Lots to do

We took possession on the 15th (the money didn't go through until 3:30 pm so thank god I didn't book the day off work!) On the 16th the movers came to move everything in. They really annoyed me though. The two men were very sweet and nice but they dawdled and, when they were supposed to be following me from my parent's house (where we'd stored everything) to the new house, they "followed the wrong van" and took an hour to get to the new house! I was upset about that, especially since they charged me for that hour (as well as the extra kilometres they used taking a cicuitous route. Not amused. They bitched and moaned about the lathe (I can't blame them but really, if you don't want to move things....don't become a mover.) I'd been quoted $400 over the phone but figured, with the amount of stuff we have as well as the lathe it would probably be closer to $800. When they gave me the bill it was a tadge under $1000. I was gobsmacked! I'm going to call up and complain on Monday I don't think I should have been charged for them taking a long route (and probably going out to lunch) and the breaks they took. They also left cigarette butts on my lawn and left some stuff out on the lawn. Not impressed. The moving company by the way, was TSM "Total Service Moving" Total service my ass. NOT recommended.

We're slowly getting the house up to par. There are still millions of boxes strewn about but the kitchen is functioning (except for the total absence of food) and the bedroom is somewhat okay.
Today I've been busy. I bought a computer desk (ours is useless). a dog cage for Mush, and grandpa and I went out and he bought us a lawnmower.
Chris has been busy replacing the radiator in the car, it literally exploded the other day. The car is poorly designed and he had to dismantle most of the front end to get to the radiator. He said that there were a lot of holes and that it's been leaking for a long time. He thinks the dealer put some "stop leak" in it and tried to get rid of it as quickly and cheaply as possible before it died. Oh well, live and learn, not everyone is honest. To get it replaced at a garage is over $1000. Chris doing it cost us $350. Not bad eh? They charge extra for flushing it, checking the thermostat and changing the fluid (all things that should, theoretically come standard as they have to be done for the new radiator to work) I'm learning not to trust ANYONE! Thank god I have a husband who can fix a car, it would absolutely suck to have some useless metrosexual husband who wouldn't want to get his hands dirty.
Anyway that's my rant for today.

It's that time of year...

We just finished cleaning the condo. The "new" people take possession tomorrow, we take possession of the house tomorrow too although I've booked the movers for Thursday (day after tomorrow) in case the lawyer doesn't get the $$$$ through in time and we don't take possession until 6:00 pm or something. Chris and I are exhausted, physically and mentally, we keep snapping at each other. I'm completely spent, I'm ready to die right now!

Best Buys

Well, we bought a 42" LCD TV today. Our TV has been crapping out on us for a while now and we thought what better time to buy a new one than just as we're moving into a new house.

Carpet Day

The carpet fixer guy came early to fix the carpet. He's fixing it as I write this. I just hope the floor doesn't look like a patchwork quilt when he's done! We're frantically packing everything in sight. Chris is procrastinating like mad, I don't think it's sunk it yet that we've only got 3 days to get rid of everything.
We went to RONA last night to get some mover's straps and some packing tape. There was a line up about 12-15 people long, and 1 cashier. We didn't bother lining up. What a useless way to run things. They need to either hire more staff or use the staff they have more efficiently.

TGIF

Long day at work today, several times I checked the clock to make sure it was actually working.
Had a NASTY surprise waiting for me on Wednesday when I got home from work. I went to let the dogs out of the bedroom (where we lock them up for the safety of the house). Mush had annihilated the carpet in there! She's destroyed an area about 6X3 feet. Never a break! I've got a man coming on Monday to (hopefully) repair it if we have enough spare carpet and/or carpet in the closets. Hopefully it won't be TOO expensive to fix.
That's it on the news front. Pretty boring.

TGIO (Thank god it's over!)

Met with the lawyer today. We owe less than we thought we would (which is a good thing) but the lawyer's fees are absurdly high ($2000) but I guess that's the price you pay for....um....lawyers. He was actually quite a sweet man, bit of a chatty cathy but personable. No colour sense whatsoever, I think my retinas are bleeding after looking at his office for an hour. We can't register the car today because my insurance broker forgot to email the pink card to us (she also didn't fax a copy to the registry office). So that's another day wasted. I guess it's just hard to find good help these days.
Chris won't talk about his first day at work except to say that it was "all right". For all he's told me they could have sat around all day watching porn and playing poker. Oh well, it's not as though he's usually loquacious and is only being taciturn about his job.
Work went well for me today, I felt bad about leaving early to see the lawyer so I showed up 1/2 an hour early and only took a half lunch. They taught me how to split a file today so that was cool. There are some files so thick you need a donkey to transport them to the work table. I'm astounded at the amount of paperwork generated! Some of it (to me) seems irrelevant and there are copies and copies of the same email in each chart.
The house is still standing even after leaving Mush unsupervised for the day. We're amazed there's anything left of it given her track record. We didn't have the heart to keep her locked in her "bed" all day so locked her in the spare room.
Chris seems to be sulking about something but he won't tell me what it is. I hope it's just the inconvenience and irritation of the bloody car. Although, if he is unhappy with his job he can, of course, look for a new one.

