We spent three hours at the new house this morning with Brian and the home inspector. I put a couple pictures of the backyard on Flickr (along with the one interesting photo I took at Georgia Tech). As expected, since all of the mechanical systems and appliances are new, no major problems. The inspector pointed out a few minor things that need repairs, so it shouldn't be a problem to get the seller to fix them.

Upon a closer look, we need to paint to cover up some little blemishes, but that's no biggie since we were going to paint with color to customize anyway. Then there are several small Saturday projects that aren't high priorities, as well as landscaping/gardening. It'll be fun. I like accomplishing things with Ryan. It'll also be fun to buy stuff like furniture for the guest room and tools so we can build an enormous cat condo for our little furry ones.

On Monday I was pretty bummed because I finally heard that I didn't get the big fellowship that I applied for way back in November. I did get an honorable mention, which is better than last year, and I have one more year of eligibility to apply. The reviewers seemed impressed and interested with my research proposal, but 2 out of 3 said that I should be doing more publishing. Uh, hello, I'm only in my first year! It's pretty crazy how competitive science is getting. It used to be that you just needed to have good grades/GRE scores and some research experience to get one of them. Maybe/hopefully I can get that paper I worked on some at the field station published by next winter, or at least "in press," but I don't know that my situation will be so much different next time around :/

I stopped moping about it yesterday, though. At least most other things in life are going well. I do have a term paper to write by next Thursday, which I've only today started gathering articles for, but it's related to my research so I have somewhat of an idea what I want to write. And the weather is suddenly summerlike (high of 81 yesterday!), so that has me feeling more positive, too.

This Friday is the house inspection, where we'll be accompanying the inspector for three hours as he examines every detail of the house. It'll be only the second time we've been inside, although we've done several stalkeresque drive-bys :) I'll try to remember to bring my camera along. Once my term paper is turned in, maybe I'll celebrate next Friday by going wedding dress shopping. Having no classes on Fridays is a glorious thing.

Holy crap are my new shoes tall. I've never had too much trouble walking in heels, especially since my "hypotenuses" are rather long, making the relative ascent less drastic than smaller sizes, but these shoes represent a new challenge. Fortunately I have over a year to practice.

Gearing up for the last day of the conference. It's been good to focus on research-related stuff without distractions from TAing and my classes. Yesterday was another jam-packed day of seminars and posters. I like the seminars more than the posters. The seminars are all 15 minute strict time limit, so even if you're trapped in a bad/boring one, the pain ends relatively quickly. The poster sessions have been at the end of the day, though, so my brain is already numb and I can't concentrate enough to take more than a superficial look at the posters. I tried to focus a little harder on the ones that apply more to my potential research.

I saw a very famous guy in marine eco (I know that he and my advisor go way back), and worked up the nerve to introduce myself and describe a little of what I was thinking about doing for my research to see if he thought it was worthwhile. Pretty much he said, "Yeah, we know very little about that process, yadda, yadda," so I felt good that someone so well-known agreed that my work would be new and interesting.

On the way back to the hotel I mentioned to the postdoc from my lab, well, basically what I said in the previous paragraph (but this time naming names). She seemed hesitant, and said something along the lines of, "This is all I'm going to say, but you have to be careful who you tell your ideas to." I didn't pry, but from what it sounds like, this guy who impressed me with his 100+ publications achieved them through sometimes questionably ethical means. Luckily I didn't give him my whole research plan- just the part that was most related to his work. Still, that would be pretty low if someone like him had to cherry-pick ideas from a first-year grad student like me!

It's interesting once you get more into science and discover the faces/reputations behind the names. Quite often intellectual disagreements turn into longstanding feuds. I don't think it's compelling enough for TV, since it moves at a slow pace due to the publishing cycle. I don't see myself as the type to start any feuds during my career, but who knows who will start something with me. If that guy from two paragraphs ago publishes something similar to what I told him in a year or two, I just may have to lay the smack down. Heh, we'll see.

I'm blogging from Georgia! Woot!

It's been a long day of talks and posters. I'm more motivated to go and get some data this summer though so I can give a talk or at least a poster next year (in Providence, I just found out).

My old evolutionary bio prof from CU ended up sitting next to me during a couple of the talks. I introduced myself (it'd been a huge lecture class) and we chatted a bit. Nothing like traveling to Georgia 6 years later to first talk to your professor!

Relaxing here a bit, then venturing out for dinner. I'm exhausted already though.

I'm leavin'. . . on a 5 o'clock plane to Georgia (leavin' on a 5 o'clock plane! leavin' on a 5 o'clock plane!).

Yup, going to that conference I mentioned earlier. I'll be watching seminars for the next 3 days and hopefully see a little of Atlanta as well. I'm bringing my camera along, so prepare for a Ryan-free batch of pictures! I'm sharing a hotel room with the postdoc from my lab. I'll have my lappy along, but I don't know if there's free internet at the hotel. With wireless I'm sure I'll find some way to add another state to my blogging list, though.

