Moving In...

The last time I posted, we had nothing in our house but the very few things we brought in the truck...

We were expecting the movers to get here around 8 in the morning Friday... but, they'd pretty much forgotten about us until we called... So they told us to wait until 11 am...

2:30 they showed up and unloaded all our stuff... We had a ton of pizza with them and they were finished by 9 or so... Which meant our house was filled with boxes... which would have to be unloaded the next day...

So, as promised... they were unloaded the next day... by us... The day was not too exciting for us... The constant sounds of unfolding and then flattening paper as well as opening boxes was constant. It didn't stop for hours. We only took two or three breaks for lunch and we finally finished for the day around 6 pm...

We're at it again this morning too... Luckily, I leave tomorrow for a week so I don't have to help them finish unpacking (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)... We made great progress yesterday and we have a few big rooms left...

Tonight some friends from E-City, NC are coming into town and Caroline and I are going back with them for a little less than a week... but, I won't have internet access, so I won't be on AQ or the blog for a few days...

Today, next to unpacking, I'll be working on a new stamp design... And we'll be going to a barbeque party tonight.... mmmmmmm... BBQ!!! =D

~BOB~

The Adventures of the Bored Club

What did we do today? Not much...

Well, that's not entirely true... we just didn't really do anything productive...

I had pretty much no idea what time it was until around 4 pm today... I had no idea what time I woke up, what time the power went out, what time I ate lunch, or even how I managed to kill enough time for it to be nearly 8 pm at night...

I think I woke up sometime around 8:30... maybe 9... but it's hard to tell... I found that everyone else was up and my dad had long since gone into work... Not too much was getting done... My mom was doing a little cleaning and my sister was doing an art project or something along those lines...

I got on the computer (still stealing internet from our neighbors, which I'm starting to feel very guilty about) and logged on to AQ... I had nothing else to do so I stayed on for a few hours......

Then, (no idea what time it was... I think around noon)... the lights turned off... and everything stopped... The power was out.... There goes the entertainment... I knew it was going to be a LONG day...

So, probably 3 hours later, my sister and I had nothing to do... We'd eaten lunch, played all games we had and decided we'd lay on the ground... We don't get along well, but today we shared a common trait... Boredom... Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Caroline, I'm bored...

Caroline: Me too...

(4 seconds later)

Me: Caroline, I'm bored...

Caroline: Yeah, me too...

(a little longer)

Me: Caroline, I'm bored...

Caroline: I know...

(40 times of this being repeated later)

Me: On a scale of 1 to 10..... I'm bored

Caroline: *laughs*

(few seconds later)

Me: *groan*

Caroline: I know...

(a minute later)

Me: Caroline? ...

Caroline: I know, Chris, you're bored...

Me: I was just going to say that I don't know what time it is...

*laughing*

We then proceeded to go upstairs with the dog to Caroline's room because we were so bored and established the Bored Club and had ironically a Board meeting for the club ;)

The whole thing was a total joke and we decided we were going to boredly (is that a word?) chase the dog around downstairs in the dark basement... As we were about to go down to the basement, Caroline noticed her fan was moving.... which meant.......... WE HAD POWER!!! Woooohoooo

Well, we ran back downstairs and jumped up and down celebrating!!! And then, I opened the laptop only to find that I had to wait 5 minutes until the neighbor's wireless router rebooted... *sigh*... So, we went and chased the dog around in the basement anyway and got... you guessed it: bored! I ran back upstairs to find that I had internet... web access... civilization... You don't know how good it felt ;D

*phew*... Only to find out that not much had changed on AQ in four or so hours.... So, I goofed around on AQ for a while until I FINALLY looked at the clock and discovered that it was past 4 pm...

The rest of the day went quickly... (THANK YOU GOD!!!)

And now it turns out that our phone number that we've been giving out to a TON of people is not really our phone number... and we still don't have phone service or our own internet... #^$@* How does that happen? We confirmed it this morning at noon and we've known that was to be our phone number for almost a month.... only to find out it isn't... My mom is pretty heated right now... I feel sorry for the lady on the phone... Cell phone that is... =P

So, anyways... sorry to vent about how bored I was today or all the confusion with the phone....

