Enjoy something a little different.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Changes
So Mama Bean and I are thinking about making some changes in the next coming while. Some pretty major changes, actually.
Like moving, and not just across the street, but to another city. Another province. We have determined that we are living beyond our means. Calgary is just too expensive and we have too much debt. We live a pretty good life here; materially anyway. We own our house, we have a 2 year old car completely paid off, a brand new car that we're making payments on, a 42" TV with sound system, a piano, a couple of basses and bass gear, a king size bed, etc... Now granted all(most) of those things came before the debt, and were partially as a result of the wedding and its related gifts, and the sale of my condo and the profits from such.
So we are sitting at about $140k in debt between Jo's massive student loans, my remaining student loan, and the car. Payments are going to start being $1800/mo for Jo's loans, on top of the car payments, mortgage, my loan, and life.
We both work 2 jobs, with all of our extra income going directly to paying off the loans, but it still doesn't feel as though we are getting anywhere. We rarely get to see each other, and when we do we are exhausted. I've grown to really enjoy the evening or two a week we get together, but less than a year into our marriage that really isn't enough. We both work Tues through Saturday at our day jobs, with Mama Bean working Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons after her regular job. We both work Sunday afternoons/evenings and Monday's at our second jobs. Music practice is Wednesday evenings, Care group Thursday evenings. Friday's are our evenings together, sometimes, because we do still have friends that need seeing and we want to see. Mama Bean works Saturday and Sunday nights, so I usually get some cleaning done and stuff done around the house, but mostly wish I was with her.
Moving will allow us to sell our house for a profit, and that along with the 25% down will be enough to pay off most of our debt, leaving enough for a down payment on a house. We are considering Saskatoon or Winnipeg. We also really like Regina, but with all the debt out of the way it will also allow me to go back to school and become a pastor! I'm so excited about that. Along with the fact that I've been itching to move for awhile now (you can thank the nomadic blood from my dad). Housing is so much cheaper. We could get a place comparable to ours for less than $250k, while selling out house here for more than $350k.
It is a huge undertaking though. There is a lot to consider. But the thought of not having this huge looming debt resting on our shoulders is such a wonderful thing.
Like moving, and not just across the street, but to another city. Another province. We have determined that we are living beyond our means. Calgary is just too expensive and we have too much debt. We live a pretty good life here; materially anyway. We own our house, we have a 2 year old car completely paid off, a brand new car that we're making payments on, a 42" TV with sound system, a piano, a couple of basses and bass gear, a king size bed, etc... Now granted all(most) of those things came before the debt, and were partially as a result of the wedding and its related gifts, and the sale of my condo and the profits from such.
So we are sitting at about $140k in debt between Jo's massive student loans, my remaining student loan, and the car. Payments are going to start being $1800/mo for Jo's loans, on top of the car payments, mortgage, my loan, and life.
We both work 2 jobs, with all of our extra income going directly to paying off the loans, but it still doesn't feel as though we are getting anywhere. We rarely get to see each other, and when we do we are exhausted. I've grown to really enjoy the evening or two a week we get together, but less than a year into our marriage that really isn't enough. We both work Tues through Saturday at our day jobs, with Mama Bean working Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons after her regular job. We both work Sunday afternoons/evenings and Monday's at our second jobs. Music practice is Wednesday evenings, Care group Thursday evenings. Friday's are our evenings together, sometimes, because we do still have friends that need seeing and we want to see. Mama Bean works Saturday and Sunday nights, so I usually get some cleaning done and stuff done around the house, but mostly wish I was with her.
Moving will allow us to sell our house for a profit, and that along with the 25% down will be enough to pay off most of our debt, leaving enough for a down payment on a house. We are considering Saskatoon or Winnipeg. We also really like Regina, but with all the debt out of the way it will also allow me to go back to school and become a pastor! I'm so excited about that. Along with the fact that I've been itching to move for awhile now (you can thank the nomadic blood from my dad). Housing is so much cheaper. We could get a place comparable to ours for less than $250k, while selling out house here for more than $350k.
It is a huge undertaking though. There is a lot to consider. But the thought of not having this huge looming debt resting on our shoulders is such a wonderful thing.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Tithing
Troy's sermon today was on the subject of tithing. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of sermons on money, but that's because they've never done it right. Troy got it right. He approached it from the right perspective, his observations, comments and teachings were all right on the money (hehe). It was by far the best sermon I've ever heard on tithing.
