so this is really happening, huh...?

We have a place to live in Chicago!!! Its super cute, insanely central, and has all of the hundreds of things we wanted in one form or another. I've been dreaming of the shiny new stuff that we'll need to fill it up (we'll have not one, but TWO bedrooms. we're so fancy).

we'll be on the top floor...love the windows

Crazy, right?! Then, today, we bought a couch. For the first time ever, since all of our other couches were parentally-owned hand-me-downs/’rounds. We’ve never lived somewhere long enough or took my/our place seriously enough to plunk down serious cash before, so this feels like kind of a big deal. And while I’m at it…a small self-pat-on-the-back for us: since we’re living in different cities until I move out there, we each went to different stores in the same chain and tested couches separately with obvious success. But when it came to picking a color? We both get all nervous committing to any ‘forever’ detail, so I expected the worst. Believe how pleasantly surprised I was when the conversation went: me: so um hey, I like XYZ color. which one do you like? him: the same one, actually. BOOM. DONE. As a little icing on the cake I took advantage of a humungo sale and capped it with an extra discount from taking some three-minute survey and got the thing for like 56% off, delivered. It was a total fluke that I even looked at this store's site when I did, so I'm pretty damn happy with the result.

the worlds teeeeeniest pic...ours will be a greyish brown "cocoa" color

The years of limbo are (strangely) coming to an end, and while I'm nervous and sad to leave California for a little while, I'm really really really stoked about a year or two of big city livin' in one of the funnest and tastiest cities in the country. Flights can be cheap enough, and we have an extra room just waiting for our first visitor...

adios, belongings!

Yesterday, we finished up our humungo purge-all-the-things project at Casa Saratoga. When we went abroad in 2009, Rob's Mom was kind enough to let us basically box up our lives and stash 'em downstairs at her house on the hill. We had a TON of crap, and at the time, I was much more concerned with simply getting stuff out of her way (and getting out of the country!) than with parting with anything, so we amassed something like 50 boxes/bags. When we got back an moved into our little studio apartment, we left like 96% of the stuff there and just kinda started over with the handful of things we wanted or needed.

That crap on the mountain has been an ever-present dull ache of weight on my shoulders. I've been meaning to get up there and purge and better organize it for almost two full years, which is embarrassing at best. With the upcoming move and the hired movers being willing to make stops at two places to pick up our stuff (!), we had no choice but to get crackin'. Since Rob is home for the week, we set aside an entire day to sort out what should be tossed, donated, stored, or shipped... and an entire day it took.

Eight hours of solid work at the house cut our pile o' crap by at least half. We filled the bed of Rob's Mom's pickup truck with a load of donations, and piled up an additional seven boxes + two bags for later drop off. Three huge bags of trash and two boxes of recycling makes me itchy wondering why the hell I even boxed up that stuff in the first place. SO. MANY. THINGS. Things that have no use or personal attachment. Things I swear I didn't actually have. Things I thought were lost for good and that I actually squealed over upon unearthing. But mostly things that we do not need, so off they go to someone who can actually use them.

If I had to guess, I'd say that we've whittled the grand total of our crap (spread between alllll the houses/apartment) to less than 2/3 of what we once had. And I'll probably ditch even more stuff when I'm actually boxing things up, simply because I'm over it. I took a couple pics o' the piles, but no one really cares to see those because they're boring and ugly. So here's a pic of some jumping cats instead:

yay!

our little pad

After 84 sleeps, two rent checks, and the majority of ya'll having visited it already, I proudly introduce the inside of the Ring!

from the front door toward the 'bedroom'

from the 'bedroom' toward the living room our massive bathroom

the tiniest kitchen ever

from the bathroom toward the front door/living room

Kali Lou doesn't love it here (and who could blame her, when by comparison, there is nothing for her to do or see in/from the Ring), but we take her out on her ghetto-rigged leash. You know, as a treat for the neighbors. We're definitely the minority in Sunnyvale, and I'm quite certain that we're probably referred to as 'those crazy whities'. Whatever.

a view of Prague

The architecture in Prague is astounding. And I'm not even referring the the castles and churches...where you'd least expect it, there are ornate carvings and gargoyles and spires. Even unassuming buildings, like the apartments across from ours, have amazing busts and cherub sculptures on them:

our view, one way (I've not yet figured out what that spire is, but there is a second one...)

our view, the other way