Scrapin' by

The weather hasn't been too bad since just before Christmas. The roads are clear, partly thanks to the rain. I can't get used to a place where it snows and rains frequently in winter. In CO and AK, the rain comes in the summer. In CA, it was in the winter, in lieu of snow - at least in the Bay Area where I lived.

Speaking of the Bay Area, I have to go to a training class (1st time in years my company has provided such, but they made the client pay for it) in Daly City the week of Jan 14. Of course, I have to rush the travel through our system at work, just like my recent trip to NJ. I should have a little more time, though. With that trip, my travel was approved on Friday, and I had to travel the next Monday! My company has a decent travel site - kind of like our own Orbitz, but to get the expenses approved we have to use an ancient mainframe application that's guaranteed to make you wish a horrible demise upon all computers everywhere.

We've been having trouble getting our money from our renters in our house in CO. Hopefully, they'll catch up this month, but we'll see. If not, they face eviction, but that can be a nightmare for us, too.

I'm hoping for the best and trying to be positive. I failed my first attempt to solve all my problems via the New York State Lottery.

Scofflaw

I finally ran afoul of the police with my crazy foreign way of driving. After a 10 mile high speed chase.... well, maybe I just made a right turn on a red light downtown where I wasn't supposed to. Funny thing is, I was going to make an illegal u-turn, but I saw a cop car up at the intersection, so I went up to the light and turned right.

It was embarrassing when I dropped my license, too when I tried to hand it to the nice police officer. He just glanced at the license and registration and made sure I felt properly chagrined.

When I pulled away, I was so nervous about doing something else wrong, I went down another street I didn't want, and had to get on the highway, exit onto another highway, then take a scenic tour of a bad part of town with very narrow streets.

And all we wanted to do was get out of the house and look at the Christmas lights. That'll teach us!

Canadian terrorism in a can

While perusing our local grocery store's wares, I innocently picked up a can of Campbell's Soup called "Pepper Pot Stew." Under this, in small letters it said "A Product of Canada." Now I know this was a warning!

It looked to be a can of beef stew, seasoned with black pepper. I like that, so I figured I'd try it.

I opened it up at work, and immediately became a little worried by the powerful aroma (read STENCH) that assaulted my senses. But, I bravely heated it up and tried a bite. After spitting that sample in to the trash, I realized our tiny office doesn't even have a garbage disposal for getting rid of such evidence, so I had to pour the offending remains through the strainer in the drain and transfer them to the trash. My apologies to the cleaning crew.

I keep meaning to read the ingredients on another can to see if there's any sign of "naturally fermented possum sphincters" anywhere on the list!.

New Jersey, and more on burritos

I've been in New Jersey all week. Mahwah, to be exact. Supposedly, you can see NYC from here, but it's been cloudy, snowy and windy, so I haven't even been able to see Mahwah.

Before coming here, we did find a good Mexican restaurant in Saratoga Springs - owned by a real live Mexican who spent many years as a jockey there. The chips and salsa were excellent, as was my chimi. But, I have to complain that the only bean burrito on the menu had mushrooms in it! Criminal. Lisa had a mushroom quesadilla, so I can't say too many bad things about the little fungi.

While I'm complaining about burritos, I hate yuppie burritos. Those are those 5lb foil wrapped things you get at Chipotle, Qdoba, and at Moe's, out this way. I don't have strong feelings about this topic, or anything. Really I don't. :-) But let me say this: Rice belongs outside of burritos - not inside! And, you can't hold a good burrito in your hand. It's not possible, because it has to be lying on the plate drowning in green chili with tender chunks of pork, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. Now I'm hungry again!

Crazy CO driver terrorizes Albany

Did I mention it's dark here? There's an inky blackness to the night that makes it nearly impossible to see where to turn sometimes when driving. It's partly because it's typically cloudy this time of year, but I think they don't have as many streetlights, either (that's both good and bad, I suppose). So, now that I've set up my excuse....

Tonight I was trying to get into what was ultimately the worst Thai restaurant I've ever been to, and I thought there was a driveway on both sides. Nope - the little alley on the other side was a cleverly disguised highway on-ramp! I whipped around so I was kind of blocking it to get back on the road (I only almost had to go up onto the sidewalk). Then, a quick illegal u-turn down the block, and it was off to massive Thai food disappointment. I must note - the worst Thai places I've ever been have been the most expensive, fancy places.

