I Deserve a Ph.D in Tetris

Or "cramming" as my dad called it. It's amazing at how I've managed to scoot things around on my shelves to fit everything in, and / or find room for more stuff. I'm sure, over the next few weeks, I'll keep improving it. Some things I know I have to go through again and redo, like some of the Sterilite plastic drawers I bought for the pantry. Some of them have become catchalls, albeit similar item catchalls.

I'm down to a few boxes to do; 2 and a half are my CDs, and then I'm down to some boxes that contain things that I have no idea about where to put them. I'm hoping a storage unit in the building opens up soon, as I do have some boxes I know need to go there -- like the big Roughneck one I got for my Christmas decorations and paper, as well as my flattened boxes. I guess those could go under my bed, but I'd prefer not to. That attracts too much dust and makes easy homes for spiders.

Speaking of them, I have three garden spiders on my terrace -- one that was already there when I moved in, and two that have happily made their homes in my plants. I also found two inside; one I scooped up in a glass and put in one of my bamboo plants, and the other disappeared as I tried to do the same for it. For all I know, it was the same one.

But at least all the pictures are up. In my old unit, I had a long wall where I had a bunch of family photos up; I have a similar wall in my new unit, but it's shorter, and I had to forgo about 5 or 6 photos.

I did manage to find homes for most of my other pictures; funnily enough, I now have a spot in my bedroom that's crying out for something. But I don't know what. I did see a nice print at Fred Meyer last night that might work, so perhaps I'll check it out when I go back for food tomorrow.

I also changed out most of the light bulbs. When I used the bathroom all weekend, I was pleased by how bright it was -- but when I went to put on my makeup on Tuesday, I discovered it was too bright. My features were totally washed out, and I couldn't see what I was doing with the eye shadow. I discovered they had two 100-watt bulbs in the lights, making the lighting more akin to an interrogation setting than one for personal grooming. In opposition, the kitchen was actually too dim.

I went to Fred's and got new lights -- for the bathroom I got nice GE Reveal bulbs (they give the full spectrum of light) to total 100 watts over the sink which is what I found to be just right for that area; they didn't have 50-watt bulbs, so I had to put in one 60-watt and one 40-watt. I also replaced one of the bathroom floodlights with a 65-watt Reveal light. It's much nicer, and allows for a much better set up for eyeshadow application.

In the kitchen, I changed out the two 65-watt standard flood lights for two 125 watt ones. It's much brighter in there now; I'm going to do the same for the four chandelier lights in the ceiling fan. There's supposed to be 60-watt bulbs in them but they used 40-watt. It's too dim.

I also changed out the 75-watt bulb out on the terrace for a 200-watt Reveal bulb. It's nice and bright and evenly-lit now when it's dark. I was working out there last night, and it was easy to see, plus I can also sit out there and read.

My system finally shut down night Tuesday night; I had a long dream about traveling and not being able to breathe due to a head cold, and when I suddenly awoke around 5 am, I discovered I was lying in bed, wheezing in my chest and with cement packed into my sinuses.

It took about 20 snorts of Afrin, two severe allergy pills and a long hot shower before I could mimic the ability to breathe freely. Ugh. I sounded like I had a terrible head cold; my boss asked if I was sick (I looked kind of glassy-eyed from fatigue, too), but I felt fine. Just wiped out and nasally when I spoke.

It's Friday now, and I'm better in both the breathing and fatigue departments, but I'm still sneezing and having to use the Afrin.

Jane called me a druggie; at this point, I'm happy to be so as my preference is to breathe.

This weekend I plan on getting the last few boxes sorted and tied up to take back to my mom; many of them are hers that she lent me. I think it's a total of about 45 or so boxes I ended up using over all.

I really love my new little place; and I realize this may sound kind of silly and goofy, but I have a feeling that it was a fulcrum point for some really neat things coming around the corner. The best way I can describe it is that, for a long time, I kind of felt like I was going uphill, even trudging up it for the last while -- but now I've tipped over the summit, and I'm coming back down. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with having waited so long to do the move, given I first heard it was coming back in February. Getting it out of the way is quite helpful.

I'll take more pictures for you guys, too; I wish I had a tri-pod so I could take a picture of the view I have at night. Looking down through the plants and trees and across to the lighted pool is really pretty.

