Bust a Move!
Oh my god; what happened to the van?!
So, Athennia and I joined our households this weekend!
After about two weeks of transporting everything that would fit in a car from my place to hers, we were down to the last handful of items—like my sofa sectional—that required something bigger.
We reserved a 9-foot cargo van for 24 hours starting Friday evening, so that we could take our time loading everything the night before and then unloading it the day of the move.
Speaking of which, I didn't realize that all the pictures Athennia took of the van were directly through U-Haul's website; so, I was under the impression that we had about 15-20 pictures of it... until I was sitting down to draft this post and I asked Athennia to send me the pics of the van—to which she responded...
So, there you go! What a riveting shot.
We loaded the last of my stuff without issue Friday night, and then drove the van over to Morrisville early Saturday afternoon.
Everything went perfectly to plan: Athennia and I managed to unload 99% of everything before Kelly and Steve arrived, just as I'd hoped we could. (They do have a new baby, after all: We weren't even going to ask for their help, but Kelly offered.)
All we needed a hand with was getting Athennia's treadmill down the stairs to take it across the parking lot to the dumpsters, and then bringing the larger half of my sofa up the stairs and into the living room.
It was a big sofa in a small stairwell, and we hit a couple roadblocks; but, everything worked out fine and we had it done in a matter of minutes.
Athennia and I had intended to treat Kelly, Steve, and my parents to lunch (because my parents were kind enough to babysit Olivia and Hannah so Kelly and Steve could come help us in the first place). But, my mom ended up covering more than half the bill.
Athennia, Riley, and I made another trip back and forth with my glass desktop, a bunch of glass shelving, and some other fragile things.
Then we did some unpacking and setting up at the apartment, and decided to do dinner at Julio's Pizzeria instead of worrying about cooking...
The last thing we did Saturday night was make one final trip to grab Penny (and all her stuff) and bring her "home."
We spent Sunday getting things unpacked and situated. Nothing terribly fascinating to report on, although Athennia confessed that the chaotic mess of cables behind my desk has always driven her crazy; so, I let her take charge on routing everything. (She does have five years' experience routing and splicing optical fiber, after all.)
Also, I'd been pushing for making the move Saturday night into Sunday, but she wanted Friday into Saturday so she wouldn't have to go back to work the very next day. That worked out well, because Sunday's skies looked pretty dicey!
Monday afternoon, I put together a coffee table I had ordered and smuggled inside and under Riley's futon while Athennia wasn't looking on Saturday. Meanwhile, Riley used the styrofoam packaging to construct some things of her own...
We picked up dinner from Qdoba Monday evening... and, for the first time ever, there was absolutely no sign of Larry the entire time Naima made our food and rung us up; so, I jokingly asked her if Larry had finally taken an actual day off.
We were not ready for her response!
No, he actually collapsed right here in the restaurant the other day from dehydration and exhaustion: He spent two days in the hospital. Just got out this morning... and they told him to take the rest of the week off, but he called us and said he'll be in tomorrow.
So, it looks like we're going to have to give him a stern talking-to the next time we see him: Life's too short to work yourself to death!
Monday night, we opened some housewarming and early Christmas gifts from Kelly and Steve that they thought we should have sooner rather than later...
We also got a beautiful card from Olivia...
Riley and I also beat Untitled Goose Game—a game where you play as geese and have to complete various missions involving stealing and manipulating various items and sowing chaos among the inhabitants of a small village. It was a lighthearted and surprisingly fun little game!
As we continue to get the apartment in order, our last major hurdle is getting "Lucky Penny" to embrace each other as soulmates and learn to coexist.
It's been a bit slow-going, but generally headache-free so far: Lucky seems perfectly content with Penny; and, while she doesn't exactly like him yet (and hisses when he gets too close), she's neither afraid of him nor going out of her way to torment him.
It's only been a few days. I think they'll become great friends in time...
And, as for us, we're doing great :)