Well, the process of moving always sucks but this hasn’t been too bad other than the heat. My stuff is in my storage unit only about a mile away so that makes it easy. Most everything has been moved now. All that is left is getting a few pieces of furniture – a table to eat at and chairs for it, some form of a couch/futon to sit on, bed, desk, and dresser, and a couple of shelves. I guess that is more than a few! I still have some organizing to do, but it’s a bit difficult until I get some of these items.

Yesterday I got a TV stand, along with new plates, cups, bowls, and glasses. I decided to go with thrift stores for all my kitchen wares. I don’t need matching things, and I was able to get items with some bright, fun colors to liven the place up. I got some bright planters and a few houseplants too.

The apartment gets pretty warm during the day since there are no blinds on four of the five windows (but only four face west – one faces north and looks out over a staircase. Strange indeed.). Adding to the heat is the horrible air quality mostly from the fires in Canada and wherever else it is coming from. I went shopping for thermal curtains yesterday but not much to choose from where I went. I have put cardboard in the windows for now to block the heat and light (privacy is easy – don’t be naked in front of the window with the lights on…or just don’t care!). No, it’s not pretty at the moment but it is helping quite a bit. I almost bought some to get by for now, but for the price I didn’t want to do that. Mighty expensive band-aid.

Last night I made my first meal here – Italian beef in the Instant Pot. It really turned out quite good.

Italian Beef

It was the recipe I posted a few entries back. The only things I would say about the recipe is it calls for a can of beef broth. I wasn’t sure if it was big or small cans so I added two small cans. It should be one small can. I had to add more seasoning to make it right. Also, I feared adding the giardiniera would be too hot (plus I have always seen it as a garnish) but it wasn’t too spicy. I DID have double the broth though so I would add only half the jar to start with.

I guess I should get rolling today and go find more of the aforementioned items. Maybe a bottle of wine too!

TTFN!