Kyla recently took the SCAT (School & College Ability Test), and we've patiently been awaiting her results. Today, I got them and she has been accepted into the Young Scholars Program next year. It's similar to an Advanced Placement, in that next year she'll go to the middle school once a week and take classes there (it's part of a Gifted and Talented program). We're very very excited for her. Her scores were quite fantastic:

Verbal Reasoning:
Better than 98% of kids in her grade from across the country.
Better than 59% of the kids in 8th grade from across the country.

Quantitative Reasoning:
Better than 99+% of kids in her grade from across the country.
Better than 63% of the kids in 8th grade from across the country.

Congrats Kyla!

This is something I'm having a hard time with. Kyla, and friends. Or, lack thereof. I know she has school friends, which she gets along with in school, during school hours. Kids that she'd probably have a good time with outside of school beyond the birthday parties. But, she's sort of a loner. She has her one BFF, who is a great kid. But, she'll be moving this summer.

I keep trying to encourage Kyla to call other kids once in a while to start building some new friendships. At least one of the girls is also friends with the BFF, so they could, theoretically, all play together. But, Kyla doesn't do it. Frankly, I'm tired of it.

Let's take today. It's a 1/2 day, and beautiful out. She came home, played the Wii for a bit and asked to call the BFF.. she did, but noone was home. I suggested calling the other girl. She said she did, but I never saw the "Phone in use" on my phone. So, I knew she was lying. She says she doesn't know why she doesn't want to call her. Maybe a fear of actually making the friend a "friend"? I really don't know.

What I do know is that when I was her age, I had friends. If I wasn't playing with someone, it was because nobody was home but not for lack of having kids I'd play with. Sure, I'm a loner now part because of choice and part circumstance, but not when I was 9 or 10. I can recall about 10 kids who were within bike riding or walking distance who were "tier 1" friends.

I'm really not completely sure what to do. I will be cutting of all electronics from her. Maybe that's it. Too much DS, Wii or Toon Town that playing with kids "might" be fun, when those other things "are" fun. She's going to have a pretty miserable Spring Break if she doesn't start dialing that phone!

It was another long day at the championship.

Forms:

Kyla performed Yul Guk, and performed it very well. Unfortunately, the judges must have not had enough coffee and gave her 2nd place. I'm not saying this because I'm her dad, Im saying this because I watched. She really deserved to get 1st, and not 2nd. But, I'm extremely proud of her for going out there, and doing a great job.

I'd also like to congratulate her friend Taylor for getting 1st in form for her group!

Board Breaking:

Her first combo was a jumping snap kick (1 board), and a side kick (1 board). Her second combo was a round house (1 board) and an outside ax kick (2 boards). She broke everything on her first attempt, and did a great job at setting up the holders on her own. However, she took 2nd. Frankly, the girl who got first also did a good job. It was a toss up to me, and I think she only got 2nd by a few 10ths of a point. But, she wasn't robbed like she was in forms :-) Good, solid performance. Next time, I think she'll be doing 2 boards for each strike. I think that that's what put the other girl over the top, since she used 2 boards in each of her combo's.

Sparring:

If you're keeping score, Kyla has gotten 1st in sparring two championships in a row. And, this time, she didn't disappoint. She is still reigning champ. As I know I have said before, sparring is, to me, the most important event. You'll never be attacked by bullies who coincidentally attack in a way a form will defend you. And, it's unlikely pine boards will be jumping out at your on the school yard.

Her first match was against the girl who got 1st in the breaking event. It seemed like a decent match up, at first. Then, the girl punched Kyla in the throat a few times. I saw twice, Kyla said it was four times (maybe angles I didn't see). Kyla was hurt, and they stopped the match for a moment. Getting punched in the throat isn't a good feeling.. been there. She cried, understandably, and the other girl got a warning. When the match resumed, Kyla came out with a vengeance, and kicked the girls ass. She won the match.

The second match was, well, not much of a match. Kyla was tired and hurt, but came out swinging. Her opponent, well, I don't know. Either she's not a great sparrer, was intimidated, or a little scared (Kyla was obviously on a warpath, and she knew it). Kyla knocked her out of the ring twice, and almost knocked her to the ground a few times with front-kicks and punches. She really dominated. After beating both girls, she took the gold.

I must say, I'm extremely proud of her performance for the day. However, her sparring made me extremely proud. Not just because she did well, but more because she didn't give up. She was punched in the throat, out of breath, and in pain yet she continued on. She didn't give up, and she didn't let up.

This is in contrast to one time in class she was kicked in the gut (the boy she was sparring, his foot slid under her padding), and gave up. I told her that life is a series of kicks to the gut. The difference between winners in life and losers in life is if you get up or not. And, this time, she got up and she's a winner.

CONGRATS KYLA!

Just a little late March snow.

This Saturday is the Spring Taekwondo Championship. She'll again be competing in board breaking, forms and sparring. She's excited because the "grand champion" trophy is now available to all belt levels, and not just black belts. You need to get 1st in all three events to get the trophy. I can't say I'd bet Kyla would do that (depends on her competition), but I do think she'll do well in all three areas.

In two weeks she'll be testing for her red belt. No reason I can think of for her not to get it. She's ready for the next level. It sort of sucks for me since the red belt class is at a different time than we've been going, and not quite as convenient for me. Oh well.

Today she is testing (SCAT test) to be able to take middle school classes next year during 5th grade. Sort of like an advanced placement (which I was in in high school) thing. I hope she gets in, since it'd be a great opportunity for her. As far as I can tell this year, the biggest thing she's learned is long division. She'd be doing trig by now if I had my way :-)

Spring is here, and I think I need to "make" her get involved with more things. Baseball didn't pan out, but I think she should try soccer. I don't care much for the sport, but it'd get her doing something athletic. TKD is athletic, but something outdoors would be good.

I was driving back from bringing Kyla and Suzy to the airport this afternoon. We've all been there, on the highway behind a pickup truck with a ladder (or something) laying on a metal frame. It's probably been through all our minds... "I hope that stays on there".

So, there I am, driving behind such a pickup in the center lane.. about 8-10 car lengths behind, traveling at about 75. I'm singing along to Turn the Page and look up. The ladder was suddenly in, well, this / sort of position. I think "That doesn't look right", and it sure didn't. In almost slow-motion I watch it start turning, and fly right off. It starts rolling right in front of, in my lane. I put on my brakes, blinker, look in my side-view and move over to the right lane. Luckily, I missed it, and it didn't roll into me.

Lessons here: Make sure your ladders are secure, and allow follow from a safe distance.

Taken this morning after doing the driveway. And, it's still snowing. I must say, it's quite beautiful outside.

Generally, I sort of hate it that dads are usually portrayed as stupid, NASCAR loving, beer swilling idiots who can't do anything aside scratch their ass and burp.

However, this stereotype does come in handy at any medical office when you're there for your kid. The receptionist is generally a woman, and when they ask those tough questions like "Do you have a co-pay", or "did you insurance change?" I can shrug and say "I don't know, I'm just the dad". I usually get back a knowing look, and am sent on my way.

So, although I am pretty far from the stereotypical "guy", I guess I can try taking advantage of it in certain cases. I just need to figure out what other ways to take advantage of it. Maybe, whenever dealing with a woman, just shrug, have deer-in-headlight eyes and see what happens.

There is a tradition on Suzy's side of the family that when you become 10, you go on a trip. And, Kyla will be 10 this summer, so there is sporadic talk about where to go. I said Japan, but that didn't meet much fanfare. Paris was mentioned, but if I were to go to Europe, France isn't high on my list. Germany has been mentioned, which I think I'd be fine with, since that is on my list of places to go. England? Eh. Ireland may be cool, but not sure how great it's be for a 10 year old to wait for daddy outside of the Guinness factory. Holland would be nice. Spain could be interesting. Of course, the good ole U S of A has plenty to see.

So, I'm not sure where to go? Argentina was recently brought up, and it not only seems inexpensive (compared to anywhere in Europe), but seems pretty interesting and beautiful. Maybe Australia, but that's just a long ass flight. I need some places to decide from which are a) affordable, b) fun for adults and kids and c) safe.

