House photos

Hilary posted some photos of our house! We will post more as we begin to fill it

Krumbie's Moving and Demolition inc.

Burdened by your worldly possessions? Tired of hauling around worthless piles of sentimental junk but can't quite bring yourself to lighting a bonfire? We understand. Here at Krumbie's, we specialize in helping you cut the cord. Our "moving" fees are cheapest on the market*, and we guarantee you won't find any others who do as thorough of a job.

Whether you prefer your boxes damaged and ripped,

squashed and mangled, battered and bashed,** stepped on, dragged through mud, or disassembled and left un-boxed***, we can do it all.

Tired of well wishing neighbors who always want to talk? Feel encumbered by social obligations from having good relationships with the houses next door? We can help you! We here at Krumbie's understand that first impressions matter most, and that's why we promise to "deliver" your shipment with the largest street-legal semi possible. When your neighbors find that you've blocked the road, stopped traffic and, if possible, blocked one or two**** of their driveways for as long as we can get away with it before the cops come, we can guarantee you won't feel obligated to interact with them for years.

This month we are running a blue-smoke promotional. We've modified the back-tires of all our moving vans to "accidentally" catch on fire and torch your goods. State laws require we put the fire out as fast as possible, but you can sleep soundly knowing that if your shipment doesn't perish in the fire it will at very least be permanently smoke damaged.

[Soot damaged products. Actual damage may vary.]

So hurry up and place your order now, while spare tires and fire-extinguishers last!

*Unapplicable to customers who wish to replace damaged goods.

** What our customers are saying: "I was worried my stainless steel tool-chest would be safe, but Krumbie's pulled through again, and when I got it in PCB, it was as smashed and worthless as the rest of the shipment." - Timothy Marston, Panama City Beach, FL

*** What our customers are saying: "I was concerned about my furniture, instruments, and sentimental overstuffed chairs, but those pads, blankets and boxes they used when picking everything up were just for show. Mine were disassembled, un-protected, and a few even had footprints on them when delivered. That'll teach me to doubt Krumbie's again."

**** Only available in triple-trailer legal states

Glass lizard

I didn't think I'd catch one so soon, but while trapsing back to Jon's place this evening Hilary spotted something slithering through the grass. Instict took over and I caught it. I brought my thrashing prize back to Hilary. Because it was wiggling so violently I couldn't tell what it was at first (other than that it was not a poisonous snake), but I had a hunch that it wasn't a snake because it wasn't biting me. I grabbed it's head, and saw this (click on link please)! That's not the one I caught, I let it go because its tail came off and it was smearing me with blood. I let the thing go, and it mysteriously slid underground immediately. A legless lizard is the bizarrest thing, but it was really neat.

Thanks for all the comments; I apologize for being unresponsive we've been trying to work on getting our house set up over here but I'm happy to see that people are following it

Photos

$600 dollars?

We're looking around for used furniture on Craigslist now. I can't believe how many people are, um... optimistic about the value of their old sofas.

Old habits die hard

Inspired by my discovery of a giant millipede roughly 5 inches long crawling on the wall outside tonight, I thought I'd catalog a few of my discoveries since arriving:

Brown Anoles: 2 or 3
Green Anoles: 5 or 6
Geckos: 4 or 5
Toads: 1
Skinks: 1
Katydids: 1
Giant millipedes: 2

The list will no doubt be lengthened, and photos will be added for the sake of younger brothers and sisters in law who are interested (like me) in creatures of the sorts (Noah... Christiana...)



I had to abruptly finish my post which is why I didn't mention visiting Paula and Josh. On our last major day of travel, last Saturday, Hilary and I visited Paula, Josh and Camilla at their home in Pensacola. We had a great time, and among other things Josh introduced Hilary and I to a very interesting game called "Nim" that you can play with virtually any type of object that you have 11 of. I suppose you could probably even play with a pen and pencil. I won't mention any more about it other than the fact that, if I go first, I will probably beat you.

Anyway, we are here at Panama City Beach now. The last few days have been devoted mostly to apartment hunting, but also to setting up insurance, opening a bank account, finding a doctor, and the other normal stuff you need to do when transitioning to a new job and moving to a new area. The Lafollets, friends of Hilary and mine, have generously opened their house to us until we move into our own. We just signed a lease today, and will be moving into our place on monday. We are pretty happy with it, and hope that it can be a place that people will be comfortable visiting/staying with us. I'll post photos at some point.

