Broken Record...
What can I say? It's non-stop from the time I get to work at 7am to the time the kids go to bed at 8pm-ish. These last couple of weeks have been even more busy. Last week, we had an All Hands on Deck meeting in Seattle. About 70 or so people flew in from out of town. So... it was meetings all day and entertainment at night.
Lisa arranged for a babysitter on Friday evening so we could get out and get some presents for the kids. We didn't get out of there until last call (Toys 'R Us that is). We made it over to Claim Jumper for dinner and got back home by 10:30 or so. Not exactly the relaxing, fun-filled evening out but it was nice to get away for the first time in 4 months.
On Saturday, we celebrated the kids' birthday - just the four of us. Aly loves her dishes. And Mitch is torn between his garbage truck and the weed-eater. The 1/2 Dora - 1/2 Thomas the Train cake was a big hit too.
Mitch is starting to follow me around everywhere with his tools to pretend to be working. While I'm attaching the spa cover, mowing the lawn, cleaning the garage, attaching shelves, etc., Mitch is right there with his tools "helping dad".
This week, it's been more of the same. But I got the garage cleaned (not done) so Lisa can park inside, put the cane bolt on the dog door, attached the spa cover and the cover lift attachment, attached the laundry room sink to the floor (drilling through tile is a son-of-a-gun), did a temporary fix to the back fence (which will need to be replaced), mowed/edged the lawn, and did a couple more small jobs around the house. I've got big plans for this weekend....
The week in pics...
Update...
SaturdayWe took the kids to a little neighborhood Easter egg hunt. The rain held off just long enough for all of the kids to get their 10 eggs and take a pic with the Easter bunny. Mitch was not interested in sitting on the bunny's lap although he did take a sucker from the bunny. The kids also won a big Play Doh set in the raffle. After the morning activities, it was back to work. Time to tackle the garage. We loaded the trailer with boxes and junk and I dumped it all at the transfer station. Then, I headed over to the house to pick up the dryer and the boxes - I had another full trailer load... We lost power for most of the day and into the evening - which gave us a good reason to take the kids to BJ'z for dinner... We read to the kids by flashlight (even though the power came back on right before book reading time). The kids enjoyed it.
SundaySunday, it was all day working in the garage. I set the treadmill and elliptical machine up on Friday evening so Lisa could work out. This meant that everything else was on the floor on the two-car side... I hung bikes and high chairs and shelves... I hung a Hy-Loft shelf on the ceiling to hold the Burley bike trailer. It took me a few hours to hang the darn thing...I don't remember it taking me that long to hang the one at our old house... I'm going to need one or two more...
MondayMonday it was back on the train for work. We're having all-hands activities this week so Monday was spent following up on everything... Lisa took Zoey to a dog training class Monday evening while the kids and I cleaned my car... Lisa reported that Zoey did not like the other big puppies at the class...
TuesdayHAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aly and Mitch. 3 years ago today, the twins were born (on Good Friday). Memories: Thursday, April 18, 2003 was a very long day. Lisa contacted me at work (Sutter Health at the time) and indicated that they were going to induce her due to complications that she'd been experiencing for a couple of weeks (it was not unexpected as they prepped us for this at the multiples class. Still, it was a little scary). Lisa was transported by ambulance from Sutter Davis Hospital to Sutter Memorial Hospital. I drove to meet her there. We were all set up in a room by 1:00pm or so. Lisa was hooked to IVs while I camped out in a chair. Then, we waited...and waited...and waited...... The nurses kept checking in every hour or so. At 7:00 am or so on Friday morning, one of the nurses came in, checked the baby monitor then scurried out without saying a word. Next thing you know, there were about 10 people in the room and other nurses were peeking in through the door. The doctor was paged. When the doctor arrived, he VERY efficiently barked out orders and had everything back to normal in a short time. Lisa and I never said a word to each other but confirmed later that we both were extremely concerned at the time... At 9:00am or so, they wheeled Lisa into the operating room (twins are born in the OR...). There was a doctor, a nurse, an anesthesiologist, and a couple of specialists in the room - for each twin... Aly was born at 10:00 and Mitch was born at 12:00. They both spent a week in the NICU (which was GREAT!). We took them home the following Friday.
Because of the work activities, we decided that we're going to go shopping on Friday evening and celebrate with the kids on Saturday. I attended an after work function (Seattle Mariners game) with my boss and several members of our team...feeling sufficiently guilty...
WednesdayThe dedicated account team had an all hands for all of those who could attend. This gave everyone the chance to meet the other team members who are spread all over the country. Every team had to present who they were, what they did, and what the goals were for 2006. I presented jointly with another manager for our 5 functional areas. I hate speaking in front of large crowds but did OK. I attended another after work function at Jillian's Billiards. I hadn't played pool in awhile...and it showed...
