Birthday has been a good one. I got not one, but two gadgets that allow me to listen to my iPod through the car radio. You should see the kitten cake that Julie (and Josh?) picked out for me. I'll try to post a photo sometime.

Went to Bloomington Sunday evening -- to Oriental Gourmet -- for a dual-birthday meal with Dad. Tempura, sushi, sake and three chinese dishes equals mega-full. Mom and Dad also got me an awesome present: A membership to the Threadless 12 Month club.

Also Sunday, we played Ultimate in -7 degree wind chill (19 degrees) for two hours. Actually only 6 people came, so we played box. Matt (J.) had invited me to come up for a two-day hat tournament near him the same weekend, which would have been great, but I didn't really have enough notice. I'm not sure how comfortable it would have been, too.

Julie and I have made it a month as vegetarians. Yesterday we went to the local vegan dinner potluck thingy, held at the organic food store a few blocks from our house. The food was good, and spicey.

Today I added a feature to the JJ-C Web site. Now one can submit a comment for Open Line via the site. Hehe.

Sometime over the weekend the buyer realized that they weren't getting the deposit back. We got a call on Sunday night, telling us that they'd like to find a way to close. Arrangements were made for a meeting this morning between the buyer, buyer's realtor, buyer's lender, buyer's broker, us, our realtor, our broker in order to hash out any details and see if we could come to an agreement.

After about 2 hours we concluded that the reserve could be met by reducing the realtor's commissions. In addition, we asked for 2 additional days after closing to vacate the home. That way we won't move until the ink is dried, rather than repeating Friday's shenanigans if we don't close yet again.

The lender told us that once the signed paperwork reached him, he could let us know in about 2 days time if it was going to go forward or not. He said that with the additional funds, he thought that it had a very good chance.

This week was a whirlwind of change. We were supposed to have the closing on our house this weekend, but things started getting rocky early in the week. We had received 2 offers on our house while we were vacationing in Illinois. We accepted the better of the two, the one that had a strong deposit and a pre-approval letter for her home loan. Everything seemed to be going well until Tuesday the week of closing. We received a call from our realtor, that the buyer needed a 2-week extension. We really didn't want to, as at this point we already had our new apartment lined up and the moving of all our services scheduled ... but in the end we decided that we would allow the 2-week extension if the buyer released her deposit to us. We figured that if she released the deposit, then she was sincere and the closing would still happen, albeit, 2 weeks later.

After the extension offer was made, the buyer decided she really didn't need an extension, she wanted to move in right away, and the reason she asked for the extension was because the bank wanted her reserve to be “seasoned”. Apparently, the money she had on hand for the various closing costs was newly deposited in the bank. There was no record where the money came from, so the bank imposed a mandatory waiting period in order to verify that the money came from an allowable resource (i.e. not another loan or advancement). So they now requested for us to pay toward the closing costs.

The communication was always very poor from the buyer, and we were losing more and more trust with them. We were taking an overall loss on the sale, so we opted not to assist with the closing costs. Later this week, they indirectly asked for the extension again, an unannounced fax just showed up on our realtor's machine one morning. Their version of the addendum stated just a date change, with no concessions. We created and presented an acceptable version of a 2-week extension addendum, which released the deposit to us, and requested an additional $500 to cover the deposit on the apartment that we would lose because of the date change.

The buyer never signed or returned the addendum, so the only thing we had to go on is the original contract, which had us closing the end of this week. However, since things were shaky, we decided not to sign the lease on the apartment until after the signing on the house was completed. Because of this, we had to change from having a moving company take our possessions to a new apartment to simply having a POD delivered and loaded with all of our stuff. The POD was loaded by noon and was scheduled to be picked up for storage the next day. We continued to wait for our closing in a now-empty house.

At this point, the buyer's realtor continues to ignore calls from our realtor and her voicemail is so full we can't leave any additional messages. Our realtor calls the title company where we are supposed to close and they explain they have heard from the buyer, but they are still waiting on the final paperwork. The title company explains that if they receive the paperwork they only need about 2 hours and then we could still have a closing today. Time continues to slip by. We finally get a call at 4:30, the buyer was not able move forward. Their reserve was not met, and they are in breach of contract.

