Day One…

Day One

After hearing from Dave at New Star Equity Group (http://www.newstarequity.com/) that we are pre-approved for a home loan. We began our search.

Well Liz and I had a pretty productive day. We took time to look at 4 different places today. With very mixed results. We started over in Springfield just blocks from Mike and Maureen’s house. 

House #1. A nice little 2 bedroom place with a nice sized back yard that needed a lot of work. The guy selling it was obviously flipping the house. He’d lived there for 5 months and was really motivated to sell. He offered paying all of our closing costs to move the place. He was wanting out to move to portland. The only real issues with the house were it had zero storage, the floors also sloped in all directions in the house. not confidence inspiring. So we moved on, we weren’t feeling it. 

House #2. We met up with a realtor named Larry on a house that was in real disrepair. the bathroom alone was a deal breaker. the Toilet didn’t sit flush to the wall, and was sitting crooked in the middle of the floor. What??? wow it was bizarre to say the least. We got there as another realtor was showing the place so we had time to check the house out and look around unfettered. Needless to say we passed. 

House #3. A house set at the back of the property. We got in and the floors were poured concrete???? WOW, the guy who owned the house was all about the green earth and needless to say the house was interesting. The moisture in the shop area apparently wasn’t water, but the bio diesel the fellow makes himself for his Mercedes 300D. Each of the 2 Rooms were about 10×8 and the most. they were tiny and neither of them were square. they were rhombus shaped. We passed. 

House #4. This house really pulled and Liz and I in a big way. It was a nice little cottage about 1,000 sq ft. and had a 650 sq ft shop garage. The yard was completely fenced. The property had some heritage trees, rhododendron bushes and Rose bushes. the landscaping would need a good weekend of labor to make it pretty much finished. The place was yellow and blue (think Sweedish flag) stucco sided. The interior was fresh and looked nice. the Kitchen was terrific, nice little eating nook, island and full kitchen with new appliances. There was even a full RV parking area next to the building with electrical hookup. So what kept us from calling Dave and getting the ball rolling??? 6’6″ ceilings. It was LOW. Liz literally could not pass through doorways w/o ducking. So we talked about it and we were stoked about a lot of the house, but the ceilings were a deal breaker. 

So a productive Day 1. We saw some yes, that might be what we’re looking for and we got a good look at a HELL NO!! So it was good. We had a nice time to reflect on what we saw, and it opens up a great discussion point for Liz and I. We got talking about what we’ve seen and our likes and dislikes. So the quest continues. The fact that we get to look with out pressure is great. 

We’ll keep looking and we’ll see what happens…

Release the Lease! 

 

Our New Chloe

Well Liz ad I went to Greenhill ( http://green-hill.org )to look at a cat named Draco . He is a linx point siamese. But when we got into the kitten room with him he was very very shy and very not into coming out and playing. All of the other kittens in the room were climbing all over us and were going bonkers. We got him out of the cat box and after spending about 20 minutes with him we didn’t feel that connection we were looking for. So Liz got up to get feeling back into her legs and tapped on the glass and said, “there’s another kitten room over here”. So I got out of the room and we went in. Liz heard a kitten playing in a krinkle box at her feet. ran her finger over the surface to feel a paw tapping back. She reached into the krinkle box and pulled out this orange tabby that had the cutest face and immediately snuggled into liz’s check and stared at us. I got handed the kitten and she did the same but now looking at liz. And like when we got Buckley we just immediately knew. yep this is our new cat. She’s 4 months old and about 4#’s right now. Her ears are about 1/8 inch shorter than sherlocks and her tail is almost as long as her body. Her paws are ji-normous and she’s got big bunny feet (back legs) and Liz and I are thinking that she’s gonna be BIG!! So far he’s getting along with the other, but Sherlock is not amused and Buckleys is very confused. She’s careful around sherlock and yesterday hissed and got all puffy when Buckley walked by, but today she sniffed him twice so we’re thinking she’s smart and relaxing around the pooch. 
Needless to say sherlock is still not amused. 
But she’s super duper cute and very snuggly. 

 

12mph not bad…13mph is better!!

Yes it’s true, I did my north loop and I shaved 5 minutes off the run this weekend. Running that through the calculator (no I don’t do this in my head) calculates to 13.012 mph. Let me tell you I was whipped all day. But it was pretty sweet all in all.

 

My Path for 30th Hill climbs

After posting my 12 Mph blog, I thought I’d post my 90 minute ride that goes up and over 30th Street hill. Enjoy

 

12 MPH…Not Too Shabby

Well I did my long weekend ride this morning. I didn’t push it to the maximum, to the point where I’m needing to stop, instead this mornings ride was much more rhythmic. I left home and rode the first half mile or so in what I call 2-3 gear. That is the second front sprocket (middle) and the 3rd gear on the cog in back. After making the turn on Garden Way I had just set my iPod shuffle to random and I really started in earnest. I shifted up to 2-5. for those who are interested, the higher the # on either gearing the more difficult it is to crank the pedals. So I got locked in on 2-5 and I was feeling the die in a good way. Getting a good breathing rhythm going and a nice smooth pace. I turned and went over the Harlow Bridge, past Gateway Mall, Left on Crescent and past Costco and out to Home Depot. Continuing on the trek (no pun intended, I ride a Trek Navigator 50) out past Marist HS, the Valley River car dealers, and around the Valley River Center. Continued to the Alton Baker Park and back home in front of the Autzen Stadium. All time total was 1 hour 1 minute. It’s a nice loop and a very good workout. I’ve attached a Google Earth View of my ride. So I was feeling it today and it was a good albeit a cold ride. My toes were cold and my finger tips were cold, but a great and beautiful ride all in all.

 

Post Op

Well it’s been almost a week since my surgery. It went really really well. I got to the hospital at 5AM ,holy crap!, seriously what is up with that? I got really anxious about 6am, started freaking out a bit. Thank the Goddess for Elizabeth. She got me all calmed down and out of my horribly heading funk. I think it was based on my two previous Hospital visits. My kidney stone of 2000 and my gall bladder like attack last year. Both times weren’t pleasant. So I started to think this was going to be the same as before. I was freaking out big time. So after getting calmed down, thanks to Liz, things went pretty good from there. I got some cool stuff when I was there. I got these little cool brown socks with rubber grippy bottoms. I told the first nurse that I really liked them and she sneaked me a couple of extra pairs. Sweet!!!. So now I’ve got 3 pairs. I don’t know how long they will last they seem partially temporary, but for as long as I have them they will be worn with full comfort!!! So I got moved over to the holding area. There I met some really great nurses and people. I met my anesthesiologist (wow, i spelled that correctly on the first try), but he got pulled away for a trauma issue. So I waited with 4 magazines all of the good housekeeping type. All was good, got some good reading in. the unfortunate issue with the magazines was that there are a lot of food ads and recipes. I was fasting for over 12 hours at that point. It really sucked. Beyond that, my day went really well. I re-met the Dr.’s and got moved to the operating room. There I got hopped onto the table. Man was is comfortable. They had it all laid out for me to lay face down with my face is this contoured foam pillow. I’m telling you the truth, I could have fallen asleep. It was like a massage table. So the surgery went really well. A fair amount of pain actually. I was under the medications and all but there was still a lot of pain involved. the cyst went a different direction than I think Dr. Yarbrough thought. it went deep instead of wide. All in all it went Ok. Some strange sensations in the head though. So I got moved back to ‘holding’ where I got apple juice and graham crackers. I told the nurse that I felt like I was in kindergarten again. All I needed was a nap pad and my binki. (that’s right I said binki.)

So I got all hopped up on vicodin, and some advil derivative, and went to Snack Shack. Had a delicious Garden burger and back home to sleep for a few hours. Got to hang out in the comfy chair (those who have sat in it, you know what I’m talking about) watch some F1, Play some PlayStation, watch a few movies. take more vicodin. So all in all it went OK. I’ve got some numbness above the incision, but it’s going really well. Still some puffiness, some bruising, soreness, but all in all it’s going really well.

So that’s the report. I put this in both the life stuff and The Thinner Man (technically I’m about 2 oz lighter with the removal so it counts)

 

The Slippery Slope just got oiled again

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Democratic-led Congress yielded to President Bush on Saturday and approved legislation to temporarily expand government’s power to conduct electronic surveillance without a court order in tracking foreign suspects.

President Bush demanded Congress expand his surveillance authority before leaving for vacation.

Civil liberties groups charged the measure would create a broad net that would sweep up law-abiding U.S. citizens.

But the House of Representatives gave its concurrence to the bill, 227-183, a day after it won Senate approval, 60-28.

The action came amid warnings of possible attacks on the United States.

“After months of prodding by House Republicans, Congress has finally closed the terrorist loophole in our surveillance law — and America will be the safer for it,” declared House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

“We think it is not the bill that ought to pass,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. But he conceded he and fellow Democrats were unable to stop the measure in this national security showdown with the White House.

“Protecting America is our most solemn obligation,” Bush said earlier in the day in urging Congress to send him the bill so he could sign it into law. The measure would authorize the National Security Agency to intercept without a court order communications between people in the United States and foreign targets overseas.”

Two things I loved in this little tid-bit:

1. “amid warnings of possible attacks on the United States.”. What? When isn’t this country being threatened? I’m sure that there’s not a day in reality when someone really pissed at the USA isn’t planning something. But the part that I’m more concerned about it that this deals with the ‘threat’ of foreign actions. Really? I’m thinking this ‘possible attacks’ part will quickly include the interior of the USA too. And, I’m guessing here, it’s gonna happen in about 20 minutes. Reading emails that are between people in the ‘USA and foreign targets overseas’. What are we looking at the Taliban Myspace account here? How do they know which emails to watch? Answer: they don’t. they watch all of them. From the AT&T Employee Mark Klein said of the NSA filtering rooms in San Francisco, “Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA’s spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA’s charter or with FISA,” Klein’s wrote. “And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals’ phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.”

