Day Off 2/27/2007 09:03:00 AM

snowboard-kids-ds
Originally uploaded by Dana Fitz.
Man, am I ever happy to not be working today. I've been on 7 or the last 8 days, and those days do get long. Sunday WAS turning out to be awesome--I had spent about 5 hours at the hospital on Saturday, and discharged a bunch, so Sunday was shaping up so sweet. Mark and I watched all of the Oscars (yea Alan Arkin!) and I was just about getting ready for bed when the ER called and I had to go in. Didn't get home until about 2:30 in the morning, and then couldn't go to sleep. Possible child abuse. I hate those. So I ended up just being a robot yesterday at work because I was going on so little sleep. It's weird--I haven't had to go into residency mode for almost two years now. You just can't think when you're that tired--trying to sort out complex medical issues is next to impossible.

So when the day finally ended and I went home, Mark and I did the guaranteed thing to make me feel better--beer and trivia at the bar. :)

And today I'm getting ready to go back up on the mountain. Missed out on all the new snow this weekend, but looks like another storm front is moving in, and I'm sure the conditions are still pretty sweet up there. Nothing like a little riding to feel better.
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 Gettin organized 2/27/2007 08:37:00 AM
So with all the posting about brewing and the Sketchup work I've been doing lately it probably seems like I've got my act together, but in truth work is driving me nuts, there are constantly things we have to do for the new house, we're trying to plan a (St. Patty's Day) party, have a bunch of gifts for newborns to send out, we're trying to get healthy... I'm a bit overwhelmed.

But it's not so bad. I made an effort this morning to list out everything I've got to do (I have lists all over my office, it's really rather ridiculous) and things are getting knocked out one by one.

Anyway, the reason there haven't been any updates is because of the above. Dana is off today so maybe I can convince her to blog as well.

Special shout-out to the Hanley family's latest addition, Mia. She's a real cutie, guys - congratulations. (Mia is short for Markina, isn't it?)
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 More Sketchup 2/21/2007 10:36:00 PM

This one (SKP file) took about 1/10th as long as the other one. I guess I'm getting better. However, I couldn't (didn't take the time to) replicate the horrible carpet that is currently in the basement (which one may glimpse in all its glory here). Also note: I am missing the bathroom on this floor (didn't measure), the steps to the top floor, and obviously the garage/workshop/boiler room, which I also didn't measure. I may guesstimate them based on the top floor... We'll see.

I think I'm going to get rid of the furniture that was added to the first one so I'm starting with more of a clean slate, then see what I want to do with the house. We plan to close on May 1, so we'll have almost two full months of overlap between our current place and the new house - plenty of time to fix whatever we want before moving time. Also plenty of time to bring things over piece-by-piece so we don't have to do it all in one day. Because, as we all know, moving sucks.

Anyway, that's it for now. I might play around with the first (bottom) floor now, since that's definitely going to change - we're going to split it into two rooms - my office, and a family/TV room.

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 Brew Day Today 2/19/2007 10:02:00 PM (See what I'm talking about)

So, I got back on the homebrew wagon. Specifically, I was brewing today so that we have some homebrew in time to serve for our St. Patrick's Day party (I was going to dye the beer green, of course), but it seems that the brew I made - a Scottish Ale - is going to be WAY too dark to dye green. Oh well.

Brewing itself isn't that difficult - I felt a lot less stressed about it this time around than the first time... It's really the bottling that's a pain in the ass. Also, the fact that you have to wait a month to try it. But trying to juggle the final 30 minutes of boil, prepping the yeast and cooking dinner was a bit too much to handle, and I ended up spilling some of the beer - so I'll have a little less than 5 gallons this batch.

I'm also hoping it tastes less like the disinfectant this time around - but I was much better about not soaking things TOO long in the disinfectant and letting them dry out as well. Hopefully my efforts in that regard pay off. I didn't get any complaints about the first batch, but I think people were just being nice. To me, it tasted a bit too much like iodine.

