Birthday Care Package

Almost real-time update.

I had a birthday (number 30) recently, and I got a thoughtful and hilarious care package from my loving parents.

Yeah, Baby!

It was almost literally a box of dreams. I found inside all my standard favorite American foods, gummi candy, taffy, beef jerky sticks, and in-the-shell sunflower seeds. I know gummi candy is available in Europe, but it's mostly the Haribo style of gummi. Good, but different than the squishier Trolli candy and the juicier Black Forest candy. This man knows and loves his gummi candy.

Beef jerky sticks, what a treat! Usually found in the checkout lines of every gas station and convenience store in America, they are not as common here. It was nice to taste the freedom of chewy, salty meat again.

After posting here that we were making pizza with chorizo instead of pepperoni as the go-to cheapest kind of cured meat at the supermarket, my folks included packs of sandwich and pizza-sized pepperoni and salami.

Sunflower seeds in the shell are a summer favorite of mine, especially nice for outdoor activities. Correct eating etiquette of sunflower seeds differs by present company and skill with the tongue and teeth, but I choose to throw in a handful of seeds, crack them open one by one with my teeth, and spit out the shells as I eat each one. The constant chewing, drooling, and spitting make these an exclusively outdoor snack.

I also found a box of various trout flies and lures. I can't wait to try these out on the Dodder now that things are slowing down a bit here in Dublin.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Happy Double Holiday, USA!

Normally we don't have any posts on Sunday, but I felt this day was worth noting.  This Sunday marks a double holiday in the USA.  February 2nd is Groundhog Day, when the world famous Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his tree in Pennsylvania to predict the upcoming end of winter in North America.  I'll have to ask some of our Irish friends what they think about this strange rodent-based national holiday...

The big one, of course, is the Super Bowl.  Super Bowl Sunday is a classic American holiday, almost bigger than Thanksgiving.  People beg Congress and the President every year to declare Super Bowl Monday (the day after...) a holiday so people can get crazy with the cheap beer and greasy food during the game without fear of Super Bowl Sickness hurting their work productivity.  Studies show that workplace productivity is WAY down on the day after the Super Bowl anyway, do it, Congress!  You have the power!

Even non-football fans tune in for this highly publicized event.  The famous all-new television commercials with their record breaking prices always attract speculation and memorable moments.  Many people watch the commercials and wait for the game to resume before going to the bathroom or getting more food.  Remember Terrible Terry Tate?  Michael Jordan and Larry Bird playing HORSE for a Big Mac?  How about the annual GoDaddy "Too hot for TV" ads.  Spectacular.

Also attracting the non-game fans is the always-getting-bigger halftime show.  This almost hour long spectacle seems to get longer and more surprising each year.  The recent trend has been to introduce surprise guest stars and cameos to the advertised star's performance.  Remember Beyonce and the pop ups of the other hip hop artists and the reunion of her Destiny's Child gang for the finale?  What happened to the one I remember best from my childhood, Michael Jackson singing Heal the World?

Can it be 1993 again?

Because of the late kickoff time, I'll have to be watching The Game starting at almost midnight Ireland time.  With the extended commercial breaks and crazy halftime show, that puts me in bed by... maybe 05:00 Monday morning... But I know it'll be worth it.

Happy Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday, USA.  Have some chili dogs and nachos for me!

We're Out of the House!

Well, it's official.  We are now both happily unemployed and happily homeless.  Maybe we should apply for some government benefits...?

As of now, we are out of the house, and it feels very freeing.  Scratch that (like this, dummy!), it makes us feel very tired, but eventually we believe it will feel freeing.  We are writing this from the comfort of a hotel room in town that we actually sprung the cash for.  Yikes, but it feels good to know that we have nothing left to do in the house and can be comfortable for our last night in town.

Last night in town.  That feels strange to write here.  We have already had a lot of "lasts" in the last (hah!) few weeks, but this is one of the very last "lasts" to feel.  Huh...

Before we left the house, we took some photos of the emptiness.  Follow the jump for the full gallery.

Packing Day Retroactive Live Blog!

Here is a timeline of our packing day for those interested.  We had one day left in the house and it was time to finally get the rest of everything out.  Read on for the schedule of the day.

Leaving Day Timeline 6-5-13

7:00AM- Woke up in the air mattress on this the last morning in our house.  Made thin coffee by boiling water in the teapot and throwing in a coffee filter filled with grounds and wrapped with a rubber band.  Breakfast:  Hard boiled eggs, fruit, and toast.  Yes, we still have a toaster but no coffee machine.*

7:30AM- Time to get to it!  Getting our clothes and bathroom stuff packed up for the trip.  Doing a final load of laundry so everything can be neatly stowed away for the trip.

8:00AM-Sara cleaning floors in basement while Cory gets going in the yard.

9:00AM- Final mowing of lawn complete.  Pulled a bunch of weeds before mowing and chopped up the evidence with the mower going over the grass.  Yard looks pretty good.  For the first time ever, we have to sweep the driveway and sidewalks of grass debris.  Sara finished with the three bedrooms and the bathroom of the house.

10:00AM- Loading the car for another trip to Goodwill.  Once the Goodwill load is gone, we can load the car with traveling supplies so we can clean the main rooms of the house.  

10:11AM- Sara making run to Goodwill, Cory cleaning the garage and bringing out the traveling supplies for loading.

10:45AM- Sara returns from Goodwill to a clean garage full of bags and camping equipment.  Sara brings lunch from Wendy’s.  With neither chairs nor tables, we eat a Wendy’s picnic on a tarp in the yard.

11:10AM- We start loading the car.

11:11AM- We realize it will be difficult going loading the car.

1:00PM-  Car is loaded after much re-packing, shoving, stuffing, and the need for the passenger to hold a guitar and two backpacks in his or her lap.

1:30PM- After a trip to the library to drop off books and a trip to the dumpster, final house cleaning can commence.  Main room and kitchen to be cleaned.

2:00PM- We are reminded of the magic and the intense nature of Easy-Off Oven Cleaner.  Whoo!

2:45PM- Time for final walk through of the house, after another trip to the dumpster.

2:47PM- Whoops!  Missed the gutters on the back porch.  The helicopters have all sprouted and hundreds of baby Silver Maple trees are growing.  Let me get the neighbor’s ladder…

3:00PM- Time to head out to the hotel.  It’s been a tiring day, and we are SO glad to have a hotel room with a real bed and wireless internet.  It has been so long since we have just relaxed without moving work guilt.

Rest of day- Watching cable, writing blog posts, wondering if our car will make it with everything loaded from floor to headline.

*For those wondering why, our coffee pot broke about a month before the move. As coffee addicts who are also very frugal, we did not know what to do! Coffee is not optional for us in the mornings, and buying a coffee pot that we would only use for a month seemed silly. In the end, it was our friend Emily who saved the day: she had a spare coffee pot that she had received as a gift. Thus, we had our daily fix (thanks Emily!). We returned the coffee pot to her a couple of days ago, so now we are making our bizarre-o tea kettle coffee. It’s for the best—this way we can get used to our camping life style a few days early.

Gettin' ready to hit the road!

Last Night in the House

Checking in on the Blog... from the library.

We turned in our modem and router to our cable company today, which means we are officially off of the internet.  We still have 24 LONG hours to go in our home occupation without the precious resource of technology.

That minor hiccup shouldn't stop us from posting to the world, however, so we are in the only place in our neighborhood to get some free internet access...  SITTING OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY AFTER CLOSING TIME USING THE WIRELESS INTERNET ON A BENCH!

We'd like to share some photos from the night.  Follow the jump for the almost complete photo essay...

Four Days and Counting

It's Monday the day this post goes live.  On Thursday, we're outta the state.

We are madly finishing the house preparations in the time we have left.  Sara is busy during the days getting last-minute errands done, and Cory is finishing up at work during the day and helping out around the house in the evenings.

Everything is gone, but we are still dealing with things we forgot we had.  When cleaning out a home, don't just look on the floor.  Get your eyes up!  Things hanging on walls and ceilings tend to get missed by the homeowner who looks at them every day.  We should have hired a professional "Stuff Spotter" to come in for a consultation.  This trained professional would be highly skilled in looking around a home and pointing out the existence and location of forgotten and missed articles.  If we had gone that route, we wouldn't be trying to stuff small trash cans in to larger trash cans (whoa, like, trippy!) and close our city sanitation container lid over old broom and mop handles tonight.  Maybe this could be a career for Cory in Ireland...

This week on the blog, be on the lookout for the final chapter of the (not very) popular "I'll Play Castlevania 3" series and the final few entries of the (much more) popular "Great Jettison" series.  We hope to keep everyone up-to-date on the road trip on this blog, but please forgive us if the road is not kind to our blogging schedule, namely in free wireless internet at the cheap campsites we will be visiting.

We are running out of time to get nice photos taken and uploaded to this internet vehicle, but we are working on some uploading solutions to that problem, so be on the lookout for much more interesting photos from the road.  Thanks to all of our friends and family for following this blog and sending us your silent love and support...in the form of pageviews...

Getting Ready

Tired... Tired...

No fun photos, no wit and wisdom, energy... draining...

We are just about one week from closing on the house, and it's crunch time.  Earlier this Spring, I took a look at the yard and said, "Hey!  Selling in June, we might not have to do much to the yard at all!"  I was wrong.  We have had near record-setting rainfall this Spring here in Eastern Iowa, and the bushes, weeds, grass, and everything else have just loved it.

I finally gave up the other night and decided I had to take some yard action.  I thought I would have an easy time in the yard because I am not planting (sadly) my vegetable garden.  The vegetable planting was just about covered by the amount of maintenance needed in weeding and pruning.  I'd like everything looking spic and span for the new owners next week, so I have to work fast.  This working fast has led to some tired muscles to which any homeowner/gardener can relate.

Our house is nearly empty.  We are sitting on camp chairs and watching the television sitting on top of an upturned bucket.  This means that going inside isn't necessarily much more comfortable than being outside in the yard working.  One's legs fall asleep sitting in a camp chair for more than a few minutes at a time, so it is nearly impossible for us to be too sedentary.

Next week, we will be out of the house and on our road trip.  We are in the mid-to-late planning stages of the trip now, and we will hopefully be ready by closing day.  We better be, 'cuz we're outta here, ready or not.  When the road trip arrives, the blog will be a little less active than we have all been used to.  We've kept the every weekday posting going so far, but we will be away from internet and computers for the better part of a month.  Whenever we can, we will post updates and photos from the road and will share that out via facebook, so keep your ears to the ground for us.

...Ok, maybe one funny photo...

Iowa City Bucket List Part I: Happy Birthday, Cory!

Iowa City is a fun place to be, and over the last 5+ years that we have lived here we have discovered and enjoyed many great places to eat and activities to enjoy. Cory and I decided to put together an Iowa City bucket list so that we could savor some of our favorites before we move. We knocked a few of them out in celebration of Cory's birthday a few weeks ago, and we have plenty of pictures to share. 

Iowa City Bucket List Item (ICBLI) #1: Eat a massive Chinese Buffet supper

Ok, so this one isn't all that unique to Iowa City. However, it is Cory's absolute favorite place to go out for dinner, where he can unabashedly binge on all things MSG. We went to the Peking Buffet in Coralville, where we enjoyed the standard buffet fare of sushi, egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken, etc. Dee-lish!

Dinner of Champions!

Let Commencement Commence!

Way to go, Sara!  Time for commencement and the graduation party!  We hosted a bunch of family members in our very sparse home for a big celebration after the ceremony.  Just thought it should be documented here.