Random observation: they have more blue post boxes here than anywhere I've ever been. There's just about one on every corner, residential or commercial. They have a lot of smaller post offices, too, instead of a few really large ones. I've only found one that has an APC (automated postal center, I think it is). I guess they still want some people to have jobs here. :-)

Eating my words, instead of tacos

I have to admit, one of my main complaints about Albany isn't quite as bad as I first feared. Namely, there are three, if not four Taco Bells in town. There are two stand-alones (combined with something else like KFC and Long John Silver's) and I think there's one inside each of the two malls in town.

I've been told I don't need one on every corner for a city this size.

Now, if there were only some good hole-in-the-wall Mexican place with a decent smothered burrito. That's eluded me so far. I could eat 400 different kinds of pizza a week and never run out of pizza joints, though!

Goodbye, dear friend

Lost a good friend in an accident. I am at a loss for words, and my heart grieves for those left behind.

You lived your life more fully than anyone I've ever met, and you helped me immeasurably during a time of despair. You will be sorely missed.

It ain't all hard knocks

I've been pretty down the last couple of weeks. A good deal of it is home-sickness, but I forgot how depressing it can be when you're in physical pain. My back was really killing me from all the moving and such, and all the work I'd done on the house in CO before heading out here. Today I had a pretty vigorous massage at one of those mall kiosks. My mood improved markedly, as well as my ability to walk around the mall and downtown Saratoga. We went up there to check out some new apartments they're building.

I've always responded to different places in very subtle ways. Somehow I hate driving in Albany, and it seems to depress me somehow, even though it's got some very nice places - in fact, overall, it only has a few "bad" neighborhoods. Saratoga is all nice - it's in the richest county in the region. Horse racing and gambling (and tourism in general) seem to be the only way to save our old towns. Saratoga is a lot like Fort Collins, CO with the addition of a much larger lake, and a huge transient population that appears for the horse racing season.

I really, really miss Mexican food. At home, there area wonderful hole-in-the-wall Mexican places on every corner. Here, it's pizza joints. I haven't had a burrito in like 2 months! On the other hand, I don't miss feeling like I have to speak Spanish in Wal-Mart. And, the fast food places aren't just staffed with non-English speaking adults. The teenagers here actually get to/want to work. Don't want to be un-PC (ok, I don't care). Just an observation.

Don't sue me

So, here's a bit more fun from the sleazy lawyers at Lisa's company. First of all, they hired Lisa in the capacity of a "billing paralegal," which ended up meaning no paralegal work, all billing. And billing meant mostly collections. They wanted to make everyone in billing work until 7PM every week to call people who hadn't paid their bills in 5 days. 5 days! Most places don't get huffy for more like 30 days.

They actually wanted her to implicitly threaten one client that "they got them out of jail, they can put them back in!"

Also, bills would come back from the managing partner with corrections - which meant he added time to the partner's bills to increase the total billed time.

Legal Blondage

There's a woman at Lisa's work who's about to graduate law school. They've nicknamed her Legally Blond. She just found out about the state bar fees and said "you have to pay to be a lawyer?" At one point she had also said "I was hired to do paralegal work, and I don't have a paralegal certificate." Well, sweetheart - law school may just trump paralegal school.

Speaking of the job, she's about had it with lawyers. This place is more uptight than the military (the place is run by former and active-reserve military member - Army Airborne types). It has more corporate BS than a huge firm (like where I work) but it's really a medium sized company.

They actually banned microwave popcorn because someone burned it once. I kid you not, a partner actually said "Didn't you get the memo?!" And he was serious. And, one of the lawyers stopped by Lisa's office area today and someone said "hide the donuts." Too late - he had a fit because it was after noon and donuts were still out!

Dish Network VS Time Warner DVRs

This is a rant for my TV-loving friends.

Oh, how I miss my DISH. As soon as possible, I'm going back. Here's a quick run-down of features the Time Warner recorder is lacking, and things I just hate about it:

1) No jump-forward or back (sometimes known as Commercial Skip).
2) No date or episode number on show summaries or recorded events.
3) Inability to display info while watching a recorded event.
4) Clunky remote. The DISH remote was very intuitive and comfortable to use.
5) Can't change sort order on recorded events.
6) Our 2nd DVR doesn't even have dedicated buttons for bringing up the DVR features, just the usual stop, forward, rewind, etc. You have to scroll through about 5 menus to get to your shows.
7) Speaking of those buttons, they aren't very responsive. I often miss my target when pausing, rewinding, etc.
8) When you exit the recording menu, you're stuck on a splash screen until you change the channel. That's the only way out. It doesn't even drop you back to the channel you were on.


