Rats Nest

from the first time we were shown what is now our house, the smoke detector was beeping every minute on the minute. the problem (beyond it not being my house yet, hence not a problem that I would be allowed to fix) was that the smoke detector makes its home on a vaulted ceiling.

So during inspections, various visits, closing, etc, the beeping just kept on.

So today kel and I broke. We went down to lowes and bought a ladder ( had to be an expensive folding one due to the hieght of the ceilings,) After climbing up to meet my nemesis, I pulled his battery out....ah....sweet... *beep* I kid you not. So then I'm thinking how can it beep with no power... well I couldn't replace the battery without taking it down. As I pulled it from its housing I noticed that it was wired to the house. hmm. a quick discount later Kel had the evil thing in her hands.

*beep*

dear god. No battery, no power, still beeping? thats when Kelly asked for the hammer.

quick drawing I did tonite. Been tough lately, I had to force myself to draw this evening.

took another swing at her. ah well. she looks older, and there is more "meg ryan" in there than I'm comfortable with, doh. the blend modes from painter to photoshop are increasingly off from each other. I think Adobe is fucking with Corel.... if only photoshop support .rif files. dang.

Kel and I went into the city to have pizza with the tattoo gang. Cool bunch of guys. One of the crew got lost on the way, so they were trying to call him on the cell phone which was having reception problems. The twist was that he's Japanese. just funny to hear the whole "can you hear me know" routine in Japanese.

In another life I could see being a tattoo artist. hell, maybe It'll still happen=)

some recent doodles

well I got a chance to play on the home beta. very cool character creator, its actually loaded all the time so you can change up anytime (rather than going back to a room or some such for a load)




we are phasing out the ps2 tools. Sorry to see em go. I've had one as a foot rest for years now.



Played some metal gear online beta. Fun stuff, if a bit odd in its unorthodox controls.

GTA4 for ps3 is cool. played a bit, very fun, and funny.

Been playing Persona3 FES mostly. you play a japanese high school student that can summon demons....wait for it...by shooting himself in the head. The game came out a year ago, but they just released a directors cut of sorts. I hadn't played it when it came out. Its fun, I find it really relaxing to play, thought the suicide slant is very very odd.

well it was a nerve wracking week last week.

We did the big house signing on tuesday, were supposed to
have the keys on friday, and thats when the thing got messy.

miscommunication errors, mistakes, bad timing, etc etc.

at one point we didn't have the loan funded, but were givin
a 100k that we shouldnt have gotten. maddness.

the end result though, we got the keys yesterday and we
have CLOSED !!!!

random doodle....

nother one of those weekends.

Kel packed up more of the kitchen, we had diner in SF at a german place on sat.
I got the escrow papers signed, scanned, and sent off. Also one last addendum. ugh.

sunday we went to the house again to check on if the dryer slot was gas or electric (it was both) and then off to the hardware store to buy a washer and dryer. they had a slew of rebates and discounts so that helped. I'm so used to computer prices, that the idea that you can spend less money than the cost of a laptop and get something the size of a fridge seems off.

did some doodling.

well its been full panic mode at work, far to much to get done in the few weeks left

the house....
looks like the title company may be trying to squeeze us for dough. got to give them a call and see what the heck is up with the high closing costs (like twice what it should be)

my home loan was set for an apt. ugh. the address has a letter attached so people keep thinking its a townhouse, or a condo, or an apt. I'm sure that won't get old....

some doodles

well Its been one of those weekends. Sat kel and I walked over to a local sushi joint and had a good meal. It was nice to not have to worry about parking, or drinking or what not.

sunday I did some doodling, and kel packed up six boxes of stuff from the kitchen.

I picked up my comics and played some more CoD4.

