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> previous 20 entries Why I have a journal:
A journal is something that I had always meant to start. So many parts of my life disappear from my memory. For me, a journal is a record of the events in my life that I can turn back to as a reminder of the things that I have done. Every time that I would start a journal, I would write in great depth about my feelings when I felt bad, and then I would abandon my journal once I felt better. That wasn’t the kind of journal that I wanted to keep. It did help me realize that a journal is an amazingly helpful tool to sort through my own thoughts and feelings and a way to deal with them. Through writing down my unformed ideas, I am able to more clearly understand my own thoughts.
Why then, do I put my journal on the internet? Well, I remember that when I first started working out at the gym, the only thing that kept me from skipping a workout was the fact that I had a workout partner who would notice that I had stopped going. Just like the only reason that I clean my apartment is when I know that it will be seen by others. The online journal has the same effect on me. Some days, even though I know that I’ll appreciate having written after it’s done, the only reason that I actually sit down and write is sometimes the fact that I know that somebody I know might notice that I’ve stopped writing.
My journal is a tool for myself. It’s a partial record of the trivial things that I do that I might want to remember. It’s an unfiltered dropping ground for partially-formed thoughts as I empty my mind of the things that trouble me, bother me, or entertain me. It’s the grounding rod for the lightning-bolts of life. My journal is not me. My journal is not an accurate representation of my life. My journal is a personal exercise -- like my daily walk, like my daily exercise, like brushing my teeth.
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September 10th, 2011
 | 08:49 pm - Kansas State Fair
Today, I drove to the Kansas State Fair. It wasn't too far of a drive, just two hours each way. I rolled down all of the windows and the sunroof, cranked up the radio, and pretended that it was a convertible. Good thing it wasn't really, though, because I drove through a patch of rain.
It was a fun time. It started out overcast so it never got too hot, and was sunny later in the afternoon. I started out with a ride on the ferris wheel, then I had a lunch of a BBQ sandwich and deep fried Oreos (which taste very good). I went through all of the animal barns. I saw a sheep shearing demonstration, cows getting milked (did you know that cows can choose to withhold their milk?), and even a newborn calf that had just been born several hours before. I got a "fresh squeezed lemonade" which turned out to be just sierra mist with a lemon wedge squeezed into it (so not cool). I went through all of the 4H exhibits, and through all of the commercial buildings. I usually don't spend money at those things, but I did get a jar of creamed honey and a box of fresh fudge. It's amazing what some other people get hooked into. I saw two ladies waiting for the trolley to the parking lot standing next to a piles of boxes that were half as big as each of them. I finished off the day with freshly-made butter pecan ice cream and a pronto pup. I came back before it got dark rather than staying for "Kool and the Gang" (how is it that the North Dakota State Fair can get the Black Eyed Peas, but Kansas gets a nostalgia band? Maybe Kansas spent all its money on the country musicians on the rest of the nights)
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August 24th, 2011
 | 05:40 pm - Summer fun
In late July/ early august, dodge city had their dodge city days. It was fun. We went to the bully fry, I went to the barbecue festival and the cowboy parade. A lot of the week it was too hot to do anything, so we sipped most of the events. It was a good excuse for me to wear my cowboy boots. we got free tickets to the rodeo from our friend Johnny. Another exuse to wear cowboy boots. And we won a pair of wranglers at the rodeo, so it was more than free.
We went to the downtown art festival and it was again too hot to stay for long. I bought some handmade pasta and some chokecherry jelly. I finally went tithe eye doctor to get my free annual exam and my free eyeglasses. I really ought to do this every year. Since I have been lax, I had to pay out of pocket for some sunglasses and contacts too.
Last week, uncle bob stopped to visit on his way from ND to TX. It was nice to have a visitor. The only other house guests have been my parents.
