Unloading in the Cold, That's Not as Cold

True to her moving hero status, Miki returned this morning to help us unload the truck. Miki came by at 9, enthusiastic and all set to go. She also brought some of the groceries and things that Martin had left at their place. Martin was able to back the truck up pretty close to the garage, and we were able to unload most of the stuff into the garage so that we weren’t letting all the heat out of the house. It went relatively well overall.

The predicted exception was moving the couch. It seems like it should be nothing, but I swear I’ve moved sleeper sofas that weigh less than this little IKEA leather couch. The moving of this couch induced a lot of well deserved swearing and cursing through the move process, but Miki totally earned the Sister of the Year award by helping to get that out of the truck and into the living room upstairs.

We had to stop every now and then to warm up in the house with some coffee, but we easily had everything out around noon and were ready to return the truck and find some much needed brunch. Miki found a lovely little spot called Jensen’s Cafe, which serves breakfast all day.

They are in a little spot called the Heart of the City. We had a little trouble at first sorting out where to park and how to get in, but once we were settled, we had a great experience. The food was amazing - awesome omelets & Martin approved their biscuits and gravy. To top it off Sam, our server, was both witty and on top of things. It is definitely a spot to return to. Perhaps our Key’s replacement?

After lunch, we had a little shopping to do. To get the Comcast internet service set up, we needed a coaxial cable, so stopped at Best Buy so that we could get back on the net. Then we headed stopped by Target so that we could get a new toaster oven, shower curtain and some other miscellaneous items. (Thank you Sirius for your contribution to this!)

With the shopping done, the afternoon was spent moving stuff into the house and to thaw stuff like shampoo and cleaning supplies that we hadn’t expected to freeze in the truck. Then there was the hunt for essential items like towels and dishes.

We managed to get most of our kitchen unpacked that afternoon, only to realize how little cabinet space the new house has in comparison to the old. The kitchen here is much bigger overall, but has space for an eat-in table, so there are no cabinets along two walls. Also, some of the cabinets and drawers that are there, are pretty narrow and not very practical.

We were thinking we could manage with the kitchen as-is for a bit and re-do our bathrooms first - one has no heat and a mostly broken door on the shower surround, while the other is a tub/shower that is pitifully sad in comparison to what we left behind, and I enjoy my tub soaking. Now we are reconsidering as the kitchen is struggling to hold all of our things. The kitchen seems to carry so much more weight, though honestly we don’t cooking that often.

Anyhow, we also managed to locate the towels, which meant I could finally have a shower! It was good that I had looked forward to this shower so much, because it was not a 5 star shower experience. The shower is pretty narrow, and the shower curtain was constantly blowing in on me. The heater vent blows directly toward the shower and the space is so small! Then there is the super load exhaust fan. I am not enjoying the prospects of that shower long term, and there would be no baths in that tub.

Anyhow, I was just so happy to be clean again! However, this inspired me to wash this sheets. They had been on the bed for a good amount of time before the move, and were long overdue in my mind to be washed. Besides, I wanted to try out the spiffy new washer! It was probably 8 PM or so when I decided to strip the bed and pop everything into the wash. I figured about 20 minutes to wash and an hour or so to dry. Plenty of time, right?

Little did I expect that the new high efficiency washer would thwart my well laid plans! It was about 9 when I started to question why the washer was still running. I went to check, and it seemed to be on rinse, so strangly long wash cycle, but alomost done. Another 20 minutes later and it was still rinsing. Seriously?! At this point I’m frustrated, but assume it will start to spin once it drains again. So I stay and watch it. For 15 more minutes I watch it rinse, start to spin, then rinse again. Clearly something is wrong…

I tried to stop and restart it a few times. No luck. Then I tried to stop it, cancel the cycle and start it on just the spin and drain cycle. Still no good. Nothing I do seems to make any difference. ARGH!!! Stupid new washer! What is it doing?!

Finally, I opened the lid to see how wet things were, thinking maybe I could just toss the stuff in the dryer. Of course it was still quite soaked. That wasn’t going to work. I suppose I could try to wring out the water… ARGH!!! One last try… This time it starts to spin and keeps spinning! Victory! The load must have been off balance, though you’d think such a spiffy sensing washer would have an alert for an off balance load. Would it have just kept rinsing for days?!

Finally I got stuff in the dryer. Sadly though it was now almost 11PM. It took another hour before everything was dry and the bed made. Poor Martin had already gone to sleep on the living room floor, but he was happy enough to move when I woke him up.

Funny to think that the worst part of the move was the first load of wash…