided to drive into Houston and eat some dinner. The first restaurant we came to I could eat at. I felt so much relief!! The next day, Friday, we informed our Beaumont realtor that we probably wouldn't be using her and had our relocation company find us a Baytown realtor on the fly. We searched around Baytown by ourselves again, and thought we had found the house we would buy. It was 2200 sq ft, on a little lake, new construction without any upgrades, for $150K. We figured, at that price tag, we would be saving like crazy living there. Plus the lot overlooked the lake which was a nice feature. And the neighborhood is close to everything we would need in the city: grocery store, Subway, Quizno's, etc.
While we were waiting to hear back from our new realtor, we made a search around the area one more time. We went to this one neighborhood a couple interstates stops East which was a more upscale neighborhood, but not as close to the grocery stores and little restaurants. We looked through the 2 homes that they currently had built and were not sold, and we really liked the model home that was in the beginning stages of being put on the market. It was big. Too big. But the upgrades were what we wanted. The downstairs is hardwood, the kitchen has stainless steel appliances that stay, the colors on the walls were nice, the master bathroom has two sinks and a separate jetted tub, the utility room is downstairs near the master bedroom, the house has surround sound built in, underground sprinkler system outside, and the upstairs has 5 other nice sized bedrooms and 2 more baths! In all, 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath 3823 sq ft home. And, if I had a way to make a drum roll I would, for a price tag of $260K. I think we are planning to put in an underground pool in the backyard which, by the way, is already privacy fenced. And is big. I think we did pretty good.
Obviously that is the house we decided to go with. Saturday morning we drove back to the house after taking a night to think it over, met with our new realtor for the first time, and signed a contract. I think that was the easiest commission that lady ever made. But I think she will have her work cut out for her on the back end since we aren't in town to do our dirty work for ourselves.
After signing the contract, we went to this little area on a Bay about 30 minutes away. There were a couple rollercoaster rides, several restaurants and some little stores. All of this overlooked the water. Pretty cool little place. Then we drove down to Galveston. We think from Baytown, it will take about an hour to get to the ocean. What another nice feature of living in Baytown!!! I think we made the right choice, but we'll see once Mike starts having to make that commute everyday.
This week back in Springfield, we had 3 showings on the house yesterday, and already have one scheduled for today. While we were out of town, we had numerous showings, and even an offer, which we ultimately denied after a couple counters. Hopefully one of these people will want this place. There must be something turning this many people off. Or maybe there are just a ton of people in this city so it just appears that we have a lot of traffic, but in reality, when compared to the population in other cities, this amount of traffic is not a lot.
We move to Baytown next Friday morning. The movers will be coming on Wednesday and Thursday to pack us up and start moving us. After cleaning up the place one last time, we will probably leave on Friday morning. A straight shot says it will take us about 21 hours. Yikes! I don't think we've figured out exactly the plan as of yet, but it's looking like the cats will have to be in their carriers the whole trip. I was hoping to get an SUV to let them run around the back, but it may end up being too expensive.
When we returned from Costa Rica, we had one day before leaving for Beaumont on our house hunting trip. We went that Sunday to visit the cats at the boarder's house. Well, upon arrival, the cats were being crated and looked so scared. They were not supposed to be in cages as the room I was told they would be in was a large one. No mention of ever crating them. They also had a bowl full of dry food (something I never mentioned in my feeding schedule) and a bunch of opened cans of wet food but no bowl to put the food in. After apparently insulting the lady who had been taking care of them, we immediately grabbed them up and took them home. Sabrina had acquired an eye infection so we had to bring her to the emergency clinic which is opened on Sundays. Whether the viral infection was present and never came up before, or she got it there, Sabrina's right eye had conjunctivitis. The vet told us that it was probably herpes viral eye infection so she sent us home with instructions to watch her. Since we were leaving the next day, I instructed the cat sitter who was coming by twice a day, that if she was not looking better by Wednesday, that she would have to be brought back to the vet per the emergency vet's instructions. Well, I was comforted middle of the week when I received a phone call that Sabrina's eye looked great. A couple days later I received another phone call with the same information. When we returned home the following Sunday, her eye looked worse than when we left and we had to bring her back to the emergency vet. I don't know if the cat sitter just didn't know what she was looking for, or if she just wasn't looking at all, but her eye was obviously NOT getting better. This time at the vet, they diagnosed her the same way, but sent her home with an antibiotic/antifungal/steroidal eye drop to fend off any secondary infection and help her red and swollen eye to go down. After day one, her eye began looking better. We are 3 days in, and although a little crusty still, I think we are on the right path. She will be on this for another 6 days. Hopefully at that time, once the medicine stops, her eye will be better.
Our trip to Beaumont was kind of a success. I hated Beaumont itself. We got there on Monday morning, drove around some and looked for things to do. We found nothing. There were hundred's of chain restaurants, and tons of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants that I can't eat at because their food is not vegetarian friendly, so I was not a happy girl. On Tuesday we met with our realtor and looked at homes. We did the same on Wednesday and had narrowed our 20-something home choices down to 4. The houses were very nice and relatively inexpensive compared to the market we are in now in DC. By Thursday morning, I was mad at Mike and he decided to search for other cities to possibly live. He found Baytown, TX. This city is about 50 minutes West of Beaumont and about 25 minutes East of Houston. We cancelled our appointment with our realtor that morning and went out to Baytown. The few houses Mike had found online looked very nice and were even cheaper than in Beaumont. Once we got to Baytown, and looked around a couple communities of new houses, we decided to drive into Houston and eat some dinner. The first restaurant we came to I could eat at. I felt so much relief!! The next day, Friday, we informed our Beaumont realtor that we probably wouldn't be using her and had our relocation company find us a Baytown realtor on the fly. We searched around Baytown by ourselves again, and thought we had found the house we would buy. It was 2200 sq ft, on a little lake, new construction without any upgrades, for $150K. We figured, at that price tag, we would be saving like crazy living there. Plus the lot overlooked the lake which was a nice feature. And the neighborhood is close to everything we would need in the city: grocery store, Subway, Quizno's, etc.
While we were waiting to hear back from our new realtor, we made a search around the area one more time. We went to this one neighborhood a couple interstates stops East which was a more upscale neighborhood, but not as close to the grocery stores and little restaurants. We looked through the 2 homes that they currently had built and were not sold, and we really liked the model home that was in the beginning stages of being put on the market. It was big. Too big. But the upgrades were what we wanted. The downstairs is hardwood, the kitchen has stainless steel appliances that stay, the colors on the walls were nice, the master bathroom has two sinks and a separate jetted tub, the utility room is downstairs near the master bedroom, the house has surround sound built in, underground sprinkler system outside, and the upstairs has 5 other nice sized bedrooms and 2 more baths! In all, 6 bedroom, 3.5 bath 3823 sq ft home. And, if I had a way to make a drum roll I would, for a price tag of $260K. I think we are planning to put in an underground pool in the backyard which, by the way, is already privacy fenced. And is big. I think we did pretty good.
Obviously that is the house we decided to go with. Saturday morning we drove back to the house after taking a night to think it over, met with our new realtor for the first time, and signed a contract. I think that was the easiest commission that lady ever made. But I think she will have her work cut out for her on the back end since we aren't in town to do our dirty work for ourselves.
After signing the contract, we went to this little area on a Bay about 30 minutes away. There were a couple rollercoaster rides, several restaurants and some little stores. All of this overlooked the water. Pretty cool little place. Then we drove down to Galveston. We think from Baytown, it will take about an hour to get to the ocean. What another nice feature of living in Baytown!!! I think we made the right choice, but we'll see once Mike starts having to make that commute everyday.
This week back in Springfield, we had 3 showings on the house yesterday, and already have one scheduled for today. While we were out of town, we had numerous showings, and even an offer, which we ultimately denied after a couple counters. Hopefully one of these people will want this place. There must be something turning this many people off. Or maybe there are just a ton of people in this city so it just appears that we have a lot of traffic, but in reality, when compared to the population in other cities, this amount of traffic is not a lot.
