Welcome to the new.

I was planning on posting another video tour, this time of our new place, but it's taking forever to load. I'm thinking it's going to have to be a next weekend thing so I can give it enough to upload. I only have about three hours in the evenings from when I get home to when I get ready for bed these days and apparently that's not quite enough time for my 6+ minute snoozer of a tour to upload to YouTube. (But seriously, am I doing anything wrong? Are there any tricks to uploading videos faster?) I'm also thinking I'll do another take, with natural light this time, before posting it.

I've gotten some pretty positive feedback from that first initial little tour of our place. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but it took me a good three years to get that place somewhere I was really happy with. And then we moved.

It's taken a week to get this new place somewhere I'm happy with. That's growth. And space. About 1400 more square feet of space, actually. I've mentioned it before, but this is just a temporary hitching post for us before we buy our own place her in the flat land. Rent is really expensive, and the mortgage for a place like our current one will be less than rent. That and we really want to own our own place. Because paint.

I know what you're really wondering about is how things are going so far. Well, like I said before, the drive out here was mostly uneventful if a little colder than the North Pole. It would have been way out of Scott Calvin's league. We moved in on the coldest day ever, followed by the second coldest day ever that Sunday, and then four days of snow. It was more snow than home's gotten in the past few years and all for my first week at work. Fabulous.

It wasn't actually too bad, and I learned pretty quickly how to get around in it. Look at me now, world! It's been melting like crazy, though, and the roads are turning into lakes. Mom grew up here, and informed us that she can remember people canoeing down the street back in the '70s. We're not quite there yet, but a few more days above zero and we might be.

I never thought I would say this, but anything warmer than -10° feels downright warm. If one more person says "it's a dry cold" to me, though, I might throw something at them. Like a fit.

I worked four days last week, having Friday off as a chance to get settled. It was necessary and wonderful. Dad was here until Saturday afternoon and he did a ton of unpacking for us. I'm pretty I'd still be looking for dishes in a box if he hadn't been here.

We went to a home church on Saturday night, which basically translates into a Bible study, with the friend of a friend that I'd never actually met in person until then. We went to church with them the next morning and out for lunch at McDonald's afterward. They have kids, we all had coupons, and I can't even tell you the last time I ate a chicken McNugget. Karl was giddy. For his burger, not my chicken McNuggets.

It's been so nice that even though we're mostly on our own here, the connections that we've made have been easy and good. My great uncle hooked Karl up with a job (we're taking them for dinner in a couple weeks as a thank you), Karl's work is looking to hook us up with a good deal on a second car (we are so desperate), and now we have new friends to boot. And it's all happening so fast.

It was also really nice to have a few hours last night to just sit, the two of us, watching a couple episodes of The Walking Dead and just feeling back to normal. Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest from unpacking but I've somehow become the kind of person that enjoys putting things away (NOT moving furniture, though) so I spent the afternoon eating chocolate and putting frames on bookshelves. And Skyping with Mom.

Karl started work today and while it was good, but different, it scratched his itch to get back to fixing cars. He kept telling me he had an itch, I kept telling to have a shower then, and he kept saying it was an itch to fix cars. I don't think I've ever had an itch to send out correspondence or write meeting minutes, so I can tell Karl's really in the right business.

Work's been busy and challenging. Having gone in and met most of the staff during my interview, then coming in for another day three weeks before I started, really helped with the transition and the not puking or fainting on the first day. My hours aren't ideal, but hopefully I'll be able to negotiate them a little because they make for really long days. We're actually putting on a conference next week, so I get to dive right in with crazy overtime and the possibility of no weekend coming up. I get exhausted just thinking about it, but I'm really looking forward to the next time I have a day to just do. what. I. want.

I joined a gym but don't have much time to go to it with the car sharing and driving all over town to get to Karl's work. I've been filling that exercise void by eating a lot of chocolate. And somehow justifying it.

Speaking of eating things, we have a garburator. It eats things. I'm not entirely sure what garburator etiquette is, aside from running the water in while in use, but I've been putting my banana peels down it and watching them spin around and die. Or just spin and imagining them die. That's okay, right? Bananas in garburators? Someone please tell me if I'm breaking the drain. Actually, I'd rather be reassured that I'm not.

And, finally, can I just say how much I appreciate this time change? Before you start hurtling insults my way, know that Saskatchewan doesn't change its time, and now we are no longer two hours ahead of home and one ahead of Alberta. We're right on schedule with Alberta and only an hour ahead of home. While you're all bleary-eyed and cursing the advent of Benjamin Franklin or farmers or whoever invented daylight savings, I'm relishing in the fact that it's only 60 minutes between here and home. Trust me, two hours is huge. Mom and I practically ate dinner together over Skype tonight. Because I ate at 7:30. All I can say is it's a good thing I can't eat pizza because with my late hours we would be eating a lot of it.

It's funny, though. Karl and I spent 99% of our lives in Victoria, but I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. Granted, it's only been a week and a half (whaaaaaaat?) but I feel a real sense of peace about being here. So far. And I've only really cried twice (I have a lot of feelings).

Anyway, that's probably enough from me for one night. I'm off to dream about work. And possibly pizza.