Sunday, July 31, 2005

Goodbye House!

It is a very exciting time right now for Mushi and I. On Thursday, our small house went on the market for $114,000.00. By the end of the day, we already had three offers on it and two of the three were for what we were asking. Our realtor, Tracy, called us and wanted us to come into her office the next day to discuss the three offers we had received and so the following day at 10am, Mushi and I arrived at her office.

I arrived first and the realtor told me that a new offer was coming in that she suggested we wait for because according to what she had heard, it was "pretty sweet". Musho got there a few minutes later and after waiting in the lobby for ten minutes or so, Tracy ushered us into her office where we started discussing the first three offers that were made on our house. After that, she was faxed the "sweet" offer and was it ever.

Some guy was willing to give us $119,000.00 for the house! That is five thousand more than what we were even asking! He had also been willing to go up to $122,000.00 had someone tried to outbid him. Unfortunately, no one else tried to challenge his house buying superiority but that is cool, because now we get even more money. The deal on the house will close sometime toward the middle of August and Mushi and I will each get almost $10,000.00. WOOT!!!

It is going to be so weird, for the first time in almost seven years I will be debt free with the exception of my car. I will have a savings account and I will not have to worry about living from paycheck to paycheck anymore. It will be awesome. I can finally start to do some heavy stock investing that I have always wanted to do. I am very excited. It is kind of bittersweet because it did take a divorce to get to this point but hey, what do you do?

Anywho, the house selling was really freaking cool.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Workout Dread

I am not sure why this is, but it seems like everyday that I have an appointment with Ray the trainer dude, I do not want to go. I like working out but for one reason or another I dread going up until I do it. I find this strange.

I think the big factor for this is that I have to get up early. I friggin' hate getting up early. As you can see by the time stamp on the post, it is about 9:30am and yes, I consider this to be a friggin' early time to wake up. I hate getting up early unless I am guaranteed that something cool is going to happen like sex, or a breakfast buffet, or Saturday morning cartoons. You get the picture.

Another reason for my dismay may stem from the fact that I have to eat before I workout and I do not like eating breakfast....breakfast buffets being the exception. This morning for example, I had one of those instant breakfast that you pour into a cup with some milk. Carnation is my favorite but this morning I tried a sample one that was sent to me with my vitamins from a weight lifting supplement company named Apex. I do not care how many weightlifters drink their protein shakes or fat burner, their instant breakfasts suck. I had a chocolate one and it was so clumpy that it felt like I was drink cold and somewhat creamy vomit. No matter how hard I stirred, the clumps would not dissolve. My Carnation Instant Breakfast that costs a third as much as these Apex breakfasts can do that. Anywho, I am not a fan of eating in the morning.

Anywho, my working out has been going well. I am gettting better at keeping my diet in check and this has resulted in almost a twenty pound drop in my overall weight. Obviously, something is working and for that reason I will keep getting up and eating breakfast and working out.

BTW: Hello to all of Quyen's friends and readers that are stopping by to view my blog in all of its glorious mediocrity. Hopefully, every once in a while you will find a nugget on here that entertains or enlightens you.

Time to workout!

Ode to My Bed

Last night, I slept a slumber that infants would be envious of. I finally, got my queen sized bed put up in my room and I must say, I have missed it. Until last night, I have been sleeping in a crappy daybed that has a twin matress on it. It had a clunky wooden frame that I would bump my head on during the night and it creaked when ever I rooled over. Now, it is all about first class comfort.

The queen takes up a third of my room but with a feather mattress like this one has, I can make space for it. The only thing that even remotely sucked about the bed was the fact that the last time I slept in it, it was with Mushi. That bothered me for a few minutes but then I fell asleep. And what a good sleep it was.

Maybe now, I won't put off getting sleep. For the first time in a while, I did not wake up once last night. It is amazing what a good, cushy bed can do for you.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

All Moved Out

Since 12:30pm I have been moving the last pieces of furniture that I had at the old house over to Demonator and I's. Now I have a queen sized bed, though I am unsure how exactly I am going to make it fit in my room. The room looks so spacious without a bed in it, too bad humans have to have sleep, thus necessitating the need for a bed. All I have left at the house now is my BBQ grill and a frozen turkey. Ahh...turkey.....curry. Anywho.

It looks like I will indeed be going to Oregon next week to visit Mr. T so I am getting pretty stoked about that. And no, it isn't the Mr. T, it is one of my friends who looks nothing like Mr. T unfortunately. Mr. T, you should look more like Mr. T. Then we would all get chicks.

After having been on the go for the vast majority of the day, I am worn out and hungry. Thankfully, Wendy's was able to sooth my hunger into a nice feeling of warm, greasy, bliss. I finishing downloading every Beavis and Butthead today so I think I will watch a couple of those. They were a lot funnier when I was in sixth grade but what do you do.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

New Car Pic




This is it, my little, speedy, black, buddy in all of its glory. If you want to enlarge the picture, just click on it and a bigger brother of it will magically appear.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

A New Car!