Had nightmares where I was holed up on the second floor of a house that was under siege by a football team, a mexican chicken that had been fed nothing but hot sauce its entire life, and a several archers from the 100 year war. jack nicholson was with me, but he had drank a beer that had been spiked with rat poison. It was up to me to shoot and kill the approaching hordes, but Jack was the only one who knew how to put the m4 rifle together and load it. I cursed myself for not paying closer attention to the reload animations on CoD and had to keep waking Jack up because he was dying from the afore mentioned poison.

some doodles from this evening.

well its been a hell of a week. 12 hour days coupled with house stuff. nothing focuses one on work more than setting up a massive monthly bill in ones free time=)

All in all I'm happy with how the money is working out. Its all doable.

we met with the painter and floor guy. Seems like it will be less expensive than I thought. Set up USAA as insurance, and set up a back up with Farmers if it comes to it. there was some confusion with the equity loan so that had to be redone, but not so bad.

Locked the interest rate in thursday. Had to do some quick number crunching when I had to settle on the interest. Opted to not pay the point for the lower interest in exchange for some cash flow up front. Gots to buy a fridge and washer and dryer.

some work doodles....

well its been a bit of a burn from both ends of the candle lately.
Long days at work mixed with juggling the house stuff.

Monday set up the insurance with USAA
Tuesday we lifted the loan contincengy
Weds set up an equity line as a second loan
Thursday is painter and flooring estimates

work has been an amazing progress of certain aspects, coupled with amazingly
hobbled tech in other areas. John came back though, which
gives me some extra hope, and our engineers are so
solid that I think they can solve anything if they
just had the time.

gonna drink a beer and watch some anime to decompress. ahhhh.

just watched the aqua teen huner movie. soooo damn funny....and yet not something I can recommend=)

So the weekend was not busy, for once.

Sat, Kel and I layed low and then had diner at Jenny and Marks out in walnut creek. We talked a bit of shop, but for the most part it was light hearted fun.

Sun, on the dog walk foot found a mole, which we barely managed to prevent him from killing by picking foot up, which allowed a nearby cat to run in to make its killing attempt, which kelly thwarted, at which point the mole ran into the street in front of a truck, which we managed to stop, and the mole slowly made its way into the wooods...the whole time its mighty teeth bared. I can't make this stuff up.

we also hit Japantown where I managed to spend a bunch of gift certificates on cool art books.

Monday, managed to get a bunch of work done and call a bunch of home insurance places. looks like we will go with USAA, but I think I might talk to farmers just to say I have...they were cool enough....

in any event, I got a bunch of stuff from the title company so I guess the house thing is moving forward.

Kel is going to meet with a floor and paint dude that she researched, on thursday. gah. this is sloooowly killing both of us. I don't think either of us deal with transistion well. then again, who does.

monday I had off, I cleaned up the house and my car. feels good having a clean car...

Weds we had the house inspection, termite, appraisal, and mold. So far everything seems to be clean with the house. It has some wear and tear being 9 years old and facing the ocean. Minor Dry rot, etc. I asked the inspector if I had to worry about it slidding down the hill.

"well....no.....but its so well built that if it did slide down, I'd put a saw horse in the living room, grab a cowboy hat and safely ride it all the way down. " words of wisdom.

Thursday was a scramble of loan papers to fill out and I worked late cleaning up some of the game.

Friday I had to swing home early for some repairs on the apt. annoying, but I guess thats just another sign that the place we are in is moving forward to try and sell....meaning us setting up to get out is the right thing....

gonna swing over to some relatives this weekend. For some reason I have 4 cousins that are all purging they're houses of furniture as they down size to apts...perfect storm for me? maybe....


some pics of the back deck and its view.
and some gamera toys hangin with the ps3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5h7JZFDYw

worst nes game ever??

well friday I talked more loan talk with my moms. its tiring, but needed.
we went out for sushi in the evening, during the meal a little asian girl came in begging each table for money to make the world a better place. She sort of reminded me of the girl in wings of honneamise....which I just picked up on blu ray. good stuff.

played some rainbow six vegas 2 on 360. its not bad, but it just has a sort of sloppy feel about it. the environments aren't as well textured, the geo isn't as dense, I think they messed up the lighting model, spawns in terrorist hunt seem even worse than before, and the audio is not only the same from the previous title, but its poorly done. You'll hear the same statements from the enemy over and over in a row. I think the weapons models are the same as the last title, but they just don't look as good as those in CoD or hell, even the ones in "black". it also has the same lame texture streaming bug thats in every freaking unreal title.

saturday I drove kel down to san jose for a book signing. it went pretty smoothly.

