Whew!

It's not finished by any means, as I still have my books and CDs to do, but the furniture is switched. I'm in a room with a door, with two ceiling fans above and books on three sides of the room. We are going to rearrange some shelves for my books and CDs/DVDs. The only thing that stayed other than his books was the treadmill, but it's out of the way. Of course, we are just now going to bed, having worked since eight. I am now intimately aware of my bed's construction. I like the setup. Meanwhile, his things are in the living room, which is set up as a study. But I have some more privacy now and I'm sleeping under one of his beautiful paintings rather than a photo of his great-grandmother, which felt a little weird. And the little dog has her bed to the side of mine and is therefore less likely to get stepped on, as, because my bed is a full-sized daybed, I dismount from the front, which is where she was before.

Got everything set up

It's hard to see in these pictures, that this is a full-sized bed, but the 'headboard' and 'footboard' are on the long ends of the bed. The coloured inserts can be changed, or even contain photos with a clear insert over them. Since my friend's living room is pink, I changed them to pink, even though I prefer the lavender ones. I wanted storage and so this seemed a good plan. I guess I assumed the mattress would be recessed more - it's pretty tall. Only the cat seemed interested in claiming it - I think the dogs were afraid of it, or at least one of them was. All the animals were upset about all the furniture moving and strangers coming in to set it up. I hope this will bear my weight okay; it's quite different than the way the similar bed at the store was constructed underneath. There is a bunkie board to help distribute the weight, at least, but underneath there are boards above a cruciform support of perpendicular particle board.

But all in all, it went well. At one point they had a piece upside down and had to change it around, but they still did better than I would have. The guys forgot to put the lower knobs on the nightstands, so I did, and I changed the inserts, even though the lower ones on the footboard meant getting down in the hardwood floor. The workmen spoke a language I couldn't quite identify. Some words sounded Spanish, but it definitely was not that. Maybe Portuguese? It's possible that are Brazilian.

YKWIA seemed to be disturbed by the intrusion of his peaceful home by the bed and what it meant - that we were really moving in together. It will be an adjustment for each of us.

Anyway, it's together and I put the mattress cover and bedclothes on. Now I'm home and I need to work on the game notes tonight, or pack, either one. But I did do a lot today, cleaning and moving things, and really want to just relax. It's hard to believe it's only Friday night - it's felt like a Saturday all day. But tomorrow I have to take YKWIA to an appointment, but otherwise I think game notes and packing are a priority. I don't have a lot of time before I move, and it will go by very fast.

So nice to be off work today

My furniture is going to be delivered today, and I didn't know when that would be, so I asked off for the day. Turns out they're coming between 4 and 7 pm, so that leaves the rest of the day to be productive. I did sleep in, till 8:45, but there are things I need to do today:

1. Pay my rent.
2. Pay my electric.
3. Call the credit union with a question.
4. Get all of the boxes out of my car!
5. Water the plants in the living room (I got the ones in the bedroom a couple of days ago).
6. Look for a rose-coloured full microfleece blanket.
7. Help YKWIA get the house ready for the furniture, moving some things and cleaning.
8. Take him to pay a bill.
9. Receive and inspect the furniture.
10. Pack some.

I need to take two pillows (for the shams) and a blanket I'm going to use to protect the bedding from one of the dogs, who has very short hair but really sheds. Fortunately, the bedding is a cream colour, and she's a light gold, so it should be mostly okay. But since I'm allergic to dogs and cats, I should minimise direct contact as much as I can.

With the exception of Monday, when my mood was troubled by the horrible interview, it hasn't been bad this week. We were a little slower, about 100 people in the clinic or so a day, so busy enough to always be working, but not overwhelming. On Tuesday I sent an e-mail to the interviewing committee thanking them for the interview, answering the question I misunderstood and basically telling them that I tank during interviews due to nervousness, and I hope they'll consider me for the next step in the process, despite my performance on the phone. I hope they will. I suppose all the experts would say not to do this, but I felt I should. The new head of the committee sent an e-mail to me Thursday acknowledging it. So all hope is not lost, hopefully. I really want this job, and I think that I would be very good for the nurse-patrons.

Other things to accomplish this weekend:

• Finish the game notes, as we're playing on Sunday.
• Take off the caps of soda bottles to give to a co-worker who saves them and take out the recyclables, which are full.
• Pack some more.
• Take some light items over to storage and the new place as I can.

The plan is now to go through the books and pick what I want to keep, putting those in the U-Haul boxes. Then YKWIA can look through the ones left and those not chosen by either of us can go into some of the other types of boxes to be taken to the library. My therapist suggested just letting the movers take care of the books that are going into storage rather than me trying to deal with them a little at a time--I will be paying them to move them, anyway. That is the bulk of what I've got, after all. I've already booked the move to start at 9 am on Tuesday, August 29th. I booked them online, with a note that things will be moved from my apartment to a storage centre, that much of it is books, and with a request that a few large items be moved to the Dumpster area if they are amenable. I'm using Wildcat Moving, a local company that seems to have good ratings with the Better Business Bureau and online. I absolutely refuse to use another company, Two Men and a Truck, which is very popular around here, as they stranded a couple I know in the middle of their move with some lame excuse when they realised that the couple was not my friend and myself but rather two men. No kidding. Hometown Movers saved the day back then, and I would have used them now, but they seem to have disbanded. So hopefully, Wildcat Moving will be a good experience. That gives me 24 days to pack, including a weekend right before. I'm off the 28th and 29th for the actual move. That also gives me a couple of days afterwards to clean the apartment and turn in my keys. That reminds me--I should fill out a change of mailing address sometime this weekend, while I'm thinking about it.

