lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Monday, February 28, 2005
"So Molly tells me that on a scale of one to mad... you're mad."
I may not exactly be "mad," but I'm all over frustrated and annoyed.  Why?  Add another $300 to the $1300 we had to pay to fix our gas leaks and related problems (which we apparently could have gotten for cheaper than that if we'd gone to the right people in the first place).  Anyway.  Poo.  And our bedroom ceiling fan (Hunter brushed-nickel-finish Beacon Hill), which we have to leave though we love it very much, we've since found out has been discontinued, so if we want to replace it, we have a limited amount of time to buy it online, and will have to pay Ceiling Fan Shipping.  That's also pooey.

Anyway, we close today.  We close on the new house on Thursday.  And we are officially 100% moving Friday (loading) and Saturday (unloading).

I go pack now bye.
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Friday, February 25, 2005
"Windy...  Oprah..."
Yeah, yeah, we need to pack, blah, blah, blah...  But, seriously, let's get our priorities straight:  Cubs tickets went on sale this morning.  If you know anything about buying home game Cubs tickets these days, you know that if you don't buy them THE DAY they go on sale, you don't buy them.  And there's nothing like seeing a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  So Josh and I each spent the morning in the virtual waiting room for tickets, hoping to be randomly selected to have an actual opportunity to buy some.  After about three hours, Josh got in (!) and got us two tickets to the August 28th game vs. the Marlins, which also happens to be the day they're retiring Ryne Sandberg's jersey.  What a co-wink-ydink, eh?  :-)
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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
You are so sick of our new house by now.
And our old one. And our packing, and our moving, and our fixing, and our potential window treatments... But that's just tough, because now I have more. Lots, lots more.

We went to Belleville on Saturday to take some measurements and some photos of the new house.  We also went to American in Madison to pick out our new refrigerator and range with our allowance from the builder (hey, at least that's one thing we got to choose ourselves -- well, two, I guess).  We're getting a lovely side-by-side with water and ice (though we have to put the water line in ourselves), which means it should be much easier for us to drink more water and less pop/soda, which we really really should start doing.  And we get an electric stove instead of stupid gas.  Hooray for electric.

We've bought a mailbox and post (which, if you ask me, cost way too much), although they're both white and now that I look at our house again, I'm wondering if that might not be the best color, so we may make an exchange.  And yesterday I bought a bunch of roman shades at Penney's for an incredible $15 each, and ordered wood blinds for the master bedroom windows for 50% off.  So now the only "windows" that don't have coverings bought are the sliding glass doors in the dining room.  Since we hate vertical blinds, but those are really the only option we can think of that would work well, we're considering these, which are vertical blinds covered with a sheer fabric so they look more curtainy than vertical blinds, but still let light in if you have the blinds open.  I think we're pretty much at the point of deciding between that more expensive option or just buying some cheap vertical blinds and sheers and either trying to attach the sheers to the blinds ourselves, or just hanging them on a curtain rod in front of the blinds.

Anyway, we're on our way.  And you can wake up now.
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Monday, February 21, 2005
I do not love my new blog.  I like  it a normal  amount...
Behold... it arrives.  And if you can't tell what "it" is, please get an eye exam.  After hours and hours of slaving over a hot computer, I'm finally finished, and I have to say, I'm just giddy over the end result, both because it's pretty and because it's ALL MINE, made completely from scratch instead of just altering someone else's work.  Thanks to Andrew for his image-stitching program and for being a better html reference book than my html reference book, and to Josh for his movie and cd list programs (incidentally, the cd list will eventually be trimmed to show fewer of them than there currently are -- I just wanted to temporarily include on the main page every CD I've gotten since I last updated the list).

If something isn't working, if anything's hard to read, or there are any other bugs, please let me know and I will try to fix.  Just general opinions are fine, too.

Whew.  Okay, I go shopping for window treatments now.
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
In the interest of not packing, which I'm very interested in, I give you the return of the Trip-O-Logue.

DAY EIGHT: Wed. Dec. 1.
The port this day was Coco Cay, which is Royal Caribbean's "private island" (seems like all the cruise lines have them nowadays). It's basically a bunch of hammocks, palm trees, beaches, and watersports, with a little bit of shopping as well. They had also built a fairly new water park, but it was pretty much destroyed in the recent hurricanes.

We caught the first tender boat to the island in the morning because we had one of the first excursions of the day (and our only other one of the trip): sea kayaking. There were only four couples on this tour, which I was very glad for after we saw a later group go out with about fifteen couples. It was hard enough at times to keep from bumping into each other's kayak's with only four of them (plus one for each of two guides). It was a little nervewracking at first, even though the water was shallow and we were wearing life jackets... I mean, I wouldn't have drowned or anything, but I still didn't want to get soaked, and our guide informed us that if we weren't careful the kayaks could, in fact, tip over. I then informed Josh that if he did anything to tip us over, he would be sleeping with the fishes. He didn't, though on a couple of occasions he shifted his weight behind me enough that I thought we were goners.

All in all, the kayaking was a blast, and one of my favorite experiences.  The paddling was fun, a little muscle-working, but not too tiring, I held an awesomely squishyslimy sea cucumber, we saw fish, a few starfish, a stingray or two, and even a shark (though not up close).  It's not like we were over a reef that was completely teeming with sealife or anything, but over the hour or so we were out there we saw some sweet stuff, and learned about the islands in the area and how the few (like, fifteen) people who live on Coco Cay, like our guides, do so (they're pretty much all Royal Caribbean employees and alternate a few months on the island with a few months on a ship).  Unfortunately we forgot the disposable underwater camera we bought specifically for things like this in our car when we got on the cruise ship, so we had no way to take pictures during the kayak thing.

After our trek we lounged (read: fell asleep) together in one of the huge hammocks, both of us ending up getting sunburned on our ankles and the tops of our feet (just didn't think to put sunscreen there, I guess).  We went back to the main area of the island for the barbecue lunch, which had more scrumtralescent hamburgers like at the midnight buffet the night before.  We changed into our swimsuits and headed back to our uncrowded, more far-flung beach, where I put to use the snorkel mask we had bought after we got down to Florida (yeah, somehow they weren't too easy to find in Wisconsin in November).  I didn't really snorkel -- no fins or swimming ability, of course -- but it was really too shallow to do that where we were anyway.  We did walk around and I'd stick my head in the water to take a closer look if I found something interesting (Josh couldn't use the mask because of his glasses).  We didn't find anything too too interesting, some schools of small fish, some sponges and sea cucumbers, and a lot of conch shells that I would briefly pick up to get a peel at whatever critter was living inside (I got a bit of a nick on my finger from a crabby thing that obviously wasn't too happy with me).  And I realized a little later that sometime during my semi-snorkeling adventure I apparently got stung by something at the base of my ankle -- no clue what, butI didn't really notice it at the time.  The rest of the afternoon (which was only till about 2, really) we just lay on the lounge chairs on the beach under a palm tree.  Ahhhhhhh...

We got back to the boat and showered and changed just in time to be able to go to the bow and see the big, nasty chains pulling up the anchor.  At dinner our poor waiter had only maybe a quarter of his diners show up, so he killed some of his free time by showing us magic tricks (the sleight of hand kind) and then challenging us to figure out how he did them.  After dinner we saw another not-great show -- this one was all '70s music, so that was two strikes against it, and it was also all danceable music, so there's the third.

We headed up to the sports deck afterward to play shuffleboard, and it soon became ridiculously obvious that the flooring was not that conducive to the game:  it was made of wood planks with skinny rubber strips in between for traction, and of course traction for people's feet also provides traction for shuffleboard discs slid along them, making it extremely hard to slide them the right distance.  To make things a little more interesting, we tried a makeshift game of curling on the shuffleboard court, which sort of worked and sort of didn't.  We had a bit of time to kill before the midnight chocolate buffet, so we went down to the cinema and watched about the last half hour of the recent Tom Hanks flick The Ladykillers (which we'd seen before).  The chocolate buffet was kind of gross... just because there was so much of it, and too much of even a great thing like chocolate can be gross after a while, you know?  (For more on grossosity, see the last photo on the obligatory photo page.)
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
"Whoa... 'Stupid naked angel butts?' What, did David Mamet just stop by?"
I hate having to wait for stuff.
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Monday, February 14, 2005
"You're the one who's scary, with the hitting, and the cookies..."
Every once in a while you witness something that just freaks you out, makes your heart pound for a few seconds, and causes you to say to yourself afterward, "Okay, self... did that really just happen?"  Yup.  It happened alright.  "It," in this case, was something we witnessed while on our way home from seeing a movie Saturday evening.  It was dark.  We were on a two-lane semi-rural road (aka no streetlights) on the west edge of Racine.  We stopped behind a pickup truck that was waiting for a train at a railroad crossing -- one with flashing signal lights, but no gates.  Now, we were about to learn a few things:  1) all railroad crossings should really have gates;  2) freight trains should probably not end with a string of empty flatcars;  3) drivers are idiots and are rarely as careful as they should be.

The train appeared to be ending (remember it was dark so we couldn't see very well), but we soon realized that in fact it was still going, just with a row of flatbed cars.  Unfortunately, the truck in front of us wasn't as observant (and was apparently in a real rush), and started forward, ramming the front of his vehicle into the train.  Near as I could tell the only damage was a missing headlight and quite roughed-up front bumper/grill area (and I can only imagine one seriously spooked driver), but in that split second when you see the sparks and hear the crunching-metal sound and realize that you just saw someone drive their truck into a freaking freight train, well, it's a little unnerving.

Yeah, you know, I think the gates would be a good idea...
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Friday, February 11, 2005
The bad news:  After the home inspection we had some things they asked us to fix, including the stuck-shut-since-our-home-inspection-before-we-moved-in basement utility sink faucet handle (we weren't that picky, but, whatever -- now done), switching the sump pump back to emptying into the street, which required us to dig through many many feet of tightly-packed, icy snow covering our curb the other night to clear the hole (also done), having someone from the gas company come take a look at our gas meter because it's making a ticking sound, which quite frankly it's done ever since they replaced it with a new one about a year ago, and a few tiny leaks in the gas pipes in the basement, which is costing us $1300 to have fixed tomorrow because a lot of our current stuff (going to the gas appliances and such) isn't code-compliant (and in one case actually something that was recalled 20 years ago), and they can't fix the leaks and not bring the stuff up to code.  Gee, that's swell.  Only about $1000 more than we thought it would cost.  :(

The good news:  They didn't ask us to replace the garage roof or missing gutters (never knew they were), replace the noisy bathroom exhaust fans, or fix the stuck half-bath door.  Whew.

The bad news:  "Arrested Development" is having its episode order cut this season to about 16, which is both fewer episodes (boo) and doesn't exactly bode well for a third season (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!).

The good news:  We're getting a 5.375% rate on our mortgage.

The bad news:  Um, did you hear about the $1300 gas fixing?
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Thursday, February 10, 2005
"Sing like you think no one's listening..."
Okay, so it took me a while to get to my bestmusicof2004 post, but that's because I wanted to do it right.  Meaning, I went to the trouble of creating my own good, representative song samples for you (hint, hint), even providing two different file sizes depending on your internet service (hint, hint) rather than relying on the often crappy and not-representative ones you can find on the many music-selling sites.  So, please listen to them.  (Yeah, that one was a hint, too.)

BEST ALBUMS OF 2004:
1. Muse, Absolution
2. Endochine, Day Two
3. Viva Voce, The Heat Can Melt Your Brain
Snow Patrol, Final Straw
Keane, Hopes and Fears
Starflyer 59, I Am the Portuguese Blues
Guster, Guster on Ice (live)
Howie Day, Extras (ep)
Brian Wilson, Smile

SONGS OF THE YEAR (in no particular order):
Straylight Run, "Existentialism on Prom Night"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Muse, "Butterflies and Hurricanes"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
          "Hysteria"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
          "Apocalypse Please"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Viva Voce, "Mixtape = Love"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Snow Patrol, "Run"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Endochine, "Enough About You"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
                "A New Beginning"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
West Indian Girl, "What Are You Afraid Of"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Starflyer 59, "Wake Up Early"    (both)
Jem, "24"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Keane, "Everybody's Changing"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
           "Your Eyes Open"    (broadband)      (dial-up)
Ryan Adams, "Wonderwall"    (both)
Starsailor, "Four to the Floor"    (both)

For the most part, radio singles pretty well blew in 2004, so instead I will add the best single of 2005 thus far:
The Killers, "Mr. Brightside"
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
And now, Vondi the German space tourist brings you: Ed and Beth-Annie's Old House.

There are many things I've disliked about our house ever since we bought it two years ago, mostly outside stuff like landscaping, the garage, the ridiculously long driveway, and just the outside of the house in general.  And I still hate all that, really, but I've also come to love (most of) the inside, from the layout to the carpet to all the pretty things we've done to most of the rooms.  When we moved in, most of the walls were white (blech), and we (mostly I, really) painted, painted, and painted some more, tore down wallpaper (thankfully not very much of it), ripped out a chair rail and baseboards and added wainscoting, changed light fixtures/ceiling fans, and added bathroom storage cabinets.

We put a lot of work into making this house homier for us, and as much as I like the new house and still hate a lot of things about this one, being only a few weeks away from leaving it forever is making me realize how much I'm actually going to miss it.  So, I've taken some photos from before we moved in and put them alongside our finished versions of the rooms to show off my decorating skills, which I am probably way too proud of.  And now anyone who's long wondered what my taste in decor is (oh, who are we kidding?  We all know I'm talking about Steve, here ;-)) will finally have proof.

Ode to a... um, house.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper is good.
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Monday, February 07, 2005
Dear idiot drivers.
Listen up.  There are some places where you just can't turn left.  Oh, sure, maybe you technically can, but if you have to wait nine minutes to do it, you really shouldn't.  I mean it.  You SHOULD NOT.  I get it.  You need to go left, because left is the direction you need to go.  But did you realize that you can get left by going right?  It's true!  Once you turn right you are not locked into that direction forever.  There are these things called u-turns, or going around the block, or changing your route by just a block or two that take significantly less time than waiting nine minutes to turn left (or go straight, for that matter), not to mention making everyone waiting behind you also wait nine minutes.  Seriously.  Go right.  It won't hurt, I promise.  But it might if you don't next time and I'm behind you.  You have been warned.

Next target:  all you people who think using turn signals is beneath you.  Yeah, I'm talking to YOU...
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Thursday, February 03, 2005
And now, Vondi the German space tourist brings you: Ed and Beth-Annie's new house.

I honestly never thought I would buy a house that looked like this -- the boxy colonial thing isn't really my style (though neither were any of the other houses we could afford, so...) -- but we really liked the house on the inside, and even if the outside isn't my favorite, it sure does look nice, and a lot nicer than the boring 1960s ranch we'd been considering in Madison.  I also never thought I'd buy a house in one of those preppy, you-may-not-build-a-fence-taller-than-four-feet, treeless neighborhoods, but there are tradeoffs in life, and this just really seemed like the best option.  It's a lot of house for the money (for the area), and the fact that it's new means things like the roof, furnace, A/C, water heater, and appliances shouldn't go kaput on us for a good long time.  That's a nice peace of mind.  Of course, there are also negatives, like the lack of any window treatments or even curtain rods, lack of any already-built-in storage shelves, work bench, etc. in basement or garage, lack of any landscaping, and just because it's new doesn't mean there aren't any things we don't want to change (like some light fixtures).

And though we'll be only 20 minutes from Madison, the town is only about 1800 people, which is very different for me -- Ames at about 45,000 is the smallest town I've ever lived in.  So we'll have to drive a lot farther to get to Target or Menards (and probably church), but we'll get a quieter, safer community in return, as well as more house for our money.  So.  Just look at everything working out.  :)

Oh, and here are the floorplans, for moM, at least:
Main Floor
Upstairs
Basement
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005
We bought a house. Have a nice day!
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