My new "home"

New Year, New Job, New Rad, New Phone, New House???

This year has been off to a hectic start. I am settling into my new job nicely, but it's some of the other things in my life that makes me feel like there should be 25 hours in a day.

The week started like a hobo in the morning, poorly. I was on my way to work when the engine of my car began to overheat like a manatee in mating season. I blew my radiator and I was not happy. I knew I would have to fork out a decent amount of coin, and this would not help the negotiations I had been having about the purchase of a new home. This event, of course, followed the previous day where I had lost my cell phone after a delicious stop at one of my favourite fine dining establishments, Harvey's.

Between the new phone and a new rad, I had spent an annual salary of a Mexican resort worker. As I was in negotiations for a new home, my "buffer" cash was deteriorating and I was not sure I could continue to go through with it. After all, the voice of reason (Mom and Dad) were in Mexico slurping back on some strawberry daiquiries.

At first, I went to see the house and I was very intrigued. The house is an older home that was clearly in need of some repairs. The students that are living there had a month's rent worth of beer bottle deposits, and a homemade bong here and there. The house certainly has the "ghetto" feel to it.

The nice thing about this home is that the house was priced accordingly. It was affordable to me. It looked profitable to me. The house is spacious and has the potential to be a really nice family home. With a little TLC, I could make this student house into something special.

I decided to jump again into the real estate pool. I decided to purchase this home. Currently, there are a bunch of students in there under lease until the end of August. For some potential buyers, this could be a big nuissance. For me, it's a chance to save up some money for some renovations when they do decide to move out.

When I saw the place, I had some issues with the house, but that was mitigated by the price and location. I was pretty sure that I had wanted this place, but there was a catch. There was another couple that wanted the place. A bidding war had begun....

My real estate agent told me to think hard about what I wanted to do. As a buyer, I could look for another place that would meet my goals. I decided to put my best foot forward, and I made an offer that I would hope that would beat the offer of the other couple. Unfortunately, the other couple had outbid me. They had made a conditional sale because they had went in at the listing price.

I had given up. I was not prepared to go excessively high on this home. If I am going to make it work, I had to be comfortable at coming in at a price low enough to make the repairs worthwhile. Fortunately for me, the other couple could not come up with the financing that was required. Apparently, the guy in the relationship had a couple of bankruptcies. I'm betting that she wasn't too happy.

I was back in the game! This time, my back was not against the wall. I decided to make a ridiculously low offer for the house. The offer wasn't accepted of course, but it paved the way for me to get this house for the price I wanted. I was in the driver's seat. I wasn't under the same pressure. I am now the proud owner of 75 Arlington Avenue.

New Job... but still an accountant

Today, I quit my job at Welch and Co. Although I have enjoyed my time there, it was a good time to move on. I was not necessarily looking to switch positions, but I ended up getting an offer that I could not refuse. It had to be an offer I couldn't refuse. Otherwise, I would have stayed on with Welch.

Obviously, I will not get into details on the offer, but I am grateful for the experiences I've had at Welch and I will not rule out a possible return to Welch. Albeit, the return will likely be at a date later in the future.

STARS! spangled banner

As an avid Ottawa Senators fan, I obviously had to watch the Sens recent pay-per-view against the Dallas Stars. Though the PPV had it's share of technical difficulties and the quality of the broadcast was certainly not worth the $10.99 we paid, I am glad I watched it.

Sure, the Sens won. Sure, I love watching hockey games. Sure, I am easily satisfied, but there was something that I learned that was really neat. During the singing of the American national anthem, the fans of the Dallas Stars will shout out "STARS!" every time it occurs in the anthem. It's a really neat thing to witness. Admittedly, I do not get to watch the Dallas Stars play too often. They played against teams in Western timezones and are often not available to watch in my area. However, this is the first time that I had heard the fans in Dallas do this. It was a little shocking.

This forces me to think of how this started. I mean, how do 20,000 people just decide to start shouting "Stars!" during the national anthem. It's like starting the "wave". How did this start? I mean, most people will barely clap during hockey games in their corporate seats. At Sens games, there will be some pubescent boys that will normally get up in the middle of the second period to try to get people to do the "wave". They usually fail. The fans KNOW how to do the "wave", but they don't really do it. So, how do you start everyone doing these things without them knowing what you are trying to accomplish?

I guess it's trying to solve the Caramilk mystery. How DO they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar? Nobody should know... just enjoy the mystery.

Things that "Grind my Gears"

In no particular order, these are things that I do not like:

1. I don't like people who wear costumes to the movie theatres. Fuck, could you be a bigger dork?
2. People that drive too fast or slow for the weather conditions. It's not that hard to get it right. Just stay out of the ditch and don't force anyone else to serve into it either.
3. The following sports teams: New York Yankees, New England Patriots, Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
4. Mayonaise on French Fries. Just fucking gross.
5. People that push ahead to get on the bus. We're all going to be standing anyways.
6. People that cut in line at the bar. No respect for other people that are currently losing their buzz.
7. Pineapple on pizza. Do pineapples grow in Italy? Then, why the fuck do you put pineapple on pizza?
8. People that give you a "flour" shower. I am going to kick some ass one day.
9. Why does Vanna White still have a job?? The puzzle is now digital.
10. The guy that cancelled "ALF". By far, it was the best show of the 80's.

Update...

If you didn't know, I failed my last exam of trying to become a Chartered Accountant. Obviously, I am very disappointed, but I am also very relieved to know what to expect in the next year. It's going to be a bitch to study again, but this is only going to make me hungrier to pass this time around. I'm not going to make excuses for why I didn't pass, but I know that I will be ready the next time.

In a previous post, I may have sounded a little discouraged about the UFE process. (I guess with good reason.) The point of the post was to highlight the fact that I just really wanted some answers. I wanted to be done. I didn't want to deal with waiting anymore.

So, why the optimism for the next go round?

I have a couple of reasons. First, some of the smartest people at my firm have failed this exam. For people that never write this thing, it's not a test of memory or intelligence. Anyways, I was in the office the other day and I received some very comforting messages from my co-workers. If they will believe in me, I can certainly believe in me.

That brings me to my next point.

I have failed things before. I may underestimate some things the first time and get burned. Take baseball for example. I like to think that I am a natural athlete. I always did well in sports growing up. I thought that I could play baseball with middle-aged men that may have been playing a few years. In my first year of ball, I was a lowsy baseball player. I don't recall one extra-base hit. That is terrible. This year, although not exactly where I want to be, I had hit a huge and timely triple in the final game of the playoffs. I ended up being the winning run. Although one hit does not make a season, I had actually hit more extra base hits than singles. I definetely came back with a little bit of extra game.

Curling offers another example of failure. I had been a skip for junior provincial playdowns. In one year, we had made it to the finals of our zone and we gave up 5 points in the first end. We had prepared so much and came away with so little. We could not close the gap. Two years later, we make it to the finals again. This time, we had given up 5 points in the first end again. This time we were able to come back and win the game because we had learned something. Failure is an opportunity to learn more. We learned that failure happens, but it doesn't have to happen twice if you don't want it to. You just need to learn something from it.