Catching up

I've been suffering from intense lack of motivation lately. Everything from studying (I have rescheduled my latest Microsoft exam three times now) to work (man, do I need a vacation), from exercise (gym--what's that?) to cleaning my fish tanks (why DID I get four aquariums again?), from calling people I haven't talked to for a while (then again, I've always been bad at that) to my blog (obviously) has become something I just haven't wanted to do. I come home from work and just want to veg out and shut my brain off, but TV hasn't held my attention since the season finale of 24. I think now is a good time to start watching some of the DVD's we've managed to collect but have never watched.

The one thing I would like to do right now is find something interesting to photograph. But its just too damn hot.

Right now, I'm watching 'Weekend at Bernie's' on Comedy Central. I had forgotten how funny this movie was. I should probably look to pick this one up in the bargain bin at Best Buy the next time I go there...

Anyway, I thought I would post a little summary of what I've been up to lately just to bring things up to date. Obviously, it won't be all that exciting (see 'intense lack of motivation' in paragraph 1).

We went to Laughlin for our annual 4th of July excursion, always a good time. Xan and I have caught a bit of the Texas Hold 'Em bug that is sweeping across America. I find it a much more enjoyable way to gamble than pumping quarters into a slot machine. I stand a reasonable chance of winning, as long as I know when to quit (this year's lesson--stop playing when I'm sleepy). Xan had a streak of about two hours where he could not lose and ended up about $300 ahead for the night (of course, if he had quit when I did, he would have been up closer to $500). In any case, even when I lose, I can sit down at the poker table for 3 or 4 hours, having a good time interacting with other people and go through less money than I would playing something else in the casino. And at least I'm not giving it to the house.

Just before our trip to Laughlin. we discovered another tumor on Trixie's hind leg. We took her to the vet after our trip and the vet agreed that it looks like another mast cell tumor and it needs to be removed. She is scheduled for surgery on July 21st.

Xan and I have decided that we had better find a house that is more in line with what we really want before the real estate prices in Arizona escalate much further. We don't have time to look at resale homes. As crazy as it sounds, its far too competitive. People put a house on the market and get several offers the same day. We know that we want to stay in the southeast part of the valley, but we want to stay near the freeway so it doesn't take so long to get into Phoenix (particularly since I'm still employed there). We managed to find a house that we love in an area that we both think is great. This particular builder doesn't do a lottery like most of the other builders do to get a lot; they simply have a waiting list. This is where it gets crazy. When we put our name on the list, we were 378 on the list. There are 172 lots. Now, we know a lot of the people will drop off the list ahead of us, having either found another home or being priced out of the market. But the problem is that the price of the house continues to increase until such time as our name comes up on that list. So far, it has gone up $27,000 since we put our name on the list (barely a month ago). We keep thinking it has to slow down, that it can't keep going up at this pace--then it goes up again. I guess compared to other parts of the country, our housing prices are still a bargain but we're just not used to it.

On a good note, our own home has increased in value considerably and we'll have quite a bit of equity to roll forward. In order to get as much out of it as we possibly can when the time comes to sell, we're doing some additional remodeling projects. We already remodeled our kitchen about a year and a half ago so we're focusing on the bathrooms. Xan tiled the countertop in our guest bathroom and we replaced all the sink, faucet and fixtures. It looks fantastic. He's going to tile the shower to match so it will be a completely new bathroom. Then on to the master bath!

I'm finding that I'm struggling a lot more with exposure settings on my digital SLR than I used to with film. JR didn't feel like he was getting the most out of his 20D either, so we decided to take a photography workshop. It was pretty informative and helped me make sense out of things. Now I just need to get out and practice. If only it would cool down A LITTLE!

I leave you with a shot I took in Laughlin of the roadrunners who kept visiting our cove...

I hope to improve on this. I'll post some more interesting shots as I have something to share.

That is, as long as I don't lose the motivation again.

Posted by geekchik at July 17, 2005 07:09 AM