Rinsefirst

It’s funny… Every person I talked to about various closings they have had on previous houses mentioned to me that it was common to have difficulties. I thought it was all a fluke… Turns out I was wrong.

Closing on the house was scheduled for 9:00AM Friday morning (this morning). Last night around 6:00pm I get a call from my real estate agent letting. She wanted to know if I had heard from my banker yet. She had just got off the phone with the title company and they had yet to receive “the package” from the bank. I guess this was unusual. I told her that I had spoken to our banker earlier that day, and that he gave me no indication that there was going to be a problem.

This of course causes my stress level to rise… Now being worried that something might be wrong with the home loan, and that closing might fall through. That affects me, my agent, the sellers (even more than me), their agent, the title company… I mean lots of people…

In any case, I go to bed Thursday night all stressed out hoping that the fears in my mind were just that… In my mind.

About 8:15AM I leave to go get Amber for closing. On my way there, I get a call from the banker saying “don’t leave, we may have to push this back, I’ll call you shortly.” That really was the full extent of the call. I tried to figure out what the problem was, but it was simply that the package wasn’t ready yet. I then get a call shortly after that from my agent, finding out that she had experienced the same call from the banker moments earlier.

At this point, I’m stressed beyond belief. Pissed at the bank for not getting their act together. And of course worried that this could all fall apart.

I continue on my way to Amber’s not really being sure how long it’s going to be before the banker would call me back. Of course, the way Justin’s life works, the stress never stops… We sit around Amber’s talking for about 15 minutes with her mom and such before I get a call from a client informing me that they had a “lightning strike” last night, and that “half the computers aren’t working.” I did my best to provide phone support over the next 30 minutes, with little to no avail. I told them my situation with closing and told them if I could manage it, I would do my best to get out there between the closing and Computer Club, either that, or first thing Monday. This was of course at about 9:15am.

At about 9:30, I decided that it was best that I try to get some things done today while I wait for the banker to call. Amber and I decided to go pick up my Video Camera (I believe I need it this weekend) from Inver Grove Heights. We drive out there, and on the way, the banker calls and tells me that he has some “good news”. He informs me that he got closing rescheduled for 1:00pm, and that the paper work had gone through (with one major adjustment involving Amber which didn’t make anyone happy). So at this point, I call my parents and my agent to relay the message.

Just to put another strike in the bankers corner. He told me he would call my agent right after hanging up with me. I learned later that day that he never did call her and the only reason she found out it was moved to 1:00 was that I had called her.

Getting the camera was no trouble at all, and was the right move… all in all it saved some time… It was now roughly 10:00AM

In any case, Amber and I now had some time to kill, so I called that client, and took her with me to go work on their computers. Luckily, the damage by the lightning was minimal, and was able to be worked around by adjusting some cabling to get past the now “dead ports” on a network switch. In any case. we were there for about an hour, and then decided to meet up with my parents for lunch.

It’s now 11:30AM

Somewhere in there, I got a phone call from Joel with the first ray of light in the day. Letting me know that he didn’t need me to swing by church. That helped… Alot.

On my way to lunch with my parents, I had to swing by MSA. With the closing being pushed back to 1:00pm, I needed to find a staff member to cover for me for 30 minutes in case the closing took more than an hour (which they told me it would take 1 to 2 hours). I found a teacher (Mrs. Matson) and Joe to help me cover, and dropped off the games so computer club could still go on, I would just be a little late.

It’s now 12:15pm.

Lunch with the parents went great, so I’ll fast forward through that (minus 2 phone calls I got from clients that I didn’t need to have while trying to take 15 minutes to slow down).

We arrived at the title company right at 1:00. I apologize to John for having to cut him off… Long story short, I was pulling some crazy traffic maneuvers when he called because I had missed a turn. That, and there wasn’t much I was going to be able to do to help him.

In any case, we get inside, and the first thing the title broker tells us is, “The package hasn’t arrived yet.”

You can imagine what I said in my head.

They said the bank was sending it over, blah blah blah, and that it should be there soon. They also said it was going to be a bit anyway because the other title agent was still in another closing… So we waited for about 15 minutes for more word…

It’s now 1:15 - The package still hasn’t arrived.

It’s now 1:30 - The package was in the process of being sent, however they couldn’t get it printed. They were having some weird computer issues, the fax machine was on the fritz so they coudln’t fax it, and at that point, we were basically screwed (I guess they had someone scanning everything in by hand so they could PDF it over so we could try printing it another way).

This is where I step in and mention that I have an expertise in computers and might be able to solve the problem and get the stuff printed. Those of you who aren’t impressed by technical jargon… skip the next few paragraphs.