Right now, I think these are my top choices, in no particular order:

• Japan (got nixed)
• Argentina. Seems inexpensive, beautiful, and interesting.
• Spain. Could be OK. And maybe easy to satisfy "I've been to France" for people if we go to Barcelona.
• Germany. Castles.. beer.. history.. beer!
• Holland. Tulips and windmills.
• The USA. We have plenty of places to go. Maybe a Las Vegas -> LA -> San Francisco trip. 
  

As my birthday gift, Suzy gave me (us) a night away at a local inn. It was a "romance package". It was great!!

The room was great. It was a 2 story loft, with the bedroom (king bed) on the loft. Jacuzzi tub, wooded view and very nicely decorated. Also, there were chocolates and a chilled bottle of champagne waiting for us.

First, we started with an hour long full body massage. This was the first time I've ever had a massage, aside from maybe a trainer during my wrestling days. This was much different than that! :-) I was honestly a bit tense, and spent about 1/4 of the time thinking "She's getting pretty close to my junk". But, overall it was great, and I was super relaxed when it was over. I'd probably do it again, but skip any upper thigh stuff.

After some relaxing, we headed off to dinner. The inn has a very nice restaurant. It's a top-notch restaurant for the area, in fact. Dinner was fantabulous, and we ate way too much. The room we ate in had the fireplace going, great lighting, and a great atmosphere.

The next morning, after breakfast, we came back home. It was truly a great night, and it was very nice to be away without "being away".

It's Kevmas Eve!

Had a great Xmas. Great time xmas eve with dinner, games and some gifts. And a great xmas itself. Kyla actually cried when she opened the Wii, she was so happy. And, of course, the micro-helicopter she didn't want, she ended up playing with all day long.

I will say that probably the best thing was my grandfather (about to turn 89 on the 1st) coming over, and playing the Wii. He bowled 4 or 5 games, and it was so fun to watch. I can't remember the last time I saw him so involved and smiling in any games we've played. He even seemed to get ahang of the remote. That was truly fun to watch, and I hope he comes over to play it again.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Until Kevmass!

Top 5 reasons why Kevmass is better than Christmas:

1. I'm still alive!
2. My birthday is ACTUALLY IN December.
3. 2 extra shopping days.
4. You don't have to go to church.
5. You only need to buy gifts for one person!

I had a great weekend in the city visiting Alan. It was great to spend some time with him after not seeing eachother for 5 or so years. We had a great time, and did a LOT of walking. I told him before I came that he'd see a lot of the city, and that surely happened. I'm looking forward to going down there to visit again, and for him to make it up here to visit as well.

Just a couple photos. My digital camera's batteries are basically dead, so I only had my camera phone. Firstly, as we were walking we noticed this written on a car in the snow. It just goes to show how much NYC loves me, and was happy I was there.

Here is the tree at Rockefeller Center. Which, I'll have you know, we walked to from the southern tip of Manhattan.

And, here is Alan any myself. Or, Nanook and myself. I'll also note that if you want various street vendors and bums to talk to you, wear a Guinness shirt.

Kyla did awesome last night at her belt test. Her taegeuk 6 was perfect (twice), great techniques, and she did awesome at sparring, as always. She sparred a boy, who has to have about 30 pounds on her. If they were doing points, she would have won (they just spar during a test, no "winner" or "loser").

So, as of tomorrow, she she be a Purple Belt.

From Saturday:

#1 in sparring (2nd year in a row). Won by a long shot:

#2 in forms (taegeuk 6). She lost by a very small margin. I'm talking about .3! It was a close call:

Congrats Kyla!

Happy Birthday Suzy! (yesterday)

Quit smoking on Fri Sep 7 15:30:00 2007
Days: 19.21
Money saved: $81.83 (based on $4.26/pack)
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 288 (based on 15/day)

Still using the patch, and still would smoke a cig if someone offered me one. But, the urges to have them continue to decline.

So, I've stopped smoking 100 times, so maybe 101 will do it. Last week I called the NY Quits hotline, which gives you a month supply of patches. Today, they arrived and I slapped one on my arm at about 5:30, having my final cigarette (last of the pack) at about 3:15.

I've tried the patch before, and I recall it working ok for me, but I hated the extra vivid dreams. This time, I'll be taking the patch off before bedtime, but I'll leave it on all night for the first few days to hopefully give me an extra "umph".

If I can make it through the month with no super stressful events, maybe I can do it this time. I really hope so, I'm tired of smoking.

While in Old Montreal, I found it quite interesting (and maybe a little sad) that we were surrounded by these beautiful old buildings, and in quite a few windows... bongs. Probably not exactly what the original people architecting the area thought would be there. Also, not exactly what you want to see when walking your kids around. However, a little better than the large neon sign near McGill which has a womans ass in a mans face.

Saturday night we went to a fund raising dinner/silent auction for the SPCA. At first, I was sort of leery when we got there. I guess I was expecting a non-silent auction, and more things. But, it turned out to be a great time. Here's what I won at the auction:

- 2 tickets to Great Escape
- Family 4-pass to Magic Forest
- Chevy Chase autographed photo
- Menina Fortunato autographed photo
- Sofia Milos autographed photo
- The autographed photo of some woman who I don't know the name of, but they said was on Star Trek. I can't make out the name. It looks like Nicole Ryof or something some last name with a 'y'. She looks familiar, and apparently lives in London, since that's where the envelope was from. Here's a photo of it, maybe someone knows exactly who she is:

- An original 'Archie' cartoon, signed. And by 'original' I don't mean cut from the newspaper, it's the original artist drawn/colored cartoon.

In all, great fun and for a good cause.

Last week we took a trip up to Montreal. I hadn't been to that city since high school, and it was cool to go back. It's roughly a 4 hour drive to get there (including the border, and stopping to stretch/pee/get gas), so it's a fairly close place to visit. Also, it's a really nice drive as it goes through the Adirondacks. Once you get into Canada, it's mainly farmland until you hit the metro area.

We did a lot of walking around. Saw the old city, Chinatown, McGill area, Biodome (sadly, no Pauly Shore) and casino.

It was such a good time, and there is so much more to see, and we liked the city so much that Suzy brought up buying a condo up there. Not a bad idea, so I'm looking into it. If anything else, we'll surely be taking another trip up there this year.

Today is my wedding anniversary!

Congrats to Kyla for finishing the 3rd grade yesterday! She did a great job all year.

This week dads (or father figures) can take class with their kids. So, I took class with Kyla yesterday. Now, it's been years since I did martial arts, but I still remember a lot and still have some pretty good form (if I must say so myself).

But, cripes.. it really showed me how out of shape I am. Not that I thought I was in shape, but I was sweating like a hog after about 10 minutes. And, even though I could do all the jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups they threw at me, I am long from the in-shape guy I was when I wrestled and wasn't a dorky computer programmer.. just a dorky wrestler.

But, the class was fun. I kicked Kyla's ass at sparring, she was impressed by me breaking a board with a jumping snap kick, and we had fun together. Time for a "in shape" change for me, I think.

Maybe I'll come up with a "Workout for Sedentary Geeks" routine. If I did a pushup for every line of code I write in a day, I'd be muscle-bound in 3 months!

I'll miss you buddy.

It was a fun (long) day at the tourney. Kyla did great, and I'm very proud of her.

Forms

She took 4th. She really should have taken 3rd. Not that I'm being "that" parent who thinks she deserved to place because she's my kid. She really did deserve 3rd. The boy who got 3rd didn't even do the whole form correctly, and didn't perform it as well as Kyla. The 1st and 2nd did do well. But, she deserved 3rd. I'm proud of her either way for participating.

Breaking

She took 2nd in breaking! This was even after changing her two routine just before she had to perform. Her first routine was a jumping snap kick, then ax kick. And, her second was a side kick, then reverse punch. She wanted to use 2 boards for each technique, but we did 1 instead. There isn't extra point for attempting extra boards, unless you succeed. The boys she was against all failed to break their extra boards (except the kid who got 1st). It's something that can work for, or against you. In either case, she was great and got a well deserved 2nd place for it.