(pics to followed...)
A week in the house...
Well...we've been in for a week. I have to admit that 1) I'm glad we did a lot of the painting and other work before we moved in, 2) living in your own home is much more comfortable, and 3) we have way too much stuff...we're still unpacking...and the garage is still full... I wish I took some pics of the garage from last weekend. Except for the path from the house to the door (so the dogs can get in and out), there wasn't an empty space on the floor in the garage. Slowly but surely, we're getting things put away. Started setting up the workout equipment in the garage too. It's going to be interesting to see how everything fits and how working out in the garage is...
I've been taking the train in to work this week. What a difference. It's so quiet and fast. It's about an hour and 10 minutes door-to-door to and from work. SoI cut off quite a bit of time there.
That's about it...take the train to work...get home and eat with the family...then, it's honey-do's until 7:30-8:00...surf the 'net until 10:00...fall asleep on the couch until midnight...go to bed...wake up at 5:00 and do it all over again......
Success!!
The ramp that I built so Rocky could get from the garage into the house worked well. I wish I had a pic of all of them on the ramp at the same time...
The Real Story...
...in pictures. It was Lisa who did all the moving while Mitch and Aly secured the shelves to the wall... Meanwhile, AJ and Adam played football... I took pictures...
HUGE THANKS...
...to AJ and Adam. Not only did they help WAY more than we anticipated, they pretty much moved most of the stuff by themselves. They were exhausted by the end of the day on Friday - and for good reason.
It was great to see them again and we wish we could have taken them into the city or out to eat or something while they were here. We are grateful for their help in moving.
If not for them, we'd still be at the rental trying to figure out how to move the armoir...
Thanks guys!! We owe you a fun visit....
Moved!
Got the 'Net and computers back up so...here's the scoop (my creative juices aren't flowing so it's just the facts):
WednesdayI went to the airport and picked up AJ and Adam at 8:30.
ThursdayI didn't have any of my tools with me so I went to the new house to pick them up. Lisa, AJ, Adam, Aly, and Mitch took off to pick up the moving truck. As I arrived back at the rental, I got a call from Lisa - they were almost home. They got lost and didn't pick up the truck. AJ, Adam, and I went and picked it up. We got started immediately. Adam and AJ were moving the furniture while I disassembled the cribs, our bed, my weight system, etc. We didn't get over to the house until early afternoon but we had made a huge dent in the moving. AJ and Adam unloaded the truck while I reassembled things (except the weight system...more on that later...). "We're gonna finish this today" I was thinking. While I was putting things together, AJ and Adam went back to the house to load things. When I got back to the rental, Adam and AJ had most of the bedroom stuff loaded. We didn't want to damage any of the bedroom set so they loaded a few more things onto the truck and headed back to the house. Meanwhile, I loaded the trailer and moved the weights to the garage to stage them for the next load.
I packed one of the computers but left the other computer, the printer, and the networking equipment hooked up so we could print the boarding passes for AJ and Adam's return flight. We tried in the afternoon but we had to wait until it was less than 24-hours before the flight. At 7:00 I noticed a Comcast truck down the street. At 7:30, I went to print the boarding passes but noticed all the lights on the cable modem were out. Now I know what Comcast was doing down the street....
AJ and Adam returned with the truck. I took the trailer load back to the house and unloaded it. "We're gonna finish this tonight" we were thinking. Adam and AJ came back to the house and unloaded while I took the trailer to pick up a few more things. I returned and unloaded the trailer...It was pretty late at this point. Everyone showered. We threw in a Sopranos dvd. AJ and Adam were out before the first episode ended. I shut it off after the first episode.
FridayFriday was kind of hazy. We were all sore and tired. We didn't finish yeterday though... AJ and Adam headed over to the rental in the morning. They loaded up the shed and some of the residual stuff. Lisa sent me to Home Depot for angle brackets to secure bookshelves, etc. We also had someone come by in the late morning to clean the spa. I wish I would have taken a picture - the cleaning guy said that, while it wasn't the worst he'd ever seen, it was the greenest. I secured the shelves and loaded the trailer with junk. Adam and AJ returned and I headed to the dump to get rid of the junk.
Unless you live near one of the very few dumps in Washington, you don't actually go to the dump, you take the junk to a transfer station. At the transfer station, they weigh your vehicle with the load then you wait to dump it. By the time I got there, the line was from the dumping area past the weigh station. It took over an hour to dump the load - five minutes of that was me trying to back the trailer up - I really need practice...
