Curse of the Cheap Trash Bag

We have found the perfect kitchen trash bags. They are the Glad 13 gallon handle tie trash bags. They are very sturdy. They are also tall to perfectly fit in our trash can. I can stuff a lot of trash into them. The only drawback is that they are expensive and sometimes out of stock. I try to preserve them by using a different bag to double wrap the bag before putting them out for pickup.


Momoko recently bought a knock off brand of trash bag from Target. They were a disaster. First off them are thin and cheaply made. They are the wrong size. So if you put something heavy in the trash can, the bag falls down to the bottom. Then additional trash goes in the can and not the bag.


These cheap bags do not hold as much trash. So I am taking out the trash a lot more often. When I do take out the trash, these bags cannot hold the extra trash I normally top the bags off with. What a nightmare. And we had a ton of these cheap bags. No more. Momoko has to get the good Hefty kind, even if she needs to shop on Amazon or goes to multiple stores.

Hauling Junk Ourselves

I informed my boss that I was leaving work early on Friday. He told me to finish up my current task. So I punched it on the job and finished early. I had Momoko drive me to the local U-Haul rental office. I picked up the box truck that I had reserved. The air conditioning in it was ice cold.


My brother was off work when I brought the truck home. We drove it to my dad's house. Had to get the landscape guy to move his truck out of the way. First we attacked the sleeper sofa from the living room. It was tough because the sleeper kept sliding out until I secured it with rope.


Then we loaded the rest of the couches and some long construction debris. We finished up at dad's house by loading in chairs and other objects that were not long. They were put as far back in the truck as possible.


My brother called ahead and had Momoko and Kit Kat move the cars out of the driveway. I had spent the morning moving all the trash bags from behind the back fence to the driveway. My brother I and loaded them into the truck. The back door barely closed.


The next morning, we drove down to the county dump. Got there 10 minutes before opening. There was already a line of 10 to 15 cars ahead of us. We got sent to a single site. Trash bags got loaded into a dumpster. Most furniture and wood went into a pile. My bro ran the metal to the other pile.


I gassed up back near dad's. Picked up a bunch of items that we needed to transport to my house. There was a surprise when I turned the truck in. They charged me $1.29 a mile, versus the $1.00 that the rep quoted me when I reserved the truck. I was too tired to fight this injustice, but I won't be going back to that store.

Paint Job Sticker Shock

We just about got my dad's house cleaned out. Now it is time to fix it up to get it ready to sell. Landscape changes are coming along. Time to paint the walls. I had my real estate agent line up a painting company to give me a quote.


Showed the company rep what I needed done: all the walls on the main level, most ceilings on the mail level, and the whole basement rec room. Also want one side exterior wall painted, as well as the outdoor hand railing.


There were two rooms that had wallpaper. The estimator said they could not provide a firm fixed price for them based on the varying time it takes to remove wallpaper. The quote came it quick and high. Estimated $13,000+ for the job. Could be more based on the wallpaper situation.


Well I think it is clear we are not hiring this company. Tomorrow I meet with an estimator for another company. Good luck to us.

Search for a Concrete Contractor

I have been searching for a new concrete contractor. Found one rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau. And they are located just down the street. I called them up and scheduled an estimator to come by. A guy named Elvis was supposed to arrive Friday night.


The estimator never showed up. Fail. Later I found that he sent me an email right before the appointment. Hello? Ever heard of the phone. I called him back and eventually got in touch with him. He came over today to see what I needed done.


Elvis said my job was going to be expensive. He kept trying to get me to give him my budget. I told him to tell me his quote, then I would tell him if he was in budget. Turns out he was over budget. Way over budget. His quote was twice the amount of the last contractor.


Next.

Trash Management

One of the last areas I need to clean out of my dad's house is his shed. It is actually a double shed packed with all kinds of things. Going to throw most of it out. So earlier this week, I brought some of my own home's trash cans to help with the effort. I filled up a whopping 5 trash cans and left them out for the collector.


Then I returned on the day of trash collection. Had worked some extra hours at work, so I left early and headed to my dad's house. I found that the trash had not been collected yet. That's okay. I took advantage and bagged up 5 trash bags worth of trash from the sheds and topped off the cans.


Normally I choose not to bag anything because some neighbors go through the trash cans. They tear up the bags and make a mess. However with the trash collection imminent, I decided I was safe. The hard part of the day was figuring out what to do with all the supplies. There were heavy containers I needed to dump out.


Most items I just emptied onto the compost pile. They were bio-degradable. But there was a lot of concrete mix. I decided to make a small drainage wall with the excess. Not sure if the mix was any good. We shall see when I return.


Eventually the trash man came. I filled up the 5 containers once again. Between that and the concrete wall construction, I was beat. I came with a 20 ounce cup of ice water. I refilled it with another 20 ounce bottle of water. Then I chased it with an Orange Crush. I wanted to cut up the recyclables, but I was just too tired. Four to five hours work in the hot and humid weather was enough. I headed home.

Violetta Season 2

Momoko and I have been hooked on this new TV series called Violetta. We powered through season 1 on Netflix. There were a whopping 80 episodes! Each espisode is 45 minutes long. This is a really good show.


The end of season one had Violetta declaring that she did not want to date either Thomas or Leon. We found out that Thomas was returning to Spain. Jade and Mattias got kicked out of Herman's house. And Violetta came clean and told her dad she has been taking music lessons at Studio 21.


Season 2 has introduced us to Diego, who wants to be Violetta's new love. So far Violetta is having none of that. Romalo has returned to work for Herman. A new teacher has arrived at the school. Pablo is long time friends with her, and might be attraced to her.


Gregorio has been dismissed for trying to sabotage a show last season. He is still hiding in the vents in the school. Night janitors and Andrei hear noises and think the school is haunted with ghosts.

Chance at Hamilton

Kit Kat and her friend are heading to New York City to see if they can see the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton. This show is off the charts and nobody can get tickets (unless you are willing to spend $1000+ on the second hand market). However Kit Kat seems to have found some contest where they are giving away tickets.


Now the odds are slim. Estimates are a 1 in 1000 chance of getting a ticket. But hey. The chance is better than zero. In case they do not get tickets, they will catch another show. This is going to be an all day affair. Kit Kat needs to drive North for about an hour, catch a bus, and be in New York by the late morning. She returns home late at night.


Hamilton seems to be helping the Broadway community. People are going out to see shows, trying to find the next Hamilton. As it stands now, it is nearly impossible to get tickets for the show. The demand is too great. Originally I think tickets were pricey at a couple hundred dollars each. Now they have skyrocketed to a couple thousand.


Personally I imagine the show is good, but not that good. Why not see another Broadway, or even off-Broadway show? Heck