Moving on up, to the east side to our deluxe house on Saint James

Our official move date is Sunday. Holy hell. It seems like we've had the house for months and months, what with all the work we've done. But it's only been three weeks since our closing!

We met a very nice man thanks to craigslist* who sanded our floors and basically made them totally beautiful. Joe (that's his name) told us that our floors are not pine, which is what everyone else said they were. Of course, he became intimately acquainted with them in a fashion that no one else did. But it turns out that our floors are hemlock. How about that?

Anyway, our floors will be done tomorrow, and then will need a couple days to mellow, so we're moving in on Sunday.

I'm really pleased about this turn of events because I am about 100% ready for this moving process to be over. I reached a fevered pitch of heart-pounding anxiety tonight. Sunday can't come soon enough.

Today, Scott got a U-Haul and moved a bunch of stuff he can move by himself. I'm gathering a small band of ladies on Saturday to help me with the final packing while Scott is at work. Then Sunday, we'll have a small band of helpers to help with the final big stuff. Then it will be over.

Oh! Hear this excellent news! I found an awesome, awesome dining room set on craigslist for a low price. It's extra fancy and the table extends to eight feet long! Scott and I had just been talking about what we were going to do in our big new dining room. Now we will dine there!

I'm hoping that once we're done with the madness that I will return to blogging about hilarious things. I hope you will bear with me as we get through this crazy time.

Thank you.

* If you're looking for someone to sand your floors, consider Joe. He came in with the best quote and he was just about the nicest person ever. We met a couple total shysters -- one that quoted us fully twice as much as this guy and bellyached about how hard it would be to sand our floors. Joe definitely knew they were hard floors, but he didn't bellyache or try to separate us from any more of our money than his original quote. I can't recommend him highly enough.

Taking time in the outdoors

Both yesterday and today, Scott and I went down to the dinosaur tracks off of route 5 in Holyoke. Previous to these two forays, I only tried to go once some four or so years ago and, finding the tracks covered in snow, turned back and didn't return until yesterday.

They're pretty prounouced, the Anchisaurus prints. These Anchisauruses were totally hanging around the Connecticut River, all casual-like, millions and millions of years ago.

Yesterday, we walked down the embankment towards all the fossils and we found an area where the younger Anchisauruses must have been hanging out, since their feet weren't that-that much longer than mine, despite my man-sized feet (though they are significantly wider and also there are other prints that are much bigger than my feet). I stood in their footprints and shouted, "Argh!" and then pretended to smoke cigarettes like a teenager.

The reason we went back again today is that if you walk down the little path and cross the train tracks (which is illegal), you can sit on the shaley banks of the Connecticut and just watch the river run by. It was so nice, the sitting and watching the water. It was so nice that we had to go back again.

We started packing and breaking things down in earnest in the apartment today. Our closing is on Thursday and we're going to move over the course of June (while trying to also do a few home improvements). After all the packing, a sit down on the shaley banks of the Connecticut was just the thing to help us transition from packing machines back into our normal selves.

Today when we were walking back up towards the car, Scott said, "Don't you want to stand in the dinosaur tracks and shout again?" Of course I wanted to. So I did.