Sunday, July 30, 2006

Our first week in Minnesota

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week since we ended our road journey from California to Minnesota! It's been a very busy week. Monday we took advantage of the empty house so it was a day of painting and cleaning. Dad and Bonnie arrived on Monday afternoon. How fun to have our first visitors already. We also met several of the neighbors and they all were very friendly. We headed back over to Uncle Doug’s place for dinner and spend the night. Tuesday the moving truck arrived. Took the entire day for a team of four guys to unload the truck. It was also the first of what has become a string of hot and humid days this week. Temps in the upper 90's. That same night at Catie's urging we dug out the bedding and spend our first night in the new place. Nik and I slept on the couch in the media room and Chris and Catie slept in Catie's room.

Wednesday I had to go into the office. We had two Quad VP's in town so Stu my new boss suggested it would be a good time for me to come in ahead of my first official day so I could meet with them and also get a chance to meet the team in Minneapolis Imaging and Sales. We really have a nice group and I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and digging in.

Thursday we really started to jam on unpacking. Chris focused on the kitchen. This is the heart of our home and the place where she wanted to start the sanity. I concentrated on finding, unpacking and setting up all the TVs, Tivo's, Satellite boxes, DVD players and VCRs. The DirecTV installer is coming on Friday so all this needed to be set up before he arrives. Also, this is the day that our DSL connection goes live so I needed to get the office set up. Two desks, two Macs and the printer are the minimum we need right now. What a challenge finding all this stuff. The packing crew in CA did a pretty crappy job of labeling boxes so I probably opened at least 50 extra ones before finding all the needed pieces. By Midnight this was all done any my Energizer bunny wife had made a serious dent in the kitchen.

Friday, man it's great to have Internet access again. I have a 7 Megabit connection so I totally screams. It's at least 5x faster than the connection we had in Cali. Really getting to be hot out. Temps in the upper 90's and humid today. I felt sorry for the DirecTV guy, he said that this is the hardest install he's ever done. 7 TV, 5 with Tivo almost blew his mind. After almost 4 hours he was done and we are back in touch with the world again. And not a moment to soon, the German Grand Prix is today through Sunday.

Saturday the goal was to get Nik's bedroom up and ready for him to sleep in. He and I have been sleeping on the coach, with Chris and Catie sleeping in Catie's room. The kitchen is pretty much done. Family room and Dinning room are next. We also got the Master bedroom bed set up so we all get to sleep in our own beds for the first time in over two weeks. It was hot again today, 100 degrees. Chris, Nik, Catie and I went and explored downtown Excelsior. Had dinner at the local Pizza Hut and walked along the shore of Lake Minnetonka. There is a nice little beach area and the west end of a park area called the Commons. We got our feet wet, the water really felt nice. Perfect temperature. I have to say, Excelsior is a very cool little town. It has a small resort town type of feel. And on the weekends it's really hopping.

Today we Alex's room set up in preparation for his arrival from California tomorrow. That took me most of the day. It was 102 and steamy today. Catie and I went to the beach for a swim in the evening to cool off. Man that water felt good. Slowly the house is falling into place. Lots of work yet ahead of us, but we will just keep chipping away at it. My first day of work is tomorrow, so I'm going to try and get to bed early so I can get a good nights sleep. All in all I feel pretty good about how much we've accomplished this week.

No comments: