Wow its been a while

It's been a really long time since I posted anything to my blog.  It's not because there is a lack of things to blog about, its just all about time and the fact that I can't actually get to the blogger site anymore from work.  No matter, I know that I can send in postings from email now anyway so it doesn't hurt me.  Time has been scarce lately with all the things going on at work and on the home front.  Since I don't talk about work at all, its time to move on to the home front!

December 27 is the magical day that I will close on my newly completed townhouse in South Florida.  It's less than a week away and I'm excited to actually own real estate.  It's going to cost a mother load of money but I think in the end it'll be well worth it to have the ability to paint walls as I see fit, put holes in the wall without fear, and just add and subtract things as my wife and I deem appropriate.  I mean renting is a pretty sweet deal because you can just get up and leave if you want to but there's just something psychologically refreshing about actually knowing that the place you live is YOURS and you're really not answering to a land lord.  Granted things like home repairs will fall on me or the repair man to do rather than a handy man supplied by the land lord but thats something I can live with easily enough.

My wife and I did a walk through earlier this week to look for flaws at the townhouse and what we found were just a few minor things here and there, nothing really earth shattering.  Just needed a few adjustments to some bricks, add a little paint here and there, adjust the toilet so it flushes a little better, and removing the coke can that was still on the roof from the construction guys.  I took a few pictures but they're generally boring because the place is empty and painted completely white.  The kitchen area is pretty nice though with the stainless steel appliances and the black marble counter top.  I am also very excited that I have my own garage.  No more parking my car outside and all that crap and fighting for parking spaces or getting pissed that someone took my normal space.  I can also start storing stuff in there which should free up lots of room in the living area.  The courtyards aren't bad, I'll maybe add some plants or something to it as well as some patio furniture and a grill for cook outs.  It's nicely shaded most of the time so I don't have to worry about stuff like sun damage.  The master bedroom is awesome because it has the big balcony on it.  Normally the townhouse model that my wife and I purchased would have a small balcony good enough for maybe a chair and thats it, the one that came with our townhouse has a HUGE one where we can fit 2 chairs and a small table.  It over looks the street so the neighbors can see me when I'm out there but I don't much care, I have a balcony!  I'll take pics once the closing is done.  Furniture is coming in later in the week and all the utilities have been scheduled to be installed the day of closing.  I would suspect by the first weekend after new years I should be all moved in with all my stuff :)  Oh happy day!!

Oh and to everyone that reads my blog (I know who you are because of the comments) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!  (I'm Catholic so I'm only saying Merry Christmas and not Happy Holidays so :P)

The softer side of Sears

Last night was a good night because after the purchase my wife and I made, we know that its almost time to move in to our townhouse.  On a suggestion from my sister-in-law, we went to Sears to buy a washer and dryer.  Because of some peculiarities with our place, they have to be stackable or one of those all in one deals that LG makes.  We decided to get the ultra brand spankin new Kenmore HE5T.  These are the mack daddy's of the Kenmore line and they're supposed to save you tons of money because they use less electricity and water per load.  They may cost a lot up front but I'm sure it'll be worth it.  It's also nice that they are front loading because I don't like having to dig at the bottom of the washer for clothes, I always end up missing some.  :)

On a funnier note, my wife and I also went to Macy's and she was looking for a tweed blazer.  Almost anyone with half a brain will know what tweed is as well as a blazer.  Since we couldn't find one she decided to ask a sales person.  She asked where the tweed blazers were and the sales person replies "whats a blazer?"  LOL!!  To top it off, she follows up with the question "whats tweed?"  ROFLMAO!!!  Needless to say we left Macy's soon after that.  Ahh holiday help, I hope they're being paid only minimum wage.

The elusive Tickle Me Elmo Extreme

The hottest toy of the Christmas season this year I think is the all new Tickle Me Elmo Extreme.  It's been sold out at stores for a while and I've heard that people have fought over it at regular brick and mortar places just to get one.  I saw a demo of it on Walmart.com and the things it does is pretty sweet for only $40.00.  Walmart is actually selling 6000 of them a day on their website beginning at high noon EST but they never last more than a minute.  I've been trying for 2 days now and all with no luck.  At least I have it in my shopping cart so I can do a fast check or something but it takes excellent timing.  I think its kind of like trying to get something on eBay.  The only bid that counts is the last dude that puts in a bid and normally thats at like the very last second or so of an auction which is probably why I've never had much success getting anything on eBay except for odd ball crap that no one really wants or cares about.

Muahaha, the blogging continues even though I'm locked out during the day time.  Email blogging is no different, i just can't change my page elements right now.

The elusive Tickle Me Elmo Extreme

The hottest toy of the Christmas season this year I think is the all new Tickle Me Elmo Extreme.  It's been sold out at stores for a while and I've heard that people have fought over it at regular brick and mortar places just to get one.  I saw a demo of it on Walmart.com and the things it does is pretty sweet for only $40.00.  Walmart is actually selling 6000 of them a day on their website beginning at high noon EST but they never last more than a minute.  I've been trying for 2 days now and all with no luck.  At least I have it in my shopping cart so I can do a fast check or something but it takes excellent timing.  I think its kind of like trying to get something on eBay.  The only bid that counts is the last dude that puts in a bid and normally thats at like the very last second or so of an auction which is probably why I've never had much success getting anything on eBay except for odd ball crap that no one really wants or cares about.

