Month: April 2005

Day 2:

I woke to another misty and dreary western PA day. I quickly passed through the kitchen to head downstairs to the basement to check the internet when something caught my eye as I passed the garage. There lying lifeless on the garage floor was a rather large wild turkey. Apparently it was heading towards the corn coup when it met its doom. I didn?t even make it a full week without a cold-blooded killing, thank you George, my hero. It didn?t take long for the bird to be neck-less and de-feathered. Mmmm, I can?t wait for thanksgiving this year.

When I got downstairs and cleared the mental pictures of turkey carcass out of my mind I got to work putting together the little utility cart that has been sitting in it?s box for over a year in order to put the fax machine on, which had previously been sitting on the floor. I strung some CAT5 from the router over to the other side of the room to my computer desk but have to wait a bit from Travis to bring me a switch. Our little basement living is almost done; it just needs a few little touches. If I can get George to clean the turkey guts and feathers off of his hands maybe he?ll help me lift the big TV into the entertainment center so I can play Project Gotham Racing 2 on my Xbox. We shall see.

Ok Travis and Amanda were busy today so instead I called up my cousin Nick. We went out to Lowes in Cranberry and bought some utility shelving unit supplies to replace what?s in the bedroom closet. Nick helped me put it in and it looks great but I had to run him home. Sara and I went over to my parent?s house where my mom was cooking us a big roast beef and mash potatoes meal, delicious.

After dinner we went across the road to Amanda and Travis? place to watch a movie and chill. We watched Napoleon Dynamite and drank some Rolling Rocks. After the movie we played the Battle of the Sexes board game which was fun. Travis and I won, we are so metro. Travis hooked me up with some networking gear that I needed. He gave me a 4 port switch, a CAT5 coupler and about 15 feet of CAT5. I was able to run a hard line across the basement to my two machines and then to the Xbox for Xbox live action.

So thus far we have three main tower PCs all hard lined into the router and the Xbox. Then we have Sara?s old junkie laptop running wireless, George?s laptop has wireless and Katie?s laptop doesn?t but we?ll be buying a wireless USB key for her laptop. That?s a lot of machines. Sorry for the nerdery at the end of this post, I?m just so geeked out over how great this DSL service is.

Day 2 was over, so far two days home and two killings, ah it?s good to be home.

Day 1:

Our first official full day back in the Burg, I woke up early and tried to get ready for my interview at WTW Architects. Man was it stupid to schedule it so close to our move. I?m exhausted and sore from head to toe, but at least I look rather dapper in my suit. I found out early as I was printing out a resume that my entire portfolio had been ruined in our last apartment due to several basement floodings. Oh well, I guess I didn?t need that life?s work anyway; I suppose I?ll have to build another. The interview went well, everyone was really nice, and the building was gorgeous. I?d be so very happy to work there everyday, but I?m not holding my breath. Things will work out eventually for me in the job situation.

I got back from downtown and Sara and I headed out to drop off the Budget ?rig?. Smooth sailing on that task, next we went to the Olive Garden for lunch and had a great meal and a great waiter. After lunch we went to Target, PNC Bank, and Wal-Mart. We opened a checking account at PNC and should be getting our debit cards soon. Surprisingly despite all our running around and hitting all the local hotspots we didn?t run into a single hick from our youthful past. Maybe next time I suppose.

When we arrived home, again beat from running all around and still lack of sleep, we started getting our junk out of the way, it was everywhere. Sara did the dishes and cleaned up the bathroom, and did the laundry. I basically threw everything I could find up into the attic so no one would have to look at it.

When?s mom got home from work she announced how proud George is going to be because she hit the apparently pesky Groundhog just before turning into the driveway. ?I aimed for him and then I looked up in my rearview mirror and saw all four of his little legs up in the air and figured I had gotten him good!? Well that?s mostly what she said, hilarious.

Sara and Mom Steinacker cooked a lovely meal of stuffed green peppers and mashed potatoes, yummy. After dinner I hooked up the entertainment system while Carol played on her new super fast DSL internet. Man was she having fun downloading online games! I crashed pretty soon thereafter.

The Move:

Sara and I woke up at 2:30am in Chicago after just kicking out the last visitor at 10pm. It took us awhile to get going because we hadn?t cleaned up the kitchen or the bathroom the day before because we were too busy trying to load up the truck. Thanks to Jim mostly we were able to get it loaded and on our way by 3:45am Chicago time.

The roads leading out of the city were sparse with traffic. It took some getting used to the big heavy load I was hauling, but by the time I hit the Skyway things were going well. Sara and I didn?t stop until the last rest stop in Indiana which was pretty impressive. The truck was down to half a tank so I topped her off at a mere $40, yikes! It rained almost the entire way through Ohio and we only stopped a few more times. The walkie-talkies we borrowed off of Jim and Marge were so helpful. It was fun chit chatting back and forth on them.

Thankfully the gate was open at the good old Zelienople service station off of the PA turnpike. So we busted through it and made our way home saving us a good half hour not needing to drive clear to Cranberry, especially since we were arriving around 1pm eastern time.

Both our moms were there to greet us as we pulled into the Steinacker/Schaumburg farm. The men weren?t going to be able to arrive until later so we just unpacked the car. Sara and I lay down and took a nap for a couple hours until George, Glenn, and Travis and Amanda got there to help unload the big truck. It may have taken Jim and me almost 10 hours to pack the truck, but it only took the rest of us 1 and a half hours to fully unload it. Most of the stuff was put close to where we needed it, but we sure did make the house a mess.

After we were done unloading we took the big couch over to my house to be put in my mom?s waiting room of her office and then we all headed towards Monte Cello?s. Pizza, hot wings, and Yuengling, what more could I have asked for as a first meal back home? Sara and I treated everyone to dinner for helping us settle in and for welcoming us back home.

It was a good day, I?m glad to be home.