Bzzzzt

Have I already said that I am excited about this weekend? People are visiting! The Goddess arrived this morning and everyone else arrives tomorrow. Woo-hoo! There is still much cleaning, food shopping, and beer purchasing to do, so I am not very interested in being at work today. Or tomorrow, for that matter.

Plus, I just drank a half cup of regular coffee (not decaf, like usual) and i am bouncing off my cubicle walls!

boing

Don't you coo at me!

Does anyone else think this is weird?

"A West Yorkshire hospital has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies over fears their human rights are being breached and to reduce infection."

I hate unpacking and putting together furniture

Have you ever worked on a project that felt like it would never end and you get so tired of doing it you just want to throw all of your stuff away? Well, I have. And watching football at the same time doesn't make it better.

That aside, I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS WEEKEND! Johnny's 30th birthday and housewarming party is Saturday night and I can't wait. There are some Philly-ites (?) making the 8 hour trek and we will probably have about 10 people staying at our house. It is going to be soo fun. There will be beer, kareoke, laughing, and hopefully no rain. Here's a weather report for you travelers out there.

Donovan, I have missed you

I went to meet my dad last night to see a movie at the $1.50 theatre and on my way home Johnny's car broke down. My phone was dead so I had to walk. I was going down the ramp, realizing that my chances of being picked up by someone not-scary were slim, when my wildest dreams (at the time) were answered by a very nice couple in their 60s, who took me to the gas station and let me use their cell phone. What a relief.

In honor of The Nicest Couple of All-Time, I feel moved to drink coffee and eat a donut at 10:00, the coffee hour!

For you football fans, we totally got the NFL Sunday Ticket!! They came to install on Wednesday, so now we have about 4 million channels as part of our limited-time promotion, including the Eagles! Whoo-hoo! We missed the last 2 games because people around here want to watch the Bengals, Browns, or the Steelers, for some reason. So now, Johnny and I can watch all the NFL Sunday action we can take. I can't wait.

I heart maps

I really love maps, and therefore I also love cataloging them. There are 2 map people here, but they also do Arabic, so my lack of language skills may or may not be a welcome break for them.

I was working on these mine maps and they often include the old map techniques which list ranges, section and townships of areas of the rural west. I had called something a range and Map Man was looking things over and kinda gave this haughty sniff and scoffed, "well. that does have sections, but" (here he actually snorted) "not ranges."
Catalogers are such a funny sort. We get all snobbish about our subject specialties (or language specialties) and talk about them in a certain way. I will think of a word to describe it someday.

Also related to work, here is a blurry photo of that weird being that lives in the shrubs outside my window. I think it is a woodchuck.

But don't you think it looks like a prarie dog?

Whirlwind

Thursday night I set out with my brother, sister-in-law and 2 nieces (1 and 4 years old) to southwestern WVa to visit my sister, brother-in-law and The Tiniest Baby Of All Time. She is precious and 6 pounds (just a little bigger than a small white dog I know) and slept, ate & cried pretty much the whole time. The 1-year-old niece looked like a giant ogre next to her. But a cute one.

We came back on Saturday afternoon and I learned that Johnny had somehow scored tickets to see The Kinsey Sicks , who are a "Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet." The show was incredible and very political and funny, which I always appreciate when packaged appropriately.

The next morning we got up early and drove to Pittsburgh to meet our former neighbors, the Goddess and the Man. We went to the Warhol museum, which I greatly enjoyed, and then to a diner, coffee shop, and some shopping. We found out that The Man's furniture business got a write up in Philadelphia Magazine's Home & Garden, which features a great picture of them and some of their work.

After that, Johnny and I went to IKEA (which is now a 3 hour trip away from our home, instead of about 5 minutes) and spent a bunch o money on curtains, a rug, a coffee table, and some other stuff I don't remember.

Today, when I went up to get my coffee, the Cafeteria Singer was breaking the 80s tradition by belting out a passionate rendition of "I Believe I Can Fly." I almost tipped her.

Fair Food and Foreigner

The Foreigner concert was so Freekin Fun. We went with our friends Jake and Leo and got there early enough to walk around and eat corn dogs, fries with vinegar, and caramel apples. As if that wasn't enough junk, we went in search of some popcorn, because it is the popcorn festival after all. We bought this $6 bag of freshly popped kettle corn that was literally the size of my right leg. We met up with my little sister and her boyfriend who offered to help us eat it and headed toward the Main Stage. I could hear people cheering and music playing as we approached. The first words I heard were, "Is everyone havin' fun? Does everyone have some popcorn?". I knew immediately that the show was going to be awesome.

