been a long time

I haven't had much time to post anything. I've been so busy at home and work...

Spooky video!

This is a car advertisement from somewhere. When they finished filming the ad, the people who made it noticed something moving along the side of the car, like a ghostly white mist, they also heard weird noises. The ad was never put on TV because the unexplained ghostly phenomenon frightened the production team out of their wits. Watch it and about halfway look and you will see the white mist crossing in front of the car then following it along the road and you will hear the weird noises. . . spooky!

http://media.skoopy.com/vids/vid_00208.wmv

Well, it’s official. We are home owners once again.

We actually closed on the 18th, and are moving in on the 26th. Got all the utilities turned on and Brighthouse coming out on the 1st of March so we can watch TV and surf the net again. Can’t wait!!! Tracy got the keys this morning, and dropped off the check for the Refrigerator and they were moving their stuff out while she was there, so we know they’ll be out by the time we go to move in. It’s actually been a pleasure dealing with them, they’ve been nothing but nice to us. That makes things so much easier.

Magic VS Hornets

Looks like another nail-biter. The Magic won a tough game against the Hornets, the worst team in the league. Glad I missed it. Actually, I blame myself for them losing so much recently. Since I’ve been living with relatives, I’ve watched 2 games at the house in the passed two months. Before I moved, I watched just about every game and they were doing great. So as soon as I get settled into the new house, the Magic will start winning again. I hope… You got to wonder if the trade, Kristy for Mobley was a bad move. Kind of broke up the team chemistry. We’ll see. They have to get ready for the second half of the season which is separated by the NBA all star weekend. This is when teams really get serious, and start playing better basketball. By this time most teams are used to one another, and start meshing. The Magic definitely need to do the same.

Deep Throat returns to the theaters

With its toned down “R” rating, you can bring the kids!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6934671/

Update

The seller is going to sell us the house for what it appraised for: $205,000 That’s a great deal for this place. We're pretty happy with that. We really didn’t think they were going to go down that low, but I’m guessing that they’re motivated to get into another place.

So today was the home inspection and it went well. No Termites!!! Everything else looked good too. There are a few cosmetic repairs that need to be done, but they seem simple enough. Now we need to look into getting a refrigerator, washer and dryer, and some living room furniture. That's the fun part :)

Here we go again!!

I can’t believe this crap!!!

Is in even possible to purchase a house for a fair price these days? The last house that we just made an offer on did not appraise! We don’t know what it appraised for yet, but it may be significantly lower than what the seller originally was asking, so we don’t how they’ll react. Part of me just wants to buy it anyway because we like it and we really need a house. But on the other hand, we don’t want to over-pay either. This sucks. The best thing that can happen is that it appraises for just under what the seller was asking so it wont be that bug a deal for them to lower the price and get the deal done. If it appraises much lower, we may have problems because the seller may have been counting on that money for their next house, and need to try to find someone else that’s willing to pay that price for the house. Either way, he’s under a bit more stress than we are since he HAS TO sell this house to purchase his new house. He even scheduled the closing on his new house on the same day we’re closing on the one he’s selling. So, we’ll see what happens. My Realtor is supposed to call me this afternoon with the exact numbers. The appraiser could only tell us that the house didn’t appraise, she didn’t have the paper work on her so she didn’t know the exact price. So that’s that. Now we just have to wait and see what the seller says.

Something else I learned: The seller put a lot of work into the house so that’s why he was asking for the $219,500.00 even though the last sale in that area for the same size house was only 200k. He put in a new Kitchen that supposedly cost him 30k, new roof, new plumbing, new tile throughout the house. Well, apparently this stuff doesn’t add a whole lot of value to a house. Sure it will make it sell faster, but it will not make the property worth much more than a house that didn’t have these things done. It does help a bit, but not $20,000 more. Houses and upgrades done to them depreciate, it’s the land value appreciates.

We finally found a house...I think

We finally found a house. It’s in Altamonte Springs off Montgomery near 434. The traffic isn’t the greatest in that area, but the house is very nice. 4 bedroom 2 bath, 1871 sqft. Built in 1974. It’s on a ¼ acre lot, new kitchen, and appliances, great schools. We can’t wait to get in. Closing is on the 18^th of February, but they said that they’ll through in the refrigerator if we let them stay until the 26^th. That works because we didn’t want to have to buy a refrigerator if we didn’t have to. We have limited funds to furnish the place. So hopefully nothing will go wrong with this place like it did on the other two.

Xupiter

This is a great article on Xupiter. You will laugh your ass off.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html

In case anyone out there dosen't know what Xupiter is go to: www.xupiter.com Get ready for a wild ride!!

Still no luck

Tracy and I looked at a house in Lake Mary this weekend. They wanted 200,000 for it which is a good price. Pretty nice house, 1900 sqft, 3 bedroom 2 bath, extra room for an office. So we decide that we’re going to make and offer. Our Realtor says that this is going to be a big bidding war, guess everyone else liked it too. We go to his office to start the paper work to make our offer. When we get there, the Mortgage Broker tells us that we need to read the disclosure for the house before making the offer. She says we need to see section 17 specifically. Backyard floods just about every time it rains, and they had over 2 feet of water in the house one time. Needless to say, we didn’t make an offer. That really sucks, but can you imagine buying the place without knowing about that. That would be a nightmare. So we’re looking again. Our Realtor, John, sent me a couple of listings this morning that he’s going to check out for us. Hope something comes up soon.

fun fun fun!!

Lice

Went to the Oviedo Mall last night so the kids to do that Power Jump thing they have set up in the food court area. It’s pretty cool. They attach bungee cords to the kids, strap them into a harness that keeps them from flipping, and let them jump on a Trampoline that allows them to jump about 30 feet into the air.

We get home from the Mall around 9:00pm, and our oldest says that her head is itchy. A closer inspection reveals head Lice…both of my kids have it. So this means that the entire house needs to be treated with Rid, along with everyone in the house. It would have been a lot better to find them a bit earlier in the evening. Keep in mind that we are staying with someone until we find a house. It’s pretty embarrassing to say the least. At one point we had two screaming children pissed off that they had to keep the chemical shampoo in their hair, and have someone pick through it with a fine tooth comb. I blame it on those sea monkeys that they brought home last week. I opted to shave my head instead of doing the treatment. That’s a lot easier.

There’s not a whole lot new with the house hunting situation. Not a lot of new properties yet this week…hope that changes soon. I really don’t mind staying where we’re at, but I’m sure they would like their privacy back.

Buying a house? Better read this first:

For some reason I feel the need to document this. I guess that I’m hoping that one day we will read this and laugh.

November 12th
So, we started looking, but didn’t sell our house yet.

November 22nd
We found a house in Tuscuwilla made an offer, and got it. Then the seller decided he didn’t want to sell the house because he was pissed off that his wife was divorcing him or something.

December 13th
Our house sells for way more than we thought it would!! Great news. We really couldn’t wait to get out of that place, and now we have money to put down on the next house. Buyer says that they will rent the place back to us. That’s awesome, now we don’t have to move twice!

December 16th
Found a nice house in Longwood in a great little subdivision.

December 17th
Made an off of 217,000. They’re asked 218,900, but they accepted it.

Later that week
Buyer says that she needs to be in our house on the 23rd of December. We did not have anything in the contract that said that she had to rent the place back from her. So now we’re packing up and moving out just two days before Christmas, but this is not too bad because we’re staying with the in-laws, and we save some money by not having to rent our house back.

December 23rd
We get the news that the in-laws are not getting along, and are splitting up. We decide to stay for Christmas and leave on the 26th to go stay with Michele (my niece) and her husband, and one of my best friends John.

December 26th
Moved in with John and Michele and their three boys ranging in ages from 2 – 11. Including my kids that’s 9 of us under one roof. It’s all good though. Oh, and two dogs that didn’t get along at first, but they’re friends now.

Later that week
The house in Longwood did not appraise. But, since this is a conventional loan, the bank doesn’t care as long as you’re putting money down. We liked the house, and the area. This ends up being a mistake later, but it works out ok.

Week of January 10th (pretty much Monday through Friday)
The Title Company calls and says that we need an additional $3,600 at closing because this is the difference between what the loan is for and what the house appraised for. No one saw this coming…we didn’t want to come up with the money because the though the seller should go down on the price since the house didn’t appraise. We tell them that we wont buy the house unless they lower the price, and explained why. Maybe they’ll understand that it’s not us, it’s the bank. We went back and forth a few times, and the seller finally decided to lower the price. On Friday, the seller calls the realtor, and says that the want the house appraisal re-done because they felt the house is worth the extra $4,000. We started think that we were willing to pay this 217,000 for the house even though it didn’t appraise, we just didn’t do it because of the extra money they wanted at closing. Maybe we should see if someone will appraise it higher, then the bank will finance the entire price minus the money we’re putting down. After a few hours of discussions at my desk with co-workers and with Tracy and the Realtor, we decided to call it quits, and cancel the contract.

