Procrastination Central

Good Riddance...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:45:38 -0500

Our subletter just moved out... GOOD RIDDANCE!

He was a nice enough guy and we knew him before he moved in, but we were happy when he decided to move out. A few weeks ago I put 2 and 2 together and realized that he was smoking pot in our apartment when he got home. Tonight, as he was packing up, the candle was lit, meaning he toked up in between getting home and packing up. Insane! Couldn't he wait until he got home?

Not that we didn't like getting our rent subsidized, but it is nice to half the apartment back to ourselves again.

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Long Overdue to Post

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:31:29 -0500

How can I expect friends & family to learn what we are up to by reading the blog if I never post anything???

The last few weeks have been a little hectic. It was easier to post when I was glued to my desk and unhappy back at NYC-job (trying to keep myself out of trouble by not using company names). I've been back at old-philly job for about a month now and am THRILLED to be "HOME". I like my new office -- it is actually so cozy that my work friends refer to if as my Work Apartment. I have a bunch of lamps (no overhead lights), which gives it a nice feel. I also have my electric teapot, a fruitbowl, and a new plant - Jade.

I really like the new Analyst that I am working with (I will call her DC from now on). She is giving me plenty of room to do my own work and is not treating me like I work below her. Its nice to come back and have that kind of respect. We have an Associate on our team, SW, who is driving me bonkers, but I think his days at the firm are numbered.... So, we have been trying to get our coverage up & running and its kept me pretty busy.

When we get back from Japan, we will start house hunting. I'm sure that will be very excited and we'll be much better at keeping everyone up to date.

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Weekend Review

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 17:21:27 -0500

I'll write more later, but here are some photos from Ken's 58th birthday, which we got to celebrate this weekend. We are so proud of Ken for learning how to use the Rabbit wine opener (top photo) -- even if the first try almost resulting in the bottle landing on the floor. Turns out you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!

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Getting into a new routine...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 16:53:00 -0500

I have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of evenings, because we are finally making a concentrated effort to watch less TV. It is such a big difference and something that we are both really enjoying. In the past, Adam has gotten home before me and the TV would be on from around 5pm until we went to bed. After dinner we would retreat to separate rooms, since we have such different tastes in programming, and then watch a little Tivo together until we were ready to call it a night. 5 hours of TV a day is ridiculous! I really enjoyed not watching any TV for the two weeks I was staying at my fathers (although that was partly because I didn't get home until 11pm on some nights), which put this idea in my head.

These last couple of days, I have gotten home first, and after plugging in our Xmas lights/tree and turning on some Xmas music (or Diane Krall, which is perfect background music), I've started dinner prep. Adam has come home and after we finished prepping dinner we would sit in the living room enjoying a drink and chat about our day. It's a nice way to unwind and much better than sharing in between commercials.

We are still watching TV with dinner and then a little afterwards. Eventually, I'd like to break away from having the TV on while we eat dinner, but I think that habit may be too hard to break -- maybe we can get into a new routine when we move.

Its unlikely that I will be getting home before Adam very often, but I think this is somethign that he wants to keep up as well, which makes me happy.

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Thanksgiving Recap

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:26:02 -0500

I was actually so busy enjoying myself over the Thanksgiving holiday that I didn't make time to post anything. On Wednesday night my mom came down from Jersey. We re-decorated my little Xmas tree (it was hurting from being stuffed in closets for so long) and hung up Xmas decorations in the apartment, which actually turned into purging some of the older decorations that my mom had passed down to me. There were quite a few that were really hurting. The three of us cooked mashed sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner (our contribution) and made a tasty dinner feast for ourselves.

On Thursday, we continued to purge. I had mentiend to my mom earlier that I needed her to help us organize what had come to be known as "the scary closet". With wedding presents taking up space and the shuffle we had to do to give our subletter some room in the guest closet, the junk in the closet had spiraled out of control. Adam was a trooper purging things that he had been holding on to, but hadn't looked at in years. It always helps to have a neutral party involved when debating throwing away someone's old stuff. My mom is great at this. She actually got a big kick out of it, because she had always believed Adam's comments about me saving too much stuff, but she had a chance to see the crap that he was holding on to for so long -- kind of funny.

For Thanksgiving, we went to Patti & Dan's. It was nice having my mom there with us. Its an enjoyable event because its really a cocktail party with some turkey... not one of those occasions where everyone is just waiting around until they eat. Here's a link, if you want to see some of our photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heiked/sets/72157594390198247/

On Friday, my mom and I went shopping and bought me the leather coat that is my Xmas present from her. I think she was a little disappointed that it didn't take us long -- I really liked the second coat we tried. I can't mention enough how much I enjoyed my mom visiting!!!

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Happy to Share

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:15:10 -0500

I am happy to say that Adam and I got pre-approved for a mortgage today!!! Adam had some concerns about this, so it is nice to get this behind us. We drove through a couple of neighborhood this weekend and got a good vibe from the Graduate Hospital area, so we are going to start looking there. It's nice to feel like we are moving forward on this - we now know how big of a place we would like, where we would like to live, and what we can afford.

The hunt begins! Hopefully, we don't find something that we fall in love with too quickly, cuz we need our year-end bonuses to cover the downpayment and won't get paid those until February. I'm almost afraid to start looking now!

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Long Overdue to Post...

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:07:44 -0500

I believe I am in my third week back at my old firm. So far, I am thrilled with things. My boss, DC, is treating me like a peer and not an underling, which had been one of my concerns, and everyone seems genuinely happy to see me back. I am finally settled in my office and getting down to doing some real work.

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A new addition to the family....

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:03:03 -0500

I was SO excited to receive my belated birthday present from the Comegys family last week. Unfortunately, he is unphotogenic, and this is the best photo of him I could get. After enjoying a week of promenance on our kitchen table, he is now at home by the windows and his new plant friends, Stanley, Flo, and Myrtle. But, our poor little guy is nameless! Tammy, think up a good name for him (don't know why, but I have decided he's male!).

A belated Bday present

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House hunting begins

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 18:03:31 -0500

Adam and I are reving up to become homeowners. More than likely, we will be buying a condo or a townhouse. We probably won't buy anything until after we both get our year end bonuses in February. Saturday was perfect weather to walk around the city so we walked through Olde City and Washington Square before miandering home. We would love to live in the Washington Square area, but it is difficult to gauge if we can afford the neighborhood. We went to two open houses for lofts in Olde City and have determined that loft-living is not for us. We just aren't a big fan of the open ceilings and the gap between the walls and the ceilings - why even have a door if you can hear everything from the other room over the top of the walls? Just seems silly to us - you might as well just live in a studio if you are going to live in a loft.

Visiting places really made us realize that we need to figure out just what our price range is before we do anything else. At the second place we toured, we met a really nice real estate broker who was extremely personable and helpful. We both got a good vibe from him (he wasn't too salesman-y) and think we might use him when we get serious about buying. We need to get pre-approved for a mortgage before we do anything else. Luckily, the fact that Adam works at a bank should be very beneficial, since they offer slightly discounted mortgages to employees.

Adam has spent plenty of hours playing on relator webpages, so we are getting a sense of what is out there. We are starting to narrow down our house criteria.

Here is what we have determined so far:

2 Bedroom/1.5 Bath

At least 1,100 square feet (what we have now, nothing smaller)

30 min or less commute

We aren't willing to spend more on a mortgage than we are currently paying in rent

We really need a place that we can grow into. We plan on having kids in 2 or 3 years and need to buy something that will accomdate our plans. My current thinking is that we would get an au pair for the first year or so, because I would like to continue to work. Maybe after baby #2 I would consider taking time off or working part-time, but I wouldn't want to quit working right away. That would mean that we need a room (and ideally a bathroom) for the au pair. Who knows if we can afford this - I realize I am in la-la-la land right now. That's why getting pre-approved for a mortgage is the next step for us.

We stopped at Borders on our way home yesterday and bought a book for first time home buyers. It has already been extremely helpful and today we started investigating our credit reports. I have a clean bill of health, but we had a lot of trouble accessing Adam's records. I'm sure everything will be fine, but Adam is a little concerned by the uncertainty.

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Enjoying a weekend in Philly

nobody@vox.com(Heike) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 17:43:21 -0500

This weekend we decided to lay low and have a quite weekend in the city. Originally, we were going to go to Tampa for to visit Jen & Mark (Dickinson friends), but because of Veterens Day, ticket prices were a bit expensive (especially since we have our Japan trip coming up!).

On Friday night we enjoyed happy hour with Allison before heading home to feast on Bobolis and watch a movie. Saturday, we took in the unseasonably warm weather and walked around Philly to get a feel for some neighborhoods we are interested in (more on this later). Saturday night, I went to an event at a furniture warehouse with a tennis friend and then crashed a Dickinsonian's 30th birthday party at a bar, while Adam enjoyed a lazy evening of peace and quiet. Today, we putzt around the apartment, watched the Eagles finally win a game, and cooked Minestrone together. I really enjoy it when we cook together! Adam has also been getting ready for his upcoming business trip to Pittsburgh. It's nice that I'm not the one that's going to be on the road for a change!

Tomorrow is my first day back at my old job. I'm so happy I don't have to do that Monday morning commute to Manhattan anymore. Catching that 5:52am train was a real killer.

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