We are MOVING..

I tried to find a picture of Eddie Murphy to go along with the title of this post (from one of my favorite comedies) I couldn't find a single one.. there were eleventeen hundred of him in a fat-suit, but none in the silly faux-african garb from Trading Places.. there is no justice in the world.
(Edit: My friend Matt found the following picture.. which I'm pretty sure means he's in league with the devil.)



Moving always beats me up.. mostly because I tend to load/unload the truck like there's a time limit and I only get to keep what I can load/unload inside of an hour, but partially because it beats everyone up.
To make sure that all of this stress and activity don't take too much of a toll I've been eating like crap too (sort of a feature of having your kitchen all packed up into boxes).

Friday night, my cousin and her daughter came over and helped us pack. They are masterful packers. I am not. I generally just chunk everything into one large box and let natural selection take care of the weaker of my possessions (there is less to put away that way). To contrast they pack things with packing materials and care so that they arrive unharmed.. this increases the load for the unpacker greatly.

Saturday: Paul, Light duty Joe, Chad and Michelle came over kicked the crap out of loading and unloading. We even got the living room set up and most of the kitchen put away.
From the ages of 18-33 I moved every year. A couple times across the country. I did not have a ton of money and being mobile kept me from accumulating a bunch of stuff.. not so much so after a wedding, and several baby showers (not to mention a couple of years just staying in one spot). We have exponentially more stuff. It's amazing. We're still sorting through it.

Saturday night we were invited to go out to a very fancy restaurant for dinner. The pork belly appetizer was great, steak was pretty good, the company was fantastic.. All of this was a jarring juxtaposition against running around schlepping boxes and generally working like a dog.

Sunday morning was all about setting up the Grizzly's room. Putting his crib together, and arranging furniture. From 11 to about 3 we went over to the wife's grandparent's for her grandfather's birthday. We had a nice brunch (the Grizzly was well behaved).

After that it was time to pick up the last few things from the condo. The two main items were Tenzing the cat, and the dishwasher (long story something about stainless and matching the fridge). I carried the dishwasher from the condo to the truck, and then from the truck to the kitchen in the house (up a flight of stairs) by myself.. lifting weights is awesome.

I had far less trouble with the dishwasher than I did with the cat. Tenzing is an indoor cat, and a large one. He does not like to leave his condo. I packed him in a box (with lots of holes for air) and he pushed his way through the box. After that it was game over, there was no getting him anywhere near a box. I ended up going to the pet store and buying a pet carrier, then I had to make up with him before I could get him in the box. He was high maintenance the whole rest of the night. The entire time I was trying to sleep he would climb on to my chest and sniff my breath to make sure I hadn't snuck off while he was exploring.

The dishwasher was easier, but far from easy. I had to re-wire the junction box, and spend $12 on an "universal dishwasher kit" to get one $2 adapter I needed.. by the way on Sunday, Home Depot closes at 8, but Lowe's is open till 9. This may have been important.

No training tonight, I'm off to Woodenville this afternoon to buy weights for the home gym. I'm going to build some squat stands based on these.. this weekend or next. Once this all gets put together I'll give you a tour.

Mahalo.