Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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plants

Picking up the plants from North Carolina

Fri, 09/02/2011 - 10:23am

On Wednesday I made a round-trip to North Carolina to pick up our house plants.

I left DC at 8.30 am and just after lunch I dropped off my laptop at my old work. It was nice to say hello there, and we had coffee together. Then I drove to Esteban's house in Durham; it was great to catch up. Our plants had stayed there for a week (thank you guys!).

Around 4.00 pm I left again, with the car full of our plants. There were eight plants in total, three small ones and five large. They filled the entire car and I couldn't use the rear view mirror on the way home.

The plants survived the four hour journey pretty well, except for a few branches that were exposed to the sun at the rear window and got too hot and burned. The last two hours I put the air conditioning very cold, and I think that helped.

The plants are now in our home again, and they cheer up the apartment.

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driving

D.C. licenses plates and license

Fri, 09/02/2011 - 10:10am

Yesterday I took care of the car registration and got my DC driver's license.

To get the car registered in the District it has to go through an inspection. There's only one inspection station in the city and I've read stories about people waiting in line for a long time, but since I went during working hours it went smoothly.

Fromt the inspectation station I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Georgetown, and took care of the paperwork. It was more busy there; I waited a hour or so. Initially I received a license made out to "Guustaff" and fixing that took a while too, but now I'm the happy owner of a DC driving license, a car registration and Zone 2 parking permit, which allows me to park unlimited on the street anywhere in the District.

The only thing remaining now is to install the license plate in front of the car. In DC you're required to have a plate both in front and on the back, but our car doesn't have a mount in front so I'll get that installed today.

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dailylife

A day in downtown DC

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 10:02pm

Today Sasha started at her new job in downtown DC.

Myself, I have a week of free time. My work at Raritan is over, and I won't start my next job until next week, so through Labor Day I have no work commitments.

Today was a very fruitful day. I organized a lot of our paperwork and worked a little on my hobby website. I also got a library card for the Washington DC public library, an important part of making a city my home.

In the evening we went for a walk together. We're about 10 minutes walking from the National Mall, which is really cool, and we walked from the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the World War II Memorial. The Pool is under construction, so it was rather dark, but the Mall is a great place for an evening walk.

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dailylife

After Irene

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 9:24pm

Thankfully hurricane Irene did not have the major impact that was feared for. To be honest we didn't really notice much, except for drizzling rain all day and strong winds in the evening.

Today was a beautiful and sunny day and we went for a walk. It's pretty cool that we can walk to the National Mall so easily. We visited the new Marten Luther King Memorial. It was busy; originally President Obama was scheduled to dedicate the monument today but that was postponed due to the hurricane. There were a lot of out-of-town visitors at the monument who had planned to see the opening today.

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dailylife

Ready for Irene

Sat, 08/27/2011 - 3:46pm

Hurricane Irene is on its way from North Carolina to the northern part of the United States. It is not assumed to hit Washington, DC directly and has lost a lot of its strength, but high water and strong winds could cause a lot of damage.

When DC was impacted by hurricane Isabel eight years ago, many homes were without power for several days. Just in case that happens again, we have bought some extra water, candles and food that doesn't have to stay refrigerated. All loose items have been removed from the balconies and patios in our apartment building, to prevent things from blowing away. The storm is supposed to be here between 8 pm and midnight.

Yesterday evening we went to Mackey's bar, where there was a Friday evening social with the DC Dutch club. It was a nice group of people, and since the weather was good we were sitting outside. There were even real bitterballen.

This morning I went for my first run since we arrived in DC. I passed the White House, the Washington Monument and many other famous sights. It was drizzling a little bit, but no heavy wind yet.

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ourhouse

Moving our Durham apartment

Wed, 08/24/2011 - 8:08am

Yesterday the movers picked up our belongings. We got up at 6.30 am to prepare the last items, and they arrive at 9.30 am.

When we arrived in the States many years ago we each had two suitcases -- our apartment today consist of 6,000 lbs! The movers were a very professional and friendly crew of three. They packed our items until 1.00 pm. It took until 3:30 pm to move everything in the truck.

Since we'll be staying in a temporary apartment for two months, we packed many items into our car as well. I was relieved to see that it all fits, haha.

Earthquake

While the movers we working we didn't have much to do. When we were sitting in the windowsill we felt a slight moving for 15 seconds or so. First we thought that it was something that the movers did, but it was clearly too strong for that. The internet connection of our phones started slowing down, so it took 30 minutes or so before we heard that it was indeed an earthquake; the first ever I've experienced.

When the moving was done we checked into a local hotel, the Millennium. This is the same place Sasha stayed 5 years ago for her first interviews at Duke, so it seemed fitting to spend our last night in Durham here.

We went out with Esteban and Belen for dinner and had a great evening together.

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dailylife

Ready for the movers

Tue, 08/23/2011 - 6:56am

We stayed up late yesterday, and the alarm went early this morning, but we're in good shape for the move.

The movers will be here between 8 am and 10 am. The logistics of packing were a little more complicated because we had to separate the things we'll need in our temporary apartment vs items we can live without for two months.

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ourhouse

A weekend of packing

Sun, 08/21/2011 - 4:35pm

This was a weekend of packing.

This morning I packed most of the electronics, and the house is starting to look emptier. The internet equipment will be the very last thing to pack, Tuesday morning.

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Work NC

Packing my books

Fri, 08/19/2011 - 4:41pm

Today I packed up a lot of my belongings at work, including my beloved bookshelf. Next week will be my last week at my current employer.

We went out for drinks last night with my team, that was fun. Today we had lunch together -- North Carolina BBQ, of course. It's sad saying goodbye; it's a great group of people.

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ourhouse

Packing up our Durham apartment

Wed, 08/17/2011 - 9:29pm

The last few weekends we have been sorting and packing our belongings.

A move is always a great opportunity to clean up and sort the archives.

Really excited about our new opportunities in Washington, DC!

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