Our Home Isn't Ready for the Holidays without a Keg-a-rator

When we moved to Minnesota from Texas, we didn't have a long time to look at houses. We'd been out to visit family the year before and were contemplating moving our tiny company to some place where we could have an office that would cost less, but would still be around people who were familiar with working with the Fruit. Since obviously Silicon Valley and Austin aren't cost saving towns, that left the Twin Cities, where a rather third-party Fruit-based software vendor resides.

We drove around downtown Minneapolis, downtown St. Paul, the burbs to the west, the burbs to the south and east, until X-man was ready to throttle us. What we found were that places that gave us "best places to live in Minnesota" really weren't our vibe. They were filled with planned subdivisions where houses looked the same -- and there were a lot of them. So many, really that if you were to have a fun night somewhere and need to pick out your house for a Lyft driver after a few Lift Bridge beers, you might not get it right.

We decided that Minneapolis was more like Austin in that it was filled with a lot of hipsters. We were looking for something that had a little land to it, so we didn't have to drive or seek out green space. A house where we could throw a ball for Lily with the flinger. :-)

At the same time, I preferred the vibe of St. Paul. It was quirky and diverse. It was less Fortune 500 businesses, and a lot more colleges. There are so many with campuses just a mile or two apart  it's like they meld together. I totally liked that. Downtown was easy to get around, and they have an On Your Honor train system in the Cities that I found to be a hoot. (What do you mean there's no turnstiles to go through and I just flash my ticket or my app on my phone if someone asks?)

So we ended up spending a lot of time touring the East Metro area. I liked Stillwater best. But it was a lot of added commute time, but Woodbury felt like it had no soul. So we ventured out into the country and found a small community of homes all on at least 2 acres. We decided if we could find something like that with a house in decent shape (Mactroll only likes new houses) we would be okay. Plus, he was super excited that there was a keg-a-rator in the basement. So if you head our way -- we currently have Fat Tire and Farm Girl on tap. That's right. We have two house beers.

A year later, when our business sold. He few up to Minnesota for meetings and I sent him six houses that were currently on the market. He hated all of them except one, which he decided felt "homey" but was 20 years old and needed some work. It was the house I'd liked best online, too. So we put an offer on it. I never saw it with my own two eyes, but it's our 7th home together. Mactroll knows what he's looking for.

Now we're spending time making the house our own. We've had to put some bucks into fixing some things that had been ignored far too long. Or that were built to code, but Minnesota winter gave code the middle finger and created ice dams. Sexy things like spray insulation, and a new water softener.

Oooh fun fact! When your husband spends years itching his skin all the time, seeing dermatologists and allergists and applying various steroidal creams for twenty years that only work in the short term and then one day it suddenly stops two weeks after you put in a Culligan water softener -- that's a like winning the freaking lottery. Mactroll -- sensitive skin -- needs softer water to exist than normal people.

It was the best money we've spent so far. :-)

It happened. Again.

If there are any followers still following, I know I've lost a few of you since 2013 the first time we decided to move across the country.

Then in 2015, we moved again to Texas.

And last fall, go figure, we found ourselves back in the Midwest. This time in Minnesota. 

It didn't hit me when we landed that perhaps all those years were maybe something to blog about. Truthfully, when we left Illinois it pretty much felt like the people that I shared those adventures with really were happy to see me go. So I took their lead and worked on moving on, too. In fact, I moved a lot -- and not just households.  

Now as I look at the list of followers, two of them have died in that time. 

So here I am, almost 7 years later. It's 7 degrees in November, which the rest of the country seems to be complaining about, but I'm cool with winter. I missed it while we were away. 

Need some catching up? Here's a quick summary. 

-- Mactroll left the Fruit for a start up -- then left that and created his own software.

-- Looseyfur completed a master's degree in library and information science.

-- X-man is now taller than both Mactroll and Looseyfur and is finishing middle school this year. 

-- We've lost all the animals you knew in Illinois, except for Lily, who is 8.5 years old. But we've also gained three delightful boy cats: Leo, Teddy and Danny. 

-- We sold the software company that MacTroll and I ran in Texas to a company in Minneapolis.

-- So here we are in a rural/suburb chilling on 2.5 acres. 

Anyway, if any one is still out there, I'm starting my midwestern adventures again. 

The first thing I'm tackling is making adult friends in the internet age. Like someone to actually go out and do things with. When you move cross country three times in 7 years, the friends you have tend to be all over the place. 

So two weeks ago, I joined Bumble.

No. I'm not dating. 

I'm meeting other women who are looking for a kind and decent person to do stuff with around the Twin Cities on Bumble BFF. 

I have two potentials so far. One who I've met up with to do Trivia Brunch, which was super fun. We're trying a student art show in a couple of weeks, too. I've also been messaging back and forth with the second. And can I say, this whole online dating thing is super interesting. Like -- it's a friends app, and still some women just have glamour shot selfies, their name and their age. 

How the hell am I supposed to know if I want to hang with you off what you look like? I mean, sure, maybe you're cute, but I've met too many people who are just empty voids in my lifetime. 

The other scary part: common themes among 38-52 year old women in the Twin Cities. There are so many -- and I mean a shocking amount -- who list as their interests being "Crystals, essential oils, and natural healing." I was expecting Jesus fans, yogis, drinkers. This was -- unexpected. 

I don't think that I'm constructed to successfully engage a person about any of those interests. I want to DO something, not be sold on something. Seriously, get me out of my house. :-) 

In other news, for all the shit I gave people who fell down the fandom hole of Paleo living/Lululemon/Crossfit shenanigans in 2011... I apologize. I have since joined the Peloton XXL group. I love those people. I love doing all the things I want to do at home, but still getting the support through a Facebook group. Robin Arzon kicks my ass, and I like it that way. 

And no one knows if I have trouble getting out of my clips on my bike. And no one cares if I can't routinely hit 200kj on a 30-minute ride. 

I'm still doing it. 

Which is kind of the theme of this post. I'm still here. I'm still breathing. There's a shit-ton water under the bridge. But I'm in my 40s, and I just don't care about most of the BS any more. 

So, if you're still out there. Send up a flare or something. And Mom and Marybeth -- I miss and love you both.