Moving In Together

This past weekend was the Big Move: Debbi's moved into my house with me!

Actually it's been a long, gradual process: The cats basically moved in a month ago (or so), and Debbi's been gradually bringing clothes and kitchen equipment (dishes, utensils, pots and pans and other such) down for the last few weekends, and we've been putting most of it away. We even brought down the cat tree and a rocking chair the cats like to sit in.

Thursday we packed up her computer and brought it down (though we'll probably consolidate its data and programs onto my computer, until and unless we can find a place to set it up), along with some other boxes.

Saturday Debbi let me head off to play an Ultimate frisbee tournament while she went home and packed. I think she ended up feeling exhausted and frustrated by the time she came home, feeling that she hadn't gotten as far as she'd wanted. Plus a basket of stuff fell over in the car as she drove down. So that was a tense time. Moving is stressful.

Fortunately, on Sunday we had six (count 'em, six! Okay, really count 'em: Chad, Mark, Subrata, Susan, Lisa, and Michael) people who volunteered to help us. We rented a cargo van from U-Haul. (This is the largest vehicle I've ever driven. Which says more about the kinds of vehicles I've driven than about the size of the van.) Chad brought his SUV, Michael brought his pickup, and Subrata brought his, well, his Toyota Camry. Which is still bigger than my car.

Debbi and I for the last few things packed before people showed up ("I thought I said 10 o'clock", said Debbi; nope, turns out she said 10:30), and then the exodus began. The loading was the biggest chunk of work, because Debbi's apartment is at the far end of the building from the parking lot, so we got to trek stuff down the hall to get it to the cars. But, we did have two hand trucks and a furniture dolly. To my surprise, we completely filled all four vehicles. Well, maybe Subrata's car had a little space, but not a lot. But we did get nearly everything in (by which I mean, we only left behind a few random things which can easily be brought down in a couple of trips the next week), so by that measure it was a success.

Better yet, we finished loading before noon.

We drove down to the storage locker and unloaded everything in record time, and have a fair bit of space unused in the locker, too, which is good since we have some things to add to it from my house (mostly empty boxes and redundant electronics). Then we unloaded a few things and Debbi's television, the latter of which we set up to replace my TV (since Debbi's is much bigger).

Total time: Less than four hours. Not damn bad!

I observed that we clearly underestimated the importance of having Chad. Chad is my tall friend who's built like a, well, like a guy who was built to move things. And he knows how to do the job, too. (No, he's not employed as a mover. He works in the tech industry just like most of my friends.)

He probably gets a lot of free pizza out of the deal, though, and Sunday was no exception, as the eight of us scarfed down three large pizzas and three orders of garlic bread sticks at Amici's in the denouement to the whole experience.

The group broke up and I went home to spent an hour re-wiring our audio-video system. Debbi did some unpacking. Then we collapsed with the cats to watch football. Whew!

She's here!

My employer (that would be Apple) gave its employees the week off for Thanksgiving (for those of you who aren't familiar with American customs, this is the week when we gorge ourselves on helpless foul and over-processed vegetable matter, and then starting spending money on gifts for the next major holiday). Not a moment too soon, says I, as I'm pretty darned exhausted after getting Xcode 2.2 out the door. So I'm planning on having a relaxing week, albeit doing some productive things like unpacking and writing.

I met Debbi at her workplace for lunch today, then went into the city to do a little shopping, followed by picking up a few things from Debbi's apartment (one of those couple of trips I mentioned above). Then I went for a sunset bike ride before Debbi came home and we went to dinner.

A pretty good start to the week. Hopefully I'll be able to recharge my batteries in time to head back to work next Monday.