Moving..and things I learned.

So, the big move part 1 is complete. Sunday, Brandon and I got up and started packing things. Of course, every time we said, what do you want us to do next, his mom took 5 minutes thinking of something to do, would quit what she was doing, and start what was supposed to be our next task herself. My favorite:

Me: So, what's next?

Her: Well....................I guess we need to go ahead.....and.....pack the phone. {she walks into the living room, takes apart the phone, grabs a nearby tiny box, puts it in it, and proceeds to arrange the phone in the box}

Me: Ok, well what do you want me to do since you're packing the phone.

{silence}

Me: Ok, I'm going to pack the lamps. You really need to pick one thing to do and stick to it. And come up with something for Brandon to do...and let him do it.

At this point, I tell Brandon to start taking out the trash as his mom moves from room to room packing little things here and there. So basically she had her hands in everything, micromanaged it all, and was stressing because she was trying to get it all done at once, instead of each room done in its own turn.

So, the before the end of the night, Brandon and I had fun un-hooking the washer and dryer. The dryer was EASY. Unplug, disconnect vent, move. The washer...not so easy. I checked in with my dad first to make sure I wasn't skipping any steps, and then got ready to unhook everything. So, the faucets the water hoses were connected to was the major problem. One of the faucets had no handle anymore. It was only a little metal stick that we were going to have to somehow tighten so we could remove the washer without water going everywhere. Fine. I'll do that one second. I'll turn off the one faucet that has a handle. Great. Its stuck. I ask Brandon to try, since he has man hands, but no luck with him either. Thank God I'm a trained nurse and paramedic and know that improvisation is always important. And from plenty of adventures in nursing, paramedicine, and cooking, we all know that grabbing a towel or something of the sort helps add grip to objects without raping the skin on your hands. Perfect! The towel method worked yet again! One faucet down, one to go.

So we try wire pliers, and multiple wrenches. Finally this one particular wrench, of the most perfect size, worked! Ok, faucets off. Now to get the hoses off since my dad recommended we get new hoses since we didn't know how old those were. Great, those hoses are stuck too. Towel method failed. That magic, perfect sized wrench failed, since it was actually too small for this job, and we had to use a magnificent sized wrench and bang around to finally get those hoses off. Alright, washer and dryer ready to roll...finally. Thank God we didn't save that til the morning.

Needless to say, we survived. The next morning Brandon and I were up at 6:30 am. Got breakfast, packed up the computer and the things that needed to be done first thing in the morning and waited for the movers, which we THOUGHT were hired from 8am-10am. So, 8am comes and goes and they're not there. Oh, now we're informed that the movers could be there anywhere between 8am and 10 am to START. Whatever. They showed up at 9:30 and man did they get to work! The two of them moved everything by themselves and fast! We went on to Farmers Branch and almost exactly 2.5 hrs after they started, they were done. They were perfect (especially since we had 2.5 hrs free lol). Nothing was broken either!

Now, to hook up the washer and dryer. Well, we could not find the dryer vent (that metal round thingy that takes the air from the dryer to the outside world through the wall.) We just assumed the movers lost it. Wrong, we found it later, after buying a new on, inside the dryer, safe and sound. Great movers, honestly. However, since we didn't find the vent at Walmart when we went for groceries and the washer hoses, we put off setting up the dryer until tomorrow. So I hooked up the washer and didn't look again at the dryer. Big mistake there. You'll see later.

So now was the time to set up her computer and get it ready for the cable, internet, and phone install the next day. I set everything up, plug it all in, press the power button, and NOTHING. No lights, no sounds, just nothing at all. So I spend the next 30 minutes dismantling her computer looking for loose wires or something to help me figure out why its decided to not turn on whatsoever when it was working fine before.

After plenty of time of frustration, I had to give up. All I could guess was MAYBE the power supply went bad, but given I've never sen or dealt with one going bad, I was unsure so I had to take it to people who could tell me for sure. We took it to the nearby Fry's and left it for them to do their diagnostics. We didn't feel like staying forever and was missing our World of Warcraft raid time anyways, so we said we'd get it tomorrow.

They call a few hours later and let me know that the computer passed all the diagnostics, that the only thing wrong is the power supply is bad. Sweet. I can fix that. I'll just get a new one when I pick it up.

So the next morning we pick up the computer, get a new power supply, which turns out to be a micro one (I'm blind and didn't see those huge words on the box), return it, get the right sized one, and install it. Everything works fine. Sweet. Now to install the dryer vent that we managed to find at Fry's while we were there.

I get it attached to the dryer and to the wall, things are going along nicely, I go to plug the dryer in...and I cannot. I get a flash light on the outlet to see it better and see why I can't manage to line up the plug with the outlet and I quickly find out why. The dryer has a 3 pronged plug attached to it. The wall requires a 4 pronged plug. Now, on regular outlets, if you have a 2 pronged, it totally fits into a 3 pronged outlet...but not with dryers. They both have the L shaped on, but my plug has prongs at a diagonal and the outlet has the prongs straight and parallel to each other. WTF?!?!?

