Sunday August 20, 2006 How we celebrated our Anniversary Friday
For our anniversary, we both took the day off, got up and went to get both of our cars serviced.....
WooHoo! Then we went up to Camp Verde Arizona to see the "new" Out of Africa Park and saw some
Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My! It truly was Africa hot out there.... We then drove back to Phoenix via
the scenic route (OMG) through Jerome, and Prescott, and Highway 60, got fed up with that traffic and
finished up on I-17. We got home and then asked our closest friends (Brendan and Gordon, who
coincidentally have been together 10 years as well) out to dinner (Chinese of course). Adjourned to
Starbucks, talked politics, went home and went to bed early (yes we have turned into old homebody queens).
That was our anniversary and it was fabulous.
For our anniversary, we both took the day off, got up and went to get both of our cars serviced.....
WooHoo! Then we went up to Camp Verde Arizona to see the "new" Out of Africa Park and saw some
Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My! It truly was Africa hot out there.... We then drove back to Phoenix via
the scenic route (OMG) through Jerome, and Prescott, and Highway 60, got fed up with that traffic and
finished up on I-17. We got home and then asked our closest friends (Brendan and Gordon, who
coincidentally have been together 10 years as well) out to dinner (Chinese of course). Adjourned to
Starbucks, talked politics, went home and went to bed early (yes we have turned into old homebody queens).
That was our anniversary and it was fabulous.
Wednesday May 31, 2006 Semi-Recovered
Well, we returned from our trip to Disneyland with sore legs and feet from all the walking. But we are now
feeling more at peace and rested. Our bellies are definitely feeling great after 2 fabulous experiences at The
Napa Rose Restaurant at Disney's Grand California Hotel. Check out our pictures on the picture pages. I have
edited them down to the good shots instead of everything. Just a reminder that these pictures are right out of
the camera and have not been retouched with Photoshop, yet. That's Ben's project.
Peace
Well, we returned from our trip to Disneyland with sore legs and feet from all the walking. But we are now
feeling more at peace and rested. Our bellies are definitely feeling great after 2 fabulous experiences at The
Napa Rose Restaurant at Disney's Grand California Hotel. Check out our pictures on the picture pages. I have
edited them down to the good shots instead of everything. Just a reminder that these pictures are right out of
the camera and have not been retouched with Photoshop, yet. That's Ben's project.
Peace
Friday May 26, 2006 On Vacation
We are headed to Disneyland for the weekend. Look for pics from our time there daily. We will post them
nightly directly from the camera with no editing. When we return home, Ben will Photoshop them and we will
post them again. In the mean time enjoy Disneyland vicariously through our pics.
Have a very safe and restful Holiday weekend.
(During this weekend, take a moment and remember what this Holiday stands for.)
We are headed to Disneyland for the weekend. Look for pics from our time there daily. We will post them
nightly directly from the camera with no editing. When we return home, Ben will Photoshop them and we will
post them again. In the mean time enjoy Disneyland vicariously through our pics.
Have a very safe and restful Holiday weekend.
(During this weekend, take a moment and remember what this Holiday stands for.)
Saturday May 20,2006 Miscellaneous Musings
Greetings and Felicitations!
We are going to Disneyland over the Memorial Day weekend where we will be meeting some friends. I don't
know which one of us is more excited, myself or Ben.
Tonight we will be attending the Phoenix Symphony. They will be performing several pieces by Charles Ives on
the first half and Beethoven's Ninth for the second half. It should be a very interesting program.
Enjoy the weekend and be safe.
Peace
Greetings and Felicitations!
We are going to Disneyland over the Memorial Day weekend where we will be meeting some friends. I don't
know which one of us is more excited, myself or Ben.
Tonight we will be attending the Phoenix Symphony. They will be performing several pieces by Charles Ives on
the first half and Beethoven's Ninth for the second half. It should be a very interesting program.
Enjoy the weekend and be safe.
Peace
Thursday May 17, 2006 Blogging? YIKES!!!!!
I have discovered that a Blog can be a very frustrating experience. That is why I have installed this "Psuedo Blog".
