Eureka! or How Greg and Katherine Found an Apartment With a Normal Refrigerator

I failed to mention previously that Greg and I are moving into a downtown apartment, in the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego. It is a short walk to Greg's work and very close to the Gaslamp Quarter, the Marina, Balboa Park... really, a central location from which to explore everything San Diego has to offer.

However, finding the apartment from Indiana was not a breeze. In late May Greg and I went to San Diego to find an apartment. While there we worked with a fantastic real estate agent who showed us apartments and condo rentals live while introducing us to the different San Diego neighborhoods. We returned to Indiana and monitored CraigsList for units opening up in the buildings that we had seen. In June we were rewarded with a posting for an apartment in our first choice building, at a reasonable price, with a balcony and view of the bay. We sent in our rental application and asked our agent to take a look. She did, and reported back: the unit was perfect and came with a painted refrigerator.

... ummm, what?! The unit came with a refrigerator that had been painted by a local artist, purchased by the owner, and placed in the rental unit for her tenants to enjoy.

Sadly, we didn't think we could live with it for a year (could you?). One could possibly compromise and deal with the woman clutching her stomach while standing a mountainous landscape, but the bunny and the green head make it too weird to live with. (I believe Greg disagrees with me, as he finds the whole thing unappetizing.) After some back and forth with the owner, who wouldn't replace it for us, we had to look elsewhere for an apartment with a normal refrigerator.

This was a frustrating experience, because who ever thought a painted refrigerator would hinder their apartment search? And we were uncertain that another apartment would open in the same building, which we loved. However, a few weeks later we found a posting for a comparable apartment at a lower price in a different building. We ended up taking that unit after confirming that the appliances were normal, and are very happy with the way things turned out.

Eureka!

I Must Walk Where Squirrels Scamper*

The bar exam and our move is next week, so in the interests of procrastination I thought it was time to update Sanfordtopia. What have our intrepid bloggers been up to in the last few months?

We've been working and studying during the day, but entertaining ourselves with food and travel on nights and weekends. In June and July Greg and I managed to have a good time exploring some of Indiana's culinary delights with friends:

• First, we visited a large farmer's market in Elkhart. We purchased some Amish salsa, because when else will we have a chance to eat Amish salsa?
  
• We ate at Das Dutchman Essenhaus, an Amish restaurant in Middlebury. I had the pot roast, which was delicious, but not as good as Mom's (Hi Mom!).
• After a first failed attempt, we made it to the South Side Soda Shop and Diner in Goshen. The diner was featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and lived up to all the hype.
  

I know we've done more than eat in the last two months, but I just can't think of what that might be...

Onward! During the week of July 28th Greg is taking the bar exam in Chicago while I am herding the packers and movers along at our apartment in South Bend. We'll leave Indiana on July 31st, and arrive in San Diego by Sunday August 3rd, with stops in Nebraska, Denver, and Las Vegas.

Good-bye Indiana, hello California!

*The blog title is a reference to the state poem titled "Indiana" by Arthur Franklin Mapes. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.