Christmas in San Antonio

Our first full week in the house I somehow managed to get completely unpacked even with a new, crazy puppy running around, biting my ankles. Hey, it sounded like a good idea at the time.

So, naturally, since the house was cleanish, it must be time to completely destroy it again!

When we moved to Hawaii, we left behind some of the things that we didn't think we would need, to cut down on the moving expenses. These random items, from cake pans to a kayak, have been living at Corene's house in the meantime. Now, it was finally time to bring them back into the fold of all our other crap that we don't use. Huzzah.

Neither of us could remember how much we left at Corene's, so after checking on U-Haul's pricing for trailers vs moving trucks, we decided trailers were the way to go.

Mild problem - we own a Civic.

So, we needed a new car. Thursday night we bought David's car, which is a Ford SUV. He was very excited because he got a great deal on it, until the second day. At this point he started freaking out about the transmission dropping out of it, which is mildly alarming to me.

In any case, it did not have a towing package. So, I trundled back to U-Haul to inquire how much it would cost to get one installed. Answer? A LOT. I mean, come on! It is just a bar on your car, right!? What the heck. David was not amused, and announced that he would just do it himself. The current time was Friday afternoon, and we'd be leaving to San Antonio in a few hours. I hung up, praying this would not come back and bite us in the ass.

In David's defense, he has shown himself to be oddly handy, taking on and successfully completing projects that he knows absolutely nothing about initially. I remember the first time he announced he was going to 'just do it himself' - it was the brake pads on our cars. I tried to be encouraging, and ignore the visions I had of one of us flying off the parking garage when we tried to leave the next day. But he worked hard, and did a great job. It's really nice having a handy husband.

Anyway, so we left, hitch-less, with the new puppy in tow, in David's new car. Understandably, he was a little nervous. New Puppy + Unblemished Upholstery = Possible Disaster. So....


...Tarps. I turned that place into a puppy palace, because I didn't want Koa go falling down in between the seats every 5 seconds. So, multiple towels, beds, and blankets (in addition to our last line of defense tarps) made the ride comfy for our two doggies.

The only problem with this is that Koa could get to the front seat. At this point, I was still snuggling him to sleep at night, and he wanted to be as close as possible at all times. We just could NOT keep him in the backseat.


We ended up compromising and he feel asleep on the center divider a lot.

We arrived in SA around 2 am, waking up his poor mom, and then it was the Koa Show for a little bit. Corene is gracious even half asleep, and tried to feed us and watched Koa while we were unloading the car. Our pack of dogs proceeded to take over her house much to the terror of her own dog, Gigi. Gigi spent the next few days trying to stay out of the way of the Ridgeback Tornado.

We eventually made it to sleep.




The first morning, Corene took us out to see the new trails the city had put in nearby her house. So we saddled up the dogs and went for a walk, one of Koa's first.

They were beautiful, shady trails through a hilly area, and you could forget that you were still in the city. It was lovely.

Lion King



Family

After this nice diversion, it was getting late and we needed to pick up our reserved trailer.... with a car that had no hitch. Hmm. Thus began the Search for Parts.

What a nightmare. We spent hours driving all over SA, looking for... something. I have no idea what, exactly, I was just along for the ride. We bought the hitch at UHaul, and they said they couldn't install it because we had to get some special electrical something-er-other part they sell exculsively at a Ford Dealership. So we went to Ford, whose parts department has just closed down for the weekend. Thus, we commenced driving aimlessly, looking in Auto Zones and what have you for some kind of wire kit, interspersed with massive bouts of indescisions as to whether David should do it himself, or get it done professionally. Either way, it turned out it was going to be ghetto-rigged, since we couldn't get the part we needed from Ford. Something about splicing wires. Back to U-Haul. Another Auto Zone Parts Whatever Store. Four hours later, I'm in mutiny and just want to go home. I can only amuse myself looking at wiper blades and air fresheners for so long.

We got home, and had a wonderful surprise that just lifted my day. While we were gone, Corene had done a photo shoot of Koa. I just about died.

