Last long commute to work

This morning was the last morning of regular commutes to work from Stillwater to OKC. 

New carpet is being installed in the OKC house today and should be completed by this afternoon.

Picking up the U-Haul this afternoon and loading begins Friday morning.

If all goes well tomorrow, we should be at the OKC house in the evening to start unloading.

Opie shuffling all around!

Looks like hurricane Isaac will not produce rain in central Oklahoma.  Bummer that because we really need the moisture, but at least the move can happen without getting us wet in the process.

Two more driving days remaining.  My office is 17 miles from the OKC house.  Debbie's office is 9 miles from the house.  Both of us plan to drive separately most days, so that means together we will drive 52 miles round-trip to work each day.  That is almost 120 miles less per day than we currently drive.  Six hundred (yes, 600) miles less per week.  I cannot wait to make the change!!!  wooooohooooo!!!! 

Hurricane Isaac is approaching Louisiana and is expected to make landfall sometime tonight.  There is a chance that all of Oklahoma will get some rain depending on where Isaac tracks over the next few days.  Eastern Oklahoma looks to get rain no matter what.  Someone is going to get some rain.  It is needed badly. 

Have a great day!!

Not that I am obsessed about it or anything, but only three more days of driving from Stillwater to OKC to work!!  Looking at the weather forecasts today and some predictions show the remnants of hurricane Isaac passing through Texas and Oklahoma on Friday and Saturday.  We need the rain, but daggone it, can't it wait a couple of days until after we get moved???

Today was the last Friday that Debbie and I will drive from Stillwater to work in OKC and back.  A few more days of the drive before we move to OKC.  Can't wait.

Ordered the new carpet today.  One more step toward getting the house ready.

One piece of our new bedroom set.  Carpet guy is coming on Thursday to measure for new carpet.  Getting closer to being ready to make the move.  Taking longer than I thought...

What a week.  Debbie and I closed on a house in Oklahoma City.  On Saturday, Nolan and Megan became engaged.  Good things happen in threes.  Wonder what's next? 

We will be closing on the house at 2 pm, Friday, August 10, 2012.  The roof is being replaced today.  All of the paperwork is finished.  Man, this has been a long time coming for me.  The end of the driving is a couple of weeks away.  Super excited!  Debbie and I are going to decide what we want to do with the flooring.  At first, we talked about just replacing the carpeting but now considering replacing the carpeting in living room, den and dining room with hardwood flooring.  Going to do some pricing and decide.  After the flooring installation, moving into the house begins.  Wahooo!!! 

Update on buying the house in OKC.  The sellers were able to convince their insurance company to replace the roof on the house.  The roofing contractor is scheduled to begin replacement tomorrow morning as long as all of the materials arrive on time.  We are closing at 2 pm on Friday as long as the roof replacement is finished by then.  Almost there...

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Love you bunches!

Nana and Opie

Update on the house buying adventure.  Debbie and I made an offer on a house north of Mustang.  The sellers counteroffered and we agreed.  Appraiser looked at the house and said it was worth the asking price.  We hired a home inspector who said the roof needs to be replaced.  We asked that the sellers replace the roof.  The seller's realtor kind of blew it off and said we could get it insured and then have our insurance replace it someday.  Our insurance, State Farm, sent an inspector to look at the roof.  The State Farm inspector said the roof is badly damaged (multiple impact marks, which means hail damage) and State Farm says the roof cannot be insured.  State Farm told us not to buy the house until after the roof is replaced or at least a written agreement from seller to replace and seller gives money to mortgage company to pay for replacement.  The sellers decided to get their insurance to send an adjustor to look at the roof and have a roofing contractor look at the roof to give an estimate on how much it will cost to replace the roof.  Soooo... we are waiting until Tuesday to see what the seller's insurance says and what the roofing contractor's cost estimate will be.  Closing is Friday.  Hoping this all works out. 

Temperatures have been really hot around Stillwater the last several days.  Anywhere from 105 to 114 degrees.  Dang, it is HOT!!!

Stay cool!!

Happy Birthday, Oliver!!! 

Love you bunches.

Nana and Opie.