Sparring

1st place!! She kept herself well guarded, and was aggressive. I explained to her that anyone she'd go up against would do 2 things which she could capitalize on:

1. They won't be able to block well. Let's face it, a 8/9 year old can't block very well. So, if she's aggressive, she'll land things since the opponent won't be able to block everything.

2. When they kick, their hands will spread out of their body. This is another thing kids do. They can't always control both their legs and arms at the same time. When they kick, 8 out of 10 times, their body will be left exposed. Perfect time for scoring.

She followed this advice, and won. If she was to take 1st in anything, I'm happy it's sparring. After all, in the street, pieces of wood likely won't attack you, and the statistical probability that a street fight could be fought in the steps of a form is pretty low.

It was a great day, and I'm extremely proud of Kyla. She also now has more medals to go with the others, and her trophy's. Plus, she tests for blue belt in a week.

Kyla has her TKD tourney tomorrow. She'll be competing in forms, board breaking and sparring.

Everyone wish her luck.

Just an action shot (from my phone) of Kyla sparring. And yes, she did connect with that roundhouse.

She spars in a competition this weekend.

Over the weekend we went to a small carnival that's in town. Rode some rides, ate some fried food and walked around. I generally try to avoid the "game" section of these things since they can suck the money out of you quicker than your wife in the mall.

After walking through it once, and somehow spending $10 on some dart game Kyla and Suzy played, winning a wonderful $.50 stuffed seal, I saw a game. I walked up to it, and was trapped. It was a spiral wire, which spun counter-clockwise, and a circle thing you had to get to the bottom of the wire without it touching the wire (if they touched, a load noise went off like the game Operation). If you did it, you won a huge stuffed bear. It was worth a few tries.

Damn, I kept getting close. I kept trying, and handing over my loot. I didn't even care about the bear, I just wanted to beat the game. It was a puzzle, of sorts, and I love puzzles. But, I just couldn't get past the final small turn and get it to the bottom. It beat me.

Damn carnival games.

Kyla got a Tamagotchi for the holidays. The thing seems to need pretty constant attention. So, now that she's back in school I have to babysit the thing. She wrote me 3 pages of instructions for it.

I'm charging her $1 a day for my services :-)

It's here! It's today! Everyone celebrate!

Only a few shopping days left until Kevmasnukka! That's right, just after the Jesus guy has his "let's ruin Kevin's birthday and celebrate mine 2 days before his" holiday, you have a final day of shopping!

I'd like to give a wicked big thanks to Alan for his early Kevmasnukka gift. I love it, and it's been coming in very handy. It was very thoughtful and is appreciated.

If you need any ideas, I'm always happy for gift certificates. Think Geek is always handy so I can refill on my caffeinated mints or a new tshirt. Or, whatever. Or, nothing.. like every year :-P

Anyways.. thanks again Alan. Awesome.

Kyla officially got her Green Belt on Friday.

Kyla and I had a great time in NYC together. Here's a little rundown..

Friday:

We waited at the train station in Saratoga, and the train was about 20 minutes late. No biggie. The train station here is really pretty nice. Once on the train we grabbed our seats, and Kyla plugged in her Nintendo DS. Luckily, there was a power strip all along the wall. The train down follows along the East side of the Hudson, and is a really nice trip (about 3.5 hours to Penn Station). The weather was sunny and warm, which made for nice views out the window. When we went to the food car to get a drink I met a guy named "Chin" (I think it was "Chin", he was sort of hard to understand). He was a very large black dude, dressed like... hmm.. very layered and very colorful. Sort of like a guy from Jamaica dressed for Winter with a huge staff/walking stick (think Mr. Ecko on Lost). And, that's kind of what he was. He told me of his houses in Vermont, and that he's originally from the islands. He also kept calling me "king". FINALLY! Someone recognizes my innate royalty. I talked to him for a bit, then he was getting off in Schenectady.

When we reached Penn Station, we made our way to the street. Penn was pretty crowded. We waited at the taxi stand for about 15 minutes, then hopped in a cab. At this point, Kyla was sort of wide-eyed at all the tall buildings. The cab ride was a typical crazy cab ride. About 30 near accidents, 4 red lights run, and 30 pedestrians almost hit. Kyla was looking out the windows, so I don't think she really noticed how crazy the drive actually was. After a few minutes, we pulled up in front of FAO Schwartz.

At FAO we met my aunt and uncle, as well as Suzannah and Kimberly. Suzannah is my cousins wife, and Kimberly is their daughter (I'm really not sure if there is a relation there, so let's just say my cousins). We walked around FAO for a while, which was fun. We got to play on the large floor piano (from the movie Big), which was cool. Kyla really wanted to do that. We also saw the toy trains, dolls and Lego's. Really cool stuff.

After FAO we walked around a little until we found somewhere where everyone wanted to eat. It ended up being a place called Burger Heaven. We had a nice dinner, some conversation, then headed to the car. The kids talked and stuff, and I mainly looked out the window trying to see the sights. Back at my aunt and uncles house, we watched a little TV, and hit the sack.

Saturday:
Woke up, chatted with my uncle and watched some TV. At FAO we got a Bedlam Cube, which I and Kyla were trying to solve. After a while, we headed out to the city again. Today, we went to the Museum of Natural History. It was great. We went to the butterfly conservatory, saw all the dinosaur bones, mammal exhibits and underwater life exhibits. Kyla really enjoyed it, and so did I.

After a few hours (not nearly enough) at the museum, we headed around the corner to eat. Since the weather was so great, we sat outside and had a really good dinner. Certainly the kind of place I wouldn't regularly go and eat (more fancy than I am), but it was really good. After dinner, we drove down Times Square, SoHo and the Villiage. We then went and parked in China Town, and walked over to Little Italy. Lots of people were out and about enjoying the weather. We found a pastry place, and got some sweets for dessert. YUM. After the sugar kicked in, we walked around China Town for a while, going into the stores, and enjoying the streets. I got myself a Mango Boba, which I discovered on my trip to LA. It wasn't as good as the one in LA, but it was a good treat. Can't find that around here. After a while, we headed back to the house. By then, it was about midnight, and Kyla passed out. I was soon to follow.

Sunday:
Breakfast, talking, good bye's and off to the train station. Kyla and I took the LIRR to Penn Station, then from Penn back up here. Another good train ride to finish off an excellent long weekend.

There is still so much to show Kyla in NYC, and so much I want to do that I haven't in years. It was wonderful spending time with my aunt and uncle, and I'm happy that Kyla and Kimberly got along well. NYC was pretty much how I remembered, with people moving about, lots of cars (and honking), and tons of things to see and do. Knowing the train ride is pretty good to get there, I'm sure we will head down more often.

Tonight, Kyla tests for her green belt. There is no question about her passing.

I'm pretty excited. I'm taking Kyla down to NYC for the weekend. We are staying with my aunt and uncle, which makes it double-nice as I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Not exactly sure all we'll be doing, but I want to make sure I take Kyla to the FAO Schwartz Museum [1] and the Museum of Natural History. Then, Central Park, China Town and whatever else we can fit in. This will be her first real "city" experience.

[1] When I was a kid, my uncle told me FAO was a museum, since I wanted a lot of stuff, and everything is expensive.

Realized I hadn't put up any pics of the finished exterior of the house. Here's the house, and the dogs :-)

Pic of house

Pic of dogs

I'm sitting in my living room at about 8:10pm watching a recorded Judge Judy waiting for Suzy to get home. Jazzy starts growling at the front door, so I get up and look. I see a car in the cul-de-sac, and think nothing of it. I figure it's someone coming from a neighbors house and sitting there for some reason. A few minutes later, I notice it is gone. I hear the garage door, and Suzy comes in.

"I'm calling the police", she says.

"Why?", I asked.

She then said something about being followed home, and starts talking to the 911 operator. She was very upset, and all I could make out was something about eggs and being followed home. I asked if the car I saw was the one, and she said yes.

I got my keys, wallet and shoes on and headed out to find the car. At the corner, I saw it.. and 3 cop cars. I pulled over, got out and asked the cop if he was there because of the 911 call. He said he was. He said that the guys car got egged, and he thought Suzy did it and called 911 from his car. But, they now realized it was a mistake. I told him my wife was pretty upset, since she was just followed home. He, and the other two officers (both female, I believe) came up to the house.

When I got back up to the house, Suzy was out there, and my dogs basically had the cop pinned against his car. Good dogs. He asked if I'd take the dogs in, and I did.

He explained the situation and misunderstanding to Suzy. Suzy was extremely upset, understandably. The cop went from somewhat helpful, to pretty unsympathetic by repeating "It was a misunderstanding, you're in no danger, it's over now." This was basically saying "Get over it". From Suzy's standpoint, she was followed home, for 15 minutes, on back roads. She knew nothing of eggs, or 911 calls. She knew that a car was flashing their lights at her, and following her home. Maybe this cop has been working in Saratoga County for too long. Maybe he should spend some time down in Broward County, where when a woman is followed home, it is usually followed up with a rape, not a misunderstanding about an egging.

One thing of note is that during the conversation we asked why the guy was following her. The cop said 911 told him to. We both were like "What? No way 911 told him to follow. 911 doesn't put people in more danger. They should just say to get the plate, and go." But, he said 911 said to follow. He was wrong.

As I watched my tax dollars start to be being wasted by him not helping much anymore, and the other two officers being completely silent, he left.

Suzy was so upset. She was angry, frightened and frustrated. She called the police station to speak with a Sgt. She wanted to tell them that the cop wasn't exactly sympathetic and should be told that when a woman is followed home, it isn't "over with" to her. Also, that we wanted the report that would be made, as well as a transcript of the 911 call to see if the operator told the guy to follow her.

I guess the Sgt. was helpful and nice. He said that he understood her feelings, and that he listened to the whole thing over the radio (I guess this was the only thing going on in the county). He said things went down as they should have, and that the 911 operator did not say to follow, and the guy did it on his own. And, we can't get any reports or transcripts without a subpoena.

A message to cops out there. Whenever a woman is followed home, at night, on back roads, she will be scared. Remember this and be empathetic to this. Don't patronize her or for an instant forget that being followed home is scary.

A message to people who get egg on their car and FOLLOW SOMEONE HOME. You are a complete fucking moron. The guy last night had his kids in the car. HIS KIDS. He's lucky he was following Suzy and not someone who was armed. This is a great way to get yourself shot or beaten to a pulp. Not to mention a great way to endanger your kids. There is a saying about not crying over spilled milk. In this case, don't endager your family over egg on your car.

Kyla took 3rd for her form at the TKD tourney this weekend. She did a great job, and I'm very proud of her. The kid who got 1st really did excellent. I think the kid who got 2nd only eeked it out. They were both very good.

This morning was the first hard frost of the year. It was about 29 or 30 degrees out, but sunny. It was nice. I actually put on pants (instead of shorts) for the first time. But, it's warmed up to 36, so I'm back in shorts.

Also, tomorrow is the Fall Tae Kwon Do Championship. Kyla will be competing in forms, and maybe board breaking. Wish her luck! If you don't, she'll use her skills for evil and kick your ass!

After all the variance stuff and hold ups for the last few months, my deck is finally complete. It looks great, and I hope to get a few weeks of use out of it before it snows :-)

Kyla is having a school fundraiser. Since I can't put the catalogs and order form in the break room and have everyone see it, I can give you this URL. Go order some personalized cups, or a candle or something. And, when you check out use this registration number: 55915. That should make it so her school gets the money, and Kyla gets the credit.

So, go buy something... now!! What are you waiting for? Support my kid!

I had to go in front of the town zoning board to get a variance to build my deck. Turns out the builder build the house basically right up against the set-back line. To get the deck, I had to have the zoning board give a variance so I could build the deck. I could put in a pool, shed or many other things without the variance, but for a deck I needed it. I guess because it's attached to the house.

So, I did what I needed. Sent registered mail to all my neighbors saying I was applying for the variance. Filled in the application, and went to the zoning board meeting.

There were no problems, and my variance was approved. There was just one board member who said "no" to it. It really got my goat that he said no. He only did it because he goes into a rant about people building a house against the set-back, then coming in for a variance to "expand" it. I, and two other board members, pointed out to him that when you build a house you don't really tell the builder where to build it on the property. It's in the contracts that they choose the location. Also, not like I decided where the setback line is. I don't know who does, but I have a feeling it's the town zoning people.

So, I think he voted no just to make a point. The only point he made to me was that I think he's a jerk. Make a point on your own time. You don't like the fact that builders build on a set-back, they vote no on the builders things. Don't make a point by going on the record with a 'no' when a family comes in just wanted to build a deck on their house.

The rest of the board said yes, so it was approved. They didn't need to use the platform to make a point. They know I didn't decide where either the set-back line is or where the home was positioned and did the right thing.

Next month, the deck should be built. This should be good timing as my grass is growing and it'll be nice to hang out back there watching all the trees turn color.

I have been very busy between trying to unpack, work, the dogs, etc... so haven't been able to update much.

The house is so nice. We really like it. We get deer in the back every day, which is nice to watch. I hear wild turkey, but haven't seen them. Unpacking is coming along, but slowly.

Being in the cul-de-sac is nice, and quiet. It's also sort of nice being on a hill so I can look down upon people as they come through. I get along with my next door neighbor. He's another work-at-home geek, so we IM eachother and chat outside during the day.

Being away from the annoying neighbors is great! No more hearing his air-horn and general loudness.

Next week my sprinkler system and lawn should be going in. Also my gutters. I'm happy to be getting sprinklers. I have enough to do than pay attention to moving sprinklers around the yard every day to water it as the grass grows.

So, that's a quick update. Basically, everything is going well, and we all love the house.

Just a brief note that we are in the new house! The closing was smooth, and now we're in the midst of unpacking. We LOVE the house. It's very very nice. More later.. back to work!

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. Married for 30 years.. I mean.. 10 years :-)

I'm in the home stretch of closing on the new house. Half my house is in boxes, and we're getting pretty excited. Suzy is excited to get into the new house, and I'm excited to stop herding cats (making sure everyone involved is speaking to eachother and doing what they need to, and I need to). I haven't even had time to really get over excited about getting the house itself. Every time I see it, I'm like "YAY!" for 5 seconds, then it becomes "Crap.. I have to call X, Y and Z."

We did go in on Sunday, and the house looks great! Especially my kitchen. I can't wait to be settled in so I can make a great dinner in there and test it out.

Tomorrow is my final walkthrough, and we should still be set to close on Friday. At least, my movers are still coming Friday and I'm telling them to put the stuff in the house. I think if I got a call saying it was being pushed back for any reason I'd go bonkers.. and by bonkers I mean postal.

I can't wait for it all to be done. I'm exhausted. Totally exhausted.

Suzy and Kyla had a good time in Mexico last week. I had a pretty relaxing week here on my own. I worked a lot, and started some packing, but it was nice having a break from needing to do things for others for a few days.

Kyla came in 4th in the 2nd grade spelling bee yesterday. She was awesome!

Saw a carpet guy (and rolls of carpet) at the new house yesterday. Also the guys building the form for the front walkway and steps. I'll surely drive by later today and see what's up. I like seeing people there, since I know things are getting done.

The baby frogs and fireflies are out.

The Ringer - I thought it was pretty funny.

Aeon Flux - Wasn't too bad of a flick.

Entourage and Deadwood have started the season well. HBO still sucks though.

The new house has a phone jack which has a power thing on it. But, I can't figure out how to tell what phones I can use the plug with. And, I need a new phone since Lola chewed off the antenna from the one we have now.

Lola is doing good.

I'm tired of the rain.

My contact at the lending bank sucks. She's impossible to get ahold of.

Well, I'm now sitting in a house I no longer own. The closing went smooth, and made 6 figures from the sale (all going to the new house). Now, for the new house!

On Sunday we went and got ourselves a new member of the clan.. a puppy. She's about 4 months old, and a shepherd/doberman mix. Very very cute (I'll have some pics soon). She actually looks a lot like my old dog Zeke.

She's very playful, healthy (says the vet today), and is doing ok with house training. No poops (yet) in the house. Oh, her name is Lola (I wanted Killer, but was outvoted).

