Quick Visits

I flew home for the long weekend. Since the flight was overnight on Thursday and I had a layover in Chicago halfway through, I pretty much got no sleep. I was exhausted the entire weekend, but I refused to sleep when there was food to eat and friends to see! I pretty much saw everyone who was home. They are all moving to New York... so I'm planning a trip out there this fall.

I flew home Monday afternoon/evening/night. I had a long enough layover in Dallas for Dave to pick me up and take me out to Braum's (an ice cream chain- they serve food too). Eric and Charles met us there and we had dinner and dessert. YAY! I hadn't seen Charles in over a year.

Also, I came out to the family on the way to the airport on Monday. As I told Derrick earlier, it was extremely uneventful. Nobody really gave a shit. And that fact that I did it on the way to the airport didn't leave enough room for mother to ask too many inappropriate questions.

So now I'm back and thoroughly exhausted. I survived work today, and now I plan on crashing early. I hope all is well with all of you!

Phill

124 posts later...

I couldn't let today go by unnoticed. Today marks the one year creation of our very own blog. Just think, we were all about to graduate at this point last year and now look at all of us. We're all over the place, and we've all had interesting years (at least I know I have). Hmm, that's about it. You can fill in profound "in the past year" statements if you'd like. Oh, and I'm arriving in Houston next week to start work so if you're in town this summer we have to make sure to hang out (two words, not to be confused with the noun hangout).

The girl who cried house...

Bad news.

I think most of you knew about me signing a purchase agreement on that house. Well, the inspection was on Friday, and it turned up some not good things. I knew that the chimney had come down in Katrina, but I was told that they had repaired it. So during the inspection, I asked the inspector to check that carefully. My dad came in town to come to the inspection, and as we were walking around beforehand, he pointed out a part of the roof just below the chimney that was sort of caved in.

So when the inspector went up on the roof, that part was sort of soft. Also, when he leaned on the chimney, it sort of shook. Not good. There were also some discolorations in the ceiling of the living room that I hadn't noticed before, which right below the chimney and the soft spot.

So then the inspector went up into the attic, and discovered the reason for the leakage. First, the chimney been reinstalled rather shoddily with just a few 2x4s which were screwed through the roof flashing, making the roof leak. Also, they reused the same chimney, and the inspector said that generally you would get a new chimney rather than reinstalling the broken one.

Also, at the soft spot we had seen earlier, there was a broken rafter. Not a hairline crack in a rafter- broken, almost in two, so that the roof caved in and the plywood had come apart. To fix it, you'd have to come in from the outside, take off the roof, replace the rafter, and then replace the roof. An expensive job. We weren't sure if they knew about the rafter- in the disclosure they said that there was roof damage from the chimney coming down, but they also said it had been fixed, and this definitely had not been.

Of course, at this point, I had a few options. I could've requested that they fix it, but after seeing their "fix" to the chimney problem, I don't trust them to fix the roof. The husband is in construction, he does stucco, so I can imagine that it really burns him to pay someone else to do the work, but obviously, he can't (or chooses not to) do a good job himself.

I also could have requested that they get it fixed by a third party contractor who you guarantee the job, and then have it reinspected. Problem is, right now it is really hard to find decent roofing contractors. And I had a feeling they would go with the cheapest guy they could find, which is not who I want to repair my roof.

The third option would be to get a quote from someone I picked and either have them put that amount in the escrow account or have them take it off the price of the house. But with the labor market being so tight right now, I wasn't sure I would be able to find someone that I trusted in a timely manner, and all the while my roof would be leaking. Ugh. Not to mention what a mess that would be, having to deal with a contractor who comes and tears out your roof. No thank you.

Of course, at this point, I'm also wondering what else is wrong with this house that I don't know about- what else this guy has "fixed" which is severely screwed up. The people living there were absolute slobs and since they had stopped showing it, had stopped what little maintenance they were doing.

So I walked away from the house. I lose some money doing that, the inspection fee and the appraisal fee, but when you consider the amount of money a house is, it's a tiny fraction. And I told my realtor I wanted to go see houses the next day.

So yesterday, I went with my realtor and my father, who was still in town, to look at several houses. So now for the good news.

