Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Bus Routes

I just saw a bus go by on Goshen and remembered that I had been planing on looking up the bus routes and schedules. I did, and I found out that the nearest bus stop is a mile away (half mile if I jump my fence). So I guess I can get around town a little if I don't mind quite a bit of walking. The bus only runs once an hour though, so I don't know how much I would want to risk walking over just to have to sit and wait an hour if I miss it (since we all know that sometimes the busses come early).

It is foggy here. I like the fog.

Monday, November 28, 2005

I don't know what to write about

Melissa says I have to blog so I suppose I had better. We had a nice Thanksgiving break. Everybody came over to our place for dinner so I had a nice time playing host. I bought a 21 lb. Turkey on accident so that was fun. I meant to get 15 lbs. at the highest. The Turkey cooked well. It was fun to use our new oven.

I bought three liquid Amber trees and two Red Maples for our yard. They should be delivered any time now. I will take pictures of our yard once we get them planted.

Our house is mostly put away now. The downstairs is completely finished. It will probably take longer for the upstairs stuff since it is just misc. stuff.

I thought of something else to say a minute ago, but now I don't remember. I'll blog again soon so stay tuned!

Monday, November 21, 2005

Far Cry

Just kidding... I am not going to be playing Far Cry tonight. When I went to the page to buy it before it had a section for downloading the game instead of having it shipped. I can't find it now. So I will have to go to the store to get it (assuming Best Buy even still sells it). Thing is, I don't have a car right now. I am going to borrow my mom's later today, but I don't know if it will be in time. We will see.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

What's with Today, Today?

Things have been going good for a change. I spent the week trying to work and unpacking. We have gotten the majority of the work done, with just a little bit of work left. We will finish the downstairs tomorrow in preparation for Thanksgiving.

I bought 14 shrubs (nandina, iris, daisy, and breath of heaven) to replace the ugly dead plants that came with our house. I have planted about half of them so far. It is fun, but hard to keep my attention on. Today we started tree shopping for a tree to go in the middle of our lawn. We are trying to decide on a red maple, or a white crape myrtle. We want something with little upkeep and that will not cast too much shade on our grass. After that we will have about 20-30 more trees to buy for our backyard. I found walk-on bark for $25 CY delivered, so that will be good since we will have about 15-20 CY of planters that will need that and dirt.

I wasn't able to work for Thursday or Friday because my nextdoor neighbor's internet stopped working for some reason. I ended up ordering the lowest tier of DSL service, since that is all they offer in this area (long story behind that, but I don't want to get into it), for $20 a month (I would have had to pay $250 to cancel the contract I was in, and I wanted to keep my e-mail addresses). Then, because that is not fast enough for my work, I also signed up for cable internet at $30 a month. Together these cost less than what I was paying before ($62) so I am happy.

That brings us to the fun story for tonight. I always knew I didn't like cable internet, but now I know it from experience. Here is a chronological order of things I dislike about cable as they happened to me:

1. They scheduled me for Friday morning
2. They never came
3. I called and found out they wrote down my number wrong (4527 instead of 4524)
4. They scheduled me for Saturday morning
5. They gave me a used modem
6. They spelled my name wrong (Seely)
7. I had to do an install off of a CD to start to get it to work
8. It did not recognize that I had a working network set up
9. It changed my network settings
10. It broke my connection to my server
11. The program existed when I entered in the wrong account number
12. It told me I had to get my account number off my first bill
13. The program required that I use a proxie
14. The program completely broke the next time I ran it
15. The first level tech I spoke to couldn't help me
16. The first sales person I was transfered to couldn't help me
17. The second sales person I was transfered to couldn't help me
18. The second first level tech I was transfered to couldn't help me and told me to hang up because at this point the routing was messed up and he was in SoCal

Good Things:
19. The third first level tech I spoke to knew exactly what he was doing and had me up and running in a couple of minutes. What ever he did completely negated items 7-14, and the connection works just the way it should, with no special set up required.

I'm still annoyed about the other stuff, but not so much since I have working internet that is fast (4mb/386k, soon to be 6mb/768k, soon to be upgraded thereafter to 8mb/1mb as money allows). So now I can do my work just the way I need too, not to mention play my much missed Halo 2 online. Monday night I will try to play FarCry with Sam.

Things are slowly becoming normal again.

So Sad...

I just found out that Charles Sheffield, who happens to be my favorite author, died three years ago.

I was wondering why he hadn't released any new books recently......

Friday, November 11, 2005

Fun with Grass

Not what you thought I meant...

I mowed for the first time in like 8 years or so. It was kinda fun. A good work out for sure (and we only have a little bit of grass so far). The problem is... I forgot that I am alergic to cut grass. Or rather my body forgot that it had built up a tolerance to it. I barely made it through sweeping up the clippings I felt so bad. I have been laying around waiting for an anti-histamine to kick in for the past hour, and I am finally starting to feel better. I am going to have to add a mouth and nose mask to my list of things to buy, as well as some gloves.

Things are going pretty good. There have not been any other huge things that have happened for the past couple days, so that has been nice. I miss Deb.
The electrical socket in our tech center doesn't work, so I haven't been able to set up my computer yet. I really want to get it going so that I can listen to music while I am unpacking. I will probably hook it up some where else while I am waiting. It is a lot to hook up just to move it again in a couple of days though.

I met one of our neighbors yesterday. He is pretty cool. I think he is just a little older than me, and he is in the same situation I am in with his wife working down in Santa Clarita a few days out of the week. So we will be getting together to play games a bunch I hope. I will have to introduce him to Far Cry once I have time to buy it for my self so that he can join when I play with Sam.
My neighbor is the reason that I am being able to connect to the internet. He gave me permission to use his wireless access. So I am going to be able to get my homework done this weekend, and start work on Monday; since I STILL don't have a phone line.

I tried hooking up my xbox through my laptop so I could use the internet access that way to play Halo online last night. It worked, but not quite good enough to be able to play with Josh, so I will probably just still be Halo-less for a couple more days )=

Thursday, November 10, 2005

No Way!!

http://media.putfile.com/Tonk

This is so funny. It made me happy.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Oh Ya...

Have I mentioned how annoyed I am that I made my pictures 4 pixels too wide and it messed up my template?


grr...

9:20am

Well, I managed to squeeze in an extra 2 hours of sleep some how, so now I feel worse than I did a while ago. At least I won't be too tired later in the day.

We are leaving shortly to go pick up a couple of essentials before getting the keys to the house at 11. We convieniently ran out of a bunch of sundry items right before we moved. Deb is leaving for LA tonight with the car, so we need to go buy them before she leaves.

I don't know how much I will be posting in the next couple of days since we don't have internet access yet at the new place. However we just discovered a coffee place called Maverick's that has free internet access. They also sell Jamaican Blue Mountain by the cup. That makes it a pretty win-win situation as far as I am concerned. Of course, it is on the opposite side of town and I will have no car. I'll probably just end up paying for access at the Starbucks on the corner (that's right, even Visalia has Starbucks on every corner).

So ta ta and take care. Call me if you need me.

5:16am

Yup... you heard me, 5:16 in the morning. I have now been up for over an hour. A combination of excitement and drinking too much coffee last night gave me a pretty lame night of sleep. I used to be able to drink coffee in the late afternoon and still sleep with no problem, but since I have been cutting back I can't any more. I always order a large out of habit and sense of getting the most for my money. It doesn't hurt so much in the morning.
The annoying thing is that I feel very tired. I just can't fall back to sleep.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Boting

Thank you all so much that have been praying for us. Things have been bad this week; one of the worst of our lives, but we are still alive. We have not been tossed out on the street, we had tasty food, we went to the library twice, and have watch good movies. No matter what happens God is there with us!

On a funny note (I thought it was funny anyway), Deb and I could not legally vote today. We do not have a current address in the United States. Technically there are a ton of ways that we could have gotten around it, but we have been way to stressed about life to care about a couple of largely pointless initiatives (I do care about a couple though).

