Please Mister Postman!

I thought I was ahead of the game. I put in a change of address form before we moved and made it effective the Monday before we moved to give it time to kick in. Because I still get mail in my maiden name, I did it three different ways - B's name, my name and my old name.  Come Monday, no mail was at old house. Good.   We started receiving forwarded magazines at the new house on Tuesday. Good.   Then we received mail at the old house Tuesday through Friday in each of the three names. Bad. And there was no mail at the new house. Bad again.

I called my city post office who told me to call the Director of Delivery at the main post office. I did that and just got voicemail.  I decided to go to the post office to rectify the situation:

Me: There is a problem with my change of address. It was effective Monday and as you can see [handing her mail] magazines are going to the new address but some mail is going to the old address still.

PO Lady: It takes up to 7 days for the change of address to take place.

Me: I understand that it may take 7 days to RECEIVE mail at the new address, but we should not still be receiving mail at the OLD address after Monday.

PO Lady: That is true. You shouldn't.  Let me go talk to your carrier.

{10 minutes later}

PO Lady: I spoke with your carrier and she has all three change of address cards [never mind my carrier is a male] so you are all set.

Me: No, I am not all set because my mail is still going to my OLD address.

PO Lady: It will go to your new address.

Me: BUT IT IS NOT- DO YOU SEE??

PO Lady: It will.

Me: So, until this "will" time, my mail is just going to continue to INEXPLICABLY go to my OLD address and it cannot be FIXED???

PO Lady: It happened to me too.

Me: LIAR! [no I did not say that but she is obviously lying to get me to leave]

Me: I will just call the Director of Delivery first thing Monday morning.

and then I stalked out of there. I got into my vehicle and immediately called the Director of Delivery. Bad move.  A woman answers, proceeds to ask me a bunch of questions and then interrupts me when I try to answer them:

Woman: Can I help you?

Me: Yes, I put in a change of address for the three names at my house - my husband, me and my maiden name, effective Monday and some mail is going to the new address and some is still going to the old address five days later.

Woman: What is your name?

Me: Riddler, R-I

Woman: [interrupting] What is your maiden name?

Me: Gypsy

Woman: Can you spell that?

Me: G-Y-P-S-Y

Woman: And that is a family change, right?

Me: NO, it is an individual change.

Woman: You should have put in a family change.

Me: THERE IS NO FAMILY UNDER THAT NAME, IT IS MY MAIDEN NAME.

Woman: What is your other name?

Me: Riddler.

Woman: Can you spell that.

Me. Sigh. R-I-D-D-L-E-R

Woman: What is your address?

Me: 25...

Woman: [interrupting] What is your zip code?

Me: [zip code]

Woman: Okay, how do you spell your last name?

Me: SIGH. R-I-D-D-L-E-R

Woman: I will go talk to your carrier. What is your phone number.

Me: [phone number]

Woman: Okay, if there is a problem I will call you.

Click.

IF THERE IS A PROBLEM? IF????? There is already a problem. My mail is going to multiple addresses across the state with no fix in sight and some assurances from a mad woman that it just WILL eventually be fixed.

I am never getting my mail again.

And Then There Was Paint

So the weekend before we moved, I went over to the new house to show my brother and his girlfriend the digs.  At that point, they had only seen pictures.  We were anticipating the floor guy coming that day to start staining the floors so we wanted to get them in to see it before it would be impossible to walk on.  B informed me that we had to be there by noon to tell the floor guy what stain we wanted.  I suggested we get there early to discuss. Why, you ask? Because the day prior B and I picked two totally different colors out of the four provided to us. We were not even close.  I was willing to compromise, but was interested to hear that the floor guy choose four colors himself for us to review.  That floor guy is smart.  We both were able to agree on one color in about five minutes.  Outsmarted by the floor guy. Not that I am complaining.

And so the tour began.  Just as I did for you guys with the pictures, we took my brother and his girlfriend through the house.  When we reached Dani's big room, my brother inquired as to whether whenever we got around to this room we would leave the beams exposed or not. So I ask B what he thinks saying "pretend that we have all of the money in the world and can now do this room, what would you do."  Do you know what he said? Really?

