PAARI - A

Photos At A Random Interval

I am totally ripping off the POTRTP idea from 86Words.com ... but it just works better than a set time frame.
Hopefully they don't mind. Isn't "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?" :-)

Chalk written on a sidewalk in a local park

My intention is to see if I can capture a photo of all of the letters of the alphabet,
in order, and each from a different place/style/etc. This is the first of those.
Other PAARI may have nothing to do with this.

Parks, Hidden Parks, and more

As always, its been a busy few days

This past weekend Em and I took in the few hours of nice weather and went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens (where they had the orchid show a few months ago). Along with all of the really cool plants and gardens that they always have they also are featuring artwork for the Niki collection. The huge and ornate sculptures were pretty amazing.

Em's favorite Niki sculpture


The ever-hungry koi and irises


Another Niki sculpture and some cool glass floating things

Later that night, Em and I went to Bailey Chocolate bar to formally and finally fully celebrate her getting her new job. The place had a great atmosphere and the food/drinks were really good. Em had a couple mojito sorbet martinis to drink while I had a very crisp New Belgium Sunshine Wheat and a Young's Double Chocolate Stout (very intense and filling, but good). To munch on we had a sampling of cheeses (a camembert, a drunken goat cheese and one other) that came with assorted nuts, fruit and breads. For desert we had a delicious banana split that had Baileys ice cream and more chocolate.

Today Em and I both gave blood at our church after work and then, after dinner, we walked over to a local park. We had heard that there was a little park tucked away behind another church within walking distance but hadn't ever seen it or knew exactly how to get to it. Well, tonight we found it and were quite surprised. It was much larger than we anticipted, very close to our apartment, and featured among other things: tennis courts, basketball courts, a large pond with fountain and a bridge, two gazebos, well kept up gardening and a large playground. Not bad for being within a mile of our place. Too bad we just found. To go along with the other things, we also saw a ton of wildlife including a duck with ducklings, tons of large tad poles, tons of small fish, bunnies, and a large deer with one antler.

Twin Oaks Presbyterian through the trees

In house news .... there really isn't much news. We have our final walkthrough a week from today and in 10 days we close! Finally. Tonight I did clear up one thing related to taxes and insurance. Evidently I was actually thinking about it correctly, but thought I wasn't. With our lender, we pay slightly ahead on our taxes each month which are collected into an escrow account until November when they are paid. Rinse and repeat. Insurance is slightly different, however. At closing we will be paying for a whole year of insurance (through summer of '09) and each month we will be paying for the same month 1 year in the future. This is so that the lender makes sure that their collateral is properly insured. It stinks b/c its your money sitting in their account but once you get to 20% equity .... you can stop .... and if if you sell the house or pay it off .... you get your money back.

Not much else to blog about (not that most of this is very interesting to begin with). We did get a letter today saying we would be getting our economic stimulus check by the 6/7th of June .... why they didn't just send the check I will never know ... but at least it should be here soon. Also, since Em doesn't work during the summer she was given the option to get her final two months of pay up front, so this past pay day was a nice one :). Its a shame most of whats in our checking account at the moment will be leaving in 10 days .... but at least we finally get to start moving in :-)

Insured

Well, as of the closing date we are.

After work today I setup our home owner's insurance with USAA (we already have car insurance and some other accounts with them). All in all the process is fairly painless however I found a couple of things while doing it (at least at USAA):

• They mail you the policy info which you should get within 7-10 days and also fax a copy to your loan company for your proof of insurance ... so have a phone number and/or fax number for your loan company before doing this
• Also, the insurer needs to know the loan company's info for you policy (it goes into it somehow) and the info you gives them needs to be specific to your loan. Luckily I happened to find this in our loan documents just before I called or I would have given them the wrong info (there was a page all about what levels you must maintain and what loan company info should be on the policy)
• There are tons of options and things you can change, but the defaults seemed to work for most things for us.
• We will end up getting an additional personal property policy for Em's jewelry (even though it stays in the safety deposit box, b/c its over our limits) but I need to get the apraisal info and descriptions in order first
• I opted for the water damage insurance (10k insurance for any water problems due to sewer backups, sump pumps, etc other than floods) b/c it was a steal and its one of the few likely problems we will have
• Normal coverage doesn't cover floods or earthquakes at all. We don't need flood insurance but we will probably add the basic earthquake insurance on. Also, its more for earthquake insurance if you have a masonry home instead of frame b/c of the possibility of cracked walls due to an earthquake. It was a small amount more to extend your normal coverage (personal property, total loss, etc) for earthquakes but if you want to have your policy cover damage to the structure excluding rebuilding (e.g. repairing a cracked wall) its an extra 150? per year.
• Most other amounts are all based on your homes perceived replacement cost which they calculate using averages for the area along with details you provide (materials used in the home, size, shape, walls, floor coverings, etc). Its important to keep this number in mind when making additions/improvements b/c you want to make sure that in case of a major incident that your covered to actually rebuild your home like it was that day, and not just the way it was 5 years ago.
• We went with the $1k deductible b/c we save $110/year on it versus the $500
• A home burglary/fire/alarm system would knock off another $100+ bucks a year .... but I am undecided. USAA has deals for members with ADT but even then its $300 for installation and $25/month for monitoring. Thats not too expensive for a ton of piece of mind so I might still get it, but I haven't decided.
  

After numerous questions and choices on amounts (e.g. how much personal liability coverage do you want, etc) everything was done and setup to start the day we get the keys. It was actually about $10 cheaper than what Em's aunt had estimated so that was good all the way around and now pretty much everything is set for that week. We have our final walk through the preceding monday and get to sign tons of papers the morning of closing then its all ours! :)

An Inch Too Far

What am I talking about? Dryers.
And actually, they are about 2 inches too big.

Em had the thought a couple weeks ago about whether or not the washers and dryers we were looking at would fit through the doorway into the laundry room in the new house .... and if the curren't owner's appliances would be able to fit when the wanted to remove them (we think they finished the basement after they had them down there).

Through our realtors we found out that the doorway is 27 inches and they made no comments about realizing they couldn't get theirs out and would we like to buy them (darn!).

Well thats just dandy, but the two pairs we were trying to decide between both have dryers that are just a little bit bigger than that. The washers would just fit (~ 26.5") but the dryers have part of the drum sticking out behind.

So, we aren't exactly sure what we are going to do about it. We will probably look around a bit more and see if we can find a pair that will fit, but the most likely solution will be trying to remove the door frame while we move stuff in, and not break it too much.

Its a bummer (we had found some great deals this past weekend). But at least we know it in advance.

....

This past weekend was a ton of family stuff (celebrated Em's parent's anniversary by coordinating a surprise dinner at the same place we had our rehearsal dinner), barbeque's, and a trip to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery to see my grandpa's grave and pay respect to the veterans buried there (the boy scouts put flags on every grave each year which is nice).

Tuesday our softball game was rained out for the 3rd time. So far in 7 weeks of play we are 1-1-2-3 (wins/losses/by-weeks/rain-outs).

Grab Bag and Insurance

Lots of little things have been going on lately

• I won my companies Cardinals tickets again (almost missed out b/c I thought they were for the following week) and went with Em and my parents. It was good time even if they lost.
• Our car is back to normal (and has been since the repairs). No lasting ill effects I am happy to report
• Work has been all over the place: hard at work developing one week, a week of documentation and writing installers for our code, and this week has been waiting on the client and helping out another group while we wait.
• I have been able to muster a small amount of time for some personal tech projects lately (some notes about them and work on my tech blog here)
• Last weekend Em, myself and several members of Em's family partisipated in charity walk at a local park for brain cancer research (a relative of Em's died from it) which was a good time and a great cause.
• I got 3 or 4 recruiters messaging me on LinkedIn in the past two weeks including one from someone who works for LinkedIn about a new team they are starting. Its always good to know you could get a new job if you needed to (and its even better to know you love your current one :-) )
  

I am sure there are other things I am forgetting.