We move in at 11am tomorrow. There is pratically nothing that can go wrong at this point.

Hurray!

Free XBOX 360

I'm not usually one to post about these things, but this is one of the better referal deals that I have come across. You just have to complete one offer, and get 8 people to complete one offer and you get the free premium package Xbox 360. Click on the link below for more info. I will give you $5 for a confirmed completed offer, only one per person. (it shows up on my account)

The deal I signed up for was Columbia House. They have a deal where you can get 6 DVD's for less than $18 with no shipping charges. pretty sweet. Most of the other offers were for credit cards.

http://xbox360s.freepay.com/?r=24783301

"Small" Town Headlines

In the local section of the Visalia Timesw Delta today:

main headline -
Crews patch rail crossing (note the singular)

Man robs 3 places in 24 hours (including a mini-mart)
"It's weird, he wanted the money, he didn't want the beer".

and last but certainly not least...

Puppy rescued by Fire Department

Monday, November 07, 2005

Officially Gone Crazy

"All work and no play make homer something something"
"Go Crazy?"
"Don't mind if I do!"


Ya. Our lender screwed up AGAIN. We are not closing till Wednesday now. I should have called earlier today to make sure they were working on stuff, but no, I assumed they were competent. I just called (it is 5pm) and they are only just now going over the documentation. There are at least two more forms we have to sign THAT THEY NEVER GAVE US!

GRRRR!!!

So ya. Hurray for our life.

Backyard Stuff

Today is Monday... only twenty-four hours to go. I can't wait. Everything better work out correctly or I am going to go crazy. Not that crazy is a bad thing...

Here is our list for the back yard so far. We are still looking for other suggestions. Please throw in all your serious and crazy ideas!

rock garden
spa
fruit orchard (Oranges, Lemons, Nectarine, Peach, Guava, Apples)
Shade Trees (Ash, Maple, Liquid Amber, Eucalyptus, Red Oak, Chinese pistache, Magnolia and sycamore)
patio
built in BBQ
Firepit
Normal Grass (maybe noMow)
Garden
Planter Garden
Bamboo
Trelace above the fence with grape and blackberries (for privacy)
We will probably use flint slate with dark brick boarders for the paths.
The planters, firepit, and walls will probably have flint slate toppers.

We are going to go to Home Depot and Orchard Supply today to get ideas for other stuff and to see what else we need to buy in the way of tools. Our essentials list is:

Lawn Mower
Shovel(s)
Rakes(s)
Broom
Hose
Wheel Barrow
Bucket(s) (maybe something big enough to dye couch cusions in)
Blinds (probably plantation shutters)

Non-essential:
Edger
Leaf Blower (don't need that till we have leaves)
Closet Organizational stuff (clear drawers)
Baker's Rack
Pot Rack
Rugs
Fake Owl to scare birds
Patio and lawn furniture
Ceiling Fans (all our rooms are pre-wired)

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Friday, November 04, 2005

100th post

We got all of our papers signed today. It only took two trips. We finished everything the first time, and then they called us two hours later to let us know that they forgot two pages.

We went to do our second final walk through at 11. Nobody had told the workers that we weren't closing till tuesday, so when we showed up they panicked. The house was not done yet. The guy was totally embaressed, and let us know he will be working all day tomorrow to make sure that the house is done.

Not much else going on. We have been watching TV and browsing the web. I'll probably end up doing home work tomorrow. It will be hard though with all my "books" being packed in storage.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Stupindipity

I made a word up haha. Or at least I would have if someone else hadn't of done it first. der.

This has been an interesting week filled with fun, excitement, and incompetence.

Tuesday we went to Visalia to do our final walk through on the house. In general the house looks awesome! There were a ton of little things wrong though; like paint blemishes, dings in the floor, dirt, incorrectly hung doors, crooked tile, dirty tile, and a little bad wiring. The one major thing was that they mis-measured the computer desk and messed up a wall because of it. Everything should be fixed now though. We will be doing our second final walk through tomorrow to verify. Overall this part has not been too bad, but it seems pretty unprofessional for them to have not fixed these things without our pointing them out.

