Well, after hours of messing around, I finally got my blog converted over to MovableType 3.x compliant styles and tags. And now the TypeKey link is working, so if you have one, you can log in when you make comments, and you won’t have to wait for me to approve them. Again, I think it’s a pretty safe thing to sign up for. And once you have an ID, you can use it on any MT 3.x style blog that requires one.
Since they changed so many things in the style sheet, I couldn’t make it look exactly like it did before. But it’s close enough, right? I’m not CSS expert, I’m self taught and I learn by messing around. And I’ve done plenty of that over the last few days. Now I just have to fix up the booklist page, and I can get started on Satan’s Bookclub!
What do you think the chances are of me winning NaNoWriMo this year? Outlook not good.

yeah, i know. i’ve been messing with things. but i can’t fix it right now. i have to pay attention to my day job. the one that pays me.

Technically, I suppose I could take a shower. As long as I didn’t let the water drain. We typically call that a bath, don’t we? Oooo, and then I could bail the water out with a bucket!! Fun! You should always try to look on the positive side of things, you know.
Anyway, Ron’s getting estimates. Sigh.

Well, it’s bad news, kids, in the flushing department. We are going to have to have the side lines replaced. This is the line that runs from the house, under the driveway, across the front lawn, under the roots of several very tall pine trees, and out to the main line, which is run by the city. Ron is trés unhappy about it. All I hear, when I speak to him, is “thousands of dollars thousands of dollars sigh grumble money anger.” Which is easy for him to say, because he can use water in his place up in Anacortes. Actually, it’s not easy for him to say. It’s apparently very upsetting. I know it would be to me. Which is why I do not own a home. I am too irresponsible to be able to handle the expensive emergencies that could come up. Like this one. I have no idea how much this is going to cost. Or when it will be done. Hopefully this week. I’m running out of clean dishes.
The good news is, garbage service will resume on Thursday! I’ve been living on only yard waste and recycling for the past three weeks. Of course, if someone had told me that food waste, and food soiled paper, count as “yard waste” in this town, it would have helped a little bit. We’ve got quite the little Waste Management plan going in my county, actually. All the recycling in one big blue can. And more stuff than you think can go into “yard waste,” which is a big black can. But that’s not good enough, when you have kitty litter waste. And various garbages created just by being a girl. My green garbage can will be delivered on Thursday. Yay! I’m going to run around the house and separate all my waste and put it into the appropriate can or temporary large plastic bag!
Trash day has never made me so happy.

I went to my mommy’s house to take a shower and perform a toilet. I smell all pleasant and clean. Like soap… and green apples. [that’s the shampoo]. Now I am preheating the oven to make myself some pizza, and my goal this evening is to do something about my disastrous NaNoWriMo word count. And not just because I got a super nice thank you car and sticker, for my donation, in the mail. Surely, if the only requirement is that they are actual words, I can write 50,000 of them by the end of November.
I’ve even turned on that great utility that makes typwritery noises on my mac, as I write. For ambiance.

Sewers are something you probably take for granted. Until you don’t have one. Then, friends, you’ll understand the genius that is indoor plumbing. Our adventure in sewers begins Friday night, when I decided to run a load of darks, in the washing machine. I heard strange gurgling noises. I had heard them before, when I washed clothes. I wasn’t sure why I could hear what was going on in the pipes so clearly, it seemed odd. After I put the clothes in the dryer, I was getting ready for bed, and noticed that there was about two or three inches of blue tinted cold water in the bathtub. I had noticed that the tub was slow draining, since I moved in, but I took a shower the night before. And that was really slow draining. And why was it blue?
The next morning, it was all drained out, I cleaned the lint out of the tub and took a quick shower. When Ron came over that afternoon, to work on the roof, I told him about the shower. And the blue wash water, and the lint. Unfortunately, I did not tell him before he flushed his toilet and it overflowed in his bathroom. I didn’t know!! My toilet had worked fine! I didn’t know we had toilet issues! While I was at the movies with Louise, he called a plumber.
I got home late that night to a note that read “bad sewage issues. Do not flush, shower or wash clothes. Plumber will be back on Monday to finish. Expensive problem!” Since then, I’ve been doing my best to use off site toilets. I worked from home today, and the plumber was here for about 4 hours trying to unstuck whatever is stuck. Couldn’t do it. Ran a camera down the pipes as far as he could go, didn’t find anything, above water at least. So tomorrow, I am working from home again, because the city has to come out and run a “tv” down the “mainline.” In which they can see as far as 7 feet onto our portion of the line. They will determine if it’s on their part, and if not, I call the plumber back in.
I have to tell you, when they explain these things to me, I hear “blah blah tv blah blah main line blah sewer blah blah blah blah tree roots blah blah man hole blah blah.” And it all translates into “no shower for you, smelly girl!!”

