Wyatt wouldn't let me put up a Festivus Pole...

So we settled on a Christmas tree.

We'll be spending our first MN Christmas by ourselves. I'm looking forward to a quiet few days, but will miss seeing my grandpa, and I'm sure W will miss spending time with his fam.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

XO,

Katie

The Great @UHaul Debacle of 2013

I wish I would say that our move to Minneapolis was uneventful and easy. I wish I could say that we were able to throw some money at the move and have someone doe it for us. I wish I could say that is was stress-free.

But I'd be a liar.

As much as I begged and pleaded to hire movers for this move, the fact of the matter is that with an unplanned move like this, we just couldn't afford to. So as so many people do, we decided to rent a a truck and do it ourselves. Exhausting, dirty work, but by no means a mistake in and of itself.

The mistake we made was renting a truck from UHaul (the Atlas Ct. location in Madison, if you are looking for specifics).

So bright and early on Saturday April 27th, we drove over to our local UHaul and picked up our 26' truck and motorcycle trailer. We headed home and spent the next day and a half loading that truck to the brim. And let me tell you, schlepping boxes and furniture and all of your odds and ends turns out to be back-breaking work.

Mid-Sunday afternoon, after the last of the items had been wedged in the truck, our friend Ryan happened to notice a rather sizable puddle under the front of the truck. With his boy-knowledge he was able to identify the puddle as antifreeze. We popped the enormous hood of the truck to find, sure enough, a completely empty radiator (again deduced by his boy-kowledge). While this didn't initially mean that much to me, I was informed that without antifreeze the engine the engine would overheat and and go boom. Or something like that. Technicalities aside, this was not a good sign.

At approximately 2:45pm we called UHaul, who despite the truck being in our driveway less than a mile from the rental location, directed us to their roadside assistance. Before transferring us to roadside assistance, UHaul assured us that even if it meant towing the truck to MN for us, they would have of us there in time for our Monday afternoon final walk-through and close.

Roadside assistance was there within an hour to confirm our diagnosis of a broken radiator. They however had more bad news. This wasn't going to be an easy repair, but a pull and replace as the radiator was completely shot, and unfortunately this was not something they were able to do for us at that time. Well, that's going to be a problem. And that, my friends, is where any and all customer service from UHaul ends.

For the next 6hrs we got the run around from UHaul. We would call explain the situation and our timeline, and would be told someone would call us back in 15mins. Wash, rinse, repeat. Not once did someone call us back. Finally, at nearly 11pm we were presented with two options: they could give us a different truck in the morning (for us to unload/reload) or they could send someone out who would be able to replace the radiator. Seeing as there is NO WAY we were going to unload and reload a 26' truck, we went with the later option. We were assured we would have a fully functionally truck by 9am.

Riddle me this. What if we hadn't noticed the puddle under the truck in our driveway? What if this had happened on the side of the road? Would they have left us sitting on the side of the highway for 6+ hours? Overnight? Where would our belongings have ended up? Would we have been better off if that had been the outcome?

At 7am we get a call from the repair shop saying they'll be there to do the work in 30 or so minutes and that we should have the repaired truck back in 3-4hrs. Even elementary skool children can see that those numbers do not add up to 9am.

We finally got the truck back at nearly 12:30pm.

Given this several hour delay we had no choice but to reschedule our walk-through, and consequently our close, and book hotel rooms for the night. Thank you very much, UHaul.

At that point, there was nothing we could do but get on the road and hope this fine piece of well maintained machinery would get us to Minneapolis.

Drive, sleep, walk-through, close, unload, etc.

Fast forward to Wednesday. When we went to return the truck, the UHaul place up here had not been told the truck would be returned a day last, as they were supposed to be, and the guy was a major asshole to us. After some negotiations  we were able to convince him not to charge us for an additional day. Nice of him, right?

Despite Wyatt's many calls to UHaul at this point, and many promises of return phone calls, we still had not heard from them. It wasn't until I took to Twitter that we got our first response...

@katietris Let me see what I can do for you, please email me the details to uhaul_cares@uhaul.com ^PC
— U-Haul Cust Serv (@UHaul_Cares) May 1, 2013

These tweets went round and around, as did the phone calls, with no resolution offered.

