BNH and ANH

I'll refer to most moving notes from now on as BNH (Before New Home) and ANH (After New Home) since every single thing seems to be different between now and then. BNH we are living in a maze of boxes, making dinner most nights, packing lunches, missing our walks to coffee shops and finding cat poop in random places since they know we're leaving and they're pissed off. ANH is much dreamier-- unpacking our boxes like Christmas presents (I don't label them in order to have a complete 'surprise' when I re-open them one month later-- it's the little things that make me happy), going out to local and cheap eats, having plenty of coffee within walking distance and cat poop in the litter box which is in the new utility room where it's supposed to go. Ah, I can *smell* the sweet success of ANH and happy kitties. Happy homeowners too.

Tensions are high these days with the countdown to the ANH upon us and I could definitely tell by the fact that Lee and I nearly took each other out playing the sweet game of 'If Wishes Were Fishes'. Sounds innocent and all, but Lee's quite competitive and my mind wanders and lingers on subjects far too many to begin to discuss, so he kind of wants to pull his hair out by the end of the game. I don't really blame him since I know he takes his gaming seriously and I will be eternally grateful to our friend Kyleen, who comes over every once in a while to indulge Lee's super-intellectual strategy game habit. Currently they are downstairs playing 'Arkham Horror', some 10 hour long game about the 'Call of Cthulu' with 50 pages of instructions and oh, about a million little pieces. I know, I know. Wikipedia it if you must, that's what I did.

As I mentioned, BNH is letting me cook a bit more since there is much to do at home at night and it saves more money than I'd like to admit. Tonight I made fresh artichoke and feta ravioli with a leek-saffrom sauce that we picked up at the Granville Island Market on our trip to Vancouver. Also a wonderful salad I was thinking of making all day with fennel, arugula, blood oranges, toasted pecans and shaved parm--it made me really happy even in my BNH state of mind. I made a small appetizer of cherry heirloom tomatoes stuffed with St. Agur cheese and topped off with this wonderful new balsamic vinegar jelly we bought at our friends cheese shop in Bellingham. Then some roasted broccoli, perhaps my new favorite way of having it. It's good we had Kyleen around tonight since I tend to make too much food and need another mouth to feed, plus she offered to paint the inside of ANH for us. Between the three of us and some Guinness, it will be a quick and easy job--with red paint on more than just the walls I'm certain.