Home Sweet Columbus

Summer vacation is officially (or actually not really...more on that later) over; Meghan and I are now moved in and settled in Columbus. It was quite an adventure getting here. After spending a few weeks in Texas with Meghan's parents, we got together with the whole Lundborg clan (Matt, Kate, Donna, Blair, Meghan and I) and did a moving spree the likes the world has never seen. In three different cars, we caravaned up to Fort Worth first to move Kate into her new house that she's sharing with two roommates. The move went smoothly with the exception of one couch that gave us a bit of trouble up the spiral staircase. Nevertheless, it was quick and by that afternoon we were back on the road heading north.

Stop two was Indianapolis, where we helped Matt move in to his new apartment. Matt's starting up a year of training with the grocery store, Aldi; at the end of his training he'll be taking over stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Cool stuff. Matt is definitely going to become a titan of the business world.

A mere 180 miles to the East was Columbus, OH -- the new home of the Watkins family. It has taken us a little while to get settled (honestly about a few weeks now), but now we're good to go. The apartment is looking sweet (pictures to come), and we're starting to enjoy life in the Midwest. While it is nice to have everything together up here finally, I must admit that since school hasn't started and since Meghan is continuing to look for a job, we've been a bit bored just hanging around. We've done a lot of little things like getting our licenses, voter registrations, and new Ohio plates, but all-in-all we've just been sleeping in and watching the Olympics (not an altogether bad life). This weekend Matt is coming to visit, which will be really fun; we're definitely looking forward to that.

Anyways, on to the pictures! In light of the new transition to Columbus, here are some shots from our now decorated new apartment.

Here's our living room setup. On one side of the room we have our couch and lamps, and on the other the new TV, graciously gifted to us by my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!).

I think this is kinda cool. This is our "once-real-but-now-fake" fireplace and mantle. We decided to make the fireplace into a bandstand for our jazz figurines; the mantle we left to a number of pictures of loved ones and some cool things we picked up along the way.

Here's out sweet dining room. Not much to say other than we get to eat lots of delicious meals here (including the pasta e fagioli I cooked tonight). Not tooting my own horn -- I'm just saying...yum.

Where the pasta e fagioli was born...

An interesting feature of our kitchen: our new microwave that we bought while visiting Meghan's grandparents in Lexington, KY. We got this particular model because it was on sale for $74 eventhough the retail price was $180. One might ask why this model was on sale for so little; our theory has to do with the defining feature of the microwave -- the toaster oven attached to it. On the right side of the unit (what my finger is pointing at), there is a two-stall toaster, which explains the name of the unit: the Toasterwave. The reluctance one might have with the Toasterwave perhaps has to do with the fact that four large metal coils are about an inch away from the one appliance in the kitchen that you CANNOT put metal in. Hey, it was cheap...

Our bedroom and bathroom. Not much to see here -- just comfy home stuff.

I like to call this room "The Temple of Learning." I also toyed with calling it "The Palace of Knowledge," and "The Castle of Crainial Activity." Meghan just calls it the office. I predict great things being produced from these confines.

This is the door to our next-door neighbor's apartment across the hall. We've had a few run-ins with them in the week we've been here, and they seem to be really nice. They lent us their drill so we could hang stuff on our walls; I baked them bread as a token of our appreciation. Keep your fingers crossed -- we think they might become our first friends in Columbus!

Okay, I've gone on long enough. Thanks to all who helped us get out of Gainesville and into Columbus and for all those we've talked to along the way. Love you all!