Running For The Hills

Today's the day. I've decided not to send Jackson to school for two reasons: David doesn't want him to so we can leave early (that makes it all on David) and I overslept. I was dreaming I was going out with Kim for my 24th birthday and we were wearing WAY too much make-up. I think it had to do with the fact I was telling Jackson about the Scary Anns I'd known as a teenager and what amazing sluts they were and having chinese food didn't help. I've got plenty to do today, not mentioning keeping the cats in the house until we go, Vincent is attempting to be a sneak of course. David called this morning with the latest saga of the house - the gas tank we got such a good deal on is not the right one so he had to buy another one and this one he installed himself. After he got it in and the gas was turned on he discovered a small leak above the shutoff so he called the emergency number for the gas company. The gas guy called back and said "Hay gud buuddy....  Ahm an hour away from you, do ya think you could turn off the gas yurself at the meter, Ahl tell yeh how" which he did and then called back in half an hour to see how yeh makin out.... I figure he thought if there was no answer in half an hour then he could be like, "David? David who?". So we have hot water AND cable now. I suppose I have to get going, this will be my last update til the middle of June when the computer joins me in WV, we 're leaving it here for Jackson since he's not done with school. I am going to miss some things about here, after all we've been here for a year and this is "our" house, my bedroom, my deck, my stairs. There's a lot of comfort in having your things just so, but that will come again. And of course there's Ray, but that we'll work out. Oh, well - see on the flip side!

Almost Home!

I've been running around most of the day, getting the oil changed in my car, stopping and leaving a key at the RE, getting a change of address form,etc... I can't believe I have to be out of here by noon tomorrow already! Vincent is driving everyone crazy, he's beside himself and I'm sure he doesn't know why, he just is. The house has become a very depressing place, Jackson and I spent last evening watching The 100 Scariest Moments In Movies parked on my bed eating leftover pizza since there's no tv downstairs anymore and no where really to sit in any case. When the house gets to the point of really looking empty and most of your stuff is gone, you just feel so discombobulated all the time. We're going out to the chinese buffet tonight for dinner, one last time for me. Jackson hated the dentist yesterday  - since it was his last appt the dentist did EVERYTHING (he had some ridges from the braces all along his bottom teeth) so both sides of his face were numb. David called from WV this morning and has been steady mowing our considerable property, we have cable now but no gas as of yet. David made the appointment for between noon and 2 pm but arrived there at 12:20 and the gas guy had already come and gone. So he was waiting for him again today. He may be unwashed but he can at least watch tv. David thinks he'll be making at least two more trips back and forth, so I'm not worrying too much about our stuff. The RE said they have a big weekend coming up so keep your fingers crossed.

Time Is Running Out

I had my final last LAST day at work - no fanfare at all. Only a couple people bothered to say goodbye to me, to the rest I guess I'm chopped liver. David left with the Guard Dogs around 6 am so I had to drive Jackson to school. Of course that meant I had to give report to the nurse that greets all of her friends before sitting down to report, then they were doing construction on 191(why do I ALWAYS end up on the Stop side of the road??) so needless to say he was a bit late. He finally finished his report on gladiators last night, so he had to drag his enormous display board out with him, then couldn't find his phone...ARRGH - somedays I just feel like I'm running in reverse. I arrived home around 8:30 and just dragged about for awhile. I think between working and packing for the past few days I've completely run out of steam. The house is so different without the dogs, I keep getting this anxious feeling I need to let them out and then as I come down the stairs I remember they aren't here anymore. I let Vincent out but I think tomorrow they can go out in the morning and then in til we leave. Tomorrow I'll be cleaning up a bit, there's piles of stuff throughout the house punctuated by large empty spaces, it looks a bit like a squatter has taken up residence here. Jackson has his last dental appointment today. David called from WV around 12 to let me know he and the dogs had arrived and the dogs were ready to roam the range! I put up some of the old pictures of the house in case you missed them!

