Well, if you've got a spare hour or two, the pictures of San Francisco are up in the gallery. There's a bunch, especially of Alcatraz.
Cleaning the old house most of the day, so I'm pretty tired and I have a headache. I'll let the pictures speak for the blog today :-)
Back from California, where we had a wonderful long weekend with lots of shopping and eating and walking, and the weather was gorgeous. Also got to see Mark and Keith again from TimeSink which was really fun. I will try to post pictures tomorrow, especially of Alcatraz which was way cool at night. Kelsey is pretty obsessed with that prison and the prisoners. She could probably tell you most of the worst offender's names and what they did, and I'm sure she could also regale you with tales of escape attempts.
In the meantime, we're back home. I saw somebody's craigslist ad today asking if they could come pick up any stuff you didn't want anymore, as they were trying to raise money for a down payment on a house by doing these yard sales of whatever they could get. I emailed her and they came over tonight and cleared the old house of all the stuff we didn't want to bring to the new house but hated to just throw away. So that's cool, they were really happy to get everything, and I think they're coming back tomorrow night to pick up the couch too. So there's not too much left in the old house to bring over, thank goodness. I'm so ready to live in only one place!
The beagles were great while we were gone, and very well taken care of by Ayla and her mom. They are so very spoiled, they don't even know what it's like to go to a kennel when we go on vacation.
Kelsey and I leave for San Francisco tomorrow, to join Jay at the Game Developer's Conference, already in progress. It was so nice here today that I almost hate to leave just when the city is starting to come into Spring. It's supposed to rain by the weekend though, so we won't miss too much.
Ayla and her mom are going to stay with the beagles, so I have to write up a schedule for them tonight. We got the new dryer today, and I did my first load of laundry - it's so nice to not use that scary one that came with the house anymore.
I made mom's reservations to come see us in June, and I made Kelsey's reservations to go to Austin in April. Ray is coming to see us early April, and then I can't wait to go on the cruise in June with the Weilers and the Churchills. So much to look forward to in the next few months.
Talk to you from California - if I can find a wifi hotspot, that is.
How cool that we're on the West Coast so we can enjoy the Oscars at 5:30 and not have to fall asleep waiting for them to be over.
I hate the pre-show. Everyone just seems so overly fake about everything. We skipped most of it.
Nicole Kidman's face looks totally frozen and plastic and scary looking. Way too much botox.
Jack Nicholson gets more bizarre every year. The shaved head, the sunglasses indoors....yeah, he's weird all right.
Good for Alan Arkin. I didn't see it, but I heard Eddie Murphy got really pissed that he didn't win and stormed out of the theater. Or maybe he just wanted to leave early. Whatever, he didn't stay for the rest and I think that's pretty rude either way.
Poor Peter O'Toole. The man looked like death warmed over, and I think his last chance of getting an Oscar before he's gone went by the wayside.
Forest Whitaker's eyelid is seriously creepy. Dude, have that fixed.
Ellen Degeneres was funny but seemed really subdued. I think she was nervous, but I still liked her.
Al Gore got big since his election. Tipper too. I think part of their global warming campaign consists of clearing every plate put in front of them. Good for him though for being there and being so personable. Too bad he couldn't show that side a few years ago.
Meryl Streep obviously goes for comfort over style. I still love her.
Gwyneth Paltrow looked fabulous. Reese Witherspoon too. Great dresses on both of them. Kirsten Dunst however looked like she hadn't washed her hair in three days. Kelsey and I both laughed at the look Toby Maguire shot her when she elbowed him away from the microphone.
Where was Brad Pitt? So disappointed he wasn't there.
Kelsey thinks Leo DiCaprio looks old...like in his 40s old. She was amazed to discover he's only 33. I think he looked and sounded very poised.
Yay for Martin Scorsese....I was happy he finally got his Oscar.
What the hell is wrong with George Lucas's neck?
I don't think little Jaden Christopher yada yada yada Smith can read. Love Will Smith, he looked great. Jada Pinkett Smith looks robotic.
I was happy for Jennifer Hudson, but Kelsey doesn't think it's fair that somebody gets an Oscar for their very first acting role.....says she hasn't earned it yet. I did feel bad for her doing the musical part though when her right boob kept threatening to escape. It made me very uncomfortable to watch her.
All in all, not bad...not that exciting, not horrible either. No terribly stand out moments. The best line of all the winners goes to Melissa Ethridge, who said the next morning on Good Morning America that the Oscar would be the only naked man to EVER be in her bedroom.
Once in a while, we need a little break from the moving. (maybe it's not such a good thing to have so long to move...especially when your entire family is made up of procrastinators)
So, we got the Wii the other day (courtesy of Nintendo and a special offer to Midway employees). Jay also went and got Zelda to play on the Wii and Crackdown to play on the XBox 360. So now we officially have 4 game systems set up. Oh, the wires.....the wires.