There was a great crowd of all kinds of people (kids, parents, grandparents, bikers, us) and they played all the hits I could ever think of from my childhood. There was maybe one song that i didn't know all the words to, and during that song we went to the ATM to get cash to buy our t-shirts (which I happen to be wearing at this moment).

I recorded some of the songs with my phone and here is a sample for you fans out there. (.wav) You can hear us screaming in the din.

Here is also a very poor quality photo taken with my phone:



but you get the idea.

When we went to get the T-shirts, Johnny asked if they were vintage. Ha! The guy was like, uh, no. My co-worker asked me that same thing today, if I had it for a long time. I admitted that it was new and that i felt a bit like an imposter.

On the work front

I talked someone into putting me in charge of a project cataloging maps! For those of you who know how I feel about maps, you will completely understand how great this is. I just spent all morning with The Map-Guy and I even got my own tape measure. yay!

In Foreigner news, we are totally going. We are leaving at 6. I will try to remember to take my camera.

Juke...box...he-ro...!! I will completely have stars in my eyes. And popcorn in my hand.

Urrrgent, wait and see

Last week my mom told me that Foreigner is playing at my hometown Popcorn Festival on Friday. I totally want to go, it just depends on how early Johnny can get home and whether we have to keep up this blasted house painting.

Just think, I could be eating popcorn, drinking beer and swooning over these guys

while I ROCK OUT to a 70s and 80s hit parade!!

Oh man. Plus, mom thinks that they might possibly stay at the hotel where she works. I begged for an autograph, and if i get it, i will completely make it a major part of my blog.

"Ah, it's no big deal..."

That's what my sister said when I asked her about GIVING BIRTH at 12:30 this morning.

She is so funny.

She has always been laid back, and kinda "go-with-the-flow" about life, not making an affair of things that are really worth being excited about. My mom calls to give me the baby vitals (girl, 6 lb 11 oz) so I immediately called her up at the hospital.

I get her on the phone and in a little bit of a sleepy voice, she tells me about the schedule of events:
9:30 -- leave house in rural WV
10:30 -- get admitted around into hospital in town
11:00 -- go into labor
12:30 -- have baby

She didn't even have time to have an epidural.

I told her I was going to write about her 1 1/2 hour labor and she said, "No sense in messin' around with it, get in there, get it done."

I said I would quote her.

What about the bus?

So gas prices are on the rise, which wasn't a big deal for me when I lived in Philly, but here I think I go through about a tank every 10 days and I get pretty good gas mileage. I have looked into riding the bus to work, but it would result in a 1 1/2 hour ride that takes me downtown and then into the suburbs where I work. Each way. Today I wrote a letter to the bus company to tell them they needed to take advantage of the gas situation to expand their service. I offered to meet with a representative, so I hope they take me up on it. It would be really great not to have to drive every single place.

Our floors are now sanded and they are looking quite nice. The refinisher-man will be putting the first coat of finish on today, and the cats are locked in the basement. He told Johnny we'd be able to walk on it this evening. He'll do another coat tomorrow and then it has to sit a couple of days before we put furniture on it.

The weather is doggone beautiful. 80 and sunny all through next week! I am so glad that we have Monday off so I can start doing yard work. All the rain is going to make the plants really grow, so I want to intervene before it becomes out of control. What's everyone else doing this weekend?

Back to the library

Thanks for all your wishes, it must have worked! The people were out by 1:30 and we started moving things in as soon as they pulled away. Thanks to my dad, uncle and our friend Heidi, we got everything in there and moved out of the old place.

The bad news: (!)
There is a significant amount of damage to the floors under the area rugs, courtesy of 2 naughty dogs. We have gotten some estimates for refinishing. The up-side is that we were planning to have the floors redone anyway, this just makes it more of a priority.

18 gallons worth of painting will start today.

The day has finally come

Tomorrow, we move.

I am depending on fate or something to ensure that things go smoothly. We are finishing packing tonight, then buying paint in the morning. The seller's truck is supposed to come and go before noon. Then we can move small stuff in, then the big stuff when my dad and uncle arrive around 3:30 with an extra truck. I just want it to be easy! Think of us sometime tomorrow and think good thoughts.

prez?

