Ringing Out/Wringing Out 2010

 Last day of the year, one that I think was a good one for all of us, despite the quantity of whining found here.

(My) Mom finished her chemotherapy on March 15, 2010, and has grown back her hair which has turned more silver and curly.  Now if she's just take the wig and wig stand off of her dresser;  it looks like an aging Peruvian guinea pig.  She is back to being feisty enough to resent the follow up appointments with her oncologist, and one day she may realize that wrestling with unruly hair is better than wrestling with the after effects of chemo (though I give her major props for making chemo look easy.)

We moved to our new house on July 9, 2010, and most of the worst traces of the former owners' horrible decorating choices were eliminated by last week.  (Good-bye ugly brown powder room; old, dated borders around the top of most of the rooms upstairs; the dark,depressing royal blue bedroom with the blood red closet; the ugly green focus wall in the master bathroom, none of you will be missed.)  Thank you to Mike who offered good advice on colors, but also did not question some of my more quirky, Crayola choices.  I should have taken pictures of all the ugliness to regale you with the before and after of the transitions.

The kids had a good summer at their various camps; Micah is still talking about Princeton Friends Camp six months later and is anticipating going back.  Steve learned about the caring for the above-ground swimming pool at the new house, and the cost of the pool chemicals responsible for getting the pool to go from slimy green to blue did not bankrupt us.

We had a good week at Bethany Beach with Oma - our third trip back to a house that Thea and I first stayed at with Oma and Aunt Shannon in 2005 and we re-visited in 2007 just after returning from China with Micah.  This year we were joined by cousins for a night, which was wonderful.  Even if no one remembers the name of the hooker who rented a room from my great aunt (a room she called 'My Blue Heaven' according to my mother.)  The kids discovered boogie boarding and we learned that schlepping all the beach gear is so much easier with the little red wagon the children got from their aunt and uncle for Christmas last year.

Thea is involved with Girl Scouts, recreational soccer and ice skating, and for all that I might complain about missing her Mandarin-immersion school and the fury of the 2010 opening of the Mandarin charter school being thwarted, going to public school has made her more at ease in new social situations.

Micah had his second atresia surgery to construct his left ear canal on March 23, 2010, and a revision of his first surgery on September 28, 2010. We're probably the only parents to schedule surgeries around swimming lessons and pool/beach season, so that keeping him out of water didn't spoil his summer.  Micah's speech and language is on par with his normal hearing peers.  He loves his friends at his two preschools and is the social butterfly of the family.

We have a bottle of Sparkling White Grape Juice chilling in the refrigerator, Chinese take-out, chips and salsa and popcorn waiting.  Thea wants to stay up for the New Year.  Last year she fell asleep at 11:45 pm, this year she just might be awake for the arrival of 2011.

Happy (and healthy) New Year to all.  Thanks to all who have stopped by, and double thanks to those who have left comments along the way.

Photo (Album) Op

Finally.  One advantage to waking up before everyone else on a Sunday morning: taking all those little red and white photo envelopes from Target and putting the pictures in an album, in a somewhat chronological order.  If I were really going for the extra credit points, I would have labeled them, but for now, I'm just happy they're in an album and I can still tell the difference between the photos of Micah's March 2010 surgery from his September 2010 surgery (different prints on the fabric of the hospital gowns.)

The motivation came from Micah finding the 2008/2009 photo album.  He had a blast going through it:  "Look at this!  Look at me!"  He isn't at the age where he is able to realize that I took most of the photos, or even why aren't there very many photos of me in the album (which is how I like it.)  Now he has two albums to amuse himself.

Somewhere around his is a third photo album that I bought before the one I just filled, but it got sucked into vortex of the move and has not been regurgitated, yet.  My wish for 2011 is that re-emerges before I start accumulating more photos.

Now I just need to make my grocery list and figure out where the Christmas tree is going to go and commit to the idea of buying new lights for the tree because unraveling the old ones is just not on my agenda.  I'm about hanging the ornaments, putting the lights on is just one of those little bits of miseries that must be endured to get the final effect.

Finally the Weekend!

Glad this week is over.

Today was the day that I finally got my Amazon gift certificate from QuantiaMD.  Unpacking all the books from the move with more to come still when the storage unit is emptied and also with having gotten rid of quite a few books prior to moving, the lightbulb finally went off:  I have more books than the average person and they take up a lot of space and they are damn heavy to haul around.

