The Experiment Was A Success; Status Report At T-minus 2 Days

I is genius!
On the home front, I still have one (half) bin of garbage to toss out unless we find some more, which I highly doubt.    The only things left to pack are pretty much stuff that will have to wait until the last minute (food, dinnerware, the telephone, clock, cables from the TV and computer, etc.).  I've taken everything we had hanging on the walls off, but still have some nails in the combination dining room/ kitchen that I'm going to have to wait until we remove the boxes that are piled in front of the window which is under them (the nails, that is).  I still have to call to get gas/water/electricity turned on, but, other than that, my day today (the 23rd) should be fairly free.  My brother-in-law and a couple of nephews (from my wife's side) should be coming from Los Angeles sometime Friday (night?) to help us get the truck, load it, and move our stuff there and we've already cleared a space for them in the living room for them to sleep.  Then the fun begins all over again with unpacking and getting settled in.
My brain, meanwhile, is still in that weirded-out zone between "Wow!  Are we finally going to do this?" and "AUUUUUUUUGH!  Do we really want to do this?".

EDIT: Just had a scary moment when I heard something fall in the kitchen.  Turned out to be just the ironing board which was leaning against the refrigerator sliding down.

¡Al Diablo Con Tus Camarones!

For dinner tonight, my wife prepared some camarones diablo (a.k.a. camarones del diablo- no, she didn't use either of those recipes, she's got her own)  with just the right kick to them.  My older (and only) brother is the one in the family who really enjoys hot foods, but as long as the chilies enhance, rather than overpower, the taste of the food (and it isn't the weather that's turning chili), I'm o.k. with them.  Along with that, I finished off some chicken rice soup that she had cooked the day before but reheated earlier today.  Mexican-style chicken rice soup, however, is a bit different from American-style.  Whereas the latter tends to stick to celery, onions, and carrots, the former takes a more varied approach to vegetable usage.  While we didn't have any celery or carrots, my wife did add some potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  I think I also remember her using corn (not nibblets, but still on the cob), but I might be confusing it with some beef soup she sometimes makes.  Which brings me to the second difference: my wife tends to to cut the vegetables in big, ol' chunks rather than lil' tiny pieces.  Finally, it isn't complete without some lemon juice to accompany it (not while it is cooking, but after it is served).  I can remember seeing one of my co-workers (at the time) squeezing some lemon juice into his soup and thinking, "You mean you're really going to eat it that way?".  Now, oddly enough,  I find that most clear soups don't taste right without some lemon  And I'm sure there's a moral to that story somewhere.