Catching up

6 whole weeks without a blog, so it’s probably time for some mindless ramblings.

House move:
As most of you know, we’ve moved from Maryland to Durham, NC. The move itself wasn’t so bad, as far as moving goes. Packing is always a pain (and considering Sage did most of it, as I was working in NC right up to the time we moved, all the pity should go to her); every time we move I swear that the NEXT time we’ll hire the movers to pack for us as well. But then the time comes, and it just seems like such a waste of money, and we do it ourselves, and then curse it every step of the way. Even with all the stuff we sold at our yard sale, and either donated to GoodWill or trashed, we still have way too much stuff for 2 people. For this I am completely to blame. I’m a pack rat, and even though I’ve gotten better, I still find it hard to part with many of my things, such as books (about 12 boxes of them); old magazines, programs, and general memorabilia (2 boxes); old school papers (2 boxes); and of course my shot glasses (6 boxes).
But at least we didn’t have to move it ourselves. The movers we had this time were REALLY good. The last few times we moved we hired local movers, which made sense as they were always local moves. (Renting the U-Haul and moving it myself just isn’t an option anymore. I figure each time you move yourself, or help a friend move, you’re taking 1-2 years off the life of your back and spinal cord. I’m trying to keep mine as long as I can.) But each time we moved the local movers we hired got worse and worse until the last time when their truck clipped our fence and ripped the wood right out of the ground. They fixed it, but you could tell they just didn’t care about what they were doing. This time I got some quotes from a variety of different companies, and settled upon an Allied Van Lines affiliate. The folks were slower than I thought they would be, but they were also EXTREMELY careful with all of our furniture and boxes, very meticulous, and very professional. And since we weren’t paying them by the hour, I didn’t mind too much that they took so long.

The day we moved out, however, was absolutely nuts. We had actually sold and closed the house on May 31, but the buyers let us rent back for 10 days. The last day we were in the house we were going to have the movers show up around 8, I figured it would take them 3 hours or so to pack us up (which is about the time it took all the local movers), then we’d have 2 hours or so to clean the place before our final walk-through at 1pm. The movers were late, and about 11:30 we realized they weren’t going to be done anytime soon. I called the buyers to ask if we could push it back to 2:30, and they said fine. The movers didn’t get out until closer to 2:00pm, so we were going absolutely nuts trying to get the house cleaned, packing up our cars with all the items we were bringing to NC with us (photos, computer, plants, just general stuff the movers couldn’t or wouldn’t take), bringing our trash and recycling across the street to our neighbors, and making sure we didn’t forget anything. We were just making our last trip to the Sully’s when the buyers showed up. So then we did a quick walk-through with them, ran across the street, said goodbye to Sluggy, jumped in the car, and started the drive to NC. We had to get down there by 8:00pm, which was when the storage shed we rented closed, and of course we hit traffic on 95 on the way out of DC. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare at the storage shed, unloaded all the boxes and crates, then checked into the hotel and ordered a pizza. A crazy day.

New House:
The closing on the new house in Durham went very smoothly. (While the close in MD lasted over 2 ½ hours, this one was 45 minutes.) I was surprised, however, that the sellers in NC weren’t at either the walk-through the morning of the close, or the close itself. I guess in NC it’s not unusual for them not to be at the close, as the Agent is allowed to sign all documents for the sellers. So we never met the people we bought the house from, Boris and Alyssa, which I was a little disappointed at. I wanted to at least have them give me the scoop on our neighbors – which ones are nice, and which ones are potential serial killers. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to figure that out for ourselves. Moving in wasn’t too bad, and after a week or so of trial-and-error, we got our furniture set up so that it’s not too annoying. There are a few quirks in the house that are annoying (kitchen sink, cable situation, washer/dryer closet, etc), but we’re settling in pretty well.

A few days after we moved in a woman from the Homeowner’s Association stopped by to invite us to a neighborhood cookout the following weekend. We went, and were able to meet some of our neighbors. It seems that the neighborhood is split between younger couples who have just recently moved in, to older retirees who have been in the houses since the development started, about 12-15 years ago. They seem like a good bunch, though, and while we might not be inviting any of them over for punch and pie anytime soon, it’s always good to be on speaking terms with the neighbors.

Red Sox:
The last time I mentioned the Sox was the April 8 blog, where, after the 1st week of the season, I was already writing the team off. They then shot out to a huge lead, which is still over 10 games today. The Yankees have spent over $20 million to get Roger Clemens and have him be a 1-3 pitcher with a 5.32 ERA, AND have him do a relief appearance. Money well spent, George. There is plenty to moan about on the Sox, including Julio “Someday I’ll be hitting as good as Christian Guzman” Lugo, the poor defense, injuries on the pitching front, the inability to score more than 1 run when Dice-K pitches, and the lack of clutch hitting across the board. But these are small worries considering the Sox have the best record in baseball, but they will need to improve as the season goes on, as the Angels, Tigers and Indians will be tough post-season competition.

