Day 24: 158 days to L.A.

Finally, a productive day for me.  I chopped up an old dresser into pieces that fit into the trash can, put the new car seats in my car, and with Rachel's help, assembled a buffet. I also removed some stuff from walls that were nailed or screwed into place. And re-arranged Rachel's room. We should have done it long ago, it feels so much more open now.  And moved some stuff around in our very packed garage.

One more buffet and two hutches to go.

Tomorrow we should get the estimate from the contractor and the painter is coming by to give us an estimate. A few days remain before Lori's surgery.  She wants to get some patching and painting done before then and also get the refrigerator and freezer cleaned out.  (People have signed up to bring us meals while she's recovering - that's pretty cool.)

We're seeing new houses come up in the listings but most really don't work for us. We're seeing houses sell at or below asking though our realtor in L.A. says the market will heat up as the we move into the year.  (The same news our realtor here is telling us - he's predicting multiple offers in the first week of listing.)

Today in church they were announcing events in church that are taking place in July and it was a little sad to think we'll be gone by then. Life here will move on without us.

We've begun to think about what we'll do once we get there, like get a membership for the L.A. Zoo and some of the restaurants we're looking forward to, both old and new.  Hello, Islands. Hello, Chick-Fil-A.  (My co-workers want to start a chain of chicken restaurants that are only open on Sundays called Chick-Fil-B.)

L.A. Metro has pledged to announce the opening date for the Expo Phase 2 within 30 days of the handover of the maintenance facilities in Santa Monica.  The line itself has already been turned over to them and they're testing trains on the line.  Right now they're projecting a May 2016 start, but nothing's official yet.  They have noted that they will launch without all the trains they need.  They're also just about to open the Foothill Extension of the Gold Line and between those two openings this year and the Blue Line renovations, they don't have all the trains they need.  We just got a hotspot so that I could work on the train, but I wonder if it will be standing room only when it first launches.