And I sure don't miss my neighbor's snoring at night. As Andrew once said about our father's snoring, it sounded much like the trucks downshifting on Highway 26. I had to use earplugs nearly every night, and I haven't had to do so at all since I moved in.

-- H

My Apartment Has Been Housebroken

Saturday's Carnage

Sunday and Monday's Progress

Ta DAAAAA!!!! Taken Tuesday Morning

I still have stuff on the terrace, and I still have some pictures to hang (for the bathroom, mostly), and then I'll be down to the finessing of the organizing. There should be a storage unit opening shortly for me, thank goodness!

-- H

Could I Please Stop Unpacking Now?

Oh, man. All I can say to describe how I feel at the moment is in AppleTalk (so to speak...)

And that's: iHurt.

Eeerrruunnghh also sums it up. At the moment, however, I'm without Internet, and so I'm writing this with the idea that I'll upload it later. Maybe even just go over to my old unit, hook my modem up and do something from there. Or do something even more PDX, and that's to go to a McMenamins, have a beer and something to eat, perhaps, and browse from there. Have to keep up on my Dear Abby, afterall.

I must next say I'm so very grateful to all the people who showed up to help: Karell and her son Nathan (who, despite having Crohn's Disease, put out a wonderful effort and schlepped a lot of the really heavy stuff), Andrew and Hanne, who zipped in on their bikes from the Sunset Transit Center after riding in on MAX, our light rail train (they had the idea of riding all the way back, but I knew after all the schlepping they'd likely not...they didn't); Dad and Cindy. I was hoping to get my bathroom cabinet that hangs over my toilet as well as my curtains hung up, but Dad said he absolutely could not do anything more. I don't blame him. So the plan is to come back on Monday to get that done. I'd also like him to hang another towel rack in my bathroom (there's just one small one now). I think I'll swing over to Home Depot tomorrow to see what I can find. I'm sure I can find something that at least matches.

I do have to have the electricians come back; two of my bedroom plugs are wholly useless, one only works on the top half, and the fourth one is the only fully-functional one. They've also, in both the living room and the bedroom, but the heaters in even stupider places than the ones I saw in the other unit. I had to put my bureau in front of the one in my room, and the one in the living room is flush against my chair.

My friend Rory took a look at it on Friday before everything was in, and he said he knew how he could simply disconnect it so it doesn't come on (it's basically a space heater with an element inside blowing the air out by a fan). That way I can still use the one in the dining area.

I don't know what I'll do about my bedroom; I have, for the last 6 years gone without in there, as I had electric heating units that ran along the baseboard there in that unit, and I had furniture in my bedroom that was against it, making it impossible to use. But there is a little corner in my new room with a plug (right next to the terrace door; at the moment, it's one of the defunct plugs) that would make a great place for one of those oscillating tower units that's either a fan or a heater; they stand about 3 or so feet high. You can also make it so they don't oscillate, and right where it would be would blow right on me at night. We'll see. I survived in my old room without heat for years, and when it got colder, I just piled on more blankets.

Speaking of piling on blankets, I picked up three of those vacuum bags for storage at the U-Haul place; I know I paid more than I needed to (at least likely so) than I could at Fred Meyer for an equivalent bag, but it's way cool. After using up two and sucking the air out, I managed to store my sleeping bag, two comforters, a blanket and an electric heated mattress pad for my air bed (it's otherwise to cold to sleep on) in the same space that would be roughly the equivalent of four book boxes or more. Way cool.

I'm drowning in boxes. I know I'll find I have to donate more stuff, so that's okay. I gave away a lot, and I know I'll find more. What I did was totally clear out my other second bedroom of stuff (most of what I gave away had been stored there), then pulled out some stuff I had stored in my second bedroom closet, then also the hall closet, using what I had left to gauge what I could store here.

I did find I can't put my cedar chest in my room, but I think I can get it to fit out here in the living room. I may switch what's stored in it; put the sheets and sweaters in my closet in my bedroom, and then old towels or something in it that I don't have to get to a lot. But then I kind of lose the point of having the cedar chest: it protects my sweaters and makes my sheets smell oh so good.

I have pictures of the carnage that's situated around me; I shall, when I can upload the pictures to Flickr, let you guys see it. I'll probably do that several times, so you can all see the progress. I know you're all just living on the edge of your seats to get each new update from me!

