Sorry for not posting in a while, but an awful lot has happened in the last two weeks. Needless to say, Kelly and I are now residing in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. We drove both our cars from Arizona to here over five days, and I don't know if I ever want to do that again. We've been staying in an empty house, but the movers will show up tomorrow morning with all our stuff. We have been pretty busy cleaning up the place. I guess the owners moved out two days before we arrived and say they didn't have time to clean up the place. The carpets hadn't been cleaned and the walls were all dirty. And the owners had some sort of shaggy dog because there is wiry gray dog hair everywhere! But we've gotten it looking pretty presentable by now. Plus a handyman showed up yesterday to rip up the filthy carpet in the sunroom and replaced it with a clean, painted cement floor.

This article makes me mad. People should not be punished for trying to use alternative energy sources.

There's an awesome Wolfgang Tillmans exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC.

Thursday I had some free time in the afternoon, so I went over to Woodlawn Plantation, which was right across the street from my hotel. The grounds were very well-tended, and aside from the main house, there's also a Frank Lloyd Wright house on the property.


Next to the mansion house there was a tiny pool with tons of tadpoles in it.


There were also a few Southern Magnolia trees on the property. I didn't realize that the magnolia was a tree and not a bush. They were just beginning to bloom, but only near the tops of the trees.

I saw six homes today. This is the one that sounded good to me, so I made plans to see it first in the morning. I also stopped by again later in the afternoon, after my expectations had been calibrated, and I decided to apply for it. It is smaller than the home we are renting now, but compared to other homes in the area, the price for the size is a great value.

Pros:

• large yard (and it's fully fenced)
  
• semi hidden from street (although that slope might be trouble for our cars in the winter)
• largest living room and laundry room I've seen all day
  
• has a nice sunroom extension in back
• has large storage shed in back (in very good condition)
• Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Starbucks, and video rental store in walking distance down the street
• very near Metro station, and right on bus line (which goes to Metro station)
• just a few miles south of Tysons Corner malls
• backs up to Pimmet Run creek, so only neighbors on the right and left
• very close to major freeways (495 beltway and 66)
  

Cons:

• small kitchen
• small bathroom with no toiletries storage
• the two bedrooms combined are about the size of our current bedroom
• one lane parking along side of house (no garage)
• the slopes in the front and back yards might make mowing the lawns a pain
  

I'm blogging from my hotel in Mount Vernon, Virginia. According to internet reviews, this place is supposed to be a shithole, but I guess the owners have remodeled it over the past two years, and I think it's not that bad. My room is actually pretty nice, if small. I was surprised to walk into the place and see this huge courtyard in the middle, so I thought I'd post a picture. The hotel has free wireless, as you can probably guess.

Early tomorrow I'm meeting up with a realtor to see the rental home in Falls Church I like the most, then I'll head over to Fairfax and check out this other place. I'll be meeting up with another realtor in the afternoon. However, if the first home turns out as good as it looks on the internet, I may not have to. We'll see, and I'll keep y'all posted.

I keep forgetting to blog about camping Memorial Day weekend. It was basically Kelly's and my last chance to camp in AZ before we move (less than a month away!!). We went with Kelly's parents, her brother, Ed, and a family friend, to a place we know just north of Strawberry on the Mogollon Rim. I think Strawberry is one of my favorite Rim towns, and I have many good memories from there. It was also Gunner's first time camping, and I think he had a blast.

Anyway, there were plenty of animals, so I got a chance to test out the macro mode on my camera.