The apartment is ours! We signed the lease and got the keys today, and tomorrow we'll pick up a big truck and move everything over there! I also lucked out and found out that my CyberSense boss has some furniture he wants to get rid of, so we're going to drive out to Dublin and take it off his hands. What a happy coincidence!

Oh, and the best chair in the world had been sold when we went back to the consignment store to buy it yesterday morning :( That teaches us to take our time thinking about stuff. If we ever find a chair that comfy again, we'll buy it right away!

No time to write a long entry, but I wanted to say that I had dinner at Mudd's Restaurant in San Ramon today, with my CyberSense coworkers, and I was very impressed. They have these gardens behind the restaurant where they grow some of their fruits and vegetables, and the food was really good. I had Pan-Roasted Mahi Mahi with forbidden rice, vegetables, and a tasty beurre blanc (my favorite sauce, I've decided, after enjoying it both tonight and at Creola a week or so ago). I never mentioned going to Creola, huh? It was a joint birthday dinner for Patrick's brother and dad, and I had the Shrimp Creola, which was awesome. Yum! We have to remember to go there more often, for special occasions. And I want to return to Mudd's at some point too. Hey, did you know it's owned by Virginia Mudd, Harvey Mudd's granddaughter? That's the word on the street...

After finding out that we'll most likely be getting the apartment we want (I can't wait for Tuesday!), we realized that we have very little furniture, and soon we'll need more. Right now, we have a full bed and mattress (that I bought while at Mudd), a dining room table (that I bought at MIT), a Poang (chair), and a table lamp. That leaves us with lots of stuff to get. I mean, the bed's the most important thing, but a couch sure would be nice. And a place to put our clothes and books. Time to be adults and weigh ourselves down with material possessions! Now we'll have to rent a truck every time we want to move. But I kind of like that :) Makes it feel more real. And we could always sell it all if we decide to be nomads.

So today we started looking for a cheap couch (since we don't have jobs yet, we don't have much of a furniture budget). We went to the Macy's furniture outlet in Union City, but everything there was too expensive (it was discounted 50% or more, but most of the stuff was still over $1000). The only couches we could've afforded were the corners of sectionals that were missing their ends for whatever reason. We didn't really want just a corner of a couch. So that wasn't too successful.

We also went to two furniture consignment shops (they have locations all over the Bay Area; we went to the San Mateo and Los Altos stores). The San Mateo one was the best. We weren't really clear on what consignment meant; we were worried it was stuff confiscated from people who couldn't pay their rent. Turns out it's a combination of used furniture that people don't want to sell themselves, plus overstocked and damaged items from businesses. Nothing scary :) We found this awesome leather chair that was the most comfortable thing ever, for $180. We'll probably go back tomorrow, and if it's still there we'll buy it. It's expensive (relatively speaking, since we're looking for a couch that's around $300), but I think we'd definitely get our money's worth out of it, since it would be great for taking naps or watching TV or reading books in. The only problem would be that we might have fights over who gets to sit in the good chair :)

Anyway, we didn't have any luck finding a cheap but comfortable couch today, but if all else fails, we'll just get one of the cheaper ones from IKEA. Patrick doesn't want our apartment to look like everybody else's, which I can commiserate with, but when you want to save money, IKEA sure is appealing! We might also try Goodwill, garage sales, or Craigslist. Any other suggestions for finding cheap but decent furniture?