The first thing I did was hook up my new HD box (I was wrong; I can't fast forward through a live program, only what's been recorded into the buffer of the show...not what I was thinking I could do. But it's still cool – I missed the conclusion of Law and Order, so I simply rewound, watched it and then changed the channel. Once you change the channel, the buffer's cleared for that station.)

I can, however, record two programs simultaneously if I wanted to do so; so that means if I want to record Best of Quilting the same time DinoGems of the Lost World is on, I can. That's a plus.

I'm kind of overwhelmed by all my new channels; I keep finding lots of things I want to see and try. Plus the package I get does, I found out, give me a few more HD channels – like the Science Channel, National Geographic and...oooOOOOoooOOooOoO...the NFL Channel. I'm currently watching Sci-Fi in HD, and I must say, it's been awhile since I've seen Jurassic Park look this good. HD really is nice. It's like having your shows in DVD-quality.

And now I'm enjoying The African Queen on Turner Classic Movies. One of my favorite films. It's not HD, but that's okay. I shall find a way to survive.

I did manage to get a few boxes unpacked. One because it was in the way of my washing my face, and another because I needed what was on the bottom. I also cleared out a few shopping bags of stuff. I have all day tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday, so I think I'll make some really good headway.

But right now, I think I need to take a shower and figure out what I want to eat...again. I had a pretty decent dinner around 5:30, but I'm really hungry. I just don't know if I have the wherewithall to go and get anything....

-- H

A La Patti La Belle -- I'm Feelin' Good From My Head to My Shoes....

Although, I am still feeling really wiped out from that head cold, and my sinuses and chest do still feel a touch congested. All normal, I suppose. For that I guess I could insert Jackson Browne's Running on Empty. But for those of you who would like to not revisit two very über-80s songs, I'll stop there.

I'm just really excited about my move this weekend; I finally caved and upgraded my cable box, too. I got the digital box last year when I got my TV given my VCR no longer worked well as a feed to my TV. The only reason I kept my VCR was that I do sometimes tape something to watch later, but the picture from the VCR to my HD TV is really awful; despite the fact I bought a new tape to use, the image looks like I'm using a 20-year-old cassette for recording, as a VCR cannot feed an HD picture to my television. Plus, over about a 6-week period, my VCR loses time. I have to adjust it by about 3 minutes every month and a half, despite the fact it has a digital clock. Go figure.

Since Comcast is coming on Tuesday to get things hooked up for me anyway, I decided to go ahead and get an HD channel box as wel. Andrew's been after me to do so for the last few years at least. Verizon also offers HD television channels over the FiOS line, but for about 4 times as much in price as I'd be paying. Since my apartment complex offers expanded basic for free, all I have to pay is the difference between the package I want and the price of expanded basic. So instead of $49.95 for the package Verizon offers, I only have to pay $15.95.

Yes, Andrew -- I know. Comcast is stretching its bandwith by cramming so manny HD channels into it. But for $15.95 per month, I can't complain; I did check the package Verizon offers, and it's actually fewer channels that I'd be getting overall; about the same in HD, but I'm also upgrading to a package that includes channels I don't have now -- like BBC America, Bravo, the Science Channel, VH1 Classic, Turner Movie Classics and a bunch of others.

So, yeah, you get what you pay for sometimes, but I think $15.95 is pretty fair for what I'm getting. Oh, sure. I could stay with my $1 a month digital package, but I'd still be stuck using my gimpy VCR. Overall, it's a savings of $53.40. Not bad.

And sweet -- I can fast forward live programs. No more ads! Woo hoo! I can also rewind a live program, so if I miss a line or something, I can act like it's already recorded. Pretty damn cool. A new toy!

Tuesday should be kind of amusing; Verizon will be there around the same time to hook up my FiOS internet connection (which way surpasses anything Comcast can offer in speed and connectivity), it'll be interesting to see if they start duking it out. Nothing like having two competitors coralled into a small area.

I guess I'm slowly dragging myself into the digital age; I had my answering machine still out for a long time, despite having my calls forwarded to my cell phone and its voicemail; with the new and cheaper (but better) phone service package I recently signed up for, I decided to forgo the answering machine and set up the voicemail feature -- mostly because I have less counter space in my new place, and I got tired of dusting the rarely-used answering machine.

