Well, the move...is done...and boy are we tired. Our move morning started at 6:15AM that Saturday, sleeping out on the floor in the new place (just for fun), when my phone ringing woke us up. Apartment Movers wants to know if they can come early. How early? 'Now.'

...ugh...

So up we jump, race back to the old place to get the last couple things done before the guys get there. About this time is when we realize that I'm beginning to get sick. Jenni goes to Sonic for much needed sustainance (breakfast burrito and Dr. Pepper--what else?), and soon Javier and the other guy whose name we never learned show up, to move the heavy stuff. It didn't take them too long to get it all loaded up, and they offered to take a couple of other items that they hadn't planned on ('...and you can just give us a tip...'), which seemed like a good deal to me. So by around 9:00 or so we were in the car on the way downtown to our new place...

...which was right when the piano movers called to say they were almost to the house (the old place) to pick up the 1600 lb. piano. Nice--I don't hear from them in 10 days and then they 'call to confirm' right at the wrong time.

This is the view out our new bedroom window the day of our move.

Our movers were both great, very careful, quite patient with two of our three elevators busted and un-useable, and we would highly recommend Apartment Movers.

With the paid help gone, in came Brannon, Brad and Wayne to help us out with the rest.

See how hard they work:

...they were so focused and serious in their work, and man, they didn't waste time:

...Brannon doing heavy lifting:

After all that hard work, it was time to play some basketball...at Chipotle...with uh, garbage...

...yeah, they all missed. IT'S A GARBAGE CAN, GUYS, FROM 8 FEET!!! HOW CAN YOU MISS?!!

=^)

With everything unloaded, our bellies full, and our last bit of strength gone, time to check out the disaster zone:

Posted by Jonathan on 29 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

This quote popped up in my gMail account today...it's pretty funny:

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
Bill Vaughan

Posted by Jonathan on 25 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

There are many differences between suburban living and urban living. For instance, at our old house, when people left junk out on their driveway, well, that was because they were either flithy slobs (95% of our street) or they were having a garage sale (5%--us).

In the urban environment, however, leaving stuff on the side of the street is called a bomb scare. The Star Telegram reports that a forgotten/abandoned blue nylon bag cause quite a stir this morning. The picture below was just across the street from our new apartment. We got down to the ground, Noah in tow, ready for the walk to work, to see the street cordoned off, fire trucks and emergency personnel everywhere, and people scattering.

It was actually kind of funny to us.

Posted by Jonathan on 22 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (5)

...yes, we're still alive and kicking...kicking our way through boxes to make it out of the apartment and just to find some clean undies...don't worry, as soon as I can find the computer, I'll be posting pics and maybe even a video clip or two of our move. In the meantime, tons of thanks to Mom Mary Beth, Mom Mary, Dad, Matthew, Brannon, Brad, and Wesley, and sour grapes to our friend Wayne, who just really, really sucks at helping you move stuff.

=^)

...more soon to come!

Posted by Jonathan + Jenni on 18 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and other things you don't want the movers dropping...

At lunch yesterday, we picked up our keys, our garage remote and our corner apartment officially became ours. Right after work, we began the process of unloading fragile dishes and whatnot, and then we headed back to our old house (I love saying that!) to load up the Jetta again, as well as Mom and Dad's van and Matthew's Element.

Mucho, muchisimo thanks go out to Mom and Matthew (Dad was flying and is helping us today and Saturday) for their availability in the inordinant heat, and for their patience with the fact that we were down to only one elevator at the building, which made things take a decent amount longer.

We got to the new place about 9:00 and with very little traffic parked directly in front of the building (in the No Standing/Stopping Zone), and Mom and Noah headed up to the apartment while Matthew and Jenni and I began loading the carts and the dollies down on the street and then making elevator runs up to the 6th floor.

With only one elevator, we had them pretty full with our stuff and often were bumping into other residents, all of whom were very friendly and kept telling us how great it is there and how much we're going to love it. In fact, when we were first unloading our dishes (in the early afternoon), we met our next door neighbor Stefan (sp?), a real nice guy who probably has the shortest commute to work of anyone downtown at all: he works at the Star-Telegram, which is on the street level of our building (in the annex portion that was the RKO Hollywood Theatre), so pretty much, he rolls out of bed into the elevator and he's at work. You don't even have time to fumble for your iPod.

