Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Midweek cleaning

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 23:08:33 GMT

Despite being 98% settled in at this point, we still have a few outstanding things to do here at the new digs...

--Bring up the remaining boxes of books. I think I have maybe about five or six boxes in storage downstairs that need bringing up when I have time (and do not have a bum foot due to previous dumbassery). One of the tall bookshelves was missing a few pegs that got lost in the move and we put replacements in. The midsize bookshelf next to my side of the bed also has two empty shelves for my TBR/TBR-then-donate pile.
--Bring up the one box of musical box sets and find a good place for them. I'd rather they be up here, though where is a good question... My boxes of CDs and other music-related things will stay downstairs, though. I don't mind those hanging out and they're well contained.
--Bring down the two area rugs, and contemplate keeping or tossing. We've decided not to use them and they're rather run down due to wear and cat claw-sharpening and are just taking up floor space in the living room.
--Break down more of the boxes that can be recycled. Our bin isn't nearly as big as the ones our old place had so there's only so much I can put in there alongside our usual week's recycling. Same with the bags of trash. We rarely have a lot of compost so there's no worries there.
--Speaking of boxes, I should put up a post for Free Moving Boxes on FB Marketplace. I'm sure someone will want them! Also should put up the floor lamp, small table (the one we had in the kitchen at the old place) and its two wooden chairs. At this point I'll give them away cheap, as we don't need them now.

Still, this 2% is all stuff I can do over the course of several weeks with no cutoff time, so I'm not worried...

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Spare Oom 2009-2025

Mon, 26 May 2025 14:59:33 GMT

[Pasted from my Welcome to Bridgetown site]

It’s been a wild ride of just over fifteen years here in Spare Oom. All those hours working remotely for the Former Day Job. All that music streamed, downloaded, listened to, cataloged and shared. Cats coming in to visit, play and nap. Books read. Characters and maps drawn. Word seeks completed. Guitars played and playing styles honed and songs written. Views of the Golden Gate Bridge to gaze at when I needed a mental break from it all.

All those words churned out on the 750Words site. Numerous blog entries on two separate sites. Personal journal entries scribbled into notebooks. Trunked ideas gathering dust in my Dropbox. The moment I finally finished the Bridgetown Trilogy after a multi-year hiatus. The decision to self-publish my work. Learning how to properly edit my own work. Learning how to create e-book covers. Seven completed and self-published novels. And another one started and eventually making its way to publication.

Some days I felt like I was wasting time and getting nothing done, other days I felt like I was kicking ass.

It’s been an interesting time here, and now it’s time to shut down the PC and pack it up along with all the externals and other hardware, because it’s heading over to the new place tomorrow morning.

See you on the flip side.

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Three more days...

Sun, 25 May 2025 02:45:00 GMT

After all this wait, all the paperwork and the banking and the scheduling and rescheduling and info updating and everything else, we'll have finally fully moved into our new home come Tuesday! It's been such a weird and wild and extremely exhausting couple of months and I've completely lost track of time to the point of what day it is half the time. I'm finally on a full week's vacation where I can focus on the final couple of 'soft moves' (moving the small and fragile stuff, storing new purchases, setting up new furniture and whatnot) without juggling it with the Day Job.

This however doesn't mean that I'll be able to sleep in most of the days because a lot of our plans involve early or midmorning things to do like meeting up with our soon to be former landlady for a final walk-through and having the place cleaned, and most likely a lot of unpacking in the next several days after that. Still, I don't have to worry about any eight-hour shifts on top it all!

And after all that, I'll hopefully be back online and blogging and writing on a regular schedule soon!

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Almost there...

Mon, 19 May 2025 15:23:42 GMT

Yesterday we spent a good number of hours at the new place. First things first, we put up valances for the living room windows, and they look quite nice! Then we put together our sectional sofa from Home Reserve, which took a good few hours, a lot of elbow grease (at least until we finally got the drill charged up) and much wear on the knees. Once together, it is quite comfy and big and I'm sure I'll have naps on it in the future, heh. And lastly, we put together a sideboard that, upon assembly, may not be the most stable of furniture unless I add some additional wood glue to it. Alas, this last thing seems to have been a 'you get what you pay for' item. Sigh.

And while we did all that, I decided to try out our laundry machines for the first time and they definitely work a peach! It feels strange to be able to do a few loads without having to a) pump quarters and b) keep track of the time so other tenants can use it after I'm done. I do currently have a few rolls of quarters that I'll hang onto, however, as the washer isn't quite big enough to do large things like bedsheets. Thankfully we have two laundromats one block away that I can use for such things.

Current status as of Monday morning: I am slightly sore but still able to move around, so I'll take that as a win.

Still to do:

--Disassemble the old living room couch to bring downstairs for Recology pickup on Thursday. I'm kind of hoping I don't have to tear the whole thing apart, but I may have to if it doesn't fit into the elevator. I still feel kind of bad for getting rid of it as it's still in good condition, but then again we've had it for 16 years so we've gotten a lot of use out of it.
--Move the loveseat that's here in Spare Oom to the living room
--Also move the remaining book boxes from Spare Oom to the living room
--Box up the remainder of Spare Oom's desk contents, shut down and pack up Spare Oom PC, printer, etc (these can go in the car with us, of course)
--Figure out where to put the Spare Oom bookcases for imminent move...?
--Leave a few things in Spare Oom, as this will be Cat Wrangling Room come moving day. We need to have it nearly empty by Monday night.
--Pack up remaining stuff in the bedroom (my half of the closet, the remaining few things on the bookcase next to my side of the bed, etc.)
--Bring over any other small stuff that can fit in the car over the course of this week.

One more week...

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