Spring Cleaning

So today was Alexi's last day on ABOT. After seeing the disaster that was me & Nicole trying to carry, drag, lug ALL of our bags from the boat loading/unloading dock to our CLU, Alexi got smart and found a push cart.









Unfortunately, she did not do a good job finding strong people to push said cart and here is the result:









Between each of the platforms, there are this large ramps up and down the catwalks to the platforms. We didn't bank on how difficult it would be to get 300 lbs of luggage on a rolling cart up the ramps. How many girls does it take to do this?

Answer: 4. Two to attempt to push/pull it up the ramp. One to take the picture (me). Another to stand about 10 feet back in case the catwalk collapsed and she would prefer to be stuck on the side with her room and the food (Nicole). And five, if you count the Iraqi guy who took pity on us and helped pull it along.

Nevermind that we rammed it right into a handrail (and this is why the handrails fall off all the time. See below when the service guys drove the huge dumpsters into one of the rails. It fell off and it's replacement clearly does not look the same. It is however, just as unstable and shoddily installed as the hundred other ones):









Here is Alexi headed to the RHIB. I know I've only been here for like 7 days, but I'm pretty jealous :)









So after she left, Nicole decided that she was going to do a little spring cleaning. We took all of the supplies that Alexi left for us in a big box and while I stood my mighty mighty watch in the TOC, protecting the economic stability via the protection of oil in the Middle East and beyond, Nicole got to work on our room. She rearranged the stand-up lockers. Moved the refrigerator to right by my bed, giving me the nightstand that I have so desperately wanted and removed the doors from one cabinet, rearranged the shelves and turned it into a towel rack/linen closet/vanity/bookshelf. The look is GREAT in CLU P4-6. It looks SO much more homey and clean. However, we have found a TON of junk and dirt and grime and tonight we tracked down some cleaning supplies and will get to work on the grime and gunk in the very near future. I took a few of the old comforters and put them under my fitted sheet to give my mattress a little more fluff, and, while it's certainly no Westin Heavenly bed that I left behind at 1455 Kettner Blvd, it's a vast improvement. I even decided to finally hang up some wedding pictures. Instantly (ok, well instantly for me because all I did was walk in a squeal with delight at our new room, probably not instantly for Nicole who spent most of the afternoon doing it), I feel much better. Our CLU is SO feng-shui now :)