Mom's Book and other fun

You have probably all seen it already, but if not Mom has out a new book. It's a family record keeper that helps you organize all sorts of details. Birthdays, immunizations, etc... I've been wanting one for years. If you haven't seen it, check out http://marysgreathouse.blogspot.com/ for a contest, more information and links to her site about it. Her site for the book is familyrecordkeeper.com

In other excitement, we finally finished unpacking the downstairs boxes Saturday. This partially involved repacking some of the items into other boxes and moving them upstairs. We also put up some outside lights and a bit of Christmas decor inside. Most of Christmas is purchased and ready to go. We still need to finish up the present for John and Cynthia's family, wrap everything, and mail those items that need to be mailed, but we're getting there.

Dottie Pic (Second Post Today)

Here it the picture of "Dottie" a few weeks ago. Instead of a "Where's Waldo?" this is a "Where's the..." nose, head, arm, etc... Good luck and good guessing.

New Copier / Fax Machine

No, I don't have a new copier / fax machine, but I sure do want one. It seems like every couple of weeks we need to fax something. The drugstore in town has a fax you can send things from. However, they are only open M-F 9-5. Things seem to frequently come up outside of those bounds. Plus, I don't think they have a copier.

The office store in Fayetteville does copies and faxes, but they charge a bundle. I don't think it would take too many faxes to save back what you would spend. I did just find out the local Piggly Wiggly does copies and faxes. I'll be finding out today what they cost today (Greg needs something copied and faxed to him on his business trip). If they're cheap, it might work o.k. -- as long as I stick to daytime hours. It's a pretty scary place after dark.

I just might have to check out the day after Thanksgiving sales for some good deals. Or not.

In other news, there really isn't any other news. Just boredom. I need to get me a sitting hobby that does not involve staring at the glow of a computer screen. Maybe a new sewing project.

Any ideas?

Visitor and Temple Trip

So, for our big excitement, Maryland came down to visit for a few days. We didn't do too much. Went to Fayetteville and did a bit of shopping. Read books. Watched some TV shows. Played solitaire together. Just generally hung out. We did go to a baptism while she was here. Since I was already playing the piano, she got the privilege of conducting the music. I think we might need to start a conducting class. The church has a good one. Her visit was a fun and relaxing time.

Today we will be taking the Spanish-speaking missionaries to the temple. We are going to try and sneak in the session with them. It's a Spanish session and Spanish speakers get first dibs. However, if it is full then they said we could go do sealings. I'm hoping the session is full. Sealings are a lot of fun to do.

I'm Still Alive

I don't have much of interest to say.  I'm relief society president and I'm still alive.  Maybe Sunday when I get trained I will learn more and become more stressed.  I had my first presidency meeting tonight.  It was fine.

I have been watching a lot of hulu.  Catching up on "Lie to Me".  I've just started "Doc Martin".  I haven't made it through an entire episode yet, so we'll see.  I quite like "Eureka" -- a quirky SyFy show.  Yes, it's got science fiction, but the main character is a sheriff that is not a nerd like the rest of town, so that helps a lot.  Also a mystery show called "Castle" is a bit interesting.

I'm currently working on a "Get to Know You" form.  I know some of you are great at coming up with interesting questions.  Please feel free to let me know of any interesting questions (for the "Get to Know You" form specifically).

Mormon Radio

I just noticed that the LDS church has a new radio station at www.radio.lds.org and I included a widget to it on the side.  It also has a number of programs that they will be doing especially for this station and that you can listen to as podcasts (rather than having to remember what time they will be on at).  I checked out one called "Into All the World" that will be having interviews with stake presidents, mission presidents, etc... from all over the world.  They only have one program so far and it is an interview with the stake president from Rome, Italy.

Greg and I get to speak in church next Sunday, thus I am following in Cynthia's footsteps with this post.  However instead of avoiding housework I am avoiding my talk preparation.  I guess I better quit avoiding and start doing so I can properly enjoy Memorial Day tomorrow.

We're here

We made it safely to our new home in NC.  We got in at one in the morning yesterday.  We then got up way too early in the morning (6:45) and got ready, took the call from the movers telling us their estimated arrival time, went to one of the local grills for breakfast, got our trash service, etc all set up, bought a doormat at the local hardware store (met two of the city councilmen there), went to the pharmacy to give them my prescription.  Then we were on the way back to the house for a moment.

The movers called just as we were driving up and they had just gotten to the house.  We then unpacked and helped them unload a bit (i.e. moved a few boxes to the garage after they had unloaded it, so they could keep unloading larger items).  We also flipped on the breaker to the hot water heater.  (No hot water is one large reason I hate camping.)

By this point we were exhausted, since we had gotten about four or five hours of sleep the night before this also.  But instead of sleeping, we went and gave the builder a key so he could change the locks, went and set up our mail service, had lunch at the other local grill (this one is run by members of our branch).  Then we came home and got cleaned up using our hot water!  Then we took naps!!!

We then made sure the internet was working so I could work today (I'll be doing that momentarily).  Next we drove to the Raleigh airport to get Bubba's car.  It's a pretty nifty trip.  I'll have to write about it later.  Then we took ate dinner at a sub shop, took a nap in the car and came home.  We passed out around 10:45 pm.

This morning I am currently sitting on the back porch listening to the trees blowing in the wind and the traffic passing on the highway in front of the house.  It's like a cross between being in the canyon and being at the farm all in one.  

