House becoming a home...

Well, it's been a while since I've gotten around to doing this... Ironic, I suppose, given that this has been just about the busiest month in the past seven years. We're returning to some sort of normal, or, what passes for normal 'round these parts. I went off cycling today - the first real bike ride since maybe September. 53 miles into the January wind and murk - not bad for not having biked for months. Heinie's a bit delicate now, but I suppose that goes with the territory. David has been blobbing out most of the day - I think he actually managed to get to the supermarket, but most of the day was spent travelling the universe with Voyager. Hmm - I'm going to need to start cracking the whip, I think. Robin has spent the entire weekend with his new beau (and he is a beau, being a former porn star). Robin is what I will call the "12 year old" phase of the relationship. Meaning - he's acting like he's about 12 years old, and female. The guy doesn't call for a few days and oh my God he's dumped. And then he calls, and Robin is back in happy doodah land (to the point that I want to vomit). I'm such a romantic. Anyway, they've spent most of the weekend baked, meaning I'm probably going to get to hear all sorts of exceedingly boring details tonight. Ah well, I suppose that's what friends are for (and I'm sure I'll have sick bag at the ready... ;-)

So, the past month has been a bit of a blur, to be honest - much sleep did not happen. We chose to move during the 'Blizzard of 2010' (blizzard being a rather flexible word, in this case meaning about 4 inches of snow and about 85 feet of hyperbole). We rented a van the weekend before Christmas. David and Robin headed off to Ikea on the 18th, while I spent the day cleaning carpets. Can't remember if I mentioned before I had to schlep the thing back a mile in the snow - fell flat on my ass. Pretty cool. Most of the snow fell that day, meaning, of course, that we chose to move most of the stuff on the 19th, when the roads were absolute sheets of ice. Robin ended up getting the van stuck on ice. He and David tried to unstick it with cardboard under the tires. Big surprise, that didn't work. Enter boy who lived in cold climate for 12 years, who knows that we needed grit, or, at least something that could pass for grit. How did we get the thing unstuck? Chicken shit. Or, rather, chickenshit pellets. Good stuff. Plants love it, and it makes for some pretty good grit. Anyway, there was some teeth gnashing and clothes rending, but we survived the day. (We did have to remove the stair railing to get the ginormous TV out). We moved the rest of the stuff the 22nd, and actually moved in that day. Four van trips, no parking tickets and one phantom accident (someone reported that Robin his their car, which is pretty exciting, since Robin, to the best of his knowledge, didn't hit anything). The first morning here, it took me 45 minutes to find the items to make my breakfast - our little plan to keep things organized didn't go so well.

Anyway, Christmas came and went. Avi came for the day, and Paul and Ali popped over for the afternoon. Amazingly, David managed to cook up an entire Christmas dinner, 3 days after we moved, with all our worldly possessions (or most of them anyway), sitting around in boxes. We at the dinner, on the sofa, in front of the TV, on TV trays. Very yummy. Oh yeah, I forgot, in amongst the various Christmas decorations, I bought a replacement halogen light for the front entrance. David wanted me to get a sort of bluey-red light. So, I went to the electrical supply store and asked for such a light. What did I get? Well, I think it's safe to say that we are now the gayest looking house in a very gay neighborhood. The light it gives off is actually rainbow. Cool! I wanted to name the house 'Gayhurst'. But, I was told I can't actually do that, because 'hurst' means 'on top of the hill'. I could, however, name it 'Gayden', which is both correct and, well, correct, I suppose. I really am very sad.

New Year's Eve we had six people over. Lots of champagne, lots of high fat food, and we schlepped up to the top of the park to watch fireworks shoot from the London Eye. Ooh, pretty!

So, slowly, very slowly, our house is becoming a home. We still have various boxes in corners, and still have no dining table. The bathroom has not yet been constructed (though the kitchen is fine), and the new sofa has been delayed by a month and a half because the factory no longer makes the fabric (it took them 6 weeks to tell us this - they are going to specially make the fabric for us). The jungle that is the back yard is slowly beginning to look, well, ready for business! I've been making full use of the electric hedge trimmers (I love them - very good purchase!) and have been hacking and pruning away. Unfortunately, the neighborhood cats seem to have decided that our yard is their own personal litter box.

Coming home, I'm really happy to round the corner and see our street. It's just so darn cute you just want to squish it! It's particularly cute when you compare it to the streets just the other side of the train tracks, which are, well, the wrong side of the tracks!

Anyway, lots to do this evening. At some point, David will put together a bunch of pictures of our move - we're not quite that organized yet. I've got a few random ones though after this...

(Ah, in retrospect, I looked back and discovered that I already described the amazing healing power of chickenshit. Oh well - I'm sure the world will cope somehow).

Yes, we believe very strongly in electrical safety...