ARE THEY IN MY HEAD?

Seriously.  November Domino.  SO GREAT.  Back when House & Garden folded, I didn't think that any shelter mag would really take the place of instant inspiration for me, but Domino is really stepping it up lately, and with the new art direction this month, I'm weak with ideas...it's like they know exactly what's turning me one right now.

And I know that these have been ALL over the internet, but they are just so great:

Exhibit A:

Aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnndd B:

C is for CRAZY FABULOUS:

 

 And in conclusion:

SHAZAAM!  BRILLIANT!

HI.

Life has been flying by, as life in September is wont to do.  Except this year it has been even crazier, but it's been better handled, so not so bad.  Work is going well, but we don't talk about that here, do we?

Things I've wanted to post been stacking up, and yet, I still don't ever post.  WTF?

I saw a sticker on a the back window of a car that said "I 'heart' Your Mom".  It looked like they had made it themselves, which made my heart sing a little bit.

Fringe...very good.  Suprisingly good TV all around lately.  And yet, no fashion shows...which makes me very sad.  Bite me, DISH.

Did some fall cleaning around the house yesterday:  finished some tiny canvases that I've had since December (no shit) and got some of B's photos out here in the real world.  I love 'em, and no longer have to go into his bathroom to view them. Moved some of the other artwork around, too, and finally cracked the box on the gift of light from my Mom.  Red, modern, dimmable light.  I want to eat it it's so beautiful... 

OMFG the humidity is OUT OF CONTROL.   

And that is all. For now.

JUST AS I THOUGHT

So I had this blog totally finished. You can see it here.

Nice, right? Except when I went to put it up for real, WYSIW I GOT. DAMMIT.

I knew this would probably happen. But DAMMIT anyway.

Well, I can't look at this for any more minutes right now. I'm off to IKEA to buy these chairs for our dining room. Story of why I need to buy new dining chairs to follow...


STOOPID WIDGETS! STOOPID XML!

YEA VACATION.

This morning, I slept in until 10 o'clock.

Let's have a moment of silence for how awesome that is.

Okay, moment of silence over. Convieniently , I HAVE to take off the next two weeks. Company policy. Isn't that WONDERFUL! (I'm saying that without the slightest bit of sarcasm. It's truly one of the most wonderful things that's ever happened to me.)

Not that I don't like the job. I actually REALLY like the job. And I suppose that late next week, I'll even miss it and the people I work with a little bit. But it's so nice to just be able to see the actual daylight that I just might pass out out of sheer delight.

I went food shopping today, and I plan on cooking up a storm. And baking up a...well, a storm. And getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night. I also plan on driving less than 130 miles a day. Huzzah! Double Huzzah!

I'm going to try and get the ole' homestead put back together as well. They're may even be some new furniture and a new wall color involved. Heck, I might even do some new artwork with my own little hands. We'll see. Like the woman in the pic, I'm sorta happy about having nothing more pressing to do than Hoover the floor occasionally. Sigh.

Happy Christmas everybody!

RUN OF THE MILL WEEKEND

I made cupcakes! They are so yummy. They even smell good, 'cause I made buttercream frosting from scratch to make up for the fact that I used a yellow cake mix from a box. YUM!

I'm having a pretty good weekend so far. A large part of my general good mood I attribute to us having a free preview of HBO and Cinemax until tomorrow. Watched Monster-In-Law (bad), 50 First Dates (loved it and I bawled through the end credits like a baby), and I watched Girl with a Pearl Earring again and I have to say that on second viewing, I really like it. I was struck again by the AMAZING cinematography, but I actually paid attention to the acting this time, maybe that's why I liked it more. One more viewing and I might actually buy it. Then I watched Brown Sugar (LOVE it, why don't I own this yet?) to cap off Saturday night.

Sunday morning: paper, tea, english muffin and a V-8, and 3 hours of design shows. Sadly, the NASCAR race was postponed until tomorrow, but while they were deciding what they were going to do today (for TWO HOURS they were 'deciding') I re-organized the 'library' in the dining room. Now, wonder of wonders, you can actually find what you're looking for without going completely crazy. While I considered going totally anal and doing it by dewey decimal, I decided to take a pill and just put them together by genre. Of course, none of this means that B will be able to find the books he's looking for, but it will make it easier for me to find it for him...

