Minneapolitan

Well, assuming nothing goes horribly wrong (always a dicey proposition whenever I bring it up), we are buying a house. We still have inspection, post inspection negotiations, etc to go, but our offer has been accepted. After hunting for a while, we found a house that was the right combination of price, condition, location, and amenities, and it has a lot of gorgeous old woodwork that is in remarkable good shape. It has a two car attached garage that opens into a street, not an alleyway. Most houses in our price range have a detached one car garage without an automatic opener, so this was a good find. It is on a main street, which is a turn off for some people, but here it means that our street will *always* be plowed promptly, which is a big plus. It has a completely fenced in back yard with a nice, relatively new fence, also a rarity at our price point. It has a kind of 70s basement, but it's large and finished. It is close to Lyn-Lake, Uptown, and the lakes, which is pretty much perfect location wise. It's about a 20 minute drive to work for me, less than half of my KC commute, and there is a bus stop *on our block* for Rikki to grab a bus to work. Northern Brewer is opening its Minneapolis store roughly 2 miles to the south this fall. It has a smallish driveway and sidewalk (less shoveling), and a smallish but decent back yard (less mowing, enough space to have a small garden). Walk score of 77 is totally respectable. It's in a safe neighborhood. Inspection is next Friday. We asked for a long close because we need to run out our lease, but the sellers accepted. I am more than a little excited. It's all looking good so far.

Master! Master! Master of Engineering

I finished grad school! I am now allegedly a Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering. It felt rather anticlimactic to finish as a distance student given that I didn't attend the graduation ceremony, but it's good to be done at any rate. Hopefully I can parlay this into a raise or promotion or something. Now if only my diploma would arrive...

New new new new new new music

Yeah! I am making music again. I'm going for an EP-length running mix this time. Enjoy this crappy video I made using the iTunes visualizer for the first track I finished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y71DybgWTWc

In happier news

We are looking for houses in the proximity of Lyn-Lake. Holy moly are houses more expensive here than in KC. But we will try to make it work. It's hard to resist houses like this: http://www.edinarealty.com/MN/Minneapolis/55405/homes-for-sale/2536-Harriet-Avenue-S-59729408/popup

Anyone want to rent a room?

I mean holy wow that house is gorgeous. Hopefully it's in better shape than our KC house (it appears to be), otherwise no deal. It's in Whittier, near all the stuff, and I mean ALL the stuff, worth doing around here.

But yeah, it looks like $250 is about what you're paying for a house in decent shape up here, so... ouch.

And apparently central air is not a thing here, because it just doesn't get that hot. Weirrrrrd.

Also, we might be getting a Corgi puppy soon if things work out, and OMG it's the cutest thing in the world And I never use OMG, ever.

The weeks of awesome

Ok, school's out forever on May 6. The twin cities have blessed me with a ton of great shows over the couple of weeks following that, which I will dub the weeks of awesome.

5/8 tUnE-YarDs / Buke & Gass
5/13 Fiery Furnaces
5/16 James Blake
5/17 Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings / Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
5/18 Zoe Keating
5/19 Sleigh Bells / CSS
5/21 Death Cab for Cutie
5/23 Man Man
5/26 Adele

Man! I knew this town was going to make me broke.

I love you, Kurt Vonnegut.

"They say there are no atheists in foxholes, and this is a good argument against atheism. I think it's a better argument against foxholes." - Kurt Vonnegut

In like a lion, out like... a lion?

It's still 20 out and there's still snow on the ground. Please make it stop. Kthx.

I do have the most fabulous friends up here, though. We'll get through it.

Then, the glorious (I'm told) spring and summer, and the return of farmers' markets.