Done last week and a bit (20130302 Sa - 11 Su)

[mdlbear]

WE GOT THE HOUSE! It was really down to the wire; I think the underwriter got the last little detail confirmed with my bank on Friday morning, then closed at 11am. The realtor came by to drop off the keys at about 2:30, and I left Disney at about 3:30, having gotten my last bit of work signed off and my timecards put in.

Big sigh of relief.

Backing up to the previous weekend, I spent a lot of time at Consonance catching up with friends, doing a very little singing, and showing off pictures of the house while continuing to worry about whether we'd actually get it.

At Saturday's open filk I sang "Middle-Aged Bear" (it was a good follower to something else with a bear in it), and swan-songed on QV. Quite a few people didn't seem to have heard it before. Some of them looked kind of stunned, and Colleen sent a box of tissue around.

We discovered Saturday that Colleen's scooter charger had a broken wire in the connector -- I went to Fry's Sunday morning to get a battery-powered soldering iron and some assorted tools, including a nice little Gerber multitool with pliers.

Spent a lot of time Monday doing laundry. I'm pretty sure I don't have the stamina -- or the budget -- for flying to more than one con/year with Colleen. It's a much bigger production than going solo.

Tuesday through Thursday passed in something of a blur. Friday Naomi picked me up after work, with her kids, and we spent some time in the house. Our house.

Saturday involved a lot of driving, between getting three loads of stuff down to the house, taking Emmy down to Seatac for a Norwescon staff meeting, picking up her and Chaos afterwards, driving Colleen down... Susan made dinner for us, all very improvised, and Colleen and I, our kids, and Naomi spent our first night at Rainbow's End.

Colleen declared afterward that she wasn't spending another night there until it's all accessible -- that won't be for another month at least, when the stairlift gets installed.

More in the notes, as usual.

0302 Sa
  * up 7:30ish; d, n
  * The scooter charger requires jiggling the cable at the connector end;
    probably something loose in there.
  : The hotel room has a mirror in a frame that looks at first glance like
    folded stainless steel.  On closer examination it appears to be painted
    wood, or possibly foam.
  * Lots of good catch-up conversations. 
  * met Moshe and Jennifer's new baby.  Terribly cute, of course.
  * Caught about half of Nicole "Hello the Future"'s concert
  * Lots of sharing pictures of the house.
    ! feeling fairly confident now, but we'll see.  Next week.
  * Maybe a quarter of the 2x10s 
  * Merav's Interfilk concert.  Good, in spite of a lot of tech problems
  * Downtown Freddy Brown concert
    His song "Senior Moments" was laugh-until-I-cough funny
  * Not a whole lot of finger-pickers at this con.  As in, none that I
    remember.  Everybody using picks, except for Nicole who uses her thumb. 
  * Stayed outside in the hall during Ookla the Mok's GOH concert, where it was
    merely loud.
  & up to the room with Colleen, who wanted company and a little help
  * Open filk.  Middle-Aged Bear.  (The previous song, Chimney Sweep sung by
    Kristoph, had a dancing bear in it.)  Very silly crowd.
  * 0150ish At Colleen's request I swan-songed on QV.  Quite a few people hadn't
    heard it, including Batya and Allysa.  Merav was singing along quietly.
    Decent performance.  Colleen thinks that the people I was hoping would play
    along were too stunned to move.  She may be right.
  * Disassembled the scooter charger plug and found the expected broken wire.
    Cobbled together something marginal for the night, but need to hit Fry's for
    a soldering iron.
  * Probably got to bed at 2:30
  @ Oshatz -The Organic Residential Architecture of a Master Builder Architect

0303 Su
  * up 10:15ish; d, n
  * Fry's for soldering supplies.  Maybe I should put them in my med kit?
  * caught about half of Merav's "putting on a show" workshop
  @ chordatesrock | My contribution to Autistic People Are (ysabetwordsmith) 
  * (14:30:14) ***mdlbear has breakfast, goes out to Fry's, buys soldering
    equipment, and repairs Colleen's scooter charger.  A little too late for her
    to go to the Puzzlebox concert, alas!
  * (15:37:30) ***mdlbear sits uncomfortably in the hotel's laundry room with
    laptop and a bag of lightly-salted almonds.
  @ Watch: Amazing Animated Anti-Bullying Video Goes Viral (ysabetwordsmith | Watch "To This Day") 
  % Nice to catch up with people, but I'm not seeing much of this con.
  % I seem to be having TMJ problems again.  Not locking up, but aching on R.
  % 16:38 back hurting after an hour sitting on the floor
  * Out to dinner at Black Angus with Lizard.
  * back in the laundry room -- the plastic panties came out dry, but not the
    sweatpants. 
  * finally back at the dead dog, next to Colleen, and looking at the results
    from N's massage studio design contest on arcbazar.com.  Weird site -- they
    use facebook for (at least the publicly-visible) images.