Supposed to be a high of 83 there on Saturday! Wowee!

Correction: life would be better if my midterm took itself tomorrow, and got an A. I have a lot of studying to do tonight.

The weekend was pretty boring. We did go to King of Prussia on Saturday night, because I'm obsessed with finding turquoise shoes ("something blue") to wear for the wedding . Which we haven't set a date for, but I needed to find shoes! I didn't at the mall, but I did end up ordering some off Amazon. I would've preferred satin because they'd look dressier, but I could wear these in non-wedding situations as well. And for $35, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I found better ones later.

We made corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots in the crockpot for St. Paddy's Day. It turned out well- I think it will take up residence in our rotation.

Yesterday Jibblies pounced at the window because there was a bird on the windowsill. It was adorable and hilarious. I'm trying to convince Ryan that we should get two more cats when we move into the house (brown and orange) instead of just one (brown). Then we'll have 200% more adorably hilarious events around the house.

We signed the contract today. The following link has tons of pics:

House

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful fiance and such a gorgeous kitchen-elect. And when we move in we're getting a second kitten. Life couldn't get much better unless the house was free and my homework did itself.

Holy crap! They accepted our first offer, no quibbling back and forth over the terms. We sign the contract tomorrow, and it becomes binding (i.e. $ committed) at the end of the attorney review period (next Wednesday). Closing date will be May 18.

A stock photo of the exterior:

We saw an incredible house today and Brian is putting in an offer on it tomorrow morning! There's absolutely no commitment in putting in an offer, but if all goes well we could be signing a contract next week and closing in May. We're actually offering the list price because it's priced low for all the amenities it has, and we don't want someone else to get it before we do.

Basically it's an older, colonial/Victorian style house that's been completely remodeled/renovated inside. 3 bedrooms (good sized ones), 2.5 baths (a full bath more than we were planning), gorgeous new kitchen (you know I love it), two staircases, porch, decent sized yard and a little breathing room between us and the neighbors, and brand new: heat, A/C, roof, windows, plumbing, electrical. I can't believe the quality for the money. Even little stuff like pretty wood trim around the windows rather than boring painted wood.

Between the guest room, office, bonus attic room, and couches, there'll be plenty of space for people to crash after the wedding after-party (not our prime concern in house-shopping, but good to know).

After Brian puts the offer in tomorrow morning, we could conceivably hear back from the owners' agent later in the day, or Friday morning at the latest. I'll keep you updated.

A couple slightly amusing stories:

On the shuttle bus from the rental car drop-off to the San Diego airport, the driver told everyone the following joke: A family of moles is sitting inside their burrow. The papa mole sticks his head above ground and says, "I smell pancakes!" Then the mama mole sticks her head above ground and says, "I smell bacon!" Then the baby mole, not being tall enough to reach above ground, stays in the burrow and says, "I smell molasses!"

After we boarded the plane, I was on one side of the aisle while Ryan was in the middle seat across the row. On the aisle seat next to Ryan was an 18ish year old blonde. Because he doesn't think about what things will sound like once they come out of his mouth, he says to her, "Excuse me, are you traveling alone?" She was sketched out and managed to say something like, "Uh, isn't that kind of a personal question?" I had to interrupt, "What he was trying to say is would you be willing to switch seats with me." She was obviously very relieved.

Ryan was so sleepy this morning that while in the shower he decided that he wanted to take a nap. So he leaned onto the towel rack and it snapped in half. I think that woke him up quickly.

House shopping this afternoon! Woot!

Ugh. Being back at work/school is lame. The weather hasn't been too much of a shock, but I have so much work to do between now and the end of the semester. Wednesday will be another house-shopping trip with Ry and Bri, and we're looking at somewhat more expensive ones, so hopefully they're in better shape.

The trip could be summed up as- lots of walking, lots of dining out, and lots of sunshine. Tuesday was my favorite day; Wednesday and Friday I worked on my grant proposal at the library during the day, and Thursday I walked around Balboa Park more, which got old after a while. If I'd had a car I would've gone to Sea World, but since Ryan's work paid for the car, I wasn't allowed to drive it.

In the evenings we pretty much walked around various places and ate big meals. Big, unhealthy meals. I don't think I gained any/much weight because of all the walking (I estimate 6-8 miles each day), but I'm trying to be healthy now so I can get closer to my wedding weight before dress shopping. We had separate flights home scheduled because I booked my trip after he did, but my flight was canceled due to mechanical failure two hours before takeoff. They were going to put me in a hotel and fly me the next day, at which point I was agitated almost to tears (btw, I have problems every time I fly US Airways; they suck big time), but Ryan saved the day and helped arrange for me to get on his flight instead, for no additional cost! We even got to sit next to each other after asking someone to trade seats. Stupid US Airways doesn't look into helping people get where they need to go in a timely manner, they just go with the easiest out. But it did turn out nice that I got to fly home with Ryan.

