so my cousin Ryan (pictured here with me looking very secret squirrel-esq)is helping me customize the blog a bit more. Isn't the map so cool???--its all Ryan. We are working on a link that will take you to a library of pics. Currently that link is under the 'photos' tab below the map on the left of the blog. We linked our Motorcycle trip to Banff in July so far if anyone is interested...
We are headed to the city tomorrow as we are done with the new house stuff for now. The inspection went well---no issues so its pretty much a done deal and we couldn't be happier! We take possession on the 12th of Oct. Thats fine with us, even though this apartment seems to get smaller by the day, we are excited to have over a month more to spend in downtown Morristown. Plus the dogs are really liking the city life.
Today I experienced a great thing that not many states offer... i went to get gas and was unable to pump it myself--state law. What a great law. I think it will really come in handy this winter...
here is a pic of the house we are buying. The front door entrance is off to the side and its a very pretty private entrance. Its a 3 story end unit town home surrounded by our own yard and woods.Its 2800sqft with 3 bedrooms, a family room loft, finished basement (all the homes have basements out here) that we will use for our gym and yoga stuff and it was built in 2005. We'll need to repaint some of the rooms as the current owners have a bit different taste, but thats easy to do.
Tom will miss the yard work we had in Seattle, but with all the things to see around here, plus we are thinking of getting a plane again so we'll like the weekend/weeknight freedom (plus they will shovel the snow!):-) Its about a 5 min drive from work (whoo-hoo) and about 12 min from where we live right now. The inspection is tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.
Its hot here today. Near 90. The dogs and I walked over to the park and while I sat in the sun, they played. Everyone we have met is so nice, although I am missing the face to face conversations with my friends back home. Thank God for email and IM!!
and a special note to my grandpa and grandma that read our blog! Hi! Very technically savvy grandparents I have!!
this entry is for my family (especially my aunt Jan in Hawaii) who probably wonder if THIS is the real reason that I wanted to move to NJ... the Garden State is the home of my dream boat boyfriend while I was in Jr High... Jon Bon Jovi.
Tom knows this about me, yet he still loves me. I am a lucky girl.
(I actually had this exact poster--crazy!)
It was not hard for us to give up the Mariners--or any Seattle teams for that matter (except the Huskies). Go Mets! I informed Tom that we would NOT be rooting for the Yankees (which makes us sort of stand out in this part of town) so one of our first purchases was this Mets hat. While we are at it---go Jets, Nets and Devils! :-)
Here are some pics from right outside our apartment and The Green (park in the center of Morristown about 2 blocks from our apartment (currently being remodeled).
Today we headed down to the shore. It was beautiful out, about 93 and very humid---but it felt great. I have to admit--whenever someone said something about the Jersey Shore to me in the past all I could think of was a dirty beach with cheap motels lining the shore and lots of big men and women wearing gold chains with their names on them and suits that were far too small for them.
I am happy to report that I was very wrong.
For those of you who have never been here, the beach is lined with beautiful homes that look very New Englandish. The beach is very clean and the ocean perfect. All the time we walked and drove the coastline I didn't see anything that proved my earlier assumptions correct. We are already looking for a place down there to rent next summer for a little while.
On the way down, we decided to stop at one of the millions of Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. It was not the best experience. As I learned in the coffee shop here in Morristown even, I am not in Seattle anymore and my "Starbucks-speak", as Tom calls it, is virtually unrecognizable. I am learning to order much slower and am willing to repeat my self often.
So today at Dunkin Donuts I asked for a MEDIUM (no tall or grande here) drip coffee with room for cream. Sounds normal right?
After repeating even that 3 times and using hand signals, I got about 2 inches of coffee and the rest of the cup was cream. Now at Sbux at home, maybe this would be ok as their coffee is sometimes a bit strong so I always add in extra NON-FAT milk anyway. But this cup was about 80% cream---whole milk like.
Ew.
Tom ordered the same and he actually had the energy to go back up and get a re-do. He also ordered a toasted bagel (I know, at Dunkin DONUTS? Whatever.) with butter. When he unwrapped it, he had to take a knife to scrape the gobs of butter off of the bagel. It was far more butter than bagel.
I am afraid Tom is tainted for life at Dunkin Donuts now.
Me though---well, my love of donuts will keep me going back, but I think it will be a while before I attempt to order coffee there again.
Frank's favorite past time in the apartment. He sits at the window every day while I work just watching the people go by.
here is the church that is next door to our apartment.
Summer is back in NY/NJ! Its still about 81 in Morristown and we love it! I finished up my first work week working at home and Tom just got home for the day. We'll head out to dinner soon,--there are so many restaurants here (and not just diners).
