Rob and Kristi
And all the zaniness that ensues..
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Annoyances

Nov16
2008
Kristi Written by Kristi

This week has been a roller coaster ride.  We got home from Florida to find our insurance agent called while we were gone.  Our premiums were set to go up to almost $3400 a year because the California DMV assessed Rob points on his license because of fix-it tickets from Florida.  From 2 years ago.  Tickets that were fixed on time and never assessed points.  He spent all day Wednesday on the phone with Florida’s DMV, California DMV and basically, no one had any answers as to why CA would assess points when Florida didn’t.  We are still fighting with our insurance company and the DMV.

In a highly dignified move, I called the insurance agent on Friday to talk about everything.  I ended up in tears, nearly yelling at her while I sat in a gas station pumping gas before going back to work that night for the busiest and final football game of the year.  Her advice?  Come in and talk to a manager.  We do not hold out hope for much.  Our only solution thus far is to take Rob off the insurance and have him not drive next year.  Not what we were looking for.

THEN (because you know it gets better), Tucker discovered the outside world.  Twice.  In the same day.  The first time, Samson went bonkers barking at something.  Rob looked outside to see what was up and lo and behold, Tuck was on the front porch.  In a panic, he rushed outside, pulling the front door behind him.  But oops! He locked himself outside with Tucker at 7:20am.  He called me from the neighbour’s house and luckily, my mom is off-track this month and could swing by to let him in.  When things finally calmed down and few hours later, Rob did a head count.

Samson?  Check.

Veruca?  Check.

Tucker?  Uh, wait.

Rush around outside in a panic again.  3 HOUSES DOWN THE STREET, Tucker ducks under a car.  Rob gives chase and Tuck runs.  Good thing Rob is faster because Tuck was on the move.  Apparently, he’d gone to visit our neighbour’s house (she had the door open and he just wandered inside) before ambling over a few more houses.

So Thursday meant a trip to the store for batteries for the dog door and then another trip to Target for the special lithium battery for the dog’s collar.  We couldn’t find the manual for the door so the internet to the rescue.  Rob read instructions to me and I sat on the filthy kitchen floor to program the door.  Situation returned to normal.  Tucker cannot figure out why the door no longer holds any magic for him and Samson has only gotten stuck outside once (at 6am this morning).

Yesterday, I was intent to scour the house.  I woke up with a migraine and after a few hours of trying to fight it, I had to take drugs.  I laid down and Rob brought me a cold cloth for my head.  That was at 12:30.  I woke up at 4:45 when my mom called from LA to say they’d arrived safely for their cruise.  (Their 40th anniversary is in February and with the grandbaby coming that week, they decided to go on an early celebration trip.)  It has been a frustrating few days.  Housecleaning has been put on hold until today.

Posted in Everyday Life, The Animals

Home

Nov12
2008
Rob Written by Rob

We’re back safe and sound in Modesto, and really, really happy to be back.

God, yesterday was a long day. We were showering and getting ready to go at 3am (Kristi had been up since 2am, unable to get back to sleep) – we had to get our rented Pathfinder back to Enterprise when they opened at 4, because United Airlines told us to get to OIA a couple hours before our flight to ensure that we could get the bike onboard. So we’re driving across Orlando at 3am, running on about 4-5 hours of sleep.

We arrive at the Enterprise depot near the airport, check the truck in, and take their tram (along with four suitcases and a boxed-up bike) to Orlando International and are in the check-in queue when they open at 4:30. Irritable airport workers, new airline nickel-and-diming luggage policies, and then finally coffee and danish before it’s time to go through TSA and get out to our 7am flight to Los Angeles.

Five hour flight to LA. We really lucked out: someone had booked for Economy Plus (better seats, more legroom than standard economy) with their children, but it turned out that their seats were in an exit row. Airlines don’t let kids sit in exit rows, so they got reseated and we got upgraded. That was nice – few things in life suck more than flying across the country aboard a packed flight, crammed into standard Economy. And it helped too, because between a crappy movie (Mamma Mia) and just being way tired, it was the Flight That Would Never End.

So we land at LAX at 9:30am PST. Our body clocks are telling us it’s 1pm, time for lunch. Nope. Another round of morning for everyone.. and at lovely, relaxing LAX! Only one of the busiest (and probably largest) airports in the world. We had an hour layover before our next leg took us to San Francisco.

