corinna

Movers are a gift from god

Posted on by grahams

The movers, Aviv Moving and Storage, came right on time this morning at 8:45, and they had all our stuff loaded into the truck by 10:30ish.  While they were loading the truck, Mauro dropped off the keys to the new place…  He also mentioned that the road our new place is on was closed for the day due to some power company work.  Fortunately, when we got over there with the moving truck, the cop let us past the cones and the truck made it into the driveway.  It took us awhile to get over there, mostly because we had to come in the “back way” due to the road closing, but we passed several “No Trucks” roads before finding one that would let us turn around and come in the back way.  The guys probably started unloading the truck around 11:15a and were done in an hour.  The total move time was about 3.5 hours, which is at least half of what it would have been had we done it ourselves.

I still have a few small things left in the old place, but I will throw most of that into the car tonight.  Our buyer has her final walkthrough scheduled for 6:30pm tonight, and our closings are at 10am and 3pm tomorrow.  Then, finally, the “buying” phase of operation new home will be complete, and we can move on to the insurgency.

A Quick Update

Posted on by grahams

I’ve been really busy, for obvious reasons, but here’s a quick update as to what’s going on:

  • We’re still go for both closings this Thursday.  Everything seems to be on track, all the repairs to our new place that we asked for in the Purchase and Sale agreement have been taken care of.  In addition, we have a verbal agreement with the seller to move our stuff in on Wednesday (but not ourselves), but we need to get that signed off tomorrow or else our movers will have nowhere to put our stuff on Wednesday morning.  =)
  • Speaking of movers, I’m packing, packing, packing… 
    [info]coco_b

    has been working a ton lately, even this Saturday and today!  So I’ve been doing most of the packing, which is okay with me, especially since this will hopefully be the last move for many years..  I’ve pretty much got most everything except the bedroom packed up now…  Not sure if we will have enough boxes for everything, so there might be a last-minute scramble for boxes tomorrow.  Or, I suppose, we will just have to buy a few boxes from the movers and box up the last of the stuff while they are moving what we have boxed up.  We’ll see though..  Many thanks to

    [info]rat_girl3

    and

    [info]equalize

    for helping us out with the boxes.  They just moved into THEIR new place, and the timing just so happened that while they were emptying their boxes we were in need of them…  They were life (or at least wallet) savers!

  • For some reason I’ve started to sort of follow the Red Sox.  I’m not sure what happened, I think it’s
    [info]roryk

    ‘s fault.  Perhaps it was only a matter of time before I caught the local disease.

  • Yesterday we took a break from work and packing, and headed out to
    [info]adamfletcher

    ‘s folks house for grilling and pool chicanery.  It was awesome, we had a great time as always…  It was a much needed break from all the adult seriousness the two of us have been dealing with lately…

Inspection

Posted on by grahams
[info]coco_b

 and I met up with Mauro (our agent) and Tony (home inspector to the stars) this morning to have the new place inspected.  Pretty much everything went well, although the stairs to the rear deck need a bit of repair….  But an area we thought had water damage turned out to be wallpaper that had been painted over and which started to bubble up a bit…  Not fun, but much better than water damage.. =)

I have a bunch of pictures I’ll throw up once I can take them off the camera…

New House

Posted on by grahams

Front of Building
Originally uploaded by seangraham.

Corinna and I finished negotiations, and tonight our offer on a condo in Watertown was accepted! Here are some pictures, most are from the MLS listing, but the larger ones towards the end were taken by me. I’m sure there will be more in the future, but these should whet your appetite!

Obviously, the offer is only the first step in the process, we still have to have an inspection, sign the purchase and sale agreement, and close, and occasionally things go wrong along that process… But we’ll find out soon, because we are closing on the new place the same day we are closing on the old place: May 31st!

Awesome (Extended) Weekend

Posted on by grahams

This weekend was all about entertainment and real estate. The Independent Film Festival of Boston is going on, and coco_b  and I hit up a bunch of screenings:

  • Fay Grim – This sequel to the 1997 film Henry Fool, which I have never seen, opened the festival. I really liked this film… Corinna and Audra have raved for a long time about HF, but I’ve never had a chance to see it. After seeing FG, it’s at the top of my Netflix queue. The story was well crafted, the characters were really interesting, and the actors did a fantastic job.
  • The King of Kong – A documentary about the Donkey Kong world record. Obviously, I had to see this film, but my expectations weren’t high. This might have been the best movie of the festival. The documentary was fantastically paced, the subjects were fascinating, and the film made the trivial consequences seem like the most important things in the world. I knew a bit about Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies through nerd osmosis, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine the dirty dealings and shenanigans… Even Corinna, who isn’t a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, loved this film.
  • Rabbit – A short film set in a kindergarten “learning to read” book, where all objects have their names printed next to them. It looked like illustrations from a Dick and Jane book, but with a far more surrealist premise. It was very enjoyable.