Finally, someone at UHaul tells us we need to speak with the manager of the location we rented from. In case you are wondering, the manager of the Atlas Ct. Madison UHaul location is Kerry Moes, and he is a deceitful, unprofessional, rude human being.

Despite the fact they his UHaul location RENTED US A BROKEN TRUCK he decided there was no refund necessary. That is of course after he lied about having any knowledge of our situation, which was not the case as he had made notes in the UHaul computer system on our case before speaking to us.

At some point in this process, Paul Cotton, a member of their very active social media team, authorized a refund of our unexpected hotel expenses, but I'm not actually sure we ever received this refund to our credit card.

So here were are now, nearly a month after this incident began, still with no resolution, refund or response from UHaul.

I cannot begin to tell you how appalled I am by UHaul's lack of customer service and professionalism. I'm also concerned by the fact that they rented us a BROKEN truck. Do they not look over their trucks before renting them out? Especially trucks that they know are going out of city, not to mention out of state.

If you can relate to what we went through with UHaul, or have a similar UHaul story to share, I encourage you to do so! Share it in the comments, tweet about, get the word out! I'd also love it if you would help me spread our UHaul experience by sharing this post far and wide. This sort of behavior is unacceptable and we as consumers shouldn't be victims of it.

@UHaul
@UHaul_Cares

Dear Internet,Please consider our move w @uhaul a cautionary tale. Save your $ and sanity and AVOID UHAUL.Sincerely,An SOL UHaul Customer
— Katie (@katietris) May 2, 2013

The next thing I knew it was October!

I don't even know if anyone stops by this place anymore it's been neglected so long. For all like 4 of you who previously read my musings, I thought I'd attempt to recap the last 3 or 4 months for you.

Everyone warned me that the time would FLY by but I just don't know where it all went. It seems like just yesterday it was spring, I was running, I had free time, things were mellow and good.

Then June hit.

It's probably a lot more fun if I show you were I've been....

The chaos all kicked off with Ragnar Chicago Relay. Well worth the lack of sleep and sore muscles. I've made some truly amazing running friends. xoxo!

Then my BFF came to visit from NYC and we made our annual pilgrimage to Summerfest, complete with tickets to see Britney Spears!

W and I then moved our kitchen mini-remodel full steam ahead! Those flower tiles HAD to go.

Note: No actual before pictures were taken because the kitchen was SUCH a disaster. Ugly, messy, and in disrepair. Shudder...

Flowers GONE! But drab cabinets and weird green walls remain...

Nothing a fresh coat of paint on the walls and cabinets can't fix!

(I'm trying to track down a picture of the other half of the kitchen....you know, where the cabinets are...)

Kitchen remodel finished, complete with custom bench designed and upholstered by yours truly, chalkboard paint wall, and a new spice cabinet!

Now if only the new floor and counter fairy would swing by Claire St.

The weekend remodels were intermixed with working events like the Robbie Ventura Gran Fondo

And Centurion Wisconsin.

Which was immediately followed, of course, but Trek World!

I found time to sneak in another race and joined the Pavement Pirates last minute for the Ragnar Great River Relay.

Where I earned my "Make it a Double" medal for doing both Chicago and GR in one season. Huzzah!!

Before I knew it I was off to Vegas for Interbike 2011.

I mean really, who doesn't want to spend 7 days in Vegas the week before getting married...

All the house cleaning and home reno was not for naught though as we hosted our rehearsal dinner in our bcakyard on our fabulous patio.

Then we said some vows...

...took some pictures....

...and had a party!

Followed almost immediately by hopping on a jetplane and heading to Kona to work the Ironman World Championship.

And yes, I was close enough to snap a pic of Chrissie crossing the finish line and regaining her title. OMG.

Don't worry, I had a chance to enjoy a Hawaiian sunset or two.

I realize so much of this is worthy of posts all their own, and I promise to do just that, but not now. I'm almost out of time on my lunch hour, and, well, I am still trying to get caught up from the last few weeks.

My how the time flies...

Last I was here I was frettingabout the impending Ragnar race...and that has long since come and (sadly) gone. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in living life I forget to blog about it, and I think that's ok.

