This morning marked the beginning of the 28th week of the pregnancy. Here is a link for Week 28. There are only twelve or so weeks to go and the wheels are now in motion to start work on the nursery. We will be out looking for furniture this weekend and will also be getting permission from our landlord to paint the room and remove the old vinyl flooring. Christmas was great and thankfully most of the presents were for Three, so I didn’t have much stuff to put away once we got home. Some of the highlights include: a new BumbleRide Rocket stroller, the bedding set we registered for at Babies’R’Us, a new camcorder for filming every moment, an old cradle that has been in my family for over a century and assorted other goods.

Okay I have to get back to work. In other news I downloaded some new games to the Wii, Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog and the original Zelda. I am more than halfway through Mario 64 after only three days, perhaps it is time to slow down.

Later,
Keeg

Here I sit in my living room with only one week before Christmas. The most recent weekend was quite busy, but very efficient and enjoyable. On Friday night, I went out with some State Street people for Marisa’s last day. Yep its true she is leaving State Street and going back to New York. It was fun to see some old faces and to hear things haven’t changed at all there. I also learned that the cube wall of fame is still there with the name plates of past employees.

On Saturday we went to see one of Jennifer’s old dance students perform in the Nutcracker. It was a great show and flew right by. Afterwards we decided to battle the mall scene and after forty five minutes had finished 95% of our Christmas shopping. It’s amazing sometimes just how fast we are able to make decisions together. We made it back from the mall and immediately hopped back in the car for a little Wii party over at Cara and Jeff’s house. They were excited to try it out and I was excited to play on a giant flat panel television. It was a lot of fun, the Wii is the best.

Yesterday I pretty much stayed on the couch most of the day trying to catch up on the hours of shows I had accumulated over the past couple weeks. I know I should probably ration them out since most shows are now on hiatus until mid-January, but I just couldn’t wait. In the afternoon I had made a big dent in my TiVo stockpile and decided it might be a good idea to get out of the house. We grabbed some wrapping paper and then did some major grocery shopping. You may or not know that Jennifer and I tend to keep the cupboards relatively bare, mostly because the store is a short walk away and because we never know when we will be eating at home. However, we basically ran out of nearly everything, which resulted in some major difficulties for my pregnant wife. So I decided that we were going to go crazy at the store. So $143 later and we have a bunch of food. Hopefully it will last and not too much will go to waste.

The last task of the weekend was to make some Christmas cookies. We originally planned on making a gingerbread house, but realized we just didn’t have the time for it, so instead we made some sugar cookies. They turned out really well and might even be able to compete with my mom’s classic cookies. Here are some photos: Christmas Cookie Making

We have another doctor’s appointment today and should get a chance to hear the heartbeat. All very excited. Oh yeah and that may also be followed by a trip to visit Megan, who went into labor this morning. Only about 105 more days until Jennifer follows suit. Oh man it won’t be long now.

Keeg

Sorry I have been so bad about updating, but I think it is mostly due to a shitty keyboard on our home computer. The space bar and o key doesn’t really work well, which is super frustrating. I have been searching far and wide for a good deal on a new MacBook, our budget will only cover the lower model, which has a small, 60 Gigabyte hard drive and it doesn’t have a DVD-RW drive. The next model up would work a lot better, but it is a little out of our budget. Now the reason I want an Apple is because a) it looks cool 2) it handles media (movies, photos and music) d) I really think its a better product. Hopefully after the new year I will be able to find a good deal on eBay. This is among two other electronics I would like to have in place before Three arrives. The other two things are a camcorder and a new digital camera. A few weeks ago I did all of the research on camcorders and decided to go with a MiniDV format. While it is a bit more difficult and time consuming to get it on a computer, the quality is much higher than DVD or hard drive based systems. Besides the media at least versus the DVD is a lot cheaper. I am not quite sure about what brand of digital camera to get, but I think I am focusing on getting one with a bigger lens. Only 109 days to figure it all out.

Besides that I have been playing the Wii alot lately and have even had some people over for a little demo. I am thinking of starting a business where I bring a projection tv and the Wii to people’s house for a Wii party. I have also moved on beyond Wii Sports and returned to the land of Hyrule to help Link save Princess Zelda. The new game is a bit time consuming, but not so complicated that I can’t figure out most of the tasks in a reasonable amount of time. I only seem to have time to work on it over the weekends though, hopefully I won’t forget over the course of the week.

Last weekend we picked up our Christmas tree, which measures in at around five feet. I actually prefer the shorter trees, not only because they are cheaper but because seven foot trees are just unnecessary. The tree seems to be holding up well and has acclimated to our house. It has been using up a ton of water, which has kept me very busy, but we have decided it is a good thing. The only other thing of note was our recent attendance at Cara and Jeff’s annual Christmas party. The Yankee Swap was less lame than last year, but only a teensy bit due to the fact that there was only one swap, which involved me losing the U2 singles CD.

Oh yeah, I haven’t written much about the pregnancy, but I have been very excited about it. Jennifer is really starting to show now and today she went to hug me and thought my gym bag had slid in between us, when in reality it was just her big pregnant belly getting in the way. It was a really cool moment. I have started a countdown on our chalkboard, only 109 days to go. Over the past weekend I was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time, which was really cool, Three doesn’t really appreciate it much and shows its disapproval by kicking me in the head. Bottom line is that the whole miracle of life people talk about truly is a miracle and one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed.

That’s it for now, I need to get ready for BowlCaNO.

I only have a moment, but I can report that I was able to pick up a Wii on Sunday morning. I had to stand in line for three hours, but got number 25 out of 43. So far the system has been great. Jennifer and I played tennis, bowling and golf yesterday after I came home with a new controller.

In other news the Three is nearing the middle of Week 24. This week the final touches are being made on the lungs. Once the lungs are done, the only new developments left are on the brain. The baby has been moving around a lot and is around 8 or 9 inches long. Jennifer says it has been rotating around, and she can feel the entire length of it adjusting its position. I was also able to hear the heartbeat the other day, which was super cool.

This morning I was at the gym and a woman passed out and nailed her head on an elliptical machine. I only heard the thud and saw tons of people running over to help her. She finally got up after a lot of poking and prodding. Crazy!! btw I weighed myself this morning and I dropped below 170 for the first time, 169.5. Nice!!!!

It’s Sunday morning and I am sitting in O’Naturals cafe having almost completed my medium mocha and I have to say life is good. The weather outside is perfect, a chilly 40 degrees, clear skies and a bright Autumn sun. It looks like the temperature today in Boston will peak around 60 degrees which should allow for a nice relaxing afternoon walk outdoors. The only required task for the day is to pick up a crib from one of Jennifer’s co-workers, but besides that the sky is the limit.

Yesterday we returned from our Thanksgiving visit to Riebe’s in Connecticut. I had a really great time down there despite spending most of Thursday in front of my computer working. All the time I spent did pay off though and now I don’t feel nearly as overwhelmed as I did on Monday morning. On Friday we went on the annual search for a Christmas tree and after an hour or so found this untapped part of the Christmas tree farm that had more than enough choices. Once there it only took another half hour to locate the official tree. I did take some videos and will hopefully put them together into a nicely packaged movie in the near future.

Once we made it back home we were on a mission to get rid of some of the clutter in the house and at the same time start thinking about the nursery and how it will be set up. First we removed Jennifer’s desk from the back room and then moved a ton of storage bins into the front closet. Next we emptied out the media cabinet and put it into the basement. When all the dust settled we had removed two pieces of furniture from the living room and one from the back room. The next big thing to get rid of is the futon in the back room, luckily we found some mattress bags at Tag’s which will help prevent the mattress and box spring from getting moldy in the basement. I will be posting a ton of stuff on craigslist in the near future, so check back here for lots of good deals.

