Overstuffed & Overloaded!

Gentle Readers-

I hope you'll forgive my spotty posting this week. It's been absolute madness. Since announcing our exciting next adventure in Hawaii, Eric and I have been thrown into the harried "Stuff Exodus" required by a cross country move. We sold as much as we could from the Vegas apartment on craigslist, donated carloads of stuff to Goodwill and loaded the rest into our car.

We drove across the country back to Minnesota (it took about three days with one very unhappy cat, who was a real trooper) and promptly exploded stuff all over my poor mother's basement. (Sorry Mom!)

Next we tackled the storage unit, piled ceiling high since our departure for Africa in 2006, with a stack of sixteen twenty gallon plastic storage bins, two five foot long hanging garment storage closets stuffed to the brim with the wardrobes we assembled in China, a full sized bed, various musical instruments, assorted golf clubs, skis and the requisite detritus of childhood: yearbooks, photo albums and dog-eared stuffed animals.

We did what we could to pack Eric's suitcase full of useful items and off he went to Hawaii to attend Teach For America's week long job fair and initiation. He's now in Houston attending a Summer Institute that will prepare him for the school year which begins July 12th. I'm not sure yet when I'll be joining him. There are some very strict requirements for bringing animals into Hawaii and Otis has to complete a waiting period after a blood test.

The break from blogging has been quite necessary but I have some ideas for new posts that I hope you will enjoy. Moving out of the storage unit has necessitated some serious editing of our personal belongings and I am hoping to begin a dialog with all of you about the nature of stuff, what we keep and why. Thanks to all of you for your kind words of encouragement as we embark on another wonderful adventure. I am full of anticipation.

Yours Truly,

Madame B