We are still waiting to close on the house in Oklahoma City.  The loan is being processed.  The appraiser went to the house on Tuesday but we don't know what the house is valued by him yet.  Meeting the home inspector on Monday to have him check out the house.  Waiting is driving me crazy!!!

Found a few interesting photos on the www.

He brought back a good stick.

Hey, Debbie.  We need something to put in the front yard of the new house!

Not sure if the bubbles above the diver is air he breathed out

or when he pooped after seeing that shark

Cool.

More cool.

Where is this zoo that you can play tug of war with a tiger?

I dunno either.

Have a good Friday!

Sometimes, reading stuff on the www turns up some interesting information.

Mythical Ireland, The Hill of Tara

A couple of weeks ago I was stung on the neck and finger by wasps.  Destroyed the nest and a half dozen or so wasps on the back porch above the back door.  Last Sunday, I was stung on the ear by a wasp from a nest above the kitchen window.  Killed 18 wasps from that nest.  Later that day, I found two more nests and killed four or five more wasps.  Looked around the house for more nests and so far, I have not found any more nests.  I thought our wasp problem was bad until I found a story on the internet about a guy who had more than one huge nest under his deck.  This is crazy.

Rigged a device to drill a hole through the deck by putting it

through the window while he was inside the house

Drilling the hole.

Rigged up a way to spray the wasps from inside the house

Lots of dead wasps

One of the huge nests

Going through photos on my iPhone.  Alot of interesting vehicles on the road.  We try to take photos if we can.

Saw this truck near downtown OKC on my way to get Debbie after work. 

Look closely along the bottoms of the doors.

Old military ambulance

Several old cars travelling along Lakeview near the house.

Not sure what this car is, but it is cool.

If all goes as expected, we will be moving to OKC in by the end of August.

2600 Kingsley Ln, Oklahoma City, OK

Still searching for a house.  Last nite, we looked at an empty house.  The house is held by a trust, which makes us believe either the former homeowner is in a nursing home or deceased.  Debbie and the realtor were standing at the end of the hallway near the bedrooms talking.  I was standing in a doorway and felt something touch the back of my neck two different times.  Debbie felt something touch her leg.  Gotta wonder if it was a ghost.  That kind of stuff happens on Ghost Hunters all the time.  When I told Debbie and the realtor about something touching my neck, the realtor acted kind of freaked out and made a beeline for the front door.  hahaha.

This morning on the way to work, Debbie was using her iPhone to search for homes in the OKC area.  She was looking at photos of a house built in the mid 1930's.  There were orbs in all of the photos.  Sometimes there are a few spots on a camera lens that appear on a photo and look like an orb but the "orb" will always be in about the same location on each photo.  The orbs in these photos were in different locations, different sizes of orbs and one was really bright.  Almost like a light.  Kinda freaky.

Saw a nice house last nite that we are kind of interested in.  The only problem is there is not much storage space.  Looking at a couple of houses tonite. 

Hope everyone has a great day.

Our new condenser unit.  Sure is purty.  And it makes copious amounts of cool air!

Debbie and I went with Kelsey, Jeremy and his mother, Tonya, to Post Oak Lodge a few miles north of Sand Springs this morning to check it out as a location where Kelsey and Jeremy can hold their wedding and reception.  Very cool place.  Just after we got there, someone discovered a problem with their shoes.  ruh roh.

As we were getting ready this morning, Debbie asked me which one looked better with her clothes.  Somehow between then and when we left, she never changed one of the shoes.  We got a huge laugh out of it.  Debbie and I made a quick run to Wal Mart in Sand Springs and she bought a  matching pair of flip flops to wear this morning. 

Hope everyone had a safe 4th of July.  Debbie, Megan, Kelsey, Nolan and I went to an old restaurant in Bethany yesterday for lunch.  Ann's Chicken Fry has been in Bethany for decades.  It was along the old highway 66 route and has alot of cool memorabilia inside and out.  I ate a small chicken fried steak.  Man, can't do that again.  After changing my diet after Debbie and I started doing the online Weight Watchers plan, that chicken fried steak was waaay too much fried stuff.  My gall bladder did not like it at all.  I felt nauseous all afternoon.  Same thing a few days ago after I ate some tacos from Taco Mayo for the first time in several weeks.  I must be turning into a vegan.  Dang. 

