Day Two

the wall is down, the banister gone, waqllaper borders ripped away, appliances hauled to the garage, cabinet door off, locks changed and one wall is orange...whoo hoo!!!!!!

WallDemo

appliances

painting

orange walls

stealin' from Kelly

So the story goes...

Noland and I, Mike and Kelly were all searching for houses together...Mike finds one that he absolutely loves, Kelly disagrees but I think it's perfect...so Mike says we should just get married and live there instead (apparently the fact that I'm already married to Noland isn't a concern.) But hey that's ok 'cause Noland and Kelly find a house that they love as well...and why do they love it? Because it has an outhouse with a wrap around porch! Classy! So they're gonna get married and live there.

The actual owner of this story wasn't sure which freaked her out more - the fact that she loved the outhouse with the porch or that fact that Mike ran off with me and she was with Noland. I'd have to say the outhouse - 'cause I think it just goes to further prove that I am indeed married to the man of every girl's dreams!

almost there...

So it did need a new roof and all new plumbing…but the seller’s paying to get that done so we’re good to go. They’re both getting done this week and we should be signing papers by the end of next.

We had planned to go to Vancouver BC for a few days for our anniversary (2 FABULOUS years!!) on one of those free hotel room deals that we got for listening to a vacation timeshare presentation (we were very proud to have been the first people in our group to escape the never ending sales pitch with our little vacation certificate), but we cancelled out on it ‘cause that’s probably the weekend we’ll end up moving in.

The house is great, but you can tell by the décor that it was indeed a little elderly couple that lived there – all rather dated and ‘country’ (Our mothers would love it.) So we’ll have a week or two before we move in to knock down a wall, paint over the grape leaves and flowers stenciled on the kitchen walls, scrape off all the flowery wallpaper borders, tear up some ugly carpet and put down Pergo flooring, and replace the ancient appliances. Some work on the main bathroom will follow, as well as updating things like drapes/blinds, faucets, door locks, closet doors and such, but we can do that once we get in. And Violet will be pleased to hear that we’re not going to replace the lime green counter tops in the kitchen – we figure with new paint and appliances they could actually look pretty spiffy!

Then we get to set our beast loose in that amazing backyard. We’ll have to snag some patio furniture and get everyone over for an early summer BBQ before he destroys everything…actually I don’t think he’ll do to badly – some of it will get trampled, most likely the big patch in the middle - but I think we can keep him away from most of the edge stuff. Now we just have to pack up the house to get ready for this all…urgh…

a few "Before" shots


lovely color scheme eh?


the carpet and "pony wall" will go

duets

We've been to that bar many times, but I guess we'd never been there on a Sunday before. Not surprising, Sunday not being the prime going out night - but we had no idea that they did karaoke there. Just didn't seem like the right crowd.

But hey, everybody was havin' a good time - and Mike and Kelly were just tearing up the stage. I think however, that Kelly's been watching to much American Idol cause the song choices were a bit, ok extremely, on the cheesy side. But all good fun. So much that we didn't even realize that it was bar close - I couldn't beleive it was already 2am. then I checked my phone and it was just before midnight - apparently on Sunday's they shut down early. Probably a good thing actually, cause we did all have to work the next day and I was just then realizing how pooped I really was.

We had to park a ways down the street, so Noland went to get the car while I paid the tab. Man, that place cleared out quick, there was no one left by the time I walked out the door. Of course just as I'm getting to the car I realize that I left my new bag in the bar, crap, I hope I can still get back in. I turn around and start to run back to the bar when Noland yells to let me know he had it. He grabbed it when I went to the restroom so that I wouldn't leave it there. What a husband - not afraid to be seen leaving the bar with a very stylish green handbag!

Cool enough then, we can go home and I can get some sleep cause I'm exhausted........

what bad timing for the alarm, it was like no sleep at all.

Is it a dream?

well no matter how wacky it seems, I think this one is for real. So unless something is seriously wrong at the inspection tomorrow - they tell us we need a new roof or all new plumbing or something like that - we bought a house.......wow....

caught in the rain without an umbrella

I hate doing laundry. I guess that's why I ended up going out in only my underwear - although I did have on a big fleece top as well, so it's not like I was naked - just a little exposed - but no worse then short shorts or mini-skirts! Nonetheless I felt a bit exposed after being out - so during a break I decided to run home real quick and grab some pants.