Dave Da Movin' Guy

We've entered the truley icky part of moving - there's more stuff than we thought, David is already fretting that the trailer he rented is too big, we've run out of boxes twice, everytime I go to pack something there's already an occupant and I have to extract one of the cats, and the zoo is freaking since they KNOW something is up. I could kick myself for saying I would work tonight, I've been up packing since noon after having worked last night and the thought of working AGAIN is tiring just thinking of it. And I'm still worried about Ray. I called my Grandmother yesterday, there's a bit of a mistake - if you have an pushable buttons she just hones right in. Sometimes I think she just can't help herself, but relationships with my family are fractured enough without any help from the peanut gallery. And everything is stressful right now, trying to figure out what's going and what's staying and where is Ray going to sleep when he visits and we found cigars in Jackson's underwear drawer! That's almost too strange for punishment. I'm going to be offline for a couple of weeks, we're leaving the computer here as Jackson needs it for school and David's too addicted to let it go. We have an old one down in WV so I might see if I can cannabalize some old parts and make it at least do email. BUT I get the tv and DVD player so I'll have something to do at night. We'll have to keep the cats in for a couple of days since they're notorious for disappearing at the worst time, that I'm not looking foward to. I guess I'd better get back to the coal mines......

Good Bye

This is the very hardest part of moving, leaving Ray. The past year he's become more of a part of our family then ever, we see him just about every other weekend now and holidays. This was our last weekend for all of us to be together, we did our usual stuff - restaurants, shopping. Yesterday David bullied him into buying a new jacket from Burlington and they bought matching berets - I have no idea where they're going with that. But there's an underlying sadness to this, unless he moves to WV we'll maybe see him once a year - or less. David already has plans to add a second story to the garage for an apartment for him and he's coming back to fix up Ray's house in Jersey - Ray is actually thinking about selling it which I hope he does. He doesn't say anything but he's had periods of quiet this weekend, he and David are off to thier usual Monday morning breakfast out before he heads back - I know he's planning on visiting here a couple more times before David goes, but for me this is it. I didn't realize until this morning how very much I'll miss him.

Finally Finished!

Well, that took just about forever, didn't it? But it's done! I made a detachable flower for the top of the hat that you can't see too well in the picture and if you press it, it's plays "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" which I thought was sort of useless, but rather nifty. ANYHOW, Ray arrived at his usual time and managed to skinny by the Gestapo as he always does. We did BBQ for lunch as we had a set of lookers (sigh, but once again no buyers) come around 1-ish. We went to a very over-advertised yard sale, signs everywhere for a handful of dusty broken down items but we did get to see a very nice neighborhood that we drove around a bit. Then Ray and I took pictures of some not so nice houses, I always find them so much more interesting, don't you? The 4rth picture was of this tiny house on the side of the road and I think it had actually been lived in recently! The skies were spectacular all day, with squalls blowing in and out. We did our usual Dixon City shopping and had dinner at Applebee's this time, no pictures as it's a rather tight restaurant and hard to take pictures. We did the mall for a bit and then headed off home. We stopped at the video store to see if we could rent The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray but ended up getting The Life Of Brian instead. It's been years since I've seen that one but Jackson and Ray hadn't seen it and they were beside themselves laughing - the cruxifiction scene at the end is only rivaled by the window scene in the middle, not to mention all the silly nonsense about the shoe which Jackson really enjoyed. I have to say no matter how many times I see them, Monty Pyton's Flying Circus never gets old.

Let The Countdown Begin

Well, six more days and I'm out of here - hard to believe. We of course have lookers again today, this time between one and two, hopefully more towards one since Ray is here for the weekend. We've slowed down on the packing, the problem being that David and Jackson will be here for almost two weeks so I can't leave them with nothing to sit on. The bigger problems are the computer and washer and dryer and where should they be? David sold the boat, they're coming on Monday to pay and pick it up so he said we might just buy a washer/dryer down in WV - according to our RE agreement we're supposed to leave our set up here.Transporting them does pose a problem and Harry seems to feel that leaving them is a selling point. I started knitting a hat to match the sweater I made, this is actually the second hat. The first one got twisted in the beginning and since I'm knitting in the round was very unfixable. It turned out to be a good thing because once I took it off the circular needles I realized the only way it would ever fit Kim's head would be if I secretly hired Stephen to smack her in the noggin repeatedly so her head swelled to at least twice the size. I don't think she'd like that so I found another pattern and this one is turning out fine. David and I are trying to figure out the logistics of who takes what animals, he was thinking of taking Vincent with the dogs but I think two dogs, a cat and a litter pan in a truck just has too much of a potential for disaster. Not to mention Jackson will be riding shotgun with me so he's in charge of corralling the kitties. All I can think of is when David stops to walk the dogs and Vincent escaping. Not a  good thing.

