Today was the day of the big move. Nelly and I got all our stuff in boxes, hired a mover, and catapulted out of the Garden State and into the Big Apple. The heat's on, the electricity is on, they gave us our keys. So far so good.
Of course, we now have 20 boxes to unpack. And I have to get a spot for the Rav in the garage downstairs. Other than that, we're all set.
Pictures from the new place
Laurie posted a brief message about the troubling implications of pig riding which got me thinking. I searched for more information and found a brilliant web-site dedicated to fostering human-pig interaction.
Unfortunately, the human putting the website together didn't do a good job of linking the images to the pages. Fortunately, at least some of the images are freely available.
Ahhhhh, you know what's funny? People riding on pigs.
So the big pre-move project for this weekend was painting our apartment back to the ugliest color imaginable... er... off-white. I'm not sure why, but my landlord prefers it. It was a shame to undo the beautiful paint-work we did after we moved in, but it's a requirement of our lease.
It went very smoothly. We had help from Nelly's friend Eileen and my friend Java (who's unused blog is linked). And thanks to them it went smoothly and really fast. We were prepared for the whole thing to take all day, but we were done in 4 hours.
So now all that remains is to fill a couple boxes and we'll be on our way!
George Bush had a press-conference or something. Whatever...
He did the mash! He did the monster mash! He did the mash! It was a graveyard smash!
Ahhh... I hate the president.
I just read this Op-Ed piece in the Times which left me feeling really frustrated. Mainly because of the silliness of the premise. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this on CNN or Fox News, but the New York Times op-ed page does not usually print such garbage.
Ostensibly, the piece suggests that since the Democrats now "control" congress they have all the power they need to stop the war in Iraq, bring the troops home. The article suggests that they haven't used this power because they are in basic agreement with the Bush administration and meanwhile they are happy to see the republicans bear the brunt of the public's discontent.
This simplistic rationalization overlooks the fact that the Democrats "majority" was not large enough to even push through a non-binding criticism of the President's ridiculous Surge.
Congress may be full of lilly-livered equivocators on both sides of the aisle, but the Republican party has made following Bush's lead a requirement for all their members. Until enough individual senators break free of the Bush team's leash, anti-war legislation is DOA.
A lot can happen in two years and I suspect that after the Surge, we'll see the president quietly agree with the major proposals being offered from the Democrats. Meanwhile, the democrats know there's a treasure-trove of sleaze underlying the President's 6 years in office. If they chose to pursue (which I think they will) all the avenues of corruption, Bush will be fondly dreaming of the days of 35% approval. And the lawmakers that have been clinging to Bush's makeshift raft will perhaps finally decide to take their chances on the open-seas.
The anti-war crowd (most everyone) is impatient for results. Unfortunately, the changes, if they're on their way at all, are only going to come after months and perhaps years of painful and occasionally outrageous political games.
I love Macintosh apples (the kind that grow on trees). They're my favorite fruit. I usually have one or two every day. Today I was about to bite into mine when I noticed a familiar pattern...
... just in time for Valentines day!
Happy birthday Laurie! Laurie's in Germany where they celebrate birthdays by donning dark clothing and lamenting the actions of their ancestors. So we need to do a lot a celebrating over here. Get to it!
It's been a long time coming. I'm happy to say that Nelly and I are officially moving to the city. We put the money down and signed a lease last saturday and only heard back from the management agency today that we were approved and the apartment is ours. Woohoo!
We'll be living it up on the Upper East Side. So long, New Jersey.
For those of you who don't know, I work with my father; often in fairly close proximity. And my father almost exclusively uses speaker-phone. Which means that I am often bombarded with his phone conversations. Also worth mentioning, though he goes by Peter his actual name is not Peter, it's Pierre.
Today, my father accidentally booked the wrong flight, so he calls in to change the ticket. He gets a chatty woman in a very good mood. She's helpful and friendly (and resolved the ticket issue), but she notices something weird about his account. Specifically, his frequent flier miles weren't being credited properly.
Which led to this brilliant snippet*:
C: "Well, is your name Peter or Pierre."
P: "Both. My actual name is Pierre, but I go by Peter."
C: "Why?"
P: "Because I don't speak French!"
It turns out that due to the first-name conflict, Continental's been jipping my dad out of his frequent flier credit for the last few times he's flown. So she tranfers him to Continental's One-Pass customer support. This woman is highly trained (ninja/customer-support/astronaut), though she confesses early on that she can't help at all. (I think my father must have suspected she was lying)
After a few minutes of trying to cajole her into doing what she repeatedly says she cannot, my father comes up with this doozie*... "I know you're a smart person and I am not going to insult your intelligence by saying that you don't know that 'Pierre' is the French word for 'Peter' because you obviously know that. Everyone knows that. But the machine doesn't know that and that's the problem. Clearly you're smarter than the computer.1"
This is how I know that she was highly trained (perhaps as a Jedi). Because she didn't react at all. In fact, after my father called her a complete and utter moron she patiently explained what he would need to do to resolve this issue.
A fun time was had by all! It's amazing any of us gets any work done.
*Not an exact quote
1I'm actually a little surprised this didn't work. My father is pretty effective on the phone. Like Jack Bauer or American Idol, my father's methods sometimes make me cringe but they often get results.
Are you (or is someone you love) holding a conference on gender, sexuality, transvestitism, frothing, or... you know... anything? Are you looking for qualified and highly motivated speakers to hold forth on topics both actual and virtual?
Laurie is available for a nominal fee.
I always liked "Quickening" as a noun. I don't really understand what it means, but it really adds a sense of drama. And of course, after looking on the internet for the definition, I'm disappointed. I'm using it appropriately, but knowing exactly what it means removes some of the magic. Anyhooo...
Nelly and I have begun our search for a great new apartment in Manhattan. We started last week, with a quick in-and-out of a tiny seeming apartment. (Dingy bathroom.)
Yesterday we saw two apartments that we liked. They are both really nice and in very good places on the upper east and upper west sides. However, as you might expect from a nice apartment, they are both very pricey. Undaunted, we put in an application on a very nice 1BR on the upper east side (Elevator building).
The process of renting an apartment in the city is a heinous exercise in supplication to the arbitrary and fickle gods of housing. It's also quite humbling. Due to the fact that Nelly is in law school (and reports no income) and I am self-employed (so I pay myself very little), it's difficult to prove to these people that we'll be able to pay the rent.
While I understand their rationale, I find the implication that we wont be able to pay the rent insulting. Well we'll know soon enough whether the management company is willing to trust us. I'll let you know.