So Long & Thanks For All The Wheels

We are now finally out of the old place, having cleaned the living heck out of it, and left it better than we found it. Everything that we now own is either over at my mother's house waiting for me to have a huge yard sale later in the summer, or at our new place.

We couldn't have done it without all your help, especially when I didn't have any transportation. Thanks, for everything.

For now, we're leaving it all where it is, locking up tight, and going camping. We'll be gone for about a week, but we'll be back to our new home, and back to blogging, shortly.

May you have a glorious and safe fireworks and family celebration!

What Era should you time travel to?

Too funny, of course I knew that one already, I just wanted to see if I would get the correct result from a silly little Facebook quiz. *chuckle*

Victorian England You like elegance and value wisdom. Curiosities and scientific tid-bits facinate you to no end! You like to be in charge and pay attention to even the smallest detail. Making people feel at ease is one of your many talents. Your analytical style makes the intracate Victorian life style endlessly facinating to you! So gentlemen don your top hats and ladies lace up your corsets because your time machine is ready to take you to Victorian England!

Tibetan Ricepaper Minefield

So we've found a place, and it's both a little more and a little less than what we expected. It's perfect in size, location, and price, perfect in amenities, and even has great neighbors.

A very exclusive place, you must know someone there to be able to even view, much less rent a unit.

The bad part is that it doesn't come with any appliances, so I have to provide my own stove, oven, air conditioner, and fridge. Not that it is much of a problem though, since I have a toaster oven, a small chest freezer, fans, and a dehumidifier. Later today I am heading out to buy another used small freezer and mini-fridge from someone who advertised it online. I also have a propane-powered steel camping cookstove that I can use if I can't manage to find a different stove before we move in.

Yesterday, we completely ran out of boxes, so the packing came to a screetching halt. Everything half-packed and partially sorted, walking through the house was like trying to navigate a Tibetan ricepaper minefield.

But we have more boxes now, so the work begins anew. We'll need new boxes shortly, as I'm sure we don't have enough at this time, but for now, we have some supplies to work with.

8 Steps To A Packing Party

We are moving, and having one heck of a time getting it all done on time, so we need help. LOTS of serious help. So I put my head together with a couple of my friends and we came up with some resources that I had forgotten about in my "old age". See, I've used these types of resources before, but had seemingly forgotten about their availability in my time of stress. I'd only ever used these techniques when I wasn't stressed.

So here it is, 8 steps to a moving party!

1. Find that extra food you don't want or need, that you aren't in the mood to move to your new place.

2. Find your hungry friends; Folks who don't have the money to eat really good food, or those that don't have the time or means to cook for themselves most of the time.

3. Load up on flattened boxes and tape.

3. Offer your friendly square kids a gourmet meal and food to take home with them in exchange for helping around the house.

4. Badger your friends in a friendly manner for several days after the agreement is made to get them to actually come over.

5. Start cooking your meal and send them word that food will be ready in about an hour if they want to come over right then and get to helping out.

6. When they arrive, set the helpers to work while you finish dinner. Let the food cool a bit after it's done until you get at least 1/2 hour's work out of them to make sure they are geared up and set into the work frame of mind for the next few hours.

7. Feed them really well, and with food they haven't been able to afford for themselves. (I used shrimp kabobs, venison, and bison from my freezer that I got on clearance or gifted to us during the past year, and that I didn't want to have to move to our new place, and macaroni & cheese.)

8. When they day is done, send each person who helped home with at least one bag full of food for their own home.

That's it! Soon your house will be nearly swarming with folks just itching to work, and more stuff will be done by the end of the night that had been done on your own for over two weeks.

Optional step seven: Ask them to come back the next day and help some more for more food and happy helping goodness.

A Birthday Missing

Well, T is now 15 years old. Another year older, hopefully much wiser. Her most recent full year on this plane has been a hard one, full of lessons about human behavior, anantomy, and psychology. She has learned of broken hearts and shattered dreams; Silver linings, and lights at the end of tunnels. Much about her own inner workings, she has come to understand, and is beginning to slowly come to an understanding of not only who she is, but who she intends to become as she matures.

Celebrations were nonexistent, as she had been told at Yule that if she did not keep up with her chores and keep her room clean, that there would not only not be a yule celebration, but there would also not be a birthday event either.

So far, both children have missed out on a birthday and a Yule celebration because they couldn't follow the rules of our household...

Somehow, however, it seems not to bother them so much. All of the excitement and joy of a single day being celebrated with gifts and fanfare seems to not be that big of a deal to either of them. They don't miss the gifts, the day dedddicated to their enjoyment, or their favorite foods all day long. In fact, they don't seem to miss it at all. Their favorite foods cycle through our daily lives at random, they always have the things they need and want, and we are near-constantly doing the thngs that they most enjoy, usually several times a month.

I'm not sure that missing out on a gifting holiday is much of a "punishment" for either of them after all, actually.

But, there you have it. She is another year older.