Me picking up the gauntlet

This performance today won me a $100 gift card to the Italian restaurant, Stella, in Grant Park. Another guy poured beer on himself, so I knew I had to ante up. We both won.

Pretty sweet return for 30 seconds of work. Becky gets the credit for the stellar video.

This is also viewable in my Facebook links.

The continuing decline of my blogging

1. Facebook, the enabler of keeping thoughts to quips and status updates.

2. Thinh cannot think of anything else.

3. Thinh is a little sad.

Where has the blog gone? I've noted the work and Facebook thing before, but I see that I have no posts in December. I used to come back to this blog multiple times a day and put some real thought into it. Now I am addicted to Facebook Mobile via text messaging.

I need a focus, and added topic or interest, rather than just my life in general. I guess that is what post labels are for, but another blog could be a new start.

But I am enjoying sitting on our new sofa we just got yesterday, with the laptop, a cup coffee and Galactic on Pandora Radio.

Fall color

Multimedia message

Intruder false alarm

We had a little drama Wednesday night.

While we are at the dinner table finishing our pasta and asparagus, someone started wrestling with the backdoor doorknob and pushing on the locked door. Fiercely.

I immediately went for the door while yelling "Hey!" to scare anyone off while grabbing the bar stool in my path, raising it to pound it through the window in the door at the guy outside. After seeing the angry Asian approaching, the guy stopped and said he was trying to get into "Sherry's" door (our favorite neighbor next door in our condo building), and I put the bar stool down.

This all happened in about 5 seconds.

Whew. I was about to have to hurt someone.

Yeah, boyz! Don't mess with Nuge. I bust you up. Crack a chair over your head.

Not enough blogging: Facebook

I haven't been blogging any grand thoughts lately.

1) I've been busy with house stuff and work.

2) Facebook.

Details:

1) We did get the house, and we love it! But we haven't really moved because we are painting on weekends and planning other stuff for it. We did have a pizza and wine dinner (without working on the house that day) on the floor on our anniversary recently. There are two porches and a deck, so we will be enjoying those this fall, for sure.

Work is still crazy, but better. Football season is back, so wandering home at 1-2-3 a.m. Saturday morning is back. The enjoyable Saturday morning coffee with the wife is shot.

2) Yes, Facebook.com. It has me hooked, and it has the wife hooked. Go there to find out more. I have not looked at my MySpace in months since I joined Facebook. It's not as ugly, easier to read, and there are more people I know there.

But I don't do this kind of typing on Facebook. I could. But this is a better blogging tool. I haven't figured out how I want to integrate this blog with Facebook. There are all kinds of ways to do it, but I haven't taken the time to experiment with what works for me.

Coffee is for closers

We are closing on the house tomorrow morning!!!

This has all happened really fast. Our mortgage guy kicked ass and basically had the whole thing done - appraised, approved, moved to the attorney - in, like, five business days.

There is still a lot to do, but tomorrow is a milestone.

Inspection and lender hunt

I have been on the phone for days talking about rates and fees, and today it all came to a head having four lenders in the mix, with three actually returning my phone calls.

By this afternoon, two were in real competition, and I was juggling phone calls and numbers right in the middle of my filing deadlines.

But now we have just one lender. Such a relief. AAAAAAHHHH.

The inspection yesterday was not as big a deal. In fact, my friend, Mike, did it, so it was thorough and, of course, he was easy to hang out with. We have things to fix, but no deal breaker.

Contract, finally

Our offer on the house we have been after since June was finally accepted. Now the clock starts ticking on the inspection period. We found out last night, so yesterday was day zero, technically, and we are on day one now.

I've already set up an inspector to be out on Monday. That was pretty easy since one of my long-time friends is an inspector in metro-Atlanta.

By my infrequent posts, you can see that it's been a long month.

It's about to get even longer.