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sears finally got in touch with me last night to let me know my refrigerator (for my great uncle's 2nd floor apartment) was ready for pick-up. what i thought would take only 3-5 days ended up taking 10 days. we decided to go pick it up ourselves instead of having it delivered to save the $70 in fees.

after getting some gas, i took the motorcycle to the cafe so my father and i could go down to the galleria mall sears and pick up our appliance. inside the merchandise pickup waiting room was a kiosk where you put in your order either by scanning a UPC code or reading a credit card. an overhead monitor announcing when the item would be ready was broken. we could see through the swinging doors, just a bunch of guys hanging out. the guy who ended up coming out to help us was covered in tattoos and piercings, as well as wearing eyeliner. he wheeled out the boxed fridge on a hand truck and put it in the back of our honda element. i figured we'd have to drive with the box hanging out the back but my father managed to close the back door completely while i was getting our parking ticket validated. it helps that the 11 cubic feet fridge is designed for a small apartment (24" wide).

the box itself was too large to fit through the door of my great uncle's 2nd floor apartment so we ended up just taking out the fridge. bin bin's boyfriend was home and came downstairs to help my father carry the fridge up a flight of stairs. i thought it'd be much harder but it went pretty smoothly. the next half hour it was just my father and i relocating the fridge doors so they open on the right instead of the standard left (actually when i ordered the fridge i asked for right-open but they didn't do anything about it). while my father was underneath the fridge putting on the screws, i was in charge of holding the fridge at an angle. you wouldn't think that would be very strenuous but half an hour later my arms felt tired.

the whole reason why the apartment needed a new fridge was because the old one was leaking. instead of tossing the old fridge though, my father said he could still use it, and would move it the cafe basement in a few more days, after the tenants have moved the contents of the old fridge into the new one.

it was well passed 4:00 by the time we finished. i motorcycled back to my place as it was getting dark, taking a box of leftover fried rice for dinner.

all this effort to put in a new fridge has gotten me to thinking about upgrading my own fridge, a circa 1987 whirlpool princess series. it too has a rear condensation problem and seems to be getting noisier with each passing year. i'd love to get a fridge with the exact same interior configuration (meat drawer, crisper bins, egg rack) but better energy saving features.

also arriving today: the sage 24x38" memory foam bath rug ($20) i ordered from kohl's. it's to replace the current bath rug, which is old enough that the rubber backing has mostly flaked off. i don't know how i feel about this new one. it's weirdly soft, like stepping on a pillow, and leaves foot prints. i'm just worried it'll be too easy to get dirty (but apparently you can machine wash it anytime).