Rocks in front of Carver-Hawkeye Arena

Adjusting the tassel

Doing some fishing for the first time this year

Stock photo of The Melly.  Just she can join the rest
of the cats on the internet.  Currently sitting on the
last remaining soft chair in the home.

Just Call Me Dr. Sara....On Second Thought Please Don't Because It Weirds Me Out

Since the end of February, the plan to move to Ireland has been slowly but surely coming into focus. One pretty significant contingency for the whole plan was the need for me to successfully defend my thesis, graduate, and receive my doctorate. This entire blog would be completely unnecessary and irrelevant if I failed to do all of that (no pressure!). After all, you can't be a postdoc without first receiving the doc...

The whole graduation process for a Ph.D. requires several months of preparation, paperwork, and meeting a series of deadlines. After spending several years carrying out thesis research, it is no small feat to chew, swallow, and digest the huge bolus of data into a story that is clear and concise. In January I started writing my thesis full-time, a task that I fortunately had a jump-start on because I had already prepared portions of my data as manuscripts. One is already published (yay!) and the other is currently in review (fingers crossed!).  The full ~300 pages of thesis (with about 100 pages of that consisting of data tables and references) was submitted in late March.

For those wondering what my thesis is actually ABOUT, this will provide some hints.
It's a Word Cloud I made from my thesis inside an outline of a monogonont rotifer,
which is the system I used for most of my research.

The Hardest Part of Moving is Giving Up Your House

I have to begin this post by saying that Cory and I love our house. Love, love, LOVE our house. The day we first set foot in it, we knew it was the house for us. It has an amazing open floor plan, hard wood floors, lots of built in fixtures, and a basement with serious man-cave potential. It's also an older house (built in the 1950s), and being someone who grew up in an old house, the quirks and imperfections made me feel right at home.

It even has impractically large trees in the yard! I love this house!

Almost as soon as Ireland became a reality, Cory and I took a wistful look around our home and called our realtor to discuss putting it on the market. It was late February, and our hope was to have the house up for sale in mid-March, when we would be traveling to the Dominican Republic for Keri and Kent's wedding. I think Cory will agree with me when I say that going through the experience of prepping a house for sale is very educational. We had been so cozy in our house, that it was hard to see the flaws anymore. We learned quickly what small things we could do to make our house as attractive as possible.

Where It All Began...

We are so excited to start on this incredible next phase of our lives, and to share it with all of our friends and family! Since we are launching this blog to keep our nearest and dearest up to date on our lives while we are living so far from home, we thought it would be appropriate to share how it all began. 

I was anxiously awaiting the news hard at work on my thesis when I received my official job offer. I immediately called Cory (who was on his way home from work) and he somehow managed to decipher my excited jumble of words.

Celebratory dinner in Hanson style: Homebrew and Chinese

When our move to Ireland was first made official, neither of us could keep smiles off of our faces. 

The following few days were a flurry of activity.  While we had already started to organize, pack, and sell our stuff (more on that later!), this put us into high gear.  We spent a good portion of the next few days getting in touch with friends and family to share the news; everyone has been wonderful and incredibly supportive. Now the details are all falling into place: our house will be sold in June and we fly out on our one-way tickets in July with a Homeless Vagabond Farewell to America Road Trip in between! 

From the Yarn Basket: Thesis Blanket

Since Cory has been very busy sharing his latest time-wasters, I thought I'd share my own. Between a job hunt, thesis writing, and selling our house, the year so far has held a notable amount of stress. Since I find nothing more soothing than the repetition and measurable progress of a yarn craft, I have spent much time the last few months with knitting needles or a crochet hook in my hand.

I am happy to report that from the fires and turmoil of graduation anxiety, I have completed my largest single project to date. I give you....Thesis Blanket:

Thesis Blanket in action: Keeping Cory comfortable while he writes a blog post

To create Thesis Blanket, I made basic granny squares with four yarn colors and used single crochet to join the squares together. Cory helped me block the color pattern, so credit goes out to him as well.

I have also completed several much smaller projects and have a couple in the works that I will share at a later date. Stay tuned!