Moving Weekend

We got our keys to the new place yesterday. We met the owners who seem very nice and really interested in us having a good experience. They built this huge black binder and filled it with every conceivable piece of paper and appliance manual that relates to the apartment you can think of....such a blessing! Nothing is as unwelcoming as a European washer/dryer combo without a manual. These folks went the extra mile and downloaded English versions for us and clipped them into the binder. We spent an over an hour in the apartment going over everything from how to shut off the water to how to properly care for the floors.

While we were there the IKEA delivery boys showed up with our order from the other night. We dropped by there on Tuesday night and bought 2 new beds, a dining room set, 2 end tables, and a nightstand. We had been there last week and bought some of the smaller things we're going to need to tide us over until the BIG SHIPMENT arrives from Baku....little important things like a sheet, some pillows, dishes, and a bathmat. When all of our household goods end up in one country, we are going to have one hell of a yard sale!  Maybe when this batch arrives, I can go through it and donate some stuff. I'm sure I don't need all of it.

Whenever we go back to Houston we always drop by storage to see what we don't want anymore, and take a couple of carloads to Goodwill. Last January we were really tough on ourselves and actually cleaned out one whole storage locker (we had two)....we gave away a ton of stuff to the folks that worked at the storage place (a small thank you for saving us from "Storage Wars Texas"!!...I'll elaborate later). Many carloads went to charity. I try not to think about those 3 gorgeous patterned rain coats I had for 12 years and never-wore-because-they-never-fit-me; but dang! I know someday I'm going to miss them.

Tonight we have to pick up the TV we bought, buy a microwave, and we probably should stop by IKEA again to get a handcart or two. We have one (in the shipment) but we have a lot of heavy stuff to take out of the parking garage and up to the 5th floor. L.S. is the only real lifter and toter....I'm pretty useless when it comes to the manual labor thing....

In more good news, the BIG SHIPMENT has left Baku! It cleared customs and was sent out on March 18th bound for the port of Poti in Georgia.....that's Georgia the country, not Georgia the state (something my mother asked me and she's not even American!) From there it's bound for Istanbul, then Bremen, Germany....and from there to Stavanger. It will change ships in every port. The estimated time of arrival according to the movers is April 26th. However, they gave me the tracking info for our container and the ship it's on; and as of yesterday the ship was still in Poti. It was supposed to be arriving in Istanbul today, so it's behind schedule right now. The second ship isn't due to leave port until April 3rd, so I guess there is still time for it to catch up.

I'm following its progress on the 'Michel A' in real-time (weird, I know!)
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/details/ships/271001050/vessel:MICHEL_A