We move to Baytown next Friday morning. The movers will be coming on Wednesday and Thursday to pack us up and start moving us. After cleaning up the place one last time, we will probably leave on Friday morning. A straight shot says it will take us about 21 hours. Yikes! I don't think we've figured out exactly the plan as of yet, but it's looking like the cats will have to be in their carriers the whole trip. I was hoping to get an SUV to let them run around the back, but it may end up being too expensive.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Quick Update before Bed
It's been a very busy last couple weeks. We've torn up the basement, and repainted everything from ceiling to floor. It's been a lot of hard work, and a lot of missed hours of sleep, but I think it's going to be worth it. Our house will be officially on the market Friday evening, just in time for us to leave for our trip to Costa Rica. It will be hard to communicate to our realtor while there, but we will try to touch base once a day or so to see what progress has been made. Our realtor seems to think we will get multiple offers fairly quickly. She also has said she thinks we will end up in a bidding war...which would be wonderful. The quicker we get this place under contract, the quicker we can close and not have to worry about a property in another state. We've already had to do that one before. It's really not that fun!
So Saturday early morning we will be flying from DCA to MIA. Then to SJO. Once we land in San Jose, Costa Rica, we will be meeting Jamie and the family at the airport, picking up our rental vehicle, stopping at Jamie's place to take a look around and then driving to the hotel. All in all after landing, we will probably be on the road for 5 hours. We will see if that estimate is accurate. Mike and I have no specific plans while there. I think it will just be nice to relax for a while after such a hectic last few weeks/months depending how you think of it. Jamie and the family will be joining us at the hotel starting Monday-Thursday for a little mini-vacation of their own. When I talked to her on the phone the other day, she seemed excited just to relax on the beach. I'm not sure how Allison will feel about this plan, but Jamie is all about it.
Once we fly back from Costa Rica the following Sunday early morning, we will be home for that day and then fly out to Beaumont, TX on Monday morning. We will be searching, and hopefully finding, our next home while away. Our goal is to have a contract before we fly back home the next Sunday. It's going to be another crazy couple weeks, but I think they will be productive.
The kitties are going to be boarded together away from home. It's the best idea for us at this time since the house will be on the market and this is really the only way the house can be shown while we are gone. I know they will be scared for a while, but they will all be together, and the room they will be staying in is HUGE! And it looks very comfy as well. There's even a cat tower already in there. Hopefully they will feel right at home quickly. I feel so guilty leaving them.
OK. There's my update. I most likely will not have another update until I return from both trips, but the cyber world may get lucky! Anything is possible!
So Saturday early morning we will be flying from DCA to MIA. Then to SJO. Once we land in San Jose, Costa Rica, we will be meeting Jamie and the family at the airport, picking up our rental vehicle, stopping at Jamie's place to take a look around and then driving to the hotel. All in all after landing, we will probably be on the road for 5 hours. We will see if that estimate is accurate. Mike and I have no specific plans while there. I think it will just be nice to relax for a while after such a hectic last few weeks/months depending how you think of it. Jamie and the family will be joining us at the hotel starting Monday-Thursday for a little mini-vacation of their own. When I talked to her on the phone the other day, she seemed excited just to relax on the beach. I'm not sure how Allison will feel about this plan, but Jamie is all about it.
Once we fly back from Costa Rica the following Sunday early morning, we will be home for that day and then fly out to Beaumont, TX on Monday morning. We will be searching, and hopefully finding, our next home while away. Our goal is to have a contract before we fly back home the next Sunday. It's going to be another crazy couple weeks, but I think they will be productive.
The kitties are going to be boarded together away from home. It's the best idea for us at this time since the house will be on the market and this is really the only way the house can be shown while we are gone. I know they will be scared for a while, but they will all be together, and the room they will be staying in is HUGE! And it looks very comfy as well. There's even a cat tower already in there. Hopefully they will feel right at home quickly. I feel so guilty leaving them.
OK. There's my update. I most likely will not have another update until I return from both trips, but the cyber world may get lucky! Anything is possible!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Anniversary/Independence Day Weekend
On July 3rd, Mike and I had our 2 year anniversary. I had planned to surprise him with a day at the shooting range, but I was informed that he had made us plans to go away Thursday night-Saturday morning. Of course, he didn't tell me where we were going. All I knew was that I was to pack some hiking clothes, a bathing suit and something nice. So, we left Thursday late afternoon to travel someplace. Three hours later, we were in Staunton, VA near part of Shenandoah National Park. We stayed at what was labeled a "small" hotel which was several historic homes turned into hotel rooms. They also included homemade breakfast in the morning, so it was almost like a bed and breakfast, but with multiple houses. They upgraded us to a suite so our room was two times bigger than we could ever utilize with just the two of us. The building we stayed in was built in 1912. There oldest house was from 1809. Pretty neat and historic...and clean!
