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After feeling yucky all day yesterday (minor GI stuff - nothing too serious apparently), I feel human today - no, scratch that, I feel FABULOUS. My stomach isn't cramping, I can sit upright, and the sky is blue and the sun is shining. It's spring!!!

When I went out to run errands, I think everyone was outside - walking the dog, or with their strollers, or hanging out on the front porch talking..... Elena even got a chance to play on her tricycle outside! She doesn't understand the general principle of pedaling, so she mostly sits on it and turns the handlebars, and lets us push her. I'm sure we'll get some pics of that soon.

I have bare feet on (it's time to paint the toes! what color should they be?), and the doors are open to let air come in through the screens. For the first time, we can really hear the racket coming from frogs and ducks and .... assorted birds, I suppose in the swampy area behind our house.

My mother is coming in for a week's visit tomorrow night. (Tax season just ended, so she can take vacation.) Have to think about means of entertaining her. After she leaves, my dad and his wife come for a few days. I'm not completely done unpacking the last few boxes, but I expect Mom will help some - either by unpacking things, or by playing with E while I do stuff.

Elena is talking constantly, and the amazing thing is that we can *finally* usually understand her. The other day she found a mini-dictionary (about 2 inches square) which I've had for years. She's been carrying it around, saying "I can read a book!" very clearly, over and over. See that? That's an *article* before the object. Yup, wow.

Me: Shouldn't they call it Bad Friday instead of Good Friday?
D: Well, it's good because there's good stuff coming - you have to die to rise again.
Me: But you don't know that *today*. It's Good Sunday, but Bad Friday.

*Every* year. We're so predictable. (BTW - I've had this theory since I was 10. I have a calendar from 1983 on which I crossed out Good and wrote Bad for the appropriate holiday.)

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In other news - yay for Freecycle! Also (not Freecycle) we now have a microwave and a kitchen garbage can and all kinds of good things. And Elena has a "poggy cher", which she has been talking about for several weeks already.

She also got Easter candy, so she's been chanting "eggy! chunk eggy!" over and over.

And just now she said "got com" (in other words, dot com). She repeats *everything* these days.

We've had a sanj visitation! She even got to tour the new house (the first person to do so, really), and gave my wardrobe a quick scan (well, just what was hanging in the closet). And..... we get her back on Monday too.

We went out for dinner tonight (we are moving in less than 2 days. There is NO food in the house. It's dire. But I categorically refuse to bring anything into this house that I will have to carry out again. That includes packaging.), and Elena ate tons of salsa, while barely blinking an eye. It wasn't hugely spicy - this is Massachusetts, after all - but I was still impressed.

So yes, with the moving. I am having trouble measuring our progress, but I guess we're doing okay. It will all get done. And I rather like the unpacking part - finding new spots for things to live, and all that. So I'm looking forward to that.

I should be packing now, but I'm So. Tired. I think I'll go to bed instead, and see if being a functional upright person tomorrow helps with productivity levels. I sorta suspect it might.

A propos of nothing - are you (that is, the collective you) familiar with Neil Gaiman's story "The Problem of Susan"? About Susan Pevensie from the Chronicles of Narnia. I found it online here, and it's quite fascinating. I should add that as a non-Christian child, the allegory of Narnia went straight over my head by a million miles, and so I didn't get that Susan's love for lipstick and nylons meant that she was going to hell, or that there was no room for a sexualized (or pubertal?) woman in heaven, or whatever it is I'm supposed to have gotten from that. Like, I still always forget that it's supposed to be an allegory - usually to me, it's just a cool children's book series in which occasionally characters spout off things that don't make sense in context. So I read these things now, and the lightbulb goes on. 25 years later. Yup.

I'm feeling rather too parenthetical and tangential to make any sense tonight. So it's off to bed. If I don't post tomorrow, I'll, um, see you on the other side (i.e. once we have internets in the New! House! Whee!).

Bed. Yes. Thud.

