Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Out with the old...

Well, we did it.  We moved everything out of our old place and into our new one.  About half of it is still unsorted in the garage, but it's there.  We couldn't move everything in right away because the carpets got shampooed the day after we did the bulk of the moving.  My MIL (the property manager- how handy is that?) helped us move and decided the carpets needed cleaning again so she called it in.  After they were all dry (which took a day) we started moving things in.  Kawika's room is all set up, and it's the only one in the house that's fully put together.  Priorities, people!

Cute baby, ugly couch!


The kitchen is coming together, too.  And we finally got the couch into the family room last night, but the living room is a disaster, and the dining table is still in pieces.  I feel pressured to get it all done, but it's so freaking HOT in the evenings that by the time I've sat in traffic, in my hot car, in the sun, on the blistering freeway for an hour, picked up the baby, and made it home, all I want is a cold shower and to stand naked in front of the window A/C unit (which I may or may not have done last night).

The carpet has been replaced in the 2 smaller rooms, which means Kawika has new carpet in his room and I'm pretty happy about that.  The other room.... I'm not sure what we're doing with it yet. Sleeping in it for now, until we get the rest of the furniture into the master bedroom.  We've got to move the dressers into the master bedroom before we can put the bed up, and I have to find the hangers before I can get all the clothes un-bagged and hung up, and I'm not sure where most of the towels or blankets are, but they'll have to go into the linen closet which means the light bulbs and extra curtains that were stored there will have to find a new home... how did I end up with this much STUFF?!


Well, whatever.  We're moved out of the old place, into the new place, and we're making slow progress every day.  I think this weekend we'll finally get to catch our collective breaths for a minute, relax, enjoy our new space, and get really settled in.  At least, that's what I'm hoping for!  I've felt a little like a zombie since last weekend and I think I need some extra sleep.

Yep, pretty much.


Tuesday, August 16, 2011

We got the keys!

Yay, we got the keys to our new place yesterday!! We did a walk through with the property manager to note down any items that were in less-than-perfect condition.  A few doors were damaged, a sink leaked, the oven display doesn't work, and there are some burnt spots in the family room carpet.  Overall, though, it's in pretty good condition for its age.  Besides, I understand the owner not wanting to replace everything all the time; it's a rental!  Rentals get damaged!  Hopefully after we're there for a while he'll be willing to make some upgrades.  The sink is getting fixed ASAP though.  I don't do leaks.  They cause so many other problems.

I wish I had a Dyson vacuum. That place could use another vacuuming before we start putting furniture down, but my vacuum is nearing the end of its lifespan and I'm less than confident in its ability to suck up everything I'd like sucked up.  Kawika is near the floor an awful lot and I'm getting all weird about exposing him to things.  He's not close to crawling yet, but I'm already thinking about bumpers for the fireplace and how to avoid falls now that we have a sunken living room... 

Ooh, there's so much to DO!  I'm getting really excited thinking about it.  I wish I could fast-forward to being all moved in though, because I totally hate the process of moving.  SO not looking forward to that.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The universe is telling me...

...Either that I should stop driving or to get a new car.  Or perhaps to find a job closer to home.  I can't decide what all these recent events should mean.

Backstory:  In March I was rear-ended on my way home from work in rush-hour traffic (effing Portland).  The impact pushed my car into the car in front of me. My car had damage to the rear bumper and the hood, and the insurance company of the guy who hit me decided it was enough damage to just total out my car.  I opted to keep it (it was mostly cosmetic damage) and have them cut me a check.  The auto body shop had straightened the hood (after they found it would be totaled, for whatever reason) so my car looks perfectly normal and drives just like it did before.  No harm, no foul, it's a 1997 with 200k miles on it, KWIM?

The worst thing to come of that was that I had to spend a night in the hospital because I started having contractions (at 8 months pregnant).  That turned out OK too; baby and I were both fine and made it to full term after that, and dude's insurance paid for the hospital charges. 

Anyway, this morning on my way TO work, I got rear-ended again.  WTF, right?  We're in the left lane on the freeway, crossing the bridge into Portland and the stupid Ford Taurus in front of me (I hate Ford Tauruses, did you know?) slammed on their brakes.  Naturally, I braked hard to avoid hitting them and succeeded, narrowly.  The guy on the motorcycle behind me couldn't stop as fast as I did and ran into the back of me.  I felt the impact (we had been going probably 40 mph!) and looked in my rearview mirror to see him flying off his bike and on to the pavement.  Naturally, I'm terrified for him.

Chris rides a motorcycle so I'm very aware of the dangers to riders, and it seems Portland is especially stupid about that since we don't have many year-round riders here.  They all come out in the summer and it's like the people in cars forget that they exist.  We hear stories on the news almost nightly about motorcycle riders getting injured or killed when cars hit them, change lanes into them, etc.

Put one on your car; raise awareness!
 
Back to this morning.  I immediately put my hazard lights on and jumped out of my car to go see if he was OK.  The stupid Taurus drove away, oblivious.  The pickup behind the motorcycle rider avoided hitting him (thanks largely to a big following space; clearly that guy is aware of riders).  I ran to the guy as he's picking himself up and trying to get his bike up.

We talked as he examined his bike and I examined him. He was shaken, and told me it was his fault, and apologized and asked if I was OK.  I was totally fine, just a little zippy from the adrenaline. I told him my man rides and I was way more concerned with his well being than my bumper.

