February 12, 2011

It has been a while since I updated this blog but things are finally slowing down enough that I should have time to be a little more diligent.  As you probably are aware at this point, we are leaving Connecticut and Pfizer to start another chapter in our life in Milwaukee.  Jo has a great new position there and I'm going to take some time off to figure out what is next - which might include being retired permanently.

We took two house hunting trips to Milwaukee during which we toured almost 25 homes.  We struggled to find the right combination of location, house size/style, price, and condition.  It has been hard to find something to replace our beautiful home in CT.  We finally settled on a smaller home in a great neighborhood in the city of Milwaukee that is just north of where Jo will be working (it is about 3 miles to work so she should have about a 10 minute commute).  We can walk to shops and restaurants which will be nice after having to get in our car to go anywhere here.  Although we will certainly miss the peace and solitude our forest has provided.  That and the 3,000 square feet of living space we are giving up - there will be a great yard sale in Milwaukee in May as we need to shed a lot of furniture to squeeze into our new place (of course, one could wonder how much living space two people really need - trust me, it is Jo that takes up all the space.  One advantage to writing this blog - I get to define history).

We are also in the throes of selling our home in CT.  We are experiencing first hand everything you have been reading in the press lately about how poor the real estate market is.  We still are hoping for the best will work out on that front.  One thing that hasn't helped has been the relentless snow this year.  We are buried under the stuff and only in the last week and a half has there been any break since January.  We typically get snow which then melts since our temperatures are usually around 38-40 in the winter.  This year it has been some snow every 3 days with frigid temperatures in between, meaning it just keeps piling up.  Our bird bath and lower wall in the back yard are almost completely buried - in case you were curious our bird bath is a little over 3 feet tall.  It has been a challenge keeping the driveway, walkways, and patios clear for house showings.  Fortunately, there are predictions of warmer weather for the coming week, we can only hope they are true.

Jo is enjoying her brief time as a retired person by catching up on cleaning out some closets, afternoon naps, and extra yoga classes.  She also decided to seek some warmer temperatures and is currently spending a week visiting our niece, husband, and our 2 year old grand-niece (at least I think that is the right geneological term) who live outside of Phoenix.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure she is going to want to start working again.  I'm sure she will get bored in another couple of weeks, but I'm not 100% certain of that.  For me, I have only 3 weeks left at Pfizer before I join the ranks of the "temporarily" retired.

So stay tuned, as we completely turn over our life to try another adventure in Wisconsin!