Sheep Guarding Llama

Today begins the real packing portion now that the basic logistics of our move have been organized.  We had the boxes ready for our first load to the storage unit pretty early today.  Dominica did a ton of cleaning today and quite a bit yesterday too getting ready for the inspection by the real estate agents today.  They are scheduled for a little before lunch.

I also began doing CD transfers today.  There is limited time and I have a ton of stuff that I want to get done before I drive the Mazda up to dad’s house next week to drop it off.  I am going to load it to the hilt, if possible, to get stuff away from Peekskill. The plan is, loosely, that Brian and I are driving to Pavilion on Tuesday night.  Then going to Toronto on Wednesday morning and working in Toronto all day.  Then Wednesday night we are kicking off SpiceCorps Toronto.  Then crashing with Antoni.  Then driving back to Pavilion super early on Thursday morning.  On Thursday afternoon it is Amtrak from Rochester to Croton-Harmon.  I haven’t taken the Lake Shore Limited in quite some time and I am looking forward to the trip.  The tickets were just $51 which is pretty good for a trip so long.  It is going to be exhausting but all stuff that just has to be done.  The Mazda has to be delivered to dad’s place and the rest just makes sense once we are making the trip.

It was a busy work morning and I was just loading up the X3 when Cindy and the other agents arrived to take a look at the house.  Overall they seemed to be pretty happy with the state of things and did not seem to be too concerned with our ability to sell it.  There are concerns, of course, but they did not make it seem like it might be as bad as we have feared that it might be.  But we will see.  It could very easily be very bad.  There really is no way to know.

I worked for a while more and then we all ran out to go to lunch down at Pastel’s.  There is no food in the house really and we are not going to be doing any real grocery shopping as one of our goals is to get the house as empty as possible.  There are only a few meals left to be eaten here.

We hit the grocery store for bottled water and soy milk.  Then back to the house.  I wrapped up working and then we took a drive to the storage unit so that Dominica could see it and I dropped off the first full load of stuff.  Just that one load and already the house is looking much better.  This is very encouraging that we are going to be able to make real progress really quickly.

This evening Liesl climbed the basement stairs the entire way, all by herself!  I was there to catch her, of course, but she just climbed right up.  She is getting so big so quickly!

We tried to watch a movie this evening but there were so many interruptions that I gave up on it.  Dominica had made a chicken pot pie for dinner that I was able to eat.  She watched some movie with Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham but I don’t know the name of it.  It wasn’t too bad but not gripping enough for me to worry about the fact that I was missing pretty much all of it.

I got a ton of work done tonight on CD ripping.  There are two massive bins of CDs here that need to be ripped and it is a very manual process that is going to take up a lot of time.  I only have a few days in which to get it done so I am doing all that I can to make good progress on it.  At the rate that I am going I will easily complete the first bin tomorrow and should even manage a start on the second.  Once those bins are out of here the living room will clean up a lot.

I am very excited that, for the first time in about a month, SGL is now completely up to date!

Tomorrow we are just home doing more packing.  I am planning to make at least two runs to the storage unit.

For the next two weeks we are doing nothing but getting ready to move to Texas.  The vacation to Florida is finally over and our lives are getting back to “normal” and we are now able to focus on the things that need to be done.  The first big challenge is to find an apartment.  Yes, it is true, two weeks to go and we have not even called about apartments yet.  I really can’t explain how much of a life disruption this trip to Walt Disney World has been.  Everything in our lives has been completely on hold waiting for that to wrap up.  Now the move to Texas seems quite real and we really need to be on top of it quickly.

Dominica did a ton of work on the apartment stuff this morning.  She called a few places, got details, specs and even had some people go out and take pictures for us.  Once we were pretty sure that we had found a place that we were going to be happy with I emailed my boss and asked him to go over and to take a look to make sure that the place was going to be okay.  It is pretty crappy renting an apartment without ever having gotten to see it yourself first hand but we really do not have that kind of luxury these days.  So we are doing the best that we can.

By early afternoon we had decided on a place right in front of the office in Las Colinas.  It actually shares a driveway with work which is going to be massively convenient.  Parking at the office is horrible and being able to walk will be great.  It is a two bedroom exterior unit.  We have a pool and a coffee shop in the complex.  It looks really nice in pictures so we are hopeful.

The next big challenge is getting a storage unit here in Peekskill.  We have decided that logistically we absolutely have to have someplace where we can take the stuff as it gets packed so that it is out of our way.  We have no idea how long it is going to be before we are able to move from New York to Texas with all of our stuff because so much is dependent upon the sale of our house in New York.  So we are going to store things in New York for now and make the decision on shipping it all to Texas later.