Down to the final minute and with the last word received, we have an empty house and all of our stuff loaded into a POD scheduled to be picked up in the morning. We call an emergency gathering of friends and unload the POD into the garage.

Today Jantina and I spent the day unpacking all of our stuff back into its former place. Talk about a ton of work ... we are exhausted.

Our realtor's attorney informs us that not meeting the reserves on the day of closing is not a legitimate reason for canceling the contract, and that we should be entitled to the entire escrow deposit made by the buyer. Of course, that will be disputed and go into arbitration.. but if we do get that it should at least pay for the expenses we incurred as a direct result of the buyer and her realtor. ($300 POD, $350 movers, $500 apartment deposit, etc.). The buyer's $2K escrow doesn't really provide much consolation, but it will help.

Kelly pointed out this Lincoln news. A giant, $10,000 covered wagon with matching-scale fiberglass Abe Lincoln.

The little window on the outside of my mobile phone cracked yesterday. I don't recall any major impact, but it wasn't there in the morning, then I noticed it around lunchtime.

Last night, The Skies We Built of Chicago played at Noir along with Scott Joseph Phares and Nick Rowe. They sounded great. Mike, Kyle, David and Eric, the four members of The Skies We Built, stayed with us last night. They were craving "The Big Lebowski," so we watched a bit of that before bed. Bindi was a little crazed, as expected.

The Ultimate Players Association members ratified the new, 11th Edition of the Rules of Ultimate this week.

All UPA events for 2007 going forward will be using the 11th Edition Rules. The 11th Edition represents five years of experience, experimentation, and hard work by the Ultimate community and the UPA Standing Rules Committee to update and improve the 10th Edition.

Another food picture. This time, eggplant burgers.

The weekend weather is looking muy crappipo. I have plans to go to my grandma Strotheide's birthday party in Flanagan, but freezing rain and winter mix might hinder my plans.

Poor Josh is driving back from Boston this weekend and will likely hit some nasty weather on the way here.

I had a nice lunch with Alan and Tom at Sammy's Bar & Grill while I was in Springfield getting the car worked on today.

I'm calling off the search. Whew! I finally found my wallet last night. Once I happened upon it, I remembered how I had left it in the gallery's basement while trying to quickly make a sign for front door saying "We have reached capacity."

Mediacom Cable and Sinclair Broadcasting couldn't come to an agreement, so as of this past week, Mediacom's subscribers no longer receive an ABC affiliate station. Tonight, Mediacom is holding a "Grey's Anatomy" Viewing Party with free food and drinks at the American Legion, and handing out free antennas. I thought that was amusing.

See also Mediacom's site www.befairsinclair.com and Sinclair's rebuttal page.

I sent in a picture to Allrecipes.com and they used it as the default photo for the Indian Peanut Stew.

Went to the doctor's office today. I've had something or another making me feel unwell since at least Dec. 22. Lately, it's just been me coughing and my lymph nodes being swollen and such. I was hoping I could kick it on my own, but I finally decided that it wasn't going away. So now I have 10 days of doxycycline to take. Hope that puts me in the clear. -- In the meantime, it looks like I'll have an increased sensitivity to the sun.

In other crappy news, I think I lost my wallet. I remember having it Saturday, but I can't seem to track down what I did with it.

Saturday night Noir had a music show with 5/4 Jazz, Two For Flinching and Vandalia.

Bindi went to the veterinarian early Monday for a teeth cleaning. She came home around 4:30 p.m. still kinda groggy. Weird to see her so calm. She now has an even prettier smile, though.

WATCHING: "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "My Name Is Earl," "The Office," and "30 Rock."

We are back from Illinois. We had a very busy time visiting everyone!

We flew in on Saturday, our flight was 2 hours late because our airplane coming from Philly was late to Orlando. Once we arrived, my parents picked us up and we went over to Katie's house where my niece had prepared a fantastic dinner for us. She used a few Food Network recipes and really impressed us!

Sunday we went to Christmas Eve service at Jefferson Street, played some games, and traditional early present opening with Travis, Emilie, Mom and Dad.

Monday was Christmas; The entire family arrived at Mom's throughout the day. Presents in the morning, our regular Christmas brunch, and played a lot of games (Wii sports, Ticket to Ride, and Catch Phrase).

