As we settle in..........

Note: The above date on this post is not accurate; mine are. Putting them in this order was the only way I could make them go from first to last.......

If you're new to this blog, see it from the beginning at:

http://offtowhidbey.blogspot.com/. When you get to the bottom, click on "older posts" which, in truth are the newer ones......trust me!

Wednesday, August 18th

Well, first off, several people have asked about the kitchen floor. It's pretty much dry now, but the buckles are still there, so we'll have it redone, probably next week, and, yes, paid by the builder! This will take at least 3 days so we'll go away during the fixing. Good friend Kay who also lives on the island suggested "The Loop". Just looked it up on Goggle; it does seem absolutely beautiful: http://www.cascadeloop.com/index.php, and of course now, during the summer, is a good time to explore. We'll also do some "off island" shopping hitting Costco, Ikea and Trader Joe's of course.

Things are still a big mess in the house and garage, but we're getting there. Dave has begun to put the Ikea furniture back together! Today he finished two book cases, got the sofa and other things up to the main floor, so the "living area"

is now habitable. If we can withstand this move, with, what seems to be, endless visits to Home Depot, winter will be nothing.

Of course, first things first. Our HUGE TV, which no longer seems so huge in this house! is up so we can watch JON STEWART again. YAY!

A woman came by today to show us "window treatments"........ (can you believe we're into window treatments for God's sake!). We're looking at top-down/bottom-up shades which I have to say are REALLY nifty. You can run around the house in anything (or nothing ;+}) and still see outside with people seeing only your head! TERRIFIC concept. (http://www.hunterdouglas.com/product-option.jsp?id=36). Later: Window bid came in $2K over what the mother of all drives budgeted for us! Stay tuned to see what we'll do with this...........go with Costco for the same thing or pare down. I suspect the latter. It's nice having a "personal" consultant on something we know nothing about, and buying locally on all this rather than at a big box outlet.

Now to our very zen-like doorbell. Every year Coupeville, up the road, hosts an Arts & Crafts fair; lots of fun (http://www.coupevilleartsandcraftsfestival.org/). We bought a beautiful sculpted glass wind chime last weekend to serve as our doorbell (or wind chime or whatever it wants to be). Turn up your audio all the way, and you can see/hear it here. None of that incessant nerve wracking tinkle tinkle tinkle of most wind chimes (to me anyway; I know and appreciate that MANY people find them delightful), just a lovely, sort of serene, Buddhist-like call to meditation gong (not to mention the fact it has very Martha Stewart-like colors that match the house!).

We've been working in/on the garden too. The homes in our little pocket neighborhood are very close together, so, privacy comes from (in addition to the "window treatments") foliage surrounding houses. This is a photo of the space, about 25', between us and our neighbor to the right who, if she wants to, as things now stand, can read the label on our toilet paper.

So, we're considering planting one of two trees in this space, on the left, soon: maybe a Paperbark Maple

a Japanese Maple, or another one, the name of which I don't remember. Will take a photo and post later.

I cooked wholesome REAL food for the first time the other night in this magnificent kitchen which, as someone pointed out is almost the size of one of our former cottages in Pacific Grove. What luxury. Made a ratatouille (sans eggplant) from fresh, right off the vine, organic vegetables from the garden of our neighbor's kids. What fun!

Oh, and I'm seriously thinking of taking up the marimba..........SERIOUSLY! There's an island group that holds classes—http://www.rubatano.com/index.htm—http://www.rubatano.com/html/about_us.html—I watched them at the Farmer's Market last Saturday. Now and then, individuals (two in this video) from Zimbabwe, come to the Langley group to teach...........watch it; it's joy full! (same kind of "vibe" as a DEAD show for all my DEADHEAD friends).

Oh, one more thing; I had THE BEST pedicure ever on my hopeless feet today at: http://www.islandgirlnails.com/

Hope all is well with everyone.

Di................. & Dave too

Thursday, August 19th

The Island County Fair, (http://www.islandcountyfair.com/documents/48.html) which is a hop, skip and a jump from our house, opened today, the good old fashioned kind with pigs and cows, country music, and 4H.

I also saw more window treatment samples from the window treatment lady. Less expensive than the last samples, so we'll see. We're also getting those NIFTY screen doors that roll into a canister kind of thing where you can't see them when they're not in use. (http://www.wizardindustries.com/video.html) I had no idea any of this stuff existed until now.

See ya'll next week.

Much love.