I’ve been without internet since Sunday! Yes! It was horrible and scary. Because now I desperately need to look up the rules, regulations and laws concerning my immigration to Canada. Am I immigrating or emigrating? I’m immigrating to Canada, I’m emigrating from the US. It doesn’t have to be Canada, per se, but that does seem the closets and most convenient for me. Plus, I know the language.
Or I could just stick around for the next four years and fight for my right to chose, my free speech, my right to read whatever I want, my right to marry whomever I want, my right to expect the church to keep out of the state, and just about everything else that made me happy to be American. Oy. Just thinking about it makes me tired. But… I guess we have work to do for the next four years.

My mom is desperate to help me with this move. I kept telling her I had it under control, which was a total lie, of course. But if it was out of control, it was my fault, and I guess I felt that I should not be helped out of it because I suck and procrastinate and am lazy. You know? I should pay the price for my sins. But I’ve decided, just now, that if she is free tomorrow, she can help me pack the kitchen. Aren’t I sweet? Part of the reason that I didn’t want her to help is she gets sad when she sees my place a mess. And the apartment is currently unclean. But on the phone this morning she told me she decided that that was her own issue that she was projecting onto me. And I told her that I could have told her that, I knew it all along. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that it makes her sad. Who wants to make their mommy sad? The other reason is based on a story she tells about me as a kid. Apparently, I would somehow talk my friends into doing my chores. I would be cleaning my room and someone would come by to see if I could play, and my mom would tell them that I couldn’t play until my room was clean. Naturally, I was not exactly rushing around cleaning. I was probably lying on the floor, looking for pictures in the patterns on the ceiling. Like I do now. Or playing with my toys. Like I do now. So my little friend would ask if they could help, my mom would peek in later to find me lollygagging about, while they cleaned. Now, I don’t remember doing this. But, it doesn’t surprise me. It’s not an aspect of my personality I should be proud of, and I’m not. Exactly. But… I admit… Look, I can’t help it if I was in high demand as a playmate. And that I had better things to do than clean my room. My head was, and still is, full of many things that take precedent over the more mundane aspects of life.
So part of me feels that this apartment is not completely empty and clean because I am waiting for that little friend to come over and do my chores. Shame on me. 😛

It turns out you do tip movers. And, in fact, when going over the terms of the move with me, the mover guy even said “gratuities are appreciated” albeit quickly. It was a point on the form. Luckily, I had already gone out to get cash. But then I found that they even included a tip section on the credit card slip. sheesh.
I had no idea you tipped housekeeping in a hotel. That’s absolute crap. Someone needs to compile a list. I understand it’s part of the wages of a waitress, you know, unless you suck, you need to tip them. But, I mean, I tip my waxing girl, Shanti, and she owns her own business! Should I be doing that? I started seeing her when she worked at a salon, and I’ve just never stopped tipping her. But I like her. So it’s not that bad.
I miss homegrocer.com. Not only did they rock, and have excellent produce, but they had a policy that stated, clearly, that you do not need to tip the delivery guy, they would not accept tips.
I’m at the apartment, finishing up stuff and cleaning.

How come it took me hours to pack all that stuff, to get as far as I did, and it takes them minutes to move it down to the truck. Unfair.
I’m going to have a lot left over to do myself. Never did unhook this computer. 🙂
And so ends our moving updates.