I'm also not fermenting/conditioning in the garage, for obvious reasons. Yeast is very picky about temperatures, and with the fluctuations in the garage (due to, you know, using the garage) I decided on the downstairs bathroom. To be specific, the shower stall. Hopefully we don't have any surprise guests before bottling (which should only be a week or two from now anyway, so no biggie).

Dana just pointed out yesterday that Tuesday is Mardi Gras, so I'm going to whip up some etouffee for the occasion. And cornbread, of course. I think we'll probably skip the hurricane this year, however. I think we still have the bottle of 151 from last year's hurricane experiments..

D had a shitty day today and went to bed, and I'm pretty tired myself. Not to mention the fact I have to get up for work tomorrow. And actually, I'm not really dreading it. I must really be getting on top of stuff if that's the case.

This week: Mortgage guy! We have to talk with him! Get our stuff set up. Also, figure out what we're going to do about the inspection findings..

Later!

PS: as I glanced outside while proofreading this, I note that we got about 3-4 inches of snow since about 3pm. My beer making must have pleased the snow gods!

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 Million Dollars 2/17/2007 07:17:00 PM

millionbill
Originally uploaded by Dana Fitz.
I feel like a million dollars today. Mark and I had such a great, fabulous day. Started by getting up around 9, deciding, meh, we'll go riding tomorrow, and then had an awesome breakfast from The Best Husband in the World. Read my current book "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson (one of my favorite authors ever) for most of the morning, and then got jealous because Mark was napping and I wanted to nap too. We ended up tag-teaming, he woke up and started reading his book "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson (same guy who wrote Devil in the White City--great book) and I fell asleep. Woke up to "Kitchen Renovations" on the DIY Network, which Mark was watching, and then we decided to go to Ace since they were having a sale where you got 20% off anything you could fit in a brown paper bag. Bought a ton of stuff we don't need now, but will eventually need for The House, saw the current owners of The House at Ace (whom Mark didn't recognize, and I don't think they recognized us--we only met the lady homeowner briefly during the home inspection) and then went to Tap House for agreeably, too much beer but a fun run of trivia. Except for the ENTIRE game about hockey trivia, which sucked ass.

Now we're just chilling out, probably gonna watch Repo Man, and then head to bed to go riding tomorrow. I went snowshoeing with Lisa last night on the mountain, followed by beer and pizza at Slopeside, which was awesome. It's kinda fun to talk politics with someone other than Mark. Anyway, gotta get back to my awesome day, because I really do feel like a Million Dollars.
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 Top floor - complete (as it's gonna get) 2/17/2007 11:11:00 AM

(click for full view)
Well, here you go - the complete top floor of the house we're buying (more or less). Some measurements are a little off - probably due to my guesstimating how wide the interior walls are - but otherwise this is a pretty fair estimate of what we've got going for us.

I've also uploaded the SketchUp SKP file in case any of you are looking to check it out in 3-D. I fudged a little on the kitchen cabinets as well, but got most of the appliances and bathroom stuff in as well.

Next effort: the first (bottom) floor, sans garage.

Notes:
- Yes, the kitchen and dining room have different color wood floors - that's likely thanks to the recent kitchen remodel, and the current owners being lazy. Note that the rest of the top floor is carpeted... for now. We're exploring our possibilites in that regard. Some (much) of the carpet is in questionable shape and we're considering our options.
- Yes, the two bathrooms have different colored wood floors. I believe the master bath has the same wood floors as the kitchen. The other bath (with two sinks) has laminate flooring that will have to go pretty soon - it wasn't installed very well.
- Yes, the two bathrooms have blue paint and different-colored blue countertops. I'm doing my best to be KIND of accurate here. Note there are no mirrors, though. Didn't want to get too complicated.
- The big gap at the bottom (East) side of the model is the staircase. I downloaded a model of one that was close, but not close enough to what we have, so I decided to skip that.

