Soooooooooo.....
according to Verizon, I should be receiving my welcome kit today or tomorrow and my service should be activated by Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed. I won't have a lot of time to worry about it this week because we have another wedding this saturday that I need to prep for, but this is at least better news than "we're not sure you can get dsl at all. We'll keep trying." I was starting to feel like Verizon customer service uses a magic 8 ball to answer questions.
The wedding on Saturday, though held in one of those Mega-Churches and featuring a really offensive speech by the best man about "the most important thing is to get a good christian woman", was very easy and ultimately fun. Both Jilly and I still got the "pre-wedding jitters", I think mostly because it was our first wedding of the season and we always feel a little rusty. But it went smoothly, and people were very pleased with the vegan spread even thought none of them but the bridal couple were vegan. We've got another all vegan wedding this saturday in Morgantown, which I think will be a lot of fun too. It's in some kind of woodsy lodge setting. I'm looking forward to it, but also looking forward to having most of the rest of the month off from catering.
Thanks to the kindness of Leslie, I was able to go to the big rock show and drink a six pack of Coronas on Saturday night. The Brains were fantastic, despite not having played together in over 6 months. They even learned some Weakness songs since it was supposed to be a weakness show but Chris had a skateboarding accident and they had to cancel. It's just always such a party when the Brains hit the stage!
Local Honey was difficult for me. I love Becky's voice, and she has such great stage presence, but I think she needs a stronger band. Or to reconfigure, or something. I think she could retain the boozy looseness but be a little more solid. But it was great to hear her songs and everyone had a good time.
Crow Flies---sheesh. I just can't even really talk about how much I love this band...it's a deep in the bones kind of love, consisting of memories of my first entry to the Pittsburgh rock scene and appreciation for amazing musicianship that comes from being older and having rocked for a long time. Those guys just bring it, and make it look effortless. I missed Wick a lot, but seeing DR Rawk in his Led Zep shorts, and hearing the new songs which sound as exciting and classic as the old stuff, and yeah, the six pack of coronas.....it was just a magical night. I am so thankful.
Sunday we lazed in bed until well after noon! And had a nice breakfast, and took the recyclables to the junction, and shopped the co-op, and had a nice dinner and did some laundry and went to bed. A really fine day off.
Today I am finishing up the apartment one way or another, then maybe stopping at the farmer's market, then home for another fine dinner. And then back to reality. I think I'm ready.

(sort of temporary) good news

I am writing to you right now from the futon in our "media room". This is the room that has the TV and VCR and DVD player and stereo and accompanying media, as well as the game playing coffeetable and beanbag chair and flipnfuck for game playing. It's coming together kind of nicely, just need some sort of CD and cassette holding fixtures. I managed to fit all the combined VHS tapes on to the shelving unit that held my pots and pans in the apartment---I am damn proud of myself for that accomplishment, because there are ALOT of them. They aren't in any kind of order but they are all there. I am so regretting giving away the giant CD rack that Dr Art gave me all those years ago....I'm not sure who I gave it to, but if you read this and you don't need it---I'll take it back. :) The smaller CD rack J* gave me is now holding our DVD collection, and surprisingly there are two empty shelves which could be filled with as yet unpurchased DVDs. I am sort of shocked!
So yeah, I am here in the media room, on the earthlink dialup. Verizon man showed up at noon and was done before 1pm---all he had to do was replace two jacks. He was willing to replace ALL the jacks, but since we aren't really going to be using TELEPHONES too much, I told him two was fine. He put one in here and one in my office room, which godwilling will be the internet hub. Verizon dude said he's installed DSL in this neighborhood before so it shouldn't be a problem. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, I have earthlink access for three more days, and then my account cancels on the 29th. I thought for sure DSL would be up and running by then. D'oh. If you need to get in touch with me, use my yahoo email (evilkamsa@yahoo.com) until I unveil my new verizon email address.
