View of Balboa Park belltower from the San Diego Zoo Skyfari

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Posted by: Ensie at 06:24 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Finally!

I literally had begun to believe that nothing that I own would ever show up at the new house. All our stuff would just continue riding around on various moving trucks, traveling back and forth across the United States FOREVER.

The moving company called Frinklin on Monday afternoon to tell us that the movers would be at the house between 2 and 5 pm on Tuesday and, by the way, you owe us an extra $700 because you went over your weight limit. No kidding, really? I tried to explain when I booked job that we had 32 boxes of books and 15 boxes of comics in addition to our regular stuff, but they didn't want to hear it. Asshats. Then they showed up at 6, even though I had to leave my new job on the SECOND DAY to meet them. They also upped the stair charge from $49.00 to $69.00 for THREE extra stairs. The movers didn't mention that until afterwards and I refused. I think he saw the crazed look in my eye saying go ahead--try and take something worth twenty bucks. I dare you. I'm looking for an excuse to kill you.

I'll be contacting the Better Business Bureau later on this week about the crappy service and their inability to call me back while hauling 5,000 lbs of my belongings around.

Lastly, I wouldn't allow the movers to take anything upstairs (more money, you know), so it's all packed in the living room and one bedroom. I have pictures, but you're going to have to take my word for it for a while until we get the desk and computer set up. The movers did not set up the desk, even though we had paid them to.

To top it all off, they lost all my metal posts which hold the bookshelves in the actual cases, so the 34 boxes of books MUST remain packed until next weekend.

Posted by: Ensie at 04:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I'm still in limbo. No computer access at home as the laptop has decided to be incompatible with the system we have. Hopefully once the computer stuff all arrives it will work better.

The moving company has been "delayed" again. Every time I call they are "delayed." "It's our busy season." they keep reminding me. I don't give a crap. One would assume that if they are busy it is because they actually have customers, which all must be first-time users of their services because I can't imagine anyone ever using them after being jerked around so badly! The fact that they are busy should not prevent them from giving me the service that I have paid for. I was told, when I yelled this into the phone on Saturday, that I need to calm down or they cannot help me further.

"Help me further?!?" I said, amazed, "You haven't 'helped' me at all! Where the fuck is my stuff?"

Original delivery date: Last week.

New delivery date: Sunday or Monday.

New, new delivery date: Monday or Tuesday.

My orginal quote was 5 - 7 days for delivery. It has now been 10 days.

Posted by: Ensie at 09:44 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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We finally made it!

I am utterly exhausted. Some highlights of our move include:

The moving company's truck breaking down in LA, causing the pickup of our furniture to be delayed 48 hours. It was supposed to go on Thursday afternoon, allowing us to leave Friday morning. It ended up leaving on Saturday afternoon, after we had already left. My sister, Katie, who is truly my favorite right now, supervised the movers for us while the rest of my family left San Diego at 4:30 on Friday afternoon.

Our first part of the drive from San Diego to Stockton ended up taking just over 11 hours, not the 7 hours and 15 minutes Mapquest gave us. We arrived in Stockton at 3am, fed all the pets (2 dogs, 3 cats, one bird) and slept for 2 hours before setting off again.

The second day's driving was long and boring for the most part (hello, Central California) until we reached Mt. Shasta in Northern California. We drove into Southern Oregon admiring the incredible views from the twisty mountain roads. We stopped at the most beautiful rest stop in the world (giant trees, creek bubbling happily, etc.) before continuing onto Eugene.

Eugene was beautiful, however, I couldn't enjoy much of it as The Jeffrey was crazed from being in the car for 10 hours. He attempted to eat a bicyclist in the park, so we headed back to the room (after being warned by the desk clerk that any noise from the dogs would result in our immediate eviction without refund). I didn't see much of Eugene after that. I was too busy hovering over both dogs, concerned that the celebrating of the champion Little League team next door would set him off. I can say good things about McMinnamin's Restaurant. The fish and chips are excellent. I cannot currently, however, locate the link for the restaurant. That will have to wait until later.

We finally arrived home (after a brief detour to my in-law's house to pick up a bed and eat lunch ) at 5pm yesterday. The pets all settled in, with the exception of Merlin the cat. He has been hiding under the bed since leaving the kitty crate. We met our next-door neighbor and set up the bed. Before going to sleep we wandered the house, marveling at the fact that it is all ours. Coming down the very steep, very narrow staircase I missed a step and sprained my ankle. I declined the ER and wrapped up my ankle with an ice gel pack I happened to pack in our car. I'm hobbling around today, but should be able to negotiate the Seattle sight seeing trip tomorrow and Thursday allright, just a bit slower than usual. I cannot drive our manual transmission Beetle.