SFO’s a much nicer airport than LAX or OIA – smaller, much cleaner, better restaurants, just a better overall place to lay over. Which was good, because our United Express flight from SFO to Modesto airport kept being delayed. And constantly moved from one gate to another. They just would not.. let.. us.. leave..

We finally got onto the UE puddle jumper at about 2pm PST (5pm EST, aka Hour Fourteen), somehow managed to finally get off the ground, and were on our way home. Twenty minute flight before touching down at our little local airport – one gate, five minutes from our house – and by then we were just uber-exhausted. Got the car, got the luggage loaded up, got home at around 3:30p, and then it was all the other stuff: fetching the animals, unloading luggage, showering off the airport muck, figuring out what the hell to do about dinner. By that point we’d been up and going for about 16 hours.

We crashed early, slept well, still feel like we’re missing about 24 hours of sleep but very happy to be home. Kristi just left for work and I’m trying to charge up to get work done. It’s good to be home.

It was a good – albeit hectic – weekend in Orlando. We got the storage unit cleaned out and closed down; everything I own is now either here in Modesto, in UPS transit to arrive next week, or entrusted to safe hands until we ship it at a later date. We had a wonderful dinner with Em and Jason at their home and had a great time. We went to Cocoa Beach and had dinner in Merritt Island, celebrating the one year anniversary of our engagement. We hung out with my brother Chris and gave him back his copy of Burnout Paradise.

Best of all, Kristi finally was able to meet my parents. We all had lunch on Sunday afternoon at Bahama Breeze in Altamonte. Mom turned up with my official dossier, containing baby pictures, report cards, baby book, everything. I was sincerely surprised that she still had all that; Kristi wasn’t surprised at all. We all had a good lunch and had a good time.

Photographic evidence:

warren_family_1_20081110.jpg

More of the story coming, but it’ll probably be a few days. We both have a lot of rest (and work) to catch up on.

Posted in Everyday Life

Weekend In Florida

Nov07
2008
Rob Written by Rob

Veterans Day weekend, 2008. A year ago this weekend, I promised to Kristi at Cocoa Beach and she said yes. We stayed overnight at a nice hotel, ate chocolate-covered strawberries and drank champagne, and generally just soaked in the wow-we’re-engaged vibe. It seems a lot longer than just a year ago.

We’re flying into Orlando this weekend to wrap up some old business: mostly, to clean out my storage unit and shut it down. We’ll be shipping some of the stuff back, taking some on the plane with us and disposing the rest of it somehow in Florida. We also plan to get together with friends and family, finally giving Kristi a chance to meet my parents, and then to visit Cocoa Beach on Monday.

I wish I could say that I was giddy-excited-happy about this trip. I’m looking forward to parts of it, like visiting people and fetching my stuff finally and enjoying Florida orange juice. I’m looking forward to walking Cocoa with my wife. Not looking forward to two nine-hour plane rides across the country or traversing the crowded claustrophobia of Orlando for a weekend. I remember last year coming home at OIA after spending my first week here in Modesto, getting hit by that wall of warm humid as I stepped outside, looking around and thinking, why the hell does anyone live here? And that was after only a week. It’s been a year now, so I’m expecting the same effect only greatly amplified.

Maybe it’s just knowing that this will be the last trip to Florida for a long while. Perhaps a very long while. There’s a certain melanchony twang to it. Home’s in California now, among the Sierra Nevadas and the craggy Pacific shores and the broad valley farmlands and the crowded streets of San Francisco. We haven’t even left yet and I’m already feeling homesick to return.

It’s a strange feeling, preparing to visit the foreign land that you lived in for over 30 of your 37 years.

Posted in Everyday Life, Family and Friends, Travel

Michael Crichton, Dead At 66

Nov05
2008
Rob Written by Rob

While we’re all still reeling from the election results, another story caught my eye today. Author Michael Crichton died yesterday of cancer at age 66. Wow; Crichton was one of my youthful inspirations to become a writer. He practically invented the technothriller genre with books like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park (which I still think was his masterpiece). Few do it as well, and almost none better.

Reading that makes me feel like did in 2001 when I heard that Douglas Adams died. Another talent lost.

Posted in Current Events, Diversions
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