The city of Staunton was very small but had a very cute downtown historic district. Everything closed early with most restaurants only open until 9pm-ish. But we were both surprised to see quite a lot of places to eat for such a small city. And there were some pretty nice places too. Since the first night Mike didn't have any specific plans for us, we just went out to dinner to this very nice eclectic place that gets all their ingredients from local growers. They made me a special vegetarian dish of fried green tomatoes, beets, carrot puree, goat cheese, marinated trumpet mushrooms and small onions. These things were not all mixed together but plated in a nice arrangement. It was very yummy.
The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. I ordered the buckwheat waffle with fruit and Mike got the apple and cheese quiche. My waffle was very good and Mike said his quiche was yummy too. We then made the trip out of Shenandoah to a swimming hole that Mike had found online. The drive wasn't very far, but some of the roads we were on were in the middle of nowhere. The directions said to "turn left at the neighborhood watch sign". Yes, that is where we were! After finding the trail head for the hike to the water hole, we got our stuff together, put on our bug spray and started out. The hike was only 1.7 miles so we knew it wouldn't take us too long. 35 minutes later we were at the "primo" swimming hole as the website called it. Since the temperature outside wasn't more than in the mid-70's, and the creek was shaded, I knew this water was going to be cold. And boy was I right. Just putting our feet in felt like they were going to fall off. But after walking around for a few minutes in the water you would get used to the cold. I estimated the temperature of the water to be in the 50's. It was quite chilly. My wonderful husband who had the plan to go swimming, decided against this when he made it into the water up to his thighs, and they told him not to go any further. However, his usually timid wife decided to go for it and swam in the water up to her head for maybe 5 minutes or so. This was definitely the coldest water I've ever been in. At first, my whole body stung. It felt almost like a burning sensation. But after a while, although I knew it was cold, I didn't feel cold. It's interesting how our minds work when we are in uncomfortable situations. I almost wanted to do an experiment to see how long it would be until I started feeling the beginning signs of hypothermia and started slurring my words, but I decided against it. After getting out of the water, that is when I started to feel cold. My jaw started chattering and I started shivering. So just like Bear Gribbell (or whatever his name is on that survivor show) I started doing jumping jacks. And then I put on the clothes I came in with. By the time we started walking back, I was warmed back up and fine. It was quite the experience. And I did something my Marine hubby was too chicken to do.
Once we returned to the hotel, we relaxed for an hour or so and then took showers and went to dinner at this Italian restaurant. It was good, but nothing too spectacular. Then we went to the Shakespeare Theater in town and saw Much Ado About Nothing. It was a cute show even though the first half was spent trying to translate what they were saying. By the second half, Mike and I both were able to understand their speech much better.
We were both very tired so we just went back to the hotel and went to sleep early so we would be able to get up early and make our way back to Springfield so I could take care of the Petsmart kitties around 9am. It only took us a little over 2 hours to get back, so leaving the hotel around 6:30am worked out fine. I was tired taking care of the kitties this morning, and it didn't help my condition when one kitty decided to bite me very hard and scratch up my hand when I put him back in his cage. Not a very nice cat at all. I bandaged myself up and kept on cleaning, although in my head I was wondering if I was going to need to go to the doctor for this one.
After my Petsmart escapades, Mike and I worked on the house after taking a well deserved 2 hour nap. Then we got ready to go watch the July 4th DC fireworks overlooking the city. We went to the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, VA which has a great view of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial and the Capitol. Another 50,000+ people had the same idea. But even with that many people around, it didn't seem overly crowded. No one was pushing and shoving, and we even had space to move around a little bit once we found our spot. And, in my opinion, it was worth the effort. The fireworks display overlooking the National Mall was great. It was a different experience to see fireworks in our nation's capitol. I could picture the British troops burning down Washington in 1812. I'm glad we fought the people to be there. We went to a late dinner after the fireworks show to try and allow the masses to die down a bit on the Metro before heading back, but even after waiting over an hour, there were still Metro trains stuffed full of people. We probably waited to get on a train for 30 minutes before we lucked out and they opened up an empty train that wasn't in use to bring us home. We probably would have been waiting there a lot longer and would have been smelling the people's underarms next to us on the train, if they hadn't opened up the empty one.
