Apologies

Almost a month. I feel terrible inside. This is the second worst blog on the internet (next to my cousin Claire's). I am so ashamed.

Ok. I'm over it now. Lots of stuff to talk about. New house, moving, working, softball, skiing, Rockies, Twins, Spanky, Gizmo, DIRECTV, DVRs, unpacking, throwing away crap, finding crap I forgot I had, wedding planning. Crazy, crazy stuff. Let's get right to it.

I am in the new house. We closed at 2:00 on the 22nd of March. Sarah and I had filled a U-Haul trailer of our storage unit by 11:15 that morning. We left the U-Haul at my apartment and went to the closing. We went straight from the closing to my apartment and took the U-Haul to the house. Talk about being eager to move!! That night, we got assistance from my family (sans Sara and Kato), Sarah's family (sans Wes), Nat and Deuce, Augie, and Jorge. Almost everything was out of the apartment by that night. It was a quick move. Friday night we got more help from my siblings (sans Sara again), Jorge, Natalie, and Robert. The apartment was empty with the exception of a few cleaning supplies after Friday. Saturday was spent unpacking and moving things around. Sunday, Sarah and I cleaned the apartment. I am done with that place forever!!

As for the new house, it is coming along. The kitchen has been done since day 2. The bedroom is almost completely unpacked. The living room is bare (mostly on the walls), but has no boxes. There are a few rooms that have some work to do and the garage is still a mess. But all in due time. Once again, I don't have pictures of the house. I will try to remember to do that tonight (maybe?). I really like the whole house ownership idea. Randy (Sarah's dad) and I have already drilled some holes through the masonry to get wiring to the TV. Sure can't do that in an apartment without repercussions!

A recap of the rest of the month -

• Wedding planning is coming along. It still amazes me how many things could easily be overlooked if not careful. I'd like to give a big "Thank You" to theknot.com for having that sweet checklist that Sarah and I refer to all the time!
• We decided that a DVR would be a great idea. We were right. I don't think I will ever go back to not having one. I love missing the beginning of sporting events without missing a thing! Just fast forward through some commercials and you are back in line with the live TV! I also ordered DIRECTV (through the Qwest bundle). It is the first time I have ever had digital cable. Great fun. Lots of channels. Now to get HD. . .
• Work is going well. I have been really busy as of late. Most weeks I've been putting in overtime and I still don't get everything done. As long as they keep writing the checks, right? I did take enough time off to catch Opening Day (as usual).
• Speaking of that, the Rox look good. They are 8 games into the season (4-4), their starting pitching has looked stellar, and they have been in every game. A run or two in each of those games and they could be 8-0. I'm excited for the rest of the year. If only we could get a quality middle reliever!
• The Twins started great until they hit the Yankee series. Then they dropped two big games. Hopefully, it is just their usual sucking against the Yanks and they will get back on track soon. I can't have the Twins suck. It will break me!
• I never get more excited about the beginning of a season than when baseball starts. There is nothing that is better in this world.
• Spanky and Gizmo love the back yard. They also love Mango, the boxer mix that lives right next door. I think they have contests to see who can run up and down the common fence the most in an hour!

That's a (fairly) quick synopsis of my life for the last month. Hopefully, I will be able to update this more now. No promises, but I need to stay ahead of Claire's blog. (It is linked on the right, in case you are interested!)

One week and counting!

One week from today, Sarah and I close on our first home! So exciting. All those days of throwing away money to rent will be gone! Awesome. The packing has started at my apartment. Slowly but surely boxes have become filled. It is amazing how much crap has accumulated in less than a year at that place. Gizmo is pretty excited about the move. He has been showing me his excitement by trying to eat every cardboard box in the apartment. Nothing shows excitement quite like that!

The wifey is good. The dogs are good. The car is finally whole again. Things are starting to fall into place and I am quite ok with that.

March Madness just started. I won a bracket for money for the first time ever last year through my company. Hopefully, I can do that again this year! This is the year of the #16 seeds, right? I'm just hoping for lots of big upsets and good games.

More from me later. . .

Time for an update. . . sorry to the 4 people that read this that have seen nothing new in the last half of a month!

Closing day is approaching fast. We close on Thursday, March 22nd. I think that after closing, Sarah and I are going to empty our storage unit. Then we will move me out of my apartment that weekend. I'm ready to get out of there and have my own place where I can do what I want to do. Plus there is a garage. I think I am mostly excited about the garage. Hopefully, the Xterra fits! I found a couple pictures online of the house:

The front view

The kitchen (minus a fridge)

The added-on sunroom (perfect for summer entertaining)

The guest house (as we call it)

Very, very exciting (and scary) this home ownership thing.

