The move-out in San Francisco went smoothly. We were so thankful to have Dave and Zhanna there to help us with all our awkward and heavy items. They were stars.

As for the move-in, not so smooth…

When we arrived in Cupertino at about 5pm yesterday, no help arrived!! We tried carrying the sofa upstairs with just the two of us but my wrist gave out. We decided to sleep the night and figure it out in the morning.

It’s now early Sunday morning and it’s time to recruit muscle! The staff at our complex suggested go to Home Depot and recruit from the men who gather there to find manual labour jobs. Hopefully we’ll find a couple of guys who can lift our furniture up two flights of stairs.

We’ve officially decided we’re never moving without movers again.

Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I was told over the phone this morning. Our mattress may need replacing and a few other items here an there, but the most important things are safe. Whew!

We are lucky we have the other place until the end of August because now they have to re-grout our entire bathroom and fix some of the floor. I’ve got all the windows open and fans on, and I’m trying to make the best of it here without Jesse. (He’s at work and trying to order us renters insurance pronto!)

9:24 am: I’m writing this while riding a bus to our new place. I just got the call that the apartment above us flooded in the night and our stuff is sitting in 6 inches of water.

Now we have to figure out where to put it all!  A major edit is in need as you’ll see in the photos. Maybe some time next week I’ll be able to post pictures of a more ordered mess.

Go to Flickr to see ALL the photos + captions

Love you all!

We are finally having our stuff delivered to our new place tomorrow morning. Tonight, we went to the apartment to do the apartment inspection and everything looks in good shape.  We’re excited to move!

Jesse is asleep on the couch as I type. He’s exhausted!

This past weekend we went for a hike to Coit Tower. I posted some pictures on Flickr. We also took a few shots of the outside of our new place, but nothing too impressive. I’ll see if I can get some better ones soon.  There’s a nice view on our street at night time I’d like to get.

I’ll have to embed the photos tomorrow, I’m half asleep!

We decided to order deep fried calamari.  It was the cheapest on the menu, and we’ve had calarmari before back home.  When we had it before it was basically like french fries and really stringy thin so you could hardly tell it was seafood under the crisp.

Not the case here!!!! Sheesh, check out the photos. We almost gagged!

Mmmm!  Suction cups!

See more “non-squid” photos from the rest of our day here on Flickr

Tomorrow morning we finalize the deal and sign the lease.  What a relief!  We’ll try to post some photos of it when we can get inside to look around and take measurements.  Jesse had already booked all of our stuff to be delivered on September 2nd so we might have to do some wheeling and dealing to move in earlier.

On top of that, Jesse received his Social Security Number in the mail today so we can finally sign up for things like phone service.  I also got my Zipcard, which means I now can get from A to B in the shortest distance.

Oh, and thanks for mailing all of our Canadian mail Ginny. :)  We got it yesterday but it had been sitting at the concierge for a week and they didn’t tell us!

$2595 / 2br – Bright,super clean and all re-done unit in a charming Edwardian bldg. (nob hill)

This unit has hardwood floors,new light fixtures,marble bathroom,granite kitchen counters,built-in micro-wave oven,new refrigerator,new stove ….yes,all new !
The building is located in the heart of the city,one of the safest and the most quaint neighborhoods. Grace Cathedral is only 3 blocks away. Union Square/downtown,China Town,North Beach,and the major restaurants & hotels are all within walking distance.
That romantic cable cars (Fisherman’s Wharf bound) stop right in front of the building.
This is a place for the typical San Francisco up-town life.
For special viewing call PHILLIP at (415)xxx-xxxx
Also there is an open house going on between 10:00am to noon this Sunday.Jones St. at Jackson St.   google map

• dogs are OK – wooof

Too many of the places we found that were affordable and seemed “too perfect” were in fact in the higher homicide areas. Thankfully someone tipped us off to this nice little san francisco homicide map. We noticed that 3 people have been killed within blocks right near a loft we were looking at.

One particular apartment we visited was so gorgeous and it would have saved us hundreds a month.  On the elevator back down, we talked about how it would be “worth it” to try this lower income area just for the savings.  When we got to the bottom and went outside there were people smoking crack on the sidewalk!  We’ve definitely concluded that it doesn’t matter if it looks nice on the inside if we’re too afraid to go outside.  Just the fact that Jesse will be away for weeks at a time makes me want to find somewhere I’ll be comfortable going for a run or a walk with Parker.

We’re going to pay a little more and find a safe neighborhood.  And by a “little” we’re talking a jump from about $2000/month to around $2600/month.  Maybe when we get a little more city-savvy we’ll be more ready to brave the more “edgy” neighborhoods as they call them.

GDAS Update!

We think we may have found the place as of today, but we’ll find out for sure tomorrow.  It’s in the nob hill area just east of us.  It’s dog friendly (which has been the BANE of our existence)  AND it has two bedrooms so we’ll be ready for any of you to visit! Fingers crossed!

Impromptu Zip Car trip to Santa Cruz on Saturday.

Santa Cruz

Parker’s Park

Parker would not put this stick down.  She even carried it right into our apartment. I guess we forgot all her toys were in storage! We bought her a nylabone pronto!!

He was covered in red dust – undoubtedly from his latest experiment for the show.  I asked the cashier if he came there often and she said that it was the first time she had seen him and she was surprised when I told her he had a TV show.

I don’t think anyone else knew who he was!  Anyone….?  Have any of you seen the show?

I think we (jess and i) want to sound like we have it all together and life is rosey.  Honestly though, these first few weeks have been really hard.  We have got to see a lot of neat stuff, but together and individually, we’ve suffered growing pains as we try to settle in.

Speaking personally, I know I find myself missing home a lot more than I thought I would.  It feels really lonely here sometimes, especially now that Jesse is away everyday.  I definitely didn’t expect him to be coming home around 8 or 9pm each night so that has been a real adjustment.

We’ve also had a number of issues financially.  Even though we had a chunk of money promised to help us settle in, it’s been a long week of constant rejection because we have no “American Credit”.  We only just got access to an American bank account via Debit cards yesterday.  Because of all this, we’ve been car-less (our credit card couldn’t hold enough to even book the promised 30 days of free rental).  Jesse took 4 hours to get back from a training course in San Jose last night because of no car access.  It’s been crazy.

I had one job interview so far, but I feel vastly inexperienced next to my fellow San Franciscans (the pic above is me waiting to be interviewed).  Jesse got told by his manager that if new Apple hires are “dead weight” they’ll be let go in the first 4 weeks.  We are both trying to take it all in context and not focus on the negative, but sometimes it’s hard not to when you don’t have a support system around you.

These are the things I guess we try not to mention cause we act like we have it all together.  Really, we need your support and your prayers more than ever.  Especially so we can find a place to live in the next two weeks (competition is fierce especially when they can’t run an “American” credit check on you).

Anyways, that’s it for now.  Just thought I’d write a little bit of realness in to fill up some space.

Missing you all.