Well Well Well.... Guess who got approved for a home loan? I'm still in shock.

Just as an FYI because of the mail highjacking, and the fact that hostlane doesn't get back to you with any support when it comes to thier hosting package I'm changing hosts on this domain a the other 2 I have floating around. Why? Well because I'll be saving cash, and getting away from the current hosting which I have kinda spread out across the a few different companies. So if this site is down at some point in the near future it's because I'll be working on getting it up and running at the new place so never fear!

I was talking to a good friend last night and we got on the topic of what to write about on your blog, (the key word being "your" I guess) and that some people seem to only talk about themselves and not anything going on in the world around them... And then I thought about it a bit more and realized that I've become one of those people! So I shall go jump in front of a bus now...

I think the ultimate problem is that there is a limited amount of stuff that one can really talk about, most of which surround yourself in some ego-centric way. I don't really want to talk politics because that never ceases to create flame wars about dumb shite, I don't really have the intelligence to talk about... well really intelligent things, so I'm stuck with me, which in all honesty as of late hasn't been all that exciting.

I am however thinking about moving this site to another host, because the one that I'm using sucks rocks, and my email is currently being hijacked by idiots (which I have reported but unfortunately most of the ISP's out there in the wild are too busy trying to make a buck instead of stopping idiots, so I have no faith it will be fixed soon). I guess I'll start on that today.

Also on the schedule of things I need to do today is go thru my budget again and weed out the crap... I know this is way too much excitement for one person to have, but what can I say? I'm blessed.

Quote o the night.

"Blowing Jabba for Pie!"

By : Anon.... or is she.

Well in the next couple of day's I shall find out about my pre-approval status, or atleast have a better idea and be heading down to the mortgage brokers place to do the face to face meeting with the added bonus of paperwork...

As far as the area's I'm looking in, I have been glancing at the homes for sale in the northland, I know that several people have voiced thier opinions of the northland but I'm seeing it from a different side, it's either there or Johnson County... and I'm thinking that I'd rather be labeled a Northlander than a JoCo person. Lovely Johnson County, the Orange County of K.C. and the Northland is much like the San Fernando Valley in many respects, but the commutes aren't anywhere near as bad. But nothing is set in stone till it's all over, I am not getting my mind set on anything until I find out what range I have to look at, and what kind of deal the mortgage is.

So this weekend I think I skated more than my quota and I got my battle scar from paintball, right on the right hip. Saturday I literally skated 3 different times, but the stick time at Pepsi was cancelled dur to highschool hockey, which was a bit upsetting, but the D league starts soon so I'll have time to get comfortable in the gear. I do however have to get a light colored jersey, and shoulder pads this week, hopefully some kind of shoulder pads that will protect alittle more of my back and chest, I'd rather not have a puck screaming at my sternum.

A family friend died over the weekend, he had a valve replaced in his heart not too long ago and was still in the hospital from that when he had gone into the bathroom and collapsed. The doctors said that he was dead before he even hit the floor. The sad thing is that he was in his early 40's and his father had passed away not too long ago from brain cancer. Sometimes you just can't tell what is going to happen, so you had better try and be happy today ya know?

*Game On*

Well I talked to a mortgage broker today and told him my story, he told me that I will more than likley qualify for a really nice amount towards a house... but it ain't over yet, I know that this is only the first step in this adventure called buying a house, but I have to do the pre-approved mortgage before anything else, if I went and wanted something that as it would turn out I couldn't have, well that would just suck... so instead I do the hard part first, then go to the fun part of looking.

This weekend Kel moves into her loft, I skate Saturday afternoon... I sleep... eat... etc...etc... so nothing hugely exciting planned. But the Plaza Art Fair is this weekend, that might be interesting to roam around on Sunday, but do I want to deal with the crowds is the question.

So the first step is finding a realestate person... the next step is not strangling them when they laff at my credit rating (which is much better than it was years ago but it's still rocky). I'm probably going to contact Reece & Nichols out here, they seem to be the largest in K.C.

I talked at length with my parents last night about it, which if there are more experienced people in buying a house I don't know them, we moved constantly when I was young, I always say that it's out families gypsy blood but they weren't brave enough to get out of town, so we moved a ton inside the same city... freaky huh?

So anyways, I think I'm going to do it, I shall be in the catagory of "first time home buyer" soon... wish me luck!

