Rant

That just happened.

Man I can’t keep up with this. Been busy lately, there always seems to be something to do when I’m home and haven’t really had time to post. So here’s a quick update of the past present and future.

I recently picked up a 2g iPhone and jailbroke it so it can work on T-Mobile (I still have a contract till May ‘10).  I wanted to get one in the mean time because I’ve been carrying around a phone and an iPod touch and this way it’s more convenient to just combine the two, and with it on my T-Mobile account I still only pay 29.99/month.  But of course things rarely ever go smoothly, the signal strength on the iPhone is near none pretty much anywhere unless I am in line of sight of a tower.  At home it flickers from one bar to no service where my old phone had full strength here.  I am still trying to figure out what the deal is like if it’s the software that I can change to give the antenna more power or if the iPhone is just using inferior components than my other phone.  I got the data to work since my plan technically has some minimal data plan from back when it was voicestream.

Today I got up at like 6am to tee off the first tee time at Duran for 6:50am.  That was a really nice course and it’s awesome to get in a round of golf and it still only be 11:30 am when I finish.

This Thursday at work we are doing a Thanksgiving potluck and I am going to make a corned beef brisket.  I picked up the meat today and Wednesday night I will toss it in the slow cooker and set it on low for overnight.  I’ve never made one before but how hard can it be to toss it in and add water and turn it on?  Also while I was at the store today I saw this steak sauce that I had to grab a picture of.  I’ve heard of the PETA acronym this way before but never knew there was an actual product.

Next week I fly home Wednesday evening.  Probably one of the worst travel days ever.  Hopefully I can go watch the Fitchburg v Leominster turkey bowl game on turkey day.  I didn’t see much info online as to where it is this year.  You’d think a highschool now a days would have their crap together and have some nice webpage to browse for all sports with schedules and players and such.  I did however stumble across a wiki article on 100+ year rivalries and Fitchburg and Leominster are tied for being the 10th oldest in the country starting back in 1894.  That Friday I am heading to watch the Bruins play in Boston and then spending the rest of the night in Boston.  I fly back to Florida on Monday the 30th.

I just read that Bank of America and Citigroup will start charging annual fees for customers that pay off their credit card monthly.  Screw that crap.  I would, in second, cancel my card if they start charging me because I am fiscally responsible.  Would they rather I rack up a huge bill and not pay them?

At least for now I use American Express and they haven’t made mention of jumping on this idiotic bandwagon yet.  In fact I make money from American Express since it is a cash back card and I have yet to pay a cent of interest in the several years I’ve had it.  I can see them getting rid of this cash back and in that case I will find a card that out there that offers the best rewards for the least if not free annual fee.

I guess I am more pissed at the domino effect the government created by placing all these restrictions on credit card companies.  That in turn made the credit card companies find alternative revenue.  But why did the government need to step in and place restrictions on a legitimate business sector?  Because of all the people that are financially irresponsible and living outside of their means.  How is that my fault?  Now the responsible people are going to have to pay in a round about way to foot the bill for people that can’t control their spending.  With all the housing help and loan modifications for people that got into that situation solely by their incomprehension of money management, I am beginning to think I should have spent way outside my means, bought a mansion, ran up credit card debt and should have left it to the responsible tax payers to bail me out.

Ahh finally done.  Here are a couple pics of the finished master bedroom.  Freshly painted and a new floor.  The lighting isn’t too good in the room so the pics are not the best, well I guess a cell phone camera isn’t going to help that either.

Damn, lots of work has been done this past weekend. We tore down the border wallpaper in the master bedroom, spackled the holes and painted the whole room, started ripping out the carpet and I’ll get the new laminate floor in by the end of the week. There is so much more I want to do but after this first weekend of real work on renovating I am realizing this will definately take time… and money. Another project that needs to be tackled is some landscaping. I want to border the whole house with rocks or something but since Florida is a rock free state that might be expensive.

Well that’s the update on home ownership for now, it all comes down to work and money.

Today was a good ole Sunday.  I went and got breakfast at 8am then went to the flea market/farmer’s market.  I mowed the lawn and did some other yard work.  I then headed to downtown Melbourne for the art festival.  There wasn’t as many booths setup as there is for the spring art festival but it was a good walk through.  One artist that caught my eye was a spray painter that made cool pictures by using different color cans of spray paint, a bucket and numerous shapes of paper and plastic to sweep and blend away different layers of paint.  He was making the art that you would buy right in front of you and I have never seen anything like this before.  I thought it was awesome.  Here is a pic of the guy at work and a spray painting of the NYC World Trade Center towers that he made while I was watching.  Excuse the crappiness of the pics.  I only have a cell phone camera for the time being until I fork over some cash for a new camera.

I ended up having some lunch downtown at Meg O Malley’s.  After the art festival I did some grocery shopping and then relaxed at home watching tv outside and swam in the pool for a good hour or so.

All in all I must say Good day sir!.

This weekend I am going fishing out on a charter that Josh put together. In all there is six of us renting a private charter and taking off for the deep sea at 6:30 am on Saturday. Afterwards we will cook up all the fish we catch out at Josh’s place. Can’t wait to get out there since it’s been several months since I’ve been fishing. Hopefully I can grab some pics of what we catch.

Thanks Uncle Sam for the generous monetary gift!  I like how they even included interest, over what length of time I am not quite sure.

So yea, it’s been a while since I posted last. That can be attributed to all the work of moving, unpacking, fixing things etc. So far so good with the house, I had to make a minor roof repair for a small leak but no big problems. I’ve done a good amount of work adding a 240 volt/30 amp dryer outlet, changing some bad dimmer switches, building furniture and adding some Ikea kitchen storage solutions.  I thoroughly enjoyed the pool this past weekend when I hooked up my 32 inch LCD outside and watched the Redsox game while floating in the pool.  So far some of my neighbors have been awesome.  I’ve already been invited over for a BBQ where they had some great smoked ribs.  Another neighbor works for Budweiser and certainly likes to take advantage of that by having people over to have a brew or two on his deck.  I ended up hosting some karaoke the other night at my place since I own the lot behind me and the house next to me is empty with the owners up in Georgia so it didn’t pose any problems with noise.

This Thursday I fly into Beantown to meet up with the family and relatives from Missouri.  I will be heading on up to another relatives place in Vermont for Friday/Saturday and then should be back in Beantown Saturday night to catch part of the Niforos pub crawl.  I then fly out Sunday night to go back to work early Monday morning.  Probably not going to be fun come work on Monday but in the mean time I will make the best of it.

Purchased house Friday.  Moved today.  Unpacking tomorrow.

In the mean time here are some pics from moving.

http://www.getdropbox.com/gallery/496393/1/house?h=5f54f5