Instead of sleeping I emptied the office, mailed all the books I’m taking (I left a few desk copies, primarily intro and con law books, and some old college textbooks), and brought the rest of the junk home. Hopefully SLU doesn’t come after me for the monitor that I bought and paid for years ago (when 19” LCD monitors weren’t exactly cheap) but they stuck an inventory sticker on anyway.

Next project: start packing books, CDs, and DVDs around the apartment. Not sure how much I’ll get done before I leave for State College on Wednesday morning, but I figure I ought to at least give it a try. I also have to make time for some NCAA Football 08 on Tuesday after I go and pick it up (All Pro Football 2K8 also looks tempting, but that will probably have to wait until after the move).

Packing the office is going slower than I’d have expected—almost all of the books are now packed, but I ran out of tape before sealing up all the boxes. So it’ll be Monday at least before that project is done.

The good(?) news is that gives me the weekend to focus on the methods meeting paper, which has also lagged behind a bit this week.

I just spent $87 dollars shipping about half of the books and journals in my office to Tulane; at least using Media Mail saved me a bunch of money. Tomorrow I get to go back and finish the job, once I get some more of the useful-sized boxes from Office* (12×12×6 ones seem to work best for office books).

I’m pretty sure I have an apartment leased for next year in the lovely 14th Ward of New Orleans after putting down an application fee and deposit, although I’m still waiting on the lease to sign.

Now I need to get back to that methods meeting paper…

I am exhausted from looking at and thinking about apartments all day. I think I have it narrowed down to two possibilities, but there’s one more that I’ll be looking at (hopefully) in the morning that may be closer to ideal. Both of the ones I’m considering have tradeoffs, and while it’s not like I’d be likely to live there forever—given my track record in academe, one year seems likely unless I land a tenure-track job in New Orleans at UNO or Loyola—it’s still a bit of a compromise to spend a year without a dishwasher or some other amenity I’ve gotten used to having.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring clarity one way or another.

I think I’ve now tracked down most of the books in my study, but I imagine some more will turn up over the coming days, as there are still boxes marked “study” that need to be triaged.

My fancy Belkin MediaPilot wireless keyboard doesn’t play nicely with my new USB KVM switch (the Mac handles it OK, but Windows XP doesn’t like it for some reason, alas), so I’m back to using my trusty IBM Active Response Pro keyboard with one of those PS/2-USB adapters.

Frankly, I’m surprised that’s the only real problem I’ve had so far in setting up my computer stuff. I was expecting (knock on wood) to blow out a fuse or three instead.

After spending the best part of 3 hours on hold today, I finally found someone who could activate my cable modem in St. Louis.

I know I’m going to just love Charter Communications.

My apartment is now feeling decidedly empty, except for the stacks of boxes in the living room and study that make it feel like a warehouse. Really we’re getting down to the last stuff to pack: the last few pictures from the walls, the computer, TV stuff, and my clothes.

I suppose that beats running around in a blind panic until the last minute, which is how the last two moves seemed to feel.

After spending way too much time on the road today (courtesy of the fine folks at the Georgia Department of Transportation), I am finally back in Durham from my second Mississippi Valley swing of the summer.

The good news is that I definitely have an apartment (the lease arrived while I was gone) and I’m just three short weeks from D-Day. The bad news is that I have to start packing and get on to hiring people to load and unload the truck.

I think I found an apartment today; the price is a little more than I wanted to pay, but after spending a year underpaying for an apartment in Durham I suppose it all evens out. And I get a garage, storage space, dishwasher, disposal, breakfast nook, ceiling fans in the bedrooms, and cable outlets in the living room and bedrooms… all of which are upgrades from my existing apartment. And it's like a stone’s throw from the Galleria, where Brian seems to think I need to hang out. (Actually, I got some cheap T-shirts there at Champs Sports, but somehow I think Brian was referring to the Apple Store.)

Now if I could just figure out if it’s in Clayton, Richmond Heights, or Ladue, so I know which division of The Man to tithe to, I’ll be set.

The only real down side (other than the rent) is that MoDOT is planning on spending the next 3 years destroying the freeway between my apartment and work. But that’s what MetroLink is for, right?

My rental agent is showing the apartment today, I’ve requested 3 in-home estimates for movers, and I picked up a giant box at Costco filled with moving supplies. I guess I really am moving to St. Louis.

Of course, it would help if I had an apartment there to move into, but I suppose one has to take these things one step at a time.

I feel like I actually achieved something this morning—I finished packing all the books in my office, except the ones I’m using for classes this summer (and the ones I’m bequeathing to my successor):

Now I get to deal with the shelves full of books at home.

My brilliant plan to use shipping boxes I bought at Sam’s Club to pack up all the books in my office has been foiled, mainly because if I tried to put my books in them they’d be impossible to lift. Time to think of Plan B, which is most likely to be “beg the campus bookstore for boxes”; I’ve already used up all my Amazon.com boxes.

That said, I’m sure the Sam’s Club boxes will work for lighter stuff like my clothes, so there’s that at least.

In preparation for moving, I’ve decided to get rid of most of my collection of computer books, including a large chunk of O’Reilly’s catalog. If I could figure out how to make a link to the list at Amazon.com, I would… in the meantime, here’s my lameass storefront where you can at least search my listings…

Update: Here's the full list of what's for sale.