A recap of the past 5 years...

I talked to my father on the phone this week, and he made the comment of "sometimes you just need time for nothing." It made me think that there have been projects on our plates for a while. I mean, right now we're unpacking boxes... I haven't been out of boxes for the past year and a half. It's been a crazy 5-6 years. I know I know, someday I'll have kids and this won't seem crazy. But in my world, it is.

2004: Lived in Oakland/Berkeley, commuted to San Francisco for work. Moved twice.

2005: Started out in Oakland/Berkeley, commuting to SF. Moved once, but then summer of 2005 was basically spent hopping from friend's place to friend's place becuase leases were up and I was moving in August to...Oregon! Law school began in August 2005. Found a lovely one-bedroom apartment. Long distance relationship... but that ended in September 2006. Just not the right person and not the right situation. Ended the job in SF, but had a part-time job my first semester.

2006: First year over, second year began. Worked that summer for a professor and for a judge. Worked as a tutor the next fall in Contracts. That was fun! Second year was much better than the first year. Broke up with long-term, long-distance boyfriend. Dated. Started dating a jerk law student... should have seen the forest through the trees on that one. Ahh lessons. Packed up my things winter of 2006 because I got to house-sit in a gorgeous craftsman for two professors who were spending a semester elsewhere (free rent, woot). Lived with a friend for 2 weeks first... she was lovely for putting me up.

2007: Living in the professors' house for the first 5 months of the year. Met this law student whom I really thought was a bit full of himself. Turned out to be my future husband. Tutoring still, working for 3 professors. House sitting and pet-sitting business is really taking off at this point. Everyone likes that I'm not ripping them off... I guess kennels give you very little for a lot of money. Found an adorable historic house for song and got the top floor apartment. Quirky. Loved it. That summer I clerked for a good law firm in-town. Loved that too. Continued to research for professors, though the one was beginning to bother me (ever get the sense that someone thinks they're too good for what they're doing now? Yea...). Started dating B the fall of 2007.

2008: Dating B. Loving it. Got the job in March, to begin in August. Packed up the apartment before the bar exam because the job was originally to begin 110 miles away the day after the exam. Studied like a mad woman for the bar exam. Computer crash. Things went wrong. Didn't pass. Horrible feeling. Had already been working for the firm for a month when the results came out... but they liked me a kept me on as a paralegal while I studied again. Meanwhile, B (despite being at the top of the class) was not finding a job. Darn economy. He opened his own firm late 2008, and decided to move about 30 minutes away (we had 2 apartments close to each other) to be mid-way between me and where his practice was at. Got engaged in late November.

2009: January: part time at work to study, February: off work completely. And time off= not paid. Just saying. B got a job 110 miles south of me in late January. He lived with friends for the first 4 months, then got his own apartment. I moved into his old apartment. I took the bar exam in late february. THen continued as a paralegal until mid-April when I found out I PASSED! Got sworn in in May. Changed job titles May 1 and love it. Got married in late June. Found the new house the following weekend. Packed up and moved (this last weekend).

SO now we are where we are now. In boxes, but married and together with B. The last year has been a whilewind. Two bar exams. Engagement. Three moves. Marriage. Job changes.

I'm ready for some continuity, please. Things can be the same for a while and that'd be just peachy for me.

Queen Anne Cherry photos!

I got free cherries from a friend, so my friend Tiana and I picked probably around 80 lbs of the stuff (probably more). Here are our adventures with them, in photos:

Cherry jam, simmering in lovely spices on the stove.

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Whole cherries being cooked in a light sugar syrup.

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Pitted cherries. The ones that you need to examine float to the top. Neat trick, huh? And, if you keep them in a water mix that has a little vinigar, they won't brown. Love it! BTW, that's a BIG bucket. Just saying.
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Only photo 1 of 3 of our finished cherries.
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Jam cherries (awaiting lids and water baths).
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Photo 2 of 3. That's a lot of cherries!
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Photo 3 of 3of the cherries. That's a lot of cherries!

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We made:

* Cherries cooked and soaked and bottled in rum (for desserts or breads)

* Brown sugar cherries (good for glazes, desserts or breads).