I went to take my crappy Saturn into the shop this morning to get numerous things fixed on it and by the end of the day I was driving off the lot in a New Used 2005 Toyota Matrix XRS!

I had no intention of buying a car today but after several hours and a couple of phone calls from the mechanic, it became evident that I would be sinking about $1300.00 into the car. That got me to thinking, why in the world should I drop more into repairing the car than what I even owe on it? I did not help that the Saturn lot had a Matrix XRS either. I have researched the Toyota Matrix line since 2002-2003 and have fallen in love with that car. They are sporty looking and they actually can serve a purpose. They are fast, yet spacious enough to hold 4 people comfortably or a lot of stuff easily. I like these cars.

My Matrix has a black exterior with black rims. The interior is also black. Just how I like it. It is a six speed manual transmission with a sixteen valve, 4,8 litre engine. It has about 170hp and about 125 lbs of torque. The best part of all is that the car only has 4500 miles on it! Basically, some retard bought it, took the depreciation hit for team Mogwai, and sold the car back to the lot. Oh yeah, and he put spiffy rims on it too. The Toyota warranty is still good and the car is just like new. It still has the new smell too. This car will also hold its value over time unlike my Saturn.

Yesterday, Mushi and I spoke with the realitor about our house and it will go on the market next Thursday. Hopefully, it wil sell quickly. Our realitor is confident it will and the market around Boise is wicked hot right now for home buying so I am quasi-hopeful too. Anywho, just thought I should do a little update. Tomorrow, I will hopefully get some pics of the car on here.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Selling The House

Today, Mushi and I met for coffee and discussed the whole house selling issue and what needed to get done in order to sell the house. Mushi gave me the name of a real estate agent that one of her co-workers used and her house sold in two hours so I am hopeful that ours will go quickly as well.

Tomorrow, we have a meeting with the agent to see how much she charges in commission and hopefully within a week or so we will be able to get the house on the market. All of this will depend of course on if we decide to go with this particular agent and how quickly we can get the house up to speed as far as the chores that go into making a house saleable. Either way, this is progress after motnhs of not having any progress on the home selling front. Now hopefully we will be able to get some money out of the thing.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

I'm a Wizard. Wanna See My Wand?

Tonight was the beginning of yet another bout of Harry Potter mania and I must say I am somewhat surprised. Demonator, Phyrry, and I went to Borders to attend the midnight Harry Potter party and I was very surprised by the amount of people that turned out to grab a copy of the book. The entire parking lot was plum full of cars, kids, parents, and nerds of all shapes and sizes.

I did not anticipate the crowd that befell that place this evening. Such a wide array of people that turned out to buy one single book. From a literary standpoint, it is very cool that that many people are into reading and supporting authors like that. On the other hand, there are a hell of a lot of nerds out there that like to dress up like wizards. Overall, it was a very interesting experience.

In celebration of this release, I have come up with several pickup lines like the title of this post that I find fitting for the occasion.

1) I see you are a wizard. Show me your owls.
2) Hey baby, my wand has picked you to be its wizard.
3) And for the ladies to use: Is that a wand in your pocket or are you just happy to
see me?

Yeah, they are corny but I am bored so you get to deal with it.

Friday, July 15, 2005

1000 Hits!

Woohoo! I just noticed that my blog has just had its 1000th unique hit. I would have never guessed that I would have so many people visiting this page at any given time. On the average, I get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hits a day. I figure that for no more than this blog is in the grand scheme of things, that is a pretty decent number. I have also noticed that a lot of my traffic comes from self referring or bookmarked people so it at least goes to show that a few people find me interesting enough to see what is up every now and again. Anywho, thanks to all of you who check in to the site on occasion.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

The Return of The TV

I mean for the title of this post to be taken quite literally. The wonderful, ginormous, big-ass tv is going back to Costco today. I just don't need it or the debt that comes along with it. I should have thought it through a little more thoroughly before I bought it but that is the one and only good part about Costco, they will take anything back.

I am thinking about seeing if they will give me part of the cost of the tv in cash and then putting the other half back on the credit card. With the half that I would get back in cash, I would go and pay off my car and then I would just have my credit card bill and that is it. Yeah, I am getting a higher interest rate on my credit card but I figure that the extra thousand that would go on the card would not make that big of difference and then I would just have one bill every month to worry about instead of two. I like consolidation.

Anywho, I will miss the tv but I think this is the right thing to do. Two thousand dollars could make a nice chunk of a down payment on a house as I have said and I just don't think now is a good time for me to blow money on a tv. I hate being mature. :)

My Big-Ass TV

I did something stupid....and kind of fun. Yesterday, I was at Costco and they had a 50" Sony Grand Wega TV that they had marked down quite a bit. I bought it.

