Dolphin’s Dock

• Finally got the Internet on in the new house; because a house is not a home without the Internet. #
• Everywhere you look in Roanoke is a mountain view! #
• ok, after a weekend without internet, I'm just marking everything in my feed reader as read I think. #
• RIP Ted Kennedy. How very sad! #
• My 1st day back in the office was an hour commute on either side with a 10+ hour work day sandwiched between! I'll try to leave early today. #
• Thank you for clarifying Adobe (but not for nearly giving me a heart attack!!) http://ping.fm/hQFxF #
• Soy is the third ingredient down in Soy Sauce. So essentially it's really just colored salt water with a touch of soy. #
• It's bad when you can no longer tell what's actually from anti-Obama folks and what is satirizing them. #
• Waiting for two deliveries today. My copy of Snow Leopard and a new fridge! #
• Snow Leopard just arrived. I'm too busy with work to install it just yet, but tonight… #
• http://twitpic.com/flulm – The new fridge has arrived!! #
• Snow Leopard install was flawless, if slower than i expected. #
• We're off to look at a new puppy… We'll see what happens. #
• Wow, so just bought a dog (pick it up next week). Very unexpected. #
• http://twitpic.com/fsfvx – What should I name my new puppy? #

Lately I feel like we’ve been hemorrhaging cash (new house, new fridge, new bed and getting estimate for new windows), so I’m not 100% sure that this is the best time to be adding an expense. That said, we had long said once we got a nice yard, we wanted to get a dog. I have wanted a Sheltie since I was in Elementary school. My school held a carnival and the music teacher, who was part of a dog training club, had he organization put on a dog show. I sat the Shetland Sheepdog and was in love from that point forward. In college, when I had told TheBoyfriend™ that the Sheltie was he looked at the breed and decided his preference among the standard color variations was the tri-color (he found this painting as the example of the perfect tri-color coloring).

Our new Puppy

When TheBoyfriend™ brought it up to me, I TRIED to be the grownup and consider the costs of adding a dog to the family, at a time when my gas expenses had just shot up thanks to a long commute, our mortgage is ever so slightly higher per month than rent had been (by about $20), and we have no idea what heating and cooling bills are going to be like here. On the other hand, he’s in the process of getting a raise, and his work gas expenses should go down. That’s not enough to completely alleviate my concerns about us getting another mouth to feed and vet bills to pay, but I at least agreed to go see the puppy, and in all honesty, I knew that was as good as agreeing to buy it.

So now we have a puppy, though we can’t bring it home for another week. Which is good because we need to get a few things for it and decide on a name. I’m extremely picky about pet names. I prefer uncommon but easily recognizable and pronounceable non-human names (though an uncommon human name is sometimes acceptable). Several times the lady we’re purchasing the dog from mentioned that it the coincidence on coloration must mean it was “karma” that we have the dog (I think she meant “fate” because “karma” doesnt’ really make sense to me in that context). I kinda seized on “Karma” as a potential name, but apparently the rest of the world seems to think that Karma is too feminine for a boy dog. We’ve been looking at names and getting suggestions all night, so far our top picks in no particular order are Coda, Zeke, or Mystic. Any suggestions?

• As I look over all these boxes, I can't help but think, "How'd all this shit fit in our house?" Our current place is only 800 sqft!! #
• 4 day work week starts today! #
• New interior decorating genre: Moving day chic! http://ping.fm/xNdo1 #
• Someone left their lights on in the parking garage & their window down. Do I reach in and turn them off? It's like a real life ethics test! #
• The oddest part about having nearly everything I own in a box? It hasn't really changed my day-to-day life. #
• U-Haul decide to nearly double their rates between our first quote and our attempt to actually order a mere few hours later. #
• A Budget Rental truck is now rented for half the price of U-Haul. #
• For the first time, I've felt a bit of real apprehension about buying a house (nothing happened, just out of no where). I'm sure it is … #
• QOTD: "Do you know 1 thing about the proposed health care reform bill? If so, you know more than most, & if not, just keep yelling anyway." #
• ARGH!! The day before closing all these hidden costs start coming out of the woodwork. #
• The closing agent made a $400 mistake. Good thing we were paying attention, and not just taking their word for it. #
• The office echoes… All packed. #

Republicans were in favor of “death panels” before they were against them.

Since last time I updated you on the house, our closing date got moved AGAIN, but this time it got moved in the right direction (earlier). We’re now closing on Friday! It’s hard to believe that by the end of the week, we will be homeowners. I’m excited and nervous, but mostly I just want it to be over so we can get settled into our new home; and, just as importantly, out of our old place. Especially since our old place is pretty much packed up at this point.