This week, we are visiting my parents Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, North Dakota, Bismarck, Burleigh
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July 7th, 2011
| 10:09 am - Sad baby bunnies
The neighbors found some tiny baby bunnies in the yard last week their dog was playing with the babies. We tried moving the nest but lost track of the injured one with closed eyes, one was already dead, and one was ok but is now not getting fed and looks emaciated. It is very sad. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Kansas, Dodge City, Ford
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May 21st, 2011
| 11:09 am - Food for thought
If there are people out there who believe that today would be rapture, are there also people out there who believe the rapture already happened (like maybe on October 24, 1929) and we just don't realize that we're already living in a post-apocalyptic world because we have low standards? Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Colorado, Denver
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May 18th, 2011
| 07:35 pm - Friday the 13th and St. Louis: you can't always get what you want
I've had the following Rolling Stones lyrics stuck in my head on continuous loop for the last few days since discovering this song in our music library: You can't always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes you get what you need. This has been a good mantra for the last few days. Friday the 13th started by my computer not starting. A few voltage tests later, I confirmed it was dead. I knew I wouldn't have time to fix it, so I bought a cheap computer at walmart and recovered my data. Sunday, I officially joined the church in Dodge City, which was actually one of the few things that doesn't fit the mood of this post. Monday, I found out I probably won't be able to get out of a messy trip to NY state. Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat, but I thought it was just from dry air. I got a haircut and got on the plane to St. Louis. By the time I got to the Denver airport, I had determined that I was definitely sick. By St. Louis, the cold medicine had kicked in, but I was still sick. The St. Louis airport is still trashed from the tornadoes. 
A baseball game was letting out, so driving through downtown was a zoo. Because it was so late, Union Station was closed so I couldn't get in most of the hotel doors and has to walk around dour blocks. This is after the valets completely snubbed me. Being in a mall, there was no convenience store in the hotel to get cold medicine. the hotel is unusual. The bed is a fold-down, but the room is huge. It has a fridge and wet bar but no microwave. I had to search the closets to find pillows. There is no clock, radio, or light switch by the bed. It's more of a party room than a sleeping room.
I tried to post to Facebook, but it refuses to let me log in without being on my home pc. Stupidness. Wednesday, the parking lot did not take amex. I finally found a gas station with cold medicine. My day at work went decently well. The lunch room also did not take Amex. I went to A Walgreens after work. Then I went to the arch. I found out that t is open later than I thought and I get out of work earlier than I thought, so I might get to go inside tomorrow.
I came back and walked around union station a bit, then ate at Landry's until my cold medicine started wearing off.
I definitely haven't gotten what I want this week, but I am thankful that I have had everything that I have needed.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Missouri, St. Louis, St. Louis (city)
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May 10th, 2011
| 08:56 pm - Catching up again: Storm chasing, Kansas City
Well, it's been another long time without updating.
Kelly and I went storm chasing again in April. We met up with Terrence and Britney and drove down into Oklahoma to see some really great storms and some really nice after-dark lightning.
Two weeks ago, we were in Kansas City for a climate conference. But first, we drove to see Maeann, Darrin, and Mariah for Easter. Mariah helped me make hot cross buns. We hid Easter eggs for her to find. We drove up on Saturday and then drove to Kansas City on Monday. In Kansas City, I worked from the hotel room while Kelly was at his conference.
While we were in Kansas City, we did some sightseeing. The first night, we went to Arthur Bryant's for BBQ. Tuesday, we went to the repertory theater downtown to see Peer Gynt. It wasn't what I expected, but it was very good. Wednesday, we went out to dinner with the other students at the climate conference. Thursday, we went to the art museum to see Monet's water lilies triptych, which was reunited for the first time in 30 years. After the museum, we went to Gates BBQ. The plates has way too much food, but it was still really good. Friday, we went downtown with the intention of seeing a tribute to Pink Floyd, but didn't feel good, so we wandered around the mall, then went to see the statue at the overlook where Lewis and Clark spent the night in Kansas City.
After we came back to Dodge, I put the rest of the seeds into the garden, cleaned the garage, painted the front flower garden, and fertilized. I gave up on some seeds and have started putting in some live plants to replace a few plants. I have to give up on the tomatoes from seeds.
I've been very busy with work. A lot to do with not enough time to do it.
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March 23rd, 2011
| 09:15 pm - Catching Up
Kelly worked on the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I still made all of the regular food for Thanksgiving. We put up some Christmas lights on the house.
