Thursday, May 25, 2006

Step 1

Tomorrow movers arrive bright and early to begin packing all of our life's treasures into bubble wrap and brown boxes. They complete the packing next Tuesday, then load it all into a massive truck on Wednesday. We'll sleep in sleeping bags Wednesday night and order out, because although they will have packed EVERYTHING in the truck that day, they don't pick up our cars until Thursday morning.

I asked our move consultant how much this was going to cost. See, my wife's company is paying all our relocation costs, so they're footing the pack/ship/unpack bill and myriad other expenses. He told me between $25,000 and $32,000. Gulp. It all adds up surprisingly quickly. 3,300 square foot house, 3 car garage, 2 cars, and special pack items like the antique grandfather clock, the two original oil paintings, the antique stained glass, etc.

All of this is going into a house that's 1,100 square feet less than this one, and with a 2-car garage. I think Boston Craigslisters will benefit more than their Portland counterparts. We cleared out a lot of stuff in the past few weeks via Goodwill and Craigslist (like baby items, gift certificates we wouldn't be able to use in time, an old radial arm saw, playstructures, artwork, etc.) but I think some bigger items will be hawked in Boston. Maybe our dining room set, a bed, some chairs, and other items. Oh well.

Our moving consultant contracted out to United Van Lines. They had better be 500% better than Bekins, who moved me out to Oregon from Massachusetts 10 years ago.

Monday, May 1, 2006

Monday Kidspeak

This is a particularly funny one.

Where did your parents meet?

Lucas: “They haven’t told me…can I go ask my Mom?”

Josh: “ I have no idea, I was kind of wondering how that happened too. My Mom grew up in Silverdale, Washington and my Dad grew up in Missouri…. he’s 8 years older than my Mom so while my Mom was growing up, he must have left home in his moving truck he told me about, and went looking for someone to marry and found her…one thing I do know, they definitely got married in Happy Valley, Oregon”

Grady: “I think that they met somewhere where there’s lots of wine…. in college I think”

Jack: “ They meeted when they got married”

Kaitlin: “ I think that they meeted at a meeting”

Kate E: “ at Benihanas noodles”

Maddie: “I think that they met at college…the Oregon one”

Annie: “ they came out of their Moms tummies and just meeted each other, because they just love each other so much”