I'll think of more, but I think you get the picture.

Horsies

We went up to beautiful Saratoga Springs on Sunday to shake me out of my doldrums. It's off-season, but I think harness racing is still on. We just walked around downtown looking at lofts, rentals, etc. and contemplating our next possible move! ;-)

It's very hard to explain how different things are out East for a Colorado-raised boy. Even though traffic in Denver sucked, it was frustrating in a different way. I guess Anchorage was similar to here in the particular traffic problems of road size vs car density. There's rarely a two lane road, never mind the 3 lane boulevards that try to keep things moving in CO.

I've already covered the indifferent attitude about having street signs. I keep the GPS on all the time so I have some warning my turn is coming up. It's hard to look ahead too far due to the 10,000,000,000,000 trees and I don't think I've ever gone more than 3 blocks before waiting at another light.

But, if water is what you're after, there's no end of it. And you don't have to drain the entire region's underground aquifers trying to keep a carpet of grass underfoot.

Halloween

We didn't get any trick-or-treaters. We are temporarily in an apartment with security doors, so it makes it kind of difficult for the little beggars. It's also kind of isolated. The strange thing is that, except for one darling little princess I saw at McDonald's at lunch the day before Halloween, I didn't even see any kids out on the road. We went to dinner, so maybe they were done by then. I don't know if they go to the malls here, or what. Seems like a lot of good neighborhoods for going house to house. The mystery shall have to wait until next year.

Here VS. There, wherever they are

If you've never been to the City-Data forums it's an interesting place where people discuss places to live. Most people honestly point out the good and bad of it, but it's amazing how where you grow up affects your views.

It's impossible to explain the differences in East VS. West, how it feels, etc. to people from the opposite sides of the country. I'm including CO as West, BTW, not the middle - it's definitely western in culture. I'm also leaving the geographically mis-named Midwest out of it because, except for a few visits, and 6 mo of AF training in IL, I have no experience to comment on it.

Showin' the folks around

My parents were out for the weekend, and we went to Saratoga Springs, Lake George, the Great Sacandaga, Gloversville, Cohoes, Waterford, and Rensslaer, and a few other place in between. Not to mention around Albany.

Most importantly, my dad helped me unload the rest of our stuff from the POD, because the apartment management wants it gone ASAP.

New pics up on Flickr.

A Tale of Two Law Firms

I blogged about Lisa's job with the crazy lawyer in Albany, that got us here in the first place, and how she got a job at another firm. Here's were the tale takes a bizarre twist.

When she was interviewing with the first lawyer (Let's call him Lawyer X), he mentioned that he had interviewed someone who was referred to him by an acquaintance. During Lisa's interview, he called the lawyer who had referred the woman, and said he was hiring Lisa.

Forward to the end of The Week From Hell. She found another job online, and applied. Three interviews later, she gets a job at the firm, but not the one she originally applied for. The woman who is training her is leaving after working at the company for a few months because she doesn't feel it's a good fit for her. She asks Lisa "Did you work for Lawyer X?" Lisa, of course was shocked. The woman is the one who she beat out for that job! She had decided to go work there when Lawyer X called her after Lisa quit. She guessed it was Lisa because she knew Lawyer X had hired a woman from CO who left after a week. Lisa's new boss, Lawyer Y, is the one who referred the woman to Lawyer X!

There's no connection between either firm, other than some people at each know each other, and there was no connection between the jobs or Lisa and the other woman.

Total coincidence, all the way around. Weird enough for ya?

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

Although there are street signs on almost every intersection here (unlike Worcester, where there usually weren't) they are lacking address numbers, and they're almost aways off to the side. You never see them up over the street, and certainly never lit up so yo can see them at night. I am amazed they don't put the address range numbers on them. I've really grown to like the GPS.

Where we are staying, you can't get out of the neighborhood without going through some construction zones. They've gone traffic circle crazy out here like they did in Denver a while back. The problem here is they're slow. They have a habit of putting in real marble curbstones along sidewalks out here, and that takes longer than pouring concrete. It does look nice, though.

