Asshat movers...

So, as you know, Josh and I moved this week. I thought I was doing the right thing by booking the AMJ Campbell, the largest moving company in Canada. I figured that if they've been in business for 70+ years, they would have to be good, but I was SO wrong. So very wrong.

First off, I was told that they would arrive on Monday between 8:00am and 9:00am. At 8:50 I called and was told they would be there momentarily. I called again at 9:15, because 'momentarily' means something different to them than it does to me. They finally arrived at 9:30.

They came in, moved everything out and all seemed to be right with the world. I offered them a pop or water, since that was the only thing that we had left in the apartment that wasn't surrounded with bubble wrap (and no, we didn't bubble wrap the cat...he was in boarding for a few days to get him 'out of the way' and make sure he was safe). Anyways, they said they didn't want anything and they continued moving everything out of the apartment.

By about 1:00pm they were finished loading all our belongings in their truck (and safely wrapped...or so I thought). They said they were going to go get a drink and come to our house to unload our truck.

They came to our house and started unloading our belongings. It seemed to go smoothly until I took a look at my Grandmother's dining room table...

I noticed two deep scratches on the table which the movers claimed 'were already there' (they weren't). I figured we'll put in a claim and well, shit happens. Then they unpacked the leaves from the table and I noticed this...



<----- Undamaged
(Click on photo for a better look)










<----- Damaged
(Click on photo for a better look)






Apparently something was hitting the leaves (repeatedly) while it was in the truck. I told the movers that something scratched the leaves and they said 'it was like that'. Umm, no it wasn't. By this point I got really annoyed and asked them who to contact in order to get things repaired. Two of the three brainiacs shrugged their ape-y shoulders and said 'I dunno know'.

They then picked up the mattress from our king bed and proceeded to scratch the freshly painted walls. Not only did Josh and I SEE it happen, but we heard the scratch occur. I spoke to the mover and said 'You just scratched our walls'. Of course, he replied 'it was already there.' (insert massive eye roll here)

I called up the company and talked to the receptionist who told me to contact head office. I called up the person in charge of repairs and she said that I should submit a claim and tell the movers to write down the damage right then and there. She also said that once the claim is put in, they will send out an assessor who will determine if the damage was done beforehand or if it is new. I'd like to see how they determine that...

I put the movers on the phone with her and that's when things got nasty...

The driver then came out of the truck and said, and I quote 'We should have told you that we would have scratched your paint bringing the mattress upstairs, or we could have left the mattress in the living room and had you move it yourself.' Umm, what?!

Is that how a mover (or anyone) should talk to a customer?! I called head office again and left a message on the woman's answering machine telling her about everything that was done and how I was treated by their movers...I've yet to hear ANYTHING back from her (tomorrow will be one week). Isn't that nice?

I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed by how I was treated or how they looked me in the eye and claimed that everything was scratched already. How can people lie like that?

*sigh*

They also lost the brackets for my dresser mirror. When they were about to leave I noticed that my mirror was in the en suite bathroom. I asked them to attach the mirror to the dresser and they said 'I think we left them in a pile of dust in your apartment.' Umm, ex-squeeze me!? I know that they were lying about that because I saw the guy wrap them up and take them out of the apartment...

Oh well, live and learn I guess...Suffice it to say that we will NEVER use, nor recommend AMJ Campbell to anyone...ever.

I have until October 24th to submit a claim...I'm going to unpack a few more boxes and see if there is any other damage, but I think that's the brunt of it. Now, granted I know in the 'big picture' we didn't have that much of a loss or damage, it's just the principle of the matter.

When Josh was putting the computer together this morning we realized that our printer went to printer heaven...he killed it. He accidentally packed the printer with a full cartridge of ink still in it. Needless to say that the cartridge exploded all over the box. At least we had a bit of a chuckle over that today...while we were buying our new printer. :P

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack...

