a jolly happy Christmas!

Lisa and I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood on this fine Christmas evening.  We also went around the cliffs and down the pier.  It was pretty busy out considering how chilly it was.  I want to say like 55 and cloudy.

When we woke up this morning we made some Egg Nog French Toast and Bacon.  The bacon was awesome, the french toast could have been better.  We opened our presents which were awesome!  Then we cleaned up and took a video of our place finally!




Lisa may or may not have finished at See's this week.  They left it pretty confusing for her.  She was hired as a temporary holiday worker but many times they have expressed to her that they are not laying her off.  Whatever that means.

My job is, well, a job.  People still have problems with their orders and I still deal with them.  The week leading up to Christmas was crazy!  There were some really sad calls and some really angry ones.  I've noticed that when people get mean I get really "smart" with them.  They don't seem to appreciate that.  I had one guy who was really mad and he just said "are you guys even a company???" and after a long pause I said, "yes".  I'm not really sure what they expect me to say to them.  Nothing anyone says to me is ever going to change anything.  People always tell me to make sure that this gets changed, or something hears about that.  I don't think most people realize they are calling a giant call center full of hundreds of people.

"Hey can I speak with Roger?"

"What?"

"Last time I called I spoke with Roger.  Is he there today?"

"Maybe, I'm not sure, there are a hundred other people here."

I could go on.

Anyways, Lisa is making some dinner so I better see if she needs help.  We have more pictures and video's from today I'll have to add those later sometime.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Here's a long lost Christmas card we were going to send out before we chose our real one.  Please to enjoy.

the one about Christmas and other things

Hi.


It's been awhile.


...

How are you?

So i failed at keeping this up to date.... again....  I don't even remember what I last wrote about.  Probably before we got our crate.  We have mostly everything put away now from it so we will have to load some pictures soon with it all organized.

As soon as we got most of our stuff put away we realized it was 9 days till Christmas and we hadn't purchased any of our gifts yet!  So for the last few days now we've been working our tales off to get all of our items out.  We have also very much enjoy receiving packages as well.  We are waiting though to open most of them till Christmas.  That is if we can hold out.

Last night was the first night in a while Lisa and I have had off together where we weren't putting away items from our cube so we went out to a local Mexican restaurant that a co-worker of Lisa's suggested for us and it was by far the best Mexican we have had since moving here.  It was at Miguel's Cocina in point loma.  Afterwards on the way home we also ran into a super bright neighborhood that was covered in Christmas lights!  Check the link for pictures.  There is also a couple in there of our apartment right after we emptied the U-Haul from the cube.

busy bee's

we've been super busy with our apartment lately now that we have unloaded our storage cube.  Or little studio is really cluttered.  So unfortunately I don't have any new pictures yet, but I will soon.  I must say though sleeping on a real bed is amazing!

So since I don't have anything of any real value, he's a photo I took of ocean beach today!

and it goes on and on and on

This will probably be one of the lamer updates.  Lisa and I have mostly just been working lately.  Sunday Lisa went in early to Michael's to get some extra work finished at 6am then around noon went and worked at See's until 6:30pm.  So I know that was a really long day for her.  That night when she got off we went to Church and came home and basically went to sleep since she was exhausted and I had to work the next day (today) at 6:30am.  Which I am doing now.

Monday's are crazy I've decided.  All the crazy people in America must decide that hey, its monday and I'm at work, I might as well do some online shopping.  You also get more of the rushed people who are in a huge hurry to place their order.  Probably because they are suppose to be working.  Also lots of people are probably getting to work and reading their emails or whatever after the weekend and realizing something is wrong with their order.  Either way, the people are just not as pleasant on Monday's.

