Today I have:

- Completed a module for the on-line series my PM "highly recommended" I take. That is the only reason I'm doing them, because these modules are terrible.
- Rearranged the appliances in the kitchen
- Unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher
- Unpacked about six boxes
- Rearranged half the livingroom
- Read two ebooks (both so bad I had to stop reading them)
- Started a third ebook which so far has been readable, even if it hasn't been good
- Put up a shelf in the bathroom so we have a place to store towels
- Called Verizon only to be told that no one was available to explain my bill -_-

I still need to call the apartment complex and let them know about the washer. I think I'll do that right after I finish making this post.

miome should be back around dinnertime. I can't wait for her to be home.

Today miome, Miome's parents, and I all took the Metro into DC proper to go to the Smithsonian (or more accurately, the American History museum). Of course we would pick the one weekend they're doing track maintenance on the blue line. Sigh. But we went, enjoyed ourselves, and got back. So that is a win.

Otherwise, I'm still slowly unpacking things. My cats are thrilled because one of the things I unpacked was the cat bed. Happy kitties are happy. They also think that the boxes are the best cat toys ever, right behind string and paper bags. Kitties.

I'm hoping that once I get into a more stable routine, I'll start really writing again. I know people have been agitating for me to finish the Witch King stories and I'd at least like to get the next part done before seriously writing another set in that universe.

At least I'm beginning to have time to read again. ^^

Surprise time change! I mean, I knew it was coming, but didn't know it was this weekend until I opened my computer and stared at the time displayed in confusion.

Yesterday, miome and I found Vietnamese restaurant that specializes in pho and is nearby. According to Google Maps, there are at least 8 Vietnamese restaurants within a 10 mile radius of here. I think I may just learn to love this place.

Curtain hanging is going. We seem to be missing a panel from our old apartment. I'm sure it will turn up: one does not simply lose an entire curtain panel without noticing. It's probably in a box used as padding for something.

The kitties are adjusting to the new place well. They show this by sleeping, randomly chasing invisible fairies up and down the stairs, and demanding pettings as soon as they hear us talking in the morning. In other words, by acting like cats.

We are both still trying to learn how everything works in our kitchen/apartment. For example, the last stove we had tended to bake about 50-100 degrees higher than what you set it at. On this stove, the range is high powered. I haven't tried baking anything yet. I'm sure it will take a few runs to get it right.

Now if only we could figure out how the thermostat worked here...

I can haz curtains!

miome was packing in her room when I hear a "Oh my god, what is that?" I, of course, go to investigate. Pretty high up the wall is a fairly large house centipede. I've not seen them around here before, but I recognize it. I tell Miome was it is.

"It's a walking hairball. I don't care what you do, just get rid of it."

Having never seen one before, instead of immediately getting rid of it, I went and got the camera. Got a fairly decent picture of it too. Then I put the camera away, got something to catch it in, and... it was gone. Miome came back from taking out the garbage.

Tsaiko: The good news is, the thing is gone. The bad news is, I don't know where it went.
Miome: You took a picture of it, didn't you?
Tsaiko: Maybe...
Miome: And it disappeared when you were putting the camera back, didn't it?
Tsaiko: Wow. You're good.
Miome: Next time, get rid of it first.

We may have an apartment.

I think I'm getting sick. Sigh.

I have found an apartment that will work. Need to get the paperwork in and see if we can get the one we want (top floor).

My thesis is turned in. I have two nice copies of it sitting here next to me.

Still packing.

Sent in the official acceptance today. Packed all weekend. Freaked out about finding an apartment (thank you, akiko for sending that information. It was helpful to know that the prices we're seeing for apartments aren't too ridiculous). I have given notice to my current employer and am in the process of raiding the building for boxes. I have a large stack ready to take home today so I can stay home tomorrow and pack.

But, I wanted to share this bit from one of the interviews I had for this position.

Interviewer: There will probably be a lot of travel at the beginning of this project.
Tsaiko: That's fine.
Interviewer: There might even be some international travel
Tsaiko: Really? *is excited*
Interviewer: Places like England, Singapore, Hawaii...
Tsaiko: *thinking Hawaii's not international* That sound very interesting.

I somehow managed to keep from correcting him during the interview, but boy I wanted to say to him "Really? Hawaii's international? I'm sure they would love to know that!" It's not a good idea to correct your boss before he's even your boss. XD

I packed a small box full of knick-knacks from my room today. At least now I can say I've started packing.

I am also baking pumpkin pie. It remains to be seen whether this will be delicious pumpkin pie. Alas, I could not find the recipe I used last year to make awesome pumpkin pie.

Yesterday was spent cleaning the apartment because my family will be visiting next weekend and I am kind-of a slob without motivation. Especially when I'm scrambling to do other things. The apartment has been in a state that usually corresponds to the end of the semester, though it's been in that state for much longer than it should have been.

One of the things that I did was do a cleaning of my bathroom. This included putting out more than the two towels I usually use everyday (one for drying and a separate one for drying hair). Most times I clean the towels, stackthem in the linen closet, and then pull them out when I need them. This means that I tend to use the towels on the top of the stacks and almost never use the ones on the bottom.

Little did I know this was a problem.

