Three chicks and a dude.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to sit before. Or hated wood furniture more. Today, Brad, Lisa, and Birgit helped me move my dad from Sagnasty to his new, shiny apartment in Ann Arbor. I'm so relieved he's finally here, and I know he's so relieved to be done with the big uprooting and to finally start his new life here. And dammit, I am SO proud of us. Seriously. My dad can't help, so Brad was stuck moving everything with us chicks. Well, let me tell you, those chicks ROCK.

We started bright and early, hitting the road at 7:30 am. We got up there and got cracking, and we had the truck loaded in under an hour.

Hardly breakin' a sweat...

No problemo. We were all in pretty good spirits on the ride back to Ann Arbor. Picked up some pizza, got to the apartment, signed the lease, oh look, the new apartment is right by the pond, pretty! Oh, wait, where's the door? There it is.... Across the lot, on the other side of that huge incline, down that row of stairs, and at the far end of the sidewalk. And up half a flight of stairs. What mojo we had immediately disappeared the moment we saw what we were facing. Did I mention that my dad's entire apartment consists of ancient, heavy chairs and a couch... and 10 to 12 solid wood antique hutch pieces and tables? Omg. Even the drawers weighed a ton. But we did it. We kicked that wood's ass!!!! Soaking wet, red faced, and exhausted, we got everything in in about 2 hours... and not once did anyone even bat an eye. Those are true friends. I love you guys, and I truly couldn't have done it without you.

Hooray for new apartment! Welcome to AA, dad!

To thank the ladies, I took them to Vinology last night--I've been looking forward to going back since the second I finished my last meal there. And it didn't disappoint. We started with some wine and the cheese plate, then ordered a table full of small plates. I couldn't resist the gazpacho, knowing how delicious it was last time, and for my second plate I ordered the poached duck egg on local greens with bacon. I don't know what it is lately, but I'm obsessed with eggs (except scrambled, which I still just cannot handle). I'd never eaten an egg "on" anything other than toast, but it seemed very Iron Chef to me, so I went for it. Yum yum. Birgit and Lisa raved about the dates with chorizo, as well as the zucchini soup and fried zucchini fritters. We also really enjoyed the chickpea pancakes filled with spinach. We finished the meal with a peach parfait made with local MI peaches. It was the perfect topper to the perfect meal, making us big and strong for the big day ahead of us!

On the home front, we've got wood! We've got wood! After talking about it for two years, we finally tore out our broken tile and nasty "accident" carpet (well, not "we") and had beautiful chocolate brown hardwood put in in our downstairs bathroom, entry way, the hallway to the kitchen, and our back sitting room. There was drama of course (floor guy showing up a day late and taking longer than expected, a trashed sink, etc etc), but I think it was totally worth it. They look beautiful. So beautiful I'm not even too totally freaked out that the dogs have already basically destroyed them with their claws of death.

Before

The infamous toilet.

After

*Note, above rug placement is temporary. We have better taste than this.

All the changes have given us the re-do bug, so I've got lots of shopping and reorganization to do in my near future! TBD. Not now, though. Now it's nap time. I've got boogie Bang!-ing to do tonight!

PS: Late summer is bringing many visitors to our yard. Luckily, they are much more pleasant than our evil snake visitor!