We're having movers come do the big furniture! (Starving Student Movers, FYI. We liked the work they did the last time we used them) On a weekday before the big move day. Oh, it won't be all the furniture, just the things I don't want to make my friends move again (like the sleeper sofa and the bed and the mattresses and a couple of other solid wood things).

Because it's a short distance (something like a mile), we're also looking at not renting a truck. We'll have our van, probably my in-law's truck, and maybe a few other larger vehicles. My mom will be in town the week before and we'll have (hopefully) already moved a lot of the book cases, shelves, smaller furniture and a bunch of boxes. We're hoping to make move day be about finishing moving the boxes and smaller furniture.

Of course, we'll keep you all posted as to what we'll actually be moving, but we'd still love to have help around 10am on the 25th. We'll have juice and donuts and coffee on the starting end a couple of take and bake pizzas for the finishing end.

I made arrangements to go over to the new place tomorrow and take some room measurements (particularly the ceiling height and the hall down by the bedrooms to make sure furniture will fit) so we'll have a better idea of where everything will go.

This is actually looking slightly less stressful.

Now if only snapping like Mary Poppins would produce the same effect while packing... :-)

I'm in need of a chiropractor. Unfortunately, I don't go in so much for the 'healing energy', 'healing touch', 'chiropractic can solve every ill you have', 'you need to come in every 3 days for the next month' kind of chiropractors (or rather quackerpracters as my dad calls them). I have one I adore down in Portland, but have yet to find anything like him here in Seattle.

One of my favorite things about my Portland chiropractor is that he massaged muscles in my back for a few minutes before adjusting. I have yet to find another one that does that, though, so I won't put it on my must have list.

All I need is someone who can put my back/neck back into alignment without all the other woo-woo weirdness... And who will leave the actuator 'gun' on the shelf when I tell them I don't want it anywhere near me...

We can haz house! We won't get to sign papers/pay deposit and rent/get keys until the 18th, but we can haz house!

In other news, we are planning a move date of July 25th. Hopefully from 10ish to 2ish, but one never exactly knows.

If I turn into a flake in the next few weeks, please forgive me!

So I went and looked at the daylight basement place yesterday. I liked it enough that I filled out the application and paid the screening fee. :-) (the owner wants to make sure she isn't renting to axe murders, sex offenders, or people who bounce checks. I'm thinking we'll pass, but, one never really knows.) The space is a daylight basement, but is set up as a duplex. And we wouldn't actually have stairs or hills to deal with. We'd be parking pretty much outside the front door. It's about 1300 sq ft, and the $825 rent includes water/sewer/garbage, leaving us to just pay electricity. That's a fabulous deal for this area!

( My initial impression was that it is very brown. )

Assuming that we pass, we'll most likely give her money and get keys on the 9th or 10th. If that's the case, we'll start moving boxes and small furniture over asap. While I'd really like to hire movers for the furniture, I'm going to guess that we won't be able to afford it. But I'm instead hoping to have pretty much everything but the furniture moved so we only have to rent a truck to move furniture. It will help that this place is only about a mile from where we currently live (and is much less confusing to get to)

In any case, we're looking at July 25th as our tentative move date. Hopefully fairly early in the day so we will be free to go to the evening events that are on the calendar. It's not a perfect date, but no Saturday in July or August is going to be good. :-)

So, there you have it. I'll post more as I know more.

For anyone interested... I have a pink bottle of Snuggle fabric softener that needs a new home. I used it once and couldn't handle the scent. If no one wants it, it will probably get tossed in the move... :-)

And I'm sure I'll be posting more things that we are getting rid of. Watch this space for more details...

We found a place today that we are hoping will be the right place. It's about a mile from where we live (and much easier to find). The size posted on Craigslist is the size we've been hoping to find (and for about the right price). Jeff thought the owner sounded nice when he talked to her today and set up a walkthrough appointment for me for tomorrow evening. We drove by the place tonight and like what we see so far. If we pick it and pass the screening, we'd be renting the basement of a place (only it should have it's own kitchen and shower). The house is right next to a decent sized park. The owner's brother lives upstairs. We're a little worried that ceilings might be kind of low, but... Well, we'll see... :-)

We'll have a better idea after actually visiting tomorrow, but we're guardedly optimistic.

Think good thoughts that this is, indeed, the right place!

Upstairs has decided to sell the house. We've started looking for a new place. We're hoping to stay in the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park area (I love my ward at church), but are looking in other close areas as well.

We'd love to hear recommendations if you have them! Also boxes. We got rid of most of our boxes after the last move because we were hoping it would be a long term situation.

We'll post more when we know. I don't know if we'll be able to afford it, but I really want movers to deal with the furniture this time around.

sigh. I want to put roots down and settle somewhere!

So. We're headed up to Canada for a fun weekend. We've gone through the checklists multiple times and are pretty confident we haven't forgotten anything too important and head off. However just aswe get to Blingham, I realize I've forgotten something *really* important: my passport...

Yep. We turned around and went for take two. Sigh... We're on the road again and likely to miss the ferry we had reservations for. Yarg indeed... But I now have the passport and can actuay make it accross the border...

Hope your weekend has a better start!

Have I mentioned how much I hate barking dogs? Dogs in general aren't my favorite, but we mostly ignore each other and are fine. However the barking from most dogs is really irritationg. Fingernails on chalkboards kind of irritation. A couple of times I can ignore. 30 minutes leaves me seriously hating the barking dog. Especially when it is barking with a kind of howly bark thrown into the mix. The next door dog is getting on my main nerve!

my cat may be bossy, annoying, and drive me crazy, but she doesn't do it in a way that almost hurts inside my head. sigh...

