Productive

Torsten and I got so much done over the weekend. I still can't believe how productive we were. I am more than halfway through my list.

I changed my name everywhere except with work; they require a Social Security card before they will change it, and that will take a couple weeks to arrive. I also didn't change my name with my health insurance yet, since that's through work, and therefore also not with the pharmacy and doctor's offices yet. But everywhere else: Done, or at least applied for. It was much easier than I was expecting it to be.

Bonus: Now that Torsten and I are married, he can be on my health insurance, which costs literally half as much as his AND provides better coverage. Ah, the legal benefits of formalizing your love and commitment.

Torsten and I went through our whole kitchen, emptied the cabinets (and scrubbed them down--something we need to do more often in the future), washed everything, packed up the old stuff to donate, and put the new stuff into the cabinets. We also ordered a few things that we registered for and did not receive so that we will have a fully stocked kitchen. We have plans to have friends over for dinner in early December and I am very much looking forward to serving a meal with our new china, silverware, and glassware. I feel like such a grownup owning a full service for twelve.

We haven't gone through the closet yet, but that can wait. One thing at a time, right?

We wrote and mailed all of our thank you notes. They are done and gone. The only one still here is waiting for a friend who just moved to email me back with her new address. Writing them was not a painful experience at all, and it made us realize how incredibly much fantastic stuff we received. We are very lucky.

We figured out a bunch of gifts. In fact, I either already have gifts or know what I want to buy for everyone on my list. And because we organized the kitchen, the huge pile of presents is gone from the dining room, so we now have space to put a Christmas tree, which we will buy after Thanksgiving.

The only other thing on my list is cleaning and preserving my wedding gown, but actually, I'm thinking I'm not going to do that. It isn't really dirty, and I harbor no illusions that my future daughter will wear it in her own wedding. I love owning it and think I may not be quite strong enough to sell or donate it, but I don't think it needs to go through some fancy, expensive process before sticking it in the back of the closet. It can just go as is, in its garment bag.

I also edited a big document for work, went out with Torsten, slept in, and had a bit of down time. All of this was aided by the fact that I had Friday off, but even still, I can't believe I got all that done over the past three days. I am an uber-productive MASTER, as far as I'm concerned. And now I can focus all my energy on getting through these next three days of work and then celebrating Thanksgiving!

Also, I realized that at the end of the month, I will have worked only 6 days in November. If only every month were like that, complete with regular paychecks.

Lastly, I lost 2.4 pounds this week. LOVE that.

I leave you with two photos of our new dishes, taken by Torsten with our new camera: