Settling In

Dada with Macy's cat
.

We've been in the new house a little over a month and we're starting to get settled in. This picture shows Dada holding the cat of one of our new neighbors, Macy. Macy and her mother are staying with Macy's grandparents while Macy's father arranges a new house for them in Dallas (they're relocating from Great Falls, Montana). Macy is four and she and Dada have become fast friends. The other night we passed their house while we were walking the dogs and ended up staying there for an hour talking while Macy and Dada played in the front yard. Unfortunately Macy will only be around for another month or so. To my knowledge this is the first time Dada has held a cat.

We've pretty much go everything unpacked that needed to be unpacked. We've put a nice rug down in the livingroom. We got all but one of the remaining light fixtures installed last night (we have the last fixture but didn't have the right canopy kit for it).

We've settled into a pretty consistent daily routine--I leave for work about 8:30 and get home between 5:45 and 6:00, depending on traffic. On day's when Dada in mother's day out Julie can go ride her bike on the Veloway (which is south of us and was too far away to be practical when we lived farther north) and in the mornings I can do a ride around the Town Lake hike and bike trail and get back to the house before Dada wakes up.

By the same token, Julie can now easily take the dogs to the dog park, which is now just 10 minutes away instead of 30 minutes (and a cross-town drive) away.

This is one reason we wanted to move closer in--to be conveniently close to a lot of the activities we like to do, as well as being closer to our friends.

We're finding we really like the neighborhood--we've met a lot of our neighbors and they're all friendly. It's a much more diverse neighborhood, both ethnically and socially--a greater mix of ages, incomes, and so on. And a there are a lot more chickens.

In the evenings after work we're finding we like to sit out on the driveway in front of the carport enjoying the evening breeze while Dada plays--as the architects predicted, the large apron in front of the garage and carport makes an excellent place for Dada to run around, ride her bike, blow bubbles, and whatnot. In the evening the area is shaded and the carport acts as a breezeway, making it remarkably cool. Sitting there facing the street we can still see our neighbors passing.