J.P.

We were lied to.

Come to find out, the unupdated abstract for the new house has been sitting on someone’s desk for the past three weeks. Since it’s sitting on someone’s desk, it hasn’t been updated. It hasn’t been touched.

Whoops!

This is not good, especially since our mortgage commitment runs out on December 1 and with a short next week, this could be a problem.

After much screaming, hollaring, swearing and jumping up and down (I think we may have banged the phone on the counter a couple of times as well, bad habit), we received a call from our lawyer. The wise word of the law. We’ll close before December 1st come hell or high water.

I’m betting on hell.

So, Earl and I are probably going to be celebrating Thanksgiving in the back of a U-Haul. Lovely. Once the closing of the house is complete, I’ll give the name of the fine real estate company we’ve been using so you can avoid them at all costs.

Payback is a bitch.

On a cheerier note, I spit on Bill Gates’ fine piece of software and wiped Windows completely from my machine. FreeBSD is humming along nicely. I just feeling like I’m downloading new software through molasses.

I had a wonderful dream last night that involved working for C.J. Cregg on “The West Wing”. Allison Janney (at least as C.J. Cregg) turned out to be quite a lovely woman. I was her assistant in my dream, typing away. Come to think of it, Ms. Janney has come across as a wonderful woman in the interviews and such I’ve seen her in. Put her with Amy Brenneman in my “attractive women” listing. They’re both people I’d like to do lunch with. I think I obsess about television way too much. And speaking of cool women (or television?), I see that Kathy from Survivor 4 is going to be on “Survivor 8: All Stars”. I think I may just have to watch that version of Survivor just to see her. I always thought she rocked.

I’ve been feeling remarkably cheery these days, though the waiting on the closing of the house has been a small little nag in the back of my mind. I must be concentrating too hard at work or something… people keep asking me “what’s wrong?” “You o.k.?” I guess I’m a little too intense about my job. I’m still feeling very productive – I like to get what needs to be done, done, so I don’t have to worry about it!

… as if that will ever happen. At least that what it seems like. Earl called the transaction handler today to find out what is taking so long with the closing date. She has no idea, she’ll call the seller’s (the enemy’s?) attorney. No, they’re not the enemy, but I am starting to feel that way. Am I still antsy? Way past that… now I’m RAW.

Work is plodding along nicely, I can’t believe that it’s Thursday night already. We just tried to watch Will and Grace, but the latest belch from the sun fried DirecTV for half the show. Judging by the half of W&G that we did see, we didn’t miss much at all. Apparently the producers are signing up special guest stars to make complete asses of them because Dylan Mc-needs-a-shave from The Practice truly made an idiot of himself tonight, per the script provided. Earl and I have said that we weren’t going to watch the show anymore but we had a few brain cells that needed killing off anyways.

I guess it’s cheaper than doing drugs.

Speaking of television… I am LOVING Judging Amy this season. I still find Amy Brenneman totally hot (stop snickering, I really do!) and I really am enjoying the show. It was nice to see Dan Futterman on the show again, even though it was for one episode. The show is interesting and I look forward to it every week.

And back to NBC… what the heck is going on with The West Wing? There’s the drugs we aren’t doing… the director’s doing them! The characters on that show have all traded in their personalities for a cranky one, the cinemetography SUCKS and the show has been dumbed down way beyond belief. The President went AWOL this week. Yeah, right. And Air Force One did a loop over the Hudson River last week.

But back to Mondays. I must admit that I was looking forward to going to work today. As I’ve mentioned before, I *love* this time of year and 2003 is no exception. I was mildly productive and had a good attitude about it to boot. I felt good throughout the day… perhaps a little tired, but not all draggy and crabby because it was Monday.

Yesterday we went to my father’s side of the family’s (follow that?) holiday party. Yes, I know it was only November 2, but, my grandfather and his wife leave for Florida about this time every year, and they throw a Thanksgiving/Christmas party first weekend in November for all families involved. It was great seeing everyone and I think a good time was had by all. I was able to talk geek with my cousin Nathan… he’s going to school to be an IT Administrator type, and he seems to know his stuff. I was able to talk FreeBSD with him, which is a nice change of pace. It’s funny, because Nathan and I used to chat over modems back in 1984 or 1985 when I had a VIC-20 and he had a TRS-80 of some sort. We dialed in long distance to the GEnie service so that we could chat back and forth, even though we lived about 10 miles apart. I bet my folks loved that phone bill.

Speaking of FreeBSD, I’ve made great strides on learning this new (to me) operating system and I must say that I am quite pleased. It seems much more cohesive than Linux. One thing that I like is that I am being forced to build my software from the ground up, whereas Linux throws everything but the kitchen sink into an install and tries to follow the “it just works” scenario, but doesn’t quite live up to the bar set by an iMac. FreeBSD, on the other hand, requires that you read, study, chat with other users and keep your wits about you to get it working, but once you do, it’s working the way *you* want it to. I like that.

