Jenny and I both came down with a stomach bug earlier this week that laid us out for a couple of days. Jenny actually missed a day of work. I would have, but I had a couple of days off. I have never called in sick at Southwest and was eager to keep it that way! Thanks to God and a great anti-nausea drug called phenergan, we are recovering but still a bit weak. We missed the Basic 5k, but it worked out for the best since we ended up having CARES orientation training all day Saturday. We passed our CARES interview (which is a miracle in itself, considering how bad we felt!) and hope to interview with an apartment manager in the next few days. I’ll post more details once everything is finalized. We’re really excited, a little nervous, and eager to get started. The house sale is progressing nicely as well, with the buyers only demanding two minor repairs that I hope I can perform myself.
We Have a Deal!
Our buyers countered our counteroffer, and we have verbally accepted. Finally this long journey seems to have an end in sight! I’m trying not to think about how much less we’re getting for the house than we’d hoped. The important thing is that we have a deal hammered out with a closing date of Nov 1. To anyone considering a home purchase, hear this advice: never get a 30-year mortgage unless you plan to stay in the house for several years! Our sales price will be almost exactly what we paid for the house. When you subtract the realtor’s commission and other closing costs, we’re losing a lot of money. So we’re considering our first homeownership experience a rookie mistake. Learn from us!
I must also give a shout-out to Craigslist, which helped us find a buyer for my old bedroom set within 2 HOURS of posting! We’re also selling a sleeper sofa and breakfast table with chairs. We don’t want to move them and won’t have room for them in a two-bedroom apartment if we get picked for Apartment Life. Craigslist is pretty low-tech, simple to use, effective, and FREE! It’s kinda like EBay except it’s not an auction, and it’s mainly for goods sold in a particular area so you can pick them up directly from the seller. Great deals abound on good stuff, so check it out! It was a little weird to watch my bedroom furniture ride away in someone else’s truck, but it’s going to a good home.
And finally, I found a great new blog by a local leader named Larry James. Check out this story and the rest of his site, which offers a Christian perspective on the human side of poverty.
Visitor Roll Call
I just returned from the first part of my high school reunion. I’ll post a full report here soon after the Saturday afternoon picnic. At tonight’s event, I ran into some old friends who mentioned that they visit my site either on occasion or frequently. So in other words, I have stalkers! Or fans! Or people who really need a better hobby! Either way, I’m thrilled that there are more than 5 people who visit from time to time. I want to know who you are! Please click comments above and say hi so I know who you are and if there’s anything you’d like to see in the site regarding features or discussion topics.
Welcome to the New AndyBox.com!
Well, I finally did it! Over the weekend I converted most of my site into WordPress. This new format will allow YOU, my loyal readers, to do some things you’ve never been able to do before.
Comments: I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! To comment, just click the “comments” link under the title of the blog entry. Bear in mind that if you’re too nasty, I might delete you using my admin powers.
Sidebar Nav (right side): The Pages are like the web pages on my old site. Some pages have subpages that appear after you reach the “parent” page. I haven’t posted the pages that had large pictures. I haven’t decided how to handle them yet with less screen space. The Categories let you isolate blog posts on the topics that interest you. I have all of this year’s blog entries loaded, and I hope to finish the rest within a week or two.
Another perk of this new format is that I can update the blog from any internet connection, not just from home. That means you’ll probably see more frequent updates. I’ll keep working on the site in the coming days. Tell me what you think!
On Blogs
As my five loyal AndyBox.com readers know, I enjoy blogging. I try to update my blog a couple of times a week with news, thoughts, and some fun stuff. I thought you might like to see some of my friends’ blogs:
Bag of Nothing – BagOfNothing.com belongs to my friend Keith Geeding from church. It’s the best example I’ve found of the “random interesting stuff” type of blog. He finds pictures, stories, and sites that you would never find on your own.
Committed Critic – This one is by my friend Scott from high school, a PhD student in New Testament in Boston. It’s heavy, so make sure you have your thinking cap on AND are ready to challenge what you think you know and believe about God.
Brandon May – I took a great screenwriting class at Baylor with Brandon, and now he runs his own Dallas Mavericks blog…with flair.
One More Idea – OneMoreIdea.com by Matt Martin is a good example of a random thoughts/personal news blog. Matt is crazy. Check out his site.
Want your own blog site? It’s really not that hard anymore, thanks to sites like Blogger and WordPress. You decide what you want, including the content and the color/formatting scheme, and then simply plug in your content. Some sites even let you post blog entries via email or mobile device. They handle the complicated stuff for you. Personally, I’m old-school and update my blog using plain old HTML, but I might set up a WordPress blog one of these days since it works so well. Until then…
Machines I Like
I like my car. After airing up the tires and spending lots of time on the highway, my Honda Fit achieved 34.6 MPG. That makes me happy. Sell your gas-guzzler and buy a Honda.
Tuesday night I had a special training session for work. A coworker and I spent two hours in a 737-700 flight simulator at Southwest. Yes, we both flew a bit, but the point was for us to observe an instructor pilot performing several different scenarios. I can’t adequately describe for you how realistic the simulator is, but it makes even gray-haired pilots sweat every year during their training. When we took off, I was pushed back into the seat, and I felt every bump on the “runway.” It was absolutely amazing. We saw landings in fog, stalls, windshear, engine-out climbouts, and landings on icy runways – the types of problems that our pilots don’t see on a daily basis but need to be able to handle if they ever do come up. I tried climbing out of Reno, an airport in a mountainous region of Nevada, right after an engine failure. It made me very glad that we have such well-trained and capable pilots up front rather than myself! I would tell you to go get your own sim while you’re getting your Honda, but they’re pretty expensive and hard to fit in your garage.
I also updated the Family page with links to cousin websites for Jeff and Lisa Cerney (excellent and timely if you can stomach the frequent pro-Aggie comments) and Joe and Erin Cerney (horribly out of date, but worth a look due to cute pics of daughter Paige).