We got our NY driver's licenses yesterday. Lisa's a New Yorker again after many years. I'm just dazed and confused! She's disappointed because NY added spaces to the license numbers, so they're like XXX XXX XXX. They used to be sequential, and took up two lines! My friend Steve, from Anchorage, had his license number memorized, and used to love rattling it off when asked. People were stunned a) by it's length, and b) that he knew it! He still had it because he was in the AF and service members aren't required to get licenses in the states where they're stationed.

Offices and Jobs

Lisa's first job, the one that got us here, was a bust, but she got a new one today. The law firm she worked at was a one-man show, and the one man was insane. And his other paralegal was bi-polar (my diagnosis). For example, when the bank's number was busy, she screamed "You're a big f****g bank and your telling me you only have one f*****g line? I'm going to keep f*****g calling back until you f*****g answer!" Or something like that. After slamming the receiver down and then repeatedly slamming the phone down on the desk. She was sweet as pie when she talked to us at other times. Add in an intern that rarely showed up and a spoiled princess daughter that sort of worked there for the remainder of the staff. And they all badmouthed the boss behind his back (even the daughter!).

The attorney, too, was fond of yelling, and the F-bomb, even when clients were in the office. He liked to tell stories about threatening people with his guns. He goes around armed at all times.
He's also a slumlord and spent much of what little time he was in the office on the phone cussing out his renters or his maintenance people, the latter for having the gall to charge him for fixing things. We almost made the mistake of renting one of his hovels. He was the very definition of a cheapskate. Lisa got chewed out for accidentally "printing" 14 blank sheets of paper. The office was a total pig-sty and probably violated numerous fire and building codes.

Her new job is in a nice, professional office. She was a good fit, as they are all veterans or current reservists. One of the partners survived one of the WTC towers, then went to Iraq in the Army (Airborne).

I found an EDS office that just happens to be 2 blocks from where Lisa's going to work. Actually, I found it last week, she just got her job today, after her 3rd interview. It was just a coincidence that they're close together (or is it? :) That'll be nice because we only have 1 car at the moment. My office is a tiny little place with 11 people working there, split between the Albany VA and Western Union accounts. And now me.

Saratoga Springs / Lake George

Took another day trip today. Here's the pictures to prove it! ;-)

Unlike the subjects of my post about the sad old mill towns, these two towns, and Glens Falls in between, are booming from tourism.

We took a 1-hr lake cruise. It's hard to see, but this picture shows plants growing out of a rotten spot near the bottom of the boat! It was the same cruise line that lost a ship (capsized) in 2005. That boat tipped over, so now they station a heavy, talkative guy on the stairs to the upper deck to ensure it's not over capacity. Well, at least they did on our boat, the Horicon.

Which shore?

Funny thing - out West when we talk about jobs going overseas it's often sort of an academic discussion. Out here, it's much more visible. You see so many once vibrant, beautiful former mill/industrial town that is now kind of quiet, dirty and sad. Many have changed just in Lisa's lifetime, since she was a kid here in the 70s and 80s.

It makes you think about those politicians and business leaders who tout building brand new billion dollar factories in China to make cheap crap for Walmart and poisonous toys, food and pet food for us to eagerly consume. I'd gladly pay 2 or 3 times as much for consumer goods if they'd slap some tariffs on imports, stop selling our entire country to overseas interests, and pay some of our debts for a change.

Any of them who can look at what they've done to this country and then smuggly tell us those people just need to retrain for service jobs (servicing who?) should be stoned! :-0

Official Disclaimer: lest this become a political blog, I must point out that I despise the Democrat, Republican, and even the Libertarian parties. Leaves me in a lurch, don't it? ;-)

Pictures

New pics over on Flicker from the move. Mostly Albert sleeping his way across the country in various hotels.

Also, we took a trip to one of the neighboring cities in the Tri-City area of Albany/Troy/Schenectady, and found a house Lisa lived in during grade school. We got a few pics in their Central Park before my camera filled up because I'd left my SD Card at home in my PC. DOH!

Global warming and Dish Network

There's no correlation between the items in the title of this post, except I hate one and miss the other. It's October, and I have the AC on at 8 PM in Upstate NY! To be fair, we're on the upper floor of an apartment, and the folks below may have their heat on. And it's mostly the humidity that's getting to me. It was 75F today, and it rained, so the humidity was quite high.