Yesterday, we gave our applications and credit reports to the cool landlady, and she called us this morning, saying that everything looks good! We have an appointment to do another walk through and sign the lease on Tuesday evening. I'm so excited! That means that if all goes well, we can start moving in on Wednesday. And then comes all sorts of other stuff that I've been waiting for a month to do, like changing my address (right now, my mail is just going to my mom's house in Colorado, although she hasn't actually gotten anything addressed to me yet, which is kind of suspicious), moving my bank account, getting a CA driver's license (I hope I pass the written test!), looking for a car (right now, Patrick is using his dad's car), and the big one--looking for a job! Oh yeah, and somewhere in there we should work on planning our wedding, but since we haven't set a date, there's no hurry :) Lots of work, but also lots of forward progress. I'm glad :)

I forgot to mention why we like the downtown Menlo Park area so much, aside from the fact that it just feels like home. First of all, we'll be within walking distance of three quality grocery stores (Safeway, Trader Joe's, and Draeger's), plus within biking/walking distance of two downtown areas (Menlo Park and Palo Alto) and the fancy Stanford Shopping Center (which has a Williams Sonoma that I might try to work at if I decide I'm not ready to work at a bakery and just want a source of income for a while--plus an employee discount on all the kitchen gadgets we could ever want!). It's also pretty close to the Caltrain station, which means we could go up to San Francisco or anywhere else on the peninsula without having to drive. It's just a good location :) We're lucky we can afford (or potentially afford) to live here. I'm totally going to get a good bike once we get jobs, so I can get exercise and save money and not hurt the environment so much. Something like this (I want a bike where my feet can touch the ground when I stop, without any tipping over).

So now we just wait until Tuesday...we should try to relax this weekend, since things will be hectic soon. But hectic in a good way :)

(Still no definitive news on the Patrick job front, but things are progressing slowly, and we're hoping for a good outcome.)

We only looked at 7 apartments today, but it felt like way more than that! Lots of driving around and talking to building managers. By the end, we couldn't remember which apartment had which feature (well, we noted the important ones, but the details were hard to keep track of--we didn't care enough to bring the camera inside with us).

The upshot is that we've found an apartment that we like in a neighborhood we really like (downtown Menlo Park) with a cool landlady, and we're going to turn in our applications and credit reports to her tomorrow and cross our fingers that she likes us and will let us live there! The rest of this entry is just to help me remember what we did today.

The first apartment of the day was at Montage, Palo Alto's newest apartment community. It actually wasn't all that big; maybe 40 units. The apartment was in great condition; almost new, but it was a 1 bedroom and at the very top of our price range, and the neighborhood wasn't so great (no good grocery stores nearby; right by a busy street). We'd agreed that we'd only go for an apartment at that price if it was absolutely wonderful, and we didn't feel that way about this one. But I do like new carpet and fixtures and the landscaping within the apartment complex was pretty. Too bad--can't have it all!

Later, we were walking around Menlo Park, waiting for our next appointment, when an old guy came up to Patrick and asked if we were looking for an apartment. Turns out he owned one of the complexes nearby. He showed us the apartment he had available, but it wasn't very exciting. But it was a good effort on his part, grabbing potential tenants off the street!

So then we had our actual appointment, looking at a duplex in Menlo Park. It was going for $1650/month, but it totally wasn't worth that much. The kitchen and bathroom were both old and unattractive, and it was only a one bedroom. The lady who showed it to us was really nice though, and it had fruit trees in the teeny-tiny yard, so it wasn't a total loss. But we pretty much decided not to keep that one on our list.

After the duplex, we went up to Mountain View, where we had an appointment to look at a cottage. We got there really early, so we were just looking around the outside when the old man in charge of the place showed up. He was all confused and thought we were the people he was supposed to show around at 2:30 instead of 3:15, even though we tried to set him straight. Eventually, we just gave up, and the 2:30 people probably didn't get to see it because he went home after showing it to us. Oops! Anyway, this cottage was pretty cool. The outside was boring, but the inside was painted all different colors (the living room was lavender and navy, the kitchen was yellow, and the bedrooms were green and orange). Plus there was a little space in the back where we could have a garden. And a finished garage and a shed! It seemed like we'd pretty much have free reign to do whatever we wanted to the place, especially since the owner didn't know what he was doing. Unfortunately, we didn't really like the location. It just didn't feel like home to us, while Menlo Park and Palo Alto both did. But it was still pretty far up on our list.

