Sunday, November 27, 2011

Nesting

My deepest apologies for my blogging absence.  I wrote this post last weekend and meant to have photos by now and don't, so I'm posting without them.  Enjoy anyway and continue anxiously awaiting photos of our slowly-but-surely-coming-together home :-)

We returned from our Thanksgiving vacay late Friday night and hit the ground running on Saturday with our nesting now that we have the rest of our boxes.  Both Shane and I felt 50% dread (soooo much work to be done) and 50% excitement (to finally have a home!).

First on the list was ridding ourselves of the surprisingly large amount of excess furniture.  Our first thoughts went to our friends Kennedy and Dan (fresh off the boat from the UK!) -- we were delighted for them to take a couch, 2 arm chairs, a set of outdoor furniture, and some dishes.  For the rest of the furniture, we decided that the value (in terms of our sanity) of getting it all out ASAP outweighed the potential small revenue we could make if we tried to sell everything one by one, so we put out an ad on the "Free" section of Craigslist and immediately got a bite!  A very sweet and very needy woman named Hannah was furnishing both her and her brother's houses so she took a recliner, a coffee table, an arm chair, and a side table.

The highlight of our Saturday (aside from the joy of having a usable living room) was definitely Kennedy and Dan.  Not only were we so thankful that they took that extra furniture off of our hands (literally we had couches stacked on top of couches), but they also came to the rescue with their thanksgiving leftovers for lunch (perfect since we had been out of town and had zero groceries!) plus they helped us move around the rest of our furniture (so much heavy lifting!!).  Our productivity on Saturday was double what we had thought it would be, all because of their help.  We're truly blessed to have such wonderful friends so close....

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we're in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX) with my family and my best friend, Becky's family.  In a nutshell: lots of laughs, good eatin, and a drink or two...

Sunset, OBX style

My masterpiece

Rummikub

Booze hounds

Very few shells this year

Sunday, November 20, 2011

They're here! - Part 2

As you may recall, our furniture ended up coming in 2 shipments, 2 weeks apart.  Well, the second shipment arrived today (is arriving as we speak!) and we could not be happier. Originally we thought we wouldn't get it until we returned from our Thanksgiving travels and we were soooo bummed, but Shane called the driver and told him our situation and he somehow worked his magic and we got it early! Woo hooo!

This truck includes half of the stuff from our condo and ALL of the stuff from my house, which we packed up way back in June and kept in a storage unit.  I'm getting a little nervous about the condition of the stuff from my house since we packed it all ourselves (i.e. with recycled boxes and very little bubble wrap), but we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best!  I'm just excited to have the rest of my clothes since almost all of my sweaters, jackets and boots were on this truck! 

Anyways, they're unloading us right now and good lord do we have a ton of stuff! We're going to be Craigslisting furniture like crazy until we get down to what will actually appropriately furnish our home. Have I mentioned how not fun moving is??

A few photos to lighten the mood...
Archie being counterproductive

"Hey us, this box is poorly packed and has awesome pasta bowls in it."
In response to me writing "Fragile" :
"Not fragile tho cuz I packed it really awesomely  -Shane"


Friday, November 18, 2011

Little boxes on the hillside....


Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

You may recognize this song as the opening theme to Showtime's hit show Weeds.  You may be interested to know that the city which inspired this song is none other than Daly City, CA.  Don't believe me? Click here!

My city is so much cooler than your city :-)

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Chinatown!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days so far here on the golden coast. After a full workday (from the wee morning hours until 1:00 pm), I hopped on the BART to meet Kennedy in the city for a late lunch! We were both in the mood for some sushi and wandering, so we met at the Powell Street station (a good halfway point between Oakland & Daly City) and walked the streets until we found a charming sushi restaurant.  After lunch, we did a bit more wandering and found ourselves in Chinatown! It was everything I had hoped it would be: lots of jade, lots of silken goods, and everything SO inexpensive! I've already made a mental note to go back and buy new dishware. Just another day in San Franciscan paradise....

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Good morning from Fog City!