Muahaha, the blogging continues even though I'm locked out during the day time.  Email blogging is no different, i just can't change my page elements right now.

Locked out of blogger

My firm's network just locked me out of blogger which kinda stinks.  But thats ok, because I can still send in my blog posts by email!  Muahaha!  There are always ways around this stuff!

Free Hockey Game

Last night at the last minute I went to the Florida Panthers v. the Anaheim Ducks (remember the movie the Mighty Ducks? Yeah thats them). It was a pretty bad ass game to watch and I was even able to take my wife with me. And you know what the best part was? The tickets were free and so was the parking. Well that wasn't exactly the best part, my firm has one of those luxury boxes with the private seating, TV,'s, mini lounge etc so not only did I have a great view, I didn't have to sit with the common folk :)

Well the Ducks beat the Panthers 5-4 but it was a great game because they scored at least once each period to keep things exciting. I'll give it to the Ducks, they have a great scoring line. A lot of their goals came a minute or so after a face off so they're really quick at getting into scoring position after the ref drops the puck. The Panthers put up a good fight with a spectacular goal in the 2nd period with one of the forwards that was totally off balance managing to slip in a goal between the goalies legs while falling flat on his face afterwards.

One of the funnier things I saw was that the Florida Panthers have their own cheerleaders. What hockey team has cheerleaders anyway?? This was certainly a first I think. They're called the Florida Panther's Ice Dancers......... strange, you normally only see cheerleaders at basketball and football games. They did also have a funny mascot dressed up as a panther and he seemed to be having tons of fun riding around on an ATV in center ice doing donuts. Now thats a fun job right there!

If my firm offers more tickets, I'm definitely grabbing them!

No respect

It seems to me that the people in South Florida don't have a lot of respect for other peoples cars. I got a nice gash on the rear quarter panel of my car. You can't see it from a distance and at a certain angle but when you're up close you can see it just fine and it totally sucks. My wifes car also got defiled on her rear quarter panel as well and it hasn't moved for two weeks from her parking spot. If I ever see anyone defiling my car or my wifes car and not leave a note, they're in for a nice long gash on the hood that says "FU". I've paid too much money for my car to have some random dumb ass scratch my car because they lack skill in the realm of driving or simply getting in and out of their car. BLAH! May those types of people burn (in the deepest part of hell) for being so inconsiderate.

Sleep interupted

The weekend is normally the time that I enjoy sleeping in a little but this weekend was a little different. I was sound asleep when the neighbors car alarm decided to go off for some odd reason. Now a considerate person would get their ass up and actually turn off the car alarm and let their neighbors sleep considering its 6am. Needless to say that I couldn't go back to bed after that so what sleep I wanted to catch up on I lost again...... Nah I'm just kidding I took a nap that afternoon on the couch but still, turn off the damn alarm to your shitty car and let people get their sleep on the weekend.

So Sleepy

These past two days are pretty much a blur for me because I've been falling asleep on the couch at home right after I finish dinner. It could be a whole combination of things really. One, I get really sleepy after stuffing myself with my wifes cooking, two, there really isn't anything good on the tv at night now that all the new shows are done, or three, I'm just trying to catch up on sleep that I've missed since moving to South Florida since I'm waking up at least an hour earlier than I used to but I'm still going to bed at around 11 or 12 at night.

I expect a little less sleep in the coming weeks as I transfer my cats to my bedroom for safe keeping. They always seem to wanna play late at night. I'm also anxious about closing on the townhouse my wife and I are purchasing since its supposed to happen this month. It probably adds a little to my restless nights. I'll probably sleep better once I'm actually in it and have all my crap put away.

A welcome addition

I'm sitting in my cold little server room eating lunch and chomping on the latest flavor of Doritos. My wife was nice enough to get them for me when she saw them in the vending machine at her place of employment. They're called Blazin Buffalo and Ranch I gotta say that I like them. I am personally a big fan of the Spicier Nacho and Cool Ranch flavors of Doritos and this one tastes like they took the two and smashed it into one great bag of chips! I'm definitely going to have to find a much bigger bag of this stuff and keep a stock of it in the pantry and as part of my hurricane supply kit. Yes it is that damn good!

I need to take pictures

It's been a long time since I've taken any new photos with my digital camera. Normally I'm going on trips or to events and what not but lately I've stayed put at home and theres really nothing to take pictures of except my cats. I think the last pictures I posted were of the Miami Auto Show and that was well over a month ago now. Well in that time I also haven't gone anywhere myself so I guess a vacation will soon be in order so more pictures can be posted. Hopefully I'll be in some of them since I normally play photographer.

A new computer for the family

My wife and I went out last night to pick up DVD's at Best Buy. Of course I just had to get Pirates of the Carribean 2, but I also had to get the immortal Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. While we were looking around, we decided to go computer shopping. My old Dell that I inherited from my sister-in-law isn't cutting it these days so as a gift to the new house we might pick up a new PC.

I personally wanted one of the HP laptops that they were selling, after all they were only $750 and had tons of nice features. My wife though wants a desktop so we saw a totally tricked out HP Media Center PC with a 20 inch wide screen monitor. It had everything I could possibly want in a PC except for Windows Vista but there is a coupon that I can get for that. It's going to cost a pretty penny but thats alright since we're in need of a new computer anyway and I haven't actually had a "new" computer since 2001 so I'm over due for it. Yay, new gadget to play with!