Dave’s Good Stuff

The deal went through! The only major thing they wanted to change was the close date. Instead of May 27th, they want May 20th… so I’ll be an official homeowner in a little over three weeks! Inspections will be tight… but That gives me the entire summer to move in, though I think I’m going to try to get all the major stuff moved in a single trip with a truck. There are certain considerations there that I feel obligated to… well… consider, but at the same time, I’m ready to move into my new house.

I’ll probably set a weekend sometime mid June to move out completely. I’ll box up and slowly move smaller things over, like books, CD’s, things I don’t use every day - non furniture items, etc. That’ll make the final big move easier.

Crazy.

• series_part: 3

The house I’ve been looking at is looking more and more like a possibility… maybe even a likelihood. The current owners are definitely willing to work with us, and what they plan to do to the house in terms of repairs and remodeling is exactly what I was hoping… in fact, they’re going a little farther than I want them to, which will save them some work and money. I met with the lender last night and filled out the load application. That went well, if a little overwhelming. I’m meeting with my realtor today at noon to whip up an offer to get to them today. After that, it’s inspection after inspection and finally closing 30-45 days later. I might see if I can push back the close date to the end of June/beginning of July to minimize me doubling up on rent/house payment for too many months. We’ll see how that goes.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. It’s a great 3BR/2B split level with a large 2 car garage, a corner lot, a fenced in backyard. There *might* be room for a pool table in the upstairs living room… but if not, I’m not too concerned about it. While it would have been nice, it’ll be a while before I can afford the table I want anyway, and by then, I will probably be able to afford a larger house.

• series_part: 2

… and I’m going to owe a lot here real soon like. I’m pushing paperwork through two different mortgage lenders, and I just got word back from the first (within a very quick 4 hours of sending in the pre-approval paperwork). Seems I’m fully approved for at least $150,000! I was a little worried, given a couple things that happened in my not so recent past, but said worry was apparently needless. I’m meeting with the lender tomorrow to talk over some of the details. I’ll get those, and then compare those to the other lender and go from there. In the race between the two, the response time has definitely kicked the first into first place. The numbers will, of course, be the final judge.

I’m still pretty excited, though. She said I get an A+ for getting them everything they asked for up front, and then some. Not having to track me down for more information probably helped them get it done so quickly.

• series_part: 14

I’m below 200lbs for the first time in 6 years. I noticed this a couple of weeks ago, after several people asked me if I was losing weight. It actually felt a lot better than I thought when I weighed myself and saw those numbers. I’m not fat, but I do have some extra weight where I don’t really need it. Thing is, when I noticed it, I hadn’t done anything as far as increasing my activity level. All I’d done is cut out Mountain Dew, and cut coffee back. Where before it was 4-6 cans a day, I went to zero, and where it was 3-4 cups a day, I went to 1, and plan to cut that down to zero as well. That was enough to get below 200lbs.

Now I’m notivated… Until I got my car 5-6 years ago I was pretty fit. I rode my bike everywhere, worked out several times a week, and felt pretty good. Now I’m… not so fit. I have, however, repaired the bike (the first ride, late at night, was very very cool!), gotten back into racquetball, and am looking at memberships to a couple fitness centers here in KC. I’ll probably save that for after the house purchase due to the price, but it’s definitely on the horizon. I’ve been thinking about a home weight system, but a gym membership has the weights (and better ones, at that) as well as racquetball courts, swimming pools, and a mess of other things to boot. I’ll likely go that way, rather than take up space at home with equipment I (if I’m going to be honest with myself) may or may not actually use.

As for where I want this to go, my goal is to get back down to between 165lbs. and 175lbs., to be able to ride 20 miles or play 3 hours of hard racquetball again w/o feeling like I’m going to die. I think I can make that happen… it’s just a matter of time.

It’s not going to be cheap, but it’ll be so nice to finally have my own home, that I’m not renting (read: tossing money into the shitter), and that I can do with as I please (within bounds of the law, that is - though there won’t be any neighborhood association for me to deal with, that’s a deciding factor). I’ve got the preapproval paperwork, which I’ll fill out and send back in over the next couple of days. I’ve picked out a dozen or so initial houses, sent them to my agent, and she’s doing some research on them now to get their status, and set up appointments for viewing. I’m a bit concerned about the finances, as I don’t have that much right now (> $10,000). I’d like to have a nice down payment, but I just don’t have the cash right now. I’ll work it out there, though. I’m concerned, but not worried.