I spent the day unpacking stuff, putting some things away, and doing catering. We are providing some vegan treats for a big shindig at the zoo tomorrow night, and then some more vegan treats for a wedding on saturday morning. This morning I rolled 6 dozen grape leaves. Then I made the batter for pakoras, which I will be frying up pretty soon. Still tonight on my agenda is chutney and curry peanut dip(x3) and then I have a bunch of stuff to finish up tomorrow. Well, not a whole bunch, but a lot. I'm on schedule but since I have this whole other moving thing going on, I feel scattered and unprepared. I can't wait till next week when it will ALL be over, one way or another.
I didn't manage to get my carpet cleaned yesterday, but I did scrub the refrigerator and the stove and the bathroom, and got rid of the filing cabinet, and packed all the rest of the stuff up into boxes. Oh, and I removed fixtures and spackled! Yes, I can be pretty damn butch when I need to be. Luckily I don't need to be very often. Tomorrow I don't think I will be able to sit for a carpet cleaning(not to mention the fact that the street will probably be parked up again) but I am going to check to see if they work weekends--and if not, I am off again on Monday. These days off have been working out so well for me because I have had to sit and WAIT at one place or another so much lately. That is, when I'm not having to bus downtown FOUR times in one week. Grr.
I'm kinda liking the nightly rain storm deal---yesterday I was in the BATH during the rain, and it was unbelievably lovely. I had epsom salts and a candle and some incense and the soothing sounds of rain outside the window. That's livin.
OK,I'm really sore and kind of tired. I can't decide between having a beer and taking a nap and then getting up to finish my catering stuff, or having some coffee and powering through and going to bed early. I think I will probably choose option one, just because the rain is about to send me to lalaland. Sweet dreams!

Hi there!
I am sitting in panera bread on center ave, soaking up coffee and free internet. I am taking a break from apartment cleaning, and waiting for someone to move their car from in front of my street so the carpet guys can clean the carpet. I fear that it isn't going to happen today, and then I am probably going to have to try to schedule it for the weekend or something. Grrrr.
So, this whole moving thing has been going along pretty well, with a couple of minor snags. The main snag is the fact that it is still yet to be determined if I can even get PHONE service at my new house, let alone internet. Apparently the people who lived in the house last had some janky non-Verizon phone service, so the lines are not connected. So, tomorrow I am spending my day off hanging out at my house and waiting for the $91+ Verizon tech to come and figure out what is wrong with my phone lines. Hopefully he can make it so that the DSL will work too, and I won't have to pay for another $91 service call to figure out that problem. Let this be a lesson to you....just because you've paid for a monthly inside maintenance contract in the past and never needed it, don't get cocky and assume that you won't need it when you move in to a 107 year old house. Sigh.
In the meantime I am gathering my internet while I may. I can't actually use the free wireless at my place of employment because my computer swears it requires a network key(it seems to do this with XP computers exclusively. hmm) I have checked my email at the East Liberty CLPGH and here at Panera and at the Lang residence.
Speaking of which....Sunday evening we had planned to go to the lang residence to pick up Roxanne for her move to the new house. I decided to bring along my computer to check in with the online world while rebby gathered Roxanne's things. Since I have become addicted to craigslist and freecycle, I checked both of those. On craigslist I found a washer and dryer in Mt Lebanon for $100, so I emailed the guy. Then, I found a curb alert on freecycle---a washer and dryer in regent square FOR FREE!
So we jumped in the truck and sped over to the very rich part of Regent Square where people discard appliances with very little wrong with them. The posting said the washer needs a new timer but the dryer is fine. So rebby and I loaded a free washer and dryer into the back of the pickup truck. We stopped at the regent square theater to get the dolly, and then we proceeded to load the washer and dryer into our basement! We really lucked out with the alley behind the house and the 7 steps down into the basement from the back patio. Monday night rebby went to Home Depot and got all the parts to hook them up, and last night I did LAUNDRY in the NEW HOME! The timer issue plays out in that the washer does not stop filling by itself---luckily the floor drain is right there. Once I figured out that issue I just sat in front of the washer on my free barstool(from rebby's new work) and watched it fill up, then manuall turned the dial. Ta-da! The dryer works really well, and the washer is usable for the time being, so we are in great shape!
I've been doing my best to put things away--we are going to need a lot more shelving units, I can already tell. Especially for video tapes and CDs, of which we have waaaay too many. I am also still looking for the perfect desk to replace the big metal one I am not taking to the house. I can wait(especially since it may be a while till I can use the internet in my house!) We need rugs and lamps. I can't wait till we have a free day and some pocket money to hit some of the thrift stores. Maybe Sunday.
I love my new house! It is hard to be away from it, but today is dedicated to getting the apartment all taken care of so I don't have to go back. There is more stuff still there than I had realized---but it should all be gone by this evening.
Defrosting the freezer, scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen, wiping down the walls and light fixtures. Vacuuming all the incense ash off the mantel in the living room.
And then, dealing with the desk and filing cabinet. That's it! Not so bad. I just wish it was over.
Tomorrow I will be at the new house all day, doing some catering stuff and waiting for the Verizon tech I scheduled via a phone call with the robot lady. The robot lady really creeps me out, but I guess it is nice to be able to just deal with your problem rather than having to wait for a human. Then Friday I'm back to work, doing last minute catering stuff, then Saturday is the first wedding of the season! And then after that, the second wedding of the season on the 4th! Woohoo! Then a break.
I can't wait.
I'll check in again when I can...in the meantime, look for some pics on flickr. I can email them right from my phone!

5400 Blues

So, you remember the cell phone saga, right? How my phone went blank, and I went to the Verizon store, and some dude stone cold lied to me about getting a replacement on Thursday, and there was no replacement, and the woman who was there was very helpful and got another store manager to bring one in on her own time from Monroeville so I could pick it up downtown, and how I picked it up on Friday and it was all good and a MORE ADVANCED MODEL with those bells and whistles I indicated, and how I downloaded cool new ringtones and was generally feeling EXTRA PIMPY with my new phone?
Well.....the one thing I never thought to check was if the charger would work because, well...even though it's fancier it's still and LG and the charger I have says UNIVERSAL LG so I thought that would be cool, right? WRONG.
Apparently, the charger for the 5400 would work for the 5200, but the charger for the 5200 does NOT fit the 5400. Got me? I found this out when I was sitting at my new home with only one bar and a lot of phone calls to make. I called the store and told the woman who answered my story, and she said she'd have Kim call me back. So Kim apparently frantically searched the back room of the store and could find no charger that worked, so she was overnighting one for me. Which means I may not have any phone later on today until I can go tomorrow and pick it up. Which means trip #4 downtown. Thankfully I have another day off tomorrow, so it should be no problem.
It's just an INCONVENIENCE. Blah.
So some folks are stepping up to help with the move--yeah! It's so great to have friends who will go out of their way for you. And it is also so great to be able to reward them for their help with yummy food and beers. (or cocktails from the immense cocktail bar in our front room!)I gotta plan a good menu. I also gotta get everything else packed so there is stuff for them to move! A couple people have volunteered to do earlier in the week trips too, which will help to organize my thoughts, I think. I just can't wait till it's OVER and we only live in one place. I think I've said that already, but it does bare repeating.
Today I walked to my apartment from the house, and it took me about 15 minutes. Plesant! That will not be an ordeal at all to walk to the QS. I still want a bike, but I think I am going to hold out for a girly schwinn, because that is what I really want. No sense getting a bike I don't really want just to have one. So yeah, today's agenda is packing, maybe making some of those calls on the dreaded LAND LINE (I have to call about my DSL because for some reason there was a problem with the online order, and I have to call to switch the gas and electric out of my name at the apartment, and I have to call to cancel my dial up. Ugh)and then tonight rebby and I are going to see the new Guy Maddin film Brand Upon the Brain! He is one of my favorite filmmakers and I can't wait. Wish me luck with the TCB...I'm to the point where I kinda just want to curl up into a ball.

