Apr 01
2007
Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight, All about me, Home Improvement |
So.
Well, I finally made it back, 2.857142857142857 readers. The following post contains ramblings and a catch all for my life over the past three months. Suffice to say, it’s been busy. Without further ado, I give you possibly the most disconnected post written by a contributor to this site ever.
SO…Taguchi.
Baseball starts tonight. My fantasy team is drafted, Frank the Tank and Siberian Baseball have made their predictions, and it’s almost time to mow the lawn. My glove is in the trunk, screaming to be let out. Maybe now that we’ve settled into the house, I can think about playing for beer league or something. It would be a lot of fun to get involved on a softball team. For the record, I predict the Cubs will finish third in the NL Central behind the Brewers (1st) and then the Cardinals (2nd) and the Sox will finish second behind the Indians in the AL central. My fantasy team, is again, young, but filled with potential. Pitching will be a problem, but I have enough young outfielders that I’ll be able to make some good trades later in the year.
Sew…A wedding dress.
Two Fridays ago, I attended my brother-in-law’s bachelor party. Two important things were learned by yours truly that evening:
1) I can still bring it. I was up for twenty-five hours and still managed to drive myself home. (Pay no attention to the fact that I confined myself to the bed/couch for the rest of the afternoon/evening…)
2) Traveling with cops gets you a lot. (My bro and his best man are both newly-minted agents of good.) We did not pay a cover charge at any establishment we attended. That saved a lot of money that I was then able to funnel into Lou’s mouth in the form of shots. Good times.
A good portion of spring break was spent discussing gambling and partaking in small bits of it. Wednesday night I had the boys over for a poker game, since I’m apparently the only one able to organize these things, and I got my money back after getting lazy and not paying attention to Marc and his pocket bullets. C’est la vie.
I also did some gambling at Elgin’s finest boating establishment. It took 90 minutes, but I finally managed to lose only $40. It looks like the casino is not going to have $5 craps tables anymore, and since I’m not getting any richer, I had to adjust my strategy for the $10 tables. (Playing only the point, and placing the six/eight seems to be the way to slowly bleed my money instead of instantly losing it.)
This past Friday was the wedding. We now have one more member of our family. She seems like she’ll keep my brother-in-law focused, so that’s a good thing. Congrats to both of them. Seeing all of TLEMK’s family was also enjoyable. Her mother’s side is predictably fun and kooky, and her dad’s side is predictably Greek. You may interpret how you will– feel free to ask TLEMK and Dev to their re-enactment of V’s grandpa and friends having a discussion…
Sow…I reap what I sow.
As you know, we’re in month seven of the House Reclamation Project Which We Will NOT Call a Money Pit Just Yet Project. So far we’ve repainted the exterior (as in, hired someone) and have slowly redecorated it to match our tastes. It’s going slowly, but now that I’m done with grad school (see below) I have a little window in which I can learn to be a real man/homeowner/Mr. Fix It type. There’s a honey-do list about mile long on the fridge that we need to have done in time for the 67th annual McIntosh Family Reunion (appearing in mid-to-late July) which in a moment of insanity, we agreed to host.
Apparently, one thing that’s not on the list that will be added is this wonderful discovery we made over Spring Break:
We need a new roof.
We’ve got curling shingles, pitted shingles, shingles missing, and a lovely collection of pieces of asphalt sprinkling our back patio. We’re getting estimates this week, all the while I keep hoping and praying that it doesn’t rain too much, and that the wind will calm down. (Yeah, I know it’s spring… I just was hoping for a calmer spring.) I know it’s an investment, and I probably won’t have to get a new roof for another 15-20 years, but I was hoping to establish an emergency fund BEFORE we had to start using it.
So…that happened.
I am DONE with my master’s thesis and my classes. I’ve decided not to walk in the graduation ceremony because I don’t think I would be able to keep my mouth shut and would start spewing invectives directed and the entire University. I don’t think they would appreciate that. The last few weeks of my grad school experience was filled with a lot of nights of staring at the computer and going, “Where does this comma go? Should I write that? Should I use italics here? CRAP!” I am happy it’s over, and sadly, already thinking about my next stage of professional development. For those of you that had “ELL endorsement” you are the winner. We’ll see when that starts.
So… there you go.
I’ve had many different topics to write about, but they’re all half-formed ideas, so you got this rambling, gambling, and fambling post. It’s good to be back writing, but I expect the rust to continue for a few more weeks. Topics I didn’t even touch:
My STINKY brackets
Which is ballooning faster? My waistline or my self-defense mechanism? (’You don’t look that bad. Yet. Keep sucking it in.”)