I found two houses that I really liked, and I'm going to make an offer on one of them today. If that one doesn't work out, I'm going to make an offer on the other one. :-D

Ok, I know this post has gone on for a long time and it's not funny, but I thought people might be interested in hearing about my adventures. Blogspot for some reason won't let me upload pictures, but I am going to post them on my facebook account, so you can see them there.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Carley

Houston!

I drank, I ate, I conquered. I had a wonderful time in Houston this weekend! I arrived late Wednesday night and left after dinner on Sunday. I got to hit up all of my favorite places: Chuy's, Goode Co. BBQ, Barnaby's, TC, Pei Wei, Ruggles, Volcano, and the Flying Saucer. I spent most of the day on Thursday and Friday just chillin' around campus visiting Martel, the Admissions Office, and all of my old freshmen at Sid. I had a wedding on Saturday over in the Galleria area. My friends Kat & Matt from A&M tied the knot. They had a mashed potato bar at the reception! How cool of an idea is that??? Though that didn't make up for the fact that it was a dry wedding... not even a cash bar... so that totally sucked. But for a dry wedding, I suppose it was a really good one.

I crashed at Sid on Wednesday, Miguel's on Thursday & Friday, and Jenny & Alana's on Saturday night. Jiin-Yu came up Sunday morning for a visit! We all called Derrick and wished him a happy birthday... then he sent us some embarrassing video footage of Austin. Oh man... if anyone wants to see it, Derrick, Alana, or I can forward it to you.

Anyways, that is the long story short. Now I'm back in Seattle... taking the day off work because I am exhausted and my voice is all shot to hell (I lost my voice Saturday night after we got back from the Flying Saucer... I think it was all the cigarette smoke... I'm not used to it anymore! Texas needs to pass a no smoking bill.)

Take care,
Phill

I'm legal!

So, nothing really blogworthy has been going on here, until this morning...

I took my Washington State Property & Casualty Insurance Agent Licensing Exam, and I passed all four sections on the first try! Woohoo! Apparently, the pass rate is only 60%, which includes people taking it the second and third time. So I was pretty pleased :) A lot of the people at work had to take it over again when they were getting licensed, so I kind of felt a little awkward about it, but whatev! So now I'm legal when I do my job. Always a good thing.

I missed work all last week to attend the required licensing school. I learned a hell of a lot of stuff that I will never use at work, mainly because we insure big, weird, and risky commercial stuff that can't be insured with authorized insurer's in Washington's normal market, so the rules don't really apply to us too much. I did learn all about car and homeowner's/renter's insurance, so if any of you ever need advice on what to buy, I can totally help you out :) Just send me a copy of your policies or quotes and I can make recommendations on what coverages you need or don't need and tell you what everything means. Hey, this insurance stuff is practical!

In other news, I'll be visiting Houston April 19 - 23. Thursday night will be Chuy's! Saturday night will be Flying Saucer and Volcano! Thursday and Friday day will be spent around Rice visiting people and going to see Kat & Matt's house that they bought. Their wedding is on Saturday. I also plan on taking Dave & Miguel to downtown Spec's because they both just turned 21! Also, I need to buy Everclear and foreign wines that I can smuggle back into this liquor-regulated state. I miss real liquor stores. I also NEED to hit up Goode Co BBQ, Barnaby's, and I was thinking China Bear too? Maybe Pei Wei? I miss americanized Asian food... everything here is too authentic for me. And maybe Chuy's a 2nd time because I miss it so much? And obviously House of Pie and TC for late night runs. What other restaurants am I missing? The current plan is to stay with Dave at Sid on Wednesday and Thursday nights, then at Miguel's apartment on Friday, and with J&A on Saturday. I'm super excited about seeing everyone again! Eric and Charles: you should totally come down for the weekend- at least for Saturday night when we're out drinking! Jiin-Yu- I look forward to seeing you & Austin too!

Ok, I've planned this out way too much. I'm gonna go take a breather and drink some more champagne. Woohoo!

-Phill

long overdue

I can't gripe too much about nobody posting if I don't post myself. Especially when I have kind of a lot to share. I'll try to be brief.

I have a job with an independent minor league baseball team in Alexandria, Louisiana. Once the season starts (May 16), I will be sharing broadcast duties on home games and doing road games by myself. I'm making more money for a longer period of time than I did last year, but the situation still doesn't feel all that permanent. I'm responsible for a lot of the content on our still in-progress web site.

