what a weekend!

Well, we are out of the apartment. Yesterday we finished all the cleaning that we felt like doing and turned in our keys. My sister asked me if I was sad to be leaving the apartment for good and my answer was, "No, not at all." I think that I separated myself from the apartment so long ago that leaving it yesterday was not a big deal. I was sad to be leaving a lot of the places we frequented like the Denny's and my nail place. I will also miss terribly our favorite pizza place, Rosati's. There is one not all that far from our house, but it is not across the street anymore. One funny thing about Rosati's... On the pizza boxes there are these coupons that you tear off and save and once you get 12 of them, you can get one pizza for 1/2 price. Well, we finally saved up enough and on our way out of Scottsdale yesterday, we stopped and got our favorite BBQ Special deep dish pizza for 1/2 price. That was more bittersweet then leaving the apartment. We also thought that we would miss the chinese place next to Rosati's that we frequented, but we found a new place on Friday night, on our new side of town. We just searched online to find a place close and just took our chances. We had it delivered. We mutually decided that we would not go and see the restaurant, even though it's close. We decided this because the food is good and cheap and we don't want to ruin it for ourselves. There are a lot of little family run restaurants in this part of town that are in run down buildings. We assume that this is from a place like that and if we see the place, we might not want to eat the food. So, we are not going to look for it and just enjoy the cheap chinese delivery.
Today was a busy day too. This morning, my dad came over and brought us the rest of the patio furniture that my parents are giving us. They bought themselves new furniture and had already brought over a couple of the chairs before. Today, he brought the rest and a shelving unit that Chris is going to use in the computer room. That was really cool of him to bring it all over. Plus, he brought my the address labels that my mom bought us. Every time either we or my sister move, my mother buys us new address labels with our new address on them. It's like a tradition or something. And with my frequent moves (lived in 4 places in 6 years) it means a lot to know that she will take care of that for me. Then Chris put up the rest of the blinds today. I say that and you assume it was a simple task. I assumed this also and had been giving him a hard time about not hanging them. But this was no simple task. See, our windows are metal framed instead of wood framed. Chris had to do all sorts of research and then buy special tools and drills bits to hang them. It took him all day (and three trips to the hardware store - Ace Hardware: 1 trip, Home Depot: 2 trips) to hang three sets of blinds. Now that they are all up, they look amazing. I had been giving Chris such a had time about the blinds. I had even said that he is spending more time thinking about how to hang them then actually hanging them. I wanted them to be up and I was tired of a drop cloth covering the window. But talking to my mom about it gave me a new perspective. Even though it took forever for him to figure out how to hang them, once it was done, it was done right and good. That is one very good thing about my husband and I am glad that my mom reminded me about that. So, while he was hanging the blinds, I was doing a little unpacking, some organizing (which involves moving boxes to the extra bedroom to be dealt with later) and I cleaned the guest bathroom. I had started cleaning the drawers and cabinets a few days ago, but stopped when I ran out of contact paper for the shelves. I finished all that today, plus cleaned the floor, shower and all that. I also put on a new toilet seat. And let me tell you one thing - when you move, the least you can do is clean the toilet. Apparently the freaks we bought this house from didn't think like that. There was this stain in the bottom of the toilet and I thought for sure that it would not come off and that I would have to use bleach or something to try to remove it. Nope not a stain, just hadn't been cleaned in god knows how long. Came right off with just regular toilet bowl cleaner and toilet brush. Mind you, I am very happy that it came off. But I am just more and more disgusted by the way the people lived in this house. They were filthy. That's the best way I can describe it. That is why I had to clean every drawer and shelf and every last little crevice. Seriously. What was wrong with these people? Anyway. It's done and it looks like a brand new bathroom with a brand new toilet (well, a clean one with a new seat, at least). I still need to go to Target tomorrow and buy more contact paper so that I can fill in the big cabinet. There is this huge cabinet in that bathroom that I am going to use as my linen closet. I have all the linens ready to go inside and that'll get done tomorrow.
Last night, we finished putting together the last of the furniture that we got from IKEA. What we put together is very similar to this. Just imagine the unit without the smaller bookcase to the right of the tv stand and the two end bookshelves are open, meaning no glass or wood doors. Just all shelves. I like ours better than the one they put together. You could have bought that one as one unit, but we parts is parts ours and made it what we needed. I am waiting to load it up with books until we decided exactly where on the wall it will go. Meaning does it need to go more to left or to the right. We need to get rid of some other boxes before we can decide on that. So, it's just empty bookshelves for now. Oh, this is funny. Chris just came in here and told me that he found what is controlled by a switch on the wall in the living room. Apparently everything on the tv stand (tv, stereo, cable box, xbox) that is plugged into a power strip that is plugging into the outlet that is controlled by the switch. Neat. Guess we are moving that one.
Damn, it is getting late. I need to go to bed.