Time to get going… soon

Let’s get the big news out of the way first: the Fayetteville house is under contract. We close on February 3rd.

Whew.

Actually, there’s not much else to report. It’s winter here in Northwest Arkansas, and that means if the sun is shining it’s about 20 degrees. If it’s warmer – say, in the 50s – then it’s totally overcast, except those clouds won’t actually produce any rain.

So it’s safe to say winter in the south is not my favorite thing.

Michael and I did check out the Fayetteville Air Museum, which was super cool for me since I love things that fly.

I mentioned in my last post that Michael’s parents moved into an assisted living facility, and it went pretty smoothly. We brought all the big stuff first, like the dresser and the TV and clothes. The stuff they really needed. For the past week now we’ve been visiting pretty much daily and bringing things with us each time. You know, the small stuff that makes an apartment feel like home, instead of a hotel room.

My happiest find was what I’ll call a knick-kack shelf. Beth has a lot of small glass pieces around the house and I knew she’d want them in the apartment, but table space is kind of at a premium there. I went looking for shelves. Mostly online, so I could show Beth. This became the front runner:

I found it on Etsy, and you can click here to go direct to the seller’s page.

I liked it because the spaces are all different sizes and it can hold lots of stuff. I thought the price was a bit high, but Beth told me to go for it. The problem? Shipping. The seller was charging $200 for shipping.

Maybe because it was oversize? I don’t know, but $200 for shipping was a deal breaker.

So I started a local search through the flea markets here in Fayetteville. Here’s what I found (after a few coats of Krylon):

I’m actually quite proud of myself for this one. Beth and Steve love it.

Anyway, Michael celebrated his birthday on the same day we closed on the house, Friday. We started the day with a brutal CrossFit workout (it involved a fabulous weightlifting move called a snatch), and since it was his birthday Michael requested “Eye of the Tiger.” That’s right, we worked out to the Rocky III soundtrack.

After that it was a seafood kind of day. Beth and Steve took us to Red Lobster for lunch, where I wolfed down some lobster tacos and Michael thoroughly enjoyed a giant plate of crab legs. I needed a nap after that meal. And I was barely hungry hours later, when we met up with some friends for sushi at Wasabi on Dickson Street. It’s the second time we’ve eaten there – the first time was at the end of December, after seeing the Cate Brothers at George’s Majestic Lounge.

Yummy stuff at Wasabi. I mean, I get the sashimi plate nowadays (to avoid the rice) but everyone said the rolls and nigiri were fabulous. After dinner it was on to Arkadia Retrocade. They don’t have a website but here’s a link for more information.

The retro arcade feels like a recent trend. Boulder has the Press Play Bar and we went there a few times. It’s fun!

The really cool thing about Arkadia is this: $5 gets you in the door and once inside all the machines are free. How awesome is that?!? Games like Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga, Paper Boy, X-Men… and that’s just what I can remember off the top of my head. This place is packed with games. Only four pinball machines (and only 2 worked), though. I saw bubble hockey. Air hockey. There are a few couches set up in front of retro (read: 1970’s) TVs and couches, with retro game consoles and boxes of games to choose from. We played bowling on a first generation Atari. It was hilarious and awesome and crazy to think about how far we’ve come with graphics.

There’s even a snack bar! Since you might be there for a while, gotta keep up your strength and all.

Then we met the owner – Shane. Super cool guy, unapologetically nerdy. He just walked up and introduced himself and was so happy that we were having a good time. I asked him about the pinball machines, and here’s the deal:

Arkadia Retrocade has been in business for about four years. It took him three years to set aside enough money to buy the pinball machines. They’re a lot more expensive than a video game, and, with more moving parts, are more prone to breakage. As an example Shane said he can buy an arcade video game for $600-700. A pinball machine is between $3,000 – $5,000. And when they break (which they do, and often), he tries his hardest to replace them with the correct-era parts, and those can be hard to find sometimes.

So I can’t complain about the lack of pinball machines. They sound like a pain the ass, actually.

We’ve got three weeks to get our stuff together and come up with a travel plan. Right now we’re thinking Florida. Since I am missing out on the snowboarding season, I want some sun and sand. And warmer temperatures.