Of People and Packing Tape

Hmm, so I failed to get any blog-worthy pics during my travels last week but that's only because the visits were so funny that I didn't bring out the camera too much. I saw lots of old friends and got to see a new baby and had an all-around good time visiting.

Other than people, I've been packing. I know it sounds like we're packing all the time but in three years, lots of stuff accumulated in our 2200 square feet. It's time consuming to sort, recycle, freecycle, and finally pack the remainder. This weekend, though, we made some good progress.

Tomorrow I'm going "up north" and saying farewell to Spooner; I don't know when I'll be back again (Xmas?). I am going to stay at a cabin with LeeAnne and hang with my mom (my dad is Canada with the boys). Then I have two days to prep for summer school and it will be the July blur...!

No Packing Today

I am spending today with an old friend and meeting a new one. I am going to hang out with Betsy who is in town from Cali- we go back to the college days and went on study abroad together. I am also going to meet a little person who just arrived in this world last Thursday! He has already demonstrated excellent judgment by choosing such good parents.

Finally, I can get some pictures and post them to liven this page up!

George Carlin

In honor of George Carlin's passing, I'm posting my Gramma's own "dirty words." Bev said these were in the bible so you could say them:

DamnFartPissAndHell

She says them in that order as one word. I would love to see where the bible references "fart" but I'm not about to question Bev.

So long, George.

In Between Packing...

I packed most of the day today and in between, I did a little research on Google Maps. Here is some information that will really help our transition:

From our new apartment...

Chuy's Mexican Restaurant = .6 miles
Whole Foods Market = 1.6 miles
Packer bar = 7.7 miles
Target = 3.9 miles
UT = 9.8 miles (will be on shuttle which is 2.2 miles away)

What else do we need?

Weekend Update

I had a great time in Spooner, I had a great time in River Falls. It was wonderful to see my parents and friends and old haunts and new additions. I have more visits to make and I'm fortunate that my summer schedule allows for some flexibility in doing so.

Austin and I also made some progress on the move. We brought the furniture from the basement to the upstairs living room area and are now working to clean out the basement as much as possible. We organized, packed, freecycled, and ran some errands. It was the good balance of productivity, rest, planning, and doing.

The Weekend Starts Early

I spent today working with colleagues, running errands, and doing anything but packing a box! It was nice and went by quickly. Right now it's time for a glass of pinot grigio and Austin is grilling some tuna steaks.

Tomorrow I head up to the lovely resort town of Spooner to spend some time with M & D, go out for dinner, and sip some wine. Friday I'm off to River Falls to celebrate my friend Julie's 30th birthday in our old college stomping grounds. Then Saturday and Sunday will be QT with Austin and possibly figuring out our plans for cell phones in TX.

Packing

Since I returned from Louisville, I've been trying to do a lot of packing and downsizing. So far we got rid of the white couch from our living room (freecycle) and I've been packing up things in the basement. We are going to move the couch and TV upstairs so we can continue to pack up the basement as much as possible.

We're also been looking at cell phones since we got cheapies a few years ago and they are really showing the wear and tear. We may go through AT&T depending on what Austin ends up doing for work.

Nothing too exciting going on around here, it's just the grunt work for now. Good thing I have a few weeks off before summer school starts.

That Old Familiar Smell

Austin and I are getting ready to leave for dinner and the hotel and we both noticed a weird smell in the house. Then Austin went downstairs and it was really strong so he was worried about leaving. We both identified it as something smoldering and slowly burning. Well, duuuuuuuude, I finally had a flashback to the days of McMillan Hall and I realized it was marijuana! As soon as I said that, Austin agreed. Plus our neighbor is a natural healer from California, HELLO, how dumb are we?

Nah ha, later dudes!

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday I had a late flight so I spent a little time around Louisville and watched Sex and the City (loved it), got a mani/pedi, and did a little window shopping. The day actually went fairly quickly and then I got to the airport and there were more travel issues. I was frustrated but it was hard to be too angry because they had TV's on everywhere with footage of the Boy Scout tornado victims, the flooding, etc.

Anyway, after delays and switched flights, I made it back home just before 2:00 a.m. and crashed. I woke up when Austin went to work but forced myself to sleep in and it definitely has helped.

Tonight we are going to a great Mexican seafood restaurant and spending the night in a jacuzzi suite at a nearby hotel since we didn't get to do a lot of anniversary stuff right before I left. We are going to lay low most of the weekend since Austin has worked a lot this week (surprise) and I'm recovering from the business trip.

Sprint to the Finish

Another day down and one more to go... the food is getting old now so some of my friends and I are going out to dinner tonight to avoid it. We're going to Bardstown which is supposed to be the hip and cute area.

They told us to bring books tomorrow in the event that we finish early; we can't leave until all the grading is done just in case we need to back up another section. Tomorrow night there is some sort of party and then I have all day in Louisville on thursday since my flight leaves at 9:48pm. That's a real pain but the agents said with 8,000 participants in town, flights booked up fast and newbies like me don't get priority. The only good thing is that I'm going to see _Sex and the City_ while I'm waiting- I've been wanting to see it and it will chew up a good 2.5 hours.

No Longer Homeless as of August 1

The apartment is now confirmed for the move so provided they haven't falsified the information they gave us and photoshopped the images, we should be set. With the truck and the apartment all set, it's going to be a lot easier to make things fall into place.

I'm keeping this post short because I'm really tired; the hours of grading and sun and heat make me tired by the end of the day.

AP Notes

I've finally found a few minutes to jot down some of my impressions on my work as an AP reader. Basically, AP (advanced placement) are exams that high school seniors take to get them into higher level courses in college and earn the back credits (though I think all this varies depending on the institution). Many subjects have AP exams- for instance we are here along with the Computer Science, Italian, and Studio Arts graders.

We humans grade things like compositions and recorded speaking as well as fill in the blank answers, things that scanners and other computerized grading systems just can't pick up. All day long we sit in groups and go through exams and in my case this involves listening to recorded simulated job interviews. Sometimes it's really monotonous but overall I have found to it to be really interesting and good experience; I'll definitely try to return next year.

It's also a great networking opportunity and I've run into at least a dozen people I know from grad school or other areas not to mention all the people I've met along the way.

We worked all weekend and today was the hump day- only three days left!

Busy in Louisville

While the days aren't exactly flying by, they are pretty busy here. My friend Sue and I have been calling it AP "camp" because it sort of feels like that. We leave our hotel in the morning and have breakfast with the 8,000 or so other participants, go to our various sessions, get a morning snack, go back to work, have lunch, afternoon snack, then dinner when we are done. This is all done on site at a huge convention center.

We went out downtown last night after work though I didn't stay too long since we have to get up fairly early (and its Eastern time here). Downtown was cute and we got our picture taken with a Colonel Sanders look alike. Tonight I'll probably stay in and enjoy the pool- it's been in the 90's and humid.

Well off to camp, boarding school, work, whatever...

I Made It

I'm tired but I made it and this hotel is far nicer than the Hotel Sux. I even got some exams graded.

Not So Fun Travels

I'm currently at the airport in Milwaukee waiting for my flight to Louisville after being stranded last night. I left Minneapolis at 2:00pm yesterday and during the flight, we were diverted from Milwaukee to Madison due to weather (cloud ceilings? fog?). From Madison we were bused to Milwaukee and I missed my connecting flight. No other flights to L-ville were available until morning and hotels were quickly booking up since a number of others were dealing with the same situation.

I was in line for an hour and a half to re-ticket and get my hotel "voucher" which did nothing other than give me a number to call that checked all open hotels in the area that I still had to pay for. I ended up at the Motel 6, now known as the Motel Sux. One fine hotel guest was in the lobby drinking vodka straight from bottle and chasing it with orange juice straight from the carton in a deconstructed screwdriver, I suppose. This morning I discovered there was no hot water and it was too icy to even try a shower. I could not get a cab and since the airport is very close, started walking. On a positive note, I found a park and ride that let me get on the shuttle for free because I wasn't parking. It was a huge help because my luggage was heavy and crossing the streets to the airport looked unfriendly to pedestrians.

Right now it says my flight is on time even though the area is currently under a tornado watch. Boarding should start in about 25 minutes.

I'm glad this happened on the way out and hopefully it won't happen on the return. Plus at this point, staying in a nice hotel and grading exams all day actually sounds just fine. It can only get better now... (fingers crossed).

Headed to Loovull

I'm off to Louisville to grade advanced placement Spanish exams- do I now how to have a good time? I'll post some pics if I end up doing/seeing anything interesting.

Exactly two years ago on June 4 we were flying to Paris :-)

Two Years

The Coming Week

Tonight I'm going to see Sex and the City with a girlfriend and Austin will be watching the Red Wings game- a perfect boy's/girl's night dichotomy.

Tomorrow is our anniversary and we're going out for dinner at Stella Blues.

Wednesday I leave for Louisville for a little consulting gig. I'll be grading advanced placement Spanish exams for eight hours per day over seven days. I'll try and post from L-ville if I can.

After that, it's mid-June and I'll catch my breath before starting a month of summer school in July.

Time is already flying by...