As you can tell, I'm baaaaaaaaaaack (didja miss me? huh? huh? didja?), and as promised here are some pictures for my favourite kayaker. If you remember this post or even this one, you'll remember the run around that I got from the new tenant of our apartment. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when she walks into the apartment today or tomorrow and finds NOTHING on the windows. ;)

I cut down one set of blinds in the bedroom, as you can see below. Another set I just yanked out of the ceiling (though really I was just trying to yank down one single slat of the blinds...but the whole thing came crashing down and missed me by a mere inch of so)...oops. My brother (AKA Ugly) came over and brought the rest of the blinds down, and then cut the valances and the metal bar so nobody could use them. So, basically, if someone were to dumpster dive and retrieve them, they couldn't hang them again. I know, I'm evil. He also took the air conditioners out and I gave the cord a little bris (snipped off the end). ;)

I'll post later about the actual move...I'm still fairly pissed off about it.

House cleaning... ***WARNING - LONG POST AHEAD***

and setting up...and packing...and unpacking and ARGH!

I'll be SO incredibly glad when all this is over.

On Sunday the electrician came over to see what had to be done, gave us an estimate (which we both thought was more than fair) -- he's a friend of ours -- and made plans to come back on Tuesday.

On Tuesday he came back, and fixed the wiring problems we had in the garage (it was an absolute mess). He also put some drywall up in the garage. You see, the idiots who owned the house before us made a HUGE hole in the ceiling of the garage and ran the wire for the cable tv from the garage up into the FLOOR of the den (which sits right on top of the garage). I'm not talking about a little hole, I'm talking a HUGE 6-9 inch hole (possibly larger) just to run one stinkin' cable through the floor. Yes, the floor. They didn't even bother to finish the job properly.

Anyways, the electrician ran the cable through the wall, where it's supposed to be, and finished the job properly...AND without ruining our freshly painted walls to boot. ;)

Since he had a meeting to go to and had to run from our place to the ass-end of Mississauga, he had to take off and we scheduled him to come back on Sunday.

We got our blinds in on Wednesday and they look SO awesome. We got cream coloured verticals in the living room and dining room that are in an S-shape. It's kind of hard to describe it without a picture, but I'll be posting some once everything is unpacked. (I'm anal about stuff like this, I don't want to show the place with boxes and stuff strewn around.) We have a bay window in both our dining room and our den, and the way they hang really adds so much to the look of the room. We got Merlot coloured double cellular blinds in the den and master bedroom and they look really cozy.

On Thursday morning I got a call back from the electrician and he said he had time to come back today and put our fixtures in. He took down our dining room chandelier at our apartment, drove it over to the house and installed it. He also put up our new kitchen lights and replaced the fluorescent unit over the kitchen sink. Since he was there, and we have a BIG ass ceiling fan over the stairs, I asked him to replace all the bulbs with compact fluorescents as well. I know, we could have done it, but since he was there...While I was getting him the bulbs, I had placed one down on the shelf in our foyer and forgot that the shelf was warped...and watched as it crashed to the floor. I'm just not having any luck with light bulbs this week.

All day Thursday was spent getting our carpetting installed...and...oh...my...G-d...does it look amazing! The colour is 'brown sugar' and it's just soft and cushy. I was actually exhausted from unpacking everything on Thursday that as soon as the installer left, I fell asleep on the floor. I'm pretty much doing all the unpacking, cleaning, etc., myself. At least I was able to get the bathrooms cleaned and the kitchen unpacked...thankfully(?) I've got next week off so I can spent all my time unpacking...(insert eyeroll here).

Also on Thursday I got a recorded call from Bell saying that I needed to be at the house on Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm because a technician would be over at some point during that time frame to install our new phone line. As soon as I heard that message, I called them up and changed the date. Not only was I not going to be at the house yesterday, it was also the start of Yom Kippur and I had to be at my in-laws for dinner...and there was no way I was going to sit with my thumbs up my ass patiently for nine hours when I could be doing something more constructive like PACKING. I ended up changing the appointment to Tuesday instead since we have someone ELSE coming in that day.