I got an apartment here, though, and after much worrying and some haggling and one of the most frustrating, longest weeks of my life, I live in a one-bedroom furnished with very little except boxes, an air mattress, my computer, and my new TV. I work roughly 8:30-5, which feels really, really long to me, but I shouldn't complain too much. I get along okay with the guys at work, who are all at least several years older than me, but I don't think we'll be lifelong buddies.

So I work in baseball, which is awesome, and I have my own place, which is a blast. Come Thursday I should be in control of my own cable TV, which we all know is crucial for enjoyment of the World Cup in June and July. The thing I'm happiest about, as most of you know by now, is that I'm in driving range of Houston and will make my first road trip there this weekend to see Risa and my various assortment of other H-town friends.

I also recently engaged in an Eric-like pursuit by buying two "season" tickets with the Houston Dynamo, the new soccer team. It's just a five-game mini-plan to set games that I will exchange for games before and after my baseball season, but I'm psyched to support soccer in Houston and call myself a "season-ticket holder." I plan to adopt the Dynamo as my new favorite MLS team now that the MetroStars (the N.J. team I worked for in 2002) are known as Red Bull New York. But I'll probably still root for any team that plays in Jersey out of loyalty.

I could go on, but most of you have already stopped reading. There are some pictures in my online gallery if you're interested, and I'll try to post about how things are going before my season starts. Hope everybody's doing well, and I'm psyched to see people at Beer-Bike!

Update

Hi all,

I realized when I was in Houston last weekend that it's been a long time since I've written, and there's been a lot that's happened since I last blogged.

I've started taking classes at LSU to work towards my Master's in Mech E part time. This initially seemed like a great idea, but I'm starting to wonder. The caliber of the students at LSU is not quite what it was at Rice, which I expected, but I never expected such a large discrepancy. The teachers are not very good either. But if I am ever going to get my Masters, this is the best time to do it, so for now I am chugging onwards.

The house search continues. Right now, I have a lease signed at my apartment until the end of July, so I'm not at the point where I could make an offer anyways. Still, I like to keep track of the market. It's actually pretty sad, I know every house for sale in the neighborhood I am interested in, and have a little spreadsheet made up graphing listing price and selling price against time.

Let's see, what else. Work is unremarkable. I think my boss has caught on that I'm bored most of the time and seems to be sending me more interesting little problems, which is good. I sat down with my manager yesterday and had a sort of "career path" conversation, which actually didn't tell me anything I didn't know already, so was sort of pointless.

I'll be in Houston from Feb 27- Mar 9 for training, so you Houstonites will probably see me. My sister and I are going to go to San Antonio on March 5-6 if anyone can take of Monday and wants to come with.

Ok, that was a fairly boring and uninspired post. I'm sorry. Now, someone else post and put me to shame.

Very routine, but very nice indeed!

Hey all! Nobody's posted in nearly 2 weeks, and I haven't posted in nearly 2 months, so I figure its about time. Things here are going well- nothing too exciting to post about, but nevertheless I'll give you a little update.

December:
- My office holiday party was awesome! It was nearly all of my co-workers at a hotel: buffet, fully stocked open bar, DJ w/ dance floor... my company is just awesome! Work is going great so far and I've gotten a ridiculous amount of responsibility for only being there 2 months! YAY!
- I was a little drunk one night when I was dragged to my first gay bar... it wasn't so bad. Then I got more drunk there and was dragged to a gay club. I danced and had a good time, but some people there were WAY sketchy. It was kinda rank. I don't plan on going back anytime too soon.
- I threw a little Hanukkah party for some friends: I made latkas and Hanukkah cookies and we all played the Manischewitz dreidel game. The Jewish holidays are a great time to get fer shnickered (Yiddish for drunk off your ass).
- Christmas consisted of Chinese food in Chinatown with some friends- I'm glad I can keep my Christmas traditions going strong here.
- New Year's was great! I went to a friend's dinner party and then Della and her roommate came up and met me and a friend and we all walked down to the Space Needle for fireworks at midnight. The fireworks were actually shot off the top of and out of the sides of the Space Needle- I've never seen anything like it- it was AWESOME!

