Sunday the 13th and on

Sunday, we got up and went to breakfast with the folks. After we said our goodbyes, we went back to the motel to finish packing. As anticipated, the feline furbaby was very unhappy with me. I picked her up, cuddled her and then set her in front of the carrier door. She, of course, gave the stink eye and attempted to go around the crate. Upon second attempt she went in without a hassle. There was a bit of crying eminating from that carrier Sunday but I knew it was simply because she was being cooped up after a few days freedom.

The drive was rather uneventful...thank goodness. We took a look at several of those hotel coupon books for travellers and went into sticker shock at the hotel prices. Yes, the company is paying for it but it's originally coming out of our own pocket and being reimbursed later. We ended up staying in a Stafford , VA Ramada Sunday night. ~Sweet~ room. After getting the "kids" set up for the night, we went out for supper. He had a roast beef sandwich and I had stuffed shells...yummy.

Monday morning we got up a little later...around 9am or so and after breakfast (a continental one that was more than juice and donuts), we packed back up. Dharma went right into her carrier with little to no fuss. We left a bit before 11am and drove the last hour into Manassas. Im beginning to wish we'd paid an extra day in the hotel so we didnt have to leave so early. At least then, Dharma wouldnt have been cooped up quite so long because the corporate apartment wasnt available for us until 4pm. We did some driving around, killing time. First place we found was the local WalMart. This one is not a supercenter so we wont be doing our grocery shopping there. That sucks because I really like getting my groceries in those supercenters. We grabbed lunch at Denny's (or did we lunch then WallyWorld it?? I cant remember). We made several trips back to the apartment, hoping the apartment would be ready a bit sooner so we could let the girls loose but unfortunately it was right at 4pm before we could get in.

It took us 2days to get the truck unloaded as there was quite a bit in there AND we'd been placed on the 3rd floor (*ugh*). Stairs and I do not get along due to my bad knees. I can take them, it just cant be often. One trip down and and back up usually gets them to complaining loudly and with the one that grinds regularly, well it takes me a while to get where I have to go. Top things all off my right hip has started acting up since we've been here. Hubby ended up bringing most of the stuff upstairs while I was placed in charge of assigning homes to everything.

Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent getting to know the area, running to WalMart for stuff we packed that we actually needed (and a few more clothes more appropriate to the climate like long sleeved shirts, long johns and lounger pants for in the apartment), and placing phone calls. I got ahold of the WalMart that I had been working at and gave them our temporary address so I should be getting my final check in the next few days. Wednesday we didnt go anywhere because, as many of you saw on the home page, we had a nice snow storm (picture at left was posted on the front page of the paper Thursday morning...it's of the lion in the national zoo with his head raised to the falling snow). We ended up with much more snow than what was pictured. So much in fact that we still have some on the ground now. It doesnt help matters that it's so cold that it wont melt off. Im not gonna complain though, the only thing Im gonna gripe about is the booger freezing cold out there. Tuesday our car got delivered here. Stupid idiots were *supposed* to have it placed in storage. Thankfully no one has complained about the extra vehicle ....yet.

We went to take a look at one complex on Friday (?). It's about 20 minutes out, a reasonable driving distance considering the truck only gets 15 miles to the gallon. The lady in the leasing office didnt have a 2 bedroom available for us to look at so I suggested maybe we could see a one bedroom just to get an idea of what we'd be getting into. She had someone coming in already to see one such unit and invited us to come along. It was nice and the complex is near enough to a grocery store so I can walk there even in the cold weather no matter how far back in the complex we end up. The one we were wanting was going to run us $895/mo+utils. Hubby and I liked what we saw but the size would mean still getting a storage unit. On the upside, we would be allowed 2 parking spots so the car wouldnt need to go in storage. On the downside, having to pay ALL utilities can get quite expensive and he's the only one with a guaranteed job. We filled out the app anyhow and the gal said she'd call after the credit check. About an hour or so later we got a call telling us that due to our credit (which is pretty much shot) that we'd have to pay 6 months in advance. Well damn I knew the credit was bad but sheeesh...not that bad! We've yet to decide if we're going to go that route or not. We can once hubby's severance package comes through but it's not an optimal situation for us so we're still looking. There are a couple other places we want to look first that are actually less expensive. The hard point is finding a place that is inexpensive enough, takes our kids, doesnt have income limitations AND isnt "ghetto" (and damn some of the places we passed yesterday definitely were that...thank goodness for http://www.apartmentratings.com/ for helping steer us away from those places).

We found one on Craigs List that sounds promising. The dude wanted to show it to us today but hubby has to work. I told the guy I'd call back when I had an idea of hubby's schedule. It's a basement apartment for $850/ month, INCLUDES utilities AND allows both our babies. I figure there's gotta be something wrong with it other than it being a basement apartment. We drove by yesterday to see about getting a peek at the place but we couldnt find it right off. Hubby figures it may be on another section of the street and we were just missing it. There are only a couple places in the area where I could possibly work at so Im not certain it'll work out. While out we found a few more places with "for rent" signs on them so I'll be giving them a jingle tomorrow to find out if they pass the first bit of criteria (pricing and pets). The good thing about these places are that they are houses and not apartments. That same thing can work against us too though. There were a couple more complexes that looked promising too. They were located in good areas near lots of opportunity for me so *shugz*.

Gotta go....hubby just came home and is going to want to check his email and read the educationals (something I still have to do myself). Im so damn tired as I was up at 730am because some maid service was supposed to be coming in. Not that it was my idea but the company's paying for it. ANYHOW....they didnt show up today so he's gonna want to write the company and let them know the service never showed up. Damn I was looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and taking a dip in that huge tub in the bathroom too. Ah well. At least the kids are comfy.