Boxes and packing and too much stuff

We're nearing zero-hour for the big move. My goal is to have everything packed tonight, and spend tomorrow cleaning. Good lawd, but we have too much stuff! We're mailing out a few boxes of stuff before we leave, and have a bunch to be sent later. Thankfully my mom is willing to store the stuff we don't want sent out to us right away. I'd share a picture of my apartment, but it is a disaster area right now. Total chaos. As a side note we used CraigsList for the first time, and have actually managed to sell most of our furniture. Makes me happy, and having the extra cash will really help a lot. We're checking out of the apartment on Tuesday, and leaving for Chicago that day. Our flight for LAX leaves Wed. afternoon. Then, on Thursday, we leave for Honolulu.

My biggest stressor at the moment is traveling with the cats. The trial run with the kitty relaxer stuff did not go well at all - the cats were most assuredly not relaxed. Have an appointment with the vet tomorrow - hopefully he has some better kitty drugs.

Probably won't post again until we get to Honolulu...

Please wish us luck!

The Lights Before Christmas

I love the Toledo Zoo - it is one of my favorite things about living in Northwest Ohio. The Toledo Zoo is one of the top ranked zoos in the country - and it does deserve that distinction. Every year the zoo holds "The Lights Before Christmas" - when they put up over 1 million lights all throughout the zoo property. I've been every year since I have been here, and it is a tradition I am sure to miss.

Jim and I decided to go to the zoo on Thursday, figuring that the ice storm wouldn't come through until later, and arrived at the zoo to discover we had the place practically to ourselves (we arrived at about 3:30). We had a chance to enjoy much of the zoo without actually seeing another person - it was amazing. We could actually hear the noises the animals were making (particularly the tiger, which "wuffed" at us as she/he walked past). Even as it started getting dark there weren't near the number of people there that the lights normally gather - good for us, if not so good for the zoo. It was so nice to walk around and take pictures, and not feel overcrowded.

Here are some pictures I took this past Thursday with my point-and-shoot Canon. I think they turned out pretty good, especially considering that I didn't have a tripod with me. Here's a link to the album:

Lights Before Christmas 2008

And a few of my favorite pictures:

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

From Lights Before Christmas 2008

My car will spend Christmas in Hawaii

We are using West Point Relocation to handle the transportation of our car from here in Northwest Ohio to Oahu. A car carrier came to pick up my car on December 2 (two days earlier than I expected!) and take it out to Long Beach, California, where it would be put on a ship bound for Honolulu. The whole process was supposed to take 3-4 weeks, and since I wanted my car there shortly after my arrival, it needed to leave the first week in December. I contacted West Point Relocation on Friday, and evidently my car has already begun its cruise to Oahu, so it will be in Honolulu in time for Christmas, with an expected arrival of Dec. 23, or Dec. 24. Mele Kalikimaka!

Here are a couple pictures from the day my car was picked up. we didn't stick around to see it drive away because it was darn cold - wind chill was about 2 below.

Oh - and those two kitties we rescued - they both have homes now! Two of Jim's fellow grad students are adopting them (one each). They are both boys, and seem to be pretty healthy so far.

From The Big Move

From The Big Move

From The Big Move

Kitty Rescue times two!

From Kitty Rescue 2008

Yesterday was one of the coldest days of the year so far, preceded by one of the coldest nights. Two days ago, as I was sitting working on homework, I noticed a little black blur scurry across our neighbors porch. When I saw the blur again, I saw that it was a little kitten. I rushed out to try and catch it, but it was wild and ran. I kept my eyes out for it the rest of the evening, and tried one more time to catch it, but failed. Saturday morning Jim was working on the computer, heard crying, and saw that same black blur and rushed down to try to catch the little kitten. After 20 minutes and help from one of our neighbors he brought the cold, mewling little kitten into our apartment (much to the dismay of our resident cats, Jasmine and Hailey). We warmed him (her??? we didn't check) up, fed him and gave him some water. He was pretty feisty for a little guy! Our local humane society is full to overflowing (over 190 cats at last count), and couldn't take him, so we had to call animal control. Thankfully they don't euthanize adoptable animals! A BG city police officer came to pick up the kitten and take it to the shelter.

Jim and Calob went out later that afternoon to run some errands and when they came back they could hear another kitten crying. This one they found huddled and not moving in a flower bed - it didn't try to run at all, and I am not sure it could have. It was covered in snow and shivering so hard - enough to break your heart. I wrapped up the little kitten in a scrap of fleece blanket and held her until she warmed up and stopped shivering. It was so good to see the life come back into the sweet little kitty! We fed her and let her warm up completely before we called animal control (the police) to come and pick this one up. She relaxed enough to take a little nap in the blanket. Such a sweetie.

Our cats should be thankful that we're moving, otherwise we'd have had two more kittens added to our family this weekend!

These pictures are of the second kitten.

From Kitty Rescue 2008

From Kitty Rescue 2008