TheFranciscos.Net

Tornadoes and Cruises

It’s always depressing to come back to work after having a three-day weekend (I took Friday off). Hopefully, nobody will bother me too much today. I’m just not in the mood for it.

A tornado passed through our area yesterday. Thankfully, it wasn’t really in our immediate vicinity and the tornado path was at least 100 miles away from Pittsburgh. The worst we got was some hail which was in the North Hills area. Besides the strong winds and rain, none of it really came our way (the most we were worried about was wondering if the cruise we were going to was going to be cancelled… more on that later). Footage from the TV stations look really bad – 6 people killed, several cars blown away, lots of houses devastated. It’s quite strange seeing something like that and knowing it was somewhere near you. Back in Manila, the main natural disaster to look out for is flash floods and storms/typhoons (of course there’s the occasional earthquake and volcano eruption). Out in California, it’s earthquakes that they’re worried about. Near the coasts, it’s tidal waves and tsunamis. And up north, it’s the snowstorms. I guess it’s just Mother Nature showing us that she can get to us anytime and anywhere she wants to. For more info on the tornadoes, click here.

Aileen and I attended a graduation ceremony for their outgoing seniors on the Gateway Clipper dinner cruise. It was on an old “Mark Twain”-esque boat and the route was a simple one, just going around the Allegheny River. The food was blah (Aileen cooks much better food), but it was a fun night. We also went dancing, which we haven’t done in ages… that pretty much tired me out for the rest of the evening. It was also good to meet the people that Aileen work with. They all seem pretty nice and pleasant, which I think should be the #1 quality of a doctor.

I still think that the Spirit of New York, which we went on a couple of years ago was more fun. For one, they made it a point to show you the sights of New York, whereas in this one, we never had a clue where we were going. The food was also a bit better. If you’re ever in the Big Apple, that may be one of the best ways to get a great all-around view of the beautiful city.

Listening to: Itchyworms “Little Monsters Under The Bed”

Whitney Chase

We got word on Friday from Eva the Realtor that our offer was accepted by GMAC (the relocation company working for the sellers). Now it’s time to begin the process of getting the house inspected and applying for the loan. We’ve got 15 days to do the former and 10 days to do the latter. Since we’ve already been pre-approved, I expect getting the loan will be smooth sailing. We’ve still gotta go and call around for house inspectors that can take care of our needs and accomodate our schedule. Hopefully, we can get one done next Saturday so Aileen and I can both be there. Also, because of the carpenter ants, we need to get a thorough pest inspection as well. It’s going to cost around $600 to get everything inspected, but of course it’s worth it to make sure that the house is liveable and be problem-free at least for the next few years.

Pittsburgh Comicon

Had a good time today at the Pittsburgh Comicon. Quite an experience and sight to see….. more strange folks than the Cantina on Tatooine. We actually saw a stormtrooper and a guy dressed as Green Lantern. Besides the comics folks, some Playboy Playmates (like Petra Verkaik) also had booths set-up there…. further evidence that the comics world is a tostesterone-dominated world. There was also a Star Wars booth that had some minor bit players from the movies signing autographs. Next to them were some WWF hasbeens like Nikolai Volkoff and Ted Dibiase.

The main attraction of course were the people in the comic book business. I was able to meet and get authographs from most of the creators I came to see. Among them were George Perez, Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, Michael Avon Oeming (how do you pronounce his last name anyway?), Joe Quesada, Chris Sprouse and Joseph Michael Linsner. They were all very accomodating and friendly to the fans. George Perez mentioned that he’s almost halfway through JLA/Avengers and it may come out by the end of the year. Michael Oeming gave away 3 issues of Powers. JML took the time out to sketch his trademarked three-teared eye on my copy of Dawn. Bendis, Azzarello, and Mack were more than happy to sign copies of their books.

