Hurry up and wait…

Posted by Evan in What's new with me?

Been a while since I last posted. It seems that my decision to start keeping an actual personal journal has become a bit of a double edged sword. Most of the pleasure that I get out of posting to my blog has been replaced with the greater amount of enjoyment I get out of keeping my journal up to date. So, it’s likely that my blog will turn into more of a traditional blog housing mostly those occasional rays of light that bust out of my subconscious. It’s also a great way to keep friends and family updated on what’s going on in my/our lives so I’ll likely post big news items here as well.

Right now we’re sort of in holding pattern on the house. We’ve finished all of the work we need to do to get the financing through so now we wait. And wait. It’s so hard to know that we are going to get the house and that it’s essentially ours but yet not even be able to walk into it or take photos to share online. Very frustrating. One idea I have for this blog is posting about the projects we’re working on for the house. I’m looking forward to that!

So, I’ll try to keep things updated over the next few weeks as we get moved into the house. Keep checking back!

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We’re homeowners!

Posted by Evan in My Favorite Posts, What's new with me?

Well, it has been an amazing journey getting to this point but Kristen and I are now homeowners! We recently made an offer (which has since been accepted) on a house on the west side of town. It’s a 3 bedroom 1 bath house with a 2 car detached garage. It has no basement, which we are really happy about. The back yard is good sized and will allow us plenty of room for planting flowers as well as have our own garden.

We went to see the house when the realtor was having an open house and loved it so much that we made an offer that very day. After a few twists and turns a revised offer was accepted and we’re now the owners! We’re in the process of waiting to close on the house. The inspection is being done this Friday and we’re expected to be able to close and move in at the end of this month! We’re so excited. Lots of big plans for the house!I’m sure that it will be the topic of many blog posts to come and there will be an abundance of better photos coming soon. This photo is the one listed on the realtor’s website.

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Goings on

Posted by Evan in What's new with me?

My blog has gotten to be a bit stale of the last few weeks mainly due to the fact that I’ve started keeping a personal journal. Yeah, what I used to filter onto my website is now going into my journal. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that I want to share with you folks willing to read this blog.

The search is on!
After much talking and deliberation Kristen and I are ready to start looking to buy a house! I went to the bank this morning and got us pre-approved for a mortgage and now we’re going to start looking for a house with a realtor. It’s an exciting time for us but it’s also a little scary to know what sort of responsability we’re getting ourselves into.

Trip to Arizona coming up!
It’s pretty much a yearly routine but I still look forward to it every time, we’re going to Arizona! The last week of June we (along with my brother, his wife and my grandmother) will be going to Arizona! It could be our last trip there since my dad is considering moving back here so we’re going to enjoy it. I’m going to take my camera and get as many photos as I possibly can. I can’t wait.

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All your bass are belong to us…

Posted by Evan in Music, New projects, What's new with me?

Things have been a little hectic lately. From family health problems to projects there has been a little of everything going on over the last few months. So, when the opportunity came to have a little fun (in the form of buying and selling things on eBay) I jumped at the opportunity.

I wrote earlier about how I sold a lot of items on ebay so I could purchase some recording equipment. I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to record but I know I will be getting a lot of time in once I’ve finished a few personal projects up. I also decided to take a risk and sell the Ibanez SRX705 bass that I bought last year in hopes of getting something that is a little cheaper but better suited to the style of music I want to write. I ended up getting an SX SJB-57 which is a Fender Jazz Bass copy that is very popular amongst bass players. These basses are well known for being extremely cheap but so simlar to their Fender counterparts that they can be modified, with very little money, to be BETTER than a Fender. I purchased a few upgrade parts for the bass and can’t wait to get to work. I’ll probably post some how-tos once I get started. Photos coming soon!

I also just found out that my wonderful wife Kristen has purchased a present for me which I will receive next month… a Martin DM acoustic guitar! It’s pretty much my dream acoustic guitar and she went and bought it for me as a gift. Isn’t she great??!?!?!?

I watched the Academy Awards this year and was very surprised at how the awards ended up being distributed. I was sure that the critical hit Brokeback Mountain would win all of the awards it was up for. I was wrong. It only won a couple of awards and the top honor of best picture went to one of my all-time favorites Crash. Good for them!

