Insignifica

happy end of august

Happy end of August!

Joel was lamenting last week about the reasons August kinda sucks. I tend to agree with him; it's generally holiday-less, it's usually hot and humid (we've been lucky this year), and it seems like a "nowhere-place" in between the summer and the fall. I'm sure it's nice if you've got a birthday in August, and I'm sure I didn't mind nearly as much as a kid, when it represented my last few weeks of vacation, but nowadays it's just...August.

And with that, it's almost over. Tomorrow begins september, and month that will hopefully see a home purchase, a camping vacation, and some great get-togethers with friends. It also begins another busy, busy period, including the camping and home-buying, there are birthdays, quick flooring installation and moving, a bachelor party, another birthday, a wedding, and a huge halloween party. They should be good times, but it'll still very busy.

happy birthday chris

Happy Birthday, Chris Clark!

How's 26 treatin' ya?

house and halloween

All seems to be going well with our home purchasing. There's all sorts of paperwork stuff (from our realtor, lender and escrow company), but the inspection is done and it's looking like we just need to keep signing the stuff they're putting in front of our faces.

One nice thing about knowing where I'll be living is that planning has begun in earnest for this year's Halloween party. We'll be holding it at my place instead of the neighborhood clubhouse, and it'll be Saturday, October 30. If I know you, and you'd like to come, shoot me off an email. It should be a great event - some people are crossing state lines to come.

Oh, and does anyone have a 55 gallon drum I can borrow?

weird weekend

Good, weird weekend - Friday started with a phone call from our lender, telling us that because I wasn't a credit union member, there may be a problem with our loan. Unfortunately, the only way to join is to be closely related. Since no one in my family was in that credit union, there was a chance I'd have to get married to join, and to get my loan. Luckily, this was resolved when the credit union decided the commitment to buy a house together was enough to allow me to join up too.

Had friends over Saturday for dinner and drinks, it'd been a while, so it was nice to just have a relaxing evening with friends (and a good turnout). Then my car (and my g/f's car) were vandalized Saturday night some time, but with no damage, just an annoyance. Sunday we went out and shopped for furniture, braved IKEA, and got some ideas. We're still not sure how we want to decorate the new place, but we definately need a new couch.

Monday we woke to find MacKenzie, our girl hamster, had chewed through her plastic wheel and jumped 3 feet in a daring escape. Since hamsters sleep most of the day, we knew we likely wouldn't catch her until that evening. We put a small amount of food and water in every room and closed the doors; this way we'd be able to tell where the hamster was when the food was missing. After no luck all night, I came to bed at 2 am to find the hamster on the flood of the bedroom, looking up at me. I cornered her and put her into her new maximum security cell. She's a tricky one.

parties and halloween

Parties are strange things. My girlfriend and I decided last year that we need to have get-togethers with friends more often; as we've gotten older, we don't see eachother as much as I'd like. We've been throwing a good deal of parties in the last year or so, but attendance has been slowly dropping - people either think "party" is too big a word for having friends over, or they would just rather stay at home. That's understandable - Sometimes all I want to do after a busy week is relax. But as Chris is fond of saying, when you're 80 you're going to remember the parties and dinners, not the nights home alone watching TV.

Instead of making a big deal about this weekend's get together, I just sent out an email, telling people we were having dinner and drinks. Turnout's looking to be better than we've had for a long time. I'm just thinking the word "party" is scary.

All of that said, I'm throwing probably the largest Halloween party I've ever done this year, mostly in the number of people invited. I'm debating whether to rent the new house's community clubhouse (which is large, but plain), or have it at my home, which is a little smaller but will make for a "busier" party. I'm already planning decorations, effects, props and costumes, and inviting people from all over the state (and some in other states). It'll be hard to beat the parties of the last two years, but I think we've got a good chance this year. If I know you, keep the date (October 30) open - I'd like to see you there.

buying for the house

It's always cool doing something new, but it's still very strange to be shopping for carpet and flooring, looking at model kitchens for ideas, and wondering how I should landscape.

One of the nice things about my house is that except for flooring, nothing needs to be done immediately. There are a lot of little things we'd like to do to the house (as well as a few big things), but it can all wait until we're established there a while. We are going to buy a couch (our old one is green, corduroy, and seems to weigh more than my car), and pipe dreams include a hot tub (they're much more expensive than I thought). If anyone out there has a hot tub they would like to donate, feel free.

house!

After several offers and counter-offers, we've reached a deal with the sellers, and entered into escrow today for the purchase of our condo. It's a rather daunting proces, but for the moment it's a lot of waiting, with some inspections and a lot of paperwork. It's all very exciting, though, having a place we can do with as we please. It seems like a great property, and I think we'll be happy there. Here's to debt!

poetic spam

Wow. This spam is pretty poetic.