Henry gone:
Staying on sports, a very depressing event happened last week: Thierry Henry, the best footballer in the world and hero to Arsenal fans everywhere, decided to leave North London and head to Barcelona. The reasons, he said, had less to do with money and more to do with internal issues happening at Arsenal, but either way it’s a depressing day. Without Henry who knows how many other of their young players will want to jump ship, and now, instead of looking good to challenge for the Premiership next season, we’ll be lucky to finish in the top 4. This also means I need a new Arsenal jersey. Fabregas? Walcott? Rosicky? I’m hoping Sage will surprise me before the season begins in mid August.

Chapstick:
One of my biggest habits (not sure it could be classified as a bad habit) is lip balm. I’m not sure when it started, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve had to use Chap Stick and other lip products a good 20-30 times a day. I’ve always heard (and it’s probably true) that Chap Stick puts something in their lip balm that, while it soothes chapped lips in the short term, actually makes them drier in the long term. This then leads one to have to use even more Chap Stick – a great business model when you think about it. I certainly think this is true, as once I started using it, I had to use it more and more. If I left home without it, it would drive me crazy. If I ran out, I would have to get more ASAP. (Once on a business trip I remember running out around midnight, and I actually went out to buy some more because I knew I couldn’t have slept without it.) I eventually switched to natural lip balms, such as the Badger Balm or Burt’s Bees brands, which I thought would be better – without the alcohol or chemicals, I was hoping my lips might not need the constant applications. This didn’t work, and I’m not sure whether it was really a need to constantly put the lip balm on, or if I had just been doing it for so long that unconsciously I felt I needed it all the time.

I finally decided that enough was enough, and the only way I could break the habit was going cold turkey. One day in March I said to myself, “I’m only using this lip balm 3 times a day: morning, noon and night”. The first week was horrible. My lips felt like the Mojave Desert they were so dry, and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I had to put my Badger Balm away so I wasn’t unconsciously reaching for it every 5 seconds, and it was really driving me crazy. After that first week it got a bit better. I still noticed my lips, but not as often, and they didn’t bother me too much. I finally got to using about once a day, and gradually my lips got all better. They didn’t feel dried out ever, I stopped noticing them, and today I use my lip balm once a week at the most. Sage is insanely jealous, as she’s just as bad as I used to be on the Chap Stick, but she refuses to try to break the habit. I can never explain how freeing I feel now that I’m not chained to using lip balm all the time. I don’t go into a panic if I leave the house and forgot it, I’m not paranoid about having 3 tubes of it on hand at all times, just in case, and I don’t care about leaving tubes of it in every room of the house so that it’s always within reach. Next up for me: Lose 30 pounds. We’ll see how that goes.

Predictions revisited:
We’re halfway through 2007, and I thought I’d take another look at my 15 predictions, and how they’re going.

Martin Scorsese will win the Oscar for Best Director: CORRECT.

Chelsea will win the European Champions League: INCORRECT. Chelsea lost to Liverpool in the semifinals of the Champions League on penalty kicks. Not that I’m too disappointed in that.

Red Sox will win the American League Pennant: Going to be tough to beat the Angels I think, but there’s still hope.

Lady Bird Johnson will die: I think I heard she went into the hospital recently, so I might be putting this one in the CORRECT column soon.

The Pettengill Tree Farm will sell at least 10 trees in 2007: We’ll have to wait until late December for this one.

Helen Mirren will win Best Actress Oscar: CORRECT.

San Diego Chargers will win Super Bowl: INCORRECT.

San Jose Sharks will win Stanley Cup: INCORRECT. Though my post-season, pre-playoffs prediction of the Ducks did come true, so that’s something.

Sidney Crosby will win the NHL's Points Scoring title: CORRECT.

Dice-K Matsuzaka will win at least 15 games for the Red Sox: Halfway through the season he’s 9-5, and that’s with the team giving me ZERO run support in most of his games. He could easily have 12 wins already, but I think 15 will be achieved come September.

Roger Clemens will pitch for the Red Sox: I can’t believe I ever wanted this doofus to come back. He’s almost worse than A-Rod – just a money-hungry, attention-seeking loser who grabbed at the money. No way the Yankees make the playoffs this year, and his career will end with a whimper, not a bang. (I’m not labeling this INCORRECT yet, as I suppose there’s a small chance he could still pitch for the Sox this year, but I doubt it, and believe me I don’t even want it at this point.)

Doug and partner will win The Amazing Race-Concord: The race is less than a week away…as long as my partner gets her ass in shape, I think I have a chance.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Snape will die but Harry, Ron & Hermione will all live: We’ll find out come July 21.

Virginia Tech's Men's basketball team will make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament: INCORRECT.

Tiger Woods will win the Masters and US Open: INCORRECT. But he did finish 2nd in both, amazingly enough.

Look for reports from our NH trip in the coming weeks.