Well, friends, I’m happy to report that most of our yard sale stuff is now gone. There is one lone piece of furniture left, as well as a garbage bag or two of clothing and maybe 2-3 boxes of random crap. Not too shabby, I’d say. We’ll 86 that stuff after we move, probably, off to the Salvation Army or another deserving charity.
Meanwhile, we made enough at the yard sale to pay for our movers, which was my goal going in. Yay!
The rest of our weekend was an absolute blur of naps (two days of garage sale are exhausting, lemme tell ya!) and packing, mixed with the odd break trying to pare down what’s waiting to be watched on our TiVo boxes. All in all, I think we did pretty well. I’d hoped to get more packed on Sunday, but given everything that’s going on, I think we did okay regardless of the lack of obvious progress.
One stumbling block has been the zoo; they all have fleas. That wasn’t as big of a deal last time it happened (not coincidentally, I think, also right before we moved) because we were dealing with two cats and a dog … and Rags wasn’t that bad off. This time, we’ve got four cats and the dog, and we’ve both seen fleas jumping off all five of them. Ick. Some time last week, Daniel went out and bought them all flea collars. Meanwhile, we were waiting for inspiration to send us into the guest bathroom for a series of five animal baths in flea shampoo.
That happened on Sunday afternoon, though we only did three of them (Simon and Penny we spared … for now). Zoe, the kitten, went first, mostly because she was on my lap on the couch and had about a billion fleas on her. So, we decided at the very least to give her a bath. Next came Charlie, mostly because he was wandering around the bathroom like he wanted in. Charlie’s funny in the bathtub because he absolutely screams bloody murder and bites (not hard). It’s actually quite entertaining.
We also gave Rags a bath with doggie flea shampoo, which wasn’t a big deal because Rags almost sorta likes the bathtub. (Back when I was living in my apartment, he routinely jumped into the tub with me in the morning because he LOVES to drink from a running faucet. We have a shower door here, so he can’t do that anymore…)
Today, Daniel put flea collars on Simon and Penny (they’re both pains in the ass — and NOT FUNNY — in the bathtub) and we got some Frontline to give to all the animals. It’s expensive stuff, but we were assured by both the manager at Petsmart and the manager at their vet store, Banfield, that it’s infinitely superior to the OTC flea treatments.
SO. Let’s hope the fleas stay behind here at the house on Seabrook, eh?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we now have three days and counting to get ready for the movers. I’ve got all our utilities scheduled for hookup and have been in touch with the guy living in the house. (Who, incidentally and MOST un-assuringly, said, “When are we supposed to be out, again? Saturday? Sunday? {sigh})
And, I’ve got a TON to pack, still. But, I’m totally not stressed out about it because, like the process of having a yard sale, no matter how much time I spend between now and Thursday afternoon packing, I will *still* be up all night (or really close to all night) Thursday night in preparation. So, I figure, why bust my butt doing a lot now? It’s not going to mean I’ll get to bed earlier on Thursday. Plus, as a bonus, we have the current house for a full month after we move, so it’s not like there’s a huge rush to get everything out. The only impetus to do it this week is so I don’t have to pick things up and move them myself. But small stuff? Totally can come later.
Because we have resigned ourselves to the fact that, particularly with this recent cold snap, we’re not going to be able to swim until it gets warm next spring/summer, we decided to buy two inexpensive radio-controlled boats for the party in a couple of weeks. We figured it would be a fun way to hang out by the pool. They are on different frequencies so people can race one another. It was Daniel’s idea — and a brilliant one, I think.
I’m so excited!! We’ll be in the house (and sleeping on our new, bigger bed) at week’s end! How cool is that?!?! 🙂