niblet.us v5.1

Here We Go Again

July 10th, 2009

Well, that was difficult.  I have to get over a huge hurdle in writing this post in that so much time has elapsed it becomes difficult to start again.  Very similar when you get gung-ho to go to the gym and then you stop for a few weeks and it becomes easier and easier to ignore it and rationalize with yourself that you’ll start fresh the next week.  Then about 5-6 weeks later, you realize nothing has changed and you’ve got even more work to do.  So it is time for me to put in some of that work, so recapping the changes:

niblet.us

So after the move to IN, niblet.us hit some road blocks.  I bought a new wireless router and the connection to the server would go down 2-3 times per day and only a power cycle of the router would fix the problem.  So I returned the router and bought a different brand and that one seemed to grab a new IP address every night (for the none techies, lets just say it causes issues too).  So while talking about all of this with Angie, she re-iterated she would be sorely disappointed if something happened to niblet.us.  That comment finally pushed me over the edge to move the site over to a hosted service.

So after a long drawn out process, niblet.us was moved.  Uploading the 6000 photos took some time and getting everything setup correctly just added more time.  I finally got the major things right, but there are still numerous smaller things that I will try to tweak over time.  I don’t like the color of the links in the photos section and all photos that were in the blogs have to be relinked.  Not a big deal, but it will take some scrubbing.  Nevertheless, it is close enough now.

The House

Well obviously we’re in a new house now too.  We didn’t buy it as we were short of time to look for a house and at the time, our St Paul house had no hope of selling.  In the end, it is not a bad house.  It is much larger and has a huge yard which takes me about 4-5x to mow than the old yard.  Will has a real room now and my office is in Leo’s room (he’s rarely in it anyway).  Angie and I even have a half bath off the bedroom which I have pretty much claimed as my own.

We were given a nice swing set for the backyard and so far that is the highlight for Will.  Although he claims this house has too many closets and he doesn’t like it, I think he’d miss his swing if we left for too long.  Angie did all the painting in the house so when I eventually upload some photos, you’ll see it (I have to go through a process of re-arranging the albums as The House isn’t THE House anymore).  I still have numerous things laying around that I think Angie wants me to hang up, but she is too busy working nights to ask anymore.  There are also still boxes sitting around that need emptied or thrown out, so officially, we haven’t finished unpacking.

The Jobs

I can put jobs in the plural form now as Angie has officially started her residency.  The downside is she started on nights in the ICU.  Not fun for her or the family, but we only have two nights left and then she’ll switch back to days.  I’ve been with the boys at night and during the weekends and with some help from the family the time with them hasn’t been too stressful.  Bedtime is usually the most difficult as Will becomes very needed and usually has to go to the bathroom, have a story read, have toys found for him, and generally stays up too late playing in his bed.

As for me, I left 3M at the end of May.  It was weird.  I heard the door click and suddenly, I felt the weight of the decision.  I realized I would never walk in those doors again and when I saw my house again it would likely be for the last time.  I went home, checked every inch of the house and walked out another door.  We signed our papers and before 4 o’clock we were on the road leaving MN for the last time.  Every beginning has an ending and every ending brings another beginning.  For me, that beginning is Alliance Cost Containment.  The whole change was a big leap for me, but so far I am very glad I did it.  I am really looking forward to the work I will be doing.

Misc.

So our new house is much like most of Indy and there aren’t a lot of sidewalks to walk on and certainly the road is busy enough to keep a lot of cycling out of my mind.

My new shop is tiny, but I have managed to cram even more machines in (which were the only things that caused the move to be any real issue).

I am really enjoying being so close to family and friends, but I do miss some people from MN.  I also miss having the Menards 3 miles away and knowing exactly where I could find anything in the local Target.

I am happy to know I can have Steak n Shake anytime I want, but Texas Roadhouse excitement quickly wore off for me.

There is a Famous Dave’s here, but it seems to suck compared to its MN counterparts.

There are some pretty cool parks around us, but nothing like the Como Zoo and Como lake.

One of our neighbors made us an excellent peach pie, but they are older and I am not sure if they have any kids.  Our other neighbor is really old.  A vast change from our MN neighbors.

I kind of like not having to work on a house or look at all my unfinished work.

Leo is almost crawling.  He has the leg thing down, but hasn’t figured out how to move his arms with his legs.

Since we won’t be away from our house for a week this Christmas, we will probably get a real tree this year.

This house has issues with ants.

Indy is kind of behind with the whole recycling thing.

Although I hound Angie about it all the time, I think the house does look nicer with paint.

We don’t have enough furniture to fill this house, so I am really eager to make a few things to fill the holes.

That’s it, I am calling it a post.  Thanks for reading.

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