A Glutton For Punishment

Claw and I seem to have the same problem - we don't know when to stay away.  Claw ALWAYS sits next to Jackson even though she secretly knows in her heart that he'll pick her up and make her do The Cat Dance which she HATES she still sits next to him. My last day at work was May 11th - which is what I tell everyone when they ask - but mysteriously enough I'm back on Monday and Tuesday which will be my REAL last day. It's just they're so short right now (any administration personel that holds an RN has been on the floor lately,even the head nurse and all the supervisors) they're constantly shifting nurses around and even that's not doing it. I was considering not volunteering but it's more money for me at least and  only two more shifts. The cats have been playing hard lately, Mr. Lee and Vincent seem to like the slip cover on the couch, one hides under it and the other attacks from above. It's hard for me to remember she's 15 years old! Ray is out again this weekend and I'm off for the whole thing which is supernice even if I shouldn't buy more yarn (and I suppose the sun won't be rising today!). I've been out walking the lake lately, if I walk around it it takes about an hour and this time of the year it's a beautiful walk. But it's getting a bit boring so I'll have to change my route a bit. I finally finished the sweater for Kim and am making a matching hat. It came out better than expected and as an added bonus will fit HER and not be like the last one which fit everyone in her family if they wore it -  together. Sizing is sort of an issue for me.

All Good Things Must End

Yep, they're heading back  today so the Laying Around and Hanging With The Zoo is no longer on my list of Things To Do. Jackson will probably end up missing another day of school - David and I had a bit of a row about it yesterday but he refuses to even consider driving in rush hour so whatever. The sky was overcast yesterday but I decided to brave it and go walking anyhow. Bad decision making on my part. I stripped at the door when I got home - I was so wet from the downpour I was dripping and didn't want to mess up the floor. I find it sort of hilarious how relaxed you get when you have no neighbors.I showed the house twice yesterday -  RE called around 11:30am to tell me someone was coming at 3:30pm so I started cleaning a bit. I was upstairs mucking out the bathroom when there was a knock on the door at 12:15 - imagine my surprise to see an RE agent and clients! The dogs were still in the house so I wrestled them out and stuffed them in my car while they went in. Of course Charger had been caught offguard (when is he ever ON guard??) and had spewed a huge mouthful of chewed up dog food all over the previously clean kitchen floor. Lovely. I was more than annoyed at that point, not to mention the guy had a mullet so I'm a bit doubtful they could even afford our house. There's nothing more annoying that people that are just out for a Sunday drive. The second set was a pair of guys around my age - I was prepared by then and tied the dogs outside, put a clean bowl of water and gave them biscuits. Not good enough. So I sat outside with them while the RE took them on the grand tour. I don't think we'll get an offer from either set so I'm guessing this will just go on forever.

Visitors!

Yesterday was  busy, Janet and Diane were coming so I got up early to get my walk in and do some house cleaning before they got here. I decided to use the self cleaning function on the oven (for the 1st time) figuring I could clean the house while it worked.. I followed the directions on the stove and came back  half an hour later to a  hot smoking oven and the timer hadn't moved at all. I turned it off right away and then tried to open it. And tried again. I stopped the frantic tugging since previous experiences have resulted in my breaking the most expensive part of the appliance. I called Kim who knows Stuff About Stove Emergencies and apparently the stove is supposed to get real hot and do it for about 4 hours, not 20 minutes. I did leave it alone and she was right, after an hour or so it did release. Since we were on the phone anyhow we got to talking and then my other friend Liz called so the end result of my housecleaning frenzy was an hour messing with the stove (which I had self cleaned long enough to really REALLY bake the crap on tight) and ten minutes of vacuuming before my guests arrived. They accidentlly scared the crap out of Copper The Guard Dog and he had to go sit in the bedroom for awhile to calm down. They're my favorite type of guests though - they came bearing cheesecake from the Pocono Cheesecake Factory out in Tannersville. We had a nice time - I'd made a Greek Picnic Pie the night before so we had that for lunch and then headed out to the Burlington Coat Factory to shop. I got a set of scrubs for $12.99 and they got some good deals. They both declined the indoor flea market - despite my advice they apparently did not care about what they would be missing - how many times do you get to see a deactivated torpedo for sale? - so we did Borders instead - I didn't go to AC Moore's because the Moonlight Madness sale is tonight at 6pm (25% off everything!). We did the chinese buffett for dinner,exchanged birthday presents and then left after supper as Diane has homework and a test on Monday. I talked to David last night, he and Jackson are having a good time and he's going skeet shooting with his nephews today. My plan for today is to Lay Around And Watch TV.

Who Needs A Plate?

