The Big Dilemma

Since I'm sure you don't want to see the piles of boxes at our condo or the piles of tools at our new house, I'm going to write today about the other thing I've been doing this weekend. Namely, frantically trying to devour the first six Harry Potter books before the last book comes out in a few weeks. This is a strange predicament to find myself in, as I can usually swallow these things whole and am a little embarrassed about the fact that I read each of books four, five, and six in one sitting (HP5, aka "The Order of the Phoenix," is, you know, exactly 870 pages).

At this point, everyone I know is reading Harry Potter. I'm loaning my other books to coworkers (because of course they were left unpacked), Casey and Kim are careful to make sure that they aren't reading the same book at the same time, and Andrea and Telfer, who participated in the brilliant homework club, are already working their way to horcruxes and huge tears in HP6.

You'll notice, of course, that I am currently only on HP2, "The Chamber of Secrets" (is ANYONE reading this blog who isn't equally entranced by Harry Potter? If so, these titles are for you. The rest of you know what HPCOS means). Having utterly failed Andrea and the Harry Potter Homework Plan, I actually considered not rereading each book this time around--after all, I did just reread the whole series last November, making a point to read slowly and take it all in (since, after all, there was no work to be done at that point in the Otter office, and I had a lot of time to sit at an otherwise empty desk and stare at an otherwise useless computer). But earlier this week I finally took the Shakespeare book out of my bag and replaced it with HP2, and I'm in for the month-long sprint.

Of course, you all know what this means: Our house will not be acceptably unpacked until August. Oh well. And in the meantime, there's the movie, the previews of which make my spine tingle with excitement...

The Keys are Ours!

The Keys are Ours!
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

We are House-owners. No one above, below, or on either side of us. Two parking spots that are ours-all-ours. A washer and dryer that don't take quarters. And a mortgage the size of...

Well, that would ruin all the fun, so let's not think of that part! :)

We finally closed on our little house today. It was a bit rough, and I still feel slightly nauseated, but when it all came down we walked up the steps this afternoon and stepped into our new place. It was fun to see it all cleaned out and empty--a blank slate ready for us to make our own. We spent the afternoon measuring windows, talking to painters, and deciding which light fixtures we would replace "if we had our way." It was fun. And now we are exhausted. Signing my name a hundred times seems like long, long ago.

We don't move until next week, so we still have a few days to pack and make the small changes we want to make before we move in. But we thought you might be excited to know that the little blue-shuttered house is finally ours.

(Oh, and congrats to Jenny and Chad. We had twin closings today--they just bought a cute place in Star, Idaho, and I got a text message tonight that said "It's official!" Can't wait to show and tell!)

To Philly for Dinner

Apparently we are taking a spontanious break from packing, as Jason just turned on the TV and I logged on to Blogger. Must confess, is nice relief, as boxes are now coming out of our ears. It will be very difficult to label them all properly, as what is currently in the spare room will likely NOT be in the future spare room, and I foresee many, MANY trips up and down stairs with boxes that ended up in the wrong place. Sigh.

Anyway, that is not the subject on this blog. On Friday, we hopped up to Philadelphia for dinner. Yes, for dinner, and then we caught the 9:00 train back to Washington. Slightly crazy, no? I mean, it isn't like we don't have pretty great places to eat around here. But a few stars aligned this week that made it seem like a good idea to go adventuring to the City of Brotherly Love.

On Tuesday Jason found out that he would be part of a panel discussion on Sudan at the University of Pennsylvania on Friday and would be taking the afternoon train to Philly. He quickly remembered that his mom would also be in the Philly area, visiting a friend, and so he concocted a plan: His mom and Denise would attend the forum, I would take the train up after work, and the four of us would have dinner downtown before we headed back to DC. It all went swimmingly. I actually got off work early and spent a delightful afternoon with Laura of Oxford days, taking conversation from a coffee shop to her cute apartment in West Philly to the trolley (exciting new experience for Missy). When we parted at Penn campus, I went in to hear the tail end of a number of political diatribes on the situation in Darfur. Then Lynda, Denise, Jason, and I had a lovely dinner at Penne, near campus. We got back to a muggy DC at about 11, walked across the Hill, and soon landed, exhausted but happy, in bed.

There is something nice and free-feeling about hopping a train, landing in a new city, and exploring a bit. A wee bit mad, yes, but all-together very nice.

Saturday was a day of packing, and we can now add the linen closet and the walls of our condo to the list of places that have been boxed up. It's a bit sad to see our first little home come to pieces, but we are very anxious to move in to our new house! We had dinner at our favorite Korean BBQ with some friends from church and then wandered down to Del Ray for some delicious frozen custard.

Apparently it's a weekend of eating, because today after church we joined Josh and Natalie at Georgia Brown's for their famous Sunday Brunch. We now have southern food in take-away containers for dinner, yum!

And would you believe it, the camera stayed on the dresser the entire weekend!

Traveling. A Lot.

Cole and His Mama
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

I should have warned you to expect another onslaught of Cole (what will I do when I have another niece or nephew (Shaanti keeps suggesting that Cole needs cousins, but so far no one is biting)?), but somehow almost three weeks have gone by without a blog entry. It's also been a couple of days since I got back from my latest trip to Idaho, but all that traveling was exhausting and, after a few nights of going to bed waaaay too early, I'm only now feeling back in the swing of things.

This time, not ALL the pictures are of Cole, but I love this one of him and his mama. I don't have nearly enough cute pics of Shaanti and the boy, as she's always the one behind the camera, and this one is so sweet. He is getting so big and funny--he's lately taken to making truck sounds and waving his arm like he's ready to lasso something. Wow. Typing those things out made them sound pretty unexciting, but its amazing how long you can be fascinated by such things...

It was a special treat to spend a bit of time with Kim and Casey. They were down for a wedding (they said they have 10 weddings to go to this year--ah, I remember those days!), so they stayed for a Memorial Day BBQ the day I got there. Short but great fun to catch up. I feel a bit like my mom, who gets a little sentimental "when all the kids--except Jason (and she makes a sad face)--are home."

This was another work trip for me, and I racked up a lot of traveling miles. I flew in Monday, then on Tuesday I drove to Twin Falls and back, and Wednesday I drove to Sun Valley and back. Long but good days. On Friday, Mom, Dad, Gramps and I piled into the truck and drove to central Washington for my Uncle Don's retirement party. Mom and I enjoyed a little of this and this on the way. Good times. The party was really nice, and it was great to celebrate with Uncle Don, but wow, we missed Aunt RaVae. Saturday it was home again home again, in time to greet cousin Katie at the airport--she's been in Norway and India this year and has finally returned. Then I packed up and headed out on Sunday. Whew!

As for life in Virginia, we are slowly packing up our condo and preparing to move--we close in a week and a half! It has felt like the 2 months between putting the contract on the house and closing have gone so slowly, but all the sudden we only have one room packed and not much time! Yikes! We're getting really excited, though, and I'm trying not to buy too too much fun house stuff before we actually move in and see where everything will go.