I am having mixed feelingings about this because after all, I am trying to get out of debt and buying this TV doesn't help that at all. But at the same time, this TV is friggin' cool. It was the way that God intended for people to watch movies and play video games. Last night, I watched Empire Strikes Back on it and all I have to say is wow.

The one funny thing I have noticed is that all of my old video games look A#1 Cool but all of the Xbox games look like crap. The old games are block naturally and so on this tv they just look bigger. The new games that are designed to look realistic end up looking weird and kind of crappy because the tv is a high enough quality to pick apart the picture and show off the game's flaws.

As for spending the money and not getting out of debt, I have decided this: My goal is to be debt free by the 1st of January, 2006. If I am not debt free by that date, the tv will go back to Costco. It is Costco after all and they will take anything back so I wouldn't really be out anything if I needed to return it. I did the math when I bought it and decided that I could still meet my goal so I guess we will see. I am optomistic. The tv may still go back then even if I am debt free because that kind of money could make a nice down payment on a house or something. I guess I will see when the time comes. Until then, I am going to enjoy movies the way they were meant to be enjoyed, on a really big screen.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

The Date

Night before last, I went on my first date since Mushi and I called it quits. I really hope this is not a benchmark of things to come.

I took this one girl I work with out to dinner after we got off work. I had an okay time but it was nothing spectacular. She is a nice enough person and she looks ok but I get this feeling that if I were to spend too much time talking to her, she would start to get on my nerves.

We really don't have anything in common and all she wanted to talk about was work. I am not a horribly big fan of my job to begin with but I really don't like to talk about it when I absolutely don't have to. But, that is what we talked about the most....joy.

This girl also likes to smoke pot. I don't so much have a problem with pot but I find it a horribly unattractive when a girl talks about how much she smokes it. I did not think she smoked as much as she did and this tidbit pretty much ensured that I will probably not go on anymore outings with her. She started telling me that she was using a pop can as a pipe and that sealed the deal for me. If you are going to light up at least get out of the ghetto and get yourself a pipe or bong....please! It is one thing to smoke weed, it is another to be ghetto and trashy about it. Beh. Some of you may wonder why this is such a turn-off for me and it really comes down to my views on drugs. I see drug use and addiction as a weakness. Everyone has their weaknesses but drugs really bother me. I am not a fan of weak people and I find that those who use copious amounts of drugs tend to be weak. Its that simple.

The one really big upside to the evening was when she introduced me to her roommate. Her roommate is hot....really hot....like pornstar/model hot. Yeah. It is a sad night when the highlight of it is meeting the girl your taking out's roommate and her roommate is stellar looking. But that was the best part of the night.

As I said, I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come or else I think I will just go to a monastery or something.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Things Falling Into Place

The past couple of days havebeen pretty good and it finally feels like some of the goals that I have set for myself are starting to come to fruition. I feel pretty good about stuff right now. :)

In the working out arena, I have lost 10lbs. and have definitely gained muscle mass. I feel better than I ever have before and I am starting to be able to see the changes that working out has had on my body. My dress shirts do not fit very well through my shoulders anymore and if I flexxed hard enough, I could probably rip a couple of them. Cool. As far as the weight coming off, that has been a pretty sudden thing. It was just like my body decided that it didn't need it anymore and just started to drop pounds. Very odd but I am cool with it. The body works in weird ways.

As far as my finacial situation goes, I should be debt free by December or January if not sooner. My car will be paid off in August and then I just have my one credit card. I have tried to curtail my spending and while it is difficult for me to do, I have gained a little more self-control. I will be glad when I achieve this goal.

I think Mushi and I's house will be put on the market this month and hopefully sell rather quickly. Mushi is moving out of it as I type this I think. I am not sure where she is moving to because she won't tell me. I suppose that is her right and I don't horribly mind, it just tears at me a tad to think that I went from being her husband for a few months and boyfriend for four years to being this guy that she doesn't trust enough to even tell me where she lives. Its odd and it kind of hurts my feelings but oh well. She has always been very particular of her privacy and so this shouldn't come as a surprise to me. But the house should be selling soon so that will hopefully mean that a little money will come my way and there will finally be some closure to the whole divorce thing.

My job has been getting better lately as well. I have decided that while I am there I am going to make the best of it and make as much money as I can. I am also going to try to take on more leadership responsibilities while I am there. I am a good leader and everyone in the department repsects me. It is time to use that to accomplish something more productive than just selling computers and slacking off. I don't want to be there forever but while I am there I am going to enact positive change in the department. I also talked to my boss about he and I going on a business trip to a trade show soon and told him that I was interested in going. He seemed very positive to the idea so now I just have to find out when and where the next one is and he and I are going to it. I don't like my job but I need to switch things up while I am there or I think I am going to kill people. This is a positive way to switch stuff up. I think my boss liked my ideas too.