The week after Thanksgiving, I had to go to Houston for two weeks. I've been to Houston a lot lately. It's been averaging about one week per month for five months. I think April will be the first month I don't have to go to Houston since October.
My parents came to visit us on their way to and from visiting my Grandma for Christmas. They were here for a few days before and a few days afterwards. They brought my Grandma's dining room set for us. It fits perfectly in our dining room and our house looks better now that it has more "grown up" furniture.
I was in Houston the second week of January. I was supposed to be there the third week as well but my flight got cancelled by freezing fog.
At my job, I have had to take over a coworker's duties, so I had to go to Houston again in February to have a hand-off.
The weekend before (the first weekend of February), Kelly and I went skiing at Copper Mountain in Colorado. It was great skiing because the sun wasn't out and there was 4 inches of fresh powder and another 4 inches fell while we were skiing.
At the beginning of March, I had to go to Houston for one day (crazy, I know).
In March, we started a lot of projects. We had dirt brought in, we scheduled gutters to be installed, bought furniture and a new entertainment system, and a new lawnmower.
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March 22nd, 2011
| 09:03 pm - Not much
Didn't do much today. Worked late. Lots of job stress. Taking over half of someone else's job is hard work. At least we all got a bonus this year. That'll pay for the landscaping and new gutters. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Kansas, Dodge City, Ford
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March 21st, 2011
| 09:55 pm - Gardens
The past week, we have been putting in gardens. Last week Wednesday, we had a truck of dirt dumped on our driveway. We spent every day Wednesday through Sunday hauling dirt around to put it around the foundation. We also built four small herb gardens and a vegetable garden in back, and a flower garden in front. We used about 3/4 of the dirt, but still have a big pile in our driveway.
We are both exhausted and sore.
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November 23rd, 2010
| 01:12 pm - First month as a homeowner
The closing went well. The closing costs were a lot less than we expected, which was a good thing.
The first day, We got all the utilities turned on and I picked up our cable equipment, but it turns out that they couldn't turn on our service until the next day, which meant that I had to drag my computer back over to the hotel and work in the dark there (Kelly was on mids).
The next day, we managed to get it turned on, but the installer wanted to run a new cable, so we had a cable strung across our yard for a couple of weeks until someone came to bury it.
Our new fridge was delivered very late the second day. The water dispenser stopped working the second day. Sears couldn't have anyone look at it for a week and a half. By the time the repAirman got here, it had started working by itself.
We closed on a Tuesday and we had our stuff delivered on Friday, when we could both be off work and have a weekend to deal with it. We spent our first night in the new house Thursday night on an air mattress. Olive spent her first night there as well. She got used to the house very quickly. After only a few days, she treated it like home and isn't afraid of anything. I think that it is the lack of noise from traffic or other people. It only took half a day to unload our stuff, but it took a whole week of constant unpacking in our free time to get things mostly normal. The first meal we cooked in the new kitchen felt very good.
I managed to get the main living area cleaned up and decorated before halloween so that it would look good when we opened the house to the neighborhood.
We are apparently in the part of town where people bring their kids to get good candy, since literal truckloads of children were being dropped off in front of our house.
More later... Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Kansas, Dodge City, Ford
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October 25th, 2010
| 06:55 pm - Storm Chasing
Friday, I took the afternoon off of work so that we could go storm chasing. October isn't really tornado season, but they sometimes happen. We found a storm fairly close to dodge city and got into some pea sized hail and saw some really pretty clouds and rainbows. It was tough on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) thedogcow because he is working midnight shifts all week, but it was still fun. I figure that this makes us "hardcore" storm chasers, since we went chasing on a slight-risk day while he was on mids while we were still living out of a hotel room. Worth having to work half a day on Saturday.
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| 06:52 pm - Almost homeowners
We close on our house tomorrow!
