This Old Bull

Yeah, I know, it’s Wednesday. But Monday was part of last weekend, and I was too busy yesterday to write this. Join me, please, in a journey into the past.

This last weekend was really great. Friday night [Betsy](http://onlyevenprime.com/) and I just hung out. Saturday, we went over to our dear friend Kassi’s house in Wake Forest to help her celebrate her birthday. She recently came back from a London/Paris trip and had lots of amazing and beautiful pictures to show us and gifts to give. Betsy made this awesome pork chop dinner, and we watched some [Doctor Who](http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/), drank some [sparkling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkling_wine) [rosé](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosé) wine, and just enjoyed ourselves. Sunday was more hanging out at home with Betsy.

Monday, Kassi came over to hang out with us, and we found out that [Six Plates](http://sixplates.blogspot.com/) does half-price bottles of wine on Monday nights. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Six Plates here before, but it’s one of my favorite restaurants. The premise behind it is that there are exactly six entrée options with a menu that rotates every couple of weeks. With each entrée are paired six ideal and unique wine-by-the-glass options of wines that you’ve probably never considered trying before. [Matthew Beason](http://sixplates.blogspot.com/2007/10/more-about-matthew-beason.html), the owner, noticed that when people went out to eat they were rarely willing to experiment with wine, so he applies his wine knowledge — which is extensive — to helping folks find new flavors and styles. Chef Ted Domville uses all local ingredients whenever possible, and it’s just a wonderful place.

Kassi and I had the Cane Creek pork chop with white “baked beans” and bok choy, and Betsy had the Braeburn Farm sirloin with caramelized sweet potatoes and tobacco onion rings. It was all amazing. We started with the cheese plate — which is brilliantly presented on a piece of slate with the cheese names written in chalk, along with fresh honey and honeycomb and some crusty bread — and a bottle of Californian rosé which was unlike any other rosé I’ve ever tried. With and after dinner, we had a pinot gris which was also simply delightful, and then we finished up with the chocolate mousse trio for desert. It’s a great place, and I absolutely recommend everyone who likes good food and good wine at reasonable prices check it out.

Yesterday was a day of deliveries:

• TiVo HD
• TiVo Wireless G Adapter (for the old TiVo Series 2 unit in my bedroom)
• Linksys WRT54GL wireless router
• A couple more HDMI cables

I hooked up the TiVo HD to plain old basic cable for now, but Time Warner’s arriving tomorrow to set up my digital cable and give me a CableCard adapter for the TiVo. I realized I had a bunch of devices in the living room that need to be on the network, and rather than put all of them on the wireless individually — which, in some cases would require purchasing an additional wireless adapter for the device — I could just get the Linksys router, slap the awesome and free Tomato third-party firmware on it, disable the routing functionality, and set it up as a wireless bridge to my main wireless router. Then I can just plug things in to the LAN ports on the “router” in the living room and they appear to be on the same network as the rest of my LAN. Neat stuff. I also finally put an 802.11g adapter on my older TiVo, which means I can shut off the 802.11b network that I was running solely for its needs.

Here are some photos:

The new TV was delivered by Yellow Transportation freight Monday evening. It was later than I’d expected because the driver had a really bad day; first his cargo liftgate was stuck in the up-and-extended position, and then later the rolling door on the back of the truck lost a couple of hinges. But he was incredibly friendly and professional and helped us get the TV inside. The set itself was remarkably light, and we had no trouble getting it on the stand I’d gotten and assembled the week before. I let it relax for about an hour to reach room temperature — setting up the PS3, cable, and stereo hookups while I waited — and then fired it up. It looks, in a word, glorious. It’s bright, crisp, and fast. If I try real hard I can see the rainbow effect when quickly moving my eyes across the image, but I don’t notice it when I’m watching. Two games that I’d had problems with — Burnout Paradise and PixelJunk Eden — on my older, smaller TV are a lot easier and more engrossing on the big screen. Vann’s was great, with phenomenal prices, free shipping, and excellent sales support, so I’d recommend at least checking their prices if you’re going to be making a big A/V purchase.

I’m looking forward to enjoying this thing for a very long time.  Here are some photos:

Yeah, it’s a [D&D](http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome) reference. Sorry. The [TV stand](http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-TR-500X3BX-Adjustable-61-Inch-Stand/dp/B000P53JRG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1219163958&sr=8-1) was one of the most difficult pieces of furniture I’ve ever had to assemble. After about two hours of struggling with it, it’s together, looks great, and seems sturdy enough. You can’t even tell where the back fell off, stripping out chunks of the [MDF](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard), when I inadvertently applied too much pressure in the wrong spot during construction. It’s not as if the screws were load-bearing, at least, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.

I drove out to [Legends](http://www.legends-club.com/) in Raleigh last night to see a [dear, dear friend](http://bejipan.livejournal.com/) off before she moves to Atlanta. I’m going to miss her, and I got in pretty late because I didn’t want to leave the club. This morning I awoke with a headache — which isn’t uncommon for me after not getting enough sleep — and one of the construction people was in the courtyard alternately banging and circular-sawing. The joys of living in a construction zone. I can handle headaches; I can handle noise. But the two of them together? Ugh. I’m looking forward to an evening in, and getting to bed early.

