Big news, it’s all about the location!

As many people that know us may have seen on facebook, Josh has accepted a job in Reno and we’re house hunting and preparing to move. The Chamberlains’ will be visiting right before and will be our last official Vegas guests. We don’t mind leaving actually, we’re so over the gawking crowds of tourists and massive casinos. Not to mention that since the Star Trek Experience closed, what’s left for me? We came, we saw, we’re bored. Reno actually looks pretty nice, with views of the mountains and being so close to Lake Tahoe. We’ll be able to take Duncan swimming again! There’s trees, and snow in winter. It doesn’t get as cold as Wisconsin, or as hot as Las Vegas, and get’s a lot more sun than Seattle. Basically, the search for the perfect home town continues! I’m sure we’ll post some new photos soon, as we can now afford a new camera. (ha-ha)

Josh’s parents are home in St. Paul, and gave us some great photos of our Grand Canyon visit! Hopefully on their next visit we won’t be house hunting and preoccupied. David & Sharon, we owe you one for being so understanding about the stress. You’re the best!

-posted by Leah

Leah’s ponderable of the week,,,,,,

First off, is “ponderable” a real word?  Probably not. 

Las Vegas has a surprisingly good library system, and I’ve become addicted to borrowing audio books.  With dog walking and puttering around the house, I listen to between 1 and 3 books a week.  Great Expectations is already a really long book, and listening to it takes even more time!  So my question is, does this count as “reading”?  I’m not wholly concentrated on the book since I’m actively moving around, and yet I’m absorbing, right?   Does a person need to only be reading and doing nothing else for it to count, or do I refer to it as listening, more like music?  Doesn’t there need to be a terminology to distinguish between reading a printed book and listening to an audio book?  I know this is not important in the larger scheme of things, but it bothers me.  Feedback would be appreciated.

Animals & people are all healthy and enjoying the wonderfully mild Las Vegas winter.  Josh’s parents will be visiting in a couple of weeks, and I’m sure our weather here will be a welcome change from St. Paul and we’ll all enjoy the company!  I’ve misplaced our camera, so hopefully Sharon will take some photos on their trip that we can post here.

All for now! — Leah

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

La-la-la-la,  Wheee!  Christmas has come early for this nerd!

Check it out,,,,,,

http://trekmovie.com/2008/11/07/more-details-emerge-for-new-home-of-star-trek-the-experience/

Now ’scuse me while I cabbage-patch on up outa’ here and clear some space for new Quark’s stuff!

-Leah

Hotness, thy name is Duncan.

Lately, someone comments on how good lookin’ Duncan is every time I take him out for a walk.  Granted, around here there are mostly smaller chihauhaus, pugs, etc. and pitbulls so folks don’t see a lot of black labs.  However, a groomer at Petsmart, (Duncan’s favorite retail spot.  He leads me there at least once a week) asked if he was some exotic breed she knew of from Russia.  Seriously!  Not only do men tend to get more handsome as they age, now the darn dogs are doing it, too.  So not fair.  But anyway, we have recent pics of the stud right here.  Prepare yourselves, ladies.

Ooooh, yeah. Nice.

Ignore the chick.

All frequencies closed.

Oooh, I’m so depressed.  My happy place, the Trekkies’ Disneyland, is no more.  I attended the “closing ceremony” on Monday night and circulated in the mob.  Honestly, the place was packed!  The bar at Quark’s was 3 people deep and I had to wait an hour to ride the Klingon experience.  That wasn’t so bad actually, when my Dad and Windy visited the wait was a lot longer, but it was also the weekend.  Oh, what will we nerds do now, wander like escaped free-range chickens up and down the strip?  It’s all so incredibly sad. 

Windy & Beverly Washburn

 

After our last Star Trek Experience family day.

Quark's Bar, so crowded I can't see the bar!

Gamblin' Trek Style! This guy won $300, I think.

Check out the hotties! No, not me.

 

 

Holy crap, another year!

Hi to friends and family!  Our mothers’ will be glad to know I actually remembered today was our 6th wedding anniversary around 3 in the afternoon today.  Unlike last year, when I didn’t remember until the 23rd and Josh didn’t at all.  Sentimental fools, the two of us!  We’ll be going down to the Strip tomorrow for lunch and a gift shop binge at the soon-to-be-closed Star Trek Experience.   So sad.  But sort of a special occasion outing, I suppose.

The saddest part of the Experience closing is how much my brother Windy will miss it.  With his plethora of Trek knowledge, that was a place where he could be king.  We’re all hoping it will possibly open up again somewhere else.  Until then, the Ramsdell-Heitzman Trek geeks will be waiting.  Oh yeah people, it’s not just me!  I married into the right family,  my inlaws David & Sharon are big nerds too.

My trip to Redmond was great, I got to reconnect with several friends and those of you I didn’t see (you know who you are!) will be seeing Josh starting the 26th and as always, our guest rooms are always available.  C’mon folks, it’s Vegas!

Leah’s WA visit so far,,,,,

Well, it’s Saturday night and I’m having a great time back in Redmond!  I’ve played Bunko with a house full of ladies I didn’t know (except for Chelsea), played trampoline/crash test dummy/professional wrestler with cousin Reed and gotten peed on twice (by Felan).  Illaria and I have been reading some great bedtime stories and discussing makeup techniques and tools.  So far, it’s been a very full 2 days!  Tomorrow a party is being thrown in honor of my gracious presence and I’m really wishing I’d been smart enough to bring a friggin’ camera.  Here’s hoping my shutterbug friends will cover for me!

Ugg!

At the end of November I ordered a refurbished Denon receiver from the Amazon marketplace.  Got it at the beginning of December and it worked great for a little over a month, until it started blowing a circuit every few minutes.  It was still covered by the 90-day warranty, so made some calls until I found the right folks to send it to in order to get it serviced.  They received it on January 18th and sent back a claim slip stating it would take 3-4 weeks.  At exactly 4 weeks I hadn’t heard anything from them so I gave them a call and was told that it was finished but the tech hadn’t released it and that they’d call me when there was something to update.  After not hearing anything else from them for a week and half I just called again.  Turns out it wasn’t done and there is part back ordered and I’m not likely to get it back until April which means about three months in the shop.  Ugg!

PyOpenGL good; now for Twisted

This post has move here.

Going leftie

Well today my right arm hurts in the wrist, forearm, and the shoulder (both side still on the arm and on the back over the should blade). It’s been steadily getting worse for the last week or so, but now it’s distracting enough that it is time to suck it up and learn how to use a mouse left handed. I had ordered a new right-handed ergo mouse a few months back and figured I’d wait and see how I liked before getting the left-handed version. I’ve liked it well enough, but it isn’t enough on it’s own with the problems I’ve built up over the years, so now it’s time to give my right side a break from mousing. Using a mouse left handed also has the advantage that a full size keyboard doesn’t stick out as far to the left as it does to the right. I’ve occasionally looked for an ergo keyboards that have the cursor and insert, delete, home, end, page up and down keys arranged like I’m used to that also lacks the number pad, but I’ve never found one.