Tuesday I went to Bloomington to visit with Brett, we had coffee at Barnes and Noble and dinner at Logan's and ate way too much.

Wednesday I visited with David, had coffee at his place in the morning . That afternoon we drove down to Springfield to visit with Travis, we ate at Darsey's Pint and played Guitar Hero at his place. After that, we went on to Jacksonville to meet up with Guido at Noir (yummy beverages) and eat at Brickhouse Barbecue (sweet potato fries rock!). On the way back home we dropped in on Travis and Grace again.

Thursday we went to see Jantina's grandmothers ... one in Lincoln, the other in Emden. We also saw Uncle Tom for a few minutes while we were at Friendship Manor.

Friday we drove to Decatur to see Aunt Anna and Uncle Jack, ate pizza and played "Apples to Apples."

Saturday I had a chance to visit with Ken Reese. I hadn't seen him in 15 years! Then we flew home that evening.

My sister says I need to come home more often so that it isn't as busy. I'm not sure if that would work or not, but it is something to consider.

Sunday we accepted an offer on our house. Supposedly our closing date is the 27th of this month, so we are looking for apartments for the short term. That evening we went over to Jim and Jenn's to celebrate Jim's birthday and New Years Eve. We had a blast! I did suffer my first Wiinjury when Scotty attempted to deliver a backhand in tennis and took my shoulder with the virtual ball.

This is a list of the movies that Guido -- and usually Julie -- have been watching, for the first time, in 2007.



ORDER -- TITLE (YEAR RELEASED) -- FORMAT -- DATE COMPLETED VIEWING

1. "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" (2005) - DVD - 01/01
2. "Hard Candy" (2005) - DVD- 01/07
3. "Ball of Fire" (1941) - TV*- 01/08
4. "Mission: Impossible III" (2006) - DVD - 01/08
5. "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006) - DVD - 01/14
6. "Stranger Than Fiction" (2006) - Theater - 01/15
7. "My Favorite Martian" (1999) - TV* - 01/15
8. "Sky High" (2005) - TV* - 01/19
9. "Ultimate Avengers II" (2006) - DVD - 01/19
10. "The Baxter" (2005) - DVD - 01/22
11. "The Woods" (2006) - DVD - 01/22
12. "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (2006) - DVD - 02/04
13. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967) - TV*- 02/08
14. "Oz" Season 2 (2006) - DVD - 02/09
15. "Invincible" (2006) - DVD - 02/11
16. "The Departed" (2006) - Theater- 02/12
17. "Breach" (2007) - Theater- 02/18
18. "Six Feet Under" Season 5 (2005) - DVD - 02/28
19. "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" (2005) - DVD - 03/04
20. "Weeds" Season 1 (2005) - DVD - 03/11
21. "The Island" (2005) - DVD - 03/12
22. "Half Nelson" (2006) - DVD - 03/19
23. "The Lady in the Water" (2006) - DVD - 04/05
24. "The Descent" (2005) - DVD - 04/16
25. "Pulse" (2006) - DVD - 04/23
26. "Flushed Away" (2006) - DVD - 05/10
27. "300" (2006) - Theater - 05/28
28. "Pan's Labrynth" (2006) - DVD - 05/30
29. "That's Entertainment" (1974) - Theater- 06/06
30. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) - Theater- 06/07 - Special 30th anniversary showing at the 9th Annual Waterfront Film Festival, Saugatuck, Mich.
31. "Unleashed" (2005) -HBO- 06/08
32. "Spider-Man 3" (2007) -Theater- 06/18
33. "Big Love" Season 1 (2006) - DVD - 07/01
34. "Who the #!*& is Jackson Pollock" (2006) - Download - 07/01
35. "1408" (2007) - Theater - 07/02
36. "The Comedians of Comedy" (2005) - Download - 07/02
37. "Gleaming The Cube" (1989) - TV - 07/07
38. "The Notorious Betty Page" (2005) - DVD - 07/08
39. "Underworld: Evolution" (2005) - DVD - 07/08
40. "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix" (2007) - Theater - 07/13
41. "Hot Fuzz" (2007) - DVD - 08/13
42. "American Dreamz" (2006) - DVD - 08/17
43. "Deadwood: Season three" (2006) - DVD - 08/20
44. "16 Blocks" (2006) - DVD - 09/02
45. "Redeye" (2005) - DVD - 09/04
46. "Notes on a Scandal" (2006) - DVD - 09/05
47. "The Darwin Awards" (2006) - Internet - 09/19
48. "Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge" (1994) - DVD - 09/19
49. "Lady Death" (2004) - Internet - 09/19
50. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (2004) - DVD - 11/19
51. "Reign Over Me" (2007) - DVD - 11/22
52. "Casino Royale" (2006) - DVD - 11/22
53. "Zodiac" (2007) - DVD - 11/23
54. "The Sentinel" (2006) - TV - 12/1
55. "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006) - DVD - 12/3
56. "Weeds" season 2 (2006) - DVD - 12/15
57. "National Treasure" (2004) - TV* - 12/16
58. "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007) - DVD - 12/18
59. "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (2005) - DVD - 12/19
60. "Thank You For Smoking" (2005) - DVD - 12/23
61. "Transformers" (2007) - DVD - 12/30
62. "Disturbia" (2007) - DVD - 12/30
63. "Renaissance" (2006) - DVD - 12/30
64. "Idiocracy" (2006) - DVD - 12/31
65. "Year of the Dog" (2006) - DVD - 12/31

