Daily Meanderings: March 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Ahhhh....Chillin'

From Kitties

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Cross-Country Road Trip Particulars

Obviously, while on the road trip, blogging was kinda the last thing on my mind, at least until the third day, when I remembered I could post via my mobile. Now I wish I'd done a bit more so I could track the times better. But here's the best approximations of our road trip.

Route: We took 80 all the way, easy as pie.

Weather: We soooo lucked out, beautiful weather, clear skies that whole weekend. We were often in front of pending weather. Only a bit of sprinkling fog while in Des Moines. Orchids survived with only a little frost damage overnights in the car.

Lodging: No prior reservations, since we had no idea where we'd end up each night. Best friends were the iPhone and AAA Tour Books, which we got for all the states we were zooming thru. Of course, afterward, we discovered that AAA offers a pet-friendly lodging publication too, never mentioned to us. Sucky customer service.

Driving Pace: Didn't do my usual 120mph. Very conservative for the critters & hubby, avoiding tickets. Most of the way was 75mph, so we just went 85mph. Ok, I punched a bit, but only occasionally on the straightaways. No traffic past the Sac area. Only saw 3 cops the entire trip.

Times: All times are the times at the places we ended up. It sucked so bad that we kept losing hours as we went, and to add insult to injury, it was Daylight savings, so we lost another hour due to that.

Transportation: Subaru Outback 4wd rental, which was really nice and roomy, solid and easy driving car. Could be the car we buy for me. We would have had plenty of room if I hadn't forgotten a very large box of orchids in the garage that was supposed to go with the movers. That made things very tight.

Entertainment: The Subaru had an auxiliary output (we had to buy an adapter), which saved us, since it didn't have the satellite radio like we'd requested. We used the Zune the entire trip - a little music, but mostly NPR podcasts, and Stuart Woods' Dark Harbor, lasted us. The whole time went by very quickly, never dragged.

Day 1, Thursday: 3pm headed out, got to Reno around 9pm(?). Heavy traffic all the way thru Sacramento (expected). Only 1 20-minute stop for a Starbucks and gas. Really windy, steep uphills most of the way. Consulted AAA TourBook, zeroed in on Grand Sierra Resort. Pet-friendly, max pets allowed were two, so we lied. No problems. Ridiculous: you HAD to get the valet for the luggage wheeler, and they take it thru the service entrance, and I accompanied, since I refused to let the critters out of my sight. The room was very pet-proofed, all nooks and crannies were sealed. The hotel as a whole had a whole worn-down feel, even the upper-level suite we booked. The browns may have looked chic at some point, but it looked icky and drab. There were a couple stains on the comforter (Ick!), and the kitties discovered an old dried turd somewhere. The hallway had a whole "The Shining" feel to it, very dim and creepy. Still, it suited our needs.

Day 2, Friday: Got a 5am screaming wake-up from Ginza, so rather than trying to sleep again, just got going, took a while to load everyone up. On the road at 7am, 1 half-hour stop at McDonald's breakfast, 1 10-minute gas-up midway, made it to Salt Lake City around 3:30pm. Got some Carl's Jr. rested for a half-hour, then hit the road again. Steep, sometimes really winding till about an hour outside SLC. The gas at SLC lasted until Cheyenne, Wyoming around 11pm their time. Consulted AAA TourBook, Days Inn fit the bill. Got a 2nd story room, conveniently located by the doors, since there's no elevators, and we had to make several trips back and forth. The hotel was nicely pet-proofed, all nooks and crannies blocked. All the linens were very clean and sanitized. We logged about 1050 miles this day, I think.

Day 3, Saturday: Ginza did his 5am screaming, but we were so exhausted we fell back asleep to 8am. Hotel stay came with breakfast, only Hubby neglected to mention it. On the road around 9am. 1 stop at a Starbucks, 2 gas stops, mostly to stretch. Made it to Des Moines around 8pm. Consulted AAA TourBook, lodged on the top floor (7th) of the Quality Inn Conference Area. Able to get our own luggage cart, elevator without "necessary assistance". This room was unpleasantly NOT pet-proofed. The kitties all ran under the bed. Had to lift up the mattresses to get them the next day. But they did feel so much better under there, so it wasn't all bad. It had the thinnest walls of the 3 places we stayed at, but thankfully Ginza was actually quiet the entire night, so we didn't get evicted, and we actually slept.