So when they finally called the race, I turned the computer on and what should I find but that Mz. Swirlogirl herself bought one of my embroideries! AWESOME! Thanks, Jenn! Hope you like it!

I actually started sewing again yesterday afternoon and started the first of the ladies tanks. It's turning out to be a weeeeee bit harder than I thought. I'm going to have to get some more needles, 'cause I'm gonna break a few on these tanks, I can just tell. But it's going okay. Taking alot longer than I would like, though. I guess this project will make me slow down and take it easy. Which isn't a bad thing.

OH, GOODNESS ME

Some random thoughts:

Random Thought No. 1 - You know that it's been too long since you did laundry when you find things you forgot you owned.

Random Thought No. 2 - Spring Cleaning is so much better than going to the gym, 'cause at the end of the day, you not only got a workout, but you also have a 'house that sparkles' (except for the fact you've collapsed on the floor in the living room out of sheer exhaustion...)

Random Thought No. 3 - This is like the coolest idea ever, 'cause who wouldn't want some advice from someone who's seen it all and isn't afraid to tell it like it is?

Random Thought No. 4 - I love the music option on myspace, but everytime I go to change it, I get overwhelmed by all the options so I do nothing (just like napster in the early days).

Random Thought No. 5 - I want to go to the beach on the gulf

Random Thought No. 6 - I think I've lost my ability to make good Lo Mein. The last two times I have it's been crappy.

Random Thought No. 7 - Saying it out loud (actually, I guess that's typing it out loud) has made me actually want to stick with it. I'm finally ready to expand to new things and I've got dinner napkins and a hat in the works. I've also got a custom shirt order lined up. Now I've just got to work on getting a flyer.

A PLACE OF MY OWN

Some might comment that our entire apartment is mine. But I try very hard to make sure that B is as comfortable here as I am. Trust me, things would be a lot different if this was only my apartment. He keeps me from doing crazier things.

But, I decided that if I was really going to take this whole embroidery thing seriously, then I needed to dedicate a space in this apartment for that and only that.

So I did:

(If you cannot see the pictuours, consult your local library.)

I made the desk out of pine board and plumbing pipes for our old apartment. It was in storage up until now. It's just slightly higher than regular table height, so it's perfect. The chairs were already here. The lamp was in our bedroom in Savannah, but I had had it in storage, too. My bowling pin table is the perfect spot to store the machine. I picked up the soda crate at the flea market for $5 and then added a shelf and lined the inside with vinyl to protect the fabrics (Love the 'Atlas' graphics on it). Now I can keep the embroidery fabrics separate from my other fabrics and I don't have to sort them every time I start a new piece.

The little seven picture was scanned in from a catalog last year, but I could never figure out where to put it. The sconces are from eBay, and I really need to get some candles to put in them. I've stored all my little extras in the cool thrifted tin that I just love. I had two white metal bins that matched the others in storage and now I've filled them up with various supplies to build the frames. And there's finally a place to store the pins (in a glass votive candleholder).

IT'S BEEN WONDERFUL! I keep asking myself why I didn't do this sooner? It's so nice not to have to wonder where I left my pins (or pattern marker, or pattern paper, or thread, or scissors - the list goes on and on) because they have a home now. And it's so conveniently located - right next to the computer, scanner, and printer. I can watch DVD's on the computer, or just turn on the TV. Most often, I sit at the worktable while B is on the computer at night. (It's nice to be in the same room again...) I also positioned the plants outside so that I can bear to look out into the sunshine if I feel the need.

It's also re-aligned the apartment as a whole. Now, the office/studio is for weekdays, for the working time. On Saturday, I can shut the door and just relax. Go out into the rest of the apartment or the patio and just enjoy it. Instead of walking in the front door and seeing all the sewing flotsam and jetsam that's here, there, and everywhere, I just see comfy chairs and good things to read and watch. No stress.

All the little pieces fit underneath the table for when the room magically turns into a guest room. I'm going to sew a cover for it right quick. The table is actually the exact same depth as the little dresser, so I don't lose any space. We just gain some more surface space. Fantastic!

It's lover-ly. I should have done it sooner!

THE SAGA CONTINUES

Because the shower leaked into the bedroom and stained the carpet in the closet/vanity area AGAIN, I decided to try out the new online maintanence requests. It was like 5 in the afternoon. Not an hour later, the off-duty maintanence guy shows up in plain clothes to see about my shower. I'm a little confused at the speediness, so I ask him if they said it was an emergency (it's been leaking for months now, this is the 2nd request) and he says that they just called him in to look at an emergency leak. I apologize and show him the problem (again). Whatever, they come back the next morning to fix it, we don't use that shower for all of last week, the carpet dries out.

They finally kinda fixed the leak by caulking the hell out of the shower. The didn't caulk where B and I suspect the water is leaking out of (which I pointed out to the maintenance guy, but I'm a girl, what do I know), and since they didn't actually remove the old dried up caulk or even clean the surface first before re-caulking, I'm sure we'll be back to square one in a few weeks...B says we can remedy the situation by just turning the shower nozzle towards the wall, but I feel it simply shouldn't leak, no matter where the nozzle points.

Yesterday, 2 different maintenance guys show up to 'fix the leak in the shower'. Confused again, I tell them that they already fixed it, but they look at it again anyway. I asked them if they can check for mold in the carpet and try to remove the stains in the carpet as I am VERY sensitive to airborne irritants, and well, that's where we sleep. It REALLY smells, even after repeated cleanings of the bathroom.

So the carpet guys show up out of the blue today, telling me that they are here to 'dry out the carpet'. I say it's been dry for a week now, but it's pretty stained. Okay. They'll take the stain out. I ask them if they need me to move anything, they say no. Five minutes later they leave me with a still stained, newly damp carpet that smells like lemon murphy's oil soap cleaner (gag) and a GIANT fan that they say must be run for the next 2 days.

They also moved all of the stuff I asked about without me. (don't TOUCH MY CRAP!) I now cannot get to the bathroom without setting up a basecamp at the bottom of the fan. It's also going to be a bit like sleeping in a wind tunnel at NASA. If that crap makes my clothes smell like lemon fruit loops I'mma be 75 kinds of pissed off.

Arrgh. Now my nose is burning a little and my migraine is getting worse...

JIM IS NOT HERE!

I am most certainly NOT a morning person. I'm just not. Deal with it.

Since moving here last January, we are regularly woken up by this. (Turn your speakers up REAL LOUD for full effect.)

The neighborhood kids seem to think that it is okay to wait for the bus by using our streetlight as a home base for a rousing game of tag. Did I mention that said streetlight is located about 24" from our very large bedroom windows? Or that their bus arrives at 6:55 AM? THAT'S IN THE MORNING. WHEN THE SUN IS JUST RISING. WHEN I WOULD RATHER BE SLEEPING INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO THOSE PESKY KIDS.

B once asked them politely to please "keep it down". I do hope that him going outside wearing just a pair of boxer shorts did nothing to lessen the notion that he was serious. VERY serious.

I believe he went out there this morning, fully dressed this time, and just stared at them to see if THAT had any effect. I was a little hazy WHAT WITH IT BEING THE SLEEPING TIME. I would think that close proximity to a very angry adult would calm them down, but OH NO, they seem to thrive on it.

STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP is the noise it makes when they run up our staircase. Yes, there is climbing involved to reach the home base. A deterrent? No, just a small obstacle to these kids. Where are all the fat, lazy kids I keep hearing about on the news? I thought this country was overrun with little butterballs who can't run anymore! Or scream at the top of their lungs for that matter. No, we've gotten some mutant strain who laugh at a few steps and are WIDE FUCKING AWAKE at 6 in the morning. Their lungs are hearty and strong and able to yell BUUUUSSSSSS! to let everyone to know to come out of hiding and run up the hill to catch the bus.

One day, I will go out there and melt them with the laser beams shooting from my tired, bloodshot eyes.

The second time I got woken up today was by someone calling my phone at 8am asking for Jim. You would think that after 3 times of him calling and me saying that "No, I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number" he would get it through his THICK SKULL that JIM IS NOT HERE. STOP CALLING ME. PLEASE STOP CALLING ME. Please.

He called 3 more times. After that, I just gave up on getting anymore sleep and turned the TV on to watch some CNBC, which I find calming for some reason.

