On Saturday morning, I got up, donned by blinding, brand-new sneaks, hopped into a cab and headed to Penn Station... ˆ shoes ˆ

...to take the train out to New Jersey to visit my mom and dad. AND to help them clean out their garage. After 22 years of living in the same house in Succasunna, NJ - my parents had finally decided to sell the house and start moving down to Florida for the winter! ˆ train ˆ

Five miles outside of New York City and the industrial-park wasteland gives way to amber waves of green. Holla, Garden State! ˆ field ˆ

My dad picked me up at the train station and we went to the Ledgewood Mall to pick some things up. When we got to the mall, there was some sort of car show going on! ˆ dad ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

The entire mall was filled with all sorts of cool antique or souped-up cars. ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

Crazytown, right? ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

The only thing hotter than this car are the fashions inside "In the Spotlights." ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

There were some pretty bad-ass cars. ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

I think my favorite was this slammed Cadillac. ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

So fricking cool. ˆ car ˆ mall ˆ

Hey, Grant! This one's for you! ˆ back to the future ˆ car ˆ delorean ˆ mall ˆ

Check out the interior! They totally did it up right.

PS - I love how Back to the Future came out so long ago that they used the alternative pronounciation of the work gigawatt - you know, the one that has a hard "j" and sounds like "jigga-watt" (which is, incidentally, the unit of measure for power at Jay-Z's house) because computers weren't really around then and what few ones were around had only like 16k of memory. (Giga means 109).

Since either pronounciation is correct, it's surprising to me that the one popularized in BTTF didn't catch on. WTF? ˆ back to the future ˆ car ˆ delorean ˆ

Later that night, Scott (and Jericho) drove down and picked me up... ˆ jericho ˆ scott ˆ dogs ˆ

...and we drove out to Washington Township to see the new house he and Erika had bought! They'd just gutted it and had just begun the process of framing out a new floorplan! ˆ scott ˆ construction ˆ

Afterwards, Scott took me to a teeny, tiny log-cabin (!!!) noody bar in the middle of the woods called the Daily Planet. ˆ scott ˆ the daily planet ˆ

Which the locals affectionately refer to as "The D.P." (which is accidental comedy gold as far as I'm concerned).

When most people think of New Jersey, they think of Guidos and horrible orange-women with belly-jewelry. While that's certainly something that Jersey should be famous for, what most people don't realize is that if you go into any part of western NJ near the PA border, Jersey is totally filled with rednecks! The DP was the embodiment of Jersey redneckness. We walked in the place and it was filled with bearded men wearing cowboy hats singing along to the country music that was blasting over the PA. Scott looked like he fit in, but me, I looked like someone in need of an ass-kicking so we only stayed for a beer. ˆ scott ˆ best ˆ point ˆ the daily planet ˆ

On Sunday my dad got me up bright and early so that we could begin the Sisyphean task of... ˆ 8 radcliff drive ˆ

...cleaning out the garage and the basement. This is what 22 years of accumulation looks like! ˆ garage ˆ

Here's me suited up to protect myself again dust and three-dimensional particles. ˆ me ˆ 3D ˆ thumbs up ˆ

See you later refrigerator from college that my brother took to college and turned into a kegerator! ˆ refrigerator ˆ

See you later old skiis unridden for 15 seasons! ˆ skis ˆ

See you later, first snowboard and first skateboard I ever owned! ˆ skateboard ˆ snowboard ˆ

Au revoir, American Professional Horseshoes set. I'll miss you most of all. ˆ horseshoes ˆ

By 1pm, we had the garage mostly cleaned out. Here's my dad surveying a driveway full of garge-sale-bound treasures. ˆ dad ˆ 8 radcliff drive ˆ shed ˆ

Check out my dad's old customized license plates! The first three letters are his initials. He claims "69" is because it's the year he graduated college, but as far as my female friends in high school were concerned, the plates were still "pretty creepy." Hahahah. ˆ dad ˆ license plate ˆ

When I got back to our apartment that evening, Meredith was proudly showing off the huge, new, four-level rat cage she'd purchased earlier in the afternoon. We needed a bigger rat cage to make room for... ˆ meredith ˆ cage ˆ rats ˆ

...Lulu and Mitzi! Two MORE rats that Meredith had gotten (bringing our total rat count up to four!). ˆ lulu ˆ mitzi ˆ rats ˆ

Mitzi is our first brown rat. Look how cute and whiskery she is! ˆ mitzi ˆ rats ˆ

On Wednesday morning I ran around town before work and checked out more apartments. ˆ kitchen ˆ

Saw four places. The ones we liked were WAY too expensive... ˆ kitchen ˆ stairs ˆ

...and the ones that were reasonable were too small.

And too sponge-painted.

I came home from work to discover a new dog-visitor in our apartment! This little nugget's name is Honey Pie. She belongs to Meredith's classmate that was traveling for a couple of days and Meredith had offered to dogsit! She was the softest, pinkest-nosed Chiuaua I'd ever seen. ˆ honey pie ˆ dogs ˆ

Hahaha. Look at her squinty eys and big, pink bottom lip. ˆ honey pie ˆ cute ˆ dogs ˆ

Here's Honey Pie debating whether she should try to get to know the rats more closely. ˆ honey pie ˆ rats ˆ

Mitzi and Lulu. Making friends. Sharing water.

