phineasjones

mmm. i am currently enjoying a fabulous breakfast. it includes scrambled tofu from yesterday's lunch leftovers, beans and rice from yesterday's dinner leftovers and banana-blueberry bread that rach made last night in her first high altitude baking effort. it was a grand success. yum. and i am in breakfast heaven.

we made more visible progress with our unpacking yesterday. but i'm tired of progress. i want completion. this is taking too frickin long.

we also watched bride and prejudice which was enjoyable but on the edge of being too cheezy for me. it was all worth it just to see sayid naveen andrews getting down. and all the pretty people and pretty colors and fun dance scenes.

in her research on high altitude baking, rach came across other fun facts. like that the boiling point up here is lower. so, if you want to cook something by boiling it, you have to do it for longer than you would, say, in boston, because the temperature is lower. i probably learned that in sixth grade science class or something but i had thoroughly forgotten it. crazy. i'm worried that between the altitude and the electric stove we have here, my cooking will suffer. but... breakfast is good, so i guess i won't worry too much just now.

hi, kittens!

i have missed you greatly in these days of spotty internet connections and crazy unpacking madness. so i thought i'd steal a little time for catching up this morning.

first thing first - a rec. i linked this with no explanation the other day, so in case you missed it, on this short day of frost and sun is jjtaylor's latest. it's dark is rising/hp - remus/bran. and it's gorgeous and breath-stopping. i love it. i love her. i am a happy girl.

now, let's see. what do i have to tell you about colorado?

weather. i love it. i love it so much, i think i'll marry it. and we'll have beautiful little dry, sunny babies with curly hair. truly, it is gorgeous. there's been one over-the-top hot day since we've been here. and that was rough, yes, but i can take it. two days ago, it was cloudy and in the 60s. yesterday and today feel like late september in massachusetts - dry, warm, sunny, breezy... beautiful. i have never loved july like this. i didn't know i could.

people. yep, it's true. people are nicer when you get out of the northeast. not on the close, personal friend level (that i know of anyway), we're talking strangers here. neighbors have introduced themselves to us. sadly, that never happened in mass. every single supermarket cashier has been chatty and cheerful. people look you in the face and smile when they walk by. they ask 'how're you doing?' when you pass them on the street. it's pretty frickin' weird. nice, most of the time. though i suspect the new englander in me will crave a comfortable level of anonymity at times. we'll see.

unpacking. oh my good lord, can we please be done now? yesterday we made significant, visible progress. it's nice that i have a clear desktop and the floors are mostly empty. but there are still huge piles of stuff everywhere and the second floor is a complete disaster. oy. i'm just tired of this. i want to snap my fingers and have everything leap into place. damn this muggle thing.

time zones. it is weird to be on mountain time. i never thought about it before - what it would feel like not to be on the same time as new york city and washington dc - the places where big stuff happens. it makes the distance feel more significant. it makes me feel snobbish about being from the east. it's strange, but i suppose i'll get used to it.

friends. yesterday was nice. rach's friend ben who lives in broomfield (between denver and boulder) came by in the afternoon. he helped us bundle up boxes while his dog ran around our yard and pooped (he cleaned it up, i'm happy to say). and then in the evening, we picked up dan and laura from the airport and brought them here to see the house and we all went out for drinks and dinner at a nearby place (yummy drinks, we'll go there again). and then they borrowed a car to head up to the mountains. we're going to meet them up there tomorrow afternoon and spend a night in their cabin. and then we'll come back on saturday and hang out in denver.

it was so nice to have casual hang out time with people we know and are comfortable with. i know i haven't been away from my family and friends all that long... and i haven't been moping around missing people too much. but this just reminded me of what i'm missing. which is a lot. i know we'll make new friends and yada yada. but man, the friends i already have are so fantastically great. i wish they were all here with us. wah.