Back in April or so, Kate and I talked about whether we wanted to get an apartment together for the fall. We decided that it was too early to decide to do that then, but maybe for the year after.
Kate did a lot of looking around for apartments online and made calls on a few of them. We visited one together, and she visited one or two others by herself. All of them had something wrong for us. Then last week we went to visit another place, and it was just right. We signed a lease on Friday, and we can move in on August 1.
The new place has a 7-foot privacy fence enclosing our own little yard, which has a small concrete patio and a nice-sized plot of dirt. We are looking forward to planting flowers in the dirt and barbecuing on the patio. Moving indoors into the living room, a big window looks out on the patio and the garden. The living room should have enough space for a small dining table, sofa, desk, and TV/stereo stand. There's a ceiling fan. The kitchen is next to the living room and has plenty of cabinets, refrigerator, oven/stove. It also has, as a bonus, a clothes washer/dryer unit (no more laundry room trips). Beyond the kitchen is the bedroom, big enough for our bed, a couple of bedside tables, another desk, and a dresser. Off the bedroom is a walk-in closet and the bathroom. A back door leads to a walkway behind the apartment.
We spent the weekend driving around looking at furniture and cats. We already have a full-sized bed, plenty of kitchen stuff, lots of lamps and wastebaskets, and assorted odds and ends, but we need just about everything else I mentioned above. As for cats, we went to a couple of cat adoption fairs and an animal shelter and found lots of nice cats, but especially a 2-year-old calico with a beautiful orange mask, named Hazel, who was friendly and purry and enthusiastic with us. We filled out a form to start the adoption process for Hazel. Back to furniture, Kate's parents are going to help us out buying a sofa-bed or a futon, for us, and a cat tree, for the cat, for the living room.
Last night Kate and I went to the Santana concert at Shoreline Amphitheater. We had seats fairly far up but well positioned. It was great fun. The band played plenty of music that I recognized from Supernatural and Shaman and some older material, too, like Black Magic Woman. Angelina Kidjo, the opener, collaborated with Santana on a cover of Otis Redding's The Dock of the Bay.
Minor stuff: