We have a house!! Our realtor called to tell us that our new ownership had been recorded, so we tromped over to Chez Liz y Andrea to get the keys. The (now) former owners were still there, trying to pack their lives in to a Ryder truck, a pickup and the family van. It was sad in a way, they gave away a ton of stuff and left a big pile behind (someone's hauling it away tomorrow) as well as some salad dressing in the fridge. They cried as they pulled away but in that moment the house became ours. We're officially free from evil landlord and can decorate any way we choose. Woo hoo!

Anyone in South Carolina looking for a great dog? Animal Allies just saved over 113 animals from a trailer, they have daschunds, beagles, terriers and a whole lot of mixes that desperately need good homes.

We get the keys to our new house in 1.5 hours. I should be excited, I am excited, but with all the crap we went through to get it, at this point I just want it to be over so we can get in there and start painting. The movers don't come until the 19th, leaving us plenty of time to ready the place.

Caution: this is not for the faint of heart:
This little dog needs some serious help. People do some seriously fucked-up shit to their dogs. I ask, why bother getting a dog (or any animal) if you're going to be a sick bastard about it?

In case you were wondering how my childhood looked and where my love affair with beagles began:

Everyone needs to take a Coffee Break With Pope John Paul II 1.1. Find out how! Thanks, Andrea

After the rather dismal, tourette's-filled hockey game on New Year's Eve, Andrea and I returned to my parent's house and watched Dick Clark ring in his 110th New Year's Rockin' Eve. I got out the family albums and took that walk down amnesia lane.

I'd love to say that my recollection of middle school and high school is overblown, that I really had a fabulous time and the kids loved me. But that's not true, I had a mediocre/terrible time and by and large, the kids didn't love me. From the first day at school, I felt different. Not just because I would grow up to dig chicks but for reasons I still can't explain.

Looking at the pictures from those years, I can only pluck out one meaningful friendship, a scant one person in my class who I'm proud to talk to today. That would be Dan (aka Mr. Hurky Flurky) because he was different, too, and because he, too, would grow up to dig chicks. I know that kids that age aren't supposed to be nice, the turmoil caused by rapid hormone expansion pretty much guarantees some meanness, but damn, the kids of my school took it too far.

It's a good thing I'm the belle of the ball now, otherwise I'd have grown up thinking I was the person those kids were picking on.

I can't stop staring at the Chimpokemon Icons at Angel Baby.

In keeping with my new hockey obsession, we rented Mystery Alaska while in Columbus. When a Zamboni is delivered, my parents developed Zamboni tourette's, wondering what one is, then going on to speculate that it's a locomotive or some sort of train engine.

Did I mention that now Andrea, aka GadgetGrrl has her own blog? Her description of our trip to Ohio is all too accurate and once again making me want to kiss the warm California ground.

The Story of the DailyFoodCam
There's a table outside my cube where people often leave leftovers or food baskets they didn't want, or just want to share. In the past, people were told to ask permission before taking this food, since our company is a spinoff of a bigger company and is still in the same building. That legacy remains and I'm asked at least once a day about the availability of said food. Not only that, people feel obligated to converse with the nearest person (me) about the food.

So as a hommage to those conversations, I offer you, my loyal readers, the DailyFoodCam. Enjoy!

Well, kids, I've added a DailyFoodCam, to track the progress of the leftover bounty people put on the table outside of my cube. I'll update that daily.

The cute little house in the upper right hand corner is our new house. Enjoy!

I may not be saying much, but little elves are working feverishly behind the scenes to make spiffy site enhancements.

While in Columbus, we ate some almost ethnic food at the KA YA Grill, which used to be a Rax Roast Beef.

In other news, yard waste day at the new house will be Wednesday!

Now I'm setting up cable, the customer service guy called me Mrs. Is there something in my voice that makes me sound married, or grown up enough to be?

Setting up the phone for our new house, Pac Bell shows someone named Fernando having a phone and living in the garage. Great!

The reason our new house is on the market is this: a man and his wife bought it for $137,000 and as it increased in value, they thought, cool, I'll borrow against the increasing value until now, they owe almost $200,000 on it and can't meet the monthly payments. Today, while visiting our house for the final walk-through, the man said 'my family said they should have pitched in and bought the house for me.'

How am I supposed to react to that? I understand that he likes the house and his money troubles are why we got the house (that, and the fact that he overpriced it at first) but what could I say? The time for such heroic efforts has long past, please get on with your life so we can get into our new house.

There's a whole lot more emotion involved than just moving into an apartment.

Hey kids, we just bought a house. We closed escrow today and will recieve our keys on Friday. Stay tuned!!

It's about time--Cooper will not return to Ohio State

We're back! We gave notice to our landlord last Friday (I think) and she seemed stunned and would get back to us about our move-out date. We finally discussed it and all of a sudden, BAM! it became real. I switched into panic mode and wanted to go home at that moment so we could start packing.

As it was, we left a little early and still got in at the same time. During our 5 hours in Minneapolis, we met a precocious 2 1/2 year old, Maxwell, who knew what prop planes and photosynthesis were. We also were near a flight that had a passenger allergic to peanuts--could everyone please turn in their peanuts? Have I missed something? Is a peanut allergy now an airborne problem? Are adults with this allergy not smart enough to avoid peanuts? I'm not sure, but Andrea laughed so hard she wept at this.

At one point, Grandma told Andrea to reach out and spank my butt because it's a "nice, smooth, butt." Thanks Grandma. She also instructed her to pinch my butt on the plane.