Thank you thank you

The move-in was a bit of a fiasco. I have alluded to the problems with the Boston movers, but trust me it's better if I leave it at that, and there were a few glitches with the shipping pods and movers here in San Francisco. For instance, I opened one of the pods and Christmas ornaments rained upon my head. There was some elaborate activity involving tape and xacto knives, but you now can't tell that the dresser was ever broken. Several new pieces of furniture and a now-paraplegic ornament later, everything made it inside, was assembled, moved, organized, reorganized, and now looks great (we think).

The point here, however, is that we couldn't have come close to doing it all if my mom and my aunt, uncle and cousins hadn't been here to help. And they weren't just here, they were in charge and hard at work!

My mom spent a lot of time entertaining Gracie, taking her for walks to keep her out of the way, playing with her, feeding her and generally making sure she was all set when I was on the phone for an hour with the dsl provider or calling stores to find out if they had just one more this or that in stock. Not only did she run Gracie-patrol, she did laundry, shopping, cooking, and loads of unpacking, including unpacking and organizing all the books only to do it again once we decided to move the bookcases.

And, then on unpack-day, my awesome cousins Scott and Katy took me to Ikea, patiently waited while I debated endless options and walked around in circles muttering to myself, and then carried all the heavy boxes. Once we got to the apartment, where the others were already hard at work, Scott and wonderful Uncle Hilary spent all day assembling furniture (with a little help from Grace). This was especially terrific because it meant Steve didn't have to spend his 4 days off between residency and fellowship assembling furniture once he arrived.

Meanwhile, Katy and fabulous Aunt Kristie, unpacked all the kitchen boxes, washed everything, lined the shelves and then organized everything. If it weren't for them, I would probably be sitting on the kitchen floor crying, still surrounded by boxes. (Sadly, I didn't get a shot with Kristie - I think I had my camera out while she was finding the closest grocery store to stock our fridge!).

On Sunday, Father's Day no less, they all went to a store near them to pick up the last kitchen cart available in the entire Bay Area, negotiated a discount because it was the floor model, and then delivered it to me.

Seriously, these people rock. They spent their weekend helping us, not to mention the countless emails exchanged about neighborhoods, the scoping out of addresses, the hosting us repeatedly, and the recording of the final basketball game so I could watch it after enjoying a marvelous dinner on their patio, grilled by Uncle Hilary.

Thank you, all! We love you!