IT IS DONE.

Hilary and I closed on our house, and now.....we wait.

The sellers will be moving out today. We were originally, going to move in today, but decided to postpone until Saturday so that our friends/family could give us a hand. Well, now it's supposed to be a wintery weathery mess on Saturday, so we're giving good thought to moving it to Sunday. Don't get me wrong, the thought of pulling some snow donuts on the interstate with the moving truck is totally thrilling, but the insurance company just doesn't share my same sense of excitement.

The sellers were very nice folks. We were able to meet them the night before closing on the house when we went to do our final walkthrough. Closing wasn't a very difficult ordeal, as we just had to go and sign the paperwork. It didn't take very long...however, our closing time was delayed a bit due to a head-on accident that our closing attorney was involved in earlier that morning. Apparently, the girl that hit her wanted to argue about who's fault it was, so much so that this girl called her parents to the scene. About that point, everyone agreed that since she was pretty much on the opposite side of the road, using the neighborhood as a shortcut to some other road, and going something like 50 mph...well, let's just say that the girl's parents took the side of the REAL victim. Wise decision I would say...I personally don't make a habit of telling lawyers how the law works.

Moving along....yeah, probably moving on Sunday. Carpet/Duct cleaning is tonight, and we'll move a couple of odds 'n ends over there ourselves. Tomorrow, we'll probably move some clothes, but mainly just gonna stay off of the roads.

Woo!

Haha....man, I JUST found this photo from over a year ago. We went to check out a few "bar/night club" places in Your Favorite Town. Ended up seeing a bunch of old single people, some of our teachers from high school (or middle school...) just hanging out trying to hit up on each other, all the while being totally sloshed (that is to say, all these other people were totally sloshed, not us. No, unfortunately, we were all fully aware of the ridiculousness that we were witnessing). This picture is how we felt at the end of the night as we decided to just go home:

Really been listening to a lot of music lately, coming up with new ideas for songs, and I just wish I had time to get everything down on paper. Maybe in a month or so...

Closing is a week away now, and I've gotta say I think we're handling it pretty well. No big deal, just gonna spend more money than I've ever spent before.

I don't think I've really mentioned this before, but one of Hilary's Christmas gifts from me was a PUPPY! Little shetland sheepdog (sheltie) puppy, born on December 5th. As it turns out, the breeder will be ready to let her go at the end of this month. We'll probably end up waiting 'til we've been in the house a week and gotten settled before we actually go pick her up. Here's a picture:



This house stuff is a whole different kind of fun...very stressful, trying to get everything done, but thinking of the new home, the investment potential, and everything that comes with a house........it'll be a blast :)

**UPDATE**...I know, bit late here, but I JUST got new pictures from the breeder. Also, I should note that we decided to name her Jingles (got her for Christmas, and besides, it's fun to say "Jingles Jolly"). Click here to view some more pictures of her from birth until today.

Hope everyone had a fun/safe Christmas and New Year's....now we all have to cope with the fact that it's 2005 but still feels like 10 years ago. Or is that just me?

Well my friends, we have now reached another rung on the ladder of life. Hilary and I are under contract for our new home, and it's a real beauty. Check it out: (click on the pic to see a bunch more pictures)


We're pretty psyched about it...got the home inspection done last week, and it came out pretty clean. What little repair there was to do was sent along to the sellers for negotiation, and it appears that they have accepted the repairs. What does this mean? It means we close on the property January 26th and move in on the 28th. Awesome.

Now that I've said that, I would like to revisit Christmas. It was an insane/fun time with my family and Hilary's family. Got to see everyone, and scheduling all the stuff was easier this year (both our families are in the same town, which can make this events a little difficult sometimes). I was apparently a good boy this year, as I got some cool stuff.....tons of DVDs that I had been wanting, and some books and CDs as well. Hilary got a new camera (which means I also got a new camera). Her other digital camera had been kinda going haywire the last few months, but it still works. We're holding on to it for pictures at the beach and other times where lugging a larger and nicer camera could be difficult or dangerous (sensitve electronics).

Back to work for everyone who was either on vacation or out of school, so that means traffic is back to hellacious levels. Lots of time to listen to new CDs.

I'm not one of those people who thinks that the hassle of buying Christmas gifts for your friends and family takes away from the spirit of the season. Actually, I kind of feel like that is a cop out for people who are too selfish to do something nice during Christmas for people that have meant something to them....but hey, don't want to be too accusational...

I think that as far as gift-giving, any old expression of thanks is a gift. The tradition has been shopping for the perfect gift, wrapping it, and posting "do not open until Xmas." But what's wrong with maybe doing a little yard work for someone, maybe take them out for lunch/dinner, or just sending a personalized Christmas card? I guess half the people out there don't think these are sufficient gifts to give, and the other half thinks it's not enough to receive.

I don't have anything else to say on that, but I guess it can be astounding to think about the ins and outs of gift giving.

Personally, I always love Christmas time....I like decking the halls, getting together with people, going out and just enjoying the season. The malls can be absolutely unmanageable, but it's still nice to be out in it once or twice and just take it all in. It is strange to think that it is already Christmas again, but then, life has been moving this fast ever since I graduated from college. I'm getting used to it.

In other news, Hilary and I have been house hunting for a while, and we found a home that we're happy with. We just started going through the contract/negotiation process, so I guess we'll see how everything goes! If it works out, we'll be moving out of here at the end of January. If it doesn't work out, we'll find another house. I think it's safe for me to say that I don't really enjoy the home buying process much, but I do enjoy the thought of having more room to live, being in a nice neighborhood, and owning a good investment. That makes all the headache worthwhile. I think I've been handling it pretty well so far.

Man, is it SERIOUSLY December 22nd? I know I already said I can't believe it's almost Christmas, but really....hard to believe.

And its been over a YEAR since SCAP played our last show. Not that we haven't tried to get a couple more shows in here and there, but it's very hard, what with everybody's schedules conflicting and the distance between everybody. Some people may ask "well why don't you just call it quits?" Good question, I'll take that one...basically, we'd probably still hang out and practice every now and then, and play a show when we could, so we wouldn't be really splitting up, and it would be like telling everyone "come see our last show!" only to have another last show...or maybe two or three more. I think we'll probably always "be" a band, even if a year goes by without people seeing us play. Well put, Christian.

Okay, everyone have a merry Christmas if I don't hit this page up again until after its over. Hope everyone was a good little boy or girl this year, or Santa's bringin' you a whoopin'.