Before I get down and dirty with my Ragnar recap, I feel like I should catch ya'll up to speed....

Much of the month of May was spent in a funk. I has previously interviewed for a position I really wanted, but had yet to hear anything. I was stressed, I was tired, I was CRABBY. In the midst of all this I spent a week in Houston for Ironman Texas with my would be boss (if I go the job). Talk about stressful. To add insult to injury, I am a sweater. Like drippy, swassy, nasty mess sweater. And I don't know if you got the memo, but Houston ain't cool. There I was, pit stains and all, trying to impress my potential future boss when all I wanted to do was curl up in a tub of ice water and take a nap. FML!! I did get to spend some time with the likes of tri superstars likeLinsey Corbin, Tyler Stewart and Michael Lovato (and of course all of the other IM roadies who I rarely see these days), so not all was lost.

(left) Michael Lovato manning our trainer blender smoothie experiment.

(right) The Corbins and Stewarts catching up.

Home from TX I had a little time to play catch up around the house...do some laundry, buy some groceries, plant my garden. I would LOVE if it I was able to maintain my garden this year...and not attempt to do that on crutches. Because that sucked summer.

Then. Look at those itty bitty lil plants.

2wks ago...it's even bigger now!

Before my bags were even unpacked from TX W and I decided to undertake our biggest DIY home improvement project to date: a brick patio. Behind our house we have a small cement patio area, but it's not really big enough for a table or even for chairs for more than 2 or 3 people. Being that we love to be at home and outside when the WI weather permits, creating a useable outdoor space was high on the list of things to do. We debated between a patio or a deck. We priced out options and got quotes. And then, on a whim, decided to do it ourselves.

Let me tell you a little secret. W is many things, handy IS NOT one of them. He tries so hard and he means so well, but all I can do is thank D-O-G every time we finish a project with all of his digits in tact.

So yeah, patio. It was big. And A LOT of work. Thank goodness for long weekends and fabulous friends who are willing to help!!

The space trenched, graveled, and (almost) retaining walled out.

Ryan taking Roberta the Bobcat for a stroll through the yard...my poor yard. :(

4+ days of back-breaking labor and two very baggy eyes later...the patio is done!

That brings us to June, which is almost over now. Wah. Where is the time going?!? June has been a much better month than May was. We've been to two weddings, one of W's friends and one of my friends (which means I could wear the same dress-SCORE!). I try not to go all bridezilla up in here, because, well, there's enough crazy bitches out there. I think the Bare Naked Ladies said it best when they said "It's all been done before," but I digress. Sandwiched in between the weddings was Ragnar which is arguably one of the coolest things I have ever done. And being that it was good, bad and ugly all wrapped up in a 15 passenger, Ragnar certainly deserves a blog post all its own. Last weekend was WIBA and ToAD...and that means next weekend is the 4th of July.

Pretty soon we'll be getting hitched. Yikes.

Oh, and did I mention I got the job? 'Cause I did. :)

And did I mentions that when we get home we no longer have to brush our teeth here?

THE BATHROOM IS DONE!!

I'll take a little DIY with a side of apple pie...

So what's been going on these days you ask? Well certainly no training, that's for sure. But my body feels like box moving, cleaning and house projects is more than enough cardio and strength for some time....

The day of the close Wyatt decided the carpet in the living room had to go. Immediately. And so it did.

Going....

(front door)

Going...

(living room and picture window)

Going...

(dining nook)

Going....

(and happy to see it)

GONE!!!

Let me tell you, we hit the jackpot on the floors! Under the smelly blah beige carpet (which was really stained underneath, can you say cats? ewww...) were beee-o-tiful hardwood floors. And best yet? Other than pulling A LOT of staples, and cleaning it, we didn't have to do anything to them. WOOT WOOT!

Final step on the floors was to cut 1/4 round and trim out the room to cover the gap in the floor from where the tack strips were. Yes, I made Wyatt wear safety glasses. Yes, he still has all of his fingers. And yes, if you look closely I think you can see the start of his plumber's crack.... :)

BTW, cyber friends, if anyone has a trick as to how to get gunk off of hardwood floor I would LOVE to know. Specifically the gunk is carpet pad residue that is stuck, and I mean stuck, on the floor in a few areas.

