Moved.

So, we no longer reside in the converted goat barn. But, changing the names of blogs and redirecting stuff is a pain in the ass. And now that I have wrangled myself some extra hours in the day (part of the moving goal) I've been meaning to start writing on this thing more, partly to keep the family up to date on all our recent and increasingly frequent adventures (also part of the moving goal).

Today I just want to say: there really are only two things I miss about the goat barn.

1) The immense ease with which we could clean it. Hello double the space! You require much more maintenance. And our vacuum broke, and I believe the shop-vac we are are using as a substitute is causing us deafness.

2) Our Land Vixen (er...landlady...). We just miss her.

wowza.

last night, we went to a cook-out, which kinda turned into a party. like an actual shindig.

it was real good fun - the kinda fun we thought was easy to stumble across fours years ago, but here in VT seems harder to happen upon. but there it was, and it was good.

thanks, memorial day!

decision making

we've been traveling so much lately. this is the first weekend in a really long time where we've been home both days. it's a relief.

traveling is wonderful and exciting and also exhausting.

and now we are thinking about making changes. i'd tell you what they were if we knew what they were. in fact, if anyone wants to volunteer to decide for us - that would be great.

we

I have a pal who just got married.

And he just 'we'-d.

By this I mean that he is now referring to himself and his new lovely spouse as 'we.' Before it was just '[her name] and me' or 'I' or, well, you get the idea.

I think it is adorable: it is one of those things that you start doing without realizing it. But it is this insignificant thing that seems to signify...something. That everything has finally clicked into place, somehow? To test the waters? But, then again, I make too big a deal of words and phrases and such, so this could easily just be me.

I think Chris and I - we! - started doing it when we finally stopped doing the break-up-and-get-back-together dance. I noticed it one day, that he had said the 'we', and the next thing I knew I was spending time with his family on a regular basis. For me, the 'we' usually precedes the 'I love you.' Just my way of trying out stuff, I guess, seeing if it feels comfortable to be associated with this person, but before I start giving that ol' heart away.

Anyway. 'We' are pretty thrilled about 'us' so that's good. And my new pal seems all flush with happiness, which is awesome.

winter

it is here. finally.

Winter.

and admittedly i have been dreading the coming of vermont's main season. everything here revolves around winter. we have winter, and not winter, and mud season. and mud season is really just an off shoot of winter, since it is the product of the still partly frozen ground starting to thaw, and not being able to absorb the run off from all the snow.

but i digress.

it is snowing, and now just a little. there are tiny flakes piling up on the ground making snow banks. there are normal everyday items whose edges are blurred, color is covered, and that are becoming only identifiable as fluffy rounded soft things. and it is beautiful in it's softness and strangeness.

but i haven't had to start moving it yet. i don't like it much when i have to move it.

Empty Bowls

My favorite charity event was this past weekend: Empty Bowls. How can you not love a charity event where your donation gets you a beautiful, handmade bowl and yummy, handmade (?) soup.

These are the two we picked out: These are also the two my Dad would be proud of. Although even they are a little 'fancy' the one with it's shiny black glaze on the bottom, the other with the fancy little swirl on the inside. I love bowls. I get so very

excited when I see all the bowls, can barely contain myself! I just simply marvel at all the quirky little creations.

And of course my obsession leads to excess donations to charity, in the form of additional purchases of bowls. These my Dad will consider a little to precious, to which I say: Hey! At least I know they made little transfers for those precious little drawings which somehow redeems the fact that I Love Them. I LoveLoveLove them and will eat all of my meals out of them.

Oh, and the soup was good, too.

I forgot about the bugs

Living in the middle of no where means there are less people.

But, that does not mean there are less living entities. Rather, it means there are more bugs. I have been home less than 24 hours and have found: two ticks on the cat, an caterpillar in the bouquet of flowers that I left on the table, a centipede in the sink, and mosquitos in the house.

I can handle most bugs pretty easily, but the ticks and the mosquitos piss me off - and gross me out - because it has actually been far too cold for both to even exist, but there they are. Stupid wankers.