Not a master update

Most of you are pretty caught up on the blog-worthy things in my life right now. Let's say I try a new format where I DON'T try to cram everything into a master monthly post w/ bullet points and photos... I don't need that kind of pressure.

By far the biggest thing on our plate right now is moving to a new apartment. After a draining 3-week apt-hunting process, we found our new home in my old neighborhood. It's a few streets down from where I lived from 2004-2005, before Erich moved to DC. The new place is kind of a trade-off.
This is what we're gaining:

• guaranteed private parking (we're currently in Kalorama. Some of you realize what that means in terms of parking)
• a ginormous deck!
• gas fireplace
• huge new kitchen
• jacuzzi tub
• an extra room (they call it a bedroom, I call it a den*...)
• sorry, I guess I couldn't quit the bullet points cold-turkey.
  

And the trade-off part:
The neighborhood. Right now we live in a beautiful oasis of a neighborhood, walking distance to a bunch of friends. The new neighborhood is a lot rougher (but probably more colorful and interesting) and will make it tough to have spontaneous meet-ups with friends.

While it's been bittersweet packing up our belongings in our first home, we're really excited about the new place - neighborhood and all. And I've grown an unhealthy attachment to the deck. Since the new bedroom is on the small side (put that under the trade-off category), I've decided I'm willing to camp out on the deck. Although, I don't think the alarm system covers the exterior so Erich may not like this idea.

I'm feeling very lazy so I won't be putting any pics into this post - you've seen them all already since most of you probably realize that I update flickr way more than blogger. Oh, but I will draw your attention to a fantastic example of how deep my dorkiness goes.

Thanks to Google Sketchup we've managed to waste an obscene amount of hours constructing this 3-D model of the new apartment, complete with our furniture arranged the way we think we want it. Why did we learn this free program from scratch, measure most of the dimensions in the new apt. as well as almost all of the furniture we own? Well, I imagine that, "because we wanted to make sure everything fit" wouldn't be a sufficient answer. I think a closer approximation of the truth would have to include the word "addiction". I should also add that there was even an excel spreadsheet to store all those measurements.
Yes, we both became hopelessly addicted to this program. Thank god I can't come up with many more uses for it other than playing around with furniture arrangements and apartment layouts.
I expect similar levels of dependency to develop once I get my invite to Ravelry.

We're picking up the moving truck on Monday, probably on the way home from the airport after we fly back from a weekend in Rhode Island. I miss the ocean!

* We also call this this room the brewery, study, craft room, and guest room