I don't know for certain, but I think we may have landed in no-more-nap land. CP doesn't seem to really want to take a nap in the afternoons anymore and it leaves me both happy that she's moving on and sad that I don't get that breather in the afternoons that I sometimes need in order to get *anything* accomplished while it's light outside. We'll see.
So far, the SAHD thing is working out well here. There's plenty to do still and she is really enjoying the workbooks that we picked up from US Toy. They have everything there to homeschool a kid when you can't find a preschool that's worth a damn.
We should be closing on the house down the street soon. On hold for...wait...for...it...an appraisal. Oh, you can probably guess just how pleased that makes me. Screwed by appraiser bastards in Tucson, and now I have to wait on one here! Either way, we'll be in and blowing money on....uh, I mean fixing things in no time. We went to check on home insurance this week and the guy quoted me $1250 a year. Really. It's bad enough that health insurance has almost doubled for us here because you can't throw a rock without hitting a fat bastard with a cigarette hanging out of his/her/its mouth, but now we find out that our home insurance costs have more than doubled. It's got me clickin' my damned heels.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Playing Catch Up
It seems that things have become a bit sloppy on the writing front, not to mention the house cleaning and general tidyness fronts, so I'll try to bring myself up to speed.
The holidays came and went around here with the anticipated level of craziness. Note to self: next year, buy CP cardboard boxes and dress-up clothes. It was as good to see everyone, as it is to be back to a somewhat normal schedule.
A few illnesses have come and gone. CP and the LW were laid up for a while a few weeks ago, but I sidestepped that bout of what we're now affectionately calling the "winter vomiting disorder"......until yesterday. There was no sidestepping yesterday....just trots.
We went to Science City to break in our new membership. CP loves it and we'll be headed back really soon. I don't think that there's anything in the whole place that she can screw up or break, well, except for the bunny. She really seems to like uncovering the bones over near the dinosaurs and it'll be funny to see what she thinks of the real Hughes 500 helicopter upstairs.
We're almost over all of the hurdles for the house down the street. The inspection's done and we're satisfied that it's a workable place to live. The basement isn't pretty, but the house is 90 years old and affordable. Find me another house down the street from grandparents for $650/mo and I'll kiss your ass and give you $10. Cant' wait for my parents to see the basement cracks and old woodwork - my dad will bitch until he's blue in the face. My brother couldn't believe that I was going to live in a house almost the size of his house for half of his mortgage payment.
The big news recently is that I'm back to doing the SAHD gig. It's really hard to find a preschool, or anything really, that isn't somehow affiliated with some skyfairy or another. We chose to avoid those places and took a shot on a "Montessori" in Olathe that turned out to be "Kindassori"...or "Maybessori"....in my book is was just "Ssori". I walked in one day and CP had been put into a room with 4 or 5 other kids who didn't seem like they were very good communicators. I asked the teacher why CP was separated out while the other 15-20 kids that she'd been playing with were in the other room. I was given various answers, ranging from "xxxx made the list of kids", or "I told your wife when you enrolled...", to "those are the 3.5yr olds", but they all seemed like complete bullshit, so we pulled her. It was tough for me not to tell the manager of the place what I thought of her right then and there.
I've hammered out a week of activities for CP and I to do and tomorrow is a Pump It Up day. She loves the place, but really loves it when Eli and Bananabelle show up like they did on Friday. Today was gymnastics class at Debbie Howard's and dance tonight at Gardner Dance. CP has options for every day, but we can fill in with sight words, puzzles and other things when something falls through. There's more stuff for me to do with her here than there was in T-town. We're working on getting one membership a month to different places. January was Science City, next month will be the Gardner Pool (gotta get in early) or WonderScope, and March will be the Zoo. I've been working on getting into a KCDads group here, but I seem to keep missing the play dates.... Eh...can't do it all.
Oh, and in between all of this, we picked up a Chambers 90C stove for the house. It's a white one like the pastel blue stove on the site. My grandmother has cooked on a 90B since my dad was a kid and it's awesome! The over/under griddle/broiler makes the best cinnamon toast ever.
I think that just about wraps it up
The holidays came and went around here with the anticipated level of craziness. Note to self: next year, buy CP cardboard boxes and dress-up clothes. It was as good to see everyone, as it is to be back to a somewhat normal schedule.