The last thing I need to mention is about how excited I am about Three. It has been moving around so much lately and I with a little patience you can easily feel its little kicks through Jennifer’s belly. The other morning we were lying in bed and Three kicked me in the head twice. It was really funny. Friday marked the beginning of Week 23, which puts us just over four months from the big delivery day. Time just keeps marching on at a crazy pace. As we get closer to April 1st I have been starting to read more about babies than about pregnancy, which led me to the concept of Baby Sign Language. Apparently, this was a big story over the past couple years, but I am only hearing about it now. What you can do is teach babies sign language starting around six months and it they should be able to learn a few signs which will allow them to communicate with you before they are able to talk. I still need to get a book on this, but I am really excited about this new technique.

Okay, Jennifer isn’t feeling well and we need to get back home. Talk to y’all soon.
Keeg

After a warm spell in Boston temperatures seem to have returned to normal. Luckily before things cooled back down I was able to enjoy the warm weather. On Saturday morning, John and Steph picked me up in the morning and we drove down to the Blue Hills reservation south of the city. Here are some photos Hiking in the Blue Hills. Before Saturday I had only driven through on the way to a concert in Mansfield and only knew that there were some decent views of the city. We stopped in at the headquarters and grabbed a map before setting out. There were a ton of trails to choose from, but we ended up on the popular Skyline Trail. It was a nice place and a great change of pace. If you are ever in the area and want to get outside for some decent hiking you should check it out.

Yesterday, I woke up around seven and went over to Target in hopes of getting my hands on one of the new Nintendo Wii consoles. Unfortunately I was around fortieth in line and they only had 24 units available. So I went home empty handed, but hopefully in the next few weeks I will pick one up somewhere. Once I made it back home, Jennifer and I went to the store in preparation for the dinner we were having later in the day. We grabbed a turkey, and all of the other fixings and returned home to prepare. We cleaned up, set the table and were all ready within a few hours. The turkey was hard to judge and we ended up taking it out a couple times before finally letting it cool. We had a bit of an issue while I was carving the turkey. Jennifer came over next to me and we heard a dripping noise. Turns out I had put a hole in the baking pan and the turkey fat was leaking out of the hole, into the ridge around the cutting board and then onto the floor behind the stove. It was a real mess and threw a wrench in the gravy works. Fortunately after a little help from Ben, the gravy was saved. I ended up cooking it in a saucepan, but I think it turned out okay. We finally served the food, it might have been a bit cold, but nobody seemed to complain. The one cool thing about dinner was that we were able to use all but one of our place settings. The problem with that was all of the washing we had to do.

Everything else is going well. Three seems to be moving around more than ever, which I take as a good sign. Jennifer has been feeling really good, with the exception of the occasional pain here and there and a cough. We are now in the middle of Week 22. Only a couple more days and we head southward for the annual Riebe Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas tree hunt.

Have a good holiday,
Keeg

Apparently I never officially announced the big news, so now that I have a fully functioning keyboard, I will fill you all in on the details. As you may have seen from my previous entries, which included photos from a recent ultrasound, Jennifer is pregnant and the baby is due March 31st. Now I know you are all doing quick math in your head and wondering whether March 31st minus nine months is less than July 2nd. I can assure you the baby was conceived after the wedding, but at some point before we left for the honeymoon. We never thought it would happen on the first try, but I guess we are just lucky or I just have some damn good swimmers. The timing couldn’t be more perfect because it will allow Jennifer to take the rest of the year off without taking more than a couple weeks without pay, so she will be lucky enough to stay with the baby for about five months before returning to work in September.

I have learned lots of things about pregnancy since we officially found out right after we returned from Newfoundland. One of the most interesting things is how much people who haven’t had a kid don’t really know the whole weeks thing. I was unaware of the complex system used for dates and stages of pregnancy. First of all the number of weeks pregnant is based not on conception, but the date of the last period. So by the time conception happens you are already at the end of Week 2 and by the time you get a successful pregnancy test you are already deep into Week 5. We are currently in Week 20, which ends on Thursday night and brings us to the halfway point.

The first half has been a crazy rollercoaster. It started off with a ton of excitement followed by nervousness about the health of the baby, somewhere around Week 10 you feel some relief as the chances of problems declines and you get to tell close friends. Immediately following this stage the morning sickness begins, which from what I can tell from my vantage point is not pleasant. Jennifer never actually threw up, but had a few close calls. It was always a balance between what to eat and when to eat it, every night there was a brief window where dinner was hard to decide on, but if not decided on by 7:30 things quickly went downhill. Finally at around Week 15 all of that craziness goes away and life essentially returns back to normal. The reality of the situation sinks in and you realize there is still quite a ways to go before the big day. Its a good chance to get back to being the couple you were before seeing the positive pregnancy test.

Over the last week or so we have moved into what appears to be the next phase, which is my favorite so far. It all started when Jennifer first felt Three moving around in her belly, which has only increased tenfold everyday. Just last week I was able to feel Three bump around while watching television. The ultrasound from Friday only strengthened the idea that another person is alive and getting bigger and bigger by the day. I can honestly say I don’t think I have been this excited about anything before.

We have decided that we are going to be surprised by the gender of Three, because our parents have encouraged us. Of course there are some that want us to find out and think we are inconsiderate ;o) but its not everyday you get a surprise as huge as this one. I can’t think of anything else at this point, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings from the last four months.

Keeg

On Friday afternoon we went to Mount Auburn hospital for our first sonagram since back in early August. The baby has grown quite a bit from that teeny little circle we saw back then. Everything looked good according to the tech and the doctor, although it took a while to get the right hand to open to make sure it had formed correctly. Later in the day I was also able to feel Three move for the first time. Jennifer had been feeling some movement for about a week, but this was the first time anybody had felt it from the outside. I have to say it was pretty amazing.
Here are some of the photos from the ultrasound:

Profile of from the left side


Two little feet


A stubborn hand that didn’t want to open

We had a very low turnout for Trick or Treat last night. I think the total was about ten. Now I can understand my dad getting only that many because of where he lives, but we are in the middle of the most densely populated city in New England. Oh well I guess that just means more candy for Jennifer and I. Its not very good for my diet though, which seems to be going well. My weight as of yesterday was 174, only about ten or twelve more pounds to go.

UMaine Visit
NYC Wedding
2006 Head of the Charles

Above are some photos I have taken over the past few weeks. In that time I have been all over the place from back to my alma mater of UMaine all the way down to NYC. On Sunday we went to the Head of the Charles which was par for the course. We only spent a couple hours there which was nice, I am still not quite sure why I go back every year. A couple weeks ago we went up to Vermont for the weekend which involved a lot of dirt shoveling, a very chilly evening and a wonderful walk in the woods. I have been to a few AHS soccer games over the past month and they haven’t won yet, but they continue to play better. It looks like it is going to be another winless season, but at least they tied three games.

Life has been pretty normal aside from the random weekend trips for weddings or visiting family. I did recently decide that I need to lose a little weight and started the Special K diet, which promises I can lose a dress size in just two weeks. All I have to do is eat Special K two times a day and then I can eat whatever I want for the third meal. Since our scale at home isn’t very reliable I won’t be able to accurately post my daily weight. However, my starting weight on the first day of my diet (2006.10.23) using the gym’s scale was 178 pounds. So far I have stuck with the diet and my yesterday at the gym I tipped the scales at 174 pounds. My goal is to get down to around 160 pounds and then change my workout from cardio to weight lifting.

Okay I have to get to work, but I will try to keep you posted on the weight loss. Hopefully we will get a new scale this weekend and I will be able to post daily updates.

Peace,
Keeg

Last night I met Scottie in Framingham to see the latest installation of the Jackass series and it was hilarious. I have a hard time remembering everything from the first movie, but I am going to have to say this topped, because I can’t remember a time I have laughed so hard at a movie. Of course not many will agree with the humor and not find it funny, but they are really missing out if they don’t go see this movie.

I have been completely engulfed in entertainment the last few weeks, since the new television season started. Once again I have to say the TiVo is an amazing device and is working better than I could have ever imagined. I have been able to see more shows than ever since I can now record two shows at a time. Of the new shows this year my favorites are Jericho (constantly keeps you wondering what happened to the US), Heroes (super powers are always cool) and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (witty dialogue West Wing style). The new shows I haven’t enjoyed are Tuesday Night Lights (although I have only seen the pilot) and Six Degrees (why do I care about these people and what is happening to them). The returning shows haven’t disappointed either, starting with a top notch premiere of Lost last night. The long unfolding dramas like Lost and Jericho are awesome, but get me so antsy for the next bit of information about the show. Its basically like watching a movie, but it is split up over 22 weeks.