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October 5th, 2010
| 01:41 pm - More watermelon
Kelly just reminded me that our cuttlefish came with a mini green that was a cross of a grape(?) and a watermellon. It was the size and shape of a grape but the look of watermellon and a mix of the two flavors. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Kansas, Dodge City, Ford
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October 2nd, 2010
| 11:05 am - Disney World Wrap-up
Thursday, September 23rd
It hardly seemed like we were going on vacation. We had been so consumed by moving, house-hunting, and making offers that we were not in a vacation state of mind. If the calendar hadn't told us it was time to leave, we wouldn't have believed it. Fortunately, our bags had been packed for several weeks, so we just needed to fold up our suits and toss them in a car. It was one of the least-packed vacations I've gone on, but it was nice not to have to carry very much luggage. We put Olive in the car and headed to Wichita. Olive did well in the car, and explored the car several times before finding a place to hide. She was panting from the stress sometimes, but other than that was very good.
We stopped to get a quick lunch before the cat hospital opened at noon and then dropped Olive off. It was very sad to leave her. As soon as we walked into the room where the cats stay, every cat in its cage started meowing at us as if desperate for human contact. We felt guilty for leaving her, but knew that she would be taken care of.
After that, we headed to the airport and checked in for our flight.
The flight from Wichita to Dallas is short, but the flight to Orlando felt long. On the way into Orlando, we saw large evening rain storms developing in the sunset.
We arrived late at night, so there was no line for the Magical Express bus. It was neat not having to pick up our own luggage. However we realized too late that it also meant we wouldn't see our luggage before 11pm, which meant that we had to do something other than go to bed unless we wanted to sleep in our clothes.
We had our first dinner at the Pop Century cafeteria, then walked around the different decades of the hotel and walked down memory lane. On our way back to the room, we saw an adorable baby bunny near our building.
Friday, September 24th
This day, we went to Blizzard Beach. It was overcast and warm, which made it a perfect day to be at a water park. Not many other people thought so, because there was virtually nobody there. We could go on the rides as many times as we wanted with no waits. The only ride that had any wait times at all wasn't really all that great compared the rides without waits. Neither of us went on the big vertical drop slide, but we did go on every other slide in the park, including the wave pool. After lunch, we made a circuit around the lazy river and the clouds rained on us for a bit. The rain was cold, but the day was still hot. We both got tired of the water park about 2 and headed back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, we got dressed for our Victoria and Albert's reservation. We rode the horribly long bus ride to the Magic Kingdom (which was made worse by being a hot, humid day and the fact that we were wearing wool suits) and then took the monorail to the Grand Floridian.
The dinner was amazingly good. Even items that seemed ordinary were extraordinary and set a new baseline for food. For example, the pork tenderloin was so tender that it made every pork tenderloin that I've ever eaten before seem as if it had been badly cooked. At the last minute, we decided to get the wine pairing. The wine pairing was good, but was way too much wine. I couldn't finish most of the wine. Most of the pairings were amazingly perfect and made both the food and the wine taste better, although there were a couple of pairings that weren't quite right.
The dinner began with Taittinger Prestige Cuvee NV sparkling wine. It was the first time I've ever had true Champaigne, and also the first time that I've liked it.
The Amuse-Bouche consisted of a salmon custard in an egg shell, an heirloom cherry tomato with pesto and sea salt, a salmon panna cotta with caviar, and a crab tart.
Our first bread for the evening was a baguette with sweet butter.
The next course was Balsamic Charred Cuttlefish with Watermelon and Tomatoes. The watermelon under the cuttlefish was savory. Also on the plate was a slice of sweet watermelon, watermelon rind pickles, and two other vegetables. The food was paired with a Priz zu Salm-Dalberg Two Princes Riesling, Nahe 2008. The Riesling made the cuttlefish flavor blossom in our mouths.
Our second bread for the evening was an herb bread that felt and tasted more like a cake. It was served with sea-salted butter.
For the third course, Kelly had the Roulade of Ocala Rabbit with Pistachios and Apricots paired with a Cesari Mara Ripasso Valpolicella, Veneto 2008. Our waitstaff informed us that the rabbit is local, which made us have pangs of guilt after seeing the cute rabbits that live on the Disney property, but not enough guilt that the rabbit didn't taste delicious. I had the Duck Breast, Duck Sausage and Confit with Strawberry and Rhubarb paired with La Crema "Los Carneros" Pinot Noir, Carneros 2007. This was one of pairings that didn't really work for me. Also, even though I love both duck and Rhubarb, the flavors didn't really mesh, so I didn't use much of the Rhubarb sauce. Other than that, this was another amazingly good course.
