Work Consumes Me

December 13th, 2005

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Other than the condo, the rest of my life has been completely consumed by work. We have had an ongoing project used to allocate stock options to employees. The side the employees will mostly use is all written in Excel, and they submit the Excel spreadsheet to a website where it gets added to the system. Let me just start out by saying Excel is not the best environment to rely on using as a production environment. Also, since the data for each record is stored within the Excel spreadsheet, whenever we have to make a change to the way the Excel form works, every since form needs to be updated. And at last count, we have around 940 Excel spreadsheets that need updating every time something changes. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? Yeah, I thought not.

Since moving into the condo, I’ve worked 4 overtime weeks; and that’s a big deal as I don’t normally ever work overtime. But, the good news is we’ve finally got it released in what we think is a stable version, so now I can focus on the smaller issues which have been held up because of this stock program. This past weekend was the first weekend in probably 4 months or so where I’ve been able to just relax and do NOTHING. It was wonderful as I sat around Saturday night, and all day Sunday not really doing a damn thing.

So, now things aren’t too bad.

The Bachelor Life

December 13th, 2005

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Wow … just about 2 months since my last entry. I can’t believe it’s been that long, but at the same time it is believable seeing as how fast things have been going since I got the condo. So, I hope you’re ready for a super-post, because there has been a lot going on recently.

Well, I suppose I should go ahead and start where I left off: we got keys to the condo the night of October 19th. Brian didn’t waste any time moving a lot of his stuff over. In fact, before we even officially had the keys, we already put some stuff in here, like rugs and towels; you know, the little things. So the evening of the 19th, I had dinner with my dad and then headed over to the condo, picking Courtney up on the way. Brian had gotten her a bottle of Cristal for Christmas one year and she still hadn’t opened it, so she thought it would be appropriate to christen the condo with the Cristal; so we did. I gotta say though, it didn’t taste all that great. It was really smooth, like it went down easily, but just didn’t have that great of a taste. I hear Dom Pérignon is better anyway, I’ll have to find out one of these days. So the first night, all we really did was build Brian’s desk, hang a few things on the walls, and drink a whole bottle of Cristal. Oh and my mom had been out with her old Uniform Mom crew, so she brought them all over to see the place.

In the subsequent two days after getting the keys, we painted Brian’s room, installed chair rail all around his room, I installed his ceiling fan, and installed the wall mount for his flat-panel TV. All that was done by Friday night when we got him all moved in and he spent his first night here. So as you can tell, we worked hard and fast. All the furniture had been delivered on Friday afternoon, so it was nice to finally have a place to sit. And the cable got hooked up then too, so we had TV to watch as well.

That weekend, my mom went to Minnesota and North Dakota, so my dad came over on Saturday to help paint my room. My entire room had been painted beige, ceiling and all. I wanted something a little darker, so we painted it a sandy brown, and painted the ceiling white. It came out pretty good, I’m pleased. I didn’t move in until Tuesday. I bought a new desk at Staples and then we moved my bed and dresser and most my clothes; so, you know, the bare necessities.

Once I got moved in, we then were able to focus on the smaller projects. For instance, my brother built the cabinet to go into the media niche, and I must say, he did an excellent job. Really all I did was measure the opening for him, and I painted the unit, oh I also cut the shelves; but he did all the hard work. All in all the cabinets only cost about $160 to make, but Brian now wants to go around to the other condos around us and offer to build and install the same thing into their media niches, for around $1500. That would give us a nice $1340 profit on each one, heh.

Brian also had a vision of a bar on the wall behind the dining table. So he went out, bought the shelves and a mirror and built it up himself. Then we went to Beverages & More and stocked it with some liquor. It came out great, and I know he’s pretty proud of his accomplishment since he for some reason likes to just stare at it in satisfaction.

My parents bought us a new grill a couple of weeks ago, and it works quite well. I’ve already grilled up some steaks, some chicken, burgers, and a couple Santa Maria tri-tips.

That’s about it for the condo, we’re pretty much all settled now and reall all that’s left is I need to get some decorations on my bedroom walls. I haven’t decided what to do there yet but will do something soon. Updated pictures are in the Savannah Terrace album in my photos. I’ll be reorganizing it soon to reflect the two stages of “Under Construction” and “Moved In”.

Comment away!