Now onto the X. I got my car back, it was running fine. The ignition cylinder was working great. The remaining CD's that were in the car were removed the second I got back to my apartment. For some reason, one of the buttons on my steering column that control the radio was not working completely. It is used to switch from my 6 "A" presets to my 6 "B" presets to my 6 AM presets to the CD player and then back around. However, it would cycle through the A and B and AM presets and then get stuck on the AM ones. I finally took a CD out to the car with me and tried to load it into the player. No dice. The CD player is busted. At first, my insurance wouldn't cover it. They said that there was no way to link the damage to the incident. I said, "It was working before the break-in. I have not had the car at all. It is now not working." They said (basically), "screw you!" With the help of my local agent, we finally got an estimate that stated that the damage to my radio was incident related. Now I am waiting for the claims estimator guy to come see the radio to get things rolling. But I won't have to pay for a new stereo, which is what insurance is supposed to do. The thing that I noticed is the importance of having a relationship with your insurance agent. My family has been with this guy since we moved out here in 1991. He knows us all. He insures everything my family owns. He knows that I wouldn't be trying to screw him out of money. I could have done that years ago if I really wanted to. So he and his staff basically bent over backwards to help me out. So, so awesome. If you don't know your agent or their people, I would suggest getting to know them before something bad happens. It makes everything a hell of a lot smoother.

The wedding plans are moving along too. We had a food tasting last weekend that went well. The food was delicious, so those worries are gone. There is still a lot to do, but one by one things are dropping off the list.

Work has been busy. I'm working on a project that includes I-70 at the US 6/US 24 intersection west of Vail. It is the Minturn exit and if you have driven that recently, you might know where this section of highway is. There are five severe curves on I-70 through the Eagle and Gore River canyons. We are currently writing up a Findings Report to get an idea of which direction CDOT should head to fix the safety, capacity, and maintenance issues of the corridor. It is different than the work that I normally do. Mostly, I do a lot of design work in CAD. So far, this has been mostly conceptual and more writing and researching. It is a nice break from the norm.

I have been up skiing 4 times this year. Three times to Breckenridge and once to Keystone. I went on Monday to Breckenridge with Mom, Dad, and Matthew. The snow was incredible but it was cold and windy and snowy all day. Still a blast. Remember, a bad day of skiing is still better than a good day working! And it was definitely not a bad day of skiing. I think my sister and I are going to head up the hills this weekend. Apparently the Vail resorts (Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, A-Basin) got 2-3 feet of snow in the last week. Should be good.

Hope that calms your anxiousness to hear about how I am doing! I keep saying this and someday I will follow my own advice, but I will try to be more on top of updating this thing. I hate watching my buddy's sit idle for so long!

Until next time,
Mike

Finally - a House!

Sarah and I have found a house. After months of looking, we put an offer on a 1200SF ranch with a basement and a two car garage. After a quick counter back from the sellers and a few changes to the counter, we agreed to a contract. On Monday, we had an inspection and the house looked good. It looks like we are a go from here on out! We close on the house on March 22nd. After that, I can start moving out of my ghetto apartment! Hooray! For those of you who know Denver, the house is in Lakewood, west of Sheridan on Arkansas. Stay tuned for news on a open house or something.

Robert and Natalie lucked out. They happened to be over at my apartment when we found out that the house was ours. We had also found out that the realtor, before getting the house under contract, had set up an open house. So Sarah and I assumed different names, jumped in the car, and the four of us checked out the house again. Natalie and Robert seemed to like it and Sarah and I like it more every time we go in there. That's a good sign. I already have a list of things that Sarah/I/both of us want to do to the place, but it is nothing too big. Fun, fun, fun. I am incredibly excited for this. I'm sick of throwing my money away towards rent. Equity, baby!

Hopefully, I will be getting my car back later this afternoon. Worst case scenario, tomorrow. But I am sick of being carless and I am ready to get my baby back.

Thinking of Daytona. . . only three days away. . .