Katie and her fiance fly in this afternoon (it was supposed to be this morning but their flight was delayed). We're on our way to pick up a few necessary supplies at Target and Home Depot while our laundry does its thing at the in-law's house. Cleaning the scary bathroom is next on the to-do list.

We took many pictures on the drive and I'll post them as soon as all our furniture shows up ("probably this week, but we have up to 15 days to deliver," said the driver). The house is echoing like a giant cavern right now.

Posted by: Ensie at 10:59 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 omigod, my cats absolutely detest the kitty crate too. they tear us apart when we try to put them in one of those! We had to switch to leases with harnesses. They're much happier.

Posted by: Dawn (webmiztris) at July 25, 2005 11:28 AM (7tkGR)

2 Welcome home!! Can't wait to see the pictures! Rest that ankle while you can. : )

Posted by: Violet at July 25, 2005 12:15 PM (ZjExo)

3 Welcome home! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~Jane Austen

Posted by: Jennifer at July 25, 2005 10:07 PM (2D0UN)

4 On behalf of the entire internet, we miss you! Post more! Hope your furniture arrived and that you're doing well! : )

Posted by: Violet at August 01, 2005 08:13 AM (i2vI3)

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The computer is going into a box shortly.

Almost everything is packed.

The weather is not cooperating.

The movers will be here Friday morning between 8 and 10.

Hopefully we'll be on the road by one.

Lovely Stockton is our first stop on the trip to Tacoma.

Posted by: Ensie at 08:35 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Meet the newest member of our family:

He doesn't have a name yet.

Some dogs are not so excited about the new kitty.

Especially since The Jeffrey is the new kitty's favorite toy.

But he is starting to come around.

Posted by: Ensie at 07:28 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 omg, that is adorable.

Posted by: Dawn (webmiztris) at July 15, 2005 03:07 PM (rfFwe)

2 Awwwwwwwwwwwwww

Posted by: eden at July 15, 2005 08:46 PM (M2PUd)

3 That looks like a lotta' fun! Kittens are a blast!

Posted by: John Sparks at July 18, 2005 07:25 PM (JeKOC)

4 Waaaaay too cute!

Posted by: Jennifer at July 19, 2005 02:51 PM (2D0UN)

5 Ohhh, adorable, though....that's a mischievous looking little catling.

Posted by: MissMeliss at July 21, 2005 03:04 PM (ogsBM)

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We signed all of the documents for our house this evening with a notary public. Only one hour, not too bad. The money has been wired. The paperwork will be overnighted to our escrow company tomorrow.

Our real estate agent will be checking tomorrow on the repairs the seller agreed to.

We close on Monday if all goes according to plan.

In other news--I may have to look into becoming a notary public. $200 and hour?!?

Posted by: Ensie at 09:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Not really.

Rove's words on the Plame case have always been carefully chosen. "I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name," Rove told CNN last year when asked if he had anything to do with the Plame leak. Rove has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife. But last week, his lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Rove did—and that Rove was the secret source who, at the request of both Cooper's lawyer and the prosecutor, gave Cooper permission to testify.

I'm so impressed that he managed to destroy her career without ever mentioning her name.

President Bush stated at one time:

There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. If there's leaks out of my administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of.

That phrase, "...taken care of." I'm interested to see exactly what that means. My guess is still that Rove, with the backing of the President, will weasel out of any real responsibility.

Posted by: Ensie at 07:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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My thoughts and prayers are with the people of London and the rest of the UK.

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Got a call from the real estate agent last week, asking if we would be interested in an early close on our new Tacoma house. The seller is apparently a bit closer to being foreclosed upon than he would like to be and wants to get rid of the property ASAP. It was decided that in order to close a week early, he would need to provide an additional $500 as incentive to cover additional taxes, etc. that would be incurred.

He declined.

Then, suddenly, he changed his mind and wants to pony up the additional cash for us to sign early.

I just finished my conversation with the insurance company and it appears that we will be signing Friday or Monday. Now all we need is that cashiers check for $25,000.

We will own a house by this time next week!

Posted by: Ensie at 04:16 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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According to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a federal crime to reveal the identity of a covert agent. Anyone convicted of doing so could be sentenced to as many as 10 years in prison and up to a $50,000 fine, depending upon how the source obtained the information.

Now I guess we'll get to see if Karl Rove is above the law.

Update: For a continuing discussion of this issue in comment format, check out Pearly Gates.