Back to work.
Keeg

Jennifer’s birthday was Sunday, but to celebrate she set up an evening with some of friends on Friday night. We all met at the Rockbottom Brewery and enjoyed a nice dinner, despite the hard bread. It was a fun time and very relaxed just as Jennifer hoped. On Saturday we went to Elizabeth’s wedding up in Ipswich. It was a rather rainy day, but didn’t take away from the festivities. The reception was fantastic, as soon as we walked in we were offered the option of signing the guest book or a baseball. Next we grabbed our place card, which had a baseball card on the back directing us to the correct table. The baseball theme was evident throughout and gave a very playful feeling to the day.

After the wedding we came home and barely made it to nine o’clock before running off to bed. We woke up early this morning because I was impatiently waiting to give Jennifer her birthday gift. She seemed to enjoy the bracelet and necklace, which made my day. We stayed in bed for a couple more hours and then went to breakfast at O’Naturals. I ended up doing a little work at the cafe and then we drove up to Amesbury for a little apple picking before the rains came. The fun filled weekend didn’t end there, we next moved on to my dad’s house and then on to my mom’s house. It was good to see the family although I was quickly fading.

We finally made it home at around six, when I realized I would be working for the evening. It was mostly busy work and it is all for a good cause, but I am exhausted right now.

Enjoy these photos.
AHS Soccer vs. Triton
Elizabeth’s Wedding
Apple Picking

Started the weekend at home with my lovely wife on Friday night. The next morning I woke up bright and early to go on a hike of Carter Dome with Mark & Kate. I drove up by myself and met them at the trail head at 10AM. It was the perfect day for hiking and the trail was great. There was the perfect mix of an easy start, followed by a cool lake in the Carter Notch, a nice steep climb followed by a gorgeous view of the Presidential Range from the top of Mt. Hight. The view from Carter Dome is a bit obscured by trees so we really had to wait a bit before getting some good photos. We made it back down to the car after about seven hours of hiking and I was exhausted. I hadn’t been in the car more than five minutes before I started feeling nauseous. We met at the Red Fox restaurant and I went inside and placed my order, but immediately excused myself so I could get some fresh air. While outside I threw up in the bushes, but unfortunately didn’t feel better. I told Mark and Kate that I had to take off and hopped in the car. Right away I started to get a fever and had to roll the windows, which was immediately followed by cold sweats. Kate then called me and told me Mark had the same symptoms and that they would also be going home. We agreed to caravan and made our way south. After about an hour I began feeling better and by the time I was back in Somerville, I was just tired, but didn’t have any other issues. Mark felt the same way. It was very odd, but I wasn’t about to complain for my good fortune.

On Sunday I hung around the house all morning and then walked down to JFK park in Harvard to read my book, Compass. I finished the book and came home to do laundry before Jennifer got back from Connecticut. Once she was back we went to Rudy’s cafe for dinner. Yummy Mexican.

Yesterday I worked and then drove up to Amesbury to watch Zach’s soccer game. I will admit I was a bit vocal, but I like to think it was in an inspirational way as opposed to criticizing them. I would encourage them to move up and kept telling Zach to cover different players. The lost the game, but seemed to make a comeback at the end.

That’s it.
Keeg

I know I haven’t been good about posting, but I guess documenting day to day life isn’t too exciting. I suppose at one point I was posting that sort of stuff and it was relatively interesting. Hmmmm…. Anyway I have been thinking about getting a new domain name soon and moving the LJ to my own personal server so I can control the address and also make more of a web site with a page for photos. I am researching different software and hosts and I am leaning towards WordPress, which is a cool blogging software that is supported by several different hosting companies. The good news is that I should be able to migrate the all of the LJ entries to the new blog. I should have everything figured out over the next few days and get this party started.

