Black and Purple

The Ravens finally made it back to the Super Bowl.  After four straight years of heartbreaking Ravens playoff losses, I knew that this was our year.  So determined was I that I took an oath to not shave my playoff beard until the Ravens won the Super Bowl, be it this one... next year... or five years from now.
I am really glad that they won.  When describing my beard, I can't help but think about a quote from the movie Joe Dirt:  "You mean it just naturally grows in... All white-trashy like that?" - Said the radio show host, Xander Kelly to Joe Dirt.  Not only does my beard not grow in very well, but my neard (neck beard) gets unbearably itchy.

My playoff beard the morning of Super Bowl Sunday:

After getting a full day of landscaping duty out of Bailey, we headed to Thomas St. Tavern to watch the game.  Here is me in between my two favorite ladies... all decked out in purple of course.:

Bailey Visits

February 1st:  Our first visitor has arrived!  My sister, Bailey, became our indentured servant for the weekend.  We paid for her flight, food and drink.  In exchange, she worked tirelessly around the house... sanding walls, painting, plastering, moving heavy furniture, cleaning, taping... etc.

This is Bailey first thing on Saturday morning.  Here she is happy.  We clothed her, fed her a nice breakfast, and even let her play with my iPad.  Several back breaking hours of manual labor later, however, that grin would be long washed away... 

(just kidding, she had a great time.)

Happy as a clam:

The real reason that I shipped her down of course was to have her watch the Ravens win the Super Bowl with me...

January 29th

Me: "Hey Tim, do you want to come over and have a beer/check out the new place?"
Tim: "Hell yeah!"

Tim came over and had a beer... Then he helped me:

- Move a bookshelf from upstairs to the basement
- Re-organize the storage room
- Get a car load of stuff from Talla's place
- Arrange the Living room
- Set up the bedroom

Me: "So uhh... Come over for a beer.. same time next week?"
Tim:  "Uhhhh... maybe at my place"

(Thanks Man!)

Here is us setting up the bed.... We got it put together in no time.

The next day I snapped a picture of the living room with the natural sunlight pouring in:

Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture, but the room looked like a furniture storage room before Tim came over.

Working from home...

... Is really tough with a broken computer

Jan 29, 2013 - One small drop from 4 feet and this is the screen that my computer would freeze on when rebooting:

The "screen of death" is what I think bloggers and tech forum gurus refer to this display as.

According to Geek Squad, the hard drive was toast.  It would take them a few days to fix + I had to get the reboot disk shipped from Sony, and new MS Office Software.

In the mean time, Talla let me use her computer to do my work.  Luckily I didn't break that one too.  After 7 trips to best buy and $350 in repairs over the past 2 weeks, I finally got my computer back last night (Feb. 13).  She is now up and running better than ever. : )

Painting the Bedroom

January 27-29, 2013:

The bedroom was this strange pinkish color when we moved in.  It didn't make sense to move everything in there when we knew we had to paint soon anyways.  So we stayed the first few nights in the guest room..  Porpoise was the color we chose (which is a shade of grey...).  Choosing paints reminded me of this clip from Lost In Translation:  Well ok, I didn't find the clip, but it is when Bill Murray's character opens a package his wife sent him with 20 carpet samples that are all a maroon/burgundy color.   He scatters them on the floor and studies them for a second.  Then he reads a note that says: "tell me what you think of the burgundy".  He says to himself something along the lines of "They are all burgundy."  Haha.

The color looks great in the bedroom, and we have it mostly set up the way we want.

And here is the finished paint job:

Moving In...

January 26&27, 2013:

My Stuff:

1 mid-sized sedan filled all the way.

Talla's Stuff:

2 16' Budget Van loads.
7 Mid-sized sedan loads (not packed super tight.. but no passengers could be taken.)

It took us a while to get it all in the house.  I don't know what we would have done without the valuable help our friends Ryan and Kelly.  Ryan (another former Davidson football player & future co-worker) was excited to get a free workout on his shoulders, forearms and back.  (We still owe you guys dinner.)  Talla cringed a few times when we bumped the walls with her nice furniture.... Oops!  

Leaving New York

Jan. 25, 2013 - It was 11 degrees and windy on a Friday afternoon when I began packing my car to move from New York.  Originally, I had planned to leave in the evening - arriving in Baltimore by midnight, and then heading the rest of the way to Charlotte on Saturday.  It never works out the way you plan, and I had to take off work early on Friday to get out by 2.  An impending snowstorm was dropping snow and ice up I-95 (My intended route), and it was going to strike NYC at 5PM.  Packing took longer than expected, and I finally finished packing the S60 at 4:30 with all of my belongings.

I leaned into the trunk as it clicked shut over the overstuffed linens wedged into whatever final crack that could be found.  I brought my numb, cracked hand up to my lips and blew some steam into my fist as I jumped in the car, and fired up the engine.  I pulled out of the driveway that I was illegally blocking (No ticket this time!)... and away from my New York home for the last time.  

Twelve months well spent in the greatest (big) city in the world. (Charlotte is a better place - I am very pleased to be moving back).  That one year was the longest I have gone without moving since I moved away from home when I was 18.  It was the only time and it was the only time I have ever lived in a home by myself.  

It has been real, New York... 

Here is a picture of Talla and me ice skating in Central Park two weeks before the move: