bunrab | Stuff. A year.

Let's see. I mentioned family dinner Tuesday, did I not? My newest niece (#37) is cute - and teeny tiny. Also got email from one of the oldest nieces - I now have great-nephew #3. Oops, time to make another baby blanket!

We saw "Over the Hedge" yesterday. It was cute - not great, but cute and amusing, worth the matinee price. Had some moments in it that were definitely for the grownups. ("Stellllaaaaa!") We ate lunch beforehand at a Pakistani restaurant in the same mall, and it was not bad at all - a very large lunch buffet. Some sort of Pakistani equivalent of MTV on a big screen at the back of one dining area - all music videos featuring scantily clad young women and strong young men - with the occasional camel wandering past.

It was also damn hot for here, yesterday, and I wound up sleeping a lot later than usual today, missing lunch, which I blame on the heat.

However, we are going out to supper tonight, because: We arrived in Maryland a year ago today!

We left Texas on the 14th - and so this past Wednesday, at the Silver Diner, we celebrated that by ordering the Crunchy Gulf Shrimp Platter (yes, it's a no-no on both our diets). Silver Diner, you may recall me mentioning previously, is the home of the world's best chicken pot pie. So, we had a Texas meal on Wednesday. And tonight, we will eat at the same restaurant that was the first real restaurant we ate at in the area (not a chain, not fast food), a local place called the Crab Shanty. We actually didn't first eat there until the 21st of June last year - because that's when our car finally arrived, and we started roaming around further than the chain restaurants a block away from the apartment. As it happens, the Crab Shanty is closer to our house here in Catonsville than it was to the apartment in Columbia, a peculiarity of its location right on Route 40 in Ellicott City. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more fresh seafood.

Observations on a year in Maryland:
Food is more expensive here. Classical music is cheaper and more frequent.
Water is considerably cheaper. Air conditioning is going to jump in price pretty drastically this year. It will still be cheaper to air condition this ranch house than the leaky antique on Riverside.
There are lots of wild cottontail rabbits in our neighborhood. And wild strawberries growing on our lawn. We didn't have those in Texas.
On the other hand, we don't have Schlotzky's or Magnolia Cafe here, and I do miss those.
We are finally beginning to get the house in the shape we will be comfortable with; by the time we've actually been in this house a year, we may even be mostly unpacked!
So far, so good.