Summer Summary

Wow it has been a long time since I have blogged. Same goes for the last time I have been to the gym. So as this post ends my blogging procrastination, maybe it will guilt me into returning to the gym also. Well, we'd better start off slowly - don't want to over-tire ourselves now. This post is a step in the right direction.

Here is a recap on our summer - I think I left off at the beginning of July.

July 4th
Christopher and I celebrated our first Fourth of July in the US this year. Each year one of my coworkers hosts the social event of the summer, which we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to (via the posters that went up around our office no less!). Americans sure to the Fourth up right. Lots of food, keg beer, and fireworks that would rival the displays put on by many Canadian July 1st cities. It was a small miracle that nobody was injured during the lighting of the fireworks - non-stop drinking all day long combined with matches and gunpowder - stand back!

House Hunters
Our landlords decided to move back into their home, which meant that we needed to find another place of residence. Which is not easy when you own a dog in West Hartford.

The real estate market looked somewhat appealing so we decided to see if we could find something in our price range to buy. Now I would never recommend looking for a house on a timeline. It was not fun.

As first-time home buyers we didn't really know what to look for in our first home so it was kinda funny to see us look at houses. We had a general idea of lot size, square footage, # of BRs, # of baths, etc. but we didn't really have strong opinions on quirky things in the house and how much they would drive us crazy.

I found myself getting attached to several homes and was heartbroken when they sold before we had a chance to put in an offer. But looking back now, I am ecstatic with the house we ended up buying. I honestly think I wouldn't be as pleased with any of the other houses that I had thought was perfect at the time. But Christopher just laughs when he hears this - he says that I would say this about whatever house. I guess that makes me an optimist?

Rest of July = Study Procrastinate Study Procrastinate
Since Christopher was preparing for the NY Bar exam at the end of July, for the rest of the month all he did was study like mad. And when he wasn't studying he was probably procrastinating from the studying that he should have been doing.

I also did my fair share of procrastinating. From packing - boy to I despise packing. But it's over now and we're not moving again for a long loooong time, so I can write about this without raising my blood pressure (see below for details).

Wedding Escape
The weekend before the bar exam I headed home to Toronto for friend's wedding, leaving Christopher with by himself to study and get stressed out before his exam. It's marital support like this that's the reason why we're still married - just kidding!

The wedding was beautiful and it was nice to visit friends and family (and all my favourite Chinese restaurants also).

SoCal Vaca
The day after the NY Bar exam Christopher and I brought the dog to his summer sleepover camp and the cat to her kitty spa as we escaped for our summer vacation to Southern California. My good friend from Hammertown (whom I have known since I was 3yrs old) invited us to his wedding in Orange County so we decided to make a trip of it since I had never been to Southern California before (except LA) and it had been a long time for Chris.

In typical Nancy and Christopher style, we just rented a car and drove around seeing and doing things recommended by our guidebook. We hit Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, La Jolla, San Diego, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and LA in about 11 days. And as can be expected, the weather was picture-perfect. Recommendations: boogie boarding in Huntington Beach, Baja Lobster restaurant in San Diego (not to be confused with the Rockin' Baja Lobster in the Gaslamp District), Getty Center in LA, sunsets in La Jolla and a Thai restaurant called Rama in the San Diego Gaslamp Distric with killer pad Thai!

August: Moving + Humidity = YUCKY
The month of August was a whirlwind. We purchased a home so we were busy shopping around for a mortgage, gathering supporting docs for the mortgage application (which is more painful if you have a short credit history in the US like I do), and several inspections of the property and the repairs that the Seller agreed upon.

Being the procrastinating type that we are, we didn't really prepare for our move very well. And by prepare I mean pack. We packed some things, like books, & CDs, but not much else... So when moving day came we worked until 3 am on moving day and then 4am the next day (after I had gone to work) shuttling our belongings to our new home. Laundry baskets, suitcases, and Rubbermaid Roughneck totes became our new best friends: fill with stuff in old house, put in car, drive to new house, empty contents onto floor of new house, repeat.

Christopher has an interesting perspective about the time spent on the entire move. If we had spent more time upfront packing more things, we could have spent less time on moving day. But the overall time spent packing + moving would be about the same. And with less boxes that means less time is spent taping them up, cutting them open, breaking them down for recycling...

Anyways, moving day sucked - like it has any other time I have moved (even company-sponsored moves aren't much more pleasant). But it is all a distant memory - ahhhh....