Moving

Jake and I finished our move to the house last weekend! Yay! Here is a collection of pictures from the experience:

Jake with our moving truck. We got one for free from our realtor! We're also allowed to reserve it whenever we want now. Awesome. Anyway, the main point of this picture is to display the party bus parked in the front yard of our neighbors' house.

Here are some of the pictures of the inside of the house:

Our family room. I call this the "man cave". Note the new big tv Jake decided to buy.

The kitchen.

The dining room, along with a pile of packaging and crap from the new tv. I'm still waiting to throw that out. I'm hoping it's out by this Wednesday (garbage day).

The front room. This is the room you see when you walk into the front door. It's fairly sparse and random right now. We'll move the couch and chair from the "man cave" to this room once our sectional couch arrives in 8-10 weeks.

Hallway.

Bathroom. We also have a half bath right across the hall, but I didn't include a picture of that one.

Master bedroom.

Guest bedroom.

Office.

Tejal and Jon were nice enough to help us move. Yay! We went to Clyde's in the evening. We shared a lobster between the four of us and a few random appetizers. We all got to have pictures in the bibs, though.

Me and Tej in the lobster bibs.

Jake and Jon in the lobster bibs.

Now to plan the housewarming. The date is still TBD. I'm hoping January, but we'll have to see...

Election Yard Signs

I read this article recently about yard signs and elections.

I've been thinking that yard signs are kind of stupid. I mean, who looks at yard signs and says, "Well, my neighbor is voting for candidate X, so I think I will, too"? I'd hope it wouldn't work that way. I don't really see the point in yard signs, so I read that article to see if they had any redeeming qualities, or even if they work in ways that aren't apparent to me. This particular article said that signs increase the level of support among the people who actually put them out. I don't know if I think that's good or bad. Good if it's a candidate I agree with on the issues, and bad if it's one I disagree with, I suppose. I guess if I were the person running for office, I'd try to get people to put out my yard signs, too, because it would be a smart move to increase my level of support. But, inside, I'd just be thinking how silly yard signs are.

Yesterday, Jake and I went for a walk after dinner. Our route took us past a large home with a big brick fence around it. It's probably valued within the multi-million dollar range, considering it's in Old Town. A couple of weeks ago, I walked past the same house and it had a couple of your average-sized yard signs out for McCain. Well, yesterday those yard signs had been replaced with a couple of GIGANTIC signs, one for McCain and one for a local candidate whose name escapes me now (though I do remember the slogan at the bottom of his sign: "Drill Here, Drill Now!"). They were so gigantic, I don't know if I can still call them signs so much as banners. They were at least a couple of yards long by a couple of yards high. I wish I had taken a picture to include because these signs were just ridiculous. Maybe if I have time in the next week before we move, I'll swing by there again, just to snap a photo. In conclusion, I can tell everyone that I have seen that yard signs do lead to escalation of commitment. The people who own this house have committed to much bigger yard signs over the past couple of weeks.

Performance enhancement

I just heard about this stuff called Gamer Grub. Oh stupid marketing, I love it! The next time I get a chocolate craving, I think I should make sure it's "strategy chocolate".

Poll function

I'm not sure if there's a way to embed the poll function right in my posts. So, if you're coming directly to my site, please answer the poll question of the week. Which is better, circus peanuts or candy corn? If you'd like to provide a rationale for your choice, feel free to post in the comments below.

Gallup is wasting its time with polling people about Obama-McCain, while I am here asking the important questions in life.

We're getting a house!

Jake and I are signing an agreement with the sellers this afternoon. We still need to have a home inspection done, etc., but we finally had an offer accepted. Yay!

Here are some pictures of the place I stole from the online listing:

Electoral College Pool

Jake and I were just having a conversation about how there needs to be a contest to see who can predict the results of the electoral college.

So, I searched online, and the Post is having a contest:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/2008/pick-your-president/

The winner gets $500 to Best Buy!

My current picks have Obama winning 314-224. Is there any way to track this on a smaller scale, similar to comparing NCAA picks with your friends?

Random Labor Day Weekend Post

Well, after a hiatus of a couple of weeks, we went house hunting again on Saturday and didn't see much that interested us. There were really problems with everything we looked at. I guess the most interesting thing we saw was a life-sized blow-up doll hanging from a ceiling fan. Yeah...I'm sure there was quite a party in that house.

So, we'll probably look again next weekend. :P

I do feel ready to move on. I want a new space with new projects and new opportunities. Things are starting to feel stale.

I have finished all of the things on the mini-list of stuff I wanted to do before we move out, except for karaoke at Rock It Grill. I was going to go with Tej last night actually, but gave up on it because a) I had some drinks early on and didn't feel like going out for more drinks after and b) because I decided I wanted to go check out Tej's new apartment with her. I'm sure I can make time to go some night after work in the next few weeks. It'd be cool if I could get a good group of people there, because that'd make it more fun.

Oh, I and I need to revamp the 50 things list. I know I want to add "Start composting" onto the list. The pull-up thing can probably go.

Today I made a salad with watermelon, tomato, red onion, basil, feta, and balsamic. I stole the idea for it off Rustico's menu. I have a crapload of tomatoes because it's that time of year AND I got a watermelon and basil from Farmer John this week, so it made sense.

Even though I can't seem to move on lately (and, you know, FINALLY get a house...), there have been a lot of other things happening around me. Change is going to happen whether I make it happen or not, I suppose. It may take me a bit to process all the recent events. At work, a couple of people are leaving/things may be shaking up/we may hire someone new. In the fam, my sister told me she and Paul are going to sign her divorce papers soon (okay, this one I've known was coming and am ready for it). Also, my Uncle Tom passed away yesterday morning. I hope my dad is taking it okay. It's hard for me to gauge him. He did mention it to me on the phone, but I don't really know how he's feeling about it.