Running From Skunks

I can't believe that it's September already. As if on cue, the weather here has a slightly chilly cast and suddenly there are leaves on the ground. The smell of woodsmoke on the evening breeze and the sound of the school bus picking up kids in the early morning. I feel the strange need to shop for sweaters and college-ruled filler paper, yellow pencils and folders.

It's supposed to get down into the low 50s tonight. I've really been holding my breath, hoping for a summer that holds on...I don't want to have to turn that boiler on again. I'm sure I've just been fooling myself to believe that we're going to escape Newport without filling the oil tank again!

We have been making a little progress into the whole Germany thing. I spent a couple of days worrying about where we're going to live for the month of November. Our lease here is up at the end of October, which is fine. We will want to ship all of our furniture at the end of October anyway--hopefully it will beat us to Germany and be waiting. We wouldn't have any furniture even if we could extend our lease through November. No beds. No HUGE TV. Hans was acting all cavalier about it, as if he wouldn't be complaining about an air bed and no HUGE TV for a month.

Anyway, while I was in Minnesota, I came up with the brilliant plan to rent a furnished house for the month of November. I contacted our real estate lady when I got back to Newport and she showed me one home. It was...OK. Super expensive and Hans made a good point about it being a pain to change all of our utilities over for one month. We figured out that it would actually be less expensive to check into the Navy Lodge for November, so we made our reservation there. I'm satisfied with that...it will be nice not to have to worry about cleaning up a house for a few weeks. On the other hand, it will be interesting to share a double room with everyone for a month, too. They are nice rooms though, they have kitchens, fairly BIG TVs and hey--we can crank the heat up until we're gasping for air. And WE don't have to pay for it!!! Hahaha!

We also got some paperwork filed and made an appointment to get our moves scheduled.

Enough about that. Not much else is going on. We blew some cash this weekend. Hans bought a new Bose surround-sound system for the TV. We checked first at Best Buy, where he slobbered over some $1K system. The next day, I found something very comparable at our Navy Exchange for $449. Thank God I didn't give in, but cleaned up his drool and asked him to check around a bit. Why we go into Best Buy, I don't know. If we bought it there, I'm sure they would have convinced us that we needed all kinds of cords and protection plans.

Also...I bought stroller #6 this weekend. I know, I know. SIX strollers? Well, all of them have served a purpose. We have had quite a time trying to figure out the best scenario for a double. We have the Graco tandem, which was great, but is quite large. I'm trying to sell that one on eBay right now. We have the Kelty double jogger, which is also a bit cumbersome. We took it to the zoo this weekend and after trying to weave among the crowds and having to buckle and unbuckle the kids over and over...got a little frustrated with this stroller, too. Enter the Joovy Caboose. We haven't had it "out" yet, except for a walk, but Josiah is in love with it. It looks like a regular stroller and is as light as a regular stroller, but it has a little bench in back. Josiah can sit on it when he gets tired, or he can stand and look over the canopy. He can jump on and off whenever he wants. Which is super-great for a 3-year-old who wants to walk for awhile and suddenly develops a crippling inability to use his legs and begs to be carried.

Oh, about the title of this post. You know that we have a serious skunk problem in Newport, but fall appears to be the time of year when they are as thick as the bulls of Pamplona. For those of you who don't know, I have been doing some running. I keep seeing skunks, just randomly out in the street, cruising along. Apparently, they are just domesticized, not rabid. It does help me pick up the pace, though!

I ran about 1-1/2 miles last night. Continuously. I don't think I've ever run 1-1/2 miles continuously in my life. I'm loving it!