The Sickmiller Express

In a panic to not let a stain set in my jeans I treated them with Tide and then threw them into the already in-use washing machine. What did I find when I went to do another load the next day? Our cell phone. In the washing machine. I don’t do things like this! I have yelled that about 4 times since then. I opened it up, took out the battery, and laid it in front of the stove for the last two days. I pushed the power button this morning and the lovely little gadget started right up! YAY.

I bet in the next few days we’ll see a comment from my mom saying that she was the first person I called. She’s right. She’s free to call because it’s Verizon to Verizon. The only other person who I know that has Verizon would have been at work at that time. As a teacher. Unable to answer her phone. That had nothing to do with the choice to call my mom though, I promise.

I realize it is pretty late at night and Stef is probably sleeping but maybe she’ll see it tomorrow. Love you!

This is going to be a long week I think. We just got home from a town meeting and we both had pretty long days at work. Tomorrow night is the candidates’ forum for those who are running for mayor and town board. Voting will be on April 1. Exciting. Again another meeting for me on Wednesday and Adam has at least one more this week.

We have been house hunting for the last few months. Keeping our ears open around town and it’s been quite a process. There are only so many rentals around town and there is quite the demand, it seems to be all about who you know/being in the right place at the right time. Which is both extremely discouraging and invigorating, obviously depending on if you know the right people or get word quickly. So far we seem to know the right people, kind of. We have a few leads, none of which are perfect. The biggest factors for Adam and I are price and location. Space isn’t too much of an issue. I would also kind of like to have a washer and dryer. You would be surprised how much those requirements limit us. Price through the winter is a huge consideration and you really just can’t take into account the monthly rent but also how well insulated and what kind of heating method is used. I am constantly thinking about moving and it’s exhausting.

We went to Durango on Saturday because I was a delegate for San Juan County, sent to vote for the 59th and 6th judicial districts. It was very interesting and a great way to continue learning about the whole voting process in Colorado. While in Durango we took some food to-go to the park and enjoyed a warm afternoon in the sun. I suggest never leaving Silverton again. It’s slightly hard to go somewhere and see signs of spring. I have come to think that spring means muddy snow potholes, I had tried to forget that it usually means plants and flowers start changing and the weather teases you by reminding you of summer weather. As we drove back up the mountain the snow grew and grew. Like a visual representation of the length of time it’ll take us to get to summer. All that being said we are trying to plan an April/May vacation. I’m proposing a drive to the Pacific. I want to hit the road again, like last summer, but only for one week this time. This also stems from watching a tv show about hot dog stands last night and feeling an urge to get to the closest featured stand. Pink’s in LA. I never thought I’d get adam to agree to go near LA but I think a promise of the ocean just might do it. He’s never seen it and I think it’s just the right time.

So, who knew this was a chick flick? Not me. I thought the movie would be about a single dad raising his kids. And that would be it. It’s romantical. It’s also listed as a comedy, and while funny at parts it had a sad overtone to it.

That being said I really enjoyed this movie. His family is a bit whimsical and I loved it. Who knew you could get that many people in room excited about charades? Ok, I might have known that. We used to play a lot of charades in Macedonia. Anya and Noell you better be reading this and reminiscing.

I would definitely recommend it and give it two stars. My rating system is out of two. Five stars leaves way to much middle ground. I either lean towards liking it or not. Maybe I should do three. 1- don’t watch it, 2-eh, watch if you will, 3- go watch it. Ok no, I’m sticking with two stars.

As a bit of background I have taken a film class and spent a quarter analyzing films. It was a Spanish class so maybe I should write my reviews in Spanish. You would think that would come into play as a movie watcher, but it doesn’t. I liked to be entertained. I know the angles, the colors, music and everything else greatly affects the film and the response of the audience but I don’t pay enough attention to comment on those things. I generally have favorite scenes but my stars are given by how I feel at the end of the movie. I rarely want to watch a film twice and it takes a lot for Adam and I to sit down when we get our Netflix movies, we’re never ‘in the mood’. Oh and I’m ALWAYS looking for my favorite movie. I constantly get my hopes up and then am not blown over by the movie. That’s how I do things.

The most watched movies of my life include:
Hoosiers (this is easily number one)
Goonies (this is what I watched as a kid, it didn’t really cross over into adulthood)
You’ve Got Mail (for some reason this is a go-to for me. I put it on a lot when I’m doing other things around the house. It has nice sounds in it. You’d think I would just put on the soundtrack, which I do own, oh well)

The movies I most recently really enjoyed (emphasis on really enjoyed not on recently):
Pan’s Labyrinth
Volver
Dan In Real Life

As some of you may have noticed I started putting up the movies we are watching on Netflix and the books I am currently reading over there on the right. I’ve thought about doing reviews here on the website but I never have much more to say than ‘it was good’, ‘I liked it’, or ‘it wasn’t any good’. We recently watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I liked the costumes and the story was interesting enough. It was definitely one of my movie picks. You can tell that it was one of my choices because the average American has heard of it. It’s not some obscure Swedish movie that instigates an obsession for teardrop trailers.

Anyway, today we got Dan in Real Life. I put this on my queue when it was still in the theater, that’s to say it is a highly anticipated movie in the Sickmiller household. We probably won’t watch it until this weekend. I’ll let you know how it is If you’re lucky it might even be as good as the Elizabeth review.

So the day before I left to go back to Ohio we started moving our office out of my bosses house and into his truck service station. When I got back it was pretty much moved and I just had to organize (yay!). Our new office is maybe 3 times bigger and soooo much brighter. It also great to be near all the other employees. Here are a couple of photos:

The view from my desk

When I look out the window on a sunny day I pretty much get blinded because the snow is so bright. I have makeshift newspaper curtains up right now. That’ll be one nice thing about the snow melting away.

My desk – FYI My computer background is a picture of Ohio University and people ALWAYS comment on how pretty it is. The picture underneath my monitor is of Adam and I in Cyprus on the beach watching the sun rise. Next to my water bottle is a banana peel. The top right gadget on the shelves is a postage machine, I use that little bugger almost every day. The adding machine used to constantly try to trick me but we have since come to an understanding and I can now use it for simple math.

I’m not 100% settled in but I’m getting there. They are working on a break room and a new bathroom all on the same floor. I love it!