Down and Out

Is summer over yet? It hasn't been nearly as hot as it was last year but we still have the worst part to go...August. I hope it passes quickly. I'm ready for the fall and lots of sitting outside on the screened in porch. Cooper loves it out there. He darts out the door and stays out there even if its stiffling hot and he's overweight and thick coated. The fat and hairy usually don't do well with heat. Anyway, I was feeling a little like crap today but I started feeling better this afternoon so I mowed the yard and went on an evening walk. Ragged also wasn't feeling well. I think we have been eating way too healthy of late. Too many fruits and vegetables can really mess with a digestive system.

Lost in the Shuffle

How did I miss this? Who was the 5th and final cylon?

Walk On

Sunday wasn't quite as busy as Saturday but it came close. I won't bore you with all the details, but I didn't get my car cleaned but I did go on three walks today which is one of my favorite things to do in our new neighborhood. One of those walks took us to a nearby Dairy Queen for a blizzard. I attempted to get the much touted Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard and we learned from the disinterested cashier that the blizzard flavor had been "discontinued". Ragged nearly did a backflip because there was heavy signage advertising the blizzard and the workers were even wearing t-shirts with the blizzard on it, yet they no longer had the blizzard. Go figure. Anyway, I settled on a different flavor and went on with my life. As you can find on Ragged's blog we made a trip to Lowe's a finished off buying the house blinds and I got one of them hung. We also settled on a rug for the bathroom and Ragged snagged a rug for her floor in her "studio". We cooked all the veggies we bought at the farmer's market and I had some pickled beets gifted to me by a friend at work. Mmmm mmmm mmmm.

Ike and Izz consider venturing onto the screened-in porch

And Then...

Lawdy it's hot. Today Ragged and I made a run to the local farmer's market for a variety of vegetables and some blueberries as well. As we were heading to the market, we stopped at a garage sale down the street where Ragged snagged two or three knitting books (like she needs more of those). After the farmer's market, we went to Great Harvest to get some breakfast...well, Ragged got breakfast. I just got some tea. We then came home where I cooked myself some breakfast. After dallying for a bit, we decided to hit some antique and used furniture places to try to fill in some of the holes we have in our new house's furniture. We had barely hit the first place when Ragged's momma called. She met us at the consignment furniture place then she wanted to go to Starbucks, so we obliged. Ragged had an iced caramel machiato and Ragged's mom had some kind of banana smoothie. I didn't get anything, but had a couple sips of Ragged's. Ragged's mama invited us over for dinner, so we accepted then parted ways. We had barely got out of the Starbucks parking lot when Ragged's pappy called and said he was at an auction and had found some things he thought Ragged might be interested in. We went to the auction for a bit and were tempted by some of the ware, but ultimately decided on nothing. We went to an antique store next where we oogled a table, but decided against it as well. Next, Ragged went to get her hair did and I lounged at the house, doing a little work work. Just before Ragged got back, my sister called and said their air conditioning had gone out and she asked to borrow our window units which we thankfully kept but were in our storage facility. While Ragged was gone, Brealtor called her and said she had seen a bistro set at another consignment furniture store, so we went to check it out real quick before went out to the storage facility with my sister. While we were at the storage facility, we went ahead and got a carload of our crap that's still in it. After hauling it in and finding a place for it and sweating our hind ends off the entire time, we changed clothes in preparation for going over Ragged's parents for dinner. Shew. I'm tired just in writing all this. Weekends shouldn't be this productive. Tomorrow I hope to get my nasty ass car cleaned out. It's truly filthy.

As We Know It

Seeing those commercials for the World Wildlife Fund with polar bears and their offspring on small pieces of ice is about more than I can take.

Ha Ha

Working Weekend

Ragged and I worked just about as hard this weekend on the house then we did the weekend we actually moved. My back is aching just like it did that weekend. We moved the futon into the basement in preparation for the arrival of the furniture tomorrow and we got two carloads of crap out of the storage space all while the heat was well into the 90s. Most of what we retrieved were books and that required lots of trips to the car and into the basement and in some cases upstairs. I think Ragged put in more work than I did, but I took it harder.

Return of Dave Ramsey

We have cable instead of satellite and with cable we have a few different channels. One channel has the televised Dave Ramsey show. Since I paid off my school loan, I've kind of slipped off Dave's program, but I'm still debt free, well except for some medical bills and the house of course. I may need to hop back on the band wagon since I now get to watch Dave on cable.

Some Progress

Today we got cable. Yipppeeee! Now we can go back to being mindless and slothful. Now if that crazy check would just come through. I'm working on that and I'm going to use this blog as proof. Anyway, tomorrow I have to go into work all day. I don't think I've ranted about that, but I'll save that for later. To make a long story short, I have to work all day on Fridays. I need to go somewhere because I feel like I've been stuck here for three days waiting on a plumber or a cable guy or somebody else to deliver something. Tonight, Ragged and went and bought our living room furniture. It will be delivered late on Monday. With that, I think we'll have all the big stuff in place. Also, Brealtor came by with her daughter and a friend. Ragged and Brealtor's kid were high school chums and she's in from Cally. The End.

I Should Have Gone To Plumbing School

The plumber said we would be his second stop today. Turns out we were his second and last stop which meant he didn't get here until after 3pm. I know that in his line of business you can't really judge with any high degree of accuracy how long something will take but I expected to be free to leave the house after noon. He was here until after six working on our do dads and he still isn't finished. We still don't have a backflow preventer. He has to order some valve or piece or something. We do have water to the fridge now and the leak on the washer seems repaired. Anyway, he is going to come back next week, probably Wednesday and finish us off. Things are slow to be completed, but we will have cable by noon tomorrow (God willing) and we are going to order living room furniture tomorrow. We stopped by the store the other day and settled on what we wanted. Ragged brought home a swatch of the fabric to make sure it would work in our living room. We nearly bought it on the spot when they said they could have it delivered on Friday and not six weeks from now. Like I said, we were going to go today and have it delivered on Friday, but the plumber was here too long and the furniture store closes at 7 freaking o'clock. What kind of store closes at 7? Anyway, by Monday we should have real furniture to fart on.

Ike in a tray under the futon

The Saga Continues

Well, the plumber didn't show today. I called him about 4 o'clock and he said he still planned to get to us but he had a ways to go. Not wanting the poor man to be here until 9 o'clock, I told him he could come tomorrow when I would be home all day instead of a half day like today. He seemed elated and said he would get home to an early supper. He's such a nice guy it's difficult to be harsh with him. We're the second thing on his list tomorrow after a hot water heater install. Maybe we'll end up with a discount for being so patient and understanding after all is said and done.

This morning I signed the papers selling the other house. I feel like I'm mourning over the house. It's the weirdest feeling. The new house doesn't quite feel like home yet. It feels like we are borrowing it or something. Anyway, I got the DSL dilemma straightened out. Apparently the new modem they sent us wasn't wireless and I had forgotten to put one of the filters on the phone jacks, so our speed was reduced a little. Who knew that the filters were that important. Not me.

Also today I checked to make sure the new folks switched over the utilties which they did and I attended a luncheon for two of my co-workers which I had planned. Not that there was much planning. It simply required me to send an email and make a reservation at a restaurant. They seemed appreciative nevertheless.

We have one a half days left until we get cable. I'm kind of ready to become a couch potato again. Last night Ragged and I dragged out our books and read. Have you ever in your life? We have been reduced to stimulating our cerebrums or cerebellums or medulla oblongatas or whatever.

Izz

Breaking News

The plumber did arrive but he will have to come backtomorrow to do three of the four things we needed done.