Keeg

Cleaned up the basement this weekend and I have to say it is oddly clean and room like down there, well except for the lack of light, finished walls and ceilings. We bought a new mattress on Saturday, which will be arriving on Monday. Yesterday was spent at Maudslay State Park along the Merrimack River followed by a visit to my mom’s house. Today Jennifer went back to school and I went to the gym bright and early.

Jennifer and I went up to Camden, Maine for our third annual visit to the Nathaniel Hosmer Inn. We stayed in the Mary Wheeler room once again and it was as good as ever. It’s really cool when you get to know the inn keepers and can chat about all sorts of things. We finally climbed Mount Battie and have now climbed all of the peaks in Camden Hills State Park. It was a short, but steep trail. Before we left I made sure to read up on the mountain and found a cool web page explaining its importance, geologically speaking. Here is the page Bedrock Geology of Mount Battie I was able to spot a few of the examples they mention, which was pretty cool.

We also tried something else new this year and went to the last day of the Union Fair. I know some people are sketched out by fairs and for good reason, but it seemed like something to do and it is always fun to see the animals. Unfortunately since it was the last day a lot of the animals had gone back home, but there were some pigs, sheep, cows and goats still hanging around. After exploring all of the areas we walked back towards the car and noticed a ton of people filling the grandstand. I asked Jennifer what was going on and she said the only thing she knew about was a demolition derby at seven. I thought it was odd since it was only six, but then realized we had to stay because if all of these people were lining up an hour early it must be a good show. Sure enough it didn’t disappoint! We only stayed for three heats of the small foreign cars and left, but not before seeing some crazy crashes and even getting hit with a little exploding tire shrapnel. Overall it was a good time and we can now say we went to a demolition derby.

On Sunday we did a little hike up to Maiden’s Cliff, the hike Jennifer and I went on two years ago. It’s a great hike with some amazing views. We then let the GPS guide us back to the highway and towards Freeport for a little shopping. Then it was back on the road to good old Somerville, where we tested the heat for the first time. I think summer is officially over, now its almost time to go apple picking and cider donut eating. YUMMY!!!
Keeg

Two pieces of news…

First last night for BoCaNO we went to the Kinsale for trivia and got second place in a tie breaker. The tie breaker question was “What is the population of Rhode Island?”. We guessed 3.2 million and were the closest of the other two teams. As a result we won a 30 dollar gift certificate. Nice!!

The other news is that we will be staying in our current apartment for another year. Woohoo!!

Keeg

Do we start with the good news first or the bad news?

Okay I will go with the bad news. We are not going to buy the house, because the house inspection revealed several issues that we just can’t afford to take care of at this point in the game. The good news is we aren’t going to be buying a money pit. I won’t go into detail about the issues, but it was going to be several thousand dollars worth of repairs. Now most people would say to negotiate the price down, but that still wouldn’t give us the capital we need to go ahead with the repairs. So now we will begin the search for an apartment since we have given our notice already and want to find a place with cheaper rent.

If anything we did learn a whole lot about the house buying process so when we do decide to get back out there, we know exactly what we are getting ourselves into. Oddly enough Jennifer and I aren’t too shaken up over the deal, which is strange and makes me wonder if we were doing the right thing. It all happened very quickly and the costs of closing and everything else kind of got out of control. Live and learn.

Keeg

It was a relatively quiet weekend in Somerville. On Saturday morning we met with our landlord to discuss moving out October 1st. Knock on wood, we will go through the home purchasing process without any delay. After the meeting we went for a drive to find an outdoor place to walk. I originally intended to go to a state park I had been to in Georgetown, but after ten minutes of driving, I realized we were past the general area of the park. So we continued driving westward to find something to do. In Essex I spotted a used bookstore and we stopped to fulfill Jennifer’s need for used books and rest my tired leg (gym + driving standard = sore leg). While in the store Jennifer ran into a teacher she used to work with in Lawrence, although she couldn’t remember her name. Rachel, the name we later found out from Meghan, knew of a cool little walk only a few miles from the bookstore. We got directions from her husband and found the little parking lot next to Route 128 and started walking into the woods. After about twenty minutes we were standing atop this giant rock that overlooked all of Cape Ann. It was a bit cloudy so we couldn’t see Boston, but the view was great and the wind up there was refreshing.