That's Jackson with his dinner the other night, David had the stomach virus so he didn't want any. Jackson doesn't even bother with a plate anymore - he just hauls the entire pizza box on his lap,remote in one hand and coke in the other and he's set for about 20 minutes. He'd also polished off an entire box of muffins earlier - for that he sits with a knife and tub of butter and slathers every square centimeter, cheerfully chatting away as if he's doing nothing. All I can think of is I would need a gastric bypass if I even ate like that for two weeks, but he's gained maybe a few pounds in the past month. He's very healthy looking though so we don't worry anymore like we did last year when he was going through that phase of being able to see every bone in his body - I think it just took awhile for his weight to catch up to his height. They arrived on LI yesterday, David is still upset about the Pancake Cottage thing - he's used to the prices here so he flipped out over the bill there. Two cheeseburgers, one fries, three cokes cost $21 - here and WV the same meal would cost about $8 to $10, free refills on the coke by the way. He's staying with his parents, his mom got tangled in the dog leash the other day she's she's all bruises, David was cooking dinner last night when I talked to him. Jackson is staying with my mom in theory, she was hunting his skinny self down around dinner time when I talked to her. Janet is coming out to visit me for the day today and I've been packing what I can. Of course after getting three boxes packed I realized I'd packed the knitting pattern I'm using so there was a bit of unpacking to be done!

Waiting For The Weekend

David and Jackson are heading out to LI today despite collapses in NYC and so forth. I cannot wait - the whole house to myself for the entire weekend!! I had my last official day at work the other night, no one thought too much of it since I'll be back on Monday. Of course the last night was just a mess, I always get the patients that are supposed to be going for a test but there always some proverbial fly in the ointment. The clerk dreads me getting the transfers because it's always a few hours of trying to get the patient gone and it never works out. And I had to speak firmly to the supervisor - there has to be some sort of work ettiquette about not asking someone who's resigned if they can come in Friday. Or Saturday. Or Sunday for that matter. It's bad enough I'm coming in for 3 days next week! I'm supposed to be packing this weekend and hopefully the house will get shown - I think it's supposed to be nice although it's pretty chilly this morning, in the low 30's. I guess it's the gym for me this morning

Dinner's Ready!

Yesterday was absolutely wonderful and warm AND I was off for it. David had to work at the gym so I got to use the BBQ - everything came out fine but I think the sauce was dripping which made tons of smoke. The cats found it pretty amusing but I doubt the neighbors did. Oh well, we're moving so I dont' care. We had two people look at the boat yesterday but no takers so we may end up carting it to WV with us. I don't mind, but David is determined to get rid of it so I keep out of the whole thing. I have two more shifts at work - not including the extra - packing awaits. David and Jackson are going to LI this weekend so the plan is I'll be busy on my end but we all know most likely I'll be on the couch knitting and renting movies. Janet and Diane are coming just for Saturday and then I do my extra shifts Monday through Wednesday. Jackson is almost done with all his dental stuff, he's got his last appointment at the dentist today and then tommorrow goes to the orthodontist to get the lower retainer fixed that David stepped on. The whole retainer thing is somewhat Vincent-related but partially Jackson -related since he left it lying on the nightstand and Vicent is the one who swatted it off and then David stepped on it. I guess you might say it was a group effort.

TGIM.........

Which stands for Thank God It's Monday - if you're in the medical field Monday is usually your Friday since most jobs you  work every other weekend. Ray was out of course, liked the nifty futon we set him up on and we had a fun weekend despite my working. David bought me flowers for mother's day and I got up at 2pm thinking we would be going out to dinner and  later David and Ray would be going to Romans' for a BBQ. David then told me WE were all going to Romans' around 3pm so I pouted for awhile and Ray joined in since eating at Roman's wasnt' on his agenda either. It was more fun than I thought it would be, Nadia cooks up a storm and you always think there's 40 more people coming. Roman made tons of marinated meat much to Jackson's delight and he even got to sneaky-poo a small glass of wine at dinner! We came home around 6pm I went to bed and got up at 8 pm and we had cake for David's birthday. The day before we did the Olive Garden - one of our personal favorites and shopped around a bit. We had to be back by 4pm for the Lookieloos who left a message because they'd been at the house at 3:30.  They loved the house but cant afford it, so not only were they at the house at the wrong time,, they were stupid to boot. I'm still working on the sweater, I only have to do the sleeves and the edging and it's done. It looked sort of big but I tried it on and it's just because I haven't sewn up the sides. I'm off to bed, I've got to work a 12 on Tues and an 8 on Wed - then I'm off for FOUR days, count em!

