Ugh, I wish I did not always want everything gadgety and expensive that I see.

So this town always used to just have private trash collection. You paid monthly or yearly, not a lot I don't think, and the garbage truck came to your house.
Then some town council people or whatever decided that wasn't fair to low-income people.
So now the town picks up trash, for free, but the catch is they will only pick up what you put in these special yellow garbage bags. And the bags cost $3 each.
But they gave every house, for free, three big plastic wheelie garbage cans. A gray one for trash, a blue one for recyclable cans/bottles, and a green one for paper recycling. And they made recycling mandatory.
Buying the bags is a pain, but at the end of the day it's probably cheaper than a monthly fee.
And the good news is, it makes people really try to reduce their trash. People are recycling more, composting more, etc.
So, it's a small bit of cost/effort, but with a good payoff.

BUT

My building has found some sort of loophole. They are NOT using the town trash pickup. Since they count as a commercial account, not residential (since it's more than 4 units), they can still pay for private trash pickup. which is nice- it means I don't have to buy the yellow bags.
But there's no recycling.
I even called the company about it, and they were like 'yup, your building is not signed up for our recycling service. you should talk to the condo association about that.'
So I'm sure they're just being cheap and didn't want to pay for recycling and got the bare minimum trash service. (But then why not just use the free town system?)
But since we're renting, we're not on the condo board, and they don't meet often... I don't know what to do.
We have 5 giant green trash cans out front. Which i thought meant paper, but for this company it means trash, which is confusing.

Anyway, so for now we are just stockpiling our recyclables and storing them. Even tried taking them to the dump ourselves the other day, but they wouldn't let us. So the options now are 1- just throw them in the trash. 2- store them up and take them to my parents' and put them out with their recyclables, 3- ask our neighbors if we can put them in their bins til we get it sorted out.

But so in the meantime I wanted to find a nice way to divide them up and keep things neat and not destroy and stink up the kitchen.

And I found this.



I want it.

It has separate compartments for paper and cans, and it has a built in compacter to smash cans and plastic bottles.
But it's $300.

seriously, only I could find a way to make a garbage can an expensive gadget that I suddenly really want.

A few misc thoughts...

Sunday was our 1 year anniversary. (awww). Though i'm in the middle of studying, and my sister was in town, so I think we're going to celebrate after my exam- I'm thinking a couple days in Block Island. We can even do it during the week to avoid weekend rates/crowds.

But after Steve Martin on friday, we saw Louis CK on sunday- who is very funny, but perhaps a little too heavy on the masturbation jokes.

Chris gave me a funny little tote bag that says 'Rhode Island. 3% larger at low tide'
heh
And a little hipster tshirt with a picture of a bridge in providence. Now I feel very local and trendy. ;)

It's so nice to be back home. I love this little state. :)

But, the cell reception is crap-ola... the AT&T guy told me it's because there's some town ordinance (or something) that won't let them put up cell towers, because they might block peoples' view. Grr.

But so having 0-1 bars in my HOUSE sucks. Until yesterday, when I discovered AT&T's "3G Microcell". It's $150 but then there's a $100 rebate... so basically a one time purchase of $50, and you get this box that you plug into your router... and it's like a mini cell tower in your house. Now I have 5 bars in my house. No service contract, no monthly fee, no nothing. LOVE IT!

Also, thinking of having a housewarming party/bbq over labor day weekend, but need to get an idea of if people will actually be available and/or willing to come.

Finally, an awesome little video (it's quick, so watch it!) and the requisite pix of my niece.






And now, back to studying! Have a good week, peeps!

Well the voice memo in my phone is all screwed up, apparently, so I had to extract it as a .mov file...

There's no video, but hopefully the audio works...

enjoy!

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Ok paul I just typed this long thing out, then uploaded a pic... then I couldn't type anywhere or click any buttons... I took some screenshots in case I lost everything. and then clicked reload, hoping there would be a draft somewhere, but.... there isn't.
What happened to the draft feature??
Anyway, I don't want to retype it all, so I'm going to try to upload the screenshots.

This is pretty good. Esp around 0:58, where he does a bit about fixies.

So, Chris and I went down to Virginia Beach for my aunt's annual BBQ/family reunion. She's been doing it for the last several years, and I've never been able to go. And this year my great-uncle, who I've never met, and is the only person left from that generation on my dad's side, was there- and he was darling.

But she lives on a lake, and the weather was gorgeous, and there were jet skis and waterskiing and tubing and swimming etc etc. Lots of sun and fun and food and family... My mom dreads it every year, but really I had a great time.

No fireworks though, which was sad. And made it not feel like the 4th.

But here's a pic of my little niece, on the left, and then my cousin's daughter, who is also super adorable.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

So, I really don't ever feel a need to take videos... but the new iPhone's camera is supposed to be so much better. And then they made iMovie for the phone...

So to test it out, I made a little video-tour of our new place yesterday. It kind of sucks (apparently I need to learn to walk more smoothly) and I cut out my stupid audio commentary. It's way too long- but there are some good shots of the awesome kitchen, and the view and the yard (which is being excavated and restored).

But anyway, just to see how it looks posted to youtube.

(and to show off the place again.) ;)

So, last night I went to see The National (my favorite band) in Boston. They were playing at the House of Blues, which, it turns out, is RIGHT across the street from Fenway Park. And, the Red Sox were playing last night, and they WON (yay! go sox!), so it was a bit of a zoo. (Fortunately Chris did not get murdered for wearing a Yankees shirt.) But, it was a lovely night, so we parked about a mile away, and walked the rest. And, found a little dive mexican place on the way, that had maybe the best grilled chicken salad I've ever had. I know, I know, who orders a salad at a mexican place. But this was delicious. And cheap. yay!