As a little bit of history; I first installed the Yahoo 360 client for this website, but didn't like the functionality it didn't
have so I uninstalled it. Next, I decided that the Word Press product looked like it had the functionality that I
wanted and the blurbs indicated that it was fairly easy to use. Yeah Right! If you know CSS, SQL, PHP and
HTML of which my (Keith) skills are zippo, nada, nothing.
So, until I acquire those skills to use the Word Press product, I will be using this page as a Blog.
Thanks for being patient with a newbie.
I have discovered that a Blog can be a very frustrating experience. That is why I have installed this "Psuedo Blog".
As a little bit of history; I first installed the Yahoo 360 client for this website, but didn't like the functionality it didn't
have so I uninstalled it. Next, I decided that the Word Press product looked like it had the functionality that I
wanted and the blurbs indicated that it was fairly easy to use. Yeah Right! If you know CSS, SQL, PHP and
HTML of which my (Keith) skills are zippo, nada, nothing.
So, until I acquire those skills to use the Word Press product, I will be using this page as a Blog.
Thanks for being patient with a newbie.
Monday May 15, 2006 Possible Vacation Time
We are contemplating a little turn around trip to Disneyland (our place of healing). If we do go we will take the
camera and laptop and post pictures daily. These pictures will be the raw photos, but Ben will Photoshop them
later and we will repost them.
For those out there that may ask the question “what’s the attraction” or “doesn’t it get boring after the first ten
visits”, the answer is absolutely NOT!!! It is not about the rides or the need to DO anything, it is about escaping
the rat (pardon the pun) race of the life outside the berm. We go to heal and recharge by just being in the park
and drinking in the atmosphere, or just riding the train around the park 4 or 5 times. I wish everyone could
experience the healing that we experience by just being there.
Peace
We are contemplating a little turn around trip to Disneyland (our place of healing). If we do go we will take the
camera and laptop and post pictures daily. These pictures will be the raw photos, but Ben will Photoshop them
later and we will repost them.
For those out there that may ask the question “what’s the attraction” or “doesn’t it get boring after the first ten
visits”, the answer is absolutely NOT!!! It is not about the rides or the need to DO anything, it is about escaping
the rat (pardon the pun) race of the life outside the berm. We go to heal and recharge by just being in the park
and drinking in the atmosphere, or just riding the train around the park 4 or 5 times. I wish everyone could
experience the healing that we experience by just being there.
Peace
Sunday May 14, 2006 Welcome
Welcome to our Blog. We make no promises about this Blog. With that said, we will update when we feel like it
and won’t when we don’t.
We hope to have RSS feeds from several sources, including TBLG (yes, I put those letters in that order on
purpose) community news services.
Thanks for stopping by to see us.
Welcome to our Blog. We make no promises about this Blog. With that said, we will update when we feel like it
and won’t when we don’t.
We hope to have RSS feeds from several sources, including TBLG (yes, I put those letters in that order on
purpose) community news services.
Thanks for stopping by to see us.
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Saturday September 23, 2006 Baseball (Diamondbacks) Rant
Now that the 2006 Baseball season is nearly over, I must say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed and
ANNOYED at the Diamondbacks management. Luis Gonzales, who won the World series for us in 2001, and
fan favorite as well as an all around great guy was summarily dismissed from the negotiation process about his
option with the team for the 2007 season. The management told him they were not even going to allow him to
even negotiate with them (and this coming from the man who negotiated his contract with the team in the first
place). From what I have heard, he did not necessarily want to play full time or even want the salary he has
been receiving. He just wanted to stay in Phoenix and retire with the Diamondbacks. To quote Gomer Pyle;
For shame, for shame, for shame!!!!!!!
Since they ran Jerry off, the atmosphere surrounding the team has been less than friendly. Unfortunately, in
todays world, it is all about the mighty dollar (players and owners alike). We had season tickets at one time,
but I don't believe we will be doing that again anytime soon.
Enough of that, before I open my mouth any wider and insert a shoe store.
Vacation time is almost upon us. We are planning a trip to where else, but Disneyland. Our place of healing.
We both need it after all of the insanity of the year. More later.
Take Care and Play Nice.
Now that the 2006 Baseball season is nearly over, I must say that I am EXTREMELY disappointed and
ANNOYED at the Diamondbacks management. Luis Gonzales, who won the World series for us in 2001, and
fan favorite as well as an all around great guy was summarily dismissed from the negotiation process about his
option with the team for the 2007 season. The management told him they were not even going to allow him to
even negotiate with them (and this coming from the man who negotiated his contract with the team in the first
place). From what I have heard, he did not necessarily want to play full time or even want the salary he has
been receiving. He just wanted to stay in Phoenix and retire with the Diamondbacks. To quote Gomer Pyle;
For shame, for shame, for shame!!!!!!!
Since they ran Jerry off, the atmosphere surrounding the team has been less than friendly. Unfortunately, in
todays world, it is all about the mighty dollar (players and owners alike). We had season tickets at one time,
but I don't believe we will be doing that again anytime soon.
Enough of that, before I open my mouth any wider and insert a shoe store.
Vacation time is almost upon us. We are planning a trip to where else, but Disneyland. Our place of healing.
We both need it after all of the insanity of the year. More later.
Take Care and Play Nice.
For a number of years I have wanted to purchase a home. Unfortunately, we had a few bumps to our credit several
years ago and we have been diligently trying to clean up the mess we created. As Albert Einstein once said "The
significant issues we face today cannot be resolved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created
them". It required that we change our thinking, and that we did. We lived on cash for several years and as we got
some of the old stuff cleaned up we started to get offers for credit, which we took advantage of and have been
responsible and diligent in not being late even once in the last three years. I have been monitoring my credit with an
online service and managed to clean up all the duplications and erroneous data on my credit report. Through all of
this, however, the home prices in Phoenix, especially in the area we wanted to live nearly doubled in price. Needless
to say, I was devastated and thought I would never be able to purchase a home unless we went out to BFE. But, all
was not lost.
All of that to say that this little saga started with a question to the Real Estate Agent, that we had decided we would
use, after church this past Sunday. I told her we would probably be looking in the next six months and yada yada
yada. She looked right at me and asked why we wanted to wait, that it was a perfect time to buy. I told her I was
concerned about credit etc. and she told me to just talk to a mortgage lender and see what happens.
So, she recommended a guy who called on Monday and wanted to get some information from me and from Ben. I
faxed my credit report Monday afternoon and Ben's on Tuesday morning, as I wanted him to look at them before he
made an inquiry. At 11:00 Tuesday morning he called me and we talked for 30 minutes about possibilities and asked
if he could run our information through his system, since he couldn't really tell us anything until he did that. He said
he would put us in for a Fannie Mae first time buyers program. I said okay, hung up and walked in the other room
only to hear the phone ringing and didn't get back until it had gone to voicemail. I called him back and he said he had
good news and bad news. Yikes! The bad news was that we made too much money for the first time buyers
program, but he would put us in for another type of loan. Whew, that was close. He called me back about fifteen
minutes later and said that we had qualified for and been approved for a 100% A paper loan. Which basically means
that we got the best deal around. He informed Real Estate Agent of the status and faxed her some paperwork.
Jan, our agent, sent some properties via email for us to look at and see if anything tripped our trigger. No! Jan called
Wednesday morning and we talked about the parameters we had set on area, price, etc. She told me that she had
just listed a townhouse that was a little outside of our area but thought it might be worth a look. I looked at it online
and we setup an appointment to look at it that afternoon.
Ben got home and we headed over to the property. Driving up, we liked the neighborhood and then walking up, it
was very nice. Walked in and OMG, it was fabulous. The patio is a dream, the master bedroom is almost the size of
this apartment we live in. It has 2 BR and 1.75 Baths with a nice kitchen and lots of space. We looked at each other
and said we liked it. On the way over to another property (which was a dump) we talked about it and decided that
we wanted to make an offer. Sounds crazy, but this property was the best price for the size and location and within
our budget so that we would not be house poor. We signed the contract at 5:00, the Agent made an appointment to
see the owner at 7:30 and we were signing the counter offer at 9:00 pm. On Saturday we sign the loan paperwork
and close on March 30th.
Thank you God for making this happen.