A few years ago I was in a church in Regina, and the pastor was speaking on tithing. His take on it was that if you didn't tithe (so 10% or more) than your dishasher would break. Or your iron. Or your car. He told the congregation that if they didn't give 10%, then shit would hit the fan. The less you gave, the bigger the item that broke. Seriously. It blew me away. I couldn't beleive that a pastor would say shit like that. It's not even like he skirted the issue.
"If you don't tithe on a weekly basis, don't be suprised to wake up one morning to find your dishwasher broken"
It was the first and last time I went to that church.
A few years ago I was in a church in Regina, and the pastor was speaking on tithing. His take on it was that if you didn't tithe (so 10% or more) than your dishasher would break. Or your iron. Or your car. He told the congregation that if they didn't give 10%, then shit would hit the fan. The less you gave, the bigger the item that broke. Seriously. It blew me away. I couldn't beleive that a pastor would say shit like that. It's not even like he skirted the issue.
"If you don't tithe on a weekly basis, don't be suprised to wake up one morning to find your dishwasher broken"
It was the first and last time I went to that church.
Friday, January 18, 2008
AAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH
My sales manager forgot...no, neglected, to renew our domain. It expired, and was subsequently cancelled. Once it was cancelled, someone else bought it. And now we are fucked. And since it was his fuckup, and he is essentially my boss, it's now my issue to deal with.
It turns out it was a fuck-up on both our end, as well as the hosting company.
So I'm firing off e-mails, calling people, etc... Now I find I have to send a certified check for $10 to some privacy company to release the name of the party who has bought our domain. It costs $10 just to get a certified check. ARGHHHHHHHHHH
I'm going to lose it. And it's not like I had enough other things to do today.
(fix the ftp, deal with tech calls, respond to 18 e-mails with requests for internal stuff, fix 4 lab computers, find out why my lab server is on the fritz, setup 3 computers, test 5 monitors, move some filing cabinets and bookshelves, replace a broken lightswitch in the boss' office when none of the breakers are marked, find out why our e-mails are still on some blacklists, setup our bulk e-mails to be compliant with standards so that we aren't labeled as spam, setup a bunch of accounts for upcoming training classes, buy some ups' for the servers in two of our remote offices, find out why our database server keeps crashing, and the list goes on)
Oh yeah, did I mention get our fucking domain back? That's priority number one.
It turns out it was a fuck-up on both our end, as well as the hosting company.
So I'm firing off e-mails, calling people, etc... Now I find I have to send a certified check for $10 to some privacy company to release the name of the party who has bought our domain. It costs $10 just to get a certified check. ARGHHHHHHHHHH
I'm going to lose it. And it's not like I had enough other things to do today.
(fix the ftp, deal with tech calls, respond to 18 e-mails with requests for internal stuff, fix 4 lab computers, find out why my lab server is on the fritz, setup 3 computers, test 5 monitors, move some filing cabinets and bookshelves, replace a broken lightswitch in the boss' office when none of the breakers are marked, find out why our e-mails are still on some blacklists, setup our bulk e-mails to be compliant with standards so that we aren't labeled as spam, setup a bunch of accounts for upcoming training classes, buy some ups' for the servers in two of our remote offices, find out why our database server keeps crashing, and the list goes on)
Oh yeah, did I mention get our fucking domain back? That's priority number one.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
I am King!
So I had to establish myself as the leader of the animal kingdom in my house. We have/had mice. (I'm not sure if there are any left.) There were 2 of them. Nasty, foul little beasts.
We set traps in the laundry room in hopes we'd catch them. When checking them the next day, one had worked, and the other was missing. How does a mouse trap go missing? Then I see some rustling in a bag under the laundry bench. Lo-and-behold there is the little vermin. He must have ate the peanut butter, then turned to scamper away and it snapped on his tail. So out came my 2 million candlepower flashlight, blinding him, and down came the mighty hammer of thor...errr, Chris. And that was the end of him.
Stupid gross, nasty, little fucking mice! Disgusting. Slithering around, pooping on my floor. I set another 6 traps last night in case there are more. I'm hoping they don't catch anything, and it's because there are no more, not because the mice are sneaky. (because mice aren't sneaky, just gross)
So that's my story.