THE 2005 CRAP-TASTIC CONSTRUCTION AWARD

Yay! We finally won something!

So, in answer to popular inquiries, my portfolio is not done yet. It most certainly should be, but I've been a little busy this week building a storage unit. Yes, thats right, a storage unit.

We had a unit down the road from our house, but they decided to raise the rent, and I refuse to pay that much money to store crap that I probably don't even need anyway. So the time had come to get rid of the unit altogether. Our budget is much happier for it and it makes us feel oh so good that we've gotten rid of a TON of stuff.

But not all of it. So we needed a place to put that stuff away nicely. Some of you may be familiar with the 'Bathroom Storage Unit' that we had in Skevannah, but I wanted this apartment for the sole reason that it had two bathrooms that we could actually use. (Basically, I didn't want to have to share with B anymore. Like, ewww. ) So, we had to come up with another plan.

Behold, the wonder of it:


If you cannot see the pictuours, consult your local library.

Although it involved quite a few trips to Home Despot (which I hold in about as high a reguard as I do craphole) I'm pretty pleased with the result. There is little damage to the walls, only 8 screw holes to fill, and it kinda fills up our giant master bedroom, which we didn't have enough furniture to make work anyway. I also got to pick out some cool hardware, which is always a treat (at least for me- I know, NERD). Not to mention hiding all our schtuff.

So all's well that ends well, I suppose.

Coming up this week: FINISH THE PORTFOLIO.

MY BRAIN IS A LITTLE MELTY

And now, for something completely different...

Random Thought #1: I digitized my mix cd library and can I just say how cool it is to be able to get to it again. It had been packed away. Now, so convienient. I'm suprised how some of the older ones still interest me.

Random Thought #2: This is SO COOL, and so convienient for HTML, and is bound to become an obsession. This page alone just blows my mind. (watch that last link, it may acutally EAT your computer...) What a great jumping off point. I haven't submitted any palettes, yet, I fear I could waste a whole day on there. Just kidding, I couldn't help myself.

Random Thought #3: We did phase one of the grand 'Reduce our Crap' project by cleaning out the storage unit yesterday morning. Why did we save all that crap? Really.

Random Thought #4: Whilst throwing an entire carload (as in stuffed to the gills) of crap into the dumpster, I picked this out of the garbage first. (Yes, I'm one of those people.) I think it will work well for Halloween, I'm going to hang all those little skeleton hands on it, maybe add some more 'bone' beads like a chandelier. Haven't decided weather or not to re-electrify it yet. Sidenote: Yes, I know I'm supposed to be getting RID of stuff, but it was just too funky to pass up. And it was free!

Random Thought #5: In our vacation bliss, we TOTALLY forgot to celebrate Bastille Day. Dammit. I think my subconscious was trying to tell me though, because I had a massive hankering for french food all day that day.

Random Thought #6: Took yesterday off to read the new Potter book, which I should not have bought, but whatever. (I'm weak, lets leave it at that.) Anyway, it was extremely good (as per usual), all creepy and dark and gory and shit. Awesome. Taking a day to do nothing except read a new book was fantastic. It's what summer was meant for. I need to get a damn library card already. I've read all my books like 87 times now.

Random Thought #7: All the new stuff for fall is coming out ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE, and I am having a hard time holding myself back. Must.Buy.Clothing.NOW. And shoes, and jewelry, and bags, and I think I need an entire new set of dishes...and there are some really great new table linens at Crate and Barrel. If I can make it through all the September fashion mags (including the glorious 50lb Vogue), not read the new Domino, and simply avoid going into any retail establishments until mid September, I should be okay. I SHOULD be. Right?

WILD 'EFFIN KINGDOM

The gardens here are freakin' amazing. We went to EPCOT last week to see the International Flower and Garden festival and it was really, really cool. It's amazing what they can get to grow down here. Back home in Montana, the growing season is about 9 days long. Even in Savannah, I only had a garden for about 8 months out of the year. Gardens here are year round affairs. The flowers are beautiful, and if you do it right, fairly effortless.

The fauna, on the other hand, MUST BE STOPPED. Thank the gods that pest control is included with rent.

Fire Ants. Wasps & hornets. Sugar ants. Prehistoric sized roaches and palmettos. Spiders. Flies and moths. Lizards. Crocki-gators.

