Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Sick of Myself
May 31, 2006

In 1997 a bunch of us went out ot he Y-100 FEZtival, the yearly summer modern rock mega-concert.

The concert was held at the E-Center, The Sony/Blockbuster Entertainment Center, which has since become the Tweeter Center. The E-Center is one of the worst large entertainment venues in Philly (technically in Camden, NJ), especially if you’ve paid a premium price to sit inside the echo chamber attached to the stage.

The stage itself and the seats directly in front are covered, and the entire building is shaped like a bullhorn with its wide mouth pointing out toward an expanse of grass — the lawn. We knew better to sit near the stage, and so we have all bought the cheaper lawn tickets and were seated outside.

We had hoped for a sunny day to see the concert, and we got one. It was gorgeous. We arrived early enough to each get a gimmick red felt fez with a gold tassle. Yes, they were preventing people from bringing blankets into the venue even back then.

Amateur House Hunter
May 30, 2006

On Saturday morning we took a drive around the county scouting out a few of the places that we would visit on Sunday with our scheduled realtor appointment. We got out well beyond Marsh Creek, crossing 401 on 113 to see one particular house that was far too crowded with trees for our tastes.

Judy from Keller Williams took us out on Sunday to look through five houses that we had pre-arranged from a list they had provided last week. Of those houses, one was in Uwchlan township, two were in Exton, and two were in West Bradford. The houses ranged in price from $330k to $495k.

The first house on Peck road in Uwchlan township was very nice. It felt very open inside and had a lot of yard compared to any of the other houses we saw. It had all of the rooms we needed, although the basement was unfinished (but with tons of potential in the glass doors that are open to the back yard.) The master bedroom was painted pink (attractive, but would need to change) and had an adjoining office. The room with the washer and dryer on the first floor led through to the garage. And the price was the most attractive in the $400k+ range.

In my opinion, this house is as close to perfect as we can get. Berta’s concern is that the neighbors (two of whom were apparently blobbing around topless on their back porch during the showing, scratching their hairy selves) aren’t close enough to offer playmates for the kids, and that walking on Peck road, with its high traffic, is not advisable for the kids.

Lipstick and Bruises
May 30, 2006

I burned a new mix CD this morning out of the blue. It has a fairly basic running sonic theme, with a couple of exceptions.

I was listening to it in the car this morning, and thought that it might be interesting to write something related to each track, since each track has at least one specific memory or impression attached to it, as music tends to do. Of course, the length of each passage will probably vary as to the strength of the association.

Where Do People Come From?
May 28, 2006

Last night while encouraged to discuss something instead of bothering her brother at the dinner table, our 5-year-old asked one of the unanswerable questions. No, it wasn’t the biological version, it was the existential version. The biological version might have been preferred.

I probably should have asked her more questions to figure out why she was asking this. It was just a bit too out of the blue. I don’t suspect she was coached to ask the question, but I wonder who was talking about it with her that made her start to think about it.

Is the House of Our Dreams in Our Price Range?
May 26, 2006

We’ve been planning on moving (which may sound odd in other places in the world where it’s known as “shifting”) for 6 years. Yes, it’s really been that long.

When we first bought this house from my parents, we got it with a dirt-cheap “5-year-fixed then adjustable-rate” mortgage and the strong intention to move before the rate became adjustable. Well, that time has come and gone, and it’s about time to get out of this house and into something new.

We met with the realtor last week. Jean is a very jovial spirit, and is very enthusiastic for her team to help us with our move. (Something we hadn’t considered is that a real estate agent would come pre-grouped with many people: One to sell our house, one to help us find the best house to buy, one to help with the financing.) Part of the process is obviously finding someplace new to live, and so last night we reviewed a web site that Jean forwarded to us so that we would have some places to tour over the holiday weekend.

We were excited to see the lists of houses, but the initial chart puts most of the new homes in the $350k-$450k range. This was much higher than I expected, and I questioned the sanity in this when I saw that our mortgage payments would be somewhere above $2000 per month.

The broker is a bit crazy, saying that we could easily afford a $500k house. Seriously, that’s a half million dollars. One half million. One wonders if these huge numbers are solely commision-driven and whether there is any actual sense incorporated in their figuring. But I’m told that the numbers all work out.