MOVING

The first home - the red one with the for sale sign hanging down - is the Baltimore row house we've been living in for the last two months. For those Westerners unfamiliar with the row house concept, its a very skinny, rather long, hallway of a house which shares both side walls with neighboring houses. This makes for a very dense, loud environment in the summer when people like to hang out on their stoops. Our house, in the neighborhood of Hampden, is 11 feet wide and 40 or so feet deep, with two floors and a dank dungeon basement. Cayenne was never able to recognize which stairs lead to our house. He'd either try going up each set or he'd walk right by our house, even after two months.

Today we moved out of Hampden and into an apartment owned by our realtor in Towson, MD. Towson is a large, trendy suburb on the north side of Baltimore. In many ways it reminds us of Bellevue (a Seattle suburb). For one, its defining characteristics is its huge, upscale mall.

We're within walking distance to a movie theatre, a trader joes, a plethora of restaurants, a surprising number of beach wear shops and a Hudson Trail Outfitters (East coast version of REI) - very different from our Baltimore Neighborhood. While we cross our fingers and hope our house closes in two weeks, we'll be comforted by those yuppie indulgences which we left behind in Seattle. A taste of suburban living before we plunge back into the city proper.