Halfway there...

Here we sit, in the Seattle airport, having our layover before our flight to Anchorage. The flight from Dallas to Seattle didn't seem very long (thank you, Amy, for the book!), but boy, am I sore after sitting in that cramped middle seat. We'll get to Anchorage in the wee hours local time, but as far as our bodies are concerned, it will be around 4:30. The plan is to get a hotel and catch some sleep before the three-hour drive to Kenai in the morning.  I'll see you later when we're in Alaska!

Coolest. Rainboots. Ever.

Well, I guess by now everyone pretty much knows that we're going to have to ship most of our worldly goods by freight when we move to Alaska in just six weeks or so. That means paying by the pound. As we've been packing boxes to put in the storage unit so that the house looks good when people come to see it, we've been weighing each one and recording the weight on a list. You would be surprised how much weight is in there already. And it shouldn't surprise anyone who knows any of us very well that the heaviest boxes in the warehouse are boxes of books.

And, um, most of those books are mine.

Okay, okay, in my defense, those books are largely out-of-print vintage books. Or cake decorating books that I 'need' for work. There, did I justify most of them? I think so.  :^)

But still, I know that a jillion pounds of books is way too much, and I set myself a goal - if I could rid myself of 300 pounds of books, I would turn to my other infatuation: shoes.  Lose 300 pounds of books, gain one pair of really nice shoes. Okey dokey. I can do this.

Jim and I were out shopping for something totally unrelated, when there, lo and behold, were the perfect pair of rain boots. Pink and green plaid, with green soles, and cushy pink lining... Be still, my heart. The salesguy took pity on us and gave us a most generous discount, and Jim treated me to the boots. 

But I was only at 224.6 pounds of books gone. This is where Craigslist came in really handy, where I found a person who wanted to buy back-issues of craft magazines. Yes, exchange cash money for old craft magazines! Jackpot!!!!

Now with 301.4 pounds of books and magazines out of the house, I hereby claim the world's coolest rain boots as mine. Thanks, Jim.  Mwah!

Aaaaah, such clean floors....

A carpet cleaning service came yesterday and cleaned our carpets and tile floors and grout. We'd forgotten the grout was such a pale color, and the carpet we thought we'd have to replace looks literally like new. It's just lovely, and such a relief not to have to think about making a carpet allowance when the time comes to sell the house. We're all committed to keeping the floors looking brand new until it's time to leave here.

There's just one mess-maker we have to worry about now:

Random gratuitous Alaska photos...

Lately, the posts haven't had much in them to look at, so I thought I'd go through the ol' album and find you some eye candy.

This was taken as we were leaving on a float plane sightseeing trip.  We're leaving from Anchorage, and headed out towards Denali.

Denali:

Jim and James in a canoe on Daniel's Lake:

Tundra swans on Daniel's Lake:

A cute red squirrel who came every day, sometimes twice a day, to beg potato chips and Cheerios from me on one of our trips.  He probably thinks tourists are such easy marks!

Stay tuned for more photos to come, because over the weekend of May 14 - 18, we're all going back to Alaska to sign on the house and spend some time there.  

A shout-out to Judie and Joseph

When Jim went to Alaska to look at the Plan B house, he met and exchanged email addresses with the house's current owners.  Jim likes Judie and Joseph, and I think I would, too, if I ever get the chance to meet them.

Judie and Joseph have been keeping in touch with Jim - talking him through the procedures for caring for the logs of the house, which is completely new to us; telling who they have their utilities and internet provided by; all those little things that will help us transition to a new area. 

Jim got an email from Judie yesterday, and she and Joseph have been hard at work on the house.  Mind you, they didn't have to do this, but they sanded and painted the back balcony and the front porch, let us know which neighbors would help us take care of the lawn, have started a list of helpful things for us, are leaving us some supplies to get us started, and giving us pointers for the move up.  They've made the cross-country move before, and we're glad they're sharing their experience with us.

They'd make really great neighbors, but unfortunately, they're not staying in the area once the house is sold.  We hope the people who sell them their next house are as good to them as they have been to us.

Thanks for your help, Judie and Joseph!

Mount Redoubt doing its thang

I keep forgetting to upload these...  Our neighbor in Alaska took these photos of Mt. Redoubt's recent eruptions from across Cook Inlet.

A friend of mine who lives locally here in Texas has relatives in Alaska, outside of Homer. He said that his relative got a quarter inch of ash accumulated at his cabin.

So NOW they show up.

For once, all three of us were out of the house today for most of the day. One of us is usually here, because Jim works at home.  It's rare for the house to be empty but today it was. Jim went to visit his dad, and I was out with James helping pick out accessories for his dragon costume for the Ren Faire. James and I got home first, and lo and behold, there was a message on the answering machine that a realtor would be showing our house between 1:00 and 3:00.

It was now 3:45. They'd already come and gone.

Okay, so, it had been just hours short of the house being on the market for a full week with no interest, and by this time we'd all started getting a little complacent about keeping our messes cleaned up. We had gone back to dragging out boxes and emptying closet contents, and, well, let's just say the place didn't look much like the MLS photos any more. Looking around the house and pretending I'd never seen it before, I was embarrassed! LOL I was using our nice jacuzzi garden tub in the master bathroom to soak fondant off of several styro cake dummies, which is a slippery, messy thing. I was soaking a three-tier blue one and a four-tier brown one, so it was truly yucky looking. I wonder what those people thought when they looked in the tub!

Our dog, Tate, was in her crate as usual when we all leave the house, so she seemed unphased. The budgies, though, were in a state. I hope it was because they were having a fight between themselves, and not because somebody came in and pestered the poor things. I'm going to put a sign on their cage asking people to leave them alone, just in case.

So, lesson learned. No more taking breaks from keeping the house clean! Hopefully more people will come to see the house this weekend and a buyer will come along soon.