Home Far Away from Home

My camera is fixed and back!

          The movers came today and brought our things to our new apartment.  Before that we got my Civic smog tested for the first time.  Since it is six years old even if I lived here all that time this would be the first year it needs testing.  It passed, of course.  Good-bye fifty dollars.  D says that test is free for him back at home.  Now we can go to the DMV Tuesday morning to get new licenses, new plates, new voter's registration, and whatever else they tell us to do.  Looks like we'll have to get our eyes retested and potentially even retake the written driver's test.  We did the practice tests online and I must admit that I didn't start off doing so well.  There are a lot of little details that you do without thinking about while driving.  When it comes to answering on the test it's hard to say exactly what you do.  By the last practice test I was doing much better, though.

The hotel is full of pictures like this.  Telephoto lens makes decorating easy!

          The truck arrived around 2 p.m. just as we finished playing with our two little Lego sets that traveled with us.  Time Warner tried getting our Internet set up for us, but they need to send someone out on Tuesday to do it in person since our modem wasn't connecting.  The movers were able to clear a spot along the curb in front of the building and set up ramps to make moving the furniture easier.  I was in charge of checking off each item as it entered.  The five guys got the whole truck unloaded in about three hours without making a scratch on anything.

My T-rex head prop was eating all of D's arctic adventurers.

          I'm grateful that the movers put most of the furniture back together for us and lined it up where we want.  I was amazed that my computer desk made it into the back room with no trouble.  The couch, however, didn't make it into the guest room.  I guess we'll have two couches in our living room when we buy a new set.  The couch is a sleeper sofa so we thought it would work for a guest bed, but everyone knows they aren't the most comfortable beds.  Maybe it's better to have room for an extra bed.  D is going to order us a mattress online based on reviews, and if that doesn't go well I guess we'll end up with a guest mattress without metal bars underneath!  I'd really like for friends and family to come out for a visit, so a more comfortable mattress might be the trick to convincing them.

Just in case this face alone won't convince them.

          After we signed the paperwork we got busy unpacking the office/computer room.  The most boxes got stacked there because we have a regular closet in the room plus a walk-in closet and an additional closet attached to a small hall leading to the master bath.  As of tonight the walk-in closet isn't too full, D assures me that will change, and the Holiday closet, as I've dubbed it, has a full floor but a little shelf space left.  We can't wait for Christmas to get to decorate.

Our first meal in our new place is Panda Express.

          We called it a night around 8, picked up the things we need for the night and headed out.  My feet and socks both got blackened from walking around the apartment.  Something black is all over the floor, and I hope it'll be easy to scrub out tomorrow.  We keep dragging it onto the beautiful white tile of the kitchen and bathrooms.  Thankfully it washed off my feet really easily.

The view from in front of our kitchen.

D wasn't feeling good last night.  Even though he had the whole bed he still slept on the very edge.

          I've been really homesick this week.  I hope that having a new home will help change that a little.  Having pieces of home with me should at least help fake me out that I'm not so far away.  Tomorrow we'll check out of the hotel and fully move in to our new apartment.  It smells nice, the air outside smells nice, there are flowers, birds, bees, and lizards in our yard.  We can see palm trees and the mountains from the kitchen.  We got bitten by a mosquito.  There are definitely perks to being in California in November, but the mosquito thing was a disappointing reminder that snow won't be scaring the bugs away.  We also had a little cockroach greet us in the kitchen.  New adventures sure are interesting.

The flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds outside our window.

What kind of tree is this?!  I need to learn all new plants out here.