Last post was almost 2 months ago, and I have a lot to talk about now that I think about it.
First off... the new house.
We finally got moved in to the new house a few weeks ago, and are now truly settled in.
The list of things that needed to be done right away has been imposing, but we now have a lot of them done, including eavestrough and the back part of the roof. The furnace and AC are so old and in such bad shape though that we still need to tackle those (the AC works but is very prone to freezing up and I'm having to baby it)... and that's expensive. It hasn't helped that this has already been one of the muggier summers I can remember in the last decade or so.
I'm so thankful that it hasn't rained much here lately because mowing the lawn every 3 days was getting tiresome. Now... I actually usually enjoy mowing the lawn. The old mower we had given to us for now has no chute on it (it's broken), and most fo the time when I've mowed it's been like cutting hay because it's been so thick, so I've just gotten coated with grass every time I mow... and I don't enjoy that. I don't know if my wife has come to terms with me going out into the garage to work on things and such yet or not.... those of you who know me in real life will understand what I mean, heh.
We (four of us actually) also spent 4 hours on Sunday putting together a 13' trampoline and enclosure for the kids in the backyard. The thing is huge. Oddly enough, the trampoline was the simple part... the enclosure was what sucked and took most of the time. If you're ever going to put a trampoline and encolsure up, I highly recommend setting aside a full afternoon or something because the encolsures suck to put up. You have to literally weave the bottom of the net in to the springs and rings using a long, elastic string. That small task alone will probably take you about an hour.
We went and saw "The Dark Knight" at the drive-in this weekend. Was a good Batman movie. I wasn't as thrilled with it as some apparently, but it was a good Batman movie. I like what Ledger did with The Joker.... and yet it made the Joker a lot less enjoyable at the same time. Also, now with him dead, I'm not sure how they can use The Joker again.... I doubt anyone else can pull it off quite like he did. I also hadn't seen "Batman Begins".... but I'm not sure yet if I like Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne. I really like Bale as an actor... but it seems really weird having him trying to be Batman. He makes an awfully-good Bruce Wayne actually... but Batman, I'm not sure...
My kids got to go see Wall-E without me. Life isn't fair.
So far I have survived High School Musical and HSM 2.... but I'm not sure I'm going to survive Camp Rock, folks. Disney Channel is clearly evil and needs to die. At least most of the HSM music is tolerable... but most of the Camp Rock music isn't very good (including their signature song). I can handle Jonas Brothers even... but this Camp Rock stuff just.... ugh. There are about 2 songs I can handle. On the other hand, at least it's been forever since I had to put up with Naked Brothers Band (which was the epitome of awful).
As for music of a more mature nature.... I nearly swerved off the road the first time I heard the new 3 Doors Down song on the radio (see "Current Music"). Where on earth were they keeping THAT sound for the past couple albums? Five Finger Death Punch has also been too sticky in my head lately, and an all-female band form Arkansas named Ilia has captured my attention as well.
Also... I must really love my wife considering what concert I agreed to go with her to for her birthday here in the coming months. :-p
It's been a while since I last posted because... yeah, it's been a long, painful process of offers, counter-offers, estimates, and inspections. The upshot is, we finally closed on our house.
We bought a house.
It's bizarre. You go and sign paperwork for this absurd amount of money to buy a home, and then you return back to the place you're currently living and hope that within the next MONTH, you'll finally get to do stuff inside that new home. Its unlike anything else I've ever felt. If you buy a new car even, the worst-case is you have it in a couple of days. If you order something online, a couple of weeks maybe aroudn Christmas.
But a new house? Here... have a possible 30-day wait before you can even get in there to repaint rooms (I doubt my 8 year-old son is going to want a purple room), fix ceiling tiles, redo some electrical outlets, fix stairway bannisters, etc. And THEN when you get that all done, then maybe you can finally start living in the thing.
We're happy, but it feels... hollow. We don't have the thing yet. It feels like we actually did nothing and should still be looking...
As I mentioned in my last post we've been house-hunting, looking to buy our first home.