Posted by: Ensie at 07:55 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Your Summer Anthem is Beverly Hills by Weezer Where I come from isn't all that great My automobile is a piece of crap My fashion sense is a little whack And my friends are just as screwy as me Your weird, wacky summer will be better than any summer in the Hamptons!

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1 I'm "best of you" by the foo fighters! actually, I like your anthem better.

Posted by: Dawn (webmiztris) at July 05, 2005 04:52 PM (rfFwe)

2 I got some Kelly Clarkson tune. I like your anthem better, too

Posted by: MissMeliss at July 05, 2005 07:03 PM (Cay3k)

3 Yay! I love Weezer!

Posted by: B at September 17, 2005 07:32 AM (s6M/A)

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I know I haven't been posting very often lately, and it's not that I haven't had opinions on the TomKat weirdness or exciting escrow adventures, its just that I'm exhausted. Work is hard. This buying a house thing is stressing me out. There have been car problems all over in the last week.

Life is just kicking my ass right now.

I'm still reading and commenting, but the slowdown will likely last for another couple of weeks as we continue to pack and prepare for the big move. I promise that blog-life will return to normal here as my own life returns to some sort of normal pattern.

Posted by: Ensie at 06:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I'll be glad when the weekend gets here...

What? You mean it's already happened? When?

Dammit.

I missed it. I was too busy clearing our entire backyard and cleaning our house like it has never been cleaned before. I am rapidly losing the ability to think--typing this blog entry took me 13 minutes.

Posted by: Ensie at 07:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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What 5 Things do you miss about your childhood?

But first the rules to this meme game:

Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place; add your blog's name in the #5 spot; link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross pollination effect.

1. Ivy Tied Up - http://www.ivytiedup.com
2. This is Ali - http://www.thisisali.com/weblog
3. End Of The World - http://andifeelfine.blogspot.com/
4. so anyway... - http://piggyhawk.blogspot.com
5. both hands – http://bothhands.mu.nu/

Next: select new friends to add to the pollen count. (No one is obligated to participate).

1. Violet: Forward Motion
2. Frinklin: Frinklin Speaks
3. Dawn: Tiny Voices In My Head
4. Jen: All Things Jennifer

Your turn:

1.Underoos

2. Lying in bed, talking and laughing with my late grandmother, Nana.

3. Summer vacations that lasted forever

4. Wearing my bathing suit like a uniform for the entire summer

5. Healthier gums (how come no one tells you about receding gum lines?)

I tried to find physical things that I miss about being a kid, but most of the time what I really miss are the feelings of safety and trust, and the people I loved that are now gone.

Posted by: Ensie at 06:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Ooh yay. I'm glad you did it. I like your answers.

Posted by: eden at June 23, 2005 11:06 AM (M2PUd)

2 Cool beans! Love this game cause I got it originally from Ali...and look how it has come back. Circle of bloglove.

Posted by: Jennifer at June 23, 2005 09:47 PM (2D0UN)

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Now that I've left a crazy-person message on my new boss' voice mail about needing a new letter, it looks like Mortgage Broker is just an asshat and freaked for no reason.

Hence, time spent in the car on the way home from work this evening contemplating how to craft the message I will leave tomorrow asserting that I am, in fact, not a crazy person, and it's my mortgage broker who is driving me insane.

Posted by: Ensie at 06:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There has to be someone else as I've already snarled at Mortgage Broker.

He called me today to tell me that he had to choose a different lender than he had originally planned to go with, and now I need a letter from my new boss stating that I will be starting work in Tacoma before our closing date of July 18th.

Except that I've already asked for (and received) a letter stating that I will be starting work on August 1.

Apparently, the lender doesn't believe that I can just move my current job from one place to another without interrupting my actual employment. I'm not changing companies, or even positions! There is still a one-month period before our first payment is due! The resoning behind this? Our house won't be considered "owner occupied" unless I "start" my job before clsing, allowing for a higher interest rate.

I've already left a rambling message on the new boss's voice mail attempting to explain why I need her to lie for me, even though she hasn't ever actually seen me in person.

I'm working hard to believe that this is just a normal hiccup in the escrow process and that things will fall into place shortly. I am not being punished.

Breathing...

Posted by: Ensie at 03:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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...overwhelming!

...I'm drowning...gasp!

(Plus--I don't know what any of it means and my loan officer is in Washington and is getting tired of me calling everyday with constant new questions. Whee! I did this on purpose?)

Posted by: Ensie at 08:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The SeaTac airport windows, doing their best impersonation of a mural.

This is what I expect the weather to be like everyday in Washington.

Don't burst my bubble. It's helping me leave San Diego.

Posted by: Ensie at 05:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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