Have I mentioned how awesome it is having a professional photographer in the family?

IT ROCKS.

I have no idea how she got him to sit still for these things. All of my pictures end up looking like this:

As he immediately gets up from whatever position I've put him in and runs for me. We have lots of blurry pictures of Koa.

After this we had a Corene Dinner. I don't remember what it was, but I remember it was fresh and light, and there was some good bread involved, which is how I remember them. It was lovely, and I missed them while we were away. She is even fun to grocery shop with. We're both easily excited, and buy things we shouldn't. David is usually the voice of reason, but he was at home, agonizing over the car.

Late Sat night, David gave up on the hitch. In the morning, we would surrender to U-Haul and their outlandish labor charges.

Early the next morning, David headed over to Uhaul to make this mess someone else's problem. However, they could not get to our car until around 4 PM! We were going to have a late night packing up and driving home to be back in time for work in the morning. We amused ourselves for the afternoon by staying home and playing with the dogs.

My one non-blurry picture

Corene's picture, of course. I love his little expression - like he is not quite sure he is ok with what's going on.

After all that playing, he conked out with grandmom.

And just about anyone else who happened to be stationary.

We eventually got all of our stuff - most of which was heavy books, to our dismay (well, mine, anyway) packed into the 5x8 trailer. We then packed up the car and dogs as well, said our farewells, and headed off into the sunset around 7 pm.

We didn't get far, though.

I was driving, since I have a lot more trailer experience than David. We had made it maybe 1/8 of a mile when we started hearing noises you don't want to experience when driving a trailer. David thought maybe it was the chains dragging the ground, so he coiled them up and we started out again.

However, the noises didn't cease. So, we decided to turn around and head back to the house to see what was going on.

We never made it.

David spotted it first - the wheel was actually FALLING OFF our VERY FULL trailer stuffed with our worldly possessions. As I was driving, we couldn't help but stare, transfixed and horrified, at the wheel slowly oscillating back and forth on the axle, getting progressively more alarming.

Seriously!?

We made it back to Corene's house, but when I tried to back in the trailer it quickly became apparent that that would not be happening. We were going to have to unload it right in the middle of the street.

Really. This was like the worst trial run ever. Mainly because it wasn't supposed to be a trial run.

Unamused.

Unloading began. Each step in the trailer gave me a heart attack - I had visions of the whole thing toppling over and pulling our brand-new bar with it. Once I voiced this opinion, I was quickly told that it was impossible, silly woman. What a relief.

But I was still tense the entire time unloading.

This was not helped by the many motorists trying to pass and giving us dirty looks, because they could not see the bad wheel that was facing the curb, and thus thought were were just too stupid to breathe.

Here I am, directing traffic as the wheel teetered on the brink. Apparently I felt that instructions other than 'Take the boxes out of the trailer' were needed.

Here it is right as we finished unloading. It was hanging on by a prayer. As I was talking to a Uhaul rep and giving her the details, I heard the shout from outside that it had finally fallen off. I was mildly overreacting as I relayed this bit of news, but the customer service rep seemed quite bored. Does this happen often or something?

This man is a hero:

My name is Ford, John Ford.

Not only did he help us load (the first time) he left a dinner with his daughter to help us unload, post-disaster, without us even asking. (He lives in the neighborhood and is a family friend). David and I had to be sneaky and load quickly the next day so he wouldn't spot us and come help - he is too nice, and had done enough already.

He also came up with this idea to get the trailer out of the middle of the road.

If that's not ghetto-fabulous, I don't know what is. Ghetto, but genius! We were able to move it to the side for Uhaul to come pick it up.

Which they did at 1 AM. Of course, we had to be awake to sign some paperwork. And when I say we, I mean David. Coincidentally, this was the night that Koa had his first out-of-cage bedtime experience, as my tolerance level became non-existent.

Corene was great as we bummed her schedule up again, and we were back to HEB for some sushi and alcohol, which was basically a requirement at this point.

In the end, it turned out that they forgot to put the pin in that holds the tire on the axle, or something. I know for sure there was a pin involed, anyway. We were saved by the multiple speed bumps in her neighborhood, which jarred it lose right away. If that had happened on the highway, it would have been a disaster. So it was a blessing, if you look at it sideways.

We got a new trailer the next day, and made it home with no problems.

Once I finally got over the fact my house was full of crap we have no room for, yet again, we began opening boxes.

It was like Christmas in June. Most of the things we came upon had been compeltely frogotten by us. Some things I have been looking forward to repossessing with great joy: my large pasta pot, cake pans, the panini machine. This was balanced things we'd forgotten: various crystal pieces from wedding gifts, our entire china set and a tons of framed pictures from back in the day.

But, it was the little things that truly delighted me: extra sugar pine trees I'd made for some previous project that retained their shape and color and the usable reeds for my saxophone.

Now if I could just find room for all of it.

CAKES - I'm still addicted.

Just for fun, here are some cakes I've done recently!

Burger with sugar cookie 'fries' for Josh's birthday



Dinosaurs for Amy's boys, Tommy and Henry

A cake someone actually ordered! Super Fun! Someone going to USC to study drama.

Everything is edible.

New Modes of Transport

So, we are starting all over, again. We needed some wheels, pronto.

I'm going back to school, and I have to fit in with all the other cool kids, right? So.....

Gangsta-Fab Civic! Love those blacked-out lights with the red painted 'H' and shocks. I'm sure to be all 'dope' with the 'homeys' now.

Besides, I have a tattoo now, I can't be drivin' some lame soccer mom vehicle!

Actually, I got him to remove the black stuff from the lights, because I felt mildly ridiculous jsut while I was test driving it around. What's even funnier is that the previous owner was a high school senior white guy from Southlake who weighed in around 130 lbs, tops. He was about as gangsta as Mr. Rodgers.

Even better, about a month after I bought it I found all these mix CDs with names like 'Morning Rap' and 'Rock Tunes'.

The inside.... Yes, that's a stick shift! I'm rocking the manual transmission, because, again, I have a tattoo and this helps me fill my bad-ass quoitent for the year.

Actually, it took some getting used to. My main base of information on how to drive a stick was from watching Fast & Furious, where they all drive like jackasses. David had to tell me to be more gentle with the clutch.

Actually, I had issues with David in the car. For the first few months, we were a one car family, and I was always picking him up and dropping him off places. I would be fine when he wasn't in the car, but WITHOUT FAIL, 7 out of 10 times that he would get in, I would kill it. It was ridiculous. He told me we would not be getting me a manual again, and I told him I was just too flustered by his boyish good looks to concentrate. Sadly, David is not swayed by flattery.

Eventually, we figured out that our dream of only having one car payment was not going to work. After having only one car for 2 years, we had come to realize that the assumption that you both have to have your own car, because that is just what everyone does, was false. It's amazing what you can do without that you previously thought was a necessity.

However, since I'm up in Denton every day on weird school hours, it just wasn't possible. Get on it, DART Rail! I think by the time they make it up to Denton, my kids would be able to use it.

Anyway, David and I had a very out-of-body conversation, and decided since we are keeping these cars for quite some time, we should get an SUV for our FUTURE CHILDREN and all of their stuff. Ack! It's crazy to think that that period of time is fast approaching for us.

David found a great deal, and we got an 2008 Ford Escape:
I really like it - it's very nice and completely unblemished. As a party bonus, the owner had just renewed her XM radio subscription. So now we get approximately 2,548 channels of some seriously random music and unbelievably ridiculous talk radio. It's almost too much. But, we really enjoy the comedy channels. I drove the car for a few weeks before school started and got addicted.

David, however, has become a bit paranoid. This is his first American-made car, and he is certain it is going to blow up at any moment. We might have to sell it and buy a CRV or something for his peace of mind.

So those are our wheels, in case any of you have to be on the lookout for us in vehicle form.

