I don't know where the time has gone. Tomorrow, we will have been here two weeks and it hardly seems possible. For the most part, it's been a really fantastic two weeks. The house is starting to come together, although the nickles and dimes are really adding up. I'm still surprised at how much space we have, even though two of our three storage areas are unusable. The garage leaks like a sieve from the roof and the basement floor also leaks (or seeps or what have you). The tiny shed is only slightly damp, so we've stashed airtight storage boxes there.

Every day is some small progress. Yesterday was a particularly bright sunshiny day for me as I managed to finally get Igor, my car, "legal." Igor's had issues for months and months. On Monday, he got new tires and a new headlight. Tuesday, he got a new sideview mirror (he was sideswiped twice over the course of a couple of years parked on the narrow streets of NOLA-- during the last few months in NOLA his mirror was held on with packing tape). And yesterday, I went down to the County Clerk's office and registered him. It was beautiful, stark contrast to getting things done in New Orleans. I was in and out in twenty minutes. My paperwork was a little "off" and the clerk just shrugged and fudged it. I gush only because in the last week that I lived in NOLA, I spent a total of 8 hours in various New Orleans offices trying to update Igor's registration only to finally give up because I had too much moving stuff to do.

Financial hardships aside (I might mention that Igor's facelift and paperwork were to the tune of $600+), I'm pleased as punch to be here. The people remain wonderful-- even just casual conversations with bank tellers can turn into 20 minute discussions of why they're sure I'll be happy in Louisville. I guess that's something that's neat and novel about Louisville; I've yet to meet a Louisvillager who doesn't like living here. Even pre-Katrina, it seemed as though 50% of NOLA's residents counted New Orleans-bashing as one of their favorite hobbies. I always gravitated to the people who loved New Orleans as much as I did, but the negative nancies were everywhere.

And the city is just so gosh darn pretty. Today I took a field trip across town to the Habitat for Humanity Restore (if you've been reading the blog for a while, you'll remember that I volunteered at a Restore when I was in exile in Punta Gorda in October). And driving home through the winding, tree-lined, hilly streets listening to the excellent public radio station, I was just blissed out. (Part of the bliss was finally being able to drive my car again, too). We had two days of rain, but today was sunnny and hot-- but not stinking hot. In fact, last week, we went three days without using the AC.

Shoot. My battery is almost dead. Just as well, I think I'll draw myself a nice bath and then head to bed. Long story short-- still thrilled with the move.