Weekend report
Apr. 14th, 2014 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterBusy weekend.
Friday afternoon the first of some packages I'd ordered from Amazon arrived, and I went over to pick them up on my bike. However, they turned out to be bigger than I'd expected, so I ended up biking back home and then grabbing my little push cart to trundle them back home. Alex came over and put one of them up for me—a stainless steel paper towel dispenser that I got because I was sick and tired of the kind of dispenser with the two dimpled arms dropping the roll every time I tried to tear a sheet off.
Funny thing was, and we only found this when it was time to put the new dispenser up, I actually already had an old one of that dimpled-arm style, of the same vintage as the rest of the kitchen, tucked up invisibly under a cabinet. It seemed to be made of copper, with the same white paint on it as the rest of the cabinet, and the brand name, "Acme." If I'd known about it beforehand, maybe I would have put up with it for a while instead of ordering the new one. But I suppose it's just as well to get rid of it. After all, as Wile E. Coyote discovered, nothing made by Acme ever works the way it's supposed to.
He was going to put up the blinds in the living room for me, but he ran into a problem: one of the bits of hardware was missing from the first blind. He'd mounted one of the bits in the corner of the window, and used the other one to drill a hole in the proper position for that blind, but the piece itself was nowhere to be found. We fruitlessly looked around on the floor for a while, guessing that perhaps the cat had batted it off the windowsill and knocked it into a corner, but we couldn't find it.
What's more, the other blind (it's a double window) was missing all the hardware. It had been taped shut, so apparently someone had returned it before.
Unable to put up either blind, Alex shrugged and said he'd come over on Saturday to see about taking the one blind back and trying to figure out what to do with the other one. When Alex came back the next day, we were just on the cusp of going back to Lowe's when Alex noticed the location of the missing bit of hardware. He'd mounted it in the opposite corner in the position where the other blind would go. Funny thing is, I'd even noticed it there myself, but hadn't put two and two together. I'd assumed it was from the other blind, even though Alex had mentioned that the other blind had no hardware at all.
Anyway, we went out to Lowe's and exchanged the blind, and stopped in at the local Goodwill to see if they had anything of interest. Their furniture selection was kind of meh, though I did notice they had a few bread machines that looked like a good possibility for grabbing down the road. Along the way, we also stopped in at Kahn's, which I'm told is one of the best liquor stores in the area. (I bought a $5 bottle of New Belgium Rye PA.) We ate lunch at a combined Taco Bell/Pizza Hut. I had a personal pan pizza and breadsticks which weren't bad, but still weren't my favorite; I expect next time I'd just get something from the Taco Bell side instead.
We made it back and Alex put up the blinds. They look great! Now we've got every window in my apartment covered except for the bathroom. I hadn't really thought it was a big deal, but Alex suggested since it faced south, blinds would be good for helping keep the whole apartment cooler. We'll see about that later, I suppose.
I spent much of the rest of the day in washing dishes—mainly all the flatware and utensils I'd unpacked, so I could put them away and clear them off the table. It was kind of boring, but I was able to put my Nexus tablet and external speaker in the cabinet over the counter and watch Avengers while I washed, so that was something.
On Sunday, my attention turned to doing the laundry. The one problem was, I didn't have quarters, and there's no change machine in the laundry room. The bank wasn't open, of course, so I couldn't buy a roll there. I resolved to look into the problem while I was out at lunch. While checking Google Maps for a restaurant nearby, I happened to notice that there was a branch of Yat's, a Thai-influenced Cajun place I'd greatly enjoyed in Greenwood, just about a mile away. So I headed that-away.
When I got there, I found something new and interesting next to it. A computerized, empty bike rack declaring itself to be part of a new bike sharing program. I looked it up when I got home. Pacers Bikeshare goes live on 4/22, with 250 bikes and 25 racks across the downtown area. People can pay $8 for a 24-hour pass or $80 for all-year access, and can then check out bikes for up to thirty minutes at a time before they have to be turned back in at another rack.
I've already touched on how bike-friendly Indy is, and this takes it to a whole new level. It'll also be useful during GenCon, when thousands of people swarm the downtown area and parking is scarce. Of course, the bikes will probably be scarce too, but the time limit means there should be sufficient turnover that people will have a chance.
After that, I headed down Massachusets Avenue toward the Marsh's grocery store, to see if I could get a roll of quarters there. Along the way, I encountered a lady from Forever Friends Great Dane Rescue, with a Great Dane named Wrigley. Beeeeeeeeg doggie. And friendly, too. Wish I could have one, but it would be a little big for my apartment. (Interestingly, despite their size, Great Danes' short coat means they're sensitive to temperature changes so they're actually indoor dogs.)
At Marsh's, I was able to get a roll of quarters with no problem, so I headed on back to the apartment to do the laundry. One of these days I'm going to start doing the laundry before two thirds of my clothes are dirty. I ended up having to do four loads to wash and three to dry, and it took two or three dryer cycles to dry some of them. But on the bright side, the laundry room was right downstairs, so I didn't even have to stay there all the time. I was just able to run down every so often and change out the loads. I met a few other tenants, too. I noted down their room numbers and names in Evernote so I can remember them.
I got the permanent press and colored loads all sorted and hung or folded; put the white aside for doing another day. I'm going to need another dresser to put all the rest of my clothes in; Alex found a good-looking one on Craigslist but apparently never heard back from the woman who was offering it yet. I hope it hasn't gone. But if so, there will be others.
Now I just need that and some more shelves before I can finish unpacking all the rest of my stuff, which is mostly books and DVDs. And I need to snag some kind of a futon for relaxing and guests sleeping. Hopefully the cats won't decide to pee on it.
