barley *loves* his new house

I think Barley’s favorite thing about the new house is the windows. He’ll sit and look out them for hours. He will occasionally bark at someone walking by – the other day, it was a man carrying a Starbucks coffee (we suspect he prefers Caribou, because he likes to support local businesses).

Oh man, I could sit here all day.

He’s also learned to do his job in the neighbor’s yard (good boy!). We didn’t even have to train that behavior.

He’s been remarkably good the past few days – he is normally a very good dog, but we think he is even more so because he’s not even remotely interested in any of the boxes or other junk we’ve got laying around, and the doggy food and treats have been laying on the floor since we moved in and he hasn’t touched it at all.

Jeez you guys, pick up your crap.

Other than obsessing about Barley’s good-ness, we’ve been busy cleaning, putting furniture back together (thank you, Ikea, for making things that are easy to move), moving furniture from one room to another, and doing other minor fixes.

“Barley, this is a tool, it’s what separates us.” -JTR, 8/14/07

In other good news, despite some skepticism, we managed to rig up a shower (the house didn’t have one before), and it only looks slightly ghetto.

Yes, that is a handheld shower, and yes, it’s super-cold when you have to put down the handheld shower to wash your hair.

a new house!

We closed on our Minneapolis house yesterday. Yay!  Barley came with me (Jason had to work)…  I suspect he was bored.

There are too many boxes to count, but since we haven’t seen any of this stuff in 3 months, I suspect it will be a little like Christmas. (though I am a little concerned because the box labeled “dishes” makes a suspicious clinking noise when it’s picked up).

Barley loves his new house and has already met a playmate that lives down the street. He especially likes the big windows that he can look out, and since his brother, Karl, isn’t up on a table yet, he has fun watching Karl (and trying to get him to play, and whining quietly when Karl won’t play).

Let the unpacking and home improvements begin! (as in, today – so I can shower).

Hello Minnesota!

I am happy to report that Barley, Karl, and I have made it safely to the land of 10,000 lakes.

I am not happy to report that it has been a little chilly (okay, 60s isn’t that bad, but cold compared to 90s) and rainy since I’ve arrived.

My new job is swell, and even though I haven’t actually done anything yet, I think I’m going to like it here.

Living at my aunt and uncle’s house is much more fun than living by myself. I mean, my aunt cooks dinner. Good dinner. They may have a more difficult time getting rid of me than they anticipated.

Goodbye Kentucky!

This will be my last post from the Commonwealth.

Time for a new blog title. Hmm…

The blog has been silent because I have been packing. And cleaning. And in the midst of the stress of moving, my 60 lb pitbull has decided he’s a lap dog.

Saturday night, I took a break to go to a BBQ hosted by one of the first year grad students. We got to talking about the crazy way people pronounce words around here.

Kentucky Pronunciation Guide

Athens = eh-thens

Versailles = ver-sails

Chinoe (my personal favorite) = shin-oh-way

The BBQ was good time, but afterwards they persuaded me to head out to the Fish Tank. There was some sort of hippie-reggae-rock band playing, and they were loud. And awful. The people in the bar were a strange crowd – a mix of 40-something hippies and preppy college kids. All were drunk, and we guestimated (by the dancing) that approximately 80% of the crowd was high, 25% hadn’t showered that day. Oh man.

In honor of my last day, my super-fantastic boss invited the students in the lab and my friends, Josh and Bill out for pizza dinner at Mellow Mushroom. It was delicious, and a nice way to wrap up my year in Kentucky.

cincinnati is hard to spell

and I am NOT a good speller.

Yesterday, JT and I went to the Cincinnati Zoo with Josh, Kim, and their daughter Reese. It was super-fun, but J was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the largest Komodo Dragon in the Western Hemisphere. We did get to see some armadillos, though, and they were running around like crazy. I think they were Reese’s favorite. J and I couldn’t decide if we had more fun watching the animals or the people… For example, the kid with the squirrel huntin’ story was pretty hilarious… But then again, the Orangutan was laying out on the grass appearing to motion and entertain the crowd, which was also hilarious.

The most perplexing part of the day was this exhibit:

If our street is lined with large trees, should our pictures be up on the wall, too?

Is this okay? Is it PC? Votes? In any case, here are more pictures:

Cincinnati Zoo

Today we spent most of the day packing, so hopefully I won’t have too much packing to do after Jason goes back to MN tomorrow. We’ve got most of the things that were stored in the attic packed up and ready to go, as well as Jason’s homebrewing equipment, the tools, and most of the kitchen.

Jason multi-tasking: marking boxes AND drinking a beer