Cheap Shot

This is one of Vincent's favorite activities, hiding and attacking the dogs, it is of course one of the dogs LEAST favorite activites. We have more lookers today, this time at 4 pm which means it's going to screw up our entire day. Ray is coming out for the weekend, but I have to work Saturday too. I couldn't get out of it, but was able to at least get the time changed from 7 - 7  to an 11 - 7 shift so I can do a little today. Ray's coming out  so David and Jackson will have someone to play with this weekend. I heard from the Sailor at 4 am this morning, he wanted me to check his account onliine as it was overdrawn. He was a bit surprised that I was A) sleeping and B)not parked in front of the computer with his account pulled up. I asked him what time it was in Japan and he's like "oh, it's 5 o'clock in the afternoon, why?"  I thought he might perhaps do the math but it went straight over his head. It's amazing no matter how far away they are or how old, they still seem to believe you have nothing going on but them. We then had a discussion on money management (i.e. - stop spending it) and the fact there is a lag between charging on your debit card and the posting of charges. That would take us to 4:30 am and me having the whole day and a half now stretching out in front of me. I've extended my resignation at work which is sort of fun in a commanding sort of way since I can dicate what I will - and will NOT work and they're glad I'm showing up at all. So I'll be doing Monday through Wednesday for the next two weeks and then David can run around on the weekends until we leave. As we get closer to the moving date I'm getting more excited and looking foward to walking around Morgantown. But we are going to be so busy here for the next two weeks too, packing and getting everything straightened away.

Speed Of Lightening

I got up at noon yesterday since I was off and the RE called to tell us we would have some lookers around 12:15. David and I can now make the entire house presentable in under 20 minutes without even blinking. They were just Lookie Loos though, nothing serious. Jackson had another dental appointment so I picked him up after school for that. He got his first shot of novacaine - no real cavities but he does have some ridges left from where the braces were. He didn't like the shot but did enjoy the effect and spent the entire trip to the supermarket grinning at me like a stroke victim and poking his face. He's still rather obsessed with the Rocky Horror Picture Show - I bought the soundtrack and he can now sing all the songs, including I'm Just A Sweet Transvestite, which of course delights David to no end. He eats like there's no tomorrow lately and of course stays the same skinny noodle boy he always is. He filled the shopping cart with a large variety of things that would make me swell like a blowfish if I ever attempted to eat them and then had a pizza for dinner. The whole thing as usual since David was working at the gym. We just let him eat, eat,eat, since he eats a lot of good things too and we've found if he eats any less he actually loses weight. Ray is coming out this weekend to visit which is good since it's David's birthday and I'm working for the whole weekend. I told them at work I would  do a few shifts past my resignatiion date - they're losing 3 nurses at once including me on the night shift and since we could use the money I volunteered but am sure I'll live to regret it. They always seem to interpret "a few extra shifts" as "working every shift until I drop dead from exhaustion". We have a definate plan in place - David will be going back to NY next weekend to drop stuff off, he has to do a little time in NJ fixing up Rays' place. On the 24th he's going to WV to get the rest of the utilities turned on and bring the next 3rd of stuff down, and will bring the dogs and Vincent. Jackson and I the last of the pets will follow on the 27th - it's a holiday weekend and Jackson has a half day Friday. They'll stay til Monday and then David and Jackson will come back to Pa for Jackson to finish school and I'll be WV (Yippee!!) cleaning the house (Boo!) and maybe doing a little "frog paddling" in my pool (haha)! They'll follow on the 11th of June and hopefully the house here will be sold by then.

The Long And Winding Road

Here's the rest of the pictures that David took - I had them made up into a disc and finally figured out how to get them to the computer from there. That first picture is our driveway and if you see where the telephone wire goes, that's where it begins. He spent most of the week just clearing out the yard, until the gas is on, etc there's no point in trying to scrub out the house. He might go back to LI this weekend to drop off some stuff so it'll be just me and the dogs again. We seem to be spending alot of quality time together lately don't we? Adam called me from Japan this morning, little weasel. He has been spending most of his time with The Girlfriend so David and I have been kicked to the curb for now. Actually, I don't mind too much, since the addition of the Girlfriend we've noticed his emails tell us about how the zoo and museums were, not the local bars so I already like her. Jackson's busy with school and has really had his nose to the grindstone so to speak. He's been very good lately too which is odd. I keep asking him if he has a pod in his closet. We finally  celebrated my birthday yesterday, I went shopping and we went out to dinner which was fun. I'm saving the rest of my birthday money for WV to shopping at my favorite exit which would be Exit 7, especially with Books A Million and a Michael's, what else could you want?