Crap, I can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post. I decided it was time to refinance my 1st and 2nd mortgages plus a gaggle of miscellaneous debt around the middle of September. Around 3:00am one Sunday morning, I hung my hat out at lendingtree.com. Shortly thereafter several lenders started calling. Belatedly I called Wells Fargo (owner of the 1st & 2nd) to see what they could come up with. After a couple weeks of back and forth with the LendingTree contacts and Wells Fargo, I decided to go with an outfit named Metro Lending. I ended up with 6.5% 30yr fixed and 0 points, which was great for a stated income loan. You see, on paper my finances look pretty horrible but "somehow" I'm able to maintain a very good credit score. The loan's actually going to be serviced by Countrywide (scary, I know!), but I think it's gonna be okay. I was surprised Countrywide would even want to be involved, given their current state because of people just like me. Another surprise was the appraisal. It is difficult to comprehend how my house could be worth almost 2.5 times what I paid for it 8 years ago. Extra brownie points were given for my rockin' BlueStar range and the Vent-A-Hood, but were probably mitigated by unfinished painting areas and pet paraphernalia scattered here and there.
Speaking of painting, Jim's decided to get back into doing art after a long absence. He was hard at work converting his wood shop (which used to be a garage) into an art studio. He fixed up the taping, repainted, and reorganized his tools and hardware. And finally, I was able to talk him into putting some kind of wood subfloor over the nasty old concrete (he tends towards cheap bastard on most aspects of life). We found this neat subfloor tile product called DRIcore at Home Depot: it's a square of varnished OSB glued to a plastic sheet with feet, interlocking via tongue and groove. It wasn't too expensive, either, considering what would've been involved with installing a subfloor with 2x4s, plywood sheets and then something on top of all that. Jim actually liked the look of the plain OSB, so he just applied a few clearcoats for now. The lighting was a bit trickier. He insisted on using these ancient Lightolier halogen track lights, but the light was gross. There are two skylights, but there's not enough natural light to compensate for hot, orange-y halogen spots. He ended up having to put in several fluorescent fixtures with full-spectrum bulbs and now it looks nice, neutral and even. My experience with doing press checks helped a little: neutral gray walls (actually a special gray paint that's really expensive) and 5000K bulbs are the standard. Higher K is more blue, lower K is more yellow. You just need a shitload of bulbs.
The Smashing Pumpkins concert in Ridgefield, WA was awesome. The Clark County Amphitheater was a great venue - not large, with the back end open so it doesn't get hot or stuffy. The Pumpkins were freakin' LOUD. Thankfully I never go anywhere without earplugs anymore, but I remembered them a little too late. Hmm, too much of my youth spent loitering near massive speaker towers, I guess. The opening band was Satellite Party and I probably enjoyed them even more than the Pumpkins. I think I saw one other couple that may have been in the 50s and they were drunk. Well, I freely admit to being immature for my age, so there!
Looking forward to seeing Cesar Milan, thee Dog Wheesperer, here in Seattle on Nov. 4.
Busy at work doing one of my favorite things: screwing around with databases and writing Excel formulas... building our intranet and dreaming up new kitchen gadgets.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Last days of summer
I finally took a few days off last week, and plan to take a few more to get all those potted plants in the ground before the rain comes. When you become a working adult, the summer goes by fast and is just another season... albeit one without much rain, which is notable in Seattle.
My vacation was spent watching the Roomba work, getting some motorcycle practice in and perfecting my latest baking obsession: galettes. I LOVE crust, so I can't believe I haven't made them before. The best dough recipe so far came from Baking Illustrated, where they call it Freeform Fruit Tart Pastry. The addition of cornmeal is delicious and the dough is easy to work with -- unlike the pâte briseé recipes I've used. So far I've made peach, nectarine & blackberry and apple galettes, finally settling on the cornmeal dough and using basic instructions from Home Baking by Naomi Duguid. Her recipe puts a thin layer of toasted almonds, walnuts or breadcrumbs underneath the fruit and I think it really adds subtle taste and texture.