He was looking at my car and his bike and I could tell he was tallying the damages, but I stopped him short.  I briefly explained that I'd been rear-ended (by a car) only a few months prior and my car had been technically totaled and I wasn't concerned in the least about a scratch on the bumper, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt.  He was incredulous, but I don't think he'd realized yet how hard he hit.  He was wearing an expensive street motorcycle jacket and I know those things are made with Kevlar, and it was ripped open on his shoulder.  He'll be feeling that one when the adrenaline wears off, I'm sure of it. 

Anyway, when I made it clear that I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it and turn it into an insurance thing, he hugged me!  Lots of riders don't have insurance, and by how relieved he was, I'm guessing he's one of them.  It's okay; it'll cost him plenty to replace his jacket and repair his bike.  It wasn't drivable with the handle broken the way it was, and his exhaust piping was chromed, and badly scraped.  Those aren't cheap fixes!

I asked if there was anything I could do to help him, since there's no shoulder on the bridge and he couldn't drive his bike, but he said he was fine and he was just going to walk it off the bridge.  I hope he made it off safely and it didn't totally ruin his day, but I guarantee by the time he made it to a safe place he was starting to feel the bruises.

I would like to apologize to the other commuters behind us.  I-5 southbound in the AM is hellish enough without having the left lane blocked and stopped.  We were only there for maybe 5 minutes, but I'm sure traffic was affected for an hour afterward.  So I'm sorry, other commuters! And I'm sorry, rider guy whose name I didn't get.  I hope you're not hurting too badly.

Blame the Taurus.

Welcome to my hell

Monday, August 8, 2011

Gratuitous baby pictures

My sister-in-law is watching my son today (thanks Tera!) and she sent some pictures over.  Rub it in my face that you're snuggling him, will you?  =)  Kidding.  I'm glad he has such a loving auntie and cousins who want to take care of him and play with him. 

I suppose he'll need one of these at home, now

With cousin Kawai (20 months)
Love it!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Work and such

Occasionally, when my mom is watching Kawika, she takes pictures and e-mails them to me.  I love it, since I get to see what he's up to while I'm working.  The other day she sent me two pictures of him wearing a hat that she'd just purchased.  Apparently she thought his little dome was much bigger than it is, because it's quite large on him.

Mah hat is too big!
 Which is, of course, hilarious.  =)

And it's not funny!
But not to Kawika, apparently.

I'm going back to a full-time-in-the-office schedule next week, but my mom recently informed that she only feels comfortable watching Kawika three days a week.  I understand her limitations and certainly don't want to overtax her, but this puts me in the position of having to find someone to take him for the other 2 days, and on short notice.

Perhaps I can transition to working from home 1 day per week for now.  I will have to be back in the office full time at some point, but it's pretty awful timing to do that right now.  We are still living on the opposite side of the world so I have that crazy-long commute to deal with.  I was going to ask to extend the length of time that I'm only in the office 3x/wk but the admin is taking a 2-week vacation starting Monday, so I will likely be asked to pick up her duties while she is out, which means being at the office full time.  Bummer!!

The house we are moving into in a couple of weeks is very close to my mom's (which was kind of the point) but further from the other two or three people I might ask to watch Kawika.  I guess no matter which way you slice it, I'll be doing quite a bit of driving.  The only difference is whether I'm doing the crazy commute 5 days/wk or only 2.

 I'm so excited to move!!! I have a few more details to hash out monetarily, but thanks to my wonderful family and friends, we're actually going ahead with it and I'm PSYCHED.  I get a PANTRY!!  =D

Monday, August 1, 2011

Lately

So a few things have been happening lately that I feel I want to talk about.

For one, we're getting ready to move into a new house.
Look, there it is!

I'm more than a little freaked out by the whole thing.  We don't really have the money to be moving; it's an expensive endeavor!  There are deposits and fees to pay, rent on two places at the same time (no matter how good a mover you are there will be some overlap!), you have to pay for a U-Haul and a professional carpet cleaning... plus the physical exertion of it all.  I'm still all fat and gross from my 9 months as an incubating machine (curse you, belly!) which means I get tired faster, and I still don't get to sleep through the night, like, ever, so I'm perpetually tired and half-asleep anyway.

Ooh, a fireplace

Worries about money and moving aside, I'm actually very excited.



Another thing that's happening is that my job has changed.  I'm no longer the reception/admin I was before maternity leave.  I am now... well... I'm not sure what my title is anymore.  We haven't actually gotten that nailed down yet.  It's time for my annual review and they kind of created a position that I'm now filling (it was needed!) so the technicalities of it, like my title, are all new.  Supposedly I will find out this week after my boss catches up.  She just enjoyed a week in Hawaii, and looks fabulous for it. It sucks that vacations are always somewhat negated by the stress of coming back to a huge workload.  I guess that's what happens when you're important!

Other things of note:  It's gorgeous outside, Kawika had his first shower the other day, and my grandparents just celebrated their 50th anniversary.

Yesterday was great; I went to Chris's cousins house.  His cousin wasn't there, but his wifey Corinna was, and we're pretty friendly.  I brought Kawika and we hung out in the back yard with her daughter McKenzie (12).   Kanoa (2) came out to play after he woke up from his nap.  It was nice! I got a little sun, and Corinna and Kenz got their tan on.  Wika sat in a little stroller in the shade and we set up a blanket on the grass where he could lay propped on a Boppy and stare at the trees blowing in the breeze.  He loves that!  Something about the light on the leaves and the way the wind moves them just captivates him.


And here's a short video of Kawika playing on a play mat that Corinna gave to us.  I guess I underestimated how cool he would think it was so I didn't buy one.  But apparently it's awesome.  He just lays there and kicks at the little creature that has a tinkly bell in it and talks and shouts and smiles... it's freaking adorable.
Thanks Corinna!