It's the little things...

that make the day great.

Sleeping late, yoga, movies and ice cream!

What could be better?

I started the day feeding the cats and eating cereal, but before long I found myself back in bed. I finally got up around 11AM, did one of my yoga podcasts (as Maxie jumped on my back during down dog which made the poses a little difficult), took a shower and grabbed an unfortunately bad burrito from a little restaurant in town.

I then saw Hairspray at the Regal Davis 5. Laughed at the whoopie cushion jokes (gotta love farts!) and thought it was a nice touch to have the talent agents in the final scene be: Ricki Lake (the original Tracy Turnblad in the 1986 Waters film), Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman (the musicals composer and lyricists), and lastly the films director/choreographer - Adam Shankman.

Then a nice little walk to the other side of town to Ben & Jerry's. One of the employees was dressed as a giant sundae and another employee was leading her out to give out coupons. Before I thought too much about the foreshadowing, I grabbed a coupon which got me two dollars off of the featured shake -- Mint Chocolate Buzz. My two favorites, folks. Mint chocolate chip and coffee.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!

Pictures from "the past"

I know, I know, it's not so long ago. But here are photos from events in my last few weeks in the ATL.

My going away party
(Does anyone have any of these?)

Sushi Making with Chris and Angela




The Kangaroo Conservation Center with Erin. Yes, I know the animal I am petting is a deer. We really could not get any closer to the roos.

Grilled cheese night at Souper Jenny
Yes, the sandwiches are really that ooey, gooey!


That's all I have folks. Are there any others?
One from the Zoo, perhaps? Or 4th of July?

The best laid plans

It's amazing how things just work out. I arranged the timing of everything right before I left, however little happened as plans. I am very lucky to have had my folks here and for the way the schedule turned out. Gosh, has it already been a week?

Here's what I planned in Atlanta...

Wednesday -- Relocube delivered and signed for by my landlord, Kate; Mom and I arrive by plane from Atlanta to Sacramento, Chad delivers futon mattress so my mom and I don't have to sleep on the floor
Thursday -- Moving crew arrives at 9AM to unload cubes; Mom and I put everything away; cubes and futon are removed
Friday -- Mom and I continue to unload, start shopping for supplies and misc.; pick up Dad in Sacramento at 10PM.

Clockwork, right?

Well, when I got off the plane there were 7 messages on my phone. Nice messages from Margaret and Bill and then 2 from my landlord, Kate which in a nutshell said that the cubes were NOT delivered because my jerkie neighbor never moved his car. So, on the way to Davis, I called the movers and rescheduled for later in the day. Since the cubes are only delivered between 2PM and 6PM, I had the movers on hold for Thursday afternoon. They had a job at 2PM that should have lasted 2 hours.

The cubes were delivered around 2:45PM, but I still had not heard from the movers. After numerous messages on both their phones, I got worried. I got on craigslist and some other moving sites and callied around to other companies. As of 8PM, only one company called back and I scheduled them for Friday morning.

They said they could come between 9:30AM and 10AM. Since my mother and I have been getting up at 6:30AM, I said that the movers can come earlier if they wanted. In preparation for the long day of unpacking, my mother and I went out to breakfast on Friday morning and I got a call on my cell at 8:30AM that the movers were in front of my door. Yikes! Thanks for the heads up, guys! They also failed to mention that there was a 3 HOUR minimum -- for my little 1 hour job. We settled on 2 hours which left plenty of time for them to put together my bed.

So to recap, after all of the planning, this is what I wound up with:

Wednesday -- Arrive in Sacramento, reschedule movers, Chad delivers futon mattress, he joins my mother and me for a slice and beer and Woodstock Pizza on G Street.
Thursday -- Drive to Natomas (a suburb of Sacramento) grab breakfast at the cafe at Barnes & Noble; buy cleaning supplies and pet supplies at Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Petsmart. Return home to clean, clean clean! Gosh, for supposedly having the place ready to move in - it was gross. Lunch at Ciocolat because it got so stinkin' hot in my apartment that we had to take a break; cube arrives and remove the vacuum cleaner to get the floor and the furniture; then a run to Vacaville to buy an air conditioner at Costco, plus additional cleaning supplies at Target, dinner at the Thai restaurant in town and then pass out on the futon
Friday -- breakfast at Cafe Bernardo, movers arrive, Mom and I unpack all day, skip lunch, dinner at Ding How as we did laundry at Suds in the Anderson Crossing shopping center, Chad removes futon, Mom and I pick up Dad at the airport.