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 Awesomeness 2/16/2007 10:03:00 AM

So, I just realized (remembered?) today that I have Monday off for President's Day. Totally rad.

This week has been pretty hectic, but I've gotten a lot done. I'm excited for the weekend. Plus, there will probably be a total of 2' of new snow on the mountain by tomorrow morning, so D and I are going to go out riding.

My 3-d Sketchup model is going pretty well. I've got the three bedrooms and one of the bathrooms finished. Hopefully I can finish the top floor this weekend. Unfortunately I didn't get great measurements of the first floor, but it's mostly garage anyway so no real big loss there. Also, found some great video tutorials that will hopefully help me get moving faster.

I worked late last night (got a call at about 10, worked for about an hour and a half) and will be implementing some new code this evening, so I was able to sleep in a little this morning (until the calls started). I'm adjusting pretty well to my new responsibilities, and working harder for it - which is good. In the past, I've always done better when there was more that needed to get done... Stepped up to the challenge, if you will..

Also, D and I keep amazing ourselves with how we're doing money-wise, considering we were paying our "fake mortgage" this month (and will for the next several months, until the real one comes about). So we're probably going to join the gym at the end of the month (when we see what we've got left over) as we both need to get back in shape. I did an ab workout yesterday that was pretty rough..

That's all for now. Have a great weekend, everybody!
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 Whoa, it's late. 2/13/2007 12:16:00 AM

OK, it's way late so I'm going to keep this REALLY short.

Everything went well today. A couple minor finds but that's to be expected. I came home and got to sketching scale drawings right away, and then revisited Sketchup to play around with that (it is the source of the above image). Nothing really exciting yet, but I hope to become more proficient in the near future. Then I got sucked in to playing with Google Earth, which I hadn't used in forever.

Also, this sketch is no good as the walls have no thickness, so I stopped after adding on the second room. I'll work on it and share my progress as I get further. For now, though, it's (past my) bedtime!

Also, congratulations to Amy and Daniel on their bouncing baby girl, Sara!
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 Winter Carnival 2/09/2007 10:34:00 AM

tn_xtn_wintercarnivalold_copy
Originally uploaded by Dana Fitz.
So this weekend is the Winter Carnival here, and we're trying to figure out all the stuff we're going to be checking out. Kids on skis getting pulled behind horses, some guy skiing down Howelsen covered in lights and fireworks, parades--should be awesome.

House stuff is coming along well--we're meeting the inspector on Monday, which will be good to get a better idea of what kind of improvements we'll be doing right off the bat. I ran past the place yesterday, and they still don't have an "under contract" sign up on the for sale sign, but whatever. My run ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated--just over 6 miles, which is the longest I've gone since doing the Fargo Marathon last spring. I was expecting to do more of about 5 miles, but was running along a new route and it was longer than I had thought. Didn't have any water or GU with me, and by the time I got back to the house, I was beat. I was trying to figure out why I was so weak and nauseated in the shower, and then when I started getting super dizzy figured that my blood sugar must be at all time lows. A packet of GU and half a Clif Bar and I was fine in about 15 minutes. God bless sugar.

I've been trying to get more training runs in since LIsa, Sheila, and I are doing the Steamboat Pentathlon together in a few weeks, and if Sheila agrees to the longer course, I'll have a 5 mile run to cap off the "race". Regardless, I am signed up for the Steamboat Half-Marathon the beginning of June, and need to start getting more prepared. I was thinking of going snowshoeing this morning, but I woke up just too damn sore.

Other than that, not much else going on. Mark and I are new addicts to the DIY Network, I'm currently on my 5 day break from work and don't have to be back again until Tuesday (although I do have to get some paperwork done at the hospital today), and cleaning up the house a bit. We have a ton of pictures on the floor that we were always meaning to hang, but now that we'll (hopefully) be moving in May, what's the use? I'm thinking about packing those up somehow, but that also sounds like work, and I'm not too excited about that right now. Think I'll go read for a while....
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 Best 'Best of' list in a while.. 2/08/2007 10:04:00 AM (See what I'm talking about)
Surprisingly, from the Houston Chronicle. Who knew.

