This is my one hundredth blog post. Yea! Well… including the sample post that came with the software. So I guess the next one will really be the #100. Well, good enough.

Anyway, didn’t get a chance to post the last couple days. Marilyn flew out from Pittsburgh to see the new place and to help me with some packing / unpacking / decorating / organizing. Same sort of thing I’d been doing with Brandy since Monday afternoon.

I spent a bunch more money on a bunch of things. The amount I have spent on the house in the last week is nuts. I mean, I knew I would need a bunch of stuff, but… I have spent more time in Home Depot in the last week than I ever thought I could in a lifetime. And in Linens and Things.

And plus, as much as I hate to admit that Rebecca was right, my behavior seems to be changing too. Something drops on the floor and I pick it up and make sure it gets thrown away or put away right away. I slightly scarred a wall moving something, and I freak and go buy paint. I am going around evry couple hours and anything that is out of place is going back where it “belongs”. I’m actually being pretty obsessive about it at the moment. Anything that I can’t put in a “proper” place for whatever reason is going in the basement.

I even bought a few purely decorative objects that serve no practical purpose at all! There is something wrong with me! Where did I put Sam????

Oh well. I still have a lot to move and a lot to set up. For instance Marilyn and I bought curtains for the window in the loft room, but did not get a chance to put them up. And I need more storage things. And… well, lots of stuff. Not to mention lots and lots left to move from my old place and my stoage closet thing. Well, two more weeks until I have to be completely out of my old place.

Oh. Marilyn is on her way back home now. We got to the Trenton Airport for her to catch her flight home to Pittsburgh. First, the guy at the counter chewed us out for arriving too close to the scheduled time for the flight. It is a tiny airport, for a flight on a 10 person plane. So yes, we were cutting is a little close, but thought it was enough. And despite the guy bitching and being rude to us, it WOULD have been OK and she would have caught the flight… except… the canceled it! There had been two flights a day to Pittsburgh… until today. From now on, Sundays there will only be one flight to Pittsburgh from Trenton. They had switched her to the earlier flight, but hadn’t bothered to actually call and tell her. That flight had left like 8 hours earlier.

Anyway, I was getting all prepared to drive Marilyn back to Pittsburgh, but with a few phone calls we got her switched to a later flight leaving from Philly, so I drove her down there and off she went. I’ll see her again, along with Chad and Seth, in two weeks in Idaho. We also finalized some reservations for that today. I’ll eventually update the website with that info. But probably not today.

Anyway, thanks to Marilyn for helping out this weekend, and to Brandy for helping out all week. Without the two of them I’d be a lot further behind in getting settled than I am!

I didn’t post yesterday, but all my furniture was moved. Yes! I have places to sit! Of course, nothing is in where it will probably go perminantly, and some of this stuff probably really should go away and be replaced, but it will do for now.

A few carloads of other stuff have also made it over. The first carload got put away in places that make sense mostly, with things I didn’t have proper places to put or time to deal with and sort going to the basement. But at the end of the day yesterday, I was tired and there was still a carload in the car. I went to sleep.

And in the morning I had to get up for a meeting in NYC. I didn’t have time to properly unpack the car, so I just dumped it all in the kitchen. Then on the way back from NYC I loaded up another carload.

So anyway, now it is time for me to work my way through the stuff that is already here and put it all away properly before getting any more loads.

I also got the stuff to staple the coax and other cords I have to run around to the walls in neat places instead of just having them all through the middle of everything like they are now. And I ordered the ceiling mount for the projector. So I have a bunch of work to do. I took a short nap when I got home, but now I should get started on that stuff I guess.

Yawn!

Oh, and the fridge will arrive between 7 and 9 AM tomorrow, so I have to get up early again. I really hope it fits. The size is pretty much exactly what the measured space is. In fact, might have to remove some of the side molding to make it fit. We shall see.

That’s it for now. Guess I should get to work.

Gulp, this is it. Time for closing. Less than two hours away.

I’ve packed up the essentials (TV, Sat Dish, One Days Change of Clothes) and am about to head off (after grabbing the laptop) to meet Brandy to go over the papers one last time. Then, at 15:00 UTC, it will be time for the actual closing and signing the million pieces of paper people tell me about.