Wednesday we moved out of our appartment. This went very well, if a little long. The movers showed up at 10am as advertised, and had us completely out of there by 6pm. They took a lot longer than I had expected, since it only took about 3 hours to get us out of our place in long beach, but I guess it is justified since we didn't own any of our current furniture at that point. They spent a very large amount of time wrapping things up. I was very confident that they were taking good care of our stuff. They even moved our piano correctly (unlike our previous movers). If anyone ever plans on paying someone to move them, go to www.moveus.com for all-american movers. It is worth it. We are paying about $800 more than we had planned due to a mis-understanding on my part, but it is still fairly reasonable for what they are having to do.... plus we get free storage (which will play a role later).
After the move we went to Ihop for dinner. Don't get their dinner food, it is not any good. Their breakfast stuff is way better. Once we finished eating we went over to the Yoshimoto's (Thanks!!!!) to spend the night. We had a fun time, but were boring guests because of how wiped out we were.

Thursday we woke up early and started calling loan people because we needed to schedule our loan signing in Visalia. We had breakfast, and then took off to Visalia for our three o'clock appointment. We arrived at 3:01. I like timing these things close. We sat down to sign our loan docs and realized that the loan people had put the wrong name down for Deb - Deb Feely instead of Deb Price. Deb's license still says Price, so the documents have to say Price as well. The loan people updated them, and resent them out, so we sat down to sign again and found a place they had missed. They are also trying to get me to pay for a collection debt that I paid 2.5 years ago. So we have to reschedule for Friday. Also, our closing costs are $2000 more than was estimated, so that hurts.

Now... on to the fun part. Let me explain it with a time line:

Monday - uncertain if the house and loan docs will be done on time for Friday closing and moving into the house. Please note that Friday is two days after we have moved out of our apartment. This is where the free storage comes to play. The extra $800 that we have to pay the movers is for the unpacking and packing of our stuff at the storage area, plus the extra drive time. Ennis Homes missed our original close date of Oct. 31st, but didn't find out till after we had given 30 days notice on our apartment so we still had to move out on the 2nd.

Tuesday - Fairly certain that the house will be done on time, assured that the loan docs have been ordered. I am happy at this point; everything seems to be going well.
1. Once the loan docs have been ordered,
2. we have to sign them, get them to escrow,
3. then get them back to the loan company,
4. then the loan company gives escrow the money from our loan. Steps 1 and 2 should take one day, step 3 takes another day, and step 4 takes another day. So if the docs had of been ordered on Tuesday then we would sign them on Wednesday, the loan company would have funded on Thursday, and we could have closed on Friday.

Wednesday - Informed that the loan docs are being ordered today, expect a call to schedule signing. Technically we could have still done all the above steps on time if we were in Visalia very early to sign.

Thursday - loan docs get ordered. At this point close of escrow gets moved back to Monday since there is no way that the loan company can fund in time for Friday.
We go to sign, find out that the loan company has messed up and that we cannot sign till Friday. Close of escrow is now moved back till Tuesday. ALSO, we are informed that the City final inspection of the house, which is required before we have an official address and can sign up for utilities and which should have been completed last week, has been completed. This is a huge inconveinience that is mitigated by the fact that our move in date got moved back. We need our gas line to live pretty much. Now our gas line should be installed Monday or Tuesday if we are lucky.

Friday - we will go to check and see if they have fixed everything that was wrong with the house, and try to sign our loan docs.

Saturday - Tuesday.... who knows.....

Stupindipity.

Fortunately I have wonderful parents who are letting us stay here as long as we need. We might go up to the cabin for a day or two if we decide we need to get away from the world (sure would be nice) for a bit. I need to hit Keiko up for a massage. I am feeling exhausted and emotionally dead. I have been working hard to shield Deb from most of this so she doesn't have to deal with it, but there is no way to avoid her having to deal with not getting to move into our house for an extra 4 days.

That is pretty much everything. We already miss everybody. Our cats are doing fine. Ouzo tastes best over ice.