Ploafmaster General

As planned, on Friday, Valerie and I modified the offer for the house.  The seller has until this Friday to respond...

Additionally, there are now less than two weeks left until our scheduled closing date.  I'm going to make sure I stay in town this up-comming weekend, and do nothing that isn't relaxing, since it's likely to be my last normal weekend for a long time.

Just had a roof estimate yesterday, and geez.  It's gonna be pricey.

Val and I will essentially have to replace the roof, removing the slate and putting up new asphalt shingles instead.

Today, though, we basically meet with our realtor to ammend the offer with our requests for "credits" and such based on everything that came out in the home inspection.

Time to see how low we can go...

I can't believe I forgot to post a link to my bro Mugs' new site:

BJW Designs

This is his new business site for web design.  He only just learned how to do this stuff a few months ago, and has been learning more technique at lightening speed.  Check it out, and if you know anybody that needs a website, consider Mugs.

Geez. I never thought it would be so tough to get a freakin' roof estimate. Yesterday I called one contracting company, and they said because I wasn't the home owner it would cost $150 for a "roof inspection." So I called another company yesterday, and they said I'd hear from an estimator this morning. No dice yet, and it's getting close to 11 am.

This morning, I decided to call a third, and I was again told that I'd hear from an estimator, but this time with no time frame. Why is this so difficult?!??!?

Oof...that was a long but excellent weekend.

I left work early on Thursday for a home inspection. That went mostly well - there were several things pointed out that we needed to deal with that were unexpected, but not world-ending. I just need to get some estimates and figure out if the house is still worth the work and time.

Friday I headed SW to Farm-Vegas and hung out with my Mom at Mugs' place for a while, also seeing my sis-in-law and nephew. That was excellent. Mugs and I then headed further SW to Greensboro, NC for Tom's bachelor weekend. Mass-chillage ensued. Drinks were poured. Drinks were emptied. Jokes were tossed. Insults hurled.

Sometime on Saturday night we decided, after 7 hours at Natty Green's, that we should go to Steak and Shake for some 2:15 AM munchies. That was the dumbest idea I've ever had. While nobody threw up that night (or the following morning), we all felt like we would. Several of us even had the craps all night. Huzzah.

Thankfully, Robert made is signature Biscuits and Gravy for, well, brunch on Sunday, and we all parted ways tired but satisfied.

Less than three weeks 'till my bro's wedding now, and I'm looking forward to it. There's little better than partyin' down with the people you love most.

Apple made an announcement of their own, today, too:

Apple Introduces Bootcamp

This should make the transition even easier for Windows people (particularly my AutoCAD using wife).

I just finished reading all the entries on a relatively new blog, My Journey to Macintonsh, which chronicles the sitch of a heavy Windows user to OSX.

Quite a good read, both entertaining and informative.  A blog I'll keep up with as I attempt to switch this summer.

I'm really psyched about this coming Friday.

Shortly after Valerie leaves for work, I'll head SW towards Farmville to start collecting my brothers.  I'll pick up Mugs at his joint before heading south to Keysville for Nick.  Then we'll head to Greensboro, NC, where Tom and an Air Force pal will meet up with us at our buddy Robert's place.

We'll spend the weekend eating pizza, drinkin' fine beer at Natty Green's pub, and participating in the general  nonsense so common to our personalities.  I can't think of a more fantastic way to say "Adios!" to Tom's bachelorhood than gettin' us fellas together for beer, food, and nonsense.

Rock on.

Is this the end of the Simpsons?  Rumorists have long speculated that a Simpsons movie would signal the impending end of the long-running cartoon sitcom.

We'll find out in summer of 2007!

My buddy Patrick's wife gave birth to their new daughter last night around 10 pm, I believe!  Congratulations, homie!

So April Fools' Day came and went without fanfare on Saturday.
I didn't get to play any cool tricks on anybody, and only Valerie tried to play some rather half-harted tricks on me.

Poop.

Yesterday I took a sample of the popcorn ceilings to deterrmine if there was any asbestos present in the home-to-be.

I just got the results five minutes ago, and they were negative! Huzzah!

Now I just have to call the home inspector...

So the seller countered this morning. Closer to my number than his. AND he's throwing in five window units...

I believe Valerie and I are going to accept that, and wait for the home inspection to see what happens!

Valerie and I put an offer on the house today...We low-balled the guy, and now it's time to see how serious he is about selling.

We should know by 5pm tomorrow...

George Mason University is in the effin' Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

Now, I didn't go to GMU, but they're in the same low-end, barely exciting Division I conference as my alma mater, VCU.  This conference, the CAA, rarely sees a team make it past the first round of the tournament, let alone defeating the likes of Michigan or UNC Chapel Hill.