Hola!

I interrupt the posts about the vacation we took in Japan and Hong Kong 2 months ago to bring you news of our travels across the country.

After having spent 5 of the last 6 nights in hotels, I believe I've become a bit of a mid-range hotel connoisseur. At least I would if it weren't for the fact that all but one of our stays were in Holiday Inn. On our first day we drove from Pullman to Ogden, a small city roughly 40 miles from Salt Lake city. The price for one night at government rate was $115. The next day we traveled to Flagstaff AZ. The price for one night at government rate was $105. The price for one night at the Holiday in several miles outside of Albuquerque was $95, and finally, in Vicksburg, $85.

You can clearly see a trend here: the price of lodging in a Holiday in drops in a roughly linear fashion as you move southwest at a slope of approximately $10 per 600 miles. Our last night was spent in Pensacola, and if you follow the trend, statistically speaking, the pricing of a stay at the Holiday Inn should be in the neighborhood of $80 dollars. $80 for a night in a quality establishment like that would have been money well spent, but instead I opted for convenience and settled for a Hampton Inn, which, being $35 (almost 140%) more per night than the projected value of a stay at a Holiday Inn in the same city, should have been in comparison a much more luxurious experience. The outdoor pool was very nice, but the frills ended there. Half of our towels had dirt and hair on them (though, when we got them exchanged they apologized with a bag of expensive cookie things and two bottles of spring water. Alas, before I even hung them up I spotted a pubic hair on one of the new towels), our old-fashioned CRT TV had no DVD player or any way to connect to our laptop (unlike all of the Holiday Inns we stayed at), and the breakfast options in the morning were not as extensive as at a Holiday Inn. There wasn’t even any meat. This was especially disappointing, given that the receptionist the night before was bragging about how great the breakfast was going to be. Holiday inns seem to alternate daily between bacon and sausage, though the “bacon” from Holiday inn is missing my favorite component of bacon, namely, the bacon.

Holiday Inn didn’t have perfect batting average either, in one hotel we weren’t given any shampoo and despite the claims of the hotel policy notice pasted in the bathroom, we weren’t delivered a bottle upon request because the hotel was understaffed. Oh well. The Holiday Inn outside of Albuquerque had mosquitoes buzzing all around the first floor, but not on the floor we stayed in. On the plus side, in Flagstaff there was an arcade next to the elevator (marvel vs. capcom! And a few other titles).

Ok… this post has essentially been facetious because we highly enjoyed the entire trip, and one of our favorite stops was at the Hampton Inn at the end. The whole trip we experienced blessings – not a single flat or ticket. In Texas we got to stop and see the Coonies, friends of both of our families that we hadn’t seen in 15 years, in Pensacola we got to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law and beautiful niece, we got to see amazing natural wonders, listen to amazing books on tape, have great conversations, and had only one conflict in the car which resolved in such a way that my wife and I were closer after than before. Not only was it a great trip, I am beginning to think it was the best trip possible.

Now, I will post some photos, for your enjoyment.

Day 1: We leave pullman


New tires, smooth ride

This is Inn-soo, we stayed with her the 2 months before we left

View that we will miss, from our back porch

The big sky of the palouse

A resort-ish town in Idaho that we drove through

Southern Idaho was pretty barren.

Day 2: Odgen UT to Flagstaff AZ

The mormon temple

View from the top of the Mormon HQ

Utah

Mt. "Nebo"

Cool rocks

Bryce Canyon - amazing, more accessible than the Grand Canyon, and easier to appreciate

Red Canyon - you drive through it on the way to Bryce

On the way to flagstaff

Day 3: Flagstaff AZ to Grand Canyon to Flagstaff AZ to Albuquerque NM

Tallest point in AZ - not that impressive

Land above the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon

Grander than the Grand Canyon

Good to drink a lot of this

Day 4: Albuquerque to Lubbock, TX

Notice the lack of photos. This is because there just wasnt much to take photos of.

The Cooney's! Mr. and Mrs, + Kristin Briggs (Cooney) and her husband Elliot

Day 5: Lubbock to Vicksburg

This was in Mobile Alabama. Pretty cool.

Day 6: Vicksburg to Pensacola

Day 7: Pensacola to Panama City Beach