* Cherries in apple juice (the most flexible; preserves cherries in there almost-natural state taste-wise.

* Cherry jam (with cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, etc.) nom nom nom.

Whew! And we're set for the year on cherries!

Currants!

As promised, here are the photos (thus far) from my currant project. They're frozen right now, so I still have to MAKE something with them. :)

Part of the currants, picked, stemmed, and cleaned. I put them into bowls so all the juice wouldn't leech into their original cardboard containers.

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Aren't they cute?! Yum.

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A close up of red currants, stems still attached. It took forever because of how small they are.

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One of the big, 12-carton flats I got. I got 2 flats total.

Photos of raspberry vinaigrette

Here are the photos from my raspberry vinaigrette.
Recipe:
1 cup crushed fresh raspberries (you can use frozen, but fresh= soo good and aromatic)
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 tbs honey
1 tbs sugar

Put into bowl or jars and stir every 2-3 days. After 3-4 weeks, strain and waterbath.

Raspberries on the plants!

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Flat of raspberries. I picked the ones in the jars; this flat I bought. It was the same price, and I didn't have time that day to pick.

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Vinaigrette all bottled up and waiting to be shaken.
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Aren't they pretty?

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I'm seriously tempted to keep the strained parts and use that for something.

Moving day photos.

I took some photos of our poor house. Garage: Strewn with boxes. Rest of the house: pretty bare. And we were EXHAUSTED.

Note our lovely coffee table! And the fabulous side-table (it's the patio table). You can't see my side, but there are two boxes over there. Dinner: Microwave dinners with plastic silverware from the store, and drinks out of starbucks paper cups.

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One side of the garage...

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Mid-view of the garage.
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Other side of the garage.
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Kitchen. The poor curio is in one piece, but I have to screw it to the wall somehow so it's more secure. Right now it looks like a coffin.

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Laundry and bed (note no frame assembled). Whatever. It works.

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Me, looking horrid, pale, and exhausted.

The week where the cats nearly melted.

It was HOT last week. SO hot. And the cats were hot. And confused because their apartment was being boxed up and things were changing. So I took pictures. I know...crazy cat person. But we were all a mix of miserable and confused.

Cold cuts? Please? For me?

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So not amused. Even this chair is not cold. Ugh.

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Seriously? You're take a photo?! You suck.

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Fine, if you must take a photo, at least let me get my badass face on.
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K fine, if you must take photo, then I will get even by getting fur all over the bed.

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I still laugh when I think of all that fur all over the bed!

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I get as low to the ground as I can so I can absorb some cold. Also makes me stealthy cat.

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Just testin' out the new chairs for you. They're comfies.

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He just looks in pain here, doesn't he? Poor boy...

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Another shot of a poor, miserably hot Paddington. :(
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Frankie, looking a good combination of adorable and miserable.
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Frankie, sprawled out on the "cool" chair.
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IT'S SO HOT!
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Maybe dis way is cooler. Hm. Nopes.

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I found a basket. Is cool.

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Frankie, King of Wickerland. And looking pleased as punch about it.

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Sneaky cat... is SNEAKY...

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Hidin' in the cabinet... playin with some spilt sugar. Mmmm.
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Rumpole (on the cool chair) and Frakie (in the cool cabinet) conspiring on how to best stay cool.

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Stretchy cat. Cool linoleum. SO HOT.

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This week, they move to a house with AC.

The end is in sight!

The apartment will be moved out of tonight-- completely. About a backseat of things remain, as well as two monster cats.

Thank goodness.

I also have to clean the kitchen. EWWWWWW. And do small things like wipe blinds.

After all our trouble yesterday, I forgot the doggone drip pans at home for the stove. Drat! It's ok; I'm sure the landlord will find something else wrong with the place. They always do, right? So we'll have to come back on Saturday mid-day anyway.