I'm pullin' for them.  Now they face the Gators on April Fool's day.  I think I'll pull up in Penny Lane Pub that day and watch the game with my buddies.

I just saw the film, "V for Vandetta" last night, having read the complete collection of comics on my flight to Rome last year.  I certainly enjoyed the film - nearly as much as I enjoyed the print.

A phrase in the story came immediately to my mind as I read a story on CNN this afternoon.  The so-called "vox populi" of our nation cried out today in several intriguing protests around the country against certain hard-line immigration reform bills.

I find it a bit upsetting, however, that such a story is relegated to the side-bar lesser headlines on the CNN front page.  It's not even listed as a major news item on ABC's, MSNBC's, or Fox News' front page.

What do we get on CNN's front page instead?  Sensationalism; a minister shot by his wife.  Not to down play the seriousness of the murder, but people die every day.  People are murdered in this country alone every day.  How often do you have hundreds of students in LA walk out of their classes in protest?  How often do you have TENS OF THOUSANDS of employees in Georgia take the day off from work in protest?  How often do you have almost THIRTY THOUSAND citizens march through Phoenix and Milwaukee in protest?

Un-ignorable numbers unifying around the country in common protest, and the media mostly ignores it.  It's not like this is a minor issue, either - this is about immigration - one of the more hotly contested public debates in this country!

The people woke up today, cried out, and the Vox Populi went largely unheard.

Valerie and I looked at the righteous house on Seminary Avenue yesterday afternoon with our friend William. It was enlightening and encouraging at the same time - saw a few more things that need to be done, should we purchase it, and learned what we don't really need to worry about.

I think we're going to try to put in a low-ball offer on the house early next week and see what happens!

Here's something for the ol' reading:

New WPO Poll

And then there's this one:

US Troops in Iraq

I can't really add much to that other than to say it's time we were outta there.

A 12 hour drive from Tallahassee to Richmond. Ugh. It was nice to see Val's sister perform at FSU, but I never expected to be this wiped out upon my return. I'll try to get my pictures up on at least Flickr by this evening - there aren't many, but man does that new camera shine. Super sharp pictures.

In other news:

Tonight I formally apply for the mortgage - I still don't have a house picked out yet, but this will be one more step out of the way.

Tomorrow, my buddy William will come with me to look at the awesome Seminary Avenue house again. He has a Class A contractor's license, I believe, and should have a much more critical eye than I.

My brother Mugs has turned into nearly as much a computer nerd as I already am; he's preparing to install Linux on his laptop so he can continue swimming in the ocean of Open Source software available. Not what you typically expect of a fellow concentrating in creative writing.

Oh yeah, go check out Yahoo's new map system - it may actually give Google a run for its money (although Google still has simplicity going for it).

So I haven't posted any new pictures of the houses I looked at because I couldn't take any pictures.

See, my digicam busted in the most annoying way possible...The shutter button doesn't work anymore. I can do everything with my camera except take a picture.

I can't be too upset, however, because my mom won the camera in a contest and gave it to me free of charge.

So tonight, I just purchased a brand new camera - the Nikon P4. I'll be playing around with it this weekend on my trip down to Tallahassee, so I should have some new pictures at least for Flickr next week.

So I've been trying to figure out a way to pull all the photos from a set on my Flickr account.  I want to pull the images from there rather than put them on the server, but I can't seem to figure out a simple way to accomplish this...

AAAAHHH!

So Val and I saw three homes last night, and it was interesting, informative, and er, intertaining. Figure that one out.

I can't get the pictures up here at work, so I'll try to put up some PNGs this evening from home.

Anyway, here's a summary of the experience!

House 1: Intersection of Montrose and Laburnum...ugh, groty neighborhood and home exterior. Clearly the inside has been sufficiently renovated in an extreme attempt to distract from the dismal locale. Ultimately, no thanks.

House 2: Overbrook Rd, accross the street from where the Kirks used to live. Pleasant façade, but inside was ick-tacular. Needs enough work that it's not worth it, even at the discount. Besides, I'm not sure our bed room furniture could fit in any one of the bed rooms upstairs.

House 3: Church Hill, N. 31st St. Wow. Totally re-done inside and out. I was iffy about Church Hill at first, but after driving through to this house yesterday, I'd definitely be willing to live out there.

So that's round one, as it were (I don't really count the open houses last Sunday). Can't wait to see more!

Probably one of the more interesting pieces of writing on art I've yet read:

Art Statements, Pitchfork, and fancypants analysis

So Valerie and I will have some home viewings scheduled for the end of the week! We're hoping to see about 4-6 homes between Thursday and Friday, and I plan to bring my digital camera this time. And yes, I also plan to post all worthwhile pictures.

Here we go!