surprised

I'm surprised! I rarely write here because I thought no one was reading. I get excited if a post gets one comment. But then I checked google reader and found that 11 people are subscribing via that service. It doesn't sound like much, and isn't compared to my books blog (218 people subscribe to that via google reader) but even if no one reads in any other way besides via google reader, 11 people is more than I thought I had reading here.

So, my eleven pals, I will try to write here more frequently!

Moving day is approaching quickly. It's exactly a week away, with the Uhaul rented for July 26th. I am still so thankful that the people moving out are leaving such an incredible amount of their stuff behind, since they'll be traveling for two years (they just retired). Not only is the place completely furnished (although this does mean squeezing in our own stuff or storing it) but they're leaving behind most of their art, their electronics, their kitchenware, their linens, etc. So we'll be able to just move right in and be comfortable. No days of pizza and paper plates for us! The only thing we really need to do to make it immediately livable is to put our mattress and box springs on the bed. We asked the to store or sell theirs because ours is a Tempurpedic, which I need because of my pain problems.

The new place is only about a mile away, so we should be able to do a quick move with the Uhaul and start unpacking by evening. We do have a guest coming for three weeks, arriving on the 30th, so we want to get as unpacked as we can before she arrives. But she's a close enough friend that we could ask her to help unpack if necessary. And just to show how awesome the people moving out are: we told them we had a guest coming, so they cleared out the guest room first, had their cleaning woman up the bed all fresh, and showed it to us the other day, saying it should be ready for our guest! You can tell such thoughtful people are going to be leaving things nice for us. They even showed us their liquor cabinet and said they were leaving all the booze behind. We're not big drinkers, but we're having a party mid-August, so we'll get rid of whatever we don't want, I'm sure.

Speaking of guests, summer is usually a big time for guests for us, and this summer seems no different. The friend who arrives the 30th is staying until August 20th, and then two other friends are coming in late August (they haven't set a date yet) so there may even be overlap. And then I think (I hope!) my mother-in-law will be coming from England in September. I know it's unusual to hope your mother-in-law will visit, but she's stayed with us twice long-term (a month or so) and she's the perfect guest. She tidies a lot, but not in a way that suggests we're poor housekeepers like some mothers-in-law seem to!

As you can probably tell, I'm really excited both about moving and about having guests!