The house is still a work in progress. So many boxes to be unpacked and dealt with. So many projects on the to do list. So many deliveries to be made. Ugh. Will this ever end?

What do you do when you have reached an all time high frustration level? When life seems to have handed you more than you can deal with? You bake!! But that story will have to wait til tomorrow...

Good Lil' Helper

Apparently Burton was helping Wyatt unpack today....maybe this was a much needed after nap after all the epic unpacking?!

Sofa!!

That's right, we now own a new sofa, chair AND ottoman (like the foot stool, not the empire). That's the general look of the sofa above, but in COMPLETELY different colors. We just didn't think an off white sofa was a smart idea in our house. So we went with a brown (specifically mahogany) with some fun pills. You know, spice the place up a little. Bad news is, by snubbing the off white sofa we had to special order what we wanted. It could take 3-10wks for it to get here.....grrrr! So for the foreseeable future we have no, and I really do mean no, furniture. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing as the house it OVERRUN with boxes still. Seriously we could build some pretty bad a$$ forts if we rearranged the boxes....hmmm, something to think about.

So we're suppose to move the last of my stuff into the house tonight. But seeing as it is looking like death storms again to day I am guessing I will be bumped from the docket. Who really wants to move stuff, especially a mattress, in the rain?! Btu really, the longer I live with my stuff in boxes and split between 2 locations the CRAZIER I am getting. Really, seriously, losing my mind! Oh, and in case you are wondering, someone else moves in to my apartment on the 1st this week. That'd be Thursday, and I'm still not out, nor is the place clean.

Oh, and there is the floor finishing project that is apparently going to get done this week. And putting a much needed vanity in the bathroom.

Wyatt moved in, check. Sofa picked out, check. New washer purchased, check. Direct TV being installed, check. Going to a 3 day bachelor party*, check CHECK!

Katie moved in....not checked.

At least our priorities are in order.

I do love the furniture we picked out tho...

*The 5 day bachelor party has been reduced to only 3 days. Geez, what a rip off. But don't worry, that still allows for 2 nights of strips clubs and unhealthy levels of intoxication, with a little football and MORE alcohol sandwiched in the middle. I still say F* That!!

No Rest for the Weary

Yep, that pretty much sums up my week.

I am exhausted. Working all day, and moving at night, has added up to a looooong week. It may only be a studio apartment, but good lord do I have a lot of stuff there. Apparently 28yrs, almost 2 of which have been at the most recent abode, adds up to way too much stuff. And no place to put it.

But wait Katie, aren't you moving into a house? Why yes, observant reader, I am.

I went to try to unpack and clean stuff at the new house last night. I figured getting a start on that would make moving the last of my stuff a little easier. Right? Only what I found in every cabinet, drawer and closet I opened is that it was already full. So where exactly am I suppose to go?

This is bringing back horrific memories of freshman year of college. Or even my sophomore year apartment with the roommate from, well, Waukesha. Right, Waukesha. You remember the college days where all of your belongings had to stay in your room/side of the room, designated closet, kitchen cabinet, shelf in the fridge... It's like I'm going from a luxurious, spacious 2 room efficiency, to 1 room. In a house. I feel like I am going to have to stash my Ramen noodles and microwave popcorn in my closet to keep the roomie from eating it at bartime. And I am thinking of bringing back the shower caddy so I have a place to put my shampoo, face wash and toothbrush. I'll keep it right next to my shower flip flops and towel hanging on the back of my bedroom door.

If any one out there knows how I can loft my double bed, or has a mini fridge I could borrow, let me know. Apparently I'm going to need them.

Thursday 13

Woah, it's Thursday already and I haven't even finished my post from Monday yet about the Fat Tire Festival.... It will be finished. There are pictures and everything.

But to stay on task...

Thursday 13: The Moving Addition

1. After tonight's trip I'll be prolly 75% out of my apartment! Woot Woot! Now there's just my closet, kitchen essentials, bathroom essentials, bed and tv....ok that still sounds like a lot. Grrr.

