Greetings, all, from my new neighborhood: Parma Heights, Ohio!

Found the cutest studio apartment you could hope for, in a complex called "Camelot". I don't have internet service yet, so I'm typing this to you from the library. Hence, no photos. I've been so busy, though, that I haven't really taken very many, just of the interior of the new apartment.

Things are going well, and I'm making new acquaintances everyday. Most recently, the night that I signed on the lease, I had a great time at a little restaurant/bar around the corner. Stuffed myself senseless with a plate of their award-winning Chicken Paprikash, and spent the night chatting with Jimmy the bartender and his gregarious friend Doug.

I mean, come on, I live in an old immigrant neighborhood that has an annual paprikash cook-off. How cool is that??

Tuesday morning when I drove back to Troy to get more stuff, I stopped at Samosky's Home Bakery where I bought Mom a custard filled roll and Dad a Hungarian nut pastry. Dark Haired Girl and I swapped cars Tuesday. She's tooling around in the Mirthmobile as I speak, and I'm in her car. (BTW, it's a Mazda 5, not 6.) I don't know how she did it, but Tuesday night she managed to stuff an entire computer desk, king size bed and frame, stereo with two floor speakers, three boxes of stuff, my computer and monitor, and a three-drawer dresser into something the size of a Chevy Astro. I couldn't've stuffed half of that in there.

Met a couple of my neighbors, most of whom looked to be 80 or older, and who made sure to explain to me what a nice quiet place Camelot is. I get the hint. :-) Have you ever seen that Tom Hanks movie, The Terminal? One guy I met was actually named Victor, and his accent was identical to Tom Hanks'. "Andy! Pleased to meet you. I am Veector! Veddy qviet place. No rabble rousers." And then he said, with a shake of his finger: "And no bleck people. Is veddy good thing."

The things you want to say, but don't. Just smile and nod.

So yesterday, after decompressing all of the contents of the Mazda into an explosion of crap all over my new apartment, and then reassembling my Sleep Number bed, I drove around for a bit. Picked up some needed housewares at the Wal-Mart at the nearby ParmaTowne Mall. On the way back home I stopped at a place down the street curiously named "Fancy Food" I had to check it out.

Turns out it's a Polish and Ukranian grocery store, and only half of the stuff in there has secondary English markings on the packaging. Otherwise, I was left only to guess from the pictures. It was great! I picked up a 16-oz can of something called "Kvass", which had pictures of wheat, and asked the (incredibly attractive) young lady what it was. She said through her peanut butter-thick Ukranian accent that it was like root beer, but she couldn't think of the exact description in English. I picked it up as well as some strange kind of ham bologna that was on sale at the deli counter. I asked about it, she said "I geev you taste." and ran me off a slice. Very delicious. Lighter in color than American bologna, and very smooth, so I bought a pound. Picked up a package of frozen peirogi and checked out.

I have an entire new city to explore, so I'm going to hop off now. I get the phone hooked up tuesday, so I'll at least still have dial-up. DSL to come later.

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... and the Kvass tasted like beer and sweet lemon iced tea. Very strange.