As for Dish, I so miss my Dish DVR. The Time Warner version stinks to high heaven. Dish really hit a home run with the design of their remotes and menu system. The layout of the TW DVR is cumbersome at best, and there's no option to choose from other recorders as with Dish. Ah, well.

Fall sure is pretty here! :-}

Covenants, associations, and rules, oh my!

There is a forum for the Fremont Lofts, where we almost moved in Worcester. We are becoming quite glad we escaped the clutches of a condo association. I've never seen such a group of whiners trying to control every aspect of everyone's lives. The funny thing is, this is from a bunch of the most liberal people on the planet. Here's a sample from a long complaint about the only kid in the entire complex having neighborhood kids over to play:

"Nicely ask the neighborHOOD kids to play in the grave yard and not our parking lot. I would do this myself, but living on the first floor, I would like to attract as little negative attention from the neighborHOOD as possible."

Yes, they did suggest the kids play in the cemetery next door to the complex! BTW, nobody forced them to move into a marginal neighborhood in the first place. Things like this are what protect me from accidentally becoming a yuppy!

I guess we will go back to quiet suburban life, a house with no attached neighbors, and no homeowners associations!

DMV, double parking, and baseball

I hear Denver's in an uproar about some kind of baseball game or something? :-0

My folks are coming out here, so if they end up playing Boston, I have to lock my parents up so they aren't seen or heard rooting for the Rockies. This may be NY, but we're far enough away from the city that it's acceptable to root for the Sox if the Yankee's aren't involved! Actually, even if it's Cleveland, that's going to be the local favorite.

Driving here is much more sane than in Worcester, MA, but it is an old city, so they do have some winding, narrow streets. Which isn't so bad if someone's not double parked. It's really fun when it's a big truck. I have seen two people sit blocking traffic while talking to someone standing in the street. The 2nd time it was as I was leaving the DMV, and I'd just had to lay on the horn to keep someone from backing into me in the parking lot. I gave the road hog a blast of the horn, too. Out here, that just means, "move on" or "pay attention" not, let's have a 9mm shoot-out, like out West.

Unverified trivia: Oldest Cities in US

As for the DMV: when I exchanged my CO license for a CA license, I filled out a form, surrendered my old ID, paid a fee, and was done. Same for CA to AK. For the NY DMV I had to provide my old license, my birth certificate, my SS Card, and my passport. Now, there are other forms of ID accepted - they have point values. Lisa didn't have her passport, so she used our wedding license and her credit card, as they were 1 pointers. The passport was a 4.

Now, you could say this is OK because of heightened security nowadays. That would be fine if while I was at the DMV, the NY State House wasn't debating the governor's plan to give licenses to illegal immigrants. WTF?! He claims it'll make us more secure. I wouldn't mind at all if, when they came in, they were deported! Do they have to show a non-proof of address and identity? Give me a f*****g break. I made sure to register to vote so I can vote against the governor for this issue alone! ;-)

Relaxification

The POD was deliverd today, so we've been unpacking. It gets more tedious each time! I think we'll stay here for a year. I'm definately getting movers next time.

We're going to take a break and see Steven Wright at The Egg tonight. The Egg is part of Albany's vaunted Empire State Plaza. It's been compared to the location of the famous Neremberg Rally, but it does make an impression! Here's some good pics of the plaza.

If you've never seen Steven Wright, well.... the first time I saw him on an hour long HBO show, I thought "there's no way he can go on like this the whole time." He can. Reminds me of Jack Handy (remember SNL's Deep Thoughts...?). Here's on of his memorable lines: "I'm a peripheral psychic. I can see into the future, but only way off to the side!" He guested on Seinfeld once as another of Kramer's goofy friends, and used that line. Not sure if it was in context. He's kind of like a living non sequeter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that same night: Steven Wright was hilarious! Five minutes into the show my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. The Egg has two theaters in it. The one we where in was very nice. It's also nice that it's only a 10 minute drive to get there. Same for the airport. Albany is kind of like Fort Collins (CO) but with more to do close by.

Officeless

More importantly, net-connectionless. I have been working from the very nice Bethlehem Public Library. I won't have my own internet service until next Friday, 10/19. We aren't too bad off - we have a portable DVD player and a USB TV tuner for the computer. Basic cable is on, so we have plenty of channels. Well, more than over the air, anyway.

I'm almost recovered from the months of working on the house in CO. Now I need to get a hobby! Good thing I have this blog to keep me out of trouble.