There are a lot of other things going on right now, which contribute to my thoughtful mood, none of which I’ll go into here. For those who know us, reading between the lines on our blogs will tell the tale, for the rest, you really probably don’t care anyway. Suffice to say, for now, that I stole the idea for listing music and mood from livejournal (where I have an account, which I just don’t use). I’m thinking about working out some sort of cross-posting tool between this site and that… I know it can be done, but I’ll have to work on it.

Until next time…

• series_part: 1

I got my bike back yesterday, as well as new front and rear lights and an air pump. I was so looking forward to breaking it back in (even got new shoes), but with the wind gusting at +30 and the rain that came later, it just wasn’t meant to be.

On another front, my lease is up at the end of July, and instead of continuing down the rental route and throwing money into the shitter, I’ve gotten in touch with a couple people who are going to help me look for a house in KC. One is a friend and co-worker, the other is a full on real estate agent. I’m a bit short on time, so I may end up renting again for a while until I find a house… but we’ll see. Gawd, I hate moving.

Last night marks the close of a chapter in my life. I played my last APA match last night, at least for the foreseeable future. Moving to KC has kinda put my regular pool schedule in a bit of turmoil until I find some local teams to play on. I love playing on the Lawrence teams, but the drive is a little more inconvenient than I thought it would be. I’ll stay on my Monday night in-house BCA-style league, but I’m going to drop the APA sanctioned leagues. The one is based at the Pool Room in Lawrence, and can’t really be replaced, while the path to Vegas can easily be found elsewhere… if not as easily traversed.

As for the match itself, it was pretty rough at first. It took me a while to wake up. I’m pretty sure my teammates were worried about me. It was a 46-38 race, and he was a few balls ahead of me at 23-24 a few racks in. That’s when I woke up. Actually, I got pissed. I’d been missing easy shots, playing horrid shape, and generally sleeping through the match. I came back, and when they called "Match!" I had him 46-24. At that point, I was completely into the zone, and had no idea how much time had passed, and had it firmly in my mind that I was still catching up from behind. Not so much. I put away almost two and a half unanswered racks. I felt a little bad for him after the fact, when I found out that it was his last APA match also.

Coincidentally, my last APA match was played against the very same guy against whom I have my very first 8-ball break-n-run. Charles is really a nice guy, one of my favorites at the Pool Room. I’ll miss seeing him as often as I used to.

I took my ‘92 Giant Perigee road bike into the shop today. I’m getting it worked over but good by a bike mechanic… I’ve thought about it off and on for the last week or so, and today I woke up and decided to lay down the cash to get it tuned up right. It’ll take about two weeks, and I honestly cannot wait to have it back. I’ve been thinking about the days when I used to ride everywhere (didn’t have a car), and about how fit I was… I want that back! I want to feel the wind in my face again!

While I was there I was looking around at some of the other bikes, and damn, but some of them are truly beautiful. The frames look wonderfully sleek, the wheels are shaped for both speed and strength, the gear switches are placed so much better and the simple curve of the handle-bars is better suited for long rides. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at something at the store and wanted it so much I could taste it. If my taxes come back right, and I find I really do enjoy riding like I used to (barring the first few wheezing trips out), I’m probably going to use that money to buy a nicer road bike. I *was* going to use it on a new laptop, but I’m thinking… no. For now, I’m spending a little bit to test the waters a bit and make sure I’m not just remembering the good times, and forgetting the nasty.

The mechanic I gave the bike to today was the same one that worked on it years and years ago. The same one that gave the bike mechanic classes I took. He’s in a different repair shop now, given that the repair shop I met him in is no longer in business… but it was really cool to see someone I used to know while taking the first steps back into something I used to love.

Saturday, April 03, 2004 0:00

My Handicap: King
Matches:

1. 1-5 (7K-5Q) L
2. 6-4 (6Q-6Q) W
3. 8-1 (8K-4J) W
4. 4-5 (7K-5Q) L

My Place: n/a
My Winnings: n/a