A new addition to the family

Puppy

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Isn't he cute?? I have no idea what to name him. I adopted him from Sugar Bear Rescue Team. He's 11 weeks old, 9.5 lbs, and full of so much fun energy. So far he hasn't messed in my apartment and I've been paying close attention to make sure he doesn't. When I took him outside the first time he went #1 almost immediately so hopefully he got the hang of it when he was at Petsmart waiting to be adopted. I'm not going to get my hopes up though. I got him a crate so he has a place of his own to sleep and chill out. He hasn't actually gone inside yet though. I think he likes my couch... Ruht Ro.

Have any suggestions on a name?

Thanks Ike, My First Paid Day Off

Today I don't have to go to work because of the blackout Cincinnati had over the weekend - and I get paid for it! Salary is so cool. Technically I am working from home because my boss is going to call me. We are going to discuss my new assignment and what my responsibilities are for the next 2 years.

The winds over the weekend reached up to 80 mph. All of Cincinnati including downtown had there power fail. When my power was out I couldn't listen to music while I was unpacking, so genious me decides to go to the fitness center to work out. Now if the power was out in my building why would it be any different in the fitness center? Its not. So when I realized the treadmills weren't going to work I decided to run outside. Needless to say the wind did a number on my legs. I was able to see all the damage around the city though: trees laying across roads, telephone poles on top of cars, all the restaurants and shops closed, fences that fell over, and shingles flying off roofs. But look! I survived!

My apartment had power yesterday when I got home from orientation around 5:30pm - more than 24 hrs later. Cincinnati is still trying to recover from all the damages and the building I am supposed to report to doesn't have electricity yet. They said it could take up to nearly a week to restore all the damages. I don't see this as a bad thing. It could be much worse. We were lucky only to lose a couple trees, poles, cars, etc. We could have lost a lot more.

Finally starting to get settled

Two days until I start my new job with Procter and Gamble and I am finally starting to get my apartment in order. I have been in Ohio for nearly two weeks and for the first week I was working on finding a different apartment because the first apartment turned out to be in a really, really bad neighborhood. Only a block away from the building we saw two men getting arrested and not to far from that we saw a hooker. When I went to the grocery store down the street we were asked for money twice within 5 minutes. I was not prepared to live in that type of neighborhood alone and without family or friends around.

Instead I am paying only $150 more per month to live in a gated community with a parking garage, pool, fitness center, and business center. It's called The Drexel at Oakley right across from Hyde Park Plaza (which has a Panera Bread - very dangerous). If you click on The Lincoln Property Company you will see pictures and information about my apartment. Thank god they had something available!

I am still in the process of unpacking and decorating. As soon as it looks halfway decent I promise to post pictures. I will have to get some pictures of the city too at some point to show you where I am living. Wish me luck on my first day!