The third bread for the evening was a multigrain brean with herb butter.
For the main fourth course, Kelly had the Kurobuta Pork Tenderloin and belly with Baby Beets and Sherry-Bacon Vinaigrette paired with a Trinitas "Old Vine" Zinfandel, Contra Costa County 2006. The Kurobuta is a special kind of pig, and the meat was so incredibly tender. Plus, bacon makes everything good. I had the Niman Ranch Lamb with Spring Asparagus and Minted Jus, paired with a Ceretto Rossana Dolcetto d'Alba 2006. The mint was extremely subtle, which made the dish much more refined. The miniature white asparagus had a very unique flavor, unlike regular asparagus.
For the fifth course, we had a cheese plate of Colston Basset Stilton, Southern Belle Chevre, a cracker, Gouda Reypenaer V.S.O.P., and Barber's Cheddar with local honey. One of the cheeses came with a pineapple tomatillo, but I can't remember which one. The cheese was paired with a Qunta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Porto 2005.
For the final course, Kelly ordered the Hawaiian Kona Chocolate Souffle and had "Celebes" coffee brewed in a Cona coffee maker at the table. His souffle was elaborate and involved pouring a Kona Chocolate sauce into the souffle at the table. I had the Caramelized Banana Gateau and a cup of Earl Grey tea. My Gateau was a structural accomplishment in itself, with the pastry as a vertical tube filled with the pudding, and with a diagonal sheet of spun sugar on top.
At the end of the meal, they sent us off with two roses for our anniversary, and a loaf of Orange-Date Nut Triple-Sec bread.
In the end, the food, wine pairings, and tip for two people was almost $500. Not a restaurant that one can visit every day.
On the way back to the hotel, there were fireworks in the sky from the various end-of-day celebrations. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.
On Saturday, the 25th, we went to Epcot. Kelly's feet hurt very badly because the water socks had caused blisters at the water park. We skipped breakfast at the hotel with the thought that we would have a nation-themed breakfast at Epcot. Unfortunately, we arrived bright and early at Epcot to discover that none of the restaurants or food stands open before 11am. We also discovered that when we mixed up our fingerprints at the water park, that the fingerprints were permanent and now we had to swap cards before entering the parks each day. I was in a foul mood that I wasn't going to get to eat. Our first ride was Mission to Mars and we signed up for the "Orange" team instead of the "Green" team. That was... a bad choice in retrospect. Once we were at the front of the line, we both realized that the ride is basically an elaborate "Gravitron". That is, it just spins you around in a big circle really fast so that you get pressed up against the outer wall. The key difference being that in Mission to Mars, the spinning is in sync with a videos of blasting off from Earth and conducting slingshot maneuvers. It would have been really, really, exciting and fun if it weren't making me sick. I made it all the way to Mars and the the "Action-Adventure" part of the ride kicked in as we evaded asteroids and made a crash landing. All of the bumping and shaking is what set me off and I vomited like crazy into the leather bag that was supposed to have been holding the paper vomit bags. I would feel sorry for whatever Disney employee has to clean that out, except that it was their job to put the paper bags into the ride to begin with. The silver lining to the entire experience is that I had a completely empty stomach, so I basically didn't throw up much of anything and I was able to recover fairly quickly (in about an hour). Before lunch, we found a store that sold dramamine and we both took some of that so that the rest of the day went fairly well.
After Mission to Mars and before the dramamine, we went on the Test Track. I was expecting it to make me more sick, but it really didn't. It was very fun, and we went on it a second time later in the day.
We had lunch outside of Soarin'. In the afternoon, we went on all of the remaining rides in the Future world part of the park. We were both very impressed with Disney, because every ride exceeded our expectations. Even rides that we thought would be barely woth the wait in line turned out to be exciting or cool. Like Ellen's Energy Adventure, where we thought we would just be sitting through some semi-educational movie and instead ended up face-to-face with gigantic animatronic dinosaurs.