We are awaiting one final piece of paper before we can close on the house – the abstract on the new house. I’ve given up waiting and am plotting ways to torment our lawyer’s paralegal. Earl has discouraged me from doing this and has taken matters into his own hands.

On a final note, my beard is progressing along nicely, though I had to give into a bit of a mustache trim because Earl said I wasn’t getting any unless I did. I do have my priorities.

We did get to walk around our new house again today. We’ve been trying to pick out furniture and such for the house, since it’s considerably bigger than our old house, but being in the house only two times, it was hard to gauge room dimensions and colors and such. So we asked our real estate agent if we could get back in there and take a look around, measure rooms and such, and surprisingly, he agreed. So tonight we got to drink in the whole house again. What a wonderful feeling! 🙂 Now I’m more excited than ever to get into the house – I hope that the closing happens soon.

I am so glad that we are back on Standard Time. I’m not a big fan of Daylight Savings Time, I never have been. I know that it’s suppose to be better because then we have more daylight in the summer after work and I can go bike riding and all that, but honestly, I don’t mind it getting dark a little earlier and everything. There’s such a mystique about this time of the year – chilly winds, rustling leaves, early darkness. It all seems so magical to me.

I think I’ve been a little antsy, maybe ‘cranky’ is a better term, at work. I shouldn’t let my needless worries about moving et al reflect in my professional attitude, but alas, it does. Now that there’s been more signs of activity, I know I’ll be better.

I haven’t spoken to Earl about this, but I’m thinking about taking some online courses from the University of Illinois after the holidays. Computer science courses, so I can get certified in Unix. I’ve been promising this for a long time, and it’s high time I went ahead and did something about it! It’ll be easier to accomplish once we have the high speed internet connection that will probably be installed the first week that we are in the new house! I’ve dumped Linux in favor of FreeBSD, another derivative of Unix. I’m liking it! We stopped at Barnes and Noble so I could buy a new book – I’ve already implemented a couple of things and I’m loving it!

And life is good. Ever since the first time Earl and I drove on a portion of the local expressway together, I have traditionally said tapped him on the knee and said “someday this road will take us all the way home” every time we exited at the temporary end of the road. Well after a couple years of hard work from NYSDOT, the Utica-Rome Expressway was officially opened today with great fanfare. Earl, knowing what a road geek he has for a lover, suggested we drive the entire length, in both directions, so I could drink in the workmanship of the road and observe everything I could for my “road enthusiast” website. Cool part is, the new house is just off this expressway as well, just one exit closer to work.

The house is closer to reality, the mortgage company left a message last night to let us know that as far as they’re concerned, we can close on the house. We’re waiting to hear from the buyers of our current house to affirm the same and then we’ll set the closing date. Right now, it’s looking like November 13, which would be absolute kizmet for Earl and I (see this page why).

On a more somber note, we received word that Earl’s brother Rick was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident last weekend. He was banged up pretty good – fractured pelvis, broken wrist and arm (with six pins in it now), sprained ankle. So Saturday we headed down to Philly to visit him in the hospital. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits. I helped him out by shaving his head and face for him (he trusted me since I’m experienced in the head shaving area) and that seemed to cheer him up. He’s a determined guy and he’ll come out of the whole thing o.k…. a little wiser I suppose.

Earl and I started the weekend by trying out a local Italian place Friday night. We often drive 60 miles or more for supper on the weekend, but we decided to stay local and went to a place we’ve been eyeballing for the past couple of months. It was very casual, but very, very good. Killer eggplant with homemade sauce.

On Saturday we went on one of our long road trips. I’ve been steadily working on my “counties project” this summer… trying to take a picture of me standing next to a sign for every county (62 of them) in New York State. So Saturday we got up early and drove down to Long Island and back, just to get pictures of the Nassau and Suffolk county signs. Then we took the scenic way back through the Hudson Valley, grabbing those counties as we went along. You can see the results of our labor at my roadgeek site.

We stopped in Albany for a bite to eat at Houlihan’s and then we decided to see “Kill Bill” at the movies. Quentin Tarentino has some pretty wild ideas when it comes to cinema, but he’s clever and the movie was definitely a welcome change of pace. We both really enjoyed it.

Today was football day, Earl enjoyed his Eagles game (even though they lost) while I worked on my roadgeek site. Tomorrow Earl is bringing home boxes so that we can start packing up the house… we received our commitment letter from the mortgage company in the mail on Friday, so it’s official. Can’t wait to find out what the closing date is! We’re both getting very excited, though the prospect of moving is very daunting. I’m really looking forward to the holidays in the new house.

My dad and his girlfriend stopped in on their way through the area today, they were a welcomed site. They were out for a leaf peeping tour of the Adirondacks and wanted to see the landscaping on the old house and they also wanted to drive by the new house. It was good to see them.

I think I’m going to be retiring one of my other hobbies for a while. We’ve decided that it probably wouldn’t be best to punch holes in the walls of the new house for my school clocks collection. I’ll probably set up a couple of my favorites in the basement once we build the four or five rooms were going to put down there, but that will probably be the extent of it. While I’ve enjoyed collecting all the clocks and such, I pretty much have everything I wanted, with many duplicates. I’m going to continue to have the clock website up for a while, since there are a lot of people asking questions about their operation and such, but I don’t see me stringing wire through the new house for bells and everything.

I have absolutely forbad Earl from packing the house until we have the commitment letter in our hot little hands. I know the mortgage officer said that this was going to be a piece of cake, but gosh darn it, I’m not going to jinx this. I know that we are going to be celebrating the holidays in our new home. I know that the spacious rooms, jacuzzi tub for two, hardwood floors, and great room are all going to be ours. But can’t it happen already?

We decided to go see The School of Rock Saturday night in Syracuse. A quaint little flick, but it could have been a straight to DVD movie for us. We enjoyed the outing, I really enjoyed the popcorn.

My dreams have been very odd the last couple of nights. Saturday night I dreamed that I was hanging out with Ellen Degeneres. She was cool. I was telling her how much I enjoy her new show and everything. She asked my opinion and I let her know that she wouldn’t really care because this is my dream, but I told her anyways. Ellen has this “New Jersey Correspondent” named Lisa Lam on her new show. This lady is really Jersey. Joi-zee. While I’m sure she’s a lovely woman, she gets the benefit of a TiVo fast forward whenever she’s on because I find her disturbing and totally unnatural for television. I wouldn’t mind if she fast forwarded me sometime.

After the Ellen dream, I then switched to some whacked out ordeal of a dream where I was running with Lindsey Wagner bionic style. I don’t know where that came from, but I was very excited that the dream’s sound guy got it right with the bionic noise when I ran. I don’t know where I was running to or what I was running from, but I was doing it very quickly in slow motion.

I’ve become a little testy to those questioning my vegetarianism lately. A conversation today:

• “You don’t eat any meat at all? Not even chicken or fish?”
• “No, I don’t eat anything that shits.”

A guaranteed way to stop that line of conversation! Call me “Mr. Tact”.

If you’re keeping track, I weighed in at 177 lbs. today – I’ve lost 43 lbs. in 18 months. Move over Jared, there’s a new boy at Subway. I’ve complimented the slim look with a full beard – it’s that time of year.

And last, but not least, our cat Tom has lived with us for six years. We believe he’s between 9 and 10 years old. He’s finally figured out that he’s suppose to catch mice, not invite them over for lunch. He’s left four “offerings” in the computer room over the past week. We’re very proud of him.

Where to begin. A couple of weeks ago, Earl and I took a look at a house that was being built. To put it simply, we fell in love with the house. It was gorgeous and just what we were looking for. We made an offer to the builder. Unfortunately (for us, anyways), another couple made a higher offer and we didn’t get the house. However, the builder said that if we were interested in the spring, he would build us the same house on our property. (Earl and I own 33 acres).

Since we had been bit by the house buying bug, we talked about it and decided to put our house up for sale anyways. We figured that if by chance it did sell, we would simply move into an apartment until next summer when our house could be built. We figured it would take a while to sell the house, and to pass the time, we’d look at newer houses in the area that were for sale.

On Wednesday night, we listed the house with our real estate agent. The papers were signed, and the sign went up.

Friday morning, Earl received a call that we needed to scoot Friday night, two different parties were coming in to look at the house. We did just that by looking at a house that was only eight years old and in the general neighborhood. We then left for Philly on Saturday for a family wedding. We received word that one of the two couples was going to look at the house again Saturday afternoon.

Upon returning from Philly on Sunday, we had a message on our answering machine – they were coming back again to look at the house. As we were getting ready to leave, the real estate agent showed up and asked us to stay. We met with these house browsers and answered many questions.

Sunday night, they made an offer and we accepted it. On Monday, we looked at the house we had looked at on Friday, and decided to make an offer. The owners accepted.

So Earl and I are moving in the middle of November (after banks chat, lawyers chat, etc.) to our new house. To put it simply, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Huge! An above ground swimming pool. Oak hardwood floors throughout the house. Lots of space. Lots of potential. A cathedral ceiling in the family room. Just what we were looking for in a house.