0304 Mo
  * up 7ish; d, n, t
  * woke Colleen around 9 and went down for breakfast; laundry started 10:15
  % (10:17:03) mdlbear: The washing machine sounds like it's quacking, but in a
    very deep voice.  Bass duck. 
  @ Caring for Your Introvert - Jonathan Rauch - The Atlantic 
    (via What is an introvert? #456 & #457: Communication Expectations | CaptainAwkward.com) 
  : 12:12 drier on its second run; still very damp
  : Call from Kathryn with a couple of questions.  Should hear from underwriter
    today or tomorrow.
  : 12:52 Third run - *stikll* damp!  H8
  * Lunardi's, then the Pruneyard, where the B+N and most of the stores
    surrounding it has been swallowed up into a Sports Basement :P
  * Dinner at El Burro, which has excellent chile rellenos and flan.
  * Seattle/Tacoma, WA - SEA  to  San Jose, CA - SJC 02/28/2013  -  03/04/2013
    08:40 PM 	Depart San Jose, CA (SJC)		Flight #3759
    10:50 PM 	Arrive in Seattle/Tacoma, WA (SEA)	Travel Time 2 h 10 m
  * Home ~11:30; plane got in half an hour early.  Not complaining

0305 Tu
  * up 6:20; W=203.6; d, n; shower, exercise
  * It looks as though our loan was approved.  I should be getting final numbers
    tomorrow on how much I'll need at closing.
  @ Dr. Craig Malkin: Why Do People Stay in Abusive Relationships? 

0306 We
  * up 6:20; W=204.4, BP=128/76, P=58; d, n, t, l; exercise, light
  @ TSA to allow pocketknives, some sports equipment - CNN.com 
  * Wired the money to the escrow agency.
  * Slight misunderstanding; had to go in to the escrow company and sign
    *today*.  Dave will get us the keys on Friday, after the sellers have signed
    (tomorrow morning) and the lender has approved the documents.
    ... so lost about 2 hours of work.
    Looks like we may have overestimated the closing costs by as much as $15K.
  % My neck hurts

0307 Th
  * up 6:20; W=205.4; d, n, l; dishes, light
  % My neck still hurts
  @ A Softer World: 941
  * Went splat around 9:30 or 10; with a methocarbamol for my neck.  Helped.

0308 Fr
  * up 6:30; W=204.2, BP=148.92, P=59; d, n, l; shower, exercise, dishes, light
  @ The Joy of Tech :: A work-at-home ban
  * The house closed and was recorded about 11am; Dave dropped off the key ~1:30
  * HOUSE!  WE CAN HAZ HOUSE!
  * Finished up at work about 3:30.
  $ HSX:  copies of CC&S to Chyenne, Marty
  * N. and the kids picked me up about 3:45, and we went down to the house
  : A little reflection rainbow in the kitchen.  Good omen,
  * Drove back to the apartment to fetch Colleen, Emmy, and the Chinese food.
  * The house now has Chinese leftovers in the fridge.  It's home.
  ! Happy.

0309 Sa
  * up 6:45; W=204.6; d, n, l; shower
  * clean piggie cage,  Been way too long.
  : AT+T Uverse not available in WA, so Comcast is an easy choice
    Looks like digital preferred is the one -- has BBC World News.
  * bring massage table, bolster, folding chairs, card table, maybe bar stools
    down with to RE bedding, toilet booster seat
  * 10am meet with contractor, N. at Rainbow's End.  
  * 11ish bring YD down to Doubletree for meeting; fetch Colleen
  * 1pm gardening contractor (Jim Reynolds)
  * Down to the Doubletree to pick up the kids
  * over to the Junction to pick up Susan
  * up to North Starport with Chaos for bedding, grocery shopping at Fred's
  * Glenn and Susan came over.  Susan cooked dinner.
  % pretty much all day without a net connection.  Need to start Comcast.  Also
    garbage service.
  * sleepover.  folding chairs, card table,  -futons- _Klik-Klaks_
  * Rather poorly planned.  Colleen, in particular, won't be sleeping down here
    until the stair lift is in place, about a month from now, and probably not
    until the beds arrive.
  : All the cable and phone wiring seems to be outside; this will make it a lot
    easier to add CAT-5e
  : A lot of the draperies were left in the house, which will save us a some
    money and hassle starting up.

0310 Su
  * up 8ish; d; dishes
    % rather strange waking up in the new house.  A full-sized bed really isn't
      big enough for me and Colleen to share.
  ! The house has a very calm feel to it.  
  * fired up the portable hotspot on my phone
  * 10am wake N.
  * Did dishes
  * took Colleen and the kids to Farmer's Market
  * Took Colleen and the kids home more-or-less directly, since C had spent a
    rather uncomfortable night.  Picked up some boxes out of N's garage on the
    way up with Kat -- two boxes that I thought were bar stools but turned out
    to be dishes, and one box of boxes for Kat to use in _her_ move.
  * Unpacked dishware while N was giving a massage to Susan
  * Took Susan home.
  % Busy day.  Much driving.  Tired bear.

Comments

[amaebi]

I am so glad the house came through! Though it's wretched and nerve-wracking process in ways that seem quite unnecessary. :(

[auntie_m]

So glad you have the new house.
Now we just need to get Colleen healthy again and all of you moved in.
*hugs*

[fractalwolf.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on closing the house!

I was surprised and delighted to see you at Consonance

[capplor.livejournal.com]

With all the stuff going on, I'm sure it was tiring to get there. I'm sorry I missed QV, but we didn't have a whole lot of stamina ourselves. (Besides, I'll have to hear it again in my head, or post it on a cube wall, or something. $WORKPLACE, for all the official diversity line, really doesn't understand feminine ways of succeeding.) -- Robin

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

Still glad about the house thing. Yay you!

Sometime I should come out west and see yinz all again.

[mdlbear]

Yes please. Plenty of guest space in the new house. :)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

[tregare.livejournal.com]

congratulations on the house!

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

And, in other news...

...happy birthday!

May today be a wonderful, music-filled day for you.

[andyheninger.livejournal.com]

A new house. Very cool. Congratulations.

Give my love to Colleen,

-- Andy