It's not my fault!!

This is a post in which I pay respects to my laptop. After a months long battle with a failing hard drive, it has finally succumbed. Because of this, I won't be able to post pictures for a few days. This also means that I'm behind on my reading. There were four e-books on the laptop, freshly downloaded and ready to be transferred to my Nook that never made it off the sinking ship. Hopefully we will be able to transfer the contents of the hard drive to a new temporary one, which would allow me to have a few days' worth of reading material and the ability to post some cute puppy pictures :)
And now, I leave you with some food for thought: the Redskins need to work on their red zone offense, because field goals aren't cutting it. I now return to Monday Night Football. Let's got Skins!!

Alright, alright. I'm posting.

Geez! Kidding, I know I've been slacking off, while all you guys have been waiting so patiently for news and pictures and excitement. As for news, not much to report. My neighbors are all terrible people who let their children scream in the street at 6:00 in the morning while walking their small yappy dog that they allow to bark and bark and bark, after a car horn beeps for about 15 seconds to wake us all up, including the dogs who start barking because they're pissed off about being awoken. Can you blame them? Not so much. It's grey and rainy here, has been for the past few days, but it's supposed to clear up and warm up next week. I believe we'll be back in the high 70's before too long. If I was making a list of things I really enjoy about Charlotte, that would be on there. I'll still be tan at Christmas at the rate we're going.
Anywho, the dogs are adjusting pretty well, they miss having a big yard to run around in so they make do with running around the house and slamming each other into walls. I would care more about disturbing our neighbors if they weren't such pains in the tush. Slowly but surely we are getting our furniture and stuff in, though our walls are still very much naked (as you will see shortly). But enough of that, here are some pictures, the REAL reason for this blog.

 As always, a funny street sign. I've been trying to get this one basically since we first got down here.

"But Rose," you ask, "Aren't the clothes supposed to go IN the dresser?" To which I respond, "Touche." Also, our lovely Ikea bed, apparently not as complicated as Nate's, which is still not put together. Lame.

Our nice guest bathroom stuff. I think it's nice, although in looking at the pictures I see that most of our color choices are some type of brown. BORING!

Our (brown) sofa, also from Ikea. Unfortunately, the covers are dry clean only. Bummer, especially because they tend to attract things like stains and dog-hair. We chose brown so the dog-hair would blend in :)

I was SUPER excited to buy a set of knives. We were really roughin' it on Trout Brook with like 3 old, dull knives. And of course, the most important appliance in the kitchen, the coffee maker. It comes in handy after being rudely awakened by the obnoxious neighbors. Did I mention I don't like the neighbors?

Our first bookshelf. Sweet! And our awesome Papasan chairs. The red one is in the corner where I like to curl up with my Nook (thanks, Mom!) and a cup of tea and devour books. Enzo also prefers that corner. He likes to sleep behind the chair where no one can see him or make him uncomfortable by moving around too much. He's a picky sleeper.

Two sleepy monsters, after a long day of wrestling and trouble-making. They were basically sleeping in the exact same position, down to the way their ears were falling on the floor. Que cute! Archie also likes the red chair, it's his new favorite nap spot and he gets mad when I'm sitting in it and he has to sleep on the floor/sofa. How dare I take his chair!!


If I don't post regularly, keep bugging me!

On the road again.

This past weekend we drove back to Connecticut to pick up the pups and pack up our Pod (how's THAT for alliteration?). It was also Donald's birthday, and we had some delicious chocolate cake with chocolate ganache that had one pound of chocolate in the recipe. Awesome! Anyway, as promised, here are some road pics.

Because it was 9/11 weekend, we drove 81 through the mountains. More interesting scenery than on 95, though even more unlit.

One good thing about driving this way was that we could fill up for $40. I guess living in the middle of nowhere has to have some perks.

As promised, funny road signs. Apparently people in Virginia really wish they were from Scotland.

Then we drove into a big rainstorm and somewhere in Pennsylvania it looked like there was going to be a tornado. Don't worry, there wasn't.

Living in the south, you see a certain amount of redneck-ery. This was a prime example.

Where's the one place you NEVER want to be? Oh yea, that would be West Virginia. We consulted GPS to make sure we didn't miss our exit.

And of course, the reason we made the drive in the first place. Monstahs are adjusting well, and we're glad to have them back.



Hope you're all well!

Slacker alert!!

I definitely haven't been posting as regularly as I planned to. We are in Connecticut for the weekend picking up the dogs, but once we're back in North Carolina I will be back to posting more often. I have exciting things like pictures of furniture and funny road signs to post. Bet you're pumped now. See you Wednesday!!

You learn something new every day

And believe me, I have been learning a lot. Here are some of the more surprising / weird / helpful things I've picked up on.

-- 80's music is still regularly played on the radio. I've heard "Vogue" and Billy Idol songs on multiple stations.
-- The license plate game is AWESOME here. I've seen SC, FL, IL, OH, TX, CA, OR, and IA, just to name a few. 
-- Our closest neighbor lives on our front porch, and is a black widow spider.
-- There are actually a lot of interracial couples down here, surprisingly many of them black/white.
-- Most of the Spanish population here is South American, not Caribbean.
-- Home life is more important than jobs, so things are more relaxed.
-- You can buy alcohol 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
-- Waiters and waitresses always ask if you want one check or separate checks.
-- It's "sweet tea" or "unsweet tea," not "unsweetened." Saying unsweetened makes you look uppity.
-- There are a lot of people in Charlotte who are not from Charlotte. It's a good place to move to.
-- Nona's Bakery is delicious, and if you ever come to visit I'll bring you there.
-- As I mentioned before, Wal-Mart is a way of life, and they have the best groceries. Better than the grocery stores.

There is still a lot to learn about life in the south, but all in all we are settling in nicely.

Here's to new experiences!
Rose & Donald

Home sweet home!

Yesterday we got the keys to the condo. The community is nice, very quiet with a lot of kids and dogs. We've been working on getting the new place set up, which basically just means there is trash everywhere right now. We brought a few things with us, but we've been buying most of the bigger stuff we've needed. Doing all this running around has been helping us get to know the area so hopefully we'll stop having to use GPS for everything. There are a ton of HUGE Wal-Marts down here, all of which are open 24 hours. It's like a religion. We spent the day with no furniture yesterday, so that was priority #1 this morning. We got a couple chairs and we picked out the rest of the furniture we want, which we should be picking up this weekend. I came home to beautiful flowers and some chocolates from my mom, thanks Mom!

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The house.

The kitchen, with an electric stove :( I guess I can't have everything!

"Fireplace" in the living room.

Dining area.

Sitting room thingy / entrance.

Spare rooms.

Master bedroom

Is that a homeless guy?! Oh no, it's just Donald sleeping on the floor cuz we had no furniture.

That whole building is Wal-Mart. There's even a McDonald's inside.

We thought my car needed a hat.

Lovely flowers from my mom, along with my Evil Queen box. Its twin is on my mom's mantle. 

Talk soon,
Rose & Donald