Murphy

I was just looking through my cell phone, and found these pictures of Murphy. We were going on a little car ride, and Murphy does not like car rides....

'I don't want to go in the truck, I will not like it'

'You may think I am smiling... but I am not. I am terrified.'

Boston: First Week.

A lot of this past week has been spent in odd limbo... not quite on vacation, but certainly not working.

So Monday at 10:00 AM we got our keys to The Coat Factory. Interestingly they are electronic keys. They are these black plastic things with a smooth cylinder that gets inserted in to the lock, then electronically opens the lock. The apartment is great! It is facing away from the rest of the complex so we get a nice view off trees and whatnot, we spent a while just walking around the place...

...or pretending to wake up.

We unloaded my car with all off my stuff, making rather short work of it. Then spent a little time putting stuff away, and then enjoyed our first meal in the apartment:

Yay!

Then, of course, there was a game of Carcassone to fully christen the space. After all of the festivities, I took Gwyn to the airport.

So since then, highlights: Internet in the apartment. New Tv. Putting up pictures. Bike riding.

Oh! Ok, so I rode my bike around the complex, and found this little road that cuts behind the major shopping center. Turns out there is a whole bunch of stuff right there, including 'Market Basket' what looks like a really nice grocery store! I am stoked! I get to keep biking for food! There is also a 5 Guys, a Trader Joes, Bed Bath and Beyond, Jo Anne Fabrics, Old Navy... just about everything I need! It was so exciting!

So other stuff:

Big Bang on the new TV. No furniture to sit on makes it weird.

I found this guy crawling out of my stuff... Ugg. He is dead now.

Other news: Today (in a few hours) I am going to go enjoy some Star Wars action. Then heading to Costco, then to Burlington Presbyterian Church for Friday game night! I am stoked.

In addition, my stuff is not supposed to get here until the 17th. :( and I get to start work on Monday, so there is going to be a few days of hotel living left. And dinners like this:

The Coat Factory, disclosure

As I sat down to write this, I realize that I have to be aware of my audience. I feel as though I don't write offensive or charged things, but some people may be uncomfortable or weird about this. Oh well.

Gwyn will be moving in to The Coat Factory (my apartment... well when she gets there it will be 'our' apartment). She is finishing up a show in Pittsburgh at the moment, the show needs to be set up by mid March, and the show itself opens in April. Some time after setting it up she will be moving her stuff up here. She is currently head first in job searching and applying to grad school.

There are plenty of excuses and reasons for this cohabitation, but I don't really think you care about that. If anyone is concerned with the moral implications, there has been much conversation and a number of precautions. We will have two separate bedrooms, there is a roommate agreement (ala Big Bang Theory) that will be taken seriously. We are sticking to our faith and our morals. If anyone wants to talk about it, email me. Also if anyone doubts me... let me know.

Eavesdropping

So I am currently sitting in the lovely dining room of the hotel enjoying pig in a blanket. And I am sitting next to 3 people, an older guy, I assume his wife, and 40 ish year old guy. They have sat next to me for the past two days. And their conversations are just annoying. If I was a little more vocal I might tell them. The younger guy reminds me of Larry, very opinionated, and in his view always right, and he wants everyone to know it. He also keeps building up the past, like 'it was a whole 'nother time' and 'things changed fast...' This mornings topic of conversation is 'cheating the system' from toll roads, parking, speeding tickets (he spent awhile bashing the UKs practice of speed and red light cameras everywhere, and then spent a while talking about, rather illegal, ways of getting past it), and now they are talking about evading taxes...  dang. The older guy seems very gullible, he does not protest at all, and is very attentive to the younger guy. The wife is not interested at all, she keeps changing the subject to other things like the weather or traffic, or people they collectively know.

I am sure they are all lovely people. I should not judge.

To the Right Coast (don't worry, not the correct one)

Last Wednesday I hopped in a plane and left my beloved Spokane. It was hard to leave, but like my Father said 'Life is an adventure, this is just a new chapter.' The week before I had been packing everything. It is very different to pack for your car than it is to pack for a moving company. Everything had to go in boxes, everything had to be wrapped... The moving people showed up, things went well. And I packed for Pittsburgh.

Once in The Burgh, I got to enjoy some of my favorites including Pierogie Night with Gwyn, Sam, and Andrew, Pamela's with Skanda, ChurchBrew Works with Mrs. B. Jones, Mrs. Rohrer and Gwyn, and then Burgertory with Jeff, Bri, Sam, Andrew and Gwyn. I spent most of the day Thursday collecting information for my security clearance, I needed some files on my computer that was packed away, so that got lugged out. That evening we did some co-pilot training for Gwyn, she previously did not know how to drive manual, now she does. And she is great at it. Friday was spent packing up my car. I really wish Chelsea or my mom were there, they are great packers... It is the 'Georgia Hogle' packing gene. Every single nook and cranny filled, every space utilized. It was packed... and really full. I had to leave a few non essentials at Gwyn's house.

Hey! We have seen this picture before!

