Freakishly Happy

Hey All!! As it is the eve of the Chinese New Year, I am inspired to with a new resolution... to actually UPDATE the website once in a while. Not updating since December is pretty darn lame.
I apologize to anyone who checked the website in the last few days, while we were inundated with inappropriate spam messages. We think we’ve fixed the problem (at least this time) and hope no one was seriously offended.

Things have pretty much normalized (as much as that is possible for us) since December. John has been contracting with Rockwell Collins which means that the business that we started over a year ago, Assistive Intelligence, Inc., is actually turning a profit! The work is dull and the commute is rather long, but it pays the bills and will hopefully get better now that his first project under them is completed. And hey, it’s only until July, right?

I am still working at Petland. Although I enjoy the people I work with, I really don’t see it as a “fulfilling career,” (please note sarcasm in my voice.) I told at least 3 people the other day they should check out the local humane societies. This isn’t good as my job responsibilities comprise mostly of selling dogs… from OUR store. Although I am not necessarily good or enthusiastic at or about my job for some reason it is really hard for me to take the steps to leave it. The work itself is fairly fun, the day passes quickly and I work with a lot of stellar people. We’ll see what the next few weeks bring.

Speaking of dogs… we got one. Well more of a puppy really. Her name is Jorgi (pronounced Georgie) (or Yor-gi if you’re using the German pronunciation)). She’s a little feisty white thing with funny hair and a big personality. Sort of like me… I guess. She looks a little like a miniature white Labrador with bad hair. I’d post pictures, but we haven’t quite figured out how to upload pictures from our new camera. Once we figure it out, I promise to post pictures AND videos.

Last week we to a road trip to Vermont. We rented a car which afforded us a lot more room, but unfortunately this meant much lower gas mileage and that John had to drive the whole trip (I’m not 25 yet, and the cost of the rental would have been doubled had we decided to insure me on the vehicle).

Our stay was nice. We got to spend a lot of time with Juli, Dad and Mary, as well as take a break from our normal routine- something very important to do once in awhile (especially when one is not at all accustomed to having a routine).

Juli’s new addition looks beautiful. Once again her imagination has created a wonderful, cozy yet completely utilizable space. It’ll be especially nice come summer when she will be able to double her baking capacity in the summer kitchen and hopefully keep the house MUCH cooler.

Now that I’ve settled into a normal routine it hass been much harder to find anything interesting to write about. I guess if I get back into the habit of writing, the little things will start seeming interesting again.

Well, since I haven’t heard from many of you for a long long time I’d love it if you’d drop a line telling us how you are doing as well!

This is a little daunting. So much to tell! So... We got back to Iowa, as I said in the last blog. I had a great birthday on the second. John took me to the pet store to play with puppies, and I got a fast pair of new running shoes. I am a whoppin’ 24 years old. I was discussing it with my house mate Sarah, and we decided that 23 and 24 are really non-ages. 20 is exciting, 21 means a lot of freedom (well, sort of), 22 and you’re in the Double Deuce club, 23 and 24 are really just waiting it out until you turn 25 which is HUGE.

Okay: to backtrack…
We have been having a great time catching up with our family and friends. We returned from Vermont and went directly to our friend Marcus’s Halloween Bash. We helped him set up and were his Guy and Girl Friday. He set up an intricate haunted garage that was pretty darn cool. The party was a huge success with almost 100 people in attendance. You know the party was good- as we had to spend the next 3 days cleaning up after it. I went as punk-rock little red riding hood- and Johnny was the Big Bad- but hot and well dressed- Wolf. I did his make-up and people couldn’t even tell who he was!

I went out on Halloween with my girl Jessica from Germany. It was really really funny watching all the girls in Iowa City as they walked around in no clothes on a 23 degree night. As I was the chauffer for the evening I was dressed somewhat sensibly.

Then on the 1st of November we moved in with our friends Jonathan and Sarah Windham and their two matching pets, Judah (the Golden Retriever) and Madeline (the tabby cat.)

We live in Coralville, which used to be a suburb of Iowa City, but now the two cities have pretty much meshed together. We live right across the interstate from the Coralville Mall, which at one time or another was said to be the 5th largest mall in the US. Now I’m sure its size is paltry in comparison with many other malls out there.

John and Jonathan are starting a business together. This venture really kicked off this week since we got the internet yesterday. All day they were like two young children waiting eagerly on Christmas Eve, waiting for the UPS man to come with their precious modem that would bring them the internet. It was pretty adorable. They hope to get things up and runnin’ in the next 3-6 months and we will hopefully all be millionaires by oh, say next June sometime. : ) I’ll keep you updated on how that’s working out for us.

So on with what’s been going on…Sarah and I began working out together on Monday. She has a free trial to a women’s gym that allows her to bring a friend. The gym is kind of like Curves, but on steroids. They work you a lot harder and there’s bikes, elliptical machines, free weights, etc. Already I’m starting to feel a difference. I don’t know if this is due to how great the work out is, or simply because I went from not working out at all to actually getting off my bum. As in most women’s gym’s they play really fast music with a driving beat. As this music is very motivating during my work out I began to wander what it’d be like outside the gym. I’m considering stocking up on such CDs so that I can be much more productive on in daily life. Imagine what it could do with my house cleaning! Everything would get done at super speed. It would either be really beneficial or cause me to go completely unhinged.

On Monday I went and babysat for our friend Megan Jo’s completely adorable baby Xander. We had a great day. We played with trucks, watched Sesame Street, Megan and John came home for lunch and then we spent the afternoon cuddling. People ask me if I want one now… But why should I want one when Megan has a perfectly perfect baby just 5 miles away?

When I got home from Xander-sitting, I found that John had tackled the avalanche of boxes and junk in our room and had cleaned and organized everything. He did a fantastic job! Now we have a very cute little flat, with only some minor kinks to work out.

Sadly our camera died. It’s been on its last leg (or tripod?) since I went to Amsterdam and really took a turn for the worse when we took it on a beach in Ireland, where there was a bit of a sandstorm It’s been slowly fading ever since. First the lens started having problems coming out, then the buttons stopped working and finally last week as it lay gasping, the focus stopped working all together. My you rest in peace lil’ buddy. So now we’re on the hunt for a new camera. It served us well though, over 9,000 pictures in a little over a year.

Hanging in the ped-mall in Iowa City with my friend Ralph. (Before leaving for Vermont)