Just about everything is completely packed up. We have even broken down the bed and are sleeping on a mattress on the floor (more on that in a minute). All the clothes hanging in the closet are packed except for only what I’ll be wearing this week (clothes in the dressers stay where the are because what are dresser drawers if not just a stack of boxes to begin with. What remains to be packed are the dishes, the television and entertainment stuff (NetFlix box and DVD player), my computer, and the larger paintings on the wall (they are safer left hung up until there’s a place to put them on the truck). We dropped off about five bags to GoodWill and have a couple of boxes of old books to take to the local bookstore.

We still have to toss out the cat trees. We will be replacing them, but these ones are old and tattered. We were supposed to toss them last move, but I argued that we should bring them so the cats would have something with their scent on it to ease the transition and then once they were settled we could get rid of them (the trees, not the cats). Over a year later and we still have them, so I guess that argument isn’t going to work this time around. We also probably need to toss the bed.

The bed we’ve slept in as long as we lived together has been the daybed I had growing up. It’s a single with a trundle unit which we had popped up and pushed together forming a king-sized bed. Between the gap between the two beds and the sheer age of the bed, even the two layers foam we had piled on top did little to make it all that comfortable. But a new bed isn’t in the budget. It was also a concern to my parents though (what is that bed doing to our backs), and they have offered to buy us a new bed as a housewarming gift. Meanwhile TheBoyfriend™’s mom was getting rid of a queen size mattress that was not in great shape but tolerable for a guest bed. So we broke down our current bed last week and put that mattress directly on the floor. It was only after we broke down the old bed that we realized that the “queen” was actually a full. Nonetheless, that’s what we’re now sleeping on on the floor and will be after we move until the new bed comes in.

What had to be in the budget was a new fridge. There is no fridge currently in the new house. So we went to BestBuy last weekend just to look around, since it happened to be a tax-free weekend. We wanted brushed stainless, side-by-side or french door style (though I figured french doors were outside of our budget) and under $1,000. We found a Frigidaire that we liked pretty well for $899. But one of our fraternity brothers is the supervisor of the appliance section at the local BestBuy. He happened to be working that night and saw us and of course came over to say hi. When we told him we were interested in that fridge, he commented that they just got a brand new Whirlpool in that hadn’t been put on display yet that we might be interested in instead. He told us that they get alot more service calls about Frigidaires than Whirlpools (I’m not knocking Frigidaires, never owned one, just repeating what I was told). So after he brought the fridge out from the back so we could get a look at it, we decided we’d go with the Whirlpool. Some how, he was able to offer us the Whirlpool, priced at $939 for the $899 of the Frigidaire. Combine that with tax-free weekend and free shipping and we purchased our beautiful new fridge for only $900.00 even. It will be delivered on not this Friday (which is closing) but the next one. So for the first week, we’ll be getting by with my old college dorm fridge. Fortunately, we don’t have to be out of the current place until the 31st so we can leave or frozen stuff there in the meantime since the freezer in the college fridge is of course tiny as can be.

All in all, it’s very exciting and I just can’t wait to be moved in. I took Friday and Monday off of work. Friday to close and Monday to continue to unpack and hopefully take some time to just breathe. Electric and water is scheduled to switch over on Friday. I need to call on gas because they didn’t have an online form to start new service, but the only thing gas powered in the house right now is the furnace which we won’t need right away (in August) so I’m not super concerned about it. Internet is scheduled to be turned on Saturday (Monday at the latest). I’m counting down the days…

• The cats like packing. Boxes everywhere creating a myriad of new hiding places and things to climb on. Wish I shared their enthusiasm. #
• What is this sore throat that is sneaking up on me. Sore throat, go away! You are unwelcome here. #
• So, if you have a picture frame, made by your grandfather, that you know you will never ever hang up, do you keep it, toss it, or donate it? #
• I really wish I was so filthy rich that I could just buy all new stuff for the new house instead of packing up what I've got… #
• Hobbes knows we're going to toss his old worn-out cat tree. He's been sitting on it glaring at us. Can somebody tell him we'll replace it? #
• Words of Wisdom from LOST: "Jesus Christ is not a weapon." #
• The office is pretty much packed up except for the computer (which will wait til the truck is here). So empty in here… #
• I so should have grabbed the pack of Doritios that was sitting out by the water cooler before somebody else did. #
• After seeing shirtless pictures of a friend's recent beach vacation, I'm reminded that I NEED to get back to the gym. #
• Stewie Griffin has been outed!! hehehe. http://ping.fm/VO6Mx #
• #winMBP @taptaptap is giving away a $5999 ColorWare STEALTH MacBook Pro to celebrate launching Convert for iPhone! http://taptaptap.com/+RCo #
• One last weekend filled with packing. I wonder how many weekends of UNpacking after this. #
• Just started watching Sanctuary on Netflix and can I just say that Robin Dunne is delicious. Almost makes the really bad CGI tolerable. #

There’s been some hoopla lately that the health care bill, making it’s way through Congress now, calls for “death panels” (a moniker coined by opponents of the bill) for Medicare recipients. Now, if a “death panel” were what it sounds like, I obviously understand the problem, but when you actually look at the provision opponents are referring to a “death panels,” I can’t help but think it’s a fantastic idea. The provision referred to actually sets up funding for optional consulting on end-of-life issues (like living wills and advanced care preparations) for Medicare recipients.

