A Week in Pierre

Today marks two weeks we've been here, but let's not get ahead of ourselves! We woke up Saturday morning in our new home, on air mattresses lent by a co-worker I had met over lunch in March and couldn't have put a face to her name! It was interesting sleeping on it--it squeaked a lot on the floor and made a lot of noise, and I thought we would never be able to sleep again. The cats were going crazy, so we found their food dishes and fed them, and once everyone was up and breakfast consumed by the humans, we decided to walk down to Capitol Lake and see the ducks. Pierre is the second smallest state capitol in the country, and the capitol complex itself is quite lovely. The Capitol building rises with its stately dome over a gorgeous little park with a small lake. Ducks, catfish, and turtles have made the lake home, and we enjoyed our first walk down there, pledging to come back with actual food for the ducks the next day. From our house to the lake is about four blocks, and we walk past the governor's mansion to get there, so we bid her good morning (from our side of the fence of course!) and sent her some subliminal messages as we walked past her place. (No, we did not actually see the Governor, just waved in the general direction we thought she might be in).

As soon as we were done, we optimistically piled into the car to go furniture shopping. We had sold or given away a great deal of the furniture we had in NY, as we didn't want to pay to move it, and so it was time to buy a dining room set, living room set, and bedroom set.  Pierre has two furniture shops in town as well as a couple of thrift shops, so we started at the thrift shops hoping we'd get lucky.  We didn't.  Now, we could furnish the house cheap and fast by doing yard sales, and in fact, I'm on a couple of yard sale sites, but we really want to actually decorate our house, so we had settled on cottage style before we got here.  We had looked at a bunch of furniture on line before we arrived, and we thought it would be fairly easy to just go pick things out.  So we set off for Ashley Furniture.

We walked around the store and came upon a dining room set we all three agreed was just right.  We had taken measurements of the dining room and measured the table and it seemed it would fit.  The only downside was that it came with a bench on one side instead of two chairs, but we talked to the salesman and he said we could certainly swap it out, so that's what we did.  We looked at the bedroom set I was convinced I would love when I saw it online, only to discover I didn't actually care for it.  So we bought the dining room set, set up delivery for the following Friday, and headed for Slumberland.

The salesman at Slumberland was a young kid, very enthusiastic and talked our ears off about Pierre and all kinds of things not really pertaining to furniture.  We walked through the showroom and I stumbled upon a rocking and swiveling arm chair, and I just loved it and that was it. Sold!  We walked a bit more and came upon an upholstered blue arm chair that just sort of invited you to sink into it, and again, sold!  We thought we wouldn't find a living room set, but ultimately on our way back towards the door, we found a really nice couch and chaise (I call it my fainting couch) and all three of us agreed that it was comfy and perfect and just right for our basement, so we bought those as well.  

We went to pay for everything, and although we could take the chairs home (if we could transport them), we couldn't actually get the living room set until mid-July.  Given that we were sitting in zero gravity lawn chairs from Walmart, this seemed like a long time off, but the fact that all three of us agreed on furniture was also something of a miracle, so we decided to buy it and just wait it out.  Mary offered Keith and his truck to pick up the chairs the next day, so at least we wouldn't be totally uncomfortable.  

That's pictures of the set we did get!  Next step is to learn how to get the cats, specifically Stepstool, to not scratch them up!

At this point, Leah was more or less done, so we decided to go have lunch which we enjoyed at a local Mexican place called Gallo's.  There is a sweet little downtown area in Pierre and it is located there, as opposed to the more commercial main drag.  We all had virgin margaritas and pina coladas, and celebrated a successful shopping morning.  Then we took Leah home and did a little more shopping, which yielded a shelf and a desk.

We took them home and I had thought we'd be able to put the microwave on the shelf, but it wasn't deep enough, so we took it downstairs and set up the TV.  We also put the desk downstairs and got Leah's computer set up, and Greg and I did battle with the cable modem, and soon the house was full of glorious WiFi.  Unfortunately, the Roku wasn't cooperating!  So no TV that night.  (Turned out the batteries in the remote died!)  As we still didn't have our comfy chairs, we trotted the lawn chairs down to the basement and hung out down there before calling it a night and going to bed.

Sunday morning, we returned to Capitol Lake armed with chips and bread for the ducks.  It was absolutely perfect and gorgeous weather, and the ducks were, of course, happy to see us, and we whispered some greetings to the Governor as we strolled past her party pad.

