working on it

Your comments are really wonderful...I'm so lucky to have friends like you! For instance, Alison H. understood exactly what how I felt about the permit process for having a moving truck--(oh, how good that they could help me do that quickly!!) Kerry *aka Carolyn*--we still don't have a fence up, although believe me, I want it to happen soon!

This post is photo heavy. Those who know me realize that I'm not overly hung up on interior decoration. I want things to look nice, but am not fixated on the perfect home thing. However, when I see something I like, I want to have it, dang it! That's why I took no fewer than 3 trips to Canadian Tire (a big store) to get two of these leafy vine shower curtains for our bathroom. You see, you need two shower curtains when you have a claw footed tub... and that took several trips. I'm working on the curtains, which will be knitted, of course...more than halfway done with that.

Meanwhile, the professor brought his first load of lab and office equipment to his new laboratory. Due to this fire
in one of the biology buildings, folks in the department are doubled up and sharing space. The professor caught this gorgeous view from his new lab desk. He's setting up his lab as both research laboratory and office. This allows the scientists displaced in the fire to keep using his designated office. While the fire itself (repair costs of 40-50 million dollars...) was a nightmare, the other biology professors came right out to the car to help the professor move in. What a warm welcome!

I can't wait until the rest of the lab stuff is delivered. Right now, this is what our living room looks like. The boxes on the right? Most of them are the professor's. We have a lot of lab supplies and science books in our living room!

The professor saw this canning display at the university book store and knew I'd feel right at home. He shot a photo for me.

I can't even estimate how many kind people have welcomed us to Canada. It's been sort of amazing. Each day has its own challenges, too...a lot of idioms are different here!

The home inspector told the professor:

"You appear to have a problem with eavesdropping."

The professor (and I) immediately panicked. Was there a bug planted in our house!? Could people hear all the (stupid) things we say to each other?

No. We have an actual problem with a lack of "eavestroughs." You know. Gutters. The things that keep rain draining neatly. (Eavesdropping, the phrase, came from someone listening in by standing under the eaves of a house.)

This was plain old funny, but sometimes we just don't have a clue what people are trying to tell us!

We are settling in. Due to a strange coincidence, our new dining room looks remarkably like our old one. The old dining room? Red walls. We didn't choose it, but it was recently painted, so we just lived with it, and grew to like it. So, new dining room? Here it is. For those of you who've eaten in our home before, doesn't this look familiar?!

With all this focus on unpacking, we've missed the Winnipeg Fringe Festival entirely...but soon, we'll have things set up to a point where we can actually check out the city too, I hope!

It wasn't until today that I really began to feel at home. Today we hung our ketubah as well as our mezuzahs. We have a beautiful Italian glass mezuzah that the professor's aunt gave us...we're hoping it will make it through the cold winters here without cracking...but I also love that I feel comfortable enough to put it at the front door. (It's bright blue, which would attract attention, so we avoided putting that one at the front door at our last house. For a variety of reasons, it just didn't seem safe...and now it is!)

Other wonderful signs that this will be a good home? The professor cleaned out a closet and found a set of knitting needles Waiting for me! I unpacked some books, and put the needles with the books...and a beautiful skein of samoyed/Merino yarn, made in Canada, and gifted to me by a new knitting friend. She came by with lots of info about Manitoba, yarn, jam, and cinnamon buns. How fabulous! What a special treat!

This morning, I pushed past the boxes and canned with local Manitoba fruit. One batch each of raspberry and strawberry jam...about 16 jars, all told. Beginning to feel downright homey here!

More soon, I hope. I feel guilty every time I sit down to the computer--there's still more to unpack...