The basement is done! I am going to seal up some small gaps in the corners and then it is ready for carpet! It was a brutal week for sure, but we are glad that it is done. Well sort of. I still need to finish the windows, build a door for the electrical box, and cover two other random holes in the wall that access plumbing. Oh yeah, and hang the closet doors and window treatments... seems like it might never end! Rachel wants us to paint the kitchen (and guaranteed we will by putting up a big green brush stroke on the wall). Then, I am sure our bedroom will follow, then the office... perhaps renting wasn't that bad after all?? ;)

Tomorrow we leave for CA! Won't be back to South Dakota until the 19th! So the madness continues, just when we are starting to get settled here- off to Davis, then Redondo, then Simi... A break from the basement though will make it a pleasant vacation!

One other note- we are regularly catching frogs in our egress windows. They are really like the coolest terrariums ever. You walk by, find the frog, grab it and play with it, then set it free. So far I have found all three groups of frogs! A ranid, a hylid, and a bufonid! Now if a tiger salamander would just drop in... I assume Rachel will be posting loads of pictures on her blog- but I'll try to put a couple here as well...

Oh man, I am so tired. I have been literally going non-stop the past 4 days. My "breaks" consist of trying to actually get things set up at my job- oh yeah guess I had better do something there. I literally do not even have a desk in my office... I'll worry about that later! HA! I am about halfway done with the baseboards- basically the closets are left and some wicked outside 135 degree corners that are bewildering me. I finally figured out the angle to miter cut- (22.5 if you are wondering) but cutting at that weird angle is a bit confusing. Do I take the outside measure, or inside? Which way do I turn that board to get it right? Did I just cut a 13ft board the wrong way? Sweet... Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow, but we'll see. The limitation of working while kids are not sleeping is a bit frustrating. I get in a groove and then have to just stop. I am going be so glad when Friday comes- I am over this mad rush work! But then I just have to turn to working non-stop on lectures! It never ends...

Sorry no photos - you have to look at Rachel's blog for those. We are making great progress though. All the doors are hung, the jambs are up in the closets and entryways, and just about all the trim is up (waiting for Ben's room to be finished painted). Lucas' room is nearly done- Rachel is fixing the stripe with a modelers brush. Looks great! She is finishing a second coat on Ben's room now, and I am trying to put Lucas to bed. We are going to put a second coat on the baseboards tonight and then I'll start putting them up. The only thing left will be painting the doors and jambs! I can see the home stretch!

