Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Penske, housing, running, and cars
Jie did some more scouting on the internet and she found that we could get a 15' truck for 8 days through Penske for only $1200. It's basically the same deal as Budget, but for $150 less, although that discount is due entirely to a AAA discount. Penske was kind enough to include fuel consumption estimates, and we realized today that gas is going to cost us another $350+ over the course of the trip. Good grief, now I understand why all those SUV and truck owners are complaining about high gas prices. So, at $1550-1600 to move ourselves, Jie is thinking that perhaps we should hire movers. We got a quote for $2000, so for $400 I am going to sit in the cab of a truck for 30 hours over three days and load and unload all our crap myself. Hmmm...maybe movers aren't such a bad idea.
I called the Harvard housing office today to get a feel for when we can expect to hear on a match for our dismal housing number. The lady was very nice and ran through all the options available to us. Although she won't have a good idea of timing for our number for a few weeks, there is a non-lottery subset of housing that is published every day after 2pm. These atypical apartments (basement level, close to daycare center, etc.), are not given away via lottery but instead to whomever asks for them the day they are made available. Unfortunately, the leases usually start pretty soon after they become available, so we probably won't seriously investigate this option until late June. We can also e-mail our preferred off-campus apartment features to the Harvard housing office and they will e-mail us back with local apartments that meet our needs. Like I said, very nice people.
I have been slowly getting back into running. I ran 3 miles today, which represents a decent achievement in my mind. Unfortunately, my right calf keeps cramping up after I run. I have been icing it after runs and then using the heating pad before bed, but it just keeps happening. Any ideas out there?
Jie and I are due to test drive a 2001 Nissan Sentra in Austin this weekend. Based on reviews and online info I have picked this model as our b-school transportation. We can avoid shelling out big bucks for a car that's going to be sparingly used and subjected to horrific parking. We still haven't driven one, though, so we still need to sit down in one and decide if it's for us. We'll see...
I called the Harvard housing office today to get a feel for when we can expect to hear on a match for our dismal housing number. The lady was very nice and ran through all the options available to us. Although she won't have a good idea of timing for our number for a few weeks, there is a non-lottery subset of housing that is published every day after 2pm. These atypical apartments (basement level, close to daycare center, etc.), are not given away via lottery but instead to whomever asks for them the day they are made available. Unfortunately, the leases usually start pretty soon after they become available, so we probably won't seriously investigate this option until late June. We can also e-mail our preferred off-campus apartment features to the Harvard housing office and they will e-mail us back with local apartments that meet our needs. Like I said, very nice people.
I have been slowly getting back into running. I ran 3 miles today, which represents a decent achievement in my mind. Unfortunately, my right calf keeps cramping up after I run. I have been icing it after runs and then using the heating pad before bed, but it just keeps happening. Any ideas out there?
Jie and I are due to test drive a 2001 Nissan Sentra in Austin this weekend. Based on reviews and online info I have picked this model as our b-school transportation. We can avoid shelling out big bucks for a car that's going to be sparingly used and subjected to horrific parking. We still haven't driven one, though, so we still need to sit down in one and decide if it's for us. We'll see...