They show me the weird software they use for sending these documents, and of course, it’s not a simple error. A missing or corrupt DLL is reported. Normally simple enough right? You simply reinstall the program, or find a good copy of the DLL, and heck, sometimes simply rebooting will solve the problem.

Well of course, the computer she is working on isn’t in the room… it’s about 30 miles away. She was using a remote desktop connection to connect to the central office. That basically eliminated rebooting. Reinstall wasn’t an option (no disks, and no way to really get the media there in timely manor). So I tried to located a clean copy of the driver… and I did (online). So I tried to put it in, and of course, the files have read-only permissions set by an administrator (which she wasn’t).

So using the crazy hacker skills of mine, I copy the folder to a read/write location (which then gives me write permissions to the files I copied). I put the DLL in the folder, and thankfully , the software grabs it. I then discover the program doesn’t have a file->open command, and it’s meant to be run by simply double clicking the file that is sent. That would be fine and dandy, except they had also locked out the ability to re associate a file with another program. Luckily, the program was pretty smart, and all I had to do was drag and drop the file onto the program, and wha-lAaaa…. nope not quite.

Turns out the software would only print to the default printer… So I had to set the default printer to the one in the office there, AND then run the program. Not bad for under 5 minutes right (Impressed at least 2 people with my madness and speed, and I must be honest, kind of impressed myself for solving a problem with software I had never seen before in my life).

In any case… Moving one… the documents got printed, and just as everything was finishing printing, the sellers arrive.

It’s now 2:00…. So I quickly call MSA and tell them to just cancel computer club… I had no choice… at this point if I was going to be able to get to MSA, it would be for like all of 3 minutes of computer club, and by that time, I figured the staff person I had asked to cover for me would be both upset, and long gone. I also called Joe and has him relay the message as well… It really makes me mad, because today was the last day of computer club as well. I may have to schedule another one for next week.

Once we actually sat down at 2:00, things went smoothly. Documents got signed. Got some money back. All in all, a very pleasant experience. I learned a few things about owning a home… most of which I’m going to have to find time to take care of tomorrow, sunday, or monday. So much to do… so little time. For those of you who are wondering, we take possession of the house tomorrow at 6:00PM. Amber will move in on Sunday… I won’t move in til August 9th.

After closing, we ran a few errands. First we swung by MSA to make sure computer club wasn’t going (it was now 3:45). I also needed to pick up some stuff (like my Wii) that I had dropped off earlier that day. We then headed to Shane Co and purchased my wedding ring. Perhaps Amber will upload some pictures of it one of these days so people can see it before the wedding. It is a very simple tungsten band (no frills, just like me). Amber also got something… but I’ll let her share that with all of you.

From there it was off to Sears to buy Patrick and Natalie a gift for tomorrows (todays) wedding. Then dinner with my parents and Amy (2 meals in 1 day… strange)… and from there, we went to do some more packing of Ambers things and give me a hair cut. (By the time I get there, it’s like 8:00pm already).

All in all, based on the length of this post, and the stress associated with half the events… it’s been a VERY long day. I’m hoping Patrick’s wedding will be a nice little breather… and that this weekend slows down for me a bit now… Of course it wont, but it would be nice.

Oh, one last note… I made Ironman again for the second month in a row… For those of you counting… that’s 61 days of playing at least a “respectable” amount of hands of poker every day.  This also means that I will not be available June 14th because I will have a poker tournament to attend (possibly June 7th, but I think it’s June 14th).

That… is all…

So tonight was PK’s bachelor party, and not having ever been to one myself, I have to admit, I had a very good time.

The evening started with a little 5 on 5 volleyball. It’s been awhile since I’ve played, but I don’t think I did “too” badly. I made some decent saves, missed a few, and had a nice little run serving. No where near the best player (the best player was probably Justin at the end of the day), but at least decent. Highlights include a missing wedding ring (which Adam found), and just some all around good times.

We ended sometime around 7:45ish, which was still too early to head to bowling. So the group decided to hit broadway pizza instead. Some great talks about video games, life, the wedding took place. Marcus showed up, which was good cause I wanted to get a chance to talk to him (but didn’t, more on that shortly). Ordered a nice sausage pepperoni pizza for my table, and quite simply, continued to have a great time.

Melissa then calls to join us to go bowling. I agree to go get her at the U of M, which worked out fine, I hadn’t had a chance to talk to my sister in some time. In any case, the drive was about 30 minutes from where we had pizza.

About 20 minutes into the drive, I was in trouble.