A few illnesses have come and gone. CP and the LW were laid up for a while a few weeks ago, but I sidestepped that bout of what we're now affectionately calling the "winter vomiting disorder"......until yesterday. There was no sidestepping yesterday....just trots.
We went to Science City to break in our new membership. CP loves it and we'll be headed back really soon. I don't think that there's anything in the whole place that she can screw up or break, well, except for the bunny. She really seems to like uncovering the bones over near the dinosaurs and it'll be funny to see what she thinks of the real Hughes 500 helicopter upstairs.
We're almost over all of the hurdles for the house down the street. The inspection's done and we're satisfied that it's a workable place to live. The basement isn't pretty, but the house is 90 years old and affordable. Find me another house down the street from grandparents for $650/mo and I'll kiss your ass and give you $10. Cant' wait for my parents to see the basement cracks and old woodwork - my dad will bitch until he's blue in the face. My brother couldn't believe that I was going to live in a house almost the size of his house for half of his mortgage payment.
The big news recently is that I'm back to doing the SAHD gig. It's really hard to find a preschool, or anything really, that isn't somehow affiliated with some skyfairy or another. We chose to avoid those places and took a shot on a "Montessori" in Olathe that turned out to be "Kindassori"...or "Maybessori"....in my book is was just "Ssori". I walked in one day and CP had been put into a room with 4 or 5 other kids who didn't seem like they were very good communicators. I asked the teacher why CP was separated out while the other 15-20 kids that she'd been playing with were in the other room. I was given various answers, ranging from "xxxx made the list of kids", or "I told your wife when you enrolled...", to "those are the 3.5yr olds", but they all seemed like complete bullshit, so we pulled her. It was tough for me not to tell the manager of the place what I thought of her right then and there.
I've hammered out a week of activities for CP and I to do and tomorrow is a Pump It Up day. She loves the place, but really loves it when Eli and Bananabelle show up like they did on Friday. Today was gymnastics class at Debbie Howard's and dance tonight at Gardner Dance. CP has options for every day, but we can fill in with sight words, puzzles and other things when something falls through. There's more stuff for me to do with her here than there was in T-town. We're working on getting one membership a month to different places. January was Science City, next month will be the Gardner Pool (gotta get in early) or WonderScope, and March will be the Zoo. I've been working on getting into a KCDads group here, but I seem to keep missing the play dates.... Eh...can't do it all.
Oh, and in between all of this, we picked up a Chambers 90C stove for the house. It's a white one like the pastel blue stove on the site. My grandmother has cooked on a 90B since my dad was a kid and it's awesome! The over/under griddle/broiler makes the best cinnamon toast ever.
I think that just about wraps it up
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Lunch and a DRT
We took CP to see Grandpa and friends at work this morning after preschool. We met Grandma there and had a nice visit. Workload wouldn't allow for a family lunch, so CP took off to go to her cousins' house with Grandma. This left time for the LW and I to hit Planet Sub (where I first met her family) and split a 'Green Turkey'. It was a great lunch sans little person, but I still think Quinton's in Lawrence has them beat since they use real salsa instead of picante sauce.
On the way home we hit brake lights near Olathe and the LW saw a person lying on the side of the highway. Now, she's sensitive to this stuff and I tried to keep her from dwelling on what she'd seen. We sent a text message to the FIL to let him know to avoid the highway on the way home and he sent a note back that said it was a fatality accident and that he was just about to call us to make sure we were ok. Later he told us that someone at the hospital next to the highway was suicidal. 1+1=DRT (dead right there). What a way to off yourself - not only is someone good and dead, but some poor person has to live with the image of some idiot jumping out in front of them on the highway right before the holidays.
On the way home we hit brake lights near Olathe and the LW saw a person lying on the side of the highway. Now, she's sensitive to this stuff and I tried to keep her from dwelling on what she'd seen. We sent a text message to the FIL to let him know to avoid the highway on the way home and he sent a note back that said it was a fatality accident and that he was just about to call us to make sure we were ok. Later he told us that someone at the hospital next to the highway was suicidal. 1+1=DRT (dead right there). What a way to off yourself - not only is someone good and dead, but some poor person has to live with the image of some idiot jumping out in front of them on the highway right before the holidays.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ding Dong
..the house is gone. Maybe we can use the $600 we're getting from the sale to pay down the $2000 in debt that we still have from purchasing windows for it.
