Jay and I have decided about our move to Colorado. We have decided to wait and move in May, not in February. Do I hear cheers or groans? I think this is a very good idea and for the following reasons, not in any particular order:

* Jay really loves his work at Legal Aid, They really love him and don’t want him to leave. (no surprise there!) AND we won’t have to be on COBRA while he is working.
* The snow in Colorado and the current weather patterns make it a challenge to travel and unload the furniture in CO in the winter. The movers would need to unload the big van into a smaller truck and then shuttle the loads up the hill.
* Early summer will be a much nicer and easier time to move.
* There is no pressure to move, we don’t have jobs or school commitments requiring our presence.
* There is still a lot of “stuff” to sort through, donate or trash, even though I’m working on it.
* We will have more time to sell by owner, without having to list with a realtor and pay the higher commission.
* We can continue to work on the house update and actually enjoy and benefit from it.
* Ted is close to finishing at Venture, but wants to walk the stage at Martin and go through graduation. We won’t have to travel back for graduation, and he can get a job in the meantime.
* We are down to only a few clients in the private practice. We can move the office to the house and save the “rent” and I can work part time.
* Julia can finish her semester, evaluate whether she wants to move to CO with us or renew her apartment lease for a year.
* We’ll have more time to spend with our friends prior to our move.
* We’ll be able to spend Spring Break in Colorado at the house since it is basically furnished, move some items early and explore the area… there will probably still be snow!

The only potential glitch would be if the house sold early and we feel we can find a short term rental to tide us over, if that happens. But the house will be sold and that’s a good thing… so it’s all good. Jay and I feel good about this decision. I think the reality of a move in 3 weeks was starting to really hit home and how much we still have left to do. Our realtor is going to take pictures at the house next week, when she goes to get the keys and check everything out. I’ll post some pictures of the house then, if she takes some good ones.

During the recent cold snap that hit much of the US, I had the joy of working in Salt Lake City, UT. Generally, the weather has been pretty cold since before Christmas, with lows in the morning around the teens and highs in the upper 20s. However, last week, I was driving into work and the dashboard thermometer read 3 degrees. Fahrenheit. That’s -16 Celsius for you non-Americans.

That’s bitter cold, like the kind of cold that freezes the moisture INSIDE your nose. Although to be honest, there really isn’t much moisture up in there what with the low humidity. Yes, it can snow in the desert. I’ve never lived anywhere where it will snow once and two weeks later it’s still light and fluffy. Texas never gets snow, only ice and hail, while Oregon gets snow that lasts for a couple days, but always melts and freezes during the day and night leaving crusty, chunky snow blocks I’m sure are perfect for Eskimos going ice fishing (you know, inside igloos). However, the only Native Americans I see in Oregon are running the casinos so I’m betting they aren’t too fond of the snowboarder’s manna.

This week is Robert Redford’s renowned Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. My childhood compatriot Regan, with whom I’ve shared science classes from Bowles Junior High through University of Texas Chemical Engineering, is flying into town to do a bit of snowboarding and movie watching (but absolutely no star f_cking as he could care less about the Hollywood scene). In a strange twist of events, he now works for Micron, producer of much of the world’s computer RAM. Well, as it happens, I am also in SLC to support Micron, where my company is supplying semiconductor manufacturing equipment for a huge facility being built to make FLASH RAM, specifically the FLASH RAM used in the Apple iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle (and for who knows what new geek’s obsessive compulsive tech fetish Apple will create). So Regan is in town and we’re going to go snowboarding on Saturday. I will try to convince him to come work at the SLC Micron site instead of Manassas VA (hi MB!, miss you guys).

But the cold, the bitter soul-searing, teeth-chattering, toe-numbing, snotcicle cold is finally starting to abate. For example, today we briefly broke through the freezing point of water for the first time since I’ve been coming to SLC. My shoes got wet on the walk back to the car. I miss the cold…

Matt has fixed my photo problem, and I can now post photos. Attached you will find Ted’s birthday picture with Matt and Julia at her apartment, as promised. If you had previously subsribed to be automatically notified of new updates, you will need to do it again. That link was also broken, but Matt fixed that too.
We are continuing to prepare for the move. Jay’s last paid day at Legal Aid of Northwest Texas is Jan. 31st. After that we will concentrate on closing down his law office and sorting the rest of the accumulation of years, paring it down to a manageable load. If anyone is missing any clutter, please come by here and pick some up, I have more than enough to go around. Hopefully, with Jay’s encouragement, we can make faster progress! After we set the date with the movers to begin packing, I’ll let you know. We bought some more furniture from the former owner’s of the new house, we can move right in to the basement too!

