i'd post the last day of the road trip, but nothing bad happened
mostly, it was just long...J and i got separated early on, and i ended up on some bizarre little two-lane, non-toll road through backwater kansas (i know that sounds redundant, but kansas insists it isn't) he almost ended up on a toll-road, and then got off and eventually we re-connected. the girls were fine all day, i was still chugging cranberry juice, but not nearly so uncomfortable...and our new landlord said the old tenant had cleared out so we could skip the overnight hotel stay and go right to our new place.
our utilities all got hooked up, and our shipping crates got delivered and unloaded, and the girls whined and cried for a few days and then settled down because everything started to smell like home. plus we fed them a lot.
also, we've now been here a full month. we're almost completely unpacked. its hard to claim the last day of driving is even remotely fresh in my mind.
the uncomfortable need to drink a gallon of cranberry juice every day...yeah i let that slide a little bit too long. a week after we got here, when i'd snagged an at-home uti test (which came up negative! in my defense) i finally went to a local clinic, where i took another pee-on-a-stick test, which also came up negative (HA!) and then they took a sample (ow) and sent it to a lab for culturing, where it came up positive (damnit) and i got a week of amoxicillin, and a fabulously unnecessary yeast infection and otc topical fungicide for my procrastinating. my kidneys are fine, and my new gp took a second sample for culturing just to make sure. (thanks R, i'd have totally let it slide if you hadn't expounded on the stupidity of doing so - and yeah, no joking here, i kept thinking of you, and not wanting to re-invent this particular wheel. I'm glad you are also doing ok, if not entirely copacetic; also, congrats!, i am so happy for you!)
the house, it's huge. partly because it has a basement, which we had in louisville, but that one wasnt furnished or finished....this one is, in fact two of our four bedrooms are in the basement...and one of our full baths....no worries, we plan to use one for storage and the other is MINE ALL MINE for my office...the guest bedroom is going to be upstairs in the Other other bedroom. as soon as we own two beds. we're working on it. no kidding, spent this weekend driving around and laying on mattresses. of course...it's a new mattress for us and our mattress for the guest room, but still.
the neighborhood...i've never had so many other houses so close, the property to the rear of ours can look into our kitchen's windows from their basement. their patio is higher up the hill than the top of the fence between our homes. i'm pretty sure i'm appalled...but maybe if our place had any trees to provide some privacy across the back i wouldn't. on the other hand, the HOA runs rec centers and indoor pools, which are FREE for us to use. mmmmmindoor pool....of course, they also get to suspend our privs for the yard not being mowed - ive never known how much a lawnmower costs, is that weird? - or for the place not being painted - which the landlord had already fixed but they had to verify...icky.
also nice, this is one of the first mixed use planned devs...so theres shopping and community support within a couple miles, and even within walking distance...thats really nice. and...so many parks all over this dev, we get wild bunnies and foxes running about the yards here. went out onto the deck and had a fox sneaking through the yard even. makes the girls very happy, windows galore, and with the low humidity here we can usually open up in the evenings, which the girls love a lot, too.
other things i love here: The Mountains. it's hard to quantify how much i've missed being able to look out the windows and see the Rockies, albeit from a different angle than the one i grew up with. ok, really it's the scenery, all day, every day. we go for a drive, even without leaving the metro, and it's pretty. driving a little out of the metro, and it's not just pretty. its GORGEOUS!
we own a vacuum cleaner, give me a little more time to fiddle with it before i post how i feel about it....very favorable so far, but i *am* coming off two months with the worst piece of supposedly fantastic sucking piece of omg crap ive ever wrestled with.
the honda seems to be working its way up to needing new suspension, new brakes, and new tires, all at once. it sounds expensive, and probably will be. we may not keep the honda for much longer...i'm trying to wedge a mini s type into the budget, though i'm willing to entertain other ideas.
our utilities all got hooked up, and our shipping crates got delivered and unloaded, and the girls whined and cried for a few days and then settled down because everything started to smell like home. plus we fed them a lot.
also, we've now been here a full month. we're almost completely unpacked. its hard to claim the last day of driving is even remotely fresh in my mind.
the uncomfortable need to drink a gallon of cranberry juice every day...yeah i let that slide a little bit too long. a week after we got here, when i'd snagged an at-home uti test (which came up negative! in my defense) i finally went to a local clinic, where i took another pee-on-a-stick test, which also came up negative (HA!) and then they took a sample (ow) and sent it to a lab for culturing, where it came up positive (damnit) and i got a week of amoxicillin, and a fabulously unnecessary yeast infection and otc topical fungicide for my procrastinating. my kidneys are fine, and my new gp took a second sample for culturing just to make sure. (thanks R, i'd have totally let it slide if you hadn't expounded on the stupidity of doing so - and yeah, no joking here, i kept thinking of you, and not wanting to re-invent this particular wheel. I'm glad you are also doing ok, if not entirely copacetic; also, congrats!, i am so happy for you!)
the house, it's huge. partly because it has a basement, which we had in louisville, but that one wasnt furnished or finished....this one is, in fact two of our four bedrooms are in the basement...and one of our full baths....no worries, we plan to use one for storage and the other is MINE ALL MINE for my office...the guest bedroom is going to be upstairs in the Other other bedroom. as soon as we own two beds. we're working on it. no kidding, spent this weekend driving around and laying on mattresses. of course...it's a new mattress for us and our mattress for the guest room, but still.
the neighborhood...i've never had so many other houses so close, the property to the rear of ours can look into our kitchen's windows from their basement. their patio is higher up the hill than the top of the fence between our homes. i'm pretty sure i'm appalled...but maybe if our place had any trees to provide some privacy across the back i wouldn't. on the other hand, the HOA runs rec centers and indoor pools, which are FREE for us to use. mmmmmindoor pool....of course, they also get to suspend our privs for the yard not being mowed - ive never known how much a lawnmower costs, is that weird? - or for the place not being painted - which the landlord had already fixed but they had to verify...icky.
also nice, this is one of the first mixed use planned devs...so theres shopping and community support within a couple miles, and even within walking distance...thats really nice. and...so many parks all over this dev, we get wild bunnies and foxes running about the yards here. went out onto the deck and had a fox sneaking through the yard even. makes the girls very happy, windows galore, and with the low humidity here we can usually open up in the evenings, which the girls love a lot, too.
other things i love here: The Mountains. it's hard to quantify how much i've missed being able to look out the windows and see the Rockies, albeit from a different angle than the one i grew up with. ok, really it's the scenery, all day, every day. we go for a drive, even without leaving the metro, and it's pretty. driving a little out of the metro, and it's not just pretty. its GORGEOUS!
we own a vacuum cleaner, give me a little more time to fiddle with it before i post how i feel about it....very favorable so far, but i *am* coming off two months with the worst piece of supposedly fantastic sucking piece of omg crap ive ever wrestled with.
the honda seems to be working its way up to needing new suspension, new brakes, and new tires, all at once. it sounds expensive, and probably will be. we may not keep the honda for much longer...i'm trying to wedge a mini s type into the budget, though i'm willing to entertain other ideas.