Seeing Marvel Editor-In-Chief, Joe Q was also very cool…. didn’t really expect to see him because he’s now “head honcho”, but taking the time out to meet the fans was above and beyond the call of duty. Marvel has certainly come a long way since filing bankruptcy a few years ago, and he almost singlehandedly turned it around. Now Marvel has some of the best and exciting books out there, backed by a stellar cast of writers and artists.

It took about an hour and a half to go around the convention area. It was pretty much what I expected, lots of people selling comics, lots of people making the comics. It was a good thing there weren’t many lines to get autographs, the longest was the line to get to Joe Quesada, which took 15 minutes at the most. Aileen seemed pretty bored with the geekfest, but I’m happy she was there with me. Next year’s convention promises to be better with guests such as Neil Gaiman (Sandman) and Terry Moore(Strangers In Paradise). I can’t wait to attend that one.

Check out the pictures here.

End of an E-heads Era

Inq7.net has a story regarding the replacement of Eraserheads lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ely Buendia by Fatal Posporos’ Kris Gorra (a woman!). The E-heads are my second favorite OPM band (next to Parokya Ni Edgar) and this will be the end of an era. Will this mean that the band won’t succeed without him? No…not really. Stranger things have happened. For example, Rivermaya has survived the replacement of Bamboo, and even made their best music after their frontman left. Will this be the same case? Only time will tell, but hearing “Pare Ko” sung by a woman is sure gonna ba a lot different.

The Counter-Offer and The Carpenters

We called up several people last night and got a fairly unanimous opinion that the deal we’re getting is almost the same as what we originally offered. We’ll meet up with our realtor tonight and go over the counter-offer. If it looks good, we’ll sign it and get the ball rolling.

One problem that the sellers have found recently is that they’ve seen some dead carpenter ants outside the house. We’ll probably need to get it inspected throughly for any possible damage. The sellers have also agreed to have the house professionally treated. Tito Ferdie and Tita Sollie sent me this link this morning about carpenter ants. After reading it though, it sounds like they shouldn’t really be too much trouble, unless they made a nest inside the house which the inspectors should be able to find if ever.

The House-Hunt Saga Continues…

Our agent was able to speak with the sellers and as expected, they counter-offered. The counter offer is not bad though, basically they’re asking for $3,000 more than our offer, but in return, they’re going to chip in $3000 (possibly more) towards the closing costs. Right now, that seems like a good counter-offer to me but we still have to weigh the pros and cons of doing that. If Aileen and I agree to do this, then we may have just gotten ourselves our new home.

Stay tuned….

Hunters Woods

I just found the Hunters Woods house on Howard Hanna. It’s first day it’s shown up on their site. Here’s an idea of what it looks like from the front.

The pictures of the interior are here.

Later this afternoon, we’ll find out if we’re going to have a “Fannie Mae moment” (in reference to their commercial), except that we won’t be buying a dog. I’ve conditioned myself for disappointment, mainly because the offer may be too low for the owners. But still, I hope we’ll get lucky. In the meantime, I should concentrate on doing some work.

This is gonna be a loooooooong day.

The weather’s been real strange lately. For the past two weeks, it felt like summer with temperatures reaching almost 100°. But today, it feels like it’s winter again – it’s 37°, there was frost on my car this morning, it was foggy coming into work and it’s just f***ing freezing outdoors as well as indoors. The weirdest thing about this is that it’s approximately a month after winter “officially” ended, and it’s another month before summer starts, but it hasn’t felt like spring at all. Go figure.

Playing in my co-worker’s cube – “The Space Between” by Dave Matthews (dude, turn down your speakers!)

BTW, check the next post down! Aileen’s first BLOG!

Househunt Jitters

I never knew that there’s so much education needed to buy a house! Whatever happened to just finding an attractive home and buying it??? We have books like “Homebuying for Dummies” and “Idiot’s Guide to Buying and Selling a House”. Shows you our aptitude for this kind of stuff.

Gone are the days of childhood games. We’re onto much serious , mature and expensive endeavors now! It makes me feel kinda old :).

Anyhow, life is still good!