Goin' back to Cali

Rob and I have been very busy with all the home-buying stuff there is to do this past week. In addition, we are going out to California for a few days to celebrate my birthday and there is also a wedding reception for us so we've been pretty busy getting ready for that too. So, I apologize for not blogging much lately but the good news is that, for the few of you who read this, I will probably see you in the next couple of days so I'll get to talk to you and show you pictures and tell you how everything is going! And I'm sure there will be plenty to post about when we get back from our trip.

So Much To Say

Sorry that it's been a while since the last blog- it's been a busy time for us. Our home search really kicked into high gear and two days ago, we got a house! It is exactly what we were looking for and the price was great. One thing I learned is that it is way different buying a house here as compared to back in California. It moves so much quicker! The house wasn't available for showings until Friday so we went at 11:00 that morning, made an offer about 1:30 and got a call from the realtor at 3:30 that the house was ours. But when we made the offer, our agent told us we only had to give them about 4-5 hours and I just couldn't believe that but she said that's just how it works here. And then we found out after only 2 hours- wow! Another thing is that most closings happen in 30-45 days here. I had a 60-day closing period when I bought and sold my house and I think that was pretty standard for Californnia. We opted for the 30 days since the house is empty and we are anxious to get out of the tiny apartment we occupy now. Best part of the house- no ponds with geese nearby! Maybe not the best part but it's definitely going to be something we'll appreciate. I will be sure to take some pictures and then post them when we go inside the house for the inspections in the next week or two. Rob is so excited and I am too though my previous home-buying experience was pretty bad and kind of kills my enthusiasm a bit. Seeing Rob get so excited about it is good for me because it gets me going too. I think I'll be much more excited when we actually get the keys and get in the house. We're already dreaming of all things we want to do to fix it up and make it ours. We've even been to Lowe's twice already just to look around and get ideas.

I would've posted the good news a little sooner but I had a little trouble with the Mac and had to go into the Apple store in Des Moines today. First time in over two years I've had a problem and it was totally my fault. I talked with one of the geniuses there in the store and he helped me get a few things set up that I've been wondering about for a while. He also told me about a plan where you pay $99 for the year and get to go into the store for little lessons. I'm seriously thinking about doing that. I think you can even go in as often as once a week. My bit of advice: Everyone should use a Mac.

You take the good with the bad

This is Rob, and I am now a blogger.

For all of the things that we love about Iowa, one bad thing has recently popped up.

When we moved into our apartment, we really liked being able to look out over the pond outside our windows. Great sunrise every morning, watch the snow and rain fall on the water; perfect right?

Well, over the past week or so, a small rotating flock of canadian geese have taken up residence in the grassy areas around the pond. Now while I am an outdoors kind of guy, love wildlife and nature, when a group (herd...flock...batallion...) of geese is cackling outside your bedroom window at 6:00am, my thoughts tend to veer another direction. Such as I wonder if the Bass Pro Shops in West Des Moines has a sale on a hunting bow and arrows. Ok, that is a bad idea. Hard to clean up the mess too.

However, after looking at a few websites this morning at 6:01am, it was said that laser pointers and water pistols seem to be very effective. The main thing is to constantly harass them. I can do that. I think we are going to head to the WalMart this morning and get a supersoaker. My afternoon may include sitting in a lawn chair armed with a water cannon. I will keep you posted. But for now, you can see the enemies below.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We woke up this morning to find that the leprechauns were dumping snow all over the place. That was very surprising since just 4 days ago the high was in the 70's. But not to worry, by the time we went out at noon, it had stopped snowing and the sun was out. All the snow had even pretty much melted by then. It really amazes me how much the weather can change around here.

We went out today and grabbed a bite to eat at Wallaby's which was serving traditional Irish food for the holiday. Rob had a Guinness and some corned beef and cabbage and I had the Shepherd's Pie. Then we went and looked at an open house. The house was okay but definitely overpriced and not really what we're looking for. It's good to look at a little of everything- so Rob keeps telling me but I tend to get a little frustrated with all of this house-hunting stuff. We also went to join the gym we like here earlier in the morning. They had quoted us a price when we stopped by Thursday night and talked to the membership representative but then when we went to join this morning, they said she had given us the wrong price and it was actually more. So we left and told them to call us when they were willing to let us join for the price they quoted us. The girl said she was going to talk to the manager and have her call me on Monday. I hope they will honor the price because Rob wants us to use the facilities at the university, which is much cheaper. But I'm resisting because I don't want to be trying to keep up with a bunch of 19 year-olds or listen to conversations that start with, "So, dude, I was at this kegger last night and..." I would rather work out with the grown-ups but we'll have to see. We also went to Target , the library and the Hy-Vee supermarket . That's probably all the excitement I should lay on you readers at once so I better end this.