One of the best parts is the discussion after. I'm proud(?) to admit I've seen them all, but I remember not Repo Man, so it's now at the top of Netflix.
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 Best. Bedroom. Ever. 2/07/2007 01:09:00 PM

This is precisely what our first child's bedroom will look like.

Also, I found out that there isn't a problem with our webserver (which we use to store these images) - there's a problem with uploading the images, presumably, from my work computer(s). I'll try to figure out what the heck is going on.

Also also, I'm using a new tool to add this post. Let's see how it behaves.

Also also also, since our uploading isn't working currently, this picture is yanked directly from the seller's website. Visit them and buy something so they don't get too mad at me.


[UPDATE]: One more thing - found via The Sneeze.
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 Inspection, snow, carnival 2/07/2007 09:06:00 AM
So, we have a home inspection tentatively scheduled for Monday afternoon (still waiting to hear back if that time is OK with the sellers), so I'm looking forward to that. I'm actually going to go through with him (I've been told that sometimes people just wait and show up at the end so the inspector can go over findings with the prospective buyer, but our inspector seemed to indicate that it would be preferable if I was there the whole time with him - which is just fine by me). I hope to get some measurements and more pictures while we're there so I can better plan my attack between closing (May 1) and move-in day (no later than June 30).

Also, according to weather.com, we're expecting snow over the next several days, which is good because...

This weekend is Steamboat's Winter Carnival - the 94th annual or something like that. Should be tons of fun, and we're really looking forward to it.

Can you tell I'm already thinking ahead to the weekend? Sigh. Work has been much better lately, though - with me actually able to get REAL work done, as opposed to work on process changes and mediating problems with other groups brought about by recent changes to my team, so that's good.

All in all, things are going well. D and I are paying a "fake" mortgage this month and budgeting what we spend elsewhere (since our mortgage pymt will be so much more than our relatively cheap rent) so we can get used to what it's going to take. Most of the difference (mortgage pymt - rent) is going to savings, which we're going to need anyway, so it's a win-win, really.

That's all for now!
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 Under Contract!! 2/03/2007 05:56:00 PM
From Logan house -...


Hey all---

So it's official--after the roller coaster of emotions that accompanied our bid on a house two weeks ago (holy crap was that just two weeks ago?), in the past two days we have found a new house, put in a bid, and today, accepted a counter offer. WE HAVE SIGNATURES THIS TIME!!! So it's real. We're buying a house in Steamboat.

But the best part is, we're buying a house in Steamboat in the neighborhood we want to live in (Old Town), for a price that, well, we can afford (but just barely) but in a house we are so incredibly stoked about. The previous house was a true POS that happened to be on a great lot. This house just doesn't live up to the POS moniker, and the lot, well, it's pretty damn good. Backs up to a park with a creek, has a decent backyard, and a deck overlooking everything. We're still trying to figure out how this house has been on the market for the past 5-6 months. Granted, it was priced down by 50 grand since being up, but still. Not much curb appeal for sure, but a great structure that we are going to be able to do a lot with. I'm so excited. Walking distance to schools (when did I grow up enough to care about that?), walking distance to downtown bars (that sounds better), and plenty of room for a family. And 7 boys if they decide to again descend on our peaceful town.

Anyway, closing date is May 1st, so we have some time to get all the inspections and everything done, as well as a little overlap between when our lease is up with this townhouse (June 30th). Lotsa time to move in there, and it doesn't hurt having a house big enough to have an awesome housewarming.

Mark and I celebrated a little less extravagantly this time (Rio for margs as opposed to Mambo for fancy wine) I figure that suits us better anyway. Home ownership iz da biz-omb!

Album of interior shots is here.
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