And snakes that'll come right up to your front door.

I'm sure you all heard about my previous skirmish with a "little" black garden snake that I ran into coming up the stairs to our front door. It wouldn't have been so bad if my arms hadn't been full of ceiling fan boxes and I didn't have my keys out yet. All I could do was stumble up the stairs and run to the front door squealling and start pounding/ kicking the door. I got inside just as he crossed the sidewalk and sidled up to the door and then settled under the bedroom window.

I had (just about) forgotten about it until two days ago when I saw it (another?) go into the lily grass bush as I was coming up the stairs with the mail. I stopped. Looked again. Was it really a snake or just the shadow of the grass? Then it curved and moved parallel to the grass.

TOWARDS ME.

So I promptly turned around, went back down the stairs and around to the back yard and into the back door. Thank GOD for the back door.

I didn't go through the front door for two entire days.

When I finally ventured out front again, I practically sprinted to the stairs. It certainly dosen't help that the grass bush is so big that it brushes your legs as you walk past it.

And then today, I'm calmly reading the newspaper, sitting on the sofa. I glance at an article titled 'Hisss-sy Fit' and begin to read. Turns out, the author was sitting in her living room when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. A snake had decided to venture inside.

Inside, people.

ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!?!?! IN HER LIVING ROOM!?

I immeadiatly looked at the front door. Then quickly scanned the floor. And promptly put my feet up on the coffee table.

She had to chase the damn thing all over her house and then wind it around a broom handle (!) and carry it outside. There's no effin' way I would try to catch a snake inside my damn house.

That's what the maintance crew is for, right?

RIGHT?!?!?!?

Oh, the horror...

RANDOMNESS REARS IT'S UGLY HEAD

Nothing to post about really.

Random Thought No. 1: Mother Nature done brought it and it's toasty outside. There's not even any wind. You just walk outside and automatically turn a shade darker. Lovely.

Random Thought No. 2: WTF happened to Gilmore Girls? I know there are a few episodes out there in the abyss to fill in all the blanks. The suck floweth forth.

Random Thought No. 3: In semi-related news, B will miss our weekly JJ Abrams/Pizza/Beer- fest on Wednesday night. Re-scheduled for Friday. Just not the same.

What else. B took the rake to the back'yard' today and it's lookin' pretty spiffy. More to be done on that front tomorrow, before and after the rain. Does anybody know anything about growing things in sand? Not sandy soil, sand. Weird.

Random Thought No. 4: I'm feeling a massive hankering for Mussels. Specifically Moules Marinieres. Drool. Aparently there are none to be had in all the land. And goat cheese. Lottttttssssss of goat cheese. With roasted red peppers.

Random Thought No. 5: I need some new DVD's. I can only watch The Red Shoes and Thomas Crown Affair so many times. And some new music. Thievery Corporation has a new one coming out. And there's a new Verve,remixed. I'm also in the mood for something in the slimy summer songs genre. I don't know, sugar pop is doing it for me lately. God, I'm a tool.

I'm just ready for summer. Beach, sluty book/magazine, grilled food and flowing alcohol. Cheesy music, and good movies. And sundresses.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISIM

Some Random Thoughts:

Random Thought #1: Why do the caterpillars love the teak table on the patio so much? I'd be intruigued if they didn't gross me out.

Random Thought #1.5: The seeds have sprouted! Huzzah!

Random Thought #2: Cautious optimisim is reigning supreme as I have finally gotten a portfolio layout that I actually like. It only took 5 years, with no less than five, count 'em, five redesigns in the last 3 months...

Random Thought #3: My sister may be here tomorrow. Whether she arrives with her luggage remains to me seen.

Random Thought #4: Ceiling Fans are a BEAUTIFUL thing. Thanks to B's Dad! Right on.

Random Thought #5: My hair is too long.

Random Thought #6: If I should ever go missing for some reason, please make sure that B hires someone to look for me. I would be lost forever should he have to find me himself.

THEY ARRIVED. AND THEY'RE BROKEN.

DAMN.

My beloved fugly lamps arrived yesterday, and sadly one had met it's demise in the back of a freakin' fedex truck. Those bastards.

