We made it!

 Hi readers!  

Happy 400th post to the UsBrowns + Dozer blog!

We are finally a family of three again!  Dozer and I made it on-island yesterday (Tuesday for us, Monday for most of you).  The trip WAS eventful, but we both made it in one piece, so for that I'm glad.  :)  Mom put it well on her blog - I'll just quote her here:  

"Ris should probably write a book, or at least a chapter on the ins and outs of traveling with a pet - it's been a roller coaster, and she carried more papers to get Doze into KW than she had for herself. Between so-called tranquilizers that had him bouncing off the walls (seriously) and then vomiting, to airlines that made you buy smaller pet carriers (from them of course), to airlines that made you get larger pet carriers, Doze is seriously loved but was probably yowling his head off from hunger by the time they landed. Not much different than flying with a 2 year old, except you can't put a 2 yr old in cargo."

A few of my first thoughts/impressions of the island:

1.  Are we going to land in the water?!  We were so close it seemed like the landing gear could have drug in the ocean before we touched down on land!  However, somehow the pilot managed to land and get the plane stopped before we fell into the other side of the ocean.  :)

2.  Will Dozer ever forgive me for what he had to go through for the past two days?  I think this is pretty well answered, as he's contently sleeping at the end of our bed, tail and feet twitching from his happy (hopefully) little kitty dreams.  :)

3.  Friendly folks - most everyone that you pedal past on the roads flashes a smile and a quiet hello. 

4.  Random downpours!  Just as I expected.  Peter came home for lunch yesterday and while he was here it went from beautiful and sunny, to a quick deluge to beautiful and sunny again in the span of about 15 minutes.

5.  Heavy humidity; caused by #4.  When you go outside from being in an air-conditioned room, your sunglasses immediately fog over. :)  However, it's nothing a quick swipe of your t-shirt can't fix!

6.  Love Peter's commute!  He bikes to work and it takes about 1.5 minutes.  :)  This also means he gets to come home for lunch everyday!  Woohoo!

7.  We have a clean, simple house with central A/C.  Laminate floors and wicker furniture.  TONS of storage.  I think the kitchen has more storage than our house in Virginia!  HUGE windows, although no window coverings yet, so I tacked up blankets.  :)  Tacky, yes.  They're functional though!

8.  Ants are a part of life.  Haven't seen a cockroach here yet, although I'm sure I will soon enough!  :)  

9.  We bought two new vehicles yesterday!  Put them on the credit card and will pay them off at the end of the month.  Hah!  Can you do that?  Here's a link to a picture of mine.  It's absolutely awesome, and totally functional!  Look at the basket on the back!  Perfect for groceries.  

10.  Speaking of groceries.  We're about two blocks from SurfWay (local grocery store) and one block from the PX.  Between the two, I don't think we'll starve.  :)  Funny story though - SurfWay delivers your groceries to you, since most bikes don't have enough space to haul everything home.  However, after filling my cart and checking out yesterday, I had to carry my loot home (on foot as we didn't have our "cars" yet) because I couldn't remember our address for them to deliver to!  Duh.

Another note - this blog is likely to become more wordy, and less pictury.  (I know that's not a word, but it fits here).  We are functioning on a dial-up internet connection so uploading pictures takes a LONG time.  However, I will try my hardest to post photos every now and then.  

Also, dialing out (for us) is quite spendy.  However, we can receive incoming calls for free.  That being said, my old cell number is set to forward to us here, so if you feel like chatting, feel free to call!  It shouldn't cost you any differently than if you called us in the states.  If the line is busy, we're probably on the internet!  :)  

Enough for now.  I must get up and around so I can take care of some paperwork before hubby comes home for lunch.  :)