Friday the 13th Wrap Up

So, it's hard to say in the final analysis if 7/13/07 was a particularly lucky or unlucky day for me. It had it's ups and it's downs, and some downs I succeeded in turning into ups, Shirley Temple style. Here's what went down:
yesterday after all the TCB-ing, I went downtown to pick up my new phone. Turns out, Verizon dude STONE COLD LIED to me! He did not in fact have a phone coming in for me at all! He did not in fact write down my name and phone number ANYWHERE that the people working on Thursday could find! He was straight up just trying to get rid of me, knowing that he would not be there on Thursday when I came back. What a jagoff.
The woman who was there, Kim, is my new favorite person. She was at first a little rough, but once I explained what had happened when I was there two days before, she went to great lengths to help me. She called the store manager in Monroeville and asked her to bring in a replacement phone to the downtown store in the morning, since she lives in the north side. I appreciated her help, but I was also pretty pissed off. But---these things happen. I talked to rebby on the phone and we decided to cook at the new home, so I stopped at the Market District to get some food things I might need. Oh! I don't know if I mentioned that I needed to be there today at 1pm to meet the security system sales rep---this will become important later in the story. OK--so, we get some boxes into the truck, and figure out our strategy(deciding to cook at the new house and then sleep at her old house and then she would drop me at the new house again in the morning)and then roll to the house to unload and cook and eat. I opened the door, only to be splashed upon the head by a drip coming through the antique lighting fixture in the entryway. GRRR!!! The linoleum in the entry way was covered with rusty water, and the ceiling paint around the fixture was bubbling. GRR! GRR! So much for our two week homeownin anniversary!
Rebby ran up to the pirate bathroom and shut off the water to the toilet, discovering that it had shifted enough when I used it last week to cause the bowl to leak into the floor(the home inspector had told us it needed to be re-sealed, but he didn't really say RESEAL BEFORE USING!!!!)So, no pirate privvy until we can get some sealant and fix it up. Then, we'll have to scrape and repaint the ceiling. Hopefully the light fixture didn't short out--I was too scared to check it. Luckily, it doesn't look like there's a lot of floor board damage---it pretty much just dripped through the boards to the ceiling below. GRRR.
That was a huge bummer, but we managed to recover enough to get dinner underway. She grilled up a flank steak and marinated veggies from our K-mann box (zucchini, yellow squash, onions, carrots, and fennel)and I made a marinated tomato and ricotta salata salad over baby lettuces. And garlic toast. It was a fantastic feast---and it was evey better because we were both able to work in the kitchen at the same time! Huzzah! After dinner we retired to the front room and had coffee and kahlua, and then packed up to go to the other house to sleep.
Up again at the crack of dawn...though the alarm didn't go off until 6:45, there was a really annoying bird right outside the window that woke me up at 6 with it's incessant jabbering. It didn't stop for about 20 minutes, and then right when I got back to sleep the alarm went off. Grr. We got ready and rebby dropped me off at the new house for my vigil.