But so on the way, Chris got a phone call, and it sounded very serious. I asked what was up. He said "Well, no one has heard from our buddy S in a few days... and last time this happened, it turned out he was in the hospital." So, everyone was a little nervous, but I was being an optimist and thinking "meh, so he hasn't returned a few calls, no need to panic" But then it turns out the last time people HAD talked to him, it was because he called to cancel plans because he wasn't feeling well.

Background- S is a super awesome guy, who was badly burned in a house fire about 3 years ago. He survived, but was in a coma for about 3 months. But now he does all this volunteer work with burn patients, etc. He's really just a great great guy.

So we keep driving. The next call comes. Well someone finally went over to his place and let himself in with the spare key. Found him on his bed, and called 911 because he "wasn't doing well". We later found out "not doing well" mean "cold and with no pulse". Then the call came, they got to the ER, and he was pronounced dead. Still no word on how or when it happened. :(
How awful. He was only in his 50s, but after the fire had not been the picture of health. So then we had to decide- do we still go to this concert (that we had been looking forward to for months, and had spent a good bit of money on), or do we go back... So, we decided to stay in Boston. If nothing else, it helped take Chris's mind off the fact that one of his best friends had just died, totally unexpectedly. And, not to be an ass, but- if he'd already passed, it's not like there's anything we could do to help, you know?

So, that was shitty.

The concert at least was awesome. Not shitty.

But we didn't get back into town til almost 2am- shitty.

I had to get up at 5 to go to work. Shitty.

Then, I got to work, only to find out that I didn't need to be there til 730 (not 6)- but they forgot to tell me. shitty.

THEN I find out that the other fellow (there are two of us) is not coming to work today. Again, would have been nice if he'd told me this. Then I found out he's out indefinitely. And, the number of days we need to be on call just tripled. SHITTY!

Great. So I was originally on call 3 days this month. Which tripled to 9. Which then doubled because I have to cover his days too?! SHITTY!

and THEN I hear that Blanche died?! Shitty!

and I hear from poor Chris that now that he is not distracted, he is "a sobbing mess". Shitty.

Overall- totally shitty day!

And I have a feeling it is not about to get any better, at least not at work.

At least I only have one more month. Then I have some time off, to move, and take my boards.

Oh, and the one other good thing- I got tickets to see Steve Martin (who I ADORE) play bluegrass as the Newport Folk Festival. So that is something to look forward to.

Ok, enough whining, now back to my giant to-do list.

thanks for listening to me vent!!

So, I went home to my parents' this weekend. And the job is still not 100% official, but I decided to do a little househunting since I was in the area.
And we stumbled across this condo... it was this beautiful old estate, that was converted into 11 condos. And there was one available for rent, but then it got rented out the day before we got there. Not to mention, it was out of my price range. But then it turned out that some woman bought another one of the units, for a million dollars, and then like a month after closing, changed her mind. So now it's back on the market, but she wants to recoup some of her costs while she waits to find a buyer, so she's renting it out at way less than it should go for. So we showed up at just the right time. But there was another guy interested, so it was like "if you sign a lease NOW it's yours. Otherwise he gets it." Now, I don't want to live in a condo forever. But, as a temporary "rent while we find something to buy" kind of situation, I'm not sure this can be beat. And besides, when on earth will I ever have the chance to live in a place like this??! So, I present- my new home, as of July 1.


This is from the "front yard", if you will.


looking out from the kitchen to the living/dining room. All the interior pix kind of sucked, sorry, but you can get an idea of the windows. It's big and open and light.


This is the original Frederick Law Olmstead sunken garden, and they are in the middle of restoring it to its original plans.


aerial shot of the whole complex


looking back at the building from the front yard


The view from the living room


ridiculous kitchen with viking stove and subzero fridge etc etc. I might have to actually start to cook!


another exterior shot. Our unit is on the far side.


So then, after we'd found a sweet ass place to live, we went to the beach. :)






Doesn't show in the pic, but our place is up on the rocks in the distance there.

What a kick ass weekend!!

So, before I moved last summer, I renewed my NYS license and registration, rather than deal with changing it to CT for a year.

Today I got a renewal notice in the mail.

It has 3 options.

1- renew for $53.50. (43.50 for 2yr registration free, and $10 "use tax", whatever that is.)

2- renew, with NEW GOLD PLATES, and NEW PLATE NUMBER!! As if this is something desirable?! Those new plates are hideous. But, contrary to what I'd heard, the new plates are not mandatory. They're optional. But the catch- they cost extra. That deal is $78.50

3- the best deal of all. NEW GOLD PLATES! KEEP YOUR SAME NUMBER! for a mere $98.50.

Seriously? $55 to 'upgrade' to those gross new plates?

Nice try NY.

I am going to avoid the whole situation and move to Rhode Island. Their license plates are the best looking in the nation, IMHO. ;)

For real though, that's the other update here. I haven't signed a contract yet, so it's not official, but it looks like I'm going to take a job in RI (at my dad's hospital, actually). So I'll be moving back home sometime this summer. And Chris is coming with. :)

So, hopefully we'll find an adorable little house, and will have a guest room, so if anyone wants to come visit (we have lovely beaches!!), you'll be welcome!!


See? Ugly!!


And, adorable!