In the evening, we walked through the international area. Even in this area, we were impressed. We watched the animatronic show in the Americas area and rode the boats in Norway and Mexico. We had Mexican food for dinner, then watched the "Illuminations" fireworks at the lake.
My parents arrived very late that night and were having dinner at the hotel just as we returned to the hotel.
On Sunday, the 26th, we went to the Magic Kingdom. My parents went off park to visit the Kennedy space center and go birding. We had considered going with them, but there is no active preparation a the space center this month and we realized that we wouldn't have enough time to complete everything at Disney if we went off-park for another day. That day, we mostly stayed in Tomorrowland, Liberty Square, and Frontier land. We had very good luck and happened to see the stage show and part of the parade just as we walked by. It was a hot, humid, day, so it was a good day for us to see indoor activities like the hall of presidents and haunted mansion, and to go on Splash Mountain. Since it was off-peak season, we rode Space Mountain almost half a dozen times.
In the evening, Maeann, Darrin, and Mariah arrived and came to the Magic Kingdom. We watched the "Wishes" fireworks show together and then went back to the hotel.
The next day, we all returned to the Magic Kingdom as a family. Kelly and I finished up all of the rides that we hadn't finished the day before, and went on Space Mountain again. We all had lunch together in the Space pod in TomorrowLand. In the afternoon, it rained pretty hard. I got stuck outside of the Pooh ride and had to dash through the rain to get to Snow White. The rain had stopped by the time I got out. My parents missed going on the racetrack because of it. We were all disappointed that the teacups and the small world ride were both closed while we were there.
Tuesday, the 28th, we had a van service take us to Universal parks. We spent most of the morning in Harry Potter. The three rides were very neat, but the shopping area was very crowded and hot. Before lunch, Kelly and I went on Poseidon's Fury and Spiderman. We also got lured into a magic show that was really more of a sales pitch for a magic shop. Universal is much more overt in its sales pitches than Disney. We had lunch in the three broomsticks. The food was very good there, much better than the counter service at Disney. We all decided that we liked the butterbeer, which tastes like butterscotch, but not the pumpkin juice which tasted more like pumpkin pie spice than actual pumpkin. After lunch, Kelly and I went on the Jurassic Park boat, then the Dudley Do-Right flume ride, which got us very, very wet. It was also very fun. At the bottom of the ride were "people dryers" that cost $5 per use. So not worth it. Then we went over into the other half of the park and went on the Twister ride, shrek, then the disaster movie ride. While we were in that ride, it started raining cats and dogs. Fortunately, we had borrowed ponchos from Darrin, so we could continue seeing things in the park instead of being trapped. We went in the Men In Black ride and the then Simpsons ride. Finally, we went back to the first half of the park and met up with the rest of the family before the park closed at 6. We had the van take us over to "Downtown Disney" and we ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck's before heading back to the hotel.
Wednesday, the 29th, we went to Hollywood Studios. It was much more similar to Universal than the other Disney parks. For example, there was a ride/show that was about the Narnia movies, but really all it did was trap everyone in a standing room only room for ten minutes while they showed us the cliff's notes version of the movie. That was it. The exhibit about Walt Disney was closed, and so was the Star Wars ride, which was disappointing. Also disappointing was that there was no Fantasmic that night. We had been planning to have dinner at the SciFi restaurant, but we ended up not having time. We did see almost everything else in the park. Kelly and I rode the Rockin' Roller Coaster three or four times. We did not go on the tower of terror. The indiana jones and car shows were really neat. The back lot tour was interesting. The line for the Toy Story Mania was insanely long and all the fast-passes were used up. But by the end of the day, even though the wait time said "60 minutes" the line was really only about 15 minutes long. It was a really fun ride, but it was "15 minutes" fun, not "60 minutes" fun.
After Hollywood Studios closed, we took the ferry boat past the Disney Boardwalk to get to Epcot. We had to wait half an hour for the boat to show up and then it took another half hour for the boat to get from one park to the other. It was fun to go on a boat, but Darrin and Mariah walked from Hollywood to Epcot in less time and beat us there.
