The mini-vacation: Maker Mark Day @ Keeneland and Disney

We just got back from driving 2,000 miles in 5 days.  Wooof...my butt hurts from sitting that long, but we did have a great time. Allow me to explain.

Racetracks. Yes, we are bettors

Every year, the bourbon, Maker's Mark, sponsors a day at the Keeneland Race track in Lexington, KY. As we are Kentucky Colonels, I like drinking bourbon, and the wife's Dad and wife live there, we decided to head on up and bet the ponies. 10 races, 5 bets, we walked away with about $65, basically breaking even when you consider we paid for lunch, etc.


It was a nice afternoon, followed by a delicious dinner at a local German restaurant named Marikkas. Brats, sauerkraut, wiener schnitzel and beer? Yes, please!

Maker's Mark day at Keeneland was followed by the Retirement party of the CEO of the company, Bill Samuels. He's the 7th(?) generation of Samuels to distill bourbon and he had a blow out to celebrate. A very large tent was set up in a hotel parking lot in downtown Lexington. There was a band, lighting and sound equipment, food, and of course, booze. Tickets were $10 a pop and all proceeds went to a local shelter for battered woman (insert snarky comment here about booze and abuse).

The Truck Packers

After receiving the estimates from the moving companies (see this link), it's official. We're doing the deed by ourselves.

So I wasted little time in booking the moving companies which will load the boxes and furniture into the truck here in CT, and then unload the truck down in Auburn.

For about $500, I save the wife and I a lot of heavy lifting.

$500 = totally worth it.

Next steps? Mapping the driving route, booking a pet-friendly hotel (the drive will take 2 days), collecting additional packing boxes, packing, forwarding mail, setting up utilities, canceling utilities here...etc.

We still have lots to do.

Last of the Estimators, The Final Verdict Comes In

Boy, what a disappointment.

I was really hoping this last one was going to come in at a rate that would at least make us think about giving them the work. Instead, it's outrageousness has forced our hand.

We're doing the move ourselves. No question about that anymore.

The last estimator was a national carrier, one that my employer has a relationship with. Not that my employer is going to be paying for the move, but I had hoped that we might be able to get a little bit better of a deal. Instead, we got the highest estimate of the three. So, to recap:

Estimate #1 - $4,350
Estimate #2 - $6,500
Estimate #3 - $8,000

Now, #3 included $2K for packing and $1100 for moving a washing machine and dryer. For that amount of $, I can buy a new washer and dryer when I get there. If you knock off the $3,100, we're down to $4,900, but still...Yowzers

So, we did our due diligence and now the path is clear. Time to hire moving companies to load and unload the truck.

Bros: Stop the Bros Icing Bros

I had read about it on some blog (don't remember which) a few weeks ago, and I thought to myself, "Huh. Smirnoff is getting into the viral marketing thing by making potential customers think their product is so awful its an insult to get iced. Pretty smart."

And then it exploded.

There's this describing the history of the phenomenon.

And this, described as the epitome of douche. The most apt description I've read.


Bros: Stop the madness.

Bros don't ice other bros

Things I am looking forward to

While I have enjoyed living in the Northeast, the particular corner of the country I call home currently is not my ideal cup of tea. And it's the people who live here that are fault for this, I think.

Case in point: Wife and I are grabbing a drink at an overpriced wine bar after I get off the train from work. Two  women are sitting at the end of the bar chatting. It's clear this is their first meeting alone without their husbands (hence their mission is to impress one another. And maybe intimidate one another as well). It's also clear these are horrible people as their conversation revolves around how great it is to live in a town that mandates properties to be no less than 2 acres big, how their husbands who work at Mackinzie make a shit-ton of $, and how they themselves would never dream of living outside the NY-CT area. I wanted to chuck my high-ball glass at their faces.

But that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to list out some of the things I am looking forward to when I move. So here goes.

1. Awesome cycling. Auburn and that area of Alabama has great biking (both mountain and road). I am psyched about this.
2. College football - Auburn. SEC. Enough said
3. BBQ - self-explanatory
4. Central air - I hate summer humidity. Our house will have central air so I can sleep in comfort. Two words about that. HELL and YES.
5. A little extra $ in our pockets - Southern living = cheap living.

And there's plenty more which (when I am not on my lunch break) I'll write about. But until then, it's a start.

And yes, I do realize that when we move down South there will be people who will want to throw glasses at my face because I will inevitably be saying something stupid too loudly. But I'll take my shots, if only to leave this county.

Dealing with movers

No matter where or when I have moved in the past, I was the one who was always doing it. Packing it in boxes, loading the truck, driving, unpacking, arranging, hanging pictures, shades, drapes, etc. This move, with its distance and additional heft, presents a challenge in both scope and duration. So, I figured we'd get some estimates from some movers.

Moving companies have a shitty reputation for a reason.They employ classic asymmetrical information tactics upon their usually hapless victims, hapless being defined either as being an individual handicapped with children and pets and a huge house of stuff to move rendering them incapable of packing and unpacking, or being the company who is paying for the individual and all their stuff to move hence having the individual not really care how much its going to cost. (Holy run-on sentence batman.).

The estimators the moving companies send to your house are supposed to be the experts. You rely on them to accurately estimate how much shit you have. But, its not in their best interest to give an accurate estimate because then they don't really make $. So, being that they get paid on both the amount and the distance they move, (and the distance is fixed), they are incentivized by the amount they move, hence they usually overestimate the amount of stuff. But they can't over-estimate too much because they know you, the individual or company paying for the move, are going to get multiple estimates. So, then they might underestimate, hoping to score the work on a lowball effort, get your stuff on the truck, hold it hostage, and then rip up the original estimate because clearly you, the individual, didn't show the original estimator how much shit you really had in the first place. Confused? So am I.

Here's where we are with the process. We've had 2 estimators come in. The first told us we had 1200 cubic feet and would charge us $4300. The second came in and told us we had 1500 cubic feet and would charge us $6300. Fuuuuuuaaaaa......

I call bullshit on both of them, because when I look at the Uhaul site or the Penske site, they both say a 2-3 bedroom house or apartment requires a 17 ft truck, or 850 cubic feet. We have a 2 bedroom apartment. There's no way we have almost double than that.

So, I am going to get a 3rd estimate from the company that is employed by my company when they move people. (We're self-financing this move). I am going to be very honest with them and let them know about the 2 previous estimates, BUT I am not going to let them know what they are.

I will then take their #'s, end up renting the 22 ft truck I already have on hold with Penske, and do the move myself. That'll show 'em.