We went across the state line to Vermont and bought a couch and chair for our new house!! They will be delivered Wednesday. I was despairing that we'd never find anything we liked, or if we did, it would cost milllllyuns of dollars. These are comfy, and a nice color. I pointed out to galagan that if we didn't buy them on the spot, they would disappear and then we'd really be doooooomed. Elena had a blast playing with the in-store dog, a huge German Shepherd taller than her. Yay furniture for the house! We won't be sitting on the floor!

In other amusing news, the local free weekly has a small article about the oldest person in town being awarded a plaque. It goes on to say: "Zaloga, who was born April 21, 1903, couldn't recall how old she was when asked but doubted it was 103. 'If I was 103, I'd be in bed,' she said." I think that's so funny, in a charming way. galagan thinks I'm crazy.

The moving proceeds. It's a bit-by-bit, trickly process.

One of the benefits of packing is that I handle all of my books, and get to see what's still on my shelves that I haven't read yet. (When we were packing in LA, I read Sister Carrie.) This time, I picked The Epic of Gilgamesh to read, in part probably because it's really rather a small book, and so why not? My book is *very* small, and still the introduction takes up half the book. I did read most of the intro, because it had a lot of good information not explained elsewhere, like the Sumerian pantheon of gods and goddesses. (I knew Ishtar, but none of the others.) Anyway - very interesting reading and very quick. Enkidu! Utnapishtim! Flood stories!

Now I just have to get around to reading Beowulf one of these days. (Bad English major!)

( It's been a big day..... )

Other things making me happy: it's finally going to warm up! 40s and 50s will feel absolutely tropical after recent climes. It's gonna be great!

So, in case you missed galagan's post (it was locked), we have a (commitment to a) house!! We bid, they counter-offered us, and we countered that, and they took it!!! It's so very exciting, and still a little overwhelming too. :) Key points: a GARAGE, dishwasher, guest room, deck, mountain views, over an acre of land (with neighbors on two sides, and nobody on the other sides of us). We'll close in March - which seems very far off, and then immediately near.

In other news, we have a stubborn tantrum-y child, which is incredibly frustrating. She won't do *anything* this week without a fight. Going to Montana for Christmas might unsettle her even more - though she'll have extra doting from Grandma and others, so maybe that will make up for it.

And I only have two more workdays, and then we go to Montana next Monday!!! Eeeep.

We are, verily, online. We're both sitting here in the "office" typing away madly and frantically. Ohhhh, how I've missed you all.

Nothing much to report, aside from the brilliant wonderfulness of having internet (and cable TV too!) at last. Elena is a full-fledged toddler with *Moods*, though she does well enough in public to get by. Most of her public thinks she's adorable, at any rate, which means she's got 'em all snowed. Good girl. My sister was here for about 18 hours Friday/Saturday, and it was great to see her (and realize that we're mostly within reach of each other, at least for the half year she's in New York). We went to a great party - yay! We both got our driver's licenses, and think we've gotten the whole garbage thing sorted out (don't even ask). In short, things are finally settling down and we are settling in, and that's just plain good.

Life is happy.

More as events warrant.

p.s. Note to self: I need to do a book post and a picture post.

Okey-dokey then. It's time to move on out!!

The current plan is for my dad and I (with Elena) to drive away in the morning (i.e. Wednesday). It is about 2200 miles from here, and our goal is about 400 or so miles a day - so it should be about 5 or 6 days. Or so. We're in no hurry, and I think we're going to try to enjoy ourselves (as much as is possible). So, I should be arriving at the new homestead Sunday or Monday. I may have spotty email access along the way - otherwise, I'll see you all in August, when I'll be checking in from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Signing off.

Quick update:

We made it, and are ensconced at my mom's house in Billings. About the drive - it was okay, but I don't want to do that again any time soon (particularly by myself). The first day sucked (crossing the desert) but the second and third days were lovely. And it was a gorgeous drive, in many parts. It was 1295 miles from my door to Mom's.

I got stuck watching a small town parade in Ennis MT (which blocked the highway, so you couldn't get past), which was a very nice parade - and just got a teeny bit of sunburn (which E seems to have escaped). Then I watched fireworks on TV last night before collapsing. And that was my holiday.

galagan emailed me yesterday afternoon from Council Bluffs Iowa, so he's making decent progress too.