The Virginia Blogs: Hanna Be Damned

So, as is standard with either one of our families, nothing ever quite goes smoothly. As we were getting ready for the move, one Hurricane Hanna was brewing in the Atlantic. I tuned every piece of equipment I had to the Weather Channel. I called the moving company ahead of time, and they said, three days out, that it was too early to tell what was going to happen.

The next morning the moving company called and said, “Uh, yeah. No go on Saturday. We can go on Friday or Monday.”

I went with Friday. I just wanted to get our stuff over here, out of the little piece of hell we were living in. It was going to be impossible to keep the schedule I wanted to follow —which was everything over before the furniture.

So we blitzed what we could out of the house and into the new place. Which is to say that two weeks after moving, we’re still moving.

The movers were there at 9:30, and I had hoped to have everything done by 2 at the latest. And then I woke up and realized there was no way that these guys were going to be able to do all of it in my time frame. Or in the budget. There went dinner for a week.* They loaded the truck by about noon, then we had to take my precious babies** to storage. I was sad that we had to put them away, but we’ll be able to bring them out again soon.

Naturally, on the way home from the storage place, it started raining. I was screaming at the sky that it wasn’t fair! Stop! My couches weren’t in the house! But once they started bringing the stuff in, they were done pretty quickly. Pretty being a relative term, of course. The gentleman in charge was kind enough to close us out about ½ an hour before they were actually done because he said he didn’t want to get into the overtime stuff which was HUGE rate charged every half hour.

He got a very nice tip. They all did really. They were sweating their butts off. Which was why we hired them. We would have died trying to move this stuff.

And now we’re here. And we’re much happier. Want a tour?

Well, let’s try this is in some kind of order.

Here’s where you walk in. You know, that front door sort of thing.


There’s a coat closet on the right, just out of view, and yes—there is pretty much always a cat there on the way in.

The door immediately on the left goes out to the deck.



Like the bistro table? I was so happy I got it. Great deal at Ross. Chairs were an end of season sale at Bed Bath and Beyond. I think they match well. So that door off to the right is our mini storage. It’s great for the table and chairs as we found out for the hurricane the next day. It’s also good for emergency replies and may very well become the kitty litter’s and vacuum’s home.

Here’s our new view:


This is what our building looks like, but it’s not ours.


Directly off the deck.


Off to the right.

And look, I finally got my grill.


Ok, so not really, but we can use it if want.

Alright, back into the house. Here’s the TV and our ridiculous large and still expanding DVD collection that does not and will not include White Chicks.

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The couches and living room itself:



Turn around and you’ll see our dining area. We will be changing out the light on the ceiling as soon as we take it down from the kitchen in the other place.



Let’s go to the left off the dining area, shall we? Our bedroom.





And off our master bedroom, our own bathroom, which then qualifies this as the "master suite." Sounds so hoity toity…



Head back out to the dining area, and you’re going to find the kitchen straight ahead.



The kitchen, dining area and livingroom are an open floor plan:



See that doorway off to the right? That leads to our den:





This picture is taken against the giant mirrors that are the closet doors in the den. I like having those mirrors in there. And I like having two really large closets in there.



Walk out the door of the den and to your right is a hallway and down this hallway is the guest bath. Main bath? Second bath? Whatever.



Keep going and you come to the second bedroom. Also known as the Spare Cat room. Also known as Jenn’s Crap closet room. Perhaps even the guest room? Curtains to come.





Not hard to figure out why it’s the spare cat room, eh?

And when you head back toward the living room, you go through that short hallway again:



So there you have it. One floor. Three bedrooms. Two very happy Virginie transplants.

Y’all come down and see us now, y’hear!?

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*Not really. I had planned on them taking longer than the estimate, but it still stung the wallet.
**You remember them, right?
***There are all kinds of orbs in these pictures. I think it's because of the new carpets-- they are super fuzzy. That, or we're being haunted. Big time.

ADDED 2020: 
I loved this apartment. I did. It had just the right amount of space for us. I keep trying to find another like this! 

The Virginia Blogs: Zoo… or Not.

We decided that we needed a trip to the zoo. So we trooped over to the Norfolk Zoo. We were greeted by some loud peahens, and walked up to the gate to purchase our tickets.

The Zoo Will Be Closing at 2 PM for the Annual Zoo Gala

Ah crap. I looked at the watch, and it was already 1:30. I asked the lady in the booth if that was when the last ticket was being sold or if that was when you have to be out of the zoo. Needless to say it was the later.

So we walked back past the squawking peahens, and dejectedly into the car. We stared at each for a long moment then pulled out of the lot and headed back towards the house.

“Any ideas?” Tom asked. “It’s a beautiful day, we can’t really just go back to the house.”

“Well, there’s only one I can think of,” I answered.



We found ourselves in Bavaria again. Well, ok. Not really Bavaria—merely the Bavaria Lots at Busch Gardens.

Living in Virginia, we can purchase something called the Fun Card. Buy one ticket, and you can come back all summer on that ticket. Couldn’t really beat that deal. So we each bought one.

I was extremely amused though, that in order to get into the park, we had to show our pass and have our finger print taken and logged for our next visit. I mean, what’s next. Retinal scans for go karts?

We walked through, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg is one of the nicest amusements parks I’ve even been in, and that’s including Disney. It’s quite a haul though, to actually into the park. It’s divided into different European countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Each area has it’s own rollercoaster, and usually another adventure ride.

Well, Britain has Loch Ness, ostensible because they have Scotland as part of the Empire.

Let me pause here and tell you that I like roller coasters, but I have to watch which ones and how many I go on each time. I get oddly sick; this probably comes from the fact that your brain gets bounced about in your skull and is not happy. This particular day, I wasn’t feeling them, but I went on Loch Ness because it had been a long time since I’d been on one.

It was the only coaster I went on. My brain was NOT happy with me. Tom however wanted more. So I merrily waited while he went on a few different coaster, and called me a wuss the whole time*.

Busch Gardens has recently opened a new coaster called The Griffin. This thing is nuts. I’m sure that I’ll eventually get on it, since I’ve probably been on worse, but just looking at it made me want to puke.

The ride is about 1:45* or so, and I think it’s one of the coaster that try as you might, you will have to scream as you plummet to your death—I mean on the track. See, they crank you up to the top of this 90 degree drop and after you cruise over to the top of the drop, they start to drop you, but then stop and let. you. dangle.



I shall have to try to load the video I have of this thing. You can sure hear the people screaming on it. And it was just too much for me that day. And subsequent visits.

This also happens to be one of the most popular rides right now, and it was quite a wait for Tom’s ride. I walked over to the snack hut and got myself a drink and a snack and had a seat to wait for him. The problem with the coaster is, it’s too high to make out individual faces, so I had no idea when he actually rode the thing. I just waited at the bottom of the coaster entrance until I saw him walk out. He was happy.

We went on one more ride, called Dark Kastle, that I vaguely remember from my first visit years ago. Except one screen on the ride wasn’t working and it kinda lost the momentum it needs to succeed as being scary.

After that, it was time to go home… but we would be back.



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*He didn’t believe that I have a problem with them until a later date. He just thought that I was a wuss. We’ll get into that in another blog.