When I get to my brothers house - the front door is wide open and my brothers friend who was supposed to be watching the kids is lying on the front step tied up inside a plastic grocery bag (he's kind of a little guy - I wouldn't call him a midget, but pretty darn close) So I run over and rip open the bag - he's still breathing, he's not hurt other then just being a bit traumatized - but he doesn't know if they took the kids, or hurt them or where they are - so I run into the house screaming their names. Cory! Erin! They're both there, back in their bedroom just quietly playing a game - they had no idea that anything was wrong. They knew that someone had come over to visit - and they told me his name, I knew who he was, he used to be a friend of my brothers at one point when we were younger - I wonder if he knew he was back in town.

About that time Steve and Cesar came by - they were on their way back and stopped to see if I needed a ride. I was going to be really late so I jumped at the chance - meanwhile forgetting to ever grab any pants. But they had some sweats in the car so I put those on and was good to go - especially now 'cause it was starting to rain and I'd be cold. We pull around the corner and Cesar notices that the travel agents office is open now - but Steve tells him that they'll have to stop on the way back - they needed to get me back before it was all over. That was cool of him, cause I get there just in time. They were passing out umbrellas that other people have left behind, to anyone that didn't have one, before we headed off. I had left one there earlier thinking that I could just pick it up again - but I couldn't find it and since I was late I figured someone else must have taken it. But Miriam had one of her own - and being that cute French girl that she is - convinced them to give her another one, so we were all going to be fine.

smokin' with dad

I'm with my dad in a convenince store, and he's pointing out the CD's they sell at the counter - you know those cheesey compliations of "greatest hits of the 80's" or "all time country favorites" - well he tells me that his barbershop quartet was going to make CD's and sell them at c-stores, but that they all have to be produced through this same label - so we buy a bunch of 'em to figure out how he can get his music onto a CD and into the hands of those desperate for barbershop whilst traveling the great highways of this land.


Meanwhile, back in the parking lot he's having a little trouble getting the car out of the parking space and almost sideswipes the car next to us - now I know the guys in the car - I went to high school with 'em and they were all complete assholes. You know the type; lots of money, little bit of althleticism and no brains. So I yell at dad to stop before he does and my friend Jill Callies jumps out of the car, now I guess calling Jill a friend mught be a strech - we were friends at one point, but rather then realizing what these people were like, she wanted to become one - so we said poilite hellos and moved on our way.


So now we're on our way - but we've got Jill's mom in the car with us and we need to get to Susan's place. Susan sub-let an apartment that Jennie and I lived in for a few months after we left until the lease was up. It backed right up to a KFC drive though, and well that was convienent on occasion, it was also really irritating when someone had to keep reapeating "I want a 3-piece chicken and biscuit with a side-a-potato" 'cause the workers couldn't hear through the bad speaker, but we could hear 3-floors up and across the parking lot. So while it was a decent place, I'm not sure why Susan wanted to move back there, but she was going to and we needed to get to her place quick.


So dad's driving, Jill's mom is in the front seat and he's explaining to her how you can smoke secretly if you crack the car window open in the front and the back and blow the smoke out the window. I'm sitting in the backseat and they're paying no attention to me so I pull out a box of Marlboros and give it a try myself. Well look at that - I'm puffing right out the window next to my dad's head and he doesn't have a clue. Guess that's what being "an adult" means - you realize your parents do know something afterall.

