Here's a late happy one-year living with us to Howie! He joined our household 1-6-06 and has been the most resilient of the bunch.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Howie
Mr. Howie the Russian Hamster loves his big log. We had previously given him TP rolls and those were fun and all, but he adores this huge toy.
Here's a late happy one-year living with us to Howie! He joined our household 1-6-06 and has been the most resilient of the bunch.
Here's a late happy one-year living with us to Howie! He joined our household 1-6-06 and has been the most resilient of the bunch.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Search Continues
Alrighty. So the house Adam found on Tuesday had accepted an offer that very morning so that wasn’t going to work out in our favor. Fortunately there was another new construction house in the same subdivision. Right across the street in fact. So we made arrangements to take a look at that one Tuesday night. His parents came along again. The house itself is quite nice. There’s just one problem. It’s not finished. As in it’s not done. The company who built it (Creative Custom Homes) went into bankruptcy and out of business. The house is built and I’d say it’s about 95% done. There are just some things left in limbo. There are no gutters or downspouts. Some hardware is missing in a bathroom and on the patio door. The fireplace is still in a cardboard box. It’s dusty and a mess inside. All kinds of miscellaneous odds and ends have been left throughout the house and yard. The yard is really just a big pile of dirt and rocks with some beer cans and a tarp thrown in.
That said, the things that need to be finished up to make the house inhabitable are all pretty basic, minimal labor things that Adam and his dad would have no problem doing. The house is well arranged and has great potential. We went to dinner with his parents after looking at the house. We made a list of all the things we’d have to do before we could move in, assigned each item a cost, and deducted that from the listing price. We wrote up the offer last night and hope to hear from them today. The company’s assets are in receivership so if their attorney has already left town it might take a little longer to get a response. We’re hoping that they’re eager to get rid of as much as they can. I don’t think our offer was low-balling it too much but I don’t think we should pay the going rate (97%+ of list) for a house that’s not done. Our offer came in at about 91% of the listing price (which had been dropped from the original listing price by $9k, so about 88% of the original price.) We’ve asked them to finish up a few things that would be impractical for us to do (final grading, driveway fill) but Adam and his dad will be doing some significant work as well. We’ll also have to take care of grass and landscaping at some point. All we can do is see what they say. We're hoping we can get a great house at a steal of a price!
But for now we wait again.
That said, the things that need to be finished up to make the house inhabitable are all pretty basic, minimal labor things that Adam and his dad would have no problem doing. The house is well arranged and has great potential. We went to dinner with his parents after looking at the house. We made a list of all the things we’d have to do before we could move in, assigned each item a cost, and deducted that from the listing price. We wrote up the offer last night and hope to hear from them today. The company’s assets are in receivership so if their attorney has already left town it might take a little longer to get a response. We’re hoping that they’re eager to get rid of as much as they can. I don’t think our offer was low-balling it too much but I don’t think we should pay the going rate (97%+ of list) for a house that’s not done. Our offer came in at about 91% of the listing price (which had been dropped from the original listing price by $9k, so about 88% of the original price.) We’ve asked them to finish up a few things that would be impractical for us to do (final grading, driveway fill) but Adam and his dad will be doing some significant work as well. We’ll also have to take care of grass and landscaping at some point. All we can do is see what they say. We're hoping we can get a great house at a steal of a price!
But for now we wait again.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
House Update
Guess it wasn’t meant to be. We were waiting for a call this morning and finally got antsy enough that Adam called the realtor. Apparently the owner flat out refused our offer. Not even a counter. He was “insulted” by the offer we made. I guess I should add that the house recently dropped its listing price from $143,000 to $135,000, but I didn’t think our offer was inappropriate even given that fact. But whatever. Apparently the owner has taken this a little too personally, but I wish him luck in selling his house.
Perhaps this can be considered a blessing since this morning Adam called me and said he was having second thoughts about whether he even wanted the house anymore. He was being haunted by all the work we’d need to do, the weird pipes, etc. So now he doesn’t need to worry about any of that.
So, what’s our next move? In his struggles this morning, Adam came across some new construction that looks promising. It’s a little higher priced than the other house was but it’s also brand-spanking new, comes with a complete home warranty, and we don’t have to do any work or clean up after the previous owners. There are positives to both sides I suppose. Looking at our budget, we could still get by with the higher mortgage amount but it would be tight. We’re looking to start our financial combination a little sooner than we’d originally planned since it will give us a better idea about what areas are negotiable to give us some breathing room.
In any case, our realtor is going to try and get us into a house tonight. From the five pictures online it looks nice. We’ll see how we like it in person. We’ll see if we like it enough to blow $150,000 on it. If not, I think we just wait until when we originally planned to do this house thing.
Perhaps this can be considered a blessing since this morning Adam called me and said he was having second thoughts about whether he even wanted the house anymore. He was being haunted by all the work we’d need to do, the weird pipes, etc. So now he doesn’t need to worry about any of that.
So, what’s our next move? In his struggles this morning, Adam came across some new construction that looks promising. It’s a little higher priced than the other house was but it’s also brand-spanking new, comes with a complete home warranty, and we don’t have to do any work or clean up after the previous owners. There are positives to both sides I suppose. Looking at our budget, we could still get by with the higher mortgage amount but it would be tight. We’re looking to start our financial combination a little sooner than we’d originally planned since it will give us a better idea about what areas are negotiable to give us some breathing room.
In any case, our realtor is going to try and get us into a house tonight. From the five pictures online it looks nice. We’ll see how we like it in person. We’ll see if we like it enough to blow $150,000 on it. If not, I think we just wait until when we originally planned to do this house thing.
Monday, March 26, 2007
And We Wait
I got a call from the realtor earlier this evening telling me the husband of the seller couple was in Milwaukee for work today but they were planning on meeting with their realtor tonight. I haven't heard anything back so I'm assuming I won't hear anything tonight. He said if not tonight, it will be first thing tomorrow. I'll update as soon as we know what's what.