Tonight before cleaning, I'm headed over to check this out:
Isn't it neat? I should add it's over 5 feet long. I like it, and it will nicely fit in a number of places, and will take up space on our wall without looking clutter-y. And it's CHEAP in price, so we can get it.
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Last night B had dinner waiting for me. I love that man. Tacos with beans and rice. Woo! I had gone to the apartment, loaded up a bunch of things, grabbed monster cat Frankie, then went and picked up the rocking chair, wrapped the heck out of it, padded it, and tied the sucker into my car so tightly no way would it fall out on the interstate.
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Needless to say, I was tired when I got home. But dinner! Bliss.
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Tomorrow is Day 1 of trying out the vanpool. I hope it works out. All I could think about this morning on my way to work was "I could be sleeping right now." And tomorrow: I could be. I scoped it out this morning, and the park n ride is exactly where I expected it to be.
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Knowing I can go back to sleep will make getting up much easier in the morning. Seriously! It is one thing to make yourself get up and then not have to be alert. It's entirely another to wake up and know you have to drive 50 miles.
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Plus, this eliminates my immediate need to find the supplies for the coffee machine. I know they're in a box, in the garage. Which one is unknown though....

Vanpool

I may have found a vanpool. Part of me likes driving (freedom!)... the other part of me (the tired part) wants to die in the mornings.

And there's also the fact that the 110 miles a day will take a chomp out of our budget. I think it's going to be about 2 tanks a week... 4ish weeks a month = $320 a month, at least. Oy.

The vanpool is $10 a day. That is ROUND trip. So, 20ish work days a month: $200. AND, I get to sleep. SLEEP! Or do work, if I have to. Lovely.

We'll see. I try it out Thursday. It actually works pretty well with my work schedule.

The move.

I swear to goodness that I have pictures of all this. Alas, they're on our camera, with Bob, who supposedly has the camera cable (but he hasn't uploaded them). Sigh.

So photoless for now...

The move. Well, it sucked.

Ok, really, I'm conflicted when it comes time to moving. It's EXCITING! It's something new. I've always liked changing a room around or switching out furniture, you know? EXCITING! A new place! Especially when you're moving from an apartment to (finally) a house. EXCITING.

But then the move comes in.

Our move got moved up a week, so half our stuff is organized and packed and labeled. The other half is well-packed... but it lacks as much organization, and labeling was abandoned.

If you're like me, the stress of "oh crud, this doesn't fit into that box..." is coupled consistently with "Oh crud, where did I put that tape!?" Thank goodness I'm ok with using my teeth to snip the end of the tape because seriously, I would have lost the scissors like 20 times.

The scenario of "oh crud, this doesn't fit into that box..." resulted in a thin layer of random things throughout the apartment. I guess it makes sense. The awkwardly shaped items, the breakable items that needed to go with other breakable items but there wasn't space, the things you "need" before you move out, the things you want ot keep handy to use right away when you move in, the last of a category of items that didn't fit into the last box you packed up of those items...

All the leftover items gathered up on the floor, coutertops, etc. I finally packed up all my work clothes into a box (see through plastic so I could easily find it). I told myself I had enough shoes at work and I plopped all my remaining shoes in a random box. Everything else: Random boxes.

As the layers got thinner, we finally just took two big boxes and piled everything else in. All the weirdly shaped items, etc. All breakables got their own boxes, of course.

And then the cleaning. Oy. I keep a pretty clean house, but cleaning during packing, well, didn't occur, and then on top of that, this is CLEANING, wherein the landlord determines how much money to give you back.

Drat.

So it went pretty much like this. I was about 75% packed by the time B came home. I had the truck when he got there, and I had already put 80 legal boxes of stuff into the truck.

Yes, 80. No joke. No, I don't own a small museum. It just looks like you have 50 billion belongings when you move.

I should also add that it was in the mid-90s outside AND inside. And this was down 17 stairs. I seriously considered constructing a ramp.

SO by the time B got home, I was TIRED. But no resting for the packers. We continued to work work work. I packed and put on the top landing, B took down to the truck.

Then sleep.

Saturday morning, we got up early and finished packing the truck. We decided not to go crazy and play tetris to get everything to fit (we did 2 runs instead). B did a goodwill run, but couldn't fit everything into his car. Crazy.

Then we were off. Picked up the curio at my friend Margaret's (she stored it for us since she lived near the seller and the seller was willing to transport, but only a certain distance). THen we went and picked up a lovely mission-style, craftsman-y TV armoire, a small table with 2 mission-back chairs, and a lovely mission-style single-drawer filing cabinet.