Sunday was a work day. We got up ate breakfast and started painting. Around 1pm, a guy I have previously given a couple of my fish to, came over to get the rest of my fish. I figured it was time to break down the tank to get ready for the move. And this guy has 15 huge tanks so I know my fishies are going to a good home. After he picked up the fish, we painted some more and then went to Home Depot to try and set up our new carpet installation. We decided to try a few other places before we go with Home Depot because in my opinion, they have too many stipulations that we don't need. They have a warranty, but we are moving so we won't need the warranty. It costs an extra $0.56 per square foot for them to remove and haul away the old carpet. That will almost double the cost. Anyways, I wasn't convinced this was the place we could find the best deal, so we are still looking. We are getting to the point where we will need to find a place quick though, because we are running out of time. With our trip to Costa Rica coming up in a week and a half, and then our trip to Beaumont following that, we need to get this carpet installed by next week. We hope to get the house on the market by mid-July.
Oh, and my hand that was bitten by that cat, well, it started getting infected. There was a 2 inch diameter around the bite wound that was red and slightly swollen. It was extremely tender to the touch. I had planned to go to the doctor today to get on some antibiotics, but when I woke up this morning, the redness has significantly decreased and the wound is finally healing and not looking pussy. Thank you immune system for saving my hand!
The city of Staunton was very small but had a very cute downtown historic district. Everything closed early with most restaurants only open until 9pm-ish. But we were both surprised to see quite a lot of places to eat for such a small city. And there were some pretty nice places too. Since the first night Mike didn't have any specific plans for us, we just went out to dinner to this very nice eclectic place that gets all their ingredients from local growers. They made me a special vegetarian dish of fried green tomatoes, beets, carrot puree, goat cheese, marinated trumpet mushrooms and small onions. These things were not all mixed together but plated in a nice arrangement. It was very yummy.
The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. I ordered the buckwheat waffle with fruit and Mike got the apple and cheese quiche. My waffle was very good and Mike said his quiche was yummy too. We then made the trip out of Shenandoah to a swimming hole that Mike had found online. The drive wasn't very far, but some of the roads we were on were in the middle of nowhere. The directions said to "turn left at the neighborhood watch sign". Yes, that is where we were! After finding the trail head for the hike to the water hole, we got our stuff together, put on our bug spray and started out. The hike was only 1.7 miles so we knew it wouldn't take us too long. 35 minutes later we were at the "primo" swimming hole as the website called it. Since the temperature outside wasn't more than in the mid-70's, and the creek was shaded, I knew this water was going to be cold. And boy was I right. Just putting our feet in felt like they were going to fall off. But after walking around for a few minutes in the water you would get used to the cold. I estimated the temperature of the water to be in the 50's. It was quite chilly. My wonderful husband who had the plan to go swimming, decided against this when he made it into the water up to his thighs, and they told him not to go any further. However, his usually timid wife decided to go for it and swam in the water up to her head for maybe 5 minutes or so. This was definitely the coldest water I've ever been in. At first, my whole body stung. It felt almost like a burning sensation. But after a while, although I knew it was cold, I didn't feel cold. It's interesting how our minds work when we are in uncomfortable situations. I almost wanted to do an experiment to see how long it would be until I started feeling the beginning signs of hypothermia and started slurring my words, but I decided against it. After getting out of the water, that is when I started to feel cold. My jaw started chattering and I started shivering. So just like Bear Gribbell (or whatever his name is on that survivor show) I started doing jumping jacks. And then I put on the clothes I came in with. By the time we started walking back, I was warmed back up and fine. It was quite the experience. And I did something my Marine hubby was too chicken to do.
Once we returned to the hotel, we relaxed for an hour or so and then took showers and went to dinner at this Italian restaurant. It was good, but nothing too spectacular. Then we went to the Shakespeare Theater in town and saw Much Ado About Nothing. It was a cute show even though the first half was spent trying to translate what they were saying. By the second half, Mike and I both were able to understand their speech much better.