Hey all! I have so much to say, but not a lot of time to say it! Where to begin?
So on Friday, we went to buy a washer and dryer. I figure with the drive time it should be at most a 2 hour job. Well, it ended up taking me 8... Why you ask? Well... our Penske truck was due back by 1:30pm and we should have just tried to beat the clock to transport the washer and dryer to our house. But... I thought let's not worry about it and have it delivered. Well they couldn't deliver it until Tuesday and that was just way too long to wait. So we decided to just rent a UHaul for $30 and we'd be fine. Well long story short, it took us forever to get the truck, pick up the washer dryer, drive it home, haul it up the stairs, and drive the truck back. I just got an invoice today- and that $30 bill went to $120 (mind you even more than the $100 fee for just keeping the Penske truck one more day)- plus $45 in gas. Due to the mileage, and me not getting the truck back before closing, we were charged $.99 a mile! Sweet!
Yesterday was quite an adventure as well. I had to wake up at 4:45am to bring my mom to the airport in Omaha, NE (2 hours away). Wasn't I surprised when Rachel woke me up at 5:45am! I rushed in and woke my mom- then quickly loaded the car. We were on the road, me only have been awake for 10 min, when I see birds on the highway. Literally my mind went, "I think those are Morning Dov...THUNK! Oops! I think that was a Morning Dove I just killed. Even the bird was not awake enough to fly out of the way- or perhaps it was used to cars going 55 on the country road and not 85... And so I flew down to Omaha, trying to keep it between 80-85 regardless of the fluctuating speed limit (55-75). What was reassuring was that I am pretty sure all the traffic was traveling at 75-80 so it didn't seem like I was a madman on the road. I pulled into the airport giving my mom 45 min to board her plane. No problem! I impressed even myself on that one! So, upon returning- I thought I'd stop by home depot and pick up more stuff. I find the door knobs Rachel wants and head back. So, I do this, return home and find that Rachel doesn't like the color. We have two sets of knobs Rachel doesn't like at this point... ha. Regardless, I am feeling good and want to start putting the doors in. So I measure the "rough opening" and then go measure one of the 5 doors. Umm... apparently the 32" on the prehung doors refers to the actual door and not the entire unit... So, I load up the doors in the Explorer (which to do I need to slide the drivers seat all the way forward) and drive cramped all the way back to Home Depot. They, of course, do not have the smaller doors I need so I am off to Lowes. After returning both sets of door knobs and loading up the Explorer, it's back to Vermillion! I get home around 4pm... Another day of complete busyness with little being achieved! So FINALLY I head down to install the door. Strangely, that was the easiest part of my day! Took a little bit of tweaking to get it just right, but the bathroom and utility doors are successfully in place. I am holding off on the bedroom doors until Rachel paints the rooms.
There were a thousand small stories that I normally would tell and animate colorfully, but there is just no time for witty blogging these days. I have two manuscripts to revise, and a ton of cutting to do today! My hope is to trim out the doors I have installed. Trying to decide if it is better to paint them first then install and just touch up, or cut them to fit and then paint them and install them. Decisions, decisions. I am just excited to use my new nail gun and miter saw!!! I'll take some photos of my handiwork on the cell and post them later (I hope).

Amphibians welcome us!

How does a herpetologist know he found the right home? When on day one he finds a frog in the egress window and on day 2 finds a toad!
-Jake

And we have landed in Vermillion!
In Vermillion form, we have landed joining rooms twice the size and half the price of the Quality Inn. I just feel bloody rich here... ha!
We took a long trip over here. Spent the morning visiting monuments (see below), then went out to see Wall Drug. We spent entirely too long there- but somehow that place sucked us in. Now we understand the wonder of Wall Drug, like folks say "you just have to experience it."
We had dinner in Mitchell, home of the infamous Corn Palace- a structure made entirely of corn. It was so late though, and not clearly obvious where the thing was- so we skipped out on it. It's only a couple hours away, so I am sure we'll check it out at some point. We arrived into town about an hour ago- both kids are dead asleep. Tomorrow morning we go off to sign the papers to our NEW HOUSE! Crazy. Then the real madness begins as we unload the truck. I got a few volunteers to help from my department- so hopefully it will go smoothly. The roughest part is always trying to sort through the hordes of boxes and find a new place for everything. We are hoping to head off tomorrow night to Home Depot and buy a washer and dryer as well as most of the materials needed to finish the basement. The idea is that we still have the moving truck and so we can easily throw everything in there and bring it back- rather than waiting for them to deliver it- since time is of the essence... Anyway, once again I am tired- so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to blog from my new home!

South Dakota!

Made it to rushmore! Saw crazy horse too but not enough time to do more than just drive by.
-Jake

