Saturday, July 22, 2006

You gotta love this... Fishing in Idaho. We went out this morning to a fishing spot about 30 miles away. Rachel caught a whopper. 6 inch Sunfish! Photos are on the site. Life is going well up here. It's our 6th anniversary today- right now everyone is taking naps (I just awoke). It is hot up here this weekend (100) and sucks not to have A/C. We are keeping the house mild but it is still in the 80s in here. Work is going well, we are starting an experiment on Wednesday. It will be insane, but should be pretty cool. Disease, herbicide, insecticide- poor suckers don't have a chance. If we find some interactions between disease and pesticides, that will be big. Not many have even examined it in amphibians so this is cutting edge stuff... I might finally get my HDTV picture on Thursday. That is when my new appointment is. If they don't have the dish by then, I might just stay with Directv because this is crap. We also should be getting our King Size bed this week- so quite a busy week! We have been sleeping in the guest room on our old bed. I think that I actually like that room better. It is not as bright in the morning and the window is by your head so it stays nice and cool at night. Plus there is no attached bathroom- didn't think about how that might be annoying with Rachel and my different sleeping schedules. What else? Our garage is nearly cleaned out. I brought all my stuff to my office and set it up so now there are just some random things in there. I will hopefully move them to the basement tomorrow and then have some room in there to do some car maintenance. Ok, that's enough. I am going to upload some photos now. Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 14, 2006

Evolution of the dish... So I got the directv guy to come out and give us a free local dish upgrade. Luckily the guy was nice and mounted it on an old pole for us- so no more blowing over in the wind! Problem temporarily solved. Now if only Dish network were so helpful...
I plan on posting photos of the house with our stuff in it- I have added a link below (also under photos on the site). Going in to meet with the boss now- so my life as a post-doc officially begins! Posted by Picasa

http://www.jakekerby.com/Thenewplace/index.html

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

It has come to this. It works, believe it or not. As long as the wind stays calm... Today we discovered that they unhooked our free local channels that were coming over the cable. So do we sit tight with no tv for three weeks? Hell no. I can only take so much PBS. So I pulled out the old dish and set it up. It took awhile to find the satellite since I have no compass, but we got it. Then, we realized that there were no local channels coming through. This experience is really so loaded with irony it is silly. So I play with it all afternoon and evening only to get to a point where my tivo exhibits what is known as the green screen of death. No matter what I did I only got a green screen that says severe error... I was so bummed. I couldn't even pull up the saved programs so I was more worse off than when I started. Finally I just left it alone, and it actually fixed itself! Thank god. Then I called up directv and talked to them forever only to find out that I have the wrong dish for this area to get local channels. The tech guy said that I could get a free local channel dish update. So I get transferred to the scheduling lady and she says a tech will be out here Thursday to swap out my dish with one that works for free! I cannot wait to see the look on the installation guys face when he sees my dish in a bucket. I figure he will either just leave the dish for me to deal with it, actually set it up for real, or just tell me forget it. I figure that worse case scenario is right where I am so I might as well see if I can get it going. Then in a couple weeks I will shut it all down for dish network. This is really a ton of trouble. I just hope in the end it is worth it...  Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Oh man, I am tired. I should be going to bed, but not yet… Yeah, going from Sacramento to Portland was an 11 hour LONG trip. I expected it to be long, so it really didn’t hit me that it took so long until I got there. Then, up at 6 and off to Pullman. I have been running off pure adrenaline for the past week. I can tell because whenever I stop and sit down, I get incredibly tired. Yet despite all the work and madness, our garage is still full of crap. The drive to Pullman was not that bad actually. I was playing beat the clock so it was pretty exciting. I stopped once for 10 min and pulled into Pullman about 1pm. Got the Explorer unloaded and went and got the keys. Unhitched the trailer, backed up the truck to the garage, and began unloading about 2pm. Went straight until 4ish and got about 2/3rds of the truck done. Then a guy from my lab showed up to help me move the TV, bed, several dressers, and the kitchen table. The we pulled out the rest of the small stuff. Was totally done by 5, headed to the pub. Ate for a couple hours, and finally had to insist to leave because I still had to set up the place. By the time everyone had arrived the next day, I had lucas’ crib reassembled, the guest bed setup with clean sheets, and most the boxes moved from the garage to their appropriate rooms. It was kind of funny, because I had been going non-stop and then when Rachel showed up I almost expected her to immediately get to work. Unload the kitchen boxes now! We didn’t do much more the first evening because I had done most of the necessary stuff. Today though, the unloading was in full force. The worst thing was that I spent hours on the phone trying to set everything up perfectly and then nothing went as planned. No internet, the stuff I need doesn’t show up for like 5 days, I am currently using my dad’s login though- so I worked that one out. The big killer is the dish. I was hoping to watch world cup in high def. Well the guy shows up 4 hours late for his appointment and then doesn’t have the right dish! It even said it on the work order, and he was like “we don’t have that one in stock.” I was so pissed!!! I should back up. First, I was already pissed because the realtor said we could have satellite and made no bones about it. Then when I ask for the “permission” sheet, it makes a statement that no holes can be drilled into the house. Umm. How does that work? Magic dish? It floats and then magically sends the signal to the tv? So I call the company and ask if it will be a problem, they tell me not at all. Then after waiting 4 hours, I hear the truck. So I am totally amped, and then incredibly annoyed to see our neighbor talking to the dish guy. Apparently, she owns the duplex and is freaking out about a dish being put up. I was pissed because first, I was like, who the hell are you? Then I was pissed because I wouldn’t have moved in if they wouldn’t have let me install a dish. And she was getting ready to shut me down. Then she realized the could install it on a pole and she calmed down. Good thing too because I was about to lose it. But then, because he had to install it on a pole he couldn’t use the dish he brought be had to use the one on the sheet. Umm… So despite the fact that I ordered a specific dish that he did not have, and despite the fact that I called them the day before and said I would need it on a pole, and despite the fact I almost beat up the landlord, he then has the balls to tell me that it may take them 2 weeks to schedule me another appointment!!! Sure enough, July 27th is the next available date. I say that is ridiculous, and he tells me that it is an easy job, and he will look out for me and as soon as that dish arrives he’ll squeeze in a time to install it. My ass, like I should believe anything… This is the most annoying of the moving stories I have, but I have several more. But… alas, I am fricking tired. So now I will go up and lay on my inflatable mattress (because my mattress isn’t showing up until July 24th) and stare at the walls (because I cannot fall asleep without a tv to lull my mind). Thank god, I managed a broadband connection or I might be completely insane.
More later...