We climbed back down and hopped in the car and drove towards Gloucester. There was a little festival going on so we walked through the shops and enjoyed the sea air. It was such a beautiful afternoon and it was nice to be outside. Afterwards we stopped at the mall to look for stuff for Jennifer and came home and made some pasta.

Yesterday, Tom and Jeny came over for breakfast and hung out until about noon. After that we just sat around until the late afternoon, when we went for a walk all over Somerville. It was a relaxing Sunday and yet I was still exhausted at bed time and went right off to sleep.

If any of you are surprised by our jumping into the house thing, I can assure you we are just as surprised. We literally went from looking online last Wednesday to making an offer on the following Monday. Last night reality began to sink in as we reviewed several mortgage offers from a bunch of lenders. I suppose if we had done some research we would have learned that closing costs are a bit crazy. However, once we separated the deposit from the closing costs we were dealing with more friendly numbers and it all seemed a little more possible. While many of you might not care about this information I want to pass the word on since I wish somebody had provided this sort of info to me before I got here. Once again I have to thank Jennifer, because she really pulled it all together. This morning we woke up with a new focus and have now successfully sent an application for the mortgage, since we were required to this by Friday. Luckily Cara stopped by last night and let us in on the little secret that you can negotiate your interest rate with the lenders and so Jennifer was able to cut almost .5% off of our original quote, which over the course of the loan saves over $10,000. Nice!!!

Looking at the big picture it is really an easy process, but it when you don’t know all of the steps it gets a little nervewracking. So the next step is the home inspection next week, followed by the signing of the purchase and sale agreement next Thursday. Then all we have left to do is wait for the closing at the end of September. It will all be done soon enough.

It’s the little one in the center with the wide driveway and two car garage.

We made an offer today and as of 7PM this evening it was accepted and we are one step closer to owning our own home. Next up is finding the financing, which shouldn’t be a problem and then getting the home inspection before signing the bill of purchase and sales. I have to give tons of credit to my wonderful wife for driving up to Amesbury today and doing all of the paperwork and leg work for this deal. It’s all happening so quickly, but I think we are both please with our purchase. The address of the house is 14 California Street. Here is a Google Maps link. The pointer seems to be a bit off, but from the photos above and the map you should figure it out. We own from the corner of California all along the California Extension.

I have to get back to work, but I wanted to put up some details.

Keeg

Well it really does come down to Location, Location, Location. After a string of open houses today our favorite house has now shifted a little bit. While the house from last night is still number 2 on the list, we found a place today with the same style, but in a much better location. The new house sits on a .3 acre lot and has a nice flat yard. It also has a two car garage and is in a very quiet neighborhood on a more or less dead end street. Now of course we are thinking in the back of our heads, how do we know that there isn’t another house out there that is better, if we wait a little longer. While we tend to make these big decisions relatively quickly, I think we do use logic and try not to over analyze things. Yes we could look at house for the next three months, analyze trends with regards to location, sale price vs list price and see hundreds of houses, but what is that really going to save us in the long run. I think we have a good idea after only a couple days and over a dozen houses, about what the value of some of these places should be and what we should offer. The top two right now are far better than anything else within this price range and really fit us very well. We originally thought of maybe getting something that we could fix up, but we really don’t have the capital to do that anytime soon, so we shifted to looking for something that we can move into and might need a few things done here and there, but no major renovations.

The plan for now is for Jennifer to go up to Amesbury tomorrow, talk to the planning office about a first time home buyer grant (apparently they have a few of these that they give out if you attend a couple seminars and of course buy in Amesbury, stop by the Provident bank to see what sort of interest rate she can get for first time buyers and then meet my mom and Jon at the two houses in question. At that point assuming everything goes well we will put in an offer. Its a big step, but at this point we have seen about half of the houses available in Amesbury within our price range and we are comfortable with the place. My how quickly things can change.

