Rob and Carla .net

I've had a wonderful Christmas so far. After a couple weeks of travel, I'm finally home and officially on holiday. Thought I'd catch up on my email and go through all the pictures I took. I've added three web albums to the links on the right: This year's San Francisco trip. ( link ) Christmas in Ohio at my brother's new house. ( link ) While in Ohio, Carla and I visited my best friend Gabe. ( link ) Merry Christmas to all!

A friend showed me this. It lets you send a Christmas postcard to some troops serving overseas for the holiday, by Xerox. A very good idea if you ask me. http://www.letssaythanks.com/

I've started a wedding album. It's about as good as it's going to get for a little while until I have more time. Most of the pictures aren't professional - they're from friends and family. But since most people want to just see a few picutres, not 800+ the photographer gave us, I'm sure this will suffice. Please let me know through comments or an email if you'd like to see more. Link to the album or click the link on the right.

Someone pointed out to me I had yet put a picture of the new house on the website. Here ya go.

Tomorrow is Veterans' Day. Thank you, and God bless to all who've served.

We got a new bed today. Pretty. And yes, that's a box for my end table.

Disclaimer: I'm testing out the ability to make entries via email. So if this looks a little funny, that's why. Things are coming along slowly. Someone told me you really need to take off work about two weeks after a move like ours. I believe it. Not a day goes by I don't think of something that needs to be done. The unpacking is going slower than I want, but with we're both working right now so we only have the evenings to get things done. Yesterday I planted the bromeliad Carla and I bought. This is a plant we bought when we first moved to Florida and put out on the lanai of our apartment, then promptly forgot about. It needed to be re-potted at least twice since we bought it. It bloomed twice, and I swear the thing should be dead, but it's not. I think it's a wonderful symbol of our relationship. Yesterday, I planted it beside our house where it will get a little sun and a lot shade and should be hit by the sprinklers. All the while, I kept thinking abou

 On Wednesday, Macy's delivered our couch. It stands alone in an otherwise empty living room, but it's beautiful. The wiring guys came in and hooked up our security system (yet another thing the builder messed up on - they had to come in twice and make holes the builder will have to repair.) Verizon came in and installed their FiOS internet and TV services. And Carla's making progress in the kitchen. And I finally started working on my office. Except for a ton of boxes to go through still, this place is starting to be inhabitable.

Halloween was too much of a success. We ran out of candy. I didn't realize there were that many kids in this neighborhood. Word got around we had Play-Doh - it was supposed to be for the little ones. They went fast, the candy went fast. We took a walk afterward in our custumes and met some of the neighbors. We were home by 8.

Last night I created a page for our cat, Calli Mari. Link to the page. [ link ] Link to the photo album. [ link ]

I don't want this page to become all about the house. But, understandably it's taking up most of my time of late. Free time that is. Carla and I both still work, of course. BrightHouse has made it a bit tougher to get work done, but I still manage to pack the hours in. I'm just finishing up some work now. This is after an hour of TV, dinner and putting up some more blinds. BrightHouse came today and did the driveway bore they should've done before I moved in... as one person put it, not like they didn't have plenty of warning. So now the grass looks like crap where they had to dig it up to put in the bore, but at least I no longer have coax surrounding my house. Alas, they were too late. I've decided to try Verizon FiOS. They're giving me a 30-day trial with their 5 mbps and FiOS TV combo. The price is about the same, but the perks are a little better. Free wi-fi router, batter back-up for the whole system so we're not out immediately after a power-outag

Friday marks a momentous occasion in the personal growth of the newly established Young family. After two years of decisions, waiting, progress, waiting, issues, waiting, more issues, waiting, I-can't-believe-how-long-this-is-taking, and more waiting, we've finally moved into our new home. It was a mad-rush at the end - and things were, of course, missed - but it's inhabitable, and it's ours. All ours. Of course Calli went nuts exploring her new surroundings, and for the most part so did we. Our first night we slept on an air mattress, we spent Saturday organizing the old apartment, and Sunday we had movers move everything we couldn't. Right now our home looks like a giant box monster took a dump in every room, except the kitchen. The entire place is in disarray with a mixture of furniture and boxes. And there's a long list of things that we need to address, but it's ours. All ours. I'm a little frustrated with our builder over a couple things. Primarily

Just got back from our first walkthrough before closing. It was supposed to have been last Friday but was delayed due to a carpet mishap. While Carla and I walked through by ourselves last night we made a list of about 75 things that we wanted fixed, most of them cosmetic. Today, we go back and I kid you not, they worked on or were at that moment working on a quarter of them. Just when I was about to lose faith... Someday I'll have to tell what a pain this house has been. A year late, and a builder who's not the best at communication. Anyway, our first walkthrough was pretty good. They took the list we made and immediately started going through it. Nothing really surprised him. I don't forsee anything getting in the way of our closing. <knocking on wood /> And as a bonus, we may even have our punch out list mostly complete. <still knocking />

First entry! I've finally launched myself into the 21st-century and started a *gasp* blog. I was really one of those "I'll never" people. Mainly because I've seen MySpace and think it's a load of crap. Of course, I'm not a 12 y.o. girl who has to air her dirty laundry on the web either. So I hope to update this site, personalize. Give you all photos of from the wedding and of the new house. I hope this blogger tool will actually help me keep up with the site. God willing. Speaking of wedding, Carla and I just celebrated our 6 month anniversary, and we're coming up on 7. I felt it was about time I updated this website from its former wedding-theme. Sorry it took so long. If you're (still) reading this, you're probably a friend or family of ours. For those who came either personally or in spirit, thank you for making our day special. For those who didn't even know about it, that was purely an oversight. Okay, it's late, we're 3 days