Per Rosie’s request, here’s a few additional photos (taken by Carol) of our curtain/window/desk project. We are still finishing the roman blind and will take some photos of the final look this weekend.

Here’s a before shot of one of our windows in the dining room. Zoe can barely see out of it.

Our living room with the new curtains in place. Those clip rings from Ikea make window creation so easy!

Here’s another shot of my new desk. You still can’t see the legs but at least it is a better idea.

Roman blind photos coming soon!

We’ve officially hosted our first guest. My mother has now come and gone, flying down to lend us help and motivation on the finishing touches to our home. Prior to her arrival we mostly finished unpacking the few lingering boxes and cleaned the apartment. Things looked together here. Now that she’s left, the place is once again in disarray, boxes, pictures, cardboard, everywhere. Here’s some of what we did:

I now have a real, official desk for the first time in…forever. No more sitting with my feet hanging, trying to reach the keys at a table much to high for me. We found a nice solid beech table top at Ikea and adjustable legs. Someday, maybe I’ll replace the legs with something I design. I think I’ll be happy with the table top for many, many years.

Curtains! SB and my Mom focused on curtain making. We found great fabric in the form of Ikea bedspreads. Then with a little sewing and smart engineering they made hanging curtains for the living room and roman curtains for the other rooms.

Mmmmm….We bought and planted oregano, basil and lavender in clay pots. I can’t wait to cook with fresh herbs. I”m hoping I can keep them alive through the mild Georgia winter. We also repotted and generally tended to the rest of our house plants.

Finally, our biggest accomplishment of three days is hard to capture with a cell phone camera. We washed all the windows in our apartment, inside and out, ten in all, The filth was so thick you couldn’t see out of them. Now we have sparkly clear views of the lush outdoors, all thanks to elbow grease, vinegar water and a squeegee.

Our first house guest helped us pave the way for our future guests (not that we expect all our guests to work for us). Thanks Mom!

We have now officially been in Atlanta for one month. It feels much, much longer. I realized this past week that I’ve been giving myself a hard time about not knowing the city better, not having a new life plan in action, not being totally decorated and put away at home. Really it has only been one month and I need to be easier on myself.

The same day I left for Atlanta three of my friends also left on adventures. Two for long distance, adventure vacations, one for a new home.

One friend flew to Moscow to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway across the continent to Mongolia, where she planned to hire a guide and camp in the mountains. Afterwards she would travel on through China. She is scheduled to return sometime soon.

My second friend flew out to bicycle across the country from Seattle to San Diego. He’s been keeping a blog: http://www.familydinnernight.org/will/ This past month, I’ve been thinking of him, thinking of the fatigue and the accomplishment. Wow!

My third friend moved to Seattle from Madison, for a new, fancy, schmancy, job, much like we did. However, she did it solo. I’m sure they last month has felt even longer for her.

Here’s hoping the next month brings more adventures!

I’ve just assumed that tortillas are like white bread, available at all grocery stores in multiple varieties. In Madison I developed a snobbery for locally made tortillas, particularly corn. I would never buy tortillas that were made farther away than Milwaukee or sometimes Chicago. Shortly before I moved to Atlanta a tortillarilla (tortilla store) opened in Madison. Three dozen tortillas for one dollar! I was in heaven. So fresh, moist and tender.

I further assumed that Atlanta would be swarming with tortilla makers. Not only is it a large city, it is also further south. Sigh… If only it were that simple.

Being new, we frequent 5 grocery stores, ranging from the gourmet to the basic. The basic store does not even carry a single tortilla. The other 4 range from only have tortillas from NJ to only having very expensive, organic, spelt tortillas from CA. These options are no good!

I’ve searched on-line. I’ve searched in the phone book. Nothing. There are hispanic people around, I’ve seen them. Where’s the fresh corn tortilla?

My mother is coming for a visit on Saturday. I asked her to pick up a few dozen from the Madison tortilla company, figuring I could freeze them. I just received word back from her that the Madison tortilla machine broke down. Foiled!

This morning I remembered that Orangette had a recipe for homemade flour tortillas. They sound easy enough. Tonight I will give them a whirl. She says they challenge her preference for corn….

If anyone has other suggestions for how I can track down fresh tortillas in the Atlanta area, let me know.

Yay! Today my replacement cell phone arrived and already the difference is huge. As anyone who has tried to call me in the past six months knows, my cell phone has been atrocious. I finally took it in, found out it was under warranty and received a replacement.

Now, not only do I have a strong signal and clear reception, I can do things like take photos on my phone and actually download them to my computer. And I even tried syncing my phone with my datebook and address book using iSync. It worked! Now I have all sorts of useful data on my phone.

Yay for technology that works.