House Update
Well it was certainly an interesting weekend. Much more exciting than I had anticipated.
We went to see the house Saturday evening along with Adam’s parents. The owners had opted to stay around while we walked through but they kept themselves and their children very inconspicuous out in the sunroom. Adam’s dad took his eagle eye throughout the house to look for problems. I marveled at the cabinet space, the huge closet in the master bedroom, and the very affectionate cats (who do not come with the house… lol) Our major concern turned out to be some funky plumbing pipes down in the basement and some unfinished wiring. The house looked pretty much as it had in the pictures and was generally satisfying. We left the house with a good feeling. The owners were very accommodating and seem like nice people. We went around the block to look at the other house we had scheduled. Apparently the owners hadn’t been told we were coming as they were there, cleaning or working on a truck or something. It didn’t really matter too much since the second we walked into the house we walked right back out.
We thanked Jim, our realtor, and headed back to the apartment for some discussion. Well, first Adam and his dad headed to their house to pick up some wood and tools since I had somehow managed to break the couch earlier in the afternoon. Anywho, after they returned we had dinner and then they fixed the couch. After that was taken care of we discussed our options and how they felt about things and what they suggested. We decided on what price we thought was fair and some contingencies we wanted to be sure to include. After his parents left we went to bed and fell asleep pretty early.
On Sunday Adam worked at 8am and I got up when he did to take a look at the open houses in the area. I made a list of about 11 and narrowed it down to 4 I actually wanted to go to. The first two were a few blocks from each other so I went to them back to back. Neither one was terrible but they each had some strange features. The third open house didn’t start until 12:30 so I went to Walmart to kill some time. I drove out to the third house a little early but was so creeped out by the neighborhood that I decided to not even go to the open house. The fourth house on the list was a few blocks from the third so I eliminated that one as well. Somewhere in all this open house-ing, Jim had called Adam, asking if we’d like to come in that evening to discuss making an offer on the house we had seen Saturday evening. We planned for a 6:30 meeting. We arrived pretty much decided on what we planned to do and Jim seemed to agree with our plans. He prepared the paperwork, we reviewed it, I signed some stuff, and he should have sent it to the sellers this morning. The deadline he set for acceptance/counter/rejection is today so hopefully we’ll hear something back soon. I think our offer was fair considering how much painting we’ll have to do and how much the house was assessed at compared to their asking price. I guess we’ll see if they agree with us. :) Then we’ll have to see if it passes inspection. That’s our biggest concern right now. The basement has some funky stuff going on we’re not sure is up to code. But it’s a waiting game for now.
We went to see the house Saturday evening along with Adam’s parents. The owners had opted to stay around while we walked through but they kept themselves and their children very inconspicuous out in the sunroom. Adam’s dad took his eagle eye throughout the house to look for problems. I marveled at the cabinet space, the huge closet in the master bedroom, and the very affectionate cats (who do not come with the house… lol) Our major concern turned out to be some funky plumbing pipes down in the basement and some unfinished wiring. The house looked pretty much as it had in the pictures and was generally satisfying. We left the house with a good feeling. The owners were very accommodating and seem like nice people. We went around the block to look at the other house we had scheduled. Apparently the owners hadn’t been told we were coming as they were there, cleaning or working on a truck or something. It didn’t really matter too much since the second we walked into the house we walked right back out.
We thanked Jim, our realtor, and headed back to the apartment for some discussion. Well, first Adam and his dad headed to their house to pick up some wood and tools since I had somehow managed to break the couch earlier in the afternoon. Anywho, after they returned we had dinner and then they fixed the couch. After that was taken care of we discussed our options and how they felt about things and what they suggested. We decided on what price we thought was fair and some contingencies we wanted to be sure to include. After his parents left we went to bed and fell asleep pretty early.
On Sunday Adam worked at 8am and I got up when he did to take a look at the open houses in the area. I made a list of about 11 and narrowed it down to 4 I actually wanted to go to. The first two were a few blocks from each other so I went to them back to back. Neither one was terrible but they each had some strange features. The third open house didn’t start until 12:30 so I went to Walmart to kill some time. I drove out to the third house a little early but was so creeped out by the neighborhood that I decided to not even go to the open house. The fourth house on the list was a few blocks from the third so I eliminated that one as well. Somewhere in all this open house-ing, Jim had called Adam, asking if we’d like to come in that evening to discuss making an offer on the house we had seen Saturday evening. We planned for a 6:30 meeting. We arrived pretty much decided on what we planned to do and Jim seemed to agree with our plans. He prepared the paperwork, we reviewed it, I signed some stuff, and he should have sent it to the sellers this morning. The deadline he set for acceptance/counter/rejection is today so hopefully we’ll hear something back soon. I think our offer was fair considering how much painting we’ll have to do and how much the house was assessed at compared to their asking price. I guess we’ll see if they agree with us. :) Then we’ll have to see if it passes inspection. That’s our biggest concern right now. The basement has some funky stuff going on we’re not sure is up to code. But it’s a waiting game for now.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The Hunt Continues... Quickly
I happened to find a local realtor listing for the house that we most wanted to check out this morning. It had a lot more pictures and almost all of them made me say "ooh!" I went up to Appleton to have lunch with Adam and I printed the pictures out so he could see them. He agreed that it looked great and called our realtor right then to see if he could get us in to look at it tonight. We've got a 5:30 appointment. Amazing. We've both agreed that unless we find something that's really horrible, this will probably be the house we put an offer on once we get his dad in to look it over. Some good news is that the price was recently reduced so perhaps the seller is more motivated to sell and will therefore be more open to negotiations regarding closing costs and price. Bad news is it's an awesome house for the price so we might have competition. We're hoping to jump first though! We also have an appointment to look at another (vacant) house a street over from the first but I drove by both houses on the way home and the first is definately a nicer place. Wish us luck! I'll let you know what happens.
