Living In Mayhem

We've been living in absolute mayhem. We cleared out all the boxes in the basement last weekend and ditched all the empty boxes. We turn around to have the air shipment delivered on Friday. That was pretty minor. 15 boxes in total and most of it was a surprise. I received an "iron pot" which really was the laundry hamper with some kitchen glasses in it. Who knew I would see some of my kitchen? The cupcake liners arrived which wasn't supposed to be here and I received 4 knives, 4 forks and 10 spoons. Go figure.

The construction is still ongoing. Garage doors were ripped out yesterday and the center support beam has been removed. We had two large steel beams installed overhead to replace the center support. It's great that we're going to be able to park the cars without having to maneuver around the pole. Today, the opening of the garage has been removed to make one large opening and hopefully, we can have the new garage door installed and working by early next week. There's a ton of work to do in the garage that involves rewiring electricity and rerouting the control box for the door.

Alas, the deck is about 60% done, the siding on the house is not complete and the gutters are supposed to get installed next week sometime. The rock, well it looks like that's not going to be evicted anymore. I've resigned myself to the fact that we'll have to be friendly with the rock. I don't like the fact that the rock is squatting in the driveway but, accept that even squatters have rights.

It's SOOOOOO Good To Be Home

Today, we've officially moved into the house. YEAH! The storage items came out this past Wednesday and Thursday. Three full trucks, lots of boxes and lots of damaged items. We're also missing things. We can't find the answering machine, things from Matthew's room and I can't find things that were in the family room. I know we're missing a heck of a lot more. Despite that and the construction going on, we're thrilled to be back in our own home. No more hotels and I even cooked in my kitchen. Large oven that can accommodate two trays simultaneously. That's a thrill!

We get to do this all over again next week when the air shipment comes in. Then we get to do it all over again when the mother load comes in, the sea shipment. We're supposed to get about 195 boxes that will arrive sometime at the end of August. Yes, yes, it was finally released by the Chinese government after customs manhandled everything in the box to their satisfaction. Let's see what will be missing when we get that shipment.

In anticipation of our move home, I went to the supermarket this morning. It was absolutely WONDERFUL to be able to buy things without funky smells from the meat department, people shoving me and most of all, no jumping the line at the check out counter. The cashier handed me my change NICELY and didn't throw it at me. The market had a full selection of everything and anything I wanted and it was CHEAP compared to China. I got a half gallon of Breyer's ice cream for $1.99 not 128 RMB which equates to $18.68 at the current exchange rate of 6.85 per USD. It was absolutely a pleasure to be able to peruse the supermarket and people would say "Excuse me" when they bump into you or passing you. Do I miss the shoving and the smells of Shanghai? NOPE. Do I miss my friends in Shanghai? YES. Absolutely. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be back and we've seen a lot of our friends here. Funny, all our reunions with our friends have involved food though. Gee, I wonder why? This will mark the start of the eating marathons. I am sure the restaurant industry will get a boost in their revenues because of our return!

Sometimes The Rock Wins

Through out history heroes have always had their enemies. Good verses evil, yin has it's yang. Well dear reader meet my nemesis. A two ton rock which resides in my driveway. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I hate this rock, I hate it with a passion. It is located in a place that makes it very difficult to maneuver in my drive way. I have tried a number of time to evict this rock without success. It started four years ago when we decided to repave the driveway. I figured that this would be a great time to move the rock using a bulldozer. It made sense, a simple nudge with a large bulldozer and I would be free. Well, they moved the rock but in the wrong direction. That's right, they actually moved it into the driveway. To make matters worse, it is now nicely encased in a brand new, expensive drive way. I was not happy. The rock had won for now.

Four years later, upon our return from China, I figured I would have another go. I hired a contractor to pulverize it to bits. I wanted to make sure that there was nothing left but dust when he was finished. He assured me that he would be able to do the job in one day using a jack hammer and I would finally be free. After eight hours of continuous jack hammering, he had hardly made a dent. What the hell is this thing made of? It's not possible. The contractor could not believe it either. I know, use a bigger jack hammer, you know the ones they use to bore through mountains, yeah that will do it. Bigger jack hammer, eight hours later the rock is still there, laughing at me, mocking me. I am not defeated yet. I have one last trick up my sleeve. I wonder if dynamite is legal?

I've Got Wheels

We've been back several days and we're suffering from jet lag. Correction, Tony and I have been suffering with jet lag. Matthew made the change pretty quickly and isn't feeling the pain that we're feeling. As usual, we've been busy running around town for errands and catching up on a lot of things. Due to insomnia, Tony's been busy researching different cars for me.

We were on our way to look at a car when we came across a 2007 BMW sitting on a car lot. We immediately pulled over and took a test drive. We returned and sat down to work out the numbers. Some negotiating and we have officially bought a car for me. It'll be picked up on Saturday. I wished we were able to negotiate a lifetime supply of gas. The gas prices in the Connecticut area are going to kill me. We haven't had to buy gas for two years. Talk about sticker shock.