House Plans
Jul/102
I’m going to keep on the theme of homes tonight. I want to buy a house. Not today, but in the next few years. I’m sure that doesn’t come as any sort of surprise. However, actually taking the time to sit down and think about what it means and commit to the idea is significant. The two key factors I see right now are as follows:
1) Start making financial decisions so that I’ve got at least 10% for a down payment when the time comes
2) Figure out what I want in a house and even more importantly, finding where I’d like this house to exist
Erin and I were driving around today keeping our eyes peeled for open house fliers or balloons. We didn’t find any but did see a couple nice townhouses for sale in my current neighborhood. I’m thinking a townhouse is probably the right answer for a first home. I don’t have a good explanation of why that is the right choice but I do like the modern feel of most that I’ve looked at.
I’m also hoping that I’m not buying my first house on my own.
House Hunter
Jul/105
I hate to admit it, but I’m addicted to HGTV. It is such a great channel. Now that I think about it, I believe there is a pattern to the TV I’ve been watching lately: HGTV, Travel Channel, FoodTV. It either means I want what I cannot have or I’ve eager to experience new things. I’m leaning towards that latter. Anyway, in particular I’m loving the shows that have to do with buying a home; House Hunters is my drug at the moment.
I especially like to critique the people buying homes. Let’s take a step back. Why would you ever go on a TV show where you see three places and end up picking one of them with the three options are never equal in quality or actually matching what you are looking for in location, price or amenities. It makes me wonder if the channel pitches in financially if the people play the game.
I’ve got two questions as of late.
1) Can you get new construction that is tasteful yet doesn’t look cookie-cutter modern that came from some book for an affordable price?
2) Can you get an existing structure that is renovated with modern, though not tacky in the features though allows for improvements?
Donations
Jun/102
I finally got around to sorting through my clothes for potential donations. I found 23 shirts and 5 pairs of shorts of which I could part ways. To make things even easier, there is some sort of clothing drive going on here where I just have to leave the box outside my house and they’ll pick it up. Can’t get much easier than that. There are probably still a few things I should give away but 28 items is a good start. I want to take the next year and really focus on de-cluttering and only keeping things I really need.
Open Mic Night
Jun/100
Last night Adam, Erin and I went to Victory Brewing in Downingtown for dinner and an open mic night. Adam suggested the idea last week as he’s been looking for places to perform his catalog of music. Being that it was Victory I couldn’t see how this would be a bad idea even if the “scene” wasn’t quite that great for his tunes.
After eating dinner and having a drink we ventured over to the area of the bar designated for the open mic night. We sat and listened to one girl play a bunch of Janis Joplin-esque music and she had a pretty good voice. When she finished Adam put our names on the list and we went to get our guitars. We listened to a few other performers ranging from decent to not so decent and we also discovered that you get a free beer for performing. What a good deal.
When our turn came we started things off with the classic Weezer song “Say It Ain’t So” which we easily played 100+ during the Kennedy Drive days. The hope was to connect with the limited audience. I thought we did it justice but I have no idea what the crowd thought though the 5 people clapping at the end was hopefully a extreme understatement of our effort. I then accompanied Adam on two of this original songs. I had to stop a few times because I couldn’t remember the right notes (as I had only played them a handful of times prior) but I think I made a solid contribution. Adam finished up with a 4th song completely solo. It sounded great in my opinion.
It felt good to be out and performing again even if it was just an event like this. I hope we can continue to do things like this and spread the good word about his music.
Tomorrow
Jun/102
I came up with a really great thought about life tonight.
God created tomorrow so we can fix the mistakes of today.
Memorial Day Weekend
Jun/100
As I think back over the years Memorial Day has never been a particularly memorable event. I do remember visiting the graves of my deceased family when I was younger but the last time was probably 15 years ago. I can also remember one from a couple years ago where my car got towed by the police but I didn’t get a fine (they merely needed to move my car for a parade). This year I actually took advantage of the long weekend and headed up to Marshfield, MA with Erin and her brother for a wedding and family weekend.
The town was very New Englandy and I loved every minute of it. Despite the fact that I was surrounded by family that was probably secretly judging me (or maybe not because they were all pretty cool) I was able to relax even without the help of any naps. Yes, strangely, I went an entire weekend without taking any naps. I went running three straight days as well. It was an active weekend but that can be a very good thing.
The primary activity was a wedding for Erin’s aunt Louise. It was one of the more interesting weddings I’ve attended mainly because this was such a family event. There was not a lot of outsourcing of service and I found myself lending a hand in a variety of activities to get everything in order. The hand-in-hand nature of getting it all ready was a very cool family experience. I felt connected to everyone despite the fact that this was only the second time I was meeting most people. The family experience came to a pinnacle when I found myself standing amongst 20+ family members at our beach house with the task of answering three questions:
1) What am I thankful for
2) What did I learn today
3) What did I do today to help
I gave a decent trilogy of answers and hopefully they’ll be happy to see me back in the future.