Ted got news this morning that one of his good friends from Martin HS, was killed in a one car accident last night. Another friend, the passenger, also died. Everyone is very sad, the funeral will be on Thursday. Hopefully, the kids will really pay attention about their driving for a while and be safe. I know I always worry when we get an evening phone call while Ted is out, until I know who it is. Usually, it’s him asking for a ride, and that’s OK.

Julia will be going to Salt Lake City, UT to attend the Deaf Winter Olympics at the beginning of February. She is going with a class mate from the Sign Language Interpreter’s program and two of the instructors. It should be a wonderful experience for her AND she will get to see Wallace, who is currently working on a project in Salt Lake City. She’ll get to see big snow before we do.

We thought it was going to be icy and treacherous all weekend. We had projections and forecasts, and postponed the family dinner in honor of Ted’s 19th birthday to Monday, when the ice would be gone. However, it didn’t freeze enough on Saturday and Sunday and the roads weren’t that bad, but Monday am brought the freeze and ice. However, by the time we were ready to go at noon to Julia’s apartment to meet for Ted’s birthday lunch the roads were dry. We had a nice lunch and visit to Julia’s apartment. Matt set up her wireless router birthday present (from him) so she can now sit at her leisure and surf the net, etc, instead of on the floor tied to the modem. But what a surprise to wake up this morning to find out that all of the schools are closed here, because of snow, sleet and ice. This weather pattern was not highly promoted, so there was much more traffic on the highways and much more news for the reporters to report. So I guess we can’t get away from snow this winter, in Colorado or in Texas, although I am sure no one in Colorado would call this precipitation snow! Ted and I are staying home, Jay has gone on to work, he has a trial scheduled this afternoon, and our contractor called to say he was still coming. But I’m not taking chances on any more slips and broken ankles.
Matt gave me a lesson on posting photos, I hope I can make it work this time. He also set up an option for our blog visitors to get automatic email notices when someone posts to the blog. So you might check it out and see if it works. Thanks, Matt. I really want to set up a camera at the Westcliffe house to monitor the view and weather, and hope I can get Matt there to get it all set up for me.

We don’t have any more news about the move to CO. We’re still waiting on a date for Ted to graduate, but it looks like it should be soon. But, in my search of the area, I have found the following website from the custer county chamber of commerce, which I have really enjoyed. I encourage you to check it out and hope you will start getting motivated to come to CO to explore Custer County and southcentral CO with us. http://www.custercountyco.com/index.html

We took a picture of Jewls, Matt and Ted on Monday at Jewls apartment, but it’s in Jewls’ camera. When she sends it to me, I’ll post it on the blog. Well, I’m off to clean out another closet since I’m home today, there’s still so much to go through!

We closed on the house in Westcliffe yesterday and are now official owners of land in Colorado. I don’t think Colorado thinks you are really a resident until you’ve lived there a year, but I’m sure they’ll take our taxes. The sellers will stay in the house until January 28th.

We don’t have a move date yet, we are still waiting to hear about Ted’s graduation, but it won’t be until mid to late February most likely. We’ll try to find a good window of weather… hopefully. Our realtor said that their local weather guru’s have stated that this weather pattern of frequent snows is really the norm, and the last 7 years of drought has been abnormal. I understand the farmers and forest managers are pleased about the snow and it will help end the drought and protect the land.

Jay bought four wheel drive cars before the end of 2006 in prep for the move. I now have a maroon 2005 Tahoe and he has a green 2005 Land Rover LR3. I’ll try to post photos of the cars, after I take the pictures. We have had reasonable interest in the house, especially after New Year’s. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone will make an offer.

Megan’s wedding was wonderful, by the way, and her aunts and cousins were perfect guests. I felt like my family was visiting, it was a lot of fun to spend time with them and very comfortable. They are welcome back anytime!