The other thing I needed to deal with was a funny smell that's been brewing in my car. I asked for a detailer recommendation when I went to order some new front tires at Big O, and somebody suggested Final Touch. They were able to fit me in the next day. Meanwhile, I took a closer look at the car. Since a seagull had bombed me on the viaduct a couple months ago -- thankfully while the top was up -- I assumed it was bird shit that'd gotten into the crevices. To my horror, I spied a can of cat food that had rolled off almost into the car's netherworld. The label was faded and falling off. The smell was sickening. Ewww. Jim, bless him, retrieved the dripping can and vacuumed out what he could, but not before wretching loudly. The next day the detailers revealed another unpleasant discovery: mice had been nesting there. Ewww! Yecchh!! They cleaned the car out but could make no promise that the smell or mice wouldn't come back. Since rodents love to chew wire, I also went to my mechanic, Eizo Matsuda of Apex Auto. He's in the process of garage remodeling, but he told me how to deal with the mice. His advice was to duct tape rat poison, the food kind, near the engine. I protested about mice dying inside the car, but he said, "At least the smell will go away. Not like if you have an electrical fire and die!" Okay Eizo, you've made your point.
My vacation was spent watching the Roomba work, getting some motorcycle practice in and perfecting my latest baking obsession: galettes. I LOVE crust, so I can't believe I haven't made them before. The best dough recipe so far came from Baking Illustrated, where they call it Freeform Fruit Tart Pastry. The addition of cornmeal is delicious and the dough is easy to work with -- unlike the pâte briseé recipes I've used. So far I've made peach, nectarine & blackberry and apple galettes, finally settling on the cornmeal dough and using basic instructions from Home Baking by Naomi Duguid. Her recipe puts a thin layer of toasted almonds, walnuts or breadcrumbs underneath the fruit and I think it really adds subtle taste and texture.
The other thing I needed to deal with was a funny smell that's been brewing in my car. I asked for a detailer recommendation when I went to order some new front tires at Big O, and somebody suggested Final Touch. They were able to fit me in the next day. Meanwhile, I took a closer look at the car. Since a seagull had bombed me on the viaduct a couple months ago -- thankfully while the top was up -- I assumed it was bird shit that'd gotten into the crevices. To my horror, I spied a can of cat food that had rolled off almost into the car's netherworld. The label was faded and falling off. The smell was sickening. Ewww. Jim, bless him, retrieved the dripping can and vacuumed out what he could, but not before wretching loudly. The next day the detailers revealed another unpleasant discovery: mice had been nesting there. Ewww! Yecchh!! They cleaned the car out but could make no promise that the smell or mice wouldn't come back. Since rodents love to chew wire, I also went to my mechanic, Eizo Matsuda of Apex Auto. He's in the process of garage remodeling, but he told me how to deal with the mice. His advice was to duct tape rat poison, the food kind, near the engine. I protested about mice dying inside the car, but he said, "At least the smell will go away. Not like if you have an electrical fire and die!" Okay Eizo, you've made your point.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Where's the congestion?
Dear WA DOT,
Thanks for taking the time to freak us commuters out over the whole I-5 construction business. For several months prior, you were all gloom and doom about this project being the straw (or the mint, if you're a Monty Python fan) for Seattle transportation.
Well, my commute yesterday and today was no different than any other day on E Marginal Way/SR-99. Maybe a few more trucks than usual getting off at Spokane, but THAT'S ALL. I still had to endure those teeth-rattling, ever widening expansion joints holding the viaduct together. That's because I have to drive fast over it, in case it falls down.
Why don't you just admit it? You're in cahoots with our mayor and city council. You really hate cars and the people that drive them. Your goal is to make life for car people as miserable as possible, if not set up the conditions where they might have fatal "accidents", like diverting an overload of traffic onto a earthquake-damaged bridge.
You bastards!
Thanks for taking the time to freak us commuters out over the whole I-5 construction business. For several months prior, you were all gloom and doom about this project being the straw (or the mint, if you're a Monty Python fan) for Seattle transportation.
Well, my commute yesterday and today was no different than any other day on E Marginal Way/SR-99. Maybe a few more trucks than usual getting off at Spokane, but THAT'S ALL. I still had to endure those teeth-rattling, ever widening expansion joints holding the viaduct together. That's because I have to drive fast over it, in case it falls down.
Why don't you just admit it? You're in cahoots with our mayor and city council. You really hate cars and the people that drive them. Your goal is to make life for car people as miserable as possible, if not set up the conditions where they might have fatal "accidents", like diverting an overload of traffic onto a earthquake-damaged bridge.
You bastards!
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