  • Fido – I really wanted to love this one.. The basic premise is this: A idyllic world, stuck in the 50s, where Zombies have been domesticated and are effectively pets/slaves to humans. And that sentence makes it sound like a winner, but it was an idea that just shouldn’t have been stretched to feature length. The movie was effectively Lassie but with a Zombie instead of a dog. Lassie episodes were only 30 minutes, this film was 90, and the stretching was evident. I really loved almost everything about this film; The concept, the characters, the acting, the cinematography, etc. was all great, it the story just couldn’t support a feature length film. I think this would have been an awesome 45 minute short…
  • Death Trike – A funny little short about a homicidal tricycle.  I don’t feel I need to elaborate much more..  Very fun…  From the director of Forest of the Dead.
  • Black Sheep  – Another huge highlight of the festival..  Genetically engineered sheep with a thirst for blood.  Very much in the spirit of Peter Jackson’s early films like Bad Taste and Dead Alive.  Very well paced, very funny, and properly gory.  Those Kiwis sure do know how to make a horror flick.
  • Monster Camp – I was afraid this documentary about Live Action Role-Playing (LARPing) would be a bit to exploitative..  I mean, I think LARPing is hilarious, but I laugh in private..  My fear for this film would be a theatre full of people laughing at the people dressed up as lizards..   But thankfully the film was very delicate and well crafted..  The filmmakers weren’t playing for laughs even if there were plenty of them in there, and when people were laughing, it didn’t seem cruel..  That could be because it was a theatre full of Boston-area nerds, though, so I’m not sure…  But I had the feeling that the subjects would have been able to laugh along with the crowd and not be terribly embarrassed..    It was a very fun film, and really provided insight into the LARPing scene..  I also think it made me a bit more sympathetic to LARPers in general…  I think playing helps many of these people in a similar way I think Computer Science House helps people;  A sort of “social primer” to help not-terribly-social people develop those skills they need in the real world.

To further Xtremeify this weekend of entertainment, Corinna and I went out to Providence on Saturday to see Stephen Lynch at Lupo’s.  Before the show, we met up with Omar, an old friend from the Rovia days…  He’s getting his Ph.D at Brown, but I hadn’t seen him in a few years, so we grabbed dinner and caught up a bit.  The show was fantastic!  Our seats were pretty good, and Lynch (who’s been on Broadway for a year as The Wedding Singer) was on his game completely…  He seemed to have really missed being on his own…  He had some verbal sparring with a heckler, but he seemed to have the upper hand..  It was a great show…  Unfortunately, Corinna’s mysterious food allergy reared it’s head again, but she took enough Benadryl to keep it somewhat in check in order to enjoy the show.  The Benadryl put her on her ass, though, so she slept the whole ride home and missed out on Black Sheep that night…  She woke up with the flu, so fate is apparently not smiling upon her.. =(

On Sunday, even though Corinna was feeling shitty, we managed to squeeze in 5 open houses…  Out of the 5, 3 weren’t even really worth considering, one was OK,but the last one turned out to be really cool.  We haven’t made an offer yet, we’re hoping to have a few more viewings in the next day or two before we make our decision, but we’re both rather excited about this place…

Shipped It

Posted on by grahams
[info]coco_b

 and I had our first open house this past Sunday, so we spent a lot of time leading up to it tying up all the loose ends in the place..   I was feeling pretty ill, so I wasn’t pulling 100% of my weight…  But I still managed to do some cleaning while she finished off everything else…  While our place had been listed midway through last week, we held off on showing it until the open house, to kind of kick it off with a bang.