I ran out right at five thirty and made it just at the last second so that I could check out the storage units and pick one up tonight.  We decided that we wanted the luxury of space so we got a 10’x15′ storage unit in town.  That will make life so much easier.  We are both completely relieved having gotten the unit.  Now our plan is to start boxing things up tonight and filling the car with boxes until it is full and then driving over to the storage unit and unloading there.  If all goes well we can do this twice a day.  That will keep all of the boxes out of our way and the house will actually become empty as we go rather than becoming a disaster of storage that is in our way while we try to pack. On my way back from getting the storage unit I swung into Pastel’s and picked up some dinner to go.

We have the additional complication that the house needs to remain basically furnished so that it can be shown by the real estate agent.  This is really tough because if we leave it furnished then we can’t ship that stuff to Texas until the house sells.  If we ship everything to Texas right away it might keep us from being able to sell the house.  We can’t leave the stuff that we pack in the house, though, because that impacts the showing too.  We ran through scenario after scenario and this one was the only one that made the remotest sense.  It isn’t going to be run living with everything that we own being in storage but we just have to do it.  It’s that simple.

After I got back I worked for another two hours or so.  Then I went up into the attic and we got down all of the packing boxes that we had fortunately saved up there so we can begin putting them together and packing everything up. Dominica did some work with Liesl after we were done in the attic with Liesl climbing up and down the stairs.  She was only going a few steps but it is some significant progress.  She walked around a bit this evening as well.  Toddling around the living room getting a feel for this new walking thing that she is doing now.

Then we settled into the living room and officially kicked off the holiday season by watching White Christmas which is the most classic holiday movie ever and never gets old no matter how many times that I have seen it.  Dominica and I have made a point to watch it each and every year before Christmas.

After today we are both feeling much better about everything.  Having an apartment and a storage unit means that we have a plan.  Not much of one, but a plan nonetheless.  Those were the most stressful items that could have caused there to be a real disaster.  They are out of the way and our real estate agent is coming tomorrow to discuss selling and/or renting the house.  Now it is just the packing that needs to be done followed by the cleaning.  We can handle this.  We are seeing the house as more and more manageable chunks.  As long as we keep at it, we should be okay.

So the plan is, more or less, on 19th December we are going to have a small party so that we can clear out all of the remaining alcohol in the house.  We can’t take it with us so we might as well have everyone drink it.

Then we will get onto the road on the 21st or 22nd.  It will take two days of driving, minimum, to get down to Houston.  It is going to be a really long trip since we have Liesl and Oreo in a completely backed car and Dominica is pretty much useless as a second driver because she is asleep the instant that we are in the car, even as a passenger.  So this will be dramatically more difficult than when I drove to Houston with Francesca because she was able to do half of the driving and was awake and actually talking to me when I was driving.  Dominica just nods off and makes it harder to stay away than if I was actually driving alone.

We will be in Houston at least until the 28th of December when our lease begins in Las Colinas.  We are not sure exactly what day we will move in but as we only have the clothes on our backs at that point it might not be for a few more days.  We are not going to be looking forward to a completely bare apartment very much.

Then we have the apartment for six months, until the first of July.  Our hope is that the house will have sold by that point and we can start looking for a permanent home in Texas.  Either way we will have had time to have found a more long term location at the very least and should have a better handle on our situation.

It seems hard to believe after having crashed at dad’s house for an entire week after returning from Florida but today we are finally returning home to Peekskill!  We got up this morning and Dominica worked on packing the car while I made sure that everything was all set with work for me to be on the road some of the day. We had hoped to have been up and on the road much earlier than we actually were but just getting out of Pavilion seems to be a miracle.

Dad drove separately from us and we all met down at Brian’s USA Diner in Mt. Morris which is on the way home.  We ate breakfast and then hit the road.  We made a quick stop at the Rite Aid in Mt. Morris to pick up a car charger for the BlackBerrys as, somehow, we cannot find ours at the moment.

The drive back down to Peekskill went okay.  Dominica was on my BlackBerry most of the way making sure that work did not need me.  At one point, of course as we went through the middle of nowhere, I did need to work so we had to drive to Liberty, New York and stop at the McDonald’s there.  It was convenient, in a way, since we were both a little hungry.  So I bought some WiFi access and worked from my laptop in McDonald’s for an hour or so.  We ate and it was a nice break.  Then back onto the road again.

