Moving across town

We moved! Across town. These types of moves are the best of the worst (moving is always the worst) because it's so much easier to throw all of your worldly items in a car, kinda in boxes, kinda not, and shlep it a few miles to unload.

So why did we move? Long story. We had planned on staying in the last place for our 12 month lease and then just changing it to a month to month agreement. It's what we've always done in Washington.

No.

I was surprised to find the new rental prices taped to my door one day in June. They were raising the rent by $150 per month if we wanted to rent for another year. For absolutely nothing. No property improvements, no apartment improvements, one of the treadmills had been broken for three months, etc. They also listed the month to month pricing options. $1000 more PER MONTH. Wtf.

First, let's list my grievances that I was willing to overlook before a $150 rent hike:

- 25 minute drive from work
- Ceiling leaked in the middle of the night all over the floor and had to be taken down
- The washer/steam dryer combination built by the devil himself
- The toilet that wafted sewer pipe smells intermittently
- An incredible number of spiders
- Scorpions
- The shower that I had to duck down under to get my hair wet
- Lingerings of past dog (awful for Terry)
- A rat ATE MY CAR in their garages

Out of sheer spite, I made the instant decision to move and started searching. We spent one day visiting properties and signed a new lease. Before our other apartment knew we were moving, they sent us a "Cost of Moving" worksheet to attempt to deter us. It was an utter load of bullshit.

I won't break it down into specifics because the sheet is so goddamn stupid, but when I calculated my own cost, I spent less than $300 (including a UHaul). I got more money back from my security deposit. 

So I packed up all of our stuff and moved it over to our new place in about three days. 

Highlights:

- San Diego in late July is extremely hot.

- It took nine trips in the Corolla to move everything but the bed, bed frame, couch frame, kitchen table, fish tank stand, two bookshelves, tv stand, and bar.

- I "borrowed" a hand truck from work to load the car at the old place. After one trip I bought a second one and planted it at the new place because it was hot.

- My old neighbors stopped and I found them commenting on how much I can cram into my little car.

- You can drive not so comfortably by moving your driver's seat up about 4 clicks to make space.

- Toolboxes are really really heavy.

- Terry hides car parts under the bed and doesn't say anything until I find them.

- New neighbors started to offer me water out of pity.

After about three trips:

I couldn't find any dinner items or cooking utensils the first night and it was late, so I settled for some cookies. Poor me.

My "couch" for a week while I waited for Terry to help me with a UHaul on the weekend:

Special items:

- We were the first to move in after a "remodel". There were some issues.

- No internet for a week because there was some confusion about whether the connection had been plastered over.

- Bathroom not yet completed. I know some about shower installation now. All the parts were there so I improvised. (But OMG the shower is sooooo much better than our last one)

- Ceiling leaking in bathroom. I was pretty sure my death would occur from a toilet falling on me. Fun fact: the leak was upstairs toilet water. Nice. It's fixed now. Why do I attract ceiling leaks?

- Opened the first kitchen cabinet and it...fell off. Opened the second cabinet and it...also...fell off. Opened the bathroom vanity cabinet. Fell off. What the hell?!

Our cheapo remodeling contractor used the shortest, crappiest screws he could find to install the cabinetry. It was sad. We asked for the management to fix some of the worst ones and after a week a guy showed up with a slightly bigger screw and ended up stripping the holes. And then left. 

I could be a better maintenance man than him.

I also now know a bit about how to fix these types of issues (glue, wooden dowels, longer screws that match the type of wood). The Home Depot dudes can be pretty helpful.

Here's Terry replacing every single piece of hardware in our kitchen:

Here's Terry drinking while replacing every single piece of hardware in our kitchen:

Old screws vs. the correct ones I picked up:

Overall, I'd call the move a win. I get great satisfaction out of paying less rent at our new place, the apartment (despite it's initial problems) is much better than the last one, and I'm only five miles away from work now. And we have a patio. And the landscapers help me take care of my outdoor plants.