Next, we had a Jamba Juice break because we were thirsty from all that driving around! Then we headed back to Menlo Park because we'd gotten another appointment to see an apartment while we were at the old guy's cottage. We had some time to kill, and we passed an apartment complex with For Rent sign that indicated that the apartment was currently open to visitors. This apartment complex was named "The Orleans", and it had a fancy facade in front, but then on the side it extended way back and had tons of carports and plain apartment entrances. Very tricky, making itself look fancy like that!

So we tracked down the manager, who turned out to be another old man (but he seemed to be more together than the previous guy; just hard of hearing). He showed us the apartment, which was a 2 bed/2 bath and very big! It was somewhat remodeled, and definitely a prospect, although a little on the expensive side (but that makes sense, given its size).

Next, we had our appointment at the apartment a few doors down from The Orleans. This turned out to be the winning apartment. It didn't have any mind-blowing features, but it just had everything we were looking for and no huge flaws, and it felt like it could be home for us. That's all we really want (although it would be nice to have everything, huh?). Things I liked include:

• Pretty roses in the front yard, plus a little patch of dirt to plant a vine in (the neighbors had a beautiful bougainvillea planted in theirs). Plus Patrick said he might be able to build me a redwood box to give us more gardening space.
  
  
• A nice (but not perfect) patio that would be good for small barbeques and enjoying the weather. It doesn't have a great view (just the apartment across the way), but it still has lots of potential.
  
  
• A cool old doorbell that has a little knob that you turn instead of a button. Hard to describe. I was very excited when I figured out what it did.
  
  
• A big living room with a closet that would be awesome for building a fort in! See, there are stairs right outside the living room, and the closet extends under them, so it starts out normally-shaped and then becomes all wedge-shaped at the end. I like it!
  
  
• An old wall-mounted ironing board cabinet that has been converted into a spice rack.
  
  
• Free laundry! There isn't a washer/dryer in the unit (the only place we saw today that had that was Montage), but there is a laundry room with free machines right outside the kitchen door. It might turn out to be noisy, since it's shared with three other units, but it sure is handy!
  
  
• Two bedrooms! I know, we totally don't need two bedrooms, but a lot of the places that are in our price range have them, and it sure couldn't hurt! We're thinking the second room could be a guest room/sewing room/office. I'm sure we'll think of plenty of stuff to put in it if we get it.
  
  
• The bathroom is seafoam green! Picture here (there are other pictures there--from the craigslist ad--but none of the others are very exciting). We're actually kind of excited about it, even if it is a little dated.
  
  
• Oh, and the kitchen has a garbage disposal, which is not exciting, but it is something that I've realized is a priority for me. It just makes life more convenient. The kitchen does not have a dishwasher, but we've never had one, so that's not a big deal.
  
  
• The landlady seems to know what she's doing and seems trustworthy. I feel more comfortable having her be in charge of our place than having one of those nice and hard-of-hearing old men we talked to earlier (I'm so ageist!). And she used to live in another unit in the 4-unit complex because her dad owns it, so she's familiar with it.

Pictures will be coming soon if we actually get the apartment. I hope we do!

Oh, and just so this entry is complete, we saw one other place after THE apartment. This one was a cottage that was described as "DARLING" by its manager on Craigslist. And by darling, they meant small. It sure was cute, but it was also pretty old. It had nice (old) hardwood floors, and all the cabinets and doors had been painted so many times that they were all really hard to open. That would get annoying quickly. The kitchen had a cool sink that was really deep, but it had no garbage disposal. The bathroom had a pink toilet; we weren't sure whether that was a plus or not--it clashed with the seafoam green floor tiling though. I think if we had a lower budget for rent, it would've been a good choice, but it had too many little problems compared to the other places we were considering. I hope they rent it out though; it's a lovable little place. And I hope we get jobs so we can actually afford the apartment we want! We have savings, so we'll be fine for awhile even unemployed, but it'd be nice to actually live within our means. I think it'll be fine.

Okay, that's all! I hope tomorrow is full of exciting apartment-getting and not disappointment.