ADVENTURING
Ah yes time to update the long-neglected journal (with something other than quizzage)...
Progress in the past few months: the ship is now currently residing in a shipyard on the South end of Seattle. In dry-dock, no less (which is damn cool especially when you get to watch them do it while you're the officer in charge of a small security boat patrolling nearby in the sound. And freeze your ass off with no bathrooms. For seven hours). Really though I do hope at some point to get pictures standing down at the bottom touching the lowest point on our hull or something insanely cool like that. Now if only the shipyard allowed cameras...
Today I drove to the shipyard for the first time. Not surprisingly, I got slightly lost and ended up taking a short detour into downtown Seattle before I finally got my bearings again. I have been taking the (*$@# 5:15am departing) bus down from the base in Everett for the most part because out here when gas now costs $40+ to fill my tank I like to stretch that for as long as I can.
The reason that I drove down to Seattle was because Xolaris/Jim ended up hanging out this past weekend and I dragged him out yardsaling and he found a couch that he liked for $25 dollars (to start the furniture collection in his apartment). We couldn't pick up the sofa at the time so we made arrangements for the owners to leave it out in a safe place for us to pick up today. Thus ensued Kate's next great adventure which entailed the following events/discoveries:
-Getting lost in Seattle AGAIN because dumbass-Kate decided to try to follow her nose to Boeing rather than using the mapquest directions she had in the car.
-Having *fun* in Seattle traffic heading north with rush hour to the yard sale site to pick up the sofa...at least I was able to use the carpool lanes!
-Learning that those anime-style fat Asian bred cats with the half-length bushy tails DO in fact exist! Was visited by one such Tom from next door while picking up the sofa. He had that same anime style low purring meow and promptly fell over in front of me and demanded that I rub his belly:-P
-Discovered that what looked like a small yellow sofa/love seat with wheels on the bottom was actually a @#$(*#$ heavy sofa with a fold out bed inside!
-Discovered that the seats in my car ARE removable - was able to fit the whole sofa in the back without having to tie the sofa/rear hatch door down to make it work. Wish I'd known about that trick before!
The sofa of course got the best part of the deal in the adventuring with the following lessons learned:
1) Sofa caster wheels vs. large gap in the slabs of Jim's apt complex sidewalk: Sidewalk (1) Sofa (0 and now with only 3 wheels...)
2) Jim and I got all the weight-lifting workout in for the day that we could possibly want after heaving the beastly sofa down two small flights of stairs, up the concrete steps to his building, and up a split stairway with tight corners in two places all the way up to his 2nd floor apartment. Carpet was our friend! Did some damage to the walls/doorways as well but Jim's $200 security deposit should easily cover for it:-P
3) Decided to remove ALL the casters so the sofa will at least sit level until repairs are made...
4) Encountered two nasty black spiders of Shelob-esque proportions who were none to happy to have their happy sofa-abode disturbed. Score Kate (1) Jim (1) Spiders (0). Weapon of choice: large heavy phone book. How the spiders made it all the way to the apartment without coming out of hiding: no f*cking clue...
All told the experience was worthwhile because Jim actually has some furniture now, we both got a work-out in from moving the sofa, and because the timing worked out that I was able to miss the evening rush hour coming home:-D
Am tired now. Must pack lunch for tomorrow and then pass out. Hopefully in that order.
Progress in the past few months: the ship is now currently residing in a shipyard on the South end of Seattle. In dry-dock, no less (which is damn cool especially when you get to watch them do it while you're the officer in charge of a small security boat patrolling nearby in the sound. And freeze your ass off with no bathrooms. For seven hours). Really though I do hope at some point to get pictures standing down at the bottom touching the lowest point on our hull or something insanely cool like that. Now if only the shipyard allowed cameras...
Today I drove to the shipyard for the first time. Not surprisingly, I got slightly lost and ended up taking a short detour into downtown Seattle before I finally got my bearings again. I have been taking the (*$@# 5:15am departing) bus down from the base in Everett for the most part because out here when gas now costs $40+ to fill my tank I like to stretch that for as long as I can.
The reason that I drove down to Seattle was because Xolaris/Jim ended up hanging out this past weekend and I dragged him out yardsaling and he found a couch that he liked for $25 dollars (to start the furniture collection in his apartment). We couldn't pick up the sofa at the time so we made arrangements for the owners to leave it out in a safe place for us to pick up today. Thus ensued Kate's next great adventure which entailed the following events/discoveries:
-Getting lost in Seattle AGAIN because dumbass-Kate decided to try to follow her nose to Boeing rather than using the mapquest directions she had in the car.
-Having *fun* in Seattle traffic heading north with rush hour to the yard sale site to pick up the sofa...at least I was able to use the carpool lanes!
-Learning that those anime-style fat Asian bred cats with the half-length bushy tails DO in fact exist! Was visited by one such Tom from next door while picking up the sofa. He had that same anime style low purring meow and promptly fell over in front of me and demanded that I rub his belly:-P
-Discovered that what looked like a small yellow sofa/love seat with wheels on the bottom was actually a @#$(*#$ heavy sofa with a fold out bed inside!
-Discovered that the seats in my car ARE removable - was able to fit the whole sofa in the back without having to tie the sofa/rear hatch door down to make it work. Wish I'd known about that trick before!
The sofa of course got the best part of the deal in the adventuring with the following lessons learned:
1) Sofa caster wheels vs. large gap in the slabs of Jim's apt complex sidewalk: Sidewalk (1) Sofa (0 and now with only 3 wheels...)
2) Jim and I got all the weight-lifting workout in for the day that we could possibly want after heaving the beastly sofa down two small flights of stairs, up the concrete steps to his building, and up a split stairway with tight corners in two places all the way up to his 2nd floor apartment. Carpet was our friend! Did some damage to the walls/doorways as well but Jim's $200 security deposit should easily cover for it:-P
3) Decided to remove ALL the casters so the sofa will at least sit level until repairs are made...
4) Encountered two nasty black spiders of Shelob-esque proportions who were none to happy to have their happy sofa-abode disturbed. Score Kate (1) Jim (1) Spiders (0). Weapon of choice: large heavy phone book. How the spiders made it all the way to the apartment without coming out of hiding: no f*cking clue...
All told the experience was worthwhile because Jim actually has some furniture now, we both got a work-out in from moving the sofa, and because the timing worked out that I was able to miss the evening rush hour coming home:-D
Am tired now. Must pack lunch for tomorrow and then pass out. Hopefully in that order.