A Really Long Update, Part II

So yeah, the game was great. We spent the night in West Lafayette, going to some of our old favorite bars that night. The next morning we had to drive back to Indy so that we could take our friend Danielle to the airport, and take ourselves there too, for we were going back to Fort Lauderdale.

No, not for vacation, for moving. No, we didn't sell our condo; we're still working on that. We did, however, decide that we wanted our stuff back with us in Indiana, and since Abee had the next week off of work and I had taken that week off of work to be in tandem with her, one of us (I won't say which, but it wasn't me) decided that it would be the perfect time to go down to Ft. Lauderdale and get all our stuff that had been sitting unused since June.

We got in late Sunday night, got our rental car, and headed up to Pompano Beach. It was kinda nice to be back "home" again. (There are so many places that I have to call "home" in quotation marks these days) The next day our pod arrived. We decided to utilize one of those P.O.D.S. portable storage containers to do our moving. Once you load it up, they ship it to wherever you need it shipped to. It's especially ideal if you get free airline travel, like me.

It took three full days to load that thing. Almost half of our condo was already packed in boxes, but we still had to pack the other half. Abee did most of that, as she was not allowed to lift things due to being pregnant. I spent most of those three days going up and down the stairs with boxes and furniture. I was lucky to have a couple friends come by for a few minutes each to help me with the really big stuff, like our huge but awesome dual-reclining sofa, and a monster-sized china cabinet (I checked, it's the exact same size as a monster). Most of the time though it was just me and Abee, which was nice because it's hard to have "just me and Abee" nowadays when we're living with other family. However, I would have preferred something other than hard labor to spend those four days on, like watching movies or going to the beach. On Monday night we did manage to spend some time with two of our really good friends down there, Damon and Lisa. Not being able to see them much any more is probably my biggest regret about leaving Florida (I'm sure once winter hits Indiana I'll have another one).

At the end of the third day we were exhausted but were done loading and just had some fairly minor cleaning to do. We slept on an air mattress that night, and woke up just in time to pack it and our sheets, pillows, and bath towels into the pod before someone came to pick it up. It was Thursday by now and we had just enough time to visit the beach for a few minutes, say goodbye to my friends at the flight school where I taught, and head back to the airport to blast out of Florida and leave it behind again, for an indefinite amount of time. Someday I'll write a post explaining how much I hate Florida and how much I miss it at the same time.

We arrived "home" (Abee's parents' house, our temporary home) around 7:00p.m. on Thursday, but my busy week was not over. In just three hours my dad and brother Luke would be arriving so that the three of us could go on our long-planned trip to Washington, D.C. However, I have run out of time for writing right now, so that will have to wait until Part III. (This time I'm not going to guess at when I'll be able to get around to it.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Really Long Update, Part I

A lot has happened in the past few months, especially the last couple weeks. I should probably just make small updates more frequently, but that's not how I seem to do things. Here goes.

Well, it turns out that there actually were unsafe concentration levels of radon in the basement. Whoops. Well, we got all the cracks sealed, so everything should be fine now.

First the really huge news: Abee and I are expecting our first child next spring! We've been wanting to start having kids for a while now, but have been holding off until I could get a stable job. Well, I have the stable job now, and despite our current living situation, we decided to go for it. Here's the first picture, taken about 3 weeks ago:

That's the biggest news. Now for an update on the condo: It hasn't sold yet. Oh well. Life goes on.

Last fall I went to the Purdue homecoming football game with Abee's family. It was nice to be back at Purdue, especially in the fall, since at the time we were still living in Florida. I liked it so much that we decided to go to a game this year, and see if we could get some of our friends from college flown in using my travel benefits. My two roommates live out in San Francisco now, and they were unable to come. We ended up with one friend from Atlantic City making it over, and a few others who are still living in Indiana. We had a great time and Purdue won. Here are some pictures from that weekend. I should warn you; it turns out I can't take very straight pictures:

People filtering into the stadium with Purdue's "World's Largest Drum" leading the way.


The stadium is filling up. That nice new press box section wasn't there when I was going to school here.


The team takes the field.


The final score: Purdue 31, Iowa 6


The band puts on a concert in the Engineering Mall after the game.


Abee (in the pink hat) and our friends hanging out at the mall.


Abee and I at the mall.


The Purdue Bell Tower rising out of some nice fall foliage.


The fountain and Hovde Hall on the mall.


A nice (but crooked) picture of the mall with the bell tower in the background.

Well, it looks like that's all I have time to write right now. I'm in Cleveland and have to get ready to go to work. A lot more has happened though. Hopefully I will get to part 2 before the end of the week. Take care!