Moving isn't fun at all =(

~BOB~

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON THE POLL! ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT!!!

Getting Settled

Well, yesterday, we got to start living in our house after staying over with some Coast Guard friends... We slept on our beds (without the frames) in our sleeping bags last night and got started on the house this morning. My mom always cleans and scrubs and paints, etc. with my dad the first couple of days and then our stuff gets here on the moving truck.

Well, my dad had to work till around 3 or so in the afternoon, so my mom scrubbed and cleaned everything in sight when you're standing in the kitchen... and then we went to Target for a few hours to get stuff for the house... since we have a few rooms that we didn't have in our last house... (LIKE OUR NEW LETTERBOXING ROOM! -- where LTC and carving stuff will be kept and my dad and I can work on projects we have down there)... and she wanted to get some stuff for the new rooms. Well, my sister and I were bored to tears (no, not literally) ;)

We also explored a trail that led us to the plaza where the local strip mall is where we proceeded to get dinner from a pizza place. Which is great because we have an easy way to get to food whenever we want it... and there's a bunch of places to choose from there... So, we made a cheap dinner stop and got exercise in the process... not bad ;)

Anyways, thank God we have internet access or I probably would have died of boredom today... and tomorrow we get the phone lines and internet connected at our house (so we're not stealing from our neighbors who we've never met) ;)

I took some pictures of our dog in his newly discovered opened cabinet hiding spot. Since I've never posted any pictures of him, I figured it'd be good to post some so you can have an idea of what he looks like ;)

But, unfortunately, I went to upload them and the internet we're stealing from our neighbors is so dang slow it looked like it may take quite a while to upload all those photos... So, I think I'll try to share them later on this week when we actually have high speed wireless that's ours ;)

OH YEAH! AND DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON THE POLL!!! ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!!

~BOB~

We're heeeeere...

Well, I have to be honest. I was not the least bit excited about moving again after thinking we were going to be in Oregon permanently. It was incredibly angering that I had to change high schools part of the way through. And, it's possible my dad may retire and we might go back to Oregon next year.

But, we're going to make due here and spend the time we've got. Do a ton of exchanges. See the museums. Hunt some urban boxes in DC.

But, technically, we don't live in DC. We live about 30-40 minutes outside DC in a town called Springfield. We live in the suburbs.

It's going to be a huge adjustment going from a school of 500 to 3000. Not looking forward to that... And, for the first time ever, it's quite possible that school will be ***gasp!!!*** a challenge to me ;) (Okay, no it's not the first time, but it's not often I don't get an A or B on something.)

I thought I was going to die of boredom in the car. It sucked having to drive 7 days (with a day's break after the 3rd day). But now it's over... and at least I had some entertainment with video games and a few books (for my required reading in my new school)... Next year, if we move back to Oregon, I'd have to drive and would have no entertainment whatsoever (NOOOOOOOO!)....

So, I guess it's time to start learning how to drive. (No, I haven't even looked at a book or gotten my permit... and I turn 16 in December.)

I'm glad we're here though. The house looks nice, we've got a bunch of friends here, and everything we really need is within a 2 mile radius... (grocery store, orthadontist, medical center, Starbucks, Baskin Robins, Chinese restaurant, McDonalds--I think--and a bunch more) =)

~BOB~

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON THE POLL! ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT!

On the Road.... AGAIN!

Well, as sad as I was to leave Oregon, I didn't really have a choice... I lost internet on Friday night, which I did not expect... and, I spent the rest of the night playing Solitare because we didn't have a TV... We said goodbye to friends and departed Saturday morning... It was a long day in the car.... uggggggggggggg..... Well, we got to the hotel. The room was nice, but the hotel had some poor qualities. The front desk workers were constantly on personal calls and a little rude, the pool area (at least my dad said) was nasty, and their wireless was broken (ugggggggggggggggggggggg-er)...