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!
So after traversing the rest of Montana and cutting the corner of Wyoming we finally ended up in our new home state of South Dakota! Having spent most of our anniversary apart, Rachel and I looked forward to spending the night together. And yet, after cussing out the "supervisor" at the front desk, I am sitting alone in a hotel room with Ben shut in the bathroom. It's 9pm, and I still have not had dinner, and I am dying of thirst after having to heave up 3 heavy bags and a cooler in this "QUALITY INN." So perhaps I should back up...
After 8 hours on the road, we show up at the "Quality Inn" in Rapid City, SD. Rachel had confirmed that we had adjoining rooms booked so we were ready to put the kids to sleep and head out for a nice dinner. We had booked it through a national line, so Rachel called this hotel to be sure that we had rooms that would work for us. We were told it would not be an issue at all... sure. They give us rooms 200 and 201, not adjoined. So, we are pissed but at least they are next to each other. When we get to the rooms, we find that they in fact are in separate hallways. Yes they share a back wall, but to get to this room- we need to go through 2 doors and a 30 foot walkway. So, I tell them that this will simply not work. The nice guy at the desk "Manny" does all he can to accommodate us, but says he just has nothing open. So, I say we will have to look into finding rooms at another hotel. The staff nod approvingly, and realize our predicament and look genuinely sad about it. Rachel then frantically calls several nearby hotels. We find two that have rooms, a sketchy motor inn with adjoining rooms, and the one across the street- the Frontier Inn, that has two adjacent. I tell Rachel to choose one and go ahead and get over there, and I'll take care of the cancellation. The guy at the desk grabs the "supervisor" and we both tell her of our situation. She says that she'll see what she can do. Julie K. hears me tell Rachel to go get more rooms, and so I figure she has to do something to make it look like it is not easy to do this- but I fully expect her to make exception for us. While I await her return I see the front desk answer a phone call turning folks away- saying that they are booked. After a few minutes of her apparently doing NOTHING- she comes back and says she cannot do anything. ?!?!!? I tell her that I want to speak with her boss. She says her boss is Tim, the general manager and he has gone home and won't be back until morning. That's it. She offers us nothing. It now occurs to me that she clearly must not have been talking to anyone- because when I ask her if she can call Tim on the phone and let me talk to him, she makes some excuse about him living far away. I tell her, I'd like her to try him at home and she does resisting. She leaves a message saying there is a client that would like to talk to him, and comes back to tell me that he is not available. So I ask her what she can do for me? "I cannot do anything. You don't have a name of who you talked to that promised you the adjoining rooms?" This is when I literally start yelling- and those that know me realize that it takes QUITE A BIT to get me to yell. People all around the desk are looking at me wide eyed- like this guy is pissed! And clearly I am. So after I berate her on several levels, I actually told her that she has no idea how to manage. I said, "Let me tell you how to do your job- 1)you are going to take down my cell phone number and when Tim calls back tell him that he needs to call me and that you will do everything you can to give me my refund, 2) you are going to release my rooms and see if you can get someone else to book them (Rachel has us booked in another hotel at this point). Julie K. interrupts- "I cannot do that..." To which I totally lose it... I then ask her what the cancellation fee is. She says there is no fee- that we will be charged for the full rate. I honestly have no idea what I said at this point because I simply lost it. I remember in the end asking her for some paper, she hands me Tim's card and then I say "Julie... what is your last name?" She says, "K. Julie K." "WHAT! CAN I HAVE YOUR LAST NAME JULIE!" "No, there is another girl in town with my name and so I do not want to give it. I am the only Julie K. here so that will be enough." I mean seriously... After all this crap she was saying everything wrong to just make me much more pissed. I have never experienced a more inexperienced "supervisor" in my life. She watched me send away my wife to book another room knowing full well she could do nothing, and was going to charge me the full rate and said absolutely nothing. Then she offered nothing. Even if the policy forbade her from officially offering anything- when I have talked to folks before, they have at least appeared like they were on my side. Julie K. insinuated that Rachel made up the fact we were promised adjoining rooms... So I leave just pissed and head over to the other hotel. I get to the Frontier Inn and am telling Rachel in the lobby that they won't do anything for us. Rachel had already booked us here over the phone- so I nicely ask the lady there if she would let us out of our reservation. She, being a competent manager, says "I am not supposed to, but if you cancel it right now I'll let you out." And I say, "please do, thank you!!!" She has the presence of mind to say "call over there and make sure they don't give your room away." I said, "they cannot, Julie K says that they are not allowed to and that would be double booking" in the most mocking tone I can wrangle up. The manager, still says- "please just call them and make sure." So I do, and they have my keys sitting right there on the desk. As we leave I hear her answer the phone and in the end triumphantly claiming that they are all booked up. So we grab poor dead tired Ben across the street once again- and haul up all our gear. I get Ben setup in his pack n play and here I am typing.
-Update, it is now an hour later. My mom went to get us food and wound up wandering all over Rapid City. Rachel told her not to worry about us and so she returned without any dinner. It being so late and everything a mess, I rushed off to Subway (where my mom had just been) and order right before they close. "I'd like a footlong Italian..." "we are out of Pepperoni..." At this point I begin to giggle. So, I get a turkey and then tell them I'd like everything on it except Bell Peppers and Veggies... to which I then begin laughing out loud. The subway girl laughed as well, and I attempted the order again. "All the vegetables except Bell Peppers and veggies..." For some reason the word cucumber was being replaced with veggies. At this point I was just laughing because I had totally lost it. So now, here I sit on our 8th anniversary- with Lucas asleep on the floor (well lying there anyway), Rachel in the bed reading with her headlamp, and me sitting in an armchair (it is quite comfortable) finishing this blog. Next have to figure out where Mt. Rushmore is and perhaps finally get to a manuscript that needs to be resubmitted by Friday... Sleep? Maybe tomorrow night... at the next hotel room- likely also not with adjoining rooms... but at the very least they did not tell us they would block them for us! What a Quality Inn!