B:  This room is LAST ON THE LIST.

Ugh. I thought we were done with that statement, but apparently not.  After explaining twice more that we were dreaming and not actually planning or binding him to any contract, B indicated he liked exposed beams.  I think B is just overwhelmed with how many things are actually on the list to take the time to dream about things that are last on the list.  Who can blame him really?

Now, as all home tours typically do, ours ended in the basement.  This is when B inquired what I had planned on doing the rest of the day. Since it was still early, I was not as sharp as I might have been normally and said something along the lines of "a little of this and that" while thinking a nap sounded good. Wrong!

I painted.  Yes, I painted. I tried to pass it off on my brother, but he was quicker than I (although he and his girlfriend did go get me Starbucks for which I am eternally grateful). And so it became that I ended up accidentally painting. The only thing we were able to do, however, was the laundry room since no floors were involved. I had the fun task of priming the bathroom that only has one toilet a/k/a the cats' room.   B was also kind enough to give me gloves and a big sweatshirt in case I was sloppy. I was sloppy.

While painting a basement may not seem all that exciting, it was fun to do it together and it did make a difference.  

Here is an action shot of B at work:

And this is a shot of a peep hole into the downstairs bathroom:

What you see looking in the peep hole:

The freshly painted room a la Dani:

Look at that white!

Now the real transformation is definitely where the washer and dryer is, but those pictures are on my camera and I cannot find the cord. Arrggh. Moving.  Throws me off every time.

I'm Back and I LOVE the Super Bowl

Not having the internet? Enough to drive someone insane I tell you.  But it doesn't matter because now we are up and running.  We moved all of our stuff Thursday (and Friday, and Saturday, but more on that later) and with it went our cable.  Between trying to move stuff in, cleaning and getting to work, my blogging time got hacked.  So sad.  Hopefully, there will be no more outages and regular posts will resume tomorrow.  That is, if I can find my camera cord. What a mess!

Meanwhile, you may already know this, but yesterday was the Super Bowl.  In times past I thought the Super Bowl was awesome because I:

1. Had a giant party (although technically it was the week AFTER the Super Bowl - but we are girls, what did we know?)

2. Went to giant parties

3. Went to the bar to drink

4. Watched it while eating chicken with my folks and got some boobage (thanks Janet!)

5. Watched it for the awesome commercials

Now? Not so much. Honestly I did not think the commercials yesterday were even up to par.  So with the move, my lackluster feelings and my general nonchalance of sports in general, it should come as no surprise that I entered the office Super Bowl squares.  And at the time I got my two squares, I didn't even know who was playing despite the fact on one side was my friend's good college friend actually playing and, on the other side, was my other friend's most favorite team in the world.   Still, last night I went in clueless.  And this is what I witnessed:

~This office setup in the new house is currently crazy as I am practically sitting on top of my TV. I am sure to go blind now.

~Jennifer Hudson looked nervous and very sad, but did a wonderful job singing. Now I hear she lip-synched. Still a good performance.

~Football looks great in HD even if you aren't really watching it.

~I have no idea who scored what when or how

~Bruce Springsteen was a natural half time performer and why didn't they think of the king of American rock before this day? Instead we get boobage (thanks Janet!)

~The commercials sucked.

~Around the third quarter I noticed the score of 20 - 7 and thought for some reason those numbers sounded familiar.

~Then I watched Big Love (can't miss Big Love!)

~Turned Super Bowl back on as B and I were trying to wrangle a big stuffed chair into the office for me to watch TV (two hours after I had been watching it) instead of the uncomfortable desk chair

~B told me the Steelers won

I remarked how I may have won the football squares, which B "highly doubted."  I then lamented not copying the squares.

Today I woke up, ate some breakfast and decided to clean out my purse since I had been carrying almost everything I owned in it during the move.  What did I find? The squares. I see that one of my squares is 7 and 0 and think "those numbers sound familiar."

Yep, I won.  Without trying, without effort, without thought, and apparently without knowing. Kind of burned people up at the office when they found out.

I love the Super Bowl.