Ack! I'm getting way behind in this blog, and Virg is now out-publishing me. No good. I'll attempt to speed through a whole bunch of boring stuff.
Saturday, June 28
Virg had already ditched me to see Sex And The City when it opened, but at long last she went to the theater to watch it with me. It was ok. The first hour was stupid, and then it got really stupid, but then if you were willing to buy all that stupidity, the final 90 minutes of this never-ending movie were actually fairly good. For dinner we tried a random Chinese place near us called Chopsticks. As the only customers that night, we were pretty unimpressed, but stayed for a long time anyway, to avoid another typically crazy Pittsburgh lightning storm outside.Monday, June 30
We found a great random Chinese/Japanese place for lunch on Murray Ave. In the evening, we bought an air conditioning unit for our room, although it took us several days to bother installing it. With all these AC window units, we can't technically lower the temperature much, but it sure feels a lot cooler in here. (We're dreading our first electric bill.) Anyway, we celebrated by pigging out on the yummy Chocolate Raspberry Passion dessert at the Rock Bottom brewery.
Tuesday, July 1
I figured there was no immediate rush to deal with the DMV. Well, back when I was still living in California, I got a bill to re-register my car, and I thought, "Why would I pay money to register my car in California, when I'll already be in Pittsburgh by the time it kicks in?" And so we moved to Pittsburgh, and one day I realized I had let my CA registration run out, leaving us to drive an unregistered vehicle. Not good.
Well, it turns out you can't register a vehicle in Pennsylvania without (1) a Pennsylvania driver's license and (2) Pennsylvania auto insurance. And it also turns out you really need the driver's license in order to get the insurance. So what do you need to get a PA driver's license? Many things, but most importantly, you either need a birth certificate (don't have this) or a passport. No problem. I've got a passport--good for ten years. But a quick glance showed that the ten years were due to run out in two days. Holy crap! Time to run over to the DMV!
Ok. The DMV turns out to be called PennDOT here, probably because it fails to live up to the competent and friendly customer service you'd generally associate with a real DMV. The nearest PennDOT turned out to be all the way out in Monroeville, and it turns out they only do driver's licenses there--no registrations. So, Virg and I show up having no idea if we've got the right paperwork with us, just hoping to talk to someone and ask what we need. The take-a-number machine assigns us number 450. No problem. We're lucky enough to grab a couple of empty seats, and we look at the numbers lit up above the two desks in front of us, and we see that they're on number 390! About 10 minutes later, we look up and see that they're still on 390. Ugh.
And so we waited in those uncomfortable seats for over 2 hours.
Finally they reached 450. The employee who helped us was very friendly and professional, and it turns out that *phew* we actually have everything we need to get our licenses! The waiting was not in vain! Still, we must have been at that desk for over 10 minutes. The employee is very impressed that we've actually filled out the form to get a license. I guess most Pennsylvanians aren't as bright. At one point he starts scribbling a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper, and we wait silently for him to finish. A couple minutes later he gives us the paper, and on it he's written the names and locations of several restaurants he likes in the area (completely illegible, of course). No wonder it took forever for them to call our number! Considering half the people waiting there are new to the area, you'd think this guy might want to have pre-xeroxed a whole stack of illegible restaurant suggestions.
Anyway, now that that's done, it's time to take a number to wait to have our photos taken, thus immortalizing the haircut I'd gotten that morning. Thankfully, this goes pretty quickly, and they print off our new temporary Pennsylvania driver's licenses--good for 14 days. Our "official" driver's licenses would be arriving in the mail. But here's what doesn't make any sense. The temporary IDs aren't crudely-typed folded pieces of paper. They're full-fledged (I love fledging!) plasticky bar-coded cards, sporting two exhausted-looking photos of me (now in both medium and large sizes!), and covered in all sorts of intricate holograms. When our "official" driver's licenses finally arrived in the mail a week later, they were pretty much identical to the temporary ones--except these didn't have the word TEMPORARY stamped across them in red. So why bother with the temporaries if they have the facilities to issue the real things?
