Sunday, September 16, 2007

Twue Wuv...


















A serious post for a serious topic... marriage (or mawwiage as they would say in "The Princess Bride"). Yes, in record-breaking time, Johan has proposed! Yes to me. And I have accepted. Yay! No date has been set yet, but, true to form, it keeps moving sooner the more we talk about it. I tell Johan he is not South African, but rather Russian, because he is always RUSHING (get it?). OK bad joke, but we always laugh... It promises to be a small event, though. Stay tuned. Here are some pictures of my ring, which he had made for me, and then hid in the apartment in a scavenger hunt for me.

Apartment of Wonder!!!!











OK, it's a little hard to make an apartment sound exciting, but DANG is it exciting to finally be unpacked. Geez that lasted forever... Here are some photos of the finished product. Not too bad!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The big Boulder move!











I am insane. How many people do you know who would move simultaneously in 3 locations and rent their house out while on the road? You probably just know one -- me. I moved 1) from one apartment in Boulder to another apartment in Boulder, while 2) moving from Seattle to the new apartment in Boulder while 3) moving my office (twice -- to another space in Seattle and then to Boulder).

My insanity is further illustrated by the fact that I did this while renting a truck that was too small. I truly needed at least a 17' truck. I had a 14' truck. I'll attach photos. Crazy. Evidently Labor Day weekend is the busiest moving weekend of the year, so when I went to get a bigger truck a couple days before the move, there were none to be had. I jettisoned some furniture and loaded my car which we were towing and tipped my movers well to fit an incredible amount of stuff in that truck. And most things I wanted did fit.

We counted (yes, counted) 326 moving trucks/vans/trailers on the road during our drive. That averages out to about 1 every 3.3 minutes.

I also had difficulty finding a renter for my Seattle place, so ended up doing a lot of it from the road -- got credit checks, created and modified a lease, figured out how to get the deposit, and got the renter the keys before we unpacked in Boulder!

Obviously there was no way I could have done this without a ton of help, and my boyfriend Johan really, really, REALLY did a lot of work. OK, most of the work. He arranged movers to load my truck, packed everything up while I went to work in Seattle, drove the truck more than 1/2 of the distance, carried everything heavy that needed carrying... I think he loves me! And is probably insane also (or is that obvious if he's dating me?).

His insanity is further illustrated by the fact that he still wanted to take the cat in the truck with us. Fortunately, my parents (who were also a ton of help with the cleaning of my Seattle place) said "stop the insanity" and insisted on taking the cat to the airport to fly to Denver instead. He won't be flying first class ("some tuna please, ma'am?), but I think he probably will enjoy that ride more than flying Uhaul.

My friends Wendy & Steve also deserve acknowlegement here for helping a ton -- they offered to help me deal with jettisoned items (we all underestimated the amount of that, I think), shredding personal papers, and making sure I got my deposit money OK. What I would've done without all of this help, I don't know. Maybe they're insane, too...

So now we are in Boulder, and surrounded by boxes and about 1/2 of the square footage that I had in my previous house. Good thing I jettisoned that furniture! Every box is an adventure -- open a box for the bathroom, oh, wait, I have no room in this bathroom... go to the store, buy a medicine cabinet, vanity for over the toilet, and a small hallway closet... go back home and assemble them (Johan again), and are finally able to unpack that box a day later...

Did I mention that I only took one day off of work? I am insane... Mail! Crap, I have to get the mail changed... OK, enough for now, I have some work to do...