Finally, Some Feedback

Shortly after I published my last post about our house, our realtor's office called. According to them, the showing we had last night went "really well". He also reiterated that our house is in a really good range, under $250k. Tomorrow night we have another showing from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

It's amazing how just when you need it, God sends along a little encouragement.

So, as always, everything's going great, it's just a lot of work keeping the house up.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more news here later.

A special thanks to Michelle for reminding me to post on here.

Later!

Nothing Yet

We've had our house on the market for about two weeks now and we don't have any contracts on it yet. It's only been two weeks so I shouldn't get all antsy I guess. We've had several people come to see our home (we had to be gone, of course) but we haven't gotten any feedback yet.

I know the news keeps reporting that the housing market is really slowing down, but I'm of the firm belief that there are people out there buying houses still. Also, the price range we're in allows us some room to lower the price if need be.

So when do we lower the price? I have no idea. Of course our realtor isn't going to want to lower right away or for very much. After all, this is how he makes his money but, I'm ready to sell and say, "Well, BYE!"

At least we're not talking with any of those "Get Out Of Your House In 24 Hours. You Pay Nothing! You Lose Money" types of businesses.

...Yet.

Did I mention that it's hot today? I mean it's very hot outside. Thank the Lord I was able to spend the day glued in front of my computer at work in an air conditioned trailer. In fact, my hands started to get that don't-want-to-move-very-fast-because-they're-so-cold feeling.

I can't wait for fall.

Some Pictures

Bodie Lighthouse in North Carolina's outer banks. I'm not sure if it's pronounced "body" or "boadie". Oh well. I don't actually care.

Another shot of the Bodie Lighthouse. I think it's about 130 years old but I can't remember exactly. I guess I could look it up on the internet right now, but, mreh. That's too much trouble.

I know this one is kinda blurry, but it's Caleb's finger-man. He really got a kick out of playing with me when I first helped him to realize that he could pretend his index and middle fingers could be manipulated to emulate a person walking around, falling, jumping, etc.

For Sale(?)

It seems like only last year that we sold our house and moved into a new house. Now, here we are, a little over a year later and we're putting our house up on the market.

We didn't reach this decision on an impulse. I've been toying with the idea for about six months now. It's just that now we actually need to sell our house. Not for profit but to "simplify", as my wife loves to say.

We're going to be moving into a townhouse (Lord willing) where we will be renting. There are some who will say, "Oh, that's too bad. You'll just be throwing money away on rent." To them I say: Hey, you have to live somewhere!

To be quite honest, I'm very excited to be headed back to the apartment lifestyle. No cutting grass, no raking leaves, no cleaning gutters; it's great. I'm not looking forward to sharing walls with other people but I guess that comes with the territory.

What I'm most looking forward to in the renting lifestyle: no more worries about home repairs. If the sink leaks, call the maintenance man. If the A/C breaks, call the maintenance man. Awesome!

Did I forget to mention Renter's Insurance? It's soooo much cheaper than Home Owner's insurance. Also, if a hurricane rips the roof off of my house (which I own) I can't just leave town. Oh no! I am actually expected to repair the house and continue making my mortgage payments or face foreclosure. What planet are these mortgage people from?! However, if the roof of my townhouse suddenly flies away in a strong breeze, guess what? No worries! I can just move (assuming I'm not in a binding lease). Bye bye rented property where all of my personal belongings were destroyed!

Anyway, to all you renters out there: owning a house is awesome. My house is actually very nice. I'll miss it. Wanna buy mine? The more renters that move out, the more available units there will be for me to choose from.

Hopefully I'll be able to update this blog with good news about the house for sale story very soon.

Later!

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Thank you for your interest in this weblog, or "blog". Unfortunately, the originator has become lazy and has opted to not make regular entries. Due to this, you will notice large gaps between post dates.

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Check out this Article

Sparrow Aviation Administration Blames Collision On Failure To Detect Pane Of Glass

Funny Video

I may have mentioned the satire news site The Onion on here before but they now post videos. These videos are presented in the typical cable news station format. Anyway, they've posted one of their funniest ones so far (in my opinion). Here's the link: Something in Haiti.

Enter: Gordon II

Actually, I think he's going to be named James, another train from the Thomas the Train world. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the critter for posterity in the event of some unforeseen tragic event.

G' night!

Tragedy

We experienced a little tragedy tonight. My son had his hamster, Gordon, rolling around in his hamster ball. After a couple of minutes, I asked where the hamster was. Caleb didn't know. I searched and searched and finally found him. Our dog, Beth, had killed it.

Molly and Caleb are taking it pretty hard. Surprisingly, Molly more so than Caleb. Anyway, I'm typing this sitting up in our bed with Joy, Molly, and Caleb all beside me. There's not a lot of room here but, hey, they are sad.

Anyway, my initial feeling is to get rid of Beth. Naturally, I know that Beth is just a dumb dog and that she didn't kill Gordon for any reason other than pure instinct. I guess. I still go back to wanting to permanently say "Goodbye" to Beth, but I'll make sure that any decision like that isn't based strictly on emotion.

