We've been packing. And oh, how we've been packing. Yesterday was the basement (yikes) and my office (double yikes). On the basement, the first task was to cart out all the dusty debris and rotting ruins that Ilsa's sister and boyfriend had cleaned out of the attic for us when the put in the insulation. There were many interesting and weird items in that set -- including old books, hats, chests, games, and lamps that had been covered in years of Pittsburgh dust -- probably from the 20s or 30s onward. And by covered, I mean blanketed. And by dust, I mean Pittsburgh industrial dust, super-fine, black, and generally nasty.

This first picture is of all the bags that were associated with that endeavor. The second is of our hands after moving it!


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After the basement, I focused on getting my office clean. When I moved to Pittsburgh 6 years ago, I didn't have much time to go through stuff, so I just moved everything (the fact that the move was paid for was also part of why I could do that). This time, I have vowed to go through everything. I could not believe some of the stuff I moved out there -- reams of unused paper, class notes from my "Personality" class from college, links of chain, used batteries -- it was horrible. I think I threw out something like 500 pounds of crap from my office! And -- I got to throw away my 90s tax returns and financial records! That was fun. I encourage you all to take the extra day or two when you next move to do the same and purge, purge, purge!