Okay, I'm going to get going. I need to pay those bills, get off the computer, and get moving. The boxes will take a little time to get into the house--there are probably about 35 in the car, although the U-Haul ones are still packed flat in a bundle, at least. Hope you have a good weekend!

Last night

I wound up totally absorbed in putting something together and testing it out for about three hours. I let my phone, which had a low battery, totally go down to the point it turned off, then couldn't find it for about fifteen minutes when I finally did tear myself away, realising that it was after midnight and time to go to bed. I had several calls and texts, but it was too late to respond to either. I did send an email to the person who'd called, saying it was okay to call back if he wanted, which he did so later that night, and we talked for about an hour. The person who texted and I caught up with each other this evening and had a good 'text conversation'. The project meant I messed the house up a bit. In fact, I need to redo a bit of the living room entirely to really incorporate things nicely. This will have the added advantage of giving me more room at the computer At the moment, a small bookshelf is slightly in my way and I sit at an odd angle, which isn't quite comfortable and would be less so for anyone else who isn't used to it, especially a guy. Since most people who might come over and use my computer are, in fact guys, at least one of which is left-handed, which would be even more cramped (and that's my setup as well), it would be nice to revamp things. I probably should have done that tonight, as I was home. Instead I had a quiet evening of relaxation while I planned inside my head.

The nice thing is that I always think my setup in the living room involves a computer desk and entertainment center that between them have bedrails upon which books sit as a double-decker shelving, when in fact, the weight is borne by the computer desk and a matching bookshelf. The entertainment center is separate, with books above it. It has to come out, and can do so without disturbing the majority of the books, and then I can move the table currently dividing the living area from the dining area over where it has been, and then I can stack the four half-bookshelves together in that divider, giving the computer room. The end result would be losing the entertainment center, which is very battered and over 25 years old (and it was a Sauder pressboard product to begin with, It is actually a relic of my marriage.) But things would be streamlined.

This was all set into place because I finally bought a television that is flat-screened and it is just a bit longer than the entertainment center allotment. It's not huge by any means, it's 32 inches diagonally, but it can stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Pandora, among other things. The old TV, a cathode ray tube television my grandmother gave me used before she died in 1993, is clunky but still working, so I moved that to the bedroom, along with the Roku box, so I can stream those services in there (I don't have a second cable hookup, but I can watch or listen to plenty of things just with Roku). I'm going to see about hooking up an old DVD player there as well. I discovered tonight as I was texting with Brandon that it was very pleasant to have Pandora streaming while I had my feet up in bed. I eventually fell asleep, and then woke up about 12:30 am and came out to take care of things like turning the aquarium light to night time use and taking my insulin. The rearrangement is tempting to start, but I think I'll save it for later in the week. I wanted to go ahead and get something while I could. It wasn't terribly expensive (I got it through Amazon, on six-month financing). But that will be the last major purchase for awhile, I think. And for now, I'll keep my cable TV, which fortunately I was already paying for an HD cable box (not sure why), so nothing increased and all I had to do was plug in an HDMI cable to use it to its fullest extent.

I made my appointment for a colonoscopy for next Tuesday, October 1st. The reality of it is really hitting me. Before that it was all in the theoretical category. When I went by the pharmacy today I quizzed them on different preparations. So Monday night I'll probably not be blogging, or if so, it'll be from the tablet or phone, and Tuesday I'm off from work and will probably be out of it. This is all contingent on whether Brenda can take me that day. Hopefully that will be a yes. I originally scheduled for arrival by 7:30 am and then called back and chose a later appointment since although I live just across a major road, she's coming from out of county to take me. I kind of want to get it over with. I have a lot of appointments coming up. There's finalising and signing my will and related documents (which to be honest it would have been nice to have that done before the colonoscopy, but alas, it's a couple of days later). There's a mammogramme, a trip to my regular doctor, a trip back to the gynaecologist, and on Halloween I go back to the endocrinologist. I'm also supposed to be starting physical therapy for my back, but that's only going to happen if I can do it after work. I am obviously breaking down and getting older. On the other hand, that should get most appointments for the year out of the way. I do still need to do a cleaning at the dentist; I'll wait until December on that one so that if they find anything, I'll have a full flexible spending card come January for anything pricey.