Wyoming!

Yellowstone was a solid day trip. Old faithful went off right when we arrived! The kids are starting to unwind now...

Montana!

Speaking of old friends... here we are yesterday in Missoula w/ Rachel's college roomate/ my friend's former prom date! In Yellowstone now. Old faithful photo next.

Hey all! Tomorrow we leave for SOUTH DAKOTA!
Today we loaded up the 26 ft truck. I had a great crew, pumped them up with coffee and donuts and we had the thing loaded in 3 hours. When we moved up here, we had serious space issues. So we packed it in tight for about 2/3 the truck and then we just ran out of stuff! So we created a netting out of some rope in case something decides to fall forward. We'll see how it goes. So now I am sitting in an empty house blogging. Only the essentials- laptop on a wireless connection and a tv with a Laker game on (albeit summer league)

The funny thing about moving is that it makes you think about friendships. You suddenly realize the many friendships you have in a place, some just great people you see occasionally, and others that you develop life long relationships with. Despite me trying to not make friends here, because I knew we'd be moving- I have met plenty of great people here. Some I will surely never see again in my life- others that are like you and will read my blog for the years to come. Despite the challenges of Pullman, I have met some great people here. Moving also makes me think about all the places I have been, and all the old friends that I have left behind. Although the internet has made it much easier to stay connected. With blogs, email, facebook, and the like- I can pretty easily update folks on my life and figure out what is going on with theirs.
So to all my dear friends reading this blog- either from Pullman or Davis, Simi or Redondo- here's to you! Thanks for all the memories, and thanks for staying in contact. I'll never show it emotionally, but you are all dear to me and I look forward to hanging out with you at some point in the future! (Some as soon as 2 weeks!)

Last note: stay tuned- I will be attempting to blog the road trip from my cell phone. Hopefully will get some fun photos for you!

4th

Facebook | Rachel Kerby's Photos - Happy 4th!

Sparklers Rule!  We had a busy but fun 4th.  Check out Rachel's blog for more photos of the crazy parade we went to (the only parade that goes in two directions because there is only one road in town!!!).  We then lit the standard fare of fireworks, and watched a pretty cool show from our friends Matt and Amy's house (who lives directly under where they launch them).  Poor Lucas was done before we hit the finale so I watched them from inside the house...  ha.

Only 13 days until we move...

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