I left work early on Thursday because I had a fever and some kind of a crazy-painful skin irritation on my right nostril.

On my bike ride home, I stopped at the newsstand near our house and picked up the new issue of New York Magazine...

...which had a whole photo spread on the MisShapes. And they even managed to get Edie into the shoot! ˆ edie ˆ geordon ˆ greg k ˆ leigh ˆ magazine ˆ misshapes ˆ people we know in magazines ˆ

By midnight, the "irritation" on my nostril had turned into a swollen, painful, honking nightmare. I texted my doctor and told him that I needed to see him first thing in the morning. Ouch. ˆ me ˆ infection ˆ ouch ˆ sad ˆ

Even Honey Pie was sad for me. ˆ honey pie ˆ best ˆ cute ˆ dogs ˆ

I woke up on Friday morning in serious pain and the entire right side of my face was swollen and distorted! ˆ me ˆ infection ˆ ouch ˆ staph ˆ

Ouch. I went to the doctor and it turned out to be another staph infection. He hypothesized that I picked up a different type of staph bacteria in Thailand from scuba equipment that hadn't been properly sterilized. Divers, take note! (After you're done marveling at my Rudolph-red nose, if you look at my jawline, you'll notice that one of my lymph nodes is so swollen that you can actually see it!) ˆ me ˆ infection ˆ ouch ˆ staph ˆ

By Sunday, the antibiotics and ointments I'd been prescribed had finally started to work and I no longer looked like MASK, so I decided to head back out and check out another apartment! The moment I walked into this apartment, I was like "THIS IS THE ONE!" and sure enough, we ended up taking it and moving into Stuyvesant Town! Here's our future living room! ˆ stuytown ˆ

Future bedroom! ˆ stuytown ˆ

And bathroom! ˆ bathroom ˆ stuytown ˆ

On Wednesday evening, I checked my email when I got home and was stoked to find I'd received a job offer from Meetup.com. I was getting really bored at Community Connect and I was really excited to move on and try something new. ˆ email ˆ meetup ˆ

The job turned out to be a total disaster and I only ended up staying for five months before moving on, but at the time I was really excited. ˆ me ˆ excited ˆ thumbs up ˆ

I accepted the new job offer and then emailed my boss at Community Connect to tender my resignation! ˆ email ˆ

On Thursday afternoon, Meredith and I found out that we'd gotten the apartment in Stuytown that I loved. Meredith agreed to sign the lease with me without even seeing the place! She was like "You're WAY pickier than me. If you love it, I don't even need to see it to know that I'll love it." Here she is proudly showing off her Orwellian Stuytown ID card. ˆ meredith ˆ id card ˆ pretty ˆ stuytown ˆ

Stuytown is policed by robots. If you don't have this ID card on your person at all times, you will be killed by their evil lasers. ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ id card ˆ stuytown ˆ us ˆ

Later that night we went out to Williamsburg to go to... ˆ sign ˆ

...a pumpkin carving party at Siege and Katie's new apartment! ˆ amanda ˆ katie ˆ meredith ˆ siege ˆ pumpkin ˆ

Why yes, Katie, I will have a hot tottie. Thank you!

After some magic marker handiwork, here's Meredith getting ready to carve out her RAT-O-LANTERN! ˆ meredith ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

I decided to go a more traditional route and tried to draw the scariest skull face I could imagine. ˆ pumpkin ˆ skull ˆ

Check out three of the pumpkins: post-carved and ready to be... ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

...lit up from the inside! ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

Here's how my skull-o-lantern turned out! ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

I don't remember who carved the kitty pumpkin, but man oh man, it was awesome. ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

Katie and Katie busy in the kitchen making toasted pumpkin seeds! ˆ katie ˆ katie d ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

Sooooo good! ˆ katie ˆ jackolantern ˆ pumpkin ˆ

Amanda decided to go buckwild for halloween and dress up as someone that has really big red lips! ˆ amanda ˆ ellen stagg ˆ halloween ˆ laugh ˆ lips ˆ

I like this picture because there's something about the smiley, sly look that Jen is giving to Ellen behind her back that makes me happy. ˆ ellen ˆ

After all the pumpkin carving was done, we all relaxed and had hot totties and snacks and drinks just like real grown ups! Group shot! ˆ amanda ˆ ellen stagg ˆ jen ˆ katie ˆ katie d ˆ meredith ˆ scott ward ˆ siege ˆ the gaylords ˆ

Group shot take two. I put the camera's auto-timer on, set it on top of the TV and managed to sneak into the shot. ˆ amanda ˆ ellen stagg ˆ jen ˆ katie ˆ katie d ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ scott ward ˆ siege ˆ the gaylords ˆ

When we got home, these little nibblors were climbing their cage with excitement. And I thought rats wouldn't be good pets! Who knew? ˆ mitzi ˆ roxy ˆ rats ˆ

I still had a couple of weeks before I started my new job at Meetup, but on Friday I went over to their office in the afternoon... ˆ meetup ˆ

...to sit in on their monthly meeting where they invite a bunch of Meetup users to come in and talk about the site and what they like and dislike about it. ˆ meetup ˆ

When I got back to our apartment that night, I found that the installation of the new spiral staircase that they started working on on the very first day of October had been completed! Our apartment and the apartment below us... ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

...had now been turned into a super-fancy duplex! So ends the month of October! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ spiral stairs ˆ