Vivi becomes a homeowner

Well, it's done. The papers are signed, we have the keys. Last Friday, we jumped off off the seemingly never-ending rent cycle and into the world of home-ownership. It was an emotional moment for both us: for Stéphane, because his parents never owned their own home, for me because I've passed another milestone I can't share with my parents.

Of course, all this warm fuzziness quickly fizzled when we went to the apartment alone for the first time and as Stéphane attempted to open the water main, the faucet came off in his hand (worry not, it is blocked shut, which is much better than the alternative!). So we've added 'Call the Plumber' to the very long To Do list. We have two weeks before we move, and we've decided to start moving things over already, specifically on the days that we don't have anything else planned. About half of our books have made it over and are piled up in front of windows (in order to conserve boxes we're unloading as we go).

On our last trip we met our upstairs neighbor. I'm extremely happy to report that she is very kind and chatty and in five minutes spoke to us more than the majority of our neighbors in our current lane have in the last five years. She also assured us that it's calm and quiet, which is great news as our present neighbors are getting worse as time goes on.

Of course, in the middle of all this action, I have to go and catch a summer cold. I am officially in hell - it's hot again, I've got a head cold, and we have a metric ton of stuff to do and every day we're not doing sometime towards the move I feel like we're falling behind. Even so, I'm glad we managed to get away yesterday to the lake, just before my cold really bloomed, as Fry had an amazing time playing on the "beach" (the Floridian in me shudders to call it a beach but I digress) and loved playing with our friends' kids and swimming with Papa. Now I just need to find a balance between resting and packing as we have less than two weeks to blow this pop stand!