In other news:
- Today is the 27th straight day of rain here in Seattle. The record is 33 set back in 1953. The 10 day forecast shows no sign of dry skies, so we'll be breaking that record next weekend. I don't mind too much- I'm inside most of the day and when it is raining its not very hard at all.
- So this is probably more information about my Saturdays than any of you really care about but I think its cute so I'll tell you anyways: I have this nice little Saturday routine that I do every week. I walk down to the market for lunch- buy a piroshky or falafel and get a latte from the original Starbucks- where, by the way, this VERY attractive gay guy works and I'm dying to get into his line and attempt to flirt- not my best skill but it'd be worth a shot- but its been like 2 months and he isn't on register half the time and the other half I just can't seem to be in the right spot in line to get to go to him but at least it's nice to go in there and look at him. Then I take my lunch and latte over to the little park that overlooks the water (or when its raining this little indoor viewpoint with public seating in the market) and watch the boats and ferries and stuff while I eat. Then I buy some apples at the market and if I'm feeling a little touristy, watch the hot guys who work that the famous place in the market throw their fish around for a few minutes. They have this stuffed animal fish that they occasionally throw at someone in the crowd just to freak them out. Then I usually stop by the big downtown Old Navy on the way home to check for sales. It's nice and relaxing and a good start to my weekend each week :)
- Every week a group of us goes to Sunday Night Pizza... we're up to like week 15 or 16 so far. We try a new place each week in search of the best pizza in Seattle. We've found some good stuff, but nothing really outstanding. The bagels here are also disappointing. To make up for all of this, brunch is very popular here. And there are a bunch of places with really great brunches. I'll be brunching more often on Sundays :) Between market Saturdays and brunch and pizza Sundays, things here are very routine- but I love it!
- To add to the routine- American Idol starts this week and I'm VERY excited!
- And speaking of Idol, I've also discovered that the road to heaven is paved with Kelly Clarkson singles. I love her. Really... my plan is to marry her and she can sing me to sleep and we'll have pool boys. Lots.

So yeah, that's my update. Nothing too exciting going on around here, but life is very good! I hope you're all doing well- and more people should post soon with updates! Even if they have nothing too outstanding to post about!

-Phill

Hi! And your name is...

Derrick. My name is Derrick.

This is how much of my evening was spent on New Years, as I went to a veritable mini-TJ reunion. Apparently outside my group of friends no one actually knew me. At all. It's one thing not to remember my name (though honestly, there were like five black guys in our class of 400 tops), since I myself have forgotten quite a few, but it's the whole reaction. The facial expression of, "Did I really go to school with you? I'm sure I would have remembered. Oh, I do remember you, you must have been on the Math Team or something (which at TJ isn't necessarily intended as an insult, but still- and no I was not.)." It was quite a blow to my ego, since I was clearly the coolest piece of shit at Rice.

Before I continue I would like to preface the remainder of my blog by stating that not everyone from TJ was like that, or not even the people who were like that were horrible people, but still. I mean really. And I didn't have anyone to vent to about it while it was happening so I'm doing it now. So if this is a less than accurate representation (i.e. my leaving out having fun seeing old friends) then just deal with it. I'm trying to be funny, so bear with me. Hence the reference to my being cool at Rice. I continue.

Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences and reflections from last night simply because it is but a precursor to an event that I formerly thought would be fun. The five year high school reunion. As much as I give Lindsey shit about being an anti-social crab and just contrary in general (she just drank champagne on her own while the rest of us were counting down to the new year), I'm starting to understand her refusal to attend this thing. I'm having my own doubts. Here's a list of why:

• Five years? So on average we've only spent one year outside of college, and some people will have just graduated. Not only that, since I went to a dork school a rather sizeable percentage of us are still in grad school so our life is for all practical purposes still on hiatus.
• Apparently everyone from TJ either went to UVA, or is now living in DC or Boston. No joke. So while everyone has been catching up/meeting/re-meeting each other, I'll just be the weird guy from the math team who's been "out there."
• Back to grad school. As I went to a school for science and technology, most people in grad school are in some basic sciences field. When I say public health I get the inevitable "Oh, that's nice." And then they ask me to explain, not out of interest but out of a way to fill awkward silence since they don't remember me or never knew who I was to begin with. And when I tell them that I'm neither fighting Ebola in Africa nor going to create the perfect American health care system but studying behavior, even the faux interest fades away.
• Hi. I'm seeing/engaged/married to this person. Chances are this person is also from TJ (like 75%). I'm happy and successful. But I'm sure being single is great for you. Have fun with that. Nothing like pity to make the food you're eating for the only purpose of avoiding conversation to taste that much better.

