| Getting Caught Up: First Thing's First |
[Oct. 4th, 2009|11:57 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  peaceful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | When I Come Around - Green Day | ] |
I haven't been blogging at all for the last year. My biggest complaint is that I never have enough time to write down all the stuff I want to talk about when it happens since I'm too involved in dealing with it in the first place. I keep thinking that without dedicating some fixed amount of time to it I won't do it any justice. I know that doing small posts would just make things easier and I'd get something down and people might actually read it. Regardless, here we are 51 weeks later (thanks for reminding me everytime I log in, LJ) and some fairly significant things have happened. Good things, wonderful things, crappy things, but none of it written down or recorded. I used to take tons of photos too, but I don't take the time to do things like that and I really ought to make more time for it. This is my attempt to get it all out – to try and make some coherent narrative for the last year.
First off, we've joined the growing crowd of first-time homebuyers this summer and we bought a house in St. Paul. We spent about 4-5 weeks with our Realtor, Colleen looking at different houses around the area and figuring out what we like and what we don't. I didn't keep track that well, but I think we saw about 2 dozen houses total. In the end, it turned out that one of the houses we almost looked at on our first night out (didn't hear back about a showing, but we drove by it) was the best fit for us. Colleen did an awesome job and made sure we got everything done right all the way through closing. If anyone's looking to buy in St. Paul, we definitely recommend her.
Our house is 100 years old, but I don't think you can spot any part aside from the foundation that would make you think it's this old, and that might even be a stretch. The place has been totally remodeled in the last 2 years. There's a few things we'll need to fix up (what home doesn't) but all in all we found a great place for our first house. We're in the Hamline Midway area where my mother grew up, so she's been having some good nostalgia coming down to see us and driving around in the area. My grandfather used to preach at a church here and I really need to make it a point to go there sometime. I went with him when I was little when he went back for an anniversary of the church and have some memory of watching him preach there.
The former owner of the house was an interesting character to be sure. We did get a chance to meet him at closing and we hear stories all the time from our neighbor, Frank. He was a bartender for about 40 years and was an avid hunter who, for a time, was doing his own taxidermy in our garage. Take a minute to reread that if it's not making significant impact already. We've heard stories that he'd have animal hides all over the yard, garage, and even in the basement at times. The garage needs some serious attention, but it sounds like all the horror stories the neighbor shared have been dealt with. Things like the large number of mice the hides attracted (hasn't been one seen for two years and the neighbor's cat used to bring them home all the time), the poor condition of the roof before it was replaced 2 years ago (garage always had water in it, probably didn't redo the walls after which is why it needs a lot of work), and at one time the patio door and the frame it was in completely fell out of the house (all the windows/doors and framing is all redone and stable). Apparently he was also either a hoarder or just an untidy bachelor since cops that came to check after the door fell out to make sure it wasn't a robbery wouldn't enter the building due to the mess.
I say all the previous not to make it sound like our home is a nightmare or anything, this place is (for lack of a better word) awesome. It's clean and everything works great, you can't tell that anything we were told about this place actually happened (except maybe the garage stories). I'm so glad we found a house that doesn't need a lot of extra work just to be livable.
Frank is an awesome neighbor and I can tell we lucked out. He's lived here almost as long as the previous owner of our house and he's definitely the kind of guy you want nearby. We're both chatty guys, so we'll get going by the fence and keep it up for good lengths of time. He built the deck on the back of our house and helped with some of the repairs, so he's familiar with the history of our place. We already got a bowl of peppers from their garden as a gift, and I don't mean bell peppers, we're talking hot thai peppers and jalapeños. They also have Concord grapes growing on the other side of their garage (like about 100 pounds of them) and make jelly every year. I gotta make sure we have them over or do something nice to return the kindness we've received so far.
There's going to be more to cover in future posts, but this was a good starting point. It's been one hell of a year so far all around. Take that anyway you want, it's probably exactly what I mean one way or another. |
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| Jeremy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day |
[Oct. 8th, 2008|10:22 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  disappointed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Gotta Be Somebody (new single)- Nickelback | ] |
Yesterday was my 28th birthday.
Let me first preface this by covering the most important part first: I have the greatest group of friends and family (and soon-to-be family) that anyone could ask for. I had messages all day yesterday from people wishing me well. My parents both called to see how I was doing and talk for a while. Even though Naomi had to take care of some important business at Lac du Flambeau, we spent Monday night together and had a really good talk and bonding time, and she's taking me out for dinner at my favorite restaurant tonight after work. The people in my life are true blessings and are the reason I can have days like yesterday and feel like everything is good. You are the greatest gift I could ever ask for.