Friday, March 23, 2007
140!!
I failed to mention this previously and kind of forgot about it until Adam emailed me the pictures. We went bowling two weekends before this last one (for his birthday.) He got a coupon for 2 free games up in Ashwaubenon and we hadn’t gone for awhile so we thought, “why not?” The first game I was on fire. I ended up with a 140. No, really. A 140. I have proof.
I got all 10 pins 4 frames in a row. Of course it just went downhill from there. About 4 frames into the second game Adam retreated to the bathroom for a while (this was near the start of the evil stomach thing we both picked up.) I waited for him to return, chatting with the family who arrived to play in the lane next to us. As the dad went to bowl his first frame, he shoes stuck and he did a face plant at the end of the lane. Many profanities, laughter, and the throwing of objects ensued. He was good natured about it, but determined he should bowl in his socks thereafter.
When Adam returned he decided not to bowl the rest of the game since his wrist was hurting him. I played the rest of my game (to a miserable 64 point end) and we called it a day.
But I bowled a 140!
Look! A 140!
I got all 10 pins 4 frames in a row. Of course it just went downhill from there. About 4 frames into the second game Adam retreated to the bathroom for a while (this was near the start of the evil stomach thing we both picked up.) I waited for him to return, chatting with the family who arrived to play in the lane next to us. As the dad went to bowl his first frame, he shoes stuck and he did a face plant at the end of the lane. Many profanities, laughter, and the throwing of objects ensued. He was good natured about it, but determined he should bowl in his socks thereafter.
When Adam returned he decided not to bowl the rest of the game since his wrist was hurting him. I played the rest of my game (to a miserable 64 point end) and we called it a day.
But I bowled a 140!
Look! A 140!
Embiggining Myself
I ordered the CMA review books again. Since the test format completely changed since I last got them I figured it wouldn’t make sense to start studying from the books I have since they’re obsolete. I’m also considering getting the CD-rom set from Gleim since our IMA chapter gets a discount on them. The exam itself will cost me over $500 for all four parts. I’m not sure when I plan on registering or taking it, but I want to stay motivated to actually do it this time. Looking over the outline provided on the IMA website, I’m familiar with most of the subject matter. I just hope the details haven’t fallen out of my head over the past two years. I’m putting the MBA on the back burner for now and I’m going to focus on the certification instead. That way when I’m ready to go back for the MBA I won’t have to take the GRE/GMAT.
Spring has Sprung
I’d like to think that spring has arrived right on time in Wisconsin. On Wednesday (the first day of spring) we had three ginormous thunderstorms. We got caught in one on the way home from dinner, the second came while Adam was out in the garage fixing his radio and the third was in the middle of the night, prompting me to get my cell phone and set the alarm in case the power went out. I’ve been very impressed with this apartment and power. In my old apartment if the thunder was too loud the power would go out. As far as I know, the power hasn’t gone out (because of the weather) in this apartment at all. It’s wonderful knowing the alarm clock will wake you up when its supposed to. In any case, I’m sure I’m delusional and we’ll have at least one more big snow dump before we’re completely clear of winter. I’m just happy I can go outside in the morning and not have to scrape my car off. It’s nice.
TGIF
I’m hoping this weekend is boring and relaxing. I haven’t been sleeping too well all week and I’m just exhausted. Tonight all I plan to do is some grocery shopping on the way home from work and some stuff on the computer. After that’s done I just want to lay on the couch, catching up on my Rachael Rays and Conans. Although I still have The Departed sitting on the table to be watched. Tomorrow I’ll probably do some cleaning while Adam’s at work. The bathroom definitely needs it and the kitchen could probably use some attention as well. I’ve also started thinking that if we’re going to be moving sooner rather than later perhaps I should start going through all my stuff to see what I can toss (or donate) before we have to box it up. I’m going to try to be proactive but I’ll probably end up proactively procrastinating. Sunday I’ll check the paper in the morning to see if any of the places we’re interested in is having an open house so I can go check them out before the realtor gets us in. We have one in particular that we’re leaning toward and I want to see if our leaning is warranted. (I mean we already got a quote on homeowner’s insurance on it…) Other than that I don’t think we have any plans. We were going to try and see “Little Shop of Horrors” which one of the high schools is putting on but we couldn’t find tickets. We’ll probably end up watching a movie or two at home.
Whew!
We got our invitation to Lori’s wedding last night so we won’t have to show up uninvited. Yay!
The House Hunt - House #1
Realtor’s Listing
Vitals:
Asking price - $144,900
3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1,365 square feet, 1.5 story, 2.5 car garage (detached)
Pros:
Close to where we are now (therefore, close to the highway)
Very well maintained
Fenced-in yard
Large garage
Cons:
In the top end of our price range
Small
Seems over-priced
Ceilings in basement are too low for Adam
Awkward layout (the master bedroom is right off the kitchen)
Thoughts:
We pretty much eliminated this house from the running. It was too small, barely larger than our apartment is now. It’s on a pretty busy street, right across from the high school. The kitchen had strange cabinets with ugly hardware and the entire layout of the house was just weird. It had a nice living room with a fireplace tucked into the corner and the backyard and deck were nice. Overall, we think they were asking too much for what they have to offer. We gave the realtor our list of 5 others we want to look at so hopefully we’ll get in to look at those soon.
