We’re in the home stretch of the move. The appraiser took their time to return the list of items to fix, and while none are major, it’s obvious that she took the inspection and copied it word-for-word. That said, the items can easily be fixed in the next few days, but I would have loved doing it without the extra drama.

Today is painting the parts of the house that I scraped and primed and then patching the chimney mortar on the cap. Both are really easy to do but the chimney has me nervous because I’ll be climbing up the ladder and on to the roof. It’s not the height, it’s the transition from ladder to roof and the risk of falling.

What’s life without a little risk, eh?

When I look around at the mess that our old house becomes, I try not to be sad.  It’s odd to think that six months ago, we had no idea that we’d be moving.  I didn’t know that last Christmas was the last one with the aluminum tree centered in the front window. That was also the first Christmas that we did large light outlining the front of the house and it looked great.

I’m crying now.

This house has meant so much to me.  It’s been the place where Tammy and I “grew up” together.  We got better jobs and weather good times and bad while learning to be a real married couple.  This house held the first “wine tasting” party, a nearly epic event with friends and family.

I can’t hold on to everything in my life forever.  This house has been a physical and mental stabilizer for me for so long that leaving it sometimes scares me.  I know that it’s the right thing to do and I know I’ll love the other house, but for now, this old friend doesn’t want to leave my heart.

When daZZee shut down their Springfield office, I promised myself that I would not get so easily waylaid again.  I’ve been enjoying my new job so far, but I need a way to get started with software programming.  That means tools like software development kits and computers like a new MacBook or MacMini.

Any savings I’ve had was erased during the five weeks without a job and the first two weeks of the new job before regular paychecks started.  I can’t use credit cards for many reasons, but the main one is that they are the tool of the weak.  If you don’t have the money to buy something, credit cards enable your weakness to be satisfied.

So to start a business I need to raise capital in a more traditional way.  The easy first step is the business plan–a list of what you need and how much it will cost versus the likely ways to get revenue and repay investors.

Needs:

* Software development kit for the chosen platform.  This is easy and free since most companies want you write for their platform.  My choice is the Mac and that means…

* Platform.  I need a Mac and, while I have three (!) they are all older G4-based machines.  New software development can’t be done on a machine without an Intel processor.

* Training. That comes from books, the web and time, all of which are affordable.

Tammy and I took some time for a “date” tonight and headed to Tong’s, a Thai place on Campbell near the Honda dealer in Springfield.  Tong’s has been around for several years, taking the place of legendary Kim’s Korean Barbecue.  Tammy had a chance to get a salad from Tong’s while at work last week, so we headed there tonight, looking for something new.  We were not disappointed.

I had Emerald Chicken, a fantastic and simple dish of grilled chicken breast, sliced and placed on top of steamed vegetables and covered tastefully with a traditional Thai peanut sauce.  Paired with a Chardonnay, it was a great entrée that satisfied my craving for Thai and a need for solid protein.  Tammy’s dish was a local invention called the “Thai-rito”, an inspired food mashup of Mexican and Thai cuisine.  The bite that Tammy shared made me wish I could trade plates.  We also had a few appetizers–a soup called Tom Kha Ghi and a fried cake made of ground chicken and shrimp called the Todd Gunn.  Both were authentic and the flavor was great.

I’m running out of superlatives so I’ll wrap this up by saying:  treat yourself to Tong’s.  You won’t be disappointed.

From the Woot.com home page, a prescient product description:

>All Tomorrow’s LAN Parties

>Boy, the aphids are bad this year. Look at these turnips. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if there’s any left for the Harvest Feast. Well, hand me that cottonseed oil. Let’s see if it’ll keep them away this time.

>What? Oh, yeah, sure, I remember the Crash. I was 14, 15 when it all went down: the oil running out, the oceans rising, the 2nd Civil War. I’ll never forget those Chinese peacekeeping troops rolling a tank right down the main corridor of the Oakwoods Galleria. I was at this place called GameZone, looking at these things called video games. Oh, you’ve heard about video games, huh? Yeah, us old-timers used to spend a lot of time talking about video games around the village fire.

>It sounds funny now, but I was going to be a professional video-game player. That very day, I’d scraped up some of the Old Dollars to buy a pair of Everglide S-500 Professional Headphones. See, wanna-be pro gamers like me would wear these things over our ears, so we could hear our game and not the guy’s next to us. So I was looking for a pair that would fit over my ears and shut everything out – something huge, like these Everglide S-500s. They sounded great for games, and had a decent frequency response for music, too. I bought them after I spent, like, days figuring out which headphones were going to help me make a living playing video games.

>It’s funny what people used to get paid to do, huh? And funny what people used to consider important.

>Ah, well. You could drive yourself crazy wrestling with memories of the old world. Look at old Barry Gomez, sitting at that bus stop on the town square like it’s going to rumble down the road any minute. No, those days are over. You missed it, kid. Now let’s get back to tending these turnips.

Hello Weblog! 

I’ve landed just fine at CenturyTel.  I’ve got a week under my belt and I’d have to say it’s sure nice to come to work and enjoy the stability and resources of a larger company.  I’m working with current generation gear and have a great group of people to support.