My parents have recently been through this with my grandfather. They were burning through money for in-home nurses, electric wheel chairs (and building ramps for them to get in the house), and other medical expenses. On top of it, they had to hire lawyers to work out alot of the end-of-life preparations that make a difficult time at least somewhat smoother to get through. Wouldn’t it have been nice if Medicare could have covered some of that?

The reality is that all of us will die one day. Our hearts will stop beating, our synapses will stop firing and our bodies will start to rot. It’s a fact. Any preparations made in advance for how things should be handled in our final days (or even hours) make things that much easier for us and our loved ones. If you want to call providing the option to protect yourself and your family during your final days a “death panel” then where do I sign up?

• While packing, I found my old original NES. I checked to see if it still worked and wasted my afternoon :-X #
• Closing pushed back to the 24th (so it's on a weekday). *sigh* #
• I just made my last rent payment ever! #
• When asking for help w/ medical expenses on FB; best not to do so immediately after posting about your upcoming $6K vacation. #
• Wow, major thunderstorm #
• Sometimes life amazes me! #
• A co-worker brought in some kittens and one decided it was time to let loose some diarrhea as I was holding it. Lovely… #

It’s finally August, the month when TheBoyfriend™ and I will become homeowners. In fact, I made the last rent payment we will ever have to pay (knock on wood) today at lunch. Still, there’s been a few more disappointments as we inch closer.

You may remember that our closing date was originally supposed to be this Friday, but got pushed back to the 22nd. We found out today that because the 22nd is a Saturday, we won’t actually be able to close until the following Monday (the 24th). Which is a bit obnoxious to me; if someone were giving me that much money, I’d certainly be happy to receive it on a weekend or any other day. That throws our plans out of whack because we’d planned on closing on Saturday and moving in on Sunday. We hadn’t rented a truck yet or anything, but we had lined up some friends to help with the move.

As I see it, we now have two options. We can move on Tuesday, but likely will be moving by ourselves as I’m not sure how many friends would take a day off work to come help us move. Otherwise we can wait until the next weekend, however our lease in the rental will be up on the following Monday, which means if we wait til the weekend to move we have one weekend to get everything out of the old house, on a truck, out to the new house (~1 hour drive), in the new house, AND get the old house cleaned and ready to be turned back over to the landlord. That’s doable but, dear god, we won’t sleep at all that weekend if we end up trying to pull that off.

TheBoyfriend™ suggested we pack up the truck (with help) on Sunday, then drive it out to close on Monday and unload it (by ourselves) on Monday immediately after closing. That’s certainly an option that would allow us to have help for at least the loading part of the move (which frankly is worse than the unloading in my opinion), and give us a week to clean up the old house once all our stuff is out of it. It would mean however that we’d have to rent the truck for two days. I have no idea what the cost difference would be for that, but I’m almost curious if we want to do that, would it not be easier to rent a PODS container, which would give us a good week to get everything unloaded. We’d have to compare prices I suppose.

Ultimately, it will all be worth it once we’re finally in our own home. And to be honest, I don’t really think we can complain too much. From what I hear from others, the headaches we’ve experienced on fairly normal, and all in all the process has gone pretty smooth for us. Still, I’m be so glad when it’s over.

• I can't believe Busch Gardens Williamsburg is closing the Big Bad Wolf!!! Sad to see the end of the first metal rollercoaster I ever rode. #
• It's truly a great time to be buying a house. http://sturly.com/agn3 #
• It's hump day! #
• Back in school I neglected to use PS layer styles. Been using them years now, but it's sad no prof noted how awesome they are. #
• Tried Banquet brand frozen meals. At $2, I knew it wasn't gonna be huge, but I'd like to at least get 3 bites. #
• Setting your away message to "Getting naked, hot and wet" while you take a shower stopped being clever at least a decade ago #
• I truly despise Internet Explorer. #
• Yay for it being Friday! #
• Yay for leaving work a half hour early! #
• If you are a fan of a sex toy store, you do NOT need to declare as much on Facebook. Not a mental image I need!!!!! Grrrrrr. #
• The cats are gonna be thrilled to move somewhere NOT close to a stadium that shoots off fireworks every few weekends throughout the summer #
• I'm happy, though a bit confused as to why my water bill is saying that they OWE ME $42… #