Can I Get an Amen?

About five minute after I started complaining about having to wait too long to be assigned a place to live via military housing, the Coast Guard Housing Gods smiled upon us and made that shit happen.  Really, I think it was my sister Maureen.  She put the good vibes out into the universe, and lo and behold, what was coveted appeared.  Alright, enough with the pseudo-religious crap.  

Movers converge

The beyond happy news is that we're finally, blissfully out of the hotel room.  If you listen closely, you can hear my giant, heaving sign of relief.  No more Bitchen!  (bathroom/kitchen for those non-followers)  And also no more bitchin' from me about being in limbo at a hotel.

View from our backyard

To be honest, my expectations for military housing were pretty low.  Which worked out in our favor, because we totally hit the jackpot with our living situation again.  The place we were assigned is about perfect. - Two bedrooms, a garage, and a fenced in yard for the Pugbull to roam.  It's everything we were hoping to get, with backyard mountain views as a bonus.

Another backyard view

Coming from Key West - where the houses in the area where we lived are notoriously tiny - this place feels palatial.  I can't even believe how much storage space we have.  Closets galore, and even an extra storage room behind the garage.  A whole other room!  Just for storage!   Unheard of.  Hubby was in utter heaven over the weekend working on one of his, oh I don't know, 8 bicycles.  Up on the rack!  In a space that isn't a living room or tiny deck in the sweltering heat!  I swear I heard him whistling.

Clearing the Pushki that was poking through the other side of the fence in the yard, so the Pugbull doesn't have to suffer a round two of the rash. (Pushki-whacking?)

And I know this is a slightly sad thing to be excited about, but I'm so stoked to have an actual laundry room.  Not a laundry closet with the world's tiniest stack-able washer/dryer, but a real, live laundry ROOM.  It's been over 5 years since I've had that luxury.  With a high-efficiency, front loading, full-sized washer!  I won't admit how long I crouched down and watched through the door while the clothes tumbled around in the sudsy water the first time I did a load of laundry.  It was a while.  What?  Did I not say I was excited?  

Empty cabinets - soon to be fully stocked

We've been wading through a sea of boxes and all of our crap since the movers came and unloaded all of our worldly possessions a few days ago.  It's really amazing how much pointless stuff you can accumulate over a relatively short period of time.  I've been in throw out mode for the last few days.  If it's remotely unusable, broken, or is a double of something, out it goes.  I'm glad I stumbled upon a Salvation Army here, because I'll be paying them a visit with a donation soon.  

Unfortunately, the movers didn't treat our TV as gently as we would have hoped. - It emerged from the box with a pretty substantial scratch on the upper left side of the screen.  Which is hard to believe, considering they double boxed the damn thing.  Hell, I could easily carry on watching it with the scratch and not care a bit, but since the moving company has a 100% replacement policy for any high dollar items that are damaged, I guess it makes sense to follow the process through.  Plus, someone else would probably not be down with the whole "the TV isn't really broken" philosophy I've got going on right now.  I won't name names.  

Home sweet home, finally.  Hallelujah! 

In other news, I ventured out to the DMV to become a full-fledged Alaska resident and driver today.  It was a valiant, but failed attempt.  Apparently the state of Alaska requires all drivers to take a multiple choice test in order to receive an Alaska license, even if you have a license from another state.  Let's just say I did a cursory skim through of the driver's manual the night before, and promptly failed the test today.  I was feeling less than smart after that debacle.  Needless to say, I'll be doing more than just skimming the information this weekend, and I'll re-take the test on Monday.  Stupid, random numbers.  Did you know that you should turn off your high-beams when you're 500 feet or more from an oncoming vehicle?  Not 300.  Won't get that one wrong if it comes up again.

It's funny, it always makes me a little sad when I have to turn in my Florida driver's license.  I've had to do it one other time, and I was sad then, just like I'm sad now.  It'll be bye bye Sunshine State, hello Last Frontier.  If I can pass the damn test, that is.

The Cheetster waiting patiently to get a sniff of his new home while the movers do their thing

Finally settling in to our new home was a terrific 39th birthday present!  And home made chocolate cake with the king of all frosting (cream cheese, if you don't already know the answer to that) from the hubby wasn't too shabby, either.