21 March, 2011

Apartment house living

It was a long, hard weekend.  I  hate clutter and crave order so I had my work cut out for me.  Two days to get the apartment unpacked and comfortable.  Thank goodness a girlfriend came to help me unpack on Saturday.  All I could  manage Friday night was getting my bed made and finding my toothbrush.  I had thought I would be able to go get a shower curtain and a few other necessities after the movers left, but since they took 9 hours to complete the move I had to make do with a bath.  And when I say "make do" ... I didn't realize that the plug in the tub was slowly leaking water for a few minutes.  I couldn't get enough depth for a really satisfying bath, but it worked okay.   And I slept like a log.

It was sunny on Saturday and I woke up early and got moving.  First took Tinkerbell for a nice walk and then started trying to bring order to chaos.  A quick run to Target for a few essentials (shower curtain, etc.) and then started unpacking.  One last (I hope) disservice done to me by Mr. M -- I took a television, my surround sound receiver and two speakers and my Wii and I ordered cable service and had them set to come on Saturday to hook me up.   I don't know a thing about hooking up electronics and as he was trying to tell me what goes where I said, "Oh I'll just have the cable guy do it for me".  And Mr. M told me that they wouldn't do anything but plug in the cable box.  I thought that was BS because I have had them do adjustments for me in the past, but it was enough to make me nervous.  So I was worried about it.   I got all of the components together and all of the cords laid out neatly and sure enough, when he came in he hooked everything up as well as the Wii and showed me that I needed another cord to get the stereo speakers working for the television when it goes through the cable box but the Wii goes through the speakers.  What a sweetie.  I haven't yet tried out the Wii or gotten around to getting the cord, but I can watch TV.

After my friend left I went out for a few little groceries - I was beat.  I watched a little TV, took Tink down for one last potty run and I was out like a light around 10.  Sunday was a repeat - unpack unpack unpack but I am THAT close to having everything done and it's looking like a home.  I have a few more details to handle tonight and then next weekend my friend will come over again and help me hang my art.  Then it will be perfect.

I hate the smell of the place.  It must be a combination of fresh paint and carpet cleaner.  I love the incense from L'Occitaine but they have discontinued it, so I use it very rarely.  Last night I burned one stick trying to get that other smell out of there.  No dice.  It will take time.

I am a little worried about leaving Tink for so long.  I gave her a nice walk before I headed for the bus but still it was 7:10 when I put her in the apartment and even if I leave here a little early and get home around 5, that will be 10 hours for her without a potty break.  I did order a ... well, it's kind of like a cat box for dogs.  But it hasn't arrived yet.  And until it does I think I'm just going to have to leave early so she doesn't suffer or make a mess on the carpet.  Otherwise she's doing fine there.  She already knows her way around and she's good about getting her business done when I take her out.  It's not convenient for me, being on the top floor, but at least I don't have anyone thumping around over me and I only have one wall that is next to another apartment and it's my office, so I don't hear my neighbors.  That's important to me. It's going to be a long time before I get my money back from Mr. M so I had better be comfortable.

And I haven't touched my knitting.  That is going to be another few days.  I did finish the sleeves of the Cloisonne Jacket so next it blocking the sleeves and body, putting them together and then picking up stitches for the collar.  I probably won't get around to it until the weekend.

This is going to be a heck of a week in many ways.  I'd better get on with it.

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