I OWN A HOUSE!

October 19th, 2005

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At just about 5:30PM today, Brian and I took delivery of our keys and promptly began moving some of his boxes into the house. It’ll be about a week before I’m fully moved in but it’s happening!

The most recent pictures taken can be seen in my Savannah Terrace photo album.

I still can’t get over it, I actually own a home. How cool is this?!

Water is good

October 9th, 2005

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Just like the old cliche says, you never realize how much you rely on something until you can’t have it. Today we were without water for most of the day. The shower in the upstairs bathroom wouldn’t shut off, no matter how hard we pushed it wouldn’t shut off. So, we ended up having to shut of all the water to the house. That meant no showers, no washing hands, no running toilets, no drinking water, nothing.

My parents went to church and they came back, we had lunch, then my dad and I went to work on fixing the shower. We tried to pull out the part we needed, but weren’t successful at all; it just wouldn’t budge. So we decided to call a plumber and only one could make it out tonight to fix our shower. He came out, tried to get out the piece and he couldn’t get it out. At this point he says the only way to fix it now is cut out the old valve assembly and install a new one. 4 hours of labor by a plumber, you know that can get expensive in a hurry. Oh well, in the end it’s worth it considering we have running water now.

On a different note, Brian and I went to the condo today. Pictures are posted in the Savannah Terrace album. Things are definitely coming together well and it seems we’re still on track for a walk-through on the 17th. Since the last time I’ve mentioned anything, they’ve laid the tile in the bathrooms and around the fireplace; the gas lines are active (so we have hot water too), screens and blinds on all the windows, the A/C and heating are hooked up and working, and some touch-up stuff is getting taken care of. We’re supposed to be going in tomorrow to sign the loan documents, which means things are coming to an end and we’ll be moving in before too long. =D

Good Stuff!

September 28th, 2005

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A bunch of good happy stuff to report:

- The Padres just clinched the NL West for the first time in 7 years.
- Brian and I have been fully approved for the loan on the condo.
- We go in on the 8th of October to sign the loan documents.
- The flooring goes in on the 14th.
- We have our walkthrough on the 17th. Shortly after that we’ll be moving in!

Pardon me while I go do a little happy dance.

A Few Minor Changes

August 11th, 2005

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Just a quick note to let you all know I’m still alive here.

I made a couple of minor changes to my site. In the photos section, when you’re looking at an individual photo, the information embedded in the photo will now be displayed. Things like the Date/Time the photo was taken, shutter speed, etc are now automatically pulled from the photo itself. You may find some photos that don’t have the information, that’s because when I resized the original photos for upload to my site, I didn’t save them in a way that retained that information. I’m working on replacing all the photos on my site with the copies that do have that information in them.

Speaking of photos, I’ve moved a couple things around and added some new photos. I added quite a few new Scenic pics, and I also consolidated the different SoCalEuro BBQ’s into a “SoCalEuro” section. In addition to that, I reloaded all my Jetta photos so that now they’re displayed in chronological order, so you can see the things I’ve done to my car over time.

I haven’t been up to anything all too special lately. Dusty is home for a couple of weeks now. Hung out with him for a little bit already. On Friday, we (Dusty, Brian, and I) went to dinner at the Elephant Bar and then saw Dukes of Hazzard. Dinner was good and the movie was suprisingly better than I expected, but then again I didn’t exactly have high expectations for it. I’d give it 2 1/2 stars.

Saturday, I went to a Birthday bbq/pool party for two people I know from SoCalEuro. As is usual for bbq’s like this, I had a blast. In case you’re interested, the pictures are in my Photo Album under SoCalEuro -> Jonelle’s Birthday.

Today is my mom’s birthday. My dad and I are making dinner tonight and taking care of everything for her. Then on Saturday the family is coming up and we’ll have a bbq/pool party at our house. This is what summer is all about. =)

Nothing new to report about the condo, I’m planning on heading over there after work today to see the progress they’ve made this week and to get some more pictures. Brian and I have an appointment at the design center in two weeks to pick out our flooring and window treatments. So things are progressing, but nothing major has really happened yet.

That’s it for now, back to work I go and then to the store later.