Things are busy right now but hopefully it won’t stay that way for long. I’ve been taking a break from photography as well which I haven’t enjoyed. Hopefully when it gets a little nicer outside I’ll be able to take more of my weekend road trips. I hope.

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Cajun cooking, and Ronco loses out…

Posted by Evan in What's new with me?

With lots of unusual things going on this week has started out to be pretty interesting. Kristen and I are planning to purchase a new printer since our current one has bitten the dust, which has allowed me to update my printer knowledge and do a little research. What did I find? Well, the Canon Pixma MP450 seems to be one of the highest rated all-in-one units available for around $150 so that’s what we’ll be purchasing. It’s also compatible with our upcoming Mac purchase, which is also good.

Kristen and I had a fairly adventurous/exploratory weekend. We took a trip to the local library for some cookbooks and a then took a subsequent trip to the grocery store to get some items for preparing a couple of Cajun dishes we found. She spent most of the day yesterday cooking up two gumbos, one seafood (for me) and a chicken for her. They were really good, however a Morracan bread recipe that she tried wasn’t as popular.

One other purchase that we made at the grocery store were some small pots and some herb seeds. We’re going to start an herb garden! It has been something we’ve wanted to do for a while, but we just haven’t ever taken the time. We got them started last night in our kitchen. As part of that purchase we also decided to get a food dehydrator so we can dry any herbs that we can’t use/give away. I’ve been wanting one for a quite some time since watching the Ronco food dehydrator infomercials of yesteryear, so I was pretty excited to pick one out. However, after reviewing some feedback on Amazon.com I found that there was a Ronco competitor that apparently had a better product that, among other features, could dry the food in about half the time of the Ronco machine.

So, now we know that next weekend will be filled with making dried fruit and probably any other item that we can dry and store away will also visit the machine.

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Taking the iPod Plunge

Posted by Evan in iPod, My Favorite Posts, What's new with me?

Well, I’ve done it. I’ve introduced myself into the constantly growing world of iPod owners. I’ve been considering an iPod for years but I’ve never had an incentive that was strong enough to push me over the edge… or at least I never had until the newest iPods came out. With the larger screen and the addition of video playback capability I was smitten from the start.

I don’t have the kind of cash on hand to just go out and buy a $400 gadget usually, but I received money from several people for Christmas and ended up having enough that I could afford it. You know how it is though, as soon as you have the cash you think of a million other things that you would like to spend it on… I went on a shopping trip to Indy with my dad and my brother, our target being Best Buy. I had all but put the iPod out of my mind, deciding that I didn’t want to spend all of my money on one item. After spending an hour or longer looking around Best Buy and not really finding much that i wanted I decided it was time to bite the bullet. I asked my dad if we could go over to the Apple store, which was a few miles away and we were off (not before waiting in a huge day-after-Christmas-is-return-day line at Best Buy.

When we arrived at the Apple store, which is situated in an upscale shopping mall in northern Indy, and I headed in while dad and Austin tried to find a parking spot in the overly-crowded parking lot. Once I got into the store what I saw was complete chaos, the small store was filled to the gills with people all I wanted to find out was whether or not they had any black, iPods in stock so I could get one and leave. They have small areas setup for people looking to purchase an item with a credit card and have no discounts or coupons to claim, but I wanted to use my student discount so I couldn’t use those stations… I had to wait in the long line. I waited, and waited for around 15 minutes and finally got the front of the line. I felt like Ralphy and his Brother on A Christmas Story when they wait in line forever to see Santa and his evil elves, I was so excited. I stepped up “Do you have any black 60Gb iPods in stock? Okay, how much would that be with a student discount? Great!” The total for the purchase (with tax) ended up being around $391, about $30 cheaper than the full price with tax. I was happy.

The ride home I stared at the bright screen wishing that I already have some music on it so I could test out the headphones. When we finally arrived home it was time to begin ripping all of my cds and putting them onto the iPod (a process that took the better part of two days). Once I was done with my music I wanted to try some video, so I purchased an episode of Lost from the iTunes Music Store. Pure bliss. The image quality of the screen is even better than I hoped for with a resolution of 320×240.

I’ve been getting more use out of my iPod than I expected. Not only do I use it at the gym and in my car while I’m driving, but I’ve even consolidated all of my music from home and work and have therefore saved a total of around 15Gb of space between the two computers. Now I take my iPod to work everyday, plug it into my computer and play music directly off the iPod! It’s so great!

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