We bought a house in Chelmsford, MA, outside of Boston.  We moved 3,000 miles from Seattle.  We’re settling into a new house.

I keep meaning to write a big post about it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get that done.  So here are the high-lights:

Finding and buying a house from 3,000 miles away isn’t easy.  Emma did most of the hard work, and found the best house in the world.

We looked at the big full-service moving companies like Allied Van Lines and United Van Lines.  The online ratings were very hit or miss.  Seems like you could get lucky and have a great experience, or you could have absolute hell on earth.

We opted to use a local company to pack and load our belongings into an ABF U-Pack trailer.  We also used Intercity Lines to transport Emma’s car.  The three companies ended up being all 5-star rated, and were all GREAT to work with.  Also, the total price was about $2,500 cheaper than the Van Lines companies.  Huge fan.

We drove out on I-90 with Fifi, as lizards don’t fly well.  We did the trip in four long days.  It was fun.

I love my car.

Owning a house is a mixture of terrifying and awesome.  It’s a HUGE thing to actually own.  there’s a TON of work involved in upkeep, and making it the way you want it.  It’s also awesome to be able to drill holes in walls, run cat-6 cables, and plan your kitchen renovation.

I’ll get pictures up soon.  I promise.

This is a GREAT article about how useless all the post-9/11 airport security measures are.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security

This isn’t a political blog, and I’m not making political commentary, just WTF commentary.

Aides to Gov. Sarah Palin won’t comply with subpoenas issued by state lawmakers investigating the firing of Alaska’s former public safety commissioner because Palin “has declined to participate” in the probe, her attorney general says.

So it’s cool if I “decline to participate” when I’m subpoenaed? Neat! I bet that means I “decline to be arrested” or “decline this speeding ticket”.

We have been talking about moving back to Boston for a while now. We’re actually doing it. I’m flying out for a one day visit to Boston to go to the home inspection for the house we are probably buying.

The idea of buying a house for the first time and moving 3000 miles I’d a mixture of exciting and scary. I’ll post pictures of the house when I get back.

Wish me luck.

I recently upgraded from a 1st gen 8 GB iPhone to a 16 GB 3G 2nd gen iPhone. The 3G iPhone does not come with a dock, unlike it’s predecessor, and the Apple Store was out of docks when I purchased the phone.

I discovered that the new iPhone is slightly wider and a little deeper in the middle than the old iPhone. Rather than pulling out another $30 and ordering a new Dock online, I pulled out the old Dremel instead.

It took about 5 minutes. You have to grind out a little bit of plastic in the middle of the back of the slot to accommodate the thicker in the center iPhone. You also have to grind out the sides, expanding the width of the slot a bit. Then the new iPhone fits easily and solidly in your old dock. If you use a fine grit grinding accessory and a high speed Dremel you can’t even tell that the dock has been modified.

So if you have a Dremel, save yourself $30.