Packed Out

I am all packed out. I've been putting things in boxes since Sunday, hauling stuff to the dumpster and Goodwill for three weeks, and have not even started on the kitchen. Today all the files were boxed up, as well as the contents of the computer desk and credenza. The Wii is in its box,  the box 'o' keyboards and power strips is in a new un-torn box and sealed up. All my 20x30 poster-framed photos are in a mirror box.

Went to U-haul after work, got there at 6:10, did not get waited on till after 7. One very slow person at the counter, two people ahead of me in line, neither one even remotely prepared to place an order. Second one wanted a trailer to tow his Mustang up to Clear Lake, and had no idea where up there he was going to return the trailer, and the guy at the counter was not finding the right answer. And then it took six credit card swipes. Make that check cards - he entered PIN numbers each time. These he keeps wrapped in a rubber band. Sheesh.

And the parking lot was chock full of trucks and vans.  Lots of people are leaving town this weekend.

Got my boxes, eventually.

I could have sworn this is the same place I got instant service a few days ago, but maybe not - the room with the boxes was on the right in this one, they were on the left last time. Looked it up and now I am kicking myself because I could have bailed and gone to the other one which was on my way home. :-(

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Work was not very productive, I needed IT help to set up the only tests I have left which I know how to do, and they were busy. So I did my performance review, which is due tomorrow. It should have taken 5 minutes, but took longer because one of my goals is to take a useful class from MotoU, but all the searches turned up useless classes (communications skills in Polish, lots of stuff in Chicago only open to the other piece of Moto, etc.) or classes which were not offered. I chose one of those and applied for it, since they said it was offered when there was demand. I doubt there will be enough demand, though.

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Been testing the cats on Sophisticat canned food. They love Mariner's Catch, they like Seafarer's Choice but can't stand salmon. Go figure.

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Plans for tomorrow:
Lots.
Work
11 am claim the new apartment, bring a tape measure.
Back to work
Leave early to disconnect the electronics, do some more packing and bring the cats to the new place, set them up in a close-able room with food, water & litterbox. Back home for the night.

I lied

I said I was not going to log in again from the home PC till after the move, but I am done a little early with the stuff I wanted to get done today, and I am too pooped and naked to go to Starbucks with the netbook.

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Was up at 7:30, did some move stuff online and got to work at about 8:45. The person I thought needed to help me set up for this one hairy test was not around, so I did some paperwork instead. And then it was time to go to the new apartment.

That took an hour. Significant buyer regret. Stuff which was not shown to me when I signed up, such as the lousy parking spot in the garage and the too-narrow driveway which is going to be a problem for the movers. It would have been plenty wide if they had not put parking on both sides of it. Garage does not have an elevator. There are 7 major league speed bumps between the gate and parking.

And something I suspected when I saw it from the outside, the patio fence will not keep the cats in, so their litterboxes will be indoors. I an not sure where they can go, maybe I'll only keep one and put it in the smaller bathroom's bath tub. I'm not sure Pumpkin could jump in and out of the tub, though. I'll have to run a test.

Went back to work, just in time for most of the team to go out to lunch. Since I needed help from one or more of them, and I really did not want to go for a 2-hour lunch, I went back to the new apartment and did a more thorough walk-through. The heat lamp switch in the main bathroom is broken, and it looks like the wrong size lamp is in the socket. I think the carpet in the master bedroom closet is moldy on the edges. Maybe it's just dirtier than it ought to be. The fluorescent lights in the small bathroom are on their way south. One of the track lights in the livingroom is burned out.

I scoped out the place, decided the cats would live in the big bathroom tonight. Plenty of room for food, water, litterbox and two kitty beds. Piano placement is still undecided.

Back to work, got help from one of the team. I cannot understand most of what e says, he's Chinese, but he barely opens his mouth when he talks. And his accent is still horrible after 3 years. But he reads and writes well, and there are three other Chinese folks on the team whose English is good, so he has learned a lot. But I need to talk to the boss about fixing the documentation on the test cases - there isn't any. This one test simply said to confirm that a scrambled channel could be played on a set top box which had a license to unscramble. What it did not say is it takes an hour to configure our system to do that, and you need a chart and some unwritten lore to decode the chart.

Left at 4, traffic was starting to get ugly. Home, packed up the bathroom, took out the cat door and bagged the litterbox cartridges. Took cat food, one of the (emptied) water fountains, one litterbox, two cat beds and two refills out to the car, then put the cats in their carriers (which was way too easy, not a mark on me - I feel cheated) and drove to the new place. The cats went in first, parked them in the small bathroom in their carriers. Then got the water fountain set up, filled the food dishes, set up the litterbox and cat beds in the big bathroom, poured the cats out of their carriers, shut the light, closed the door and wished them a good night.

By now traffic is extremely ugly, and since I don't want to be dirtying any dishes I drove to a nearby food nook and had a meatball sandwich at a sub place which used to be a Togo's, but is now a pizza/sandwich/beer place. There was a college game on one screen and a baseball playoff on the other. After Togo's went away the place was a sports bar for a while, but the current owners only have beer for sale. Very pretty woman behind the bar, I suppose she's not a bartender, but really a beertender.

There were too many children in there for that kind of place.

Not the best meatball sandwich on the planet.

Home,  did some packing. Rolled up all the rugs and runners and took them to the dumpster. All of them were cat stained. Made another run with the litterbox contents, and a ton of stuff from a rack outside the bathroom which I'd started out using to store packing stuff for eBay, but ended up being a veritable Bermuda Triangle for Stuff.  

Okay, time to take the computer system apart.