Planning for Greece, planning for the reunion, planning for everything.
Why I allow television to rule my life. (If you don’t watch Friday Night Lights, please do so. NBC.com has all the episodes to watch for free, and Frank the Tank and the Chicago Tribune made an impassioned plea to bring it back next year. End commercial.)
More house crap.
Anyway, I’ll talk to you soon, Internet.
No, you say bye first.
No, you say bye.
Okay, I’m hanging up right now.
You didn’t hang up!
Bye.
(image courtesy of the Associated Press.)
Sep 17
2006
Tony| Category: General, All about me, Home Improvement |
Being a homeowner is sucking a good chunk of free time. Combine this with trying to work out after school, and free time has been severely limited. Hence the (greater) lack of funny going around here. Oh, and having season tickets to quite possibly the worst Div I team in the NCAA (Go Illini!) is taking it’s toll on my free time and my ability to pretend to be witty. Thus, we shall continue the lame easy-out ebjournalling by giving you a link.
Right after we moved in, TLEMK took some pictures of the new house. You can see (and enjoy) the house here. We’re still working, but V has made considerable headway already.
Good times.
And for extra special gloating, I went (at press time) 12-2 today in football pick ‘em. I rock. All for now.
Aug 01
2006
Tony| Category: General, Home Improvement |
Who’s a big boy? Who’s a big girl?
We are!
(This post will most likely be boring for 90% of the readership, seeing as they already own homes, and have that haunted look in their eye, nervously looking over their shoulder to see if their mortgage is watching them spend the extra five bucks at the theatre for the big popcorn. What? Nothing.)
Instead of throwing money into the corporate cesspool of renting, TLEMK and I officially tied the knot to our new (old) home yesterday afternoon. For the unfamiliar, we had to go through an intense negotiating session with the previous owners, one that left me rattled. It went something like this:
“So, you really want to buy this house?”
(Me) “Yup.”
“How does (number with digits in it) sound?”
“Sounds good.”
“Okay.”
That was tricky, let me tell you. (those of you who don’t know, that was a joke. We bought the house from my parents. It was easy. Really. No, really.)
And then we waited for a year, and yesterday was the big day. Despite having to go the bank and withdraw the biggest check of our lives, and carry it on my person all day, and despite me freaking out in middle of the day traffic jams, everything was fine. The lawyer was good, and we just kept signing. At some point, I would like to good back and read some of the things I put my John Hancock on, but as the lawyer said, “Here’s what you need to know. You pay, the bank leaves you alone. The end.” Simple enough, I hope.
We celebrated our new debt by immediately going out to dinner. (mmm, CPK) Thankfully, the previous owners paid.
Seriously, it was a scary big step, but it hasn’t really kicked in yet. It’ll probably feel more real when we move, and the previous occupants are out. Two weeks to the move, and I would say that we are maybe 30% done with packing. It’ll definitely feel more real on September 1, when the first PITI payment is due. Woo, escrow, woo!
I will be posting pictures of the new place as soon as A) I get my digital camera back, and B) I can.
Now, who wants to go to the hardware store?
Jun 29
2006
Tony| Category: General, All about me, Home Improvement |
Currently in your area, 75 degrees, under clear skies. Nice. Back to you.
Some updates during the eye of the hurricane of my summer…
Many of you know we’re planning on buying a house. Well, it’s been delayed, and delayed again, but things are starting to go into motion. I had called the mortgage company last week to go forward with the loan application. It got sent to me on Tuesday. All 6.0222 x 10^23 pages of it. When I spoke with the loan officer, he also asked me if I had a purchase contract. Being new to this, and since we’re buying the place from my parents, I reacted coolly, and said I would fax it to him. Of course, I hadn’t even thought about a purchase contract. I prompted called my mom, (Hi Mom!) and she took care of finding the right forms. However, this all sent me into a near panic, because becoming a homeowner is rapidly approaching reality. After the deeee-lightful hangover Wednesday, I went to my parent’s house to work out the purchase contract. That was fun– it was trickier than I thought it would be, but ‘twixt Mom and me, we figured it out. Only to realize late last night, among the three thousand pages that TLEMK had to initial, that we had forgotten the signature that sealed the deal; the one from the Seller that agreed to the Buyer’s offer. I awoke this morning determined to GSD (sorta like GTD, but with more vehemence). And GSD I did. I speak to you, gentle readers, because I can’t believe my procrastinorial (my Ebjournal, my words) got this much sh*t done:
1) Finished filling out loan applications, including double checking that everything was initialed and filled out, pulled the W-2’s, the bank records, the pay stubs, and the government-issued ideas, copied said stuff, and wrote a cover letter to the loan officer.