Subject: evidential academy
From: "Lindsey Hooper" (dikxwfvmfaac@chat.ru)
Date: Tue, August 17, 2004 5:54 am
To: Bonnie (access@michris.com)

When polar bear related to sweeps the floor, guardian angel over meditates.He called her Bonnie (or was it Bonnie?).When spider about industrial complex wakes up, behind hand takes a coffee break.Bonnie and I took mortician from bride (with satellite inside grand piano, ball bearing defined by.

Not that I want to get any more, just thought this one flowed nicely.

mosuki

Earlier this year, I helped on a project for some friends called Mosuki - it's a Friendster-style group connections website, but with some awesome features the other similar sites don't have, like group calendaring. This allows connected people to list events so certain others in their group can see and join. It's like friendster, but useful =)

Become part of my Mosuki network! click here and join first if you aren't already a Mosuki member.

house offer

Exciting weekend! My girlfriend and I put an offer in on a condo near our current apartment. it's two bedrooms, 1.5 baths, with a fireplace, large patio, spiral staircase, and lots of room. It's got just about all the features we wanted in a condo (and could afford). It's nice also because the association allows you to pretty much do as you want in your unit, meaning major construction (if we want to change things) won't be a problem.

Now, we wait. We'll hear back today on a counter-offer from the seller, and hopefully we'll arrange something that works for both of us. I didn't think it would happen, but this place is actually CLOSER to work (for both of us) than our apartment. Nice neighborhood, too, with great facilities. First some waiting, then hopefully some paperwork, huge debts, and no more rent payments.

dear republicans

Dear Republicans,

According to the website for the RNC convention:

Republicans have a long and rich history with basic principles: Individuals, not government, can make the best decisions; all people are entitled to equal rights; and decisions are best made close to home.

Please start acting like it. Thank you.

Regards,

Michael Doss

stupid electoral college...

http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/states.html is a neat page, it lists the Electoral Votes and population of each state. In CA, each Electoral Vote represents 616,924 people. In Wyoming, each Electoral Vote represents 165,101 people. Your vote counts 3.73 times more in Wyoming than in California.

August 9 wrapup

Happy Monday! Had a nice relaxing weekend, finally back playing Strato, watched the Angels win a few games, saw lots of family and friends. Had to cancel Saturday's party, but there will be more - lots of birthdays coming up.

Man, shopping for houses sucks in OC. But it's home, so that's where I'm looking. Too bad the chances of my Communist Housing Plan working are just about nil.

Time seems to be moving faster; we're almost half way through August. Sometimes I have problems believing it's already 2004. You've got to take time every day to enjoy life - otherwise it'll just pass you by.

SUVs illegal

Chris will love this one from Slate: The Golden State has outlawed big SUVs on many of its roads but doesn't seem to know it.

The 6,000 pound limit is there for a good reason - heavy vehicles tear up streets, cause damage over the long term, endanger pedestrians and smaller vehicles, and makes noise. Next time you see that land yacht in your neighborhood, remember that it might there illegally, and you're paying more to repair your streets because of it.

thursday already, absent friends

Thursday already? Sometimes it feels like it's always Thursday.

Great new George Bush quote today: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

I know we like to highlight Bushisms, but I'm wondering if Clinton did the same. I'm sure he misspoke on occasion; he was President for 8 years. I'm willing to bet, though, that they don't come with the frequency of Bush's.

--

This question came up yesterday: How do pluralize "World Series" in writing?

This weekend's party has been cancelled...just about everyone else has something to do. It'd be nice if my friends and I could get together as a group more than once a month. At least there are some birthdays coming up. I don't like the idea of regularly scheduling something (like Every Saturday, or the last Friday of the month), but when we're old and grey, we're not going to remember the nights we sat at home, we're going to remember the good times we had together. Perhaps a monthly pot luck dinner, in addition to everything else.

I'd also like to get a group together to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I haven't been in ages, and there's a great cast just a few miles from here. Who's in?

santa cruz weekend wrapup

Great weekend trip to Santa Cruz - it'd been over a year since we'd been there, and it was good to reconnect with Tori, Colleen, and Alex. It's also nice to revisit all the restaurants we frequented while we lived there. I still think Pizza My Heart on Pacific Avenue has the best pizza I've ever tasted.

I got a mailing from my congressman, Edward R. Royce, yesterday. While I don't agree with his politics, I really like that he has regular meetings with his district, like the one coming up in two weeks at an area coffee shop. I think it's very cool that his constituants can just sit and talk with him - seems like it makes my government that much more accessable.

Check out Rob & Gang's latest "How much is inside?" Adventure: Goldschlager. Funny, as always.