Sigh. I hardly knew ye. I am sooo pissed, but the woman I bought them from has been super cool, so no big worries on getting my dough back. Damn it anyway. DAMN YOU FEDEX!!!!!!

----------------
In other news, big up to Stac for cooking dinner for us last night. It's always a pleasure when other people cook for us. Apparently, the urge to make cupcakes was in the air yesterday, 'cause I acually baked some tasty yellow ones, and then when we got to Stacy's, she had amazing chocolate ones with really goooshy cream cheese frosting. And red sprinkles. You can't forget the sprinkles.

Mmmmmmmm. Cuuuuuppppppcccaaaakkkeeeessss.

GOD? IT'S ME, MEL.

Things finally seem to be falling into place. Sort of. Let's just say it's less of a mess than it was 5 days ago.

But it's still a mess...


In other news:

Dear God,
Give me the strength to go through the storage unit, and throw away what must be pitched. Why am I paying to store all that crap anyway? It's not like I'm using it, right? Right?

That's all for today,
-Mel

PS. Um, yeah. We live in Florida now. Why is it so friggin cold? Just asking. Peace, Love, and Cheese Fries.

SO FRESH & SO CLEAN, CLEAN

Behold on yonder bed: clean freakin' sheets! I finally got to do laundry! Huzzah!

I know, I know. WHAT A DORK! But I seriously needed to do laundry. And now I can with our new super-speedy-space-age-rocket-ship washer and dryer.

No, really. I think it could actually launch something into space. When it goes into the final spin it makes this cool "Whooob, whoob, whoob, whoob" noise like when you're on Space Mountain and you're about to leave the blue tunnel. Instead of launching you on a 90 sec. adrhenline rush and dropping you off into a crappy gift shop, all you get at the end of this ride is about 3 hours of ironing to be done. It's a good show while it lasts, though. Or, maybe I'm just a bigger dork than was previously thought.

We put down the benjamins for a front-loader. If we have to buy a washer and dryer, we're gonna buy a washer and dryer. They were finally delievered yesterday.

Lowe's also deserves one of my thank yous:

Dear Lowes: Thank You for writing down the work order incorrectly, and sending an installer who didn't actually know how to install a washer and dryer, much less stack them as I requested when I bought the damn things. Since this happens to be the first time in like 15 years of patronage that I've ever had a problem, your forgiven. This time.

The guy had to call someone else out to show him (and help him) do it. Except that they didn't do it, because they were out of the 6' cords that you need to stack the dryer. Which I didn't find out about until about half-way (1hr.) into the installation process. They have to come back when they get more cords in stock to stack the beauties. Who knows when that will be?

So now the machines are just sitting inside the closet (barely) with one door off of the closet because he couldn't push the dryer back all the way. He also kinked the cold water line, so when I ran the first load it took like an hour and a half to rinse. I'm crafty and shit and figured out that he pushed it back too far so now we're down to a slim, trim 35 min cycle. The only bad thing is that the end of cycle buzzer sounds like a dog whistle, but I can deal.

It works like a dream and I may actually be able to wear clean clothes tomorrow. Wonder of wonders!

BACK AND IN EFFECT, YO.

(Okay, so this is post-dated, beacuse I wanted to take a picture of the new baby but Brian beat me to the punch. Deal with it.)
-----
AHHHHHH! FINALLY! I'M CONNECTED TO THE WORLD AGAIN!

The internet installer just left about 35 seconds ago. I waste no time.

First off, let me just reiterate the fact that moving blows. Big Time. How people do this like every 3 years boggles my mind.

I'd like to take the time to give a shout out to all the companies and people that have really helped us along on our way to feeling settled in our new home:

To the DishNetwork installer: for sucking hard and royally messing up our coax cable system, so much so that the internet guy was completly confused as to what cable lines went to what building and room and so on and so forth.

To the internet guy: Thank you for refusing to split the cable or run another box. How convienent for us.

To Sprint: YOU SUCK. End of Story. (Never use Sprint for anything. Ever.)

To Rooms 2 Go and American Signature: Dudes, hire some new salespeople. Most of the ones you have are quite rude and too pushy. And ixnay on the wet paper demonstration-nay.

