Christmas Time Is (sort of) Here, Alison @ Work

We are (vaguely) ready for Christmas. We have a Christmas tree...

and we've temporarily replaced Brandon's skulls with our Nativity.

Here is a brief tour of Alison's workplace.

The lobby. Take the elevator to the 5th floor.

Here we are in the curriculum office. (Alison's coworker is very into Christmas decorating, as you'll see in all the pictures.)
Hard at work, messy desk.

We are thankful...

...to the Young family for inviting us up to Omaha for Thanksgiving! We feasted in the church gym with family and new friends.

Then we took a walk around downtown Omaha, where we saw Christmas lights and a giant buffalo sculpture (he's leaping through the corner of a building).
We also got to hang out with a few pioneers. There is a whole set of sculptures celebrating Nebraska's pioneer heritage. They are very cool and detailed--a few more pictures are here.

We also got to play some Wii Sports Resort. Our favorite games were Speed Slice and Showdown. Fun (and cute)!

We stayed overnight and left on Friday with some great "prizes"--some delicious meat to stock our freezer (thanks, Aunt Susie!)...

and our only Black Friday purchase, a bevy of fabulous deals from Half Price Books.
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

In deference to those who have complained about the recent lack of posts, we respectfully submit this update

Cindy came to visit, and we celebrated with a fatted calf at Oklahoma Joe's.

She brought this awesome photo of two of the Roberg dogs, Millie and Whitney.
(Speaking of dogs, a few weeks ago there was a "Growl-o-ween" event at the Plaza [site of the J Crew where Alison works]. Dogs came in their Halloween costumes and all the stores gave out doggie treats. For some reason, one of the most popular costumes was a lobster...maybe it was on sale at Walmart? This article has a slideshow of some of the participants, if dogs in Halloween costumes is your kind of thing.)

While Cindy was here, we also checked out the Visitors' Center in Independence. In an amazing coincidence, they had a display that allowed us to exactly reenact our journey to Kansas City this summer.

We also found some time to hang out with former President Truman.

This week's big news: Alison started a new job at the UMKC School of Medicine. Here she is getting ready to leave for her first day (at the unearthly hour of 7:45 a.m.!).

eleven four

On this day in history:
1869 - First issue of the journal Nature is published
1922 - Howard Carter discovers King Tutankhamun's tomb
1966 - The River Arno floods and causes major damage to the city of Florence (especially noteworthy because the same river flooded Florence on the same day in 1333)
1970 - Genie, a feral child, is discovered in Los Angeles
1984 - Dell Computer is founded (as PC's Limited)

These people were born:
1916 - Walter Cronkite
1946 - Laura Bush
1960 - Kathy Griffin
1962 - Jeff Probst
1969 - P. Diddy AND Matthew McConaughey
1981 - This guy:

We had a little birthday celebration with a few gifts...
But THIS was the centerpiece of it all:
All right, maybe it was a little ambitious, but A for effort, right? If you don't recognize it, here is the inspiration (we're obsessed):

Earlier this week, Brandon's computer monitor died a tragic death, necessitating a replacement. We named it Megalodon.

Happy birthday, Brandon!

In The Red

Kansas City in the Fall

Late summer in Kansas City was very moderate, weather-wise, but we're definitely well into fall now. Leaves are changing and we've had a couple of very cold days. The radiators in our apartment are starting to turn on---it's very cozy!

We're still enjoying the abundance of barbecue in town. Most recently, we tried Oklahoma Joe's, a restaurant in a gas station that is one of Anthony Bourdain's "13 Place to Eat Before You Die."

Brandon is keeping busy with coursework and a couple of research studies. He's learning how to administer various psychological assessments, including the WAIS-IV. It must be hard work--here he is taking a break.

Here's our street. If you look closely at Alison's car, you can see the damage to the trunk and rear bumper from a fender-bender a couple of weeks ago (hit by an uninsured driver...awesome).
Alison is still looking for a full-time job (had an interview last week--fingers crossed), but in the meantime she is working here:
Folding t-shirts can be a very "zen" activity.

