Top o' the Mornin' to ya

It's barely 8 o'clock here on the east coast, which means it is barely 7, 6, or 5 where most of you are. Early. K has left for work, and I am gathering my energy to actually begin the day.
Checking e-mail, I noticed a steady stream of visitors last week through my ShinyStat counter. Well, stream might be a strong word. . .let's try trickle. Anyway, steady is the right word, and now I feel guilty for not answering loyal reading with loyal posting.
I typed up a nice theological musing to post before we had internet, but, as is often the case after the heat of the first impressions have gone, I now hesitate to actually put it up here. Maybe later this week. Suffice to say I was reading Hawthorne, which always make me reflective. . .and vastly influences my writing style as well, I fear.
We looked at 6 houses (well, 1 house, 1 duplex, and 5 townhomes) this weekend. A couple of them may be contenders, but we want to look more first. We met several new people at the church we've almost decided to stay at, and they recommended a couple different communities we had glanced past and offered to advise as to the fitness of any neighborhood we found. That's so very helpful, so we are going to look there as well.
We were planning to go backpacking this coming weekend, in honor of my birthday. But a group from the church is going on an excursion next Saturday, so we're changing our plans to go with them. I'm so excited; I can't wait! We're going apple-picking(!!!), then for a picnic to one of the state parks, then to a dairy/creamery for homemade ice cream, and maybe to buy some organic, fresh milk or eggnog! The apple orchard sells fresh-pressed cider, as well!
Speaking of organic milk, we've started buying it. I had started buying it for Kevin before we moved up here (yes, we buy two kinds of milk. . .we're both spoiled, I know.), because he wanted to try it. And he liked it. And, truthfully, it stays good twice as long, so we wind up not throwing any soured milk out, which is good. Then we moved here, and Maryland doesn't carry the one brand of milk I would drink. (Again, I know I'm spoiled. I don't like milk anyway, but one particular brand of skim tastes less like milk than any of the others, so I always bought that.) So I had to try something else, and I opted for the organic. I actually like it. This bodes well for my bone structure and our future children.
I went grocery shopping last night. You know the frustration of going to a different store than your usual, and not being able to find anything? It's ten times worse when you move across the country, because on top of being in a new store, the local area dictates an entirely different arrangement of products (at least in OK, usually, stores were somewhat similar, especially in the way they grouped items), AND they carry different products to begin with. So going grocery shopping is an ordeal, and it makes me feel very lost. It's nice to shop where the staff are nice, though. Last night, I was looking for a little 4 oz. can of green chiles. Apparently they don't carry them here. I looked with the Hispanic foods. The cannned peppers in jars. A couple other random places (all on different aisles). Someone asked if I was finding everything, and I said no. So he started looking. He asked someone else. And someone else. I went on shopping. Next thing I know, I hear the 3 of them calling to each other from neighboring aisles, still looking. . .and chasing me down 3 aisles later to see if a particular product is what I was looking for. Isn't that nice? (I bought a fresh yellow chile pepper, and then the bag of dried red chiles he brought me. Any advice on which I should use?)
I should get busy now. Today is laundry day for sheets and towels, and I need to get some cleaning done so I can unpack the computer on our new desk and have dinner ready early enough for us to go look at houses tonight.
I do hope you appreciate the lengthy ramblings of this post, and that it makes up for a couple of the days you've visited and found nothing new.