Nothing broke!

Well, only one thing broke.  And we are still pretty squared away on sushi plates.

Our shipment arrived and I got it out of hock from the quarantine warehouse.  The customs agent was extremely helpful and asked the forklift driver to find a wire brush and clean some dirt off my Frye knee high black leather engineer boots that are like a child to me.  They even let me keep the vacuum, which was what got us sent to quarantine in the first place.

A few of Tom's Pendleton wool (read "a little itchy so I don't really want them on the couch") blankets didn't fare so well. Our cat appears to have been cuddling in the just before they hit the box.  That was embarrassing.  Agent:  "Was this a pet blanket?"  Me:  "Um. No. Um. Most of my stuff has that much cat hair on it." Then I realized that was going to trigger more box opening so I immediately redacted to "Yes. The cat loved that blanket.  That was the cat's special, special favorite blanket and she rarely went near anything else."

I was given the choice between 1) having them put in a container designed to withstand armageddon and buried by customs agents 2) de-exporting them and 3) having them shipped away for gamma radiation and then returned to me.  Let's not even discuss the prices of each option.  We contemptuously rolled our eyes at dinner that night, wondering how the pillows packed next to the offending blankets were immune to the offending elements found on said blankets. 

It will take a few weeks to find a place for everything, but it's not nearly the mammoth clutter I had feared. Tom had half of it unpacked while I got my hooves filed down and shopped for cupcakes this morning.  Hey, I had to ride in the elevator with the moving guys all day last week, it's only fair. 

We picked up a few knock-down shelves from Ikea, laminated MDF with pre-notched adjustable shelves. It took Tom 7 hours to assemble and hang them. Yikes.