Before the Blog: Wedding Postponed

Well, this weekend we decided that even with Whozat's upcoming long-term assignment, we're just not in a position to be shelling out the kind of money required to put on the wedding we'd like to have, so we've decided to postpone it until we're a little more financially secure.

We're still planning and keeping our eyes open for good ideas, but we're going to wait until we've got the money coming in a little more steadily before we reset the date.

In meantime, we're still working on the plans, keeping our eyes open for good ideas and trying to decide if a "red hearts" theme would look stupid at some other time of the year. Thank God we haven't engrave those toasting glasses yet!

Before the Blog: A Job!

Well, as you might have guessed, Whozat's been pretty busy lately updating the web site, as well as working on a few others.

She started substitute teaching a couple of weeks ago, and doesn't seem to be having any trouble staying busy with that. From the looks of it, she could work every day if she wanted, but probably needs to be home a couple of days to keep working on her web design classes.

More good news on Whozat's job situation - she's lined up for a long-term sub position, covering for a teacher on maternity leave, from mid-October to late January. After 20 days, she'll go to full 1st year teacher salary - which in BlueState is just a couple of dollars less a day than she was making in her ninth year in Texas! It'll be really nice to have that money coming in, especially right at Christmas time.

In other news, Whozat bought her plane ticket this week for a visit to Texas in October - she's really looking forward to that.

Other than that, work and dog-sitting for Shrike's family has been keeping us pretty busy these days. Guess that's about all our excitement for now!

Before the Blog: Birthday Boy

Whozat's job search continues, but she's started doing some online training in HTML and other web design stuff through Ziff-Davis University. We're hoping that she'll soon know enough - and be able to prove it - to get a job!

We went to the BlueState Pridefest and Lilith Fair this weekend and boy, was it hot!!!

The big excitement of this week is Shrike's nephew's birthday party, which is coming up on Saturday. He turned 2 on Sunday, August 1.

We're watching him all afternoon, so his mom (Shrike's sister) can get things ready for the party - we may need a nap by party time! We're looking forward to it, though.

He's a cutie and he's really starting to warm up to his Aunt Whozat, which she is thrilled about! Not too much other excitement happening here, sorry folks. :-)

Before the Blog: Capital PrideFest

Well, dinner with Shrike's family went well. Her sister had already told their grandparents that Whozat is visiting for the summer, so we guess she'll just like it so much she decides to stay! Shrike's mom still made small talk with Whozat about her job search, but we don't think her grandparents heard any of that.

We went to DC yesterday for the Capital Pride Festival and it was great! As Whozat commented on the way home, "That was probably more queers than I've seen in my entire life - even if you count all the ones that I didn't even know were queer!"

That's probably true - they were predicting around 200,000 people to attend the street fair, and it didn't look like the intermittent rain kept anyone away.

This was our first Pridefest, but it certainly won't be our last. We're definitely making plans to attend the BlueState Pridefest that's coming up. No new news on Whozat's job search, we'll keep you posted on that as things develop.

Before the Blog: Meeting the Grandparents

Well, we've now been in BlueState for almost two weeks and we're starting to get somewhat settled into our new apartment.

We still haven't unpacked much, but since it's temporary, Whozat is thinking of every box unpacked as just another one to repack in a few weeks!

Whozat's job search is progressing, she should hear back in a couple of weeks from an interview she had for a software trainer position and the web editor position should be interviewing about that time.

She's decided that since she was dreading the possibility of the high school she interviewed with last week offering her a job and since she was relieved when they didn't, that she should take it as a clue that she's done with teaching, so she's not pursuing any of the other teaching positions she's heard about.

She has signed up with a temp agency, in hopes of getting a little work between now and finding something permanent, but nothing has come of that yet. The agency also offers some pretty advanced computer training about an hour away, so if nothing comes of the other jobs, she's planning to look into that.

We have plans for dinner this evening with Shrike's family to celebrate her grandfather's birthday, which was this week. Whozat is a little nervous about meeting Shrike's grandparents, because they know absolutely *nothing*.

We assume that they know Shrike had a roommate when she was living in Texas, but as far as we know, they have no idea that her "roommate" has moved to BlueState. We're hoping Shrike's mom has at least mentioned this to them, but Whozat's thinking they still may wonder what the hell she's doing at a family function.

Shrike's sister suggested telling them for now that Whozat is just here for the summer (believable, since she's a teacher) but Whozat isn't too keen on that, since she figures the only good topic for "small talk" with Shrike's parents will be her job search! It should certainly prove to be interesting.

Before the Blog: Welcome to BlueState!

We made it! After three days and 1500 miles of driving - we're in our new apartment in BlueState.

The apartment is, well, it's temporary, is what it is.

We'll just be here until we know where Whozat will be working, then we'll find something a little (a lot!) nicer.

Speaking of the job hunt, Whozat has an interview tomorrow for a high school teaching job in the town where Shrike's parents live and she sent out a resume today for a web editor job.

She's given them the URL of this page as an example of her web skills, based on the theory that if anything they read here stops them from hiring her, it's not a place she'd be comfortable working anyway. She's a little nervous about it, so let's all keep our fingers crossed on that!

Other than that, we've been pretty busy trying to get moved in here, and we still have a long way to go with that. And speaking of, it looks like it's time to go unpack something, so watch this spot for more information!

Before the Blog: Ready to Roll

Hey folks! This will be the last update for a few days. Whozat will be loading up the moving truck tomorrow afternoon, so she's got to pack up the computer tonite.

After several false leads and near misses, she's finally got a crew together to get the stuff onto the truck. So tomorrow will be a busy, busy day for her.

As soon as school is out, (it's the last day of school so that will be a "gaggle-fuck" (as Shrike says) in and of itself!) she'll be delivering her car to the dealership that's buying it and getting her money for that, then picking up the truck (across the street from the car dealership, as luck would have it!) and coming home to meet the guys and start loading. She's hoping to get that done in 3 hours or so - keep your fingers crossed for that!

Then on Friday, she gets off work at noon, then has to make a trip to the credit union to make a billion different deposits, transfers and withdrawals and then home to get the house into "move-out" condition. Lots of sweeping, mopping and vacuuming scheduled for Friday!

That evening is her nephew's 8th grade graduation and then dinner w/her sister's family and then home to wait for Shrike!

YIPPEE! We should be together in 52 hours!

Saturday morning we'll load up the last few things, stop by Whozat's parents for a quick visit (and to dump off a few things she's leaving there that she forgot to take yesterday, of course) and then drop off the rental car Shrike's driving in from Houston and we'll be on our way!

We should arrive in BlueState sometime Monday and we *think* we know where we'll be living when we get there. Shrike is supposed to be getting things settled today on a tiny little month-to-month apt where we can stay until we know where Whozat will be working.

We should be back online as soon as we can unpack the computer and hook it up, since Shrike already has an account up there, so we'll be sure to post an update then!

Before the Blog: Moving Plans

ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

By this time next week, Shrike should have arrived and we should be well on our way to getting "reacquainted" ;-)

Whozat is busy-busy-busy with packing and planning. Shrike is doing her best to locate us a place we can both live til we're settled job-wise, without her having an hour commute to work everyday (as it would be from M & C's place.) We have a few options on how to work it out, but nothing is solid yet.

Whozat is working on lining up a crew of "strapping young men" to load the truck on Thursday. She's hoping to be able to just stand around and give directions and not have to exert herself too much! Especially since we'll both be among the crew of not-so-strapping not-so-young dykes who'll be stuck unloading it in BlueState a few days later!

No real news on the job front - Whozat's got some leads on some teaching positions, but she's really hoping for something else to pop up.

Oh, by the way, Whozat's mom's surgery went fine, she's back home, as of a few hours ago, and is doing well. She's still in a lot of pain, especially after all the exertion getting involved in getting home and getting settled, but she says the physical therapy is a bit easier each time and she's looking forward to a few weeks down the road when she's fully recovered and getting around much better than before the surgery.

Before the Blog: The Secret Sock Stash

Well, Whozat's been a packing fool the last week! Got a lot done last weekend and even more this weekend. Looks like she's right on schedule.

Here's a funny thing - the kitties have a thing about socks - they love to steal them (MamaCat will steal them from the drawer if it's open even a crack - Whozat has come home and found a trail of socks from the bedroom to the front door!) and they love to "kill" them - especially in the middle of the night!

As she was cleaning out and packing the office closet, Whozat found their secret stash of socks - in the back corner, behind some boxes were about 8 socks that they've evidently stolen and hidden there!

Either that or that's where they go when they disappear from the dryer!

Possible good news on the job front - Whozat has a couple of calls to return tomorrow from potential employers who left messages for her on Friday - Yippee!

She's taking a sick day tomorrow to run errands and make tons of phone calls. Also, her mom's have surgery tomorrow (having both knees replaced) so she'd like to be around for that.

Shrike is enjoying her new job and getting to spend lots of time w/her family. She's also been visiting our friends M & C a bit - she's gone up to their place a couple of Fridays to watch Xena with them.

Whozat thinks it's totally unfair that she had to watch this weeks episode (Ides of March) alone and Shrike didn't! Well, that's about all our news - more later!

Before the Blog: Packing Up

18 days to go....Shrike seems to be settling in to her new job - bummer that she has to be there at 6:30 am, though!

Whozat is hanging in there, counting the days.

She started packing this weekend - got a lot done in the way of books and fru-fru-look-pretty stuff that won't get used in the next few weeks anyway.

Tomorrow is Whozat's birthday. She celebrated it, her sister's birthday (which is Thursday) and Mother's Day with her family yesterday. Her big gift was a computer upgrade and a scanner from her parents. Here's a picture of her engagement ring!