Well, almost everything made the trip without incident.
This week was the big move-in week, and really, everything went very smoothly. I picked up the keys to our new place on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, JT came over early because we weren't sure what time our 32 boxes were going to arrive. He got to the house at 8:30; the boxes arrived at 8:40. A good 10 of the boxes were pretty royally smashed, but surprisingly, nothing was broken. Even our six Mikasa cordial glasses made it in one piece. (KT pats self on back for good packing job.)
Then, closer to 1 p.m. the table I bought at Salvation Army arrived. I had asked JT earlier in the week to ask his British officemates whether delivery folks should be tipped. Two ladies said not really, but if they do something above and beyond, a pound or two is appropriate. So when the two little old men who delivered the table had to take the legs off to get it through the door, and then they put it back together, I thought I'd give them a little tip. As they left, I went to hand them each two pounds. They both gave me confused looks. Now horrified that I had offended them in the worst way possible by offering them money, I blurted out, "I'm American - this is what we do." They thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard and cackled all the way out the door. They did take the tip, though.
Wednesday night was the last night we spent in our temporary apartment, and also was the night that John locked himself in the house. Now we know not to force the door shut if it won't close easily! Thursday morning our new bed was delivered (a "king" bed, which is the size of a US queen), and in the early afternoon, my huge grocery order arrived. We live in walking distance to several grocery stores, but it's a long walk to the big (less expensive) stores, so I placed an online order with one of them and got stuff like 12 two-liter boxes of sparkling water, 8 two-liters of Diet Coke, a 20-pack of Stella, a case of Strongbow -- you know, the essentials. So by Thursday night, we were well-prepared to live in our new house.
Friday, after a good solid morning of work work, I decided to pull the bike out of the box and put it together. (JF, if you're reading this, cover your eyes for this paragraph.) (JF put a lot of work into the bike before we left the US.) When I pulled it out of the box, one of the spokes on the back tire was broken, and I later learned that it was otherwise mangled as well. I put the stem and handlebars on, put on the seat, screwed the pedals in, then walked it 50 yards down the street to the bike shop. For 10 pounds, they fixed the back tire, fixed the spoke, and tightened everything else up. I rode it around the block a few times, and it works like a charm.
The next stop was the computer store. Both my monitor and computer are able to run on the 240V current here; I just needed the right cords. So I headed home excited about getting the big computer all set up. Monitor first: Works perfectly. Next I switched the voltage switch on the CPU to the right setting, added all the peripherals, plugged it in, and: Nothing. I'm on Step 9 on the troubleshooting guide, which is, "Open the case, and disconnect all the power cords from the motherboard." Ack. I did at least open the case, and there appears to be one set of wires that should be plugged in somewhere but are loose. Problem is, I can't figure out where they go. So, that's going to go off to the shop, too. (A different one than the bike, obviously.) Frankly, if we get it resurrected, I'm going to have to do some work on it anyway. I neurotically backed everything up -- twice -- before we left, so I'm actually not that worried about this little fiasco.
Apologies for the rather mundane post. I know you probably wanted more fun pictures and such. Hopefully the house will be in decent shape by the end of the weekend, and I'll take some pictures. Meanwhile, perhaps you can tell me what exactly I'm supposed to do about these:
Ew.
This week was the big move-in week, and really, everything went very smoothly. I picked up the keys to our new place on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, JT came over early because we weren't sure what time our 32 boxes were going to arrive. He got to the house at 8:30; the boxes arrived at 8:40. A good 10 of the boxes were pretty royally smashed, but surprisingly, nothing was broken. Even our six Mikasa cordial glasses made it in one piece. (KT pats self on back for good packing job.)
Then, closer to 1 p.m. the table I bought at Salvation Army arrived. I had asked JT earlier in the week to ask his British officemates whether delivery folks should be tipped. Two ladies said not really, but if they do something above and beyond, a pound or two is appropriate. So when the two little old men who delivered the table had to take the legs off to get it through the door, and then they put it back together, I thought I'd give them a little tip. As they left, I went to hand them each two pounds. They both gave me confused looks. Now horrified that I had offended them in the worst way possible by offering them money, I blurted out, "I'm American - this is what we do." They thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard and cackled all the way out the door. They did take the tip, though.
Wednesday night was the last night we spent in our temporary apartment, and also was the night that John locked himself in the house. Now we know not to force the door shut if it won't close easily! Thursday morning our new bed was delivered (a "king" bed, which is the size of a US queen), and in the early afternoon, my huge grocery order arrived. We live in walking distance to several grocery stores, but it's a long walk to the big (less expensive) stores, so I placed an online order with one of them and got stuff like 12 two-liter boxes of sparkling water, 8 two-liters of Diet Coke, a 20-pack of Stella, a case of Strongbow -- you know, the essentials. So by Thursday night, we were well-prepared to live in our new house.
Friday, after a good solid morning of work work, I decided to pull the bike out of the box and put it together. (JF, if you're reading this, cover your eyes for this paragraph.) (JF put a lot of work into the bike before we left the US.) When I pulled it out of the box, one of the spokes on the back tire was broken, and I later learned that it was otherwise mangled as well. I put the stem and handlebars on, put on the seat, screwed the pedals in, then walked it 50 yards down the street to the bike shop. For 10 pounds, they fixed the back tire, fixed the spoke, and tightened everything else up. I rode it around the block a few times, and it works like a charm.
The next stop was the computer store. Both my monitor and computer are able to run on the 240V current here; I just needed the right cords. So I headed home excited about getting the big computer all set up. Monitor first: Works perfectly. Next I switched the voltage switch on the CPU to the right setting, added all the peripherals, plugged it in, and: Nothing. I'm on Step 9 on the troubleshooting guide, which is, "Open the case, and disconnect all the power cords from the motherboard." Ack. I did at least open the case, and there appears to be one set of wires that should be plugged in somewhere but are loose. Problem is, I can't figure out where they go. So, that's going to go off to the shop, too. (A different one than the bike, obviously.) Frankly, if we get it resurrected, I'm going to have to do some work on it anyway. I neurotically backed everything up -- twice -- before we left, so I'm actually not that worried about this little fiasco.
Apologies for the rather mundane post. I know you probably wanted more fun pictures and such. Hopefully the house will be in decent shape by the end of the weekend, and I'll take some pictures. Meanwhile, perhaps you can tell me what exactly I'm supposed to do about these:
Ew.
