Hi Everyone!
Whew, I'm finally moved in, somewhat settled and back on broadband.
The move went well, took 6 hours and 2 trips, but I got them to move
everything and didn't have to drive back and forth with my car a whole
bunch of times.  I got them to place all the furniture in the correct
spots so I didn't have to move that around and they put the boxes into
the correct rooms so it was easier for me to unpack.
The movers actually showed up an hour late, it was the day after
daylight savings started and I think someone forgot to change their
clocks!!!  Oh well, I was all ready and when they didn't show, I decided
to give getting my king sized mattress off the bed another go.  In a
superwoman effort, I managed to heave it off and tilt it up against the
wall.  Then I was able to actually take the whole bed apart.  I stripped
every screw but got them out so that's all that matters!!!
After that, I saw a huge huntsman spider under my computer desk.  I got
out the vacuum cleaner and went to suck it up but it moved away.  I
crawled under the desk to find it and I *think* I got it but
simultaneously I felt something on the back of my neck and also
simultaneously the movers arrived.  I got totally spooked and screamed
and bashed my head on the underside of my desk, jumped out and began
shaking out the back of my shirt.  The movers were looking in the window
right next to my desk and were just about pissing themselves laughing at
my antics.  But when I let them in and told them about the huntsman,
they stopped laughing and said they were not touching the desk unless I
could guarantee it was spider free.  Pussies ;-)
Anyway, I'm pretty sure I did get the spider with the vacuum because I
never saw it again during the move.
During all the loading up of the truck, I had Vino locked in the
bathroom.  He didn't like that at all and yowled pitifully.  I went in
and visited with him for 5 min every 20 min or so but it didn't really
help.  He wanted to be where he could see the action!
Once everything was moved over to the new house and the guys with the
truck had left, I drove back to the old house and picked up Vino and
brought him to the new house.  I could tell he was quite concerned when
I put him in his carrier and loaded him in the car.  It was like he was
thinking, "Oh no, here we go again, I'm in for a loooooong move."  But
when we were already at the new house in 5 minutes, he was really happy.
I let him out and he immediately went exploring.  He's such a good mover
now, he doesn't even low walk anymore.  He recognized all of his
furniture and boxes and made sure to rub himself on everything just to
say hello again.
I decided that I was going to spend my first night in the new house in
luxury and style and not on a mattress on the floor, so I started by
putting my bed together again.  I can't believe I managed it but it
actually helped that there were boxes and suitcases all over the place
and I could rest pieces of the bed on stuff while putting in (new)
screws, etc.    Got the mattress on too and new sheets, etc. and I was
seriously chuffed!  I am woman, hear me....yawn!
Went to bed and heard Vino use his litterbox in the laundry room, heard
him crunch on some kibble in the kitchen and then he came to bed just
like always.  What a good boy!  I was so proud of how fast he adjusted.
The next morning I woke up early.  I have no curtains yet and have a
huge glass wall on one side of the bedroom.  Luckily we just got
daylight savings, or I'd have been up even earlier!  Anyway, I woke up
and looked out at my view of paddocks and a couple of huge gnarly peppi
trees and saw a little family of kangaroos about 20 meters away.  The
mom had a quite big joey in the pouch.  So cute!  I propped up my pillow
and continued watching.  The joey got out of the pouch and made 3 wobbly
jumps away from the mom.  Then it jumped back.  Then it started doing
laps around the mom while the mom craned her neck around to keep an eye
on him the whole time.  It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen!
I watched for about 30 min.  Vino saw them too and was mildly curious
but not overly excited.  But it's a whole nother story with the birds.
I've got a lot of ringnecks (green parrots) and kookaburras in the peppi
trees and you can see them flying around all day long.  Vino loves
watching them.
Over the next few days I had a lot of workmen in & out, doing last
minute things (like putting on all my kitchen cabinet handles, amazing
how important those become when you start wanting to put stuff away!).
Vino would be locked in the bedroom during these times and he didn't
like all the noises from the power tools very much.  One time I couldn't
find him at all and thought one guy had let him out.  I wandered around
outside, calling him but no sign of him, outside or inside.  Finally I
thought I noticed a funny lump on the bed so I lifted the blanket and
there he was!
So for the first couple of days I was without a phone and then another
couple of days with no internet and then I got a temporary dial-up
connection while they were processing my broadband application and then,
finally, just a few days ago, broadband!!!!!   Wooo hooo!  When we first
began the building process, I had been told that there was absolutely no
chance that I'd get broadband out there and no chance of it ever coming
to the area.  I totally freaked and began researching satellite and all
sorts of nonsense.  But it's so funny.  The 2 daughters of the "founding
family" of the whole area, the family after whom a huge highway is named
and the next town as well, these 2 daughters each had a house built just
up the road from us at the same time as our house was being built.  And
suddenly, broadband was available!!!  Wow, magic!  I guess it pays to
have influential neighbours ;-)
So over the next couple of weeks, I got everything unpacked and
organized.  Vino got totally settled in and now acts like he's never
lived anywhere else.  And surprisingly, he hasn't been bugging me to go
outside at all.  This is a huge relief since I was prepared for tons of
yowling and glass scratching.  Dennis is home in 6 days and I think at
that point we will introduce Vino to his catflap.  That way there's 2 of
us to keep an eye on him in the beginning.  I'd hate to lose Vino with
Dennis away.  That would be about the worst nightmare I could imagine!
But seriously, I doubt he'll go far, he's just interested in parking
himself in a sunny spot and watching the world go by nowadays.
So I've not read the group in weeks and have thousands of unread posts.
There is no way I can ever catch up so I've had to mark them all as
read.  Please feel free to fill me in on any pertinent news that I
missed out on.  Otherwise, please accept blanket purrs for all who need
them.
Oh yeah, I'm still working on getting more pics of the house together
but again, haven't really had any time.  I'll post a link when I'm done
that.
Hugs & purrs,