Home From Oregon

Oct08
2009 Rob Written by Rob

We just rolled in a few hours ago, changed clothes, unloaded the car and went out for dinner.

As much as we enjoy to travel, we love coming home. Home to family, to friends. Home to the bed we carefully selected and purchased together, the Cal King with plenty of room for us to both sleep comfortably (unlike the lumpy motel Queen that meant we slept terribly every night we were up there). Home to our animals, one of which has been kenneled at the vet all week. Home to regular Internet access. Home to our house and our town and all the familiar sights and sounds and comforting details that mean we’ve finally settled in from a week on the road.

Three days of work and Chris is moved into his new Eugene, Oregon apartment. He seems happy with his new digs. There was a bit of drama involving his car (when would it arrive from Orlando – or would it ever?) and his moving pods (“You could have vacuumed some of the cat hair from the futon BEFORE you moved..”) but by Wednesday afternoon it was all moved in and generally sorted out. A few final trips to the grocery and Target to make sure he was stocked on all the basics, and then by very early Thursday morning – 40 degrees and wet, BRRRR – we had the car loaded up and were back on I-5 headed south again towards the California state line.

We hope everything works out for Chris in his newly adopted home. It’s not easy uprooting everything you know, burning the ships to go live thousands of miles away from everything familiar to you. One thing that was immediately apparent to us as soon as we arrived was that Eugene was NOT Orlando; not even close. But we’re sure that he will adapt and make new friends and sort out everything he needs. We wish him luck.

It’s a ten hour drive up, and another ten back. I didn’t take as many photos as I had planned, and a number of the ones I did take came out pretty blurry. I seem to be pretty bad at that lately, we’re not sure why. But if you’d like to see some of the Oregon photos that managed to come out nice, they’re after the jump.

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Posted in Family and Friends, Travel

Packin’ and Preppin’

Oct03
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Short update today. Both Chris and his cat made it to Oregon in one piece. He’s currently sitting around an empty apartment, waiting for his stuff to eventually show up and hoping his car ever shows up. But he’s there. We’ve talked to him a few times since landing and he’s tired and ready to just get settled and be done with it already. He’s good.

This week I’ve been a royal pain in the ass to live with. I don’t do vacations – even working vacations – very well. I spend a lot of my time neurosing that I’m missing a deadline, or about to miss a deadline, or won’t be here when a client really needs me to pick up the phone, or won’t be here when that once-every-five-years megaproject calls happen. So I’ve spent a lot of this week fighting to clear my desk and get deliverables out the door, and Kristi’s spent a lot of this week trying to refrain from smothering me with a pillow.

All’s good now, though. Desk clear, email parked, neurosing down to a minimum. Now’s time for pack and prep.

We’ve got a long list of things – some big, most small – to do before we leave. And we’re knocking the list down. We have someone sitting the house, the pets are arranged for, the car’s tuned and oiled and fueled, and supplies are mostly laid in. Early Monday morning, we take Tuck over to the vet for kenneling, and then we hit the road for Oregon for a nine hour drive.

Been a while since we’ve had a really good road trip. We’re both looking forward to getting out of town for a bit and seeing Chris.

We’ll take photos, and if Internet access is to be found, there might be an R&K entry while we’re up there. Stay tuned!

Posted in Family and Friends, Travel, Work

Chris Is Leaving Florida

Sep28
2009 Rob Written by Rob

Well, my brother Chris is in the few final days before his big move to Oregon. Talked with him briefly yesterday. He’s having his car transported; they picked it up on Thursday. He’s finished packing all of his stuff into pods, and they’re ready to be picked up. Right now he’s making phone calls, getting utilities worked out, and spending time saying goodbye to everyone before his plane leaves Orlando on Wednesday for Eugene, Oregon.

When we talked the other day he took a moment to complain about the summer weather in Florida. I told him to “enjoy” these last few days, because after Wednesday, hyperhumid scorching tropical summers are a thing of the past. I know I certainly don’t miss them. Chris assures me that he won’t, either.

I’m looking forward to seeing Chris again. It’s been almost a year; last time we saw each other was when we flew back to Orlando briefly last November to get the last of my things. Kristi and I are planning to drive up to Oregon next week, stay in Eugene for a few days helping Chris unpack and generally welcoming him to the West Coast. Eugene is only about eight or nine hours by car from Modesto – slightly farther than the distance we drove to San Diego last year. And it’s only an hour flight; we’re hoping that he can come visit for Christmas. (Totally understand if he can’t, seeing that his computer technical support is generally a 24/7/365 business. But hope lives eternal.)

At the very, very least, having him in the same time zone again is going to make scheduling our GTA4 nights a LOT easier. 🙂

The trip to Oregon will do Kristi and I both some good. Get away from the town, the house, the animals, the clients. Just get away. Also, I’ve been doing the work-at-home thing for a long time now – I’m used to it – but I think being cooped up in the house full time is getting on Kristi’s nerves. We haven’t had a serious travel spell since Kristi came off night shifts, so the long haul up to Oregon is going to be a good one. I’ve never been up in the Northwest, either, so I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of Northern California and southern Oregon.

We’ll take pictures and report the story here.

Posted in Family and Friends

Domestic Goddess

Sep21
2009 Kristi Written by Kristi

I am officially a housewife.  The last week has been about scouring our house, to the point where I actually vacuumed walls.  (Wha? They were dirty!)  Our bedroom was by far the worst of it.  Considering it was in constant use for approximately 20 hours a day, we were glad just to have clean sheets on it.

But last weekend was the time to get caught up.  Everything was sorted through and cleaned.  We took 9 bags of clothing to Goodwill (mostly mine) and Rob has officially moved his clothes into the closet.  When he moved in, I had full control over our bedroom closet and he was relegated to 2 draws below the closet and the guest room closet.  So he was sort of due for some more space.  It was nice to get rid of clothes I don’t wear anymore.  I haven’t had a good sort out since I went to England.

This weekend was a front yard weekend.  Rob mowed the lawn and I pulled all the pots off the porch.  In the process we found 5 black widows which had taken up residence.  I’m not usually a spider freak out person but for some reason, those widows got to me.  Especially the ones we found on pots we’d already picked up and moved.  Needless to say, I spent that night in bed being all freaked out that something was crawling on me.  I felt like I was 8 telling Rob to help me take my mind off it by telling me a stupid story.

It still seems like I’m summer vacation which is nice.  But then it hits me that there’s sort of no rush to get to all the things on my mental list.  I do one or two a day and that’s it.  The rest of the time, we play or Rob works and I find something else to do.  It’s a dog’s life.  Seriously.. who knew it would be this good to be unemployed?

Posted in Everyday Life, House and Yard
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