Yesterday also reminded me of why I used to hate my birthday.
I had a pretty bad streak for a number of years of having birthday-related issues. Short recap: I've gotten food poisoning at a popular kids restaurant, had fights between friends, had friends with emotional crises, had people steal from me - and all centered around either my birthday, or if I dared to hold a party in my own honor. The latter is why I like to spend October 7th in recent years with the people I care most about and not try to call attention to it. (There's also that the invasion of Afganistan (2001) and last year's shootings in Crandon, WI happened on the same date.) Yesterday was another example of one to forget.
It was raining all day for starters. Not just mist or a little rain, but it seemed like whenever I stepped outside it was pouring. I got a very large amount of incoming work and most of it required a lot of correction or wouldn't work without significant time investment. It feels like I barely got anything done at all and most of it is due early next week. With the workload I had, I didn't get lunch until 2:30. I was going to cash in a free lunch from a place near work, but lunch ends at 2:00 so I went and got a sandwich and a fountain pop from the gas station instead so I could get back to work. I have to mention fountain pop, because as I rounded the corner coming back to the office, the cup fell right out of the cup holder and the entire contents ended up on the floor of the passenger side of the car. So I got to spend the rest of my lunch using napkins to try and soak up all the pop from the carpet, while standing in pouring rain. I didn't have anything else to drink since the water at work tastes like a liquid metal refinery, so I got to eat my sandwich while trying to dry off at my desk. After work I got some groceries and stuff to put together a nice supper to lift my spirits, along with a snack and a small piece of cake to "celebrate". Dinner + snack ended up making me feel sick so I didn't get to the cake at all. I turned on my computer to check mail and play some tunes, and found out my external backup hard drive is dying/has failed and won't make any more than a pathetic whir or two when trying to start up. It's less than a year old, but I don't believe that it's under warranty anymore. Replacement could run a couple hundred dollars. It's only for automated backup, so there's nothing lost by replacing it at least, only lose the incremental backups from the last year if I needed to recover any long-gone files I suddenly realized I deleted by mistake. I was going to have a beer later too but my stomach wasn't going to let me go there. I had a hard time falling asleep with my stomach hurting and only slept about 6 hours total before my phone's alarm got me up for work.
To the day's credit, aside from the above messages and phone calls from friends and family, there was a really nice rainbow as I was heading home while the last of the rain was falling. Just a reminder that things will be Ok again, God's promise you know. All in all just a string of little disappointments and minor troubles all at once. Makes me even more glad to have such wonderful people around me. Maybe that was the point and I just needed a day to remind me about the people that care about me and how blessed I am.
"I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." -Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst |
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| Oh Come On... |
[Sep. 15th, 2008|12:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cranky | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | KS95 | ] |
I can't count the number of times I've said this at work this morning. The job I was supposed to work on all morning to ship tomorrow had the wrong stock put on the ticket and it won't come until tomorrow now, so I'll have to rush to get it done tomorrow morning. The same job also had a 3-hole drilling instruction for bindery that came as a surprise to everyone I asked about it (including the client). I usually catch these things before they get past the Graphics office, but now I have to try and fill my day since I'll have extra work tomorrow morning. Grrr, seriously, sometimes...just grrr...
I finally got a chance to watch Sicko this weekend with Naomi. It's been on my list of things I need to see for a while. It really made me upset about the medical industry that we all have to work within. I know that's the point, but really it just reinforced a lot of things I didn't like about health care already. Before I had good health insurance from my job, if I ever needed to see a doctor for anything from a cold that wouldn't clear up to an annual exam, it it cost me at least $100 regardless of what came of it. When I hurt my back (muscles) at work in 2002, I saw a doctor, had an x-ray to look for any skeletal damage, then after everything came back negative I was sent home and told to just take over-the-counter Motrin and rest to let my back heal. This cost me over $200 out of pocket just to have a doctor make sure I wasn't seriously hurt and tell me to take something I already use for the rare headaches I get. I've had to pay over $100 just to be told that there's something going around and to rest and it'll go away. People wonder why I don't go to the doctor more often, even though I have better insurance now. The movie talks about how they go looking for anything that can get your coverage denied or cancelled based on things that weren't even remotely related to your problems. I know that if I ever do have back troubles that someone is going to go digging, see I had a muscle pull back in 2002 (that has never come back in the least since then) and missed work, and tell me that I have a pre-existing condition. If anything, this should be the biggest motivation for everyone to get healthy as possible and stay that way. If medical insurance companies aren't going to pay for things we need to get healthy, then who is? I don't claim to have the answer, but I'd rather not have someone who earns money based on how much coverage they deny to people in charge of making the call when it comes to my health.