On another note we're finally in black.  We're no longer just losing money and now that we have jobs we're finally able to sustain ourselves.  We're also incredibly excited about getting our moving crate soon.  I need to call them this afternoon to set up a time to pick it up.  We might not be able to get it till Friday because that's the only day Lisa and I have any real time off to get it together.  Otherwise I might have to recruit Abby's lady power to help me.  She doesn't know this yet though.

a tuesday trip

Lisa got off at 1pm yesterday afternoon so we went ahead and took a scooter picnic trip down to the south end of the pennisula, the National Cabrillo Monument Park. It was a really great afternoon. We made some leftover turkey into some turkey sandwiches and packed them into the back of the scooter. We stop by our scooter store on the way down to pick up a new helmet. This time we got a full helmet with a front anti-fog shield so that Lisa will no longer have to wipe tears from her face when she gets to work from the cold whipping air on her face. We did take some pictures here:

Its kind of hard to encompass the view in those photos though. You could see all the way to Tijuana as well as downtown San Diego. You could also see some islands down south near the Baja. It was really beautiful. There was also an old decomissioned Light House on the point. Unfortunetly the park closed at 5pm and we had to leave before we could make it down near the new one. We will have to go back soon.

Also exciting news! We should be receiving our shipping crate very soon! We processed our order for it Tuesday so it should be shipping out today. They said it takes approximately 5 to 6 days to arrive so it might be her sometime the middle of next week. We're extremely excited about getting it so we can finally have a bed to sleep in, my guitar to play, our art to hang, and my professional camera to take pictures.

Other than that things have been pretty awesome. Its been a little cold her record breaking from what I've heard. So its felt cold, but nothing we aren't used to. Its normally pretty sunny too which is nice. Although it disappears way to soon.

Also I'm writing this at work so I guess I do have a little bit of time between calls at work. Don't tell anyone though.

turkey day near the beach

Yo.

So I had my first Thanksgiving off from work in a few years.  It was legendary.  I got to make my Grandma Duffy's Sweet Potato Casserole.

Not to bad if you ask me.  It might not be the prettiest, but it was pretty tasty.  My sister Abby and Josh came down from Irvine to celebrate with us.  We bought a Turkey meal from Vons and enjoyed it together in our apartment on the floor.  We had the first course on the rooftop however but it got pretty cold up there so we moved back downstairs.

That night we went on a walk around Mission Bay Park for a bit and had a bonfire on Ocean Beach.  To view the rest of our photos visit here.  There are also some pictures there from when Lisa and I visited Old Town last weekend.

Friday we also went out and picked up a new inflatable mattress.  Turns out ours has bit the dust.  Over the last few weeks it has been getting holes in it that we have had to fix.  I had been using Car tire hole fixing kits but I think it has gotten to the point that we just can't keep up with it.  Every night if slowly deflats no matter what we do.

Here's Lisa waking up one morning basically laying on the floor.

Also we are planning on shipping our crate out to us soon so we hopefully won't need our new inflatable mattress for too long.

I also get to work 40 hours next week.  Hollah!  The money will be nice.

Also, here's a video of Abby driving our scooter:

a lot of ground to cover.

So it's been 11 days since I've updated this.  Whoops.

I had told myself I wouldn't let it get to backed up so I want to apologize to those that read as well as myself.  It may seem like this is a way to let people know how we're doing but it is also partially a way to chronicle things for us as well as vent our own things.

I think part of the reason it was hard for me to make a new post is because I wanted to make a post specifically about my old dog Moe who was put down last Friday.  It was hard for me to know exactly what to write however as it was difficult to put into words what Moe meant to our family and what he taught me.  I think that in itself speaks to what he meant to us.  I guess I'll just share a quick story though.

 

I had the luxury of growing up with Moe in while I was in Middle School and High School.  We used to go on works frequently in McHoose Park in Boone.  He was always scared of one of the bridges we had to cross.  I would walk across and he would stand at the other side whimpering while I was begging him to cross so we could continue.  He would analyze every other way to go first, making sure the bridge was his only option before sprinting across it like a cat.

When I went to college sadly I missed a lot of Moe aging.  Its kind of odd to think about that now.  I would notice it when I visited home however.  The extra warts, and lumps.  However I still always viewed him as the young pup I remembered.  He always seemed happy to see me, sure he smelled a little worse than he used to but that was okay.

