Ferrets

Brian is in Cincinnati, and the ferrets are still here with me. They seem to be doing pretty good so far, and are enjoying extended play times. Here are a few shots from the past week or so.

New (to us) car

Earlier this week, Brian and I met with my parents in the Toledo area to pick up our new Civic. It is working really great so far, although I have been reminded again why I avoid the DMV (or BMV, as it's called here in Ohio) at all costs. Still, I hope to get all the paperwork squared away and get plates early next week.

The Civic is the navy car we are all blocking from view. But you probably know what a Civic looks like anyway. :)

We have also been having some really lovely sunsets in the past couple weeks. Here is one I happened to take a picture of, but there have been many more great ones.

Cincinnati apartment: selected!

Brian and I were in Cincinnati on Friday to look at apartments. We saw quite a variety: tiny ones, huge ones, ones in great neighborhoods, ones in sketchy neighborhoods, etc. We narrowed our choices down to two top contenders. We really struggled to choose the best one for us, but I think we have finally decided!

Here is the one we chose! The apartment is the top level of this house. It is called the maid's quarters, because when the rest of the house was occupied by a (wealthy) family, the maid lived in our apartment. The rest of the house is now broken up into 3 units, and we have the fourth, all the way at the top. We have our own entrance on the side of the building, which I think is nice.

This row of windows can be seen clearly in the outside shot (at the top center of the house). I kind of like the curtains, although I might need to make some new ones, because these are a little short. This is the living room, and there is space for a dining room table where I am standing to take the shot. The ceilings angle in a bit, since we are at the very top of the house.
This is the next-largest room, which we are planning to use for our office/ferret room/general hanging out space. It is hard to see the size from this picture, but the room goes back a bit. There is also a huge closet, which I (Han) am excited about. Across the hall from this room is a similar (but smaller) room, which we will use for a bedroom. We usually choose to sleep in the smallest room, since we don't need a lot of room for sleeping.
The kitchen is in the back of the house. The walls are painted a nice red (which we both like) and the floor is a great black and white checkerboard pattern. I am crouching under the slanted ceiling to take this picture. We might put a little table right where I am standing. The kitchen was one of the big selling points of this apartment for us. The other apartment we were considering was a really cozy, charming place, but the kitchen was so small (this was a much bigger issue for me than for Brian). The counter on the right side of the picture does extend a bit more (the sink is there too), to the wall, where there is a window.
Across the street from this house is a Catholic Montessori school. Most of the other houses down the road towards the river are now occupied by retired nuns who used to teach at the school (or so I was told). Like several others in this neighborhood, the street dead-ends at the top of the bluff, which looks out over the Ohio river. Our street doesn't have a great view of the river because of a large house and private grounds (I'm sure people pay a lot for the view), but a couple streets over, there is a really clear view of the river and community on the other side.

I don't want to post the address here in this blog, since it has public access, but I can email the address to whomever is interested.

Apartment Update

Today Brian and I took a quick trip to Cincinnati in the afternoon to look at apartments. We have our choices narrowed down to just a couple and will probably decide in the next couple days. All the apartments on the final short list are very close to each other. What I do know: we are moving to East Walnut Hills (d.v.)! Feel free to google to neighborhood to learn a little more about it. We walked around the neighborhood a little bit today, checking out the area and meeting with folks renting out apartments. The area we are focusing on has nice views of the Ohio river (not from the apartments themselves, but just down the road).

Moving soon

A lot has happened in our lives the last couple of weeks, and our heads are spinning.

In the last post, I talked about our visit to Cincinnati, where Brian interviewed for a job and I visited with Anne. Brian was offered and accepted that job, so we will be moving to Cincinnati quite soon. His start date is October 24th. Between now and then, he will meet with his teaching replacement to sort out class transfer.

I will be sticking around here for a bit longer, since I don't want to give up my class. Still, I am searching for an apartment online and just starting to pack. I have also started a temporary job at a costume shop (part of their Halloween staff). I worked 15 hours last week, but the hours will increase each week until Halloween. This will make the time before Brian's move very busy for both of us, but it is a pretty entertaining job.