Have a good night.

Gordon the Hamster
R.I.P.

Some Pics from Today

Joy and me in line for Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride.

Molly and Caleb with Chip of "Chip 'N Dale" fame.

In front of Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom.



Caleb with his beloved toy knight that's been lost at Magic Kingdom.

They still make Monchichi?! Well, these were for sale in the Japanese area of Epcot.

Here's a close up of Caleb's brave "Sir Knight". I really hope we can find another one for him.

The Magic Kingdom

I'm sure I mentioned it in another post but I still say that the Animal Kingdom is the best Disney World park. We spent the day at Magic Kingdom today and I came away the impression that the park resembles more of a carnival or older amusement park than an "amusement" park. I guess, for me, it's really showing it's age.

Many of the rides like It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight (name is probably wrong), and even Pirates of the Caribbean smell old. Kind of like going into an attic. Nothing really wrong with that because I still enjoyed the rides but I think they are definitely starting to show their age. Although, it is cool to see effects that don't rely on computer generated images projected onto screens.

I think we will be going back tomorrow to see the parade and fireworks show at the end of the evening. We left right when the fireworks were starting tonight so we could beat the crowd.

Well, I'm uploading some pictures to my flickr site right now and I hope to show some pictures right here.

See you soon.

Here's one of the many pictures I've uploaded at my flickr site. This was taken at the Animal Kingdom Park on our way out. More pics to come.

We spent the day at MGM Studios yesterday and a great, exhausting time. We rode the Tower of Terror, saw a bunch of shows, and a bunch of other stuff. But the highlight of our day was the first ride we rode: Star Tours, a silly simulator type ride.

I say this was the “highlight” because Caleb cried almost the whole time. Despite how much I tried to explain to him what was going to happen on the ride and how much I tried to tell him that it was all fake, he still came away saying that he thought we were really going into outer space. He was screaming things like, “I don't like this ride” the whole time. Poor guy. Then again, he was already acting scared while we walked through the (very short) line.

Overall, though, we all had a great day. Today, I think we're going to Epcot.

Talk to you later.

April 22nd PM/April 23rd AM post

We went to Disney's Animal Kingdom park yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect; I wasn't expecting much to be honest. I thought it would be a semi-lame attempt at a zoo. I was wrong. That was a very, very fun park. Especially the Kilamanjaro Safaris ride. I swear we were actually RIDING the ride for close to ten minutes. Although it doesn't fit the typical mold for theme park rides since it's more of a zoo-like tour, it's my favorite ride so far.

It looks like we're going to MGM Studios today which is a pretty fun park.

By the way, the kids are having a great time. They love the pools here at the hotel. Which reminds of fact I'm sure everybody already knows: kids will play in water no matter what the temperature is. Molly and Caleb wanted to play in the pool last night and since the depth is close to four feet, Joy and I got in, too. The pools are heated, which is great. However, getting out was pure torture. We were freezing all the way back to our hotel room. But do the kids really care? No. They would shiver violently and risk hypothermia if it meant they could just play in a pool. Psycho.

I hope to be posting some pictures to my flickr site today. If I think about it, I'll link a couple here.

See you later!

April 22nd AM Post

Up at about 7am today. I walked down to the dining area (can't remember what it's called) and poured coffee for Joy and me. The coffee isn't great and they don't have crème brulee creamer for the coffee but it'll do.

So, today we're heading to the animal kingdom. Unfortunately, it's already 8:10am so it's already going to be pretty packed at the park. But at least we don't have to worry about parking.

Hope to be posting some pictures on my flickr site tonight.

1-800-CYA!

First Day of Vacation

Greetings from the Pop Century Resort Hotel in Orlando, Florida.

Yes, we are now in Orlando, Florida. The flight(s) here weren't too bad; no turbulence, no delays, etc. However, Caleb had to go pee “really bad” a total of nine times between our house and our hotel.

Let me be specific: Caleb peed: twice at Newport News/Williamsburg Airport, twice on the flight to Atlanta, once in the Atlanta airport, twice on the flight to Orlando, and twice at the Orlando airport. That brings the grand total to nine bathroom visits during our trip. It was probably just his nerves but still, that's a LOT of peeing. The reason Caleb even had a chance to pee twice in Orlando was because of an issue we had with our rental car reservation.

I reserved an Alamo rental car through Expedia.com which wouldn't really be all that big of a deal except for the fact that we had also reserved Disney's Magical Express. Disney's Magical Express is basically a bus that takes you directly from the airport to your hotel. It's purpose is also get your luggage directly to your hotel room. That's all fine and good except for the fact that there was a conflict: we were scheduled to take the Disney's Magical Express from the airport AND we were supposed to pick up our rental car from the airport at the same time!