Jaz is doing OK with her.. as well as could be expected by a dog suddenly having a new puppy show up. Tigger is doing good, and could care less. Lily pretty much keeps away and hisses.

I'll update soon with a few pics.

On Friday, Kyla got her yellow belt. She was psyched, and I'm very proud of her. Not only that, but she got a certificate and a trophy for getting the 2nd most 'attitude stripes' of all white to orange belts. She is super happy to have a trophy. She stares at it, holds it and took it to school today.

Way to go Kyla!

This was actually last Thursday, and I was going to post when I uploaded the pics from it. But, been too lazy..er.. busy to upload them so far.

Anyways.. she did great. She was first to bat in the first inning and got the first hit and first run! She actually had two hits and scored two runs. She also made two really good plays during the game.

I'm surely proud of her, she did a great job for her first time in a real baseball game. Pics will follow.. when I get a moment.

At her first Tae Kwon Do tourney this weekend, Kyla took the bronze in board breaking. I can't express how proud I am of her.

Here she is in action, breaking a board with her elbow. Notice the hunk of a guy behind her helping to hold the boards.

Holding her medal up.

Her excited face when they announced her name over the PA system.

The house is looking nice on the outside now. Looks like the siding is about all done, and the shutters are half up.

Been fishing the last 2 days with Kyla. She loves it. There is a nice lake nearby where only residents of my town are allowed to fish. We've been the only ones there the last 2 days. The place is stocked, and I caught (and released) 4 trout. It's nice being out doing something like that with Kyla.

Tomorrow is Kyla's first Tae Kwon Do competition. She'll be doing 2 board breaking stations, each with 2 techniques. Should be fun.

Yesterday Kyla read a poem she wrote in front of the whole school during the monthly 'Friendship Assembly'. I also just realized 'Friendship Assembly' sounds sort of Jehovah.

I need coffee...

Everything is going smooth.. too smooth. The buyers had their inspections yesterday, which all appeared to go fine. We also got to talk with them for a while, and they are nice people and really looking forward to moving in.

Our new house seems to be moving steadily along as well. They did make a mistake, but I'm assured it will be no problem to remedy. I just drove by and the siding is being put on. We should hopefully have our electrical walkthrough within the next week.

I like it when things seem to be going smoothly.. but makes me nervous!

Just got a call from my attorney. Looks like we're all set with the contract on the house. She also said that her office happens to be representing the people who are going to be buying our buyers house. I guess they have a contract which is now being circulated for approval, or being drawn up, or something. This is also good news since the 48 hour contingency will be removed.

It amazes me when things "fall into place" like this. It also makes me nervous :-)

In either case, tonight.. I celebrate!

Just signed the contract for the house. Now, it just has to go through "attorney approval" which is just a way for NY lawyers to make more money.

In either case, I'm happy I got my asking price.

We got an offer on the house yesterday. It's a strange offer, and is bringing things I didn't expect. First, the good thing, is that it's for our asking price. But, it's got these various contingencies attached.

Right now, we mainly have one sticking point. It's that we want them to apply for a mortgage now, and they want to wait until they have a contract on their house. We prefer to not wait, since we want to be sure that a bank says they will lend them the money... essentially that yes, they can afford to buy the house. The only thing we have is a pre-approval thing. Those things really aren't worth much, since I could likely get a pre-approval for $1,000,000 in about 5 minutes off the internet. But, no bank would loan me that amount.

The other things I think we can get around. The only main thing is that they have a certain amount of time to get a contract on their house, or we null the deal and I keep their deposit. That seems like it would be ok. So, just the mortgage stuff. My agent called their lender, and the lender says the people will have no problem getting the loan, and there is no reason why they can't just apply now. That's good to hear, but it isn't something on paper. Then again, even if it's on paper and one of them loses their job, the bank can not give them the money (same with anyone). Aaargh!

I almost wish we were haggling about money. This would be much easier. I met these people, since they came twice on Sunday, and one time they were early so I hung out talking. I'd like for them to have the house. They seem like a good addition to the neighborhood. But, how much trust and bending can I do? I almost feel like I'm bending over for them, hoping they have some KY. I am agreeing to a much lower deposit than I'd like. I'm agreeing to another thing or two I really don't want to.

Well, it should play out today. My agent will call me back in an hour and see if she heard anything new. Then, we'll just officially put in our counter, and see if they accept it. We really want them to apply for their mortgage. We want to see on paper that they will get the loan, and I don't think that's too much to ask for. Of course, they are offering full asking price, which is great. So, if I have some trust (faith?) that it'll all work out, I can go with it. But, I really don't trust people when it comes to money.. so that would be a pretty big leap of faith for me.

This sucks. I really wish they waited to offer, or we were just going back and forth on sale price.

Today there was an "Agent Open House" here for 2 hours. So, I had to make myself scarce. I took Jazzy with me to the Bog Meadow Trail for a hike. The weather was perfect, and even better for a hike. There is a large pond along the trail, and there were many geese and ducks in it. Also, the beavers seemed to be very active judging by the dams and trees they took down, and were in the process of taking down.

Jazzy was also great, and loved smelling all the.. well, whatever the heck she can smell. We ended up hiking about 2.5 miles or so, and was the perfect amount of time.

Tonight Kyla had, at her school, something called 'Authors Night'. The second graders made books on topics (all animals, I think) which they were interested in. They wrote, colored and bound the books. Tonight, they read them aloud and it was pretty fun. Kyla did a great job, of course :-)

Here are some photos from the past week. Since these were taken we now have a roof, which I'll probably get a photo of this week.

Suzy standing in what will be the kitchen:

Looking out what will be sliders (flanked by two windows) in the breakfast area.

Looking down the hallway to the guest suite:

Corner of the family room. I think that's 20' high, which will be the ceiling height:

View from the side. That's the side-load garage. The part with nothing on it (the left side) is where the sitting room in the master bedroom is. The rest of the stuff above that you see will be the master bedroom:

From the street:

From the street going up the driveway:

Another from the street. You can see they starting framing the sitting room:

Kyla threw up last night, pretty much out of nowhere. This is the third time this has happened. It happened first a couple weeks ago at Tae Kwon Do class (yes, at the class.. in my hands in fact). Then, it happened again about a week later, and again last night.

Each time, there was really no good reason for it to happen. At least, reasons may be a stretch. The first time she had a (lot?) of potato chips about 45 minutes before Tae Kwon Do. I thought maybe that was it. The second time, I recall her just eating a lot that day. Maybe some things didn't mix well. But, yesterday.. nothing I can even think of which would be a far fetched reason. Basically, just three random times in the span of a few weeks.

It's not even a 24 hour thing. She basically throws up, but then feels fine the next day. Not even a fever after she gets sick, or any real lead-up to the puking. She just suddenly doesn't feel good, then throws up about 5 minutes later.

One thing I was thinking is maybe from her swallowing her snot. The weather is changing here, and it's a time where many people get post-nasal drip and colds. She told me that when she's in school, she sometimes swallows the "stuff" dripping from her nose (internally, not like she is picking her nose and eating it) instead of blowing her nose. Maybe that's the culprit? I made sure to send her to school with tissues today, and told her to always blow her nose and never swallow snot.

If it happens again, I guess I need to take her to the doctor. Since there really isn't anything on the surface which would do this so randomly, I really don't want to do that. That will likely mean tests of some sort, which would really suck for her. And, aside these 3 random incidents, there has been no indication of ill health, change in diet, lethargy, etc... I did speak to the school nurse today to see if she knew of any other kids having this happen. She did say there was various stomach bugs going around. Maybe she somehow caught it 3 times, or 3 different strains?

I don't know.. I just hope it's nothing.

That's sort of morbid, isn't it? Prepping for death isn't something I like to think about. Sort of how I think going to a doctor somehow makes an illness progress faster.. prepping for death may make it occur faster.

What exactly should someone do? I mainly want to make sure that if I were hit by a bus, the State doesn't come in and say they can take my house, car, bank account, stocks, mutual funds, IRAs, bonds, etc... Also, if something were to happen to both me AND Suzy that the State wouldn't take everything and leave Kyla with nothing.

Is there an easy way to do this? Is this just a Will? A Living Will? Some other thing to make sure people are provided for? Hell, I don't even know if I have life insurance.