flag on the play

Time for flag practice again this year. But we needed to raise some money for new flags and such so we decided to take part in the big flag and drum corps show. But as is typical with this group, no one really communicated much very well and I suddenly get a phone call that I need to go down to the show, and take the snacks that we were selling - and that I need to get there ASAP. I check the boxes of snacks that had been delivered to my house early - and I all I find inside are a bunch of half empty chip bags and cookie boxes. Great. Now I needed to stop and get more, as well as go pick up Tami and then get to the convention center. Now Tami was the friend that I did flags with in high school, so while that would be fun, I haven't seen her in probably 10 years and as far as I know sh estil lives in Kansas, so I decide that it doesn't make any sense, so I call Gretchen instead. I let her know that I'm on my way and she needs to be ready. Being Gretchen of course when I tell her I’ll be there in 10 minutes she says it'll take her at least 20 and that really means 30. URGH! So I need to call the folks working at the booth right now and let 'em know that we might be a tad late. Of course my mother is on the phone and she's talking to my little niece (who by the way is less then a year old and therefore can't really talk on the phone.) and she won't hang up. I let her know that I really need to use the phone and she just won't do it and tells me I'm being selfish - I holler at her a bit but it does no good. Someone else turns on the TV to check out what's going on at the convention center at the moment (have you ever watched the convention center channel - it's pretty amusing sometimes) and I see that the crowds are already showing up getting ready for the show - damn - we're too late!

amazing what you can find in the backyard

It’s good to have your friends along when you’re looking for houses; they find things you might miss. We were out looking at this place and Spencer was with Noland checking out the basement (gotta see what the band practice space capabilities are ya know) while Steve and I are wandering around outside. It was kinda out in the country, so it had a huge lot and there was this big area of brush in the back – it’s near the property line and there are woods behind it, so at first I just figured it was a bunch of overgrown trees and bushes that the previous owners hadn’t bothered to keep trimmed down. But Steve thinks that he sees something back there, so we traipse back to take a look – he digs in under the branches a bit and comes up with a piece of blue tarp – we hack at the branches a bit – of course I happened to be carrying a machete – and pull them back…lo and behold there’s a hot tub there! We get all of the branches pulled back and the tarp off (considering how thick all those branches were it only took us a minute or so to do all this – we’re pretty amazing!) and it’s not just a hot tub, there’s a complete Olympic sized swimming pool as well. Now it’s kind of a weird pool – cause it’s an above ground one with aluminum sides – like the one we had in our backyard when I was a kid – but it’s full sized and has a diving board and everything. The tarp on top is sagging and it’s full of green mucky water – but it seems like it should be salvageable. The best part is – since it wasn’t listed in any of the amenities of the home – the people selling it probably don’t know it’s there, so it’s not included in the assessment of the price of the house. Ya know, they didn’t know they had a basement either until Spencer and Noland found it; they’re not really very bright. Well hey – we’re not telling.

I should have listened to Glen and Foil

So it wasn't mayonaise from last May, but I think it may have been cream cheese from last July that caused my innards to feel as though they had been streched in every direction farther then humanly possible, then squeezed back into a too small container. Never ending terrible shooting pain the middle of the night are always fun.

So I blame the cream cheese - cause I don't want to blame the wine.

Speaking of whine, UPS rocks and FedEx sucks. I had some wine being delivered UPS, Noland had some computer parts being sent FedEx - both required signatures - and of a live human, not the "you can sign this and leave on the door knob and we'll leave the box on the porch kind." The FedEx guy shows up at our house three days in a row while we're at work leaving nothing more then a note saying he'd try again tomorrow. I left a note back saying we'd rather pick it up, we won't be home in the day, but of course we can't do that if he has it on his truck - so when he stops trying to deliver it and we can finally go pick it up - they had already returned it to the sender because we hadn't picked it up the next day.

And the wine coming UPS - he leaves us a note with his pager number and says to let him know when we'll be around so that if he's in the area still he can come back. Noland gets home, gets the note, pages him and within 15 minutes we have wine.

Much more important then computer parts anyhow.

I’ve gotta get out of the house more

Jaws 3 just isn’t the same without the 3D. Of course the dialogue of those fleeing the toothy menace is as exciting as ever…

arrruuuuuwwwww…..blurrrllllbbbbbbb……urggghhhhaaaaaaa……
allllbbbbbbbbuurrrr……ddarrrrruuuhhhhhh.