So before lunch I checked my email, found that the gift certificate had finally been processed and off to Amazon I went to buy a Kindle.  Unfortunately, Kindles are on back order and the shipping date for today's orders is September 10.  I am excited to have something that can have a stack of books queued and waiting to be read, though the  whole delayed gratification stinks.  Having just finished Leslie Chang's Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, I am picturing what will become my Kindle being assembled and tested in a generic electronics factory in a city like Dongguan by some young woman who may have left her home at a very young age to go to work, live in a factory dormitory and who is constantly looking to move on to the next, better job.  I just hope she's not daydreaming as she assembles mine because I did not purchase the extended warranty.

Meanwhile the kids finished the week at Princeton Friends' Camp.  It was Greek Gods week, so the camp held an Olympic games.  Thea's team (Team Hera) was ahead on Wednesday when I picked them up, but today at dinner she said that Team Hera lost.  One more week at camp, and then the countdown starts for the school year. . . .

Thea will be in second grade at Wicoff Elementary School just down the road from home, teacher is yet to be named (and subsequently Googled). There will be five second grade classes this year.  Micah will be in the integrated preschool also at Wicoff.   The four-year olds attend the afternoon preschool session; the district has half day programs preschool and kindergarten, which is just perfect for a family with working parents (not).  So whereas last year Micah logged an hour on the road, but spent a full day at Summit and then an hour to home, he will now go to Beth Chaim's preschool in the morning, get picked up by the school but there and transported to Wicoff and then at 2:50 he will ride the bus back to Beth Chaim for aftercare.  Yes, the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district does not have aftercare available to preschoolers.  One more reason to further expand my burgeoning dislike for the district.

What this means for Micah is that in terms of distance he will be within a much smaller geographical area, but Micah will likely spend just as much time on the road as last year.

And once more I am beginning to wonder why the hell did we move?

Bailing Out. . .

. . .leaving the cardboard kingdom behind tonight and heading down the NJ Turnpike and I-95 to my mother's.  Steve gets left behind to work on his own unpacking, getting rid of all the cardboard boxes that have been emptied and whatever.  Today the upstairs hallway is clear for the first time and I managed to store in one bathroom cabinet what we formerly had in three or four under the sink cabinets - and I replaced the door handles on the bathroom sink cabinet.  Pedestal sinks suck, new conclusion, alert the media.  And I emptied the last of the wardrobe boxes, except for the one that has my wedding dress (and who knows what else); the entire container has been exiled to the extra bedroom/office's closet, Scarlett O'Hara style.  I'll think about that tomorrow or the day after or the day after that.

Saturday we're headed to Frederick for a family event.  Sunday we might take my mother to see a friend in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and Monday we head home to New Jersey.

Addendum:  Thea conked out by 9:00 pm while we were on the road, Micah is showing an increasing aptitude for staying awake at night while in the car.  He hung out with me, singing and talking - unfortunately much of the talking was of the "are we at Oma's yet?" variety and pithy observations of which cars had GPS systems and DVD players in them.  Both made a brief stop in the bathroom and shuffled right off to bed. They are such awesome little travelers at times. Granted, they will be up at between 6:00 am and 7:00 am and I'll still want to be dead to the world, but for now, it's all good.

Glad we weren't on the northbound side of I-95 tonight, just north of Big Gun Powder Falls.  It took me more than a few seconds to realize that I wasn't seeing any northbound traffic, then just before the Big Gun Powder Falls sign there were multiple police and fire/rescue vehicles, and all lanes were closed.

Me vs. Cardboard

The boxes are still winning, or it feels like they have the upper hand.  Just a few minutes ago, the remaining pillows for our bed emerged (from the one box I unpacked upstairs.)  We still have not settled on a place for Coy Boy, the betta fish, so his aquarium is lingering in the styrofoam box in our bedroom.

This afternoon after I got home from work (which was the world's best Saturday, nine patients only - and even though #8 was having some major issues (visual hallucinations of his wife in a 25 year younger version, and only occurring at home), it was all in all a good morning mostly thanks to the staff keeping things moving smoothly), my goal was boxes, boxes, boxes and more boxes.  In the middle of working my way through the garage, on a mission to find my wok and frying pan, the neighbor from 52 Krebs came over to introduce himself.

