We're in!

I'm typing from the floor of the living room. Christop[her has photos of our new place, but I can't quite reach the damned computer with the camera cord.

The Comcast guy came and we've got phone and internet. And TV, though that requiredd some magic from my husband to help it along. (Comcast Tony had never seen a Media Center PC before. He was confused.) Right now we're trying to larn a new set of channels -- Food has moved from 61 to 40. IT's werid.

Nikki came yesterday to help. Thanks to her, we can see the floor in the kitchen. and there's some hope that May's room will be reasonable before we go to bed. Jen H. is coming today.

Finally, May has another tooth and another word. Her lower left bicuspid is broken through and she now says "Mama," "Daddeee," "Uh-oh," and "kEEE-EEE" which we think means "all small furry things, but especially Kitty, specifically Atticus."

I'm off now, b.c May doens't want to take her morning nap so I'm going to try to wlak ehr to sleep.

In transit and transition

Hello all!

It's Sunday night and Christopher and I have just settled in for our last night on Willow Ave. Tomorrow, the packers come and then Tuesday, the movers come and we're officially into our new place. (Well, our boxes are officially into the new place. I won't consider us really settled in until I can find things again.)

So, some paper-work stuff. For security reasons, I can't post any of the new information, but I can tell you that some things will stay the same. Our phone numbers: both C & I will ahve the same cell phones and the land line will remain, miraculously, the same.

However, our usual email, the one you'v eknown and loved for years, is going away. Please use our gmail accounts. (If you don't have our gmail accounts, check your email. I've sent out an email.) Our new mailing address will be coming with our Christmas cards, but in the mean time please call if you need it.

We will be, in essenence, incommunucado, I spelled that wrong... um... unreachable by electronic means starting tomorrow morning and continuing until (theoretically) Wed. afternoon. Call our cells if you need us. The theoretically depends on the folks at Comcast showing up when they said they would and doing what they said they would, the confluence of which is unlikely given the past behaviors of installation guys. So please don't send us important email until we post that everything is up and running.

You can post on the blog and Christopher will get the information once he's at work on Wednesday.

Penultimatly, I hope everyone had a fantabulous Turkey Day. We had a delightful one.

Finally, big shout-out to Jen and David Hoberman, without whom our apartment wouldn't be at all habitable. Props.

Fly by posting

I've got a few minutes in the middle of what's got to be one of the busiest weeks of my life. So this is going to be a Q&D post.

My folks and the Hobermans helped us out this weekend. We got two coats on the living room, and one each on our bedroom and May's bedroom, not to mention shelving int he bedroom and the bathroom. Special shout out to Jen who did more painting than any three of us put together.

I don't think I posted taht we had the lead test last week and came out with a fabulous result. Lead-free (mostly). The pantry has some small amounts, as did the front door frame. But the state will refund (through tax breaks) the cost of mitigation up to some multiple of thousands of dollars. Since the mititgation will probably cost a few hundred, it's essentially free!

This is much better than the $10K we were expecting to spend. What's more, because the lead paint is in the pantry (not a May-friendly area to begin with), we can do the mitigation after the holidays.

Let's see, what else? Oh, the stupid condo people ( who are all on my list), as well as both the real state people, and the inspector all missed the fact that our stove wasn't actually installed. It was just... sitting there. (To be totally fair, we missed it too, but we were doing this for the first time, talented amatuers. Those professionals were supposed to catch it.) Dad tried to hook it up, but apparently the valve to which it was attached was original tot he 100-year-old house and therefore essentially useless. So we need to get a plumber in.

But, in the things-are-looking-up category, I went to Dave's Fresh Pasta today to pick up some lunch and when the nice guy behind the counter said "Is there anything else you need?" I quipped, "the name of a good plumber?" and he said, "Wow, you know it's so weird that you said that. One of my friends is a plumber and was just featured on the Bobo Vila Show last night!"

So I've got his number.

Last things before I go: May had her first Redbone's BBQ yesterday and her first bolognese from Dave's Fresh Pasta about ten minutes ago.

I get by with a little help....

... from my friends. And family.

It's been a rough couple of weeks here in Soemrville for the Ferrys (Boston-edition). My cold, as I explained before, lead to dehydration which lead to mastitis which lead, ultimately, to a narsty G.I. complication. (Read more terrifying information here!) Add to that the myriad and mickle complications of moving a household of three, and that's my excellent set of excuses as to why I haven't posted.

