Apparently, FedEx is too efficient. They almost got my package here a day early. But that wouldn't do, they can't give you more than you paid for - so they delayed my package by a day and they're happy to note that on their website.
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And I was just thinking the other day that if I were running FedEx, I would take every 100,000th package, expedite it to overnight and slap a sticker on it and announce that they'd gotten an free upgrade.
Last time I had a package from FedEx it was supposed to be delivered on a Saturday. It arrived the following Tuesday with several big bright "Saturday Delivery" stickers on it.
I have another FedEx coming next week the same day I'm scheduled to go out of town. I'm worried it'll arrive a few hours after I head to the airport.
I'm a big fan of FedEx (and a minor shareholder). Why do they keep making me sad?
I didn't feel like a lot was accomplished towards the move... by me. Lori got some boxes cleaned up, a few things packed that she won't need again in the next six months and she worked on the list of items to buy. One discussion we had today was the stove. When I had the hot water heater installed under the house (moved from its old location in the laundry room), that was also to get the gas line plumbed to right underneath the kitchen. So... if we're replacing appliances, do we get a gas stove, or a new electric stove? Just another one of the many decisions I'm bummed to have to make. There was so much more I had planned to do here. I thought we'd be here a long time.
One of the things I'm looking forward to is Aloha Food Factory, a really wonderful family-run restaurant in Alhambra. We went there pretty frequently when we lived down there, especially when it was just the two of us. (The 210 to the 605 to the 10 to the 710. Or shoot down Rosemead to Valley - slightly easier to get to than Maranation Ma Kai) Clearly a former Taco Bell, I'm guessing it's been AFF longer than it ever was a Taco Bell. We even had them cater a luau we had with our church group. Great orange chicken, pork, shave ice and really phenomenal macaroni salad - oh, and the macadamia nut pancakes A few years ago when Lori I went down for an overnighter to see John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl, it was a given that we'd be heading over to Alhambra as well.
Man, that sounds so good. Now I really want Hawaiian food. I am under my calories yet again today thanks to a lot of walking while I worked today. Woo.
Today, today felt like we actually got some stuff done. I took down everything off the walls, except the big mirror and the stuff in the children's bedrooms. Lori researched paint colors and window treatments. (She has already been doing other planning exercises, like looking for good furniture for staging and researching other purchases like new countertops in the kitchen and some new sinks. We had a chance to talk about it briefly, but we were both running in opposite directions today.) I also cleaned off a bookcase. Some stuff will need to get packed and I put think or two in the donate pile and cleaned the area underneath the TV. If you came over today you might be hard-pressed to see a huge difference from yesterday to today, but I feel better about having gotten something done. I also did some consolidation of stuff, put away my Christmas gifts and got my next two L.A. trips planned. We also talked more about the actual logistics of the move. Soon I'll probably need to adjust the countdown (there probably isn't 178 days left). No new listings yet in our desired neighborhood. Zillow got a little loopy tonight and suggested a property in L.A. proper on Rampart St. Not that desparate, Zillow. Sorry, but perhaps that street should have been renamed. Either way, can't do L.A. city because of the schools.
I'm going to do something daring for my next trip: I'm going to go carless. The last few trips have spent so much on cars that it's ridiculous. Over $100 to store my car 18 miles from my house, another $100 to drive someone else's car from the airport to the hotel, and then to and from work twice and then to work a third time and back to the airport. And then close to $100 to store that same car at the hotel for a few hours each night while I slept. Crazy. So this time, I'm going to go Lyft. I can get a ride from my house (I know! Even way out here!) for about $34, I can get a ride from LAX to the hotel for about $22. I bought into the Santa Monica Breeze Bikeshare so I can ride my bike to work while I'm down there. And then on the last day when I have my suitcase, the hotel can give me a ride and then I'll catch a Lyft from there back to LAX and then a Lyft from Seatac or the nearest Link station.
When we lived in L.A., we had a membership with the L.A. Zoo and went regularly. It was a pretty good zoo and you didn't have any of that indecision about whether to go to Pt. Defiance or Woodland Park, both of which are also great zoos, but a bit of a drive. Also, unlike PD or WP, there was always ample parking. (It was also where we'd park when we'd visit the Hollywood Bowl.) Sure, there's a bit of a hill at the start, but it's not as bad as the San Diego Zoo and it's good exercise. I'm excited to see what's changed since we were there last. I don't know why, but beyond the Capybera exhibit, all of the zoos kind of blend together in my mind. I always thought they should call it the Los Angeles International Zoo and Botanical Gardens, personally.
There was also a slightly dated, slightly cheesy lighting exhibit put on my LADWP. It was a long street with different lighting displays along one side in Griffith Park adjacent to the zoo. I'm reading now that they stopped doing it for five years because of construction on the street but brought it back in 2014 with a lot of enhancements and moved it inside the zoo itself.
I'm also way under my calories because I did a lot of freestep today. And my work-provided Fitbit is on its way. Woo!