House Hunters

Rob and I love watching House Hunters on HGTV but it turns out it's a lot more difficult than it looks. I wish in 30 minutes we could walk into 3 houses that are all great choices, pick one and be moved in. However, it's not quite so easy. I have owned a house before but it was a pretty unusual situation. I'd been thinking a little about buying a house and I happened to see one for sale that I loved from the outside. So I walked into the realtor's office and made an appointment to see the house in a couple of hours. I knew the second I walked in that it was the house for me and about 2 1/2 months later, I moved in and it was mine. All this going to check out house after house is new to me. It turned out we love the first one we saw but, it's the first one we saw! And we know there will be a lot more to choose from in the next couple of months as the weather starts to get a little better. But do we wait to see what else comes up or go for the one we like now? It's hard to know. We're going to check it out again this week, after the snow has melted away and we can get a better look at the yard.

P.S.- I finally figured out how to do a link. Yay!!!

She works hard for her money...

Well, I don't know who "she" is but it's safe to bet it's not me! I started my new job yesterday and it's a little bit slow. And it probably will be for a while until I get some projects and learn how to do them on my own. However, I am enjoying it and I really like the group of 5 people that I work with. My section all took me out to lunch the first day and that was nice of them. The one thing that is very different at the new office is that it is so quiet. Those 5 people and I are the only people that sit in the little area where I am. You have to go out into the hallway and then into another room to find more people. All the offices are set up like that so you only have between one and six people (I think we're one of the bigger groups) in an area. I used to sit in a cube right in the middle of all kinds of action- lots of co-workers, copiers, customers and all kinds of other people and noises to distract me all the time. I didn't notice it so much then but it seems like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange compared to my office now. I haven't decided if I like the quiet or miss the noise and action. I'll get back to you on that....

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy anniversary to us! It's been exactly one month today since Rob and I got married. It's hard to believe how much has changed in our lives in those short 4 weeks. And we're having such a great time with all of it. We had planned on going out tonight to celebrate but the blizzard warning for the area means that we'll probably just take it easy and stay in. We can always go out later to celebrate.

Since I haven't blogged about the wedding yet, it seems that this is a great opportunity to do that. The picture above is Rob, me, my sister Megan, my mom Eleanor and my dad Dave. Unfortunately, it's not that great of a picture but so far, that's all I have. We were married in a very small ceremony on the beach in Carmel. I thought it would be in a little more secluded area, but it was just right there at the end of Ocean Avenue. It was kind of fun to have all the strangers around though and get all their well-wishes and see how happy they even were for us. I thought it may be a little weird to be out in the open like that, but it wound up really adding a lot. An older gentleman even stopped by to tell my parents that he and his wife were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary that day. Wow! I hope we'll be so lucky. Anyhow, it was a beautiful sunny day in Carmel- a rarity- and everything went perfectly. It was just kind of laid back and everyone had a great time. No freaking out that the ringbearer was in his suit, digging in the sand before the ceremony or that the flowergirl did not want to take off her coat. Who cares? These are the things kids do. And I can't blame her- it was quite chilly! We ate at the Little Napoli restaurant in Carmel after the ceremony which was wonderful. We spent the night at The Tradewinds Inn which is, without a doubt, the best place to stay in Carmel. We've stayed there a few times now and it's always wonderful. After that, it was on to Aruba...



Here we are in Aruba, dining at the Marandi restaurant. It was a great place to eat- it was right out on the water and we timed it right so that we could watch the sunset. We stayed at the Hyatt which is an amazing place. They just finished doing renovations to the public areas and are working on redoing the rooms now and it all looked so good. We had such a good time everywhere we went. The only troubles we had were getting there and getting home. On the way there, our flight from Charlotte, NC to Aruba was cancelled so we got down there a day late. AND US Airways sent us from Charlotte to Philadelphia to get a plane to Aruba so there was just a lot of flying- we left Saturday night and didn't get to Aruba until Monday evening. Then our flight OUT of Aruba was cancelled when we were trying to leave but United managed to get us on some Delta flights and we got home the same time as we were supposed to so that wasn't as bad. But, as you can see from our picture and as I mentioned before, we had a wonderful time while we were on the island. Everything is very clean and safe and the people are great. We definitely hope to go back someday!