This week: Not so Flicktastic

Tuesday began like every other work day. I got up, showered, changed, fed and walked the dogs, had some breakfast, grabbed my work bag, and headed to my car. Upon reaching my car, I realized that my car had been broken into. The took a bunch of random things - CD's (naturally), some marriage prep stuff, my CSU football helmet magnets, my notebook with my mileages, sunglasses, loose change (maybe $2 worth), and who knows what else. They also tried to take my car. The ignition switch was missing and there was serious damage to my steering column. Apparently, this idiot was an amateur and they couldn't steal the car. So they just ripped the ignition out of the steering column and destroyed the steering column. The worst part of this whole scenario is this: the bastard who was trying to steal my car smoked in there as he/she/it was trying to take it. So it smelled like a used ashtray the next morning when I found it. My poor, poor X-Earth.
Obviously, I am quite upset about the whole situation. It pisses me off that people do those sorts of things to other people. I would never in a million years try to inconvenience someone like that. Think about it. I have spent a ton of time on the phone with the police, the insurance company, the towing company, the body shop. I have to pay my deductibles just to get my car fixed and my stuff repurchased. So because of some asshole who is too lazy to work a little bit harder to make things work, I have to spend money I can't afford to spend, waste time that I can't afford to waste, and increase my stress in my life that I can't afford to increase. Thank you, you heartless, waste-of-space, worthless subhuman. Thank you for ruining my day, my city, my state, my country. I hate you and everything you stand for. You are the reason that our society cannot trust anything. You are the reason people live in fear. You are what is wrong with this world. I hope that karma catches you quickly and viciously.

On the better side of things, because of this unfortunate circumstance, my house shopping has been ramped up. I am done with parking on a street and living in a ghetto apartment complex. I am done with it, completely. Hopefully, a house will appear that Sarah and I can get excited about. I'll keep you posted on the hunting. For now, just know this - house shopping is excruciating. Gizmo is doing well too. His in-house accidents have decreased as the days go on. He and Spanky are used to each other now and have a blast together. I think Spanky is excited to have someone to play with all the time. Gizmo is growing (how much, I'm not exactly sure) and only has one more week before he gets his last shots. That means he can play with other dogs! The dogs are fun and they sure cheered me up during my crappy day yesterday.

Nothing else as of right now. Kyle promised me those bachelor party pictures too. Have I seen them? No. Get on it Steve!

Gizmo

Yes, it is official. Sarah and I have a new dog. His name is Gizmo and he is another miniature schnauzer. This picture is his first night at my apartment. He is 14 weeks old there. He has been a blast. He has been awesome so far. He is quickly becoming housebroken, he sleeps through the night (in a kennel), and he and Spanky are getting along well. The two of them like to wrestle each other for hours at a time! He has been a blast.

On to other news, since it has been a while since I put anything on here. Wedding planning is going well. We have our church, reception hall, flowers, cake, DJ, photographer, tuxes, wedding dress, and bridesmaid and flowergirl dresses set up. Things are definitely falling into place. Planning a wedding is way too stressful for my tastes. Besides the obvious reason, I think I would avoid divorce just to avoid planning another one of these! Thankfully, Sarah and I have had an extended engagement, which give us more time to do everything. I have no idea how people do all this in a couple months! To top everything off, we are also house shopping. House shopping makes wedding planning look like a jog in the park! The good news is that we found a lender we are comfortable with and we are closing in on a house we like. Then the fun (haggling) begins! Thankfully, Harry's mom, Debbie King, has been helping us out a ton. We both went into this blind, having never bought a house before, and Debbie has been an incredible asset. I'm pretty excited to get into a place where I can live for more than a year. Plus, my house won't have roommates that get married and leave me stranded (thanks John and Robert!).

What else? I just finished a great book the other day. It is a book Kato got for me for Christmas that is called "Rat Pack Confidential" by Shawn Levy. It is an incredible, behind-the-scenes look at the Rat Pack (and more specifically, Frank Sinatra). Being a big fan of those guys, it was a page turner for me. Shawn Levy had a lot of information that people do not (or will not) put into biographical literature. He wasn't afraid to bring up the political connections, the mob connections, the fights, the infidelity, the drinking, the gambling, the partying. It showed the true colors of what was then the most powerful group in the United States. Very good book. I would recommend it.

I'm currently reading Bill O'Reilly's newest book, "Culture Warrior". Although I don't necessarily agree with Bill on all topics, his books are always good reads. He is unabashed at calling out people for doing wrongs either against an individual or against our country. He tells it like it is. I have a great amount of respect for the man, regardless of his opinions. I'm a little past half way through the book. I'll let you know how the rest of it goes when I finish it.

