Friday puttering

Purchase update: paperwork signed and sealed, down payment delivered. We are now officially homeowners (or, rather, mortgage-holders).

Appliance update: when I wrote the first draft of this post earlier today, I was making positive noises here about progress. Then I went downstairs and found a huge puddle in the basement. So now I’m going to make positive noises about my home warranty instead. And move swiftly along to….

Appliance fail

Despite the fact that I move a lot, I don’t really like being in transition. I know there are people who thrive on chaos but, despite all indicators to the contrary, I am not one of them. I like structure, routine, making lists, all those things. I like having a place for everything and knowing that everything is in its designated place. (Note that in a box, in a container, on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean does *not* count as a designated place.) During my long, long stay in the serviced apartment, I daydreamed about the day when I would be puttering in my own kitchen, putting homemade stock in my own freezer, baking cakes in my own oven with my own pans. All my stuff would be unpacked, neatly arranged, easily accessible, and working smoothly in harmony with the array of gleaming appliances that would come with my house.

Notice how I neatly skipped over the part where I got myself situated, figured out where to put all the stuff, and learned how to use everything?

Wordless Wednesday

Moving in

Yes, I’m alive! Digging my way out of a pile of cardboard boxes, overflowing shopping bags, and where did we get all these stuffed animals, anyway? Wrestling with the uncooperativeness and/or absence of every piece of household equipment you can name, or swear at. (Today is the first day I’ve had more than 15 consecutive minutes’ access to the internet since last Wednesday.) Faxing, forwarding, and signing about an acre’s worth of trees. BUT we are out of the serviced apartment and in a house at last. I promise a more complete report later in the week--maybe even with a recipe!

In the meantime, who wants to guess which room is the closest to being completely unpacked and organized?

Midwestern sightseeing

Last weekend included a Monday holiday. We (well, really DP) decided that we needed a change of scene, so we headed off on a road trip. (Or, as my sister said, “You’re going to stay in a different hotel!”) Since we’re still total newcomers in this part of the US, just going to a different state that we’ve never been to before sounds exciting, so that’s what we did. Two, actually: Nebraska and Iowa. DP found some Miss-B-friendly sights to base our itinerary around (trains in Omaha, animals in Des Moines); I did some restaurant research; and we headed off on the back roads to see a little bit more of the Midwest. Here are some of the things we discovered.