kitchen creation

So today as I drove Jess to school, I mentioned that my goal was to get the whole kitchen moved over from the old apartment to the new. I then noted how stupid it sounded that my goal for the day was to move the whole kitchen, as if I was saying, "Today I'm going to move the whole Mount Rushmore." (Because how could I choose whom to leave behind?)

As it turns out, it was a hefty goal (the ol' body is a achin' already). But I'm of the sort that gets real stubborn - when I say I'm going to do something, I pretty much won't stop until it's done. So after going for a quick run at my new (fully functioning) fitness center, I headed over. I figured that while I was a sweaty mess, I might as well continue the sweating. And five sweaty hours later, full of box lifting and appliance cradling, I was done.

My kitchen at the old place was about the size of my thumb. I had pots and pans and appliances (oh my!) shoved into the kitchen's highly uncomfortable and quite non-functional deep cupboards, the Foreman hugging the waffle maker to the point that the rice maker was jealous. So this whole packing up the kitchen was kind of like a treasure hunt. As it turns out, my kitchen is outfitted pretty decent (thanks to many generous wedding gifts), but it's like I had almost forgotten. Making dinner tonight was pretty much an adventure. It was sort of like Christmas, only instead of a tree and lights there were pots and pans, a few serving spoons for decoration. I now have the counter space to place two cutting boards next to each other, with room to spare.

Also included in the awesomeness of transferring kitchens, I discovered:

1. I have two can openers. I'm a little old fashioned, at least when it comes to can openers (not so much when it comes to air conditioning). I don't like the electric kinds. They constantly malfunction, they tip over, they collect layers of grime from said tip overs. I'm a huge fan of the hand held, use your own sweat grease to open your green beans, kind of can opener. Luckily I have two - now I can open two cans at once.
2. Oreos from Mexico. We went to Mexico on the Cheney Christmas Cruise in December. December folks.
3. Missing cookie sheets. Weird that they had disappeared into the black hole behind the oven. :)
4. I have a food processor. I had honest to goodness forgotten that I had one. I feel some chopping coming on.
5. If you leave potatoes in your cupboard ALL SUMMER, they will rot to the point that they no longer resemble the vegetable they once were. In fact, they become the consistency of glue - dark, brown glue that smells as good as it looks.

So I was already loving this apartment, but I'm pretty sure my deluxe-o kitchen just sealed the deal.

Also, I'm pretty sure my arms are significantly more sculpted than they were when I woke up this morning. ;)