I hate thinking about these things, but, ya know.. shit happens. If I'm attacked by a bear while hiking this summer, I wouldn't want Suzy and Kyla to have any more issues above the fact I was attacked by a bear to deal with.

Drove by the new house (lot) last night on the way to karate, and saw some walls going up! About frekkin time!

I haven't said much about the new house, because I really hate the whole process. The agents have been pissing me off, delays have pissed me off and I now clearly remember why I didn't want to build a new house again. However, I know the house will be kick-ass, so am keeping my "eye on the prize" instead of going postal.

The date to get the house was originally March-ish. Well, now the latest we got is June 28.. which really means July. Why? Couldn't tell you. This Winter has been so mild it could be called Spring.. so it isn't the weather. So, I really don't know why it jumped back 3 months. But, it did.. and maybe that will help us since more people look for homes in the Spring, so we'll have more people looking at our house (which we've sort of put on hold, since this schedule changed from "soon" to "months away").

The framing of the house SHOULD be starting today. At least, I saw they delivered the lumber yesterday. I'll be happy to see the framing actually begin. We did get a goodie for free though... a side-load garage. That's a pretty pricey upgrade, which they are doing for nothing. The house will be sort of up on a hill (they had to raise it a bit because of the water table and codes), so having a driveway go straight up would have sucked. The site manager (my neighbor) made the call that it should be a side-load garage so they can wrap the driveway around. It'll be really nice. Although, taking the trash out in the Winter will surely suck!

So, although we have the delay, getting a free upgrade like that (which is something I wanted, anyways but wouldn't pay for) cools me off a little. Also, the base price of my house has gone up $10k since we signed our contract. It's nice knowing anyone else building our house is starting $10k more than we did.

I'll try to take some photos now that the process is starting. I didn't take any of the foundation, since that's pretty boring.

The other houses in the cul-de-sac are coming along well. It should be very nice when it's all done.

Tonight, Kyla broke two boards in Tae Kwon Do class. She didn't want to try breaking any, since she thought it would hurt. But, I got her two boards anyways, knowing she'd likely try it.

The first, she did with a closed fist, and the second with a snap kick. She was proud of herself, and I was proud of her. In the next class (Thursday) I'll get her some more boards to break.

Next month there is nunchuck week, which should be fun. I already got her some (padded) nunchucks.

On Friday we had quite the wind storm up here in the Northeast. Our power went out around 10:30am on Friday, and came back around 3pm on Saturday. Friday night was basically like camping out, in our living room. It was pretty cold, so we had the fireplace running all night, and used flashlights and my camping lantern for light.

We had two main bad side-effects of this. First, I watched the wind pick up Kyla's trampoline and slam it up against the fence. Luckily, the fence is fine.. but the trampoline isn't. The frame got bent up. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix it, or fix it in a way I feel it's safe. This really sucks, since it was Kyla's main birthday gift :-( Looks like I'll have to get a new one if I can't fix it, or can't order replacement pieces.

The other PITA from this is my DVR box is fried. It simply won't turn on, so now I have to make a trip to the cable office to get a new one. Not a huge deal, but.. well.. no DVR!! There's a lot of good things on tomorrow night, so I hope they are open for me to exchange the box!

Only one movie this weekend, which was today. Dukes of Hazzard. That was pretty darn bad. All the cussing and gratuitous nudity wasn't in Duke style. That's sort of like someone actually getting hurt on the 'A Team'! Also, Boss Hogg and Rosco P. Coltrane were terribly cast. I like Burt Reynolds, but Boss Hogg is a shorter, sweaty, fat hick. Not a good looking, smooth talking, tall guy. And Rosco P. Coltrane was a bumbling idiot.. not a henchman toughguy. That was pretty dissapointing.

Anyways.. I'm glad our power is back, as some people still don't have it.

Fairly normal weekend. The Nor'Easter didn't reach up here, so we're still snowless. Of course, the weathermen up here said we'd get a few inches.. again, they were incorrect.

Since it was a usual laid-back weekend, I'll skip to the movies.

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo - Suzy didn't want to see it, so I watched it late one night. I laughed my ass off.

The Pink Panther - We went to see this yesterday. I wasn't sure if Kyla would like it, since she doesn't know about the pink panther, and some would be a little above her head. But, she did like it. We all did. It was fun, and Steve Martin did a good job. Good, fun family movie.

That's it.

I usually buy these large boxes filled with various types of snack-sized chips at BJs for Kyla to take with lunch. Sometimes, it can take a while to work through these, as there may be 30 or 40. Well, Cheetos has a 'freshness date' on it. Yesterday, I put a bag of Cheetos, which should be able to be edible for about 100 years, in her lunchbox. When she came home, she said she didn't eat it because it said "Guarantees Fresh until February 7, 2006", and it is February 8. So, obviously, the Cheetos must now be sour and tainted.

I asked her today if she'd eat some Cheetos if I put them in her lunch. After all, I have 9 bags left. She said she wouldn't, even after I explained that Cheetos aren't like "real" food that spoils. But, no dice.

Damn you Cheetos packaging!

Let's see. Friday I think we just watched some TV. To be honest, I don't really remember Friday. Saturday, Kyla and I hung out, played games and kicked back. And, Sunday we all went to a dog show. That was a lot of fun. It wasn't like the ones you see on TV where you're sitting in the stands. But, you were right there next to the action, and get to pet dogs (when their owners let you). Going to the dog show helped solidify something... I don't like small dogs, and I don't care much for the owners of small dogs. I know that's a blanket statement, and has various exceptions. But, for the most part, I don't like small dog owners. They always think their dogs are allowed to walk around without leashes, and are allowed into places where dogs aren't. But.. anyways.. the dog show was fun to go to.

Three movies this weekend:

Robots. Not so great. Very predictable, and there is only so much Robin Williams schtick I can take these days.. even if it's animated.

Crash. Really enjoyed it. I guess it won some awards, or may win awards. Awards generally don't mean much to me when it comes to movies. After all, isn't Bareback Mountain winning awards or something? Of course, being gay is "in" these days, and a movie about gay cowboys.. whooboy. Cowboys AND gay? I smell Oscar! Or, is that my socks? I think that movie is about gay cowboys, or maybe I'm just making stuff up.

Serpico. Older movie with Al Pacino about dirty cops. I bet in many police forces, there isn't much of a difference today. Hadn't seen it in a long time, so I recorded from HBO or something.

I still have War of the Worlds to watch. They filmed some of that in a town somewhere around here. I remember it was all over the news, and people could go and be extras. I was thinking of doing it, but I would have had to be up early, and I really didn't want to hear Tom Cruise drone on about Scientology. Getting up early, standing in a crowd and listening to Scientology propoganda.. not my idea of fun.

Pretty laid back weekend. Kyla had a sleepover at my dads house, after we all went there for dinner. Cleaning the house, watching TV, some work, etc... nothing too exciting. Movies watched were 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'Coach Carter'. Both good.

I have a showing here between 1 and 2, so will need to clean up a bit. They wanted to come yesterday, but we just didn't feel like it, so we said no. They then called and said they wanted to come today, so no problem. I can't tell you how much I hate this whole process of buying/selling a house. I hated it before, and don't know why the hell I decided to do it again. Oh yeah.. the new house will be sweet! But, this process has re-affirmed my dislike for real estate agents and lenders.

Kyla will start her karate classes tomorrow. This place doesn't do a monthly membership. They have a "academy" setup where you pay for a membership. Not too cheap, but I can't tell Kyla no because I'd prefer to not pay it. I will say, she better stay at it for the year I'm paying for :-) So, we'll go twice a week.

Back to work...

Tonight I took Kyla to a private Karate lesson. She has 2 private lessons (2nd is tomorrow) to decide if she wants to keep going. She had fun tonight, and I'm sure she will want to keep it up. I'm happy she's doing, since martial arts is great for kids to get into.

One thing was funny. When we got there, there was a class going on which they were sparring. These kids had padding all over their bodies like they were dresses as the Michelin Man! When I was younger and took Karate (at a few difference places), all we had was a cup, mouth guard, and 12oz gloves. Either kids these days are soft, or lawsuits have made it this way.

