Okay, I’m going to try to ease back into regular posting again now. The madness is still continuing, but it’s lowered from an F5 tornado of insanity to a mere severe thunderstorm of insanity.

First and foremost, we have moved. Everything we own is at the house and the apartment keys have been turned in. We are now, for real, homeowners. For the first time since becoming an adult, I’m not paying rent anymore (although I am paying a mortgage, HOA fee, etc., etc., etc.). I’ve been pretty constantly busy with unpacking, moving, assembling new furniture, and so on all while trying to do my regular stuff too. It’s a lot to juggle, but we’re getting through it. I still need to fill out some more government paperwork to get my voter registration, tax information, and some other stuff updated with the new address, put together two bookshelves, and . . . well, just lots more unpacking.

The essentials, however, are done. We have power, gas, water, Internet, television, and a security system. Our home network is completely up and running (now with breathtaking Verizon FIOS Internet speed). The cats have food, water, and a litter box. All the furniture except the two aforementioned un-assembled bookshelves are in their correct places. It’s mostly just getting through the boxes at this point, and fine-tuning everything else. Many thanks to our family (both sets of parents and siblings) for all their help!

Meanwhile, I’m back at work. The new job is going quite well and I’m starting to get past the ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ phase. I still have some learning to do, but I’m feeling fairly competent now with my day-to-day work. It’s definitely a change of pace from the government world.

Lastly, I still have a couple of major technical things to get done on the site over the next week or so. I’m tentatively scheduling some down-time for this coming Saturday, but will provide more detail when the time comes.

See, I told you the posting would be much more limited for a while!

Things are progressing very well. We have a final estimate of how much money we have to pay at settlement on the house (less than I had feared), all the utilities are lined up, the Internet gets connected Monday (the day before we really, officially move in), and so on. It’s very exciting but, especially combined with a new job, very stressful.

Speaking of the new job, it’s going well. I’m still the ‘new guy,’ and I’m just struggling to keep up and learn the ropes on a very complex system, but I haven’t screwed anything up too badly so far. I’m also just now starting to feel like I know what I’m doing, at least on the simple things. I’ve already learned a couple of nifty new technical things I’m going to implement on my own site whenever I get around to its next revision.

The biggest drain on my attention though is the house stuff—making sure everything is lined up and ready to go for Friday (settlement) and through the next week. I think we’re good and have all the important things ready, but I still need to do some purging in my office (which I’ve been putting off since before the last move) and other random little things. I’ve also started to map out what things we need to do on what days from Friday until next Wednesday, since it’s too much to remember on-the-fly.

Wish us luck!