10 Things I Love About My Home

It's my place of residence for 6-8 months. A gorgeous townhouse in a beautiful town. There's lots to love about it. But it's the little things that I'm really enjoying right now, a number of which our new house will also have. So here's my list of 10 things that make me happy about my current residence.

1. An ice maker in the fridge - It's so minor, but having ice at my disposal whenever I want it is just awesome! (Thankfully, I upgraded our future fridge to one with an ice maker in the door.)

2. A garage and garage door opener - There are two scenarios that make this great. Coming home in the rain without getting wet, and the ease of unloading tons of groceries from my car. (We will have this in our new place too.)

3. Giant walk-in closet - Yes, I have a lot of clothes. But it doesn't look like a lot when your closet is ginormous. (My closet in our new place will be big, but not as big as my current one.)

4. Proximity to work - It used to take me over an hour. It still takes 30-40 minutes during rush hour, but it makes loads of difference.

5. Proximity to shopping - Dang. There is every store imaginable in a five mile radius. The best is the AC Moore and Michaels about 1.5 miles away.


6. Window seats - The master bedroom has a small one but one of the other bedrooms has one that spans the wall. I took a nap on it the other day.

7. A pantry - Living on my own, I've never had a pantry. So finding space for all of my groceries was always a challenge. Not anymore! (Our new place also has a pantry and I've been excited about it since we put down our deposit!)

8. Fireplace(s) - This place has two gas fireplaces. Our future home has one. I can't wait until it gets cold so I can sit next to it.


9. A laundry room with a full size washer and dryer - An entire room dedicated to laundry? So cool! Okay, I hate laundry. But having a laundry room right next to the bedroom makes it much more convenient. (We will also have this in our new place.)


10. A fan in the bedroom - I'm glad I requested a hookup for a fan in our future bedroom because it's really nice falling asleep to the sound and breeze of a ceiling fan.

We are the Bjork invaders!

After a very busy Saturday, I finished the costume I had been waiting a year to make. Not sure how it came to me, but after last Halloween I thought that if I had any reason to dress up this year, I wanted to be Bjork in her swan dress. Kind of ambitious, but being a crafty person really comes in handy around Halloween time.

I made a complete mess of my kitchen. Feathers were everywhere! But in the end, it was worth it because I think it came out pretty well!



Rob went as Survivorman, from the Discovery Channel. Yes, he's a nerd. I suggested it as a joke, but when he got excited, I didn't have the heart to tell him I was kidding. Much to my surprise, a lot of people at the party knew who Survivorman was. Here is it before we left, watching the Red Sox game. He was so disappointed that we had to leave, but Kay was nice enough to put it on at her house.



Some random photos from the party:



It was a great time! Hopefully I'll have a chance to wear my costume again since I put in so much effort!

A Happy Post

I know I've been a major complainer lately. I hate that. I don't want to be a negative person. So I'm going to try to put that all behind me. Want to know something good that's going on? I got a new office at work! They've been shifting people around, and I got super lucky.



1. My Desk, 2. My Giant Whiteboard, 3. My Bare Bookshelves, 4. My Art from The Black Apple

I've had an office with this company for years. But the last one I had was actually half of an office. The other half was empty the entire time, but it still never felt like my own. And something about it was very cold, and not degree-wise. I feel very comfortable in this room. Perhaps it will help me be more productive, yes? Fingers crossed!

More blogging!

I need to blog more because I have so much to share, so much to rant about.

Maybe I'd be more inclined to blog if my internet at home worked. Oh that's right. After 8 scheduled appointments, 6 of which were technician no-shows, we still don't have working internet. I feel as if the Comcast techs have something against me, or they are playing a joke on me because a missed appointment or two seems almost normal. But six missed appointments? That's just silly. ("Hey look, there's an appointment at that address again. Let's skip it and see if the lady freaks out!") At least they are throwing a lot of discounts and credits our way.

I had a small craft show last weekend. When I say small, I mean barely existant. The venue was great. The free food was awesome. Mmm, pigs in a blanket. But they were lacking in the shoppers department. Not counting the things that my grandfather and father purchased (aww, so supportive), I made a whole $43. Wow, that barely covers my gas! I'm starting to think the show circuit might not be worth it for me. And with how busy my life has been lately, I'm ready to put melissahead on hiatus for now. Not that it'll feel any different from NOT being on hiatus, but at least I'll have less pressure on myself.

I know things have felt chaotic for me, but I can only imagine how it is for Rob. He's working three jobs right now, one of which he just gave his notice to yesterday, thank goodness. He spends three weekdays working from 8am until 9pm. As a couple that spent a whole crapload of time together, this is quite a change. In the beginning I was like, "Wow, I have all this free time to myself!" But now I sit at home watching the clock, waiting for him to get home so I can make him a late dinner and spend a short amount of time with him before I crash. Hopefully when he leaves his third job, it'll get much better.

I have to post some photos of our new/temporary home. Word on the street is that they are breaking ground on our new-new home in two weeks. Finally! They are targeting April for completion. In the meantime, my digs are pretty sweet. I'm enjoying living the high life for now.

I also have to post the photo of my recent press. I'll save that info for a future post.