Saturday, my copilot and I took off on our vast journey east. First stop: Starbucks. Then to the open road! The road out of Pittsburgh was awesome! It was hilly and windy and great! It reminded me of driving to Leavenworth from the Tri. All the more reason that driving in western PA is like flying a spaceship, or riding a roller coaster. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if I didn't have all the weight in the back... :( just meas ill have to go back! The sound track for the trip was an audio book for 'World War Z' a great book that Andrew told me about, and I had finished the printed book on the plane ride to PGH, but Gwyn had not read it. I love the story, and the presentation it is great!

Driving was good. No problems, fun drive, lots to look at. It was overcast and lightly dusting snow (nothing accumulating). We hit our first destination after 5 hours of driving: Scranton! If you don't know the significance of Scranton, this means you don't watch The Office. Scranton is the location of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper company! I have been to the actual set of The Office in Hollywood with Chris and Cassie, but now I was in the town! And it was great! Gwyn and I both freaked out a little... then realized that the town is really tired and run down. It could just be that we drove through the tired part, we were only there for 15 mins... but got the iconic Office picture:

Watch the opening credits some time...

  From Scranton it was a short hop in to New York. The very first time I have ever been to NY! Sometime I should actually go to the city...

 Anyway, our hosts for the evening were none other than the great Mr. and Mrs. Evans and their lovely family! For those of you not up to snuff on Hogle clan lore, my Grandfather was transferred to Poughkeepsie while working for IBM. They lived there for 3-4 years (I never remember) around 1970 (+/- 4 years) and next to the Evan's. There have been plenty of stories from here, such as the monstrous driveway that would ice over in the winter, my grandmother's first experience driving in the winter, the legendary papier-mache Halloween costumes, summer nights in the screened in porch, and many other classics. For those of you who keep up to date with my blog, last summer Karen and her three nieces came to Pittsburgh for a concert and was the first time I had any contact with the family besides Christmas cards and e-mail. (you can read about that here). This time I got to meet the rest of the family! Karen's own kids, Maggie, Timothy, Kyle and their lovely dog Tanner. I also got to meet Lynn! the other daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Evans. We had a lot of fun sharing stories and laughing. Gwyn and I got to play around with the kids, they are all great! and so smart! I got to see some pictures of my family, including some of my Great Grandfather sitting in the house where we were. Mrs. Evans made us a wonderful dinner complete with 'Aunt Georgia's Oven Fried Rice.' A recipe that has been associated with my grandmother for a while, but she does not have any recollection of it.

The next morning Mr. Evans took Gwyn and I on a covert tour of my mom's old house. It was covert in the sense that the people who had been living there (since my Grandparents lived there) recently moved out. We managed to get in and took a little tour! It was so cool putting a place to all of the stories I have heard over the years. If your name does not end in a -ary, -onna, -erb, or -eorgia these will not really mean all that much, but here are a few pictures:

Yep... that is monster of a drive way.

I think this is my Aunts old room!

Me and Mr Evans. As he said, I am the 4th generation to stand there.

I want a screened in porch!

After feeling a little criminal, Gwyn and I set off for the State of Massachusetts. On the way we hit Connecticut, yet another state I had not been too (well I guess when we were over here as a family we might have taken the train through... oh well.)

I know you all know this, but New England States are small... we made it through Connecticut fairly quickly, and made it to MA!

ITS A TURKEY!

Shortly after crossing in to Mass. there was a little incident. I was in the right lane of a 4 lane wide road, on the far left shoulder there was a large predator bird. A hawk or small eagle. He was looking in to something... possibly a dead animal, I don't know as I didn't really get a good look. But he was startled by something, and took off. Directly to where my car was going to be in 1.2 seconds. I saw him jet out across the first two lanes, which at that point someone in the car, I don't remember who yelled out 'BIRD!' There is an image frozen in my mind right before I blinked of a very frighted bird with its wings fully spread reacting to my car being there... I blinked, there was a very loud thud and a large smear from the center of my windshield to the top passenger corner. I have no idea what happened to the bird after that. We hope that it landed softly on the grassy shoulder of the road and picked itself back up again. After the adrenaline stopped pumping we stopped for lunch and inspected the damage. I was really worried there was going to be a bird stuck on my bike.... but no, there was just a giant mark to show for it.

We eventually made it to the suite. MIT put me in a suite instead of a hotel while I am waiting for my furniture, this means I get a small kitchen! Gwyn and I ordered some pizza and watched the super bowl! Neither of us were really all that interested, Gwyn was cheering for New England, I didn't really care. But we did make it!

Coming up: Moving in!

The Coat Factory: Episode 1

This is the very first blog post from 'The Coat Factory!' There was just a guy in here who set up the internet, so now I can do one more thing in my apartment... surf the web. While sitting on the floor. With a blue cat5 cable running down the hallway. I need some furniture.

This is going to be short, because I am about to leave, but stay tuned: There is going to be a few changes to Stained Tartan. Got to keep up with the interweb.

Happy Birthday Dad and Caleb!

As you may have seen, I like making letter cakes. And as the month of January is special, in that it is my Dad and Caleb's birthdays, I made a special cake! I also have perfected cake balls. I cannot really take credit for those, I have been experimenting for a while, and my mother got me a book written by the lovely lady at Bakerella.

I am going to present these without caption.

Notice in that last one... there are still candles lit. That is because two guys could not blowing ~20 candles.