Last nite was the first time in a long time that we did not go watch fireworks.  Laziness is taking over.  That and I worked all day so I can take Friday and Saturday off. 

Have a great day!

We talked to our realtor last nite and it is official that we are not going to get the house on Burlingame without increasing our offer significantly.  So, we are back on the house hunt.  Taking this week off and will likely start visiting homes again next week.  Kinda bummed but it is what it is.  The owner wants to make some money and that's ok.  Just not off of us.

Well, the weekend ended without knowing if we are going to get the house on Burlingame in OKC.  We made an offer on Friday, which was rejected late Saturday.  We increased the offer yesterday afternoon and that, too, was rejected.  Apparently the owner was transferred to another city by his employer.  That company agreed to buy the home from the seller if he could not sell it.  According to the owner's realtor, our last offer was less than what the relocation company agreed to pay.  Some research on Debbie's part helped us determine that our last offer is really about what the market price should be and the owner is asking too much.  Well, at least as far as we are concerned.  Our realtor said to sit back and wait a day or two to see if they decide to contact us.  If not, we start looking again. 

A few weeks ago I finished replacing the shutters on the house.  All of the old ones were made out of wood and not all were the same.  I replaced the wood shutters with vinyl ones.  $50 per window ordered online.  Look nice, if I do say so myself.  One thing I learned is that a hammer drill makes it go alot faster than a regular drill.  Well worth the $80 for a hammer drill.

Old shutters

New shutters

While I was working on the shutters, Debbie had a butterfly land on her hand.  It stayed there for several minutes.  It flew off and then came back to the front of the house.  Debbie put some fruit in a container and sat it on the ladder.  The butterfly stayed there for a long time apparently sucking up the fruit juices.  Pretty cool.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Can't believe it is July 1 already.

Cross your fingers.  We made an offer...

I believe we are close to buying a house.  One more to look the large 4 bedroom on Burlingame that I posted about yesterday and look at a house in the same neighborhood.  Not sure about the other one, but want to look anyway. 

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate is Constitutional, among other aspects of the health care law.  No one disputes that there are people who need inexpensive access to health care.  The dispute is how to provide it.  Today, the Supreme Court upheld a mandate that forces everyone to buy insurance whether or not they can afford to buy insurance.  The healthcare law states that if the insurance costs more than 8% of your income, the government will subsidize all or part of the costs.  No one will ever be able to put an exact dollar value on how much tax revenue is needed to pay for that.  It will always be a moving target and a very expensive one.  Congress will try not to increase payroll taxes, which means taxes will go up at the business level.  What many people do not realize, is that small businesses will pay those taxes, not just big corporations.  Small businesses who hire one or two people to work will likely not be able to hire one or two people because the salary money will be used to pay for health insurance.  I hope the future for our kids and grandkids does not mean that 50% or more of their paychecks go to the federal government to pay for health care.  But that is likely.

Yesterday, Debbie and I looked at two houses that we both like.  We looked at a 4 bedroom house with a pool in north Edmond that is very nice.  This home is not far from Ted's Escondido (one of our favorite Mexican restaurants) and two nice public golf courses (that's for me and the guys).  I believe Debbie fell in love as soon as we walked in.  I like it but not yet ready to say, "This is the one." 

We have a sizeable list of other homes, so decided to look at a few more later in the day.  Well, that muddied the water a little after we saw the first of the next few homes.

The other home we like is a larger 4 bedroom with a spacious living room, dining rooms and kitchen very close to a mall, other shopping such as Target and Sam's Club, several restaurants that we like, and a hospital.  I like both about the same. 

The first house is move-in ready.  The second is ready but there are some things that we will need to upgrade, such as the red kitchen laminate countertops and the master bath needs a new vanity.  Otherwise, house #2 is great. 

Both neighborhoods are very nice. There is a country club in the neighborhood of house #2 that we can join that has a pool, golf and other family stuff to do. There is a small playground about a half block from house #2.

We discussed both alot yesterday and will look at several more homes this afternoon.  By the time we went to bed, I believe Debbie had decided the pool at the first house was a scary liability because of the grandkids possibly falling into it.  But she really liked the house.   

I figured this process would be easier. 