Of rain, traffic, and humidity

We had some really bizarre October weather - high 80s! But, it acted like Fall the other night, and today. It rained. Real, driving, pouring rain. It was nice and cloudy today. I love clouds, and Fall. It's my favorite season.

Albany driving is about 10% as crazy as Worcester. There is a grid system here to some extent. There are some goofy intersections, but there are about 95% more street signs. They usually mark both cross streets at an intersection. For those unfamiliar with the wide-open West, 99.9% is the avereage for interesections that have signs for all streets, and usually up where you can see them, not off to the side under a tree! And in town, they're about 3 feet long and.... lit up at night! No kidding. Imagine that. :-) I know it's all part of the test - if you can't drive here, get out! ;-)

That said, people double park anywhere they feel like downtown. And they tailgate on winding, wooded, rain-soaked, under-construction roads.

I forgot to mention one of the most important things about Albany - there are nice malls here! A big one, and a smaller one. I think Troy and Schenectady have them, too!

The Trek

I made the journey down to "Worster," er.... Worcester. OK, that was mean. Worcester's OK if you like an adventure every time you get behind the wheel. It just didn't work out as well as Albany for us.

I drove down last night, watched a DVD on the portable player, slept. Overslept. Overslept some more, then got up and made several trips down the elevator to the car with stuff.

All in all the drive down and back was uneventful. The trees did seem to have doubled in "fallness" since last week, though. It's really starting to look like a real Eastern Autumn!

Slingerlands

We found a place to rent in Slingerlands - a hamlet in the township of Bethlehem - a suburb of Albany. There are a lot of Dutch names around here, like Rensselaer, Slingerlands, Watervliet, Voorhoosville, Defreetsville....

Tomorrow I get to make the journey down to MA to get our few things that we left down there. Planning at it's best, I tell ya.

We obviously answered this question for ourselves, but see my poll about where to live at the top of the blog page.

Some Bethlehem/Slingerlands/Albany Info:
Albany
Bethlehem
Slingerlands

Albany wins

Lisa got the job. It's a small law firm, and the lawyer is a nut. I mean that in a good way. He is in a band, has a small plane, and talks a mile-a-minute. He's in real-estate law, and has investment properties, and has a place we can rent, with no lease, until we can buy a place of our own.

Now I have to have the POD shipped up from Worcester!

Morning in Albany

Last night, it took a couple of minutes to find Albert in a tiny hotel room. We knew he couldn't have gotten out but we thought he'd teleported back up to his home planet or something.

He had gotten behind the bed, then under the platform and down to the foot of the bed. I knew he had to be under there or in the dresser - there was no place else to hide!

He was sleepy and crabby when we dragged him out.

Stand by for news

Sorry, my legions of fans, for the lack of posting! :-0

You may think wer're nuts, and we may be, but we may not be staying put in the loft. I'll detail the saga later, but since we're renting here until our house in CO gets sold or rented out, it's no big deal.

Lisa has a chance at a job in Albany. That's only a couple cities west of here (and about 2 hrs) . Kind of like moving from CO Springs to Fort Collins. It won't make any differenct for those who are eagerly looking forward to visiting - still lots to do, and Boston and NYC are a train ride away!

It was always a toss-up which we liked better, but it's really hard to choose when you don't have a job or anything forcing the decisions. Actually, we'd have definately chosen the really nice stone cottage that we looked at in Delmar (an Albany suburb) if we could have had our house sold.

Anyway, we're heading up there today for her interview tomorrow. I'll let her deal with the realtor here if we end up relocating. It'll only be the second time he almost got a commission out of us!

I'll have to change my description on this blog a little bit, though. ;-)

I used to think I could handle the vagabond life, but I find it very tiring. I must be getting old or something....

Just watching the news in Albany - they have a Fall Foliage Color Map as part of the weather report.

Making do

I'm sitting cross legged on the floor with my notebook propped up on a box in front of me. We have a really nice air mattress, so sleeping is ok. The POD arrives tomorrow with our stuff. Then the real work begins again! I was exhausted just unloading what we brought in the car, plus some groceries.

We don't have internet, phone or cable tv until Friday. I'm borrowing a neighbors WiFi signal right now. I did some work this morning from the library on their wireless.

