Holy Cow

I have lamented the loss of Coffee People and their awesome milkshakes with all sorts of folks for years. Because the milkshakes were like rainbow fancy crack.

THERE IS A COFFEE PEOPLE IN THE PORTLAND AIRPORT!!!

It is their only location now. But it is past security, so you can't have any delicious milkshake. I'm so sorry.

Booklist

I thought I'd share the books I've picked up to read now and on the plane and in India. Updates about what I thought of them to come.

In Spite of the Gods - Edward Luce

Maximum City - Suketu Mehta

Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (Short stories by the author of The Namesake, 'cause I ain't that into novels.)

Humbler Than Dust - Mona Lee (This one was a gamble: Retired couple from Seattle makes a tandem bike pilgrimage from Delhi to Mumbai to promote the idea of a world parliament.)

A Passage to India - E. M. Forster (Gift from Mom. Thanks!)

Indian Summer - Will Randall

Dreaming in Hindi - Katherine Russell Rich

India: A Million Mutinies Now - V. S. Naipaul

Being Indian - Pavan K. Varma

It Must Have Been Something I Ate - Jeffrey Steingarten (I read The Man Who Ate Everything years ago and love, love, loved it. This is more of the same easy, informative, and amusing essays from the Vogue food critic.)

Thinking about long flights

You guys, Abstract City Blog is one of my favorite things. Especially this one about transcontinental flights.

Visa approved!

My visa has been approved, yay! I leave from PDX at noon on December 30th and arrive in Pune at 4am in the new year.

Boaz has found a house

Assuming everything goes smoothly, Boaz has found a house for us. It's a four bedroom rowhouse in a society in Kalyani Nagar. We will be walking distance from a grocery store, one of the rivers, and a major movie theater. All for about $600/month.

Like most rentals in India, it comes with no appliances except the in-line water heaters called Geysers. The real estate agent very conveniently owns an appliance store where we can buy a counter top stove that runs on gas canisters, washer/dryer, refrigerator and maybe a dishwasher.

Here are some pictures:

And they're back...

... to their respective places.

I only have so long to be that annoying pet parent who forces everybody to look at these kinds of photos.

It's really starting

Welcome Family!

To make keeping up with us a little easier, I'm going to try keeping a blog while we're in India. Starting today! Apparently.

There's been lots of talk and preparation for this new adventure leading up to now. Boaz has already been out of the states for a few weeks too. (He arrived in India yesterday from South Africa.) But today felt like the first real step to me. The first round of movers came to pack up most of our furniture and junk for shipment.

The guys all had a good humor about them and were an all-round pleasure. A couple of them spent the day humming and singing along with the music I put on. Having a bunch of strangers in our house, going through all of our things still felt weird - and lonely without Boaz. I just sat on my butt while they did all the work. I feel tired nonetheless. I think the pets are too, sleeping in reversed roles: Dalton on the easy chair and Pike on the dog bed.

But it's also a relief. This is coming way off schedule, so it's good to have it done. We're getting rid of a lot of stuff and that always feels like a burden lifted in the end. We should have shed more! Next time.

So I'm looking forward to great things (and less than great things) and feeling hopeful that the next steps will go as smoothly.

Love you all!