We were kinda freaking out because when we listed our place, there were two other units on the market in our building, both of which were priced much higher than ours (in my opinion, they are both ridiculously overpriced).  But at the last minute on Friday, another unit went on sale for a few grand less than ours.  From the pictures in the listing, it looked pretty comparable to ours, but it was on the first floor.  So we really went to town on our place so it would show really well.  On Sunday, we found out that not only did this other place undercut our price, but they decided to have an open house at the same time as us…  So on our way out of our place, we decided to swing by and check out our competition..  This turned out to be an excellent idea, as this place didn’t compete with ours at all…  It’s not like it was a tenement or anything, don’t get me wrong, but it certainly didn’t show anywhere near as well as ours..  The walls were all flat white, with lots of very visible patching, etc..  The shades were drawn, so even though it was noon on a beautiful Spring day, the place looked dreary.  The bathroom was in dire need of overhauling, something we just had done a few months ago..   They opened up the wall between the kitchen and living room, but the kitchen wasn’t terribly pretty, so it was a turn off for me..  And they closed off the archway from the living room to the bathroom, making the place feel really claustrophobic when you were in the front entryway.  All in all, I felt that our place looked so much better, and I felt good that people would visit this other place first (since it was on the first floor) before making their way up to ours…   It totally re-framed expectations and made our place look that much better.

So after seeing this place, the nervous feelings lifted and we were able to simply enjoy our lunch and the beautiful day.   Mauro, our agent, was expecting 12 or so people to come by, but whether it was the weather or the great pictures in our listing, we had 20+!  Corinna had been saying for the past week or so that she had hoped to get an offer quickly after the open house, but I was quite skeptical..  There were several comparable places on the market in our neighborhood which had been listed for weeks or even months…  But it was hard to deal with that data as the real estate market is always kind of slow leading into the spring..

Anyway, to make a long story short, a woman made an offer on our place a few hours after the open house, and by noon the next day, 24 hours after the start of our open house, we had agreed on a price… (When I say “we”, I really mean Corinna and this woman, since I don’t own any of our current place…)  Corinna and I were completely caught off guard by how fast this all happened, and we are totally chuffed…  Obviously the deal isn’t completely secure yet, so I’m not completely relaxed, but it certainly is helping me sleep easier.  The woman has scheduled the inspection for this Saturday (at 8am, ick) and wants to close by May 31st!

Peeping Tom

Posted on by grahams

Last night

[info]coco_b

and I met up with

[info]roryk

and Chloe at the Sunset Cantina for dinner and drinks, and to go see Peeping Tom at the Paradise Rock Club.  It was a sold-out show, and doors were at 7, but we decided to grab some grub as opposed to waiting outside in the cold..   After dinner, Corinna decided she was pretty tired and was going to bail on the show, so we sold her ticket and went inside..

The first opening act, Pigeon John, was real fun hip-hop, kinda no consequences fun “let me hear you say ‘Yeah!'” kinda stuff…  Everyone seemed to have a good time, especially for an opening act.  Second up was Miho Hatori, which I didn’t really enjoy at all…  Remember how in Alien: Insurrection they failed at several attempts at cloning Ripley, and ended up with a bunch of goobed out mutants?   Well, imagine if you replaced Ripley with Bjork, you’d have Miho Hatori.  She wasn’t physically goobed, but holy christ was her music awful..  It was as if someone making a commercial WANTED Bjork, but she wouldn’t sign off on the rights, so they hired someone to make a soundalike song..  Fortunately, this middle act gave me the opportunity to vote for Sanjaya 68 times. 

Finally, around 10:45pm, Peeping Tom took the stage…  I was disappointed to find out that Rahzel was missing from the line-up this time around.  Fortunately, we were introduced to Butterscotch, who you’d never expect to be a master Beatboxer, but boy does she have chops..  It was fascinating to watch this tiny little woman blow the fucking doors off the venue.  Also, this time around, Dan “The Automator” was able to make the tour (when Corinna and I saw Peeping Tom open for Gnarls Barkley last year, I believe Kid Koala was filling in on decks).  Anyway, the show was fantastic, and Chloe, who Rory kinda dragged to the show even really seemed to enjoy it.  It was crowded, but I think that the Paradise is my favorite area venue..  It’s shallow but wide, so you feel really close to the stage…

When we were leaving, I almost got into my first fistfight in years!  Some drunk douchebag behind me apparently decided that our egress rate was insufficient and shoved me forward.  I informed him that this was uncool (with my elbow into his ribs), and things got quite tense.  We screamed at each other for a few minutes and at some point Rory and someone who apparently knew this douche stepped in and separated us..   This ass kept screaming at me “all I was trying to do was pass you;  I’ll kick your faggotty purple-shirt wearing ass; yadda yadda”.  I kept trying to explain to him that he didn’t try and “pass” me, he shoved me forward and into the wall…  If you can’t handle your liquor, don’t drink in public…

What a Birthday!