( TMI warning of the kitty kind. )

I am back in Indianapolis! My birthday was awesome (especially the cake). I have a bunch of new clothes. The only bad part of the trip was that the hot water heater at my mom's died. Seriously, what is it with me, visiting, and hot water heaters dying? I took one icy cold shower, then decided to wait till I got home before I took another shower. Ugh. My hair was nasty.

But now I am clean, my cats are crashed out beside me, I have birthday wishes (thank you!) and I have internet access. Life is good.

now to just get through my friend's list...

Around 5:30 or so, there was a loud whump! and a flash of light from outside. Then the power went out for the entire complex. Best we can figure out a transformer on one of the light poles blew. A couple hours later, we saw the power company out fixing it.

It's been an interesting evening.

Instead of being on campus, I am at home. This is due to a slight maintenance emergency that happened this weekend where miome was using the shower, leaned against the wall, and had it cave in about two inches. Needless to say, maintenance went "WTF?" and is now coming in today and tomorrow to rip out all the time and make sure there are no more shower walls that cave in.

I have got to make sure I get my statistics homework and my monthly report for my internship done. I cannot play Dark Cloud 2 all day.

Dear next door neighbor,

I was doing the neighborly thing by knocking on your door to deliver some mail that had accidentally been delivered to us, not you. In the future, could you please answer said door wearing more than some really short boxers? I'd appreciate pants, or barring that, a shirt.

Even if you are kind of hot.

Hugs and kisses,
Tsaiko

You know what I would like? I would like my hot water heater to actually produce hot water for more than three days at a time. It seems like such a simple request. And yet I wake up to cold water, miome calls maintenance, they do their magic maintenance voodoo, it works for three days and then... no hot water. I am getting very, very tired of this.

Cold showers in the morning? No. Having to heat water on my stove so I at least can wash my hair? Double no.

Either it gets fixed or I'm going to turn into screaming harpy woman at them.

Since this week is Spring Break and I have been at home, I have been cleaning on and off all week long. I am a packrat. I keep everything. Then it builds and builds until I get so sick of it that I go through it and get rid of some of it. Today I decided to tackle one of those chores I love to hate: paperwork. I decided I was going through all my old paperwork and either filing it or throwing it away. This of course meant that I needed to get the file cabinet and folders set up.

THREE HOURS AND FOUR PILES OF PAPER LATER AND I AM DONE.

Seriously, I need to file paperwork at least once a month. Ugh. At least now I know where all the important stuff is now. My room also looks much nicer now. Thank goodness.

Power went off twice last night around midnight, taking with it the AC and the fan. However, neither of these woke miome or myself up. Instead, the built in microwave beeping woke us up. Why was it beeping? Because the stupid thing felt it necessary to inform us everytime the power flicker what it's status was.

*BEEP* I don't have power. *BEEP* I have a little power. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* Yeah, I have power! *BEEP* I don't have power. *BEEP* I have a little power. *BEEP BEEP* Closer to having power. *BEEP* I have a little power. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* Yeah, I have power!

I was five seconds away from solving this issue with a meat cleaver. Luckily for the microwave and apartment maintenance, I am too tired at midnight to gather up enough braincells to make myself get up out of bed.

If I manage to track down the engineer/programmer who thought up this wonderful "feature" you all will know when Miome posts about my 8-10 jail term. Although, maybe I can get it reduced because if there ever was a case for justifiable homicide, this is it.

I have never been so glad to do laundry in my life.

OH WASHER AND DRYER. HOW I MISSED THEE.

Our moving company is a bunch of idiots.

First, they were late coming to load our stuff in Raleigh. It was only five minutes late, but then they had to spend an hour backing up their truck to our apartment. I just found this out. Did they ever call to inform us that they might be late? Nope.

Second, miome was told that we could reasonably expect our stuff on the August 1st. We were given a huge time frame that it might appear (1st - 8th), but all signs pointed to the 1st. They would call us by that Monday (July 30th) if it wasn't going to happen. No call on Monday. No call on Tuesday, so we clean the apartment and get everything in closets so that all the boxes and furniture can be put in place. No call on Wednesday (the 1st) and NO STUFF. Miome calls. "Oh. It looks like you can expect your stuff closer to the 7th or 8th." ARGH!

Third, Miome gets a call yesterday. OUR STUFF IS COMING. They give us a time frame of between 8am and 9am for the stuff to arrive. I take off half a day of work to I can be here. We get up early, put the cats in the bathroom, and do some minor cleaning. No movers at 8am. No movers at 9am. We call the company and Miome leaves a message. At 9:45am, we get a call back. The driver didn't show up in Indianapolis so they sent the people they were going to have unload our stuff to another site. They knew about this before 8am. Were we ever informed of this? NOPE! They only reason they called is because Miome left a message.

They are now saying that our stuff will be here "Sometime this afternoon." Nice time frame there. Looks like I'm going to be taking a full day off instead of half a day.

Idiots.

I am taking a day off work because our furniture is scheduled to arrive today. miome and I also have picked out a chair and loveseat, purchased last night, and to be delivered on Thursday.

COME ON MOVERS. I WANT TO SLEEP ON SOMETHING THAT I DIDN'T HAVE TO BLOW UP MYSELF.