We had a local guy in to estimate putting in a central vac at our place. It is roughed-in already, but needs to be connected together and then run out to the garage. It was something that I wanted to do myself, and still might depending on the install costs), but now thinking that it might be better just to have someone in, who does them all the time, to get it done in a half day and be done with it. We've been wanting to do it for a while now, and wish that we just had the builder do it from the start. We should be getting that quote in this week some time.
The more I think about it, the more I want to do it myself (it CAN'T be that hard). We'll see how much they are charging, though, and decide then. We will save GST if they do it, but I doubt that those savings (only 5% now!) will outweigh the cost of the install.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Last Weekend
Since I last posted about it, I suppose I should write about it.
We went to Uxbridge last weekend (I guess 2 weekends ago now) to visit Michelle's grave, and to see Terry and the kids. It was very strange to be there - we hadn't been yet. Terry and the kids also came to meet us there. They've obviously been many times over the last year, as her kids ran over pointing and saying, "there's momma!", touching her picture (they had a picture of her etched on the stone). They've done a great job keeping her "alive" to their kids, but you have to wonder if they really understand.
Nate is now 4 and Noelle is 2, and talking up a storm - much more than the average 2 year old. They say she's just like her Mom, bubbly and chatty. After visiting the site, we all went out for lunch at Swiss Chalet (Yum!), and then our car went back to Terry's house for a short visit with him and the kids. He seems to be doing really well, and the kids are great. So cute and polite (and very active!). Thank god that Michelle's parents moved close so that her Mom could help out with them.
My cold is still lingering a little bit - just a nagging cough now (like a tickle in my throat), but mostly gone.
And in other news, as of this afternoon, I AM OFFICIALLY STUDENT LOAN FREE !! The last lump sum is set up to come out at some point today - the last time it came out late afternoon, so by tonight I will be free of student debt. FINALLY! (*only* 9 years to pay back ~$44k + interest. How depressing)
To celebrate, we're going out for dinner somewhere, at some point. We're going to combine it into a Student-Load-Free-Valentines-Birthday dinner, and we have a new-found budget for this dinner of exactly $380! ;) Just kidding - I couldn't spend that much for dinner.
We do plan on putting that monthly money (plus a bit) into some kind of money market fund for savings/emergency fund/extra mortgage payments. They typically run about 4% return (I think?), but we're going to talk to our financial guy after tax season to see what's best.
We went to Uxbridge last weekend (I guess 2 weekends ago now) to visit Michelle's grave, and to see Terry and the kids. It was very strange to be there - we hadn't been yet. Terry and the kids also came to meet us there. They've obviously been many times over the last year, as her kids ran over pointing and saying, "there's momma!", touching her picture (they had a picture of her etched on the stone). They've done a great job keeping her "alive" to their kids, but you have to wonder if they really understand.
Nate is now 4 and Noelle is 2, and talking up a storm - much more than the average 2 year old. They say she's just like her Mom, bubbly and chatty. After visiting the site, we all went out for lunch at Swiss Chalet (Yum!), and then our car went back to Terry's house for a short visit with him and the kids. He seems to be doing really well, and the kids are great. So cute and polite (and very active!). Thank god that Michelle's parents moved close so that her Mom could help out with them.
My cold is still lingering a little bit - just a nagging cough now (like a tickle in my throat), but mostly gone.
And in other news, as of this afternoon, I AM OFFICIALLY STUDENT LOAN FREE !! The last lump sum is set up to come out at some point today - the last time it came out late afternoon, so by tonight I will be free of student debt. FINALLY! (*only* 9 years to pay back ~$44k + interest. How depressing)
To celebrate, we're going out for dinner somewhere, at some point. We're going to combine it into a Student-Load-Free-Valentines-Birthday dinner, and we have a new-found budget for this dinner of exactly $380! ;) Just kidding - I couldn't spend that much for dinner.
We do plan on putting that monthly money (plus a bit) into some kind of money market fund for savings/emergency fund/extra mortgage payments. They typically run about 4% return (I think?), but we're going to talk to our financial guy after tax season to see what's best.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
sick sick sick
I've been sick all week, and I'm getting tired of it. It sucks and I don't want to be at work (well, I'm blogging at work now....) I'm not feeling quite bad enough to stay home, but feeling crappy enough to not want to be here.
This is by far the longest and most sick I've been in MANY, many years. Marn has never seen me like this, actually. The most has been like the other week when I posted about it. I'd get the chills and sweat it out that night, but the next day be fine. This has been that, times 3+ days, congestion, sore and phlegmy throat, dizziness, soreness (feels a little like whiplash).
I think I picked it up from Cora as we spent some time with them last week and over the weekend, and she had been sick for a few days already.
I started feeling it on Sunday while we went out for brunch with Marn's family (Mandarin for Dumpling festival). I knew something wasn't right because I only had 2 helpings of dumplings (!!) and my stomach didn't feel right.
Anyway, last night was the first night since Sunday afternoon that I didn't sweat through my sheets/clothes I wore to bed, and also the first night that I didn't toss and turn all night waking up every hour. So that was nice. Things are turning!
And on a strange turn of events, Marn has been boiling hot at night while I've been freezing (yet, sweating). So it's me for once trying to steal her heat, but she's having none of it. But it's fine for her to take my heat, though!
Anyway hopefully this weekend I'll be able to kick it. Our friends Dog Niko is staying with us Friday and Saturday night while they get moved into their new house. Echo will have a blast, but this dog is a B*tch (female Doberman). She doesn't want anything to do with any dog wanting to play with her.... they've met before and both times, she just puts on a perma-growl, full teeth showing anytime Echo came near her. And Echo being the big dumb "play with me!" fellow that he is, took no notice, got snapped at a few times and kept going back for more. He just doesn't understand that language yet.... so it should be interesting. If it were up to him, he would mouth Niko while laying down beside her, all day and night long (much like he did when Mariner was here, but at least she dished it back!). It'll be a good test for him to start to learn to not play in the house.
Also this Sunday a bunch of us are driving up to Uxbridge to visit Michelle's grave. It'll be 1 year (already!) on Monday since her passing from breast cancer.
This is by far the longest and most sick I've been in MANY, many years. Marn has never seen me like this, actually. The most has been like the other week when I posted about it. I'd get the chills and sweat it out that night, but the next day be fine. This has been that, times 3+ days, congestion, sore and phlegmy throat, dizziness, soreness (feels a little like whiplash).
I think I picked it up from Cora as we spent some time with them last week and over the weekend, and she had been sick for a few days already.
I started feeling it on Sunday while we went out for brunch with Marn's family (Mandarin for Dumpling festival). I knew something wasn't right because I only had 2 helpings of dumplings (!!) and my stomach didn't feel right.
Anyway, last night was the first night since Sunday afternoon that I didn't sweat through my sheets/clothes I wore to bed, and also the first night that I didn't toss and turn all night waking up every hour. So that was nice. Things are turning!
And on a strange turn of events, Marn has been boiling hot at night while I've been freezing (yet, sweating). So it's me for once trying to steal her heat, but she's having none of it. But it's fine for her to take my heat, though!
Anyway hopefully this weekend I'll be able to kick it. Our friends Dog Niko is staying with us Friday and Saturday night while they get moved into their new house. Echo will have a blast, but this dog is a B*tch (female Doberman). She doesn't want anything to do with any dog wanting to play with her.... they've met before and both times, she just puts on a perma-growl, full teeth showing anytime Echo came near her. And Echo being the big dumb "play with me!" fellow that he is, took no notice, got snapped at a few times and kept going back for more. He just doesn't understand that language yet.... so it should be interesting. If it were up to him, he would mouth Niko while laying down beside her, all day and night long (much like he did when Mariner was here, but at least she dished it back!). It'll be a good test for him to start to learn to not play in the house.
Also this Sunday a bunch of us are driving up to Uxbridge to visit Michelle's grave. It'll be 1 year (already!) on Monday since her passing from breast cancer.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Guitar Hero...
I forgot to mention that I finished Guitar Hero on "Medium" a few weeks ago. So much fun! I have started "Hard" (which adds the fifth button and comes down faster with many more combo's), but not very often have I actually completed a song yet. It's still very difficult for me, but really fun. For kicks, and just to see what it was like, I tried "Expert" level... WOW! Impossible! I'm not sure I finished even half a song on that yet. You would have to play that game A LOT in order to play at that difficulty level.
We're going to have to have a Guitar Hero party soon. It's great fun, and the only way to play is standing up and really LOUD.
We're going to have to have a Guitar Hero party soon. It's great fun, and the only way to play is standing up and really LOUD.
