Thursday, May 03, 2007

Dave and I are back in the Twin Cities

Twin Cities Night skyline... for now ('cuz who knows, anymore?)

Dave and I still own a home here and our tenants were moving out. About the same time, he got a lead on a job here. So we just very quickly decided to get back here ASAP.

We both left Philadelphia at the same time on a Friday night. He drove the Budget truck full of all of our worldly goods, and got here in record time--17.5 hours! --then slept at his mom's. I drove our car, outfitted to house our cats for the 2 day drive --they would have to stay in the car until Sunday anyway, so I took more time.
Kitties' first road trip! They sometimes perched on the way-back in the car to watch the traffic, sometimes got under the passenger seat--and they were champs, using the porta-litter box while the car was moving! For a long while, both were in their [opened] carrier sitting beside me looking through the front windshield as I drove: Two small heads at my elbow.

We were able to get in the house on Sunday (tenants had through Saturday to get out) only to find that tenant's animals had badly damaged the carpet. We had help moving out the carpet and with some other stuff.

We will be selling the house, so there is a LOT to do. We've painted everything, and the new hardwood floor goes in this weekend--after rigorous sub-floor scrubbing with Nature's Miracle, the pet odor remover. Dave had a truckload of boulders delivered (he has a friend in the boulder biz) to create a boulder wall off our deck. He's doing a lot of other landscaping things too, to help this house stand out from the pack of otherwise similar homes in this 'burb just west of the Mini-Apple.

Within days of being back I've had gainful employment--in each of the "things I do for money!" A voiceover gig, then filling in doing traffic reports for 7 radio stations here, and now teaching a private dance lesson on Sunday.

The possible job for Dave, the one that got our tails here so fast, might yet pan out, too. Just today he set up an interview for early May. Could it have been any more perfect? He needs this time to complete the house and get it on the market, then time to prepare a presentation. (It's a marketing position at a technical college.)

I'm also going back to teaching a bit at the Cassandra School--at least filling in. Others have naturally taken over all my old classes. So things are looking up!

(And it stopped snowing!)