Updates and such

I'm posting this pre-upgrade to the Wordpress software that runs this site, just in case I break everything horribly. If you can read this tomorrow, I've probably been successful. That, or I ran out of time.

Mostly just decided that it's been a shamefully long time since I added any photos, so we now have Easter photos, a few photos from Utopias night, a new Sid video on his page, a new Lola video on her page, and new photos in Sid and Lola's albums, respectively. Whew. Lots of uploading today.

It's been sick time around here lately, first Lola's cold, then Morgan's cold and stomach issues, now Sid's cold and my stomach issues. Nobody bad enough for professional care, just enough to feel crummy. Still, it's getting easier to feel better as the weather gradually turns more spring-like. Another sign of spring: the nest out on our back deck that has been here since we moved in has been re-habitated, they're adding on with more detritus, and looks like we might have eggs and baby birds before long.

Aside from that, I just have a few random tidbits to scatter to you, o faithful readers.....

• New brewery coming to town. Excellent. In other beer news, still expensive.


• Latest online game obsession pairs well with my sweepstakes obsession. Register for the sweepstakes, then Clear the Skies. Also found this fun little game today, perfect for me. I hate overly complicated games that take forever to finish. In case it's not clear, you have to burn the rope.


• And lastly, I've been thinking about emergency preparation lately, partially due to hearing a speaker from the County department that plans for such things, partially due to recent earthquakes and murmurs over the possible impending big one. So one of my goals for the future is being ready for disaster.

That's all for now. Upgrade time. Fingers crossing....NOW.

Radar report

Seems like more and more posts around here are just dumping of "what's on my mind" lately. Here's another one. Just too much bobbing around in my head not to post some stuff, but too crazybusy to wax poetic about anything much.

• Heard a blurb on NPR this morning following the recent Starbucks annual shareholders' meeting. Not particularly interested in the business/finance angles, but for coffee buffs like me, sounds like some interesting things ahead. This press release gives a pretty good rundown, but I'm particularly interested in the Clover brewing system. The quote from the CEO on the radio was along the lines of "I was in this (non Starbucks) coffee shop and they're serving coffee for $7 a cup. And there's a line. I'm not happy." So he bought them out.
  


• In the finance department, we just wrapped up our refinance of the house. Bottom line: by my estimates, we'll save $150,000 by refinancing to a 20-year 4.75% loan. And it'll only cost us $9 more each month. I'm also going to open a 529 account for each of the kids, and Lola signed up for preschool today, so come FY2008-2009, I'll have them start taking out some pre-tax dollars from my paycheck for that. Savings all around!


• I need to start brewing more. It's a hobby I have a passion for, I can save money by brewing my own beer, and, well, it's good beer. But dang, hops are getting expensive. Tina and Bart's baby shower is this weekend, and I'll be serving a homebrewed pale ale.


• March madness is here, so that, of course, means the annual library pool is on. Wish me luck!

Well, I guess that actually wasn't much to say. Just felt like I had a lot on my mind. Happy birthday Pop!

P.S. This is funny.

Just a quickie

• Sid is starting to crawl. Mostly in reverse, but he is on his way. Other new moves are clapping and shaking his head from side to side - as in "no, no."


• Just received a new bag from www.trixerdesigns.com. Fun bags. They are made well and look great! Thsnks, Chrisite! (and Maggie, for being related to Christie!)


• I love the weather. It was great to see it get in the high 60's. If we get a vote, I'd like to avoid any further snow.


• Looking forward to a trip to Michigan in May.


• Garage sale season has officially started for me. Lola, Deej and I went last weekend. They are few and far between, but they are there!


• I love Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat. It makes me want to drink too much beer. Good thing it is a bit pricier than Marc wants to spend.


• I'm ready for an addition to the family. I mean a dog!! Are you kidding? Lola and Sid are going to be the only offspring from Marc and I. We love them, they are perfect, and they are just enough. The only addition should be a dog. Cina's lonely.

Reasons to love Reno

Lola and I peaked out our front window this morning to discover that we can see the balloons from this house as we could from our last.  It is not the same view, but really impressive from our driveway.  I have only done Dawn Patrol once.  my mom dragged us out so early, I don't think I had hit REM.  It was nice though. She made breakfast and there was champagne (I was too young to care).  It was fun.  I remember being impressed even as a snotty teenager.  Now, I wouldn't want to fight the crowds. Maybe next year for Dawn Patrol.  I think we will walk tomorrow morning to get a closer look.  Lola was impressed with just what she saw this morning, I bet she will love it.

I am back to work this week.  I have to say what a warm welcome they had - there were tons of books to be put away. Nothing makes the day go faster than a lot of work.  I truly missed it - actually my coworkers more than the work!  Ane with only 15 hrs,  it is easier to be away from the kids.

