Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Beer and Cheese

Went to the Baltimore Zoo on Saturday with everybody, and most of the beer I had was of good quality. I, uh, entered a cheese eating contest. Only because Tim and John were doing it and I didn't want to appear weak... and I'm stupid... and I like cheese. There were 10 guys on stage and we were each given a block of cheese (me? Pepper Jack) and two minutes in which to eat it. One guy launched his cheese into the crowd while trying to open it. I tried to stay calm and not stuff my face, and my approach worked: I won... two tickets to Six Flags... and the free block of cheese I just ate. I almost lost it twice but managed to keep everything down. I got passing comments for the rest of the day from strangers... things along the lines of "This guy likes cheese!" and such. My parents should be so proud.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

grocery list: sponges

Moving out of the old place was quite the ordeal. Having the keys to my new place for a couple weeks before moving out of the house in Laurel made the move easier than it could have been; I got to move a lot of my stuff (books, clothes, etc.) before the actual move. On the Friday before the move I brought as much of my small furniture as I could, leaving only my bed, a couple couches, a table, and a book case for when we had a moving truck. Saturday morning Tim and I went to pick up the U-Haul and first loaded my stuff. Parker and Tim then came down with me and helped move stuff up to my apartment. A couch and the book case proved difficult to fit into the elevator because Tim and I, the people carrying the heavy furniture, couldn't figure out how to get a couch that is too long to slide in the elevator upright, and too long to just tilt and slide in to fit into the elevator. Parker (the nurse and, in my mind, less mathematically/geometrically inclined, suggested we slide it in upright and then stand it on its end once it's in. This, in hindsight, should have been obvious to Tim and me, but we're dumb, and Parker is smart. Once we got all the furniture moved in my brother called. He was supposed to help out, but didn't think we would start as soon as we did, so he came back to Laurel to help move Tim and Parkers stuff. They had a lot more stuff than I did, probably because there is two of them and they weren't moving as much stuff beforehand. We filled up the U-Haul, and two vans, and drove up to their place in Columbia. They have a 3rd floor apartment in a building with no elevators, so we had to move everything up two flights of stairs. Pushing a couch up two flights of stairs is hard, and it's even harder when you try it after spending most of the day tiring yourself out. Either way, everything was moved up, and Tim, Jeremy and I went back to Laurel to deal with the carpet people.

We have to get the carpet cleaned before leaving since there were animals in the house, but I didn't do anything with the carpet cleaners; Tim took care of that and can write about it on his blog if he pleases. If not, you'll have to be content with just the knowledge that we got the carpet cleaned. I know, I know, you want to read more about it. "Write a book!", you say. Perhaps some day, when I'm old, I'll write a memoir with a title like "Having the carpet in my old house in Laurel cleaned." or "What it's like to have a roommate talk to carpet-cleaning people." but until then, rest easy and know that, somewhere, a carpet is now cleaner than it once was.

Once the move was complete (more or less) a bunch of people came over to the house for a party. Keep in mind that there was no furniture, and we couldn't walk around on the carpet. We hung out in the kitchen mostly, and somewhat on the deck, then slept on the floor in sleeping bags.

Sunday, after cleaning up the rest of the house, I drove down to my new place in College Park and started unpacking and arranging furniture. This has been going on since, and I'm more or less happy with how I've arranged everything. I still need to get a coffee table (I think I can take my grandfathers old one that my parents are holding on to), a TV (assuming I get one) and a few more things for the kitchen. I've gone out and gotten a lot of things for my kitchen, both food, and tools for working with food, and at this point I'm only in want of some knives and maybe a mixer. I still haven't cooked a real meal. I've made dinky things like omelets, grilled cheese, and soup-from-a-can, but maybe this weekend I'll bake some bread or have my family over for dinner.

I have no internet at my place yet, and if I wasn't so busy shopping for the kitchen (damnit, I need sponges), this would mean that I would have time to read. Maybe now that everything is more or less taken care of I can read. Or maybe I can call the cable people and get some cable-tv and internet setup.

I'm probably forgetting things here, but chances are that the things I'm forgetting to write about, much like the things I have written about, aren't interesting enough to expect people to read about.

Oh, one other thing, people need to come see my place. I have food, and alcohol, and places to sit. What more could you want? Maybe after finals are over (so, next weekend) I'll have a small party where people can come over and make comments like "dude, where are your sponges" or "you should get a coffee table."