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Ok, one more post before I go... Oh man am I dreading tomorrow. Not because I have going to have to say goodbye to some of my closest friends- but because we have a ton of crap to load up!!! I have recruited my boys to help- but man. Over 20 pieces of furniture and over 100 boxes!!!! Not mention all the other random crap- wakeboard, snowboards, guitars... This is going to be nuts. The crazier thing is that I am basically going to unload it by myself. I have a guy from the new lab to help me with the heavy stuff. I might have to give it up and wait for the family. As long as I get that tv hooked up! Ha.
It's kind of funny about the timing of our leaving. I remember we decided to stay through 4th of July so we could celebrate it. Then a few days ago we realized that we had no plans for it! So we invited ourselves over to our friend Tony's. I had visions of going and seeing the Davis fireworks one last time, but now that we are parents the closest I got to the fireworks was when I could hear them as I was taking out the trash. Last year we went downtown and Rachel was running like a refugee because we were right where they shot them off and they were super loud. Rachel was shielding Lucas' 3 month old ears and running to protect him from becoming deaf. No such excitement this year. We had fun with friends, a nice BBQ. A good last gathering. Although I think we are hanging out with folks tomorrow after we pack up the truck. Tomorrow night will be the most interesting. We will have nothing at all in our apt. Lucas is going to keep us up all night, that is if sleeping on the air mattress doesn't. Lucas will be in a borrowed pack and play crib- oh boy... ugly. No Wiggles for the tv... UGLY. Oh man- I am praying for Sunday. If I can make it until then. I'll blog more in Pullman. Thank you Davis, you have been very good to me. Good for my career, good for my spirituality, my heart. I have made many lifelong friends here and this place has shaped who I am. I have no idea where the road ahead lies, but Davis will be a step that I will always remember and think back to fondly. It is always tough to move on, but this place will easy to leave- it's the people that will be hard as hell to say goodbye to...