Circles of Life
Circle of Life #1
Things I did not expect to do this morning when I woke up included buying a new washer and dryer for the Technicolor Townhouse, but apparently the tennants reported that the dryer had stopped working, and when the property management company went to check it out, the repair guy confirmed that the dryer was busted and would be cost-prohibitive to repair.
Considering that both the dryer and washer are original to when we purchased the house in 2006, I'm just impressed they lasted this long. The repair guy didn't look at the washer, but the property manager agreed that 10+ years is kind of pushing it, so we went ahead and replaced them both. On the plus side, the way we did it, I was able to put it on the credit card that gives us a rebate which automatically goes to help pay down the mortgage... so in a very circular way, buying new appliances is going to pay off the house $10 faster.
Circle of Life #2
Along the same lines... I've decided that the majority of the Pen money is going to go toward either paying down the mortgage, or investing in the boys' college funds. Porn is going to buy my kids an education, people, or at least a portion of one. I find this incredibly amusing.
Don't worry, I'll keep some of it as mad money, which I will use to buy coffee, in order to stay awake to write more porn. Circle of Life, yo.
I did spend a little of it already, and bought myself a purse. For $20. At Marshalls. Because I am a BIG SPENDER.
*
On the moving front....
We applied for the boys' regular passports. I think we horrified the post office employee, who started off by being super worried about Andrew's untied shoes, and then was horrified by Charlie eating three squishy packs in a row, followed by Andrew demanding iPad and then restaurant and then iPad and then television, wrapped up by Charlie producing a seriously smelly diaper in her office while we waited.
Hopefully, this does not delay our application, because we're already a bit close to the line on when our mailing address goes defunct. I'm not sure they send passports to forwarding addresses.
I've got the list of suggested consummables for Undisclosed Location. It's... um... long. I think maybe the only thing they didn't include on it was carrots. Possibly potatoes. Basically, I need to bring Target with me.
(Or Carrefour. I could totally work with Carrefour.)
As far as I go, I can deal. Bill tends toward picky, but he's flexible. I'm a bit worried about Andrew, aka Mr. "I Only Eat Peanut Butter Sandwiches for Lunch". I mean, the kid's already ridiculous levels of skinny.
Otherwise, at this point, it's a lot of sorting. Take, store, toss. The neighborhood garage sale is set for the first weekend in June; I plan on offloading just about all of the (little) baby things in the house. Andrew is, unsurprisingly, resistant to this plan.
Me: We are going to have a garage sale!
Andrew: Why?
Me: So we can sell some of the baby things Charlie doesn't need anymore.
Andrew: *alarmed* LIKE WHAT?
Me: Like the Jumperoo!
Andrew: No! Charlie loves his Jumperoo! You can't sell it!
Me: Andrew, Charlie hates his Jumperoo. He screams like a banshee whenever I put him in it. He hasn't used it in months.
Andrew: IT BELONGS TO CHARLIE.
I foresee me setting everything out on the driveway... and Andrew casually picking things up and taking them back into the house when I'm not looking. Or possibly trying to buy them from me with the money from his piggy bank. He might try to re-enact Toy Story 2. It wouldn't surprise me.
Andrew: Are we taking the walkers?
Me: I don't know. Charlie's walking, he doesn't really use them. And he defintely won't need them by the time they show up in UL.
Andrew: WE HAVE TO TAKE THEM. HE LOVES THEM.
Me: You mean, you love them.
Andrew: CHARLIE LOVES THEM.
It's not like I'm trying to get rid of anything that is actually Andrew's. I'm not - there's no question, we're taking everything that Andrew plays with, or has recently played with. We're even taking the Thomas trains, not that he's played with them in months. (They will, however, go Surface, which means we won't see them for about five months.) There are boxes of toys he's outgrown or just doesn't use that we're taking, because Charlie's going to be ready for them in a year or so, and it'd be silly to dump them now. We are taking LOTS of toys. Tons of toys. OODLES OF TOYS.
To Andrew, however... He's known for months that we were moving, and he's been super excited at the idea. I think the actual reality of it is somewhat daunting. Because moving involves, well... moving. I keep remembering the last time we went overseas, and he was just two, and the last few months, as I was trying to sort the house in a non-obtrusive way, I think he still figured it out, because his sleep patterns went completely erratic, and I couldn't get him to sleep in his bed straight through the night anymore. He'd wake up at 2am and crawl into bed with me more often than not - and I was usually so tired, I'd let him.
He's starting to do something similar now - he'll wake at 4am and come into our bedroom, and Bill will take him back to bed. (I sleep through it, because meh, I'm already sandwiched by a husband and a cat, what's one more body snuggled up against me, right?)
Mostly, though... it's hurry up and wait. There's not much else I can do at this point, so I'm trying to write as fast as I can, and sort as much as I can, and make sure I have all the stuff I want to sell set aside so I remember to put it all out, because I won't really get a second chance. (And Goodwill doesn't take everything, and I just don't have time/desire to deal with consigning or Craig's List or whatever.)
It'll get done. It always does. I think I should start accepting bets on what gets sent that was meant to be stored, and vice versa, though.
