The Periphery of the Mind

I'm still working on a few stylistic changes, but let me know what you think by clicking on the "comment" field below.

I hope to remove the "Anonymous" feature soon, without requiring people to login or anything.

I have to wonder when my girlfriend starts saying how she wants to watch all of the Star Wars movies and read the books.

I mean, I'm a nerd and all, but I'd never read the fictionalization of a film. I didn't read those Lord of the Rings books that came out after the movies, so why would I do that for Star Wars? On the other hand, I have more RPGs than some game stores, so I guess she's still not much of a threat for taking away my geek-champion status in the relationship.

Now, if I can just get her into Babylon 5, I'll be happy.

"Ambassador, do you really want to know what's going on down there? "
"Yes, absolutely!"
"Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom. Boom! Have a nice day!"



And a thousand demerits to anyone who thought -I- thought the LotR movies came first.

Well, turns out the buyer for Maryanne's house had a faux loan agent, and so that buyer can't buy now.

That's bad because it means that now we have to find another buyer for the place.

That's good because it means Maryanne can take her backup offer from another buyer who's ready to go.

That's bad because it means the other buyer will probably want an inspection and will need time to take care of it all.

That's good because it'll give Maryanne time to take care of some last minute fixes on her house, so that the other buyer will love the place.

That's bad because...

That's bad because it means we won't close this week.

The backup offer has loan approval with a real bank, and their offer is greater enough to cover the inspection we paid for the Rogers house we "got". But if Maryanne's house isn't sold by the 8th of July, when we close, we'll either have to get an extension from the people in the Roger's house, or lose it if they refuse to extend our close date and go with another offer.

Worst-case scenario: we don't get the Rogers house and lose $300, which we'll recoup from the higher offer made by the backup buyer for Maryanne's house.

Best-case scenario: everything clicks on schedule -and- we get the bonus from the higher offer.

Not really any middle-of-the-road I can see here. The earnest money we paid on the Rogers house returns to us if our loan fall through; that's what's happening with Maryanne's house so it should happen with us too.

As for me and mine, I got about 8 or 10 boxes filled yesterday. Need another dozen or so to finish. I'm rapidly getting ready to move out of there, but I don't know where I'm going or when I go there.

Still no cat.

I really think she pulled a Snafu on me. Snafu was another cat I got from the pound, and like Kara, basically bolted as soon as he discovered that the outdoors didn't equal instant death. I know Snafu's fine though. Maybe it's my hopeful, optimistic nature. Maybe it's my faith in an animal's survival instincts. Maybe it's the fact that I can see him from time to time in the neighbor's yard down the hill.

Regardless, I figure Kara's pulled a Snafu and has found a new house to stay at by now. I think this brings the total to 14 cats I've had since I was a kid.

Of course, with my luck, does Maryanne really want to risk bringing her pets to the new house?

It's the little things that really hit me. I guess I can overlook the big ones, so big my ability to comprehend can't contain all of them.

But the little things....

I went to Wal-Mart last weekend, bought a package of 12 rolls of toilet paper. "This will last me for months," went through my head. And then it hit me that this would also be the last time I bought any TP for the dome house. A similar thing happened when I bought checks last month. I knew I'd only need a few before Maryanne and I'd combine checking accounts, but the main thing I thought then was "great! I'm wasting money on a few checks I will use and a ton I won't." I'd almost like to hold off on combining checking accounts just to get my $14.95 worth of checking dang it!

It's not that I've got cold feet or anything. I'm ready to move, and move on with my life. It's just that it can be scary at times.

But at least I'll have plenty of toilet paper.

Maryanne and I have been talking about computers lately, and I've concocted a plan!

I should be getting a new Dell M70 laptop from work this week. It's big, heavy, and packs as much power as a full-sized desktop tower. That'll be my primary work and home computer, and what I'd likely use to play World of Warcraft on.

I'll also be "borrowing with permission" a full-sized development tower, slapping a couple of video capture cards in it, and using it to learn how to use Windows Media Center. It's a legitamite use of equipment, since I honestly need to keep up with new hardware, new software, and answer users questions about how something works. They're paying to educate me and help me stay abreast of technological changes. That I get to use it to record my shows, act as a music jukebox through the TV surround sound, and free up a DVD player for elsewhere is just a bunch of added bonuses.

The first of October is the finalized date. The photographer's been reserved. Decorations have been offered. Location has been set. So, to recap....

Stuff figured out:

• Date is October 1st, 2005
• Photographer has been reserved, but no deposit yet
  
• Dress and veil have been bought
• Location of wedding is at the house
  

Stuff mostly figured out:

• Colors and decoration
  
• Reception location
  
• Who's making the cake and what kind
• Time of day
• Invitations and guests
  

Still to figure out:

• Rings
• Officiate of the wedding
• Vows
• Reception party
• Honeymoon
• What role the families will play in the wedding
  

So yeah, stuff's coming along nicely.

Went to see Maryanne yesterday. Finally met her dad. Seems like an okay guy.

I was told we're considering the first of October as "the date" now, which is fine by me. Last Saturday I was told we were considering late September though, so who knows when we're setting the date. I sure as heck don't.

Went and met with a friend of her family's for wedding ideas, and seemed to spend the rest of the evening putting my foot in my mouth. One of these days I'll learn to just nod and smile politely at everything.

Helped M. mow her yard while she sorted stuff in her garage, and then headed home.

