Moving Notes

Just because your new house has a separate laundry room, it doesn’t mean that your old washer and dryer will fit.

Never assume that your washer and dryer are the same size. Measure both.

The day after you move, your new local paper will run a special Travel section all about your old city.

Disposable toilet seat covers in public restrooms seem to be a right in California and a luxury everywhere else.

Despite a propensity for sitting in warm sunbeams, a cat will prefer that you turn on the air conditioning in the car.

If a store carries “baby lemons” you probably don’t want to see the price of their Eurekas.

Just because your new kitchen is bigger, it doesn’t necessarily mean your old refrigerator will fit.

Never leave your cat alone in the bathroom with a lifetime supply of catnip “safely” tucked into a plastic bag.

We have arrived safely in Washington State and moved into our new home. Thank you to everyone who sent along their good wishes. Unfortunately, we do not have phone, broadband, or cable service yet although all were ordered. A Qwest representative claimed that the PUC did not allow them to turn on phone service on a Saturday (huh?) and Comcast had to be persuaded to come out within seven days (at least they were willing to do a weekend). But we have plenty to keep us occupied with boxes to unpack and furniture to arrange, rearrange.

As a treat we sought out and visited Costco Home today. I wrote about it a while ago; it is the home furnishings store which has thousands of pieces ready to be taken home, giving it a leg up over the ordering wait time at typical furniture stores. Unfortunately most of the items were, to put it politely, not to my taste (who knew the classic essence of the Adirondack chair could be so easily ruined?). But the test store has been doing well enough that Costco has is planning to open another one on the west coast. Plans for a Costco Fresh grocery superstore have been shelved.

I’m taking a break from posting for a week as we prepare for and make our big move to the Seattle, Washington area. I’ve prepared a move FAQ that goes into more detail about this major event. I hope to resume posting on July 28th.

In Pattani, Thailand, the real estate market is being dominated by investors looking to attract swifts. These tiny birds are being welcomed into unused upper stories, empty basements, and roofs. Their abandoned nests are harvested by building owners for a tidy profit at $1,000 a pound. Soaked, cleaned, and cooked, the nests are the basis for the famous delicacy, bird’s nest soup. Building owners use various tactics, such as recorded birdsongs, to try to entice swifts to nest within their walls.

Although glass bottles are regularly recycled, there is plenty of plate glass from demolitions and renovations which ends up as landfill. There are some uses for recycled plate glass, which is often collected from old windows, but as there is not a regular supply, unlike bottles which are discarded every second, a recycling program is more difficult to manage. At the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival a few years ago, I discovered the work of Lauren Becker who creates practical art glass, dishes and bowls, out of old plate glass. I own one of her multi-spiral bowls. This year I purchased two “whirlwind” plates, one in a dark glass which she told us came from the windows of the old Birkenstock factory. She’s now also sells dishes made out of traffic light glass, decommissioned in the switch to LED lights. I am thrilled to see art that is functional, reduces waste, and is beautiful even without the environmental twist.

The L.A. Times takes a look at the continuing fascination with fountain pens. Although I would not turn down a custom-crafted, perfectly weighted fountain pen, I’ll admit that I’d be better served with a custom-made keyboard and trackball set perfectly molded for my hands.

From the depths of my referrer logs comes Citrus Moon’s lovely tile-a-day site. Not only are there beautiful (and free) tiles for your wallpapering or background needs, but each set is accompanied by descriptive text about its origins and inspiration, often with links to other interesting design sites.

The wonderful thing about the Blogathon is that it is a fundraising endeavor where the very activity that raises money for a cause can call attention to and educate people about the cause. I’ve always had a cynical attitude towards events like charity balls where thousands of dollars are wasted on dresses, limos, and food that could have gone straight to the charitable cause’s coffers instead, though I understand that the fancy trappings are often necessary to raise large sums of money. But with Blogathon there’s an opportunity, if the weblog author chooses, to directly raise awareness about the charity they are collecting donations for. I was honored to have been asked to help judge the awards this year.

The 2003 Bulwer-Lytton (aka “dark and stormy night”) contest results are in, and the winning entry effectively exhibits America’s burgeoning penchant for foodie writing. No, really, it does.

According to the Piano Technicians Guild, there are 10,000 tuners for America’s 18 million pianos. And half of them now use a computer and software such as CyberTuner to adjust strings to the correct pitch. There’s ongoing debate in the tuner community over which method is more effective. Some even say that electronic tuners should be used to save the ear for more fine adjustments. With an electronic tuner and little training, maybe anyone could become a piano tuner, but there’s still the need for experience and learning how and when to make fine adjustments.