I really miss Dish Network. We had numerous receivers to choose from. Here we get what we get and they don't even have a dual-tuner DVR! I could go with their simple receiver and get a TiVo, but for now we're getting two DVRs so we can both record way more shows than we can watch. ;-)

Still have to get the Gas and Electric set up in our name. And register the car at the Registry of Motor Vehicles (that's RMV, not DMV!).

Last night we were saved embarrassment by a woman just in front of us at the grocery store. When asked if she was looking for something and she asked for a cart, the woman exclaimed "You mean a carriage? They're outside along the building!" as if shocked that some rube would call it a cart, and expect it to be found inside the store! Imagine that! When in Rome....

I need to get some pics of the place before it's filled with boxes and packing material. I also have to upload the 30 or so pictures of Albert's adventures getting here. :-)

Arrived!

We got to Auburn, a suburb of Worcester, just after dark. We're at a La Quinta tonight. The usual $70/person, $10/cat.

We're off to get some non-fast food.

It's nice that there are full service rest stops all along the highway's here. If you decide you want food after you get gas, though, you're screwed - it's one way, and there's no loop around. They are all clones of each other from IN to MA! For those travellers from wayback, they're not Howard Johnson's anymore, though.

Did you know that "sure" is a two-syllable word? It's pronounced "shu-wa!"

Toll trolls

We are in toll road country. For those out West used to saying "freeway" it's a tollway here just about everywhere.

Albert decided he needs to ride on top of his carrier instead of inside it where he has blankets to nap on. He behaves well, but has to be put back in every time we hit the toll booths and/or exit.

We lost Lisa's cosmetic bag in a tragic roof-rack accicent. It slipped out the side between the rails. It was right on the center line, but by the time I was bold enough to make an illegal u-turn, about 5 miles down the road, someone had swiped it. They have the emergency turn areas blocked with those plastic poles here. I squeezed through next to an overpass. In retrospect I should've just stopped an hiked back a half mile. The good news is, Lisa got to get new cosmetic bags, hair dryer, etc. She did lose 6 months of contacts, though! The sad thing is, when we started out, I made sure to loop the tie-downs through the handles of all the bags. After the 3rd load-up, I was tired and lazy!

We asked at the next rest stop and toll gate, but no luck. We saw two cleanup trucks right near that area so we hoped they'd have it. They keep the toll roads clean and well maintained, I'll give them that.

We are at a Days Inn in Batavia, NY. It's quite the dump. It has about 1000 rooms and it looks like a prison block. But, it was only $70/person, $10/cat. Has a pool, but it's outside. The doors have number plates on top and bottom. I can only figure that's for when you're crawling down the hallway in a drunken stupor, so you can find your room! This place is one step from hourly room rentals. The vending machine is stocked with condoms, cigarette lighters, and pain killers!

When we got here, I just made it inside before a bus load of Japanese tourists heading for Niagara Falls. They paused to take pictures of the front of the prison, er.... hotel, so I flanked 'em. Oops, sorry. I listened to the audio book of Ken Burn's The War on the way out here! ;-)

Hotel travails

We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in last night in Coralville, IA. I don't know if it made us any smarter, but at least it had a pool. It was about $130, but at least it had a pool! It also had the slowest elevator in the free world. Then there was the time it wouldn't budge from the 1st floor. The door kept closing half-way, then opening again. I tried repeatedly pressing the door close button, but that set of some sort of alarm, so I slunk away and went up the stairs! The LAN access didn't work. H.I. farms it out, and I gave up on the support number. The hardwired guest computer in the lobby couldn't connect to the LAN, either.

Coralville was surprisingly nice. We took a much needed break from the cat and walked about 1/2 a block to a mall. We had to buy swimsuits for the pool. You can imagine the selection at this time of year! We found some at Target on the clearance racks.