Posted on by grahams

On Saturday, I turned 30, and thanks to my lovely girlfriend, my family, and my friends, it was a great weekend!  On Friday we hung out out with friends at

[info]adamfletcher

‘s place…  We played all kinds of board games and snacked on delicious food prepared by Adam..  As board games can be, it was tense at times, but I hope everyone had a good time.. :P 

[info]coco_b

bought me a Cake Batter flavored ice cream cake from J.P. Lick’s which everyone enjoyed, especially me!

Saturday morning, Corinna woke up early and made me brunch!  I usually wake up several hours before her on Saturday’s, and I sure as hell don’t usually get treated to awesome bacon and french toast!  It was really awesome being able to just kick back and relax while someone else did the cooking for a change!   I also opened some gifts and cards I received in the mail..  My parents got me the Talking Heads Brick, which is badass!  I also got another season of South Park from

[info]tatyana

 which rules…  Then, for dinner, Corinna had another ace up her sleeve, taking me to the wonderful Grill 23 for dinner, which was fantastic…  What is better than the gift of meat?  Nothing.    After we got home we enjoyed the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who, and all was right in the world…

Sunday we just hung out and caught Les Ordres with the film club, which was pretty good…  Thanks to everyone for such a great birthday!

Posted on by grahams

Tonight,

[info]coco_b

  and I met up with the film club to see a special preview screening of “Hot Fuzz” at the Brattle. “Hot Fuzz” is the latest film from the guys who created “Shaun of the Dead”. “Fuzz” is officially released here in the states in about a month, but the guys (Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost) are going around the US doing some screenings to build up buzz.

The screening was at 5:30pm, but our passes were first-come, first-served, so I figured we’d get into Harvard Square around 3pm, grab some lunch, and then buzz by the Brattle occasionally until we saw a line starting to form…  Well, we stuck to plan until the “buzzing” part;  After lunch, we did our first pass by the theatre and there was already a line 100+ people long..  So we got on line a bit after 3pm, and stood there until 5:15ish when the doors opened.    The show started about 10 minutes late, but Edgar, Simon, and Nick came out, introduced the movie, and then we were rolling..

Sweet Jesus is this a funny film..  It is every bit as clever as “Shaun of the Dead”, but from filmmakers that show a bit more confidence (and a bit more budget).  The film never really felt slow for me, and when I wasn’t laughing hysterically, I had a broad smile on my face…   There was a point towards the end where I thought I might be really disappointed by the ending, but then it took a fantastic right turn…  In fact, I think the actual ending was funnier in light of where I thought it was going…

I don’t want to spoil it too much, so I’ll just say that this movie is great, and you need to see it.

After the flick, the guys did a lengthy Q&A session, which was quite enjoyable…   They mentioned future projects they are all working on together, but didn’t give any details…  They mentioned they announced “Hot Fuzz” 9 months before they started writing the script, and wanted to avoid announcing anything too early again…  Whatever it ends up being, based on their first two films (and what I’ve seen of the BBC series, “Spaced”), I’ll be at the third on opening weekend!  

Strange Week

Posted on by grahams

I’ve felt out of sorts all week, and I’m not sure why…   I ended up driving to work most of this week, so perhaps that has something to do with it.  I slipped and fell on the way to work on Monday, thanksto some piece of shit who couldn’t be bothered to clear their sidewalk…  After I got to work, I hooked up my iPod to the computer and it wasn’t seeing the connection.  I thought it got damaged in the fall, but after banging it on the desk a few times and blowing out the dock connector, it finally seemed to work.

Corinna and I continue trying to button up the remainder of the pre-sale house tasks…  Last weekend we moved even more stuff into the storage locker..  We have a few final things to put in there, and I will hopefully get them together this weekend and be able to check that box.  Last night I took

[info]coco_b

to Home Depot so she could pick out paint for the bedroom and get some other supplies.  I am no fun to shop with, so we have an agreement where I am the chauffeur and then I sit in the car doing whatever..   Last night I spent the time catching up on old issues of Skeptical Inquirer.  I have a stack of about 6 issues that I never even opened, and I’d rather not move them if I don’t have to…

Today I walked in…  It’s so beautiful outside, it was really invigorating!

This Sunday, the film club is going to a pre-screening of “Hot Fuzz” at the Brattle, and Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright will be there in person…  Should be a good time!