The coolest thing about our new house can be summed up in two words: laundry chute.

Last night’s State of the Union address left me feeling a bit patriotic, so I checked out the White House web site this morning. Wow. Vast improvement over the old White House web site. This site actually had …. information on it. I was even impressed with the kids site. Very cool.

The move this past weekend was successful. The weather, once again, was on our side: 50 degrees and sunny in January. Everything went out without a hitch, we were out of the old, into the new and even cleaned the old in just six hours. It’s a good feeling to be out of that bust of an apartment we were living in in Burnsville, which pretty much turned out to be the ghetto. (Or should I just call it “ghetto,” as in “Our apartment was ghetto?” Paula introduced me to the phrase yesterday when we were comparing grocery stores. “Our Cub Foods is ghetto.” Ghetto as an adjective. Who woulda thunk?) We still have a crapload of unpacking to do, but at least we’re sleeping, eating and finding things to wear each day (thank god). And, the HOM Furniture folks just called too … turns out our new furniture may be arriving this Saturday.

My life feels unstable. With the move and everything else going on lately, it feels like the only comforting and normal place anymore is work. Yeah, that’s pretty sad when I look forward to coming to work for the normalcy, because it sure as hell isn’t normal around here lately. The construction continues and we’ve gone without a kitchen for nearly two weeks (I shouldn’t complain, considering the nice space I’m working in — but still, I’m getting grossed out washing my lunch dishes in the bathroom). Hopefully the project will be done soon and we’ll be moved into new offices by the end of February.

So, that’s that. A summary of the past week or so …. more posts later.

The great debate: it’s 5:15 p.m. — stay at work or go home? I haven’t finished packing yet and I’m dreading going home since it means wrapping dishes and wine glasses in newspaper and trying to find boxes for them all. But, they’re doing construction at my office (today, sadly, they tore out the kitchen; I hadn’t realized how much I used the kitchen sink til it was gone), and the whole house/office smells a bit like some sort of cleaning fluid. I’m not sure what it is … maybe the glue that was holding the linoleum down or the cabinets up? Whatever, it’s giving my right eye and nostril a bit of a run and sniffle …. so best go home.

I tagged along with Ry and Paula last night to A Beautiful Mind. After leaving the theater, I felt as if I truly understood schizophrenia. Really, I know that I will never understand it without having it (if? when? onset can happen, I learned, at any age and is likely in your 20s), but the film did an excellent job of teaching me what it’s like to be living with the disease and what it’s like for loved ones. (I felt the same way after reading Drinking: A Love Story, a memoir written by an alcoholic.) Anyway, a few links P and I gathered this morning that I’ll park here … hoping I’ll get back to read them soon:

My “to blog” list has grown increasinlgy longer over the past few weeks … so, in no particular order:

Wildfire. A few weeks back, Ryan and Paula invited us to the newest Twin Cities restaurant, Wildfire, of the “Lettuce Entertain You” crowd. After waiting two and half hours for a table, we were finally greeted with menus, which looked a lot like its sister restaurant, only with higher prices. Despite our grousing over the menus, the manager did come over and apologized for the wait, giving us a free appetizer. And, we were all so soused on cocktails, by the time our food came, no one cared that is was already 10:45 p.m. Overall: good food, high priced, average to good service. Will I return? Maybe.

Prayer Shawls. My co-worker tells me that knitting is “in.” This past weekend she chaperoned a group of junior high kids on a choir retreat and found them all gathered in one cabin … knitting (yeah, I thought she was going to say they were smoking or naked or something crazy like that). Apparently, some were knitting “prayer shawls.” The concept is that while you’re knitting, you pray. Then, these shawls are given to people in hospices or nursing homes, and when they wrap the shawls around them, they feel wrapped in prayer. Apparently, the concept’s been around forever, but since I don’t knit (or perform any other handicraft), I have never heard of them. A quick search on Google.

Snow Fences. If you’re not from around here (where it snows), you probably have no idea what a snow fence is. I was thinking about this on Monday when I drove onto campus … we got dumped by a whole lot of snow over the weekend and I was wondering how snow fences actually worked. I thought this would be a great article for the How Stuff Works web site (but it’s not there). The answer is here.

Portraits of Grief in the New York Times.

Blogging cliques. When I first started blogging a few years ago, a little page of jealousy always went through me when I read about a group of bloggers getting together for hiking, drinks, movies, conferences, etc. Now I, too, can say that “I and a couple of other bloggers got together for dinner last week.” (Eric, where’s that picture?)

Moving update. Our new address and phone number will be official next week! If you want it, send me an e-mail. Speaking of moving, all of utilities have nearly been established as well. All that’s left to do is find a garbarge collector. The city of Bloomington licenses three garbage collectors/recyclers. I need to call all three to get quotes. Weird. Calling around to get a quote on trash removal. The things you learn when you buy a house.

I’m blogged out. I’ve been reading Lileks a bit lately and he’s motivating me to write more frequently. Thus, my attempt. So, we’ll see if this trend continues.

I thought it might be time to get back to blogging. Maybe I’ll make it a New Years resolution. But then again, I guess I’ve already broken it since it’s already the 10th. Nonetheless, I’m back (at least for now). Things I’ve learned in the last couple of weeks…

1. Homeowners insurance can be confusing and takes time to get quotes.
2. Real Christmas trees shed lots of needles when they are dry.
3. Trying to get everything arranged for closing on a new house takes time…especially when playing phone tag.
4. I’m getting more frustrated at work not having a computer on my desk.
5. I work with a great group of volunteers and I like my job better everyday.
6. That to do well in Fantasy Football you don’t even have to pay attention to the games during the season (I think I only watched about 2 games all year)
7. The fact that it is now 2002 has seemed to some how changed my perspective by getting rid of 2001 and its craziness.
8. I’m getting more excited every day that gets closer to being a homeowner (that is with Lynsey and the bank).

Not a whole lot of news to report on the Struthers front. New Year’s came and went with six lovely guests bringing in 2002 at our apartment. We’ve been looking at furniture lately for the new place …. but have yet to buy anything (Roger’s still getting over the sticker shock of coffee table prices). And, we’ve watched the entire second season of HBO’s “Sex and the City”. Resolutions include flossing. So, how’s all that for the new year?

Rog and I have been addicted to Sex and the City lately (the HBO show, silly) after he got me the second season boxed set on VHS. But wait! You can get sexy in the Twin Cities, too!