2) Spoke with said loan officer, figured out what was going on with some questions I had, and finished the loan application.
(After doing this much stuff, normally Summer Tony would want a nap. Nay, readers, there was more Stuff to be Done.)
3) Sallied forth to my parent’s/soon to be our house to collect aforementioned signature.
4) Spoke with investment company about divesting myself of some shares. Wrote the letter of authorization, went to the safe deposit box, and collected the stock certificate.
5) Went to the post office to mail said stock certificate, along with authorization letter, via registered mail. Pricey.
6) Went to Kinko’s to copy all of the loan application stuff, and mailed it via FedEx, which is conveniently now in a symbiotic relationship with Kinko’s.
(Still haven’t gotten my nap…. bah! Stupid Panicky T, worried about GSD)
7) Came home, ate leftover wings. Normally, I reheat leftovers, but Frantastic’s are delicious cold.
8) Called Allstate, because apparently they have nice hands that I would be good in. I secured a quote and a pending policy for the new house. (And yes, Mom, I got replacement insurance. 
)
9) Went to the doctor’s office for a re-evaluation of the ankle.
The doctor was pleased with how it’s coming along, as in there was no pain as he torqued it around. He also told me that the MRI showed a decent tear in one of the ligaments, and that I had a bone bruise, which explained the extra pain. So I really wasn’t a nancy pants. He gave me some instructions for rehabbing it, and made no mention of physical therapy, which I thought was great. And then he told me some great news: NO MORE BOOT. That’s right folks, das boot is gone. Now I get to wear the aircast for about a month, and he said I can try some regular exercising in a few weeks. Until then, plenty of stretching exercises. An unfortunate side effect of the aircast is that I have to wear socks, something I’ve managed to avoid since June 9th. So shoes are coming back. This also means I have to find the left shoes I haven’t worn since May 17th (Which shall forever be known in my heart as The Day God said, “See? See why running is bad for you? I smote you, but lovingly. Look, I even saved your sandwich…”)
Done for the day, I came home, talked to TLEMK via technology, and read a book. Now I’ve come to the part where past me has caught up to present me, and you know way more than you wanted to about my lazy (ish) summer day. Tomorrow some of the CU crew rolls in (I think) for the DMB weekend. And then the Fourth is upon us. Plans are currently up in the air, save for the Warrenville parade at 6 pm on Monday night. Always a good time, the parade is.
Also, a belated thank you to Chuck and Crissy for hosting a terrific getaway last weekend. It was a wonderfully relaxing time on Saturday, and no one screamed at the site of so much pasty white skin. I loved the water, the boat, and the company. I also enjoyed the trouncing of Kenny and Marc in cribbage.
So now you’re caught up. Back to reading for me. If you made it this far, you are either a glutton, or very nosy.
Jan 08
2006
Tony| Category: General, Home Improvement |
One of my secret endeavours (well, guess it’s not a secret anymore! {LAME ASIDE}) is to save money so that down the road, TLEMK and I can have nice things. I read several articles in the January issue of Money magazine (which I swiped from our workout room) that gave tips for cutting corners and pinching pennies, including a refresher article on how to use coupons at the grocery store most effectively. So yesterday I ran out to get the early edition of The Chicago Tribune so I could clip coupons of foods/stuff we need to buy. (I know this is rudimentary to many people, but remember, I’m trying to be more organized!) It turns out that there were a decent number of coupons this
week for our grocery list, and we saved about $3.50 on groceries we would have bought anyway.
But that’s not what this story is about.
We’ve been working hard on this as we get ready to buy a house, and recently realized that we need to actually put things in the house. As I perused through the coupons, I came across an ad for World Market, which is Crate and Barrel-lite crossed with the frufy food isle at your local grocery store. However, TLEMK and I had found a dining room table that we liked a couple weeks ago there, and were secretly pining for it. The ad included a 40% off coupon for any item in the store. Um, okay. Any? Even dining room tables?
Apparently, yes. This morning, we went out and talked with one of the friendly sales people, and they sold us the beautiful table. For 40% off. Which is good.
And then, we went back to “The Jewels” and bought another newspaper. And got another coupon. And golly gosh, they gave us another 40% off for the set of six chairs to go with the 40% off table.
Sadly, we don’t get to use it, because it won’t fit into our current dining room, and really, who wants to haul the dining room table up three flights of steps? We took it over to my parents’ place, and put the chairs into the garage attic. In April or May, it’ll be like a wonderful surprise!
Here’s a picture of the table:
Here’s a picture of the chair(s):
Back to homework. Can’t wait for Monday!!!
