"Home Is Where Your Story Begins..."

Welcome to my second blog. I was inspired by my friend Wendi and her blog "Epiphanies from a Crazed Preggo!" I haven't written since November of 2003 in my other blog, "Kat's Trip to India."

The title of this entry is a "shout-out" to Kim, a friend who's house-warming gift was perfect. It's a plaque that says "Home is Where Your Story Begins." She was hoping that buying my first house would give me that sense of "home" that I have been missing since my Mom died in September of 2000. It's certainly a step in the right direction.

I closed on my house November 10th. It is a 1982 3-bedroom, 1.5 bath house in NW Boise. It has a fenced yard (mandatory for my roommate, a West Highland Terrier named Tuggles,) a fireplace (which I wouldn't have kept in my search-criteria knowing what I know now about the bans on burning within city limits when Boise has an inversion,) a skylight in the kitchen, a 2.5 car garage, a deck, and so far the most interesting feature: a 3,000 gallon pond!

The best part of the pond is the waterfall, which is quite noisy, and located right outside my bedroom window. I do, however, have to reveal the pond's current scoreboard: Pond - 3, Kat's Friends - 0. Two of my friends have fallen in already, one of them twice, in their attempts to break the ice that has formed. The pond isn't fully frozen, but the ice has started to route water over my desk, so I needed to break through the ice to set a horse-trough heater inside.

Gotta share, but I'll keep it anonymous - the first friend to fall in was prepared to apologize to me for "disturbing the pond," but he decided he didn't need to, since my pond apparently had no problem "handing him his ass!"

The primary reason for buying a house was for my dog, Tuggles. He stayed with my brother Dan in Spokane for about three months in 2004 while I was in India, and Dan has a big, fenced yard. I was thrilled to see Tuggles when I got home - all buff and stuff! So, in my search for house, a fenced yard was non-negotiable.

This morning was classic "Tuggles moment." He headed outside for his morning constitutional, and realized it had snowed! He bounced around the yard for a bit, then he came across something very exciting. Tracks. Animal tracks. NOT his. IN HIS YARD. It was adorable. He snuffled his nose along the snow, playing the bloodhound, tracking whatever had trespassed. Very cute. Heaven forbid he actually encounter a raccoon or something - I don't think his Mom could take it!

This is fun! More later... off to the Gym. If Santa is reading this, a treadmill or elliptical machine would fit very nicely in my 2.5 car, partially finished garage!