Labradorite Love

I recently took my engagement ring into a jeweler to get a wedding band made for it. The jeweler was amazing. If you're in Washington and need a recommendation - I've got one. The experience was great.

The main reason Terry chose the ring he did was because it was so unique. Color changing. Imperfections. Cracks. Speckles. Iridescence. Also, labradorite can't be man made in a lab, so every single piece has it's own characteristics. When I handed the jeweler my ring he did a double take.

"Oh! Labradorite!"

Then he walked it back to his office to look under his microscope.

"This is amazing. Who made this for you? You should really take some photos of it under different light conditions. Will you send them to me? It would be a great art piece."

To tell you the truth, I was flattered. He's a jeweler. He sees everything. He was the first person who I'd ever met who even knew what labradorite was and what it looked like. When I mentioned that my brother would be able to take these professional photos he was describing, he immediately popped the stone out and gave it to me.

"Take pictures of this. Seriously. Then bring me the stone back."

As an aside, my brother is talented at almost everything he tries. Photography is just a hobby for him currently, but if we weren't related, he would be taking my wedding photos.

Here are the results:

Fishing tales

My old college friend Gabe visits for a few days and even though we haven't seen each other in about five years, everything goes exactly as expected:

-Gabe pulls up Friday night 7/31, car rattling, not a good sign.

-Terry drives Gabe to the fishing pier Saturday morning 8/1 for his weeklong trip, turns around halfway there to retrieve sunglasses from Gabe's car parked at our place.

-Gabe neglects to leave us his car keys, and although legally parked, gets blocked in during road construction. Construction has to dig AROUND his car to complete job. Spans 8/3-8/6. Hilarious.

-Annie picks Gabe up at fishing pier on Saturday morning 8/8, Gabe loads ~20 lb frozen yellowtail into Corolla trunk, in a trash bag.

-Annie drives to bootcamp with Gabe, and frozen yellowtail. Gives Gabe the keys, sends him on his way with the Corolla.

-Terry receives phone call around 8:30 am on Saturday 8/8. "Does Annie have a second set of keys to the car? I locked hers in the trunk. With the fish." Gabe is now stranded outside a liquor store trying to purchase ice for the trunk fish. Temperature is rising, the liquor store wasn't open yet, he definitely looks like an alcoholic.

-Terry bails Gabe out with the spare keys, both show up to bootcamp to pick me up. Defrosting yellowtail still in the trunk.

-Return to the apartment after post-workout smoothies. I claim no responsibility for what is now in my sink.

-Watch 2 minutes of youtube on how to fillet a fish, get to work. Outside. On a trash bag covered coffee table.

-Gabe forgets belt, unable to pull up pants with fish hands.

-Our technique starts to deteriorate.

-Invite friends over that know what they're doing (boot camp instructors Rachel and Justin). Gabe and Annie do dishes. Annie struggles for real washing the fillet knife.

-Gabe and Annie send picture to Gabe's mom inquiring about stitches. Consensus: yes, could use stitches. Annie doesn't feel like it. Busts out batman duct tape.

-Rachel and Justin show up with actual supplies, Annie sits with duct tape hand, Gabe watches quick youtube video on how to make yellowtail sashimi. Makes yellowtail sashimi with Justin.

-So much fish, makes yellowtail sashimi again. So much fish, barbecues fish. Still have half of fish left.

-Gabe plans to leave at 3 pm. At almost 4 pm, checks when his 200 pounds of additional fish (!) will be done processing. Processing plant closes at 4 pm. Asks to stay the night.

-Gabe wakes up on 8/9 at 6 am to pick up fish. At 8 am Annie finds Gabe's fishing pole near the door and a note reading that if the car breaks down he promises not to call before 10 am.

-8:30 am Gabe calls because he's picked up the fish, but car broke down and is smoking. The rattle from earlier in the week resurfaces.

-9:15 am Gabe enters the apartment like Kramer. Picks up fishing pole, fixes car, on his way.

Alaska!

I was scheduled to take my very first trip to Alaska over fourth of July weekend and it was great! Everyone should visit Alaska at least once in their lives.

