Surrounded by Boxes

Between the somewhat more time-filling schedule at the bookstore than I had anticipated, plus the scramble to find a place to live in Akron so B didn't have to commute 45 minutes every day, and then the subsequent move... I'm away from my desk, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.  If you need immediate assistance, press 1 for the operator.  Beeeeeeeep.

Long story short, we looked at seven different places in Akron, the first being awesome but too expensive, some in the middle that were just meh (and some that were yuck), to the last one which, strangely, has the same floorplan as the house we rented in Toledo.  It felt like home right away.  It has its downsides though - no fenced-in yard, so Jake has to be on a cable; fully carpeted; sump pump right in the middle of the basement floor (yick); neighbors literally rightherenextdoor; and no central air.  Which we thought would be manageable with the massive attic fan upstairs - open the windows at night & turn that sucker on, and in rushes the cool air... but unfortunately this only works when it's actually cool at night.  So we bought a portable air conditioner.  Emphasis not so much on the portable really, but easier than a window unit for sure.

But we're settling in, slowly but surely.  The cats stayed at B's parents' place until last night and are now exploring happily, Jake has "christened" the living room carpet already but at least it's a darker color so it doesn't show, we had some mildew on a few things from the storage unit that had to be cleaned, we finally got the basement carpet dried out after the homeowner's valiant effort with a steam cleaner, but most importantly, the beer glass collection is put away in the china display cabinet (which are almost identical to the ones we had in Toledo too).  We're still unpacking (the heat slowed me down a lot, plus the aforementioned crazy work schedule at the bookstore) and we have a wedding to attend this weekend so we probably won't get much further with it until late next week.  I'm off to Chicago for NeoCon on Monday & Tuesday, and B's new job leaves him wiped out when he gets home, so the non-essential stuff will just have to wait I guess.