sniff, sniff

Today is my last day at the DCN. It's odd to think I won't be coming back to my desk, my computer, my chair, my phone... my job. I had to turn in my key to the office today. Keys are such practical things. Bizarre how they can have such sentimental value. The office is having a going away party for me tomorrow night. One last hurrah with the DCN crew. Should be a good time. I'm really going to miss all the stellar people here.
But on to the next chapter I guess... I hope it's as good as this one was.

state pier

This is the State Pier down at the Park. This picture was taken Winter Games weekend (Jan. 28). Notice the open water on the lake? Generally not a good thing when you have events planned on the ice. It is very unusual for the lake to remain open this far into the winter.

This also happens to be the exact same park bench where Ryan proposed a year ago. Jan. 26 to be exact. Everybody say it together... aw!

P.S. Happy Birthday to my MOM today!

and the adventure begins

Well, I survived. After two days in Wisconsin, mom and dad followed me back across Iowa Thursday night. We loaded up everything in the house (except my desk) and headed south. Upon arriving at the new house, our fears were realized. Our bed and dresser wouldn't fit up the incredibly narrow stairway. It took two hours to unload giving Ryan and I just enough time to head into the city to check into the hotel for a quick shower before the newspaper awards ceremony.

My paper was up for three awards. We got second and third for best front page design and best special section. Best coverage of agriculture got first place. I didn't technically win the award - the paper did. But I wrote all the ag articles last year. The banquet was long and after a hard day moving, I was exhausted.

Saturday we headed back to the house to start getting things organized and unpacked with the help of a lot of Ryan's family. The men figured out a skid system to slide the dresser up a ramp and through the upstairs window. It worked with relative ease. The only question now is how we're going to get it down when we move out... We ran into the city to get some curtains from Ryan's sister. While at their house we got a call saying Gus was out. The lady had put him back in his kennel but he'd already tore open a whole bag of dog food and scattered numerous things from the storage shed around the yard.

Sunday we slept in and stopped by our Mexican friend's place on the south east side of town. I made the three hour trip back to the north country. It was a pretty sad sight coming home to just an air mattress and tv. This next week is going to be quite the lonely adventure.