Happy Rearrange the Living Room day!
May 30, 2007 @ 05:11 PM
I had a fairly laid-back Memorial Day weekend. Amanda, Hannah and I went out to Clive After Five Friday evening for a little post-work happiness, although we only stayed for an hour and a half or so. After that, I think Amanda and I headed home to get a little unpacking done, and I think we watched a movie later in the evening.
Saturday was all about the unpacking and the reorganizing and the getting rid of my stuff, focused mainly in the kitchen. In other words, it was madly exciting. Or not. Whichever. We did get a lot of stuff done, though, and I'm sure the house appreciated it. Hannah came over that afternoon to wash her car, and afterwards the three of us shared a decent dinner, a great dessert (supplied by Hannah, of course) and a bottle of wine.
Sunday, according to our calendar, was Rearrange the Upstairs Living Room Day. We celebrated in the traditional manner. We also got rid of more of my stuff, because, y'know, that's what you do.
Monday! Chuck, Sara, Hanna, Amanda, myself, and a couple of Chuck's friends whom I'd never before met went to the I-Cubs game, which was a pretty good time. I had an overpriced beer ~and~ an overpriced hotdog, and then there was more beer at El Bait Shop afterwards. I got a bit of a sunburn. The Cubbies won by a healthy margin.
And now, we're back to the weary trudge of the everyday work world. To ease the monotony a bit, Amanda and I are heading out to see Pirates the Third with Kate and Lisa Thursday night. Friday night, we get to pick up our bottles of selfmade wine, which should be fun. :)
Have I mentioned yet that I get to go to another conference in the near future? If not, consider yourselves announced. This time they're sending me to Seattle for An Event Apart, which I'm ~madly~ excited about. Not only should it be a fantastic conference, but I get to see Seattle again (here's some pics from the first time 'round). I'll be staying with ex-roomie Justin, and it'll be just over a mile walk to the conference each morning, which should be easily doable. I walk at least that far with Miles every morning. Plus, I get to pass the space needle and the Experience Music Project to and from. Bonus. :)
Piano bars and drivin' cars.
May 22, 2007 @ 05:13 PM
Amanda is officially moved in! Well, at the least, all of Amanda's things are now strewn about my house instead of strewn about her apartment. It's going to take a lot of organizing before the whole 'moved in' thing feels complete. And if we weren't so darn social, we might actually get that done. :)
The move itself went surprisingly smoothly. We had the U-Haul truck to her apartment by around 8:30am, and I had most of the boxes loaded before the first people showed up around 8:45. With everyone's help, we had the truck completely loaded by a little after 10am, with only one casualty: Hannah threw out her back leaning down to pick up a shelf (of all things) and was out of commission for the rest of the day. Luckily, she'd already made us some seriously kick-ass brownies, so I had no problem excusing her from active duty.
We had the truck unloaded and returned to the U-Haul place by a little after noon. After that, it was pizza and beer time. A minute or two after everyone left, my parents showed up to see what we'd done with the place and to play with the new puppy. After they took off, we got a quick nap in before my sister showed up for similar reasons. After they left, we started a movie, only to have one of the neighbors come over. In all, it was the most traffic my house had seen in the entire duration of my residency.
Later that evening, a group of us went out to the Grand Piano Bistro, a fantastic new piano bar that had opened in Des Moines' East Village the night before. Let me just say: this place is fantastic! The food was masterfully put together, they had a ton of beers and wines on hand in addition to a fully stocked bar (and talented bartender mixing strong drinks), and the music was great fun. Pianopalooza (dueling pianos) was the entertainment of the night. Scotty is friends with Jared of the duo, so he stopped by our table to talk a few times, and Tony is the owner of the club. He had to have been happy with how packed the place was: it took us over an hour to get a table. If you go on a weekend night, I'd suggest getting there for dinner around 7pm and just plan to stick around for the entertainment later.
Sunday, we headed down to Murray, Iowa (my hometown, which I hadn't seen in quite a few years) for a cousin's graduation party. It was nice to see the town again, and it was nicer that Amanda's gotten the chance to get a feel for my roots. After the graduation reception, Amanda used my car to practice driving a manual, since there's nothing much to hit that far south in Iowa. She did pretty darn well, too. :)
Last night was Kate Hellman's (or HellKat, as we used to call her) 24th birthday, so Amanda and I headed up to Ames to celebrate with some of the grad crew. It was a nice chance to catch up see some people I hadn't seen in a while. We had a really good time, though I think she and I are both dragging a bit today as a result of the late (for us) night.
Tonight? Amanda's got a dinner date with an old friend, so I'm going to amuse myself by going on a jog, entertaining the animals, and maybe playing a little Playstation, as I haven't gotten a chance to in over a month.
Oh, and watch for new Flickr photos. I went through my photo archives and found quite a few decent ones I hadn't posted yet, so I'll hopefully be posting quite a few this week. Adieu!
Welcome to the Glazebrook Zoo.