I tuned in NPR because as you might remember, my telephone went blank and I had no way of telling the time other than the radio(there is a large pocket watch looking clock in the kitchen, but it is no where near the correct time. Hmm) Then I set about making myself some coffee and eggs for breakfast, with leftover garlic toast. Yum-my! I listened to NPR and had my breakfast and coffee at my kitchen table with the sunlight just starting to come through the windows....bliss! After breakfast I got busy moving things around, putting things away, and hanging things. I hung my crazy op art plastic curtain from ikea in the mod bathroom, where it matches perfectly. I tried to scrub the rust stains out of the green tub with lime-away, but it didn't really work. I think I am sort of stuck with them, but they are a bit less noticeable. Once I get the blue bath mat in there it should cover them up quite a bit. I hung the Surrender the Booty beach towel wall hanging over the pirate tub, and it looks great! Hung my "dishwashin jesus" last supper picture over the kitchen sink. I put a lot of knick knacks in their new homes, and I lit some incense to make it mellow and peaceful. Hauled boxes of clothes upstairs. And then I was TIRED! Took a lunch break for leftovers and then I sat on the couch to wait. While I waited, I WROTE A LETTER! (you'll get it soon---but you'll probably have read everything in it already here!) And then I started to get concerned. I called rebby and she gave me the number for the security place as it was 1:45pm and no call, no show. After a little run around, I learned that Priority One doesn't even have a Pittsburgh office--it's done through a subcontractor. And no one had apparently told the subcontractor about the appointment that had been scheduled and CONFIRMED the day before. Hmm.
Roger the subcontractor called me back and apologized profusely and rescheduled for Monday morning. Sigh.
I was bummed, but then again I had a really great morning hanging out in my house instead of my apartment, which I have come to loathe and resent. Unpacking is way more fun than packing. So I called the verizon place and learned that there was indeed a phone waiting for me, and then just as I was begining to close up the house to catch a bus....it started to pour down rain. And not just rain, but fearsome hailstones. In July. Eek.
So, I called rebby and she was just headed out the door from her job, so she agreed to come and get me to take me downtown. I believe I passed out on the couch while I waited for her to get there. We made our way downtown through the hailstorm and when I walked in Kim was helping someone else, but she remembered me and was very sweet. I ended up being helped by the store manager, who downloaded my phone book from the old phone (but sadly, not the ringtones or pictures) and handed me my new phone. It is two steps up from the one I had, with these improved features:
1)speaker turns on and off with one push, rather than having to hold the button down and pray to jesus
2)the front screen on the phone shows you what you are about to take a picture of (ie, if you are taking a self portrait, you see it before you click) HANDY!
3)the tools menu has a bunch of extra stuff, like a time zone calculator and a measurement converter. Sweet!
Since I had had such a shitty day (in some ways)I decided to treat myself to some new ringtones. I changed rebby's from "Lick It Up" by KISS to "Breakin the Law" by the Priest. I changed Sissy's from "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode to "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. I changed Jennie's from "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division to "Saved By Zero" by the Fixx. And.....my default tone is now "Dragula" by Rob Zombie. Please don't be offended if you call me and I don't answer the phone...I just LOVE the way that song sounds in MIDI. Super great!
So that's been my day. I have to go in super early tomorrow morning to get my wheat free jalapeno corn muffins and black bean and sweet potato enchiladas for catering done before I open the kitchen at 9am. Consequently there will be no packing tonight. Amen.

Wow!
What a difference a day makes! Today the weather is positively LOVELY. It's about 65 degrees, the sun is shining and there is a very slight breeze. And NO HUMIDITY. Thank you Jesus.
Today I am having a major TCB day. I packed my desk stuff up, most of the kitchen, and I'm working on the file cabinet and the miscellaneous storage shelves (board games, photo albums, old journals, christmas decorations, etc) The misc storage shelving unit will become the pantry shelf in the new home, so I need to liberate it before I can unpack the foodstuffs. I'm also having a really stellar laundry day--I am actually right now drying all the towels in the place, and washing both comforter covers! Next I will actually wash the comforter itself, and then I'll start on the sheet sets that have been in a bag for months. I may even go as far as washing all the flannel sheets and packing them away for storage in the new home. Can you believe it? And it's only my first day off of two. AND it's only 11:34! Sheesh!
Yesterday I finally succeeded in ordering internet for the new home. It took about four tries because my computer would freeze up right at the wrong moment every time, but I managed to get it all done yesterday. I can't WAIT to have wireless access in my own home! Dude, I'll be able to sit on the PORCH and use the internet! I can't believe it. Speaking of sitting on the porch, someone is selling a 6 piece white wicker porch furniture set on craigslist for $40 right now. It's so tempting, but I don't have any superfluous furniture money just yet. Once August rolls around I can indulge my furniture fantasies. Of course, what I REALLY want is a porch glider, but for now a white wicker loveseat would be terrific. I'll see what rebby says.
