First post from Baltimore

13 hours, a few tanks of gas, multiple potty breaks, and lots of fast food later... Irie and I have arrived in Baltimore. As always Irie was a dream to travel with and spent the vast majority of the trip snoozing in the passenger's seat. She was, however, full of energy when we got here.

The last few days have been a bit hectic, but everything is going really well. I under-estimated the time it takes to "settle" and, in hind-sight, I probably would have taken a few days off from my remote working. I know, I know - it sounds ridiculous that I somehow couldn't quite seem to manage a 1/2 time schedule, but it was harder than I thought.

In large part this was due to all my computer issues when I first arrived. My trusty ol' laptop has slowly but surely been falling apart. Granted I have had it over 4 years, but I was hoping to get another year out of it. But as more things went wrong and as slow as it's running - I just decided it wasn't worth putting money into it to fix it. So, yesterday, I bought myself a new laptop, so I am now the proud owner of a Toshiba Satellite. My favorite feature - how little it is! I'm still getting used to the new Vista software - I'm not totally psyched by it, but I'm figuring it out. I'm still having a few problems with my connection to the office, but still a lot better than it was.

I still need to unpack the majority of my stuff and I still have a handful of move related stuff I need to do, but I think by next week I should be pretty much on schedule. (I hope!)

All in all, I don't really think the realization of moving has actually set in yet. I think I still feel like I'm on "vacation" or something. Lily and Kathleen are leaving for a few weeks to spend time with family in St. Louis this weekend, so after Saturday it will be just me and the dogs. I'm guessing the reality will set in a bit more then. I still think it was a good decision and am not sorry to be here at all - even if I do miss having friends around a little! :-)

So far the things that have struck me as the most odd have been 1) realizing I need to reset all my radio presets in my car. It's strange when you've been listening to the same morning show for years. and 2) there's no Jamba Juice in Baltimore. Jamba Juice is a recent addiction of mine and I absolutely love their "cold buster", but apparently that is just something I'm going to have to live without for awhile.

Otherwise, life is good and I'm enjoying my susie homemaker way of life for the moment. (Though on my first night I did accidentally light the chicken container on fire - whoops!)

I'll post some pictures soon.