Anyways, the Wii is pretty fun, 'cause it came with Wii sports and we've all been having fun bowling and playing tennis, and testing our "fitness age". I don't want to mention what my fitness age is, because I think Nintendo is smoking crack. (it's freakin' 68!!!) Obviously, I have some work to do on my reflexive gaming moves. Kelsey started out in her 50's but is down in her 20's now. Jason started out not far from his real age, so good for him. Too bad he has osteoporosis. (or so the lady at the fitness fair at his work told him the other day) I think he's just trying to get out of beagle-proofing the backyard by using brittle bones as an excuse. What a whiner.
***okay, really...that diagnosis was a little surprising and scary, so he's going to get a follow up by somebody who wasn't trying to push their alternative medicine services on scared, brittle boned people.****
The bathroom contractor was here today, and we ordered us a new tub. If all goes well, the bathroom should be done by end of March to mid-April. Mostly depends on us, as we're doing a lot of the work ourselves to save $$$. I can't wait.
It's been a busy few days, and we just got Beaglehaus back up and running so I can finally update everyone on the move.
The movers came bright and early 9am Friday, and worked pretty steadily through until 5pm. We couldn't bring the green couch from my old house, and we couldn't bring Jason's maroon chair, because we couldn't get either one of them up the stairs to the loft where we had the "lofty" goal (hehe) of placing them. So they went back to the old house. We were all in bed by 7:30 Friday night, utterly exhausted.
Comcast came right at 8am on Saturday (we had one of those sometime between 8 and 12 appointments). I had a touch of panic when the guy said he wasn't going to be installing any outlets, it wasn't on his work order. I told him I made it very clear when I set up the appointment that we needed three outlets installed, because there is basically no cable set up in the house. He made some calls and cancelled all his morning appointments, and he was at work from 8am until after 1 pm, even after calling in some reinforcement. Up on the roof, dropping lines, drilling through walls, and we were set up with our triple play :-) Cable, phone, internet all courtesy of the Comcast monopoly.
We don't have everything moved yet, but we're working on it a little every day. It's mostly books anyway, so it won't take that long to pack up. The NY professor is taking the house, starting April 1, so we still have all of March to get stuff out. The landlords will come over March 18 to do the walk through and start some painting, so our goal is to have most of the stuff moved out by then.
Whew....long post. I'll keep updating later.
Just finished taking the beds apart, so things will go faster with the movers tomorrow. They will be here at 9 am to start, and they've got 4-6 hours scheduled. I think that should be plenty of time, since we live so close and we're basically just having them move furniture. Kelsey and I moved all the kitchen stuff today, which fit a little better than I thought it would actually.
Things we need:
Microwave
Chest freezer
Throw/Area rugs
Things we have way too much of:
Furniture
Glasses
Coffee mugs
Books and bookcases
Knick-knacks
Spices
Washers (1 too many)
Computers and computer parts
Board games with missing pieces
Curtains/various window treatments
Crockpots
Dogs
Tonight we sleep good - tomorrow we work hard. It would have been awesome if we could have bought the house we're renting, then we wouldn't have had to move at all :-) Oh well - we'll miss this place but we're excited to sleep in the new house tomorrow. I'll post pictures as we get organized.
The professor from NYC came today to look at the house. We think it went pretty well. He said he had been looking at quite a few, and had some more to look at yet, but he said he really liked the place, and we were probably in the top 2 of what he had looked at so far. We should know one way or the other sometime Tuesday, so we'll still cross our fingers until then.
We've all been working so hard this past week. Jason has one gate almost finished, and he's going to start working on the second one tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have them done before we move in officially on Friday. We tried to go meet the neighbors today and ask about putting in some green wire fencing along the property line, but they weren't home. Kelsey and I painted the remaining two walls in her room, and we'll finish the second coats tomorrow. I bought the pot rack for behind the stove, so I'm hoping to put that up tomorrow too. That should save us a lot of valuable cabinet space, if we can keep the pots on the wall. We still have to find a small microwave somewhere, and would like to pick up a used chest freezer for downstairs if we can find one on craigslist. We're all exhausted, and I can't wait until we're all moved in and settled. At least the weather has been really nice lately. I sure hope it won't be raining on Friday.
We got the keys and we've been busy moving stuff back and forth between houses. It's nice that we don't have to move out of the rental right away so we can take our time moving. The furniture gets moved next Friday, and the goal is to have most of the other stuff moved by then.