So Brandon Googles it on his phone (remember, internet, phone, and cable aren't set up yet) and I call my Dad. He calls me back and tells me its no big deal, but he cannot tell me how to do it myself because he really needs to see what we're dealing with before he knows which direction to go with it, and he's afraid we could potentially blow up the dryer.

Apparently, for safety reasons, building codes and dryers are now being developed to have TWO grounding wires instead of just one, so they're moving to 4 pronged plugs and outlets. Dryers don't often come with cords already attached because the people selling dryers don't know what kind of outlet the people buying dryers have, since newer buildings have the 4 pronged outlet and older buildings still have the 3 pronged ones. So it seems it really is no BIG deal, but you have to know where to connect the electrical connections and all the ground wires, and if you do it wrong could totally blow up the dryer. So, for the record, lets say I'm educated on this now, but still uncomfortable should it fall to me doing it myself. I would likely look it up on How To again, as my dad needed me to so he knew exactly where to put the 2nd ground wire on a dryer that was designed for only 3 prongs.

So that had to be done, obviously, after my dad got off work. At which time Google manages to have a certificate (whatever the crap those things are) that for some reason Brandon's Mom's Internet Explorer said had errors or was old or who knows, and of course makes her think that he virus software she got through her last internet providers isn't working anymore. I don't really understand how she comes to some of her conclusions, especially given the McAfee software icon is in the task bar, when you click on it is says "Computer Protected," and she can go to ALL of the other websites she could possibly ever want to go to. So I have to show her how, yes, her virus scanning software is working, and that the error message has nothing to do with her computer, she can still get to all her emails, and can still use her computer. Maybe in the future we'll have to change her virus software, but currently, its 100% active and she isn't on her old internet anymore. (I suppose she thought her virus software was consistently streaming through her old provider? Can you imagine how SLOW and painful of an internet connection and computer performance that would be?!)

So, that being fixed, the washer and dryer working, and the only thing left to do is hang pictures, get hooks to install on her doors for her robes and whatnot, and maybe a box or two to finish emptying, we're done with the move.

The old place, omg, is dirty! lol

And Mr. Bojangles, our resident mouse, is still around. He hasn't been sited again, however, he has left us enough evidence to know he's alive and well. Brandon left a bag of trail mix on the floor which somehow sprouted a little hole in the bottom and was spilling trail mix on the floor. Very mousy in my opinion. And the cork to a bottle of wine we had recently was found near my computer (no where near where we were drinking the wine), half chewed. Pretty sure that was Mr. Bojangles as well.

Now, for Part 2, all we have left it: empty out the attic (holy S that will be an endeavor), sort through the attic junk, I mean boxes, throw away what we can, set aside what we can for the garage sale, and save very little of it (*crosses fingers*). Move all our crap to my parents house and set up my room and my brother's old room with our stuff (where, oh where, to put our tv). Then clean the old place, get the garage sale set up, do the garage sale, and be done with it all.

So also, right before all this started, I had noticed when Bella (my doggie who ruined her knees) pooped recently that there was a little white worm moving along her poopy. Well, my college roommate, Lexie, had a dog that got worms and felt so terrible and runny pooped everywhere cause she was sick. Bella wasn't doing any of that so I thought maybe this one wormy was just a random occurrence. I was wrong. I found another and decided the day after the move I'll take Bella to the vet to get it checked out. She totally didn't last that long. She woke my parents up crying one night and they just assumed she wanted to be out of her crate, so they let her out. I'm told it was the grossest and strangest colored poopy all over the dining room. Poor girl. My Mom took her to the local vet, they found NOTHING out of their stool sample, but took my description to determine it was a piece of tape worm that ripped off as she pooped, gave her a broad spectrum de-wormer, some antibiotics, and a probiotic powder to put in her food to restore the normal stuff in her tummy. No more runny poopy, and Bella is fine. If only she's quit costing us money!

Meanwhile, Brandon is taking an internet class (seriously, I think if you pass the test of dealing with the idiots that work at community colleges, and yes, Eastfield, I AM talking about everyone one of your employees, not necessarily teachers, that if you pass that test, its a weed out factor that at least your serious about school. Cause omfg, the amount of crap Brandon had to do to sign up for ONE EFFING CLASS was retarded). He plans to submit his State Trooper application before the July 10, I think, deadline. He also plans to set up test dates with Mesquite, Dallas, Frisco, and Dart, I think, lol. So, we'll see whats going on in the next few months.

Recap on things I learned:

• You cannot teach a micromanager to quit doing it.
• When a power supply goes bad, the computer does nothing. Nothing at all. They're cheap, just replace it yourself.
• Washer hoses are pretty easy to change, assuming things aren't stuck and you have good tools if they are.
• Dryer vents are totally easy to do
• There are different kinds of dryer outlets nowadays. :( Definitely can be done yourself, but make sure to Google good directions first.
• Fry's carries a crap ton of different things. Now only if it carried groceries it would be my one stop shop. However, the one in Irving only carries Coke products, so don't go in hoping to just pick up a quick DrPepper.
• Mice like trail mix and wine corks.
• Tape worms in poo look like moving rice. If you see one in your doggy's poo, just take him/her to the vet. Its easier than waiting for the diarrhea to come.
• A Texas State Trooper applications is like 40 pages long almost. They're not effing around.