Observations thus far.

In no particular order...

Spiders. We have a lot of them. They love to build webs right outside our front door. I know they're good critters, but they're a bit creepy.

Crows. Yeah...I don't see many birds here (aside from the quail-like parade running across the street the other day) - but there are many crows. I'm not impressed with crows.

The little espresso huts (not sure what the locals call them) are interesting and abundant. I haven't tried any lattes yet though. Sacrilege, I know. I'll get there, eventually.

I still don't care for the evergreen trees much, but they do make a nice view when you catch a glimpse of a horizon. Now I know why the houses with a view sell for so much more than those without.

Groceries cost more here. It's been a while, but I really don't remember a big change in grocery cost (except for maybe milk/meat products) when I moved from IA to CA. I've only been to Trader Joes and Central Market so far - and checked out Amazon Fresh - so I'm not sure how the average grocery store chain compares. But Amazon Fresh, tempting as it is (they will deliver your groceries to your door before 6 am if you order by midnight) seems way too pricey for me. Maybe my opinion will change after I shop around. Certainly, restaurant prices are a lot more here. But the food is good! Considering how tedious it is to take the gang shopping, home delivery is very tempting.

Gas is more expensive but I'm used to that from living in CA.

Half-day kindergarten is too short for me to do much, and I'm afraid to switch M to a [different] full-day class now. So far, we've had no luck hooking up with any other 4-5 year olds for some afternoon playtime. We've gone to two Meetups, and the kids were all under three years old. Also, there aren't many kids close by, to our disappointment. I imagine that there are a few within walking distance, but I'm not sure how to hook up with them. People told me I'd meet parents when taking M to school, but that hasn't happened much either. Turns out that most of the kids in M's class are either bussed or driven by car. So this whole process of meeting new people is taking longer than expected for both of us.

Most of the houses in our neighborhood (excluding ours!) are rather drab colors. I wonder about this. Do they want to blend with the grey skies? Do they want to avoid standing out from nature? Some of them are quite ugly IMO. But others are pretty.

Speaking of grey skies. Not sure yet what I think. We've had enough days with a little bit of sun or at least extra light (mostly cloudy?) to keep me happy, but I know that will change as the fall goes on. Sometimes we get a funky yellow tint to things, which reminds me of stormy weather in IA - but without the storm.

A LOT of stuff remains in boxes. It's very slow going, what with Chris at work all day and tired/uncooperative when he gets home - and Ari uncooperative/HEAVY most of the time. ;)

That's it for now. More later, maybe.