Me, too -- what he said

Like Ken said so well below, we're here.

Audrey laughs when she watches the breezes blow through the treetops.

The neighborhood we're living in is full of gingerbread and Victorian houses built in the late 1800s. Most of them are currently inhabited as up-and-down duplexes. Our building is red brick, with six units in it. When you walk in the front door of our unit, you're faced with LOOONNNG hallway, off which, to the left are all the rooms. The living room faces the street, and the kitchen is at the other end. That means a lot of traveling. As soon as you get to one end, you realize you forgot something at the other end. The hardwood floors creak. A LOT. Really, a lot. Ken and I both have tried walking gingerly, walking heavily, walking along either side's wall... nothing doing. Even the cats make noise as they walk. There is no way to travel anywhere in our apartment without making a sound explosion of cracks, creaks and floor farts.

We have more space, though, which is nice.

Still unpacking things. Containers arrived to storage facility a couple days ago, but we haven't visited it, yet. Didn't get the message until yesterday. Cell phone reception in our apartment, and outside in front of it, is marginal at best. There literally is one spot near our front left window in the living room at which I can get one "bar" of reception, sometimes. Also, sometimes I find myself in the Analog Roam realm in the very same spot where I've been in Regular Roamville before. Apparently, cell reception seems to be spotty throughout St. Paul...?

We've been driving around, doing errands, orienting ourselves. We both like the Mac-Groveland and Highland neighborhoods. There are lots of places to walk to like shops, restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores... We veer from giddy "what if's" about buying a house sooner than later to our original plan of renting a house next, for a year at least, until we get better bearings... And, of course, we don't know where Ken'll work, yet. Or, how long it will take him to find a job. Plus, I've been reading back issues of the local bi-weekly newspaper, and the city is facing a major deficit and has just approved a 14%+ hike in property taxes for 2008. Yikes. Apparently, nothing was raised for over a decade, and now the state has withdrawn funds it used to give the city, and somebody's gotta pay the piper. They're raising city fees, etc. too. So, giddyness is tempered with whoa.

Ken's new study book should arrive next week, and I've set up a meet and greet appointment with a pediatrician for Monday. Opened a bank account two days ago. Joined the Y down the street. Met a couple of the neighbors by the mailboxes. We're slowly getting settled in. Will post pictures once we unpack my Mac!