And as I mentioned, the term "buyer's market" is a bit misleading. Yes, it's a market right now where sellers are often forced to consider or take offers les than they normally would. However, it's also a market that is still seeing home prices increase an awful lot (especially in certain neighborhoods, which means that for someone like us a LOT of homes are well out of price range.
We looked at some nice homes but they all had some critical flaw -- not enough usable space or a poor layout, not enough rooms, a silly conversion of a bedroom into an oversized bathroom, etc. And with 3 kids, our main focus has been to make sure we find a place so the kids can all have their own rooms (2 of them share a large room now), and also enough space for us to live and them to play in, while allowing room for them as they get a bit older.
It's also been difficult because as a family with 3 children, we're large. Families now-a-days don't need or make homes that large, to accomodate 3 kids, because they most all have only 1 or 2. That meant we looked at a lto of very old homes then (many originally from the 1800's). One in particular that we looked at was so old (and large) it clearly had a servant's staircase and servant's quarters upstairs -- it was a cool big house but just too much work.
We also watched a lot of HGTV while hunting, and I have to say I'm amazed at the ignorance of people when looking for a home. I have to say, I felt much better with us being first-time buyers after seeing how we compare to some of the couples on those shows (including some that have even bought before).
When it all came down to it though we narrowed the field down to a few choices and made our choice. Last night we went and signed the paperwork to make and offer.
And now we wait.
It's nerve-wracking. We know we'll hear back by tonight, but it still doesn't take care of the nervous waiting...
I'm starting to slowly come back to an online presence as I've learned to juggle the inifinite demands of work, the demands of family, etc. And as such I've shown up here and there on IRC, I'm on Trillian again during the day sometimes, and I've found other diversion that aren't pure timesinks, because my wife and fmaily are still the most important thing to me.
Here's a worthy minor timesink though -- a MMORPG based on American Football:
You create a player, level them up through experience and training, get offers from teams, etc. Games are played every 2 says, season is 40 days long total. The word I keep hearing people use for it is "epic", and I can't believe this kind of game hasn't alreayd been tried and done somewhere. It's a can't-fail combination...
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In other news, we're house-hunting. Rent has gotten outrageous finally, and just can't justify it anymore since nobody pays utilities or garbage and such for you.
What we're finding is this -- it's NOT a Buyer's Market liek everyone says. It's a Major Repair/Renovations Market. The decent houses available all still need fairly major things done to them to make them reasonable/liveable, and there are no houses left on the market that you can just move into in short order. This is diasppointing considering the number of repos that are out there.
We're continuing to plug away at it though. I can't continue to justify throwing rent away every month, and the 5 of us just need our own place finally, that we can do what we like with.
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More later when I finally wake up... I have Easter stuff to do with kids. :-p
It's been a busy summer, and is still busy as it winds down and I have to face the prospect of 3 kids going back to school -- and a wife returning for more fall classes. Which is going to mean a very, very busy fall. Oh yes, and we'll have soccer games too!
It seems odd to look back on where things were a year ago at this time. Things were very, very different then and to think back on it now it almost doesn't seem possible that things were ever that way. But it's only been a single year -- obviously a ton can happen in that year. And what a year it's been... best year of my life, easily. Wonderful wife, 3 fun little kids, it's good stuff right there. ;-)
I've been meaning (and trying) to upload some pictures to post from Hawaii, but my FTP doesn't seem to be working for some reason. I'll try again this weekend to find a way to get some pics up and post them.
As we head towards September let me answer a few Q's: Yes, I plan on doing fantasy hockey this year yet again... no I don't plan on doing fantasy football ( I remain retired)... no, I haven't decided what to do with Priomh.com yet... yes I'm online a lot still, just not ever on IM or IRC, and I don't get to check my personal email very much... yes I still read my Friends page at least a few times a week, and yes I'll post Comments if warranted... and yes Transformers was a trainwreck of a movie that killed part of my inner child (What the #*$() Jazz!?!) but I still watched it anyways and talked myself into thinking it was ok.
Imagine you're a young pitcher on a National League team. You're considered up-and-coming, one of the best young arms out there.
