A day without rain...

Is apparently a day with snow.

Yes it snowed here this morning. Didn't stick... but still.

Nonetheless it had cleared up enough this afternoon that I snapped a pic of the front of the house.


I am also making progress, albeit slowly, with unpacking. I had planned on alphabetizing these as I put them up and realized is was better for my sanity to get the boxes out of my office and books on shelves then to have them organized...

Moving is no fun.

We (the roommates) opted not to rent a uhaul, and I think it was huge mistake.



Instead a day of crappy moving, it was stretched out over several days, with intermittant monsoons, with the order of things being determined by whose car it would fit in. (We had a small truck, my small suv and a Jetta.) The truck owning (now ex) roommate was ridiculously helpful. Like above and beyond the call of duty both in terms of availability and the amount of work he did. He was a roommate for 2 months and hauled more crap and cleaned more of the house then the rest of us.

*Edit* I forgot to mention that in this week, essentially doing noting but moving I put ~200 miles on my car. Which means I made about 20 trips back and forth, as it's 10 miles round trip.

But we are moved, the old house is immaculately clean, the new house looks like a furniture bomb went off in it and the garage is completely totally packed solid.

In other news, I have home inventory software on my Droid that uses a 3rd party barcode scanner software. Only after buying it did I discover that both of them didn't really work on the droid. Until this week. Both of them pushed out a patch and they are working wonderfully.

Which means I can inventory my books, and have that inventory with me... so I don't buy duplicates of books I already have. It's not a common occurrence, but irritating nonetheless.

And on that note I have been moving and cleaning for too long and I'm going to sleep now.

New House... same tripping hazards...

New House... now with pictures!

There are great advantages to having a excellent photographer as roommate. Like good panoramic photos.


Left to right: Pantry, Dot's room (or a Harry Potter cupboard for those of you not privy to the joke), stairs up, Kitchen, dining room, door to the back yard and living room.

This is the same room photographed from the fireplace. New stuff left to right: door to the garage, front door and the downstairs 1/2 bath. You can't really see the 1/2 bath, just the frame of the door edge on by the front door. It's the biggest 1/2 bath I've ever seen...


This is the kitchen. A family of four could live in the fridge. Furthermore the dishwasher has top and bottom spray arms!

Bedroom 1. Window faces the garage and obliquely the street.



Bedroom 2. Window faces the backyard.Master bedroom and bath. How sad is it my first thought was "Panoramas are slimming!" Random skinny person is J's friend who I wish was staying. He's a hoopty frood who knows where his towel is.

The back yard. All 20 feet deep of it.

I have no idea why J didn't shoot the front. We have lovely flowering tree out front. I'll try and get photo soon.

The New Casa de' Architectures

So this is gonna be a picture heavy post, and I discovered a new trick... Photoshop Elements has a spiffy photomerge tool built into it... so I will be abusing you with panoramas. Also we are moving in, there are boxes and random stuff everywhere. Cope.


The House. Not a whole lot to say here... looks big doesn't it? It is. Over 3000 sq ft.

First Panorama. The Backyard. The 1 Acre backyard. There are horses next door. The dog is thrilled.

Living Room, from the landing.

Living Room, from the dining room.

Bonus shot of the roommate and girlfriend comparing swords. Yes... we are geeks.

Dining Room. (Aka .. the soon to be gaming room)

Second Panorama. The Kitchen. The Panorama is a little messed up. Really I needed three pictures to get it to work instead of two. However, this is what you get. The backsplash is steel.

Master bedroom with beached squid. Okay, it's actually my bed all rolled up. The picture doesn't do justice... the room is really long.

Master bath. Actually, there is a closet opposite of this and it acts as a sorta of a hallway to the actual bathroom.

Guest Bath. But if my camera is there... how did this picture get taken... hmmm...

Wait? Stairs? Where do they go?What is this? Another door? What horrors lie beyond?

Ummm... okay. Not so much a horror... just and unfinished basement.

REALLY unfinished. (Panorama three for those keeping count.)

Oh... that's better. The one of the roommates is claiming this for his office.