On the way to my car, we saw a dear get hit by a car. The car sped off, as an SUV skidded into it. The girl in the SUV stayed, and we called the cops. It had little horn stubs, and I think it was a 4 point buck. Being the man, I got to help drag the thing out of the road. Lucky me. Not an image I'll be forgetting soon I think.

Then I drove home, and still no Kara.

Got to bed late, skipped breakfast, and am somewhat tired and drained.

Started painting the exterior of my house, with help from my lovely fiance. Maryanne picked out an interesting yellow for the base and a rich, dark brown for the trim. It's gonna' look really sharp with the softer tones of the roof shingles. Also started packing boxes for the move, and patching and ripping boards on the exterior. Can't wait to see this thing when it's done.

The house however is infested with fleas. Not sure how, or from where. Looked under the crawlspace to see if a cow or something was living under there, but nothing. And since Kara was an indoor cat, she couldn't be bringing them in. So I bombed the house, spread poison on the ground outside, and sprayed on the inside. And there's still fleas.

Next step: napalm!

Some of you may have noticed I spoke of Kara being an outdoor cat in the past tense. Well, she'd been wanting out for some time, so I let her go. She was cautious and stuck to around the house. And since the place was already filled with fleas, it wasn't like she could bring more in. So, I let her out, hoping that I could bomb the house while she hung around outside. And she was good for a few hours. I'd tell her to get in, and she would, and then I'd let her back out. But then evening came, she ran up on the porch, I told her to get inside, and she didn't. That was Sunday. Since then, there's been two storms, and no sign of her. I figure she'll run off to one of the neighbor's houses and be happier there.

It was a decent weekend really, just wore me out.

Fumigated the house Saturday and put Kara in a carrier, traumatizing her from all enclosed spaces I think. Including her covered litter box I discovered this morning. And the fumigation didn't seem to do anything but make the bugs mad.

After that, went to Katelynd's 1st birthday party and mingled a tad. At the party, Maryanne met with some kids she's babysitting that weekend, and she and I and the kids hung out afterwards. Good kids, and a lot of fun.

Sunday she and the kids and I packed up and headed to Eureka Springs to look at possible wedding sites. I'd been pushing for Thorncrown, but after actually seeing it again, I was a bit underwhelmed. The last time I saw it was in the evening, when the chapel was lit up with soft light, and it was really pretty. But this time it just looked kinda old and commercial. We also visited another site but I can't remember its name, and it was basically just an overpriced few sites to choose from out in a forest. Big whoop.

In between those two we scoped out some botanical gardens there. They weren't as nice or big as the ones in Wichita, but there was a site next to a water spring that was really very pretty. Weather permitting, it might make for a very nice and memorable wedding. I think it was after the gardens we went to Cafe Santa Fe, and regretted it. The food wasn't terrible, but it wasn't worth as much as the bill seemed to think it was. My grilled chicken sandwich had shredded lettuce and tomatoes, with sliced chicken held together by melted cheese, on a thin and flimsy bun. It was a yummy salad somebody tried to half-heartedly pass-off as a sandwich, which soon disintegrated in my hands. I wasn't happy. The queso was good though, and that's what Maryanne wanted, so it wasn't a total wash-out.

After I finished spending the evening with her and the kids, I headed home and stopped by to visit Shea and Mani. They were doing wonderfully from what I could tell, which is a good thing. Mani told me she ran into my ex at Sam's a while back. Seems my ex is "married", in the sense that she found a guy to live with and buy her a ring but not legally bind herself to. I wish her well I guess, but it shook me up a tad. Don't know why; I figured she'd do exactly that years ago. Anyway, Shea and Mani were getting ready for dinner, so I didn't stay long. I promised them I'd bring Maryanne by soon to meet her. Maybe I can introduce Maryanne to home-made Indian cooking?

These pics were taken a while back.



Kara engaged in mortal combat with my arm! Her name means "black" in Turkish by the way.



Maryanne's niece Katelynd having a toy stolen. It's all sweet and cute until the cat starts smacking the baby in the head.



And one of Maryanne. Aww, aint she cute!

When we saw the house and decided we wanted to buy it, probably the biggest question was "what do we offer?"

They were asking $146,900 for the place, causing me to joke around. "One-forty-six-nine is sooo much less than one-forty-seven! That's a huuuge savings!" But we got to thinking. The house had only been listed for about 6 days, including Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to make our offer binding; if they took it, they couldn't take any other offers. And we had a contingency that we wouldn't buy their house until after Maryanne's sold, and we wouldn't close on their house until July 8th. In this market, people can sell a house for full asking in less than 24 hours; Maryanne pretty much did. And we'd had two other houses go out from under us, with full offers without contingencies. If we wanted this house, we'd have to move fast and with full speed.

We offered them $147,000 because it's sooo much more than $146,900! That's a huuuge profit for them!

And I like to think that joke is what got us the place.

Mon-eyyyyy!

The floor's going to cost me $3000-$3500, the hot tub will run $700, and then paint and boards and miscellaneous will likely be another $1000.

It burns -and- stings.

Subtract around $73500 from what I owe on the house, and an extra $2000 or so for closing costs I'm assuming, and realtor fees of 6%, and if I can sell my house for around $90,000 I'll make a bit of profit.

We made an offer on a house in Rogers, that'll close on July the 8th. Supposedly the sellers accepted the offer and we'll get the house.

I'll believe it when I hold the keys in my hand. That's when it'll sink in.

Added a new section on the right for Media. You know, books, movies, music, whatever.

I may play with it some more, but for now it'll give you an idea what's been entertaining my mind lately.