Yesterday morning when I picked up the phone at the apartment, it became apparent, rather quickly, that they had already cut off the phone service. ARGH! I had to call them back and (just to be cute) I had them recite the order to me. So the rep said "The order is supposed to go through on Tuesday, but it's only Friday". Gee, she deserves a cookie for realizing what day it is...

She ended the call with saying that it would take two hours for the phone service to be turned back on (it actualy took over four hours). Blah.

After that we took Deuce over to the boarding place. We thought it was best to keep him there and out of our way harm's way during the move. So he's there until Tuesday or Wednesday...whenever we can start to actually think again...

Last night I ended up having a shitty migraine and had to take two of my 'happy pills' for it. Not fun...not fun at all.

Sunday we're going to spend ALL day packing, so hopefully we can have everything out of the apartment for Monday since that's the day the movers are coming...ack. We're moving the boxes ourselves, so "all" the movers have to do is move the big pieces of furniture. So far we have 41 boxes packed...and probably have another 10(?) to go. It's starting to look manageable.

Stay tuned on Monday (or whenever we get the computer back up and running), as there will be a photo montage for a special kayaker. Imagine much destruction...

Since I've been working my ass off doing house cleaning, I figured it was time for me to shake the lurker tree and see who else falls out...

CRASH...tinkle...tinkle...tinkle...

Josh and I went to Royal Lighting today to choose some new kitchen fixtures rather than keep the butt ugly lovely ones that the old owners left behind. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to show tomorrow when they're up, but don't count on it...

Anyways, I must have been so taken with the fixture that I didn't exactly notice where I was walking and ended up knocking over a display of lightbulbs...oops. The salesman smirked, picked up one bulb, shook it vigourously and could hear the glass shaking around in the package.

...and this is reason #89273432 why Josh refuses to go mirror shopping with me.

Johnny's Gargantuan, Rolling Meme of Doom! *

1) Read the meme that was dumped assigned to you. Answer the questions.
2) Add TWO new questions to the list. Answer those questions.
3) Forward dump this onto the next blogger victim (and list their name and link to their blog).
4) This series will conclude when we get 50 questions - so yes, it's 25 bloggers in the chain.
5) Please make sure that the next victim in the "link" doesn't have a password protected blog.
[Optional 6] Update the links so people can follow along (this is similar to the method I used in the Why China series).
[Optional 7] When you see an update, down the chain, update your own page with the new questions and answers.
[Optional 8] Copy these micromanaging instructions into the top of your meme post.


1. What secret/surprising/personal goal (that is realistically achievable within the next 15 years) would you like to fulfill?

My personal (which is neither secret or surprising) goal would be, as many of those before me, to be a stay-at-home mom...whenever that may be. Though with the most recent info from RQ, that could be anywhere between 2009 and 2011....ugh. Thankfully our finances are such that this SHOULD be a reality.

2. Can you list an event in which you made a last minute decision or guess that significantly changed the path of your life?

While it's 'technically' not a last minute decision, I did decide over a year ago to meet someone who I had only known online, in person...and on my birthday no less. That person I can count as being one of my closest and dearest friends. Had I never started this blog, I never would have met any of the utterly fantastic people I can now call good friends.

3. What is one unrealistic goal (but your total secret dream) that you would love to come true, but are pretty sure it won't ever happen?

Having a house FULL of children.

When Josh and I were dating and things were leading towards marriage, we always talked about having somewhere between three and five children. This was obviously before we found out that wouldn't happen biologically.

With China, as I said, being a few more years away, I don't know if it's going to be possible to adopt from there again. We've thought of other countries, but IF this takes another four years, well, I'll be 40...and I don't know how I'll feel about going through a long wait (even if it's another country). Us Canadians aren't as lucky as the Americans out there, we can't do a concurrent international adoption. We can, however, do a domestic...but for reasons I won't go into here, that prospect scares the living bejesus out of me.

