A super week

This week was pretty great. We finished putting up the last paintings and did all those last finishing touches. We still have some boxes in the garage, but they won't take long to move in now that we have designated places for everything. We went to Des Moines to the art museum. They have a very impressive collection. We enjoyed walking around. To the left is Jamie at the front. Then we found this little British themed pub in an alley and had lunch. They had Scotch eggs! I made Jamie order one and eat it since I don't eat meat. He said it was great. I had fish and chips, real beer batter that they make in house. it was super. Here is a silly photo of him and the scotch egg:

and a very silly one of myself:

Art Communtiy in Iowa Discovered

Heather: This week we've been getting the house in order, unpacking boxes and exploring the community. Yesterday we went to Des Moines for a day trip. They have a farmer's market downtown on Saturday mornings. We're planning to go next week. Also this week, I went to a studio cooperative and met some of the artists working there, and spoke to them about renting a space. They like my work a lot. When one of the artists in residence who has to help review my submission gets back from her vacation they will interview me, see if i'm a good fit and if they are a good fit for me, and voila! I'll be a member. The organization's website is www.creativeartists.org. I'm excited about getting to know the artist community here in Ames. It seems like there is a pretty vibrant one and it seems like the public here has an appreciation for local art too!

Progress, progress.

Heather: Everything is either in the house or garage. We finished unloading the truck Sunday and turned it in. By 11pm we had all the boxes moved in from the driveway and were ready to call it a day. I've almost got the kitchen put together. My goal was to cook dinner tonight but that may be ambitious. Jamie says he's going to make it out here. There is a super microbrewery pub/restaurant with a superb selection of tasty brews and two really great video stores with almost everything on our movie watching wish list. That, wireless internet, coffee shop extraordinaire, local short order diner for breakfast, and panini for lunch make the recipe for davi in iowa happy, happy, happy!

Jamie: Indeed....we are currently at the local pub/microbrewery drinking malty caramelly ale and reading online news. Today is the first day we have really been having fun here, although arriving and getting into the house was exciting. There is a fine selection of exploitation goodness at the video store here along with a whole section of Criterion collection flicks. Between the two, we should be able to entertain ourselves. Everything out here is cheap too. We actually have a big stack of DVDs at home that we paid about ten bucks to rent. I'm looking forward to work where I'll start getting to know some people, but this vacation time is really nice.

Iowa, finally

Heather: I was just reviewing my last post, full of glee and excitement about the trip. Wow that was a long time ago. I am glad I wasn't aware of what we had in store for us.

We left Macon at about 3pm Thursday, 5 hours later than schedule, not having finished packing the night before. Atlanta traffic was a breeze; it was not nearly as bad as it could have been if we'd hit it only 30 minutes later. After Atlanta, we didn't see much traffic at all. We got to Lexington at 1 am so the first leg of the trip took 9 hours. The cats were perfect gentlemen. They slept almost the whole way. There were no accidents, kittie or otherwise. They used the makeshift litter box like traveling pros.

We got about 8 hours of sleep at my parent's house, my mom cooked lunch for us and my sister's family (my nieces are adorable), we walked around downtown and went out to dinner with everyone, then got back on the road about 10pm. Our spirits were high... for the first 8 hours or so. Man that was a long drive. We made what seems like a lot of pit stops between filling up the tank (8 times I think?), picking up caffienated beverages and depositing the result of the former pit stop. Also, near the end of the trip Xerxes started complaining and thinking that he needed to "go" we kept stopping to let him out. We finally figured out that he was just getting frustrated at being locked in a box and ignored him. Then, he would meow for 20 minutes and sleep for 2 hours, meow for 10, sleep for three, etc.

We arrived in Ames at noon. Our spirits rose. We were finally here! Time from Lexington to Ames: 14hrs. Total time in the truck: 23hrs. When we got here we went to the Budget's drop off location and freed the car from its trailer, parked the truck and the cats at the house (the cats love the basement by the way) and went to dinner at about 4pm, or 3pm here. Something told me that the butter cream sauce was a bad idea for such a tired body. Jamie and I got giggly and started feeling inebriated through fatigue. We came back to the house and spread out a blanket for a nap (by that time it had been 30 hours since we'd slept not counting dozes in the truck). The kitties must have been worried about us because even though they were hungry they didn't bother us until I got up a couple of hours ago to deal with the consequences of eating such a rich meal - my stomach thought that shrimp scampi was an even worse idea than I did.