Somehow I'm almost broke again, and I honestly have no idea how I got this way this time. I know that I have splurged a bit, but nowhere near the way I have in the past, and yet somehow after this small pile of bills I am pretty much not buying anything for the next couple of weeks... Ofcourse I could pull from my savings if need be, but that would be dumb...

So I have a decision to make, either I start looking for a house now to buy... OR I look for a cheaper place to live for the soul reason of saving and paying off things like my car and student loan as quickly as possible... I'm almost leaning towards the living cheaper, I know I can find a decent little apartment that will charge me a hell of a lot less than this place does and be comfortable, the question is something I need to think about in the next week or so mostly because if I want to go for the house, well I will have to get on my high horse now.

And just incase someone out in California is reading this and has news on that recent job prospect you'd better get to me now, because if I buy a house there ain't no way in hell I'm heading out to Cali in the near future.

Ugh... my body is aching, but it's good for me right? I skated just about 5 minutes short of the entire public last night and watched some D league afterward. I can't wait till I get to play hockey but I have some goals before I do that, I don't want to be a complete fool out there, I din't like that idea at all... I'd much rather be an okay skater before I go and play hockey, even though they do need goalies in the D league which I think I might be able to pull off pretty quickly, just have to get the equipment... and get more limber... heh.

Weekend Wrapup!

Yet another busy weekend for yours truely, Friday my parents came into town for the belated birthday thing, so we went out and had a good dinner and I got some cloths and a smoothie maker! Yay for smoothie makers! I'm all about this thing at the moment, I went and bought ton's of stuff to make smoothies yesterday so my mind is currently on the many different things I can create.

Saturday was a wake up early day and get to breakfast with the parents before they left town to head back home, we have this ritual of going to this Waffle House by my aunts place, and to be honest it is actually a really good breakfast. They always seem to be in a good mood and serving up the good food stuffs there, so I highly recommend the WH on Main, just off of 71 in Grandview.

That afternoon I went to my skating lesson, yes I signed up for lesson's, if only to learn how to stop correctly because I think playing hockey would be a little more annoying if I crashed the boards just to stop all the time. Well I found out my skates are probably too sharp to do the snow plow stop, and that swizzles when done correctly are less painful, and even more of a workout than I had previously thought. By the time I decided to leave the public skate after the lesson I couldn't really make my left ankle do what I wanted it too... I knew when my foot was flopping like a fish it was time to call it a day. But it was a good lesson and the public I usually go to tomorrow night will be full of swizzles, one foot glides, and attempts at the snow plow again. I figure that skating 2 to 3 times a week I might be ready for the next D league that starts in about two and a half months.

The night was spent at the KCBloggers food get together @ the JackStack BBQ which I will go back before too long, and then off to the Bride of the Donkey show at the Brick... we closed the place, but I did get to see Honey Baby again which made me very happy... what a good band. If you have the chance to see them and like heavy rock with a very unique female lead singer / guitarist head on out to see them. Good time's were had by all that night, the Toast, Chill and their latest tag along friend were there as well.

Sunday was a laundry day for me, and ofcourse the NFL season started so I was planted between loads of wash on the couch. I'm already out of my last man standing pool... 10 bucks down the drain... who knew Cleveland would beat Baltimore? I've already won in one of my fantasy leagues, but the other 2? Well lets just say tonite the RB's for both teams have to have really good games for me to pull those two off.... sheesh... the one team I didn't expect to do that well of mine did well... and the 2 that I expected big things from didn't...

If only for a second today remember...

I think it was the spirit of New York that got to me, the idea that in such a small area there could be so many different cultures that seemingly just "got along" was amazing to me. Then again you have to look at where I came from at that point to really understand it.

I grew up in a college town in SouthWestern Missouri, things pretty much stayed the same there through-out the years, and with the close proximity of smaller farming type communities it was difficult to stand out and not get your head pounded for it time and time again. New York on the other hand has this amazing ability to embrace it. Yes there are small communities where they all thrive there, in this case it's the burroughs, but this is something you couldn't find in my home town.

A few examples from where I grew up...

1) There was a small play that was being put on at the local University called "the Normal Heart", it had the main characters dealing with having AIDS and being gay... Well this created quite the stir, there were protests, and the student director's house was burnt down on opening night... This wasn't an uncommon thing when it came to attitides towards alternative lifestyles in my home town, sad but true.

