DISHWASHER! And, how the UPS man saved me.

That's right, our apartment now has a dishwasher.  (I'll get to the UPS story in a minute.)  Todd and I were talking via Skype (how did people survive before this?) and he took the camera into the kitchen to show me this new addition.  I could not be more pumped!  Don't get me wrong, I feel like we hit the apartment jackpot when we found a place with a stove/oven, fridge (and a large one at that), washing machine AND dryer.  During our week and a half search for an apartment, we certainly did not find anything with the number of amenities our current place has.  But, we did spend almost an entire day just washing dishes and silverware when we moved in and were unpacking.  Bye, bye nail polish after that day.  Todd can attest to the fact that I am a little bit of a germ freak when it comes to dirty dishes.  (I did used to have color-coded cutting boards to avoid any cross-contamination.)  If I had my way, I would put everything in the dishwasher.  So, this was quite the early birthday present for me.

On another note, this was Todd's first full week of work.  The transition and the new job seem to be going really well.  I think there is a definite sense of comfort in the fact that he is returning to a company where he knows people.  Though it sounds like there are certainly new people working there that he had not met, it is nice that he knows some of the people working there already.  I know he misses the people he worked with at his last job, but I think this situation is ideal for a smooth transition. 

I had a bit of an funny week.  Preface to this story--Todd and I decided it made the most sense for each of us to sell our cars before we left.  Todd already sold his car (which worked out better than we had even hoped) and I have been planning to sell my car in December.  My car, though older, has been good to me since I got it just before senior year of college.  Prior to this Australia plan, I was just going to drive it until it died and then get a new car.  Well, this week, I thought my car might have other plans.  On the way to dinner with some wonderful people from work, my car just would not start.  Thankfully, after a jump from a sweet coworker, it started up again.  I went to dinner as planned and drove home.  At first, we all thought the lack of starting was due to some corrosion on the battery.  But, after cleaning off that corrosion, my car would not start.  Because it was still relatively early in the evening, my plan was to jump it again and drive somewhere that would replace the battery.  As my mom and I stood in the garage about to use her car to jump my car, a friendly UPS driver showed up to help up with this process.  Thank goodness, because I have a feeling things might have gone from bad to worse if the two of us were left to our own devices in this situation.  I don't know why UPS has its drivers delivering packages so late at night, but I am certainly thankful he showed up when he did.  I drove the car to a Pep Boys down the road and got there just in time for them to replace the battery before they closed for the night.  I also got the flu shot this week and kept up my 5 year streak of getting sick from it. 

These are definitely just little hiccups during the week.  All in all, they are nothing to write home about and certainly nothing that I could not handle.  But, it's odd to have these things happen without the ever-calm Todd to help.  And, it's even more weird to have to wait 5 or 6+ hours just to tell him these stories.  I think we are very used to everything being instantaneous, particularly information.  I can know what pretty much all of my friends (and people I haven't seen since college) are doing at any one time just by clicking on Facebook.  But, with the crazy difference in time, it is usually at least 6 hours before Todd and I can talk about anything that has happened. 

I promise that once I get to Sydney, I will start posting pictures of amazing scenery and stop getting all philosophical about our move.  In the meantime, here's another picture of the bridge (from our apartment).  I can't wait to climb it--eek!