Pre-Halloween Update

I guess we are truly moved in, except for some boxes in my office. I've gone through all my things and have a huge amount of clothes and dishes to either sell at a rummage sale or take to Goodwill (I'm a big fan of Goodwill, per its focus on providing job training and placement services for people who face employment challenges). Being the voracious reader that I am, you will be surprised at the few number of books I have to sell (I had gotten rid of a lot of books when I moved to Germany).

When are you coming to visit? We've got corn hole!

Per cleaning out my things and Stefan and I merging all our worldly goods together, I now respectfully beg that no one ever buy or send us:

• anything with the University of Kentucky on it. Not that I'm not still a Kentucky basketball fan but, geesh, I've got a ridiculous amount of stuff with UK on it.
  
• t-shirts of any kind (both of us have too many even with cleaning out our stash).
• coffee mugs, glasses, utensils, cookware or dishes of any kind.
• dish rags, towels, blankets or linens of any kind.
• dog collars.
• dog bowls.
• Christmas decorations (believe me, Mamaw gave me more than enough over the years).
• picture frames.
• candles (we could light and heat our house for months).
• luggage.
• bags.
  

I'd say camping gear as well, but we're such gear queers when it comes to camping... can you really have too much camping gear? This coming from a household with three tents...

We've begun the nasty process of getting restitution from Xpress Van Lines, the company that moved our things from Louisville to Portland, with a month of storage in Los Angeles. Not only did they do an incredible amount of damage to our things, they also had a clause so that our month of free storage was, in fact, not at all free -- they wanted to charge eight times the going rate for storage in L.A. My detailed review on Yelp will be coming soon as well, but until then, here are photos that show some of the damage.

We've decorated the outside of the house a bit for Halloween, just enough so that the neighborhood kids will know that they can come a'callin' for treats. I have a feeling we're going to have a TON of kids. Let's see how many times I have to say, "Sorry, but no costume, no candy."

Stefan had his first job interview, and its very probable he will be getting an offer. Downside is that the job will be a hefty commute for him. But, right now, the word "job" is all that either of us are looking for. I did my fourth interview of the year; let's hope four is a charm. I've never interviewed so many times in my life -- gone are the days when an interview meant a job for me. Frown. Plus, a job is going to seriously cut into my NCIS rerun viewing.

My presentation to a certain association of volunteer firefighters in a certain state went well. I'd love a consulting gig out of it, but what I would like more is for Stefan to get to be a volunteer firefighter out of it. GEESH. I never want to hear a fire house whining about needing volunteers again.

I've loved the weather lately, especially when it's been crisp in the morning. Albi loves cold weather -- she loves to run when it is. But just in the last few days, it's really warmed up. Just as long as it's not too cold, and it's dry, for our probably rummage sale next weekend and for corn hole in the back yard (yes, Stefan finished, and it's awesome). Now, if we could just figure out how the freakin' thermostat works...

Still no motorcycle title. I suspect the company took too much time between two or more the steps in the process, hence why they are suddenly saying, after 13 weeks, that they may not be able to get the title after all. It's already been a huge blow to Stefan to not get to be a volunteer firefighter -- no title for the Africa Twin too, and I wouldn't blame him if he said he wanted to go back to Germany.

I grew up in a household without the book Where the Wild Things Are (or anything by Dr. Seuss, for that matter), but because it was all around me in other people's homes and the school library, I saw it, read it, and loved it (just like Dr. Seuss books). Stefan doesn't understand why, every time a preview for the movie comes on, I tear up and look like a nine-year-old that's just been told Santa is coming. And how in the world do you explain it if you didn't grow up with it?!? But who knows when we'll see it -- it's amazing how busy you are even when you are unemployed. A reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle asked the author, "What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?" Author Maurice Sendak replied, "I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate." (more). Hee hee.