Saturday, October 27, 2007

please hold

there has been quite the flurry of activity since my last post. packing, sure. final appointments, disconnecting services, etcetera, yes. but one thing you might not have suspected -- and certainly i did not expect -- is that my bank accounts would be inexplicably frozen and slated for closure.

maybe i'm crazy, but i think this is normal, not expecting your assets to freeze. at least if you aren't a felon, calling card scammer or involved in fraudulent financial transactions. and me? well i'm in the last category right now, at least according to my bank, WaMu, or as i think i'll call them from now on, ScrewYu.

it all started with the deposit of my final paychecks from work. what with the hordes of PTO i'd accrued (and yes, i accrued purposefully), i deposited a tidy sum at the atm. yes, i have since been told that i should go into the branch for large checks, even if it's, let's say, from my regular employer, who issues me large (though not that large) checks on a biweekly basis.

what with the amount of scrilla, i figured it would take several days for the checks to clear. fine. what i did not expect is that 4 business days later, i'd try to use my card at longs and it'd be denied. wtf? so i head to the bank and am informed that my account has been closed due to suspicious of fraud.

huh?

it took the very nice lady at the bank about a half hour to figure out the source of trouble (el checkos) and when she told me that they expected they checks to be returned unpaid, i just stared at her. i worked for a *very* big company. these are not checks from some fly-by-night startup. why wouldn't they be paid?

that was thursday morning. suffice to say, from then til 6pm friday i was working with both my former employer and ScrewYu to get things worked out so that we could, i don't know, MOVE THIS WEEKEND.

as you might guess, things did not work out. i have both ScrewYu and wells fargo to thank for that. we tried to make arrangements for some temporary scrilla to tide us over for an additional week, allowing us to make our trip as scheduled, but no luck.

which means, barring divine and fiduciary intervention, we're probably going to be here another week and a half. the *only* good thing i can say about this is that it gives us more time to pack. we'd decided to pay for some packing help, and well, now we can wrap that up ourselves. goody!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

movin' some scrilla

by way of an update:

- had a fairly successful yard sale this weekend, close to $450. i hear that's not bad but the problem is, when we had our moving sale in montana, we cleared over a grand. so as is often the case with life, i'm learning to adjust my expectations.

- yard sale, alpha and omega version: sure, i was tired and sore after all that. but more to the point, min was completely wiped and ended up sleeping a lot of sunday. thankfully saturday was the big scrilla day. this also meant she missed a going-away dinner with a few friends (bummer) but of course, i still had a wonderful time.

- i've had trouble getting (free) moving boxes lately. six months ago? sure, no problem. but lately, every time i respond to a post, even if it's the same day, all zee boxes -- poof. since we had to get some additional moving supplies anyway tonight (why hello, shiny saran wrap-like tube!), and our departure date is a mere week away, we broke down and bought some boxes.

- in case you were wondering, i was LOATHE to buy moving boxes. they are expensive little bastards! however, we went here. sure, they had new boxes for a decent price. used boxes for even better. but then there was our section, which i guess you could call 'shagged a few times but still worth a go'. these boxes were che-e-ep. and still in very excellent condition. which made me very happy.

- speaking of happy, i don't miss work at all. zippo. like this is a surprise. i almost feel like i've been let out of prison.

- also, did i mention i'm tired? and more than a little overwhelmed at all that's left to do before we pack up the truck NEXT SUNDAY?

- i'm not sure when i'll post again, in the whirlwind of a week i have ahead of me, but if it's a while... think good thoughts for the dykes in the 24' truck, and i'll post again when i can. :)

- ps. thank god for hand trucks.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

bite my shiny, imperial-fighting ass

since it's been over a WHOLE MONTH since my last quiz, a week since i posted anything, and i'm too bleary-eyed to be very coherent now:

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with?
You scored as Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

The world around you is at war. Fortunately you know how to handle that with the greatest of ease. You are one of the best at what you do and no one needs to tell you that. Now if only the droids could be quiet for five seconds.

Serenity (Firefly)

88%
Moya (Farscape)
88%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
88%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)
81%
SG-1 (Stargate)
81%
Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
75%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)
75%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)
75%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
69%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)
63%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)
56%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)
38%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)
31%
p.s. tomorrow's my last day at work. i can't believe how giddy i am about it. i know, some of the giddy is just for the upcoming adventure in general but... i am seriously ready for a change.
p.p.s. futurama is not on the list of contendas! that's so wrong.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Monday, October 08, 2007

a waking dream

i'm sure it will come as no surprise that i've been having trouble sleeping lately. excitement about moving also means stress about moving. if i wake up in the middle of the night to use the facilities, when i come back to bed i start thinking about all the stuff i need to do for our upcoming yard sale.

if i have trouble getting comfortable after i roll over, i remember i need to pick a hotel for our first week or so there.

and the list goes on. which means i do, too.

which means after a little while i remember a) you've got this all written down, stop worrying about it and b) it's time to invoke the Coast Snowfall.

now sure that's just a name for you folks. in my head i think, it's time to go *there*. Coast Snowfall's a fitting name though, because i immediately start playing the first snowfall (snippet here, courtesy B&N. nighttime version, courtesy of my internal ipod), and then go here.

imagine driving along this road, a series of trees in this light, and you can see how the dappled light could keep time with the beginning of that song (if you listen to it, hint). then we curve inland for a moment of dark and green, albeit not foggy in my nighttime film.

then we rise up the hill and crest to this, at which point i leave the car and become a bird, apparently, flying out and over the rocky shoreline. not a bad trick.

the song repeats itself at a certain point, and so do i, starting at the first image above. sure, sometimes it takes a while to progress from there to sleep, but i never get tired of this journey. or the song, which is saying a lot.

these flybys are a conglomeration of the many, many drives my family took along 101 in southern oregon, often at sunset. i've been using this little montage for probably 15 years.

incidentally, if you look at/listen to that song, you'll see it's an instrumental from a christmas album. what can i say? i've listened to that album a lot, which is KickAss. if you don't mind reverent *christmas* music and/or enjoy classical, i highly recommend it.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

going to the salon is so old school

are you tired of having to explain what you *really* want to your hairdresser or barber? not to mention, shelling out for that haircut several times a year? well, thanks to this morning's internet, i offer you a possible solution:

THE FLOWBEE



as a bonus, apparently in your post-haircut bliss, you will get to see a vacuum hose and what looks like a giant flashlight fight to the death:



haircut clean up is only a suction away. please, act now, or else i will flowbee you a second time.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

hello internet

i am tired. is it friday yet?