At least I'm heading off to a meeting here real soon. Then I won't be able to hear the dumb dog anymore...

I had another really fun lesson today. We did some playing along with recordings (we played Code Monkey! I <3 Code Monkey!) as well as working on some more classical pieces. Betsy reminded me that playing along in folk/filk circles is fun but doesn't stretch you much. It's good to be working at least a little on harder pieces to get that stretching. I'm still working on my Tarantella (by Squire) and Chanson Triste (Tchaikovsky), but I'm also going to work up the first movement of the first Bach Cello Suite.

Probably my most useful bits from today were a patter way of sight reading treble clef faster and that I need to keep my left elbow higher (it makes shifting easier). And chords for Code Monkey (Jonathon Coulton), Mal's Song, and Apprentice (Tony and Vixy).

I can't wait for my lesson next week! :-)

In other news, it's really windy today. I was watching the clouds scudding all the way home. I think we're also getting little tiny power flickers. At least I think so. They seem to be more than the usual fluorescent light flickers... :-)

Well, it's time for dinner and then work time!

Had a lovely visit with my family. My brother and sister-in-law and their very cute kids were visiting from Chicago. We went to the beach on Wednesday and to Enchanted Forest (near Salem) yesterday. Have I mentioned that the kids were very cute? :-)

Unfortunately, I ended up with a stomach bug yesterday. As soon as we got home from Enchanted forest, I went to bed and slept most of the afternoon and evening. I'm feeling better today, but still a bit out of it.

It's good to be home though! Yea kitty purrs!

Tomorrow is my chorus show. If you haven't bought tickets but still want to come, you can buy them at the door (cash only). Need more info? Check out the flyer on the chorus website (www.voicesnorthwest.org).

I think I'm going to go crash for a while and then do some paying work before bed.

Lovely. Someone decided last night that the windshield on the van needed altering. As in a bat or a bar to the driver's side leaving a circular, smashed, white, crunchy, mess. Nothing else was damaged nor was anything taken from the car. We're guessing smash and run.

It happened sometime between 10 last night and 10 this morning. We've arranged for a glass repair person to come (next Tuesday), and reported it to the police (coming soon to take a report). And it's messing up plans for the day as well as next week's plans. I won't get to leave for Portland until the glass people come on Tuesday (instead of in the morning). This is SO not the way I wanted to start my day.

le sigh... I hate stupid people

I've been hearing about the health care debates going on in DC, and decided to make my feelings known to my senator and congressperson. How can they represent me if I don't let them know how I feel about things? I love that I can email them instead of needing to write a paper letter. And the couple of times I have emailed them in the past I have gotten some kind of response. I don't know if they are reading it themselves or if someone in their office is reading and responding, but I at least felt heard.

Tell your government representatives how you feel!

Jeff bought me flowers today! He went down to Pike's Place on his lunch and bought them there. Then had to get them back to work, through the rest of the day, and home on the bus and in the car. Color me impressed! And they are really pretty. I'll probably post a picture over on facebook (yea not needing hosting to post there... :-).

It made my whole day!

I just got home from my first cello lesson in bunches of years (12 or something). My teacher is Betsy Tinney (of Tricky Pixie and recently Tony and Vixy... squee! :-). I was really nervous going into it because I haven't ever picked my own teacher before. I got some suggestions on things to talk about or ask before going. Course, when I showed up, she mentioned she was a bit nervous and then we started talking and then playing. I think it went really well. We worked on my cello position (I am a different shape then I was 10 years ago and my cello doesn't sit the same way anymore...) and some other remembery things. We also talked chords for playing with other people and did some playing together. I had lots and lots of fun! Can't wait for my next lesson! :-)

And her cats (Maine Coons!) are both extremely fuzzy and very pretty. They are also music appreciation cats. Something our cat isn't! :-)

yea lessons!

I'm thankful for the chance to go to Winthrop (Eastern WA) to visit Jeff's parents. These trips are usually pretty relaxing.

I'm thankful for cool enough weather to bake muffins for lunch, and yet still some sun today.

I'm thankful for unscented sunscreen.

I'm thankful that my mom is going to be able to come up and see my chorus's show on the 20th.

I'm thankful for Jeff's job and the benefits that come with it.

I'm thankful that I'm actually starting to feel pretty good most of the time.

I'm thankful that I'm able to get back to Curves to workout. Still kind of wimpy, but working out none the less... :-)

And with that, it's time to pack the car. We're driving over after Jeff gets off work. It will make for a long night, but we won't have to try and get up early to go tomorrow. And traffic will be light... :-)

My chorus is putting on a show on June 20th at 7:30pm up in Everett. There's a flyer and link to the brown paper tickets purchase link on our chorus website (www.voicesnorthwest.org). We've booked Jet City Improv as part of our show and it looks to be a fun event.

If you are interested but don't want to buy your tickets online, contact me and we'll work something out.

Lots to do, not enough time to do it, and I'm super distracta-girl today. sigh...

At least lunch is mostly ready...

It's Folklife weekend and Jeff and I are fixing to head out. In case anyone who is wanting to go hasn't heard, the Bobs are performing this afternoon. I believe it is at 4:40 at the Fisher Green Pavillion. I love their music, but haven't ever seen them live. :-)

I probably won't stay as long this year as past years, but it will be fun to go.

Hey, it's Thursday today. When did that happen?

1. Jeffrey
2. holiday weekend. I might actually make it to some of Folklife
3. No real plans outside the possibility of Folklife
4. A letter from my sister
5. a really good chorus rehearsal
6. some good work on the website (something that's needed working on for a while)
7. a fun card class.
8. going to bed early at least a couple of days
9. fun plans
10. cello!