Vitals:
Asking price - $144,900
3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1,365 square feet, 1.5 story, 2.5 car garage (detached)
Pros:
Close to where we are now (therefore, close to the highway)
Very well maintained
Fenced-in yard
Large garage
Cons:
In the top end of our price range
Small
Seems over-priced
Ceilings in basement are too low for Adam
Awkward layout (the master bedroom is right off the kitchen)
Thoughts:
We pretty much eliminated this house from the running. It was too small, barely larger than our apartment is now. It’s on a pretty busy street, right across from the high school. The kitchen had strange cabinets with ugly hardware and the entire layout of the house was just weird. It had a nice living room with a fireplace tucked into the corner and the backyard and deck were nice. Overall, we think they were asking too much for what they have to offer. We gave the realtor our list of 5 others we want to look at so hopefully we’ll get in to look at those soon.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Mortgage or No Mortgage?
I think we can characterize our time with the mortgage specialist last night as successful. We discussed our options and ultimately we decided to go ahead and see whether I could be pre-approved for the high end of our price range ($150,000) on my own. Thanks to my excellent credit score, I was pre-approved for a loan for more than even the most expensive house on our current list. Even though the interest rate on the kind of mortgage we chose was a little higher than I’d like (6.375%), it’s reasonable considering it requires no down payment and the PMI is relatively low. My estimates (I had put together a pro forma budget to see if we could even afford to be buying a house right now) were pretty close to the actual numbers the bank quoted us so we should be good. Tonight we look at house #1, which is on the high end of our price range ($144,900.) There are a few others from the list the realtor gave us that we’re interested in as well so we’ll see how this process works out. We’re looking at perhaps a May or June closing date. We want to get it done before the wedding, but we also have to give 60 days notice at our apartment. It’s kind of strange, doing this house thing. I think maybe it will be a positive thing to get it done earlier than I’d planned since I was beginning to think my whole “life plan” was spiraling out of control. This might allow it to get back on track.
Last night we also got the chance to finally go out to celebrate Adam’s birthday. Only 10 days late… Sometimes that’s how life works. We went to Tumbleweed. I had never been there before but it was AYCE ribs Wednesday and that was what Adam was craving. I (unsurprisingly) stuck with the tame grilled chicken sandwich and was pleased to find it was not covered with anything spicy. We happened to get there at the tail end of happy hour so the bill didn’t kill me either. After that we went home (in a torrential downpour thunderstorm) and Adam tinkered with his car’s stereo system for a while. He recently installed a new stereo that has XM, AM, FM, and an iPod hookup all in one and he was getting annoyed by the oversensitive new XM radio antenna. When he was done with all that we caught up on our “Apprentice” and “What About Brian” shows before heading to bed. Tonight I had planned to try out a new recipe that Adam flagged in the Rachael Ray book but that will depend on how long the house thing takes tonight since our appointment isn’t until 5:30.
Last night we also got the chance to finally go out to celebrate Adam’s birthday. Only 10 days late… Sometimes that’s how life works. We went to Tumbleweed. I had never been there before but it was AYCE ribs Wednesday and that was what Adam was craving. I (unsurprisingly) stuck with the tame grilled chicken sandwich and was pleased to find it was not covered with anything spicy. We happened to get there at the tail end of happy hour so the bill didn’t kill me either. After that we went home (in a torrential downpour thunderstorm) and Adam tinkered with his car’s stereo system for a while. He recently installed a new stereo that has XM, AM, FM, and an iPod hookup all in one and he was getting annoyed by the oversensitive new XM radio antenna. When he was done with all that we caught up on our “Apprentice” and “What About Brian” shows before heading to bed. Tonight I had planned to try out a new recipe that Adam flagged in the Rachael Ray book but that will depend on how long the house thing takes tonight since our appointment isn’t until 5:30.
Book Review
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
This is the first book in my attempt to read a biography of each President. The book takes the reader through what little is known of Washington’s childhood and young adulthood, through his war involvement and reluctant presidency, up to his death. About half of the book is focused on his involvement in the wars against the French and Indians and the Revolutionary War against England. The rest of the book focuses on his presidency and his legacy. It is written in such a way that it was very easy to read. I didn’t get bogged down by lots of dates and statistics.
I found it interesting that Washington seemed to select which items remain to reveal his character and which items disappeared. For example, all the letters he wrote to his wife, Martha, were burned when he died, yet all the communication between him and his generals, advisors, etc. remain. Washington was an interesting person yet not the kind of person you’d expect to have been the first president of the country. The presidency has certainly changed from when Washington held the post to the modern day Bush presidency. I also found it interesting that there were constant struggles and backstabbing amongst his most trusted friends and members of his cabinet. Jefferson and Madison were at the same time his wisest advisors and his greatest threats.
The adventure that was the birth of this nation was a strange one. Washington resisted a leadership role after the war with England because he wanted to retire and enjoy his house at Mount Vernon. Fortunately he recognized the need for his role in another, much more important leadership role. He was a very private man and seems to have been very successful in separating the public George from the private George. The private George continues to be mostly a mystery while the public George will live on in history.
Next up: The Good Mother by Sue Miller. (Not a biography, but it’s what I’m reading now.)
This is the first book in my attempt to read a biography of each President. The book takes the reader through what little is known of Washington’s childhood and young adulthood, through his war involvement and reluctant presidency, up to his death. About half of the book is focused on his involvement in the wars against the French and Indians and the Revolutionary War against England. The rest of the book focuses on his presidency and his legacy. It is written in such a way that it was very easy to read. I didn’t get bogged down by lots of dates and statistics.
I found it interesting that Washington seemed to select which items remain to reveal his character and which items disappeared. For example, all the letters he wrote to his wife, Martha, were burned when he died, yet all the communication between him and his generals, advisors, etc. remain. Washington was an interesting person yet not the kind of person you’d expect to have been the first president of the country. The presidency has certainly changed from when Washington held the post to the modern day Bush presidency. I also found it interesting that there were constant struggles and backstabbing amongst his most trusted friends and members of his cabinet. Jefferson and Madison were at the same time his wisest advisors and his greatest threats.