The rest of the family had fish and chips at England and Kelly and I ate in Morocco. Then we saw Illuminations again. After that, we had a family picture in front of Spaceship Earth. We were going to go back to the hotel, but instead decided to rid spaceship earth one more time, and then take my parents on the Test Track. We finally got to the hotel after midnight.
Thursday, the 30th, we went to the Animal Kingdom. We were only able to take in about half of what the park had to offer, partly because we got a late start, but also because it had so much to offer. We went on the safari first, while the animals were still somewhat active. Then we went on Expedition Everest three times (I only went twice, but Kelly went three times). The backwards part made me feel sick, even with the dramamine. Then we had lunch in Asia. Maeann, Darrin, and Mariah went off to watch Nemo. Kelly and I went on the raft ride. We wore ponchos, but the hood on my poncho acted like a funnel, so I got really wet and ended up taking off the poncho half way through the ride. Kelly stayed bone dry, somehow. After that we watched the tigers and bats for a bit, then watched the bird show. After the bird show, we watched "It's tough to be a bug", then headed over to the Lion King.
After that we went back to the hotel and had dinner. we used up the last of our snacks to buy breakfast for the next morning. Then we packed and went to bed. It was sad to leave, but we were also feeling like we'd had enough Disney for one trip and were glad not to have to go to another park.
We woke up at 3am to catch the 3:45 shuttle to which we had been assigned. It was way too early and we arrived before the ticket counter was even open. However, if we had wanted to arrive later, we would have had to take a cab since Disney is pretty insistent about getting people to the airport with "time to spare." We had to lug our own luggage since it was so early in the morning. One nice thing was that we stayed on the same plane for both legs of our flight. We could have stayed on the plane, but that didn't really sound all that great once we were at Dallas, so we got off to have a second breakfast/brunch/some sort of meal. We got to Wichita by 11, picked up Olive, and drove back to Dodge. Olive was so happy to see us that she kept meowing until her voice got hoarse and then she switch to purring. She was very affectionate. All night long she kept jumping on the bed and meowing to let us know how happy she is to be back with us.
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September 23rd, 2010
| 02:14 pm - Parental guilt
Just dropped olive off at the kennel. I feel so bad about leaving her for a week. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
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September 19th, 2010
| 10:39 am - House Hunting
This week, Kelly and I have both been going to our jobs each day. The hotel works out great for my work.
Every night, we have gone out house-hunting. It is a really draining experience. By Thursday, we had narrowed it down to three houses, and by Friday, we figured out which house we wanted and we made an offer. Wish us luck!
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| 10:37 am - Pre-Move catch-up
On August 9th, Olive had her annual exam, so that we could stock up on flea medication before the move.
On Friday August 13th, we had dinner at our friend Shannon and Todd's house for his Birthday. The weather was nice and we all ate in the back yard.
I had my last trainer session on the 10th. I tried to keep working out after that, which worked for about a week and half, then things got crazy-busy.
Monday, the 23rd, I had my last dental cleaning before we left. We decided to fill what looked like a small cavity that was on "watch" so that it wouldn't get delayed by the move. Tuesday the 31st, I got it filled. It turned out to be a good idea, since it wasn't really a small cavity, but rather a huge cavity that had formed beneath an existing filling because a previous dentist left some decay behind. It was dangerously close to needing a root canal, but we had caught it before it got to the root. The tooth is still very sensitive. He had to take out a lot of tooth material.
Tuesday the 24th, the moving company came by to do a survey of our belongings. It turns out that we actually have an average amount of stuff. We had been feeling like we had a lot of stuff, but it was nice to know we didn't really.
Thursday the 26th, I took my car in to be checked out. Nothing was wrong with it.
That evening, we went to Prairie Home Companion in Jacksonville. It was a perfect sendoff from Oregon. The weather was beautiful, the moon came up over the stage over the mountains, and we could see out over the valley, I even saw the ISS pass over. It was so beautiful.
Over the weekend, 27-29, we went up to Portland to visit Kelly's parents. While we were up there, we took family pictures since the whole family wouldn't be living in Oregon any more. While we were up there, we also saw his uncle Dave, who was passing through, and his friends Mark and Floyd. Marc actually house-sat for us Saturday night since he was driving through Medford on his way to LA to work on his musical.