This one will be my cave...err... office.

There is even a workbench in the utility room.

If these pictures haven't bored you to tears, there are some more here. They include the other two bedrooms (to become a sewing room and roommate bedroom respectively,) exciting pictures of the utility room, storage room, laundry room and other fun and exciting things... like bathtubs! Ooooh!

First School day.

After a stressful weekend trying to get moved out of the house early, so the new tenets could paint before moving in, I was happy to spend labor day recovering (in theory.)

The reality is: I had to go digging through all of my boxes looking for my text books, which I thought I had kept out. I had a 50% hit rate. I found my Japanese text books but didn't find the math text book I needed, so I had to go to class without. However, it wouldn't have mattered since it appears that there is a new version that I would have had to buy. Correction... have to buy.

That sorta set the tone for the day. MSU financial aid is actually not screwed up anymore but the AK student loan is. More paperwork might unsnarl it, but it might not. Also, I apparently neglected to withdraw in a timely out of my one summer class I had signed up for LAST summer at UAA and I'm on the hook for $431 (coming out of my dividend.) I called and double checked with the UAA lady in charge and apparently I withdrew a week after the final date (I was already in MT at that point.)

No internet at the house as of this morning but it's supposed to be working by tonight (fingers crossed.)

I'm supposed to be testing for my purple belt tonight, but I think digestive problems (and funds) are going to keep me home tonight.

Only other thing of note is the dog seems to be adapting fine to the new digs, likes the big yard and hasn't tried storming the fences yet. Thus far when I'm home she's got run of the yard, comes in at dinner for a couple hours, and is only on the dog run at night or when I'm at class.

For the record, she has once again proven to be a true malamute... she get's the chase part of chasing stick (and ball and Frisbee and tire and...) but the retrieve portion is mostly hit or miss. Actually it's mostly miss. Though sometimes she substitutes "bite enthusiastically" for "retrieve."

Otherwise life continues. Mostly stressful, but with some bright points.

Solstice Update

I apologize for my lack of posts. I intend not to post anything that is not work or family safe, so I hope it will suffice to say that personal events in my life have taken the wind out of my sails.

Be that as it may...

I got my final grades in for the semester and they were all B, with the exception of a single B-. Since I feel I didn't give the class the time and attention it deserved it is not altogether unexpected. I'm not happy with the grade, but it is not less then I deserved.

In other news, I am moving. I have found a place that is less then 1/2 a block from campus, and three blocks from my favorite coffee shop. It is always good when your favorite (and the cutest) barrista hears the news and blurts out "Oh good, we'll see more of you!" and then promptly blushes.

I will be renting the top to floors of 1930's faux edwardian. It is more expensive then my current rental... but in addition to school+coffee proximity it has large fenced back yard, all utilities are included, and 6 ft long 2.5 foot deep claw-foot bathtub.

One bedroom is effectively the whole attic and is alone up a flight of stairs, so if a suitable human came along a roommate is not out of the question. (Prospects seem dim.)

Did I mention the claw-foot bathtub?

Anyway, I am hoping that by not having to drive the 30 miles round trip to school (and to work... and Kenpo class) the savings in Gas will offset the increased rent.

Speaking of Kenpo, my yellow belt will have to wait, as my next scheduled class falls on Christmas day... and the one after that... New Years. Doomed.

Actually it's good, because I need to practice a bit more. I know all the techniques... but certain ones are cross-wired in my head. Within the set I get similar techniques mixed up with each other... plus with techniques from a different branch of Kenpo I've studied in the past.

Lastly, I've sorta got my sleep schedule readjusted. My initial attempts were foiled by late night phone-calls from Alaska waking me. Calls, that once I was awake enough to answer left me unable to get back to sleep. Several days of taking melatonin and going to bed at the same time have me falling asleep from 11:00-1:00 AM instead of 5:00 AM. Tonight I forgot to take it until I started this post... but already I can feel oblivion creeping is quiet little feet into my brain and dimming my sight.

On that note, happy Solstice, merry Christmas, and joyous Chanukkah.