So, we got up bright and early after not sleeping too well... Ate breakfast... Then, got on the road... The day was long again, but not quite as long... Lunch was great (SUBWAY!).... We made great time and got to the hotel and checked in... We have wireless too!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! *sigh of relief*

So... tomorrow's another long day... We stop in Denver, Colorado late Monday and stay Tuesday with my grandparents... Then, we leave Wednesday and have four days of driving until we get to Springfield, VA (pretty close to DC)....

*sigh*

We're on the road again....

~BOB~

The Week's Mix

Since a lot of things happened this week, I'm just calling the Week's Mix...

Well, the packers and then movers are here this week. We're getting close to moving day... Which, I'm not too excited about... The house is totally taken apart. It's quiet and there are very limited things to do this week. TV's disconnected Thursday (NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!) and we should have internet till a day or two before we leave...

Tonight was the last night I actually get to sleep in my bed here. I now have to sleep in a sleeping bag on top of my matress =P

Other than that, things are pretty quiet here ;)

I also got some web design done this week. If anyone actually clicked on "kutsbychris.webs.com" next to "Personal Website" on my profile page before last Wednesday or Thursday, the page you saw is no more! I kept looking at the site thinking that the colors don't mix... and then there was the fact that the order form and the survey didn't work... which was not good... So, I used better colors, made all the pages on the site functional and split the picture page into three pages so it takes less time for the pictures to load. Check it out! =)

Then, I created a virtual called "Wordsearch" which is pretty much the only wordsearch of its kind. You have to build the puzzle first, then find the words related to the same topic. I host most of the virtual on my other site (letterbob.webs.com), but have a solution picture of a carved... well, I can't say because the picture is of one of the words in the puzzle... but, I'm really pleased with the result and I've gotten pretty good feedback on it!

Whether you're a virtual solver or not, this one's fun for the whole family (actually, I recommend trying it with at least one more person, not on your own... It's a lot easier when there are multiple people to supply answers). Wordsearch is located here. Try it out =)

So, that's what's been going on this week... Tonight we're going to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter with some friends... They brought it back down to PG... so I'm not sure if it's going to be as good as the last ones...

~BOB~

License Plate Game

'X' and I came up with a game to pass the time on our long drive. We'd try to see a license plate from each one of the states. Here are the results:

On the 21st, we found 12 states.
On the 22nd, we found 25 states.
On the 23rd, we found 8 states.
On the 24th, we found 1 state and saw one from a province in Canada.
On the 25th and 26th, we were staying at my grandparents' timeshare.
On the 27th, we found 1 state.
On the 28th, we found no states.

We were missing three:
* Deleware
* Rhode Island
* Hawaii

Pretty good! =D

~BOB~

Bob's Crazy Move -- Journal 3

Yesterday was the last day of our driving across country. I'm not in my house yet. I'll be staying with my grandparents for three weeks. So... what was yesterday like?

Day 7:

Actually, it was pretty good. We weren't rushed in the morning and I got an early start. So, we ate and drove for a while. We stopped for gas once or twice in the morning and stopped for lunch. My meal was leftovers from Olive Garden, but it got flooded when the ice in the cooler all melted. So, I got to eat breadsticks..... which was great because I love breadsticks!!! So, we got on the road again and had a long drive ahead of us. I finished my book by my uncle (it was very dramatic) and decided to start on another one... =) We drove a few more hours and reached our destination: Spokanne, Washington. We got out of the car and said hello to our grandparents. Then, we went to pick up my cousin. We got her from her house and came back to our gandparents house, where we swam! Great fun! So, we went to bed after a while... =(

Oh well... At least the driving portion is over... =D

~BOB~

Bob's Crazy Move -- Journal 2

Well, I haven't posted the last few days because I haven't had internet access (except for a cafe downtown)... Here are the last few days in a simple summary:

Day 3:

Just boring driving... UGH! I felt sick in the morning and I worked on writing a little bit. It was great fun! It was so far away that I don't remember what I ate and really what I ate. We arrived in Colorado at my grandparents' timeshare. It was very nice. We spent a few days there...

