August 30, 2005

Pre-game Action


The wife got us great pre-season tickets to two Washington Redskins' games. The seats were stellar and it was exciting to watch the game in the stadium rather than on tv. Of the two games, the one against the Steelers was the more exciting as the play was the most consistent, keeping the score the close.
Last Friday's game was bittersweet, as it will be the last game I'll attend this season. That is, unless, the football gremlin puts some tickets under my pillow. C'mon football gremlin!
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August 25, 2005

High Speed

Things on really on fire. Deadlines at work are moving at an incredible pace. Things are coming and going so fast that the project I worked as a cameraman on Monday has shipped to the client. The results was a standing ovation from them, which the business office shared with the company this morning. When the announcement was over, I turned to a co-worked and asked what project that was only then to learn that I was a part of it. Crazy.

The pace at home isn't much of a relief. Sure, I can kick back, but I got used to the wife taking care of the house chores since she is on summer break. Now that she is visiting friends in Texas I'm finding my usual serene recreation schedule cluttered with chores and such. No fun.

Still, I'm rather proud of the creative work I've accomplished this week. Which probably makes me lame for saying it out loud.

August 23, 2005

And We Can't Stop

Being busy. It's a mad house in our house. As the summer fades away, it seems fitting that I spend some time reflecting on the rollercoaster-like pace of our season of sun. It started off with a bang - Vegas, mini-golf, business trip to Ft. Jackson. Then it slowed down for a bit until we left for Bosnia + Rome. After that it just got silly - out-of-town guests, weekends trip to see family, house hunting and the subsequent buying. It's nuts, I tell you.

Not to be outdone, work is keeping pace as well. I've had two video shoots as a cameraperson in the last two days - shoots 8 and 9 for the summer - and we are chasing various deadlines at work. With all this stuff going on, how is brother supposed to pack and read/sign paperwork? Good, god!

August 21, 2005

Take It Off (the market)

Because we bought it! Thursday evening, the wife and I bought ourselves a home. I can't say house since its really a duplex, but its our duplex! All the credit should go to our realtor who pulled off a real estate miracle. He convinced the seller's agent to accept our offer which was 10K less than the asking price and with no escalation. With current trends, I consider that a miracle.

We aren't moving far from our current location. In fact, we are moving one neighborhood over. More details as they come in. And of course, the announcement of the house party

August 16, 2005

Double Company

We had lots of company this weekend. My sister and her (soon to be) cousin-in-law stayed with us from Friday - Sunday. Then, two hours after they left, Brian - a family friend - arrived. With all the company there was lots of chatter, plus 4 movies watched (War of the Worlds, Wedding Crashers, Kung-Fu Hustle, and Friday Nights Lights), a bar visited, and a trip to Gamestop.

Good guest, great company, fun events - an A+ weekend. Now, we are headed for Hampton, VA for two days. Work is the reason - but this time I get to bring the wife along so she can spend a day at the beach. Until then!

August 11, 2005

e-bay DJ

I've joined the legion of people hocking wares online. I've signed up and started an e-bay sellers account. The goal: to get rid of unwanted 7" and 12" records, and turn a small profit. Well, not really profit since I am selling them for less than what I spent back in college. Rather 'profit' defined as more money than I would get for letting them collect dust in our house. I've posted 5 items for sale as a test. If one (or more) of them sell I plan to add more items to the mix. Wish me luck!

August 09, 2005

Raining In Darling

After a long drought, it's raining to beat the band here. Yesterday brought a quick and dirty storm that caused power outages and flooding. Today, the showers were much more controlled and therefore less damaging. I find it rather odd to see rain fall, which should give you an indication of how long it's been dry here; I just didn't notice before.

Sorry for talking about the weather. I find it thoroughly boring as well.

August 08, 2005

Micro

With our credit reports in hand and all of our money scrapped together we've thrown ourselves into the home-ownership circuit. For us, the process moves at a glacierial pace. Get some paperwork in order = one weekend; Figure out what we can honestly afford and what we can do without = one week. We've seen a variety of places - one with a condemned deck, one with standing water in the basement - and no large difference in prices. It's a slow process, but I really don't mind. If we were moving at a faster clip, I think I would be a lot more anxious about it. But we've been over the numbers again and again, late at night, in the dark, and I truly honestly think we are in a very good position to own a 'home'.

We haven't actually bid on a place. We have found two places that we were willing to put a contract on. One place was going off the market right as we saw it; at the other the realtor raised the price by $10K after the 1st day of showing it. Still, with nothing to show, I feel that we are getting closer to what will be the home for us. We've found the neighborhood we want to live in, now we just need a place.

And once we get it you all are, like, totally invited over for a kegger.

August 04, 2005

Rice and Beans on the Green


Dinner on the mall. Yum! Posted by Picasa

Screen on the Green 2005


Looney for Screen on the GreenPosted by Picasa

August 03, 2005

Watch What You Eat Pt. 2

I may owe the bugs an apology about the infesting of our breads. After all bugs are bugs and if one was to leave trash out, well bugs will swarm. Is that what we did? Don't tell our mothers, but, yes. It seems that a bag of trash was moved to the back of our garage in order to make room for a yardsale that we had two months ago. Well, the bugs went for that like...well, bugs on shit. The bag had reached such a level of infestation that it was moving as bugs crawled around in the black, decomposed sludge. With newly suspected source of the bugs moved out of the house, and a heavy application of bug spray in the garage, their numbers have dropped drastically. Kudos to the wife who handled all of this on her own without getting 100% freaked-out.

August 02, 2005

Watch What You Eat

I learned a valuable lesson last week about examining what you eat. On Thursday I had for breakfast - among other things - an english muffin. On Friday, we discovered that bugs had invaded our bread box, taking root in the various breads inside. Upon closer examination little white mites occupied the english muffins (eww!) and little black bugs had infested the wheat bread. So now we know two things: where all the bugs came from and that I'm ready for the bug-eatting portion of Fear Factor