And then I will go *home* to the new house. Essentials get moved today. Furniture tomorrow. The rest slowly over the next two weeks as I feel like it. (But probably most stuff this week).

Wow. Well, here I go! My next post will be from the new place!

OK, so after work today, I went by the new place first, then went a few miles past to where the Best Buy, Home Depot, and a bunch of other stores were. I am getting into buying mode. There is a bunch of stuff I know I will need for the new place. Lots of it will be little stuff like new shower curtains and trash cans and curtains and stuff like that. And yeah, yeah… I know all that. But then there are the gadgety things that actually get me interested and ready to pull out my credit card.

So lets see, first, the place does not come with a refrigerator. So I guess I need one. I saw this one today. I think this is the one I want. There are higher end ones than this, but this one will do quite well:

Samsung RS2555SL
It has the ice maker and all that, and a funky little digital display. Samsung also makes ones that is all hooked to the internet and stuff and you can check your email on the screen on the front of your refrigerator. But you know, I’m a gadget freak and internet guy and all, but that is just stupid. (And BTW, Samsung’s site is stupid too… won’t let you link to their products, the URL times out and is specific to a given user… so I’m linking to Best Buy instead.)

OK, then the thing that actually has me all excited lately. Now, I know I don’t NEED this, and I know after buying a house and all I really should not spend lots o’ cash on something completely optional and frivolous. But damn it, I’m going to treat myself! The loft in the new place is where I’m going to set up a whole little home theater thing. It isn’t really fully ideal for that. No full lighting control (it has windows), non-symmetrical for audio (the overlook to the living room) and such like that, but it will do for now. If I really get anal about that stuff in the future, I can build a “real” theater room in the basement. But for now this will be fine. I already have a DVD player I am happy with, and the DirecTivo for television, and I guess the VCR too, although I never use it. So that will be fine for inputs. Need a bigger display though. And a sound system and speakers. So here is what I’m thinking:

InFocus x1
Digital Projector that has been getting really good reviews all over the place in terms of value mainly. Nothing else comes close to the quality for the price apperantly. In order to get something significantly better than this model I’d have to pay more than twice as much, and I’m not going there. This will be more than enough for me for now. I’ll need a ceiling mount for it too probably.

Panasonic SA-XR45S
I saw a cheaper model in the same line at Best Buy. Of the ones that seem to be comperable, this is the one that I liked the best in terms of how it looked. And this one has a couple more features than the one I actually saw in person at the same form factor, for not that much more. I don’t know if the brick and mortar place has these in stock as well as the other model, but I’m sure I can get it online if not.

Sony SA-VE445H
Some middle of the pack speakers. I could spend less, I certainly could spend tons more. But these look like they will do the job, and look kinda decent visually. I’ll probably have to get some speaker stands or whatever for them to sit on too, but I can deal with that sort of thing later and seperately. (Oh, and Sony’s site is stupid too… also won’t let me link directly, so I used a link to the first place that showed up on google for these.)

And that will take care of the whole home theater thing. (Well, that and some cables and such.) and I should also be able to hook my iPod and XM radio up to the mix as well just to be a complete media room.

Yeah, I know it is an excess, but it is something I’ll be able to do in my new place, that I wasn’t really able to do in this one. Well, I guess I could have, but…

Oh, and just for good measure, lets throw in one of these…

Roomba
What new place could be complete without a robotic vacuum cleaner??? And yeah, I’ll probably still be paying to have the place cleaned periodically, but ain’t this cool? :-)

So anyway, I know I *should* wait until after the closing on Monday to get all this stuff, but I was really tempted to order the fridge today for delivery next week, and to grab the X1 that the Best Buy had in stock. They had plenty of Roombas too. But I refrained.

I am still being highly tempted to go ahead and order online the receiver and speakers though, cause I don’t think the ones I wanted were visibly in stock in the places I went. Not saying I couldn’t find someplace that they were, but… Anyway, we shall see.

Since I’m spending untold thousands on the house itself, I’m getting into major spend mode. I have to budget myself, I know. But I liquidated more stock options than I actually needed to for closing, precicely so I could do this sort of thing. So…