radio silence

So, we're in.

Yesterday the movers came at 8:50 am. They were finished by 2 pm. We had the cars (3 of them) packed up with junk by 3 pm. Then we drove north went home and proceeded to unpack, send things to storage, discover house glitches, cry, unpack more, eat, do laundry, run dishwasher, calm cats, and go to bed.

About the new house:

It is LOVELY colors, thanks to thistles, Kate, and Chuck. Green! Blue! Taupe! No more landlord white!

It is FULL of stuff. (Thanks IMMENSELY to curiousalexa, mimazu, stephanieb, Bruce, Nucha, Z-san, and all those other people who twisted our arms to get our precious possessions random junk into boxes and cart them north home.

The cats hate it. They miss their stairs, their private litter room, their stairs, and their comfy hidey furniture corners.

The kitchen is beautiful but odd--the dishwasher wobbles, the refrigerator is not magnetic (no magnets on the fridge! Oh noes! What do we do???) and there's laundry in it. (I'm not complaining at all; that's just not where I expect to find laundry.) The laundry thinks "hot" is "cold" and vice versa. I am complaining about that, as soon as I figure out who to complain to. (What, there's no landlord here??)

I'm constantly attempting to make a left turn out the front windows to the "rest of the house". There is no rest of the house there.

There is no garden. Fortunately, the two Xtra Speshul plants got adopted into a good home, and hopefully they're strong enough to thrive. Maybe there will even still be a rhubarb bunch that wanders home to us once a summer or so.

The Big Plant got taken in by our across-the-street neighbor in our former home. We're extending the olive branch of plant reconciliation to the condo people. Especially since we've moved into a condo now too, so who are we to judge? I also told him about the plants we dug up from his land before they bulldozed it to put in his home, and offered to let him take the peony bush and return it to its ancestral homeland. He thanked me for the offer, and I promptly cried.

I find I can no longer sleep in a room that doesn't feel like a meat locker. I hated the meat locker, but warm bedroom is foreign and not sleepy-making. This made for a rough night and day.

Just because you can't see the dirt on a wood floor doesn't mean it isn't there. Just because it's coated in polyurethane doesn't mean it won't scratch when you drag a full rubbermaid tub across it. Note to self: call spouse for heavy lifting. Do not attempt any moving hacks. This will void the warranty of the move.

Both the toilets work. This alone may be worth the price of the condo. (I'm not sure the bank would agree. But I'm damn thrilled.)

C and I both miss the way the old house sounds.

There is no internet yet. There is a new phone account, not that we have found the box the phones are packed in. We also have not found makeup, or slippers. I have not found the CD that contains the Gorgeous Shawl Pictures, and will not be able to post them or resurrect my knitting blog for another many weeks. But we did find underwear before work today--YAY.

I know I would never, ever, ever, have made it through the last week without all my friends carrying me. We had help every moment of the weekend, and never had to look at each other in panic. Thank you all so much.

Now the unpacking begins. I miss y'all. Can't wait for the celebrating to start.