your.average.update [+tiny.rant]

well, its been a little while and i thought i should probably update you all on how things are going here.

house.
things are looking good for the house, finally... weve heard back from the realtor that our contract was approved by the bank that owns the property and we're now officially in this thing. our closing date is set for october 6th, [and for those of you about to check your calendars, thats next monday] and everything is looking good. we've talked to the insurance company about things and we're continually touching base with the realtor to make sure we're getting everything we need, so hopefully we wont have any surprises pop up.
additionally, i spoke with one of the architects at work today who deals with contractors and remodelling on a daily basis and he had a lot of good advice for me. he thinks the original bid we got for the brick repair was pretty high and that we should get another quote. and in so saying, he gave me the number of a brick guy he uses very often, guaranteed he'd give be a better price, told me to give the guy his name, etc. very cool. and the more we talked about it, the same situation arose with the roofer, gave me a guy, etc. he says that on any work we do we should get at least 3 estimates on the work and that we should never pay anything up-front. if they want you to pay up-front and wont take no for an answer, say thanks for your time and walk away. so all in all, he's been extremely helpful and hopefully we can get some good work at a fair price. overall, things are going very well with the house and we're getting pretty excited about closing in 5 days! :]

work.
so i officially started my new job on monday and i gotta say, i like it here. things are going very well, everyone is very friendly and accomodating, and im getting into the stream of things pretty quickly. the first 2 days things were a bit slow for me, just doing hr paperwork and getting settled in. i got a computer and desk and got everything set up and customized, got my email working, got introduced to everyone in the office and had the tour, didnt really work on anything, but it was a good day.
the second day i really just kinda hung around waiting for someone to need me to do something, did a lot of the same stuff as the day before and additionally i started putting together some drawings of the house and a 3d model. theyre estimates based on rough exterior dimensions from the city auditors info, but given that this is what i do and i have a pretty good photo archive of the house online to work off of [to visit my online photo albums click here.], i put together a fairly accurate set of plans id say. and i think the 3d model is coming along as well. wed like to use the 3d model to kind of test our ideas about remodeling as far as where we want to move things, what details might look like, different paint schemes or surface texture ideas, etc. ive already got a 3d model in revit of the house thats as accurate as the plans are, but revit really just isnt optimal for doing the sort of multiple idea testing that we're wanting the model for.

anyway, so today the big boss in charge apparently wasnt happy with my not having anything to do and sent out an email to everyone to give me work, so after a short time this morning i was inundated with projects in my lap, lol. its been fun though, ive worked on 3 or 4 different things and ive been kept pretty busy most of the day. also, i talked to kind of the architect in charge of the techy stuff around here and hes really excited about my technical knowledge of computers, software, etc. and i get the feeling ill be involved in a lot of tech support when things pop up. [which is always cool, im a huge nerd and i eat this stuff up, haha!] and not only that, but eventually the office is planning to make the transition to revit and it appears im the only person in the office with any kind of revit experience or knowledge so theres also a very good [or definite, lol] chance that i'll be heavily involved in everything to do with that transition. overall, id say ive got some job security, lol! so im feeling good about things right now.

other.
life at home is good. karen is taking 2 night classes this semester and she seems to like them both. it gives me a little freetime in the evenings to do whatever i want [mainly watch tv shows shes not into, lol!] while shes in class. on and speaking of which, whos watching the new season of heroes?! wow its been crazy so far, im lovin it! and has anyone checked out fox's new show "fringe"? karen and i have watched the first two episodes of that one and i gotta say, im hooked. theres really nothing about this show that i dont love. im eating it up and i cant wait to get home tonight and watch the 3rd episode! [all of which im watching on fox.com since we dont have tv, lol!] id say between fringe and house, fox has got some killer primetime this season and are going to bank on it, but thats just my opinion.
in other news, we renewed our memberships at the rec center this week now that weve both been paid and have a little cash in the bank. we've been going all week and it feels really good to be back in the gym.
along with that something kind of weird happened over my little week off and i guess because i had the option i was eating a few more times a day and as a result eating a little less each time. well whatever the reason, my metabolism has speeded up pretty good and im hungry like every 3 hours, lol. but thats a great thing because my metabolism is actually working and im trimming down a little because of it [and the working out] so if you want my advice [and obviously you do], the only real way to loose a few extra pounds is to eat more times a day in smaller portions and to excersize. [and the best excersize to burn calories is definitely running!] and i dont care what youve heard and from who, i know for a fact [classes, reading, and personal experience] you HAVE to build muscle to burn fat - if you wunna lose that tummy, you gotta build muscle in conjunction with eating better and cardio. so do those crunches and add some weights to it! haha, i think thats enough non-requested personal trainer rant for now ;)

well kids, thats all ive got. feel free to comment right here on the blog or you can always email me [if your fortunate enough to have my email address] with any questions, comments, or just to say hi.

thnx!