And then... something happens. Nobody knows why really, but all of the sudden one day you just lose It[tm] (whatever It is). And by lose It, I mean truly lose It, as in you step onto the mound to pitch and you throw the ball into the dirt in front of the plate, behind the batter, over the catcher's head, everywhere but in the vicinity of the plate. This isn't a case of where you sudden lose a bit on one of your key pitches, you literally are spraying the ball all over the place with just about every pitch. It's well beyond a mechanical problem -- you've lost something mentally.
How bad is it? It's bad enough that other players and coaches on other teams are scared for you and try to help you. The media latches on to the story tightly, then it get so bad that even they let it go, because it's embarassing and awkward to talk about a major league pitcher that suddenly can't even get the ball to or near home plate.
The club you play for tries to work with you, work you out of it, but they can't. They send you down to pitch in Triple-A and Double-A where you recollect yourself a bit, but you really truly don't recover in the least, and finally you decide to walk away from pitching for good.
The club is kind and sympathetic, and works a deal with you to convert you to a minor-league outfielder, because you're young and a good athlete. You begin a new season in the minors with a little media attention about how you're going to try to defy the odds and work your way back to the majors not as a pitcher, but an outfielder who can hit and field well. The odds are stacked heavily against you ever seeing the big leagues again.
And then, for a while you're out of the public eye, toiling in the minors.
And now this season, after having a great season in Triple-A as an outfielder, your big league club calls you back up in August, to make your debut (that same night as the call-up) back in the same uniform and park you used to pitch in... only as an unproven minor league outfielder.
So what do you do in this nerve-wracking re-debut?
If you can read that story and not think "Wow, that's something", then you haven't a heart in you. Rick Ankiel's story even before now was going to go down as one of the most-curious cases in the sport's history ("What happens to a picther to suddenly make him lose his ability?"), and that he has the ball bearings to stick with it and work his way back as an everyday player (and a pretty good one at that) and hit a 3-run shot in his re-debut with the same team 3 years later is the kind of sports story we'll likely never see again in our lifetime.
Proof once again that some people are just plain Better than others.
So. We live. I guess. Walking Dead may be more appropriate.
We left for Hawaii back on June 29th and returned yesterday, July 8th. The flight out was tough, but the return flight back yesterday was... a nightmare. In between those dates we had a TON of stuff jam-packed into. We're back on the continent now though, so... FEAR.
More later after we sort out what's going on, what all we missed, and remembering what normal life is like. Maybe I'll even post some pics too, if I get really motivated.
... you can thank YouTube. Yes it's 5 minutes long, I know, but it's all pertinent.
Something I couldn't fathom -- a Rick Comley-coached Spartan squad going all the way.
They'll lose Chris Lawrence (their captain) and Tyler Howells to graduation. But should none of them decide to jump pro or leave early, they'll return both of the Lergs, Abdelkader, Mueller, McKenzie, Sucharski, Crowder, and Kennedy. I would guess Kennedy (BUF) and Abdelkader (DET) would be the ones that might jump ship early next year, but we'll see. All in all, it's tough to expect or find a more-dramatic ending to a championship game.
It was 8 months ago today that my wife and I had our first date -- a Southwest Michigan Devil Rays baseball game. And it's been an amazing 8 months ever since.
Yes, I'm a sap. I don't care. 8 months is a mark nonetheless. You can all stop putting your finger in your mouth and making gagging sounds now.
My initial reaction to the pics and trailers was "My god, I think I'm going to be sick". And I'm realizing I really hate Frank Miller anyways.
But now I keep hearing that it's surprisingly-good, despite some of the silly combat physics and clips of what appear to be demons or something.
In particular I'm haunted by the image of the Spartans pushing the Persians off the cliff, and the image of what I'm assuming are the Immortals (in a full mask, which isn't realistic at all but looks cool as heck) marching forward. And I think I'm really going to like their portrayal of Xerxes...
Who's been brave and seen it yet? Thermopylae is a holy subject to me, so I don't want to go in and have to somehow wash the reality from my mind to enjoy it, becaus ethe actual historical subject is cool beyond all reason as it is. I'm not expecting hardcore history though either, actual historical acounts of it are scant enough that some liberties have ot be taken (even Pressfield took some serious liberties).