Day 4, Sunday: Slept till 8am. Hotel room came with breakfast, which was the usual generic stuff: re-hydrated egg product, cereal, etc. On the road at 9am, 1 gas-up Around Davenport, switched to the 88, lasted us all the way to Chicagoland. Arrived around 2pm, found our apartment, zoned out rest of the evening.

Total miles traveled: 2138. People (Hubbies) killed: 0. Kitties survived: 3. All in all, very grueling, but very worth the time for the kitties' welfare. It was a lot less stressful for them, and no worries of escape at the airport security idiots' line, nor the deafening plane noise, or any hassling with paperwork or whatever fuck else they decide they want to harass us with. Totally worth it.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Kitties Are Soooo Bored

Well, all kitties are good, they're eating, peeing and pooping normally. Kayla is very depressed, and we feel so bad. We must not have brought anything that was hers, and for the life of me, I can't really remember anything that was exclusively hers.

At least she's very happy sitting in my lap, and napping on the couch, but I really wish she'd be more active. But none of the kitties are, really. The place is so small, Ginza can't really dash around, and most of their toys are in storage. Pixie, especially, has taken to standing in front of me and wailing her boredom.

First Weekend Fun

The realtor visit turned out to be very good. She took us to an excellent breakfast place. Then took us to a couple areas she thinks will fit the bill for what we wanted, and I'm already in love with a couple of the areas. Arlington Heights, not so much. We loved Elmhurst and Oak Park, but there seems too broad a socio-economic range for our comfort level. But I'm already favoring Elmhurst anyway.

Hinsdale is the right area level-wise for us, but the whole "life-revolves-around-the kids-and-church" thing won't work for us at all. But this is all encouraging! We thought it would take up to a year to find areas that would fit us. And not being able to live in the City was really disappointing. H wants to try out the commute anyway from Lincoln Park, but I'm certain that's not going to happen. Sorry, hon.

Spent the rest of the time driving around checking things out. It was really jarring to wake up to snow-covered-everything Saturday morning after a beautiful sunny warmish week. But it was still ok. Dealable.

I've found the three local PBS stations - PLUS one split out its international programming that includes....yup, the international mystery nights! I get my Montalbano and Wallander again. I'm happy.

Things are getting much better.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

First Week In Chicagoland

Pretty uneventful here, haven't been out much, just at the apartment with a parade of service people in and out. The weather's been really nice, apparently unseasonably warm. Snow expected this weekend. There you go.

And neighbors. Not used to all the noise and activity. And smells. Someone cooked what smells like Indian food, and it reeked in the hallway for days. No ventilation?

Kitties less jumpy at the noises around them.

Guys removed the furnishings from the extra bedroom so we could use it like an office. DVR came in today. Found the laundry supplies and our own soap in the boxes, haven't been able to find the dishwasher stuff. That idiot extra packing kid did all the bathroom stuff, and had absolutely no sense. Two boxes that I've opened so far have had leaking stuff. One had the shower door wheel that he broke from the house that he didn't even have the good sense to leave so that I didn't have to rush to HD to pick up a spare to repair it. When I had asked him about it, he'd completely denied having anything to do with it. Grrr.

Meeting with the realtor this weekend, what for, I have no idea. She insisted, even after I told her things were dependent on the house selling, and we had no idea of the area or what we wanted from a new abode. *Shrug*.

Monday, March 15, 2010

We've Staked Territory

LOL - looks like everyone's figured out where they're napping. Unfortunately that means the humans now have no place to sit. Ginza has jumped in to claim the spot I JUST got up from a second ago. How can they be so fast!?

From Kitties

Kayla's Eating A Bit

Keeping a close eye on her - she's definitely not herself - found a cats only vet (cool!) close by - was going to run her in, lo and behold - she started walking to the food area. Now eaten half a can. 1 smallish pee, still no poop.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pixie's Already Laid Claim To The Couch.

From Kitties

We Have Arrived!

Ahhhh....we finally made, no incidents. The kitties are exploring the apartment except for Kayla, who's not feeling well. Worried. Keeping an eye on her.

From Kitties

Woohoo! On The 88! Home Stretch!

On The Road Again - Des Moines Iowa

Just checked out of the Quality Inn, where Ginza pleasantly surprised the heck out of us by not crying all night. Whew. The walls in this place was the thinnest of the three places we stayed. Things would not have been good. Turned out we actually got a little sleep. Last leg of this grueling trip!