I had read on one of the yard sale sites that there was an estate auction in Ft. Pierre, just over the river, so when we got home, we rolled over there.  There wasn't a TON of stuff that they had that we wanted, but I wanted an old trunk to use as a coffee table, and I found a cute little table that I thought would fit 'somewhere'...  I managed to win both of them for the price I had set and we even managed to fit them in the car!  Afterwards, we went over to Keith and Mary's and Keith got his truck revved up and we headed to Slumberland and GOT MY CHAIRS!  It was a tight squeeze getting them downstairs--our basement stairs and hallway are very narrow and for a hot minute, it didn't look like my rocker was going down there.  Fortunately Keith came armed with tools, we took the base off, got it into the family room, and put it back together.  Voila!

The rest of Sunday was spent trying to relax and chill before I started work Monday morning.  One note of excitement was that we have a neighborhood full of cats, and two of them belonged to the previous owner.  One of them, a fluffy white guy was living under our deck, and we started feeding him.  He deposited a massive fur ball on our deck, which we saw was matted with fecal material and some sort of brambles.  Upon getting friendly with him, we noticed that his back leg was in REAL bad shape and his fur was horrible.  I called animal control and they said that if we could catch him, they'd send a police officer over.  So we coaxed him out, boxed him, and the cops did arrive!  They sent a cop who didn't like cats all that much, so we had a good chuckle with him over that, but he took the cat off to the vet to get cleaned up and he will hopefully be adopted out in due course.  

 Preparing for work, I was a nervous wreck, as I knew expectations were running high for me over there, and I wanted to make a good first impression.  I also haven't worked full time in 12 years since Leah was born and hardly at all last year, so I was worried about the adjustment.

Monday morning dawned.  I was up and at 'em early and headed over to the library just on time, where I met Brenda, the other senior librarian and Cheyenne, the other new employee starting that day.  We took a tour of the library and I greeted my crew briefly.  The day passed by really fast, and I had lunch alone in my little office, as I hadn't realized that everyone leaves for their one hour lunch break.  After lunch, I met with the crew for an all staff meeting (they hate the word team, so they have dubbed themselves Kate's Crew), and by then, it was about time to go!  I had a really, really amazing first week of work, and such a beautiful and warm welcome, it was like an absolute dream.  Every single person on all levels is just great to work with.  It is a maze in the office part of the library, so I did get lost a couple times, but everyone just turned me around and got me moving.  It's been awesome.

My office before I fill it with 'stuff'

When I got home, we went to Zesto's, the local ice cream institution and enjoyed blackberry twist ice cream to celebrate a successful first day.  It was so delish!  It's also probably walkable from our house, but Leah sent us her order, so we drove to get home before it melted.

NOT my picture of Zesto

 Tuesday night was time for our first game with the Pierre Trappers--the local baseball team.  Hyde Stadium is just across from Capitol Lake, so we decided to walk down to the game, and Leah decided to stay home. (She's developed an almost-phobia about being around groups of people).  Greg and I had dinner at the game and we had a blast.  I kept up a running commentary and asked him his opinion about what plays they should make, and he charitably laughed throughout.

Around this time, we realized we were heading into a three day weekend and needed a plan besides "sit around a house with no furniture".  We decided we'd do Wall Drug, since just about everyone we knew asked us from the time we announced we were heading to SD "Are you going to Wall Drug?" or "You have to go to Wall Drug!"  Since the Badlands are nearby, we decided to make a two day trip of it, and i had a free night via Hotels.com and we were going to sleep on a real bed!  (By this point, however, we were so exhausted the airbed had ceased to be an issue and we were sleeping like babies on it!)

The rest of the week passed by very quickly--a blur of meetings and time with my crew at work, and good stuff like that.  Greg's birthday was Thursday, so we took him out for dinner at Drifters, a 'fancy' restaurant in Ft. Pierre where we enjoyed a really lovely dinner and massive pieces of cake from a local bakery (two pieces of cake lasted three days!).  He's now an old man and is obliged to complain about muscle aches and the kids down the street.  haha

Our dining room set arrived on Friday as scheduled, and as we had bought real plates and silverware and glasses, we were able to celebrate with a real home cooked dinner and eat as a family.  It was such a nice little celebration together and a great way to end our first full week in Pierre.  We had roasted pork with apples and onions, ranch beans, and a Pierre treat, frog eye salad from the local Korner Grocery (not made with actual frog eyes).

I can't speak for Leah and Greg, but I absolutely love it here.  My stress levels are all but non-existent at the moment.  The house is great, the family is great, work is great, the neighborhood and city are great. The weather, I admit is questionable.  It was hot as heck when we arrived, then plunged into the 40's, and today as I write this, we're heading for a wild 104!  But thus far the humidity hasn't come with it, so I can't complain too much.  We run the air or heat as needed, but otherwise, we're doing fine!  Nothing is perfect and there are petty inconveniences, but I would give Pierre an A+ for exceeding my expectations thus far!  I'll be back soon with tales of our road trip! :D