Other than all that crap, things have been going okay, I guess. B LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the new restaurant. He says it's the best one he's ever worked at. And all of the people we've dealt with are really nice, which is a welcome change. The Postal workers here are like the best people on the planet. They rock. (My new best friends.) And I really like the area we're in. It seems to suit. Everything we nomally need on a regualar basis is right here.

The apartment is good. Just good. It's really well laid out and the flow is quite good, but it's pretty shabbily constructed. That, and it's 26 years old. The appliances are GHETTO. And there's a strange smell. Not bad exactly, just strange.

B just called. He's massively in the weeds, but wanted to call to see if the newest member of our family made the internet 'Screamingly FAST!'. I told him to hurry up and peddle some more breadsticks so he could get home and play with the new toy. I could barely rip him away from it last night to eat dinner. Sheesh.

Oh, who am I to talk. I waited all of a heartbeat to turn the beautiful darling on this morning after getting out of bed. It brings a tear to my eye.

Well, I have more to explore (and unpack, but I doubt if any of it gets done to-da-ay!) but to sum the entire moving experience up, getting here probably took about 10 year off of our lives, but in the end, it's just freakin' better here.

MORE GRAVY, PLEASE.

Is there some place I could go, where someone would massage my head, make all my phone calls for me and then hand me a ginormus plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes (which I did not have to make for myself)? After this all occurs, someone would hand me a ticket to pick up all of B's freshly laundered and ironed clothes, and point me to where I could grab the fully packed suitcase to take to Christmas.

Sadly, I don't think this nirvana exists yet.

I'm feeling overwhelmed today. I'm not sure I can do all of this myself. Everytime I look at the growing mountain of boxes in all of the corners of the house, I think, cool, I've gotten quite a bit packed. And then I realize that there's a lot more to be done. I haven't even started changing addresses yet.

The smell of the cardboard is getting to me, too. I really want out of this apartment. And I'm lonely.

YES VIRGINIA, THERE REALLY IS A MOVING COMPANY...

We are sooooo blessed.

B's company is paying for the move. I mean really paying for the move: the truck, all utillity down payments, any incindentals on the road and during the move, all the boxes, bubble wrap and packing peanuts I could ever want, gas for all the vehicles during the trip, and on top of that, two weeks pay.

Thank God for soup, salad and breadsticks. Can I get an AMEN!

Oooooh, baby. Here we go.

I've officially packed (and sealed) the first boxes. Now granted, they were just the two cases of glass-ware that already came in their own box, but they've been taped shut and everything. I also broke my first glass, but thankfully I had two extra of that one, so no huge deal. (Just one god dammit!, muttered under my breath.) I actually unloaded some cuboards in the kitchen, but the amount of breakable stuff that was amassing on the dining table was a little overwhelming, so I stopped. It sucks, because I cook 3 meals a day, everyday, and most of the stuff in the kitchen gets used almost everyday, and I don't want to be living out of cardboard for 3 weeks.

Not only that, but this apartment is tiny. Where am I going to put all the boxes once we've packed? They can't go back on the shelves, or in the cabinets. I haven't quite figured it all out yet.

B's last day in Skevannah is New Year's Eve. We pick up the truck on the 2nd. (A 17 footer! Sheesh.) We're thinkingof leaving here (midday)on the 3rd. The apartment is available on the morning of the 4th. We'll unload to the apartment and the storage unit that day. The truck goes back on the 5th, after we pick up some pieces of furniture with it to save delivery costs. B starts in Winter Park on the 7th.

After we get back from Christmas (oh, yeah, I forgot, it's Christmas), I'm going to try and get the apartment re-painted. I really just want to fork out the money to have the complex do it, but we shall see. God, I hate painting. I think I'll probably be calling to change all the addresses (Did some one say 15 magazines? Argh.) that week, too. I'm going to try and take down as many breakables as possible when we leave for Christmas and leave it at the parentals. Hopefully that will be less stressful than putting in on the truck. Who knows.

Everything is full steam ahead. We're getting a bit of a cold snap again, which for us means highs in the 50's and lows in the 20's. ( All of you living north of the Mason-Dixon can stop laughing, now, thankyouvery much.) It'll probably be the last one for a long while for us. Which is good! But sad. But Good! But sad. That's basically how we've both been feeling this whole past week.