Shopping

Well, our first actual weekend in our new house: finally able to start doing things in slightly less than a headlong rush of emergency setup mode. Whew.

My SS card arrived on Friday, so we tried to obtain credit from a couple of stores, but, as I expected, we were declined as we have no credit history so far :/ I must find out exactly what *does* generate credit history with the firms - I think paying utility bills (and maybe rent) helps with this, but I should identify all the ways we can boost this.

However, we did go and buy a new bed - a huge Kingsize, wahoo! room for the cats at last - and a new TV: I was planning to get a 32 inch flatscreen as they seemed on first inspection to be the best price/size bargain, but the sales woman checked through her supplies & found a 42inch screen for an extra 10% of the one I had planned to buy: seemed too good a bargain to decline, so we now have this massive screen plonked at one end of the admittedly very-large lounge. Well, at least when we get our PC's set up at the other end of the room, there won't be any problem watching the screen :)

We've also hooked up with satellite TV, so now we've got a couple of hundred channels to watch, notionally: mind you, as 50 of them are pay-per-view, 20 or 30 are home-shopping, another 10 or more are religious/christian-nutcase, and another 30 or more are Spanish language versions, it's not exactly as expansive as it might sound. Still, it gives a reasonable chance of finding something watchable, or CNN :/

Our neighbours to one side, Tom & Polly, brought cake over to welcome us, last week, so we arranged to have coffee with them on Sunday afternoon, but that kinda fell through for some reason, so we left a plate of Cat's shortbread for them, & will try again next weekend.

We also found the LR Whole Foods store at last, and Cat found it much more comfortable shopping there: if most of the goods are still unfamiliar brands & types, at least there's a reasonable expectation that the food won't be horribly artificial, plastic, or loaded with corn syrups & transfats (tho, at quite a price, in some cases). I should perhaps add that I found it more comfortable too, even aside of the scurf of elderly hippies underfoot: at least they are harmless, I guess.

We're still working on the furniture acquisitions (and trying to establish a line of credit with the Credit Union, so we can buy a car), but I think it's probably time to start making social contacts - I'm trying to arrange contacts with the local bridge club, and the Democratic party branch (figuring they're more likely to be on our wavelength than many), and I've found a games shop which subs as a meeting place for potential D&D players, so we may be able to put together a RPG group, with any luck.