Now some of you may know this about me… from time to time my body just does not react to food properly. At first we thought it might be a lactose intolerant thing, but I seem to have proven that wrong by both drinking milk, eating cereal, and having the same thing happen when eating food that doesn’t contain milk. Then we thought it was a problem eating to fast or to much, that too has been proven wrong (in fact, tonight I only had 2 slices of pizza, and it’s probably the worse I’ve felt in awhile). Needless to say, by the time I got to Mel’s I was very much in need of facilities.

Thankfully Mel let me use her restroom (embarrassing for me) and then shared some Imodium with me (even more embarrassing). Now in the past, I have to admit, this has worked quite well. Generally any drug women give me to help with this problem seems to work (one of these days I’ll learn to carry it my glove box). We hung around her place for another 10 minutes or so, talking with her room mate, programming the nav system, and the like.

Now on the way there, it didn’t get better, instead it got worse and started affecting my tummy… Not cool.

I ended up dropping Mel off and saying a quick goodbye to Patrick… There was no way I was going to be able to bowl without well… an accident. And I really didn’t feel like sitting in the bowling places restrooms for an hour.

So I headed home, barely making it here as well, where I spent the next 30 minutes reading Nintendo Power.

All in all, it was a good evening, just a “crappy” end (haha). Hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk with Marcus at the wedding reception.

Strangely enough, I found out when I got home that one of the most important servers at JR went down around 7:30ish, and was brought back online about 7:40ish by the people at rackspace (good people). I decided during a conversation tonight on AIM with John that my body must be tied to the servers, and when they suffer so do I…

In any case, great time! Can’t wait for the big party Saturday.

I feel like a lot is happening this week… and it is… To some degree it’s the beginning of the end.

So let’s start with the following:

In just 3 days, the first World Series of Poker event begins. What does that mean for you? It means that you have just 3 days to let me know you want to be in my fantasy poker league. Come on, you know you all watch more WSOP than I do (yeah right), and you all know the names like Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth. So really, just drop me an instant message and I’ll tell you how to get joined into this 52 events of poker player picking madness.

In just 3 days, I will have purchased (along with Amber), my first (town)house. Closing is on Friday.  It’s hard to believe how fast this happened… I mean really, it was like the beginning of this month that we agree’d to buy it. Talk about fast closing… Sadly, it will be almost 3 months before i get to move in (lucky Amber).

In just a little more than 3 days, Patrick Little will be married to Miss Natalie Johnson. Can I really jam anything else into this week?

In just 3 days, John will begin moving into his new apartment. The question is how much time can I really find to help him move if I’m going to be doing the same thing this weekend.

In just 3 days, Richard will have completed his first week of work.

In less than 3 days, Nikki returns home.

Now factor in all the JR work that managed to creep into this week, and life seems very… stressful. But we all know Justin… Taking it (for the most part) in stride.

Well that’s all, just felt I best post about the upcoming 3 days.

So here’s what’s up for ya’ll today. As I’m sure everyone knows, the Nascar all-star race was this weekend. This is a non-points race that takes place somewhat towards the middle of the season (not exactly the middle, but non the less). That said, I felt it was time for a fantasy league updates. So far, the stats are as follows:

So that puts Sir Benson in the lead, and me… well somewhere in the middle… I want to change players to try to turn my season around… Who knows, it just might work. John… you might want to help your girl’s team out as well… We need her to hand Richard some losses.

All that said, A new fantasy season is starting for me… Fantasy Poker! That’s right, I’ve setup a league somewhere for a free fantasy poker league which allows you to build a team of 15 poker players for the 40-some events this year. I’m looking for players, so if you want to be one, drop me an email and I’ll send you the details on how to join the league. I would post them here, but the last time I did, we got some random people joining the league. I believe this one is open to any number of people, so just drop me a line (heck if I have your email address, just post a comment!)

P.S. I’ll have the RSS feed fixed here soon.

Ever since I had window’s vista, I felt that I was out of luck when it came to computer games. Every game I installed would start up, show the mouse for half a second (with a black screen), then minimize. If I tried to un-minimize, the game would just go through the same cycle… Making it impossible to play the game.

It started with monopoly from McDonalds, and then continued with World of Warcraft, Neverwinter Nights, Sim City 4, etc.

I started reading the forums on various sites, and I did find 1 solution that always worked: If the game had a windowed mode, use it. So that’s what I did for the games that had it… But for those games that didn’t, I was still feeling screwed.

Well today, I found a more solution that seems to work in all cases on my stupid windows vista machine.

It seems, if I disable my second monitor, and undock/close pidgin (yes, I have to do both from what I can tell) the game works fine. It seems the docked pidgin likes to kick me out of the game, as does the second monitor. Very strange problem.. but hey, at least now I can play me some Sim City 4 (or more liking Neverwinter Nights).