Some other highlights of the weekend included sitting on the rocky beach with Erin, drinking a new craft beer from Maine, taking a ton of pictures, drinking coffee and just being at the beach to name a few.
Miles Competition
May/100
We are having this competition at work across our account teams at a variety of clients of a particular industry to see who can run the most miles over the next 6 weeks. The only requirement was to have a iPod Nano, iPod Touch or iPhone. They bought everyone one of the Nike+ sensors that basically acts as a running pedometer. It calculates how far you’ve ran and has a bunch of other neat features.
Right now I’d say mine is calibrated that it is within 4% of the actual distance. That is both pretty good and pretty annoying. Pretty annoying because it is underestimating all of my runs. However, it is pretty cool.
There are a bunch of different ways they are tracking the competition but the main one I’m concerned with is this team thing. Myself and two coworkers are trying to have the highest average miles. We’ve started out pretty strong but a full week hasn’t gone by yet so it is hard to say what the numbers will look like. The highest that I’ve seen so far from an individual from Monday through Wednesday is 28 miles. That is a lot of miles in three business days.
My goal is to try and maintain a minimum of 25 miles per week. Since March 1st I’ve been averaging 20 per week so it shouldn’t be too crazy.
Friends and Stuff
May/102
Plain and simple, I have very high expectations for my friends. Sometimes, they find a way to really disappoint me. I tend to invest myself in people more than I let on and it is tough when I’m forced to shake my head in frustration. However, most times they find a way to make me feel like a very lucky person. I tend to focus on the positives.
Props to Nate and Adam for helping to make the move to the new house. I came to the surprisingly realization this weekend that without the help of friends I may not actually be able to physically move all of my stuff.
Speaking of stuff, I came to the realization tonight that I have a lot of stuff. I tried to wrap my mind around my collection of stuff but I couldn’t figure out how I had so much. It didn’t feel like I hoarded at all. It felt more like I just happen to have a lot of hobbies or something like that. I then figured it out. I live as if I own a home but I unfortunately only rent: Christmas decorations, a glass collection, spare blankets, enough equipment to start a recording studio, etc.
I need to buy a house.
West Conshohocken Part I – New Grounds
Apr/103
For most readers this shouldn’t come as any surprise. I’m leaving Philadelphia and heading for West Conshohocken, PA. Until about 3 weeks ago I didn’t even know a “West” Conshohocken was a real place. I take that back. I knew it existed but never though much about it other than “I bet it wishes it was part of Conshohocken.” My view has changed on that point.
This Saturday I’m moving there. I thought that would feel a bit stranger to type. No, I’m really excited to start a new chapter of my life.
Why am I moving, you might ask. Well, my very good friend Adam got a job in Wayne, PA which is about 10 miles away. For years I was waiting for Adam to get his big break. He’s got to be one of the most interesting people I know and it pained me to see him not obtaining his potential (potential in my opinion of course). I did what I could to encourage him including writing him a reference letter for grad school. However, it really took some sort of deep desire to do more from himself that really made the difference I’d guess. Anyway, he got a job near me and it was the perfect opportunity to try something new.
I guess I’m also eager to pay less in taxes (no more 3.92% local tax on gross earnings), spend less on groceries (I can shop at Giant instead of Acme), pay less for car insurance (35% less), lower sales tax (6% versus 7%) and have the opportunity to park right outside my house.
I put a significant effort into finding the new place and I think it will all pay off. I took a “sanity-check” visit of the property with the accompaniment of my girlfriend to make sure this wasn’t some crazy idea. She agreed that it isn’t perfect nor as nice as my current residence but it has potential. I have a strong belief in giving something with potential a chance to thrive. Time will tell I suppose but I’ll soon be saying goodbye to the infamous Apple St. Stay tuned for more reflections (and pictures) of the transition.
Bay Leaf
Apr/102
I made soup on Monday and added two bay leaves. Today I was scooping a bowl and found one of the leaves. I dug around for a while looking for the second. As far as I knew the bay leaf needed to be removed because it was “bad.” I did not know why it was bad but grew up with this mindset that I should not eat the bay leaf. Oh no!
Turns out, they aren’t poisonous or anything like that. The problem is that they don’t break down even when you leave them cooking for a long time. They stay fairly stiff and there is the off chance that it could get stuck in your throat or scrape your insides in an uncomfortable way. Deadly? Not really.