The month of February is awesome. The Super Bowl. The Daytona 500. The skiing. The ridiculously awesome depth of the snow on the ground in Denver. Spring training being only a month away. Ahhhhh.

NYC

New York City, here I come!

More Snow and Christmas

Looks like another round of snow is headed for Denver. The Raindancers here at work are saying that between Thursday night (12/28) and Friday night (12/29), the Denver area should be expecting 12-18 inches. AWESOME!! I was already planning on taking a vacation day on Friday to go skiing, so this works perfectly. I get to ski some big Colorado snow and the Denver area gets pounded too! I love snow, if you haven't imagined.

On to my rant of the day. . . education in America. This story may not reflect the state of education in America, but it shows that sometimes people fall through the cracks. Last night, Sarah and I wandered over to our friendly, neighborhood Old Navy. She had a gift certificate to spend and I didn't want to sit at the apartment watching Spanky lick himself. As Sarah meandered around the store and I followed obediently behind, two employees (one male, one female) were having an exchange in the section in which we were browsing. The two of them were making plans for dinner after the store closed. Apparently a group Old Navy employees wanted to grab a bite to eat after all the stacking and folding and talking into the walkie-talkies of the day. The girl (high school age) kept insisting that they go to Starbucks. The boy (also high school age) was adament that they do not go to Starbucks because Starbucks does not satisfy the hunger of a high school boy. After a little bit of a debate over the quantity of food at Starbucks, the boy called the girl a communist. The observer of this interchange (me) laughed at the humor in his statement. I, too, enjoy calling anyone who annoys me a communist. It was great. Well, the girl laughed too and wandered off. A minute later, she returned to start the debate again. Sometime during this part of the debate, she asked the boy what a communist was. SHE DID NOT KNOW WHAT COMMUNISM WAS!!! How unbelievable is that? Who were her social studies teachers through middle school and high school? They should be fired! Have her parents been waiting to have "the talk" explaining communism with their daughter until she reaches an appropriate age? She had to have been at least 16, because she was talking about driving to Starbucks (or wherever else they may go). How did she not know? It really bothered me that people can be that oblivious (or stupid, I don't know which one). Enough with ranting. Let's talk about something else because I'd rather be in a good mood for the rest of the day.

Can't wait for the flakes to fly. . .
See you in the blizzard,
Mike

Delicious Snow

After a day and a half of being home, I finally made it into work today. Hip-hip-hooray. Work sucks incredibly hard after a fun, snow-filled hiatus. So here I am.

Based on my guesses, it looks like my apartment got about 2+ feet of snow. It seems like more, but I know that the drifting made it look bigger. In most areas around my place, the snow comes up to at least my knees. Awesome. Absolutely awesome. I love snow, so this worked out perfectly. I really wish I would have gone skiing today, though. It would have been a better idea. However, I have done nothing the past few days, so I had to get some stuff done before the holiday.

Speaking of the holidays, I'm getting pretty pumped about them. We are having Christmas Eve dinner with Sarah's immediate amily, Christmas morning with her whole family, and Christmas afternoon/evening with my family. Should be a good time.

Once we get through the holidays, it is off to New York City for me! Mike Dunham is (surprisingly) getting married and his bachelor party is the first weekend in January. I leave early, early, early on the 5th of January. I think I land at JFK at 6:30 am. I have a little bit of time to kill before I can meet the next people coming in, so I was thinking about hitting up the Brooklyn Bridge (which I have yet to be on) and Ground Zero. Last time I was in New York, I did not have the chance to stop by Ground Zero and I really want to see it for myself. I don't think the pictures and the video do it justice. And as an engineer, it is sacreligious to be in New York for the third time and still not have checked out the Brooklyn Bridge. So I will go that morning before Rosie shows up around 1:00-3:00 (somewhere in there). It will be nice to see NYC again. I'm not sure if Rockefeller Center will still have the tree up at that point, but if it does, I'm hoping to make it over there too. Fortunately, the Rockefeller Center is only a few blocks from the hotel that we are staying at. However, with all the bachelor party activities that may be planned, I don't know when I will have time to check that out. We will see when I get there.

Back to work for now. Hope everyone in Colorado is enjoying the snow like I am!!

NFL Corrections

I was wrong. There are more Rams out there than I thought. In addition to the ones listed in my last post:

Mike Brisiel - Texans
Eric Hill - Panthers
Blaine Saipaia - Lions
Jason Craft - Saints

I apologize to those four because I am convinced that they all read this blog and were extremely disappointed that I left them off the list.