Day 4:

We enjoyed our first day at my grandparents' timeshare. I also got some new books that were written by my step uncle. I've been reading them for a while. They're pretty good. They're called the Dreamhouse Kings series. Check 'em out! We went swimming and had a great time at the arcade {although, over half the machines were broken... =( }... We had some delicious meals. We went to a cool town called Breckinridge, CO where we saw a car made completely of legos (except for the tires). We also saw some cool things that I'll be carving... =)

Day 5:

We went downtown where we shopped. I got some more things to carve =D We went swimming again and I got a huge headache!! ARGH! Took some medicine to help it go away.

Day 6:

We departed from the timeshare and went on the longest moving day this move. ELEVEN HOURS! The first hour and a half I felt really sick... I read almost the whole car ride! Which is REALLY, REALLY, REALLY uncommon for me. I just got into those books that my step uncle wrote... We had a great dinner at the only Olive Garden in Montana... YUM!

Tomorrow is our last day of driving (well, at least for my sister and I). It feels so great to be near the end of driving every day... We're staying at my other grandparents house for a while -- my parents for two and a half days and my sister and I for three weeks. YAY!! =D

I should have web access up there, so I'll keep you guys posted! =D

~BOB~

Bob's Crazy Move -- Journal 1

Okay, I'm moving from NC to OR. Here are the first two days of my stories:

I woke up early in the cabin we had been staying in for the past two nights. The cabin itself was beautiful. It was on the Coast Guard base. It was the day - the day of the event in Asheville. At the event, I would meet a whole bunch of people that I had typed to, but never seen. It was also the beginning of our long drive across country... UGH! First, we had to attend to some business: Turn in the keys to our cabin. But, guess what! The place we had to turn the key into didn't open for over an hour! We started our drive after... well... improvising (taping the key to the window). So, we hit the road. We got ten minutes down the road and we already had car problems: my dad's brake lights weren't working. We fixed them after a little bit of a break. We got on the road... again... and I fell half asleep, half not (I was asleep and getting rest, but I could here the music on the radio while I was sleeping). Later on, after I woke up, one of our pads, holding the kayak on top of the car fell off. We went back to get the pad and we fixed it... or so we thought.... (later about that). We drove another two hours to Quiznos and I got chili! YUM! So, we got on the road again (this phrase is getting familiar) and we lost the pad that we lost before again! And it was in a place we couldn't go back to get it... =( My dad came up with an alternate plan, using only one pad. We drove to the hotel and we ate dinner across the street. (We had a lot of leftovers.) We then drove to The Little Foxes' farm where the event was hosted. I got to meet some great people and I heard a little history about Doc Savage. I also got a cool t-shirt from Suziecurls (THANKS SO MUCH!!!) that said "got clues?" --made by Dixie -- and a cool card that seemed to be fitting for me from theseekers called "GO WEST YOUNG MAN!" (THANKS SO MUCH!!!). I got to hunt all the farm boxes and I had great fun! I got help from Suziecurls. Suziecurls, if you're reading this, thanks! =D We were about to leave, although I would have stayed a lot longer, but it was getting a little late and we had to get up early. So, we said our goodbyes to everyone and were about to hit the road when....

Mama Fox handed 'X' and I each a package. I excitedly opened it! It was a brand new leather covered logbook! The pages had been sewn into the book and it was very, very nice! It was awesome!!! Thanks so much Mama Fox!!!!!! We went back to our hotel and fell asleep.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................................

_____________________________________________________________________

Day 2:

I woke up early and didn't feel well. I didn't eat much breakfast, but I took a thing of Fruit Loops to go. We hit the road and I started feeling a lot better... I ate my Fruit Loops at a rest stop.... (YUM!) We drove even further and I fell asleep for a little while. I ate leftovers from the restaurant we ate the previous night... Pretty good. The rest of the drive was pretty boring, very little detail. EXCEPT! 'X' almost ran completely out of gas. UH OH! Luckily, there was a gas station. We drove to the hotel and swam for a little bit. I really loved the hot tub too! I slept very well that night....


More info on my travels soon! Stay tuned! =D

~BOB~