The worst idea I've ever seen is when news websites – not editorial blogs or pundit sites, but sites for actual news outlets – enable the ability for people to leave comments on news stories. I have never seen a more bigoted, biased, vile collection of hate and misinformation in my life. I'm not talking just politics, but news about people getting killed (should expect that in X neighborhood, serves them right) or about outbreaks of illnesses (you can't make me vaccinate my kid, and only dirty people get that disease). Anything that might have any political slant (schools, economy, gas prices) is open season for the lowest of the low remarks. I've read more horrible, racist, ignorant, stupid remarks since they started letting anyone post comments related to everyday news. I get people have political biases and differences of opinion, but how many times do I have to hear that someone getting shot in Minneapolis was probably a drug user or in a gang or from a bad home because "everyone's like that in Minneapolis, and they all should just kill each other off." I've stopped reading the news online except from a handful of places that I know have no user comments sections. I'm disappointed because the places I used to read news on were good and didn't slant the news in any noticeable manner, but I can't read anymore filth like that. I wish I could turn a blind eye, but I'm tired of seeing it and hearing it.
And here's to November 4th coming closer every day. Once the political ads are off TV I might actually be able to watch something important again without pre-recording it and skipping all the commercials. I don't care who you support, it's all garbage now anyways. All character slander and misinformation and no concrete issues or solutions. The debates should be good and informative at least, but I doubt enough people will pay attention to have it make the real difference it deserves. My faith in the greater population truly is that bad lately. |
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| Land of Confusion |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|12:25 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Land of Confusion - Genesis | ] |
Naomi is not a fan of Phil Collins. Really she's not a huge fan of a number of musicians I like. It's part of our dynamic as a couple and the ways we compliment each other so well - we expose each other to new things and cumulatively enjoy a great number of things. We do also have many common interests, but this is not the point of this post. :)
Thanks to random radio stations, I rediscovered an old Genesis song called "Land of Confusion." I liked it and I remembered hearing it as a kid a lot, but now that I've had a chance to listen to it a lot more and hear all the lyrics it really speaks to me and the things I am feeling coming into a time of political change in this country (no matter what the outcome is). It was written regarding Cold War era politics, but it definitely still rings true to me and how I feel coming into the election season.
Here's a sample of the lyrics (copied from a lyrics service, emphasis mine):
I Won't Be Coming Home Tonight
My Generation Will Put It Right
We're Not Just Making Promises
That We Know We'll Never Keep
There's Too Many Men, Too Many People
Making Too Many Problems
And There's Not Much Love To Go Round
Can't You See This Is A Land Of Confusion?
Now, This Is The World We Live In
And These Are The Hands We're Given
Use Them And Let's Start Trying
To Make It A Place Worth Fighting For
This Is The World We Live In
And These Are The Names We're Given
Stand Up And Let's Start Showing
Just Where Our Lives Are Going To
I would recommend a listen for those who don't remember it. Here's the crazy 80's music video for the song. |
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| (Not so) Ironic |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|11:33 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  productive | ] |
The bees post was meant to be funny, since Tommy Boy was all I could think of when I read it. Those familiar with the movie should know exactly the part I mean.
What I did not intend, however, was a visit from the Irony Fairy™ later that same day. (Yes, I took a few more weeks off, and yes, I have a backlog of things I need to post about, and yes, I intend to do so this time.)
Naomi called me as I was wrapping up at work and offered up the following news: "We have bees." The only response I could conjure to reply with was: "We have bees?" It just sounded so random and crazy, the sort of thing I would say for no good reason sometime. But this was Naomi telling me this. Here's the short back story: We had been asked by the building management to clear off the decks of our units so that the outside of the building could be repainted. Even though it took them over a week to get to our unit, we did as asked.
