Craigslist Adventures, 2014 Edition

Posted on by Jordan

I have a feeling this isn’t the first, nor will it be the last time I mention Craigslist, but once again we have purchased furniture using said site.

Perhaps I should back up. So in giving a tour of our house to some friends, it was mentioned that we were hoping to recruit a babysitter. It was quickly pointed out by a veteran babysitter that our house lacked a TV, and that perhaps we would never see the same babysitter twice given that setup.

With that in mind… well did you ever hear that story about the mouse and the cookie?

No mice this time but…

We need a baby sitter.

To keep the baby sitter happy, we (I am told) need a TV.

To have a TV, we (I am told) need an armoire.

To get the armoire home, we need a truck.

Only the “truck” we borrowed it’s actually one of the largest SUVs in production, so try this again…

To get the armoire home we need a U-Haul

To get the armoire onto the truck, we need three extra guys. (no kidding, I was starting to doubt the four of us were going to get it loaded at one point)

To get the armoire out of the tuck we needed a ramp

And now, to get it out of our garage we may need to have a BBQ or something just to get enough bodies on site to make the transition to the garage.

 

On the less complicated side of things, even with the truck rental, it was a great deal on a *very* solid piece. Hopefully that means it’s quality because I do not look forward to moving that beast again once it’s in place.

Oh, and did I tell you about this party we are having? Yeah we thought we would grill and then

<cough>carryThatGiantThingInTheGarageDownstairs</cough>,

ahem excuse me. Yeah grill and then I don’t know have some ice cream? I think I know where that ice cream maker got unpacked. It’s just down in the basement… you don’t mind carrying something while we go look do you? 🙂

-Jordan

 

 

 

An Education In Aerospace

Posted on by Jordan

Heather and I finished watching the last episode of “From The Earth To The Moon” this week.

It concludes a small tangent we took, exploring the glory days of the space program, that has been really interesting.

It all started when I found out that “The Right Stuff” was on Netflix streaming. It was a movie I have heard reference from time to time, and always wanted to see. The movie is *over three hours* long, so Heather didn’t stand a chance, and I had to break it into more than one session, but I found it really, really interesting. Heather enjoyed what she saw, and I think she caught a big chunk of it. The movie stars with test pilots in the early jet aircraft prototypes after WWII, and progresses to the end of the Gemini program. As long as it was, I feel like they had to skim over so much.

I happen to have mentioned something about the movie at work, and a co-worker brought my attention to “From The Earth To The Moon.” It, like “Band Of Brothers” (a favorite of Heather and mine) was made after Tom Hanks did a movie about the subject, got interested in the larger story, and partnered with HBO to make a multi-part TV series.  The Moon-race set being inspired by “Apollo – 13”  and the WWII set being inspired by “Saving Private Ryan.” Band of Brothers was done second, and I would consider it to be a somewhat better product, although the subject matter is far more intense… not for everyone I suppose.

Going back to “From The Earth To The Moon,”  They briefly cover most of “The Right Stuff” in the first few minutes, and then lay the context for the Apollo program, then follow it through to the last mission. All I can really say is that I am still in awe of what they managed to pull off in such a short time. If you have Netflix, or a local rental place that had a good collection of older classic movies and TV (I can’t imagine many having a TV mini-series from 1998… but Netflix does!)  I highly recommend you check both the movie and the TV show out!

I think it is fair to say I had more interest in the subject than Heather did, but it was still really fun to get to share learning new things about the space program with her. Although we hadn’t actually finished all the episodes when we were in Chicago, the trip provided a sort of climax when we got to see the Gemini capsule from Jim Lovell!

Jim Lovell was also the commander on Apollo – 13, and had donated a few items from that mission… gloves, helmet, flight manuals, etc. Getting to actually see the hardware, in the middle of reviewing the history was a fun treat!

Now that we have finished “From The Earth To The Moon” I am pushing to wrap things up with “Apollo – 13,” but after 15 hours of space oriented viewing, I think Heather may be ready for a break!

-Jordan