FACT: NJ has more diners than any other state.
A couple things I noticed on my run today: People here are very patriotic. NJ people consider 9/11 as not only a national tragedy but a hometown tragedy since NJ basically is the suburbs of NY. Another thing is the number of churches around---there must be at least 6 in Morristown that are all within walking distance from the apartment. They are all beautiful and quite old. The park that surrounds a few of the churches was the site of the first jail and courthouse during the Revolutionary War. Pretty amazing the age of the sites compared to the West coast.
Tom is liking his job and I of course like mine--I was so fortunate to be able to transfer here.
I do have one last tidbit for today's entry. I was talking to my good friend Melissa over IM today and I mentioned that I hadn't had a pastry (marshmallow square to be exact) from Starbucks since I have been out here.
Our conversation continued:
Melissa: Why not? aren't there any Starbucks around?
Diana: no, the one they had here closed since the building it resided in is being remodeled.
Melissa: Oh no! What kind of town are you living in????!!!!
Good question... we are living in a great town, but as you can see, there is always room for improvement... :-)
(To NJ's credit---they do have Starbucks around, you just have to drive past about 20 Dunkin Donuts to get to one though).
Tomorrow I will attach more pics as well as highlights from our day. We are either taking the train to NYC or going to the Shore.
http://lh5.google.com/carter.di/Rs3RmHmvuKI/AAAAAAAAACY/wJU1x-nOOV0/Morristown%20005.jpg?imgmax=512
the link is a bit rough... but its a start. (I realized that doing this on a pc is much more complicated doing it on my brand new shiny Mac powerbook pro (Tom still thinks Vista is the best thing going)... so when I log off this work computer I will play around more with the Mac features. Thanks Ry for the help!).
The link pic is that of our apartment building. I also added a pic of a downtown Morristown area. Jersey Boy bagels are big here!
The apartment is nice, but small. Its a security building as most apartments are around here. We have already met our next door neighbors who also have a dog---makes us feel better when Frank and Ollie wrestle loudly.
Hopefully we won't be here long... if all goes as planned we'll have a house contract by Tuesday. Fingers crossed people!!! :-)
I find it very ironic that we could not wait to escape dreary Seattle weather yet today in Seattle, its warmer by about 20 degrees than here. This is the coolest weather the NY area has had in 100 years.
BUT--it is supposed to be nice tomorrow and the weekend.
I am looking forward to tomorrow as well as my car is arriving. Lets hope its fared better in the transport than Tom's did... (smashed front end).
We also made an offer on a very cool town home! 2700 sqft and built in 2005. We decided that we want a chance to enjoy the East Coast most weekends and we don't want a yard holding us back. We'll see how it goes---this is our 3rd round of negotiations and after the first Tom handed over that fun job to me! Its been a bit trying----I found myself arguing to keep a tv that I am not even sure the brand or the quality. Emotions! At the moment--they have accepted our offer and we just need to firm up the close date. In NJ an attorney has to be involved in the closing process so there are some added steps. Give me a break! There are SO many attorneys in NJ---I think more than any other state.
If it happens it happens. We really fell in love with the place, but there are others.
On the table for weekend trips:
NYC this weekend
Boston
DC with Tom's folks when they come out
and--I found a great deal to the Bahamas---$68 each way! Finally I can take advantage of the cheap travel from the East Coast.
I hope to have links to pictures soon. I wandered around town today and took a few. My cousin is going to train me in blog 101 so stay tuned...
Hello and welcome to Morristown, NJ
hey everyone! this is the first blog I have ever kept and honestly I feel I am about 14 years too old to keep one... but, since my blog "expert" cousin Ryan pointed out that since Tom and I did move across the country, people may be interested in knowing what we are up to etc, so I figured I'd give it a try.
Tom, Di and the dogs officially moved to Morristown, NJ about a week ago. It was a job transfer with T-Mobile that brought us here. We are both working out of the Parsippany, NJ office about 10 min from home. We were very excited to get to the East Coast (read: we were REALLY excited to get out of the Seattle rainy season that this year has lasted for pretty much 8 months).Morristown is a great township. For those of you familiar with Seattle----its similar to the Green Lake area or an upscale U District. Tons of shops, restaurants, parks. We walk most places which we love.
Since we arrived, we have been exploring this area and starting our house hunt. The dogs, now officially city dogs and the single easiest way ever to make East Coast people smile at strangers, are loving life.
This weekend we are heading to NY! We're taking the train as the station is in Morristown and runs right to Penn Station in Manhattan. I will be sure to attach pics and hopefully this blog gets more interesting for my readers as I go along.