House

Welcome to our new house! Again! I really hope to not have to move for a while. I'm kind of over it.

Anyway, welcome to the tour. We really love our new location - it's so close to everything! Also, we are right on the White Rock trail, so it is about as close to outdoorsy as you can get in Dallas. We are happy.


This is the view of our hallway from the living room. The front door is on the right. If you go through the doors straight ahead, you would be in...



Our bedroom. Highly exciting, I'm sure. What rocks about this place is the ginormous closet, which we thought was huge until we re-inherited all our winter clothes, and lined the closet shelves with all the random items we forgot we owned. Suddenly, not so huge. But it all fits, so no complaining.

View from the bedroom out into the living area.

To the right is our bathroom, which has to be the one largest improvement. I am used to bathrooms where you have to stand in the shower to close the door. Literally. So, check this out...

SHAZAM! Yes, those are two sinks. Weirdly, David and I are so used to sharing one, we still use the same sink, and the one on the right is ignored like the ugly stepchild of the bathroom.

However, I am still haunted by a tiny kitchen.

Once you go down the hall, it opens up into a large dining/kitchen/living space.


When we were looking at the place, the kitchen seemed so cute and doable. Sadly, about 1/3 of all our possessions are kitchen items. At least it seems that way when we were unloading the trailer and every other box had 'kitchen' written on it.


Anyway, I stood in the kitchen and looked at my lack of cabinet space, and I was like, ''Where the heck am I going to put my glasses and dishes!?" Forget pots and pans and every other implement I own. All I have is one super-skinny cabinet, and the one over the microwave. You know, the cabinet you usually ignore and throw random stuff in? I swear, one of these days, I will have a house that is 1/2 kitchen.

Luckily, there is a huge closet in the hallway, so meet our solution:

Coat closet = kitchen pantry. Whatever, it works.

To the left of the kitchen is our dining room, home of our ginormous plumeria, which nearly killed me to transport from my mom's to our house, AH-LONE. David was at work. Lucky bastard. That was the last time I try to move that thing by myself ever again. There may or may not have been some frustrated crying at some point. We live on the second floor, and tree + giant pot + recent rainstorm = ridiculously heavy.

Entrance into the kitchen

One of the things we love about this place is all the great windows and natural light. As an added bonus, we look out onto two park areas. So it is all very green and nice.

Porch shot

Lily absolutely loves this feature. We are basically right at tree level, and there are a multitude of squirrels to taunt her. For the first few weeks we just put her bed by the window, because that is where she lived.

Moving on to the living room, which makes up most of our square footage:

A fireplace! You cannot imagine how excited I am about this.

Here's a shot of the kitchen area:

You might be thinking, is that a ladder? What is that tiny space over the kitchen!?

Up the ladder! Don't slip!

It's my office, which is adorable and I love. However, the first thing just about everyone does when they walk in the house and see it is say something to the effect of; Tiffany on a ladder? Seriously? What you thinking? Closely followed by; David, I hope you took out an insurance policy on her.

But I love it. What they really should be doing is marvelling how we got a desk, chair, and all the rest of the stuff up there in the first place.

I'll give you a hint: NOT EASILY.

I was all for building some kind of pulley system, but David didn't think we would get our security deposit back.

When I'm sitting down, I have about 1/2 inch clearance between my head and the ceiling. No tall people allowed.

The view from the loft into the living room

But what really sold me on this place was the fact that there was attic space. AND LOTS OF IT. Thank goodness, because we still weren't sure how much stuff we'd left at Corene's. It's like a large second bedroom, and we filled it up.

Of course, all this junk had to go up the ladder as well. Holy smokes. I'm not sure why I'm showing you this, because I am basically just guaranteeing we will have absolutely no help once we move out. Everyone will suddenly remember important dental appointments, or have convenient travel plans to somewhere very far away, such as Nicaragua.

Anyway, so that's our place! In celebration of us coming home, our plumeria tree started to flower.

I guess it was worth lugging up those stairs after all.