4 Moves in 40 Days

That's it.

We're finally done moving.

I can finally unpack. For realsies.

Here's a recap, in case you've lost count.

Move #1: Halifax to Toronto
Move #2: Moving from one floor to another in our building (necessary due to some administrative errors from the rental office)
Move #3: Getting all of our stuff out of the new apartment so that they can refinish the floors
Move #4: Getting all our stuff back in

Yeah, my biceps are huge now from all the lifting.

Now here's the long version.

On Thursday night, we moved everything out. All that was left on Friday as I waited for the floor guy was a couch cushion to sit on and my laptop. He showed up around noon, so I had to leave. We had to be out of the apartment for 24 hours in order to give the varnish time to dry.

Overnight stuff in tow, I decided to spend my day on Queen Street West, investigating the fabric and bead shops. I had visited the fabric shops before, but the bead shops were brand new to me. There are about five of them in the two block span and they carry a huge range of junk beads, gemstone beads, freshwater pearls, swarovski crystal beads, silver plated and gold plated findings, and sterling silver findings. Some of them specialize in specific types of beads like cloissone or wood beads. And they range everywhere from 99 cents up to $3,o00 a strand. If you're wondering what kinds of beads you can get for $3,000, they were huge, gorgeous, clear raw aquamarines. If that's too rich for you, can get large, faceted citrines or raw kunzites for a mere $1,700 a strand, lol. I didn't end up buying anything because I didn't have any projects in mind, but they were certainly fun to look at!

It was only about 2:30pm by that time and I couldn't meet John until 6, so I headed West down the street to The Knit Cafe. I had never been there before, but it's a lovely little shop. On one wall there are all sorts of original knit patterns that you can choose from. I chose a felted bag because I've never tried felting before. Each pattern tells you what supplies you need which you pick up on another wall. From there you go to the from cash to pay and to order your tea and snacks, and then settle down at the central table for some knitting.

So I hung out for a bit, chatting with the other people in the store, sipping my green tea and knitting away. Felting basically means that you use wool yarn, knit something big and floppy, and then throw it in the washing machine on a hot cycle. Wool shrinks in hot water, so the result is a small, stiff project that has a fuzzy sort of finish. It actually barely looks like it was knit, more like it was made of felt that's been sewed together. I'm still at the knitting stage, but I'll let you know how it turns out. I had a lovely afternoon.

I rode the subway from there all the way to Finch station where I met John. It was my first time on the subway downtown during rush hour. What a zoo! From there we headed back to St. Clair West station and caught a streetcar to Alisha's house, where we would be spending the night.

Alisha is an amazing hostess. She made us a delicious beef stir fry with basamati rice for supper and then we spent the evening chilling in the living room, telling stories and having a few drinks. It was lots of fun. In the morning she made us some of her delicious open faced breakfast sandwiches and we left at 10:30 because she had to get to a wedding.

It was too early for us to go back to the apartment so we headed across the street to the library. John took out a million books (he needed some fiction to read on his long commute to work) while I posted on my blog using a library computer. After that, we decided to catch a noon showing of the movie 9, the new Tim Burton film. John found it visually appealing (I found it ugly, lol) but we both agreed that the plot was full of holes and the ending wasn't very good. After that, we finally headed home.

The floors looked pretty good, they had replaced all of the missing tiles and sanded away most of the water damage. We set to work getting all of our furniture back which took most of the afternoon. We put together John's new desk that we had bought about a month back and set up a cute little office space for the two of us. For supper, we ordered some pizza and we just relaxed for the evening.

On Sunday we took it easy in the morning and made some incredible breakfast sandwiches. We watched The Patriot, which was on TV, and did some more unpacking. We headed to the Sobeys for the first time (normally we shop at the Metro) to get our groceries for the week. It was a bit disappointing. The Sobeys was much smaller inside than it appeared from the outside and the prices were no better than the Metro. So it wasn't really worth the extra walk. But we got what we needed and headed home, stopping at The Golden Griddle for lunch. I had a blueberry waffle and John had a bowl of chili. The food quality was pretty much exactly what you would expect from a 24-hour waffle place, I was happy.

I headed home with the groceries and John headed out to find a haircut. He came home with a new style, longer on top than he usually gets. It looks good. He went out after that to meet a friend for drinks who has just moved here from Halifax. I stayed home and watched the finale of King of the Hill. I like how they ended it. John got home around midnight and we headed to bed shortly after.

Despite being homeless briefly, it was a fun weekend.