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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!

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.

Have some puppy pictures!

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. :)

So the move went well, dear readers, but I still don’t have an Internet tube hooked up to my house, so I may be slow in blogging/responding to emails in the immediate future. In case you haven’t already noticed. ;)

Last weekend marked my first home improvement weekend in, literally, forever. On my own home, at least. I focused all of my mental and most of my physical energies (and quite a few of Danar’s energies, too) on the basement living room (henceforth referred to as the living room… I’m thinking about calling the upstairs one the library or parlor or something). The result being, it’s now a different color. Yay. :)

Two-thirds of my basement is now a really rich reddish-orange color called Tucson Red. The other third is an off-white called Timid White. Not the best names ever, really, but the colors are pretty. For your viewing pleasure, they’re available yonder. RGB approximations thereof, anyway. I happen to think it looks really good, but it did take a ton of work.

I woke up around 9:30am Saturday, got dressed, and headed out to the Woodsmith Store. One of the benefits of working at August Home is an employee discount at said store, so I figured they were a pretty good place to start. Especially considering they’re a Benjamin Moore carrier (which sounds very disease-like but is much happier in reality). $160 and 90 minutes later, I was on my way back home with two gallons of paint, a gallon of primer, accessories (such as plastic dropcloths) out the wazoo, and a new random orbital sander. That’s right… baby’s first power tool purchase! :)

Once I got home, I moved all of the furniture out of the living room and got to sanding. Dana got there around 1:30pm, and she starting wiping down the walls behind me as I sanded. Once all the sanding was done (which took a few hours and two pads of sandpaper), we started taping off the walls and laying drop cloths. Once ~that~ was done, it was time to prime. We each took turns, one with the roller while the other “cut in” (I’m told it’s called) the edges of things. Once the walls were prime, we headed to Menards (I bought a dozen compact fluorescent light bulbs for $12!) and Home Depot (two floor lamps and half a dozen wall outlets to replace the hodgepodge assortment in the basement). When we got back, it was time to start painting.

Two and a half hours later, the first coat of paint was on the walls, and we realized we were going to have to wait a few hours for the paint to dry before we could put on the second coat (four hours, according to the paint can, the resident expert on said matters). So, we went out to dinner at El Aguila Real (or as Amanda calls it, the Regal Eagle), stopped off for some beer and ice cream on the way home, and then watched a movie on Dana’s laptop. Four hours, three beers, and half a pint of ice cream later, it was time to start the second coat. Once that coat was completed, we staggered back upstairs and headed to bed. Lights were out around 4:30am Sunday.

So I learned this weekend that, with just one person helping, we can prep, sand, prime, and paint an entire room in just one day, as long as you’re comfortable with very large values of “day.” It was a great experience, all told, and I had a good time. I’ll post some pictures when I get them. Dana snagged a bunch of before and after shots. Next up: the library!

I was supposed to play paintball on Sunday. I was inexplicably not in the mood. ;)

So I move into my first house on Saturday. In three days. I’ll be signing the final paperwork on Friday, in two days time. Suddenly, that seems like a phenomenally short time to wait for something so big. All told, I’m excited, scared, happy, nervous, and slightly short of breath.

The last week or two has been a blur of planning, working, doing, scheduling, calling, and all sorts of other house-purchasing-related activities. Some plans pop up on my radar only to be shot down for lack of time. For instance, I was hoping to paint the living room on Thursday night, figuring it’d be easier before I moved in all the furniture. However, as Dana pointed out to me, given my schedule, I don’t have a lot of time to pack my Amesian belongings. I can’t afford to spend an evening (or even most of one) painting, if I don’t want to risk infuriating the worker bees on Saturday. So, the painting has been delayed for the short term.

I’d probably have more time to pack (and thus, to paint) were I willing to give up my social and quasi-social activities. Alas, not gonna do it. Monday, for instance, I jogged and helped my dad set up furniture in the new place in lieu of packing. Yesterday, I played racquetball in the evening, though I did get some packing done (with the Danar’s help) afterwards. I’m going out with Des Moines friends this evening, and won’t get to packing until late. I’ll be jogging again tomorrow, though afterwards I plan to spend a great deal time packing, you know, before and after Grey’s Anatomy. And Friday, I plan to close on the house, go home to pack, play racquetball (for the last time in a long time… sigh) in the evening, and then resume packing until it’s all done. The good news is, it will get done. Because, you know, it has to. That the frame of mind what got me through grad school last semester, and that’s what’ll get my packing done this week. :)