Posted by: angelanoel on: November 21, 2008
So much for remembering to blog about our first attempt at finding a place to live. Then again, I’ve only got a few photos and none are actually of the insides of any of the places. Oops. Our first day of hunting was Friday. Matt’s work paid for a relator to help us find a place which sounds great but, yeah. Having someone else try to pick out a place for you, having not asked many questions other than how many bedrooms, if you have pets, and your budget doesn’t work so well.
We saw five complexes and none were what we wanted. All were big, fancy corporate places with amenities and small apartments. We want lots of space and zero ammenities ’cause, really, who regularly uses the complex weight room? Plus every place we saw was way out of our price range. I get that she is trying to make money off of us picking a place but, come on. Here’s a few shots from those places.
Thankfully Craig’s List here had lots of listings. Matt sifted through listings for a few days and eventually narrowed it down to three places. One we never could get a visit scheduled so that’s off the list. The first place we visited is a townhouse right near Old Town Alexandria. It’s two bedrooms plus a full basement with wood floors. Downsides are no dishwasher and a tiny kitchen but Matt can easily use an attached sunroom for all kitchen storage and ingredient preparations. The second place is sort of in the middle of nowhere but a few blocks closer to the metro and very newly rennovated. It’s also got a much larger backyard and heated bathroom tiles (odd, huh?).
After a bit of talking, we decided to put in an application on the first townhouse which I just dropped off with he owner. Hopefully early next week we’ll hear if we got it and then can determine our move-in date. We’re really excited and see no reason the application won’t be accepted but there’s always that fear.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 14, 2008
So much for blogging daily. Apparently a conference immediately followed by a move is no way to keep any promises. The first day I msised blogging I remembered but was simply too tired to write. The second and third day I didn’t realize until long after. Things only got harder after that. Monday was spent doing laundry and packing our clothing. Tuesday the movers took all of our belongings. Wednesday I took the wine to Hi Times to ship it to Virginia and cleaned up the apartment (somewhat). Yesterday we flew out. Today, well, today we’re going apartment hunting. We have a company-provided relator who I both do and do not have faith in. Something about relators just gives me the creeps.
Tomorrow I’ll have lots of photos of Alexandria to show off or at least some photos of my the two WIPs I’m working on right now.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 12, 2008
Yeah. NaBloPoMo sort of died. I blame National Conference followed by the move insanity. Sure, I’ve had internet access and the time but my mind has been mush since Thursday night. I can’t promise it’ll become solid before next week, even, so don’t be surprised if all you see here are photos until we are moved into our new place. But right now I’m heading to a local BBQ restaurant for happy hour and a last goodbye with some friends from school.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 6, 2008
First day of conference. After an overnight flight I quickly checked into my hotel and headed to the conference. Thankfully I ran into Jessica from Region H just after I checked in so she and I hung out until the Collegiate Weclome Lunch. Lunch was decent food and our first real opporunity to talk to one another. Most of the rest of the day was spent at our region meetings then career fair then the hospitality suits. Everything was great until I went to go change before meeting the Baltimore SWE ladies - five people in a hotel room. Thankfully that is now straightened out and I can head to bed.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 5, 2008
I’m going to a conference this weekend in Baltimore so that means the joys of a cross-country flight. Because I’m cheap and thought I’d have school until 5 pm today, I’ve got an overnight flight. Ugh. I must keep reminding myself that there are some good things associated with this flight:
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 4, 2008
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 3, 2008
I was going to have this great post about a quick knit hat I made for Rendy. Yeah, it’s too small. That entry will have to wait.
Yesterday we went up to the Valley to spend time with Matt’s cousin, Amy’s, family. I brought my camera with me and spent most of the time we were there taking photos of her daughter, Nevaeh. Here’s a few of my favorites.
Standing with her sister, on her tiptoes for some odd reason.
Yeah, I’m sort of the one who taught her to stick out her tongue. Amy complained but I figured, hey, I could have taught her much more inappropriate things.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 2, 2008
I am on a lot of conference calls. Some for work, many for SWE. At least once a week I have to sit through an hour or more of people talking at one another. I often have something to add but typically I’m sitting and listening.
I hate telecons. With a passion.
Most services are poor so you interrupt the other speakers when you speak vs being able to hear two people at once. This results in two people trying to talk at the same time, stopping to be polite, then starting to talk again. Plus there’s the horrible silences when no one talks/responds because they’re all on mute. And, really, most of my conference calls should really be webinars - they’re for information passing with occasional input rather than true working meetings. Working meetings, okay, but info sessions with slides - that could be emailed. But, of course, only if you read them the slides can you guarentee they hear you (notice I didn’t say listen).
(Don’t worry - tomorrow’s post will feature a knitting FO and not a text-only rant.)
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 1, 2008
I went over to Heather’s today so she could show me how to bind books. After a quick trip to Art Supply Warehouse, we had all the tools we needed to make books. I mostly borrowed her tools but she also bought me a thing of Yes paste and a bone folder and all the paper and museum board I needed to make a few small books. Very awesome going away present. The books are drying overnight but for now I can show you all of the non-paper, non-museum board materials we used to make the books.
And now it’s time for me to head to bed. It’s just before Midnight and I am dead tired.
Posted by: angelanoel on: November 1, 2008
By this point you all know the drill, November is Natinal Blog Posting Month (among other things). The basic idea is to blog every day for a month. I’ve participated the last two years and thought I may as well do so again this year. Our move is scheduled for a little under two weeks so things will likely be somewhat interesting this month. My official November 1st post will come later today, likely after my bookbinding lesson with Heather and before our going-away party.