Chester

Our beloved cat Chester has been missing for two days. I keep hoping to hear his little meow outside our door, but so far I've heard nothing. This morning, Charlotte and I went for a stroll through the neighborhood to try and found him, but still nothing. I'm getting very worried that something has happened to him. His brother is very lonely without him - he keeps looking out the window and has even shown an interest in going outside, which is completely unlike him.

Chester has always been the more adventurous kitty. He's the one who loved to go outside on our balcony in Riverdale, and he even managed to catch 2 chipmunks and bring them into the apartment as gifts. We knew he would love being able to explore the outside world in San Antonio, but were worried that he'd get lost. I put a collar and ID tag with our number on him for this very reason. His first trip outside in San Antonio was very brief, his next a little longer, but now I fear we've lost him forever.

Hopefully someone will find him and call us.

Too Much of a Good Thing

When Eric and I visited San Antonio from New York we always came back about 5 pounds heavier. My family loves to eat - in fact, we're known to plan our next meal while eating the previous one. Sometimes, we plan our meals days in advance. And, San Antonio is known for amazing Mexican food, barbecue, and Southern delicacies like chicken fried steak, or chicken fried anything. So, when we were here on vacation, we ate at all the best restaurants, and my mom cooked all of my favorite foods - hence the 5 pound minimum weight gain.

We thought things would be different once we lived here. We thought we would get over the novelty of good Mexican food and barbecue, but we haven't - not yet anyway. Since we're living with my dad, he loves to take us out to eat, and I can't pick the 'sensible' meals when enchiladas or chicken fried steak is on the menu. So, I've been eating what I want, and so has Eric. We've also rediscovered the incredibleness of Blue Bell ice cream. Every flavor is amazing and I can't seem to say no to a little dessert every night.

I guess I'm writing this blog to confess that I've been overeating and that I hope to get better. "Willpower, it's now or never."

House Hunting

When Eric and I moved into corporate housing in White Plains I discovered a television show that quickly became my favorite - HouseHunters. It airs every night on HGTV at 7:30 EST, and I was completely hooked. In the anticipation of becoming a house hunter myself, I watched the show every night and loved to see what house people chose. Inevitably, they had to compromise on something. There was, in essence, no perfect house.

Still, Eric and I had been dreaming of our perfect house. Ideally it would be a one story (although Eric prefers 2 story homes) in an established neighborhood with a recreation area that included a swimming pool. Oh yeah, and we wanted a home with trees in the front and backyard. We found that the first week we were here. The home is 31 years old and we knew it was in need of repair. We fell in love with the neighborhood, and yes, there was even a recreation center. So, we made an offer and it was accepted. We started planning where we wanted furniture to go and what kind of furniture we wanted (since we have none right now). Then, the inspector came and shattered our dreams. Turns out, this house needs more than cosmetic updating. It needs a new roof, major landscaping adjustments to prevent flooding, a new patio (which means drilling out a few feet of concrete over a wide surface), and a few other major things that I can't even speak about because I don't understand them. All in all, it would have cost somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand to brings things up to standards, and that doesn't include any of the cosmetic needs it had. We decided that was just too much to spend.

The next week, we found another great place. This home was also a single story with trees and a beautifully landscaped backyard. The previous owners had even installed a very expensive solar energy system that was bound to help with electricity costs. It too had a recreation center, so we were sold. We made an offer, but someone else made an even better offer that same day. Bummer.

I continued to look at homes, but nothing was measuring up. I was beginning to feel like we were never going to find a home. We decided to start looking at new homes because we would then know that at least we wouldn't need to put any money into fixing it up. I found a great possibility, and got very excited. Eric came by to see it after work and didn't get excited. While it was over 2000 square feet and a one story, Eric though it lacked curb appeal and pointed out that this neighborhood didn't have a pool.

We had plans to go on a 'romantic dinner' that night while my dad and his fiancee watched Charlotte. I told him we could still go out to dinner, but that I wasn't feeling very romantic towards him at the moment.

Then, we decided to visit the neighborhood we were interested in last January. It's new development with 2 recreations centers, a playground, and a 9 acre park with hiking and bike trails, and picnic tables complete with barbeques. Turns out they had a few homes that were ready for a quick move in, and one of them had just about everything we wanted in a home. The only thing it doesn't have is mature trees, but they're going to plant two trees as part of the landscaping package (we'll see them grow over time, right?). Anyway (sorry this is such a long post) we decided to buy this home, and we're anticipating an October 20th closing date. It's a large 2 story (I was willing to compromise), 3 bedroom home with a gameroom. We can't wait to move in.

And, here's the kicker, we will have a very Texas sounding street - Buckskin Spur.

They'll be plenty of room if anyone wants to visit us.

The Latest

This is the last picture we had on our digital camera, and it's a cutie. Charlotte had soiled her outfit, so my mom put her under the covers while we took care of things. She looked so cute and I had to take a picture. Thankfully, we had the camera handy because I think this will be one of my favorites.

We're Here

After what seemed like quite a journey, our entire family made it to San Antonio. We closed on our New York apartment on August 31st (which is a blog all too itself) and left that evening for Cape Cod to spend a few days with Eric's mom. The Cape was wonderful and relaxing, but it ended too soon. On Tuesday morning, the Vila family woke at 2:30 a.m., packed up, and headed for Providence, RI to catch a plane to San Antonio. Actually, it was just me and Charlotte on the plane. She is quite the jet setter and didn't fuss too much. Naturally, everyone adored her. After dropping us off, Eric and our two cats continued their three day journey by car to San Antonio. Eric was fortunate enough to find hotels along the way that allowed cats, so Chester and Henry were quite comfortable. Late Thursday evening, our family was reunited and it felt so good (yes, I'm quoting a song).

So far, we are enjoying San Antonio. It's so wonderful being around family and I can already tell that Charlotte is going to benefit from all the love and attention she's getting. We don't miss the city (sorry New Yorkers), but we do miss all of our friends and church family. We really look forward to visiting you guys with Charlotte in the near future. I don't think I'll be able to completely get New York out of my system.

As I end this blog, here are a few adjustments that will have to be made now that I live in San Antonio:

1.) I can't judge what the weather is like by watching what Matt Laurer is wearing on the Today show every morning.

2.) Central time means that the evening news is at 5:30 and that prime time shows starts at 7:00 p.m.

3.) "Fall like weather" is a high of 86 degrees. I kid you not, that's a quote from the local weather man.

4.) The stores are soooo huge - they all look like Costco.

5.) You can buy 3 liter Coke bottles instead of 2.

6.) Trucks, very big obnoxious trucks and SUV's.

7.) Driving everywhere. Nothing is within walking distance, and there are very few sidewalks even if you wanted to walk.

8.) Smooth roads. Charlotte prefers bumpy ones, so she's been a little grumpy on car rides.

9.) No tolls, which is a great thing!

10.) Easy parking, which is also a great thing!