Then down to the new house.

Walk-through with the landlord went well. Then unpack all into the garage. We took breaks because the house had AC, outside did not. Uck it was HOT.

At one point when B was resting, I choose to open the box that had my CD player in it (that one had been boxed pre-chaos and was labeled). I went to b's trunk to get a CD... and locked his keys in his trunk. And I didn't realize it until about an hour later when we were looking for his keys.

Oh crud. I had to call AAA next morning to get them to come out. B gave me a spare, but it wasn't on my keychain and God knows where it would be in all the boxes.

Anyway, we piled at that point into the truck and again headed the 1.5 hours north. Yay for unlimited mileage on the truck!

We were exhausted.

We packed up about everything else we could handle. I took my car back down, B took the truck. Of COURSE there was nighttime construction on the road (welcome to Oregon; it's summer which means road projects) and an accident (nothing too bad, just road/rubberneck blocking), so we didn't get in until after midnight.

B had made the request of me that since i was in the car, could I stop by some fast food joint and get something to eat. So I went to McDonalds, and found out that particular McD's did not have credit card/debit card abilities between 12-1. It was 12:04 when I rolled in the drive through. I knew B was really hungry and tired, so I found an ATM, got $20, then came back. GRUMBLE.

Went home, ate, konked out. Next morning, we had thought to go down to B's, but we hurt all over and we were tired. And, everything at B's could really be moved by a standard car. We know that because we used standard cars to move things into there. Plus, B doesn't have to be out of there until the 31st (and the landlord is not budging, even if he finds a new tenant he won't start the new one until after B's lease is up. punk).

So no going down to B's. I called AAA while B slept, went to the grocery store and got breakfast, brought it back and fixed up stuff. B was so happy to wake up to bagels, OJ, coffee and a newspaper. Cute. Oh, and extra strength Tylenol.

We REALLY didn't want to, but we realized that it'd be best to go back up to my old place and clean. Me doing it this week after work would NOT be fun. So we did.

All that remains now in the old place are the cats, a big box, and an unclean kitchen. All else is clean.

SO that's the scoop. We're tired. Still. The garage is full in the new place, and there are minimal things inside. It feels like we're moving in slow motion. But, last night I actually cooked dinner (no fast food). Woo.

There are a few quirks. The landlord had to fix a shower door, and a towel rod. So he's doing that and wil lbe done with all projects tomorrow. There's no hot water. No joke. The stuipd gas company. I spent a while on the phone with them yesterday to convince them to turn it on TODAY rather than late this week. Seriously. They should have had a work order from me with instructions for no lapse of service.

Today I'm headed to pick up a cat, pick up some belongings (tehre's one BIG box), and then head home.

Tomorrow I'm headed to clean clean clean, pick up the other 2 cats, go look at a neat sculpture thing, and then go home.

Thursday I'm headed almost directly home; just a pit-stop mid-way to exchange something a crate and barrel.

I'm tired. I cannot wait until Saturday when we get to sleep in. I know... someday I have kids and exhaustion will be normal. True true. But still, right now, I just want to sleep. I long for Saturday.

That's-a ticket!

Maybe I need to be more sympathetic....

My dad just emailed me. He went to Italy in January. Just got charged $80-something from the rental car company. Why? Because they provided his information to the police. Why? Because my dad got a ticket. For going 9 mph over the speed limit (supposedly), in Italy. And the $80 is just the car company finder's fee, not the fee of the actual ticket.

I thought the Italian road rules were merely suggestions? Apparently not.

Anyway, it's a partially serious, partially hilarious situation.

SO I MADE A SONG.

Sung to the tune of "That's Amore"
Whhhhhheen you drive in Italy oh so quick cuz mom has to pee
that's a ticketttt!

When you drive oh-so-fast and you-a press-a da gas
that's a ticketttt!

When you swerve hit da curb and blurt a bad verb
that's a ticketttt!

So don't mope there is hope cuz you didn't-a hitta da Pope
it's just a ticketttttt!

Apparently when my dad sung it to my mom she laughed so hard she snorted toothpaste. His fault for singing to her in a fake Italian accent while she was brushing her teeth...