Jibblies has been big-time cuddly since we got home. It was cute at first, but he kept waking me up in the middle of the night, which is not cute. Especially when I'm already short on sleep due to the time zone and daylight savings both working against me.

Yesterday Ryan and I went biking for the first time this year. 15 miles and I was about ready to keel over. He's training for a 100 mile ride in July. I will probably join him for half of his training rides; if I weren't going to Maine in the summer I'd try doing the 100 miles too.

San Diego pics are up! Post later.

Pssst! The San Diego Public Library is old-timey. So are most of its patrons. I am working on a research grant that's due Friday. I don't really need to use the library, but thought I'd work here to see more of the city and get out of the hotel room. End Pssst.

I've now blogged from 5 states! In order: NY, WA, NJ, PA, CA! Yay for Ryan's work paying for internet in our room!

At this moment in Jersey: 24 degrees, feels like 12, snow advisory.

At this moment in San Diego: 72 degrees, feels like 72, should be a sunburn advisory.

From what I've seen so far, I like it here. It's very clean and cheerful.

The recap thus far: Ryan's rental car is a red Mustang. It's fun to ride around and pretend that we have a secret life where it's always sunny and carefree and we have a clean red sports car. Because in our other life the weather is back-and-forth, it's not so carefree, and the sports car is black and in desperate need of a wash.

The guy supervising Ryan at work over here asked if Ryan brought me, and when Ryan said yes, the guy was like, "Aww, man, you don't even get any time to do something fun. Don't bother coming in until 10 or 11 tomorrow morning." Since we woke up around 6am due to not being adjusted to the time zone, we drove to Mission Bay park, walked around, then went to breakfast. I was starving, and had an amazing eggs Benedict with turkey and avocado. Isn't it just the greatest feeling when you're soooo hungry and then you get an amazing and filling meal? Ahhhhh.

Then we drove to Balboa Park (the big park containing the zoo) and walked around there for a while before Ryan had to leave for work. I stayed behind and did the zoo today, then walked back to the hotel, where I am now. The zoo was huge, of course, and with all the walking today my feet are soooo sore. Don't tell Ryan between now and the time he gets home from work, but I got him a stuffed animal meerkat because they're his favorite animal but he didn't get to go inside the zoo (it's closed by the time he gets off work).

I took pictures of cute animals, mostly big cats, but don't have my camera cable here, so you'll have to wait. Oh, those Bird of Paradise flowers I mentioned for the wedding are all over the place here.

Tonight we'll go out to dinner and do more walking. I wonder how many miles I will have walked by the end of the day.

News!

We're also news in Cortland, NY, but they're not very technologically advanced.

Ryan's in the air right now. I'll be leaving tomorrow and meeting him in San Diego tomorrow evening. Yay!

Good news! Ryan's dad thought that the aquarium was a good idea and that it wasn't unreasonably priced. So, he was a little vague, something about "floating" us the money, but sounds like we're gonna go with the aquarium :)

Brian took us to 3 houses in our preferred price range yesterday. Two needed major remodeling and the third was good except for a cramped and outdated kitchen, which is a deal-breaker for us. Kitchens are really expensive to remodel, but the increase in resale value wouldn't recoup the cost. It really seems like we let the perfect house get away (the one that prompted us to go out and get a realtor), but it was a matter of timing. We really weren't ready a month ago, but now we are. If we come across a great one now, we'll know for sure. Brian is very helpful, especially because he knows what the fair market value for the houses is. In his opinion, all 3 we looked at yesterday were overpriced for their condition (even assuming we'd only offer 93-95% of the list price). So after San Diego we're going to look at our next tier of houses- the ones that cost a little more but hopefully are in better shape.

If we were planning to live in a house for more than 4-5 years, I'd definitely want to do this to at least one of the rooms!

Another fun link here.

Ryan's dad and stepmom are coming down tomorrow to take us out to a celebratory engagement dinner. We (mostly Ryan) are planning on asking about wedding contribution money this weekend. I'm sure they will help us out, but the question is how much and if it'll be a loan or gift. The good news is that Ryan's stepmom is obsessed with aquariums :)

I got a quote from the aquarium and it seems a little on the pricey side but doable. We're going to schedule a tour from the event coordinator after the trip. We would probably do the ceremony outside, with the Delaware River and Philly skyline in the background. As a rain location, maybe front of Irazu Falls. The shark tunnel is maybe the diameter of an airplane with 2 seats on either side of the aisle, so it'd be a little cramped for the ceremony. I had thought about it, though.

As for me turning into the type of girl who's been planning her wedding since she was 5 years old: no, no. no. I'm not trying to have a "fairy-tale" wedding where I "feel like a princess" and it's the "most magical day of my life." I just want a killer party that people will remember.