That’s some snappy conversation amongst our hero and heroine divers. The writers obviously spent hours agonizing how to script what exactly someone would say through their mask and tank when face to face with this pissed off momma, but I think in the end they just let the actors ad lib…I could really feel their terror. And that was before the climatic slo-mo ending of screaming, the beast crashing into the control room and subsequently exploding.

Whhheeeeeeee!!!!

With American Idol prior and Queer Eye after my culture is now complete.

I'm frightening myself.

liberal media my ass

This week according to some moronic NY Times columnist and Time Magazine the best thing for this country and society in general would be for women to "make a greater effort to marry early and have children...raise children from age 25 to 35. Then at 35, now that she knows herself better...select a flexible graduate program specifically designed for parents." The reason for this throwback to the 50s is of course that this is what they did in the 50s, so they had lots of children and now they want us to have kids to take care of them. According to this moron David Brooks, if we did this, "...fertility rates would rise. That would be good for the country. We don't have enough young people to support our old people."

So instead of the normal experience of college, we should have spent that time getting our MRS degree so that we could get married right after graduation. We then need to get busy having children so that we can support the old people who didn't plan ahead when they were young. And it doesn't matter if we have goals or ambitions related to a career, we should put those on hold until after we're through raising our children. We'll know ourselves better then and can go to special mommy graduate school to get that degree. Of course we'll then be entering a workforce where we're 10 years older then the men who are also looking for entry level jobs (because they of course don't need to wait 10 years to know themselves well enough to choose a career.) Our children will be older by then but they'll still be at home and we wont' want to put in the longer hours some bosses demand, so they'll be hesitant about hiring these "older women" instead of the young men eager and willing to please. Sound familiar? Oh yes - that's what it was like when women tried to seriously start entering the workforce decades ago. It's good to know we're moving forward.

And then in a cover story so patronizingly titled 'They Just Won't Grow Up' the good folks at Time are lovely enough to be concerned about both men AND women not marrying and having babies soon enough. "Society defines an adult as a person who is financially stable with a spouse, children and a home....we're going to think about those people getting married at 18 and forming a family at 19 or 20 as an odd historical pattern rather then the norm."

Now if you want to get married right after college and start having kids - fine, swell, go for it - both my brothers did, a few of my friends did, and they're all fine and happy. But for the majority of people I know who are now in their 30s and have been married just a few years or are still single, are childless or just having fresh ones, bought their first home in the past few years or are still renting - I'd say they still considered themselves quite grown up before they hit these stringent definitions.

I love being married to Noland and I'm really looking forward to us getting our own house this year, but I wouldn't have traded in my single days, new apartment every year, and lame part time jobs (where I met many of the friends I still have to this day) for anything. And I think that (for the most part) I was a grown up most of the time. I think doing things like moving halfway across the country to an unknown city with no job and just one friend in tow, and doing so successfully, is a rather grown up thing to do. I think learning how to love living by yourself for a while is a very grown up thing to do. I think knowing that at 25 your not ready to settle down rather then doing it just because your "supposed to" is a rather grown up thing to do.

Twice random people I dated in my 20s brought up marriage to me – I think I laughed at one and just tried to ignore the conversation with the other. But imagine if I would have continued that conversation – I would have never moved to Oregon, I would have never met Noland, and I would have never had this wonderful life I have now. I may not have know then exactly why those weren’t the right moves for me, but I knew there was something, and someone, better for me out there….and that is definitely grown up.

sleeping with the fan on

Why we decided to do RAGBRAI I have no idea, getting back in shape is one thing, but neither of us is ready for a 7 day bike ride across Iowa in the middle of July with 90+ temps and 90%+ humidity? I left that crazy place for a reason you know! But either way, there we were.

We didn’t have to leave right away, we could actually start at any point during the day so we figured as long as we were there we’d take in some sights real quick (not that there are a lot of sights to take in in Iowa, but I did live there for nearly 10 years, and Noland has never been there, so I figured I’d show him around a bit anyhow.

First we went to the statue lady’s house – she has more lawn art then you have ever seen in one place outside one of those yard fountain and lawn art stores. There have to be a dozen or more cement fountains, half a dozen statues of cherubs and angels and cute little girls lifting there skirts, those colored balls that go on pedestals – I think there was one of every available size and color, then there are the random one off’s - deer statues, the gargoyles, the squirrels…..throw in some Edward Scissorhands style bushes and a Koi pond and I think you’ve got the picture. It was pretty amazing. Midwest art at it’s finest!