I met up with Terry in Anchorage after flying from San Diego early. I had to wait 40 minutes for the coffee shop to open in the airport. It opens at 5 am...

Other than everyone bringing their dogs on all of the planes, the travel wasn't that bad. I made a mental note to never travel without Benadryl in the future. Being stuck for hours on a plane with recirculating animal fur air was not my idea of a good allergy day. On the second flight we couldn't hear any animals but I was DYING. I asked the flight attendant if there were any pets on board today. She looked at her roster and confirmed that we had a few. The ladies next to me thought I had magical powers until they noticed the sneezing.

I wandered around Anchorage by myself for a few hours before Terry got there. When we walked to dinner I started to take pictures.

I would try everything but the salmon quesadillas. Salmon + cheese = no.

These are everywhere and I was sad they were closed because I wanted to check out the ridiculous outfits. This was taken at 10 pm by the way - 24 hours of sunlight trips. you. out.

After one night in Anchorage we made the trip to Valdez, which is a five and a half hour drive. But seriously, it's the best.

When we were almost to Valdez we stopped and hiked to the Worthington Glacier.

We only spent one day in Valdez before jumping on the ferry that would take us across Prince William Sound from Valdez to Whittier. We had to check in at 5:30 am (ugh!) but it was ok because the sun was telling us it was noon.

The ferry took just over five hours and we saw so much stuff. Icebergs! Islands! Glaciers! Whales! We were talking about whales with the British group sitting near us and recalling how Terry hadn't seen a humpback whale before when the captains spotted two humpbacks near the ferry. I was pointing out the animals to people lined up outside (can't really lose the naturalist in me!) when the baby launched itself out of the water. And then the mom did the same. They did it three times in a row right as we passed by them. 

I was doing some research on Whittier as we approached and learned that it is small. Super duper small. Population = 222. The town was pretty damaged in 1964 after the second largest earthquake ever recorded occurred 12 miles north of Prince William Sound and lasted almost five minutes. A 43 foot high tsunami hit the little town.

See the big building? That's Begich Towers. Almost the entire city lives there.

To leave Whittier, there's only one way out and one way in. The Whittier Tunnel. At 13,300 feet long, it's the second longest tunnel in North America. So basically, a creepy long dark tunnel through a mountain that doubles as the railway tunnel. And is one way.

That same day we drove to Kenai and I kept my eye out for moose and bears. No dice. I had to settle for an airport moose.

Palomar Mountain

This weekend Terry and I decided to take advantage of the summer weather (let's be honest, in SD it's always summer weather...) and took a trip up to Palomar Mountain.

To start - the Miata got a wash! Bubbles!!!! Really though - this bubble brush was insane and we were both laughing at how ridiculous it was.

This weekend marked the first super hot days in San Diego for the start of summer. By 10 am temperatures were around 90 degrees. Naturally, we took the top down for the hour+ drive.

We also both managed to not get sunburned, which was a miracle. Sunscreen for the win. What we didn't know, but soon found out, was the road up the mountain was full of s-curves, loops, and 21 hairpin turns. Motorcycle riders and sports car drivers love this road on nice days. Campers just know to pull over. We were in good company and Terry had a lot of fun. It was the best way to gain 5500 feet of elevation.

Our first stop was the Palomar Mountain Observatory - home of the 200 inch reflecting Hale telescope. Stairway for scale. This thing is enormous.

Next was Palomar Mountain State Park where we checked out Boucher Hill and the fire lookout tower. The tower is normally closed to the public, but being friendly can get you places!

It looks a little hazy because of a fire in progress. This one had been burning for about three days. I've marked the smoke below:

The blackened trees in the front are from a fire in 2007. It burned so close to the tower that it actually caught on fire. Fire trucks were stationed there to protect the tower and the radio systems. The fire moved so rapidly through the forest that it outpaced the trucks at 70 miles an hour.

Last on the list was Doane Pond. Apparently May through June is bullfrog breeding season. Their call is very very loud. I can't even describe the sound.