Summer school ended last night and I aced the final. If you ever want an ego boost, graduate and then take a 100 level summer school class. I am the one and only dominator. Now hopefully I can get another endorsement added to my teaching certificate without having to take more certification tests. At least I meet all of the credit guidelines now.

Living with Demonator is good. I enjoy having him and Phyrry around and I like cooking and watching movies with them. Sometimes we go on little mini-adventures and they are usually quite fun. I feel more at peace here.

In general, I feel more at peace. I feel calm and more confident. I still have moods where I feel like everything is falling apart but they aren't as often anymore. I do miss my old life but I am glad I have the opportunity to shape a new one for myself that is much more stable for me. I think that is where Mushi is at too. I still think of her all of the time and I imagine that will go on for a while if not forever somewhere in the back of my mind. I have a hard time dealing with "what if" scenarios and usually when I get depressed anymore it is because of those. I am trying not to do that as much. I do miss her...at least the old her...but I think all of this happened for the best. I think this whole thing made both of us better people like we thought it would. As I type this, tears are rolling down my face. I am not sure why though. There is a little regret, mixed with sadness and a tad of anger, but there is also hope and hapiness in there too. I am happy for both her and I. She is being successful and more importantly, she is being herself now and I am starting to be me again too. I am setting myself up for success. I just wish it would get here quicker than I think it actually will. It is weird but Mushi and I's relationship took something away from both of us that we both missed. She just realized it before me. We had a good relationship in general though but both of us had to go out of our element to make it work and that wasn't right. I can accept that now and that brings peace.

Stuff is definitely getting better for me. I think it was pretty good all along but now that I am more assertive I am taking advantage of it. I can also see things a little more clearly now too. I have the ability to make myself happy and not rely on Mushi to do that for me. I can be me again. It has taken a long time to come to this conclusion but I am glad that I did.

Mushi, if you are reading this, I think I have a better understanding now of what you were feeling when we were together and I understand why you had to do what you did. I am not mad at you anymore for it and I am sorry I have been not very nice to you lately. I can stop that now, it wasn't good for either of us and I apologize. I feel better about the whole thing now and as usual, you were right about everything. Just please remember that I am trying to make a new life for myself to and respect that. I know you are busy but try to find time to get done what needs to get done and let me know if and when I can help you with the house stuff. I am glad you are happier and I am glad you are a nurse now. You will make a very good one.

On that note, I am going to finish this post up and go get in the shower. Working out makes me smelly. Things are getting better though and for the first time in a long time, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I feel like it isn't going to go away this time.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Feeling Floaty

I went for my workout today and something weird happened. Today was leg workout day and that means that it is a short but very intense workout. It is one of my favorites. I met up with Ray the trainer dude and we started the torture.

After my core workout, which is basically a ten minute stretch where I put my abs through the grinder, we started on my legs. The first excercise was the leg press. I get a kick out of the leg press because I have pretty big legs and I can actually do more weight than my trainer can. It is one of the few exercises that actually makes me feel like I am a Greek God. Anywho, we upped my weight today and I struggled through the last rep and toward the end I think I pulled a muscle in my neck. It made it feel like I had brain freeze from sucking down a Slushee too fast. The workout went downhill from there.

I had three more exercises to do and I did them all well, going up in weight on a couple of them but I felt really out of it. By the end of the workout I was struggling to get my breath and keep my eyes open. I felt very light-headed and weak. I went out to my car and drove home and when I got home, I stripped down to my boxers and lay in bed for several minutes, shaking and sweating.

I decided that maybe my blood sugar was low so I went to the fridge and got a lemon-lime Shasta. The second some of the cold liquid hit my stomach I had to puke. I went to the bathroom and just popped. It was odd. I have never puked from working out. Now I feel fine but really weak. Spyder is coming over and we are going to Din Fung, that should help. I think I just need to get something in me and I will feel ok again. Anywho, this whole episode was odd and I thought I should post it. Lunch time!

Sunday, July 03, 2005

A Good Evening

Tonight has been a good night. Mr. Blue and TPLConjecture are in town and all of us are sitting together, watching a movie, and tooling around on our laptops. Earlier, we went to munch on pizza at Flying Pie. Flying Pie is some of the damned best pizza in Boise and whenever Mr. Blue comes to town, he must pay a visit to that place of pizza-ey goodness.

We are also having a small poker game tonight as well. When my brother gets done hanging out with his woman the poker playing will commence.

Right now I feel very at peace. I like having my good friends around. It isn't often anymore that all of us are in the same room together, so when that happens we try to make the most of it....by playing on our computers. :) Anywho, back to the computer playing and movie watching. I will post more tomorrow probably. Later!