all is peachy

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't updated this blog after Chris and Dante got here. Heh.

They arrived on schedule on March 1 at about 9:30 in the morning. I had picked up the keys to our new place the night before and moved some household items, such as a litter box for the cats and toilet paper and laundry detergent, into the house. My landlords were still moving out, which I knew would be the case, so I left everything in the garage.

I was so excited to see Chris and Dante. It turned out that a) they'd stored a lot more stuff back in Virginia than I'd thought they would and b) we had pretty much NO money, but we somehow managed to muddle through for the next few weeks. On my next paycheck, we bought a recliner and sofa for almost nothing, and a little bit later we bought Dante a bed (he slept on an air mattress till then). We still want to buy s a king bed for ourselves (and put the queen we're sleeping on in the guest bedroom) but we are in no hurry to do that. Oh, we've also acquired a ping pong table because we all love ping pong. I haven't been playing recently, but I need to get back to doing that because it's a lot of fun.

Our other major acquisition is a dog, a chocolate lab mix named Koda whom we adopted from the local Humane Society. She's a sweetie, aside from her penchant for eating everything in sight. I got a large, energetic dog because I want to be challenged to get in (better) shape, and she is definitely keeping me on my toes. I haven't managed to tire her out yet.

Chris is starting a handyman business here, and doing insurance surveys for a company based in New York, so he's keeping busy. Dante is enjoying the mild summer, and the fact that he can walk to the library and (some) shopping whenever he wants. So I would say we're all pretty well settled in.

We're having another beautiful (well, in my opinion) summer here - mostly cool-ish, lots of rain, but also some decent sunny and warm days. It actually got up in the 80's for a bit, which I didn't really enjoy, but it was only for a few days. In a way it was kind of nice, because one of those days was Knit In Public Day (yes, this is a thing) and so I was sitting outside in a strapless sundress enjoying the breeze from the ocean as I worked on whatever I was working on at the time.

So I've been here a YEAR and I am loving it just as much as when I first arrived. There are bad things about Alaska - the expense of living here, the lack of some things I used to take for granted, and so on - but just looking out the window makes so much of that worthwhile, even on a "bad weather" day. One of my friends tells me she won't believe I'm staying till I've been here for three years...TWO TO GO!

I will continue to blog here from time to time about experiences I'm having here that aren't like those I've had elsewhere, and stuff like that. Thank you all for joining me on my Alaska adventure!