A bit more catchup

The House

The house is really rounding into shape. As far as I know, there is no finer moving coordinator in the world than my wife Megan Van Fleet, and she has done a masterful job getting us unpacked and sorted as usual. There are still a few odds and ends about, but overall I could not be more thrilled with how it’s turning out.

The Surprises

It’s difficult to pick the most pleasant surprise thus far about the house, but there are a three I can think of off the top of my head.

Living right

First, having a hot tub in the master suite is great. I internalize a lot of stress (although I’m making progress on communicating– just ask my boss!) and its a tremendous stress relief possibility. Mmmmm, jets.

Not a vacuum

We also got an electric lawn mower, and it’s been awesome! It would be impossible for it to seem more like vacuuming the lawn, because you need to run the power cable along with it. But it starts instantly and doesn’t stink when it’s done. I was very happy to give it a try and it turned out great. Megan got home early on Friday and says she did the entire yard (including edging) in 90 minutes.

X-cape!

The final surprise has been how little furniture that we need to credibly live here. I was worried about going from a 1800 sq. ft. townhouse with one sofa to a 2900 sq. ft. home without having to spend a lot of money on furniture, but so far we’ve just picked up an additional matching chair from IKEA. Megan went to IKEA and spent less than $200, that should tell you all you need to know.

The Big Ticket

I spent a majority of my day today on my office. The effect of having a real office with a door I can shut that has a good music system is already reminding me how important those things can be to me. I feel gears deep inside turning that are rusty from not having turned in a long time. Megan got a chuckle out of me telling her that I felt a bit of magic in there. I even got a very nice painting from Megan’s stepdad Bob. Bob, if you’re reading, THANK YOU. It reminds me of where I grew up…

Graves Festival

…namely, the mountains. Graves Mountain Festival of Music is where we go to hook up with Megan’s friends from high school, who are now my friends as well. It was a delightful time, and next year I’m committed to staying longer. This trip was particularly satisfying since it was our first time back in three years. We missed 2007 for our wedding and European vacation preparations, and we missed last year because of my bad back.