Wednesday, July 2
The painter arrived to paint our bedroom this cool light chocolate color that Virg picked out. (It took her all of 2 seconds to decide among the thousands of shades of brown at Lowe's, and it turned out to be a fantastic choice.) All the white paint in our bedroom and on all the moldings and doorways had dark smudges and fingerprints, etc., so thankfully our landlord agreed to have someone paint over it all. So, for a week we had a painter hanging out in our house during the day. He proved to be a nice guy and a pretty good painter who got through a lot of painting very quickly. Still, we were just a little uncomfortable having a stranger in our house, so I picked up a lot of takeout sandwiches for lunch. And we got to try out our guest room bed on the first night when our room was only half-painted.
Also, we watched Futurama's next movie installment: "The Beast With A Billion Backs"--not nearly as clever as "Bender's Big Score".
Friday, July 4
Virg had the day off, so we spent lunchtime at the movies seeing The Incredible Hulk. It only proved to be incredible for the first half of the movie, in which the script took time to focus on Bruce Banner's struggle to lead a normal life (and Ed Norton was awesome). The second half was just stupid, with the characters making a series of implausible decisions just to pave the way for a contrived final big battle between the Hulk and another giant mutant.
In the evening, we went to the Monroeville Mall to watch fireworks. The fireworks were ok, but the audience was pretty trashy, and going home, it took us 30 minutes to get out of the mall traffic.
Saturday, July 5
Our first visitor arrived--Virg's friend Jen from Ohio! We spent the afternoon exploring Pittsburgh's exciting Strip District. And what's so exciting about it? Don't know. We were bored of this large seedy run-down area in just 10 minutes. Apparently they have cool farmer's-market-type things in the mornings, and then I guess it reverts back to being a dump.
Sunday, July 6
Virg tried out some fancy market called the Food Co-op, which I'm sure she'll want to write all about. Then she and Jen spent the day doing girly shopping. In the evening, we went out for a fancy dinner at an Italian place called Girasole in Shadyside. So yummy good...
Mr. M shows off for Jen by doing battle with his classic arch-nemesis: the DVD player.
Note the new WRISTSTRONG bracelet Virg is sporting to show her solidarity with her husband and Stephen Colbert and other heroic athletes suffering from wrist injuries.
Mr. Guy studies geography.
Ohio State alums know how to party!
The next morning, Jen left and the painter returned.
Wednesday, July 9
Finally, our driver's licenses had arrived in the mail, thereby letting me get the car insured. At last, enough pieces had fallen into place to solve the unregistered car problem. We were grateful to learn you can avoid the PennDOT beast by registering through AAA. On the PennDOT web site, we learned that you need "to bring the following items with you" to register your car:
After a great deal of searching, I found a list online of all inspection mechanics in the state of Pennsylvania. Downloaded it. Put it into Excel. Sorted by zip code. For everything in our zip, I searched on google maps to find the closest one. Called them, and I got this very helpful guy on the phone, who said he could verify the VIN any time, but I'd need to get the MV-1 form for him. Ugh.
I call AAA to get one of these forms, and I get this horribly rude woman, who says they don't allow the form out of the building. Well, can they verify my VIN at AAA? Only the inspection mechanic can do that. Ok, how do I do this if I can't get the form to the mechanic? They tell me to get a different form, MV-41.
I find the form online, and the first two blanks call for my Pennsylvania title number and registration plate number. (If I had these, I wouldn't need to go through this stupid process in the first place!) To make matters worse, the back of the form states "This application can only be used to correct typographical error of one digit, transposition of two digits, or if the vehicle's engine number has been erroneously recorded as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)." This doesn't sound like the right form at all. I call AAA back. Same nasty woman, insisting again that I take this form to the mechanic.
So I do. The mechanic is kind and helpful, and takes care of me immediately. He doesn't balk at the form, so maybe it's the right one after all. He tells me, "I don't know why they tell you to get a tracing. I've never seen a car where it was possible to trace the VIN." Thanks, PennDOT.
Armed with everything but MV-1, I drive my unregistered vehicle over to AAA. I take a number. 26. Wait for a minute. Someone calls "25? 26?" And I'm being helped immediately by a refreshingly pleasant woman. Turns out I've got everything I need, since she fills out MV-1 for me without my ever seeing it. A couple minutes later and they hand me my new registration and license plate. I drive home, take off the CA plates, put on the PA plate (no front plate in PA), and my car is legal at last. Woo hoo!