We were just leaving there when a whole herd of cyclists went past us telling that we’d better get going or they were going to disqualify us, so we headed back to the station. By this time of course it was starting to rain – and for my friends in the NW – rain when it’s 90+ outside and in the Midwest is NOT the pleasant cooling rain that we get in Oregon. No, when it rains in the summer time it doesn’t cool things down, it makes them worse – the rain itself is warm and it just hangs in the air like a thick warm fog making everything heavy and slow.

I think that’s one of the reasons that people from other place don’t get how wonderful the weather here in the NW really is. It never really gets hot, never really gets cold (if it does do either it’s a week max, more likely a day) and while it rains a fair numbers of days, it’s usually just that nice refreshing cool mist – when people in the Midwest, south or east here that it rained every day from Dec 1 – March 1 they think of their rain. Heavy downpours flooding roads and freezing into ice, or when they hear that it doesn’t stop raining until Fourth of July (although in the 8 years I’ve been here the summers have always been nicer then that) they think of that sticky, hot heavy rain that they get, not the (again) nice, cool refreshing mist that you can walk in for 30 minutes before you can even tell that you’re wet.

Ok – so enough weather analysis – we go to start the ride and remember that we left our sleeping bags, backpacks and the rest of our gear someplace else – so now it’s a scavenger hunt for our stuff – at least that’s more interesting way to ride! We get our first clue from the guy with the started gun, but he doesn’t warn us that there are already other teams out there – and they’re looking for our stuff too! We take off and thin that we probably have a pretty good lead since it’s our stuff so we’re more likely to know where it’s ended up – but just when we’re hitting our stride ready to really jump into action – the buzzer sounds and it’s all over.

such the drama

I’m late for work, the only problem is I don’t know it yet. Noland is dropping me off out front and gives me a kiss. Two guys from the office are coming back from a coffee run. They come in super early, so they’ve already been there more then an hour. I can’t believe they’re actually going to tell on me that I’m late! I let them know that if they go through with it - Noland’s gonna beat their asses – so glad we carpooled today.

There’s a bunch of bottles of water and soda and beer in cases in the hallway as I walk in – I see other people taking some, but I’m not sure of the rules, so I just grab a bottle of water and go to my place on the bench. For some reason instead of offices or cubicles we all sit at long school-cafeteria like tables with benches.

Mark Megibow, an old friend from high school that I really lost touch with before we even graduated, comes and sits down next to me. Mark was my brother’s pledge son in their music fraternity at Northwestern and I recently saw in one of those emails that Classmates.com is always sending out that he “recently updated his profile – become a Gold Member to read all about what Mark is doing” so maybe that’s why he showed up at my office. But he was cool – we were really more just friends of friends then actually friends with each other back in the TWHS days – so I’m glad he didn’t turn out to be an ass.

I have to get going and get home, as soon as possible, this storm is coming in and if I don’t get on the next plane out of here I may never make it. My boss tells me I’ve got until 5:19 – plenty of time – I thought I was only going to have an hour or even less. I need to pack. Quickly.
Why haven’t I been keeping up on cleaning my room? I can’t find anything I need to pack. I only have this one suitcase and this is not all going to fit. Plus I have all these he notebooks full of papers and documents from work – maybe I can put all those in one and just carry it. Nope, no zipper pockets. Everything is falling out. Am I really going to wear those shoes? Maybe I can leave them here – I will be back someday. I can get things then – besides if I leave the place a mess it will look more lived in.