Lawyers!

Lawyers drive me nuts! I used to be of the opinion that only defense attorneys were evil but in the last two years I've increased that list to include: real estate lawyers, immigration lawyers, prosecution lawyers and any lawyer with breath in his/her lungs! My real estate lawyer called me yesterday to tell me that we were "cutting things a bit fine" to be signing papers this Tuesday as though it were my fault that he took his sweet time calling me to set up a time. Now, because of his tardiness I will probably, at a cost of "a couple hundred dollars" have to get a bridging loan on the house. Um, excuse me, but WTF?!?!?!?! Very angry about this right now, I hate it when people leave things to the last minute, I go out of my way to make sure that I get things done ASAP and expect the same courtesy in return. Death to all lawyers!!! Anyway, a before bed rant so that hopefully I can sleep tonight.

Sunday Morning

We did a lot of packing last night. 99% of the books, and all the furniture in the spare room are now sitting in my parents garage. Chris dismantled most of his lathe to make it easier to transport and I properly packed a lot of the boxes we'd taken over to my parents and labeled them. Today I'm packing the unessentials in the kitchen, the bathroom and putting all the clothes from the tall boy into suitcases so we can get rid of it. I think we'll have all the unessentials out by next weekend doing a little bit of work each evening after work. Next weekend we'll get rid of the entertainment centre, maybe keep the TV and DVD player so we don't die of boredom in the meantime. Today we'll take the sideboard and the pink chair over.

Busy as bees

We bought a car today (FINALLY!!) It's a 1997 Mercury Sable GS. It's teal coloured and runs very well. The only thing that needs doing is new bulbs for the brake lights. Chris is going to Canadian Tire tomorrow to get same.
Time is running out to get packed to move. We take possession in 9 days and we still have loads of stuff to pack. Now that we're both working full time we're starting to panic a bit. It doesn't help that our animals (all 4 of them) are out to get us. Both dogs are vomiting, Murdoch has bloody diarrhea again and Alastar has been vomiting too. Of course, god forbid they should vomit/poo on the laminate or tile floor, oh no, not our pets, they have to mess on the carpet (not the rugs either, the actual carpet). So, we think we're going to have to clean the carpets again before the new owners take possession. Rotten animals, I'm going to sell them to a lab for animal testing!

What a job!

I had my first day of work at the Child and family services. I felt like a prat this morning though. I went to the wrong office, and was lurking about outside said wrong office for a good 10 minutes before my brain switched on and I phoned to see where I was actually supposed to go. Idiot, oh well.

Car Crazy

We experienced the joys of shopping for a used, oh I'm sorry, "pre-owned" car today. It's amazing the crap they try to pass off as decent. We took a pretty red car for a test drive, barely made it to the end of the street and it overheated. The second one had been in a wreck (although according to the salesman it was in pristine condition) the paint didn't match on some of the panels, the airbags had been previously deployed and the brakes didn't work, but other than that, it was in pristine condition. Also, the salesman was creepy, kept looking at me, asked Chris if I was his wife...spooky. The final car we drove today (this is after looking at approximately 5,000,000 cars) had a dodgy gear box. Oh the humanity!
It doesn't help that we have different ideas as to what type of car to get. I'm looking for something cheap, economical and reliable. Chris is looking for a bloody thunderbird or something, in mint condition that's on sale for $0.50. Men, can't live with 'em, can't kill them and bury the body under the floorboards.
I start work tomorrow, it'll be a long haul from here but once we move it will be a hop skip and a jump from home.
Chris has a second interview tomorrow with the same engineering firm he had the interview yesterday. I think they'll probably take him (why wouldn't they, he's a genious).
I've got a splitting headache. I've had it for about 3 hours now and I'm at the point where I'd just like to kill myself so that I don't have to put up with it any more. I'll give the pain killers another 10 minutes (I only took them about 10 minutes ago) then I'm throwing myself off a bridge.