The Moving In Saga Continues

The moving-in saga continues. Our first house was a new one, but that was over eight years ago, and we'd forgotten how much was involved in moving into a new house:

• We finally have internet (this is the first posting from the new house), cable, and phone service.
  
• The air conditioning went out (for the second time). But luckily a storm front had moved in, so the heat wave had broken. Everything's under a one-year warranty, so it's all covered, but it is irritating.
  
• Our new refrigerator and stove arrived yesterday. Unfortunately, we found out that there was only a gas hookup behind the stove, and no electric outlet. This is important, because we bought an electric stove. We hadn't even thought to check, because it never occurred to us. So, we need to get an electrician out here to put in a proper outlet.
  
• After a week, our mailbox is finally up, so no more trips to the post office. It turns out that even this involved some fun and games: the oversized mailbox chosen by the Unknown Wife required drilling holes through the bottom to mount it (and it was metal, so we needed to go get a metal bit). I guess she expects a lot of mail from her extensive network of friends and family.
  
• Our lawn is still a mess, and my be a foregone conclusion for this year. Like in many new houses, they used the "spray-on lawn" (I think they call it Hydro-Seed"). Unfortunately, there was a big rainstorm the week after the initial spraying, so major parts of my yard have channels of bare dirt. So, for now I have the neighborhood's most embarrassing lawn. Once it cools, I'll go rent a slice-seeder to overseed, and I'll start again in the spring.
  
• We're getting a free washer and dryer from the Unknown Sister, who upgraded recently. But that'll be next week, so we're using the laundromat near campus (and it's EXPENSIVE).
• Today, we go to Home Depot for shades so that we don't accidentally accelerate our neighbors' children's passage into adolescence.

But even with all that, we love it here. Unknown Wife went to the neighborhood wifes' group known as the Birchwood Babes last night (we live on Birchwood Rd). I don't know everything that went on (and don't really care to, since that much estrogen in one place can only mean trouble), but she said the margaritas were pretty good.

This is a recurring theme, but we love the neighborhood. The neighbors are incredibly friendly - even though we've been here for less than two weeks, we already know more neighbors than we did in our old neighborhood after three years. And the block party is in a couple of weeks - we're already in charge of margaritas.