Saturday, October 2, 02004
Los Angeles rains down some hybrid love in the form of free parking.
Posted at 03:07 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Friday, October 1, 02004
As a follow up to last week's post, I missed the debate last night because I locked myself out of my apartment. Here's how I did it if you want to play along at home.
- Leave house keys in the apartment on the table, along with the spare set of car keys
- Lock apartment
- Get in car and drive to dealership
- Lock car
- Fill out the "night owl" afterhours service form envelope
- Put the keys in the envelope
- drop envelope in night box
- Realize apartment keys are still in the car
- (bonus optional step, if you have half an hour to waste)Ask the crustiest car salesman you can find if he could maybe open the dropbox for you. Bonus points if you get a dealer who does a Peter Faulk impersonation thoughout the entire affair.
- Walk home to the apartment and call the super to let you in.
The walking home part wasn't that bad because I'd already planned that as the night's exercise. Still by the time Columbo gave up trying to find the night box keys, and the super showed up, I had pretty much missed the debates.
Tune in next week when I will probably find a way to lock myself into the new house's bathroom.
Posted at 02:25 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Thursday, September 30, 02004
Most of the small, breakable stuff has been moved over now. Lightbulbs and socket faceplates have been replaced. I now own a ladder so I don't have to depend on my old Ikea barstool to reach things. I also own a garbage can, but I had to get a slight smaller than normal size one so it would fit in the Insight ! I'm only one person - it shouldn't be an issue.
I cleaned out the fridge stink by washing it out with whte vinegar as per this ask.metafilter thread. The freezer is making ice, but I'm still not sure if the fridge is getting cold enough. Of course it's been empty up to now as well. I have a sample botle of cider in it now. I'll see if it seems cold enough tonight....
I found a camel cricket in the house last night, and I found a dead one while cleaning out the basement Everyone I've mentioned the possibility of a cricket infestation has laughed at me, saying they get a cricket or two a month in their houses, especially around fall when the bugs look for someplace warm to hunker down.
Posted at 12:36 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Sunday, September 26, 02004
I've had four or so trips out to the place this weekend, bringing over breakables and bulky things that wouldn't fit in any boxes.
I've also done some very slight repairs like changing a few switch plates, replacing some missing screws and (hopefully) fixing the window shades that I'm probably going to end up replacing soon anyway. I also ripped out the rusty medicine cabinet from the upstairs bathroom. It was easy to get out. I'm hoping the replacement is as painless.
I also attended services at the Reston UU church that's less than a mile from the new house. I drove up with a car full of stuff. I didn't take the nature trail mentioned in a prior post. It's a really small church compared to the Arlington UU church. Two hundred members in Reston versus close to a thousand in Arlington. I stayed for a meeting about expanding the membership to help pay for some upcoming expansions. They seemed worried about hitting a 20% increase in membership. I wouldn't be that surprised if they could hit those number by focusing on UU's moving out of Arlington towards Reston, given the present housing market around here.
I'm still also feeling pretty melancholic. I can't put my finger on it. I thought it was just leaving Arlington, but I thought I'd come to grips with that. Part of it is just being unsettled, and everything being messy and unorganized and boxed up between two sites. I've also been eating a lot of junk food and take-out and fast food, and even forgetting about meals as I've been running around, so some of this may just be low blood sugar.
But another big part of it is that 'm moving into this place without any sort of family of my own. I was raised in an atmosphere where you got married, and when the kids were expected, you went out and bought a house. Well, I'm not married, no kids are on the way, but I've got a house. I'm wondering if I'll ever get back to the wife and kids part.
Posted at 04:43 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
