Unit 1253 is Empty!

Today is Aunt Lilly's birthday, and what better way to honor her than spend it grunting and groaning over some heavy frinkin' furniture? Well, wasn't doing much else, anyway.

Liz and I finally got motivated around 1000ish and drove both vehicles over after taking the center seats out of the van (which are still in the garage...somewhere). We got on a roll with the twenty or thirty bins, loading them up and unloading them in the garage. For the last trip, we shoved as much as we could in the van and packed it tight. Then the darn thing's engine wouldn't turn over. It was dead.

We knew trouble was coming because the van had starting issues for a couple of weeks now, but after a little cajoling and laying a slaughtered lamb on the hood (metaphorically), it eventually turned over. We popped the hood before we left the house this morning, thinking the battery terminals needed cleaning, but the engine is designed with the battery under some other parts and resting on its side. You can only reach the top (red) terminal. If you must replace the battery, mechanics at a garage have to take out the parts to access the battery.

And we don't have jumper cables. How can you have three cars and no jumper cables? So it was off to AutoZone for some cables. And those anti-shoplifting detectors they have by the doors? Very loud. The good news is once we got the cables hooked up to the two batteries, the van started right up. I'm feeling very Tim Taylor-like right now.

And the furniture: a bed set, dining table and chairs, a couple of solid-wood dressers, end tables, plus all of the bins. What was the heaviest of all that? The frinkin' dining table. It's solid wood. You would have been close if you had said the big dresser, but we took the drawers out and that made all the difference in the world.

So the entire storage unit is in the garage, which looks suspiciously like the end of an Indiana Jones movie (the Ark of the Covenant is in there, somewhere). I'll call the local charities this week to see if someone will come pick up some stuff.

My favorite Cub got his number retired today. I found some Sammy Sosa stuff in a box and threw it away without a second thought.

The best place to play on-line backgammon was down for a couple of weeks after a massive server crash. They'll be back up this week.

I got cc'd on an email to the college administration, including the president, about the on-line rosters. The guy who sent it obviously doesn't know my history with the silly place or he wouldn't have done that. :-)

R-Rated synonym generator. You've been warned!

This is the difference between Liz and me:
- I had a long, hot shower with lots of soap and a shave with heated shaving cream. I just finished a snack of crackers and chicken salad while puttering around the internet, listening to ITunes.
- Liz jumped in the shower for five minutes, barely long enough to clean out the dirt from under her nails. She got dressed and headed out the door with a daughter who wants to drop off a job application. While she is out, she's picking up some Advil so I'll be able to move later. [Edit: And now she took the girls to a movie. All four of them in the truck.]

In terms of thinking of other people before her and taking care of us, she is the hardest working person in this house.