May 17, 2007 @ 05:10 PM
Last Sunday, Amanda's cat (Dean Martin, for those of you nominally inclined) moved in to my (soon to be our) basement. He's the working definition of a scaredy-cat, so we kept him shut in the spare bedroom for a day so he could get used to the smell of Smaug before having to meet him. On the second day, they met, and things went pretty well. By Wednesday afternoon, they were willing to sit next to each other without any hissing whatsoever. We were both amazed by the quick transformation.
So we did the obvious thing: we got a dog!
Puppy yonder is Miles, Amanda's newest male distraction (though I'm happy to report I'm the only of the four male distractions to possess working testicles). Miles is a birthday present, a year-old (or less) mutt from the Animal Rescue League, and a complete sweetheart. He already knows how to sit, and seems to be housebroken. As the photo above shows, he and Smaug are well on their way to becoming best friends (they are getting along pretty well so far, although Dean is back to hiding in the basement). ;) At the moment, Miles and Amanda are on their way to his first vet appointment, which will probably make him less reluctant to ride in the car from here on out. He's not so great at walking on a leash (he tends to drag us behind him), but we're planning to enroll in an obedience class through the ARL in early June.
To summarize: Dean Martin moved in on Sunday, Miles moved in on Wednesday, and Amanda will be moving in on Saturday. Basically, we decided it'd be nice to get over all of the big stress-inducing stuff all at once. ;) Although Amanda has told me we're not allowed to bring any more members in to our little family for a good long while. I told her that after I get my Llama, I was fine with that plan. Also, I'm hoping outdoor fish for the koi pond don't count, as I'm planning to pick some of those up as soon as I can figure out how to make the pond lose less water over the course of a few days.
Big announcement time.
May 08, 2007 @ 05:14 PM
My trip north was a general success. I met the parents, and they didn't seem to hate me overly much. I met a bunch of Amanda's friends, and they seemed to accept my presence as well (which is good, because Amanda drove, meaning I was pretty much stuck). I attended a wedding, and managed to make no more a fool of myself than I intended. So all in all, I'd say it was a good trip. :)
And now seems like as good a time as any to make a fairly big announcement: Amanda will be moving in with me on Saturday, May 19. We've been talking about the possibility of her moving in for several months now, and the timing just seems right. Her lease is up, we're getting along famously, we both have good jobs, we already spend nearly every non-working moment together, and I'm not getting any more established than I already am. So we've decided to consolidate households.
Neither of our families are exactly ecstatic about the decision, as could probably be assumed. Her parents think it's a fast move, which is understandable, since her family seems to move a little slower than mine relationship-wise, and we have only been dating a little over five months. My parents aren't particularly happy, either: my mom's settled on the "it's an affront to God" routine, though her solution to the problem is just for us to get married in the interim weeks. Unlikely. My brother's probably a little annoyed, because I've warned him he can't come over to do laundry anymore at that point. And I know Kara is disappointed, because she was hoping to move in at the same time, but I think consolidating three people into one household would put undue strain on Amanda and my relationship (and thus my and Kara's friendship).
Alas, it'll all work out in the end. I've high hopes, at any rate. :)
I am not here.
May 04, 2007 @ 09:49 AM
I'll be out of town this entire weekend, starting in a few minutes. The 'Zinger and I are heading north, into the vast blustery wasteland known as Minnesota, for a few days of adventuring. And by adventuring, I mean I'll be meeting her parents and then going to a wedding. Your definition may vary, but the heart-racing-ness of the activity would assuredly be quite similar.
If you need me, I'll have my cell on me, but it'll probably die on the drive north, so I might not answer right away. Parents: If you think of it, it'd be nice if someone were to go check on Smaug on Saturday sometime. Grandparents: Your computer is as done as I can do, and it's re-boxed sitting where you left it for me. :) Work people: Ppppbt. Miscellaneous: I'll miss you most of all.
I'll let you know how it went when I return. Assuming I don't get cornered by a bear or mauled by a family member.
Nobody puts Baby in a headline.
May 02, 2007 @ 04:52 PM
So last night Amanda, Hannah and I all took a little road trip up to Ames. What was the occasion? To see Dirty Dancing in the theater. :)
It seems that, in honor of Dirty Dancing's 20th anniversary, the Powers What Be have decided to re-release the movie to select cities for two days only: yesterday and today. Hannah happened to see an ad for the showing on TV last week, and she happened to mention it to Amanda and I over the weekend, and Ames happened to be one of those select cities. At that point, things had been set in motion that could not be undone.
There's something very fun about seeing a movie you've seen dozens of times in your home on the big screen for the first time. You see things you hadn't noticed before. You catch all the nuances of sound as the director meant it. You whisper instead of talking over the movie. You clap and cheer when Patrick Swayze says, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."
Long story short, the movie fairly well rocked. I was five when the movie came out in the summer of '87, so I thought I'd never have the opportunity to see it on the big screen. I'm glad I got the chance. :) Oh, and Amesians: if you're not busy tonight, you should check it out. Tickets are $10, and the showing is at 7:30, though you could be 20 minutes late without much of a problem, because there's a 20-minute "Past and Present of Dirty Dancing" at the beginning. It seems they're making the movie into a musical. And you know what? If it ever makes it to the Midwest, I'll probably see that, too. :)