Parkerbailey (the '85 VW) was sold to a nice kid this week.  I guess he was older than a kid.  Sad to see it go, but the Eurovan will help ease the pain. We have the Saturn for sale if you know anyone interested.  A good car and I liked it. But we can't keep them all!  I already feel a little overwhlemed with the neighbors cars - but he has ten kids!

I am enjoying the cooling weather and am looking forward to the encroaching fall weather.   Changing colors, cooler weather, Marc, Paige, Lola and Gigi's birthdays, Halloween, and a visit from Nana.

Wanderlust

Inspired, I think, by Turi's recent synopsis of their Oregon trip, and by the presentation I just saw on the Tahoe Rim Trail, my mind wandered into creating a list of places I want to visit someday. Some of these may be pie-in-the-sky, but I think most are achievable. I post it here for future reference and just for fun.

• Tahoe Rim Trail - All165 miles around the Jewel in the Sky. Maybe two one-week camps, maybe every weekend for a month, something, someday. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity so close to home.


• Canada - I want to visit more than BC, see the prairies my grandparents lived on, the vast Great White North parts, even the cosmopolitan Toronto and Montreal.


• Australia - Maybe a bit of city, but mostly outback. I want to see Ayers Rock, listen to aborigines play the didge, and mingle with roos and koalas.


• Asia - Japan was one major destination on my life's must-visit list. Having done that, I'd love to see Thailand, maybe some China, some Vietnam, Tibet. I guess Siberia and Lake Baikal are Asia too, but I was going to list them separately. (These fall into the "probably only if I hit the lottery" category.)


• Grand Canyon


• New York City


• More of Alaska - Loved the beauty and charm of the smidgen of Alaska I visited, would love to see more.


• I want to tour Nevada, visit small towns on long desolate roads, sneak a peek at Area 51 and see Michael Heizer's City someday.


• Antarctica - The extreme continent.

Oddly, that's about all I can come up with for now.  Sure, I'd see more Europe, lots more of the US, Brazil, etc., but the ones above are what I really want to see someday.

wild for Windsor!

So, it is official. Our offer was accepted and the Tiar family will be moving into their new house sometime after the 27th of July when we close. Oh, that is 4 days after Baby Brother is due to arrive. I like to keep things interesting. I figure unless we were waiting a few months, I am never going to be that much help - to big and pregnant now. After, well just healing with an infant. Anyway it happens, it is not far to move and I am so excited, I will be packed and ready before.

Amy is leaving tomorrow. She is the neighbor across the street. She's Lola's best friend. She is only sad when she thinks about leaving Lola and Marc and I got a little verklempt when talking about it earlier. Lola went over to help pack and clean for a while (probably really to take a break and play with her dogs). After she came home, she started packing her flip flops and other assorted items into a plastic bag, informing me that she was going to New Jersey with Amy.

Poor Lola. Lots of changes. She seems very excited about Baby Brother and talks to him all the time. Apparently he hears better when she lifts my shirt and talks directly against my skin. I am hoping that my new stories of a new bedroom and new house will actually make the transition smooth for her. She is a pretty resilient, adaptable, and easy going child.

No other news really. It's hot. It seems to be getting hotter. Did I mention AC in the new house? That cannot happen soon enough.

In brief...

Huh, I forgot to title my last post, so just did it now.  See below.

Briefly, the offer we submitted was countered with terms we can't accept, so we're back in limbo with the house buying/selling situation.  Bummer, truly.  I hate having to listen to my own advice, that everything happens for a reason, and if it's meant to be, it'll happen somehow.  I don't really know if that's true, but it seems to be a lot of the time, so I keep telling that to myself and whoever else it applies to.  I really hope so.

Saw a sneak preview of Knocked Up last night.  Really really liked it.  Funny, sweet, enjoyable movie.  Same stars from this director's usual stable, so if you liked Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, 40-year-old Virgin, you'll probably like this.

That's all for now, wish us luck...

Library events and more

Let's start with the "more"...seems like ages since I've written.  Life's been busy.  Attempts to find a new house have been going full steam, we've visited about 15 now, and found at least three that we wouldn't object to living in.  But now, we've retreated - the cold hard truth is that we can't do anything in terms of buying until we're selling.  Can't do it without the big equity cashout.  So, the plan is to spruce up around here and try to get it listed at the beginning of April.  Wanna buy a house?  This whole process is already a bit overwhelming and the stress of trying to put our house in order to sell, juggle the process of showing, selling, searching, buying, packing, moving, all while pregnant (oh yeah, we found our our OB is moving away so we had to pick a new one...) and carrying on our usual whirlwind life....I thought I vowed never to move again.  I would have been perfectly content to grow old and die on Novelly Drive.  Oh yeah, kids.  Oh well.

