The insurance thing.

I had a few questions from my Beloved Readers, about my knitting bag and taking photos of it for insurance purposes.

First, for those of you saying your stuff is spread out over a whole room: mine was spread over TWO rooms. But since I had to gather it up for the move anyway, I figured I might as well put it in one place. Once it was all in the bag (there's actually a second box full of double-points that isn't in the photo), I kind of stood back and thought "even for twenty years' knitting, that's pretty nuts." Thankfully the husbeast has a garage full of tools and so cannot say a word about my pile of needles and stuff. I need a couple looms and three or four more spinning wheels, and maybe a herd of sheep, before he's allowed to complain about money spent or space taken up. The one good thing about his gearhead hobby.

The 'photos for insurance purposes' weren't interpreted in quite the way I meant them. See, we have renters' insurance. We triple-checked, and it turns out it's more like property insurance; our stuff is covered by the policy, even when we aren't renting somewhere to put it. So if something disappears or is broken in this move it's covered - both by our insurance and by the moving company, in the case of the stuff the movers are taking. I was imagining the bag disappearing, and filing a claim: Bag - $20. Contents - $500+. They would want an inventory, and I would provide it to the best of my ability, and that normally would take care of it. But "I lost a bag full of five hundred dollars' worth of knitting needles, pay up" sounds a bit insane, even to a knitter. So I took the photos. The photos themselves don't count for a whole hell of a lot - digital photos are way too easy to mess with. But I figured it would give them some idea what I was talking about, while they looked at the inventory/cost list and choked.

For others moving, worrying about keeping their gear safe, I suggest doing what I'm doing - pack it all into one bag or box. Then don't let it out of your sight. Getting renter's insurance, or some kind of property insurance, is a good idea, too. But for anything of real value, move it yourself and keep a close eye. (This is how we wound up moving half a ton - literally - of our own stuff, even with professional movers hired to move it all. I'm really tired of irreplaceable things disappearing.)

Oh. People wanted to know where I got the Japanese thread snips. Shirokiya. I think the Honolulu store, but maybe the Pearl City one. Best. Stores. Ever.

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The husbeast, Goober, and I have the weekend off. The three-day pack out was scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Monday (if fuckhead the wonder monkey over at PSD had not lost our paperwork, we'd have had more choices for scheduling and NEVER gone for a pack out over a weekend - it just adds to the nightmare). We were expecting to spend the weekend with nothing but a bed, a refrigerator, and whatever we're moving ourselves. But we lucked out. The movers ran out of space on their truck, and we've got most of our furniture here. Chairs! A couch! Such luxury!

Unfortunately they packed the entire kitchen. I'm down to plastic plates and cutlery and my grandmother's cast-iron skillet (the Magic Grilled Cheese Pan - it is a family legend that I intend to leave to my nephew in my will; obviously not something to trust the movers with). The husbeast bought a pot to make pasta in today, so it's a lot like camping, with air conditioning.

Nothing but good times ahead.