Happy fall!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

...for an announcement about how much I like this ad:

Thank you, passiveaggressivenotes.com, for reminding me of its existence.

Things to celebrate in August

After a month of sleeping on an air mattress...finally, a real bed!

A guy was selling this chair on Craigslist. Brandon bargained with him over email for about two weeks--we eventually got the chair for half its listed price!

August 12th was our 3-year anniversary. We took a trip over to Independence and walked around town a bit. Here's an interesting statue of people beating their swords into plowshares.

Then we went to this movie:

Alison gave it two thumbs up. Brandon survived. (Side note: One of the characters in the movie decides to cook every recipe from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking over the course of a year. Alison is also thinking about undertaking a cooking project, although probably not such a daunting one. What do you suggest?)

After the movie we went out for a delicious Italian dinner. After we got home, we figured we'd spent enough time together and decided to play computer games! (Very romantic.) (For those who are curious, Brandon's game of choice is Warcraft [not the online version] and Alison plays The Sims 2).

We hope you are enjoying your August as much as we are! Brandon starts school in a little over a week and Alison's job search continues (as does the thesis...always the thesis...), so we should have some more updates in the near future.

Outside (read this post before the one below)

We love our new apartment in Kansas City! It's a 1920s fourplex in the historic Westport neighborhood.

Before we check out the inside of the apartment, here are some shots of the exterior. First, the view of our balcony from the street.

And from our balcony out to the street.

...and looking to the right toward our neighbors' apartments.Alison put up a hummingbird feeder, but so far, no takers.The door from the balcony into the apartment.

Here's a side view of the building.

The back yard.

The basement is a little creepy.But there is plenty of storage space!

The foyer area of the building. Our actual mailbox is built into the wall on the left, above the radiator.

Aproaching our apartment (we're on the right)...

Inside

By the time we saw this place, we had been through a lot of apartments. We had almost committed to a typical "big complex"--hundreds of units, relatively new, swimming pool and fitness room, etc.--in Kansas, but had some doubts. We found this place through a Craigslist ad, and as soon as we saw it, we were making plans to move in. We looked at a couple more places before making the decision, but we kept comparing everything (unfavorably) with this place! The landlords were great--they had the whole place cleaned, paint touched up, etc. in just a couple of days for us to move in.

Here's the living room. We love the wood floor and moldings. Also note the paneled glass doors out to the balcony.

The matador painting is in a place of honor.

Brandon's desk, with his drawing of Hugh Nibley above the computer for inspiration.

We call this next area the "dining room" since that seems like the original intention for this space, although we don't have a dining table in it. Another cool paneled door leads into the kitchen area.

Alison's desk area, where Very Important Thesis Writing is (supposed to be) done.

More dining room, including Brandon's church history bookshelf...and his skull collection.

It wouldn't be home without the vintage '70s Bruce Springsteen poster!The apartment lacks storage in other areas but makes up for it in this room with a giant closet.

Brandon is meditating in the kitchen. In our apartment search, most of the older buildings we looked at a) had hideous, peeling linoleum and b) lacked dishwashers. This apartment has tile and a (small but functioning) dishwasher--hooray!
The back door leads out of the kitchen to the back stairs. We love the 1920s doorknobs throughout the apartment, and this one even has the original key in it.

...And here's our attractive solution to the lack of storage in the kitchen. Maybe it will discourage us from eating too much junk food, since it is all out on display.

The bathroom was green when we moved in, so we left it that way.

Cool tile.

Our bedroom.

Not enough built-in storage in here, either. Or maybe we just have too many clothes...

The view out our bedroom window. The house next door has a huge yard with a garden.

This is our building's backyard. The van in the back is in the post office parking lot--that's how close the post office is.

We hope you've enjoyed the tour!