Any questions why I got sick?

Not so off the truth...

Look at the great video the Behnke-Haas' made me for on the eve of my departure!



Thanks so much, guys and Happy Birthday, Erin!

Now the party begins!

After our first In-n-Out burgers, I escorted my parents to Pole Line Road to get them back to the airport. I am feeling better, but very tired after getting my apartment set up (with huge help from my folks) and adjusted to my new home. The kitties are settling, as well.

Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to do. I have a few things to put away, I need to replace my baker's rack with something smaller and I need to recycle all of my moving boxes.

But for now I will just lie on the couch and continue reading the final Harry Potter book.

I'm sick!

And it sucks. Except for the fact that I have a kitty on my belly.

Darn cold!

California Dreamin'

For the last 2 days my mother and I have awakened from our slumber at a bright and early 6AM. Well, that's sleeping late, if we were on the East Coast. The time change is really kicking our butts -- especially my mother who asks me to call my landlord to ask for a vacuum at 6AM. Yesterday I called Erin and Jen Lev early to give them an update and it was almost 10AM. No big deal for the East Coast, right? But no, I am not calling the movers or the landlord until at least 8AM.

I really cannot believe that I am here. The transition is so much easier with my mother here and I have to say that I could not do the flight with both cats alone.

The Hartsfield-Jackson airport was busy on Wednesday afternoon and with the cats we were not allowed to do curbside check-in for our luggage. We waited in the ever long First Class line (a courtesay for the cats) and then we had to wait in the uber long line for security. No special assistance, no nothing. I carried Maximillian's carrier in my arms and my mother had Lincoln (who weighs in at 17.4 pounds!) on one of those metal wheelie things. A little luxury for my big fattie.

As expected once we got to the front of the line, we had to remove our shoes, I had to take my lap top out of it's case and then I grabbed Maxie and walked him through. Thankfully there was one security dude who helped a bit. He consolidated our bus tubs of stuff and even grabbed Lincoln out of the carrier and walked him through. There was a little movement and a bit of mewing, but for the most part it was uneventful.

We asked to board the plane early to get the cats situated, but my mother was told no. Unfortunately, once we entered the plane with our Zone 7 tickets, we realized that with the new screens on the back of each seat, the equipment would not allow the cats to go under the seats in front of us.

We had every flight attendant and even a gate agent figuring out what to do. Luckily there were two empty seats and after a bit of musical chairs, each cat sat on the floor of an unoccupied seat at the window. My mother and I sat in two middle seats across the rows from each other.

I fail to mention up until this point that I decided not to sedate either cat. No Benadryl for Maxie for the car ride. Which meant that he freaked out in his carrier to the point that I took him out of the case and held him in my arms for most of the ride. He got away at one point and walked across the dash board of Jennifer's New Beetle convertible. She can tell you about the fits of laughter filled with a bit of anxiety.

The lack of sedation also hit us big on the plane. Maximillian would just not relax and started to widen the holes on the carrier that he made on his vet visit last week. He was moving around so much and started to mew that I grabbed my mother from across the row, we removed Max from the carrier and gave him a half of a pill. He calmed down for a while, but 30 minutes later he was up to the same hijinks. Another half pill did little and he was fighting the sedation so much that we now had 3 larger holes on our hands. I spend the rest of the flight trying to keep him in the carrier by putting my hands over the holes as he was pushing out. My hands (and arms and neck) were a mess of scratches and bites. His eyes were completely fucked up, but the monster still fought. The flight attendant brought us some fix-it supplies and look at the pretty art project that my mom and I made!

I think I will put it on ebay.

Any takers?