Thoughts, comments? It's killing me, not knowing... help me out here?
So I'm chilling here, doing some things online on the laptop listening to Squizz Radio on XM while the wife watches a recorded soap, and a band comes on with a singer that sounds WAY too familiar. It's tough to mistake that voice, but... it couldn't be?
It is.
Pete Stewart, former singer from Grammatrain, is fronting a band now called The Accident Experiment -- a band that also features Marcos Curiel (formerly of P.O.D., and now once again in P.O.D. apparently according to the band's blog).
I always loved Grammatrain, and this stuff is actually heavier and nastier. Pete screams at times even. It's quite a trip after his solo projects, and "Mind Death Machine" has a very mainstream radio sound to it. I like it.
There's a vocalist who deserves to always have a band. Intense stuff.
"John Rocker is right. I am a liberal Jew from New York with an agenda. I have two African-American nephews who I want to grow up in a world indifferent to the color of their skin. I have gay friends who deserve the same love and respect and legal protections as everyone else. I don't condemn people for not speaking English, just as I don't condemn Rocker for speaking moron (OK, that's a cheap shot, but it sure felt good).
I am the great-grandson of a concentration camp victim, the grandson of four people who knew what it was to suffer the indignity of anti-semitism, the son of parents who raised my brother and me to value diversity, to judge people not by color or religion or sexuality, but by the goodness of their intentions.
I have long believed that John Rocker's fatal flaw is not his mechanics or delivery, but his anger. He chooses to walk in the dark, to think in absolutes that only result in the bitter person before us today.
Personally, I prefer the light."
As the quote from Hoosiers says:
"There's two kinds of crazy in the world. The first is the guy that gets drunk, gets naked and goes outside in the snow and barks at the moon. The second is the guy who does the same thing in my living room. The first you can ignore, the second you kind of have to deal with."
We all wish Rocker would just go back to barking in the snow...
OK I suppose after a few days now I should give details and explain a bit, because it's been explained to me that not everyone has been given the same information:
* Yes, we really ARE married, and officially. And no it's not a joke or prank. We went down to the county courthouse on our lunch hour on Friday and had the ceremony. We exchanged vows and weddings bands even. Then we signed the papers.
* Misty herself pointed out that I'm not sure some of you realize it, but I am now a step-father as well to her 3 wonderful little kids between the ages of 4 and 6. That's a lot of hugs and kisses, and little voices, and running around the house. It's taken some getting used to, but thankfully I have my experience with my niece and nephews to fall back on.
* Yes, we're still hoping to have a "normal" ceremony at some point and time. We just don't know when or how soon, and as that became clear we decided we wanted to be married more than we wanted to wait for the ceremony -- being actually married was more important than that to us.
* Yes, I've moved to the next county over to live and be with them. I'll give out my new contact information by request to those of you I know.
Thanks to everyone for the comments, notes, thoughts, and well-wishes. They are all appreciated. :-)
I was going to officially break news of my engagement to Misty here. Some of you already knew about it, some didn't. But that's no longer an issue at this time, we are no longer engaged.
We're married.
...now that you've finished picking your jaw off the floor, and probably a few of you shouting something at noone in particular...
It's for real -- we're married. To each other. Voluntarily. As of around noon today.
There's really nothing else to say about it at this time I guess. Just wanted to let everyone know and get it out of the way.
I guess commence the freaking out in the comments below, if you so wish. ;-)
I need ideas from all ya'll on if I should do a Halloween costume, and if so what it should be.
A certain someone shot down my idea of dressing either as a pimp, or as Flava Flav (Flava Flav would be an AWESOME costume for ANYONE. Put a clock on a neck chain, find a viking helmet, and walk around babbling incoherently all day. You're in like slim!!!). Apparently it isn't thought that they'd go over well at work though.... pffffffttt. ;-)
I want something that screams Style though. I don't want cute value, or shock value, or anything else. I just want pure Style.
So.... any ideas?
And on a vaguely-related note.... is it poor business etiquette that I want to wear a Red Wings jersey over my normal work clothes this Thursday (opening night vs Vancouver)??? I need opinions on this....
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