We continue to be thwarted in our pursuit of washer and dryer. I think I should have been a lot more aggressive early on when there were at least 6 sets on offer the one day....I didn't realize that craigslist is a somewhat cutthroat market. I'm sure it will all work out, and we'll get a set when we REALLY need it. And until such time, we can walk to the laundromat at the end of our block!
Ok, back to work. Oh! let me leave you with
this. Even if you don't think you remember the song, if you watched MTV in the late 80s you will remember the video!

Some things it's way too hot for:
a. wearing pants
b. doing dishes
c. packing!!!!!!!!!!

But alas, today I have to do all of those things. It's really too hot to organize my thoughts too, so here are a random collection of things for your enjoyment:
1.my phone went blank. I can get a new phone on Thursday, so for the time being I have a cellphone in my pocket that I can dial (if I happen to know the number I want to call) and I can receive calls, but I can't tell time or text message or even talk to a bunch of people because I don't have their number anywhere but the phone memory, and I can't see it. Grr. The guy at the Verizon store offered me a janky black Razr without a manual in exchange, but I opted to wait for a new phone. I'm a little too set in my ways to try to figure out a Razr with no manual.
2. went to the farmer's market with Jilly on Monday, and lo and behold, the strapping farmhand was back. He really does look like he just stepped off the cover of a harlequin romance novel. It's insane. I got some lovely tomatoes from him (well, from his stand....I couldn't get to him because he was surrounded by a gaggle of old women all yelling at him at once) and then we went to visit the Aztec salsa dude. We chatted with him for a while---he is such a charmer! I stopped to get some eggs from bluebird farms and then we headed over to the new house to check it out.
The Monday market is such a complete sensory overload these days!
3. packing is going slooooooowly. It's so hard to get motivated in the heat after working all morning in the restaurant. I am hoping for some rip roarin thunderstorms today to cool it down a bit. I have a nice stack of boxes packed full of clothes waiting to go, but I'm to the point where I sort of wander around and can't commit to the next thing. Sigh. I've got Thursday and Friday off so hopefully I can get some serious packing and cleaning under my belt.
4. I watched Ed Wood last night. Now THAT is a good use of Johnny Depp's talent. I was just amazed at that film in every way...the story is out of control, the writing was so good, the acting is phenomenal, and it looks fantastic. If you are a Johnny or Tim Burton fan you've probably already seen it, but if you haven't by chance I highly recommend it!
5. We went to the old garage a few days ago to get my little Bayou Buddie for back patio grilling. In the course of wading through all the accumulated crap up there to find it, we found a box of old cassettes I had somehow abandoned. In that box was my cassette of This Is The Sea by the Waterboys. I am a VERY happy girl!
6. I don't think I want to haul my giant metal and wood desk to the new place. I think I want something smaller and less brown. If you are in the area and would like a giant metal and wood desk (it came from an office at Carlow--it really is an official office type desk and it's in fine shape except for the one leg is slightly bent) let me know. This desk has served me very well but when I have a giant empty surface I tend to fill it up with things, and I want to have less temptation to STACk. You know the score.

Attention: fans of Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, John Tuturro, Cate Blanchett, and Harry Dean Stanton. This is a public service announcement to save you from a very disappointing viewing experience.
Fourth of July night we did not end up going to the woods party after all. Anita got an infected foot from walking barefoot in the creek (ouch!) so we couldn't play. We thought about going to the party anyways, to see what it would be like, but by the time I worked a long busy day at the restaurant and rebby moved a couple truckloads of stuff to the new house, we chose to lay low. So we went over to the Bonello compound and grilled some grassfed beef burgers (oh YES! so GOOD!) and had a giant salad and some BBQ fries, and some of our pirate beers and then headed back to my place to watch a netflix movie. My netflix queue has reached the Johnny Depp ouvre countdown, so this set included Ed Wood and The Man Who Cried. Reading the description of The Man Who Cried, I could not understand how I had not heard of this film.....Christina Ricci as a showgirl in 1930s Paris? Johnny Depp as a gypsy? How could this not be the sexiest film ever?