Our benefits enrolment is coming up soon, in mid-October. I'm interested in seeing how the health insurance changes. There have been several rumours flying around, and we got a required notice on health exchanges today as a result of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which I gather we will not be eligible for because we will still have adequate insurance. But I am interested in any changes. This major benefit is one of the reasons I stuck with my present job through thick and thin and even when it was only 20 hours a week, because I got full health insurance even at that amount and it was very good insurance. It's eroded a bit over the years (higher co-pays for stuff like outpatient surgeries that we didn't used to have, etc., but it's been pretty good and I don't need referrals to see anyone who takes my insurance, so I've been really happy with it.

Last year I had gone to the benefits fair and then the very next day I was hit by a car. It's amazing to me that it's nearly been a year. The anniversary is in nineteen days. I am so lucky it wasn't worse. Another anniversary that I'm marking, yes, even now, is the death of my last pet, my beloved dog, on the 24th of September. She gave me sixteen great years of companionship. It's hard to believe it's been six years since she passed. I only have goldfish and a betta (not in the same tank) these days. All in all, that's good. I don't really have a great deal of time to devote to a pet and I'm allergic to both cats and dogs. But still...I never thought I'd go this long without one. Also, it's hard to believe, but tomorrow would have been my grandfather's 90th birthday. (Sorry YKWIA, I know you hate it when people dwell on that.) It's hard to believe it's been nearly 14 years since he died. I wish he hadn't smoked like he had; he really might have lived to see 90. Most of the people in my family live to be close to that; the only ones who didn't either died of smoking-related diseases, accidents, or in one case, a severe case of diabetes before we had better treatments.

Speaking of which, I really need to see about going to visit my grandmother soon. With all that's going on this month it will be a stretch to do, but I should.

Okay, I've babbled on longer than usual, and I've been up for an hour in the middle of the night. Good night.

One cabinet to bind them all

This is the cabinet itself. The globe is also pretty fragile, so I put it up top. I've since moved the dining table back into position, and I put my CD tower near the cabinet. Now my recyclable hamper is over by the bill sorter and inbox.

Okay, I've moved stuff enough for right now. Time to take a break and then tackle the bedroom and laundry. Thanks Brandon and Angenette for letting me get this from you.

Finally, a place for all those little keepsakes

About an hour ago one of my friends delivered a curio cabinet I had bought from him, and I've already filled it up with various things. It's about six feet high and one foot square, with four glass shelves, three of which are adjustable. We put it in the corner of my dining area, and it looks very nice. In addition to things such as the Chinese figurines my parents made, my South American-style ocarina head, the gargoyles, my kaleidoscope, the Bast cat figurines, a tea set from my great-grandmother's, etc., I am excited to finally have a place for my Japanese doll.

When I was a kid and my father came back from Vietnam, he brought a doll and doll case from Japan. It is of a woman arranging flowers. It is beautiful, and that case and doll went with us all over the country, but as it aged, it became more and more fragile. Finally, a few years ago, when the glass was barely fitting together into the wood, one of my cats jumped up on it and one panel broke. The others are intact, but again, very fragile. So I've kept the doll in closet for several years now (the cats are long gone).

So it was with much happiness that I discovered her mat and the doll itself would fit in the case. Her mat kind of blocks the light of the shelves underneath, but I experimented, and I really like it where it is.

I also now have room on the table that divides the living area from the dining one to put books on, which is very good And things aren't willy-nilly on bookshelves.

While I was rearranging, I finally took my pepper plant out to the front porch under my window. Brenda gave it to me about two weeks ago, and it has a lovely purple pepper on it. But it's starting to bloom, and so it needs pollination. I do hope no one runs off with it.

Ah. I have defeated the dreaded weapon of the Spanish Inquisition--the comfy chair

I have achieved success with clearing off the bed, which is good, because I think the comfy chair is on its last legs. The bottom of the recliner hasn't gone back down in awhile. Now it pitches upside down when I try to get out of it. :( 'Course, considering I found it by a dumpster 7 years ago, it's doing pretty well. But it is time for new living room furniture, that's for sure. Something to save for, anyway. But then, I have the whole car fund that is one cent at the moment, too. :)

Anyway, having re-conquered my bed, I think it's time for insulin and then to go on to sleep. I didn't sleep Saturday night, spent Sunday night in the recliner and Monday night on the loveseat, so I haven't stretched out and properly slept in days. On the other hand, I didn't fall asleep more than about 30 minutes tonight, so maybe it 'reset' my sleep mode. :)

Something for the den

Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Desk

Yeah. You read that right. The picture is intriguing.

:)

How often do you see racial harmony selling sectional sofas? From a (real) store in High Point, North Carolina, the 'Furniture Capital of the World'.



Wacky furniture ad becomes Internet sensation: Selling furniture with racial harmony, melody--‘I like deer hunting and bass fishing and extending credit to all people’

Have $17,300 to spend on your favourite bibliophile?

Get them this special bathtub with storage for books and a nice backrest for reading in the tub.

I have one book that I will read in the tub, because it's waterproof (it was displayed in a vat of water in the bookstore). Otherwise, no. I can't stand the thought of ruining a book with my klutziness. So this is not for me.

Incidentally, the Bornrich website has all sorts of unusual things, including an aquarium kitchen table that really was spiffy (although I hate trying to balance on barstools).