He's 85 year old, a World War II veteran (D-Day plus eight), has lived here 26 years and moved in a few days before Thanksgiving, his wife unpacked the entire house and had 32 guests for Thanksgiving dinner, his wife died eight years ago, a son lives down the road on Silvers Lane and moved here before my neighbor did, another son lives in Brooklyn, he spoke Italian with his mother, he drove a fellow soldier named Rausch who had immigrated to the US at age 15 and was then 38 at the end of WWII to a farm outside of Marburg to see his family for the first time in 23 years.  He's quite a character, but by the time we were done chatting, I had had enough of the heat and gave up on the garage and went inside to cooler air and other boxes.

Still no wok or frying pan.  No lamp from Thea's room.

Kids and husband went to the beach at Mantoloking today, so I had time to work on the house without little helpers.

Moved or Bye-Bye Brookline Court

Three days of pack/load/unload are over and done with, the only casualty (other than sleep and sanity) is the living room carpet which has a two-inch tear from the TV armoire being lid instead of lifted into place.  The kids' rooms are mostly unpacked, a lamp yet to be discovered for Thea's room, our room is lined with boxes still.  The down comforter is missing-in-action and we may need to start scouting the boxes in the garage.  The fourth bedroom/office/computer room is a disaster, and probably will be for a while.

Micah had a fabulous time with the mover, despite their not being the Imagination Mover, and they were all very kind to him.

The new owner of our old house, once known as Demon Spawn Home Buyer from Hell, mellowed a little around the closing date, then resumed her evil persona already in progress.  I hope a meteor strikes her home the day after she's finished her renovations and remodeling.  She is about the only person on the planet at the moment that I really would want to see reduced to a smoldering heap of carbon.

Meanwhile, with the unloading of the moving van going on, Micah and I had an appointment with the new school district to see about getting him enrolled in the preschool program.  Everything went very well.  Micah got to play with a big bin of cars and trucks, which was nice since most of his have been in boxes for awhile.  The WW-P school district is not a friend of the working parent:  the integrated preschool program is a half-day afternoons only program for four-year olds.  So Micah would need to go to a preschool program locally, be picked up, taken to Wicoff Elementary School and then returned to the preschool program for after-care.  Which to me sounds like he'll be spending as much time on the bus as he did traveling to and from Summit School.

And once all the in our face unpacking is done, there is the not so small matter of emptying out the storage unit.

I'm just happy that I found toothpaste (I used Thea's Tom's of Maine strawberry the other night and BLECH, BLECH, BLECH; if that were the only toothpaste on the planet, decay here I come) and my nightgown.  I am going to bed.

Packing Day . . . .

The landscape of the house has been transformed into some sort of sculptural cardboard wasteland.  The kids love it - perfect for hide-and-go-seek.  I love them for seeing the positive in a situation that does nothing but make me twitchy.

We had three packers arrive this morning, joined by a fourth later in the day.  Packer #4 must have drawn the short straw because he got the kitchen.  Steve got pizza at lunch for the whole group, and after lunch Micah and I took Tesh and the vacuum over to Krebs Road.  I cleaned out the refrigerator, Tesh vacuumed and got rid of some cobwebs that had been left behind.  I managed to finally pull out the metal casing from the halogen lamp in the kitchen.  At the walk-through I noticed that the bulb in one of the two lamps above the kitchen island was burned out.  The former homeowner showed me how to open the lamp and pull it out, but he didn't align the little nubs that hold it in, so the metal casing from the bulb remained in the lamp and on the first ten tries, I couldn't pull it out.  Today, it finally yielded and we have two working kitchen island lamps.

Good thing because the refrigerator light was out and I found five different bulbs in the dining room lamp.  Minor details that will have me haunting the aisles of Target and Home Depot.

Tonight the Plainsboro Zoning Board of Appeals was scheduled to hear the case of allowing Thea's Mandarin-immersion charter school to occupy space at St. Joseph's Seminary.  The school district has mobilized itself against the charter school and is trying to turn the zoning request into a referendum on the charter school itself.  The state board of education has already approved the application for the school, so the school district is attempting to hijack the process late in the game.  Mind you, there are no language immersion programs offered within this school district, and no Mandarin classes offered in the elementary schools.  And despite this, I have to still make nice with the school district because Micah needs to get into the system and start draining its resources.

Which is a fine welcome to the neighborhood. . . .I am not enamored of the political process in the Township of Plainsboro.

One More Day of Work

Tomorrow is my last day of work before the move.  Micah doesn't have a spot at a camp or in the new school district's ESY (extended school year) program, so he'll be coming to work and going off with Tesh and her daughter Mary to the water park at Great Adventure.  He'll have a blast, but he'll be toast by the time he comes back.  Saturday, just with the few hours running around in the fountain, Micah was so fried he fell asleep and all the prodding, tickling and talking in the world could not rouse him to eat dinner.