Naomi came home to find about a dozen bees (yellow jackets, I believe)trying desperately to will themselves through the glass and back outside. After calling me somewhat frantic and unsure where bees would have come from inside our apartment, she proceeded to kill them all with her shoes. Apparently, the decorative lantern we had on our deck had a nest in it. An active nest with eggs, that is.
After this discovery, I unsuccessfully tried to use a low-grade pest spray to take care of the nest out behind the building. I did remove the growing hive from the lantern and return it to the house with no sign of infestation. The bees seemed to have different ideas though, and then began rebuilding the nest on the wall of our deck. Another trip to the store later, I returned with hard-core insecticide and nuked the nest and the remaining bees, and sufficiently coated one arm with the stuff in the process. Next time I'll remember to shoot further back to avoid the 45 minute shower that resulted.
The best part of all of this: the painters just sprayed over the nest and the dead bees still attached. I will try to amend this soon with a photo showing the monument they rapidly erected with the gray paint they used. It really does look like a statue - we both agreed it looked pretty cool.
No sign of further nests in the time since, and as far as we know they didn't try to start a nest in our couch or anything. But if you hear it humming next time you drop by, PLEASE let me know right away... |
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| Hiatus |
[May. 5th, 2008|10:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  embarrassed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Big Time - Peter Gabriel | ] |
Ok, so when I talked about trying to blog more often, I was not intentionally setting up for a 44 week break before coming back to writing at all. Sheesh you'd think I up and vanished or something. I wish I could say I was doing something really wild and spectacular all this time. Something like walking back and forth across the country, or developing the world's fastest data transfer cables, or something incredibly shocking like that.
Well, in reality I've been keeping occupied with work mostly. I've also been involved in planning a handful of events and working on side projects for friends at different times. Toss in a large dose of new kitten time and family gathering and that pretty much tells the tale. That doesn't mean I won't talk about a lot of things that happened, just trying to outline the past 10+ months.
Tula's now a year old and the most frequent comment aside from how pretty she is falls along the lines of, "Wow, she's grown so much!" Ragdolls do grow to be quite large, but I guess having seen her every day for a year negates the shock of a sudden growth spur between visits as our friends would see it. She's still sassy as ever, just now isn't blessed with kitten size to go with the energy so she'll wear out faster. (Thank goodness.)
So the plan for now is to get caught up, little by little, for those still reading and to try and record some of the goings on in my life again. Time to end this infernal hiatus once and for all!
"Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
"Germans?"
"Forget it, he's rolling." |
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| In three words... |
[Jun. 28th, 2007|09:50 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  mellow | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Feeling Way Too Damn Good - Nickelback | ] |
Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) tlhinganhom for posting this, it's so much up my alley and typical humor (though not necessarily funny or anything) that I felt compelled to try it too.
( Only 3 Words ) |
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| Can we keep it? |
[Jun. 18th, 2007|10:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | (random scampering) | ] |
It was only a matter of time, and those who know me know that I have a very large soft spot for cute, furry things. So without further delay, allow me to introduce the newest member of the family: Tula
We brought her home from the shelter/clinic today to introduce her to her new home. At the moment she is playing with one of her cat toys as she winds down the day. For those who don't know or haven't had, kittens are just like kids, full of energy and very curious, but unlike kids that also comes with the ability to run incredibly fast and jump several times their height. She's going to be trouble some day, little hell on wheels kind of cat...definitely daddy's girl. ;) We're not 100% on what breed of cat(s) she is, we just describe her as "fluffy" and "tiny" and leave it at that. She's definitely captured our hearts and I have no doubt you'll hear me both lamenting and boasting about her a lot.
It's also kind of strange for me, since it's been a few years since I had a cat around all the time, and much longer since I had a kitten to take care of. Kind of have that "new dad" feeling, like I have some idea of what to do, but then again I have absolutely no idea if I'm doing anything right. I am sure someday I'll be even worse with kids of my own. :)
( She's a doll, isn't she? )
We took the name Tula from the protagonist of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (yes, I know her name is actually Toula, so what). Not that she reminds me of Nia Vardalos all that much, but it sounded good when I thought it out loud. Tula is also, we discovered, the capital city of the Toltecs, as well as a city in Russia, and a vaguely dirty Chilean word (Found that out after the fact, aren't we just as bad as those parents who name their kids something that's gonna get them teased forever?)
We're all ready to settle in for bed, so I'll close with that. I'm sure there'll be more to talk about soon. Life in general is treating me well. |
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