And here's my favorite. Apparently I'm supposed to organize this. The only thing I did at TJ was cross-country and track. I agreed to be the "regional representative" when I was at Rice (I blame the lure of sangria). Never mind contacting a class president or anything, let's find the guy who we don't remember but clearly has nothing else better to do than organize an event at which he'll be miserable. Excellent. Though if I do end up doing this I will have a few safeguards in place. List number 2:

• Large space. No need to be stuck around people who you have to pretend you care about. All that pretension is exhausting.
• Many drinks. MANY drinks. I posit that alcohol, not love, is the answer.
• This one I got from Scott. I collect basic information from everyone before they come, and have it printed on t-shirts. We all wear the t-shirts, so no conversation with people blocking your access to booze is necessary.
• A Taboo buzzer. I will be in sole possession of a Taboo buzzer so when people start talking about their happy coupled lives or spouting off pity for those of us who are single, I can press it. It will be wired to some contraption, but I haven't figured out what yet. But I've got a year so I'm taking suggestions.

That's it for now. I know you were all probably expecting some crazy story about my crazy family but I've managed to either avoid or quell any arguments.

Oh. And happy new year. 2006! Rock on! I can only hope it won't be as mundane as the number 2006 itself.

warming up to Christmas

I haven't posted in forever. Whoops. I'm living with my parents and searching desperately for broadcasting jobs for next year. I went to Dallas to interview for a bunch of minor-league positions, but most of them are seasonal and as the No. 2 broadcaster, which usually means home games only and only 3 (of 9) innings play-by-play. So we'll see what happens in mid-January.

Anyway, I went to a wedding in North Carolina last weekend which should've made for some great blog material if I was Derrick or Alana or Eric or somebody funny. Unfortunately, I'm not, so I'll just tell you that I made awkward small talk with a lot of people, caught up a bit with the groom and his brother, who I hadn't seen in 5 and 10 years, respectively, and generally felt closer to the wedding's inner circle than I had any right to feel. It was pretty fun; the drunk adults at the reception were especially entertaining.

I go to a lot of hockey games here at home while running my ever-popular New Jersey hockey web site. It's cold, but I make money via Google ads (click on them! I make more money) and doing the scoreboard for some games. It's been butt-cold here, and I even got in a minor accident ($59 worth of damage that was the other driver's fault) on some slick ice one night. But it's up to 50 degrees during the day as we lead up to Christmas. WTF is up with that?

My sister arrived Wednesday, my brother Thursday, and my cousin Irene from Dallas on Friday. So we have four 20-somethings in a house with one shower. Brilliant. But it's great to have everybody home so far. We went into the city (Jenny called me a snob for using that phrase, so I mean New York) last night and saw the Broadway show "Avenue Q". It was hilarious and awesome and y'all should definitely see it if you're in New York (or Las Vegas, its other locale). My favorite songs: What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?; If You were Gay; Everyone's A Little Bit Racist; The Internet is For Porn; You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Making Love); and I Wish I Could Go Back to College. If that doesn't sound like a good time, I don't know what does. Oh yeah, and most of the characters are puppets.

So my siblings woke me up this morning by yelling at me in puppet voices and I got dragged (with my assent, it's true) to a brunch schindig with coworkers of my mother. More unenthusiastic recaps of "yeah, I'm a baseball radio broadcaster looking for a job for next season. I had a three-month job last summer, but I'm looking for one for the full season next year." and that about sums up the small talk unless they're a baseball fan.

I love having my brother, sister, and cousin here. It's weird being grown up, since we're 22, 24, 26, and 28, and yet my brother and I still have the occasional pillowfight in a store that embarrasses my sister. Shrug. Some things never change. My brother still takes up most of the kitchen with his stuff, even if he's only actually in the kitchen for five minutes. My sister still depresses me with stories about the kids she works with. And Irene inevitably completely misses something because she's from Texas. It's a good time.

Hope everybody has an awesome break from whatever they're doing (or not doing) and gets to spend time with cool people.