I tried to do some drawing, but it just sort of fell flat. I've got some drawing funk lately. damn

well its been another wirl wind week.

This house buying thing is nerve racking.

Tuesday Night we went down to remax and filled out the 60 pages of counter offer to the bank. It included such classics as "your house is NOT: a meth lab, a former weapons disposal location, an earthquake liquification site, in a flood plane, etc. etc...Wednesday we found out we had missed a page and kel and I had to figure out how to use the fax machine. High comedy there. non uniform rational b spline? I can help you, fax machine? sorry, I'm lost. ugh.

Thursday night was a trip for me to see the tax accountant to see how much uncle sam is going to jack me next year with the house and stock options thing.

of course the back drop to all this is a harsh week long art sprint, and a dog that is twitchy again because of the wedding trip.

I think I'm handling it ok, but I am beat.

at least I beat that damn acecombat 6 mission that was kicking my ass. of course it only unlocked and even harder mission. damn you namco!!!

wow. another power week. I know I should be posting more and not dumping a weeks worth in one post, but I've been slammed.

Not much drawing going on lately either..lot of ink doodles, but nothing worth scanning, much less posting.

monday got realtor numbers to mom. sold all of my stock options at market value.
Tuesday set up with an agent to see a house Kel and I saw on sunday, She showed us 4 houses.
Wedsday liked one of the houses found out an offer was up on it as of that morning.
Thursday: Kel bailed on going to napa and we met with agent instead at 11am. Saw house again, made an offer as of 3pm. Thursday night, drove Kel to Napa and dropped her off at a house that a bunch of her friends had rented for the weekend for a wedding.
firday: got check for stock options sale, set up loan for house, our offer is tentively accepted. I drive back to Napa to join group.
Friday night I get smashed on the silver bullet and southern comfort....which is anything but comforting.
Sat: hung over, go to spa with kel, then wedding at night.
Sun: head home.
Monday: back to work, housing offer accepted....

blah blah

thursday- hung out with left and went drinking and eating in the mission. I've never been out in the mission proper after 11pm that much. I had crunch hours well beyond that, but it different being in the bar scene at that time. It was fun, but very different. Stranger probably due to my soberness. the ladies due seem to like the ol silver fox.

Friday-company meeting that seemed to show a brighter future than a few weeks ago. Things are shaping up. talked with my mom about loans. Dropped foot off at the vet for a chest x-ray and other things (total, $800. fuuuuck) old man foot has a failing heart. He's got a bum valve and a weak pump. We have to give him meds twice daily now and hope it helps. ugh.

Sat. gave old man foot a bath. he had goo on him from the vet visit. Kel and I went shopping for a friends bday. found myself standing in a macy's and a mac makeup shop. not unlike what I imagine hell to be like....but with more fabric stores. We ate at a popular ramen joint that we had been meaning to try. they gave us a menu and then as we ordered told us that they only had pork ramen. I guess I'll have the pork ramen... "very good sir." hmmmmm. it was really good....even though we were packed in there like sardines. at least the couples flanking us only spoke in chinese. =)

Sun- up early, but robbed by daylight savings. We went to a few openhouses just to see what certain neighborhoods were like. trip to the hardware shop for the ol rug doc. trying to get the place clean before our friend comes over to watch old man foot.


and here he is....old man foot.....

well Friday was a trip to the accountant for taxes. weee.

followed by the notice that the apartment we are in is being sold. This could mean we have to find a new place...or it could mean nothing....but it seems ill advised to just sit here and pray for the later. ugh.

Sat kel took me out to stanford to see the museum. good food and cool art. not a bad way to spend sat.

Sunday we went house looking, dog park, and ended in a sushi bar. One of the local drunks started up conversation about his special forces days, his 4 rambo knifes, and how bad the government is. Diner AND a show. We thanked him for his tales, paid the check and moved on, but not before he offered his services to kill anyone we needed killing. he even gave us his address. ah. good times.