Just an update

I haven't had the chance to update recently, so I thought it was about time for one!

I am loving my new place! The neighbors are still being very nice, and though I can occasionally hear music from the houses on either side of me, it has never gone on late into the night and kept me awake. Every time I step out on my balcony, someone says hi. The tree out front is home to lots of little critters and I often see birds and squirrels frolicking in my yard. My sister, Cindy, and her family were up this weekend to visit and they helped me put some much needed finishing touches on the house, hanging pictures and such so that it is really "home" now. This morning I had to come to work and leave them there, and when I went home at lunch they had finished hanging things in two more rooms! It looks great!

The yard to the new place is a bit of a stumbling block to me yet. It isn't all that big, but as I discovered the hard way, it really is too big to use a weed wacker to cut the entire lawn. So I am now trying to decide between a reel mower, a gas powered mower, or an electric mower. The reel mower would be nice because it would give me a huge amount of exercise along with making the yard look great, but from what a lot of people say, it can be a real pain if your grass gets the tiniest bit high, which I am sure mine will be prone to do. The drawback to a traditional gas powered mower is that the only storage area I have for it is inside in my basement, and I am not too crazy about having gasoline stored inside of my house. And then there is the obvious drawback of a power cord in the way with an electric mower. What to do, what to do....any suggestions/recommendations for me?

In the realm of fun stuff recently, I have been busy, busy, busy. I have had company on a couple of occasions, went to the Maryland Renfest, had a trip to Ocean City, played poker, went home for Maddie's birthday...and those are just the things that immediately come to mind. Poker was fun, but I lost this time; I couldn't get cards for trying! I had a lot of fun at the Maryland Renfest and may even make another trip back at some point before the end of it, this time in costume. Yes, I have geeky enough friends here as well that they are willing to dress up for renfest. :) The trip to Ocean City was a blast! It was a wonderful way to bid farewell to the summer, although I am still paying for being stupid and not putting on sunscreen. Give it another few days and hopefully all of the peeling will be over with. Rose and I went on this sling shot thingy where they strapped you into this cage and it shot you up 15 stories into the air in 1.5 seconds and then you kind of bobbed up and down, spinning around for a while. I can't quite do it justice, but if you ever have the chance to do it, definitely do--it was exhilarating!

While my sister was here this past weekend, in addition to decorating my house, we went to the Baltimore Zoo and to the Baltimore Farmer's Market. It was my first trip to both since moving here and both were very cool. Izzy and Sophie were a lot of fun to watch at the zoo, as Izzy kept running trying to find more animals and Sophie felt the need to growl at a few. :) Those two kids crack me up. Plus, it was just fun to be a kid myself for the day and enjoy seeing all the animals also. And then Cindy was a lot of fun to watch at the farmer's market. :) Not that the farmer's market in Charleston, WV isn't a good one, but going to one in a big city was a whole different experience. Cindy was in her zone and had a great time, picking out all kinds of goodies for us to cook up that evening. Everything was so fresh and smelled so delicious--yummy! Unfortunately they had to go home today though for Chris to go back to work. :( But I am sure they will come for another visit as soon as they can. And I hope that Micki and her family make it again soon also--they have to see my new place!!!!!

Though that just touches on everything I have been getting into recently, this post is starting to get long, so I think I will end it here. Hopefully I won't wait close to a month this time before posting again! Take care everyone!