The adventure that was the birth of this nation was a strange one. Washington resisted a leadership role after the war with England because he wanted to retire and enjoy his house at Mount Vernon. Fortunately he recognized the need for his role in another, much more important leadership role. He was a very private man and seems to have been very successful in separating the public George from the private George. The private George continues to be mostly a mystery while the public George will live on in history.
Next up: The Good Mother by Sue Miller. (Not a biography, but it’s what I’m reading now.)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Blog-World Catch-up
The network here at work appears to have crashed so since I can’t do much else right now (oh, how dependent we are on computers!) I figured I’d do some catch-up blogging.
In the world of weddings, we’re at the 150 day mark - not that I’m counting. This past weekend I fashioned a bouquet of fake hydrangeas for the bouquet toss at the reception. I think it looks kind of weird, but Adam says he’s going to get one or two more flowers to fill out one side and then hot glue them all onto the styrofoam holder thing tonight and it should be fine. One more thing done. Yay! I still haven’t gotten myself out to the hair salon to check on pricing and scheduling. I considered doing it on Saturday when I was up in Appleton anyway but I decided against that. I think it will be less busy sometime during the week. Unfortunately this week filled up pretty quickly so I’m not sure I’ll get around to it. I’m waiting for the bridesmaids dresses and my veil to come in so I can head back up to Kaukauna (hopefully with Catherine, the roommate) and see the whole package put together. This will also allow me to check whether my chosen undergarments, shoes, and jewelry work with the other elements of the ensemble. Fun, fun. The guest list continues to change so hopefully it will be finalized in the next month or so. I have to revise the invitations again because we changed our RSVP date (apparently there was some miscommunication between Adam’s mom and me) but after that’s done they should be good to go. I need to do some research on the addressing format though. The invitations we have don’t have an inner (unsealed) envelope so I don’t know if I should be putting “and guest” on the outside envelope or include some little slip of paper or something on the response card to indicate if they get to bring a guest. I don’t know what the standard practice is so I need to research that before I go ahead and print labels. I’ve got time to mess with that a little still.
In other news, Adam saw that a house about two blocks down the road plunked a “For Sale” sign on their lawn last week. He thought it looked like a nice house, we looked it up online and indeed it looks nice and is not a bad price. The open house this past weekend was from 11-12 and since I was up at church for the 11am mass for bells I couldn’t go and Adam was at work. So we got in touch with the realtor his parents used when they bought their house and asked if he could get us in to look at it. We’ve got an appointment to do just that on Thursday. We didn’t intend to start looking for or buy a house until after the wedding but Adam is getting antsy about interest rates and housing costs. And with our rent increasing in May, perhaps it’s a good time to start thinking about it. We have an appointment with a mortgage specialist on Wednesday so we’ll see what they determine about our credit-worthiness. Our major problem is going to be the down payment issue. This would have been a problem regardless of when we planned to buy a house. I was hoping to be able to scrape together perhaps 10% but at this point that’s unrealistic. We’ll see what our options are on Wednesday and go from there. I read an article yesterday that said 43% of first-time home buyers don’t put anything down. I also read about 80/20 piggyback loans. But I guess we’ll see what the experts tell us we can do. In addition to the house we saw right down the block, the realtor sent us 62 other houses in the area. Of that list we narrowed it down to 15 houses we might want to take a look at. Our criteria are pretty basic: at least 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2 car garage, central air. Other than that it’s more a case to case determination. Of course, the clincher for me would be a great kitchen whereas Adam is more interested in the garage/basement/workshop space opportunities. I guess we’ll see where this takes us.
On a completely different topic, I attempted to make my yearly doctor appointment a few weeks back and learned that my usual doctor is on leave for an indeterminate length of time. Hmmm. So now I have to go to the other doctor, an OB/GYN, and they were already booking for the end of June, more than a month after my desired appointment. And she doesn’t book appointments earlier than 8am. *sigh* So now I’m stuck with a 9am appointment the last week of June with a complete stranger. Boo.
We made our hotel reservations for Lori’s wedding in May this past weekend. So we’d better be invited because we’re coming! Dad and Cheryl haven’t gotten an invitation yet either so I’m not going to worry about it quite yet.
I’ve got my monthly IMA meeting this evening. It’s our first annual Ethics Workshop. The IMA recently changed their CPE requirements for CMAs and they now need 2 hours of ethics training each year so our president figured we could help our chapter members out by providing this for them as part of our normal chapter year. Smart thinking. It looks as though we’ll have a larger crowd than usual. Some members of the Packerland (Green Bay area) chapter are coming as well as some ladies from the CBMN. It should be a good time but I think I’ll be kept busy for a while seeing as how the treasurer won’t be there tonight. At least it’s in a familiar venue so I won’t have to figure out where I am.
That about sums up what’s on my mind right now. I’ve got some Rotten Tomatoes reviews to catch up on as well as some recipes to post and a book review to write. The network is still down so perhaps I can get some of those done now as well. :)
In the world of weddings, we’re at the 150 day mark - not that I’m counting. This past weekend I fashioned a bouquet of fake hydrangeas for the bouquet toss at the reception. I think it looks kind of weird, but Adam says he’s going to get one or two more flowers to fill out one side and then hot glue them all onto the styrofoam holder thing tonight and it should be fine. One more thing done. Yay! I still haven’t gotten myself out to the hair salon to check on pricing and scheduling. I considered doing it on Saturday when I was up in Appleton anyway but I decided against that. I think it will be less busy sometime during the week. Unfortunately this week filled up pretty quickly so I’m not sure I’ll get around to it. I’m waiting for the bridesmaids dresses and my veil to come in so I can head back up to Kaukauna (hopefully with Catherine, the roommate) and see the whole package put together. This will also allow me to check whether my chosen undergarments, shoes, and jewelry work with the other elements of the ensemble. Fun, fun. The guest list continues to change so hopefully it will be finalized in the next month or so. I have to revise the invitations again because we changed our RSVP date (apparently there was some miscommunication between Adam’s mom and me) but after that’s done they should be good to go. I need to do some research on the addressing format though. The invitations we have don’t have an inner (unsealed) envelope so I don’t know if I should be putting “and guest” on the outside envelope or include some little slip of paper or something on the response card to indicate if they get to bring a guest. I don’t know what the standard practice is so I need to research that before I go ahead and print labels. I’ve got time to mess with that a little still.