It's also why I showed up at Starbucks this week with no wallet, no cash, and no time to go home and get them if I wanted to go grocery shopping before my appointment. So the ever wondrous Deb, queen of Davis Sq. Starbucks, gave me a free drink and the also wondrous Jenna spotted me enough cash to buy milk and eggs and dinner.

That's just one example of my friends and family helping out.

For example, Cathy drove up to help us haul stuff from Ikea in Stoughton in her pickup. Then helped us haul it in her pickup to the second floor.

My family has gone above and beyond the call. They came up last weekend (including Seth and Sarah, who came up on their mutual birthday weekend, none-the-less) and Dad and Christopher knocked down a wall to make my pantry. They will e coming up this weekend to do more stuff.

David and Jen are going to help paint and, of course, Nikki is always fabulous. (Though she's got a cold this week.) Mary came over last night to provide adult conversation to Amanda and Christopher got to decompress with Jim, Brendan, et. al., by spending the evening anhilating virtual bad guys.

Kevin probably would have helped by he had surgery on his fundament yesterday.

I hope to post more frequently now that I'm not wrestling with my lower intestines but I will be moving and having Thanksgiving in another state. (Three times!) So we'll see how it goes. In the mean time, you may admire my adorable daughter.

Homeownership

We closed on the condo yesterday! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

The whole thing went with only minor drama. (Some guy has his stuff in our storage locker and we had to make sure that they hadn't sold the thing twice. Then there was soem question of Atticus being legal. He is.) We're now the proud owners of... a set of keys. It's still not really real to us that we own the condo.

Why, you ask, did I fail to post this yesterday? G.I. bug. Lots of tummy troubles to the point where Christopher came home this afternoon to take care of me and May.

The condo is still empty, naturally. We're planning on moving some time after Thanksgiving. On Mary's suggestion, we've chosen Gentle Giant as our moving company and they will even pack for us, which seems decadant but worth the money.

Finally, here are some photos. They are actually really dull -- photos of empty rooms. But lots of people have asked for them. So....



This is the horror show of a bathroom. Yes, it's tiny. But the toilet always works! And if it doesn't, I can rip that puppy out and put in a new one!



The kitchen is a nice little triangle, with brand-new appliances. There's even a dishwasher! I haven't had a dishwasher since I was living at my parents' place. It will be exciting.



This is the window in May's room. I thought I had a better photo, but I seem to have deleted some of them accidentally. (That's also why you won't see the library/dining room. I don't have a photo.) May's room is smallish, with a GIANT closet that we'll be using as the household linen closet.



This is our bedroom. It's boring.



This is the living room. Dontcha love the windows? That's why we bought the place -- those fabulous windows.

Mayhew says, "VOTE!"

Okay, May can't talk. Or cogitate, really. (Elephants can!) But if she could, she would point out that voting is the single most important responisiblity of a citizen. That people who don't vote are evil. And that if you're evil, she won't smile at you. And how could you turn down this smile?



Don't be evil -- vote tomorrow!

Motherhood in the Singularity

The new iPod shuffle is out. It's the size and weight of a matchbook. It holds 240 songs and plays for two hours.

There's an invisibility cloak that's ... freakishly probable.

Teleportation isn't just probably, it's here. Small scale, but it's here.

I don't know if the singularity is upon us, but even if it isn't, the technological changes that are tearing across our society right now are wide-spread and radical: The impact that cell phones and the internet has had on the fabric of society is, IMHO, still not fully realized. YouTube and cell phone cameras are altering the fundemental ideas of journalism and information dispersal. As a sci-fi fan, I find this fascinating. As a mother, I find it terrifying.

Change isn't intrinsically bad, but it is, necessarily, unstable. I don't knwo what the world will look like in five years. No one does. (Anyone who tells you different is selling something.) How can I prepare my daughter for a world that might look radically different?

I mean, i have no idea how to deal with a social landscape that's made up of a network of IM, TXT messages, and cellphones. While I'm certain that the "Child Predators Caught on Tape" specials on the news are just fear mongering, the risk is still there. And that's just the changes in the past 16 years. I don't know what the world will look like in another 16. And I'm not sure I'm good enough to keep up with the changes in the technology.

But that's not what you're here for, is it? So here's a picture of May: