we done moved

Ahh, Potential House House is now officially New House House! Over the past few days we’ve been slowly moving stuff about to make the house a home. Who would’ve thunk that a little over a year after getting our first home we’d be moving into a second one? I hope this one stays the ‘second one’ for a long, long time.

So far, this house has compared well against the Auburn house. For one, we have a full basement, which is handy for all this moving goings-on. Secondly, the house seems to flow better overall. Steven is very pleased with how well the kitchen can hold all our stuff, and I am very, very, VERY pleased with the yard. It turns out we are the new owners of quite a bit of land, according to the survey we got at closing. It’s nice to have some woods.

Another nifty thing is we have a ‘land line’ again, but this time we don’t have to mess one iota with ol’ Bellsouth. We’ve signed up with Vonage so we can use our regular phones that we haven’t unpacked since 2003. Our family is pleased ’cause they don’t have to dial long distance and they don’t have to worry about our phones being charged. I am amused.

Everything else is going well. Steven is enjoying his job and I mine, and maybe maybe maybe we might just be settled. Wouldn’t that be grand?

I must send out some major kudos to people who have helped us tremendously throught these crazy few months. First off, I send my upmost thanks to our parents, both Steven’s and mine, for giving us tons and tons and tons of support, advice, and lodging. You all helped keep us sane and well-fed. To Cathy and Jason, you two are so awesome to help us that day when we moved out of the Auburn house. We greatly appreciate the time you took out of your schedule to help us drive our stuff to Birmingham. We owe you a sushi dinner. To our parents again, TigerWeather Jason, and Ken and Lisa, thank you so much for helping us move in to the Chelsea house. Y’all were incredibly fast and the whole process went very smoothly — I am so grateful. To Kevin, thank you for helping us get our furniture from World Market and helping us assemble it. The furniture manufacters sure don’t make it as simple as it could be — adjusting chairs can be tedious.

Lastly — to Steven — you have been my greatest support for a very long time and I am so very glad that you were wiling to take a major plunge to make a better life for us. It was certianly hard for both of us to make this decision but I have no doubt now that we made the right one. You are astounding. You also have a very nice butt :~}

I’ll post pictures of the whole Birthday Moving Extravaganza later this week when I get my computer hooked up.

new house house

Today our Potential House House has the very strong possibility of becoming our New House House — we will be closing on it in Columbiana later on today. I hope the kitties are ready to move one more time. I know I’m ready to stop living out of a suitcase.

We closed and sold the house in Auburn yesterday, which went fine. I wasn’t actually there to do the paper-signing, so I said ‘bye’ to the house when we moved our furniture out on Saturday.

Always remember this: a 24′ moving truck will NOT hold all the stuff from a three bedroom house. Don’t believe their lies.

I must go. Before we close today, I’ve got to meet with a client and possibly go sod a yard. Unless it rains. Please, please, please rain — at least until the afternoon.

potential house house

I know I haven’t updated in a while, but it’s been an extremely busy week, what with work and house stuff and kitties. I think I’ll be busy until we settle into a house up here.

I never got around to mentioning it when it happened, but we lost our contract on the house in Chelsea that we liked about a week before we got a contract on our Auburn house. I was very sad for a day or so, then we began looking again. Earlier this week we got a contract on a house in Chelsea that we like even better, and what’s really amusing is it is in the same neighborhood as the first house we liked — in fact, you can see the other house from the backyard.

Once again, barring anything catastrophic I think this will be our house for some time to come. Have a clicky and check out the pictures.

We will close the day after we close on the Auburn house. All of this will be going on less than a week from my birthday, so I dub thee The Birthday House-Moving Extravaganza!

Coming to a city near you in less than three weeks.

how I missed the kitties and their antics

Yesterday was an exciting Kitty Day. Around lunch I noticed the cats getting really interested in the fireplace, which was making a low buzzing sound. “Hmm, must be some bug,” I figured. I couldn’t see anything in there, so I tried to just block it off with a hamper to deter the kitties.

This doesn’t stop the Tenacious Hermione, who was still quite interested in the buzzing fireplace. It wasn’t long after when I hear a high-pitched “Mwelp!!!” and see Hermione scurrying away. I look back at the fireplace to see this big-ass wasp walking along the hearth. That bug stung my baby! I rolled up a TV Guide and killed the rat bastard, then checked on Hermione. She was pissed off but didn’t seem to have any adverse reactions to the sting. “I told you to stay away from the fireplace,” I said.

I go to mess on the computer for a while and see Renton head to the kitty box on my right. He comes back out, sits a minute, then heads back in. Back out, sits, goes back in a third time. He’s looking a bit disgruntled, so I’m thinking he’s backed up. Again. I wonder what he ate this time. We get to go to the vet later today to find out. I hope this won’t be a repeat of the Three-Enema Week (which I apparently never wrote about but I assure you it was quite an event).

I smell a smell of Fungus

I first walked into Funchess Hall as a timid college freshmen, looking for the office of my assigned academic advisor. I had fantasies of being a marine biologist at the time and they all harbored in the back corner of Funchess. The first time I went down the stairs to the bottom floor it felt like I was walking down into a pool. Those stairs have always felt that way to me though I can never guess why. In some places, the building smells like a pool, too. In other places it smells like something else.

Ideas and fantasies change, so a few years after a short stint in botany I found myself once again lurking the halls of Funchess; or Fungus, as it was referred to by a friend. The name stuck, and I became stuck in that building as I worked through and eventually received a diploma in horticulture.

During that time I became quite familiar with the pungent aromas that Fungus had to offer. Sometimes the bottom floor had a slight whiff of strawberry cupcakes, but that was the only pleasing smell. The back hall always had an odor of burnt almonds, probably because of some seed-drying machine somewhere close. The marine biology corner can sometimes smell of fish, and entomology on the third floor smelled of, well, entomology. Oddly enough, the Soils hall never smells of dirt, only floor cleaner.

I came to dread some of those smells, especially the burnt almond one, but it was suffered through all the same. Then came the day I graduated, and I was free, free, free of Fungus.

Then . . .

I came back. Back to Auburn, back to Fungus, back to roaming the odorous halls. The first time I walked back into the building after my long absence it smelled like good ol’ Fungus, and I smiled as I walked down the steps. Sometimes, while giving a tour of our facilities or walking down to send a fax I would catch a whiff of strawberry cupcakes or the smell of markers near the design room. I would grin, and continue on.

I left Fungus today. Life is always going on, and now it is taking me away from Fungus; from Auburn. This time I didn’t quite want to put Fungus behind me. I wanted to stay, burnt almonds and all.

I stepped out of my office this afternoon, holding the last bits of my working life there; I looked down at my new watch to check the time, then began to walk away. I took my usual route through Fungus’ grid-like hallways, hoping not to forget this, this last walk. How can I remember?

Smell. Big, deep breaths, in and out, smell the memories. I caught a whiff of the design room that smelled of markers and eraser dust and Pounce. I got a good nosefull of the ever-present burnt almonds. Doesn’t it smell nice? Walking by the break room now, smell the overcooked coffee in the carafe. I made my way through the marine biology corner and am met with a whiff of fish. I was going to do that once. Who would’ve thought that would change?

I walked up the stairs and out the doors with the smells of Fungus in my nostrils, in my memories, they are preserved in my mind. The wind gusted as I made my way to Elliott with my hair flapping in front of my face. The smell of freshly cut clover blows by. All the smells — they help me remember.

designs on bad ice cream

A new ice cream parlor has opened up in the area recently and I have since visited it twice to try it out — one always looks for good ice cream haunts. Unfortunately, this place is on strike two in my mind, and I doubt I’ll give them a chance for a strike three.

On our first visit there we had a clear-cut case for sticking with our tried-and-true ice cream establishment: the new parlor’s ice cream just wasn’t as good and was a bit pricier. There ya go.

My second visit was yesterday afternoon. I was to pick up a dessert and they were on the way, and perhaps their ice cream cakes are worth it. The ice cream cake itself was fine — quite tasty, but still had that high suckerpunch in the wallet.

This place sells ice cream, so they gotta keep it cold, right? Right, but I don’t think The People That Be thought about that when picking out their building. One whole side of the wall is nothing but windows . . . facing West. That afternoon sun is toasty. I’m sure they’re using a lot of energy to keep their goodies cold, but they wern’t wasting much on the store itself. The thermostat on the wall read 86 degrees while I calmly waited in line, slowly cooking.

On the plus side, I guess that makes you enjoy the cold ice cream that much more once you finally get it and proceed to pay.

Ahh, the checkout line. They have masterfully redesigned the checkout line into the checkout corner. The line stretches along the cases of expensively cooled ice cream and dead ends where two counters make a 90 degree angle with a table behind you and no way out except back from whence you came. Exiting the ice cream oven can be quite difficult if you are carrying an ice cream cake or have 5 sticky kids with rapidly melting ice cream following you. Silly.

Hmm, sometimes I bet y’all wonder if I am a crotchety old man in disguise.