This past weekend Kelsey and her friends were busy painting her room while Jay and I took inventory and made a trip to Lowes. We were there over three hours, trying to make sure we got everything we needed so we wouldn't have to go back. Of course, we had to go back the next day to get outside wood screws for the gate that Jason is building for beagle containment. But now I think we're set.
The guy from New York is coming this week to look at the house and decide if he wants to take over the rental. Please please please please please please please please please. oh, and please.
Today Jason and I had our signing. That's almost the same as closing in PA, except no keys are exchanged, and the seller isn't there. Just the buyers, the title company, and the buyer's real estate agent. We signed and signed and signed, then we handed over a freaking huge check, then we left. Next step is for the Escrow company to file the papers, the county records the deed, and then Monday we get keys. Official time is 9:00 pm, but our agent is going to see if we can't get them sooner.
So, it's almost official - just a few more days and we can start moving boxes! Thanks for the box suggestions everyone gave. I wound up asking at Safeway the other day when I was grocery shopping, and they hooked me up big time. I packed about 8 boxes of books that I'm going to donate to the Seattle Public Library. They have a huge book sale twice a year...and I mean huge...it's in an old aircraft hanger, and it's always packed. The neighbor and I are going to drop the boxes off tomorrow. She has a van, and she's going to go through her stuff too.
Kelsey registered for driver's education yesterday. She can go any time now and get her permit. Needless to say, she's very excited. Needless to say, I'm scared to death. Seattle is not a fun place to drive. Or park. I'm sure she'll be fine, but it's hard to think about.
As excited as I am to move into our new house, I just can't seem to get myself motivated to actually do any packing. Geez, I hate to move. I keep looking around thinking, this can be packed, that can be packed....but actually making any effort to do it seems to be beyond me. Maybe if I get some boxes, I'll feel ready. I tried Kris's suggestion and went across the street to the fruit stand, but all of their boxes were wet and soggy so I didn't take any. There's a craigslist posting today that someone has a bunch of free boxes in South Seattle - maybe I should call them.
Okay, people...motivate me.
Oh my goodness....what a bizarro collection of freaks that auditioned in Seattle. I did notice that the weirdest people were not actually from Seattle, but simply came here to audition. That does not prevent me from wanting to hide in shame however. Seattle just needs to pull the covers over its head and not go outside for a few days until the embarrassment goes away.
P.S. - someone from work sent me this link in case anyone wants to check out the MySpace pages of some of the more memorable Idol contestants:
http://deathbycamera.com/
Awesome detective work :-)
Umm...yeah. We bought a house.
Wow, is it cold in Seattle. Yesterday I couldn't open the passenger door of Jason's car because it was frozen solid. I had to sit in the backseat. I was also the only one at work yesterday because nobody else could make it in on the icy roads. Whoever it was that told us it doesn't snow in Seattle was totally wrong. Kelsey had another snow day yesterday and a two hour delay this morning. Ick.
Jason is on a deadline this week so he's been working really late hours. Good news from his work though, they're covering his GDC trip to San Francisco in March, so all we need to cover is the airfare for me and Kelsey, and the extra two weekend nights at the hotel. How cool is that? Since that's being covered, we're going to look into some doggie ranch action for the beagles instead of leaving them alone again. The neighbor did a great job, but he'll be in school instead of on vacation so it'll be harder for him to keep to their schedule.
Oh, and we're looking at a house. But I'm not getting my hopes up so I'm not going to post too much about it. Just send us some really good thoughts the next few days please :-)
Server has been down for a few days, so I've been unable to update. We're finally home and unpacked, and laundry has been done and things put away, so we're slowly getting back to normal routine.
Our holiday trip was fun, and it was so good to see all of our families again. I'm not going to post much, but I thought it would be nice to share some of our picture memories this time around.
We got to Pittsburgh Christmas day about 3:30, after a harrowing drive in the rain with a rental car that did not want to stay on the road. Jason's hands were in a death grip after 3 hours of trying hard to keep us all alive, while Kelsey and I slept. (me, fitfully...as I kept jerking awake every time we slipped to see if we were all about to die. Then I'd go back to sleep).
Christmas night we had dinner at Grandma Flo's house. It was the three of us, Mary and Hugo, Grandma Flo, Ron and Gail, and Robert. Lovely evening, and really good food. The next day, Megan and Robby arrived and Robby met everyone. We all dressed up in our finery, opened stockings in the living room, and went to the Duquesne Club for dinner. The same people, without Robert, met us there, and in addition was Ron's son Jordan and Mary's brother and sister-in-law from Colorado, Glen and Joanne.
Mary and Hugo had arranged a private room with a big dining room, a living room area and bathroom, so we all had some drinks and opened our secret santa gifts (I got a quilt kit!), then had dinner. As usual, it was delicious and I felt like I needed to be rolled out of the room. We then took Robby on a tour of the place, and went to the Men's Bar for a nightcap before coming home exhausted.