4. Who has had the most influence on your life and what did they teach you?

I'd definitely have to say my mom. She taught me how to fight for what's right and to not get taken advantage of, how to love without condition, and how to be a survivor.

While my dad DID influence me and helped shape the person I am, he's been gone over 21 years. My mom tells me that she sees a lot of him in me (ie., my laid back nature, peacemaker, quiet personality).

5. You are on a deserted island. You are stranded with someone from any point in time for 2 months (they are coming to rescue you but are busy right now). Other than family/friends/naval engineers, who is it?

I'd have to go with him, because...oh...my...G-D is he gorgeous! We could get pissed as newts while I take advantage of him have a deep, philosophical conversation with him in a semi-clothed professional manner.

6. Name and describe 3 things on your mind lately. Is there any particular reason why you're thinking about a particular thing?

a) Migraines. It seems that I've been waking up each and every morning with them lately. I don't know if they're because of the 'stress' of moving or if they're just getting progressively worse. I know I *should* go back to the neurologist and have myself checked out, but I'm just too flipping busy to bother.

b) Adoption. This one is self-explanatory, obviously, but at times I feel this just isn't going to happen. With the seemingly never-ending time line, I don't know what to do. Not that we're pulling our documents, I just have an overwhelming fear that something is going to derail this. I hope that I'm just overreacting.

c) Family. I've been thinking about my late father quite a bit lately, especially after writing this. I've just gotten to thinking about people who will never get to see or hold "Little Maple".

7. If you could go back to one moment in time and change it, what would the moment be and what would you change it from and to?

Now here's where I'm going to get deep, dark and brooding. I've ALWAYS had regrets about this and I wish I could go back and at least try...but realistically I know I can't.

When my dad had his heart attack at home, my mom sent me out of the house for some reason (which isn't really important to the story). I had just taken CPR training at school a few weeks prior to his heart attack, and I regret that I wasn't in the house to AT LEAST try to perform CPR on him. I know the doctors said that there was nothing anyone could have done, but I wish I had at least tried. I'll take that with me for the rest of my life.

8. What is your biggest pet peeve and is there anything that you can do to stop other people from doing it?

Typos. I know, I'm anal about it, but I've been fixing them as I've been going along in this meme. :P

9. Who has been the most influential teacher in your life and why did he or she have such an impact on you? Have you sent them a note?

Mrs. S., my OAC (grade 13) English teacher. She helped me with my studies and for my kickass project on irony and hyperbole (and let me show clips of Monty Python in class). We ended up watching The Search for the Holy Grail over two days. Gotta love any teacher that likes Monty Python. ;)

10. What three things do you regret not learning to do?

a) Driving. I should have gotten my license AGES ago, but I never did. I need to rectify that before "Little Maple" comes home.

b) Lasagna with my dad. In grade 9, about a week before my dad passed away, I had just learned how to make lasagna and my dad and I were going to make a batch of it the following weekend. He passed away the day before we were going to do that. So whenever Josh and I make a lasagna it has a special meaning for me. I know, I'm weird.

c) Needlepoint. My mom used to make wonderful needlepoints and I regret not learning how to do that. I know I can still learn...

11. What is your biggest fear?

Like Dolores, I would have to say losing another family member. I don't think I could handle it if I lost someone really close to me before they meet our daughter.

12. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I wish I could lose weight AND keep it off. I lost about 30 pounds a few years ago on Weight Watchers, but slowly (and surely) the weight has been creeping back on. Ugh, I hate that. I've been thinking I need to re-enroll once things with the house start to settle down...

***NEW QUESTIONS***

13. What is the answer to life, the universe, everything?

42. ;)

14. If you knew, beforehand, that the wait for your child from China would take this long and drastic a time frame, would you still go through with it or would you choose another country?