Might have found a house.  Not certain yet, but Debbie and I both like it.  Going to look at a couple of others before deciding for sure.

This house hunting thing is alot like buying something on Ebay.  You find what you like and want to see.  Try to schedule an appointment only to discover someone already liked it first.  Found a really, really nice house north of Edmond on Sunday only to have the realtor tell us the house is sold.  Gonna try four other ones tonite in Edmond.  Hoping we can look at these. 

The a/c repairs are nice.  Took about 4 hours for the house to cool down from 95 degrees to 77 degrees.  It was so nice to sleep without a fan.  Actually needed to cover up with the sheet by morning. 

Forecast calls for 104 degrees today.  Dang.  Stay cool!! 

Debbie and I are trying to find a house in the Oklahoma City area.  Not easy.  We have different desires.  I want as far away from people as I can get.  Debbie wants to be closer to town.  Gonna be tough to find anything satisfying both.  So, trying to find a house with as large a lot as possible.  Spent Wednesday afternoon looking at 4 homes.  Still looking.  Lucky we are not having to find one quickly. 

Found several photos from the L3 Easter egg hunt.

Used the 10 second timer on the camera to get a group photo from our trip to Beavers Bend.

Testing it with Debbie.

 

Some people move too slow.

Got it!!

It has been a long time since I posted anything on here.  Found some interesting photos I wanted to share.

Cool view of Cape Town, South Africa.

Greek village.

A rock formation somewhere.

This guy was alot more daring than Megan and I were at the Grand Canyon.

Have a great day!

Dean Sistahs

hee hee hee hee

Wii Dance Party

Wii Dance

Wii Dance


Wii Dance

Baby horses

Debbie and I stopped and watched some baby horses at the OSU equine facility this evening.  They were not as people friendly as the babies last spring.  But they were frisky!  Check out the video.

Baby horses running through the pasture

This little girl was near the fence, but she was not sure about getting close to us.  Safer near momma.

Momma snorted and came close to us.  Baby Girl kept an eye on us.

The two older babies were running around the pasture. These are the two in the video.  As we were leaving, Baby Girl started running and kicking up.  She let out a little whinny.  Fun to watch.

Just bought a Kangaroo

Just bought a Kangaroo for my desk.  I have been reading about the need to move around more at work instead of just sitting around all day.  Russell has a makeshift configuration of phone books and boxes to put his monitor and keyboard at a level where he can stand at his desk at different times throughout the day.  I was surfing the www trying to find an adjustable height desk that I liked when I found the Kangaroo.  The Ergodesktop Kangaroo .  Looks like it should work ok.

Reminds me of a joke I heard years ago.

A woman met and married an Australian.  The man had lived in the Outback for about 20 years before he met the woman.  Before they met, he had never dated or mingled socially with women. 

They went to a hotel on the night of their wedding.  After they got to the honeymoon suite, the woman told the man, "Get the bed ready while I change into something more comfortable." 

When she came out of bathroom she discovered that the man had moved all of the bedroom furniture against the walls creating a large open area in the middle of the room.

Her mouth fell open and she asked her husband, "Why in the world did you do that?"

He responded, "Well, darling. I figured that if making love to a woman was anything like making love to a kangaroo, we'd need all the room we could get."

Antelope Canyon

Wow.  This is incredibly beautiful.

antelope canyon

Butt Cleavage

I commented on butt cleavage in the previous post.  Made me think of 2005 when we attended a race at Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas.  Kelsey and I were sitting behind some Dale Earnhardt fans.  One of which was showing alot of cleavage.  Kelsey was watching the race and the guy was standing in front of her.  I told her to look and she said, "EWW!!"  The guy turned around and said, "Hey, you checking out my butt crack?"  LOLOL.  Pretty funny.  One of the women sitting next to Kelsey told him to pull his pants up at one point in the race.  I think she was with his group.  Every time Dale Junior's car went buy, he would hold up 3 fingers and yell, "WOOOOO!!".  Hilarious.

The dude in the striped shirt was drunk.  He left really early and never returned.

Just remembered this is the day Kelsey got to see her favorite driver, Kasey Kahne, win the race.  Kahne and Tony Stewart raced hard against each other for the last 25 or so laps.  Exciting race.  Kelsey was happy.