I'll tell you how.
Good lord, it was just a train wreck. I have not seen that kind of wasted talent in a long time. Neither Christina nor Johnny have more than 20 lines in the whole thing. They both do a LOT of brooding. Cate's russian accent sounds like she studied old Rocky and Bullwinkle Boris and Natasha episodes. The lip synching to opera (John Tuturro) and plaintive English folksong (christina) is appalling. The editing sucks. The story is so undeveloped you really can't follow it. About the ONLY reason to watch this film is if you think you might get turned on watching Johnny Depp and/or Christina Ricci shoveling horse shit. (um, I mean that literally, but it's a pretty apt metaphor as well) So very disappointing. Please stay away.
In other news, I am now a full fledged craigslist addict. We did manage to actually get a couple things (floor lamps, a wastebasket, some dishes, and a toaster oven) courtesy of a craigslist moving sale, and we may go today to pick up a nice Ikea wood shelving unit for cheap. I have written down numbers for about 15 different electric dryers, but so far we are unwilling to commit. Maybe this weekend we'll get serious about getting a washer and dryer. I'm definitely all about recycling furniture, so we want to avoid buying new things as much as possible. But, I also need to avoid buying things we really don't need just because they're cheap. Some guy was selling a porch glider that I became absolutely obsessed with, but a porch glider is not something we NEED. See? I can do it. Yes it's a giant house, and yes, we have very little in the way of furniture, but that doesn't mean we need to get every thing that catches my eye. Still.....I like to look. That's not a crime.
Today is another day off, full of packing and later picking up a kitchen table and chairs and perhaps some other furniture things from Jesse and Thad who are moving to Chicago. We really lucked out timing wise with our move as far as receiving the bounty of friends who are leaving town!
OK...I better get to work. Those books are not going to pack themselves!

Day Off Take Two

So, I was humming along nicely with the packing yesterday, grooving out to some records I found on the street the other day. Among them was a copy of this, with which I sang EVERY WORD as I packed away my cookbooks, videos, and record albums. It seems to be the week for digging deep into the wayback machine for me, as I spent all of my brunch prep time wailing along with Barry. Sometimes I wonder what kind of genius I would be if so much of my biological hard drive was not filled up with the lyrics to cheesy 70s ballads. But hey....it makes me unbelievably happy to sing along with Barry and Donny. And I get a lot done.
So anyways, there I was, packing, doing laundry, answering long overdue emails (hi J*!) and putting together a delicious slow cooked dinner of happy pork spare ribs with local organic green beans in spicy tomato sauce---when suddenly the phone rings. Argh. It was the sad tale of one of our cooks messing up his leg in a skateboarding accident, leaving no one to cover his shift but me. So in to work I went at 4:30, leaving the delicious dinner for rebby and making a valiant attempt to contain all the packing mess. I had a decent time at work---it was busy, but I took care of a bunch of stuff and got to chat with one of my favorite baristas with whom I NEVER work anymore. However---I have been really unsuccessful at recapturing the groove today. I went for a walk to get some quarters and some lunch and a few things at the dollar store, and now I am just tired. But I have the DESIRE to do more, just not the WILL. Classic tale, no?
I'm hoping this evening we can go check out the convent furniture(I saw a craigslist post about a local convent that bought all new furniture for the nuns, so they are selling their old bedroom stuff for cheap!) maybe track down a washer and dryer, and possibly take a load of stuff over to the house. We'll see how rebby feels after her workday. Wish me luck getting back on the packing horse!