September 1st, I got my blood test for my annual physical, which I needed to get done before I moved so that I could get my health insurance discount.
Friday September 3rd, the church choir threw their annual party early so that they could say goodbye to me.
August 31st was my last church council meeting. I spent the rest of the week typing up the minutes. No, I didn't move just to get out of being the secretary.
Labor day Sunday, (sept 5th), our church said goodbye to us during the service. It was nice to have a good send-off.
Tuesday the 7th, I picked up Olive's health records.
Over the weekend, we loaded up our cars with all of the things that we don't want to go on the moving van or that we needed to have with us before we find a house. This consisted not only of work clothes for Dodge City, but also of a suitcase for a trip to Houston and all of our luggage for Disney. We topped off the junk in the cars the night before the packers came.
Thursday September 9th, the moving company came to pack up all of our belongings. They were very efficient, professional, and friendly. They got it all packed up between 8 and 5. We ordered pizza and shared it with them for lunch. It was such a relief to finally have everything in boxes. It turns out I could have packed more on my own. Most of the boxes we had already packed stayed packed. They just needed to open them up, check inside, and then reseal them. But for the most part, they actually packed things better than I would have on my own.
In the middle of the packing day, I had to go to my physical. I had not wanted to take time out of the packing day, but the insurance company wouldn't let me have it earlier. I am generally healthy, just a little too much bad cholesterol.
It turned out not to be such a big inconvenience after all, since we were mostly feeling useless sitting around all day watching other people pack for us.
They threw away most of our leftover boxes from the previous moves for us so that we didn't have to unpack our cars and drive the empty boxes to the recycle center on our own. They couldn't use our boxes because they are required to use heavy-duty boxes for all of their packing.
Friday, the 10th, the loaders came and loaded everything up. Since we'd taken apart most of our furniture on our own, it only took them half a day to load everything. They were gone by 1, so we cleaned up the house, left the keys behind, hopped in the cars, and headed to Dodge City a whole day early!
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September 13th, 2010
| 07:59 am - Drive so far...
The hotel in Winnemucca was an unusual place. Sitting under the stairs in front of our room was part of a meth lab. The part with a giant bottle of propane, a mini grill that had been severely overheated, and a chemical gas mask. I had to get up at 4 am to get Advil from the car, and there were at least two or three men coming and going from rooms at that time of night. In the morning, most of the rooms had bundles of sheets outside their doors. On our way out of town, we blew 4 dollars at the slot machines. I only won back $2.55. During lunch in elko, i had to reinflate my drivers tire, which was down 10 pounds. My car is the more heavily loaded of the two. I an burning more gas and have no acceleration. While we were there, Kelly stopped by the NWS office to say "hi." after a 7 hour day, we were in Roy, UT. We visited Kelly's grandmother, who was not doing very well and was in a nursing home. We went to dinner with his cousin Tyler and then stayed overnight at Tyler and Trish's house. Yesterday was the longest leg. We left Roy at a little after sunrise at 7:30. We stopped in Grand Junction, CO for lunch at 1pm. We reached Monarch pass at about 5pm. We stopped for a while and rode the gondolas up to the observation point.
We finally arrived in Pueblo at about 8 pm, about half an hour after sunset. Olive has been vey good with the move. Most of the time she is sleeping in the passenger seat of Kelly's car. Sometimes she looks out the windows or explores the back seat. Twice she got under the front seats, which required unpacking the back seat to get her out. We finally wised up and put other stuff under the seats so she couldn't get down there. In the hotel room she has acted relatively relaxed and has boldly explored the rooms. Today is a short leg, about 5 hours, and then we will be done! Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Colorado, Pueblo
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September 11th, 2010
| 09:04 am - First leg of move
Thursday packing went very smoothly. Friday loading took only half a day, so we left Medford around 2 and drove to Winnemucca. This was the best case scenario, since now we don't have a 13 hour drive. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
location: US, Nevada, Winnemucca, Humboldt
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