It's 8:15 a.m., 47 degrees with very low visibility due to fog.

Typical sunny afternoon
Foggy morning in Fog City!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Happy Tuesday!

Things that are making me happy today:
  1. INTERNET!
    We fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got the cable guy out here and 4 hours later (yes, truly it took 4 hours) we have cable and internet so we can stop stealing the neighbor's jank wireless internet! Woo hoo!
  2. FURNITURE!
    Shane got the call this morning that our second truckload of furniture and boxes will be arriving either Saturday or Sunday!!!
  3. NAP TIME!
    Neither Shane nor I slept well last night.  He finally got out of bed around 5 to read on the couch, and I was forced out of bed at around 5:30 with a work call. My work settled down a little around 8:30 so I sat on the couch with Shane & Archie and we napped for a little over an hour before Shane left for work. It was fantastic :-)
  4. MOM!
    Had a delightful chat with her first thing this morning (post nap time).  Is there any better way to start the day??
  5. PAYDAY!
    Shane got his first paycheck today! Yay money!!!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Our first weekend

This past weekend was our first full weekend as Bay Area residents.  Sometimes it still feels surreal that we actually live here and we're not just tourists (though I'm sure that me walking around the city with a camera in my hand does nothing to convince others that we're not tourists).

Friday night we laid low mostly: quick trip to Best Buy, dinner of grilled cheese (gruyere, because we're fancy) and creamy tomato soup, watched an episode of Mad Men.  Saturday we mostly laid low again during the day: leftovers for lunch, unpacked a few boxes, watched some more Mad Men, and then Saturday night we had dinner at a friend's house! So exciting to have actual friends in the area!! My friend Kennedy moved to Europe a few years ago and just recently moved back to the States with her husband to Oakland! What are the chances we'd be reunited here?? Anyways, they had us over for a beautiful dinner in their new home and we were able to bring Archie to play with their dog, Traveller.  It was so great to get out and visit with them, and we're so excited to have them over for dinner next time (as soon as we get the rest of our dang furniture!).

Sunday we decided to be brave and wander the city.  I took my very first ride on the BART, got to see where Shane works, found some fabulous shopping (but didn't buy anything - we're still reeling from the expense of moving), learned about and visited one of the many San Francisco POPOS (more on these later), and ate dinner at a delicious hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. I didn't document everything, but here's a few photos from our day...

BART map
On the BART!

On the escalator at the BART station!
Old timey mailbox in Shane's lobby! P.S. how cute is he??

Shane at his desk :-)

Scrum room!

Shane's office!

Formspring front desk

Cool sculpture near Shane's office

Do you smell updog?? Shout out to Becky and the whole OBX crew! See you in a week :-) 

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Womp Womp...

As photo-documented in the last post, our furniture arrived on Wednesday.... sort of.  Unfortunately, the Bekins man who estimated the tonnage of our furniture underestimated and the stuff from our condo wouldn't all fit, much less ANY of the furniture and boxes from my storage unit.  So fine, we rolled with the punches and they picked up the remaining stuff in a second truck a day or so later.  Well, we were under the impression that we would receive ALL shipments in the 3-day window promised to us, but alas, our second shipment won't come for THREE MORE WEEKS (they quoted us 2 weeks but that's Thanksgiving and we'll be out of town). Are you freaking kidding me?? What a big, fat disappointment. So for now we're trying to make-do with the random assortment of things we received. We received the couch but not the coffee table, the bed but not the bedside tables, the TV but not the TV stand, Patio furniture cushions but no patio furniture, DVDs but  no DVD player.... etc, etc.

Also, the neighbors that live below us are terrible. Just plain awful. And noisy. And rude. And disrespectful.  And they smoke in their unit and it comes up through our vents. More on them later. Or not.

Also, San Francisco highways are super stressful and confusing to navigate. Why don't they put exit numbers on any of the exits?!

Quick! Make a list of things we like about California before we enter full-blown pity-party mode:
1. Living just across the bay from an old friend, Kennedy, and her darling husband Dan who are having us over for dinner tonight!
2. The promise of great restaurants and exciting things to do (though truth be told we have done little to no exploring/adventuring... yet) 
3. Scarf and boot weather (we rarely if ever got this in Florida)
4. The gorgeous views of the city at all times -- it's just so cool to see houses up the mountains. And it's really pretty at night when all you see are the twinkly lights.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Living in PST, Working in EST

As delighted as I am to be working from home, the Pacific time zone thing is sorta killin me.  For those of you not in-the-know, my Florida boss let me take my job to California until the end of the year, but I'm expected to keep my hours as close to the eastern time zone as possible.  My plan was to get up and log in to my work email at 6:00 a.m. PST (9:00 a.m. EST, which is the schedule I kept in Florida) and then make coffee, make breakfast, and ease into my morning.  Well, work had other plans.  This morning I was awoken at 5:15 a.m. PST (8:15 a.m. EST) with a phone call (which I had to take).  Yuck! Both for me and for Shane!

The up side to this is that by 2:00 p.m. PST my work day is over which leaves me almost the entire afternoon to do with as I please.  I'd like to think that I'll do something fun like take a yoga class, take a long walk with Archie, or do productive things around the house, but more than likely I'll end up taking a big, fat nap. Although, for the forseeable future I'm sure I'll spend it decorating our new place.... :-)

The moving truck arrives tomorrow!!!

Lily the Landlord

Our landlord, Lily, is a wonderfully nice lady and has thus far been very attentive to our needs as tenants.  It has been a pleasure working with her not only because of this, but also because of the comedic value in our email and text message communications.  There's a bit of a language barrier...


ShaTay Question: "Does the gate open by remote? Or do we have to get out of the car and manually open it each time we come and go? We are very interested in renting from you!" (the house originally had a gate. it has since been removed)
Lily Answer: "This is remocontrod , u in house when u get of car , if u like it should tack it asa pasbol."

ShaTay Question: "What is the total square footage of our unit? Can you tell us the dimensions of each room? We're trying to decide what furniture to bring!"
Lily Answer: "I sorry I don't know size each room , all I know hold house is 4.128 sq ft. This is CA, most of house not big with out millimadallos house other wise all same normoer size , not big furnitures it San Francisco ever thin small "

After signing the lease...
Lily: "Hi Taylor , I so greed hear from u ,when u can move or when u r funicture will be here . Please let me know if u need help in here . Thanks !"

ShaTay Question: "Hi Lily, the hot water in the master bathroom isn't working and our toilet keeps running.  Could we get a plumber to come take a look at it?"
Lily Answer: "I wait for plomer call me back u be home today? I call u befor I schadul. "

Monday, November 7, 2011

Mi Casa es Winning

We just have the third floor

Things that rule about our new house:

1. Proximity to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Station -- Shane takes it to and from work each day!

 2. Backyard for Archiepants

3. Gas stovetop

4. View of the Pacific Ocean

5. Supercool landlord (additional blogpost about Lily coming soon...)


Thing that less-than-rules about our new house:

1. Godawful monkey shower doors
These are in BOTH bathrooms!

Close-up of monkey detail

Roadtrip Catchup - Part II

Since my previous roadtrip catchup was written pre-engagement I'd like to modify the Day 5 summary and add our last 2 days...

Day 5: Albuquerque to Kingman, AZ (via Grand Canyon)
We got an early start since the drive is a far one and we wanted to arrive in time to see the Grand Canyon in daylight.  Grand Canyon was stunningly beautiful (yet pales in comparison to my bling). Upon our departure from the Grand Canyon, it began raining and since we were at such a high altitude (8,000 ft) the rain quickly became hail, and then eventually snow. Dislike. We had fun making up theoretical newspaper headlines about the Idiot Florida couple reported missing after driving rear-wheel drive, SnowTire-less vehicle down snow-covered mountain, but in all seriousness it was not cool. Luckily we made it safely back to Flagstaff, and since the storm looked like it would be hitting that city moreso than cities further west, we trucked on to Kingman, AZ and stayed the night at a Marriott.
Highlight: Waking up to the news that Rachael went into labor and HELLO, I'M ENGAGED!!!!! (November 4th was an AMAZING day for the Harter family).
Lowlight: Dust storm and hail storm and snow storm.

Day 6: Kingman, AZ to Salinas, CA
Long long long drive. So very long. However, the gorgeous mountainous scenery definitely made it better. California is a beautiful state and we are so glad to finally be here!!!
Highlight: Staring at my bling the entire drive :-)
Lowlight: Hotel troubles. The Quality Inn that we booked had zero parking so we had to call and fight with Priceline for a refund. Ugh.

Day 7: Salinas, CA to Daly City, CA
Luckily it was a short drive, but we were making phone calls during most of it to try to find a boarding facility for Archie for the night (we wanted some peace & quiet for our first night in our new home). We finally found one that would take him without his vaccine documentation (it's all on the freakin moving truck!) and was highly rated on Yelp. Then, we got the keys from our landlord, went to the grocery store to stock our fridge, and fiiiiiiiiiinally came home to relax with Mad Men and a bottle of wine. Ahhhhhh....
Highlight: Finally arriving!
Lowlight: Stressful San Francisco traffic :-/

I can't believe we're finally here!!!

Friday, November 4, 2011

ENGAGED!

Could he have picked a better setting??
I'm the luckiest girl in the world :-)
Gorgeous

Roadtrip Catchup

We've been on the road now for 5 days! We've been so busy driving and visiting with family and friends that we haven't taken the time to blog so I'll catch you up now...

Day 1: Sarasota to Tampa
Didn't leave Sarasota until 8:30 after fussing with the movers all day. SUCH A LONG DAY, but at least we only had to drive 1 hour that night to Uncle Jim & Aunt Debbie's house.
Highlight: Visiting with Jim & Debbie
Lowlight: Saying goodbye to Sarasota and ESPECIALLY to Jim & Debbie :-( We both really hate that we're moving somewhere where NONE of our family is nearby.

Day 2: Tampa to Gulfport
Left around 10:30, arrived around 7:30 (time change was in our favor). Very sad to say goodbye to Mom and Dad and hating that I'll be so far away from them, but I think they'll like visiting us in San Francisco :-)
Highlight: Seeing my parents interact with Archie. I think they secretly love dogs.
Lowlight: Driving in separate cars for 9 hours (we left my car at my parent's house since we'll only need 1 in San Fran).

Day 3: Gulfport to Dallas
10 hours driving (including multiple potty break stops for Archie), but at least we were in the same car. Upon our arrival in Dallas, we were welcomed into the lovely new home of one of my BFFS, Nancy. She was a delightful hostess.
Highlight: Driving in the same car!
Lowlight: Not getting to spend more time with Nancy -- we got in pretty late :-(

Day 4: Dallas to Albuquerque
This was the most grueling drive day to date. Didn't get in until about 10:30 but had a lovely visit with Shane's sister Rachael and her husband Mark.
Highlight:  Roadtrip food -- Whataburger Honey Butter Chicken Biscuits for breakfast and Dairy Queen ice cream for a late night snack
Lowlight: HORRIFIC Dallas traffic trying to get out of town

Day 5: Albuquerque to Grand Canyon
We got an early start today since the drive is a far one and we want to arrive in time to see the Grand Canyon in daylight.  We're on the road as we speak, truckin along...
Highlight: Waking up to the news that Rachael went into labor!
Lowlight: Dust storms (super windy, shakes the car) and tumbleweeds (charming at first, but we keep having to dodge them and one just got stuck in our grill)!

More blog posts to come...

We are living in a technological world...

...and I'm a technological girl!

Shane and I can't stand to be without internet (funny, considering neither of us had smart phones until maybe 6 months ago).  Anyways, his phone rules and he can turn it into a mobile wifi hotspot so I have internet on my laptop! That's right, I am blogging whilst driving through the Arizona desert. Outside of my window I see desert, mountains, and tumbleweeds. WINNING.