I know this is a 'loaded' question, but I felt I should ask it. Yes, we would continue on our path, but if we could do a concurrent international adoption we would take advantage of that opportunity. I know it's 'pat' to say this, but I do feel that we have a child in China...somewhere...sometime...

O.k. here is the link chain as per Johnny's Command:

Q 1 & 2 - So it's Come Down to This,
Q 3 & 4 - Our Journey to China,
Q 5 & 6 - 3D's Adoption Journey,
Q 7 & 8 - Waiting for Pumpkin,
Q 9 & 10 - Two Kayaks,
Q 11 & 12 - Watch Our Family Grow,
Q 13 & 14 - Journey to Little Maple,
Q 15 & 16 - American Family,
Q 17 & 18 - Chicago Mama,
Q 19 & 20 - Spacemom,
Q 21 & 22 - Mrs. Figby,
Q 23 & 24 - Mortimer's Mom,








*I was hoping like hell I was going to avoid this one, but at least I got in on it 'early'...oh how I pity the fool who gets 49 and 50. ;)

Nifty...

For those of you looking for new blogs to gawk at peruse, I found an interesting site. Not only can you find new blogs, but you can see a list of EVERYONE who links to you. Apparently there's 225 links to my blog...now I have to go stalk look at their sites. ;)

Ohh I'm popular

This morning, as I was going through my emails, I noticed one that came from the Wall Street Journal. I assumed it was spam or something, I mean, who am I to think that someone from the WSJ would be writing to ME?!

Anyways, I wrote the person back, assuming I wouldn't get a response. I was curious how they came to my blog and sent me an article on Chinese adoption.

Surprisingly, not even five minutes had passed when I got a response. Apparently they did a Technorati search on adoption and sent the article to the "most popular blogs about adoption".

Weird, huh?!

One

One year...12 months...52 weeks...365 days that's how long we've been waiting for you...and we'll wait for as long as it takes.

I went out a couple of nights ago to get another charm for my bracelet. If you remember this post you'll know why the bracelet is significant. Well, now it's even more so.

This month I chose a gold heart to add to the bracelet. Why? It's for my dad who passed away over 21 and a half years ago. Everyone always said he had a heart of gold, and there's a phrase on his stone that mentions that. I thought it was the most appropriate one to 'celebrate' our one year LIDiversary.

Bath time!

Reason #287782 why I love I can has cheezburger.

20,000...

hits.

TWENTY THOUSAND!

I can't even fathom that so many people keep coming back here time and again to read what I have to say. (I'm not fishing for compliments, kudos, what have you), I'm just surprised that The Little Blog That Could has exploded like this.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Josh never wanted me to start a blog, he didn't think it would be of any 'use'. Now whenever we go and meet anyone from the A-Team, I always remind him and make him eat his words ever-so-gently...

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to...

My mom took Josh and I, Ugly, L and Z, and her boyfriend N out for dinner last night to the Steakback Outhouse Outback Steakhouse. It's actually really good there and the service was fantastic. After dinner and gifty goodness (gotta love getting Linens 'N Things (my all-time favourite store)) gift certificates, we went back to Josh's parents house for dessert...

As most of you know, yesterday was my birthday, and this Thursday we'll also be really bummed out celebrating our 1 year LIDiversary. We thought we should probably just get one cake and combine the two events. Back when we went to the House of No Limits in July and got Kathy the Fun Dip cake, the wheels in my mind (when they're not squeaking) started spinning. I was trying to figure out how we were going to 'celebrate' our one year LIDiversary. Once I saw how great the picture cake turned out that we got for her and Joel, I decided to get one for our one year LIDiversary. Mmmm. No worries Kathy, the cake wasn't as good as how it's pictured...it was better.

