House Full O' Stuff!

Shabbat shalom, chaverim! It's been a busy week, and we're starring in our very own "Full Metal Nesting: The Sequel" show here at 20 Aliyah Street. The national strike ended, not with a bang but a whimper, late last week. Our lift got released from Customs on Monday. And after paying one more vig of about 800 NIS to cover port fees and an extra delivery charge for being on the third floor of a building with no elevator, we finally got our stuff on Tuesday afternoon. Goal!

While waiting with baited breath, I took one last shot of the living room, in its never-to-be-seen-again, pristine state of minimalism.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer."

And then, the lift appeared, like a mythical beast incarnate, come to dwell among us.

"Oh, Grandmother, what great boxes you have!"

I will freely admit I would have been quite happy to have thrown several large sheets over the whole thing, and just walk around it for several months. But I knew my Eggies were in there somewhere, so I just had to get into those bad boys.

Let the bubble wrap games begin!

And somewhere, deep in the bowels of the box helpfully marked "26803-7", I knew I might even find my devilled egg platter, my backscratcher, and that piece of paper that had that someone's email address on it.  (I forget their name, and why I needed it, but it probably was very important, right?)

I just know there's a potato chip bag clip in here somewhere...

After about three days of non-stop work (after morning Ulpan and homework, of course), I can truthfully say that we're pretty much moved in. As I write, Elul is happily putting holes in the wall to hang up our pictures and clocks, and there's nothing that says "home" more than hanging up one's own personally handmade artwork. Specifically, I mean my classy and elegant "Time for A Poop!" bathroom clock!

My grandfather always said, "you've got to be regular if you want to be happy." The older I get, the righter he was.

We focused on getting the kitchen and our home office unpacked first. Unearthing a beautifully quilted toaster cover a dear friend made for me, I suddenly realized, "oh yeah...we don't have a toaster!" So out we went to a nearby home store, and got one. I didn't realize Hyundai made electronic toasters in addition to their line of sensible and reasonably priced cars. This toaster even beeps when your toast is done, such is the magic of modern innovation in toaster technology. However, the biggest kick I got out of this toaster was the packaging it came in, with its amusingly fractured English.

You haven't had a perfect toaster experience until you've had one with "wariable electronic brown control" and a "sliding flexible tixed crumb tray easy clean."

To celebrate our newly-acquired status of proud toaster owners (a sure mark of stability--just ask any social worker), I called a local veterinarian and put in our official request to adopt not one, but two, cats! We had already heard that this particular vet, who has an excellent reputation in town for his work with cats, would end up suggesting we adopt two so they could keep each other company as indoor cats. I've had two cats at a time many times in my life, so I was thrilled when Elul agreed to it, without the vet even having to ask us.

As luck (or misfortune, actually) would have it, a couple of weeks ago someone dumped a mother cat and her litter of kittens outside the vet's door. He has been taking care of them, and his wife and daughter have been helping to socialize them when they've had the time to do so. We're hoping they will be ready for life inside a home. Now we need to source some "stay off!" spray to keep them from scratching our landlord's furniture, and a suitable scratching post, but other than that, we're ready for our new arrivals, Pini and Dudu Galoshes.

Now, how in the heck are we going to get those cats home on our bicycles?

Shabbat shalom, chaverim! And, as usual, if you can't see the pictures I'm talking about, go directly to my blog at www.movingtonahariya.blogspot.com .