The cats have begun to feel comfortable enough to romp around the house. Xerxes has found a couple of hidey-holes that he feels comfortable in. Nero is comfortable anywhere, he doesn't care. Jamie has an alarm set for himself for midnight to start some light work. We haven't unpacked the bed yet. The weather is nice and the house is cute in a renovated-in-the-seventies sort of way. Nero looks like he needs some TLC and i need some from him, so I'll be signing off now...

Pina Colada, not just a cliche.

Heather: Well, the pool party was a success. We made dinner out of the pantry (less to pack), swam and had a good time with friends we won't see for a while. Jamie cooked a pork roast, and I was the salad maiden. I made pasta, cucumber and spinach salads. Ashli brought fresh strawberries and pound cake for desert. I even got some packing done this morning before Jamie woke up. It was a good day.

Jamie: Spent the afternoon drinking pina coladas (we've nailed the recipe.....add cinnamon and mango juice and be liberal with the coconut rum; *heather: the virgin ones we made for Ed and Ben were delicious too*) and playing in the pool with all our Macon friends. It was a nice way to see them all together one last time before we leave. We'll see most of them again during the week, but probably not all at the same time. Now I've got dry eyes (from the pool) and I'm nicely tired. After supper everybody was kinda staring around and wobbling like tired little kitties. Wrestling in a pool while drinking rum for two hours and then eating a pound or pork roast will wear you out. Great party.

It's time to call it a night. We've got everything back in order at Terrell's, and we're gonna go sleep a out house tonight to spend some time with the cats, who will no doubt appreciate it. I can't wait to get settled into our new place. Our vacation summer is going splendidly, but it'll be nice to settle back into a routine. Tomorrow we've gotta do a little more moving business and a bit more packing. I really think we'll be almost ready to go by tomorrow night, which means we can relax a bit. It's funny how physically demanding moving is. I have been working out a lot this summer, but I've still been sore all week.....

Almost finished packing up our house!

Heather: We have a little more packing to do. We've been packing during the day and swimming in the pool at night almost every night. Tonight, after working all day we had dinner with friends and we all came back to the house and swam. It feels like we've been on vacation half of every day. We've eaten two watermelons, mostly poolside and we have one for tomorrow, a huge one that Jamie weighed on the bathroom scale. It is 35 lbs! Tomorrow, we are taking a break from packing. We've invited Rob, Courtney, Steve, Ashli, Ed and Ben for another pool party. We'll be making pina coladas, pasta salad and a roast from Jamie's dad. I'll be making the drinks the way I learned on Isla Holbox during the trip for Emilie's wedding - lots of pineapple and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Then Monday it will be back to the grindstone with only two packing days left!

Jamie types from this point forward..... We are tired as all hell, but it's like vacation tired, not stress tired, so we're having fun. We sleep till mid morning, eat breakfast and read the papers (Terrell gets the Macon Telegraph which is interesting....the Asian Massage Parlors have just been survived there annual raid and are back in business again...and the New York times, which is actually good...both are equally valuable for packing dishes), go back to our house and hang out with the cats (who are taking all this in stride) and move (dusty) stuff around, then it's dinner with friends and back to Terrell's for a nightcap and a swim. It's a pretty good deal.

We are enjoying our friends and our hometown (neither of us is from Macon, but it's really our hometown just the same), but we're excited about Ames. Living in a college town is gonna be fun, and living in a cold Midwestern place is gonna be an adventure. And it's a more German influenced culture (for anyone who's never been to north central Iowa, everybody talks like an extra from Fargo, or like Garrison Keillor...they're all absurdly polite, which is odd for someone whose spent time around some of the colorful people who live in Macon) so there will be lots of very very white people (pleasant but dull), but lots of really good beer (there are at least three microbreweries within a half our of our house). It seems like it'll be a cozy fun place to be once the snow shows up and makes it exciting. Also there will be beer.

Anyway, once we finish moving all our stuff around we'll be off. But first we gotta eat a pork roast and drink pina colodas tomorrow. Keep your hands to yourself.