And this is fine, because tonight I packed a good number of his toys and toy bins up, so if Micah is awake, alert and mobile at home, chances are those boxes may not stay packed for long.  He's packed and unpacked and repacked the three boxes I've given him for the past two weeks.

On the other hand, as long as Thea has her tigers and her Nintendo DS, she's cool.  The boxes that are piling up in her room are not seeming to bother her.  (Audible sigh of relief from me, she's the one who hates change.)

Today the kids and I stopped by the house to hang up a shower curtain in the upstairs bathroom, put some bins for dirty clothes in the laundry room and just go through the bedrooms again to solidify where all of our stuff is going to go.  No major changes other than Thea's bookcase can't go where I originally wanted it because it will block the one heating vent.  Micah's room needs a paint job, the blue is too dark and too scuffed.  There are wallpaper borders along the ceiling of the master bedroom, Micah's bedroom and the main bathroom.  Going, going, going.   Thea's room needs some color, too. 

In time, all in time.

Holiday Weekend

Today we went to the new house to pick up the keys and garage door openers.  It was the first time seeing the house empty, the first chance to really start imagining what our furniture might actually look like.  The furniture is probably the easy part, it's all the other accumulated detritus that is going to be the problem.  At least it will be if we want to park our cars in the garage by winter 2010.

After the walk-through, the kids and I went to Sunshine and Sugar Bakery in the Plainsboro Town Center for cupcakes.  Being the little patriots, they picked out vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting topped with an American flag.  Being somewhat immune to the lure of a tiny flag on a toothpick, I went for coconut on vanilla buttercream.  Then we went to Lowe's for more boxes and Staples for labels.

We finished our afternoon errands at Panera's for lunch and then some time playing in the ground level kinetic fountain.  It has six paired spouts that are flush with the ground and that make different patterns.  The kids love running through it, around it and in it.  They were entertained for almost two hours.  Usually we get sucked into the fountain when I am not prepared, but today I had bathing suits and towels in the car.

On the way home we made a stop at Wawa for a snack.  The upgraded herself from a Klondike bar to a Dove bar - she prefers a wooden stick to hold onto.  Micah wanted Double Bubble gum.  I don't know who hooked him on that stuff, but he was chomping away long after the flavor had to have gone.

Tomorrow it's going to be 96 degrees, I think it will be a day to stay inside, in the air-conditioning, and label boxes. . . .after going out for coffee and the New York Times.  Priorities on a Sunday.

Packing Weekend Redux

As if giving up one weekend to packing up the house wasn't punishment enough, this weekend was again devoted to the greater glorification of the cardboard box, with a packing tape chaser.  I am sporting a Sharpie marker clipped to my shirt accessorized by a packing tape roll bracelet.  A Glamor Don't.

But we have more time to devote to this chore because we don't have a set closing date for our current house.

Why you ask?

Demon-Spawn Home Buyer from Hell took her sweet time applying for her mortgage while she was attempting to shake us down for every last credit she could wring out of Steve, so her lender's appraiser didn't get his evaluation of our house done until last Wednesday.

The lender who is also swamped with thousands of other schmucks who are trying to close on their homes before the June 30th deadline for getting the tax credit and the lender is not feeling particularly compelled to act any faster than it normally would.

So instead of  pack/load/move dates of 22nd/23rd/24th, we are now looking at 25th/28th/29th.  God willing and we get a closing date this week.

I hate the DSHBfH and am very thankful my presence is not needed at the closing.  I am happy she is buying this house, but if I meteor could strike her without damaging the surrounding neighbors reducing her to a smoldering heap of carbon. . . . .good times.

And now on a positive note, older child's school had its end of year celebration yesterday, which was a showcase of the children's work, a tea ceremony, a giving of gifts (the youngest children in the school received a gift made by a child in the next grade and so on, until Thea's grade where teachers gave a present; Thea's 1st grade teacher, Li Laoshi was the one to give her a present.)  I got a lot of photos and have put them on Facebook, I'll get some put on the blog eventually.

 What those of us who were not in the cardboard jungle were doing on Sunday afternoon.  Micah, Mary, Thea at the FunPlex

Today the kids and I went out early to get coffee and donuts (and hash browns) at Dunkin Donuts for Fathers' Day.  Steve got an extra hour of sleep, Micah found out that he likes D-n-D's hash brown nuggets and I dropped off a bag of clothes at the bin next to Speedy Mart where I buy the New York Times.  The owner was shocked to see me so early, I usually pick up a paper in the early afternoon.

