Hail, Hail, The gang’s all here!

Yesterday Dawn & I celebrated 14 years of marriage and we did what any couple would do, we hung out at the airport. The girls have finally made it out here to AZ.

For their first day here, we started by letting them look around the house that we are buying. BTW, we received word that the contract on it will be ratified on Monday morning.

We then took them to ASU to see the campus and my office (pictures will be posted in a couple of days). After hanging out at campus for three hours and the temperature reaching 107, we decided to head indoors.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at IKEA making lists of what furniture we are going to buy for the new house. The girls are making plans on what color their rooms will be painted and what kind of furniture they want.

Dinner was a very entertaining one at Organ Stop Pizza. It is a nice pizza place with an organ that has 6,000 pipes. We listened to great music that included a Star Wars melody, Phantom of the Opera, the Sound of Music, Mamma Mia!, and many more.

We are very glad to have the girls here. They are exhausted, but only have one week to rest up and get ready for school.

Here we go again

Today started off normal enough. Then Dawn’s quest to take some classes at ASU (prep work for SCNM) finally brought her to the last hoop, her MMR immunization. So we took care of that, picked up her ASU student ID card, and registered for classes. So she is now officially a Sun Devil.

Before I talk about this evening, let me provide a little backstory. Our former listing agent in Virginia made a major mistake and we ended up not selling the house in VA. Because of this we ended up having to cancel the contract to purchase a house here. The good news is that we have a new listing agent in VA and the house is under contract with a new buyer and looks like it will close this time. There is a lot more drama to this story, but we need to take care of a couple of items before we can tell the story in full detail.

This evening we put in an offer to buy a house in Mesa. The house is older than the last one, but it is in good shape and meets our original criteria 1) four bedrooms, 2) close to ASU & SCNM, and 3) has a pool. So wish us luck and we will keep you posted.

Brick Walls

"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." -- Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture

I have not posted for a while because of some brick walls that Dawn and I have been dealing with. We can not go into details about it right now, but I do promise to give full details when I can.

In the meantime, Dawn and I have had a great time being together here. Not long after Dawn arrived, she had the opportunity to see the full fury of a monsoon storm. These storms can move in quickly and then stop right on top of you. Some of the recent ones have generated 60+ MPH winds and two to three inches of rain. In fact, the Superstition Highway was shut down by one that dropped two inches of rain in a few hours. So far, the monsoon storms that hid during the week have been kind enough to wait until I have finished biking home in the evenings.

Work is going well and the projects I am working on are moving along. On July 1, my group was moved from the University Technology Office to ASU Online and Extended Campus. We are now part of a group with a clear priority that matches what we do - build and deliver online degree programs. The move is a good one and we do not have to move our offices either.

Dawn and I are bringing the girls out here on August 1 and we are looking forward to having them here.

Today’s pictures is of the sound wall that separates College Avenue from US 60 (a.k.a. the Superstition Highway). I get to see this piece of art everyday as I bike to and from work.

BTW, if you have not yet seen Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, I recommend you take the 76 minutes and watch it and get the book by the same title.

And another thing, if you have had problems with my web site lately, it might have had something to do with Apple’s transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Hopefully everything works now.

Contract accepted

Great news!!! It looks like we have a house! We put an offer in on a house on Wednesday evening and this afternoon we heard back that the offer has been accepted.

The house is in Gilbert, AZ and is about just under 12 miles from ASU. That means that I can continue biking to work. We are very excited about the location and schools.

So now we are going through the home inspection phase and will hopefully have a closing date soon.

Fireworks over Phoenix

Last night we went with friends to the 23rd floor of an office building in central Phoenix to watch fireworks. Despite the monsoons sweeping through the area that caused some fireworks to be canceled, we were able to see a dozen different firework shows, and that was only because we were looking north and west.

Between the firework shows, we enjoyed a great lightning show from the storms along the rim.

Heat versus gas prices

I have noticed that despite the heat there are more and more people commuting to work and school by bike. At 6 in the morning, it tends to be 90 degrees and at 5pm it is around 110. But yet I still see more cyclists every day.

Dawn is here

Dawn made it to Mesa this afternoon! I am very glad to have her here as we continue to look for a house. I am hoping that having her here will help the house hunting process go faster.

This evening we unloaded the truck and discovered that I did not get a big enough storage unit. So tomorrow we will be getting a smaller one to finish unloading the truck. With a bit a luck, we will have a house by the end of the month to move stuff into.

The girls are still in Atlanta and we miss them and look forward to having them here soon.