There's always something...

I'm waiting for my lunch to finish roasting -- lately, my go-to lunch when Rick's not around is chickpeas roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper, cayenne and curry powder. The chickpeas dry up in the oven until they're almost crunchy... they turn into yummy, addictive little legumes. I may or may not have eaten an entire can of chickpeas in this manner in the past. (That's only 400 calories -- I checked... :))

I've spent the morning attempting to clean parts of the condo and unpack a few more boxes. My efforts were temporarily side-tracked when I decided to move a tool case that's been sitting on the couch for the last week -- unbeknownst to me, the case (which is filled with 137 wrenches, ratchets, sockets and screwdriver bits) was open. This resulted in 137 wrenches, ratchets, sockets and screwdriver bits scattered on the couch and throughout the case. I then spent the next 45 minutes painstakingly replacing every piece in its respective home within the case. I was tempted to just dump the whole mess into an empty cardboard box, but finally took a deep breath and dove into the metal carnage. I should obviously stay away from tools. I should stick with girly things like... uh... what are girls supposed to do? Cook? And, like, make curtains or something?? Yeah... fewer tools, more curtains... (That's a total joke, by the way -- I would screw up curtains, too... :))

The reason for today's unpacking venture (I mean, besides the fact that it needs to be done anyway) is that I'm searching for a much-needed item: the white-noise machine my mom gave me for Christmas several years ago, which becomes my best friend when Rick is away overnight. Since we started the moving process, Rick put much of his travel on-hold... but he has an upcoming trip to some podunk town in Kansas... I actually think it's called Podunk, Kansas. (My apologies to anyone who lives in or is from Kansas... I'm sure you have a lovely -- albeit remotely situated -- state.) Which means I'll soon have to spend a night by myself, and I'd much prefer to listen to the calming sound of crashing waves or falling rain when I'm trying to sleep...

(Side note: Have I mentioned that I'm fairly certain our new condo is haunted?? Okay, not really -- however, when the bedroom fan is turned on (and I'm one of those people who likes a fan when I'm sleeping), the bedroom light has the very disconcerting habit of turning itself on at random times. Which means that several times, I've woken up in the middle of the night to a room flooded with light. It's a little bit creepy, but my dad has assured me that the culprit is more likely electrical than poltergeist-related.)

But after all of today's searching, I have been UNABLE to find my white-noise machine. Even though I have a finite number of boxes here, most of which we moved over from the old condo (where I did, in fact, have the white-noise machine on my dresser). You'd think it would be simple to figure out where I stashed that thing when I moved it over here. Where did I put it???

I'm just hoping it's hiding here somewhere in a place I haven't looked yet. Because I don't want this to become another New Jersey Cutting Board Incident. (To recap: I had a great Williams-Sonoma wooden cutting board when I lived in New Jersey, which I vividly remember packing into a box when we were getting ready to move back to Texas. But when we got to Texas, I never found the cutting board. I STILL haven't found the cutting board. I KNOW I packed it, but it apparently disappeared into thin air...) But doesn't it seem like there's always something that disappears in a move? Hopefully this time it'll just be a pair of socks or a tupperware container and NOT my white-noise machine...

And FYI, this is what Riff has been doing while I've been cleaning and unpacking all day:

It is SO hard to be a cat...