The Kitties

Lots of folks have been asking how the kitties fared on the trip. Followed closely by "how did the humans handle the kitties on the trip"?

Just a little back story...

For those of you who have never met my kitties, I have 2 of them. George and Louise. Once upon a time it was Thelma and Louise, but Thelma went missing (a very very sad day), and it was decided that Louise needed a new playmate. By that time we had started calling Louise "weezy", so it made sense that the new pairing, together, would become George and Weezy. (I can't help but think if we'd called her Weezer instead, that George might have been Shelby or M'lin. But I digress). So I now have 2 cats.

The thing about these silly children is that when someone comes to visit, George is the friendly one. She typically comes running to see who is visiting and looks at it as an opportunity to convince someone to pet her. Louise runs and hides. I've always tended to believe that Louise is the one who is more high-strung and that George is the easy going one. I suppose I should have known better when the Vet had me retrieve George out of her cage the day she went in for her check-up. Apparently there is a note on George's file as well; a warning to handle with extreme care. I guess it should have been my warning.

This is Louise before the trip. I think perhaps she's been hitting the bottle in preparation...

So the plan for the cats was to put each of them in their respective crate for the trip. The vet recommended that they stay in a small, confined space--they would be happier that way. When I got them into the car on Sunday morning, they both cried a little. George's cry can be better described as a yowl. And we quickly discovered that she is not inclined to stop yowling as quickly as Louise. Eventually they both settled down, with occasional outbursts from George. And a funny thing happened. Louise turned into this little zen-kitty. She would fall asleep, chill out, look out her crate, and purr when we talked to her. (Maybe it was the Skyy?) George just talked (yowled) back. And clawed at her crate as if she could somehow escape her Alcatraz-like conditions.

The original plan was that at night, in the hotel rooms, we would set up a larger cage and put them both in it with food and water. When we got to Williams the first night, we set up the cage and after giving each cat an opportunity to use the litter box in the bathroom, put them both in the cage. That didn't work so well. They started hissing and kitty boxing, which was slightly amusing, but not a good long term plan. So the pattern eventually became George staying in the cage and Louise sleeping in the larger of the 2 crates.

This is George being tormented by the iFish.

It looks like they are kissing, but I'm pretty sure George wanted to bite the fish's head off.

And maybe mine too.

The second day and night went about the same as the first. I will say that by the time we got to the third hotel on Tuesday night, both of the cats seemed to know the drill.

So when people ask how it went with the kitties, I can honestly say it went well. Lisa and Alicia were an incredible help in getting them out of the car, into the hotel each night, set up with their cage, fed, watered, and settled. And then packed up and back out each morning. I am so thankful they were along for the ride! No one needed tranquilizers either. Not even the humans.

By the way...

I have been in Washington for 21 consecutive days now. I've been keeping a log. I may get thrown out for sharing this, but...

Every single day I have been here I have seen blue sky. Yes, there have been days that have been incredibly cloudy, gloomy, and/or overcast. But I have yet to encounter a day where I did not see at least a patch of blue sky.

Just sayin.

The Road Trip

The road trip was scheduled to commence on Sunday, August 7th. My friend Lisa, whom I've known a long time, but not quite as long as Judi, lives in Washington already. She had offered to fly down and drive back up with me. At some point, her niece Alicia called her and said "I'm thinking about coming up to visit, when is a good time"? To which Lisa replied, "Kris and I are driving up, wanna join us?" So on Sunday morning, August 7th, Lisa, Alicia, and I, and 2 cats hit the road. But first...

One last trip to Carolyn's. <sigh>

I got there close to 7, as soon as they opened. I was scheduled to pick up Alicia in Riverside around 8:45 so that we could get to Ontario airport and pick up Lisa as soon as she landed at 9:30. So I got to Carolyn's early. I'm gonna miss Carolyn's. (More on my quest to find a suitable substitute later.)

I did manage to pick up Alicia on time, got to the airport on time, and we were on the road by around 10 a.m.

Our first stop was going to be in Williams, California. It's about an hour or so north of Sacramento. We made really good time. We got in and settled into a rather small room in a motel called The Travellers Inn. It was nice enough, just very small. I'll talk more about the process with the cats in a different post.

We had dinner at this happenin' place in town called Granzella's. In fact, it may be the ONLY thing happening in Williams. The food was good. The thing I'll remember most was their yummy potato salad at the salad bar.

On Monday we hit the road again and made our destination for the day Vancouver, Washington. We made good time, again. We stayed at the LaQuinta. VERY nice room. Comfy and large. Especially compared to the room the night before. We had dinner at Burgerville.

The next morning I agreed to sit in on a conference call with my new job, so while I did that, Lisa and Alicia went to a place called Fatty Patty's for breakfast. Alicia found it on her phone as I recall. They brought food back for me. I thought it was really good.

We hit the road once more around 10:30 or 11:00. Destination: a stop for a SECOND conference call with the new job (yes, even though I hadn't officially started yet. Can you say "brownie points"?) We stopped in Federal Way at a Starbucks for the 2:00 conference call. Once that was over we headed to Lynnwood where I got a room at another LaQuinta for the night. Why LaQuinta? Because they allow pets. We got the kitties settled and headed to Mukilteo to get Lisa and Alicia home.

Lisa made dinner (it was really nice to get a home-cooked meal), and then Lisa, Linda, Alicia and I got into our cars and headed back down to the hotel again. One quick check in on the kitties and we all piled into Lisa's car and drove down to check out (at least the outside) my new apartment and the new neighborhood. Turns out it's only about 20 minutes from Lisa and Linda's place in Mukilteo!

Back to the hotel for the night brings us to the end of the road trip.

The trip itself was really rather uneventful. The car did well. I'd had a bunch of work done on it several weeks before the trip, and I put new tires on it the Friday before we left. We got good gas mileage (as "good" as it goes with the Cruiser--it ain't great). We all shared the driving. I had fun. I think maybe Lisa and Alicia had fun. I think maybe Louise even had fun. Not sure I can say the same for George...

In Between

So now that all my stuff was packed up and on its way to the great Pacific Northwest, I was left with a few things in the house. Some I would take with me, and some I left behind. The packing of the pods was done by Wednesday morning for sure. That left me with Thursday through Saturday to...do what?

I had lunches and dinners with friends. The 2 Fridays prior, Brian and Tom and I had a West Wing marathon.

Mid-Saturday I went and got one last, good, haircut with Marlene. I'm scheduled to go back and see her again in late September. What am I going to do in the meantime??

Saturday afternoon my friend Judi, whom I have known almost as long as my own mother, offered up her house for a going away party. So a bunch of us converged on her back patio (and I took the obligatory dip in the pool) and drank and ate and laughed until way past sunset. It was a great time. Thanks to everyone who showed up and toasted this new adventure!

The Packing

A small bit of history for those who weren't up on the details...

I turned in my resignation on July 11th. I gave 3 weeks notice. My dear friend Joel recommended because of the length of time I had been at IEHP, and the fact that I was a manager, it was good decorum to give at least 3 weeks notice. 4 would have been better, but 3 was sufficient. I elected to make August 1st my last day. First of all, if I worked at least one day in August, it would extend my health coverage through the end of September. And secondly, there was that wonderful management team meeting that happens every Monday and I just HAD to get one more in. ;-)

I started apartment hunting as soon as I confirmed that employment with the new place was not a hallucination. I'll talk about the new apartment more later. The bottom line is that the place that worked with me right off the bat said they had something for me but it wouldn't be available until the 10th of August. My first day with the new job was going to be the 16th. Originally I had thought I would be out of Redlands by that first weekend in August, but as it turned out, having more time there and less time once I arrived in Seattle was the best.

Then came the decision about how to move. I priced trucks (think: U-Haul, Budget, Penske...) and then dear Drea came up with the idea of PODS. So I priced those. In the meantime, I started packing and stacking boxes.

After doing the math including gas for the truck, motels for extra people to drive the truck, movers at either end, etc., I decided on the pods. They delivered them on July 29th, left them with me over the weekend, and scheduled pick up for August 3rd.

I had decided that I would not ask anyone for help in packing the pods. If people wanted to make themselves available, that would have been fine. But I had several days to work on it and figured I'd just do it a little at a time and get it done over several days. My friend Brian had other ideas. He came over on Saturday and helped me load the larger, heavier stuff, and as long as he was there carted 10 or 20 more boxes out to the pods. He also elected to come back on Sunday to help me finish. All in all we probably spent a total of 5-6 hours. Not too shabby really. And yeah, his help really was appreciated. I could have done it myself, I am certain. But it wouldn't have been as fun and my back would have complained a lot longer and louder. As it was, on Sunday a rainstorm blew in leaving it hot and muggy. Brian almost chickened out because of the looming thunderstorm. I suppose I should cut him some slack--the pods were, after all, big metal boxes.

They came and picked up the pods as scheduled, some time on Wednesday. I wasn't there when they came and got them. When I got home late that afternoon, they were gone.

Sorry I didn't get pics of them before they left. I meant to, really I did!

OOPS!

OK, OK...yes, I am WAAAAY behind. I apologize for that. For those of you who haven't figured it out, I have indeed arrived in Seattle safe and sound. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

I wanted to tell a story before I got going on this whole blog-adventure-thingy to sort of set the stage for some future entries and pics. This is probably not a new concept to anyone, but I thought it might be fun to take the IEHP fish on an adventure. But first the story:

A few years ago I went on a cruise with several people, one of whom was Leslie. At the time, Leslie was working with a woman who had a little stuffed lamb named Lambiekins. (Lamb-e-kins.) Whenever someone went on a trip, they would take Lambiekins with them. So we took him on our cruise. And we took lots of pictures of him on this cruise. Two of my favorites:

So I thought perhaps on my new adventures in Seattle I would do the same with the IEHP fish. And in keeping with the internet age, and with a nod to Apple, I think I shall henceforth refer to him as the iFish.

So that's it. For now. (Be patient people! I'm setting the stage here!!)