More Condo Stuff

July 28th, 2005

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Yesterday Brian and I had a meeting at Savannah Terrace to get some more paperwork signed and filed and more information about the condo and community. I don’t think I’ve signed so many papers since the first day at SPARTA. We were there for a solid hour and were constantly signing and initialing forms. We also got the information about who to contact and where to go to get our flooring picked out, so we’ll be doing that before too long.

After signing papers we went down to the condo itself and checked it out. They had taken down the scaffolding since Saturday, so we were able to see the exterior style a lot better than before. They’re making some good progress inside. Since Saturday they got the bathrooms painted, the closet doors installed, the closet rods and shelves installed, installed the fireplace mantle, and the door jams and trim around the doorways are all nailed in place.

It was also good to go there when we did because I was able to get an idea of what kind of sunlight it would be getting in the afternoon and also what kind of wind we could expect. I thought our condo would be really sheltered from the wind based on its location, but there was a surprisingly strong cool breeze going through the entire place, so that was good.

Anyway, that’s the latest. I put up some more pictures in case anyone cares to see them. The photos start here so feel free to click the “Next” link on that page to go through the new photos.

Condo Progress

July 12th, 2005

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It seemed like everyone I told about the condo told me to go take pictures of the condo as its being built to document the progress. So, today I did just that. It doesn’t look much different on the outside than it did on Saturday. Really the only thing that’s different is the stucco has had time to cure.

Now that I’ve had a chance to look at the exterior a little better, I can tell that our building’s exterior will be in the “Tuscan” style. There were two other styles, Santa Barbara and Italian. I liked the look of the Italian a little better, but what can ya do? It’s not like any of them are ugly at all.

Each time I take pictures, I’ll try to make sure I document them up here on my blog, but I might forget from time to time. You can always just check out my Savannah Terrace photo album for any photos I add.

[img link="/photo_album/albums/savannah/Savannah%20Terrace%20012%20(Large).jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-1.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-1.jpg"][img desc="Savannah Terrace monument at entrance" /img]

[img link="/photo_album/albums/savannah/Savannah%20Terrace%20002%20(Large).jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-2.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-2.jpg"][img desc="Our condo is the lighter color" /img]

[img link="/photo_album/albums/savannah/Savannah%20Terrace%20007%20(Large).jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-3.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-3.jpg"][img desc="Closeup of our actual unit" /img]

[img link="/photo_album/albums/savannah/Savannah%20Terrace%20016%20(Large).jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-4.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-progress-4.jpg"][img desc="An already-completed building to show the exterior styling we'll have" /img]

Hopefully my next photo post will show more progress happening.

I gots me a house

July 9th, 2005

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Well today Brian and I finally did it, we reserved our condo. We went to the phase release, and today they were releasing 21 units, 7 of which were the floor plan we wanted. I was number 45 on the list, and so I was a little worried about us getting the unit we wanted. The roll-call went better than I expected and there were so many other people either deferring or not there that I ended up only being the 7th person to reserve a house; and in that, only the 2nd person to reserve the exact floor plan we wanted. So I guess I was worried for nothing.

After we put our name on the house, we got lunch, and my brother and Gaile came over and we showed them our exact unit and talked a little bit while showing them around the premises. We had a 1:00 appointment with the on-site lender to fill out the paperwork and give them the $2.500.00 deposit check. Even though we’re going through an independent loan agent and can get approved for the loan through them, we still have to qualify through Pardee Home Loans before they’ll let us actually buy the house.

But, it all looks to be moving along pretty well, so hopefully come Halloween we’ll be moving into our brand new home. I can’t wait!

[img link="http://www.pardeehomes.com/images/sandiego/sabresprings/savannahterrace/gallery/1_pool.jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-pool-thumb.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-pool-thumb.jpg"][img desc="Savannah Terrace pool" /img]

[img link="http://www.pardeehomes.com/images/sandiego/sabresprings/savannahterrace/gallery/1_living.jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-living-thumb.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-living-thumb.jpg"][img desc="Living room" /img]

[img link="http://www.pardeehomes.com/images/sandiego/sabresprings/savannahterrace/gallery/1_dining.jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-dining-thumb.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-dining-thumb.jpg"][img desc="Dining area and kitchen" /img]

[img link="http://www.pardeehomes.com/images/sandiego/sabresprings/savannahterrace/gallery/1_masterbed.jpg"][img xsrc="../images/blog_photos/savannah-master-thumb.jpg" mce_src="../images/blog_photos/savannah-master-thumb.jpg"][img desc="Master bedroom" /img]