2) The nationwide clothing store called "Structure" was moving into the mall, they had a relica statue of the "Venus Di Milo" in thier front window in most of the stores across the country, well not in my home town. The protest against it forced this clothing chain to remove the statue or they wouldn't be allowed in the mall... once again small minds win the battle.

There are many more that I could talk about, but I won't... I think you get the point.

New York was the complete opposite of this, the citizens put it all out there with the attitude that if you didn't like it, don't look at it and move on... This is something that we can all learn from I think.

I remember my first problem with the accents out there, I know that I speak alightly slow compared to most east coasters, mostly because of where I grew up, but I don't really have a "hillbilly" accent, most of the time I was mistaken for having a St. Louis accent which I really took as a compliment... if you grew up in Southern Missouri you would know what I'm talking about.

So anyway, as a group we decided while running around we would grab food from the stands on the street, you know the hot dog, taco, and other wise not so good foods you can grab on the go? Well I chose a hotdog stand... I ordered and awaited to get this thing that I had seen in the movies... The guy running the stand put it all together and said something like "Dyawnmusstdondat?" I felt odd like he was asking me something... again he repeated... "Dyawnmusstdondat?" but this time he stared directly at me and I just shook my head at him as if he was speaking a different language, which to me, he was.... He then look aggitated at me and said reeeeeaaalllly slowly... "Do... You... Want... Mustard... On... That?"... I sheepishly said ... "well ya".

Being 15 and only seeing New York City on television out here in the midwest was all of the experience I had, and let me tell you nothing can compare to that first taxi ride from Laguardia into Manhatten, nothing. Ofcourse traffic sucks in NYC, my godfather (who I'll talk more about later) had moved there a few years before and after just a few months of having a car in storage, he just sold it, "No point in having it here" he would say, which is the truth... After being a 15 year old thinking about when I turned 16 I would get my first car, only to suprisingly understand his point... The Subway's were awesome, you can get just about anywhere with a train and some shoes that weren't too bad to walk in a few blocks, with the added bonus of entertainment along the way. I since haven't lived anywhere with a public system like NYC which is really too bad, San Francisco has the B.A.R.T. which from the outside seems like a decent system, but so far NYC wins the battle... someday I'll be back there and I'll be riding the trains.

So here it is the 7th of September, and until this morning I hadn't thought anything about September 11th.

It is my belief that each generation has something, some event that will spur them to say "I remember exactly that I was doing the day ..." September 11th is one of those events.

I remember being a 15 year old skater brat who got to go to New York on a school trip and being in awe of not the "city" so to speak (even though it is damned impressive) but more in awe of that feeling, the rushed, slightly tinted with frustration energy of New York, NY... I fell in love with that city in August of 1986 (wow that was a long time ago).

I think I'll dedicate this week to my thoughts of New York... I know that 9-11 is a very important day in our history, but I'd rather focus on the New York that lived before and after those events and my impression of it.

Oh ya and I watched Air Force One land last night out of my window, being the non-news hound I didn't know if it was Junior or Bad Heart Guy who had come in, all I know is watching a plane that big land at the downtown airport is always a site... Turns out it's Junior... I wondered why on Sunday there was a huge military jet that came in, guess they had to get those armored cars in somehow huh? I love watching our tax money at work.

Busy weekend...

Irishfest Friday and Saturday, with the addition of seeing Rock n Roll High School at Screenland on Saturday night, which was awesome... made me miss being a skinny little punk back in the day.

Today I think I shall play alittle around the house, go to the gym (skinny thing from earlier) and ummmm well not a ton of anything else to be honest. I have to get into another mental state as far as work goes, it's making me crazy lately, well like the last month I've been fighting the urge to strangle people, which isn't a good thing.

Well I'm off to goof off around the house a bit... Oh there is a new Bands ReUnited on today, HairCut 100... weeee!

Lets see here, I haven't been posting because...

1) Busy
2) Depression from the Olympics being over?
3) Boring life doesn't need to be documented.
4) All of the above.

You decide.

This weekend... Friday night, IrishFest with Kel...Saturday night, IrishFest again Young Dub's, and the Elders with the Toast and the crew!