Though, without her I wouldn't have had a graphic to put ON the cake. ;)


Since we were already going overboard with the cake, we decided to get some decorations as well. I mean, what's a party without balloons? Unfortunately there really wasn't any room for the candles in the cake (without damaging the icing...and really, you can never have enough icing on a cake), so we had to place the candles next to it. Oh well, you get the picture...








Since we had already gone apeshit overboard on the decorations, all that was left to do was go overboard on the plates, cups and napkins. That's right girls and boys, I ran around like an idiot and got maple (well, really it's Fall) themed plates, cups and napkins. Since I liked them so much, I went a bit crazy and got enough for our housewarming party...whenever the hell that's going to be.

When I got home, I saw that the CCAA updated their site again and July is through the review room. I'm still hoping that in the next couple of months we'll be through and then just twiddle our thumbs wait impatiently for the (minimum) next two years to pass...

Nuts

If you remember this post, you'll remember how I wanted to tweak the little 'comments' section. Thanks to K1 I've gone ahead and amused myself with the first selection. I'll probably be changing them every so often...By the way, if you're reading through Bloglines, you'll probably have to actually visit the blog to see the one I chose. ;)

Thoughts? Kudos? Complaints? More suggestions?

About last night...

Last night was our bimonthly "Waiting Mommies" dinner held at the Pickle Barrel at Yorkdale. We had about 14 or 15 mommies and 2 precious little ones (A and M). They were just TOO cute for words!

We had reservations, but apparently that meant that when we got there we had to stand in line?! The hostess was waiting for one table to clear, apparently, and that's why we had to wait around. She was a bit rude at one point and asked us to move because we were blocking the way for other people. Umm, excuse me? Whatever, once that was cleared up, we were shown to the table and had THE best waiter...ever. I'm sure you'll see his picture on other blogs later today. ;)

While we waited for our meals, I gave everyone an appetizer of Smarties with Pop Rocks in them. Michelle actually squealed with excitement. There's a bit of a story there, when we went to Batavia (Bat-ah-vee-ah) with her and Mark, we bought Pop Rocks which we both hadn't had in eons. Well, we sat in the front seat of her car, giggling like school kids, as we ate them...and Mark and Josh just kind of pretended they didn't know us faked excitement.

Our food eventually came and it was good...I tried to be good and had a salad. I know, you don't make friends with salad, but I'm trying.

During dinner, M got stuck in her high chair and she screamed and screamed. I don't think she was in any pain, I just think she wanted out but couldn't get out. In the meantime another diner came over, played with M and took off her watch and bracelet to occupy her while the waitress tried to find a pair of scissors to cut her out of the high chair. It felt like forever before she came back to the table with the scissors. Finally M was free and all was right with the world. Poor little M. :(

Later on, the girls surprised me with a piece of cake and the waiters came around and embarrassed me sang Happy Birthday. It's my birthday today...woo. Yup, I'm old. While I'm still a few years away from any kind of 'special' (HA) birthday, I'm kind of feeling it today with the wait.

Stay tuned for pics of my birthday cake later. I've got a family 'do' later this evening and we ordered a 'special' cake for it. Also look for pics of some gifty goodness from K1 and K2)...and my brand, spankin' new Furminator!

It's also my one year 'anniversary' with Nic and Tim today. One year ago today, I met them (on my birthday) for a fantastic dinner and shmooze. Nic was the first person I had *ever* met online and I don't regret it for one second. Even though we have only known each other for a year, it feels like I've known her my whole life. What a great friend she is!

Now back to packing I go...ugh.

For your cat viewing pleasure...

I present you...flying kitty!

On a side note, Deuce (as all cats do) LOVES to rub his scent on everything he finds. Well, he's taken a liking to rubbing the sides of his face and chin on our packing boxes. I noticed last night that he cut his chin not too long ago and he's got a little scab. My poor little kitty boy. :(

I'd take the boxes away from him, but well, we're kind of up to our asses in packing...

My first time...

