No, I'm Not Dead and Yes, We Did Move

Well... it has been a busy past few months.  I apologize for not participating at this blog more, but the pressures of family, friends, work, getting our house ready to move, and ACTUALLY SELLING IT AND MOVING (YAAAAY!) have kept me overly occupied.

I will try to do better, starting with a brief update. 

We had half given up on buying the house that we now occupy when suddenly a buyer emerged.  This happened the day right after our outside freezer died (not a big deal except we had a lot of food in it that needed to be utilized, especially the vast number of raspberries that I harvested and froze last summer).  There were some bumps along the way still, plus all the packing and cleaning and cleaning and packing that needed to be accomplished. 

We made it, though, and are now sorting through our billions of remaining possessions in order to make this house liveable and not stuffed with tons of useless stuff that we don't want.

The upside: this is a gorgeous new house with a lot of new space and we love it.  I don't miss the old house at all, especially the kitchen, which I despised.

The downside: we still have a LOT of stuff.

That being said, we got rid of an amazing amount of old junk.  We rented a huge dumpster that lived in our driveway for a few days.  It was enormous... it took up half the driveway and I think it was larger than the studio apartment my sister-in-law had while she was in graduate school.  There is a flat fee for renting such an item, and it is very reasonable; I believe it was around $130.00.  Beyond that, they charge fifty dollars per ton of stuff to be disposed.  Yes, per TON.  I couldn't imagine we had a literal ton... but it turned out we rid ourselves of 2.09 tons of items.  It is astonishing that the house didn't float away after all of that way removed.

It is true that many of the items included in the dumpster were heavy; an old, unsalvageable couch, a mattress from before time began, the heavy duty Peg Perego stroller that we bought when Alex was born in 1998.  But a lot of smaller items were also disposed of (goodbye useless infant car seats!).  I did think to take a picture of some of what Austin piled up in the garage one day, but of course it is late and he is asleep and I can't remember how to share photos on the blog right now.

Next time I will try to do better, including sharing pictures. 

Promise. 

Spatula City

Sadly, with the Kitchen largely unpacked and set up, the unpacking I have managed over the past few days has not been all that infused with everyone's favorite: kitchen items.  It's been some blankets, shoes, random things.  I am avoiding the books.  Sad but true.

Good news, though.  There was a tragedy awaiting me in the dishwasher the other morning:

Now, you know when your spatula is this shade of "Country Blue" or its complement "Dusty Rose" even, you've had it at this point for a good, well, going on 20 years, and getting whacked by the dishwasher blade is just going to be the last straw.  I said to Andrew:  "We're not old enough to have a 20 year old spatula that just got killed in a dishwashing accident!"  He consoled me with the fact that it was only 19 years old.  Such a relief.

When I went to throw this away after taking the pictures, I actually bent that little piece back and forth a little and it just started cracking into a million tiny pieces.  When it's time, it's time.  And time marches on.  But first one other funny little story about this spatula:

During the first, few years we had this, at some point while cooking a big holiday meal, it ended up getting kind of close to the heat for too long.  I think this is when we were living in Burnsville.  I was smelling burning plastic, discerned what was going on, picked it up and mushed that plastic back into approximately the right shape with my own fingers.  And we proceeded to continue on as if nothing had ever happened.

Ah, a spatula with character.  A spatula that wasn't too tall...until it was.  A spatula that was born out of the fervor over those country geese and their attendant colors and need for full-kitchen coordination, I have no doubt.  It's friends the "dusty blue" spoon and ladle continue on without it.  For now.

I mentioned the possibility of replacing it and was told in no uncertain terms:  No.  We have more spatulas in storage. Ah, but do they have this much character?  Well, one never knows.  I do know that there will never be another spatula quite like this one.  And that is OK.


Edited to add:  This.

Fast Forward

Add us to the long list of blogs started in a fit of enthusiasm only to taper off to nothing abruptly when their authors become distracted.  Given the content of our blog, the fact that this didn't happen in oh, November is actually a bit of a miracle.


It's been over a month since my last post, and what's occurred isn't really a mystery...well, except that it is, perhaps.  I ended up building the truly tall set for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood"  There's a whole long story-thing, but I'm just not going to get into it, and it all turned out just fine.

Meanwhile Sara and Austin ended up selling their house and moving to their new house right around the same time as I was loading the scenery into the theater.  It was a few days off, but...crazy times all around!

They are settling into their new home, and we are currently a 3-show household.  I am a 3-show person, even.  Drood has one more weekend with strike on Sunday, and we are starting production on the final show of Chameleon's season - Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.  Meanwhile Scott is stage managing Treasure Island at Theatre in the Round, and I am about to jump into assistant stage managing that show while assisting with the scenery for it and 5 Women and designing the props for 5 Women.  Which sounds as thought it might be enough to push me over the edge, only...I don't think so.

During all this...mayhem, the unpacking has slowed to a near-stop, at least on my part.  I would love to say "A box a day!  Unpack a box a day, at least!" But at some point in some production, that will become untenable once again, I know.

Today's box features items from the coat tree that was formerly in the front hall but is now in the kitchen and such a vital part of our daily lives that we have rules surrounding it (one coat per person, clear it off if we have a lot of guests coming) and could not possibly loan it for a production no matter the need.

Among the items found are spring jackets, which we will be wanting, and jackets that are now too small for the youngest among us.  Which we will no longer be wanting but washing and donating.

Stay tuned for possible further updates!  (Sara...you don't have to post pictures.  Just say something so they know you haven't totally abandoned me and our blog)