Well off to work.

It's a House!

We now officially have a home in North Carolina.  We will be leaving Florida on Monday and the moving van will get to North Carolina late that night.  We will either unload the stuff that evening or the next morning.

If it weren't for Mom and Dad we don't know if we'd have the house quite yet.  We didn't have bank accounts with east coast banks, and a signature is required to wire money.  But being on the east coast, it is hard to sign things out west without mailing the papers.  Needless to say, this could make things take days.  Luckily Mom and Dad were still on an account or two of ours and were kind enough to provide the needed signatures.  The story is longer, so if you want to know the full boring story you will have to call and ask.

The branch is excited to have us there.  They already have us scheduled to speak in Sacrament Meeting the last Sunday of the month.  We are excited to be in the branch.  They seem very friendly.  

Well, I'm off to avoid packing.

End of Beginnings

I’ve now been to Mississippi and Alabama, but it was in the dark, so I’m not really sure what they look like.  The interstate did have some cool bridges and go along the Gulf of Mexico for quite a stretch there.   

When we checked into the motel in Florida, the front desk clerk saw our credit card and asked if we were from the west.  His girlfriend (or former girlfriend) was from the area and hated that bank.  Oh well.   

We got to the Tampa area around the end of rush hour.  Lots of fun in a big truck.  But we made it and the new ward was here to help us unload, so we actually got to sleep on our own bed that evening.

Moving to NC and Beginnings Continued

So, we just found out that we will be moving to NC sometime in April.  In preparation for the Florida to NC drive, here is the next section of the first journey out to Florida.

New Mexico was voted the worst roads in the nation on this trip.  Not that we’ve driven the entire nation, but their roads were really bad.  They had a lot of potholes they hadn’t filled in.  However, the potholes they had filled in were even worse.  They just dumped a pile of lumpy asphalt in the hole and left it.  It looked like a mound of black grits or something.  The interstate was much better once we reached it.

Oklahoma was a nice state.  The people and roads were good.  Texas was also lovely.  It took a bit getting used to their freeway entrances, but it’s a good place.

Louisiana is a different state.  It is very different from what we are used to in many ways.  For one thing, the speed limit there is 70 mph.  Don’t get confused by the signs.  Sometimes they say 70.  Other times they say 65, 60 or even 55.  This does not change the fact that everyone goes 70.  In 70 mph zones they don’t speed.  But, they don’t slow down any for the other zones, either.

This was also the first time I can remember seeing a bayou.  No wonder Kermit was able to survive the big city.  Those bayous are definitely on the creepy side.  It was also interesting to be on a bridge driving over land.  Based on watermarks on the pillars holding the road up, I assume that it is not always land that is visible.  When the land is visible, it is probably not usually dry enough to drive over anyway.

Baton Rouge was the first major city we hit at rush hour.  Somebody else hit it that rush hour, too.  Traffic was at a crawl.  There had been an accident.  And quite the interesting accident.  The front car had it’s hood munched up a bit.  The rear car had its front left corner munched down into the ground and the rest of it was sticking into the air at about a 45 degree angle.  I’m not sure how they got like that.  Maybe other cars were involved and they had already been hauled off.

Another interesting thing about Texas/Louisiana is the gambling.  Louisiana has casinos.  The casinos like to advertise in Texas near the border.  However, at the bottom of all the billboards is information on who to contact to get help with your gambling problem.

Just the Beginning

I thought I would post all the excitement (real and imagined) from my recent trips across the country.  Not incredibly exciting, but much better than talking about the joys of coding.

This is the first installment of our first trip across the country.  This trip took place in a 26' Penske truck.

Packing sure is a lot of work.  Who would have thought that throwing a bunch of things in a bunch of boxes would take so much work?  The problem comes in when you decide you don’t want it thrown in, but carefully packed.  At that it might even be nice to know what is in the box (or at the very least what room it came from).

So, we were to leave for Florida on Friday morning.  When Friday morning came, we still weren’t packed.  We called in reinforcements.  They called in more reinforcements.  Eventually at 8 p.m. we were all packed up and ready to go, almost.  After getting some drinks and snacks, we were ready to go.

So we pulled out at around 9 p.m. and made it to Price that first night (originally desitnation: Albuquerque, NM).  Part of this lateness was also due to the fact that we were woken at 5 a.m. with a car horn going off.  Make that a truck horn… Our truck’s horn.  It eventually quit about 5:30.  They sent someone out to look at it, but he didn’t know what was wrong.  We didn’t want to drive a truck without a horn (what fun is a road trip if you can’t honk at all the crazy drivers that are trying to kill you).  So, the company sent out a new truck and movers to move the items from one truck to another.  This turned out to be a blessing, since they were able to fit all the things into a much smaller space.  As a result, we got to take much more stuff with us to our new apartment  in Florida.

Driving a big truck was a new experience for Bubba and I.  Bubba had driven farm tractors.  So had I, if you count going 5 mph in a straight line.  They told us that the truck could go up to 75 mph, but we shouldn’t go over that.  Maybe unloaded the truck could go that fast, but the fastest it would go for us was 70 mph.  This only occurred on fairly level ground when the pedal was floored.

The section of the drive from Price to Monticello is definitely not level.  At a few points, I think the truck was down to 35 mph on some of the hills.  Slow, but still faster than a horse-drawn carriage.  Thanks to Dad for pointing out that I-70 might be a bit steep for a big truck.