* Movies on TV counted only if unedited.

DVD: 44
Theater: 9
TV: 8
Internet: 4

In 2003: 28 (est.).
In 2004: 73 films.
In 2005: 62 films.
In 2006: 72 films.

Labels: movies

Its that time of year again! Another "Entertainment Participation" post of movies and video games for the year.

Movies '07

1. Talladega Nights (DVD)
2. Invincible (DVD)
3. TMNT
4. Casino Royale (DVD)
5. Failure to Launch (DVD)
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
7. Whisper of the Heart (DVD)
8. Spider-Man 3
9. Flyboys (DVD)
10. Dreamgirls (DVD)
11. Firewall (DVD)
12. Jarhead (DVD)
13. Million Dollar Baby (DVD)
14. Ratatouille
15. The Pursuit of Happyness (DVD)
16. The Guardian (DVD)
17. Inside Man (DVD)
18. Transformers
19. Fantastic 4 (DVD)
20. Cinderella Man (DVD)
21. The Simpsons Movie
22. Catch and Release (DVD)
23. Two for the Money (DVD)
24. WarGames (DVD)
25. Clerks (DVD)
26. Bourne Ultimatum
27. This is SpinalTap (DVD)
28. 300 (XBOX Live HD)
29. Shooter (DVD)
30. Fearless (DVD)
31. Music and Lyrics (DVD)
32. Best in Show (DVD)
33. Sentinel (DVD)
34. King Arthur(DVD)
35. Hairspray (DVD)
36. The Good Shepherd (DVD)
37. Evan Almighty (DVD)
38. I Am Legend

Video Games:

1. Wii Sports
   
2. Elite Beat Agents
   
3. Rainbow Six: Vegas
   
4. Excite Truck (Rented)
   
5. Star Trek Legacy (Rented)
   
6. Lost Planet (Rented)
   
7. Crackdown
   
8. Supreme Commander
   
9. Puzzle Quest
   
10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade
    
11. Command & Conquer 3
    
12. Guitar Hero II
    
13. Boom Boom Rocket
    
14. Odin Sphere
    
15. Planet Puzzle League
    
16. Pac Man C.E.
    
17. Earth Defense Force 2017 (rented)
    
18. Forza Motorsport 2 (rented)
    
19. Bomberman Live
    
20. Halo 3
    
21. Orange Box
    
22. Virtua Fighter 5
    
23. Guitar Hero III
    
24. Carcasconne
    
25. Call of Duty 4
    
26. Mass Effect
    
27. Super Mario Galaxy
    
28. Geometry Wars: Galaxies
    
29. Front Mission DS
    
30. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
    

Current Video Game Collection

Labels: movies

Happy New Year!

Friday, Julie and I went to a party at Melissa Cordova and her roommate Jen's.

Sunday, we had a good Ultimate game in the afternoon with 10 people playing, then Julie and I went to Josh and Amanda's for dinner and hung out until after midnight, playing games.

Hope everyone had great holiday celebrations.