It was late afternoon and dark when we finally pulled into the house in Peekskill.  Having been away from the house for more than four weeks in the last month and a half and knowing that we are moving to soon has really allowed us to distance ourselves from the house and to stop thinking of it as home.  It feels like nothing more than a short term apartment now.  That is very sad, in a way.  This is a house that we owned.  A house that we bought for Liesl.  Liesl’s very first home and the only one that she has ever known, at this point.  We are leaving so soon that there is very little chance that she will ever remember the house where she did so much of her early growing up.  Including learning to walk, which she did tonight.

We pretty much just relaxed this evening.  We did some work but mostly just light unpacking.  We are pretty tired.  There is so much to be done.  Tomorrow the real work begins.  There is no more avoiding it.

This evening, while hanging out with Dominica and I in the living room, Liesl suddenly just walked across the living room.  Fifteen steps on her first attempt!  She did really well.  She is going to be on a rampage now.  She had taken one step from her grandmother to me while in Disney World and then one or two nights later took two steps while playing with Madeline but they were all just isolated steps.  This was real walking.

Today is the fifth full day at dad’s house for Dominica, Liesl and I.  Oreo has been here for several weeks.  I think that we are beginning to overstay our welcome 😉

I was scheduled to work a few hours this morning but it ended up turning into a major, all day affair.  So the plans for going out to eat fell through and I ended up working more than an entire day!  I can’t complain, though.  We most definitely need any overtime that I am able to get these days.  This move to Texas is going to be insanely expensive and if we can’t get the house in New York sold we are going to be scraping for every penny that we can find.

After work was finally done I focused on my coursework for RIT.  My first week of work is due today so I was scrambling to get everything done tonight for the entire week because the class closes at midnight tonight.  The class is set up to not allow any work on Sundays.  We get new work on Monday morning and it is due by Saturday at midnight.  So Sundays are just off.  That is good for me but generally a bad practice for online courses as all of those people who have only the weekend to get work done have it really tough unnecessarily when the classes could be much more flexible.

I am really grateful to be back in classes again.  After this class I will be exactly halfway through my master’s degree.  I am really looking forward to having it done.  There is a lot left to do but it does not seem to be all that bad.  This class is sounding like it is going to be fun.

After everything was done, Dominica, Liesl, Dad and I settled into the den to watch Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian on DVD.  None of us had seen this movie yet so it worked out really well.  I don’t think that it was as good as the original but it was cute and entertaining and you can’t go wrong with Hank Azaria.

Off to bed somewhat earlier tonight.  Tomorrow morning the car absolutely has to be packed and we have to be on the road back to Peekskill.  There is no more buffer time and we just have to be there working on getting ready for Texas.

Well we are still here.  Once day at a time we are deciding that it just makes sense for us to be staying here.  Today is Friday and tonight I have my late night deployments so by deciding to stay until today we have committed to staying until the weekend because there is no time for us to get into the car and drive until tomorrow afternoon at the very earliest.

Today I realized that I had forgotten to sign up for classes at RIT for the winter semester!  Oops.  I contacted the graduate studies department and asked if they would be able to get me into anything.  They checked and had two classes available.  The first class was the last class in my software development sequence.  With everything that we have going on right at the moment, that seemed like a bad idea.  So I went with the other option which was Clinical Information Systems which is the first class in my Healthcare Information Systems sequence and far less intensive – we hope.

I got all signed up for class today and got my access to the online systems re-established.  My class itself failed to activate today.  I am hopeful that it will activate tomorrow since class has already been running for a week and this weekend will be the end of the week and I do not want to be that late for class.  I would email my professor today except that I do not know who my professor is until the system lets me in.

I worked all evening and then, after work was done and dad had gone to bed, Dominica and I stayed up and watched Star Trek XI which is just now out.  Dominica and not seen it yet and I had only seen it on the Aer Lingus flight returning from Dublin to New York.  I had thought that I was buying it on BluRay from the Amazon Black Friday sale but somehow they switched it on me (I only search for BluRays but sometimes they sneak other things into the list) and I ended up with a crappy DVD which they were trying to unload.  We decided that we only cared so much and decided to just keep this and Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian even though they are just DVD.  DVD is easier for us to store right at the moment and we only really care about having Star Trek on BluRay and night Museum 2 so it is really not very important.

Dominica really liked Star Trek.  I had thought that it was quite good too when I first saw it.  I can see several things that are not surprising that other people did not like it but I think that the concept is good and the new cast is far superior to the original.