Raegan & I went to see a matinee of the penguin movie. Fantastic movie. Strongly recommend. Then we spent the next two and a half hours trying to locate a breakfast place in Winchester. It appears the only way to have breakfast out in Winchester is to actually stay at a Bed & Breakfast. Just breakfast by itself they don't have.

Our usually-trusty GPS device kept sending us on wild goose chases to places that had long since closed-up (even a Friendly's). We also found a potentially lovely breakfast place located on a golf course (open til 2pm only). Our stomachs on the verge of implosion, we settled for a Bickfords on the Winchester/Stoneham line with decent cakes.

Raegan is suffering from some sort of paint-color disorder. Not normally one to impose on anyone's privacy or property, in recent days, when having spotted a house in a green similar to one we were considering, she will leap suddenly from the van with samples in hand, run across the unsuspecting stranger's yard and press the tiny swatches to their home. Her suspicions confirmed, she returns to the camper smiling broadly, and waving the pages, pointing to one or another of the colors, as if to say, 'See? I told you so. I knew it all along."

I think the colors we have decided on thus far are "Newt's Acne" for the house and "Mona Lisa's Nipple" for the door, though I may be wrong.

We hiked around Horn Pond, which is the pond just at the end of our street, and it was pretty impressive. We passed maybe fifty ducks, about ten or so swans, and another fifty Canadian Geese (undoubtedly flying down for the favorable exchange rate). Folks were fishing and boating, the latter being a great relief, as I've been saying how much I'd like to get a little something — a sunfish, maybe, and get out on the pond — but we weren't sure boating was allowed.

Here's a picture of our house in relation to the pond, so you can get an idea just how swell it is:




The hike around is amazing, the setting sun sparkles on the water and small trails extend off from the main path in every direction. Raegan is already in love with the pond and has assigned us a regular schedule of walking around it "first thing every morning." I'm sure we will be walking around it every day, though maybe not first thing. Sometimes I like to use the bathroom.

Here's a Google satellite image of the house. The red indicates our property borders. You can see how far back the yard goes — all the way through to the next street, with the Big Church at the other end, for the eventual benefit of all involved (actually, we hear talk it's being converted into condos).

We also determined that the house is exactly midway between Winchester center and Woburn center, which is terrific as Woburn center offers amenities Winchester is too snooty to provide: a Bowladrome, to be precise.

We both feel entirely blessed to have found such a bargain of a home in such an amazing town and in so perfect an area. We can't wait to have everyone come visit.