And in the Melissa work world, well, things could be better. I moved to an office last week, only to find out that they changed their minds. But I couldn't move again until today, so I've been a little displaced since Thursday. (Although I must say, my new new office is great. I'll take some photos.) I was "reprimanded" yesterday for wearing an inappropriate outfit. How hilarious is that? My sweater dress was a tad too short. I knew it was short, but I wore leggings, and it's not like I looked hoochie, but I guess I will be retiring that dress. They gave me a company BlackBerry. That means I am now available 24/7, for the most part. That is a little frightening. *sigh* I could use a vacation.

Sorry for this boring text-heavy blog post. I promise to start being more interesting! I guess I just wanted to get some things off my chest.

I was right.

Comcast never showed last night. So four days this week I left work early for nothing. Tonight we have our fifth scheduled appointment to get our freakin' internet and cable hooked up. Rob and I had plans to go furniture shopping, but now I have to go alone because someone needs to be home from 5-9. Guess what Comcast, someone was home 5-9 last night, anxiously awaiting your arrival, checking her doorbell to make sure it worked, and peeking out the window every ten minutes.

Jerks.

RANT: Comcast sucks!

I have never had this much trouble with a utility company. I am astounded at their inflexibility. I am flabergasted at the amount of energy and time I've wasted trying to resolve a very menial issue.

Here's our Comcast timeline.

Oct 1-5
four calls to Comcast; 3 of the 4 representatives assured us that we would have cable and internet on Sunday, Oct 7

Oct 7
no cable or internet; spent 2.5 hours on the phone (and lots of unplugging and replugging) to figure out that the cable had been disconnected; Rob argued his way into free HBO for a year; Comcast was scheduled to come out the next day to fix the issue, and agreed to call us prior to arriving so we could meet the technician at our home

Oct 8
no call; got home to a note on the door saying work has been completed; still no cable or internet; another hour on the phone, more arguing; appointment scheduled for next day between 1-5pm

Oct 9
5:30pm, no technician; another call to Comcast where I was informed the technician was running late; 6pm, technician arrives and fixes the screwy cable wiring job that previous residents had done; yay it works; 7pm, while the tech was still there, our cable/DVR box fried; he didn’t have any more and he also couldn’t fix out internet because he wasn’t trained in modems; we were told to go to a Comcast office today to get a new DVR box and cable modem

Oct 10
noon, Rob left work to go to a Comcast office; they claimed they had no cable boxes or modems and there was a 200 person waiting list; Rob had a hissy fit and left in a huff; Rob called a supervisor argued his way into a LIKELY appointment tonight between 5-9 (“they’ll try their best to get someone out there”)

Call me skeptical, but I have a feeling this won’t be resolved tonight. I’m not upset at the fact that I have no cable. I’m upset because I’ve spent so many hours of my life on the phone with and waiting for Comcast. I have errands to run and groceries to buy. But I’m forced to sit at home, most likely listening to hold music while staring out the front door. There are so many better ways to spend my time.

Move it!

Yesterday was the big day. And let me just say, moving is no less stressful than I had remembered.

Issue #1: U-haul
Rob called on Tuesday to see if we could pick up the 26' truck a little bit early. Turns out they did not have a record of our reservation that I had made online (and had a confirmation for) two weeks earlier. So, number one, we couldn't pick up a truck at our desired location; we had to go to a different one. And number two, they only had a 17' truck. Needless to say, even with us bringing over 6 carloads of our stuff prior to yesterday, a 17' truck was not big enough. We had to make 2 more car trips, and Rob still needs to make one or two today.

Issue #2: Comcast
Anyone that knows me knows that the Red Sox are a huge part of Rob's life. So the fact that the Sox playoff game was on tv yesterday at 3pm was a big deal. Rob called Comcast 4 times last week to make sure that we would have cable available to us when we moved in. He was assured that we would.

We were back at the old house, loading up the cars. At 2:30pm, Rob sent me on my way to hook up the tv prior to his arrival. Of course, it didn't work. So I called, praying that I could fix this issue by the time Rob got there. Long story short, they finally discovered that the cable was manually disconnected and has to be manually reconnected (for a fee) today. Rob was ticked beyond belief, and after 2.5 hours on the phone with Comcast, we now have free HBO for a year. Ha!


Other than those two problems, the move was fine. "Temp-house", as I'd like to call it, is insanely awesome. Massive. Luxurious. We'll be spoiled for the 6-8 months that we'll be there. And even though I'm not looking forward to another move in such a short time, I'll be thrilled to finally be in my brand new home...whenever it's ready!

On Saturday, I picked up these gorgeous sunflowers at the farmer's market to make temp-house more homey.

Yay, baseball...

...is almost over! (Shhh, don't tell Rob I said that.) But in all honesty, I'll be happy to get my hands on the remote after the baseball season. Season? Aren't season's typically three months long in mother nature terms? Why is it that in sports, a season really means 7 or 8 months?

But anyway, it certainly is a happy time in Philadelphia! The Phillies have made the playoffs for the first time in 14 years! Woot woot! And Rob and I were lucky enough to attend that game in my company's suite. The energy was incredible. I don't think I've ever been to such a lively (and loud) sporting event. And when they got that last out in the top of the 9th, we all got champagne to celebrate!

So good luck to the Phillies who play this afternoon! (And, um, good luck to the Sox who play tonight.) <-just in case Rob stumbles in here