Be sure to come visit after we have the house. =)

Busyness Ensues

May 31st, 2005

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So lately I’ve been feeling like I’ve been unbelievably busy lately; between work, friends, and family, it’s like I don’t have time to myself. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, because I definitely have been having some serious fun lately, it just gets to tire me out. I was really looking forward to a 3-day weekend of relaxation, but alas, that didn’t really happen. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great weekend; it just wasn’t as relaxing as I had hoped. I didn’t get to sleep in nearly as much as I wanted, nor did I get much relaxing “me” time, but all in all it was a good weekend.

Well, let’s see what I did this weekend. Friday afternoon Erica and I went out and got some ice cream. Then I went into the office for a little bit and after that went over to Courtney’s and hung out while I got rid of adware and spyware on their computer.

Saturday I woke up kind of early and went to a phase release at the condo Brian and I are trying to buy. Since this is the first time I’ve mentioned the condo, I’ll give you the rundown on what’s going on there. A couple of months ago, Brian approached me and asked if I wanted to go in with him and buy a house. I was reluctant at first because I had to figure out the money and how things would work, what we could afford, what I wanted; you know basically, “could this be done?”? After thinking and planning, I decided that sure enough, it COULD be done; so Brian and I started looking at condos. We went all over San Diego: from Mission Valley, to Rancho Bernardo, and everything in between. We ended up settling on Savannah Terrace. It is a brand new development in Sabre Springs, which is just west of Poway. Our intent is to purchase a Plan 1, which is a 1,000 square-foot 2-bed 2-bath condo with 1-car garage. When we considered everything that comes with the condo and all the on-site amenities, we realized that it was a relatively great deal compared to what else is out in San Diego.

Since the condos are still being built, they release a group of them at a time for sale in phases; and so those sales are appropriately called “phase releases.”? Brian and I had to put our names on a list in order to be allowed to take part in the phase releases. As condos come up for purchase, they are offered to people on the list in order and as they are offered the condo, they are given the option to purchase then, or to “defer” which keeps them on the list and in their position. When we first signed up, we were something like 185, and 188 on the list. After the first phase release in April, we jumped up 100 spots to about 82. There was another phase release this past Saturday in which we deferred once again. We should be realistically expecting to have moved up in the list to about 35-40 which puts us in good position to get the condo we want in the next phase which should be in early July. If we put the deposit down on our condo then, we should be moving into our brand new home somewhere between November and January.

After the phase release on Saturday, we went to the gym and then I went home, showered and went to a birthday bbq for Gaile’s aunt. It was, as usual, a great time. Gaile’s dad has a Digital Rebel, which is the previous version of my camera, and he also has a nice zoom lens which he let me use on my camera and so I went around taking photos of everything. I liked the lens so much that I got home Saturday night and ordered a similar lens. Expect plenty of pictures to show up on my site with the new lens.

Sunday I woke up, went to church, spent most the afternoon doing yard work, and then everyone came over for a bbq. Again, some more fun was had.

Monday I woke up earlier than I wanted to because someone thought it would be a good idea to hammer wood outside my window. I wasn’t too happy when I woke up because of that. Went and ran some errands with Courtney in the morning, did some prep work for my trip to Minnesota, then went to the Padres game. The Padres beat the Brewers 2-1 thanks to Miguel Ojeda’s bottom-of-the-ninth, two-out double that scored Geoff Blum all the way from first. It was quite an exciting moment at the end of the game.

Well, as I already touched on briefly I’m headed to Minnesota with the family. We leave tomorrow, and we’ll be back on Tuesday, June 7th. We’re headed out there to party for my aunt’s 25th wedding anniversary and my cousin’s graduation. Since my dad grew up out there, we’re going to do some sightseeing as well, so expect PLENTY of pictures when I get back. I’m really looking forward to the trip; I really could use the week off.

Okay, time to wrap this up. I have to go do my laundry and get packing. The Brewers just took a 4-3 lead over the Padres. It’s now the bottom of the 4th, let’s see if the Padres can pull it off like they normally do. Leave comments.

P.S. – The big changes coming to the site here are still on the way, I’ve just been a bit busy lately.