After three calls to Expedia, I was able to cancel my rental car. The second lady I spoke with told me no, “we can't cancel the rental car since it is part of your package”. The third person I spoke with seemed amazed that someone told me they “couldn't” cancel the rental car. Anyway, we are currently rental car-less but we're quite happy. Since we're staying at one of Disney's resort hotels, there are buses constantly running to all of the theme parks. Basically, we made end up spending a little extra on dining but it will in no way equal the cost of the rental car plus eating.

Well, I've got some pictures taken and loaded on my computer but I don't have internet access right now. I'm debating whether or not I actually wanna do it. There's a small fee associated with it so, I might. I might not.

I hope to keep this vacation journal up to date so I can sorta remember the details later on.

See ya later!

Caleb's Quote o' the Day

Caleb (to his sister, Molly): "We were twins but not twins in the same belly."

(Note: Molly and Caleb are not twins.)

Soooo Sleeepy

I'm getting very tired. I don't know why exactly. I think... I think it's because I'm tired.

On an entirely different subject, Microsoft is implementing Windows Messenger into Xbox Live. I'm not sure how cool or crappy that will be. I don't know if I know anybody with Windows Messenger but I'll give it a try. Although, it's probably a waste of time since I rarely IM anybody and lately I haven't been gaming very much. Oh well.

See you later.

(three more days)

Four More Days

Yes, four more days until our vacation. More importantly, only three more work days. The kids are really excited about the trip and so am I. I'm mainly excited about being off of work (had to be there at 5am today - ouch.) and relaxing with my family.

Relaxing. We might not get a whole of relaxation but I'm very happy that we're going to be going at our own pace.

Until next time.

Well... BYE!

Privatize My Blog?

Blogger now has an option that allows (ahem) bloggers to make their blogs available only to people they choose. So, I'm considering it. I've never posted here hoping to get noticed by the world. I've posted here mainly for entertainment and a detached form of communication.

So, anyway, I am considering it. Unless, of course, the public outcry is so great that I am forced to leave my blog open to the public. Hardy har har.

See you soon! Or not, depending on whether or not I choose to turn this blog into a private thing.

That Felt Good

I set up a myspace account a little while ago just out of curiosity. Tonight, I finally did what I've been meaning to do since about a week after I set up the account: I canceled it. I got so sick of getting those "friend" requests in my email box from spammers.

So long, myspace. I hardly knew ya. And I hardly wanted to anyway.

Blogging While On Vacation?

Should I do it? I plan on taking my laptop with me to Disney World with my family. Mainly so I can keep a lot of free space on my digital camera. Anyway, maybe I'll take time out each evening for a quick recap of the day. A sort of vacation journal, I guess.

Anyway, six more days to Disney!

Twelve Days to Disney

No, I'm not a big Disney fan or anything like that. It's just that we're going to Disney World in twelve days and I thought that the title of this post sounds like a movie title or a band name or something cool like that.

I don't know why I've gotten back into posting stuff on my blog again... oh, wait. Now I remember: my sister. My sister has posted a couple of comments here and it's made me want to post some junk on here. Thanks, sis!

One thing before I cut short this already short entry: I am sick of "Baby Story". "Baby Story" is a series on TLC and each episode follows a couple as they go through their pregnancies. My wife apparently loves it, but I am tired of the annoying couples that act like their the only ones that have ever had any kids before. "Oh, look at us! We're having a baby! This has never happened to anyone else in the entire world! And even if it has, we are the only ones who can do it right!"

Here's some more of the dumb crap people say on that show: "We want to have our baby naturally so we're not going to have an epidural." How sweet! And when you go to the dentist for a root canal, do you tell your dentist, "I want to have this root canal naturally. I do not want to have any anesthesia. I want to feel everything.

One last thing about "Baby Story" that annoys me: Why do the producers of the show regularly find people that want to have their baby in a bathtub or jacuzzi? Are the fish? Are they mermaids. Or do they just love the beautiful colors that will inevitably float around in the water during and after the birth? YUCK!

Until next time... Well, BYE!

Snow... In April? Here?!

Yep. It snowed this morning. It actually stuck to the ground a little bit. I can't remember the last time it actually snowed in April in this part of Virginia. It wasn't enough to make a snowman, or a snowball, or even to hear it crunch beneath your feet (it was a very wet snow) but it was cool nonetheless.

Here's to springtime!

There's a Fire in My Home!

It's right there in my living room! Thank goodness it's relatively contained within a hearth-like structure that's built into the wall of my house. It's also quite fortunate that the smoke from said fire is going straight up a chimney-like shaft running from the floor of my house and out through my roof.

Although this is terrifying, I must admit that it's quite cozy.

Six Months Since a Post

Wow! What an amazing six months! Actually, what an amazing past ten days. I've been off from work for the Christmas shutdown and it's been great. The hardest part is going back to work. It really, really sucks. Oh well. Can't have vacation without work, I guess.

I decided to blog a little since Joy and I were wondering about some exact dates of when we sold our old house. Well, I guess this blog comes in handy once in a great while.

Later.