This weekend I finally ordered the new TV from Vanns.com. I settled on the Samsung HL61A650, a 61″ LED-based DLP TV (OMG!). What this means is that while it’s a rear-projection set, it uses LEDs instead of a lamp so I won’t have to replace a bulb ever. It got great reviews, is the right size for my viewing distance, and looks phenomenal.

Last week, I ordered the stand for it, which just got delivered today. The FedEx lady called me from the front door’s call box, and I walked up there from my office, helped her get it in to the apartment, and headed back to work, helping some of my coworkers load some systems into a car to take to campus on the way back.

I love living this close to my office!

Update: It turns out that this isn’t an LED model, which I found out after looking very, very carefully at the spec sheet. I talked to one of the sales support guys at Vann’s and he recommended the lamp-based unit anyway. His points were that it produces a more natural white light rather than the bluish tint that the LED units can have, and it’s a tried-and-true technology so there are likely to be fewer kinks to work out. For what it’s worth, I’ve loved the TV so far, and am exceedingly happy with my decision on this model.

On the morning of Friday, the First of August, TROSA showed up at a little before 9AM to start loading my life into a truck. At around 10:30AM, I spoke with Ally at the leasing office; they were still waiting on one final signature from someone with the city and had been waiting since 9AM. There were already two other residents with movers waiting to put items into their new apartments. At 11AM, we were done loading the truck and ready to head over to Old Bull, still not having the keys to get into my new place. At about 11:30AM, Ally called to let me know she was on her way to meet me with my new keys almost exactly when the movers finished parking the truck; I was overjoyed to not have to pay the movers to sit there, waiting for the city. At 12:30PM, all my stuff was in my new apartment. We were done. I bought the movers pizza to thank them for their time (and because we were all starving), and had the first meal in my new home.

As always, TROSA was nothing short of amazing. When we’d finished, the other two crews who’d been waiting were still going. I donated my old washer and dryer to TROSA, since the new apartment has really nice new ones, and I got an amazing work crew for a phenomenal price. I will always continue to use and recommend them for moves of any size. Their workers are fast, professional, kind, and careful. Their prices are more than reasonable and go to a very good cause.

Betsy spent the afternoon cleaning up the old apartment — once again, there is no way I could have made this move without her help — and I took over from her in the evening. I am absolutely ecstatic to be rid of that dump, and there is no love lost between me and the former apartment.

Today we went shopping for various accouterments for the apartment, including some really nice stuff for the bathroom and kitchen, and an alarm clock that I can read from across the spacious bedroom without my glasses on. She cooked me dinner — homemade lasagna! — with some new pots and pans I got. There were some fireworks from a Durham Bulls victory, and we had a wonderful evening with one of our dearest friends, my first guest in my new home.

To put it bluntly, I absolutely adore this apartment. It feels like a home to me, something I haven’t had in quite some time. It’s not without its flaws — the trains can be kind of noisy at times, and while the windows are very tall I wish they were wider so I could get a better view of the downtown skyline — but I suspect I’m going to be very happy here for quite some time. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Earlier today I signed the lease and various other pieces of paperwork. We still appear to be all set for August 1st, so I’m getting final things in order. Betsy has been absolutely invaluable in helping me get packed, as well as providing moral support, and I could not have done this without her help.

I’ll keep everyone posted throughout the week!

I just signed the most recent — and hopefully final — welcome letter, and I have an appointment to sign the lease on Monday, the 28th. It’s expected that the Certificate of Occupancy will be in hand early next week, after having been denied in late June and pushing all the residents back until August 1st. It’s been a bit of a hassle having to set up and then cancel moves, utility transfers, changes of address, etc. but Ally and Kia have both been incredibly helpful, communicative, and patient. These setbacks haven’t been easy on them, either, and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to getting normal living underway.

So, if all goes according to plan I will have the lease signed on Monday and will be moving in on Friday, August 1st. Here’s hoping!

I went by the apartment yesterday to take some measurements of the living room and master bedroom to determine how my furniture might best fit (the living room is approximately 12’ x 16’ and the bedroom is about 12’ x 13’, in case you’re keeping score). I’ve also been wanting to pick up an HDTV, so I wanted to get an idea of the living room dimensions to help me decide on the optimum screen size.

It looks like I’ll have a viewing distance of about 10 to 12 feet, which would mean I’d be looking for a screen in the 60-inch range. My knowledge of HDTV isn’t all that great, though, so I may be mistaken. I’ve been eyeballing a handful of DLP rear-projection screens because they offer the best size-to-money ratio. I also do a lot of gaming, and DLP screen have faster response times than LCDs, offering a faster and cleaner picture when playing video games. I don’t appear to be susceptible to the rainbow effect that some people have when watching lamp-based DLP TVs, and I’m not worried about having to replace the lamp all the time because I don’t use the TV too terribly much.

I’ve been weighing getting a new TV from Vann’s versus getting a refurbished unit from Second Act; the latter is cheaper and I could use the money I save to buy a nice five-year warranty, but with Vann’s I’d get free shipping and a discount on a matching stand. I’ve had good results with refurbs in the past, and I’ve read great reviews of both, so I’m kind of on the fence. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I spoke with Kia at the Apartments at American Tobacco just a few minutes ago, and she informed me that I’ve been approved for apartment 301 in the Old Bull building!  Hooray!