It has been a comedy of errors and a few missteps, but we seem to have achieved success in getting our next tier of arrival matters in place. We got high speed for the house - but not cable. Our [semi] expensive stereo, which had stopped working when we lived at Sudbury Street, has begun working again (?), so we have radio. Last week while admiring the new 2006 Prius driving in front of me on 34th Street North, one of the main secondary arterials in St. Petersburg, I ran into it. First accident ever. Tuesday, when we drove halfway to the next county to get our car registered in Florida and to exchange our Massachusetts licenses for Florida licenses, Marcela failed the vision test at the counter. Yesterday, as Marcela was having her eyes checked by the optomitrist making small talk about how we were trying to decide whether to put Maxim in pubic school or to stick with the private kindergarten, we learned that school began Tuesday...two days ago. (Oh, and it turned out that Marcela's eyes were fine. (!) ) By the time we got home, the schools had closed for the day, so we decided to enjoy the evening. We harvested the last pineapple of the season, boiled some pasta, and tossed up a delicious lima bean and cottage cheese salad. (By 'we' I of course mean Marcela, except for the pineapple; I harvested that.) After dinner, we scrambled to do our research on the Pinellas County School web site (it's a 'school choice' community; about which, more later.) and this morning it happened. Maxim began kindergarten at Lakewood Elementary School. We'll post some pictures on Flickr later on today. We were heartened by the fact that her kindergarten teacher, Miss Wester, is a native of Leominster, Massachusetts and a die-hard Red Sox fan. Noah doesn't begin school until Monday and my classes will not begin until Labor day, so Maxim is our pioneer into the wider St. Petersburg life. We are very proud of her.