Josh and I went over to the ever-hospitable Michelle and Mark's house for dinner last night for some seriously KICK ASS fajitas. I didn't want to tell Michelle that it was actually my first time having one...yes, girls and boys, I am no longer a fajita virgin.

In addition, Dolores and Shawn, and Doris and Dan and Miss Daisy were there as well.

We got there a bit late, but we sat around and talked...and talked...and talked, and we ended up leaving at 11:30. We had 'planned' on leaving earlier than that, but we couldn't pull ourselves away from our engaging conversations. :)

The one great thing about this LONG journey we're all on, is the amazing people we've met along the way. I know I say this a lot, but without people like this, this wait would be even more painful.

It's a good thing this blog isn't scratch and sniff...

On Saturday, after the gas company left, we still smelled something FUNK-AY, but we weren't sure what it was. We looked around the house, but couldn't pinpoint the location, until...

We walked into the kitchen and it seemed a bit more prevalent there. We looked around, and while the kitchen was clean, there seemed to be an odd aroma coming from the stove hood. We took a sniff and we both confirmed what smelled like natural gas (it wasn't).

Josh decided to call a company in to clean the hood and disinfect it. They stuck some hoses in and sucked out what was there. Lucky us, it was a bird's nest. Mmmm. They dispatched with the nest, cleaned up our kitchen and all was right with the world...

I freaking live in Mayberry...

You know, with Aunt Bea, Opie, et al...

A few days ago Josh went to the Canada Post site and arranged to have the keys changed on our superbox. (For those of you that don't know, the area that we will be living in doesn't have door to door mail delivery, but instead it's dropped off in a giant mailbox across the street).

Anyways, they said that in order to get the new keys we have to show proof of ownership and give them the papers. Fine, that makes sense. We were told that we would get the new keys today and we were just waiting for the call. Well, something funny happened on the way to the forum...

Josh got the call today that the keys were ready, but instead of having to show any proof that we actually owned the house, they quaintly (and stupidly) told us that they placed the keys under the welcome mat. Umm, yeah.

So, basically anyone could claim they were us and could have the locks changed?! I think an email is in order...

...and this is why I still love Canada Post.

Loonies and toonies and cheques, oh my!

Another month, another pic of our loonie/toonie jar...

I'm really freaking amused right now...

If you remember this post, you'll find the following just as amusing as I did.

As most of you know, I check my Statcounter every day. Well, I just checked it and I had five hits from around Georgia from Home Depot Inc. I guess they didn't want to comment on the post...after all, I'm oh so scary.

Anyways, that just amuses me...I think I should copy and paste that complaint post into an email to them and see what happens...not that I'd ever use their services.

By the way, we had the house painted today. ;)

Originally I was going to just have the master bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen done. This morning I changed my mind and added the 2nd level hallway, den, foyer and stairway leading into the basement (the only things we haven't gotten painted are the bathrooms and the other two bedrooms...I'm thinking I might do that in the next month or two - before the housewarming). :)

I got such a great price and it's looking SO good right now. The painters are coming back tomorrow for the second coat...and it (the paint, not the painters) just looks scrumptious. I'll eventually post photos...be patient. ;)

Rant, rave, Rumour Queen and referrals ***UPDATE***

(rant)

Well, this is something I never thought I'd do, but I have to get this rant out. I'm pissed and, you know what, that's ok.

The new batch came out, as many of you are aware, and it went from November 21 to 25. Four days of referrals this month. FOUR days. I know that this month was supposed to be really heavy for LIDs, but this is just absurd. We're coming up to our one year LIDiversary (we're planning a little party, but I've held off doing anything for it just yet) and now I have to wonder what decade we're going to see our child. I never wanted to say this, but at this rate, I think it's going to end up being 2010. That hurts just writing that. A LOT.

I told my aunt and uncle about the adoption tonight, but I just couldn't get excited about it. Now in hindsight, I'm wondering if I really should have said anything. I just wish we had a better idea of WHEN this was going to happen.

