My apartment

I still haven't taken any pictures, but I'm over it already. Maybe someday I will. Actually, we're having people over tomorrow, so I may clean up the house all the way. If that's the case, I might take some pictures-- as much for your benefit as for the fact that it will never happen again.
So we moved into an apartment in Boise. Three weeks ago, but whatever. From our window, we can see the top of the Boise State Stadium, which, for all you football fans out there, is where the Smurf Turf is. I think there's something going on there right now, because I can kind of hear the announcer every once in a while. I can also hear the yappy little dog downstairs named Isabelle. I think she's a Yorkie, and she's super tiny and cute. But she likes to yap and run out whenever anyone walks by (and of course she lives on the corner apartment right on everyone's way to the parking lot). Then once she's run out, her owners yell at her to get back inside. Um, she's a yappy dog-- that's what she does.
A lot of people here smoke. I guess that's because the apartments are rather cheap (less than $650 a month, and that includes all utilities), and in my experience, poor people smoke more. That's probably both an effect and a cause of their poorness, since cigarettes are so expensive. One thing that's kind of sad, though, is how many people are home during the day. There are a lot of people out of work who I know want to be working.
Our apartment itself is pretty straightforward. There's a large living room, which we've kind of divided into an office area and a sitting area. Then there's a dining area and a tiny kitchen. I was really sad to leave my glorious, spacious kitchen in our last house, and I had to part with several of my awesome kitchen things (that I never used but whatever). I think, though, that I kind of like the closet-style kitchen. When I'm cooking, I hardly have to move anywhere, and I can reach everything! I just reach and grab, and there it is.
Then there's one bedroom. I know it's kind of strange to downsize into a smaller apartment right when we're upgrading our family, but it will do for a year. One end of the bedroom we are able to use for Penny. There's a large closet, 2/3 of which is her stuff already. And then there's a dresser/changing table right by the closet, and there will be a crib at the end of our bed. I also have an old rocking chair that's been in our family forever. I re-covered the seat with some fabric that matches our living room chairs. Unfortunately, there's no room in the living room for it, so it doesn't really match anything right now. Oh well. Again, it's just for a year.
Like any place, this new apartment has some quirks. We have central air-conditioning, meaning there's one giant AC in the center of the complex, and it cools the entire place. Unfortunately, I think that's also the case for the hot water heater. You have to turn the water on for several minutes before it begins to get tepid, luke-warm, and then finally warm. By the time I'm finished soaping and scrubbing, the water is finally comfortable, and it's really hard to want to get out.
This place has a dishwasher, which is awesome. But it's one of those dishwashers that doesn't work so well, which is not awesome. We finally figured out (see above paragraph) that you have to prime the hot water before running the dishwasher if you want it to wash the grease off. And then it likes to leave chunks of gunk on our dishes, which is not my favorite. We're still working on it, and soon we'll get it figured out.
Also, our refrigerator sounds like it has squirrels in it. It doesn't, but it makes some weird chattering noises. Ahh, the joys of a new house.