My Kentucky book report

Well, we are nearly completely unpacked and becoming acclimatized to Louisville. Kentucky is, according to the lady at the Louisville tourist center, known for three things: beautiful horses, fast women, and bourbon whiskey. I've been researching the last one. A long and interesting history there. Bourbon has been distilled here since shortly after America won Independence and this area was considered the far western portion of Virginia. Over 95% of the world's bourbon is distilled and aged in Kentucky to this day. By the way, whiskey is any alcohol made from distilled grain mash. Bourbon whiskey is made of 51%+ of corn. Straight whiskey is aged in a new, charred, oak barrel for at least 2 years. You often see these two combined on labels. The photo that I included in this post is actually pretty typical of most of rural Kentucky. It looks like a Microsoft Windows desktop, all green and pristine. Kentucky grows beautiful grass without even trying. In Virginia, the soil is so hostile, that you have to expend a great deal of effort to get a mediocre lawn (it is no wonder that those poor suckers in Jamestown starved). Louisville is the 42 largest metropolitan area with just over 1.2 million people (Richmond was the 43 largest). I learned something new just today. It would seem that there is a deep rivalry between fans of the University of Louisville Cardinals and the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

The boys are out for summer and since I can not seem to get a job it looks like we will have more opportunities to get to know the area. I have put together a schedule that includes a field trip every Friday. This Friday we went to see where Col. Saunders is buried, Cave Hill Cemetery. I expect to upload lots of pictures of those excursions.

I finally finished the video of our trip. It changed from my original idea. Check it out.


Click here for older posts. To go straight to our pics click here and here for videos.

April pics are up

I only wound up uploading about 18 pics for this month but they are great, if I may say so myself. Most of these pictures are still in Richmond. The last picture of Jacob was taken in Louisville. I am working on some video of our trip out (very generally) to upload to the video section. Stay tuned.

The boys are adjusting amazingly well, all things considered. They do miss their friends at Minnieland. If anyone at Minnieland is reading this, please know that you are missed. The boys have asked to send letters to Ms. Andrea, Ms. Gwen, and Ms. Bonnie. Yesterday, Geoffrey and I sat in the front yard and talked about how Jaden Jennings and he used to play. Broke my heart a little.

Louisville is working out pretty nicely. I like the city (great mass transit and curbside recycle pick up). Kelly is enjoying her job. She is really just getting her feet wet, though. We got the boys enrolled in school. They have two public Montessori that include pre-k. Jacob and Geoffrey are in the same class. Next year may be different though.

I am unpacking. I moved all of the boxes into the living room and sorted them into piles by room. I am nearly done with the kitchen pile. My goal is to have the house totally squared away by the end of the month.

As ever, you can click here for all of the pictures and here for video. I didn't post anything about it here but you should really check out the videos of Jacob reading Skippyjon Jones. They're very nice.

We are here! We are here!

Well, we made it. It took us two days and we were packed into the car like sardines but we made it. The boys started their new school this morning. Jacob was a little unsure and Geoffrey actually flopped on the floor crying. Mrs. Hogan, their new teacher, seems to be on the ball. I'm sure it's not her first rodeo. She walked the boys out when I came to pick them up this afternoon and she said that they had a great day (she looked a little surprised, to be honest). In the car Jacob told me about their new playground and Geoff told me that Mrs. Hogan threw away his milk at lunch time. He was obviously still mad about it.

I visited the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library today and started networking. As I was led to believe, they do have a hiring freeze. The one lady that I spoke to the longest informed me that they have several openings and, should the freeze be lifted, they will need to hire people.

I'm sorry there are no pictures with this update. I will try to make amends as soon as I get the Macintosh unpacked and running. I'm also planning a little video about our trip. Should be fun. Stay tuned.

Click here for older posts. To go straight to our pics click here and here for videos.

Odyssey pt I

I spent today with a computer engineer from the University of Boston. He is retired (basically) and has decided to pick up moving jobs to get out of the house and meet people. We packed our house into his truck and a horse trailer. And it just fit.
Thi boys and I are in a hotel in Richmond for tonight. Tomorrow is their last day of school here and I will be cleaning the house and packing the car for the trip. I will try to post updates from the road.

Louisville Weekend

Well, we went to Louisville this weekend. We drove a lot. Saw a lot. We got a house and saw the boys school. Met their teacher and Kelly's boss. Saw a bar built in 1779 that I will have a drink in!

On the whole it was a productive trip. We are still exhausted and probably will be for a few more weeks. Watch this space for updates.

Changes

As most of you know, Kelly was laid off from Circuit City last November. As most of you also know, she has been pounding the pavement looking for a new job ever since. Well, on April 17, she got an offer from Humana out of Louisville, KY. They kinda gave us a short notice--her start date is May 4. In a few short days we worked out the math and decided we would save money by me quitting my job and us moving to Louisville. We would loose my salary but also we wouldn't be paying for childcare (about 1/3 of my income). So, off we go. The house is about more than half packed. We are making a trip this weekend to Louisville to house hunt. We have arrangements for movers and are showing the house to potential renters tomorrow and Friday. In a little less than three weeks we will be Kentuckians (or whatever).

We don't have a whole lot by way of new photos yet. Soon we will put up the Easter pics, so don't despair. In the meantime, we do have some fun new videos.


Click here for older posts. To go straight to our pics click here and here for videos.

Sean, we're thinking about you.

Feb & Mar 2009 updates (snow and silly boys)

We've updated pictures on our Picasa album and some new videos on our YouTube page.

Click on the links above to see the new pictures (Feb & March albums) or the new videos. I just loaded four.

Kelly