We were taking as much luggage as we could, because this was a time when anything we could take to Las Vegas and leave at the new house seemed like a good idea. We knew we’d be at the house setting things up and installing things, so we took a telephone, a network hub, a network firewall/router, and lots of cat food all packed into a big black suitcase. Our clothes were packed into another bag.

The cats did not appreciate being pushed into their matching black carry cases, and then lugged to the airport on a door-to-door-shuttle van. We thought it would be easier for them (and us) if we couId be dropped at the terminal rather than finding long-term parking  for the car; catching a shuttle bus, and then crossing the road from the bus stop to the terminal. As it turned out, we might all have been less car sick than we were after riding in the back of the door-to-door shuttle. The shuttle driver had two other stops to make and they all seemed to be at the top of a hill at the end of a windy road.

We did eventually get to the airport – it just took longer and involved more rolling around. Kami yelled the entire way, but Karma was very well behaved and so quiet that I thought there was something wrong with him.

When we got to the airport, we tried to give the cats some water using the bottom quarter of a paper cup (cut down with our trusty penknife) but they were both too upset to drink, even though they must have been thirsty.

    Travel Tip #322:

    Never, ever, try to walk through a airport security
   checkpoint with two cats and two laptops.

For a start, the cats were in their carry-on travel units, and the airport security made us take the cats out of the bag – and put the bags through the xray machine. So we were holding a cat each – I had Karma, and he was so well behaved, it was uncanny, he just went limp like a ragdoll – and I was holding him with my right arm, and I couldn’t get my wallet and keys out of my right back pocket with my left hand. Meanwhile, my laptop and cat bag were going further out of my sight on the conveyor belt. Argh.

Lisa had a worse time, because in addition to holding Kami, the security droids demanded that she take her laptop out and switch it on!

We’d never flown America West before, but I can report that there is plenty of room under the seat in front for the largish cat-carry-ons.

We were late departing the ground, and the reason according to the pilot, is this: “OK, we’ve discovered a leak. There’s some oil or something leaking from a place it isn’t supposed to, we’re not sure exactly what it is or where it’s coming from. There’s some duct tape that seems to have come loose, so we have to check this out before we take off.” At this, the guy sitting to Lisa’s right actually got up, took his carry on baggage, and left the plane! Perhaps he was superstitious.  About 15 minutes later, the pilot reported, “Well, you’ll be happy to know we’ve got that leak all taped up again, and we’re ready to go.”

Karma did NOT like the take off or the landing. He yelled a lot and thrashed around. All I can say is, I’m glad he was in the cabin with us this time instead of on his own in the luggage compartment.

Stan met us at the gate and after an anxious wait for our bags to come off the carousel, we drive to the VIP Kennel where Kami and Karma were booked in.

VIP is no Cat’s Cradle, but it was convenient and not too horrible. Karma has stayed in worse places. We spent some time with the nice young man who would be looking after them, and he was very concientious and keen to understand their needs: Kami = diet food, Karma = urinary health formula. Karma can eat as much as he likes, Kami should not be overfed, etc.

We promised to visit when we could, and then drove over to Summerlin where we would be staying with Stan and Jeanne – for the last time!

This weekend was one of great weather: sunny, warm… All the fruit trees in the area had obviously decided that Spring has arrived, because pink and white flowers are everywhere.

We celebrated this by – you guessed it – packing some more boxes.

Jeanne rang up from Vegas to say that on her last visit to the house, the carpet was in and looked great, but noted that our walk-in bedroom didn’t have any carpet and there was a seam visible in the living room.

Lisa rang Dupont to check and was told that in fact, yes, there was a problem with the carpet as installed in the house, and that they were going to pull it up and replace it with a roll of the same kind of carpet. We have been assured (again) that the carpet will be the one we chose.

We don’t want to know any more. They’d better be carpet in the house when we close on the 20th, that’s all we say.

Pontoon (a.k.a. Kami, a.k.a. Miss Maroon) arrived with Derek tonight. Our original plan was to not have the cats meet up until we took them to a Vegas cat hotel, but timing didn’t work out. We have to get them health certificates before we can take them on the plane, so this is going to happen on Friday. In the meantime, Karma and Kami seem to be coexisting quite well. They both enjoy climbing around the many stacked boxes piled around each room.

Lisa’s stepfather, Larry, passed away this month after a bad bout of pneumonia put him in hospital for several weeks. I had met him several times over the years, and he was always friendly and decent to me. Lisa has been calling her Mom every day, and will probably go out to New York for a week sometime after we move, to spend some time with her Mom.

Mummenschantz

We took ourselves (along with Derek and his girlfriend Teresa) to see this wacky mask- theatre-mime troupe, who were playing at the wonderful local Marin Center Veteran’s Memorial theater. I had seen them twice before in New Zealand on a couple of their previous tours. This show, called “Next”, was really more of the same. It ought to be easy to describe Mummenschantz but it isn’t. Best I can do is to say, imagine giant sea creatures made of thin material and foam rubber, geometric shapes that come alive and do stuff, Transient faces. Magical.

Packing

Things go into boxes. Some boxes are heavy. Others are light with fragile stickers. Sometimes fragile stickers don’t stick and fall off. Much packing tape is used. Eventually there are boxes everywhere.

A house-screw-up works in our favor

One of the guys at Dupont rang us up and said they were having a problem locating the specific carpet that we chose for the house, and that we might have to “make do” with an upgraded style. They even sent us some samples of possible replacements. They were very nice replacements, and the idea of getting an upgraded carpet for only a slight increase in cost was very appealing. Could it be? Would a weave of carpet fate actually work in our favor?

Time seemed  to be flying by so fast! It was just over a month until we were planning on moving, so we took a few hours on Sunday morning to browse the farmers market up by the civic center to look for pieces of decorative artwork from local artists that would suit the spaces in our new house. We found lots of things we liked, but retrained ourselves to just a few pieces, reminding ourselves that anything we bought we’d have to pack!

On February 8 Lisa and I had our wedding anniversary. Rather than celebrate on the day, we arranged to go an see the mime troupe Mummenschantz who were scheduled to play in Marin at the end of the month.

I decided to spend a little time moving a power outlet today from one side of a wall to the other. Basically the scenario is this: we have a power outlet on the wall and a closet on the other side. We wanted the power plug to be in the closet, rather than on the outer wall. (We have a TV in the closet, ok?)

So, using graph paper, simple trigonometry and lots of measuring, I figured out whereabouts on the inside wall to cut the hole in the drywall so that I could reach through with my fingers and grab the power cable going to the box on the other side of the wall.

Having cut the whole in almost the right place, it’s going to be a little tricker than I’d hoped, but still within acceptable tolerances.

Now, I have the plug hanging out of the wall but I haven’t yet gone through the process of finding out which circuit breaker needs to be thrown in order to make the change. We have two breakers called “beds” and one of them might be the right one. Seeing as we have numerous computers and synths hanging off most of the power outlets, I gotta be careful.

Looks like the end of the month – time to get CityDesk to generate a monthly summary and update the website.