Book Group

The amazing Dr. P organized a book group soon after we all arrived in the area. It's been fantastic.

We had book group get-together on Friday and it was, as always, wonderful (so great I forgot to snap any photos). Austin and I have made an amazing group of friends that is incredibly difficult to leave (though they are all invited to our sweet new home!). I'd much rather leave a good situation than be fleeing in horror but it's not terribly easy.

Decisions

Here is the fireplace, looking from the kitchen via the pass-through.

It's not easy to share photos of a framed home so there won't be too many but we really enjoyed strolling through it. Sheer potential, everywhere you look. We finalized wiring and got to take a quick peek at our super awesome front door (yes, we're excited about a front door). We also made some important decisions today:

• kitchen appliances
• granite countertops
• backsplash/bathroom mosaics
• bathroom tile
• placement of light fixtures
• patio dimensions
• garage door style
• ceiling fans

The builders we are working with are amazing in terms of their know-how, patience, and skill. We spent over eight hours with them and have a plan that we are all happy with. Austin and I are tired and going to grab dinner then we'll hit the road tomorrow.

Home, Sweet Home

Our home and the first neighbor to greet us.

Latitude

The map to the right is not working. See Austin's Latitude for updates.

Sent from my iPhone

Putting Down Roots

We're building a home! Some goodies we just picked up include Nest thermostats and home audio so we can stream music (reality: NPR) throughout the house and patio. We're off to Kentucky tomorrow so stay tuned for details. In the meantime, I'm trying to complete final grades and celebrate marriage equality in MN!

Fiesta de tamales

Last Friday, we had a tamal* party. It was originally scheduled in February when I ended up leaving town for a job interview. There has been so much going on with the upcoming move, new house, and other busy-ness that it seemed kind of crazy, but a good kind of crazy because hello, good friends, good food, some beer and wine? How could you go wrong?

Indeed, the party was a huge success. It was our second group effort to make a more involved, labor-intensive dish and it was wonderful. We had a variety of tamal fillings, a delicious side dish of black beans, and a homemade tres leches cake. Everyone helped stuff and wrap tamales and while there was some talk of coding them so we could find the fillings we wanted, we threw caution to the wind! And made unlabeled tamales! Upon opening them, we swapped to get the ones we wanted and it was delightful.

It is going to be hard to leave the amazing group of friends we've cultivated here. The book groups, lunches, parties have been so enjoyable. I know we've got a lot to look forward to and I hope our new home becomes a place for friends (and family) to gather for fun events but for now, I'm soaking up as much of the IL crowd as I can.

*"Tamal" is the singular of "tamales," not "tamale." Just for the record :)

Spring

I walk past this tree every day on the way to my office and seeing the buds turn to blossoms makes me happy. A groundskeeper jokingly said he was going to charge me $5 for taking pictures on campus then said "I love that tree."