flea

Well, today sucked.

2012-03-01T01:22:06Z

1. I had to leave the room while in a meeting at work, because I didn't trust my ability to keep my temper.

2. I spent most of the day working on a big spreadsheet. I've had students work in it at various times, and at some point somebody - I sure as hell hope not me - sorted one of the columns but not all of them, so that the data are now mismatched. In good news, some of it is still okay - it doesn't all have to be done from scratch - but in not so good news, you can't necessarily tell by looking whether the data in a given row is right or not. So I really ought to check everything. All 1200 items.

3. mr. flea had to call the mortgage company again. They accidentally paid $4000 from our escrow account to a random county in which our house is not located. They have been remarkably remiss in clearing up this error, and our statement for payment, due tomorrow, asks us to pay an extra $500 to start rebuilding our escrow. They said we should go ahead and pay the old amount, and they will send us a new statement eventually. My distrust of the company is such that I worry that this is some trick to declare us delinquent and make us pay huge fees.

4. Casper has been having homework fits all week. Tears and procrastination and the whole thing. Tonight is no different. Tomorrow a book report is due.

5. The uptight downstairs neighbor pounded on the ceiling, at 7pm on a Wednesday, because Dillo was dancing around in the dining room (which is uncarpeted because, hey dining room, with messy kids at the table). Dillo wasn't even wearing shoes. This is not the first incident of ceiling-pounding, and the other weekend said neighbor had a freakout at mr. flea because the children were running to and fro. At noon on a Sunday. Being, you know, kids. It makes me feel like we don;t have a right to have actual lives.

I miss our own house and my old job and our lives.

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A very mixed day.

2010-07-22T01:12:02Z

I went to the Historic Preservation Commission hearing tonight, and I had yto go first which was hard and scary, and our metal roof got denied as expected. But I stayed for much of the rest of the meeting, which was FASCINATING (our democracy in action!) and as is usual I found much to agree with on all sides (except the weepy sorority board member who was worried that externally applied window muntins would cause sorority girls to Die In A Fire.) And our builder and his wife came by at 8pm and we had a good long talk and they were rabidly on our side, more on our side than I was, and it is nice to be supported even if you don't fully agree. So we'll look at energy-star rated architectural shingles and creative ways to vent the roof, and see what we can do.

And in good news, it turns out we qualify for a (I think federal) program to allow mortgage refinances without PMI for people in just our situation - the value of the house dropping considerably since we purchased, but not in any danger of defaulting or anything. So we can refinance after all, for free (well, the bank paying), just as we'd been planning.

And use the money saved in the first year to pay for dental work on the Dillo. With that plus the fact that architectural shingles are cheaper than metal, we may have saved enough money today alone to pay for the dental work.

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Well, that's a downer of a Friday.

2010-07-16T18:15:33Z

Just got back from a nice lunch with a faculty member and her visiting colleague, at which we had a pleasant discussion about academia, academic publishing, gender inequities in academia, the conservative nature of Classics and the awesome nature of archaeologists, etc.

And got, bam, bam, two emails: one from our banker saying the house appraised at enough less than we paid for it that it doesn't make sense to refinance (because we'd need mortgage insurance), and the second from the historic preservation planning office with the staff recommendation on our application, which says we can put a membrane roof on the porch and take down the back chimney as long as we keep a shingle roof on the main part of the house.

Looking on the bright side, at least we don't have to actually sell our house? And the banker is awesome, and offered the split the appraisal fee so we'd only be out $175 for the attempt. She honestly didn't expect it to appraise that low.

Also on the bright side, I was expecting this verdict from the historic preservation commission, and the staff report contained some information I didn't know about the house (the wrapping portion of the porch was added after 1960, because it does not appear on the latest Sanborn maps they have).

Still, have had better Fridays.

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birthday season

2010-07-06T20:16:43Z

There's nothing as consistently stressful for me as the children's birthdays. Dillo's is Sunday, and do we have a plan? We do not. He's old enough now that he expects something to happen. mr. flea was going to see if we could do something at his school Friday, and invite the two friends who have left already (assuming they are in town, which I doubt.)

Part of the problem is that the dates of both kids' birthdays mean the chance of its being incredibly hot are high. So it's hard to plan a simple "run around in the yard" birthday party (our house being small enough that 4-6 children in it is a houseful, never mind their parents).

We're also going ahead with the refinance, which means collecting documents, and the planning commission will meet in 2 weeks on our roof proposal, and the kids are taking swimming lessons soon, and then mr. flea's parents are coming and then school starts. Blah.

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FYI for homeowners

2010-06-29T20:17:25Z

Apparently mortgage rates are insanely low right now - yes, even more insanely low than usual - and the people who buy up mortgages are desperate for good quality loans to buy. As a result, we currently have the opportunity to refinance at ZERO cost to us - the bank will pay all costs and recoup the difference when they sell our mortgage off. (Yes, mr. flea said, "Hang on, explain that one more time?" to our banker.) We can go from our current rather decent just-under-6% rate to something like 4.75 for free, which doesn't seem like much but cuts $150 a month off our payments and reduces the interest over the course of the loan by more than 100K. If we were willing to pay points (we aren't, because of the uncertainty of mr. flea's employment) we could get a rate as low as 4.26% (for 20% down, good credit, 30 year fixed rate.) If you've thought about refinancing, definitely look into what a reputable bank can do for you right now.

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too much going on

2010-05-06T14:24:23Z

I've got enough going on right now that I'm a little overwhelmed and paralyzed with it. I'm also really tired; I worked last night and had trouble falling asleep (was the sweet tea at lunch super-potent?)

We did get the license plates and registration transferred to the new car yesterday, so we are officially completely done with car stuff. We are still deep in the bathroom plumbing project (plumbing is done, but closing up the wall in the bedroom is next, and then we need to deal with taking down and replacing the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom), and we still need to decide what to do about the roof and porch projects we got estimates for. I have been doing more research on the house and that is interesting but also distracting me at work.

At work I am giving a presentation to a staff organization the week of May 17, and then giving a talk at a state conference May 28, and neither of those things are fully developed yet, and I'm having trouble getting them developed, due to inability to focus. Part of the problem is that I could totally wing the first, if I chose, and sections of the second (demonstrating a software which I have already trained groups on 3 times and written up a training manual). I need something to give me the urgency to nail it all down.

I am going to SF next Thursday and need to plan my packing & hem my dress, do some further planning for while I'm there, and worry about how everyone will manage without me (fine, of course, but I still need to worry!) SF-istas, my current plan is to visit the Asian Art Museum the afternoon of Thursday May 13, and would welcome a companion, and I have most of the day Friday May 14 unplanned, though I may want to sleep late. I've never been to Golden Gate Park, but wonder if that is too big a project given transport issues and my potential tiredness.

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