2. We went to empty my storage unit in the basement last night to find out a bottle of bleach had spilled on stuff. FML! I don't think it ruined anything important...

3. The "we" I am refering to here is my bestfriend Ryan and I. My deadbeat boyfriend (from this point forward known as the DBB) is in Vegas this week. Yes he is in Vegas the same week I need to move. Granted it's sort of work related, but still, f*ck that!

4. Moving has been further complicated by the fact that the above mentioned DBB moved his stuff in and left boxes everywhere. So to be able to move my stuff I have to rearrange and deal with his stuff. WTF?

5. The DBB did however manage to quasi finish the wood floors before he left for Sin City. All the staples are out, the tack strips are up, and they are clean (to a boy's standard clean). All that's left to do is to add 1/4 round trim around the room to cover up the damage from the tack strips. Oh, and to somehow match the 1/4 round to the floor/trim color...

6. So Monday night, as we were hurriedly moving in the DBB's stuff (yes I helped him) he tried to put stuff in the refrigerator WITHOUT CLEANING IT FIRST!!! ICK ICK ICK!!! What was he thinking?!? So I took on said task, and what did I find in the fridge? Cat hair. Like enough gross black cat hair to think that they were storing cats IN the fridge. I just threw up in my mouth a little thinking about it.

7. Tonight's mission is to move all of the nonperishable foods, misc kitchen odds and ends, and the bathroom non essentials. All in all that's probably 1 trip. THEN it's time to clean the bathroom and kitchen so that I can put that stuff away. It could be a looooooong night.

8. So the house was "move in ready" which basically means it wasn't a complete hovel. It's actually pretty nice. But there are so many things that need to be done to make it "ours." Like the pedestal sink in the bathroom HAS TO GO! Say it with me people, vanity. And painting. Everything is off white. I don't do off white. Give me color!! And seeing as we had to move everything in kind of quick, we didn't get to paint first. Which now means we have to move stuff around, and cover stuff, and basically do things the most difficult way possibly. And the kitchen needs updating....and the gross asbestos linoleum removed. And the cabinets, something about the cabinets. I have some ideas...

9. Oh the basement. Ick. Their definition of 1/2 finished, well, is that they painted the cement block walls. And the 1/4 bath. Yeah, that's going to be walled in and turned into a real 1/2 bath ASAP! Next to that will likely be the bike area. Scary creeper "bar"? GONE!! Cement block walls in the "finished room"? Framed out and actually (gasp!) walls built. The carpet that was pulled upstairs? Laid in the basement. Futon, aka the DBB's former "bed," and his leather chair will make lovely furniture down there. Trainers, yoga balls, tv, stero, check! Hello space to workout. Oh there is so so many things to do....

10. Don't tell my PT, but I have been going sans boot for the moving process. Yes, probably not the brightest idea, but it's just so hard to manuver and accomplish things in that thing. It's no real shock my foot is extra super hurty. That goes hand in hand with not listening to the PT and Dr.

11. I really am crossing my fingers and hoping that this is the last time I move for a really long time.

12. The best part about moving? Definitely the usage of the DBB's Element. Hello XM radio and bumpin' system. I've been so spoiled cruising around town, you know the 4m round trip between the old and new place, rocking out to good tunes. I'm not sure how I will go back to my regular ol' FM radio and stock stereo system. But in the mean time, damn it feels good to be a gansta'...

13. The worst part about moving? Pretty much all of it. This post deserves every CAPITAL LETTER, profanity and exclamation point it has, and then some!!!

Pictures, oh so many pictures, to come!! Stay tuned my friends. If I can't run or bike, I am going to be a lean mean house improving MACHINE!!!

Even Ryan came to help!

Usually the "before" pictures show an in tact room....well I forgot and started pulling the carpet!

Papers are signed, the house is ours, let the remodeling begin!

How could I forget?!?

In the midst of the poop storm that is my reality these days, do have some EXCITING news to share!!

Here is a view of our new back yard!!

The offer was accepted and there is a new house in the horizon. Ok, technically, it's not my house, but Burton and I will happily be squatting there in a months time. :)

Congratulations to my favorite new home owner!!