In other news, Adam saw that a house about two blocks down the road plunked a “For Sale” sign on their lawn last week. He thought it looked like a nice house, we looked it up online and indeed it looks nice and is not a bad price. The open house this past weekend was from 11-12 and since I was up at church for the 11am mass for bells I couldn’t go and Adam was at work. So we got in touch with the realtor his parents used when they bought their house and asked if he could get us in to look at it. We’ve got an appointment to do just that on Thursday. We didn’t intend to start looking for or buy a house until after the wedding but Adam is getting antsy about interest rates and housing costs. And with our rent increasing in May, perhaps it’s a good time to start thinking about it. We have an appointment with a mortgage specialist on Wednesday so we’ll see what they determine about our credit-worthiness. Our major problem is going to be the down payment issue. This would have been a problem regardless of when we planned to buy a house. I was hoping to be able to scrape together perhaps 10% but at this point that’s unrealistic. We’ll see what our options are on Wednesday and go from there. I read an article yesterday that said 43% of first-time home buyers don’t put anything down. I also read about 80/20 piggyback loans. But I guess we’ll see what the experts tell us we can do. In addition to the house we saw right down the block, the realtor sent us 62 other houses in the area. Of that list we narrowed it down to 15 houses we might want to take a look at. Our criteria are pretty basic: at least 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2 car garage, central air. Other than that it’s more a case to case determination. Of course, the clincher for me would be a great kitchen whereas Adam is more interested in the garage/basement/workshop space opportunities. I guess we’ll see where this takes us.
On a completely different topic, I attempted to make my yearly doctor appointment a few weeks back and learned that my usual doctor is on leave for an indeterminate length of time. Hmmm. So now I have to go to the other doctor, an OB/GYN, and they were already booking for the end of June, more than a month after my desired appointment. And she doesn’t book appointments earlier than 8am. *sigh* So now I’m stuck with a 9am appointment the last week of June with a complete stranger. Boo.
We made our hotel reservations for Lori’s wedding in May this past weekend. So we’d better be invited because we’re coming! Dad and Cheryl haven’t gotten an invitation yet either so I’m not going to worry about it quite yet.
I’ve got my monthly IMA meeting this evening. It’s our first annual Ethics Workshop. The IMA recently changed their CPE requirements for CMAs and they now need 2 hours of ethics training each year so our president figured we could help our chapter members out by providing this for them as part of our normal chapter year. Smart thinking. It looks as though we’ll have a larger crowd than usual. Some members of the Packerland (Green Bay area) chapter are coming as well as some ladies from the CBMN. It should be a good time but I think I’ll be kept busy for a while seeing as how the treasurer won’t be there tonight. At least it’s in a familiar venue so I won’t have to figure out where I am.
That about sums up what’s on my mind right now. I’ve got some Rotten Tomatoes reviews to catch up on as well as some recipes to post and a book review to write. The network is still down so perhaps I can get some of those done now as well. :)
Saturday, March 17, 2007
A Petty Post
This is going to be a very petty and unnecessary blog posting but I’m still going to post it. It makes me feel good about myself. So there.
On Thursday morning at work I saw something in the bathroom. The person next to me was wearing sandals. She was also wearing those pantyhose with the reinforced toe. You know, the kind with the dark strip at the very end of your feet. Even I know you don’t wear reinforced toe pantyhose with open-toed shoes! And I’m remarkably fashion-unconscious.
Anywho, just had to say it made me feel good that I would never make that fashion faux pas. Could it be that there are those out there even more clueless than I am? Fear for the fashionable future if this is the case.
On Thursday morning at work I saw something in the bathroom. The person next to me was wearing sandals. She was also wearing those pantyhose with the reinforced toe. You know, the kind with the dark strip at the very end of your feet. Even I know you don’t wear reinforced toe pantyhose with open-toed shoes! And I’m remarkably fashion-unconscious.
Anywho, just had to say it made me feel good that I would never make that fashion faux pas. Could it be that there are those out there even more clueless than I am? Fear for the fashionable future if this is the case.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Flirty Frogs
We got a new shower curtain this past weekend. It's frog themed:
It looks innocent enough, right? I think it even came as a kid's shower curtain. But if you look at it closer...
There's a pimp frog:
There's an Elton John frog:
I know that must be a gay frog because the girls have eyelashes...
Obviously I've spent way too much time in the bathroom lately since I'm contemplating the illicit images in a children's shower curtain called "Flirty Frogs."
Stupid stomach. Quit rejecting everything I put into you. *sigh*
It looks innocent enough, right? I think it even came as a kid's shower curtain. But if you look at it closer...
There's a pimp frog:
There's an Elton John frog:
I know that must be a gay frog because the girls have eyelashes...
Obviously I've spent way too much time in the bathroom lately since I'm contemplating the illicit images in a children's shower curtain called "Flirty Frogs."
Stupid stomach. Quit rejecting everything I put into you. *sigh*
Saturday, March 10, 2007
The Tricky World of Credit
Our joint credit card billing cycle ended on Wednesday and I took a look at the online statement on Thursday. I discovered that the credit limit has been increased to $6,500. That’s a jump of $2,000! I can’t even imagine spending that much money using a credit card. Maybe it’s because it’s so engrained in me to pay off the full balance each month and paying $6,500 at one time just seems ridiculous.