One time that will always stand out in my mind though is when Lisa, Moe, and I went to Ledges State Park by Boone when we were dating.  It was really the last time I got to take Moe with me to a park for a big walk.  In a way it was fitting that it was with Lisa, as odd as this sounds I think it was really great that we got to spend that time together, just us.  It was nice to be able to show Lisa what part of my life was like growing up (taking hikes with Moe), and in a way for Moe to spend sometime with Lisa.  Moe was really acting like a young pup although he was really pretty old at the time.  For a long time Lisa, Moe, and I sat in the Des Moines river at a low point where the current wasn't very strong and just enjoyed the weather.  It was weird too because Moe was literally laying on the river bed with us.  The young pup that used to be so scared to cross bridges was laying in a flowing river bed.  Enjoying life with us.  So it goes.


......


So thanksgiving is coming up!  Pretty excited about that.  Lisa and I *may* have the next three days off together, (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and on Thursday we're having a lunch/dinner with Abby and Josh which should be delightful!  I'm going to attempt to make my Grandma's Sweet Potato Casserole so wish me luck.

Lisa and I have also began receiving our checks from our jobs.  We finally have some income!  Booyah.  So that's pretty nice.  Now hopefully sometime after the holidays we can move our box out to us and we can finally have our bed and other belongings.

We also went to a Old Town this weekend in San Diego.  It is a touristy kind of neat place just east of us that used to be the old mission grounds or something.  Actually I don't really know now that I think about it.  Think living history farms.  But of San Diego.  We also tried a Church last night call Flood and it was really good so we might start trying that place out.

Well this was kind of long and winded.  So I will try to update it more now.  Also I've started use a Motorola Droid so I might be doing more social media thingys with it so look for those I guess.  Gross.  Dr. Oz is on.

the plates, the jobs, the swagger

Recognize.

We've been busy.

Lots of good news to report.  Lisa has completed her training at See's Candies and it went pretty well.  So she is now in the world of two part time jobs.  God willing one will lead to some form of Full time employment for her after the holidays.

I am a little over half way through my training at Provide Commerce.  I will be working the call center for Redenvelope.com and Personalcreations.com.  Eventually I will also be doing Proflowers.com.  Its going pretty good.  Training can be boring at times but it should be a good gig.

I also finally heard back from Time Warner Cable today and they want to hire me on full-time!  So that is fantastic news!  They are however backed up on the amount of people they can fit in their training classes so if someone drops from the class that starts on December 3rd I can start training that day, otherwise I will probably have to wait until next year to start training there.  So it's nice that I am working this temp job at the moment.

As you saw above we have our California License Plates now!  It was quite the task, we had to get a Smog test done to the car as well spending hours at the DMV.  It's all done though now and we only have to take our Motorcycle driving test to be fully licensed California Motorcyclists.  Also Lisa has been taking her scooter to work this past week and it has been working out real well.

Also, shout out to my Cuz Mallory Riggs and her Hubs Ryan as they welcomed their baby boy Asher into the world November 8th, Holla to tha baby Mamas!

our new scooter

Don't even ask me the brand.  It's Japanese or something.  It's a 150cc Honda Style engine is really all I know.

Lisa and I went to Pacific Hope Church this morning and afterward we drove to Point Loma Scooter and picked it up.  It's a pretty fun drive.  We took it for a test spin to Lisa's workplace Micheal's and back.



Also here are some pictures of us with it and one of Lisa by Micheal's.  Lisa starts at See's tomorrow and is working 9 to 5:30 and I start doing my call center training for Proflowers/Redenvelope tomorrow night at 5:30 so we both needed a vehicle.  There are also a couple pictures of Harold and I.  He came to visit us again.

Much love.

a quick story about a cat

Meet Scrooge McCat, aptly named for the hair style it has in line with a one Scrooge McDuck.

We came home last night after walking out the pier to watch the waves to find this little kitty in our apartment.  We had left the screen door to our patio open a little bit and it had found its way in our warm apartment.  We're not really sure where she came from but she took a liking to us pretty fast.  So we played with her and cuddled a little bit then tried to ignore her so she would leave.  We can't really afford/care for a cat right now, what with an inflatable mattress.  The only problem was she wouldn't leave.  She would look outside occasionally but then come not go out.  Eventually we had to actually put it outside and close the door.  It seem really confused and kept trying to walk back in through the glass sliding door.

We went about out business and got ready for bed.  Then we noticed it was sitting on the edge of balcony going to sleep.  So our hearts were already breaking and we decided to make it a little bed on the patio with a blanket to keep warm and we put some tuna and water out for it.  That was probably a dumb decision because when it realized we were still inside it started meowing when we went back in.  Eventually it stopped after a few minutes and we closed the blinds.  Before getting into bed I look outside and it was sleeping on it's little blanket.

This morning it was gone but we've seen it come back to the patio and look around a couple times, it can sneak around the front of the patio between apartments patio's but other than that we're not sure where it goes, maybe its a neighbor's cat because it kind of smelled like cigarette smoke a little.  However I think these are smoke free apartments.  Or it could just be our neighbors Alex and that girl he lives with but we know of another cat they have so unless they have two..... either way we don't know.  It was definitely hard though to say goodbye.

on the road to residency

So I left the last post kind of short and sweet and left out a lot of details.  I'll try to fill them in here.

I have a job.  I start next Monday working for the company E-Commerce based in San Diego about a half hour from where we live.  I will be answering phones for ProFlowers and Red Envelope customers, taking orders, dealing with problems, and blah blah blah.  I train next Monday through Friday.  I am still also waiting to hear back from a couple other places as well.  I believe the E-Commerce job is full time but it is only seasonal, however there are opportunities for corporate positions such as their product photography department.

Lisa and I got our California Drivers Licenses today as well as our Motorcycle permits so we can drive our scooter that I just purchased today!  Woot!  Its a 150cc Honda GY6 engine inside this frame:

I don't know what any of that means, but we're pretty excited.  We aren't getting a blue one though I don't think.  Lisa has to pick out the color yet, because I frankly don't care.  We had to take a California Driver Written exam and a California Motorcycle Permit written exam too.  Now we have to take a full motorcycle driving test eventually to be able to have a full license.  But we can practice with our permit on our bike.

In other news our Mattress popped a hole last night around midnight.  So we took evasive maneuvers and repaired for the night with Duct Tape.  Then this morning I picked up a tire repair kit and viola!

It took a couple tries.  Hopefully it holds all night otherwise I am not gonna be a happy boss.

Other than that I got to take out my boogie board I bought at Goodwill for 6 bucks to the Ocean earlier tonight.  It was around 85 degrees out, the water was much colder but it wasn't to bad once you got used to it.  The waves were way to high though for a novice like myself (6 to 8 feet) so I just kind of putz'd around.

All in all things are going really well, we're just rolling with life as it comes.  Lisa is enjoying her job in the Framing department at Michael's and is excited to see what See's holds next week.

the days begin to blend

So it was Halloween weekend and Lisa and I dressed up as Team Zissou from "The Life Aquatic"

We went downtown Sunday night and people watched as well as put our dance shows on.  It was fun and really busy.  There were a lot of crazy costumes.

Also today I had an interview with Wells Fargo.  It was a group interview (boo) so there was 12 other people there with me and it took us 2 hours to answer 4 questions.

Good news is though that I have got a job with E-Commerce as a Call Center Rep for Proflowers, and Red Envelope.  I start training for that next week.

apple pie and interviews; rejoice part 2

For your viewing pleasure. Its been a pretty great week. I have had an interview every morning so far and we've got to visit some cool places and see some amazing things.

Wednesday I had a phone interview with Time Warner Cable for the position of Customer Technical Support Representative. Basically I would be the guy you call when your cable goes out. It went pretty well and I got a second interview for Thursday which I just got back from and I think it went pretty well. It would be a pretty great job and the place seems pretty nice and there is lots of room for advancement as well which would be nice. Tomorrow (Friday) I have an interview with Proflowers to be a customer service rep through their phone service. I also had an interview with a surrogacy and egg donation center. I already heard back from them though and I didn't get the job. They wanted to do some pretty crazy stuff (video wise, not surrogacy wise) though so I'm kind of glad I didn't have to decide if I wanted the position or not.

Lisa went through her orientation with Micheal's on Monday and she just left for her first day of work a little bit ago. She works Today, tomorrow, and Saturday for sure. She has also heard back from See's Candie's which wants her to start working soon so that's amazing. For her AND me! (Free candy?)

Wednesday we went to visit Julian, CA. Which is kind of a little touristy town one hour east of San Diego. They're known for their Apples and Pies. We visited a Cider Mill and had some Julian Apple Pies. Which was one of the most amazing pie's I've ever had. We also got some cinnamon ice cream to go with it. It was also up in the mountains about 4k feet so it was very beautiful. It was a very curvy and crazy drive up their. The only lame part is that everything closed at around 5pm.

That's about all for now! Feel free to comment!

Love, The McVickers

Video Footage!!

For those of you who hate reading, here are some videos!

This is a tour of our precious little studio apartment! It's tiny, but we love it. There is plenty of room for a camp-out on the floor, so bring your sleeping bags and come for a visit. There is also the International Ocean Beach Hotel for those of you with refined tastes.

Here is a video of us walking to the beach. We just wanted to point out how fast we can get there, because it is so amazing. I can't believe that it's so close, too close in fact that we can't get renter's insurance. Whoops! Good thing it's not required.

And finally, just some footage of the beach itself, and our daily ritual of walking. We really don't like driving, so we usually end up walking around for a good part of the day, because it's FREE and we discover new things in the neighborhood and see interesting things. The other day, we saw a supermarket-looking-type building. We went inside and it resembled a Whole Foods kind of place. We looked around, found some chips that we had a coupon for, and proceeded to the checkout. The young man who rang me up asked for my number, and I realized in that moment that we were at a co-op and had to be members to buy stuff. "Oh, we just moved here..."
We love bumbling around, and everyone here has been super accommodating so far, and luckily we got to buy the chips...WITH the coupon, and shortly after devoured them.

I, this is Lisa by the way, started work today. I am a framer in the custom framing department at Michael's. I just love me some arts and crafts. But I think my experience at the Art Store will translate nicely, but I will continue to look for something a bit more steady. For right now though, it's amazing and I'm super thankful for this opportunity.

the one with the guy who got a root canal in mexico

So we've been having some fun lately. Wednesday was our 3rd wedding anniversary if you can believe it. So we went and visited Coronado Island and walked around the fancy shops and beach. We also checked out the historic Hotel del Coronado. That night we went out for dinner at Old Venice in Point Loma. It was super nice and we made friends with the waiter who had Iowa connections so he gave us a free dessert. Also we had a couple entree coupon. I think using a coupon on your wedding anniversary officially makes you no longer newly weds.

Also on Wednesday I set up a phone interview with Time Warner Cable to be a technical customer services call center guy. Oddly I got a referral from the website reddit.com which I frequent. Someone posted their company was hiring and put a word in for me.

So Thursday Lisa and I took a day trip down to Tijuana, Mexico. We ate at a restaurant down there and visited some of the shops. There weren't very many other tourists the day we went so we stuck out like sore thumbs to all the store people.

On the bus ride back, there was a guy who had evidently just received a root canal and he kept complaining that the Novocaine had worn off. So that was entertaining.

Other than that Lisa starts her job on Monday and here are a few pictures we have from the past few days.

big news on a big day

It's Lisa and I's 3rd Wedding Anniversary! Also Lisa got a job at Micheal's as a Framer person and will be going to her orientation on Monday!

That's about it. I continue to apply at places and it continues to be crummy and rainy here. Hopefully that will turn around!

are you ready for some free lunch!!!

Probably a short one, I might try to update more often so I don't sound like a lunatic when I write these things, trying to cram everything in.

Weekends are weird primarily because places were trying to apply to don't make decisions and managers aren't in so we try to find free things to do. Sunday was awesome though, we found a pretty cool Church that we tried out, Missiongathering Christian Church. The worship was good, the message was good, and the people seemed very friendly.

Afterward I finally conquered my TV antenna dilemma. I had asked a question on yelp.com about what the best type of antenna would be and some directed me to one at Radio Shack (The Shack), and Lisa and I picked it up and it works pretty well. So hooray! Free TV!

ALSO, we found this place on Newport Ave., Gallagher's Irish Pub that shows every NFL game on Sundays which is awesome. Lisa and I have found a new love for the NFL since she started her fantasy football team. The best part is that they also have free sandwiches there! So free football, and free lunch is pretty awesome. It's like college all over again!

Other than Sunday we also took a big nap and watched TV. It's been drizzling or cloud ever since we moved here so we haven't got to spend a lot of time at the beach besides walks and what not.

Oh, also we roller bladed around part of Mission Bay Park Saturday night. It is a really big park just North of us that has Seaworld in it. It also has a lot of fire pits and playgrounds so we will have to go their when you visit.

it goes on and on and on and on

yo. so, what have we been up to? Well since moving in we've been organizing our apartment, making it more livable as well as doing job stuff. That's mostly it. We got our IKEA dresser set up and the close moved into it so our apartment looks much more like an apartment. Also today we got a sweet deal at the Salvation Army. We found a couch listed for 20 bucks there and since it was the mid month blowout we got it at half off for 10 bucks! Its a full couch that I can lay flat on so we got it for a steal. Also Salvation Army has a delivery guy who brought it to our apartment.

Lisa also uploaded some photos to the internet minus our apartment since the guy just got the couch here and its dark out now. Here they are though.

I forget what I wrote last time so I'm going to maybe repeat myself. Abby got to visit Wednesday and we went to the Ocean Beach Farmers Market and picked up some onions, garlic, and a scotched egg.

Also Lisa had an interview Thursday with See's Candies which went really well and she should have an interview with the district manager sometime next week hopefully. I also talked to the news director at KSWB and might be doing some freelance work for them soon which would be awesome.

This post has been a little scattered so you'll have to excuse me.

sipping on the sweet nectar

Well its Wednesday. Sorry I can't update this more often we've just been super busy and also sometimes homeless. Not anymore though! I believe I left off with, we're moving into our apartment Monday, well turns out we moved in Tuesday! Which is okay. We're accustomed to Days Inn it seems.

Monday we came down to San Diego and tried to turn in our filled out form which as it turns out was still the wrong one, so we had to fill out another. Then we had to just wait for it to be approved. Meanwhile at Sunrise Management a credit check specialist didn't receive our fax evidently and didn't work on it. So Monday night we stayed at a Days Inn in San Diego. I had an interview Tuesday morning so we also spent time digging through our car for my suit and tie's and what not. We relaxed a little that night at the Days Inn and I had my interview Tuesday morning, which I nailed. They said I would hear back from them this week. It sounded like they would like to work with me its just a matter of them finding how I would best fit in their budget and team. So that's exciting, don't hold me to that assumption though, we know what happens when you assume.

Lisa and I then spent the afternoon waiting to hear back from the apartment. We walked around a few places and just waited. We tried to hound our credit checker lady who was evidently out to lunch for like 3 hours. Basically it turned out she never received the fax however and when she did we got in right away. So Tuesday night we got to spend the night in our new apartment at 5050 Niagara Ave, #110, San Diego, CA 92107. Hooray!! We unpacked and also went to Wal-Mart to pick up some essentials. This morning now we have to fill our some more forms.

We'll take pictures eventually and upload them. More later sometime.

