Freakishly Happy

Hello Everyone,

    We're spending our last day here in our Apartment.  Joni had a mini-bed-in and I got up and poked around on the internet.  The plan is to begin at 10:00, packing up our bedding and bags and start taking everything out of the apartment. 

    So far we have two duffels and two backpacks and a box to ship.  I have no idea how we got so much stuff!  Some clothes, some supplies, some dishes, some of everything I guess.

     Today, we move the remaining stuff that we have not sold off or given away to a Hostel for two nights.  This will give Joni some time to work on her last school paper, and I a chance to pick up camping supplies and souvenirs.  After that a train to Frankfurt and a very short flight to Ireland.

    We decided to get a car in Ireland after all.  Hitch-hiking would be an adventure, but while in Ireland we want to make sure we have a chance to see and go where we want.  That and the car ended up being extremely cheap.  That also allows us to bring a lot of extra stuff and not worry about storing it while we're hitching.

    After the two weeks in Ireland, we'll be moving home; but I like to think that we're moving forward more than moving back.  Joni and I are both now done with school and have to figure out the next phase of life.  I think this transition will be the longest on record.

    I recently formed a corporation, Assistive Intelligence Inc., and will be attempting to land several government grants to work on various projects from intelligent conversational assistants, to developing collaborative-agent software to help with diabetes.  It takes quite a while, to find the right grant, submit to it, get accepted and start working on the project; so in the meantime, we'll be traveling around the U.S.  seeing a lot of the various cities and staying with friends from all over.

    Worst to worst, we end up running out of money or the grants all fall through.  In that case, we'll just take up jobs somewhere, pay off our student debt, and contemplate trying again.

    I should get with the packing and cleaning.  It's rounding 10:00 and Joni is up and about.  We love you all and can't wait to see you again!

- Dr John.
 

We are 90% done with our marathon clean/packing weekend. The stove and refridgerator are clean, all the floors are clean, the bed that John built is taken down. This whole moving thing is becoming more real. We're both really sad to go. It has been an amazing year, here. We love Freiburg and Germany and although we're excited to see all of you, its hard to go back to the US.

Tonight we're going to another "farewell" event. This is our fourth so far. They're always pretty fun, but a little sad as well.

Well, I have to go de-stinkify myself before we head to the picnic.

I hate Wal-Mart, and everything that it stands for. So John and I did quite a bit of jumping up and down and squealing (metaphorically of course) when we read this article tonight.
Take that, big buisness! Eat it!

New York Times