The next day Megan and Robby left and it was a pretty relaxing day. Jason took Kelsey driving while I hung around the house, then that night we went to see Ron and Autumn sing at a local bar/restaurant. There was a huge crowd of relatives there too, so many more people to see and say hi to.
Tonight there are about 20 relatives coming to Mary and Hugo's for a pizza party. Unfortunately, both Kelsey and Jason got my cold and are both fighting to breath right now. I think there will be many infected people after the party tonight :-(
After a very long day on Tuesday, we're finally back in Pennsylvania. I feel really lucky that our flight was Tuesday and not yesterday, because Denver had a gigantic snowstorm yesterday that closed the airport, and that's where we connected through. No problems on the flight except it just takes so damn long to get across the country. I can't wait until we can teleport.
We met Jonathan for dinner Tuesday night, he drove up from State College. It was really good to see him - he's lost 60 pounds since he started running, and he looks fantastic! I don't know why some girl hasn't snapped him up yet :-) We spent a few hours catching up, but he had to drive back to State College and work the next day, so it was a short visit.
Yesterday I spent the day being miserable, as I have a cold and had a raging headache most of the day. Kelsey spent the night at Pam's, so I was in bed by 7:30 at the hotel. I had a hard time getting to sleep though because of my headache, and then when we both were finally asleep, the phone rang. The hotel mixed up our 10:00 am wakeup call with a 1:oo am wakeup call. After a lot of tossing and turning and yet more aspirin, we finally went back to sleep. Luckily, I had set my phone alarm after the 1 am wakeup call, so it went off at 10, and I feel so much better. We're now off to take my mom to her eye appointment. Maybe I can finally enjoy being home today :-)
Last night was fun. We mostly just ate and bowled...and had a few drinks (I had quite the headache this morning). No Wi for us, but Jason won a $50 gift card for Best Buy, so his winning streak continues. I said yesterday that I'm no Kris Kiner...but my husband is. I think this is the fourth thing he's won, and that's just when I've been with him. Heaven knows how much stuff he's been winning without me!
Kelsey is done with school for the year tomorrow. They have an hour early release, and then that's it for 2006. I think she's really looking forward to her break :-) She seems to like school a little better this year, but I think she'd still prefer not to go to school at all...she's just ready to start college. Three more years, after this one.
Terribly icky day today, so it was nice to come home and put on some jammies and watch the recording of The Biggest Loser...holy cow, the winner lost 214 pounds! That's amazing! He looked really good, as did all of them. Good for them for getting that done. Now getting ready for The Office and Survivor. We love Thursdays :-)
Whew, it's been a while since I posted. Time has gotten away from me. I've been super busy these last weeks getting ready for Christmas....and I don't even have to worry about a tree, or decorations, or anything! But I've been doing a lot of shopping and even if most of it has been online, it's been time consuming. I think I'm done now though.
Tonight is Jason's company Christmas party. It's at some place called Garage downtown...it's like a billiards/bowling/bar place. They've booked a private room with 6 bowling lanes, some pool tables, and they're going to have some Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, and Craps tables set up. Same as last year, you use fake money to play, you trade your winnings in for tickets, and the tickets go into a drawing for prizes. Last year they gave away an X-Box 360 as their big prize. I'm no Kris Kiner, I didn't win anything. But it was fun anyway :-) Food, free drinks, and a bit of fun. Too bad it's just for adults, so Kelsey has to stay home :-(
Less than a week until we leave for PA and a whirlwind of Christmas activity. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update before then, so Merry Christmas!
Oh, P.S. I got an A in Anthropology! I'm so glad that class is over.
Today we woke up rather early at the campground....I guess going to bed so early makes us get up early too. The girls walked around the campsite while I made breakfast tacos. We went and got some firewood from the office so we had mid morning s'mores too :-). We decided we would take the later ferry to Friday Harbor, and then have dinner there and come home.
The ferry was at 2:40, which got us to Friday Harbor at 3:45. It was so pretty there. Kelsey and I thought it reminded us of some of the towns in Alaska that we stopped in on our cruise last summer. There was still snow on the ground, and the stores were all decorated with lights for Christmas. It really is a pretty town. The only problem was all the shops closed at 5:30, and we had decided to eat before shopping, so we didn't have a whole lot of time to see much. Then we had to wait until 6:45 for the return ferry to Anacortes. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of the girls waiting to board.
There were only about 8 of us on board for the trip home, so it was pretty quiet. We got back to the cabin about 8:30 and everyone is in pajamas already. It's just too cold to sit outside, and we're out of firewood already :-) But I think the girls had a good time, so I'll say the trip was a success.