I've been busy and haven't updated much. Lets' see...

More snow. Not a surprise, of course. It's so pretty outside. Some mornings have been pretty cold (-9F), but it usually warms up to a heated 20 or so.

I've won the past two weeks at poker.

We've had a few showings for the house. 2 people have really liked it, and wanted it. But, they have timing issues. One has his lease up in March, and the others want us out in Feb. No way.. these people are from New Orleans, and have family here which they are staying with (their brother lives somewhere in my 'hood). No pets, no kids, but want US to uproot ourselves. Sorry, no dice. Go rent a place.. that's what people do. The lease guy also has options, like asking his landlord for a month-to-month, which many will do. In either case, it shows that there are people who will buy the place. Maybe one of them will surprise me and make an offer and deal with their own housing in between like everyone else.

Kyla is doing great. She gets a Student of the Month award today, which I'll be going to watch. She's also now a gamer. We finished Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Anrsenal and Jax 3 together. And, we've been playing Midnight Club 3 (DUB Edition). She's pretty good with racing. She drives a '64 Impala and 300C.. which she has all pimped out with flames, neon, NoS, rims, a body kit and paint job. She now even understands drifting (to an extent), and how to start off the line. Makes me proud. Maybe she'll grow up to be a geeky hacker and tuner! Man, I'd love that... we can get the '98 Supra I've always wanted as a project car together! Other than that, she's kicking ass in school, and is generally happy.

The house SHOULD have the foundation dug this week. I'm kind of pissed this hasn't been done already.. but what do you expect from builders? I know we're next to get that done, and I'll probably drive by later to see if they started.

My birthday is coming up next week. It should be cool. I'll be on vacation all week, and Kyla has school until Wednesday, and my mom comes in on Thursday. So, I'll have 2 days without work to just do what I want all day.

On Thanksgiving my friend John IM'd me. I called him and we caught up a little. It was nice. I still don't know why we haven't spoke for so long, but I didn't ruin the conversation by asking (I laid out my feelings in an email.. the 21st century way of dealing with things). Hopefully, the catching up will be on a more regular basis.

Work is fine.

I got into a "fight" with some chick on my friends journal. I called chicks "chicks" and she said it was sexist. But, being a true armchair complainer, she couldn't give me a word to use which "expressed that every person of the female gender is a unique individual", which was basically her complaint about the word "chick". I hate it when people blurt out what they don't like, but can't give an alternative. I kept asking what would be better to use as the term, and she couldn't do anything but try to push my buttons. I guess a "chick" can turn into a "hen"!

I guess that's mainly it. If I forgot something, I'll write about it later.

Kyla is playing Zoo Tycoon 2, and came to tell me about the "peacock". She said the game is calling it a "pea fowl". I explained to her what a "fowl" is, so she asks "What's a cock?". Trying not to laugh, I just said "It's a male chicken or rooster" and she starts running around acting like a chicken yelling "COCK COCK COCK".

Actually, it's been listed since a few days ago, but no showing until tomorrow. We already have one showing set up for tomorrow morning and hopefully a few more will happen. We're listing a little high, since we have some time and may need to play with the number as time passes. But, if we got our asking price, or close to it, I'd be very very happy.

Wish us luck!

The trip to LA was long, as expected. But, the flights were good. Saw "The Island" on the flight from CVG to LAX. Horrible movie, but good time killer. When flying over the area I could see nothing but lights and sprawl for miles and miles and miles. It was like seeing the lights around Ft. Lauderdale, but 10 times more. I could also see tightly packed white and red lights on the highways.. showing that LA traffic I hear so much about. Waaay too many people here. I was met at the airport by my ride, who took me to my hotel. It's a nice place on a marina. It was dark, so I couldn't actually see the water, but heard the seals.

This morning I was up at 4am, since I'm still on East Coast time. I'm exhausted. Now I'm just chillin' with some coffee enjoying the free wireless in my hotel robe until they start breakfast at 6am. Then, I'll be picked up at 7:45am for 'second breakfast', and business pow-wows.

This is my first time in LA since I was maybe 8 or 9. Even then, we were going to Bakersfield so it wasn't really an LA trip. So far, so good (even though it's been dark since I've been here). Coming from a town with a population of about 13,000, and when you have to sit behind 3 cars at a light it's considered "traffic".. this will be interesting.

My L.A. Checklist:

* Pick on gang members
* Get in high speed chase
* Have the L.A.P.D. beat the shit out of me (on camera)
* Say "like, totally" a lot
* Find a 'valley girl' and ask if she knows the Frank Zappa song about her
* Find any of the kids from MTV's "Laguna Beach" and punch them (which could then help with the high speed chase and ass-kicking)

Halloween was cool. Kyla said it was the "best halloween ever", which is good. Plenty of trick-or-treaters came by. The weather was nice, and I carved a kick ass pumpkin.

Tomorrow, I'm off to LA until Sunday. It's a business trip, but should be fun. I'll have Saturday to bum around and see what's around the hotel. I'm staying at a marina in Redondo Beach, so it should be nice. I'm also excited to finally meet some of the people I work with/for. Almost a year and a half, and I have only met one person face to face.

In a few weeks I'll be heading out to L.A. for a few days. I haven't been there since I was maybe 8 or 9. It's a business trip, so I'm not sure if I'll see much touristy stuff, but should be fun.

Maybe I'll take a night and pretend to be a paparazzi. I figure maybe I'd get a photo I could sell, or an actor would kick my ass and put me on easy street!

Today is her birthday!

We signed off on the blueprints last night. The house is going to be so nice. They should start digging in 2-3 weeks. Our changes to Kyla's room will make it about 200 square feet (over if you include the walk-in closet). She should be happy with that, and gives plenty of room for growing up. When we went to the house they are building the other day, it had a really nice solid wood door with a large oval decorated glass window. Suzy loved it, of course. We had upgraded our door to have a "sunburst" glass on the top. But, turns out the guy buying that house wanted a steel door, not wood. So, the builder said he'd give us that wood door "at cost". Of course, they haven't told us yet what that cost is.

My only complaint so far is with my bank (USAA). They are usually great, but I'm not so happy in this case. When we originally got our approval packet, we filled it in and sent it back the next day. This was early-September. I waited a little, then tried calling the contact person there to make sure everything was correct. The last thing we need is to hold things up by not dotting an i or crossing a t. Left a message, no return call. I waited a week or so, and called back. Left a message, and got a call. She hasn't even looked at it yet. Since then, have heard nothing. Most may say "no news is good news", but not when you're dealing with a mortgage, IMO. Suzy called yesterday, left a message.. no call back. So, she called later on and got someone else. Eventually, she got to a supervisors voice mail saying we want someone handling us who seems a bit more responsive and helpful. It's been over a month, and we have no idea what the status of our info is in. Is it on someones desk? Is it at the underwriters? Are we missing anything? Does everything look just fine? Inquiring minds want (and need) to know. I'm sure it will all work out, but we do need a final commitment letter for everyone to feel all those warm fuzzies.

Oh, right.. and we're also over budget :-) Not something I'm happy about, but in the long run it should all hopefully be good. Since we plan to be in this house for a long while, we don't want to chince on anything.

Had a very relaxing weekend. It's been rainy and cool, which has made for great fireplace and snuggle up weather.

Friday: Work.. dinner.. then poker.

Saturday: Kyla slept at my dads. So, Suzy and I went out to dinner. We went to a Mexican place near the track (owned by some Mexican jockey). Then, we came home and watched 'White Noise', which was pretty unscary.

Sunday: Hung out with Kyla all day after she came home. Plus, relaxed. Suzy and I watched Ladder 49 (or 57?). Seemed like a few other 'fireman' movies I've seen before.

Monday: Pretty much the same as Sunday! Relaxed and played with Kyla.

Exciting, eh? It was nice to not do anything and play a lot of games with Kyla.

Not much to update. Today we went and did our "lighting" choices. The builder provides a budget, and you use it towards the lighting fixtures you want. It was fun, and we chose some nice things. And, of course, going past the "free" budget.