Virg and I celebrated in the evening by going to a restaurant called Bravo's at the Waterfront. It was a lot like a Macaroni Grill, and we both really enjoyed what we ordered.
our newly painted room, featuring new air conditioner unit
Also, we watched Futurama's next movie installment: "The Beast With A Billion Backs"--not nearly as clever as "Bender's Big Score".
Friday, July 4
Virg had the day off, so we spent lunchtime at the movies seeing The Incredible Hulk. It only proved to be incredible for the first half of the movie, in which the script took time to focus on Bruce Banner's struggle to lead a normal life (and Ed Norton was awesome). The second half was just stupid, with the characters making a series of implausible decisions just to pave the way for a contrived final big battle between the Hulk and another giant mutant.
In the evening, we went to the Monroeville Mall to watch fireworks. The fireworks were ok, but the audience was pretty trashy, and going home, it took us 30 minutes to get out of the mall traffic.
Saturday, July 5
Our first visitor arrived--Virg's friend Jen from Ohio! We spent the afternoon exploring Pittsburgh's exciting Strip District. And what's so exciting about it? Don't know. We were bored of this large seedy run-down area in just 10 minutes. Apparently they have cool farmer's-market-type things in the mornings, and then I guess it reverts back to being a dump.
Sunday, July 6
Virg tried out some fancy market called the Food Co-op, which I'm sure she'll want to write all about. Then she and Jen spent the day doing girly shopping. In the evening, we went out for a fancy dinner at an Italian place called Girasole in Shadyside. So yummy good...
Mr. M shows off for Jen by doing battle with his classic arch-nemesis: the DVD player.
Note the new WRISTSTRONG bracelet Virg is sporting to show her solidarity with her husband and Stephen Colbert and other heroic athletes suffering from wrist injuries.
Mr. Guy studies geography.
Ohio State alums know how to party!
The next morning, Jen left and the painter returned.
Wednesday, July 9
Finally, our driver's licenses had arrived in the mail, thereby letting me get the car insured. At last, enough pieces had fallen into place to solve the unregistered car problem. We were grateful to learn you can avoid the PennDOT beast by registering through AAA. On the PennDOT web site, we learned that you need "to bring the following items with you" to register your car:
- title
- proof of pennsylvania insurance
- completed form MV-1 [not availabe online. must be completed by authorized agent]
- tracing of the VIN [or verification by an inspection mechanic]
After a great deal of searching, I found a list online of all inspection mechanics in the state of Pennsylvania. Downloaded it. Put it into Excel. Sorted by zip code. For everything in our zip, I searched on google maps to find the closest one. Called them, and I got this very helpful guy on the phone, who said he could verify the VIN any time, but I'd need to get the MV-1 form for him. Ugh.
I call AAA to get one of these forms, and I get this horribly rude woman, who says they don't allow the form out of the building. Well, can they verify my VIN at AAA? Only the inspection mechanic can do that. Ok, how do I do this if I can't get the form to the mechanic? They tell me to get a different form, MV-41.
I find the form online, and the first two blanks call for my Pennsylvania title number and registration plate number. (If I had these, I wouldn't need to go through this stupid process in the first place!) To make matters worse, the back of the form states "This application can only be used to correct typographical error of one digit, transposition of two digits, or if the vehicle's engine number has been erroneously recorded as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)." This doesn't sound like the right form at all. I call AAA back. Same nasty woman, insisting again that I take this form to the mechanic.
So I do. The mechanic is kind and helpful, and takes care of me immediately. He doesn't balk at the form, so maybe it's the right one after all. He tells me, "I don't know why they tell you to get a tracing. I've never seen a car where it was possible to trace the VIN." Thanks, PennDOT.
Armed with everything but MV-1, I drive my unregistered vehicle over to AAA. I take a number. 26. Wait for a minute. Someone calls "25? 26?" And I'm being helped immediately by a refreshingly pleasant woman. Turns out I've got everything I need, since she fills out MV-1 for me without my ever seeing it. A couple minutes later and they hand me my new registration and license plate. I drive home, take off the CA plates, put on the PA plate (no front plate in PA), and my car is legal at last. Woo hoo!
Virg and I celebrated in the evening by going to a restaurant called Bravo's at the Waterfront. It was a lot like a Macaroni Grill, and we both really enjoyed what we ordered.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment