So, our new place is in a pretty ritzy part of Naperville. It's the old town area, but since its not a part of the historic district, people buy little houses, tear them down, and built mansions. For example, go here:

http://www.napervilletownship.com/NewPSrc/SearchCriteria.aspx

First put in 431 Franklin.



That's an old picture of our place. They've added a bit of an addition to bring the square footage up to 1300 on the top floor.

Now, put in 425 Franklin. Yep, that's our next door neighbor.



439 is our other neighbor. Kevin loves that house. The picture is at a very unflattering angle.



434 Douglas is the house behind us:

Kevin is going to move into the new place on June 9th, and I'm moving in on July 19th. Mainly, he can get out of his lease with 30 days notice, because he's month to month at this point. My lease is up July 25th, and its not worth getting out of it early even if I could. Plus, damn, I have a lot of crap to sort through. So mainly, we'll pack up Kevin, unpack, and use the same boxes to move me. We both saved a lot of boxes from our various other moves, although moving my dishes are going to be a pain - I don't have any nice pre-made packaging for any of it. The old set had been shipped to me in really nice containers, so I just kept them and used them to move.

Poor Kevin will have to rough it for a bit - he won't have a couch. A lot of his stuff we're going to be storing in the attic, but we'll probably have to leave it out for now and have the movers move it up when I move in. We'll be storing a lot of my stuff too - mainly pretty much all the books and bookcases are going to have to go into the attic. There's just not any real way around it.

We signed the lease tonight! Woo!

Kevin said part one of the plan is now complete. Heee.

(Details, if you haven't seen them before - its the top story of a house, right in downtown Naperville. 2 bedrooms, small den, small living room, nice big bedrooms. We have our own laundry, control our own heat. No central air - but it comes with brand new window air conditioners. We also get the entire attic for storage. Oh, and we get half the garage, it has a huge yard, and its in the exact right spot, school wise, for James.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/apa/668940740.html

When I was reading the offer and confidentiality documents, I noticed that it says that they have to give me 30 days notice if they are firing me. And I have to give them 30 days notice if I'm quitting. That's kind of unusual - I'm guessing its an Indian thing?

I got my official offer letter today, and I gave notice. So, as of May 19th, I'll be Lead Technical Support person at SYSTAT software. It's a bit of a raise, plus a bonus if we meet our goals as an office. I'll get to travel, do training, and probably go to India!

Oh, and I get to wear jeans again and have no manager per se. :)

It was LOVELY. Nice big windows, original woodwork and hardwood floors on the ground level. Big bedrooms and large closets, especially considering the age of the house. The master bedroom has two "walk in" closets - although they aren't exactly modern walk in closets. The other two bedrooms on the top floor are joined together. Plus, to get to the upstairs bathroom, you have to walk through one of the bedrooms. There's a small bedroom/office on the ground floor. Nice big kitchen, big dining room. The living area, which is off the dining room is a little cramped but it'd be fine.

It's window air conditioners, and the washer is in the basement, while the dryer is on the first floor, off the kitchen. There's a bathroom off the kitchen as well. There is also a loftish space on the second floor - mainly, its where the second floor landing is, but there's a ton of room up there. That's where the second bathroom is.

So, we'll see. We'd probably have to rent it starting June 1st, which is earlier than we wanted. But, it'd give us tons of time to move me, and Kevin can move right away.

Kevin and I are going to be looking at this house on Wednesday.

http://www.rentalhouses.com/view_listing.php?id=50035

:)

Okay, they aren't as much fun as babybabybaby pictures, but I finally got my Easter 2008 pictures uploaded here.

Here's the best one I got of Kevin, James and Rocket. :)




And James playing PSP while wearing the tiger socks I made him.




Oh, and Rocket helping James Easter Egg Hunt.

Okay, I'm not necessarily pro-obama or pro-clinton. I pretty much don't care, except I wish they'd stop doing the Republican's dirty work for them.

what used to be one of my favorite blogs (TalkLeft) has been going on and on about how Michigan and Florida have to be allowed to revote. For those not paying attention, Florida and Michigan moved their primaries up into the month of February, in express violation of the democratic party rules. As such, they were told that their delegates would not be seated, and all the candidates, except Hillary, withdrew their names from the ballots.

Well, of course, Hillary won (and the whole "they could have voted uncommitted" is bullcrap - that's like saying that of course I could have won the primary, cause they could have written in my name). And Hillary desperately wants those delegates, because she's behind.

So, Hillary supporters either want a revote in those states, or for the delegates to be seated according to all sorts of crazy formulas. Obama is reportedly against both.

Here's the thing. Why should MI and FL revote? They already knew what would happen if they moved their primaries up. Sure, no one thought the primary race would go on this long, but that's the risk MI and FL took.

Apparently I've had a weird rough spot on my back for months now - I can't see or feel it, but Kevin can, and we finally got around to checking it out. Gross pictures behind the cut.

( Read more... )

I have a dr appt on the 24th to get it looked at. It could be a wart. Or Squamous Cell Cancer, which is easily treated by chopping the thing off. Apparently they can look a lot alike. In any case, it's already been there for months and months, and hasn't changed, so I'm not too worried about it.

Great, now I'm back to supporting Hillary Clinton because Madeleine Albright is supporting her, and I want to be Madeleine Albright when I grow up.

(Joseph Wilson supporting her helps as well.)

Damn LOL cats spying on me and Kevin. Except I'm not blonde. And Kevin sure as hell wasn't using a Dell. :)

(Last night, we were geeking it up on the dining room table while eating fried rice. I had my work laptop up and I was working, and Kevin was WOWing.)

I STILL haven't decided who I'm in favor of. I keep waffling between Clinton and Obama.

So, I either have an outer ear infection, or Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (shingles in the ear). I went back to the doctor today after the pain got worse while on antibiotics, and that's when he said he saw pustules in the outer ear (but not on the ear drum). He said I should keep taking the antibiotics they gave me friday (when they thought it was a middle ear infection), but then prescribed super killer cipro ear drops.

He says he doesn't think its shingles, especially since I don't have a rash on the outside of my ear. If I did, it'd be really bad - mainly, you get Bells Palsey and loose all taste and all sorts of bad things. Other than the swelling around the ear, my face is fine, but I keep watching it.

Oh, worse yet, he said it's going to hurt for awhile, but if its not better in three days, to follow up, of course. I need to call the doctor the convenient care folks referred me to to make an appointment anyways.

I think its a little better - its really bad once advil wears off, but its almost tolerable with advil. Almost.

I didn't realize how much I wanted Obama to win Iowa until I got teary reading the top post on DailyKos.

I swear, before just now, I was sort of waffling between Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

2005 - with eKevin, at his friends house, playing, I can't even remember. Drinking enough to get tipsy, but not so drunk that I'd piss eKevin off by saying god only knows what. Only remember various racist comments by one of eKevin's friends. Was an okay time - for that time period, actually counted as going all out.

2006 - Sat on couch and drank some wine. Did not get drunk. Felt sorry for one's self because I couldn't go to a party with New Kevin because his son would be there, and his son did not yet know I existed.

2007 - Went out with Kevin's friends. Ate tons of Italian food, pointed out that the cherubs in the pope room had penises. Everyone laughed. Drank more at friends house. There is Videotape evidence that, while totally smashed on the couch, that I denied knowing Kevin, and that I happened to be an expensive escort he picked up for the night. Everyone laughed.

(however, was horrifically hung over the next day. Still had fun though. Kevin took me home in the afternoon, got my shower ready for me, found me things to redydrate me, and made me popcorn so I'd stop looking so green.)

Yeah, my life now is pretty darn awesome. :)

This one is a little hard for me to do, because I think we went from working class to middle class in my late teens. I'm not sure how - oddly enough, my mom divorcing my step dad (who was a huge drain) helped. So I'll note if things happened when I was a teenager.

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor -Seeester
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home - we had a lot of time life books, and of course, my books.
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent - I could read at 3, and read to aimee.
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 - Tae Kwan Do. Ugh.
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively - Hi, I'm white.
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp - well, girl scout camp for 3 days once.
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them - it did have 250k miles on it, and I had to share it with my step brother.
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home - Thanks GI Bill!
You had your own room as a child - as a teenager once the step brothers left.
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in high school
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

James and Rocket playing Khet. (James beat me once, and I beat him once, and then his Dad schooled us both. It's like chess, with lasers.)




Here's James' head and Kevin trying to figure out how to cook the pork roast. It turned out awesome. I should have taken pictures.




It was a super good day, even though I was exhausted. I slept about 3 hours - in part because I was too keyed up, and in part to finish James' tiger socks. Kevin woke me up at 5 am on the couch to drag me to bed.