I'm getting annoyed with the RQ. I don't know where she gets her information, but she seems to just either not care lately or not bother to get to the truth of the matter. Yes, I know, her site is based on rumours, but damn it how does it go from somewhere in (very) late November to December 13 and then, in reality, end up at November 25? She's been consistently wrong lately, yet I still click on her site. I think, for my sanity (or what's left of it), I really need to stop clicking on her site. In the beginning it helped a little, perhaps, but not anymore. If her predictions/rumours/whatever are always wrong, then what's the point?

I have to wonder if, at times, she puts out these wild assed guesses (hey, I can say that here without being censored) just to get more hits on her site. Let's face it people, she gets paid for clicks. Don't even get me bloody started on her 'book reviews' or the automatons who comment on her site like she's G-d's gift to all things adoption related. She really isn't. Granted, she spends a lot of time on her site, but if she's almost always wrong, then why should we waste our time clicking?

I find it amusing that whenever anyone questions her posts or has an independent thought, that her minions jump to her defense and beat down the person who deigns to question her, yet she says that people should support each other in the process. So, which is it?

It also pissed me off to no end when she was babbling about how the year has gone by SO fast...yeah, for her it has...she's not waiting any longer. I'm not trying to diminish her wait and everyone else who has waited a long time, but it seems lately that there's no end in sight.

I'm tired of getting my hopes up for a big batch and then having it crash and burn EACH and EVERY month. Josh has gotten to the point where he only wants to hear about the adoption timeline when it's on the CCAA site.

The only 'positive' thing is that I know I'm not alone in my feelings. How are you all handling/dealing with the wait? If you'd rather comment anonymously, go ahead. If you have a differing opinion, please feel free to express it...

(/rant)

***I just wanted to thank you all for your supportive comments, open and honest feelings on the topic, and the emails I received.***

I'm in love!

Yesterday Josh and I made our way to see Nic, Tim, and Z. Oh...my...G-d! What a precious little guy he is. Josh and I just sat there staring at him (he really is THAT beautiful)...and we got to hold him for a while. He has the most beautiful toothless little smile I've seen. He's got a great disposition, he was a little fussy, but hey, what baby isn't?

We sat around, listening to Tim, Nic and her mom talk about their trip and we really found it fascinating. We bitched about the referrals (little did I know that a new batch was just coming out last night).

After we sat around for a little while, shmoozing, we decided to head out for dinner. That was an experience...but it's a story for another day. Suffice it to say, steak should not come to the table drenched in butter and sizzling like it's a fajita. ;) Let's just say that the muffin I had at the border was much better...

We got hammered with traffic all the way home, and what would normally be a 2.5 hour trip ended up being closer to 4.5 or 5...but it was worth it to see one little smile from Z.

What's that SMELL?! ***UPDATE***

We walked into the house this morning and smelled the overwhelming odour of what can only be described as 'rotten eggs'. We had the guy from Sears over to give us an estimate on carpetting and he smelled it too. We thought for a moment and then realized what it was...

I'll give you a moment to figure out what it was...

Dum de dum...

Still thinking?

Yup, a gas leak. Gotta love that...day one of house ownership and we had a gas leak. WOO! So, we called up the gas company, they sent over a guy to check it out and he confirmed that's what it was. It's a good thing neither of us are smokers or all we'd be holding onto as we entered the house, would be the door handle.

It was a relatively easy fix, he just had to tweak something with the hot water heater and all was right with the world. I'm glad we own the house, but I REALLY wasn't looking forward to all that excitement just yet. ;)

After all that was dealt with, we ordered our carpetting. We chose brown sugar (it's a neutral brown shade) and it looks SO yummy and cozy. It should be ready in two weeks.

So, we have painting this week...carpetting and blinds in two weeks...officially move in three weeks.

***We do have a detector, but we haven't plugged it into the house...yet. That sucker's definitely going in soon. Thanks for the concern. :)***