In spite of his efforts to ignore the anti-war protests, Bush's approval rating is now lower than Nixon's.

Whoo-hoo!

We're playing your song

Today I am feeling anxious. Last week the seller of the house called and said there was a problem with the water main and now the whole front yard has been transformed into a giant trench. We are moving in 4 days and we still need to pack up. I have to work 9 hour days to make up for missing work on Friday.

Tennessee was beautiful though. The wedding was wonderfully sweet and we had a shockingly good time at Dollywood. The best part is that they play Dolly Parton songs from the speakers in most parts of the park, so you could have Kettle Corn or Funnel Cakes and listen to Dolly at the same time. The sad part is that Gatlinburg is really booming, and there are entire sides of mountains that have been blasted out and replaced by giant cabins/hotels/condos. We went to the outlet malls on the way home, bought some new clothes, paid 9.5% sales tax and finally made it home by 1:30 am. Johnny drove the whole way and I slept. Dolly bless her.

Closed

We closed on the house yesterday! Now we can finally get out of our box-laden apartment.


This past weekend was a whirlwind and now we have 10 days to get everything together and ONE day to move. We have been putting stuff in a storage space to help us spread it out some. We found out that the sellers got their days mixed up and actually scheduled their truck for the 26th, our first day of possession!! So, we might start moving things in before they leave, depending on when their truck arrives.

Johnny had to go to Indiana to install a giant tree in a library in Seymour and sent me this photo of their bike rack.

It is so sweet. I want to ride a bike to Seymour just so I can park there.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my one month anniversary of work at the Cataloging Factory. I still have these questions:

Why is there no water cooler?

Why doesn't my ID work to let me into the gym?

Why do so many people smoke?

Why do I only know the names of 6 people?

I also heard about the T.O. debacle on the radio this morning. The season is just approaching and yet, I fear another let-down. Does anyone know any insider secrets that will help me feel more hopeful?

Trips and secrets!

pre-s. An update on the laundry-drop-off: we were totally missing about 12 items when we got home. We didn't know until Johnny started looking for her favorite pants and found they were missing. We got everything back, but it was freakish enough to keep us from doing that again anytime soon. I will be at the laundromat tonight.

So it turns out that the house closing is going to be on the 15th after all. We will still have to do some pretty serious work in the span of 2 days to get everything ready and moved in.

This weekend we go to Cincinnati to visit Johnny's friend, then to Indiana for her Grandma's birthday party. The next day is my sister's birthday and we are heading up to Marion to take her and her boyfriend to dinner. So much driving!

Aaannnd... i am not supposed to tell, but we have been asked to accompany our friends on their elopement to Gatlinburg! Shhh. It is a secret, but I am so excited to go to Dollywood! It is next weekend and I can hardly wait. Eep!

The best kind of mail

Johnny got a letter from her school yesterday telling her that she has been awarded a merit scholarship!! It will cover over half of her (expensive) tuition. They were really impressed with her portfolio, so now I am extra-extra excited about the school thing for her. Congratulations!!

We tried to have a celebratory dinner, but she didn't like what she ordered and then we severely botched a well-intentioned game of pool. We decided that we'd have another try at it, because it wasn't very successful. (the dinner, maybe not the pool)

For the first time ever, I dropped off laundry yesterday. I feel only slightly nervous about it, but the woman at the 'mat was very nice. Do any of you drop off your laundry? How much do you pay per pound usually? This one was 1.05/pound for next-day service. Should we shop around?

What a nice gesture!

The woman who sits next to me is in her mid 40s and from Russia. She is a big asset here because she has a variety of European language skills. Yesterday we bonded over the frustrations of being new here and today she brought in those Ferrero Rocher chocolates and offered one to me. It was very sweet (both the sentiment and the chocolate). The little things sure do matter.

Johnny started her new job on Monday. She's excited because she knows a lot about tools and woodworking equipment and people have been asking her lots of questions about it. I am really happy for her to have a job she really likes.

We went last night to my brother's house to watch Anchorman. They had never seen it. But before that, we got to hang out with The Nieces. THEY ARE SO CUTE. The youngest one is almost a year old and can sorta stand by herself now, but is really getting some personality. This weekend is their Pink Poodle Birthday Party. (Their birthdays a day apart) Johnny is going to set up a face-painting booth. The kids are going to love it.