This weekend presented us with a rare occurrence, we stayed in Cary!! This marks the first weekend in 2007 during which we were not out to the boat or off on a boat-related errand. Prudence remains on the hard with work still to be done, and there are things for us to attend to here at our land-based-life.

The clock is steadily ticking toward the end of our apartment lease. As most of you faithful readers know, this brings us close to the next phase of our preparations to go cruising: The LIVEABOARD Phase.

The true preparations for this monumental lifestyle shift began in earnest over two years ago, with our first garage sale. A year later, we had a second garage sale, marking the sale of our 3 bedroom house in Durham. From there we moved to an apartment in Cary, closer to where Sheryl works. With our worldly goods whittled down to about half of what we originally had in our house, this one bedroom apartment was an inexpensive and practical stepping stone to living aboard a boat.

George Carlin has a fantastic comedy bit about 'stuff' which is somewhat relevant to the discussion below. If you haven't ever heard it, take 5 minutes and CLICK HERE.

Over the course of the past two years, we have used a combination of garage sales, eBay, CraigsList, and Goodwill donations to reduce our amount of 'stuff.' We are now heading into the home stretch. With four weeks remaining before everything we own (including my office) must fit aboard a 35-foot sailboat, I am beginning to feel just a bit of pressure to address some of the remaining items.

Sheryl, on the other hand, is distracted with professional concerns. For me, work will continue on pretty much as usual. Sheryl, however, is making a huge adjustment by leaving her job at American Airlines at the end of this month. After nearly 16 years of working in the Cary reservations office, it is quite a transition she is facing. As a result, each week for her seems to be getting busier than the last, with days at work often approaching the 12-hour mark.

So this rainy and overcast Saturday afternoon afforded Sheryl the perfect opportunity to go through those remaining boxes in the closet in order to determine what few items to store and what must go. As she worked through her 'stuff' I posted any items on CraigsList which I thought could garnish at least $10. The fruit of her labors was a single Rubbermaid container of 'stuff' to go into storage.

Saturday evening brought a special treat. Serendipity just happened to bring Stephanie to town this very weekend to visit another friend. Steph and Bruno were the people who first introduced us to the notion of cruising when we visited them in Belize aboard their 33' sailboat, Artemesia. They currently live in Florida, but are poised to move to London for a few years. In fact, Bruno is already there, setting up house. Despite Bruno's absence, we had a fantastic visit with Stephanie. Her friend Dawn was also there, and (uncharacteristically) felt left out of the conversation. At one point, I believe that we were discussing symmetrical vs. asymmetrical spinnakers, Dawn said, "It is like you all are speaking in a foreign language." Sheryl and I smiled proudly, as we have been studying sailboatese for a little over two years, and are making some progress toward being fluent. We did our best to steer the conversation away from sea anchors and drogues and toward the more landlubberly topics of Steph and Bruno's move to England and how things are going with their business. It was great to get together, but hanging out in a bar/restaurant is really not our thing anymore. Too loud, too smoky, and too expensive. We called it an early evening, and had a relaxing Saturday night in our apartment.

A Sunday in Cary affords us a rare opportunity to get together with family. Therefore, as soon as just one more person stops by to purchase our food processor (via a CraigsList posting), we are off to visit Sheryl's mother. Perhaps we will take a little of our 'stuff' over to her house, while we are at it.

Until next time, dear Reader, keep your fingers crossed that my next posting will find Prudence back in the water.