Housing Search, Day 1

I was going to start by getting to the Sno-Isle Natural Foods co-op at 8 a.m. when they opened. But I didn't get up until 10! So I contacted Sherie and giving us haircuts before noon was better for her. I picked her up while Kai caffeinated himself. Later, while Kai & Sherie caught up with what's been happening for both of them, I contacted all the people I had initially texted or emailed before I arrived and who had responded to me. I was able to finalize house visits for the day; I lined up 3 with the 1st at 5:30, then at 7, and finally at 9 pm. I was still waiting on a handful more to respond.

After dropping Sherie off, we went to Verizon to get my phone checked out. If you've been reading the blog you've heard me complain for the past couple of weeks that it has been acting up. Initially, I thought it was because the power button on the LifeProof case had worn through & I used tape to secure it and that was making it wonky. But the day I left I removed the case and it was still having difficulty when I tried to turn it on; it looked like when the graphics card in a computer starts to fail. Kai said it is essentially the same thing but phones don't have cards, they have something else which I can't remember. (Maybe a chip or a circuit?) I told Kelly at Verizon that I had bought the insurance policy & asked if it was still good. He said it was; he also said my Galaxy S5 was so old they would not have any S5's to replace it with. He said he had seen them replace phones with the next oldest model that was available and that he could put it in the system & see what popped up. Kelly found that if I did that I would be sent an S7 as a replacement. That works since we are waiting for the Snapdragon 855+ chip set to be incorporated in the new phones. The S7 is due to arrive in about 24 hours!

Since Kelly was so helpful, and part of his pay is based on commissions, I was going to buy the LifeProof case for the S7 from him but there was none on the display rack. He checked and found that they had some listed at their warehouse; he could order it and have it in a couple of days, the same as the phone. He tried to order it but the system wouldn't let him; it kept saying there were none in stock. Aue! So I'll be ordering it directly from LifeProof, where I will get a 10% discount since I am a repeat customer. Yes, I was going to forego my discount in order to give Kelly the commission since he was so helpful. We told him if I was back when the phones with the Snapdragon 855+ chip sets came out, we would come and buy them through him so he could get those commissions.

We went to very late brunch at Five Guys at around 2 pm. Kai had his usual Burger with almost everything plus a milkshake. I had my usual Little Burger all the way. Five Guys was our usual dinner stop after getting haircuts at Sherie's.

Kai ordering his burger.

Clockwise from lower left: Little Burger, Cheeseburger, milkshake, and small Cajun Fries.

We headed to SnoCOPE Credit Union after late brunch so I could do some banking. But we got there just as they closed. So we headed to Marysville for the first appointment to view potential rooms for Kai. Ian asked to meet at the Starbuck's in Fred Meyer; he said it was to ensure the privacy of his tenants. Kai (& I) were totally fine with his security-mindedness. He and Kai hit it off very well; he gave us the address and we met him there. We met his girlfriend Brienne and Bear, their 2-year old border collie-corgie mix who is friendly and very high energy. But we weren't able to meet the cat who was hiding somewhere in the other roommates room. Although Kai felt very positive about this house, we already had 2 more appointments scheduled and a couple more texts that we are waiting for responses from. Ian said if Kai wanted, he could move in tonight; we thanked him and said we wanted to be respectful of the people who responded to us and would let him know after we finished viewing the rooms.

We headed to the 2nd place, which was in Everett. It turns out to be across the street from the apartments that Mary Ellen's friend Karen used to live in; Kai & Karen would spend time talking about various science fiction authors. Kai rang the doorbell at the house; no one answered. We texted, no one answered. We waited 15 minutes but Ivan never showed up or responded. So we left.

We went to A Pizza House to see Gulshan and have dinner. Kai ordered a chicken Tikka pizza. We had a great visit with Gulshan while it was baking. When Kai was in high school he and his friends would always get pizzas from A Pizza House; its good pizza at a reasonable price from a small business owner not affiliated with a chain. I interviewed Gulshan for a Color Commentary story about immigrant business owners; after it aired, she was very surprised by the number of people who came in saying they had heard her on the radio.


While we were having dinner, Ivan finally responded. He said he was there and wanted to know if we would come back. I told him we had another appointment to view a room but could come by tomorrow. He said he got sidetracked by a tenant that was having wi-fi problems we will go back tomorrow.

John also responded during dinner. It looks like we will see his room for rent around noon tomorrow.

We headed to the Mill Creek area to meet with Riz to see the room she had available. It is an interesting little apartment incorporated in to a regular house. It has a separate entrance with a kitchen and full bathroom; there is one other person who would share the kitchen and bathroom. The windows of the room were interesting; on one wall they looked like they opened in to the garage. The windows in the other wall looked out to the side yard and neighboring house. The whole place reeked of cooked garlic; Kai would not need to worry about vampires!

Kathy was looking much better when we got back; this morning when she arrived she looked ashen and wasn't moving very fast.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau to  Jacque!