Not our plumber

Watching and Waiting and Waiting

Today the plumber was supposed to come to do a few plumby things for us which he was supposed to do last week but didn't show up for. Giving him some slack because he was just coming back from vacation and was overwhelmed with work, I rescheduled for today which I had to remind him about last night because he apparently isn't very organized. Anyway, it's a quarter after 3 and he's a no-show so far. We have about two hours or more of work for him and we are repeat customers, so you think he'd want to keep us happy, but that doesn't seem the case. I'm not too freaked out about it, just a little frustrated because the closing on the old house was moved to tomorrow morning which was the time we were supposed to have cable installed. I had to call today to reschedule the cable guy for Thursday which is going to make Ragged oh so unhappy. She demanded to have cable by tomorrow. Anyway, that's not going to happen. On top of that, we received a new modem from AT&T, so I need to call and verify that we actually need it sense we were upgraded to the next highest speed they had available. I haven't got around to that. Oh, and did I mention that we had a porch swing and an old sewing machine that we couldn't donate, so I had to get them in my car and haul them over here to the new place. I really need a truck...and a convertible car. At any rate, I still need to take the boxes to the recycle place and install some hooks for Ragged and put in some more doorstops. Tomorrow we are having a birthday luncheon for two of my co-workers and the list just goes on and on. Ragged his having camp this week so she has absolutely no flexibility in her schedule to help with all of these things and I have work work stuff to do as well. Oh, and then there's dinner to prepare. Shall I go on?

Boop in the dirty clothes basket

Firsts

Today was a day of firsts at the new and improved Chez Ragged. It was the first time we used the stove and it was the first time I mowed the yard. I also popped up the last blind that we currently have. We still have to purchase the blinds for upstairs and maybe one for the kitchen, but we (read as Ragged) haven't decided yet. We're still on track for a Monday closing on the old Chez Ragged. Brealtor just went by our house on her power walk and chatted with Ragged who was sweeping the curb.

In other news, my dad had another of his "fatty" tumors removed today in Nashville. I took the day off and drove him down there. We were there several hours before dad realized his appointment was actually on Friday. They graciously took him anyway. The site where they cut the other tumor our was full of blood so they had to suck it all out and the doctor stuck a long Qtip down in there and cleaned it out. He has to pack it for the next two weeks until it heals. It was nasty to watch. I didn't get home until 6:30 p.m.

Another and Another

We've owned the house 5 days so far and we still have alot to do. About the only thing I accomplished today was hanging one blind. My back was aching all day and I had to spend the majority of the day at work. I was so tired when I finally got home from work I couldn't make myself do much. Oh, I did go by the old house and pick up some of the last-minute stuff we left behind. We are going by there tomorrow to mow and clean. The closing is still scheduled for Monday as confirmed by Brealtor today. We have to get cable which I'm not really excited about. It's more expensive than satellite and has horrible customer service. Anyway, we are still waiting on the plumber to call us back to install the backflow preventer and the waterline to the fridge. Tomorrow I shall hang blinds and install doorstops regardless of what happens. The weather is supposed to be really nice. I might try to work on the porch if it's not too humid or windy.

Done Moved

Move 2008 is winding down. We have most of our crap moved and in place and most of our utilities are functional with the exception of satellite TV. Apparently we are not able to have DirecTV here due to all the treeage, so we are going to have to go with cable and they can't come before next Tuesday. At least we'll have the internet until then.

We've been to Lowe's 750 times since this all started and to our old house 620 times. We've gotten into 1,214 arguments and broken down 290 boxes. The cats seem content in our new place, particularly Izzie who apparently has a new lease on life. Anyway, more later and maybe some pictures as well. Thanks to everyone for help and well wishes. We couldn't have done this without you. A big thank you to Needles and Pilot who were invaluable during the move.

That wasn't so bad now was it.

Distraction

Our closing is going to be later in the day than we had hoped, but we have forged ahead with packing. I don't think there is another thing we can really pack and still live here the next 2-3 days. I had to unpack a bowl last night to have some cereal. I love me some apple crunchies, the Target brand of Apple Jacks and I couldn't wait to have some. Tonight we also went out to Starbucks for some coffee and to get away from all the boxes and the obsessing. We then went to Ragged's parents to secure a truck for moving. We can't stay away from moving planning for long.

Meh remembers moving here. Seems like yesserday.