Today
Looking for another house.

So, that’s the story, I’m sure no one will read this, and that’s okay because most of it doesn’t make sense. Actually looking at houses is very fun, it's just the buying part that's a pain in the ass. We are very optimistic, and we will find something soon. I’m sure.

Lunch and stuff

Went to Uno's with Tracy, Jen and James. That place is awesome. There’s not much on the menu that doesn’t look good. We all had various Chicken Gorgonzola buffalo baked quesadilla sandwiches and such.

I learned the international sign for: “please wait, I have food in my mouth” Take whichever hand you have available, and point all fingers towards your face. Open and close them like you’re simulating something sucking on your face, like a space alien. People will always know what you mean when you do this with food in your mouth. Trust me. Thanks to Jen!!

We’re getting closer to the closing of the house in Longwood, 1-21-05. Can’t wait to get this over with, just knowing all the stuff we have to do bothers me, especially moving the stuff from storage to the new place. That’s gonna suck, then unpacking, trying to find time to paint and whatever…but I’ll be glad to get it over with. Having my own place again makes all that stuff worth while :)

Mastodon: Leviathan

Mastodon

All lyrics on this CD are based on the Herman Melville novel, Moby Dick. This is a great Metal record. Melodic guitar, tons of monstrous riffs, and the singer doesn’t scream in every song. Favorites are Blood and Thunder and Seabeast. In Blood and Thunder, they get some assistance from the leas singer of Clutch on the chant: White whale - Holy Grail!!

More lyrics from this tune:

Split your lungs with blood and thunder
When you see the white whale
Break your backs and crack your oars men
If you wish to prevail
This ivory leg is what propels me
Harpoons thrust in the sky
Aim directly for his crooked brow And look him straight in the eye

This is a great record all the way through, and the musicianship is amazing, these guys really know how to play. Some of the songs are pretty complex but not overly complicated which in my opinion, make bands hard to listen to. It's a good mix, easy to listen to, and complicated enough for other Musicians to enjoy.

Finally, a good rock band from the UK

Orange Goblin

I can't think of any, although I'm sure there have been a few good rock bands from the UK since Deep Purple, and Sabbath. These guys are very much like the bands I just mentioned. Bassist, Martyn Millard has that Geezer Butler style overtone to his sound, which I like a lot, and gives that Sabbath sound to the band. The Guitars are very distorted and chunky, most of the riffs are more on the Blackmore side. There are a few Southern Rock sounding songs as well. If I had to make any modern day comparisons, I would say they would be in the same genre as Monster Magnet, Clutch, and COC. Very cool stuff. If you like listening to old school rock and roll, check these guys out.

Moving tomorrow

Moving out of Sanford tomorrow. Going to stay with Tracys Mom for a few days, then we're off to Debary until the 22nd of Jan. The person that was supposed to help us has to work, so it's just Tracy and I. I should have hired movers. I think we'll be okay, there's not too much to move, we got rid of lots of stuff that we didn't want anymore.

done deal

We close on the new house on Jan 22nd!!

House hunting update

We made an offer on a house yesterday in Longwood. The subdivision is called CHELSEA PLACE. Nice house with a big backyard. 4 bedrooms, 2 bath. 1933 Sqft, Granite Countertops, Volume Ceilings, huge Florida room. It was built in 1995.

My realtor says that we have a verbal agreement with the seller saying that they will accept our offer, but I won’t believe it until I’m actually at closing signing the paperwork because of what happened to us before with the last house we had on contract.

House hunting again.

Sold our house for more than we wanted for it, then that guy that we were buying our next house from backed out saying he didn't want to sell anymore. He's getting sued by his realtor, and possibly us. Not really sure if it's worth the headache or not. Anyway, been looking again, hope to find something soon, we're going to be staying with the in-laws until we do.

Turkey sucks

I’ll never make a Turkey for Thanksgiving again. I'm begining to think that I dont even like Turkey. The white meat is almost always too dry, and there’s not enough dark meat. I tried something different to see if it would make a difference. I brined the Turkey overnight in the refrigerator in salt and brown sugar. I cooked it on the grill as well, not sure if that could make it better or worse. I placed an aluminum try under the grates of the grill. I put a cut up onion, and a couple of cups of water in the pan, then set the Turkey above the try so the juices don’t drip down into the fire. I guess it could have tuned out worse, but I'm going with the honey baked ham next year. I’m thinking about making either Turkey Tetrazzini or cacciatore with the leftovers.