As many who will be reading this already know, we've just relocated ourselves yet again -- hopefully to stay for a while this time. :-)

It's been an interesting experience moving from a very modern loft that spanned the 3rd & 4th floors of a large apartment complex, into a house of 1930s-era construction with a door that opens right out onto a front walk. (It's also a bit awkward to describe, given that our "new" place is really the older place...) As much as I'd gotten to enjoy and make good use of some of the amenities of the "old" place (like the much appreciated opportunity to take a swim before or after work, in a pool I didn't have to maintain myself!), I don't miss it nearly as much as one might expect, and feel like I've gained more than I've lost. The house feels like a much warmer, more personalizable space. It also reminds me in many ways of the house in Los Angeles where I grew up and lived the first 20 years of my life, which no doubt is helping to make it feel like home in short order.

Of course, an old place, no matter how well maintained, also comes with a few challenges of its own. For starters, it appears that the only grounded outlet in the house is the one in the laundry room. I'm going to feel a bit nervous about having computers, etc. plugged in until I can improve that situation... Another fun discovery was that the one phone jack in the house had an intermittent connection -- the kind where a slight nudge of the incoming wiring would lose your phone call or drop your modem carrier, as the case might be. :-) It turned out that the wiring had just been twisted together, despite the presence of perfectly good screw terminals. That, at least, was easily enough fixed, and afforded me a small but satisfying handyman victory. :-)

Getting a broadband connection looks like it's going to be a bit more of a challenge -- largely because there's not much I can do but wait. Two weeks after moving in, we still have no DSL sync or indication of whether it's going to be possible to make it work. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, given the state in which I found the interior phone wiring. :-) Then again, it took about as long to get service in our previous, much more recently built apartment, despite appearances that led me to expect otherwise. (A built-in hub and ethernet jacks in every room are unfortunately not a guarantee of proper wiring in the rest of the building.) Anyhow, we'll see how it goes. Failing DSL, cable modem will be the next fallback. But that just seems so early 21st century! ;-)

One project I'm looking forward to once the higher-priority stuff is out of the way is tilling and planting a side area that's currently all weeds and hard-packed dirt. A small herb and vegetable garden would be nice to have. In the meantime, there are books and clothes and pictures to unpack, and roses to enjoy...