still moving

good news, brothers and sisters. packing/moving continues to go well. i’m currently basically finished with the dining room, living room, upstairs, and master bathroom — pretty much anything left can be moved by the movers on tuesday if i don’t get around to it. work still to do: the kitchen is at around 85%, and the garage is probably at around 50%.
the only negative at this point is as i was unloading at the new place one of the garage apartment dwellers came out to meet me…and give me the mail she’d been saving since no one was there. in addition to a number of things for raj and kiera, there was a cingular bill for me…and a delivery slip for my passport. dated 11.10.2006. i’m hoping the post office hasn’t sent it back. i’ll be dropping by to check monday (this) morning.
in totally cool news, tonight i poured two gallons of new high octane gas in the vw bus and began trying to start it. for a long time it didn’t do anything. then it would barely sputter a bit and then nothing for a long time. after about 15 minutes or so of this, jack started spraying carb cleaner in the air intake and then it started sputtering more vigorously, blowing noxious smoke, and then nothing. eventually it cranked and would run as long as i held the pedal to the floor (and still lots of beautiful smoke). after 5 or 10 minutes of this it finally kicked in more solid (and with a giant burst of white smoke for effect) — i’m assuming some of the good gas got through the fuel lines. but it still won’t idle. if i let off the gas and the rpms drop much it will die. monday i will be buying two more gallons of high octane gas, as well as some octane boost and fuel injection cleaner. hopefully this cocktail will blow all of the years of nasty crap out of the engine and i can get it running well enough to drive over to the potts’ house. you have no idea how happy i am that the thing started after sitting there all this time. hopefully it will continue to behave itself and i can get it to the potts’ under its own power.