I'm IN...finally

I finally closed on the condo last Friday. It wasn't without stress. I found out that the seller's agent had to scramble to get the documents signed by the builder. He was leaving for New York at 11am on Friday and hadn't told the agent. She found out that while in the middle of her workout and had to scramble. Luckily, she was able to get everything signed. There was a last minute change to the closing costs so I ended up getting a check for the overpayment of my cashier's check.

I had found out on the way to the title company that my mover's would be able to deliver my stuff on Saturday morning. Perfect. My luck was starting to change. I had before getting on the metro train to the title company had withdrew their money in order to get US Postal Money Orders. The bank I went to was quite interesting. It's about 1 mile between that branch and another branch near Whole Foods but they are night and day. The one by Whole Foods is all open and what seemed to be normal for me. The one on the opposite edge just outside downtown Silver Spring has 5 inch plexiglass encasing all the tellers. It has an armed security guard standing outside at the door. I guess it might have attempted robberies and those are the precautions. I was worried that with current luck the bank would get robbed while I was there. For such a short distance between them, it was very interesting. I got my cash and went over to the post office. I found out that I could've used my debit card to get the money orders. Luckily I wasn't mugged. Although, now that my lung is healed I could run if I had to.

So I got my keys and started moving stuff that I had brought with me in the car on Friday. Here's some pictures of the empty condo:

The first two pictures are looking out on the living area from door landing area. It's down 3 steps to the living space and up 3 steps to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The kitchen is cool although the cabinents are built for Greg Oden sized people as I can barely reach their 3rd shelf. The gas range/cooktop rocks as it has one of those super-sized burners for heating water for pasta. The kitchen also has a ton of outlets so my coffee maker and rice cooker are happy. The last picture is the dining area. It's nice. The floors are hardwood in the living area, stone tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms, and carpet in the 2 bedrooms.

The movers arrived on Saturday morning just after 9am. There was a skinny guy and a bigger slightly pudgy guy. They sound possibly Russian. Anyway, they started moving in the stuff. The pudgy guy was struggling caring stuff up the stairs. It was kindof funny because I think I was stronger than this guy even though he's quite bigger than me plus I'm a wimp. I had them move one box into the bedrooms and that's just one. The entrance to the bedrooms has a tight corner in it and the first box that went through scuffed the white walls leaving marks. I just had them put everything in the living room rather than deal with them totally trashing the walls. Overall, my TV and big speakers made it. The only thing that got broke was this CD bookcase as they didn't take it apart when they moved it. It lost a leg and some brackets. I seem to have lost my coffee scoop and rice paddle. That's about it that I can tell so far that is missing. I have no idea where it went.

The cable guy came on Saturday afternoon and proceeded to break the cable line from the outside in the wall. It was a tight fit with the outlet so they had to setup a different appointment with a different Comcast to come back and fix it. Ugh...it wasn't too bad as I spent the weekend watching DVDs and unpacking. It's Wednesday and I'm still unpacking. I'm trying to find space for all my crap. After much toil, I have my cable hooked up as of Tuesday. The foreman onsite sent a person up to fix the wall that had to be cut in order to access the cable. That's cool as I don't have to worry about fixing a drywall. They plan to come back today and smooth it out. I hope they'll paint it as well. We'll see...

As for my workouts, I've been on the trainer a bunch as it's been freezing here and now a massive ice storm. My swimming has still been stinking. I really can't seem to get my arms not hurt. I've been trying lengths with just breathing on my right side. I can really follow-thru on the right stroke which speeds up my times. Also, I can do a faster turnover because of being able to breath every stroke. I really don't think I'll do that for the real swim as I'll be anaerobic which would put me into a hole right out of the water. I'm taking today off from swimming because of the ice everywhere. I'm hoping a little rest will make me stronger when I get back in tomorrow.