Things I did not expect to do this morning when I woke up included buying a new washer and dryer for the Technicolor Townhouse, but apparently the tennants reported that the dryer had stopped working, and when the property management company went to check it out, the repair guy confirmed that the dryer was busted and would be cost-prohibitive to repair.
Considering that both the dryer and washer are original to when we purchased the house in 2006, I'm just impressed they lasted this long. The repair guy didn't look at the washer, but the property manager agreed that 10+ years is kind of pushing it, so we went ahead and replaced them both. On the plus side, the way we did it, I was able to put it on the credit card that gives us a rebate which automatically goes to help pay down the mortgage... so in a very circular way, buying new appliances is going to pay off the house $10 faster.
Circle of Life #2
Along the same lines... I've decided that the majority of the Pen money is going to go toward either paying down the mortgage, or investing in the boys' college funds. Porn is going to buy my kids an education, people, or at least a portion of one. I find this incredibly amusing.
Don't worry, I'll keep some of it as mad money, which I will use to buy coffee, in order to stay awake to write more porn. Circle of Life, yo.
I did spend a little of it already, and bought myself a purse. For $20. At Marshalls. Because I am a BIG SPENDER.
*
On the moving front....
We applied for the boys' regular passports. I think we horrified the post office employee, who started off by being super worried about Andrew's untied shoes, and then was horrified by Charlie eating three squishy packs in a row, followed by Andrew demanding iPad and then restaurant and then iPad and then television, wrapped up by Charlie producing a seriously smelly diaper in her office while we waited.
Hopefully, this does not delay our application, because we're already a bit close to the line on when our mailing address goes defunct. I'm not sure they send passports to forwarding addresses.
I've got the list of suggested consummables for Undisclosed Location. It's... um... long. I think maybe the only thing they didn't include on it was carrots. Possibly potatoes. Basically, I need to bring Target with me.
(Or Carrefour. I could totally work with Carrefour.)
As far as I go, I can deal. Bill tends toward picky, but he's flexible. I'm a bit worried about Andrew, aka Mr. "I Only Eat Peanut Butter Sandwiches for Lunch". I mean, the kid's already ridiculous levels of skinny.
Otherwise, at this point, it's a lot of sorting. Take, store, toss. The neighborhood garage sale is set for the first weekend in June; I plan on offloading just about all of the (little) baby things in the house. Andrew is, unsurprisingly, resistant to this plan.
Me: We are going to have a garage sale!
Andrew: Why?
Me: So we can sell some of the baby things Charlie doesn't need anymore.
Andrew: *alarmed* LIKE WHAT?
Me: Like the Jumperoo!
Andrew: No! Charlie loves his Jumperoo! You can't sell it!
Me: Andrew, Charlie hates his Jumperoo. He screams like a banshee whenever I put him in it. He hasn't used it in months.
Andrew: IT BELONGS TO CHARLIE.
I foresee me setting everything out on the driveway... and Andrew casually picking things up and taking them back into the house when I'm not looking. Or possibly trying to buy them from me with the money from his piggy bank. He might try to re-enact Toy Story 2. It wouldn't surprise me.
Andrew: Are we taking the walkers?
Me: I don't know. Charlie's walking, he doesn't really use them. And he defintely won't need them by the time they show up in UL.
Andrew: WE HAVE TO TAKE THEM. HE LOVES THEM.
Me: You mean, you love them.
Andrew: CHARLIE LOVES THEM.
It's not like I'm trying to get rid of anything that is actually Andrew's. I'm not - there's no question, we're taking everything that Andrew plays with, or has recently played with. We're even taking the Thomas trains, not that he's played with them in months. (They will, however, go Surface, which means we won't see them for about five months.) There are boxes of toys he's outgrown or just doesn't use that we're taking, because Charlie's going to be ready for them in a year or so, and it'd be silly to dump them now. We are taking LOTS of toys. Tons of toys. OODLES OF TOYS.
To Andrew, however... He's known for months that we were moving, and he's been super excited at the idea. I think the actual reality of it is somewhat daunting. Because moving involves, well... moving. I keep remembering the last time we went overseas, and he was just two, and the last few months, as I was trying to sort the house in a non-obtrusive way, I think he still figured it out, because his sleep patterns went completely erratic, and I couldn't get him to sleep in his bed straight through the night anymore. He'd wake up at 2am and crawl into bed with me more often than not - and I was usually so tired, I'd let him.
He's starting to do something similar now - he'll wake at 4am and come into our bedroom, and Bill will take him back to bed. (I sleep through it, because meh, I'm already sandwiched by a husband and a cat, what's one more body snuggled up against me, right?)
Mostly, though... it's hurry up and wait. There's not much else I can do at this point, so I'm trying to write as fast as I can, and sort as much as I can, and make sure I have all the stuff I want to sell set aside so I remember to put it all out, because I won't really get a second chance. (And Goodwill doesn't take everything, and I just don't have time/desire to deal with consigning or Craig's List or whatever.)
It'll get done. It always does. I think I should start accepting bets on what gets sent that was meant to be stored, and vice versa, though.