Week One in Pittsburgh

  Monday was Rob’s first day interning at the zoo.  Sleepy as Olive and I were, we rose with him to accompany him on the 1.3-mile walk to his entrance gate at 8:45.  Then we gathered our laundry to take to Kellie’s, as the washing machine and dryer are not yet installed in our basement and we were due for some clean clothes.  I made it across town without the aide of written directions; nearly everywhere we’ve gone in the last week has required Google’s help, but I’m trying to start relying on my sense of direction and foggy knowledge of the layout of the neighborhoods.  We spent a pleasant afternoon with Kellie, Jack, Gail, and Iris.  Gail requested that I feed her her penne pasta, and both she and Jack wanted me sitting beside them.  Later, Gail and Olive entertained one another.  Olive is particularly fascinated with her 2 year-old cousin, as she’s closer to her size than 3 month-old Iris, and Gail is slightly more interactive.  Gail is very sweet and protective of O; when she was scooting and rolling closer to a wooden chest, Gail gently tugged Olive’s onesie to drag her out of harm’s way.  The Ryan kids all went down for a nap, and I’d hoped that Olive would follow suit, but her post-feeding nap on my chest was short-lived, and she was content to roll about and explore the trove of goodies that littered their living room floor.  

We got back home in time to pick up Rob from the zoo.  I figured that after a long, hot, dirty day of cleaning the gorillas’ quarters he’d appreciate a ride home in the car.  Just after 6, he came to the gate, visibly excited about his day.  I’m thrilled that his first day went so well; he’s learned a lot already, and is studying the names of his gorilla charges so that he can have all of them memorized by next week.   Check out his new blog: www.notesfromabiophile.blogspot.com to stay fully updated and thoroughly entertained.

And yesterday we finally got hot water!  When Olive and I returned from a 6-mile jaunt to the East-End Co-Op, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and a look around Anthropologie (I still can't believe that I can walk to all these places!), the kitchen light was on - definitely not my doing.  I entered to find several signs placed about letting us know that the hot water was on, and the first thing I did was give Olive a bath.  Tomorrow we'll supposedly have a landline and internet set up, but we're not holding our breaths.

Today we'd had plans to visit the zoo with Kellie and the kids, but Olive and I both had a rough night; Olive was awake for most of it, cranking out diapers for me to take care of, but it was too hot for me to sleep well, anyway.  When Kellie called at 8:30 to say that they were going to have to cancel because of what sounds like an even worse night with Jack, who's been plagued lately by a monster in the guise of a bunny that visits him in the night.  Poor thing.  Maybe next week.