2: George Orwell might have been right with 1984, just a few decades off that’s all.

my 2¢

 

Baby’s got new shoes

Part of my new work out which is primarily made up of Bicycle riding, is my new shoes and pedals. They are super cool. The new shoes are black and silver with metal cleats that are counter sunk. They clip into the pedals with a super resounding and confidence inspiring “clunk”. The warning from the technician Emily @ auls bike shop was to make sure to unclip your feet when you stop. They mentioned something like a 3 to 4 ‘Dork falls’. Those are the ones where you stop at a traffic light and tip over because you’re on your way to the ground while you’re still trying to get you foot off the pedal. So far no falls

But what do these shoes provide me? some push and some pull and some steady feet when I’m getting a little tired and sloppy. Really it helps make my riding a little more efficient. It offers a good pull on the foot, and a good push. Allowing for some serious hill climb ability. I did my long hill ride again, more on that later, but the shoes really seem to help a lot on smaller hills. I took the Defazio bridge in 2 gears higher than normal. It was a good time.

The big hill climb, it was a great ride, hard but great. I took off early, yes I set my clock, and got riding early. I took the garden way road over the south Alton Baker park way into Springfield. I took off from Springfield and back over the A street bridge and back into Eugene. I continues my journey over and south to 30th avenue to Lane Community College. At this point I got to reach for my new water bottle. I took a good gulp, and checked my watch 7:40 am. I started my accent onto 30th. I’ve ridden my bike over 30th avenue hill once before. about 6 weeks ago if I remember correctly. It took just about all I could give on that ride. I was whipped. I had to stop about 5 maybe 6 times on that ride. It was all I could do to make it up that hill. I did eventually make it up the hill. But I didn’t and wasn’t able to get home. But this ride was different.

I did have to stop once on the ride up the hill. I need to remember a good pace. so I stopped, got my water, got my breath, set the gearing for the lowest hill climb gears that I’ve got and whala!!! I made it up and over without stopping. 20 minutes all in all. 20 minutes from Lane Community College to Hilyard Street. To me this seems amazing. I was pretty stoked. I made the rest of the ride home, back into the town and back home. I was really pleased that I made it home this time. Didn’t need to call Liz for a pickup this time. I was pretty happy when I got home. I had an incredible endorphin rush going. It’s getting a bit addictive. I was in a sweet spot. I really had something there. I felt like I could have ridden another 30 minutes or so. I felt it was a good spot to stop and enjoy the rush of success.

So as of this posting I’m officially at 381#’s down from 436# In March. so 55#’s down and a lot more to go. so this is the beginning of my logging and blogging of my workouts and my weight loss. Hopefully it will be of some importance to myself and possibly others.

 

Pre-Surgery jitters

Well it’s 10:08pm on 8//1/2007 when I write this on my macbook. I’m stressing about a few things but especially the fact that I’m getting my neck cut open in about 8 hours. But I’ve done it before. it was in 1996 if I recall properly. But this time it’s different. It’s different because I’m married to Elizabeth. This week I was surprised that she wanted to get our wills notarized. I immediately started freaking out (big surprise). It was a totally logical thing to do, it just had a little extra impact that it coincided with my surgery. But it’s all good all in all. I’m just a little anxious about going to the Surgeon in the AM. I know this seems a little vauge but I guess it’s just a good sounding board. I guess that’s the purpose of the blog thing in the first place. I guess the importance of what happens to me and then really what happens to Elizabeth in case something happens to me is what this is really about. And why this surgery is completely different than that of previous years. I guess it puts into sharp relief one’s love and commitment to each other. and I guess part of why this is being written is for me to say to Liz, and let her konw just how much I love her.

 

RIAA, boy they do piss me off sometimes

From Slashdot:
RIAA Forces YouTube to Remove Free Guitar Lessons
Journal written by Bushido Hacks (788211) and posted by Zonk on Saturday July 07, @01:21AM
from the quit-trying-to-learn-things-you-ungrateful-grubs dept.

Bushido Hacks write “Is it so wrong to learn how to play the guitar? According to NPR, a record company ordered YouTube to remove videos of a man who offered to show people how to play the guitar for free. One of the songs that he taught was copyrighted, and as a result over 100 of his videos were removed from the internet. ‘Since he put his Web site up last year, he has developed a long waiting list for the lessons he teaches in person. And both he and Taub say that’s still the best way to learn. If someone tells Sandercoe to take down his song lessons, he says he will. But his most valuable videos are the ones that teach guitar basics — things like strumming, scales and finger-picking. And even in the digital age, no one holds a copyright on those things.’ How could this constitute as infringement if most musicians usually experiement to find something that sounds familiar?”

Wow this is going a little too far I think. I mean I would never have learned the music I did without, gee I don’t know…A FREAKING LESSON!!!! Be it in person, or online. I’ve learned how to play songs by other friends and watching and listening to other people. I wonder how far the RIAA will go… Will It soon be illegal to listen to a copyrighted song and figure it out for yourself? Technically you’re learning someone else’s song. Am I gonna get sued for showing my friend how to play it? Wow this is way too much.