Gradually my new house is turning into a home. I spend every free moment moving boxes around and trying furniture in different places, and by now I think it's getting close to the way I think I want it. And if it isn't, it's not for lack of experimentation or want of an adventurous spirit.

I discovered early on that I hadn't left myself much maneuvering room around the computer desk. So when David was here tonight, I asked him to help me move the desk out and put a bookcase behind it. It's so much better; it's like having my own cubicle, except that it's wide open. The desk is the first thing you see when you come to the front door, but it doesn't detract from the openness of the studio.

In fact, everything I've tried to do here has worked out better than I hoped. I keep thinking that I'm going to clutter the place up, or destroy the delicate balance between open space and functionality. But it always seems to work out in the opposite way. When I move something, it somehow makes the room seem more spacious and airy.

You'd think, with all the work I've done opening and closing boxes and moving things around (then moving them somewhere else), I'd have a good handle on the whereabouts of just about everything I own. But alas, there are some critical items that have eluded me since I moved.

My hammer. Twice I've had people ask me if I had a hammer. Of course I have a hammer! I just don't know where it is. I think I've looked in all the logical places, at least two or three times, but I haven't seen it. I can picture myself putting it in a box, along with other tools (I've found a wrench, but nary a screwdriver). But I haven't seen my hammer, even by accident, since I left the old place.

Speaker wire. When I set up the stereo (almost the first thing after I moved in), I used the same wire that I'd used at Green Acres, even though the lengths were not exactly right for the Fortress. I had a huge roll of heavy duty wire, but when David was here tonight hanging my rear speakers, he brought his own wire to use.

Wire stripper. Probably in the same place as the wire.

My garlic press. I go to all the trouble of learning one recipe, which happens to require minced garlic, and I can't find the tool I need. (Actually, this was not the problem it could have been, since Saundra once sent me instructions for mincing garlic using the flat edge of a knife.)

My gray sweats. These gray, almost-fall nights scream out for bundling up, but I can't keep wearing the same black sweats night after night, at least until my washing machine gets fixed. When I moved, I took all the clothes out of the dresser, to make it easier on the movers. Then I misplaced at least one box of very important stuff, which will become even more important if I don't find it before winter sets in.

A tape of the last episode of Young Americans.

Time.

Sleep.

A little bit of sanity.

I expect to find or replace most of the things on the list, eventually.