To Have and To Have Not

At this point, all we need to unpack are books. Nearly everything else has been unpacked. This unpacking business has given us a lot of surprises. This gives me the opportunity for more list mania!

Missing

1. Cookie sheets (we had them in Baltimore)
2. Muffin pans (same as above)
3. Bread pans (same as above)
4. VCR (sold in 2003)
5. Cutting board (may have been thrown out)
6. Can opener (I unpacked 3, gave 1 to Nicole, and the other 2 disappeared)
7. Microwave (I don't know what happened to that)
8. Keyboard synthesizer (lent to Elijah for practice)

Too Much

1. Bowls - 6-8 sets of them
2. T-shirts - from Beloit, Japan, Baltimore, Korea, etc.
3. Pens - haven't counted
4. Silverware - enough to feed 20 people
5. Bed sheets - enough for a family of 4
6. Hats - over 10
7. Towels - more than we remembered we had
8. Boxes - moldy ones had to be thrown out

Why do we have too much? We've been overseas for 7 of the past 10 years. This is the first time we have all of our American, Japanese, Korean, and Russian things together. You can imagine how many souvenirs we have. It's hard to remember how many bowls we had in Baltimore when we bought bowls in Korea. I don't even know how we inherited so many bedsheets. There are some T-shirts I haven't worn in over 5 years. It's also strange to live without towels for 5 years and then have a large amount to use. (We used our robes as towels in Korea and Russia.)

Hats? We got 3 hats as gifts in Russia, 1 souvenir hat from Jeju Island, 1 souvenir hat from Saipan, 2 Communist hats from China, 1 gift hat from Chincoteague Island, and Jenevieve has lots of hats from her college years. Before 2004, I owned one hat at a time. My childhood Brewers cap is still with me. Finally that cap has found its home in this refitted brewery loft apartment.

So it's strange to have too much of some unnecessary items and not enough of some essential ones. We don't know anyone around here to make an honest trade.