While going through a box of things-that-will-need-new-homes I found a photo album from a road trip my Mom, Grandfather and I took to Florida in 1981. It’s one of those things I’m not sure if I actually remember the trip, or just remember looking at photos of it. I think I remember some parts of it (which then makes me wonder what part of our lives now Ted will remember when he’s older).

The photos are color, square with rounded corners.  They make me think of going to the Photomatt with Mom, which is pretty much the opposite of photography now. They conveniently fit six at a time on our flatbed scanner.

They also show that Ted and I look an awful lot a like at age three. He got a kick out of looking at them.  Hope you like them, too.

So one set of Ted’s grandparents moved recently.  My folks packed their worldly goods and moved down south to Never-Shovel-Snow-Again.  Ever.  Strange that the house I mostly grew up in is now occupied by some other family. Wonder if they’ll ever see the lashed fort I left in the woods behind the house?  

They swung by on their way down south, car packed from floor to ceiling with stuff.  Not all their stuff, though.  Most of it went down in PODS. 

Another set of Ted’s grandparents (well, just one grandparent, really) moved herself on the internet.  Once posting under the name “Cheech,” she’s now posting as Grammie Cass on www.GrammieCass.com.  

Now featuring a propper URL and a fancy new installation of WordPress!  I’ve been working on (and off and on) and off on this for just over a year, which is an insanely long time.  Alas, my web-site-making speed fell sharply in the past year.  The results were kind of worth the wait though, I think.

Ted is finally over all the colds, teething, rashes, etc. (knock on wood) and has been back to his usual goofy self for the past few days.  I am still working on getting him back onto a reasonable schedule.  He is close to only waking up once at night, but seems to think that it is a good idea to wake up for the day before 5am.

His mode of transportation these days is the army crawl.  He goes from sitting to his hands and knees like he is going to crawl, but then drops his belly to the floor and scooches along instead.  He loves to jump so much I think he might just jump everywhere before he learns to walk.  Oh! and he waves now!

He loves yogurt.  The first time we gave it to him he apparently came down with a new virus on the same day, so we had held off for awhile, but now he handles it fine and eats more of it than anything else except cheerios.  He has also had cherry applesauce, some white rice, and chunks of chicken.

Early this past week he got to play in the snow for the first time.  He seemed to really like it and didn’t even mind being in his snow suit.  We got 5 or six inches.  I guess it was the first time in five years that we have had more than an inch of snow!

This weekend Auntie Christine came to visit.  We had fun shopping and eating out.  Even trying out Ted’s Montana Grill.  Ted was very happy to get to play with her and ride on her shoulders all weekend.  Pat and I even went out to a movie on Saturday night.  We saw Slumdog Millionaire.  It was a great weekend!  Now we are looking forward to next weekend when we will be in RI again!

Per the Aftervictory Code of Secrecy, all I can say is that I’m still a web designer, but now working in the public sector. It’s quite a thing to change a job when you’re the sole source of income, but they made me a pretty outstanding offer. So far so good there.

Two years
Hard to believe but it’s been two years for us here in the northern of the two Carolinas. It’s gone by so fast! Still a little weird to write ‘NC’ on our return address labels.  It’s still good though, and still tough to be away from our family and friends.

Cars
We now have three cars, which for those keeping score us one more car than licensed operators. Kate and Ted cruise around in the Versa while I take either of the remaining vehicles to work.

Keeping versus trading in came down to value. While we would have received some money for a trade in, we get much more value out of having an extra car. By equally spreading the mileage over the older vehicles, hopefully we can delay having to purchase a commuter car for me for a while.

Television
As new parents, our TV time is pretty limited. After Ted goes down for the night, there’s only maybe an hour before we’re both asleep. We have to choose our viewing wisely.

We watch almost all our TV from the internet. Sites like Hulu.com and the various network websites allow us to watch what we please whenever we like, without having to pay for cable tv.

Right now we watch The Daily Show, How I Met Your Mother, and the very dark comedy Its Always Sunny in Philidelphia.

If you haven’t checked out Hulu.com yet, you need to. It’s way easy to use, free, extremely well thought out in it’s design, and has a ton of shows, many from long ago.

What a thing to do…. pack up and head off into the country with nothing more than a Craigslist handshake and a couple of disgruntled cats.

It’s been great, though. And sad sometimes. And awesome other times. However hard or silly or non-Yankee its been (and sometimes it was all three at once), it’s all been worth it.

