and all through the house…

All the boxes were waiting,

they’ll quite soon be roused!

That’s right, folks! Move day is upon us! Wylie will get the truck in the morning and we will fill it up and be on our way (in 2 shifts—Ahseville to Auburn; Auburn to College Station, with a night somewhere in between…)!!! We will be on the lookout for interesting things along the way, so check back often!

I guess I better try to get some sleep or something…

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Teresa and I traveled down to Georgia. First we went to visit friends in Athens for the Fourth. We wandered around downtown since Teresa had not been to Athens before, than we went back to our friends house and had a cookout. Some great corn-on-the-cob, asparagus, and of course, burgers. There were a few Roman Candles lit, and some beer was had, and some Catchphrases was played. A great Fourth.

On Sunday we traveled to Atlanta where my sister is for a month, and went to the Georgia Aquarium with her. The video below is of our fishy adventure. After the aquarium we went to a nice restaurant, suggested to us by our Athens friends, R. Thomas’. Outside they had several big cages full of big parrots. Very weird, but pretty darn neat. Overall it was a fantastic weekend in Georgia.

Today marks the one week mark. Next Monday I pick up a moving truck, pack it up, and drive down to Auburn to pick Teresa up. We should be in Bryan Texas by next Thursday if everything goes like it should.

I wouldn’t have believed this prior to moving to Asheville.
It sure took it’s time getting to me, though I suppose that is what makes it unexpected…

The best thing about it–besides the money at the end and the feeling that I had somehow gotten something for nothing (which isn’t true at all, but somehow it still seems that way)–were the characters. I found out that I have a neighbor accross the street who likes to stay up all night (she literally got home as I was setting up) and wanted me to know that she used to smoke a lot of pot with the kid who used to live in the front unit of my house. This explained lots of that kids’ behavior before he moved out. I also could have had a new boyfriend in a mumbling man who “just rides” on the weekends and picks up lawnmowers to repair and sell for $30. I was not interested. There were other characters as well, and the social scientist in me spent a good part of the morning trying to come up with a good research question so that I could do a study of yardsale folks…so if you have any ideas, let me know. I could not come up with anything that was justifiable, really.

Mainly, it is really satisfying to get rid of so much stuff. Once it got too hot to even think about staying out there any longer (around 11), I packed up what was left into my car–stuffed it to capacity, actually–and left it at the Goodwill. Ahhhhhh….I got my living room back! The craziest thing about it all is that we are literally 2 weeks from moving now. Hooray! Very soon we will actaully start talking about Texas on this thing….

Before the move I am trying to get in as much kayaking as I can since I think I will not get to do a lot while in Texas. Things could change, I am just assuming that there will be more flat water, and less whitewater for me to enjoy. I have no video of the river itself since I have no way of keeping my phone dry, but here is a short video of the drive (it takes 1.5 hours from Asheville to get to the Nantahala) and a little bit of the river from nearby the takeout.

Let’s say that comments are not your thing and you want to leave a private message for the two of us, well now you can do just that. If you look up top, not all the way, just under the big 10gallonhat up top, you will see the new contact tab. Clicking that will send you to our new form page where you can write us an email. Please note that this email will go to both Teresa and myself, so do plan on us both reading it.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Have we mentioned that we have an apartment? I don’t think so. Or maybe I forget. Well, we have an apartment! The image above is from the road in front of the house. We just got some photos of the inside of the apartment, so now we know that the whole thing is real and not a scam. Or if it is a scam, it’s a really good one.

So, the place looks cute from the outside, and it looks pretty big on the inside. We might need more furniture. Or we can just see where we end up next year after this Texas adventure before we start to fill up this place with stuff that might not fit into the next place.

I got the new iPhone 3G S today, and it now comes with video, so I plan on uploading a few to the 10gallonhat. This was my first little test today, so don’t expect too much.

Also, we did, in fact, see a DeLorean on the way home. Everything Wylie said about it is true.

In other news, this week I am doing some of the last grading of papers and talking to classes at Auburn that will happen. It’s a little bit strange to remember all the things it has taken me 4 years to learn about doing my job and to put them down on paper for someone else to do…a reminder that we’re kind of replaceable, which can be a discomforting kind of thought at times…but also a sign that we are on to bigger and better things! I also turned in the paperwork to get approval to do the first part of my dissertation data collection. This does not sound that exciting, but to have it done now will make this next year much more pleasant–for Wylie and for me!