I think I mentioned they are building the same model for someone else, which I'm watching the progress on. They are now at the stage of doing duct work and wiring, so we went in yesterday. They house is very very nice. They finally had stairs to go upstairs (and to the basement), so we got to check out the bedrooms. Super nice. The basement is also awesome. Could probably put 2 pool tables, an air hockey table, ping pong table, TV area and bar down there.

It's nice seeing that house evolve, since we really have no idea what the home will look like. But, seems like it'll be a great house.

She keeps asking who I think has a smaller brain (is dumber).. Patrick Star (Spongebob) or Cozmo (Fairly Oddparents).

It's actually a hard question.

Yesterday we did a big "selection day" for the new house. For those of you who haven't built a new house, "selection day" is when you choose so many upgrades and new things that the cost of the house doubles.

First stop... kicthen and bath. We went to a kitchen and bath showroom to choose stuff. It was pretty fun, actually. And, the "standard" stuff my builder now offers is much better than he did two years ago. This was good, since it kept the cost down and we didn't have to upgrade much. We ended up choosing a nice maple wood with a cherry finish for the kitchen cabinets. The 3 bathrooms will also have maple, but a lighter finish on them. We decided to not do granite for the kitchen counter. Mainly because it's hella expensive. I keep giving Suzy a hard time that if she didn't insist on the "premium" lot, we could have put 2 layers of granite on the counters :-) But, these days, there are some great formica counter designs. From even a few feet away, they can really look like granite. So, that's what we went with.. upgrading to a nice beveled edge. The one we chose was actually on display, which was good because those little 3x2 sample chips do nothing for me.

Let's see. We also added an "appliance garage", to hide a few things in. I have them adding a tilt panel in front of the sink so I can put sponges in there (I hate them laying on the counter). And, we actually had her do the design with taking a wall out, and adding a panel so the fridge slides in, and you don't see the side of it. Yes, removing a wall. We lose 2 cabinets, but there are already a crapload of cabinets (then a seperate pantry), so the openness into the great room would be better. We still have to talk to the builder about that wall, though. Hopefully, it's not load bearing :-) I have some computer printouts of the kitchen... I should scan them in.

For the bathrooms, we get a regular "cultered marble" vanity tops. But, we upgraded to this new marble which looks exactly (even up close) like Corian. But, for a fraction of the cost! They really look nice, and isn't something I've seen anyone else do.

From there, we went to the other selection center for the builder. There we chose house color (it's called "cactus" and is some sort of soft green), tile for the 3 bath rooms, carpet (color is "gourmet mushroom".... I call it "beige". It's a tight shag which is comparable to Berber. Suzy doesn't like Berber), landscape plan, kitchen sink, etc... This is the soup to nuts stuff. We spent something like $1,200 on fauctes alone! Damn faucets. Every time they told me the cost of one I'd say "What?? Holy crap.. it only gives you water, not wine." But, I do know they aren't cheap even if you go to Home Depot so I had to suck it up. The "standard" faucets are crap. We also upgraded the master bath to have a jetted tub, which will be nice. At least, I guess it will. I'm not a bath person, since you sit there in your own filth. I guess it'll be nicer when that filth is bubbling all around me.

All that's left now is the lighting choices, and electrical. The builder used to put in these mushroom lights as standards. Now, he gives a "lighting allowance", which we take to a lighting store. That'll be cool. I usually just change lights myself, but having the ones I want in when I move will be very nice. The electical comes after the house is framed. Hopefully, not too many new things to add there.

Man, this is all so tiring! But, I think this will end up being a fantastic house.

2 Birthday parties. One Saturday, one Sunday. Kyla had fun at both.
1 tball clinic. Second one, and Kyla still enjoyed it. She really did do very well. I also somehow ended up helping with the batting station. I remember back when I played Little League, I had a .723 season. I was a hitting powerhouse.
1 movie. Well, really .5 movies. The Life Aquatic. Watched half then turned it off. Pretty sucky movie.
5 lot driveby's. I now compulsively drive by the building lot, especially now that the road is paved.

That's the highlights.

Got the mortgage approval package today from the bank. I hate these things. There is so much paperwork to sign, initial and stamp in blood. Of course, I had to call them to ask questions. My main questions revolved around the Final Monthly Payment line, which was within my comfort range. Not only that, it was within my comfort range and the approval is for more money than I expect to borrow, and with a 6% rate (estimated, since we can't lock in right now).

I should really go down to the lot and snap some photos, so I can journal the building process. Let's see.. the next thing we do is go to the kitchen showroom and choose cabinets and counters, then to another one for flooring, house color, landscape package, etc... Then, the blueprint meeting to make any changes, then electrical where I add in fun things like Cat5 and surround pre-wiring. At some point they start building, and I get to drive by every day watching the progress!

Yesterday we signed the contract on the new house. So far, I'm not freaking out. I know I will be when I see my bank account drop by more than half after all the down payment stuff is taken out!

Today we also went to pick out our new appliances. That's the first step, then next we do a kitchen design. I can't wait for that, but then again I can. I can't because they have our kitchen on the computer, so it'll be cool to see it. I'm not because I know the temptation to go crazy with upgrading will occur.

In either case, the appliances will be nice. All stainless.

Crazy.. my realtor called and said someone she works with has clients who are interested in my model house. And, they want to come see it this weekend. We aren't planning to put the house on the market until next year, and I guess they know the whole situation. It would probably be pretty stupid to NOT let them see it, since my realtor said "It's that, or new construction for them". There really isn't squat for real estate here.. it's a true sellers market.

I guess I'll start cleaning! I'd think that if they did want the house, it would be a good thing. Since it's not on the market, they would need to put in an agressive offer if they wanted it. Or, they won't want it, but we'd get some feedback at least.

Forgot to mention we went camping over the weekend. It was the first time for both Kyla and Jasmine. We went to Moreau Lake State Park, which is about 5 or 6 miles from my house. I figured it was close enough that if we needed to come back, we could. And, it's a very nice place which I've been hiking and to the lake about a dozen times before. It was really a very nice time. Kyla and I did some hiking, while Suzy relaxed and read a book. Good open fire cooking, smores and just general camping fun.

Hopefully, we'll get to do it again a few more times before it gets too cold.

Kyla started 2nd grade yesterday. I'm still amazed I have a 7 year old kid, in second grade. It really does go by pretty darn quick. She enjoyed her first day, and I just hope her second is as good!

Ugh.. so we put a lot on hold for a house. It's in the new section of our neighborhood. I really didn't want to do it this quick, but next week the prices are going up. By doing the hold now, we can keep the lower price AND still get out of it within 10 days if we change our mind or it just gets too expensive. Of course, we chose a "premium" lot on a cul-de-sac waaaaay in the backest of back parts.

Now they will call us and tell us a number based on the upgrades we know we want to do. Then, we either scale back, move ahead, or back out. All should really be ok as long as we sell our current house for top dollar. All the money we get would go right into the new house, of course. My hopes is that my monthly payment will only go up a few hundred. And, if something happens and we can't keep the house in a year, we should be able to sell it... again for a profit, then scale backwards again.

Well, everything is a risk and so far we've made decent ones. Hopefully, this one works out. Stay tuned!

Since Kyla is so into Garfield these days, I got some book lots off eBay for her. One arrived today, with 13 books. She lit up like it was Christmas! Can't wait for the other 17 books to arrive :-)

She is also reading Mary Kate and Ashley books like they are going out of style. I use the library for those!

I forgot to mention... I will be enrolling in a real estate course. NYS makes you take a course before you can take the licensing exam. The class is given twice a year at SUNY ACC, so I'm going to take it. At least that way I can sit for the exam and maybe get licensed. Why do I want a license? So I maybe make some extra cashola, but especially so I can get investment property a little cheaper (since I'd get commission in one way or another from buying/selling).

Well, I shouldn't say "again" since it never really stopped. We still go to open houses just about every weekend. The problem has been that the market here is doing well. That's great for a seller, but sucky for a buyer. And, being both it means you either need more money/cash or you make a lateral move.

We had the same problem in FL when we looked around down there, and now it's the same here. Things which we would want to live in are also more expensive than before. So, what to do?

We've seen a couple houses which we have liked. But, they are pretty expensive and none of them were "perfect", albeit so