Thursday April 26, 2007 – We are finally moved and getting settled
Well……… March 30th finally rolled around and we closed on our new home. The hardest part was the waiting…
and the waiting …. and the waiting for it to get here. I was not as aware of it as much as Ben was, since I was on
the road with my job most of the time. But, March 30th finally arrived and we got up early and went over to OUR
house to wait for the new stove, the electrician, the cable guy (who was adorable), and to do a few little project-y
things. It was rather surreal being in a place that was ours that, if we wanted to knock out a wall, or paint the
walls chartreuse we could. It was a very long day that lasted until we were about to pass out around 10:00 PM.
Then, it was up at 5:00 AM to pack up the kitties (OMG, they were a mess!!! But, they are settling down now.)
and take them to their (that is to say the home we purchased and they are allowing us to inhabit) new home before
the movers showed up.
The movers…………… where do I begin…….well they showed up and it seemed that they were not prepared to
do the job that was estimated. I guess the estimator low balled it and told them it was a three hour job and they
would be done by noon?? Well, to make a long story short they moved half of our stuff and quit at noon, at least
they moved all the big stuff. However, they only charged us half of what was quoted, so I guess that makes it
okay?????? We had to go to U-Haul and by some more boxes (no they didn’t bring enough and what they brought
was used) and rent a truck. Thank God for our good friends Gordon and Brendan who helped us get everything
moved that evening. And we got to spend our first night in our home, it was wonderful, almost like being on
vacation.
So now we faced all the boxes of stuff (we have more stuff than twelve people should have)(and enough books to
get a small library started). We are just about finished unpacking and have taken eight huge packing boxes of stuff
to Goodwill. We are down to the knick-knacks and miscellaneous kitchen items, as well as the enormous pile of
cast-off computer related items i.e., cables, CD’s, floppy disks, etc.
We are looking forward to entertaining and having people over to share our excitement and joy.
I just want to add some special thanks here; first to Jan our realtor for making this happen. Next to Paul, the
previous owner for being patient with us. To Dan our mortgage banker for helping us understand the process and
getting us the best loan and rate possible. Also thanks to Brendan and Gordon for always believing in us and
supporting us through all the years and for breaking their vow of ten years to never help anyone move.
Well……… March 30th finally rolled around and we closed on our new home. The hardest part was the waiting…
and the waiting …. and the waiting for it to get here. I was not as aware of it as much as Ben was, since I was on
the road with my job most of the time. But, March 30th finally arrived and we got up early and went over to OUR
house to wait for the new stove, the electrician, the cable guy (who was adorable), and to do a few little project-y
things. It was rather surreal being in a place that was ours that, if we wanted to knock out a wall, or paint the
walls chartreuse we could. It was a very long day that lasted until we were about to pass out around 10:00 PM.
Then, it was up at 5:00 AM to pack up the kitties (OMG, they were a mess!!! But, they are settling down now.)
and take them to their (that is to say the home we purchased and they are allowing us to inhabit) new home before
the movers showed up.
The movers…………… where do I begin…….well they showed up and it seemed that they were not prepared to
do the job that was estimated. I guess the estimator low balled it and told them it was a three hour job and they
would be done by noon?? Well, to make a long story short they moved half of our stuff and quit at noon, at least
they moved all the big stuff. However, they only charged us half of what was quoted, so I guess that makes it
okay?????? We had to go to U-Haul and by some more boxes (no they didn’t bring enough and what they brought
was used) and rent a truck. Thank God for our good friends Gordon and Brendan who helped us get everything
moved that evening. And we got to spend our first night in our home, it was wonderful, almost like being on
vacation.
So now we faced all the boxes of stuff (we have more stuff than twelve people should have)(and enough books to
get a small library started). We are just about finished unpacking and have taken eight huge packing boxes of stuff
to Goodwill. We are down to the knick-knacks and miscellaneous kitchen items, as well as the enormous pile of
cast-off computer related items i.e., cables, CD’s, floppy disks, etc.
We are looking forward to entertaining and having people over to share our excitement and joy.
I just want to add some special thanks here; first to Jan our realtor for making this happen. Next to Paul, the
previous owner for being patient with us. To Dan our mortgage banker for helping us understand the process and
getting us the best loan and rate possible. Also thanks to Brendan and Gordon for always believing in us and
supporting us through all the years and for breaking their vow of ten years to never help anyone move.
Click on Tink to go to our housewarming invitation