In other news, two batches of photos went out on shutterfly last night. If they didn't make it to your inbox, please let me know. One was fall leaves and one was a set of CP's new yellow raincoat and matching boots.
I'm off tomorrow and look forward to some good time with my nieces. It's supposed to make it to 39 degrees tomorrow! Yayyyy!
In other news, two batches of photos went out on shutterfly last night. If they didn't make it to your inbox, please let me know. One was fall leaves and one was a set of CP's new yellow raincoat and matching boots.
I'm off tomorrow and look forward to some good time with my nieces. It's supposed to make it to 39 degrees tomorrow! Yayyyy!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Say No To Ghetto
Just found out that our house 'might' close Tuesday and to make the deal work we only get $500. I busted my ass making that house a good place and to take what amounts to a $13,000 loss ($6k for the realtors and $7k in upgrades) on it just chaps me.
If anyone who reads this rant is considering buying in Tucson in the ghetto south of Broadway, please feel free to drop by for a good pimp-slappin'.
Our next house may be a rebuilder, but it damned sure won't be in the crap part of town.
If anyone who reads this rant is considering buying in Tucson in the ghetto south of Broadway, please feel free to drop by for a good pimp-slappin'.
Our next house may be a rebuilder, but it damned sure won't be in the crap part of town.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
House/Cold/Rainy
We're still on hold with the house. We're waiting to see what the bankers say about the appraisal and the fact that the market price for the house is where our deal is currently at. If we're lucky we'll get enough out to cover the moving truck - minus fuel, of course.
It's been cold and rainy here and it's an odd switch to go from 315+ days of sunshine to maybe seeing the sun once a week or two....kinda like Seattle, but without Microsoft.
CP is enjoying her new preschool and having her grandparents and cousins within arms reach most of the time. CP's school has pets and she got to hold the hamster today which was a big hit with her. It's a good place and the LW said that whenever CP's sad about her departure, one of the girls will always pick her up and snuggle her.
I'm getting accustomed to having Bass Pro Shops just up the road. Sheeesh it's nice. Tonight while we were there (getting a work belt for me) they fed the fish in the freshwater tank. At first it was nightcrawlers, but then they started tossing live fish (shad?) into the tank. CP loved it! There was all kinds of fast action for her - it was even more fun than the elevator!
Another big hit for us has been getting Shatto milk in glass jugs. The chocolate is, well, just like the chocolate milk I used to get as a kid - so thick and perfect that it sticks to the walls of the glass forever..... Ohhh....and the Costco here...isn't clogged with snowbirds!! It's amazing...you just walk right in without bumping into anyone!
It's been cold and rainy here and it's an odd switch to go from 315+ days of sunshine to maybe seeing the sun once a week or two....kinda like Seattle, but without Microsoft.
CP is enjoying her new preschool and having her grandparents and cousins within arms reach most of the time. CP's school has pets and she got to hold the hamster today which was a big hit with her. It's a good place and the LW said that whenever CP's sad about her departure, one of the girls will always pick her up and snuggle her.
I'm getting accustomed to having Bass Pro Shops just up the road. Sheeesh it's nice. Tonight while we were there (getting a work belt for me) they fed the fish in the freshwater tank. At first it was nightcrawlers, but then they started tossing live fish (shad?) into the tank. CP loved it! There was all kinds of fast action for her - it was even more fun than the elevator!
Another big hit for us has been getting Shatto milk in glass jugs. The chocolate is, well, just like the chocolate milk I used to get as a kid - so thick and perfect that it sticks to the walls of the glass forever..... Ohhh....and the Costco here...isn't clogged with snowbirds!! It's amazing...you just walk right in without bumping into anyone!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sprint Churn
The term churn = turnover rate of customers. We're with Sprint and have been since I worked there back in 99, but since their coverage in Gardner is crap, we'll probably be bailing soon for Verizon. We're waiting right now to see if the rumors or a Verizon iPhone come true in the coming year. We figured out last night that we could get an iPhone right now, ditch the wireless card, use the iPhone as a modem and still come out $50/month ahead of what we're paying sprint right now. That company seems to be circling the drain and I wonder how long it'll be before it's sold off so that the CEO can keep his golden parachute. Sad that it's a hometown company and it's run by jackoffs.
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