Gather round everyone, it's storytime!

So I've been scanning Craigslist for TVs to buy for the new apartment. Kenny has a 19" but that wasn't going to be big enough for the main room, I wanted something more impressive. Anyways I checked a lot at work, even went after a 27" one but the reply e-mail was sorted into the junk mail folder and I didn't discover that until too late. Thank goodness for that though, or else I wouldn't have this story to tell.

I see this great 32" TV at work at something like 10:50am. Getting really excited I reach for the cell phone to call the guy because he just posted it like 20 minutes ago and I knew I was going to be first. But hell, I forgot my cell phone at home. Gah. This guy wanted a call too, no e-mail. So I facebook/myspace messaged Laurel (who hadn't woken up yet) to call the guy for me. Anyways she got up soon and got on it (gracias). Anyways, we had the TV saved for us and were to pick it up later that night.

The TV was up in Vancouver and we were supposed to pick it up at 8:00 so we (Laurel came with to keep me company) left around 7:30pm. Anyways we sail through Portland and are about to cross the Interstate bridge but its up to let a boat go by!

Blast! Click for bigger version.

Turned out to be only a few minutes so it wasn't that bad. As we are getting off the freeway (exit 5) I realize I never took money out of the bank. It was $100 and the guy wanted cash, so oh shit. Anyways, Umpqua Banks aren't extremely common, I knew there was one somewhere in Vancouver but it could be anywhere. So we spotted a WinCo Foods store and stopped in. Withdrew cash from an ATM with fees of course, so it ended up being $102.50. Whatever, what's two and a half dollars?

So we head back over the freeway and in the correct direction of their house, and what do you know, three blocks later there is THE ONE FUCKING UMPQUA BANK IN ALL OF VANCOUVER. Oh well, at that point I just laughed. What else could happen? A lot.

Anyways we get kinda lost but eventually find the house after calling the guy and having him lead us into their driveway. It was a nice house occupied by this guy, his wife, their two kids, and their black lab dog. The 1950s would be proud. But really, their kids were really cute (Sam and Holly, I think) the dog was nice, and the guy was very dedicated to getting the TV hoooked up to something so I could see the picture and make sure it worked.

Anyways the thing was huge and I was impressed. Finally we moved it into another room and hooked it up to the cable. Everything looked good so I paid the people and then we tried to load it into my car. Therein lies the problem.

Wouldn't fit in the trunk. Wouldn't fit in the back seat. The only option left was try to wedge it in the front seat with the seat way back (gangsta style yo). So somehow we managed to shove it in, but still its not completely in. There is a corner on the top that just won't fit. It's already encroaching on the driver's seat so it wouldn't go in any further. Laurel then points out we could roll down the window and see if it fits what that corner sticking out.

Sure enough we roll down the window and managed to shut the door. So there is a corner of the TV sticking out the window as we fly south back down I-5.

It was hard to make right turns.



Not so good for the aerodynamic aspect of the car with the corner sticking out.

So finally we get back to Tualatin and have a dandy of a time getting back out of the car. Finally, with my dad helping, we manage to shove it back out. It was basically like giving birth, but was much shorter at about 10 minutes. We moved it upstairs into my room where it will stay until I go to college.

Did not think that one through.

Anyways, victory.

I've been pretty sucessful in getting stuff for our new apartment. So far we have:

-Couch
-Recliner
-Silverware
-Pots & Pans
-Some Plates/Bowls
-Cups
-Microwave
-Box Fan
-TV Stand
-Coffee Table (thanks to Laurel's sis)

That's stuff we've obtained. Both are bedrooms are already stocked and then we have stuff like lamps/side tables we are bringing from home. We still need:

-Main TV
-Kitchen Chairs
-Blender/Toaster
-Decor (?)
-Shower Curtain

Should be interesting. Most the stuff we've gotten from garage sales... we went one Saturday and got a bunch. And then my boss at work is hooking me up with a bunch of stuff and Kenny is getting stuff from his parents and my parents might give me the toaster/blender and buy new (fingers crossed) so yeah. Things are working out.

Wednesday immediately after work I headed towards my sister's house. It was her birthday on the 3rd, so we had a little get together with some of her friends, my mom, my aunt, and me! It was at some park in North Portland where the Portland Festival Symphony was playing.

Anywho I really battled traffic to get to my sister's house (apparently 3:15pm is rush hour now). I finally got there about 20 minutes late but they weren't ready anyways (I met my mom and sister). So finally we pack it up and head to the park. We didn't take the freeway since it was so tied so, so we spent some time wandering our way to the park on city streets.

Finally we get there and see my Aunt Lena. We settle down to a feast that my mom has prepared... bread with cheese, fruit of all kinds, chocolate cake, salad, eggplant... and probably some other stuff. We also brought along some wine to class things up.

However the day before my sister got in a bike wreck and broke her collarbone (!) but she still came. She was a little out of it and in some pretty good pain but still had a good time. Finally after gorging, oh there were berries!, we decided to head back to my aunt's house.

There we just all sat around and talked. Don't remember much what it was about, probably a lot about how stupid Bush is, but I remember it was fun. After a good couple of hours we finally spilt up.

So I ended up getting home at 11:10pm after leaving the house at 9:00am. It was worth it though.

Found this really cool picture of Portland the other day. Click for a larger version.

So adorable <3.

Last weekend I headed down to Roseburg to help with my Grandma's estate sale. She's up in Portland now because she can't live alone anymore, so basically her house and stuff were just sitting there. So my mom went down a week early along with her sister and brother... and they sorted and set up the whole sale. So when we came on Friday night everything was ready to go for the next morning. There was a lot of stuff too... it filled three rooms in the house and the whole front yard basically.

The temperature on Saturday was 104 degrees with high humidity. It reminded me of the Florida humidity last year which caused me to say:

"It's really disgusting. You're covered with moisture when you first step outside and it's like breathing in a suana. I don't know why anybody would want to live there."

Touche Thomas from a year ago. But Oregon rarely gets this high of humidity, normally its very low, so let's call it an abnormality. An abnormality with 104 degree heat and working outside for 7 hours. Oops.

Well my aunt fucked up the ad in the paper... it was supposed to start at 10 but all the classifieds said 9. So we thought just the Roseburg paper screwed up, but it turns out it was our fault. Anyways we had a lot of bellyaching 60 year olds threatening to leave, but we stood firm on the 10:00 time. They weren't going to leave... we knew it and they knew it. They wanted their hands on some sweet, sweet delicious antique furniture.

When we opened the gate at 10:00, we had old women (and men) actually RUNNING to the house. They were frantic to get first pick. It was kinda funny actually. One woman burst into the house and shouted "WHERE IS THE BEDROOM!?!?!" She then proceeded to dash into the bedroom and hug a piece of furniture yelling "I WANT THIS ONE!". There were people stationed at each area with triplicate receipt book so they could write the item down on the person's "tab" for that room and put a "sold" sticker on the piece they wanted. Basically the first 15 minutes were hell for the people working stations.

Finally after a half hour or so all the crazy people had gotten what they wanted and things calmed down. I was working the cash box outside, so I took their money and gave them change if necessary. Some people spent in excess of a thousand dollars, it was insane. Lots of people would whip out a stack of $100 bills and slap them on the little table I had. I checked all of them and they were all legit though, so touche rich people.

Anyways it lasted both Saturday and Sunday. We thought Sunday was going to be a calmer day, but alas, no. All the bargain shoppers swarmed in, wanted to get stuff for as cheap as they wanted. By that time we just wanted to get rid of the rest of it (since it was picked over anyways) so we cut lots of deals. Some people were just buying absolute crap that you knew what just going to sit in their barn/storage unit. But oh well, at least it wasn't our problem anymore and we got money for it.

Another interesting thing was the ebb and flow of the sale. For twenty minutes not a soul would be there (especially Sunday) then all of a sudden like 20 people would storm in and be high maintainence.

The rewarding part was getting to swim in the Umpqua River once the sale was over at 4. It was the perfect temperature... and damn... that felt good. On Sunday I left the sale at like 2 during a slow period and took my aunt and uncle's black lab to the river. It was really hot so that poor thing was dying. She was so happy when I started walking towards the gate that leads to the road that a half mile later is at the river... she was flipping out, whining, bouncing up and down, trying to pry the gate open herself with her head... anyways we walked down there and she bounded into the water, flying through the air for several feet before bellyflopping in. It was pretty cute.

So we swam around, she was so cute, she'd swim up to you and sniff you with her cute whiddle nose and even let you grab onto her and go for a ride. Labs love water. So anyways I threw some sticks to her (she goes nuts) and we walked around the other side of the bank for a bit but the rocks were so fucking hot from the sun it burned my feet.

Anyways, me and my dad left Sunday night since we had to work the next morning, and my mom followed shortly after on Monday afternoon. We're having another sale in a couple of weeks to get rid of the rest of the stuff/stuck in the barns/old sewing stuff. This one will be a "garage" sale though and shouldn't be as hectic.

Found an interesting nuggest today while surfing Wikipedia:

"Benton County, of which Corvallis makes up the majority of the population, has the lowest church attendance per capita of any county in the nation (25% attendance)"


Interestingly Corvallis also has the:

"Highest education rate per capita of any city in the state and in the nation"

Go figure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvallis%2C_Oregon
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2003/12/21/news/top_story/local01.txt