I feel like I'll be thinking "give or take" every time I write that heading. There's way too much waiting right now. Waiting for our realtor to tell us what we need to improve in order to make it easy for him to get a great sale price... waiting for our realtor to tell us what he thinks he can get and how quickly... waiting for people to start listing houses for sale in our target area.. I'm not sure. I don't feel like I should be waiting, I feel like I should be doing more now, but it's tough. Today got sucked up with bill paying and getting Quicken up-to-date. And family stuff. And this cold that still plagues me. I'm impatient and frustrated. I think I need to take the timeline we created and break it down into much smaller pieces.
I am breaking even on my calories (day 3) and I did thin out my wardrobe slightly in advance of the move (decluttering).
The Getty Center opened while I lived in L.A., it was a big deal. It took months to get a parking reservation. I got one, but then for some reason, I was unable to attend. I never got around to getting back to it. I'm looking forward to visiting The Getty Center.
I didn't do anything today that should really count towards getting us any more ready. We decided to do some family stuff together instead because we needed to get out of the house after a few weeks of pretty much being indoors due to the cold. We went to the local mall(ish) because it meant a place to walk around indoors and a play area for Ben. He had pretzels and it was mostly a nice time.
We're still trying to figure out how to get everything and everyone down to L.A. There'll be a few cars, some driven, one shipped, three adults, two children and a couple of cats. And then all of our stuff. The stuff part is easy - some people come, pack it up, drive it own and unload it. But one of the big questions is Ben... 20 hours in a car, or 3 hours on a plane? I'm leaning towards plane, but that means taking his car seat or attempting to rent one with a rental car. Unless I can get my car delivered to airport parking. Not sure if I could pull that off, but that would be amazing.
The desk I left out front got snagged, so maybe it's time to leave something else out front. And I've been under my calories for two days in a row. So there's that. Yay.
One thing I regretted not seeing during my last residence in L.A. was Angel's Flight (wikipedia). Sadly, it appears to be closed now with no known reopening date, due to poor design and apparent negligence by the part of the operators.
Give or take. So, 2016. A dual-residency year. The first half in Seattle, the second half in L.A.
I've accepted a full-time position with a company in L.A. and one of the terms was relocation - as a contractor, it was fine to work from home, but as a full-time employee, they want me to share in the culture and collaboration that can only be gained from being physically present. So, back to L.A. we go. I was able to negotiate a delayed return in order to let the children finish out the school year, but that time is going to go very quickly. By the time six months have completed, we will need to sell our house (after some pre-sale work no doubt), find a buy a house, get everything packed up, find new providers for our children, and get ourselves to California. To make it more challenging, my mother-in-law is coming with us, so we need to find a place for her as well and I'm going to take another run at some weight loss. Oh, and 5-6 trips to L.A. to work from the office for a few days at a time. I'll also be disolving my Washington State Small Business and continuing my contract work as simply an independent contractor.
It'll be an action-packed six months, but we're excited.
Day 1: Starting slow - we were up late for New Year's so it's been a slow start to the day. Our son went to bed early and then got up early. Bleary eyed, we put on a movie and sat around slightly in a daze (my wife retreating to the kitchen to stream the Rose Bowl parade re-broadcast on KTLA's website.) Immediate actions for today: Cleaning, decluttering, more Christmas packing. Continuing to watch Zillow, Trulia, Redfin and Realtor for new listings. I'm spot-botting some stains in the living room. We'll replace the carpet, but until then, it needs some love. Light colored carpets and a child who intentionally spills stuff are not a great combination. Also, sticking to a calorie plan. I've used Lose-It successfully in the past to lose a lot of weight, but then birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas come along and I chuck it all out the window because I love sweets.
I love this email subscription/preferences form from American Express. When you click "Unsubscribe" in a newsletter, it shows you the item you just changed (not shown here), and then says "While you're here, here's some other subscriptions you can change.")
When you move your mouse over an option, a box appears around the option, a detail link appears to give you more information and the switch itself wiggles to let you know that it's something to interact with. (Not sure how it works on mobile which lacks mouseover but am too lazy at the moment to test. I assume that touching anywhere in the space draws the box and offers up the details link.)
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I proposed something similar about four years ago at a previous job where we were exploring a potentially confusing and complex series of newsletter choices. It wasn't 100% the same (mine used red/green and didn't include the words "on" and "off") but it was pretty clear from those who used it, which newsletters you were subscribed to, which ones you weren't.
I demoed my prototype on an iPad so that people could see how subscribers might interact with it on a mobile device. The iPad was still pretty new but I figured on/off toggles would make their way to the web because it just made sense. Checkboxes for newsletter subscriptions usually work, but occasionally you'll get some insane website where it's like "check the box to tell us which newsletters you don't want" or some other such nonsense that makes it hard to trust any checkboxes. But on/off - super simple. I was shot down. Two years later when I left, it was still an all-or-nothing subscription system. In retrospect, I was simply too early. (Is this an "I told you so?")
Kudos to American Express for bringing granularity (better to be able to turn individual pieces on and off) without complexity (easy to see what's out and learn more about each choice). The only thing I don't like is that these don't function like a switch - unlike a light switch, these selections don't actually apply until/unless you also click "Save" at the bottom of the page. I bet a lot of people neglect to do that and don't understand why they're still receiving email.
And for being a bit of validation and encouragement for me.
