Gleeful, gleeful!

Hey! I'm feeling really good today. We've been approved for our new place in Scottsdale; the second move estimate came out a lot more favorable than the first; and I think I found a new doctor. Life in Arizona seems to be piecing together well at this point, much to my glee. (Brian's prediction that, "it'll all fall together," has come to pass ... as of now.)
In preparing for the second estimate, I called the local company that we used to move from Allston to the South End, and asked them what the weight of our load was. Ummm .... color me shocked and awed. That move weighed 5,657 pounds. Of course, since it was only across town, the price was an easy $1,822, but that's beside the point. We now had a very real idea of what all our stuff weighs. We've divested ourselves of a bit since then, so the first, 5,200-lb. estimate may have been more on track than we gave it credit for. Anyway, the second estimate actually has our load weighing 5,929 pounds, and would cost us about $5,620. In any language, with more approximate weight and costing about $1,300 less, I think I can safely say that Estimate #1 is a no go.
Our donation pile has grown considerably, and now will house the sofa/sleeper (we'll just get a cheap guest bed when we get to Arizona), and about half of Brian's textbooks (he estimates he's got about 400 pounds of textbooks right now). All the bookcases have already been consigned to the pile, as has our crappy living room sofa that we knew would only be the "Boston sofa," and would be trashed upon our leaving the area (I foresee a nice, leather, regular-length sofa in our future for August). I've already dug through the kitchen and living room and piled crap for the donations. This is the best purging ever.
So, now what? Well, after the final bit of signing and deposit making on the apartment, I start the tiresome process of figuring out utilities and all that, changing addresses on everything from credit cards and catalogs to magazines and Netflix, and laying the groundwork for my job hunt. Brian's employment is of more importance right now, so that'll top the list, but still, I'd like to get a feel for what the market is like for me out there. We've also got to nail down when we'll be leaving here, and tracking our course across country next month. (That'll be a fun series of posts for you loyal readers!) At any rate, the ball is really rolling on this, so I'll be a busy bee for the next several weeks!!