Texas

Moving One More Time

Update: We have delayed our moving until August. So, not rushing into the move just yet…

We have been living in Wichita Falls, TX for about 10 months. Our lease on our current apartment is coming to an end next month. They don’t do month to month here and don’t allow full-time students and as Melissa (currently not counted as full-time because she does online classes) will be going full-time at the local college we can not renew our lease here. So, we had to start hunting. We found an apartment complex that we really like just a block down the street (nice not to have to move far). Apartments are better for us at the moment because; 1 we haven’t lived here long and 2 I’m a freelancer and she goes to school full-time and works. So, money although not really tight is something we have to manage between months that I have low work. So, for now it is apartments which isn’t bad.

Today we put in our application and paid the holding fee for an apartment at a complex a block down the street called Tealwood Apartments. This place is really nice and isn’t going to break us. The complex is pretty new and well taken care of. Here are some of the key features for us.

1. Private Gated Community (Security Cameras, Key Access Gate, etc)
2. Children’s Play Areas
3. Huge Walk-In Closets
4. Full-Size Washer/Dryer Hookups
5. 2 Full Bathrooms
6. Breakfast Bar, Ice Maker, Dishwasher, Garbage Disposal, Pantry
7. Just a block down the street

We love the idea of a gated complex for that extra security factor and key access at the gate. The apartment is a really good size (about the same size we are in right now which is nice). It has 2 full bathrooms which is always nice. Right now we have a 3/4 bathroom in our room which is nice not to have to clear the kids toys from the tub to take a shower. It also has a little storage closet (basically a walk-in closet by the front door) which will be nice as we planned to get a small storage shed for our camping and holiday tubs. Having a washer & dryer will be really nice and of course save money. Another plus is it has a ‘bonus’ room (which is a room that sticks out from the living room). It is the perfect size for an office (which I’ve needed since going freelance full-time). Below is a layout of the apartment (click to enlarge). We are really looking forward to the move. We are not rushing this time though. We don’t put our 30 Days notice until June 1st here and they don’t have the apartment ready until June 7th so we have time to pack and get moved right instead of always being rushed like in the past. You can also view a picture of the outside here.

In other news; next month I will be putting up my redesign (yeah, it is just about ready). I am also moving my blog to a new domain (no, I’m not posting it because I haven’t bought it yet, that reminds me that I need to though). Still play to use this domain but moving to a new one.

Alive & Kickin’

It’s true. I am alive and kickin’. I recently made a move from Oklahoma to Texas (Wichita Falls, Texas to be exact). We actually moved to Burkburnett, TX first and planned to move to Wichita Falls in January but that didn’t work out and we couldn’t wait that long so we packed up again and got our own place in Wichita Falls. Its great to finally be moved out of Oklahoma. This is where I plan to reside for ever but its an improvement at least. Our new place is nice. 2 big bedrooms, full bathroom and a 3/4 bath in our bedroom (nice to have a shower in our room), big living room and my favorite; a fire place. Can’t wait for the heat to go away (103 outside today) and winter to come and light it up. The only downside to the whole move is one; not having internet. DSL was finally back online today after being without it for awhile (feels like a lifetime). I am now behind work a few weeks as I took off before the move to pack and move. Tomorrow I start work again and have a ton of client work to do. So, the plan is to work my normal hours plus a few extra daily and work on weekends for the rest of the month to get caught up. The only other downside (as if I needed more) is that our AC was working the first few days we moved in. Then Sunday it stopped. We turned a work order in on Monday to get it fixed and nobody came by. It was 102` outside and about 93` inside with my two kids it was really hot. We only have one fan that we just kept moving around the place. Then today after talking to them several times they finally came only to say they had to replace the unit. They got here about 3pm and didn’t leave until after 7pm, which was nice because I was worried they would leave and finish it tomorrow. Anyways, it seems to be working now although its still hard to tell as there is so much hot air in the house so it will need to suck it all out over night, but you can feel the difference from triple digit heat to some cool air blowing.

I promise things around this site will pick up along with a new layout, however most will have to wait until I get caught up on work and some new clients worked out. I spent 2 hours going through emails from clients and creating a huge to-do list of the work they need. It also means that 2532|Gigs will be on hold even longer. As if it hasn’t been delayed enough. I am honestly thinking about adding another developer or two to pick up my slack and taking a leave from the project. I don’t plan to leave it and still plan to be the Project Admin, but might take a step back as far as developing until I can get time and clear things up. It will also delay all my other projects (some would have never seen the light of day anyways). Thats it for today.

Texas Move [Update]

The move to Texas went pretty good. Had problems just like any move but not bad. The heat made it 100x worse though. Still have stuff in Oklahoma though. Should have it done soon. DSL should be up today as well. The lights have been going crazy on the router all day so they are working on it doing tests but not on yet. Switching back and forth between dial up and the wireless dsl from the guy next door (when the laptop will connect). Thought he blocked me but it connected again today. Can’t stand dial-up. Anyways, updates will come later this week/next week as things get back up and I start looking for new clients.

7.25.07 Update
DSL is finally up and running. Spent several more hours on the phone with tech support today including a local guy and its finally up. I guess the problem was we were setup in their local system fully. The phone support is full of idiots. I know more about DSL and my router then they do. We kept telling them exactly what the problem was and they kept telling us to do other things. So, I would only for it to fail (like I said it would). So, after more then 24 hours back and forth on phone support its finally up. We had to lower our speeds from 3.0Mbps to 1.5 (speedtest says about 1.3 right now) as 3.0 isn’t up yet in this area (they said soon though).

Hello Texas

Wednesday my move to Texas became official. Today is moving day although we took one trip down there last night and got back about 1am. About to head to the storage shed to load up most of our stuff and then come back for a second trip. Sucks making 3 trips but we have a lot of stuff going. I don’t have a date for my internet to be back up yet so i’ll just have to take the laptop around to some wifi hotspots to check email, update clients, etc. Glad to finally be moving but sucks to be rushed. Staying the first night tonight so no more Oklahoma for me. I’ll post when things get calmed down and everything back up.