April is in my mistress' face!

I sang that song 13 years ago. Man am I old. April is pretty much done, but that doesn't stop me from posting some end of the month stuff. Kinda like a clearance sale without the ugly colors and styles.

Speaking of ugly, I got a Ford Taurus for my trip to Newberry yesterday. In reality, I really liked the car. The stereo was awesome!! Even better than my equipment at home. It got almost 37 mpg and was decently comfortable. Still a Ford.

On my way home, I drove past a Peoria Charter Coach bus!! I was so excited! I didn't recognize it at first and I barely saw it drive by. I guess I wasn't expecting it. I learned later that it was on a Myrtle Beach & SC tour.....that happened to stop by Newberry, of all the frackin' places.

*Dramatization

I was furniture shopping the other day and ran across this gem. If I knew this existed, I probably wouldn't have sold our house. It would have opened up a lot of space in our dining room!

One of my projects was to fit the ginourmous refrigerator into the slighly smaller hole.

Almost....but not quite.

Hmmmmm. Maybe this will help.

Tada! Piece of cake!

I stopped for gas. Good heavens, that's fracking high. It's probably going to get worse.

Dennis and I went to Red Robin this weekend. Stay away. Seriously. This cost me $13 and was mediocre, at best. It makes Fuddrucker's look like a bargain. Red Robin!......eh.

After dinner, it started pouring. We ran and ran and ran to find shelter.

We look up and realize we had run into a Cold Stone Creamery!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Outside our office, they were preparing to blast the granite to start the foundation on a new hotel. They had been drilling these little holes for days. Then they put dynamite into the holes and covered the whole thing with some sort of heavy mats.

BOOM! Now we have a big bulge but we're all still alive.

The end.

I've been Fuddrucked!

Before I get to the Fuddrucked part, here's the update for the week! I have been very very busy, if not overwhelmed. Besides unpacking all of our belongings, work has been demanding and the lawn has been growing!

I am starting to fit into my new job....pretty much. This was my first "real" week on the job in Greenville. In case you don't remember the reason I moved down was to take a job working at the City of Greenville MIS. That was a long time ago. In the last few days, however, I have begun to perform calls on my own, and since they were fairly simple tasks with very nice people, I was successfull. I catch myself being a little sad thinking about family, friends, and PPG. I know it will all work out and if I just hang on a little longer, things will pick up here when Erin moves down. In the meantime, I am going to hang out with Dennis (if he even wants to) and Sam. No chicks, cause I'm a good husband.

Things have really been growing here! lawns are green (except my poor thing) and trees are full. Here's a shot of the entrance to my neighborhood:

The last couple days I have made it a point to walk during a break or to an office location. Here's Main Street in all of its glory:

What a dork! Here's me in my duds.

Mmmmmm. My favorite! Brings back memories from our trip to DC. I had tons of these to sell! I sold half and ate the other half. I broke even, I guess. Anyway, they've been sneaky. The bars sell for the same price, but are much smaller.
You haven't been Rucked until you've been Fuddrucked! Dennis and I went there last weekend. I really enjoyed it, but they are pretty pricey.

Nice ambience! (for a burger workaurant)

Toppings bar! They even had free cheddar cheese.......heaven!!!

Take a good look at where your $12 went. The smiley face was the least they could do.

Then later this week, our piano came! The poor delivery guys got lost several times. I told 'em "Welcome to my world!!!"

Careful...careful...

Tada! This room will be our "music study" Erin and I will have a private place to practice and read, once we install some french doors :)

After such a long week, I need a drink. I know, it's only a Bacardi, but if you know me, you know I'm a lightweight drinker. This knocked me out right away. not really.

Last night, Dennis and I watched Cloverfield. I highly recommend it!!!

Tonight, I am going to catch up on Office, 30 Rock, sleep, and Battlestar Gallactica.

I plan to have most of the house put together by next week!

Until then........

We've moved!

Hi everybody! It's been an absolutely crazy week. The last time I spoke to you, we were moving out of our old house. After we moved out, Erin and I moved in with my parents for a few days and relaxed a little bit. We had a great time! I slept on a real bed for the first time in months :) I rode the motorcycle a little bit and enjoyed the best weather that Peoria has seen in a while.

On Tuesday night, we ordered Godfather's, which is my bestest favorite!!

On Tuesday, we closed on our old house. We met the new owner and his family and they were all very nice people. It turns out that his parents had recently retired to Greenwood, SC, which is just south of Greenville. What are the odds? Erin's car got its first oil change and prepped for the long trip on Wednesday. Wednesday morning, we loaded it up with all of the things that we couldn't pack in the moving truck (chemicals and things).

I spotted this gem in Tennessee. If you can't see it, it is a pink John Deere sticker on an otherwise nice Eclipse.
The trip down was nice...if uneventful. The Honda was a joy to travel in and we averaged between 35 and 40 MPG. Woohoo!

Erin stayed in our apartment for a couple days. Sam loved it there!

Erin's sister flew down to help out with the move.

On Thursday, we went for a nice warm walk down to McDonald's.

After that, we went to Greenville for a walk and for lunch.

On Friday morning, we closed on the new house with Mr. Matlock lawyer guy. Time to move in!


Our truck arrived (Thank the Lord!) on Friday morning, so we came home and started unloading .

Here's our empty new house:

Dennis came to help unload that evening.

Tada!

The Sears guys brought us our new appliances.

Here's our fancy refridgerator. It has an icemaker that actually makes ice. They are funny Korean shaped ice cubes, though.

Our new washer and dryer. They play songs. They barely fit in our laundry closet.

Ashley and Erin....takin' a break.

Now that the trailer is empty, here is our messy livingroom.

We got our Internet, cable, and phone set up yesterday, also. Email me for the new phone number. Hopefully, we will have this house set up for guests soon, so we hope everyone can come down and visit! (not all at once, though). See all ya'll later!

Moving day is here!

Good thing I didn't bring my shorts. Moving day came but the weather was not cooperative. I thought to myself : "Self, it is mid April, the weather should be nice!" I was WRONG! It rained. It snowed. It was below 40 degrees and it blowed. I was not happy! We had so much to do.

Here is the ABF guy bringing our trailer. He was GOOD!!


Here's a before shot of our livingroom

Here's the after picture :)
The trailer was a good size. We were only going to use about 16' of it. They use the rest of the space to haul commercial goods. So far, I have had very good luck with the process. We'll see!


Here's me moving m' stuff.

Here's my dad, helping to put together the puzzle. We packed it all in with few gaps or spaces.


Getting closer! We're making progress, but that's still only about 6 linear feet.


We thought we aren't going to fit it all in. We did, with about 8 inches to spare!!!
Here's our garage when empty. That's cleaner than it's ever been.

Nothing ends a hard day's work like some tacos and Potatoes Ole! brand potatoes from Taco John's. Erin had never been here before so I introduced her to quality west-mex food at an affordable price.


I'm staying at my parents house...which happens to be where my motorcycle is! I took the Krazy KZ out for a ride (mostly to see if it still works after I rebuilt the engine!). So far, it's ridin' smooth. Hopefully, the weather warms up before we leave. We're selling the ol' house on Tuesday and leaving for Greenville on Wednesday. We'll be driving down in time to close on the new house and have some free time. We'll be unloading the same truck this weekend. It should be easier coming off.

Here's a last shot of our first home. It will be sad to leave it, but the new house will be much bigger inside and out. (much closer to a Target)


Josh & Erin's 1st House: 2002-2008