Oh! And if you happen to be in pittsburgh with nothing to do for the 4th, anita fix and bambam is playing at a bbq in the woods above fifth avenue. Send me a message if you want details. Should be a weird time.

Good morning!
I'm off today, but I got up early with my adorable little AV Tech to make her some coffee before she headed off into the world. I have hours of packing ahead of me today. Packing, laundry, bill paying, and hopefully downloading some songs before my emusic credits expire for this month. It may already be too late, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen on the first so I might have a chance.
Saturday was a kinda fun day----I worked breakfast and my croissant special sold well. That's always gratifying. I made a vegan blueberry crumbcake, and then rebby picked me up and we headed over to the house. We put the feet on our new gorgeous couch and chair and ottoman set (we inherited this set from a friend who recently moved---I wasn't sure how I felt about it from memory but once I sat down on the chair I realized it was absolutely HEAVENLY!) and moved them into position in what we have deemed the "culture room". This is the front room of the first floor---the one with the crazy art deco/pagan goddess fireplace. We decided this room will be for reading, having cocktails, and listening to old records on the hi-fi. The second room will be the "media room" with TV and CD/DVD player. We also hung the pirate sign on the bathroom, and installed Jesus and St Claire on the mantelpiece. It was hard to leave, but we were headed over to Growler Hours to get some local beer. Boy howdy, I had no idea the brewer and his assistant were such fun talkative guys who just love to pour beer! By the time we got there they had gone from 7 to 4 varieties on tap, but we still got plenty buzz on. We ended up getting a growler of the Kvass (which I call Russian Bread Beer because the tap handle has a big loaf of bread on it) and a bottle of the New Smokestack Heritage Porter. We haven't cracked that open yet but it's waiting in our new fridge.
After the very pleasant hour we passed at the brewery, we went over to the Lang compound to grill some of our happy pig porkchops from the farm share we purchased. Rebby also picked up some grass fed beef which I can't wait to taste. We had the porkchops with just a little hickory salt, and a big salad of Kretschmann greens and some radishes we got for free from the farmer's market (they threw them in after I bought a dollar's worth of garlic. Sweet deal!) A little roasted yellow squash and garlic toast and pints of fresh beer in our new KISS glasses (I had Destroyer, she had Rock and Roll Over) That's livin, folks! We had some frozen fruit bars for dessert and then headed over to the home depot to browse paint samples and air circulators. I THINK I've found the orange and blue paint combo I want....it's really hard to commit though. You know? I feel like I need to bring my ikea lamp and a cobalt martini glass in with me to match. I picked up all the color combo literature they had available....truth is, I have spent so much mental energy on the kitchen colors that I haven't thought about painting any of the other rooms! I think we should wait to choose colors for the culture room till we see what color the fireplace is underneath all that insane white paint. We picked out the air circulator we wanted, and then I stumbled upon the PERFECT ceiling fan for my kitchen. 20% off! I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but the kitchen is currently rocking two very institutional light fixtures. Not cool. We didn't buy them then since it was late and we didn't want to have to haul them up to my apartment and then back down. So we just came back here to sleep since I had to surprise work brunch.
Brunch was SLOW, but my specials sold proportionately well. There just weren't that many customers total. Rebby called me on her new CELL PHONE! (she HAS to have one for work. It's my dream come true!) and brought me home to change. Then we headed back over to the depot to make our purchases. It was fun to run into some fellow homeowner friends of ours. It really is a whole different feeling to go to home depot when you actually do OWN a home. We got our fans and some protective goggles and then back to the house.
Didn't do much but measure for screens and sit on the couch, and then just as we were getting ready to leave, we got our very first visitors! Laura and Mike biked over and brought us a bottle of champagne. So sweet! We gave them the tour and then hung out in our culture room for a while, talking about their home buying plans. Then back over to rebby's for dinner again and to watch the simpsons. I can't wait till we have ONE home instead of three ( or four, if you count home depot) It won't be long now!