Over the Holidays
Yes, I know I haven't updated in a while - sometimes you just don't feel like it, you know? Ask Teresa, she knows what I mean! ;)
Christmas was great, but seemed busier than usual, only because we split Christmas day between Marn's family and Dad's side at his place. Normally the whole day (from breakfast to dinner) is at Marn's house, and we typically don't get out of our PJ's all day.
Christmas in previous years spread across 3 days, and this year 2, so it seemed short, but busy.
As part of our gift to each other, we purchased Adrienne and Den's old Espresso machine from them. It's great, but we're not having much luck with the seal around the filter holders. It leaks every time - sometimes worse than others, even after putting in a new rubber seal, re-seating it, reversing it, etc.. So I don't know what we're doing. Maybe it's the grind (doubt it because using "normal" coffee grinds, or none at all still causes leaks), maybe it's the machine, maybe it's something else that we can't figure out. It seems to me that the filter doesn't get tight enough to the seal in the machine. They said they used it before shipping and it was fine, so it must be something we're doing. or not doing. If they LIVED CLOSER, they could check it out and see for themselves.... maybe during their next visit. When is that going to be? *elbow*
Marn on the other hand isn't too concerned about the leaking because she doesn't drink coffee anyway. She uses it for making her "earl grey misto with shot of vanilla", or London Fog as it's also known as. It does steam milk quite well, though! Not sure if it was worth that much just to steam some milk....
New Years was pretty low key. We had invited some people over, but did so really late and most people already had plans or had decided to stay in, so we had Marn's parent's over for a 3-course fondue. Cheese, main, and chocolate. It was awesome! When they left (for their neighbours party), we settled in for a night of Guitar Hero and watched the ball drop (in Toronto), then went to bed. Woohoo!
Echo has been out of his crate since "the incident" (although confined to the downstairs) and overall he's been pretty good. His worst moment (ever for behaviour/destruction) came at the expense of Marn's eye glasses... I can't remember if I blogged about this yet? Yes, he completely destroyed them, barely recognizable as eye glasses. Marn LOVED them too, so that made it hard. He has chewed paper and magazines otherwise, which although we hate, it could be a LOT worse.... paper, and tearing it into tiny pieces, is his fetish. Marn has since re-ordered the same pair which haven't come in yet, and will be careful where leaving them while not home!
Since buying the new washer and dryer, we've put new flooring plans on hold for a while, but we're antsy to get started on the tile back splash that we want to do. We haven't decided on a tile yet, but love a slate flooring we saw a few weeks ago and might use that as the back splash as well. I bought a wet saw on sale as part of my christmas gift too, so we would use that to cut the slate into quarters. We absolutely LOVE the look of slate, understanding that it can be harder to lay and has more upkeep. Some people at the stores say it's easier to lay, but all agree it's more time consuming and more upkeep with the sealing. Anyway, we hope to get back into thinking about that again soon.
The floors also won't be started until after my student loans are paid. Yes, I still have some to go, but they will be paid off before the end of February. In fact, either the week before, or right on my birthday they'll be completely gone!! We are so excited! And to celebrate we've decided to go out to a fancy dinner at this new place in Waterloo we've been wanting to try. We'll combine it as a birthday/no loan celebration. The loans are at a level now where we can just focus on paying them off before doing anything else. Yes, people will argue I should have been doing this years ago, but when you're faced with a mountain of a loan with other plans for spending money (ie: new home, vacations, decks, fences, appliances, etc, etc.), you tend to just keep paying what they tell you with nothing extra. Well instead of another year or so of low re-payments, we're killing it now, now that it's a manageable amount.
With the "new found savings" that we'll realize after paying this off, we're going to continue the same "payments" into a separate account to make extra mortgage payments throughout the year, and keep some as emergency funds. Or that's the plan anyway. We'll see how well we stick to that. We are spenders at heart!
Well, that's it for now. It FRIDAY! Looking forward to the weekend...
Christmas was great, but seemed busier than usual, only because we split Christmas day between Marn's family and Dad's side at his place. Normally the whole day (from breakfast to dinner) is at Marn's house, and we typically don't get out of our PJ's all day.
Christmas in previous years spread across 3 days, and this year 2, so it seemed short, but busy.