I had a much needed chair massage at a kiosk. It was strange trying to relax with people plodding by.

~~~~

Tonight we're in the Super 8 ($75/person, $10/cat) in Howe, IN, about 2 blocks South of the MI border. They actually call this area michiana. There network didn't work, and the lady at the desk didn't know what to do about the orange light on the modem. I kindly suggested she restart it. It didn't get done until her manager relieved her at 9 PM.

Albert update (the precious puddy tat): He is travelling very well. He seemed to love the H.I. Express. He mucked about quite a bit, there. He took some time to settle in here. He keeps being started by people in the hall, and when we first got in he bolted into the hall and had to be dragged in. But, overall, he's doing good. He's claimed the couch for himself. Since we got him the large carrier (meant for a 22 lb dog, not a 12 lb cat!) he has the most room when travelling.

I have pics to post, but likely won't get to it until we are done travelling. We are taking our time, since we can't be in our new place until the 1st, anyway.

On the road

We got out of town at the crack of 2:30. First I overslept, then we decided we had too much crap for the car, so we bought a roof rack.

We made it to Lincoln, NB. We are at a Countryside Suites. Holiday Inn wanted $110, and that was a discount. This place has a sofa, flat panel TV, fireplace, fridge and mocrowave, and it was only $75!

The cat has behaved quite well. We did stop in some podunk town in CO to get him a bigger carrier at Wal-Mart, so he could stay in it, because he was mucking about too much in the car.

Off we go!

Tomorrow morning we head East. We bought some cool toys for the trip. We got a Garmin GPS unit and a portable DVD player.

Said goodbyes today. Delivered my dead DVR (RIP) to a friend who's going to hack it, fix it, dissect it, or otherwise have fun with it. Had lunch with an old school friend from the hood. Finally dinner with family (gorged ourselves at Red Lobster!).

I'll try to post from the road.

Don't do this!

As a bona-fide computer geek, I should know better, but I got in a hurry packing and lifted up my Dish Network DVR while it was running, so I could move the stand it was sitting on. It suffered a massive, total hard drive failure. Now it's just a tuner!

The silver lining is that we can't get dish in the loft, so I didn't need in anymore. But, I was going to sell it on eBay or Craig's List! I'm giving it to an uber-geek friend to labotomize!

About Worcester, MA

Worcester is in central MA, close enough to Boston to commute via bus or commuter rail, and link up with the T (MBTA) subway system or the city bus system.

Yes, but how is it pronounced? See http://www.worcestermass.com/pronounce/worcestercounty.shtml#worcester

Driving: driving anywhere in MA is best compared to driving in Europe. If you've been there, you'll know what I mean. Here's a perfect example:

Kelly Square - There are 5 or 6 roads converging at non-right angles, no traffic lights, and, I think, 2 stop signs. Here's a wonderful overhead view, and a nice time-lapse video.

Speaking of signs, I saw one in Boston that said "Form One Lane" not - this lane ends, or merge left, mind you. They leave it up to you to figure out.

Urban Renewal: the city has gone through a lot already, and more is planned. It's a lot like LoDo in Denver, or BelMar or Olde Town Arvada. They are getting the most money that's ever left Boston in MA history to fix up Worcester.

Hanover Theatre:
http://www.thehanovertheatre.org/
Tuckerman Hall:
http://www.tuckermanhall.org/
New City Square:
http://www.newcitysquare.com/
Union Station:
http://www.worcestermass.org/guide/unionstation.html

Still working

I can't believe I'm still doing things to the house, even as I'm stuffing the POD full of our few remaining possessions. Today I put up 3 doors. I had replaced most of the plain hollow core doors in the house with nice panelled doors more suited to the architecture. (see my photos)

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll never be finished - I'll just run out of time!

The time do fly

Can't believe we're leaving on Weds, 9/26. I have sooooo much still to do. There are many good friends I haven't had time to personally see. I guess I'll just have to make sure to visit Denver a lot. Heck, I may even visit my brother and his family! ;-)

Moving sucks

Everything we own, packed into a POD. Moving does make you evaluate all of your junk and decide what's worth carting all the way across the country. I had a huge load sent off to The Salvation Army today.

Hip, urban lifestyle

The Fremont Lofts: http://www.thefremont.com/

The new place in Worcester "Woosta" MA.

What happened to Boston? Too expensive. Worcester is only 45 minutes away, linked by commuter rail, and much more affordable.

We're all set to be in the loft/condo on Oct. 1. They are letting us rent until our place is either sold or rented out.

This is our unit, #407. The room marked "storage" you can translate into "home theater." There are no neighbours attached to that part, either.

Get out of Denver baby go!

The short story: my wife is from upstate NY. She loves Boston. She's lived in CO for 14 years for me. Now she wants to go back East. So, it's time for me to head East and become a New Yankee!

This is the house we're leaving in Wheat Ridge (Denver) Colorado. I spent the last 3 months renovating the place. It's now the way I wanted it for the last 6 years!

My home improvement saga is documented somewhat here, and on my Flickr photostream .