Bat Country

This weekend, we helped our friend Paul assemble his project for Burning Man. It's called Bat Country and it's an awesome 21-foot Sierpinski tetrahedron built out of baseball bats and softballs. More accurately, Chris helped. I helped to eat all the delicious food, my arm being too gimpy to do work and all that. ;-)

We were really impressed by the project and how solid it felt when everything was put together. You can see from the picture how many guys are standing on the top!

We're Homeowners!

It's official! We got the keys! It's ours! :-)

Delightfully, our new home is a short stroll away from all the nifty shops on California Ave. and we already love the farmer's market they have every Sunday (amazing stuff!). It's also close to the CalTrain station and just a few blocks from some tennis courts at Peers Park. And we're pretty excited that we're basically across the street from Mollie Stone's, so we can actually walk to get groceries. After three years of living next to a fire station and a dirt lot that would eventually become a Lowe's, we are ECSTATIC to be moving someplace where we can walk to so many awesome things.

(Note that we did walk to the Lowe's once or twice to buy light bulbs, but few things are as useless to a renter as a home improvement store. And there was already a Home Depot down the road! Give me a break right?! Anyways it was sad when they finished building it, because we were desperately hoping it turn into a Borders, haha.)

We don't move for a couple more weeks, but we'll be starting to Craigslist some of our current furniture and shop for some new stuff. Our brothers will be coming up to help us move during the second week of August.

If you're shocked and amazed at how suddenly we decided to buy this place, so are we. I looked back through our emails and realized that we didn't seriously start looking for a place until June 10, when we first wrote to a couple potential real estate agents. We decided to make our first bid on June 23 (which we lost, probably for the best). A mere week later, we bid on this lovely condo at Palo Alto Central, and now, here we are! I always assumed that I would be terribly picky before making such a gigantic investment, and that I would be searching for 6-12 months at least. Looks like I was only off by an order of magnitude or so, heehee.

On the brighter side, three years ago when we moved out to California, I chose our apartment (which we're still living in today) without even seeing PICTURES it. I was actually on a beach in North Carolina with only some very shady cell reception when we committed to it, so we've at least raised our standards a little bit since then. :-P Plus, we've been pretty happy at this apartment, so I suspect I just have totally awesome judgment.

Our kitchen doesn't have those hot new granite countertops, but then again...our kitchen doesn't have those hot new granite countertops. :-)

Anyways, we're super excited, and we'll post more pictures and updates as we move in!

Fourth of July Celebrations!

Well outwardly, we didn't do much to celebrate the 4th of July this year. No fireworks or barbecue party -- we just sat around, lazily watching the Wimbledon semifinals (hooray for Federer and Nadal), and the Red Sox (who beat the Yankees again, sweet!). But we do have a couple reasons to be super-happy this Independence Day:

• We're officially in contract for our first home! Last week, after a mere three weeks "in the market", we made an offer for a lovely condo in Palo Alto. The sellers formally accepted yesterday, and on Monday, we get to write down a large number on a check and send in our downpayment! More fun details about the search and what the place is like later (still keeping fingers crossed until everything is actually finalized and we get the keys, haha).

• Today I also made my triumphant (okay, actually pretty lame) return to the tennis courts! Last week, I asked my physical therapist when I could play again (not serving or hitting big shots, just easy volleying) and she said I could actually play any time I wanted, but warned me that it would hurt a lot and I would be really weak if I insisted on starting so soon. In retrospect, this was probaby code for "no." But anyways, she was right. Several shots were really jarring and I could barely return one-handed backands. But WOW it was satisfying to be running around and playing a real sport again; I hate the treadmill and stationary bike so much at this point! In the end, I only managed to hit for about 20 minutes, but what a morale boost to work harder on my physical therapy.

Off to do more exercises and start packing!