Tomorrow we have Micah's graduation at 10 am, and then it's officially summer.

And at 11:50 pm tomorrow night I turn 50.  Eeew.  I don't feel 50. My thumb joints, my left lateral epicondyle, and my left biceps tendon feel like they are 80+ from overuse, but the rest of me does not feel 50.

Back to the boxes. . .

Packing Weekend

I literally have not left the house since I came home from work on Friday.  No trips to the store, the post office or anywhere else.

I have packed boxes for two days.  33 boxes by my count, though the count sort of changes depending on whether I remember the box on the ottoman on the landing and the one booby-trapping the path to Micah's bed.

Every time I thought I had packed the last book, another stash materialized.  Right now the only books remaining are the cookbooks in the kitchen, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and the next book on my to-read list.

But according to the guy who estimated how many barrels, cartons and other means of getting our household from Princeton to Plainsboro, 33 is a barely scratching the surface, and I am beginning to believe him.

Saturday, Thea and Micah went off to the boardwalk in Point Pleasant with their aunt, coming home with armloads of prize they had one.  More stuff for me to pack.  Six hours free to stuff boxes: fantastic, more toys to pack: not so fantastic.

When cardboard fatigue set in, I got online and put in change of addresses with journals, magazines, professional associations, licensing boards, banks and so on and so on.  The whole weekend was like a root canal that went on for 48 hours.

Errands for Tuesday

9:00 am appointment at the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District office to register Thea for Grade 2 and to start the process of getting Micah into the integrated preschool program.  Still have hand cramp from completing all the paperwork and forms x 2.

Journey to the Verizon Wireless store to dump AT&T.  The contract on my phone is up as of about two weeks ago; I got the phone Mother's Day weekend 2008 when my phone died while I was on call, so I made a desperation purchase that locked in AT&T for the past two years.  Steve has hated the service from AT&T for ages, back in November I signed up with Verizon to get a mobile broadband device for my laptop so I could stop trekking to Borders for free WiFi while visiting my mother.  (Steve last updated his phone in 2007 just after we returned from China and the analog phones were going the way of the dinosaur; we're not the types who go out and buy the latest and greatest gadget.)  If I had to make the switch on the weekend, when the store is probably four or five times as busy, I would have thrown in the towel.  Today, almost no one was in the store and I had the total time and attention of a very nice woman named Leslie and a nice techno-geek named Carmelo both of whom had the patience of saints. And other than the eventual bill, it was fairly painless which is more than I can say for any of my interactions with the CellularOne / Cingular / AT&T store over the past 10+ years.  H-u-g-e sense of accomplishment checking that off the to-do list.  Whistle a chorus of 'Ding-Dong the Witch Is Dead'.

Went to lunch with Steve at Chevy's and discovered that places that serve salsa are not the best for completing forms for summer camp programs and signing legal documents for the Princeton University mortgage office.

Went grocery shopping.  Finished by 1:59 pm, with husband betting against me that I would not be done by 2 pm (had to give up Dunkin Donuts coffee to accomplish this feat.)

Dropped off registration forms at Princeton Friends School for two weeks of summer camp for Micah and Thea; very nice lady reviewing the forms.

Dropped off registration form for the Princeton YWCA camp for Thea.

Went to Forest Jewelers to get Steve's watch battery replaced.  When it died, he took the watch - a very nice one that I bought him in 2001 after our engagement and after looking for a watch to meet his specifications of being very thin (or flat) - to one of those stands in the mall.   And then wondered why the battery died not too long after. . . .

Met Micah's school van, to find that he can be pleased (to see me) and disappointed (that Tesh wasn't there to meet him) within the same nanosecond.

Micah and I were playing cards today after he got home and he spread out the cards to play a matching game, and as I went to pick two cards, Micah says, "No! Wait!  Let me tell you the directions first"  with the tone and inflection that made me hear either his teacher or his speech therapist.  I think he's heard that phrase a few times.

Meanwhile back at the real estate agents' and attorneys' offices, communication from the Demon Spawn Home Buyer from Hell indicates the sale of our house might actually go through, so we are once again closed to tourists.  (And the crowd says "Amen!")

The New House in Plainsboro

Bot

Both current house and new house are out of lawyer review and are one step closer to the point of no return.  We'll have about one month of purging and packing to get ready for the move.