Also here's a picture of Lisa petting a cat at our apartment complex while we were waiting, she's on the phone with her Pops.

slow going

Not to many changes since the last post. The whole getting an apartment thing is slow going. We applied for an apartment at 5050 Niagara Ave #110, San Diego, CA. The leasing lady was on vacation though till Friday, then Friday she needed another form filled out so we spent the whole day trying to figure out the whole faxing thing. Then we misfiled some form and now we have one more thing to fill out. So HOPEFULLY we can move in Monday. That would be great. Our car has been packed full for the last two weeks so it would be nice to have access to everything in there.

My sister Abby and Josh have been great host. We've made a few dinners with them. Tonight we're going to make some Chicken Enchiladas. Our inflatable mattress has also been much more comfortable then I thought it would have.

We've been able to go to the ocean quite a few times. We visited Crystal Cove with Abby and Josh and Lisa and I also went to Corona del Mar, and Huntington Beach. At Huntington Beach we roller bladed up the boardwalk and laid out at what turned out to be the dog beach. It was fun to watch the dogs though. One definitely took a big pee in someone's open duffel bag however.

On the job front I have an interview set up with the News Director at KSWB and another one set up with Wells Fargo to be a Bank Teller. That one isn't until Nov. 2nd however. Which seems like a long time to wait for an interview. I also have a couple leads with the Apple Store in San Diego and a couple Gamestops in Loma Heights as well.

Basically though we're just waiting to get our apartment so we can have all of our clothes especially for interviews. Also so we don't have to keep traveling to San Diego everyday. Can't wait to get our apartment though. We will definitely post some pictures once we get it. We plan to go down Monday morning with all our stuff and not leave.

1700 miles of rejoice

Turns out the US is super big. Also the National Roller Skating Association is located in Lincoln, NE. Obviously we had to visit.
We also went to the Dog Park in Lincoln with my family and Moe. He's older in years but it was a lot of fun. Although on the way out a dog decided to pee on a bench I was sitting on. I became the collateral damage victim of a dogs instinctual actions.
Then for dinner we went down to the Haymarket and ate at a microbrewery there that was super good.

The next day we turned tail for Denver, CO. We met up with Titus and Jolene Holzfaster as well as a one, Andy Ritter. After a fabulous dinner cooked up by Titus we went to Church with them and then visited Lollicups for some fantastic Bubble Tea. We then went downtown and checked out the capital and restaurant area (I forget what it was called).

The next day we took an awesome tour of the Coors Brewery. Afterwards Lisa and I took off on I-70 towards Richfield, UT. After a long day of ups and downs we finally arrived at our hotel, a Days Inn, which was pleasant.

Our last leg of the trip went from I-70 to I-15 S all the way to Irvine, CA with a small lay over for the afternoon in Las Vegas.
We saw the sights, and ate some food. Including a water show at Belagio (pictured above) as well as some creepy robots at Caesars Palace, and some Kittys (Lions) at MGM Grand. Also we blew a whole $2 in the penny slots.

Now we're heading to Irvine with some hopeful prospects on the apartment horizon.

To check out all of our photos visit here.

journey to the center of nebraska

I forget when I last posted anything. We finally packed everything though and are now in Lincoln Nebraska with my parents at their new house. Monday and Tuesday we pretty much just worked our tails off packing our cube and car. We had a lot of help however packing our cube on Monday from Lisa's family, Travis, and my Grandpa Duffy. Tuesday we pack our car full of this:
Also we had to pack in a couple other backpacks and our TV. Our itinirary includes stops each night in Lincoln, Denver, Richfield, Utah, and then Irvine California where we are living with my sister for a bit before we find our own place.

The last couple days we have spent with the Gordon Clan, Ed & Sue, Jennifer, her husband Adam and kids 5 year old Spencer and 1 year old Elliot, and Karen. Also Jennifer and Adam's dog Mini joined us. Karen, Lisa and I took Elliot and Mini to the park on Wednesday and had a good time. We also got some pictures at Portrait Innovations and ate at On the Border before we took off on the road and arrived at our parents place in Lincoln Nebraska at 11:00 pm.

