The Great House Hunt

The Great House Hunt of 2007 has begun in the Louisville, Kentucky area. I finally was approved for a loan and have started looking for my first home. So far - I've discovered that new construction in the Louisville area is about as well-crafted as my 1997 Pontiac was by the time I got rid of it. Yeah...for those who don't remember my 1997 Pontiac - and those who did not even know me when I owned that car -I nicknamed the car. P.O.S. the last year or so before I bought HAL. P.O.S. mean Piece of Super-Fraga-cala-blah-blah. We all know what the S stood for in P.O.S.

Yeah...new construction in Louisville is great. I walked into one house where I had to turn sideways to fit through the doorway into the master bath. Yes...brand new construction with a doorway no wider than me turned sideways. Wow. One house made the 2nd call list - but it had one of the crappiest yards I've ever seen. So we'll see.

On a positive note - every house I looked at had that microwave hood thingie already installed - so Carp will have to buy me dinner or something if I win his challenge. The hunt if off till mon or tues because my realtor is tied up - but no big deal, I have about 15 listings I want to check out when the hunt resumes.

Since my hunt is off for a while - I'm headed to visit Laura in Miamisburg, OH for the weekend. It will be a good weekend...I'm very sure of it.

Hope everyone is well - and planning on being in Billings for Mr. 'I am not allowed to do anything fun anymore' Loy's wedding. The future Mrs. 'I'm not sure what they heck Mr. Loy is talking about when he says he's not allowed to have fun anymore' Loy has a new bridesmaid I hear. How nice.

Speaking of how nice. TNZ is down 2-3 in the best of 9 America's Cup thanks to a broken Spinnaker today...though I could never confirm that the broken kite actually happened since my tv has no Versus. Ugh...

The America's Cup........or not.

After waiting a little bit over 4 years for the 2007 America's Cup - the event is finally here. A best-of-9 contest that pits my favorite team - Emirates Team New Zealand (TNZ) as the Challenger versus the 32nd America's Cup Defender Alinghi from Switzerland. Today was race #1 - a race that TNZ led off the starting line, but got beat around all four marks by Alinghi.

The worst part of this is not that Alinghi went up 1-0 today in the best-of-9 series, but that I did not get to watch one second. My hotel does not have the Versus network that is showing the Cup in America - and the internet in the hotel isn't capable of handling the bandwidth that is the Virtual Live Sailing that allows me to watch the race using GPS data and my computer. It was able to handle the streaming radio - so I got to a least listen to race one. Guess I'll have to wait 3-5 more years to see my next America's Cup Race. Hopefully I'll be watching it LIVE on a chase boat in the waters of the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand...

Here's a picture of TNZ trailing Alinghi on the water. Everyone reading this has now seen as much of the first America's Cup Race as I have. How nice for everyone...

I SURVIVED!!!!

I survived my first day at my new job today...though I didn't really have a ton of pressure on me. The biggest adjustment to the new locale is not going to be the weather - as previously anticipated - but the adaptation of my work to the software and forecasting tools (and sometimes lack thereof) in this much different part of the country. The people are great...a fun bunch that I anticipate getting along great with.

Anyways - only three more work days til the weekend. Not that I am looking forward to the weekend, but it will be the next opportunity for me to get out and about in this town and try to find a place to live.

To Mr. Carp and his challenge... do I win if I find a place that the hood is already installed? And if I do find this already completed - do I still have to take a picture of me faking like I'm putting it together? Guess I could always start the lawn care challenge with a picture of me passed out face down in the grass after pushing the mower for two or three steps.

More soon...and hopefully something with pictures.

Its great to finally be working again - though vacation with the Zelt's and Scarlett's in Aberdeen was much more relaxing...

The Belle of Louisville

Today is my first full day in Louisville - and I managed to navigate my way through the downtown area without getting lost. The destination was the Belle of Louisville, a 2-hour boat ride on the Ohio River between KY (its getting kind of old that you're still laughing at this) and IN (hint...the state name sounds just like shmim-dee-anna) that included a full service buffet meal. There was also a limbo contest that of course I would have won if I had participated, but I decided to let all the kids on the boat have a little fun.

On another note, I found a free weekend parking deck...which I'm a little proud of because everyone that went on the boat from my new office ended up paying for where they parked.

Anyways...a couple of pics from my trip - including a very nice one that I'm sure all those friends of mine in Montana and South Dakota will enjoy. More from KY (ugh) soon...

The Belle of Louisville herself. In the background, some water that I think is the Ohio River - but I didn't have a map when I took this photo so it could have very well been the Baltic Sea.

One view of a portion of Downtown Louisville from the boat.

A more complete view of Downtown Louisville - also from the boat.

A picture of an airplane from some airline that has a geographic reference about the Southwest on its tail. I hear they go everywhere in the country - but I also think the airline name is really... No-Way-in-Heck-Will-I-Land-in-Montan-aor-South-Dakota Air

Its about bloggy time...

It's about bloggy time I set up one of these things. Been meaning to for a month or so, but I guess I've been a little preoccupied with packing my life away in Billings and moving to Louisville, Kentucky. Seeing how I have now completed the long 1600 mile journey from MT to KY (yeah I know...K-Y....huh huh), I figured I was out of excuses.

So - where to start? Hmm...After an outstanding week of visits with friends scattered across the plains and midwest (Zelts, Scarletts, Kellys), I arrived in Louisville this afternoon after making the 525 mile, 8hr jog down from Urbana/Center Point, Iowa (after an all-too-brief visit at the 3.5 acre lush complex - a.k.a The Kelly Ranch Estates).

Slightly exhausted from all the celebrating that has been going on since 4/20 when I found out I was moving to KY (c'mon, stop chuckling already...gosh), I decided to finally offload some photos from my camera - including the farewell to Apt #93 photos I took last week during/after my move out. Here they are...

This is the infamous HAL - who always makes an appearance in my photo albums. Here he is parked for the last time in garage #54 - his home since April 2003. Sniff Sniff...

And here's another HAL picture - but this one is right after I turned in my keys for the last time. YIPPEE!!!!

Of course...the moving truck two days prior to the above pictures.

And lastly, the thing I will miss the most from Apartment #93 (besides Gamelympics) is the worn down stretch of grass from my walking back and forth between the apt and the garage (of course in the same line every single time)

So that's it...kind of a lame first post. Hope my next post will be more entertaining and maybe contain some pictures of my new town.