we are officially homeowners!
our fsbo sellers were so cute and even left a beautiful fresh flower basket with a "Welcome Home" note. it made me cry.

we close on our new house at 3pm today. ahhhhhh! so exciting and scary.

not much to post. just made curry veggie dinner. like everything in the past 2 weeks, i don't think it turned out so well. i forgot we were out of olive oil, so i couldn't fry anything, instead i had to make it more of a soup to boil the veggies. hmmm.
scored free drapes and rods on craigslist which we will pick up shortly on the east side, they look not so hot in the photo, but will keep our house warmer this winter until we buy/make some pretty ones. i am all about lowering our utility bill, which i know will be ridiculously high.
the past two days i have not been fond of cheezits. how is this possible?
has anyone read the sound and the fury by faulkner? i am still trudging along trying to finish but a) i have no idea what is going on and b) i don't like it. i don't get how this is some great literary work. usually i would just throw the book out and start anew, but i really want to finish and see what is up with this one. only 40 or so pages left to go.

off to the sufjan concert. yes!

Wow. am i tired. super tired, but feeling good. at the end of the day my bike odometer said 32 miles and paul's said 34. i think mine might not be working right. we went on a 5 hour sociological bike tour of madison, pretty neat. i feel like i have a better grasp of the city now and especially the bike trails.

this is a pretty exciting week. let me explain why:
*i received the circle journal
*Tomorrow (monday!) evening we're heading to milwaukie for the sufjan stevens concert. i am expecting greatness. and i've never been to milwaukie before, so even though we won't really spent much time there it'll be a neat drive.
*this week will most likely make it my 20th workday in a row that i've worn my "new" fhs sweatshirt to work (from home of course). what a great present from kate!
*we get to start unpacking. and i mean REALLY unpacking. even though we moved into the university apartments a month ago we only unpacked essentials (like bed, tv, 5 tshirts, bikes, and kitchen stuff). but since we're moving this weekend to a 5 year settlement destination then we'll unpack for real.
*i am actually going to use our crockpot
*i am actually going to apply to jobs. right? right!
*we get to start painting. lots and lots of painting (at least 3 rooms). and i like painting. although i'm sure my arm muscles will yell at me immediately, since they haven't been used in years.
*the new season of The Office has started. the first episode was hilarious and soo so disturbing/uncomfortable.
and, most importantly:
*we are closing on our house this friday! we will offically be homeowners. how exciting and also crazy is that?! yikes.

Why does this wonderful job that I am so qualified for appear now that I'm gone?!?!

Also: Here's a job opening with Metro which makes me laugh: Animal Keeper - Elephants. :o)

Tonight I made:

-veggie lazagne
-curried lentils with onions & garlic
-zucchini bread

all from scratch. Unfortunately, none of them turned out quite right. At least I get an A for effort?

Forget the 50 States. Christmas is a bigger concept.
a singalong!!

a free score along side the parking lot. a white rolling small shelf, in great condition.

tonight i had custard for the first time at a great local joint. very yummy.

so, i got paul an xbox for his bday. we got it off ebay (already soft-modded) and it came about a week ago, along with a handful of games. None of them are very appealing to me (or to paul, we'll probably trade the majority of them in). I'm not much of a video-game person, but I do enjoy Dr. Mario and the occasional Mario Kart. Does anyone have suggestion on xbox games that I might like? Maybe some kind of puzzle or exploration game?

tomorrow we have a social science get-together in a local park. wish me luck so i can make some friends! ;o)

i am back, feeling healthy again, and finally returning phone calls. what a bad friend i am.

tonight was filled with 2 hours of tennis under the court lights in new (clearance) new balance shoes. it feels so good to sweat.

when we got back and just after we'd showered a little boy came soliciting to our door at 9:15pm. are you kidding me? that is way too late for house calls! especially for children. i hid in the back room in my bathrobe as paul politely declined supporting the kids choir.

marshall fields was turned into macy's over the past couple of weeks. and i was suckered (well, not really, more like mislead) into signing up for a macy's card to get a 15% discount for the one shirt i was buying. by a grandma employee. i am one of those people who always reads the fine print too, so i realized partway through the process that it indeed was a credit card (even though she said it wasn't), but she had already entered info into the computer and didn't know how to go back. stupid me. oh well, at least i am responsible with these things. but i really don't want to have more than one.

paul pointed out that i would never had let this slide if it hadn't been an elderly employee helping me. it's true. i'm pretty matter of fact, and will talk to a manager to get exactly what i want if need be. but i am a sucker for old people. they're just so chatty and nice and i love them. i mean, this lady was super sweet, kept me engaged and smiling, introduced me to another employee as a "lovely customer", apologized for not typing fast, let me know that she had a hard time with computers. she was so genuine, and complimented my choice of purchase, so i was only a titch annoyed when she took such a long time with everything. i am such a sucker.

sidenote: the sight of an elderly couple holding hands and walking around the neighborhood makes me swoon. it's just so cute and wholesome. i want to be like that.