It has been a busy time, to say the least. Am I sad that Earl and I are leaving the house we’ve lived in for the past six years. Admittedly, I am. This is where we’ve lived for the majority of our time together. But as we talked about it, I realized that this was a great place to start our relationship together. Earl and I are not handy when it comes to home repairs (by any stretch of the imagination), either that or we lack the motivation. In any case, there are tons of things we wanted to do to this house that we simply did not have the skill nor the money to do. The new house, while it does need some touch up paint and staining here and there, is pretty much what we are looking for. We are both very excited about the prospects.

I’m a little bit nervous about the whole affair, because everything is unsettled until the closing happens. I don’t like the uneasiness. Even back in my single (and somewhat transient) days, I always had to have the feeling of “home base”. I liked being able to say “This is where I live”, even if it was a rickety old mobile home in the path of a tornado. I wasn’t one that just popped in once in a while to take a shower or change my clothes between social engagements and work. I like to put down my roots. So this is a little unsettling for me, but I’ll get through it. Earl and I are both absolutely giddy with excitement about it.

I’ve often written in my blog about finding a place to make a “fresh start”, or to make changes in my life. I’m big on improving myself. Moving provides another opportunity for me to try to get my sh*t together. In the new house, we’ll have room for exercise equipment. We won’t really have room for my clock system hobby… not that it matters because while I’ve enjoyed putting the clock system together and getting it working, I’ve sort of dead-ended with the hobby. I have the clocks I want and they work. And we’ll have high speed internet through a cable modem! That alone is worth the trouble of moving! 🙂

Earl and I started the week last Monday by looking at a home that was still under construction. To put it simply, it was gorgeous. 2,500 square feet. Rural setting. Cathedral ceilings. A wonderful, “open-air” feel to it. We fell in love with it. So we decided to take a leap and made an offer on it, with absolutely no idea how we were going to finance it. We were outbid (and we ended up offering asking price!) by an eager couple, however, the builder offered to build us the same exact house on another lot that we own adjacent to our current home. We told him we’d talk to him in the spring.

So now we’ve got the new house bug going on around here. At the moment, I can’t elaborate on any more details, simply because I don’t believe in putting anything in my blog that I wouldn’t want to appear on the front page of the New York Times… this is a valuable thing I learned back in 1987 when I worked for Digital Equipment Corporation and a co-worker said some very not nice things (o.k., she was a bitch) about our mutual supervisor on a Usenet newsgroup. To do this day, you can still do a search on Google and come across it. It’s sort of frightening yet very intriguing, because I can do a search for some key phrases that I use to this day and come up with stuff I wrote back in 1987… kind of cool in a way, giving me a sense of immortality.

Anyways, if you’re still interested after that rambling, stay tuned as I’ll probably post more details later in the week.

Earl and I spent the weekend in suburban Philly with his family. We attended his niece’s wedding. First of all, I must say that the “Fab 5” from Queer Eye would approve of the outfits we donned ourselves in, as we were looking trendy, yet not over the top. Can we talk about how pretty we were? (I had to say that … ) Secondly, the wedding was absolutely beautiful and Karyn made a beautiful bride. Thirdly, while I knew that her new husband had a brother or two, I didn’t realize that he had an identical twin (including complimenting goatee) and I found it a little disconcerting to find him (the twin brother, not the groom, I think) making out with the maid of honor (o.k., just kidding – he was making out with the ushers – ha, ha, ha I’m kidding people, settle down.)

Anyways, at the reception I enjoyed my first martini, while Earl enjoyed his. We enjoyed martinis together. We like a very dry martini… Spanish Gin, Italian Vermouth and a Greek Olive. O.k., I stole that from the third episode of Bewitched. I have a little Endora in me. But the martini was indeed fabulous. I kept it at one though, because I was driving. Earl switched to Bahama Breezes or something equally fruity and then to more gin. Surprisingly, I didn’t pour him into bed last night, though we did make full use of the hotel room. That was indeed a change in attitude (the martini, not the sex), and I don’t find it unpleasant. Normally I don’t drink at all, well except maybe for some that Olive Garden swill they hock when they serve your radarange-heated entree, but other than that it’s Diet Pepsi (with a twist of lemon) for me. I don’t really care for Diet Pepsi Twist because it tastes like Lemon Pledge to me, though I’m not sure because I don’t think I’ve ever drank Lemon Pledge. I do enjoy Pepsi Twist, but not the diet version.

I did dance a little and apparently the martini kicked in at the end of the night when the DJ played Meatloaf’s “Bat out of Hell”, because I decided that I need to dance with my sister in law. I guess “dance” is the right word – I sort of hopped around like I was doing the mashed potato or something equally as foolish. It probably could be called the “homo hop”. I’m sure Ellen Degeneres has done something similar. I was told that I looked like I was hanging from a string by Earl’s wonderful Aunt Dot. I guess that’s good in a Pinnochio sort of way. We all want a woody! Oh, I’m tired, but I could go on. Not that you want me to.