Anyhoo, a few hours later, and it was all unloaded. All these pictures are from the street because I was the one loading the carts and staying with the vehicles...and because Rob and Clint were apparently too busy to pick up their phones...=^)

So thanks, Mom and Matthew, for your sweaty help. And thank you, Sonic, for making another move possible.

...and a PS...32 new reasons why, even though we are so super-thrilled with our new downtown Fort Worth digs, we are resolute in our determination that this is just a temporary stop:

Posted by Jonathan on 11 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (7)

This is the day, ladies and gentlemen! We get our keys, get our garage remotes (yah, we got in the building downstairs garage!), and move the breakables and our sleeping bags to the elevator house...

...we are busting at the seems with excitement...

Posted by Jonathan + Jenni on 10 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

So the boxes are almost all packed, and we are getting really excited, and the Bubby is getting somewhat exasperated that there is no place in the house to play. But he is very good natured (thank you, Lord!) and is doing quite well with it all...We sold his baby furniture recently to a good friend who is having a new one, and prepped him by telling him he was about to get a new, special, Big-Boy bed. We forgot to mention that he wouldn't be getting the new special bed for a few days. So when we pulled out the air mattress to inflate it for his last couple nights of sleep at the little house, he jumped up and down and screamed for joy:

"MY NEW SPEH-SULL BED!!! MY NEW SPEH-SULL BED!!! "

...we have the greatest kid of all time...

Here he is on his new (in-between) speh-sull bed:

Oh, and the rest of our house looks great. For instance:

The Piano Room

The Room with the Couch

The Video Game Room

(yeah, that look on Noah's face is, 'Where are the DEE-oh games?!')

Posted by Jonathan + Jenni on 7 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

...so we've officially begun the 'Firsts of the Lasts,' meaning (Lord willing) "the last time we will ____________ [fill-in-the-blank]." Like, the last time we will spend a Thursday night at our little house. The last time Jenni will do laundry at the house on Ruidosa. Stuff like that.

This morning included the last time I will do a donut carpool. See, on Fridays lately, I have been carpooling into work with our office manager who lives about a block away from our little house, and she stops to get the office 'donuts' and bagels on Fridays. (I put quotes around the word 'donuts' because I have a hard time calling what Tom Thumb scrapes out of their deli 'donuts,' and remember, this is me we're talking about, the one with no scruples at all when it comes to donuts.) So today was the last one of those trips, the last time I get to personally pick out my own fried breakfast food...

...and wouldn't you know it, on this, the last time, they finally had something I wanted, a vanilla cream filled eclair:

...dang it...

Posted by Jonathan on 4 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

while we all get ready for the wonderful move to the elevator house (hooray!), noah and mommy are both picking up new hobbies.

noah's is wearing big boy underpants!

and my new hobby is...

knitting!

this is destined to be a gift for one of the two people who made me want to knit. can you guess what it is, seester?

Posted by Jenni on 2 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alleys:

Posted by Jonathan on 2 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

While not Mom's actual birthday (July 26), Sunday was the day we celebrated my Mom's birthday this year, with Dad taking us all to brunch at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. Okay, so maybe Matthew's been there a ton (you know how much he likes sports bars), but having no real experience there at all--yowza. That hotel is so friggin' gi-normous, and can barely be called a 'hotel' with any degree of accuracy. It is a spectacle, and doesn't slide too far down the acursed road of homogenized, plasticized, gold-inlaid Vegas-ism.

We had a great time at the Riverwalk Cafe, in the east wing of the hotel, complete with replica San Antonio Riverwalk (no brown water), sidewalk merchants, and a professional entertainer on the street who made Noah a very fun monkey hat. (Actually, the hat was a whole scene of this monkey climbing up a tree...yeah, a big hat.)

After three or so hours and determining that we couldn't load a cooler up with the all you could eat Blue Bell products in the freezer section of the buffet, we rolled out. Urp.!

...back to Colleyville for presents and swimming, and for the cake Dad did all by his-self!

Thanks, Dad! And more good birthday sentiments to Mom.

Posted by Jonathan on 1 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

...look like this

...and then it's just walking, baby! In the morning, even with as hot as it's been lately, the walk in is almost pleasant. There's a life to the street, a bustle, a flow that is envigorating. Have we mentioned that we are utterly urban? We get our keys in 9 days, and we are so excited. Our house is almost completely packed, and we are ready to leave. So is the Bubby!

Elevator house, here we come!

Posted by Jonathan + Jenni on 1 August, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)