292.March 15

I recently bought a two story house in Spring Grove, Minnesota. I move in in July. I'll be in London on August 14 (the day after my birthday) at 9am. From their, I'm thinking of going to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, possibly stopping by for a wedding on the way up (the people who were involved with Jerry Springer, the Opera). If you wanted to squeeze in a trip to Inverness then, I'd join you. I depart from Frankfurt after another wedding, that of my best friend, Lars, on August 28th in Germany (near or in Frankfurt, where he now lives in a lovely condo with his wife-to-be on a lawyer's salary). So I've got plenty of galavanting time available. I probably won't be hanging out in any one place very long, because, after buying a house, I want to do a bit of moving around so I don't get the wanderlust while I'm paying the thing off. Luckily, I had already purchased this ticket first, otherwise I would have backed out and simply bought my house sooner.

2004

I took my first motorcycle ride of the year on the K75. I filled up the tank, which was rather low after I'd started it so many times over the long winter. I went towards Eitzen. When I got home, I went to a Mel Gibson movie by myself and then did some work before bed on bills.

2010

Today, we will purchase a house that we have fallen in love with...nine years after I bought my current house. We have accepted giving up the flexibility of travel for a while, and since we aren't selling our current house anytime soon, we'll be able to think of that as a vacation home sometimes. We went to the bank first, and then to Redwood Cafe for breakfast. Lee showed up, shocked to find us there. We got to the lawyers office a bit early, but they were working out some specifics about the porches, which needed new shingles after the last hailstorm. We sorted it all out and signed all the paperwork, passed over the cash, and then we owned an old house.

We met them again at their (and our) insurance agent to discuss the new policy for the house, and the upcoming hail repairs that we were now not going to get stuck with. We had a nice pastrami sandwich at home, and I headed off for a few hours of work at Deco. At 16:30, many of the workers met at the bowling alley in Decorah for a few games, pizza, and beer. It was so much fun, and I was even given some honest to goodness moonshine from Kentucky, which is why I'm home in bed early, nursing a large glass of water. Rachel is having a few drinks with the rest of the cast of "Noises Off".

2013