As part of our gift to each other, we purchased Adrienne and Den's old Espresso machine from them. It's great, but we're not having much luck with the seal around the filter holders. It leaks every time - sometimes worse than others, even after putting in a new rubber seal, re-seating it, reversing it, etc.. So I don't know what we're doing. Maybe it's the grind (doubt it because using "normal" coffee grinds, or none at all still causes leaks), maybe it's the machine, maybe it's something else that we can't figure out. It seems to me that the filter doesn't get tight enough to the seal in the machine. They said they used it before shipping and it was fine, so it must be something we're doing. or not doing. If they LIVED CLOSER, they could check it out and see for themselves.... maybe during their next visit. When is that going to be? *elbow*
Marn on the other hand isn't too concerned about the leaking because she doesn't drink coffee anyway. She uses it for making her "earl grey misto with shot of vanilla", or London Fog as it's also known as. It does steam milk quite well, though! Not sure if it was worth that much just to steam some milk....
New Years was pretty low key. We had invited some people over, but did so really late and most people already had plans or had decided to stay in, so we had Marn's parent's over for a 3-course fondue. Cheese, main, and chocolate. It was awesome! When they left (for their neighbours party), we settled in for a night of Guitar Hero and watched the ball drop (in Toronto), then went to bed. Woohoo!
Echo has been out of his crate since "the incident" (although confined to the downstairs) and overall he's been pretty good. His worst moment (ever for behaviour/destruction) came at the expense of Marn's eye glasses... I can't remember if I blogged about this yet? Yes, he completely destroyed them, barely recognizable as eye glasses. Marn LOVED them too, so that made it hard. He has chewed paper and magazines otherwise, which although we hate, it could be a LOT worse.... paper, and tearing it into tiny pieces, is his fetish. Marn has since re-ordered the same pair which haven't come in yet, and will be careful where leaving them while not home!
Since buying the new washer and dryer, we've put new flooring plans on hold for a while, but we're antsy to get started on the tile back splash that we want to do. We haven't decided on a tile yet, but love a slate flooring we saw a few weeks ago and might use that as the back splash as well. I bought a wet saw on sale as part of my christmas gift too, so we would use that to cut the slate into quarters. We absolutely LOVE the look of slate, understanding that it can be harder to lay and has more upkeep. Some people at the stores say it's easier to lay, but all agree it's more time consuming and more upkeep with the sealing. Anyway, we hope to get back into thinking about that again soon.
The floors also won't be started until after my student loans are paid. Yes, I still have some to go, but they will be paid off before the end of February. In fact, either the week before, or right on my birthday they'll be completely gone!! We are so excited! And to celebrate we've decided to go out to a fancy dinner at this new place in Waterloo we've been wanting to try. We'll combine it as a birthday/no loan celebration. The loans are at a level now where we can just focus on paying them off before doing anything else. Yes, people will argue I should have been doing this years ago, but when you're faced with a mountain of a loan with other plans for spending money (ie: new home, vacations, decks, fences, appliances, etc, etc.), you tend to just keep paying what they tell you with nothing extra. Well instead of another year or so of low re-payments, we're killing it now, now that it's a manageable amount.
With the "new found savings" that we'll realize after paying this off, we're going to continue the same "payments" into a separate account to make extra mortgage payments throughout the year, and keep some as emergency funds. Or that's the plan anyway. We'll see how well we stick to that. We are spenders at heart!
Well, that's it for now. It FRIDAY! Looking forward to the weekend...
Friday, December 21, 2007
Totally Lucked Out
We've been trying to find the game Guitar Hero III for the PS3 even since getting back from the cruise, with no luck whatsoever. We actually saw it in the States while coming back to Canada, but thought we'd wait instead of having yet another thing to lug back with us, although Marn wanted to get it because she'd been hearing from patients about how hard it is to get. It turns out that it's one of the hottest things for Christmas this year, and next to impossible to find in stores or online.
Most of the stores say, we don't have it, but check our website often... which we've been doing. No luck, and I started settling on the idea that we'll find it after Christmas, no worries...
Well, today just before lunch I decided to look online again, first Best Buy - no luck. Then Future Shop - no luck - but I did notice that my usual "local stores" selection was wrong. So I fixed that and added Cambridge, Waterloo, London and Mississauga.... to my surprise the Waterloo store showed it as available for in-store pick up! So I went ahead and started the ordering process, like I've done in the past but never let me finish saying it wasn't available. This time it let me. I was able to select in store pickup, choose the Waterloo store, finished the transaction, and 5 minutes later received an email saying it was there waiting for me! Yahoo! So tonight or tomorrow I'll be picking it up, and this Christmas we'll be "rockin out" with a video game. lol should be fun!
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