Here's a photo of Elliot and I looking at a praying mantis at the park:
We take off Saturday morning for Denver, to stay with our friend Titus and Jolene. More updates to come.

<3 N & L

pressing on

Oh man, do I hate packing. I suppose it would be easier if everything was going to the same place, but the whole packing for two different places is really annoying. Because you have to both pack, AND organize. Two words which should never go together.

Its 8:30 am and I'm awake AND showered I might add. I have to run a few errands before putting on the finished touches hopefully for our storage packing. This weekend our we attended a Gala in our honor at the Solomon residence and had a blast, however in the process of having that blast I at some point dropped my camera flat on the floor with the lens out so it's all jacked up now and I have to go see if it is fixable. sigh. Then I have to go check in with the upack people and get our relocube assigned or fill out some paperwork or something. Because evidential the relocube needs to get a background check on me before we hang out.

All in all packing is going well. I don't know why anyone let me accumulate this much stuff though. Especially YOU! We tried using some vacuum packing bags. They kind of worked, however the keep slowly letting our air. so it goes.

The fam and friends are coming tonight to help us load the cube so hopefully we'll be ready and can get it done quick. Anyways, I have to run to the photo shop. cheerio.

its starting

we just opened shop on our final garage sale. listed on craigslist here, and as i start typing this it begins raining. which is ok because we planned for it. front porch moving sale!

things are moving along smoothly. lisa and i are officially unemployed now. hurray! my last day of work was the 23rd, last thursday. it was nice, i got a nice reccomendation from my boss and some people signed a goodbye card for me and my producer brought be cookies and jolly ranchers. other than that it was pretty normal.

lisa and i are working hardcore now on packing and moving everything. lisa has worked her tail off to make sure our place is clean. our landlord bruce is coming by this morning at 10:30 to check out the place and hopefully he will have our deposit check. hopefully he also doesn't notice the giant wax stain i made on the front porch.

a couple of our friends are also having a going away party for us tonight so we're super excited about that. heres the invite they sent out.

our place is looking really really empty. i took a couple video's of our living room and "messy" room.



anyways, we're really really excited about everything and ask that you'll all keep thinking and praying for us as we take our leap in this adventure. also i had a phone interview recently with a place in San Diego, i'm not sure if i'm allowed to say with who so publicly so i won't but here's to hoping!

the way things go

We've been working real hard lately to get things together to move. Lisa has been working especially hard. The art room is almost completely empty and we have someone coming to buy our bookshelves from us on Friday. We also posted our couch and giant chair today and within hours had 5 different responses for them. Its kind of nice to see that as our garage sale last Friday was such a bust it was kind of depressing. While we really don't need the money selling everything it is still pretty nice to make a little something off of stuff.

My parents moved into their new place in Lincoln, NE today so I'm happy for them that they get to live together now. I couldn't imagine living in two separate places. We also had some awesome visitors for lunch today. My Grandpa and Grandma Duffy's visited us and we went out to our favorite breakfast place The Waveland Cafe.

I think Grandpa is afraid of the internet.

Basically its getting close to go time T-Minus two weeks to being packed up and things are going well. They'd be going even better if one of us got a job but que sera.

its an odd thing

It is an odd thing, moving. People try to avoid unexpected change. Sometimes people jump right into it.

I find myself being comfortable far to much. I've found that the most enjoyable things in life were normally the most challenging. For the past few years I've enjoyed a very uneventful life in Iowa. Lisa and I got married, lived a couple places, worked a few times, and enjoyed family and friends. However I find myself wondering what my future holds for me. I've worked at WHO-TV for over two and a half years now, the longest place I've ever been a full-time employee. While I value my work and feel good about what I do every day, it still feels lacking.

I guess all I can really say is that it feels like its time for a change. Lisa and I decided to start a blog about our trip to help keep people in the loop and up to date. I have also started a twitter page that you can follow us on. Either bookmark it or add it to your reader or whatever you do.

Thanks for reading.