Somehow, beyond all of my dire predictions, we managed to get our stuff moved from one house to the next this weekend.  Well, most of it at least- there arevstill a few odds and ends that we need to clear out tomorrow before we dust the old place off and have the inspection of Friday.  We should have done that tonight, but Mike worked late and I had freaking amazing tapas at Olivar’s with our Dinner Club.  I still have hints of Manchego cheese, saffron and grilled peaches with licorice ice cream dancing through my mouth.  Yum.

It was a long weekend.  After spending Friday night and the first half of Saturday finishing up last-minute packing (thank you Rita!), we spent the afternoon and evening unpacking (thank you Brooke, Shaun and Barrie for your help with that!).  Then, around eight o clock, our new landlord knocked on our door and invited us to an impromptu dinner party she was hosting in the backyard.  We were covered in sweat and dust and tried to decline, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer, so we decided to pop outside for a bit and introduce ourselves.  Then we saw the spread- Oysters Rockafeller, cheese plates, shrimp, halibut and Veuve, and we decided stick around for a little bit.

Several of the other guests were former tenants of our current landlord.  You know how Mike and I have a knack for bringing interesting characters into our lives?  I think we’ve done it again.

The weirdest thing is, our new landlord reminds me of Mike’s mom.  Like, a lot- even down to her outfit that night.  If you’ve ever met Catherine, Mike’s mom, chances are you’ve seen her scurrying around in a similiar caftan-esque sundress while feeding a crowd.

After dinner, we collapsed, resting up to get some serious unpacking done the next day.  Which we did, for about half the day.  Then we decided to meet some friends for lunch at the Ballard Seafood Festival and went to the movies to see Food Inc.  If you haven’t seen this movie, or worse yet, if you haven’t heard about it, you need to get off your ass and go see it now.  It will really make you reconsider where your food comes from.  Obviously, it was preaching to the converted in my case, but even Mike agreed to stop hassling me about the cost of organic meat and produce.  Go see it, NOW.

Since then, we’ve mostly been slaving away and trying to get the place organized.  Instead of sharing the monotony of that adventure, I’ll share the rest of the pictures from our camping trip to Mt. Ranier.

Awww, doesn’t that make you feel better?

Today has been filled with near misses.  I almost missed my bus this morning.  Then, when I was getting off the bus, an old woman almost through up on me.  At lunch, I almost left my ATM in the ATM (ok, fine, I actually did this, but remembered in time to run back and get the card before somebody took it or the machine ate it.)  On the way home, my bus almost hit a jaywalker.  We ran into a taco shop to get dinner tonight 10 minutes before it closed.  I’m not sure if that all means that today was a really good day or a really bad day.  Opinions?

This Saturday is our 1 year anniversary of moving to Seattle.  It’s also the day we have to move all of our crap to our new home.  If you’re counting, that means that this is the 8th time I’ve moved in 10 years.  I am really over moving.

Even though we’ve techincally had all month to move stuff, we really only started packing this past week, which means that every night this week I’ve spent my nights frantically putting said crap in boxes.

I am not good at putting crap in boxes.  I am extremely slow.  I am easily distracted and too emotionally connected to everything I own.  I get nervous putting things in boxes, because that means that I no longer have access to to those things- even though I know in my head that I’ll be able to start unpacking in just 3 days.

I also am really bad at getting rid of things that I don’t use anymore, or even things that don’t work.  I have an electric tea kettle that has been broken for 5 months that I haven’t thrown away because throwing it away means that it is actually dead and gone.  I really LIKED that electric tea kettle and I keep hoping that if I wait a little longer, I’ll plug it in one more time and it will magically start working again.

I know that none of that makes any logical sense, but these are the things that go through my head.  My head is a fascinating place.

Ugh.  This was much easier when Microsoft paid people to do this for us.

Slowly but surely, we are working through the boxes and trying to make our house look less like a total disaster zone.  Unwrapping and setting out Mike’s beloved super shaggy rug made such a big difference that both of us paused to comment on the improvement.

(And yes, that IS Mike being totally captivated by the awesomeness that is Olympic swimming.  Because swimming is the best sport ever, no matter how much trash he talks on it.)

The Sword of Damocles has finally fallen. Our stuff came today!

When the movers called me to tell me they were outside our house, I grabbed my camera and ran to the truck. I was positively giddy. Sleeping on an air mattress for a week will do that to you.

The movers were both really nice. They made lots of comments about Mike’s bikes (I relayed the envious compliments even though I know it gives him an even more swollen ego than normal) and I bonded with the lead guy, Matthew, over our shared experiences with external fixators (aka my robot arm). He broke his hip a year ago and had one for 3 months! It made me feel lucky.

First they moved everything out of the truck and into our garage. There was a little spillover. This is when I started to realize how much unpacking lay ahead of me.

Five hours after they arrived, I started to open the boxes. I made the most progress on the kitchen. However, all the paper that they used to protect our kitchenware quickly started to add up:

Some of the labels on the boxes confused the movers. Evidently, they weren’t familiar with Mike’s habit of storing all shoes outside one’s front door:

That made me laugh.

When Mike got home, this was the first thing he did:

Now, after unpacking the kitchen and most of the bedroom, I want to do exactly the same thing.

Since this blog is being started to chronicle our new adventures in Seattle, I think it is only fitting that our first post is about the place where we will be spending the most time- our new home!

We will fill you in on the details of our trip and the long, laborious two days we spent apartment hunting in a future post, but right now we will leave you with some pictures and highlights. 

Basically, we found something that seems pretty perfect for us:

Fancy stainless steel kitchen appliances (this was the only place we saw that had a gas stove, score!), honed quartz countertops (never heard of that before, but they look really cool!), cork kitchen floors (so comfy for your feet!), and well-designed cabinets that totally maximize space?  CHECK!

Hardwood floors and really cool metal grating that doesn’t really serve a purpose but looks awesome?  CHECK!

An attached garage to store as many bicycles and as much yarn as we can fit?  CHECK!  (Oh, and Mike can park his car in there too!)

Tile shower/tub and an awesome suoer modern, kinda weird, post-modern sink?  CHECK!

A cute little shared yard in the back (perfect for Aubrey’s future-dog!)?  CHECK!

Next door to the Community Garden?  (Our view is the garden + the  Cascade Mountains– sooooo pretty!)  CHECK!

All in all, we are both super stoked.  It is located in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, which is about 5 minutes northwest of downtown.  We checked out some of the more truly urban neighborhoods in Seattle before (Downtown, Belltown, Capitol Hill, the International District), but as soon as we drove through Queen Anne, we were sold.  Aubrey immediately pictured herself walking to the farmer’s markets to buy artisanal cheeses and Mike loves the fact that he can pretend that he still lives in the suburbs, even if we are moments from hundreds of skyrises).  Our house is a 5 minute walk from the main drag of the neighborhood, which is filled with cute restaurants and shops.

The other thing that we took as an omen that we are meant to live here is that of the 6 units that are rented out so far (our place is part of a brand new 10 unit complex that just got listed the Friday we drove by), 4 of the tenants are newly relocating to Seattle to work for Microsoft, 2 are working for the Gates Foundation and 1 is relocating to start a new job at Google! 

Ok, off to recover from traveling and ::gulp:: start packing.  We will update with more pictures from our trip tomorrow! For more info on Queen Anne, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne%2C_Seattle%2C_Washington.

*Disclaimer*:  These pictures were not taken by us.  They come from the owner and are professionally lit, etc.  Any furniture you see is not ours.  We will post our own photos as soon as we get up there.  Sorry, aubrey + michael = lazy.