We made it!!!

So this is brought to you by the iPod so no pictures, but we just arrived in Budapest without incident except that we are tired. Amazing amount of English signs and very cool architecture. Miss all of you! We are staying at the Hotel Hungaria.

What the...

Portland 2009 ~ By Katie

Not quite sure what to say. This was found on the car window after shopping.

Proof that we've been together for a while

This town of Portland is laid out a little strangely, folks. Sure, it LOOKS all innocuous and straightforward and gridlike on the map, but said map fibs. The streets are twisty and buried in giant shrubbery. {Ahem, case in point: check out the loopy southwest neighborhood.} Because he is so great, the husby found the box with all our maps and we commenced to get my bearings.

Me: Check this out...Terwilliger Street. That's fun to say.

Hubby Love: {Gives me the sidelong glance one gives when one is putting up with a dorky 14-year-old.}

Me: Come on. You know it sounds funny. "Terwilliger."

Hubby Love: That's because you think it sounds like "tallywh@cker."

Sigh. He does know me well.

The Devil's Arithmetic

The past week has been so surreal and absolutely jam-packed...we {mostly my uber-strong hubby} boxed up our whole house. There is nothing like loading up every spoon, every tent stake, every temperamental houseplant to make you want to just sell it all on the spot.

With the help of our wonderful friends, we loaded the entire cubic metric crapload into one of these babies...

...in what became a life-sized version of rotate-this, tweak-that, shove-it-in Tetris from hell.

Bart pulled out early on Friday morning. I stayed behind to do a final refrigerator clean-out and to wait for the carpet cleaners to spruce up the science experiment that is our wall-to-wall covering. {By the by, I had an awesome experience with St@nley Steemer and highly recommend them to all you carpet owners out there.}

After saying a very tough goodbye to our first house, I dried my eyes and loaded the heartily protesting Sallie Cat into our truck. The ensuing 20-plus hours of driving were blissfully uneventful. Wyoming and southeast Idaho were so green from all the rain, and the drive was gorgeous. Miss kitty settled in on my lap with minimal yowling, the vehicles worked smoothly, and we caught a wonderful meal and a decent night's sleep at my mom's house. My insightful mom forcibly sent along unit doses of chocolate mousse for our second day of driving. {She somehow knew that we'd need a little fortification before flopping down for another night of sleeping-bag-and-air-mattress luxury in a new place.}

On our first morning in the new apartment, we discovered just why the Good Lord made college fellas...

With the exception of the freezer that we {again, mostly Bart} had muscled up the stairs the night before, these whippersnappers navigated the wretched climb with every heavy thing we owned. I merely had to lift the featherweight stuff and point to the rest, and Thor and Brutus flexed their muscles and made with moving magic. {Did I really just type "whippersnapper"? Soon I'm going to be shaking my cane at all the rambunctious young denizens of the neighborhood.}

I have been on one end of that dang couch in a previous move. I know the pain...

This was the best money we have EVER spent, hands-down. They saved us the cost of Bart's hernia repair and my spinal discectomy. {Get in touch with me if anyone out there needs a good Portland, OR-area mover. They are actually quite affordable.}

There were actually some times that I was a little worried about overtaxing the ramp...glad it declared its capabilities right up front.

Our first meal in our new digs: english muffins and eggs. I have to admit, there is a bit of romance in the concept of the first home-cooked food in a new setting.

And so it begins, the process of navigating the carboard jungle that is our apartment. We are on to Level 2 in the afore-mentioned demonic Tetris...getting everything to fit functionally in the ill-designed cupboards and closets of the new love nest. Going from a 3-bedroom house to a 2-bedroom apartment has its interesting moments. For instance, what to do with all the painting supplies and yard tools one accumulates in the sprucing-up of your home??? I'll take any advice on that front!

And one more thing. Does anyone have tips on how to effectively pour this ridiculous Northwestern-packaged milk without wearing it? Change is rough.

So long...

So the big day has arrived. We pick up the moving truck and take off for Portland. Will we forget what the sun looks like after three years? (hopefully not) Will we need frequent ski vacations to the great slopes of Colorado? (YES)

I just hope our the truck doesn't look like this...

Can somebody stop the room, please? I'd like to get off.

Image based on work by Gustav Klimt

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." {John Lennon, Beautiful Boy}

So, there has been a dearth of posts around here lately...

Life is good, but a nap would be better. In the past month I've been rear-ended in a car accident, we jaunted home for my sister's whirlwind graduation weekend, we experienced a break-in/robbery and the ensuing rage, I received {and was blessedly dismissed from} a jury duty summons, I completed a jam-packed week of dress rehearsals and concerts, Bart went on a mighty-manly multinight campout, we've had familial houseguests, and there has been extensive purging, packing, and prepping of the house for the imminent sabbatical {because I'm too surly to actually call it "moving"}.

I'm just saying...I actually had the nerve to wonder why it was hard to get up this morning.

If mothers only knew...

This past week I discovered an important fact of life. Boys learn to love camping from fathers but are able to survive because of the mothers. Left up to the male species some would definitely not make it home.  Some good friends and I went camping this week for a guys only trip that included a total of 5 kids ages three to eight plus 4 much older juveniles.

We left on Thursday morning with Becca so excited to get rid of us she started hitting the bottle at 8am.  Nothing says addict like a bottle of Henry Weinhard's root beer and a baby blanket.

For my birthday Katie got me a hammock and other camping gear.  This was the view I saw every afternoon (and morning) for a little nap.

Up until this time I know you are saying to yourself "this doesn't sound too bad for boys".  Don't worry dear reader I have saved the best for last.

The wood was a little wet so the fire needed "extra" oxygen.  By using the pump that we used to blow up an air mattress we created our own little furnace.  I now understand the principle of the bellows for the blacksmith on a personal level.

We went to a nearby mountain to climb on Saturday.

Things got a little worse as we went through some caves.

Coming down proved new challenges.  Mothers might want to stop reading at this time.

This is a spot where we handed kids from one person to the other.  

Looking up through the chasm that we were passing kids over.

In the end all survived with only minor cuts from carving that did not require more than a bandaid.  Fun times were had and memories made.