I've been slowly dragging my friend Walt into doing more stuff online (such as paying bills that way, rather than using checks), so perhaps I should put my money where my mouth is, too. (But don't expect me to get rid of my turntable and records!)

If Andrew could have his way, I'd be fully iPoded, iPhoned, 320Gb-ed for my computer's hard drive, a monitor much like my HD TV, enough RAM so that my keystrokes would echo, and using a processor with a speed that would sheer off the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Perhaps someday...but given I'm limited now to just a laptop and an external hard drive box so I can still access my old tower's information, I think I'll wait. I can say that the laptop Andrew put together for me -- while nothing close to being able to sheer off the atmosphere of Jupiter -- is still better than the geriatric, limping system of my tower. I haven't upgraded that thing in a long time.

So, Mom, sure; if every once in a while you see something you want me to record for you to watch on a channel you don't have, I'd be glad to do so if it isn't conflicting with something I'm already recording. I get the Digital Classic Package as well as most HD channels they offer (a few are premium). I can't do what Dad and Andrew can with their digital recorders and do more than one channel at once, but that's okay.

But even with the upgrade and the additional channels, it's still going to be what Bruce Springsteen said in his song: 57 channels and nothing on....

I have been enjoying one thing already about my digital basic package, and that's the ability to hit the "Guide" button on my remote and be able to scan through what's playing; I haven't been able to do that for years as I haven't gotten the paper with the weekly guide since I lived with my mom. Kind of nice. I can also hit an "Info" button and get the summary of a show.

So the Big Move is this Saturday; I'm offering beer and pizza for lunch for those helping. Then I have three days to get fully unpacked. I'm going to try to do as much as I can in those days, and then my plan is to do two boxes each evening when I get home, and / or hang up pictures. Well, first I'll have to get the furniture settled. Most of it can just be put down where I want it when it comes in, though. It's the finessing of it that gets tedious.

And I have to remember to go in and change my address everywhere...oy.

Whether it's cross-country or the 600 feet of my move, it's just as much work!

-- H

It's My Last Sunday Here!

Kind of sad, actually...I was planning on spending this weekend getting the last bits packed up and spending some time out on my terrace, but my plans got stunted by two things; first that I'm now down to the things I can't pack because I'm using them (I already had to go to the store and buy replacement food for stuff I'd packed, thinking I wouldn't use it....). I also need some larger boxes because I'm down to pillows and towels; the book boxes my mother gave me are too small. I can get larger ones at my dad's tonight when I go over for dinner.

The second thing that got in the way was that I awoke on Friday with full understanding of why I'd been feeling physically out of sorts all weekend: major head cold. Blah.

I did try to go in and work on Friday, but by 10 am I realized I couldn't make it. I was staring at easy emails and thinking, "Huh? What?" At that point I went home and crashed on my couch for the rest of the day, yesterday, and most of this morning. I feel better now -- mostly just feeling wiped out and like I can't get enough liquids in me.

As much as I dislike being sick, I'd much rather it be this weekend than next one.

It's just a really weird feeling to look around here and realize that at this time next week, I'll be in my new place. Exciting, sure, but it's also a little sad. This place has been my home for over seven years.

Oh -- my car. Turns out the factory defect that appeared was such that it needed a whole new engine. Covered under warranty, thankfully. But I'll tell you one thing: I'm never taking my car into Landmark Ford for any maintenance ever again. The team working on my car is headed by someone my father actually fired from working on his car at one point (I didn't know this until a few days ago), and this same individual refused to return phone calls or, when he finally did, refused to give straight answers about what was going on.

It wasn't until my father got involved and called the service manager and "gave him an earful" (to quote my dad) that we finally heard anything about what was wrong with my car, and what was needed to repair it. (It had been towed to Landmark to be worked on as it was an under-warranty fix and couldn't be done by my usual mechanic).

Pathetic customer service; my friend Dwizz, a mechanic in Newberg, refuses to work with the service department at Landmark for that very reason (other ones are fine). How hard is it to just give a straight up answer about what's wrong with someone's car?

So to you all -- don't take your car to Landmark Ford, and, if you have to, don't use the night team headed by Dean Koons.

Supposedly I'll have my car back sometime this week...but I'm not holding my breath. :)

-- H

-- H