We’re never going to get this show off the ground. Learn all our lines. Get all the staging set. There’s just not enough time. They’re calling me from the airport – it’s 5:20 – they’re going to leave without me. I wasted too much time. Why did I fall asleep?!

when dogs chase you always carry a backpack

So I totally forgot to ask for time off at my new job for this weekend trip that we were taking and I was going to be coming in late one day and leaving early another. I was gonna send an email cause it's not that big a deal as long as I let 'em know - but we were at my folks house and while I'm impressed that my dad has figured as much out about computers as he has (fer an old guy you know) it's still a slow system, not to mention the fact that's dial-up and he has it all set up to use an AOL browser which is just irritating, so needless to say the message took much longer then it should have. In fact by the time I got around to sending it, it was nearly 3 in the afternoon - and if I'd been there as I should have been I would have been going home in less then an hour. So I decided I need to just book it out of there - it was kinda hard to leave. Dad, being retired and all, has lots of time to tinker and he had a new gadget he wanted Noland to take a look at, so I abandon my poor husband with my dad and take off. Crap. I forgot the dogs in the back yard - not really friendly puppys. I have to scramble across the yard and then jump a fence to get out - but now I don't have my car so I have to walk - this is gonna take forever. Not to mention the fact that I have to stop and get all my stuff - sleeping bag, clothes, flashlight, all kinds of crap. My bag isn't very full right now - I can put some stuff in it - but I wish I had a backpack - then I wouldn't have dropped everything running from the dogs. What a pain in the ass this trip has turned out to be.

stand by your man

The little punk girls just love Noland. I respect 'em for it, how could they not? But sorry ladies, no can do. So we're out at a show and I didn't think it was all ages, but either this girl had a great fake ID or I really am getting old. But she notices his Misfats shirt and starts chatting it up - and he of course loves to talk about the band so they're chatting away as I approach with drinks - I give him his, but am talking with someone else so I'm just kinda standing near his elbow when suddenly this chic just pushes over in between us......

"who's SHE?!"

she's loaded, so I just say 'hi, I'm Jennifer' and back to my conversation. I do realize at this point though that she thinks that she's hitting on Noland and that he's beginning to realize it as well - so in that lovely way that we can read each others minds on occasion we decide to mess with her.

He becomes more chatty and friendly to her and she's just all excited. I can see her giving her friends the look - that she thinks she's snagged herself a punk rock boy for the night. Her newly purchased Hot Topic outfit worked! So I take that moment to lean over and give him a squeeze. So then I get the other look - that don't you mess with my new found man look. (Of course she's obviously not bright to notice that we're both wearing wedding rings...but that's another story.)

This continued for a bit, but we weren't going to make it much longer without busting out into serious laughter, so while tacky in most situations, it was rather amusing here to just starting making out in the middle of the bar. I think she was about to swing at me actually when one of her friends suddenly got bright and noticed the rings.....and the fact that we were now, along with our friends that were with us - openly laughing at her.

Ah the fun of messing with the kiddies.

new job holiday perks

So not only is it amazing and refreshing to work again for a company that actually cares more about it's product, it's customers and it's employees than the president's condo redecorating and whether or not the employees are "properly dressed" to answer phones and work on computers in offices where they see no one but each other - but the perks are fabulous!

I've been talking about starting this new blog for a while - but have yet to actually get down to it with Noland and my ever crazy schedule. However this lovely holiday week between Christmas and New Years - I have completely off - and am free to do whatever my little heart desires. The company I'm at now is about 75% sales and they understand that nothing really will get done that week, so rather then have us all sit around and do half ass jobs of working in between discussing holidays plans and activities - we just shut down.

Between that, getting all of the lame holidays off (see Vet's Day, MLK Day, Pres Day etc.) and starting as a new employee with just 2 days shy PTO time then I'd earned after more than 5 years at TRM, getting canned from that evil dictatorship becomes more and more of a blessing each day. Things there had pretty much gone down the toilet the past 12 months once they removed the only decent executive the company has from our department to a new one, but with Noland unemployed I couldn't afford to leave. I'd planned on looking for a new job once Noland was established full-time with benefits at his, so the getting canned really just moved my timing forward by a few months. As well of course creating the best "why I got fired" story ever. It makes everyone, and I kid you not, everyone, exclaim the exact same "You're Kidding?!" I mean really, when you dumbfound the guy in the unemployment office who has to have heard them all you know it's a winner!

So as we kick off this new year here in a few days - cheers to new and better jobs and new and better blogs!