I’m definitely not going to complain about this increase. We generally try to keep the monthly bills to around $500 (although we haven’t been doing so well lately with various wedding things, vet bills, etc.) Even so, our debt to credit ratio will rock even more now.
We put pretty much everything on the one card except for normal bills (rent, electric, cable, etc.) and we’ve earned over 13,000 WorldPoints since we opened the account. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them yet but we originally opened the account to rack up points for something honeymoon related. We’ll see what’s out there in the next few months I suppose. We know we’ll be earning a decent amount of additional points when we start making finals payments for the honeymoon and reception. Yay for spending lots of money! :)
My personal credit card also earns me points and I redeem them for $50 checks every 5,000 points. It’s a easy way to make some free money since I pay off the balance every month and never pay interest or fees. You just have to know how to work the system.
I checked my credit score again last night to see how things are going and it's in the high 700s still. My goal is to get it over the 800 mark but I don't know what I can do to bump it up. I only have 3 credit cards and one loan (my car). I have never been late or defaulted on anything. Right now I'm at 24% credit line usage. I have a spotless credit history of almost 10 years. The most recent line of credit is the MBNA (well, BofA now) card we opened almost a year ago now. I don't know what I can do to increase my score since pretty much all the things people tell you to do I'm already doing. *Sigh*
I’m definitely not going to complain about this increase. We generally try to keep the monthly bills to around $500 (although we haven’t been doing so well lately with various wedding things, vet bills, etc.) Even so, our debt to credit ratio will rock even more now.
We put pretty much everything on the one card except for normal bills (rent, electric, cable, etc.) and we’ve earned over 13,000 WorldPoints since we opened the account. I don’t know what we’re going to do with them yet but we originally opened the account to rack up points for something honeymoon related. We’ll see what’s out there in the next few months I suppose. We know we’ll be earning a decent amount of additional points when we start making finals payments for the honeymoon and reception. Yay for spending lots of money! :)
My personal credit card also earns me points and I redeem them for $50 checks every 5,000 points. It’s a easy way to make some free money since I pay off the balance every month and never pay interest or fees. You just have to know how to work the system.
I checked my credit score again last night to see how things are going and it's in the high 700s still. My goal is to get it over the 800 mark but I don't know what I can do to bump it up. I only have 3 credit cards and one loan (my car). I have never been late or defaulted on anything. Right now I'm at 24% credit line usage. I have a spotless credit history of almost 10 years. The most recent line of credit is the MBNA (well, BofA now) card we opened almost a year ago now. I don't know what I can do to increase my score since pretty much all the things people tell you to do I'm already doing. *Sigh*
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Wedding Stuff
Tonight we are meeting with the people over at the reception hall to do some menu tasting. We’ve pretty much figured out what we want, but there are a couple dishes we’re unsure about and since we get to eat free food, why not? Apparently there has been some turmoil over there recently in the form of management and ownership changes so we also want to make sure nothing in our contract and agreement has changed. I’m not really too worried about it, but I’d rather know now than when I pay the bill.
In other wedding news, I finally went and looked for comfortable underwear. But I’m not sure I’ve found it yet. I did buy some things and actually spent some time walking around the house in them on Sunday but I’m not sure they are things I can wear for 9+ hours. I also pranced in my shoes for a bit. Adam tried to help stretch the toes out by using a blow dryer but other than making my toes toasty warm for a little while, I don’t think it really did much. I like the shoes and they are surprisingly comfortable. It’s just the toe area that is causing me problems. Apparently I have fat toes. In any case, Adam has suggested getting one of those shoe-shaping wedge things and putting it in upside-down. It’s worth a shot.
I also got my final apparel item – the tiara. I was having a hard time finding anything purple at the stores in the area so I finally broke down and looked on eBay. I found one I thought would work and had Adam buy it for me (I don’t have an eBay account and have no desire to get one.) It arrived on Tuesday and with a little tinkering and the right hair-do I think it will be fine. Whew. It’s good to know I won’t be a complete mess walking down the aisle. Ha.
So, with my look taken care of there’s not a whole lot to do for now. We met with Adam’s parents last weekend about the rehearsal dinner and RSVP plans. I should be putting finishing touches on all the various invitation parts in the next few weeks and then getting them to his mom to print. It’s going to be so much fun doing all that envelope licking and stamp pressing. The invitations are pretty basic, but there are a lot of parts. The wedding invitation, the reception card, the response card, the rehearsal invitation, and the breakfast invitation will all be sent out in the same envelope. Hopefully this won’t confuse people and we’re making the RSVP date the same for all three things so that should help.
I’m crossing my fingers that our relatives and friends are nice enough to respond promptly because I can’t do the fun stuff until I get a headcount. Fun stuff like wedding favors, gift bags, and seating charts. I’m not sure if we’ve decided if we’re doing assigned seating but I know it was discussed. One of the main reasons we decided to have a buffet-style dinner was to get people up and mingling. Therefore I’m not sure it’s really necessary to force the two sides to mix via a seating chart. One of the many things to think about still.
Another thing I’m having a problem with is the whole “something old, new, borrowed, blue” dealy. Of course I’ve got the new thing taken care of. Pretty much everything on my body will be new. It’s everything else I’m at a loss for. Anyone have any ideas? Also, how is that whole “penny in the shoe” thing supposed to work when I’m wearing strappy sandals?
We’ve got lots of meetings in our future still: photographer, DJ, Father Mike, organist and vocalist. But nothing we can really do right now. We’re a little more than five months out and I’m getting antsy. The only thing on my list I need to get taken care of is picking a hair salon. And check on the La Quinta rooms. Apparently there are some communication problems somewhere. Shocking…
Anyway, just a (not so) little update about what’s going on in wedding-planning-ville.
