We spent all of last night doing last minute preparations to show the house today at 1:00. I think things are looking better than I would have ever imagined, but I guess 15 person-hours of solid work will do that. The guy that’s coming to look at the house actually owns the house next door. I’m not 100% sure what he wants our house for - I’m hoping his plan is to bulldoze it, then it doesn’t matter what he thinks of the house at all :) Actually, I hope he likes it, and puts in an offer. We’ll see soon though.

I’m just glad to have the house in shape for showing it.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “We’ll plow up our dams, destroy our forests, anything. If there’s a species of animal causing you problems, nosing around your cameras, we’ll have it wiped out.” - Mayor Quimby

This link has been all over the place, but in case you haven’t seen it, and you’re interested in Doom III - These guys modded the flashlight in Doom III to look like Hello Kitty, the Bat symbol and/or the Thundercats symbol. Mumm-ra was unavailable for comment

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she’s losing. Well I say, hard cheese.” - Mr. Burns

October 2 is apparently the date for the first launch of the DaVinci Project’s first XPrize attempt. I don’t know if I’m going to go or not. Probably depends somewhat on the weather.

Simpsons quote of the day: “I can’t wait ’til they throw his hatless butt in jail.” - Homer

I have one or more bachelor parties to attend this weekend, which is unfortunate, since I also have to get some painting done this weekend. The guy that owns the house next door has expressed interest in buying our house, and we’re showing it to him on Tuesday. Hopefully he likes it, but if he doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world.

For whatever reason, we’ve decided to give him first crack at it, and if he can’t meet our price, then we’ll open it up to the world. It’s as much a matter of convenience as anything else. We’re asking a reasonable price — not getting greedy or anything — so it would be nice if it works out for both of us.

That, and Erin’s Dad is coming to town for the weekend. By the way - happy birthday Ian (though I don’t think you read this) I know that Erin really enjoyed talking to you last night. I’m going to tell her to call you more often. (aside: “Erin, call your brother more often.”)

Hmmmm. What else? Well, I played ball last night - I managed to get good contact on three of six at bats. One of which was a line drive right to the shortstop who was playing shallow center field. I wound up with 4 hits I think, including beating out an infield slow roller. A bunch of RBIs too, I didn’t count them, but Jason can probably fill you in.

Simpson’s quote of the day: Hynpotist: “You are all very good players…”
Team: [entranced] “We are all very good players…”
Hypnotist: “You will beat Shelbyville…”
Team: “We will beat Shelbyville…”
Hypnotist: “You will give one hundred and ten percent…”
Team: “That’s impossible. No one can give more than one hundred percent. By definition that is the most anyone can give…”

Jeopardy had more viewers than Oprah for the latest ratings period. Jeopardy pulled in a 9.6 rating, while Oprah only managed a 6.1 (and Entertainment Tonight weighs in at a 4.4)

I don’t really know what that means, but I thought it was interesting anyway.

Simpsons quote of the day: “Could you cook my dinner for me? My parents aren’t home and I’m not allowed to use the stove.” - Ralph

Erin and my Mom did a lot of work yesterday, getting the house into shape for the appraisal today. The house looked 1000x better when I got home than when I left it. Mom took William home with her, and Erin and I went out for supper to celbrate seven great years of marriage. It seems like we got married yesterday, but it seems like we’ve been married as long as I can remember.

After supper, we came home and did some cleaning type work - we put a mirror up in the bathroom, moved some boxes downstairs, Erin mowed the lawn, etc. Then we went and picked up William. A bath, a screaming fit, and he finally went to sleep. I went to bed around midnight, because I got wrapped up in doing whatever it was I was doing. Erin apparently stayed up and worked on the house until 2AM, so she’s probably pretty tired today. The appraiser came this morning, so we’ll soon know how much the house is worth. Then we can get busy trying to sell it.

Simpson’s quote of the day:
Lionel Hutz: “Mr. Simpson, I was just going through your garbage, and I couldn’t help overhearing that you need a babysitter. Of course, being a highly-skilled attorney, my fee is $175 an hour.”
Homer: “We pay eight dollars for the night, and you can take two popsicles out of the freezer.”
Hutz: “Three.”
Homer: “Two.”
Hutz: “OK, two. And I get to keep this old bird cage.”
Homer: “Done!”
Hutz: “Still got it.”

I was in training last week, and when I wasn’t in the training room, I was busy keeping various systems that I work on afloat. On Friday for instance, I think I spent a couple of hours in the training room, tops, and one of those hours was lunch :)

So those Canadians in the crowd are probably wondering why I’m posting today, on this auspicious “Civic Holiday.” Well, someone from my group has to cover all Canadian stats that are not holidays South of the border, and when my boss asked for volunteers for someone to come in today, I volunteered. At the time, I didn’t connect August 2nd with Monday, and the end result is that I apparently volunteered to work on Erin’s and my anniversary. Just seven short years ago, I was lucky enough to get Erin to marry me. So, Happy Anniversary Erin, sorry I volunteered to work it :/

Tomorrow we have the appraiser coming by to look at the house, and tell us how much it’s worth. We’re hoping that we can sell it fairly quickly, and have that stress out of the way. The purchase of the new house is conditional on us selling it before September. I don’t think we’ll panic if we don’t have it sold by then, but I think it’ll sell before then without too much trouble.

We went to a wedding on Saturday, which was good. We picked William up from Jim and Judy’s after the service, and he proceeded to sleep until we went for supper (7:00 reservations) so he was in a good mood for most of the night, and managed to keep going until pretty late. I didn’t get any painting done, but the entryway is getting closer to being ready to paint.

Apparently the busses don’t run as often as I thought on stat holidays, so I wound up walking to work - it only took about 15 minutes longer than taking the bus, which kind of surprised me. It made me rethink carrying a heavy Java book from home to work though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Save me from the wee turtles! They were too quick for me!” - Groundskeeper Willy