So tonight was our first Halloween as homeowners (last year, you’ll recall, we were in our in-between apartment). Five, five bags of candy we had, all gone in just over an hour of non-stop doorbell ringing! At one point we had overflow off the front porch, and a posse of kids and parents out on the lawn.

We had to do the unthinkable and go dark on Halloween.

All lights out and the shades drawn. Very sad, but it’s hard to estimate just how many kids will come to your door, dressed as super-heroes and princesses, demanding sugar. Previous years at the old Rockland-Ave found us on the third floor of an apartment, so we really didn’t have any experience with trick-r-treater estimation.

Next year we’ll have to stock up, and possibly with generic candy.

Go ahead and read that statement again.  I’ll wait.

Yeah so apparently some kids over at NC State (Go Wolf Pack!) have thrown together a piece of equipment called a PULSTAR which makes antimatter beams.  You know, for antimatter spectrometers and antimatter microscopes.  And, to end all of the life on earth.

Here’s a photo:

Yeah that’s not Star Trek, but it sure the heck looks like it.  They worked hard to get the antimatter beam color to look about as creepy as possible.

Here’s a quote from one of the scientists working on the project:

“The idea here is that if we create this intense beam of antimatter electrons – the complete opposite of the electron, basically – we can then use them in investigating and understanding the new types of materials being used in many applications.” 

And here’s a translation I wrote just now:

“We know antimatter is scary and a single accident could mean the end of humanity, but we have a huge endowment and have found no better way to light the Alpha Alpha Phi frat house fish tank then with an intense beam of antimatter electrons… whatever those are.”

If you are way smart, or like to see the word megawatt written a lot, there’s an article on the new reactor here.  NC State’s scary vision of the future is written here.

p.s. – Of course I kid, I’m a huge fan of cool sciencey stuff and if anitmatter telescopes let us time travel, stop global warming and cure athlete’s foot, then I’m all for it.  Can’t they do this kind of stuff in the Arctic though?

Moe’s Southwestern Grill

Kate suggested I pick up some supper from Moe’s the other night. It was tasty food, and plenty of it. It was like a Mexican-food Subway (although nicer/more expensive then Subway), where they sort of custom make your food in front of you. I had something called a Joey Bag of Donuts (which had, for the record, zero donuts) and Kate had a burrito known as the Homewrecker. They also throw in a bunch of tortilla chips, which was a nice touch. Good eats.

Tools for Homeowners

For agreeing to act as Kristen and Josh’s Best Man Maid of Honor well-dressed witness in their recent hitching, they were kind enough to get me a prize. It was a box full of tools! A power drill and saws and a sander and a way way bright flashlight and an industrial dustbuster.

Kristen suggested I build a crib with the tools. Based on our prior building history, Kate suggested I perhaps start with building some shelves. Shelves seem like a good start.

Southern Living

It was 84 out today. In October! I’m thinking on Halloween night, NC parents don’t have to work their kid’s costumes around their winter coats. We’re both very curious about what our first Halloween as homeowners will be like.

The local news was abuzz about a single-engine plane crash just outside of Raleigh, and almost literally just outside of the new southern Rockland Ave. A plane crashed into a local BBQ restaurant less then a mile from our house. We’ve eaten there a few times, and if you’ve been to visit us you’ve either eaten there or driven by it.

The good news is that it happened before their lunch rush, so no one on the ground was hurt (the pilot did not fair as well, though). It was quite a sight passing by on my way home from work, as more then 2/3 of the front of the place was gone and it looks like they had a pretty big fire inside.

We’re both glad it didn’t land in our living room.

For a limited time only, you can buy the house directly across the street from us, which is still under construction and should be finished before the holiday season. I think it’s a three bedroom, with definitely two and possibly 2.5 bathrooms. It’s got a two car garage, a runaroundable backyard, and I’m thinking it will come in under $150k. Interested parties can drop an email, and I’ll send you some pics. We can’t offer any financial assistance, but we promise to hang out with and/or bbq with you.

But wait, there’s more! Our neighbor on the right side of us has accepted an out of state job and I suspect (but have no proof) that he’ll be selling his place soon. The house is almost brand new, as he only moved in during April. If you’re more of a side-neighbor, this may be the place for you. I’ll post an update if there’s any for-sale signs there.

p.s. – this is post #499. Insanity!