After dumping the junk, I headed back to the house to get some of the residual stuff. Lisa called at about 2:30 and asked me to come back right away - AJ and Adam were worried about their seats on the plane. Comcast had come earlier in the day and hooked up the cable and left the cable modem. I quickly put a computer and the printer together and hooked up the cable modem. I got Comcast on the line and finished the install. By 4:00, we had the boarding passes printed. Everyone was plain wiped out at this point.
I took Adam and AJ back to the airport at 5:30 and headed home. We still had some residual stuff (we had way too much residual stuff...) to bring back but we were cooked...We made a plan for Saturday and called it quits for the night.
SaturdayWe headed over to the house and loaded the van, truck, and trailer with "residual stuff" and headed back. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and arranging. By the end of the day, there wasn't a muscle or joint that wasn't aching...
SundayWe headed back over to the house and loaded the van, truck, and trailer with "residual stuff" (I'm having deja vu here...) and headed back. We spent the rest of the morning unpacking. I headed back in the afternoon and picked up the rest of the stuff - the final residual... We unloaded, I showered, then we took the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. We did not have the energy to chase the kids around that zoo. But...we perservered. The kids had a well-deserved good time and got to bed late (around 8:30)... We don't want to get into that habit!!
That's about it. There were some funny things that I was going to write about...but I'm waaaayyyyy too exhausted.
ugh...
Ahhhhh....last night I got to stay home with the family. I left work a little early in hopes of catching an early bus so I could surprise the family and take them out to dinner. As I got to the bottom of the hill across the street from the bus stop, I saw my bus cross the street. Oh, well... I caught the regular bus. It was OK though. I got to spend an hour and a half with the kids and got to read their books before bed (Lisa forgot to tell me that she's been reading four books instead of three now...the kids were pestering me for a fourth book but I told them it was time for bed...then Lisa told me of the new f-o-u-r book system...). After the kids went to bed, Lisa and I had a relaxing night.
Arrrrggghhhh....I guess the relaxing evening last night was preparation for the fire-fighting at work today. I had a report that we had to get out so I cleared my schedule....but I still had other important business to tend to. I was a little late with the report and not happy with the content. I went to the requestor and asked him to look at it and give me feedback/requirements. Next week's report will be better...on-time...and not as much of a fire drill....
After work, I went home, talked to the family for a bit. Then, I packed some of my weight equipment (even after giving some of it away, I have a lot of equipment). Afterwards, I kissed, hugged, and slugged the family and headed to the new house. On the way, I talked to mom, dad, and Paula. The kids' birthday is coming up. I need to call my other dad too... As a matter of fact, I should contact Bob, Lisa, Jay, Becky, Treve, Tony, Mic, Gary,... I only had a short list of things to do at the house so I was done and outta there by 8:30.
Think I'll play a video game........
Demonstrators...
Have you ever watched TV news and a story about demonstrators/protestors comes on? You see this crowd of demonstrators with signs protesting loudly... You get the feeling there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people and that they've been there for days... Well...I got to see one form outside my window today. I was unimpressed. First, it started with a couple of people holding signs. Then, 20 or so more people stood around while a camera person set up his equipment. When the camera guy was ready, he bunched the 20-25 people into a tight group and got them chanting and waving their signs. When the camera guy was finished, he packed up his gear and the demonstrators took off... This all took place in 1/2-hour or so... Yawn... I bet it is displayed on TV as this huge demonstration....
I Hate Daylight Savings Time...
Even though I go to bed early, my body still knows that it's 4am when I wake up. By noon, I'm dead tired...
Weekend UpdateLet's see...
Friday, I took over a load of garage stuff, installed some garage shelving, and installed the laundry room cabinet. I could have installed the cabinet an inch or so further from the wall...
Saturday, I moved a bunch of garage stuff and shelves over and organized it all. I finished the master closet and installed the laundry room shelf. Mitch was feeling much better by Saturday afternoon...although he still wanted momma to comfort him.
Sunday, I moved the rest of the garage stuff and shelving(we have so much garage stuff because we didn't unpack everything when we moved in - we didn't want to repack). I organized everything and built simple platforms to get the boxes off the floor. I also hung mini blinds in the kids' rooms and cut them to length. Finally, I pircked up and arranged cinder blocks under the deck to prevent the dogs from going under it...
Lisa's been busy too. Besides taking care of the kids pretty much all the time (which is a fulltime job), she has been making arrangements for utilities, garbage, cable, cleaning, landscaping, cement work, house cleaning, carpet cleaning, and much more that I don't know about and totally take for granted. :-D So...she's pretty much been surfing the 'Net the whole time...
Everything that was planned for the weekend was completed!
An EpiphanyI figured it out!! The way to correctly estimate how long it takes (me) to complete a job is to estimate the time (like i did before). Then...double it. Or, triple it but usually double...Sometimes quadruple...but rarely....
Did I mention that I was tired...?