And life proceeds apace…
Friday afternoon the first of some packages I'd ordered from Amazon arrived, and I went over to pick them up on my bike. However, they turned out to be bigger than I'd expected, so I ended up biking back home and then grabbing my little push cart to trundle them back home. Alex came over and put one of them up for me—a stainless steel paper towel dispenser that I got because I was sick and tired of the kind of dispenser with the two dimpled arms dropping the roll every time I tried to tear a sheet off.
Funny thing was, and we only found this when it was time to put the new dispenser up, I actually already had an old one of that dimpled-arm style, of the same vintage as the rest of the kitchen, tucked up invisibly under a cabinet. It seemed to be made of copper, with the same white paint on it as the rest of the cabinet, and the brand name, "Acme." If I'd known about it beforehand, maybe I would have put up with it for a while instead of ordering the new one. But I suppose it's just as well to get rid of it. After all, as Wile E. Coyote discovered, nothing made by Acme ever works the way it's supposed to.
He was going to put up the blinds in the living room for me, but he ran into a problem: one of the bits of hardware was missing from the first blind. He'd mounted one of the bits in the corner of the window, and used the other one to drill a hole in the proper position for that blind, but the piece itself was nowhere to be found. We fruitlessly looked around on the floor for a while, guessing that perhaps the cat had batted it off the windowsill and knocked it into a corner, but we couldn't find it.
What's more, the other blind (it's a double window) was missing all the hardware. It had been taped shut, so apparently someone had returned it before.
Unable to put up either blind, Alex shrugged and said he'd come over on Saturday to see about taking the one blind back and trying to figure out what to do with the other one. When Alex came back the next day, we were just on the cusp of going back to Lowe's when Alex noticed the location of the missing bit of hardware. He'd mounted it in the opposite corner in the position where the other blind would go. Funny thing is, I'd even noticed it there myself, but hadn't put two and two together. I'd assumed it was from the other blind, even though Alex had mentioned that the other blind had no hardware at all.
Anyway, we went out to Lowe's and exchanged the blind, and stopped in at the local Goodwill to see if they had anything of interest. Their furniture selection was kind of meh, though I did notice they had a few bread machines that looked like a good possibility for grabbing down the road. Along the way, we also stopped in at Kahn's, which I'm told is one of the best liquor stores in the area. (I bought a $5 bottle of New Belgium Rye PA.) We ate lunch at a combined Taco Bell/Pizza Hut. I had a personal pan pizza and breadsticks which weren't bad, but still weren't my favorite; I expect next time I'd just get something from the Taco Bell side instead.
We made it back and Alex put up the blinds. They look great! Now we've got every window in my apartment covered except for the bathroom. I hadn't really thought it was a big deal, but Alex suggested since it faced south, blinds would be good for helping keep the whole apartment cooler. We'll see about that later, I suppose.
I spent much of the rest of the day in washing dishes—mainly all the flatware and utensils I'd unpacked, so I could put them away and clear them off the table. It was kind of boring, but I was able to put my Nexus tablet and external speaker in the cabinet over the counter and watch Avengers while I washed, so that was something.
On Sunday, my attention turned to doing the laundry. The one problem was, I didn't have quarters, and there's no change machine in the laundry room. The bank wasn't open, of course, so I couldn't buy a roll there. I resolved to look into the problem while I was out at lunch. While checking Google Maps for a restaurant nearby, I happened to notice that there was a branch of Yat's, a Thai-influenced Cajun place I'd greatly enjoyed in Greenwood, just about a mile away. So I headed that-away.
When I got there, I found something new and interesting next to it. A computerized, empty bike rack declaring itself to be part of a new bike sharing program. I looked it up when I got home. Pacers Bikeshare goes live on 4/22, with 250 bikes and 25 racks across the downtown area. People can pay $8 for a 24-hour pass or $80 for all-year access, and can then check out bikes for up to thirty minutes at a time before they have to be turned back in at another rack.
I've already touched on how bike-friendly Indy is, and this takes it to a whole new level. It'll also be useful during GenCon, when thousands of people swarm the downtown area and parking is scarce. Of course, the bikes will probably be scarce too, but the time limit means there should be sufficient turnover that people will have a chance.
After that, I headed down Massachusets Avenue toward the Marsh's grocery store, to see if I could get a roll of quarters there. Along the way, I encountered a lady from Forever Friends Great Dane Rescue, with a Great Dane named Wrigley. Beeeeeeeeg doggie. And friendly, too. Wish I could have one, but it would be a little big for my apartment. (Interestingly, despite their size, Great Danes' short coat means they're sensitive to temperature changes so they're actually indoor dogs.)
At Marsh's, I was able to get a roll of quarters with no problem, so I headed on back to the apartment to do the laundry. One of these days I'm going to start doing the laundry before two thirds of my clothes are dirty. I ended up having to do four loads to wash and three to dry, and it took two or three dryer cycles to dry some of them. But on the bright side, the laundry room was right downstairs, so I didn't even have to stay there all the time. I was just able to run down every so often and change out the loads. I met a few other tenants, too. I noted down their room numbers and names in Evernote so I can remember them.
I got the permanent press and colored loads all sorted and hung or folded; put the white aside for doing another day. I'm going to need another dresser to put all the rest of my clothes in; Alex found a good-looking one on Craigslist but apparently never heard back from the woman who was offering it yet. I hope it hasn't gone. But if so, there will be others.
Now I just need that and some more shelves before I can finish unpacking all the rest of my stuff, which is mostly books and DVDs. And I need to snag some kind of a futon for relaxing and guests sleeping. Hopefully the cats won't decide to pee on it.
And life proceeds apace…
