Unpacked.

After focusing on it for a few straight days, we are officially unpacked! The missing/broken tally wasn't too bad this time around. We are only missing two shelves from an old, crappy IKEA bookshelf and CPT Dick's set of poker chips. And one framed map had the glass and frame broken. Pretty darn good, really.

Of course, CPT Dick is brokenhearted about the chips and thinks I should file a claim for their $40 value. Ummm, no.

I know some folks file a claim after each move, noting each ding, dent and scratch. It can be lucrative if you have patience for the claims process.

After our last move, where our couch's frame was broken, they lost the legs to the dining room table, and they gouged my antique hope chest, I did file a claim. But boy, did they take their pound of flesh in the process. Between finding receipts, old credit card statements, taking photos of the broken items and visiting the claims office no less than 8 times, we got a check. But the check was not nearly in the amount that we should have gotten.

Case in point. My dining room table was fairly new and although not the best out there, relatively expensive. I splurged a little because, you know, I expected to use that table for the next 20 years or so. And because of that plan, I wanted the same legs back. So I called the store where I bought the table and found that I could special order the legs for ~$80/per leg. They would be the same legs, same finish, with the same trim and carving as the table. Perfect match.

Well, the claims office thought my request for matching legs was ridiculous. How dare I ask for legs that match my nice, newish table?! What the hell was I thinking? I'm an Army wife. If I chose to waste my money in a store that was not the PX, that was my own folly. And as such, they determined that I could get plain, generic legs in a finish that looked like it might almost match for $20/leg.

To add insult to injury, they then reduced that amount further with their standard depreciation formula. I had owned the table for two years. No matter that it was still perfect. You know, minus the legs and all. According to their calculations, it wasn't worth what I paid for it, so I couldn't have the full amount for the legs.

I fought it. I fought it hard. But I lost. And I took that dinky amount they gave me and bought the right legs for the table, paying most of it out of my own pocket. And being the cheap, frugal bitch that I am, it killed me a little inside to do so.

So you'll understand why I ain't gonna go to the mattresses over some silly poker chips. It just ain't worth my time.