We were both very tired so we just went back to the hotel and went to sleep early so we would be able to get up early and make our way back to Springfield so I could take care of the Petsmart kitties around 9am. It only took us a little over 2 hours to get back, so leaving the hotel around 6:30am worked out fine. I was tired taking care of the kitties this morning, and it didn't help my condition when one kitty decided to bite me very hard and scratch up my hand when I put him back in his cage. Not a very nice cat at all. I bandaged myself up and kept on cleaning, although in my head I was wondering if I was going to need to go to the doctor for this one.
After my Petsmart escapades, Mike and I worked on the house after taking a well deserved 2 hour nap. Then we got ready to go watch the July 4th DC fireworks overlooking the city. We went to the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, VA which has a great view of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial and the Capitol. Another 50,000+ people had the same idea. But even with that many people around, it didn't seem overly crowded. No one was pushing and shoving, and we even had space to move around a little bit once we found our spot. And, in my opinion, it was worth the effort. The fireworks display overlooking the National Mall was great. It was a different experience to see fireworks in our nation's capitol. I could picture the British troops burning down Washington in 1812. I'm glad we fought the people to be there. We went to a late dinner after the fireworks show to try and allow the masses to die down a bit on the Metro before heading back, but even after waiting over an hour, there were still Metro trains stuffed full of people. We probably waited to get on a train for 30 minutes before we lucked out and they opened up an empty train that wasn't in use to bring us home. We probably would have been waiting there a lot longer and would have been smelling the people's underarms next to us on the train, if they hadn't opened up the empty one.
Sunday was a work day. We got up ate breakfast and started painting. Around 1pm, a guy I have previously given a couple of my fish to, came over to get the rest of my fish. I figured it was time to break down the tank to get ready for the move. And this guy has 15 huge tanks so I know my fishies are going to a good home. After he picked up the fish, we painted some more and then went to Home Depot to try and set up our new carpet installation. We decided to try a few other places before we go with Home Depot because in my opinion, they have too many stipulations that we don't need. They have a warranty, but we are moving so we won't need the warranty. It costs an extra $0.56 per square foot for them to remove and haul away the old carpet. That will almost double the cost. Anyways, I wasn't convinced this was the place we could find the best deal, so we are still looking. We are getting to the point where we will need to find a place quick though, because we are running out of time. With our trip to Costa Rica coming up in a week and a half, and then our trip to Beaumont following that, we need to get this carpet installed by next week. We hope to get the house on the market by mid-July.
Oh, and my hand that was bitten by that cat, well, it started getting infected. There was a 2 inch diameter around the bite wound that was red and slightly swollen. It was extremely tender to the touch. I had planned to go to the doctor today to get on some antibiotics, but when I woke up this morning, the redness has significantly decreased and the wound is finally healing and not looking pussy. Thank you immune system for saving my hand!
Monday, June 29, 2009
New hot water heater...check!
So the plumbers got to our place yesterday at around 3:20PM. They didn't finish everything until 8:30PM. Yes, it took them 5 hours to finish the job. I'm pretty certain most of that time was spent at Home Depot trying to get our new hot water heater. They called us once, and then we didn't hear anything again for another couple hours, then another phone call. Mike then went down to Home Depot to try and figure out what the problem was, and within 10 minutes was done and the process continued. I'm still not sure what those guys were doing over there for such a long time and not calling us to let us know that there were some snags. It doesn't really matter to me though. I'm just glad that we have hot water again. We had so many dishes that needed to be washed it was ridiculous. And being that I cooked a lot last night didn't help with the overflow of things to be washed.
So, after the initial $95 for the guy to tell us what was wrong and the $350 for the new installation, we paid $445 for this new water heater. And back in November when we had a hot water heater problem, we paid about $250. So, I'm glad to be done with that thing. At least we can say that we have a brand new hot water heater when we put the house on the market.
So, after the initial $95 for the guy to tell us what was wrong and the $350 for the new installation, we paid $445 for this new water heater. And back in November when we had a hot water heater problem, we paid about $250. So, I'm glad to be done with that thing. At least we can say that we have a brand new hot water heater when we put the house on the market.
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