Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

This week the basement was complete enough that we could finally unpack the rest of our boxes (mostly) and get moved in officially. Officially enough that we even threw a small party Saturday night celebrating that we're here. There are a couple of things the landlord is finishing up still (updating the basement windows, caulking our bathtub, replacing the fan in the kitchen), but mostly we're here. And it couldn't be soon enough.

We found a local butcher that makes some pretty tasty brats, cooked up some burgers, made a cake, and had Camilla and Victor and a few friends (old and new) over to celebrate. Paela was a bit nervous by the "invasion" at first, but eventually warmed up. We tossed a frisbee around a bit and played a couple of games, but mostly just enjoyed having company over. Ah, it had been too long.  read more »

The park and the library have been what we look forward to each afternoon. In Bedford, there isn't much to do. Some evenings Paela would be able to wait until Rebecca got home from work before we visited the swings and slides.

Like this small town, our week was very quiet. Unfortunately, I haven't heard a word from my advisors and need to find a diplomatic way to chastize them for not reviewing my thesis. We spent some time this week finally unpacking the remaining book boxes. While our basement isn't finished yet, it has carpet now and one (almost) finished wall. We used this wall as our bookshelf wall and have set up a small part of it. When we signed this contract, we were under the impression that our basement would be completed in eight days. Three weeks later, we are hoping that this will be the week when things will be to a point that we can finish unpacking, even if they aren't entirely finished.  read more »

So much has been going on in the last three weeks that it seems a shame not to keep everyone in the know about it. Here's the short version:

1. We moved in to a little duplex about a mile and a half from work May 16 and said good riddance to the hotel. We were all (including Star) happy to see our things again.

2. We took a break to go to a family reunion in Cincinnati over Memorial day weekend. Paela learned the difference between "babies" and "kids". We got to hang out with fun people. Paela got tired of hanging out with so many people.

3. We've got about a third of our stuff unpacked, and the other third is still waiting on the basement to be finished. Hopefully this week we can officially settle in all the way....

4. I found a project to work on at work so it's not such a struggle to keep busy. Things still feel quite slow, but I'm sure that will change shortly.  read more »

So, hotel living is not all it's cracked up to be. I don't think it's cracked up to be much, so that's saying something. I mean, there is the "free breakfast", but Paela hasn't thrived in an environment where routine is nearly impossible and until yesterday wasn't eating much at any meal. The cat, of course, thinks our "new home" is much too small and needs more things to see. And we wish we didn't have to eat out for so many meals. Ah well, there's no such thing as a free lunch, as the saying goes.  read more »

It's 8:30 PM here and Paela is in bed, even though it is 5:30 PM back in California. Her rapid adjustment to this timezone is in part due to the required extra time we need in the morning to get Rebecca to work as well as being a quick bodily response to the early arrival of the sun. I also woke at 6:40 AM local time and was miserable because the sun couldn't be turned off. It amazes me how strong the sun was in the morning since, due to the cloudy weather, we haven't seen it since. There are no markers for direction in this place: no mountains, no hills, no sunlight.  read more »

Hey. We're moving this week. And my thesis show is going up. That's all I've done is thesis. We'll write about it later.

Thanks. 

Wayne worked hard on thesis stuff this week again. He's got lights in the right direction, and the platforms are looking good. That leaves getting the mannequins doing something interesting and setting up the computers. T's and i's after that. Of course, t's and i's usually take much longer than you expect, so this week is sure to be packed full of work for both of us.

Wayne also had meetings on campus all day Tuesday, until nearly midnight. He enjoyed the artist that came out that evening and learned a new appreciation for the sacrifice it is for artists to come for a guest lecture.   read more »

It all started last week. We heard the dog yipping like crazy when we got home. We knew new neighbors had moved in the apartment directly above us the day before. We hoped the dog was visiting. Maybe some "game" of some sort was on.

We were wrong.  read more »

I have been trying to finalize plans for my thesis project. This task might have been made easier if my advisor was more involved in the decision making process, but with my current situation I feel like I am making a project which can be critically evaluated and still contribute something to my discipline. While I was technically on spring break this week, that really means nothing for someone who is working on their thesis and only misses one class this week because of break. I spent Monday and Wednesday working specifically on thesis plans, but parts of Thursday and Friday were spent finalizing work for a show at the ICA in San Jose.  read more »