Keegan out!

I am sure this is going to come as shocking news to some reader, well to those few readers I have left, but Jennifer and I are really close to making an offer on a house in Amesbury. We decided on a whim to go check out a few houses this weekend and really fell in love with this one place. In our opinion it is a really amazing place, hopefully we are the only people that feel this way. It’s relatively close to downtown, the only drawbacks seem to be that it is on a very busy street and the street the driveway is on is extremely steep. Besides that though we have had a hard time finding much wrong with it. The inside is amazing and was done over recently and wouldn’t require much if any work at all. So what’s next? Well we don’t want to seem over anxious, although it would be a huge disappointment if somebody were to make an offer on it before we get the chance to. The plan is to talk our agent tomorrow to set up another showing on Monday, so my mom and Jon will get a chance to check it out. If they find it acceptable, I think we will be to quote another recent BoCaNO house buyer, “Pulling the trigger.” What that means is that barring any other buyers trying to get in on the action or major disapproval from my mom and Jon, we will be one very giant step closer to moving out of Somerville and back home to Amesbury. For now we just have to hope that anybody interested in it was enjoying the tax free weekend, and not thinking about the house.

More positive updates soon, hopefully.
Keeg

Finally this afternoon, Boston’s fever broke, and now the temperature has dropped below 70 degrees. At sometime between 2 and 3 some cold air overtook the area and tonight we have shut down the AC and opened the window for a change. We played our annual whiffle ball game for BoCaNO and then went to the Sweetwater Cafe. I passed on eating and drinking because I have already been out a couple times this week and we really need to start saving money. I am looking forward to the weekend and taking a break from code writing. Hopefully it won’t be too hot and I will get a chance to go to the beach for the first time this summer. I really want to go swimming in the chilly ocean.

On Friday afternoon my wife picked me up at work and we drove towards Hartford for a later than usual show at the “venue formerly known as the Meadows.” Luckily on the way there we encountered some crazy thunderstorms north of the city. The further south we drove the darker it got before the rain started pouring out of the sky. A little known fact about me is that I love thunderstorms as long as I am in the safety and security of a car. Anyway I used the video camera on my phone to try and catch some of the lightning and I succeeded.

Connecticut Thunderstorm Video (Requires Quicktime)

Eventually the rain subsided and we made it safely to Hartford. The show was pretty good, but nothing that really stands out against the rest of the shows. The band did play Sleep To Dream Her for the first time in over three years, which was pretty cool. Besides that there weren’t any other real stand outs from the show.

Afterwards we drove down to the Riebe’s for the night. The next day we went to KettleTown State Park, where we had a nice picnic and did some kayaking. The water was kind of nasty in the little cove we were in and there was a done of goose poo all over the place. However, after getting in the kayak and paddling around the corner and out into the open lake I was able to find a nice spot to go swimming and boy did it feel good. I will say though the condition of the water in the lake made me appreciate Long Pond that much more. We stayed at the Riebe’s again on Saturday night and came back to Somerville on Sunday morning just in time to catch the latest Pirate movie at Assembly Square. The movie was okay, but nothing to write home about, I am sure I will end up seeing the third installment next summer though. After the movie I slept for about two hours and then upon waking up decided we should go to Newbury for a hike at the Old Town Hill.

We made it to the Old Town Hill at about 6PM and quickly realized we needed bug spray, but didn’t have any. We quickly made our way through the trail system with our arms flailing like crazy people to keep the bugs off of us. We didn’t see much, but it was nice to be outside in the unusually cool air, the calm before the heat wave. We capped off the trip to the north with a visit to my mom’s house to get Red Sox tickets for Monday’s game against the Indians.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, before we went back home we went to dinner at Skip’s. For those of you not in the know, Skip’s is a local classic, it is an old school restaurant that is only open in the summer. They serve greasy burgers, but their trademark is the Curly Q fries which are to die for. We ran into my old friend Bonnie at Skip’s and I introduced her to my wife, which seemed to surprise her. Of course we made a quick stop at Hodgie’s before leaving town.