Other than that the only big thing to report is that I have been looking into homeowner's insurance which I will probably be deciding upon tomorrow. Luckily it looks like the company we have our auto insurance through has some decent deals so that will work out well. Its amazing how complex the stuff is, how many options you have, and how its just one more thing to pay for when getting a house :-p

Once I decide I will post some details of what we got, or at least why I got/didn't get things.

Fun stuff!

Emily got the job!

Yesterday Em was told she got the job!



** She has been working in a 1 year position to fill in for a woman who was on maternity leave. When the woman put in her resignation, the position opened up "for real" and Em applied just like any other candidate. She was unlike other candidates in that she was already working in the position and everyone loves her. Oh, and she rocks. So after going through the whole applying/waiting/interviewing/waiting process, she finally got her job and can now enjoy the relaxation that comes with not having to look for another job. **

I am so proud of her

All over the place

I am tired!

Partially b/c while my generic Zertec has been working well, its not fool proof.
Partially b/c its been a busy couple weeks.

Up until today it was all good stuff.

A couple weekends ago we went to Louisville for Nate's wedding. Its always great seeing the gang and hanging out, plus weddings are tons of fun (especially when your not worrying about anything). Surprisingly, I didn't take too many photos (I haven't been taking many lately anywhere) but here are a few of my favorites:

Captions and a few more pics after the jump...

Last Saturday Em had a very busy day involving detention (administering, not sentenced), going out with some of her Truman friends to Bailey's Chocolate Bar (she said it was amazing) and found time in between to play beautifully at church.

Well, church is an understatement. My aunt is a nun and a member of the School Sister's of Notre Dame. This past weekend was a large mass and celebration of their 175th year of existence as an order, and their 150th year in the St. Louis area. 150 years ago a small group came from Germany and started teaching in downtown St. Louis at the then St. John's church. Today, the Shrine of St. Joseph is a huge and remarkably restored church. Last weekend several members of the family and I took in mass with a whole gaggle (I am not sure what the term for a group of nuns is ;-) ) of nuns at St. Josephs where Emily played with the orchestra and decently sized choir and heard mass from Arch Bishop Raymond Burke. It was very interesting and inspiring sitting through mass with that many people who all REALLY believe and love their calling.

To round out the good stuff, Em finally had her official interview for the counseling position she is currently working in (she filled in for a woman on maternity leave this year) and from all accounts it went very well. I am confident and she is nervous. I bet I win out ;-)

Oh and we won our softball game!

Now for the bad ......

It took me 4 hours to get to work this morning b/c of car trouble. Actually, it wasn't really car trouble so much as it acted a little funny as I was leaving for work and the check engine light came on. I took it to Auto Zone but they couldn't read the diagnostic code so I drove out to the nearest dealership and waited 2 hours (1 before they could see it, 1 to diagnose) to ultimately find out that my fuel pump had a bad seal and that they would be ordering me a new one an fixing under warranty (thank God). So then after waiting for Enterprise to pick me up (yay free rental), waiting for my car and then driving clear across town to get to work, I finally got there 4 hours later. So for the time being I have a Mazda 6 and need to call in the morning to find out when my Sonata will be fixed (first problem of any kind).

Also today we got a letter stating that the funds from a check we deposited in JANUARY has in a round-about way, been un-deposited b/c of a banking error. From the little we could gather its b/c of a probably typo either when the check was issued or when it was processed but in either case we are left with a annoying mess to straighten out without anyone easily to blame, 4 months of interest in limbo and an account missing a decent chunk of $$$ that was there yesterday .... and through no fault of our own. Good thing is is that it won't effect us in any immediate financial way (it came out of our emergency fund) and won't effect the house buying, but its still a huge hassle.

Oh and it has rained a ton the last two days and I have tons of work to do. Interesting and fun work, but still work. Bring on the weekend!