In other wedding news, I finally went and looked for comfortable underwear. But I’m not sure I’ve found it yet. I did buy some things and actually spent some time walking around the house in them on Sunday but I’m not sure they are things I can wear for 9+ hours. I also pranced in my shoes for a bit. Adam tried to help stretch the toes out by using a blow dryer but other than making my toes toasty warm for a little while, I don’t think it really did much. I like the shoes and they are surprisingly comfortable. It’s just the toe area that is causing me problems. Apparently I have fat toes. In any case, Adam has suggested getting one of those shoe-shaping wedge things and putting it in upside-down. It’s worth a shot.
I also got my final apparel item – the tiara. I was having a hard time finding anything purple at the stores in the area so I finally broke down and looked on eBay. I found one I thought would work and had Adam buy it for me (I don’t have an eBay account and have no desire to get one.) It arrived on Tuesday and with a little tinkering and the right hair-do I think it will be fine. Whew. It’s good to know I won’t be a complete mess walking down the aisle. Ha.
So, with my look taken care of there’s not a whole lot to do for now. We met with Adam’s parents last weekend about the rehearsal dinner and RSVP plans. I should be putting finishing touches on all the various invitation parts in the next few weeks and then getting them to his mom to print. It’s going to be so much fun doing all that envelope licking and stamp pressing. The invitations are pretty basic, but there are a lot of parts. The wedding invitation, the reception card, the response card, the rehearsal invitation, and the breakfast invitation will all be sent out in the same envelope. Hopefully this won’t confuse people and we’re making the RSVP date the same for all three things so that should help.
I’m crossing my fingers that our relatives and friends are nice enough to respond promptly because I can’t do the fun stuff until I get a headcount. Fun stuff like wedding favors, gift bags, and seating charts. I’m not sure if we’ve decided if we’re doing assigned seating but I know it was discussed. One of the main reasons we decided to have a buffet-style dinner was to get people up and mingling. Therefore I’m not sure it’s really necessary to force the two sides to mix via a seating chart. One of the many things to think about still.
Another thing I’m having a problem with is the whole “something old, new, borrowed, blue” dealy. Of course I’ve got the new thing taken care of. Pretty much everything on my body will be new. It’s everything else I’m at a loss for. Anyone have any ideas? Also, how is that whole “penny in the shoe” thing supposed to work when I’m wearing strappy sandals?
We’ve got lots of meetings in our future still: photographer, DJ, Father Mike, organist and vocalist. But nothing we can really do right now. We’re a little more than five months out and I’m getting antsy. The only thing on my list I need to get taken care of is picking a hair salon. And check on the La Quinta rooms. Apparently there are some communication problems somewhere. Shocking…
Anyway, just a (not so) little update about what’s going on in wedding-planning-ville.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Blondes in the Snow
It seems kind of boring to blog about the weather but what else is there really to talk about in March in Wisconsin. Everything is dependent on the weather. Last week the school districts in the area freaked out a little and cancelled classes on Thursday and Friday because there was supposedly a really bad storm coming. In my opinion, what we got was no reason to cancel school. I think they overreacted just a little.
In any case, this post is really about an episode of "The Girls Next Door." For those of you completely disconnected from the world of E!, this show is about Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends and the goings-on at the Playboy mansion (and I'm hopelessly addicted.) The third season premiered this past Sunday. I of course DVRd it and watched it yesterday. The show was Christmas themed. They decided to hire someone to pump snow into the backyard so they could go sledding. Because that's so cool. Perhaps I was less exciting about this because I get to wake up to this every day:
This is what I get for living where I do. One of the girls remarked how it was so awesome to have a yard full of snow when it was like 70 degrees out. *sigh* It's 12. With a windchill of 3.
In any case, this post is really about an episode of "The Girls Next Door." For those of you completely disconnected from the world of E!, this show is about Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends and the goings-on at the Playboy mansion (and I'm hopelessly addicted.) The third season premiered this past Sunday. I of course DVRd it and watched it yesterday. The show was Christmas themed. They decided to hire someone to pump snow into the backyard so they could go sledding. Because that's so cool. Perhaps I was less exciting about this because I get to wake up to this every day:
This is what I get for living where I do. One of the girls remarked how it was so awesome to have a yard full of snow when it was like 70 degrees out. *sigh* It's 12. With a windchill of 3.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Big Cheeks
This is Gus about 2 seconds after I put him into his newly cleaned cage. I know hamsters have the cheek pouches that they store stuff in, but you'd think we starve the poor guy! He's storing up for a famine or something! You'll notice the new pretzel shaped chew sticks we got. (That's what the orange thing on his wheel is.) It's even funnier watching Gus and Barry shove those into their mouths than the straight sticks. I should really record that sometime. It's creepy.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Oscar Update
Let's see how I'm doing (the ones I've seen are linked to my RT review of them)
Apocolypto
Babel
Black Dahlia, The
Blood Diamond
Borat
Cars
Children of Men
Click
Curse of the Golden Flower
Departed, The
Devil Wears Prada, The
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Good German, The
Good Shepard, The
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Illusionist, The
Last King of Scotland, The
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Children
Little Miss Sunshine
Marie Antoinette
Monster House
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Prestige, The
Pursuit of Happyness, The
Queen, The
Superman Returns
United 93
Venus
Volver
Apocolypto
Babel
Black Dahlia, The
Blood Diamond
Borat
Cars
Children of Men
Click
Curse of the Golden Flower
Departed, The
Devil Wears Prada, The
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Good German, The
Good Shepard, The
Half Nelson
Happy Feet
Illusionist, The
Last King of Scotland, The
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Children
Little Miss Sunshine
Marie Antoinette
Monster House
Notes on a Scandal
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Poseidon
Prestige, The
Pursuit of Happyness, The
Queen, The
Superman Returns
United 93
Venus
Volver
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