good news: i didn't buy ice cream this evening. i held out. so i have had a thoroughly healthy evening after a dinner or rice & stir-fried veggies and then tennis.
bad news: i most likely will buy some tomorrow evening. gosh, i love making coffee shakes. plus, i'm hoping for a hot, sweaty bikeride around one of the lakes, so i'll deserve it. ;o)

sick. no fun.
it finally stopped raining today, but i don't have the energy to go outside and enjoy it.
portland vs madison

I made chocolate-peanutbutter-banana-bread tonight from scratch. yum. (and ate about 1/4 of it myself before it even cooled). One of my goals since the move has been that at some point in the near future I would start actually cooking and baking. Not only will this save us money, but it will be potentially healthier than the meals that we usually just throw together at the last minute. I thought that working from home would put me a step in the right direction, but it hasn't really turned out that way so far. It does have its perks (ie: wearing your pjs for half the day until your lunch break, not having to wear headphones to listen to npr and music, no freezing AC forced upon me, and being about to do laundry during breaks), but all in all I still have a pretty full day and haven't had time to prepare fancy meals like I'd hoped. Part of the problem may be that I still haven't forced myself into the early morning routine, so I regularly start working at 9am or possibly later. And that problem is caused by my delight of reading in bed long into the night. It's so hard to put the book down!

Goal #2 that I've failed so far has been to actually start exercising. And by actually, I mean at least getting outside once a day. Working from home is defintely not helping this. I used to bike to work, which was pretty pleasant. Now I just walk 20 feet over to my computer. The stormy weather hasn't been helping this. I have been biking around Madison a bit, but not enough to count as consistent exercise. One motivation would be to actually get some running/tennis shoes. I've been needing some for a while, since my old pairs actually wore out (and are super dusty/thorny/gross from working outdoors in them). I used to live in tennis shoes, but now that I've fallen in love with Earth shoes (and have been lazy for the past coupla years), I haven't upgraded my workout shoes in quite a while. Which posed a problem when Paul & I were actually moved to play tennis two days ago. What to wear? Aha! My new red crocs of course. And surprisingly, they worked quite well. Not bad at all.

I need some kind of running motivation. Like a 5k/10k of some sort. Something exciting like the Astoria Bridge Run/Columbia Crossing. That run is pretty sweet. You start in Chinook, WA, cross the 4.1 mile long Astoria Bridge and end in Astoria oregon. A great 10k. Or something like the Midnight Sun Run in Fairbanks on summer solstice. I was looking on a couple of Madison running sites, but couldn't find anything the peaked my interest.

Ant Update: Bought some new stuff that is now actually working (well, it seems like it at least). A terro poisonous mixture of sugar and borax. Those little suckers are falling for it, and for once it's slightly amusing to watch them scurry around.

short update:
*i'm back to work (remotely from home). i need some kind of geocoding cheer or song. the third ridership survey is halfway done!
*i've realized that the only time ants were ever cute was in my 2nd grade ant farm. they are not taking a liking to our cheap target ant poison. there must be some other home remedy i don't know of. stupid miniscule sugar ants!
*now that i'm back to work, i'm back to the internet. please update blogs and such. i need to be amused and find out what's going on in everyone's life. :o)
*i've been longing to have a dishwasher again. it didn't used to bother me, but now that we are forced to do dishes by hand again it seems like such a drag. luckily, only three more weeks of this nonsense. ;o)
*paul is back to school, and i've had the slightest glimmer of hope that one day i will be too. i've been pleasantly out of school for a while now, but i have some quiet stirrings in me telling me how much i wish classes and homework and such. hmmm.
*still looking for environmental consulting jobs in the madison area. there are some new companies i just came across, so i'm excited to apply to them.

I'm copying Ronald, and have started to keep a little database of the books that I've read recently. Hopefully I'll keep it up and list a book each time I finish one. You'll find a link to the below posting in the column to your left. This beginning list is from memory...I know I read a lot more, it's just that my my paper list that I've kept all year was in my dayplanner which was stolen.

I started The Da Vinci Code this morning and only put it down three times during the day. I finished it just as dinner was ready. :o) I've been so book hungry. And now I can start to increase my cache of books since I now have access to the univ library and also the public library. :o)

My Personal List of Books Read:
(Feel free to email suggestions!)

*The Mermaid Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd, 9/06
*Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, 9/06
*Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult, 9/06
*The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, 9/06
*Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Describes the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, 9/06
*My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, 8/06
*Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter, by Adeline Yen Mah, 7/06
*Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts, 7/06
*Joys of Motherhood, by Buchi Emecheta, 7/06
*The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, 7/06
*The Reader, by Bernard Schlink, 6/06
*All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque, 6/06
*Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver, 5/06
*Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, 3/06
*One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Marcia Marques, 2/06
*Foxfire, by Joyce Carol Oates, 1/06
*The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, 1/06

good news
*security deposits refunded in full
*sunny weather
*groceries brought home by bike
*making the easiest and most tasty apple/potato casserole tonight
*i've started applying to some environmental consulting jobs! super exciting.
*my parents are on the last leg of their road trip home, and have had a marvelous time.
*new bike shortcuts found
*a swing into the lake found only a couple hundred feet from our apartment! this will be great on hot days.
*madison is a beautiful setting.