This afternoon we are going to the funeral of one of Jo's old neighbours. Old meaning former, not old as in age. He was early 50's or so. Died of CO poisoning while working in his garage. His 18 y.o son was in there as well and was in the hospital, quite sick from it. It's been a long time since I've been to a funeral. I never met the guy, but his wife is super awesome. It's sad.
And tomorrow the great relaxation adventure begins! Mama Bean and I are going on a 5 day vacation, and it's going to be wonderful. Tomorrow we head to Drumheller to check out the Dinosaur museum (which I've never been to), and then on Friday we head down to Regina to hang with Kari and James for the weekend before driving back on Monday. Lots of driving, lots of relaxing. No work for either of us for 5 whole glorious days!
OH OH OH!!! My new bass came in today! I haven't written about it on here yet, just posted pics on facebook (evil facebook). It's absolutely beautiful. An unlined fretless 4 string. The sexiest thing in the world (next to my wife of course). So I'm going to pick it up before the funeral. I figure it'll be 6-8 months until I'm good enough to play it in public.
Oh, and here's a link to more pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiolo
We set traps in the laundry room in hopes we'd catch them. When checking them the next day, one had worked, and the other was missing. How does a mouse trap go missing? Then I see some rustling in a bag under the laundry bench. Lo-and-behold there is the little vermin. He must have ate the peanut butter, then turned to scamper away and it snapped on his tail. So out came my 2 million candlepower flashlight, blinding him, and down came the mighty hammer of thor...errr, Chris. And that was the end of him.
Stupid gross, nasty, little fucking mice! Disgusting. Slithering around, pooping on my floor. I set another 6 traps last night in case there are more. I'm hoping they don't catch anything, and it's because there are no more, not because the mice are sneaky. (because mice aren't sneaky, just gross)
So that's my story.
This afternoon we are going to the funeral of one of Jo's old neighbours. Old meaning former, not old as in age. He was early 50's or so. Died of CO poisoning while working in his garage. His 18 y.o son was in there as well and was in the hospital, quite sick from it. It's been a long time since I've been to a funeral. I never met the guy, but his wife is super awesome. It's sad.
And tomorrow the great relaxation adventure begins! Mama Bean and I are going on a 5 day vacation, and it's going to be wonderful. Tomorrow we head to Drumheller to check out the Dinosaur museum (which I've never been to), and then on Friday we head down to Regina to hang with Kari and James for the weekend before driving back on Monday. Lots of driving, lots of relaxing. No work for either of us for 5 whole glorious days!
OH OH OH!!! My new bass came in today! I haven't written about it on here yet, just posted pics on facebook (evil facebook). It's absolutely beautiful. An unlined fretless 4 string. The sexiest thing in the world (next to my wife of course). So I'm going to pick it up before the funeral. I figure it'll be 6-8 months until I'm good enough to play it in public.
Oh, and here's a link to more pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/xiolo
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Good-Bye
So today sucks. Well the past week has kinda sucked. I learned last week that we are going to be putting Brandi down this weekend. Today actually.
We got Brandi about 15 years ago, just a tiny little puppy. She is a sheltie-cross, and was the runt of the litter and we got her from a family who was giving all the puppies to the SPCA. I've never seen a dog that listens so well. She is just amazing. So many stories. So many memories.
I'm really going to miss her.
I haven't thought about death this much since my grandpa died back in '91. And I've had a number of people I know die since then. It just never really occured to me for whatever reason. This time it's causing me a mini-faith crisis. I just can't seem to wrap my head around not existing. Normally I'm secure enough in my faith that it doesn't bother me. I die, I'm going to heaven. But what about Brandi? Does she go to heaven? Is there a dog heaven? She doesn't believe in God or anything, it's not part of being an animal. What about her? She has personality. She can't just cease to exist. I just can't wrap my head around the concept and it really bothers me.
So that's where I'm at right now. That and I'm tired of people. I am all peopled out. Christmas will do that to me. Most holidays do. I grew up with small gatherings at Christmas. Not multiple gatherings of 20+ people. It is taxing. I'm a relatively quiet, internal person, so large gatherings strain me. I'm getting better though.
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