Holy moly, it's windy up here. This bodes not well for the garden. But I like my neighborhood so far. The neighbors directly across the street are a nice young couple with a new baby and two dogs. We're only three blocks from the city library. There's a drugstore one block away, just like at our old house, and the local food store is a Molly Stone's, i.e., an upscale grocery with 50 kinds of cheese, "artisan" bread baked daily, and plenty of organic vegetables. I can see a large portion of Mt. San Bruno from my front porch. I can see hills from the back.

The pets have adjusted well. Natasha refused to come out of her cat carrier for an hour, but after that she walked around like she owned the place. Keiko's tailed puffed out like a bottle brush as she investigated the back steps, but now she's completely at home inside and out. Both cats adore the new arrangement with the cat tree set up next to the big picture window in the front, and a great view from a bookcase at the window of the master bedroom upstairs. Dixie is a little surprised at being in a new place, but likes having a real back yard again with grass and birds and plenty of interesting scents on the wind that Mom isn't so keen on.

It was a bit of a wrench to say goodbye to my garden at the old place, and the rooms we had filled with our abundance of books and kipple. We had two and a half happy years there, but I didn't expect to feel sentimental about it. John said he felt it, too. I suppose I hate to leave any place I've been happy. I'd just forgotten what that's like. Now I have a new place to be happy, and I intend to be.

Be it ever so humble, and stuffed to the rafters with boxes, there's no place like home.

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