What does Des Moines look like?

I have finally moved into the the new pad- and I have almost found everything. Since I had been gradually moving over piece by piece the last couple of weeks- It was not really that big of a deal to move in. My movers were not the brightest bulbs in the box. The did not speak English very well and did not understand orders very well. As a mover--- it would seem logical a couch would go into the living room and not the bedroom-- but who knew? There were some growing pains on getting the furniture into the correct position -- but it is settling nicely now.

The only problem that I am having is my cable- which is not working well-this is particularly upsetting with Desperate Housewives on tonite- and I can not get it to come in alone.

Needless to say the majority of my weekend was spent unpacking and getting settled into the new digs.

I have attatched some snapshots of the greater Des Moines, IA area. As you can see the skyline is not the impressive- but the countryside can have some nice gradually rolling hills. I also took a snapshot of my trusty car Nicole-- I thought she was looking especially sassy at the Iowa road side rest.

Another busy week ahead- tomorrow night I will be in St. Louis-- and then Peoria!!! Way fun -- right????

Reflections on moving on........

Tomorrow is moving day--- after almost a year in my apartment home- I have purchased a condo and moved on. I think for me moving is always emotional because it is so symbolic that a chapter in our lives has passed. Reflecting back on the past year- this has been such an AWESOME first Chicago home. I think back on so many good memories that I made here and those will stick with me for the rest of my life. It is exciting to think of the new home and the memories that I will make there.

It has been a very long week on the road in Iowa- the rain was relentless. They had over 3 inches of rain in most places surrounding Des Moines. Every time that I got out of the car- I seemingly got drenched... I continually had that not so fresh feeling from the 1st appointment until the last appointment of the day. When I got back to the hotel- I changed to my running clothes and worked out and then slipped into comfortable sweats to watch American Idol.

I must comment that this week's idol showwas awesome- it featured the ever wonderful Ryan Seacrest- who wouldn't love him- CELINE and ELVIS_-- I slept a happy man last night!!

Ready to Roll-

What an incredible weekend of wonderful weather here in Chicago-- it was beautiful-- sunny with clear skies- and warm temperatures of around 80 degrees. As I type I am on the rear deck with a pleasant breeze blowing- so life is feeling pretty good- I just need to take Trevor for a nice long walk before a hot shower and settling into to watch The Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives.

Yesterday I went to The Chicago Botanical Gardens to help a friend, Ted, celebrate his 55th birthday.. we had a lovely time and I met some great new friends tooo-- always a plus.

I also put the final finishing touches on the move-- I am leaving in the AM for Iowa all week and then Friday is the big move... grrr-- so ready or not here it comes!

I feel sad for leaving this apartment- my first Chicago home- it has been a great place to live. When I reflect back on my first year in IL I will have such fond memories of the Foster Ave. pad. I am ready for the rewards of owning my own place- and having a tax write off once again... In the end it will be all good.

Have a great week.

A moving man

Hello everyone-- I have been a moving man in every possible way that you can interpet that. I have been slowly migrating my belongings the block and a half to my new home. It is so nice to see things being put away and see the home take shape. I really enjoy the feeling of the new condo and can't wait to get my hands into the back yard and do some lanscaping and create my own urban oasis!

I have also been crazy crazy busy with work as of lately-- which would account for my lack of posts on my blog site. My boss flew in from California and spent two days with me last week- of course the one day we had snow (IN APRIL???) and traffic was snarled majorily.... it is just not fun to spend that much time with one's boss in a car!!!

Truly do hate to cut this short- but work calls again-- I will write more later.

New pad-

Hello all- the construction is all over & now the fun part- moving! Thank God for corporate paid movers!!!! Today we hired a nice young man to paint the kitchen and bath-- I was fed up with painting and all that trim would have killed me. The color I choose is pumpkin pie- it is DELICOUS-- I love it! Tonite Dad & I hung the drapes-- now I have a dilema here- I purchased two different styles of panels for the living room windows- normal stripes and then wavy stripes. My original idea was to do the two windows on the end of the room with the basic stripe and then the wavy stripes on the middle window- but now I am having second thoughts and I wonder if I should just do the basic stripe on all 3 windows. Please let me know your thoughts. Mom and Dad leave for Ohio tomorrow and then I get a few days rest before I head back to work.

Have a great weekend all.

Putting on a fresh coat- -

Painting can be exhausting- but rewarding all at once-- it is really really hard work- but when you stand back and look at a freshly painted room- it seems worth all the while. The blue I choose for the bedroom is lovely- I can not wait until I put my bed with the blue and chocolate colored comforter set in the room. The primary color for the living room and hallway is Sand Dollar- which a nice khaki color- it is much brighter than the original color that was there when I purchased the place-- I plan on adding some accents of chocolate brown color- called bonbon and a lovely orange color called pumpkin pie (and how I love the taste of warm pumpkin pie).

I was very fortunate to have my friend Jon help me with the painting today- it was fun to have someone talk to & it went much much faster than by myself.

The parents arrived tonite for a few days- tomorrow we are going to paint the closets and finish touch ups in the bedroom and such. Thursday I am having new berber carpet installed in the master bedroom- it will look very very nice and I got a great deal on the carpet with installation. I also hope to clean out the refrigerator and wash all the inside of the cupboards this week- so that I can slowly begin to migrate my belongings over to the new place.


At the end of the week when I get some of the mess cleaned up from the paint- I will post some pictures of the new colors!