Also, if you need a realtor, Jack is a good friend and good guy who won't do you wrong.  We're also on good terms with our loan officer.  Let me know if you need his name.

Besides my lack of blogging lately, I was also prompted to post by new photos, taken this morning.  Our dear little princess is just too adorable wrapped in a towel after her bath, and it was too hard to pick just one, so I posted the whole series in the gallery.  Enjoy!  Just a couple others besides that, a lipstick shot and a one from our recent park day on her bike (yet another fabulous garage sale find by Morgan - five bucks!).

So, back to the aforementioned library events.  Just two, but worthy of mention...our annual NCAA basketball tournament pool is underway so get in touch asap if you're in, and possibly of a bit broader appeal, there's a library booksale coming up soon, so if you're here in Reno and need books, get ready.

In other news, we got a few minor repairs done to the Vanagon.  I'll take a moment to plug that shop too - a good, honest mechanic is a pretty good thing to have, so if you need any VW work, J's Vans is worth recommendation.  Took a quick dip into the Linux pool last week with Turi...kinda scary, kinda exciting.  He went full bore, formatted his drive and went for full install of Ubuntu.  I just took a few versions for a test drive and quietly backed away.  Maybe later.

Getting late so I'll leave you laughing...a couple jokes I had lingering in my email that I enjoyed.  One risque and funny, one just funny.  OK, now I'm done.

Just a little blurb

Just read a post on one of the RGJ blogs, so shocking I have to share. Dog meets porcupine. Speaking of blogs, for you readers who are just dying to start their own and are wondering where to do it, I've been hearing many great things about Vox. Blogging, photo sharing, videos, the whole nine yards. I'd do it if I didn't already have this site.

Starting a new book, Alternadad, and enjoying it so far. Reviews have been mixed, but it sounds so straight down my alley, I feel like I'm predisposed to like it.

Maggie comes for a visit tonight, Andrew's birthday, new carpet comes on Monday, we're rethinking the timing of moving to a new house (sooner rather than later?), Costco tires for the Vue are ordered, and we're officially half-way through pregnancy. Life continues careening along at a rapid pace.

From Valentine burgers to toddler vomit

Seems like it's been ages since I posted anything, now here I am with all sorts of (typically unexciting to anyone but you few close friends) news to share...

In the mass consumtion department, we here at maison Tiar seem to have found ourselves in a frenzy of acquiring new stuff. A new laptop is ordered and coming soon, new carpet is ordered and also coming soon, a new bed is bought and coming just as soon as we can sell the old one and pick up the new (well, new to us...Macy's had a killer deal on floor models, half price!).

We went out last night for Valentine's Day, not a sweet romantic evening like you might expect, but with good friends and family. Johnny Rocket's for burgers and fries, then some good bowling, all at the Grand Sierra. Especially fun was watching the crowd both entering and later exiting the Jamie Foxx concert, and the almost-gang fight that tried in vain to erupt. Good times. The romantic stuff came earlier when I got this nice delivery of flowers at work, from my dear Morgan and baby Lola:



And the good times continued late into the night when dear Lola woke up with some kind of stomach bug, vomitus eruptus several times throughout the night, and continuing today. She seems cheerful enough, but geez, poor thing has been through pinkeye, runny nose/cough stuff, and now this. <Shaking fist>Let her get better!</shaking fist>

Possibly setting a record for recent years, I actually "went out" two nights in a row this week.  The night before last, Turi and I decided to get together for a few beers and a bite.  Jessica totally hooked us up at the new Foley's, and a good time was had by all.

And speaking of hanging out with the boys, looks like the Westfalia's first trip of the season will come at the end of April, David, Bart, Ryan and I planning to truck on up to Chico for a visit to this tattoo-n-barber shop for a good manly "shave and a haircut", maybe a visit to Sierra Nevada, and an overnight camp at Lake Oroville.  Should be fun.

One last announcement, it sounds like Lola and #2 are going to have the luxury of two more grandparents in the area if plans hold true.  Yep, Nana and Pepe Tiar have declared their intention to move back stateside at some point, probably late 2008.  Hurray!

Well, I think that about wraps things up for now.  Until next time...

Ruminations

First, we've got a couple new ultrasound images to view, taken earlier today:28542857The pen outlines are from Dr. Chun, OB/GYN.

A new school of thought around the Tiar household: maybe we shouldn't add on to this house. For about the same cost each month, we can probably just move into a house that has the size and arrangement we need. We're not committed to living on Novelly Dr. forever, so we're thinking maybe about 18 months out, rolling some of the equity here into a downpayment on something different. Hopefully still a good market then, hopefully in a nice old neighborhood.

Lola is quite the maniac these days. Her sentences are getting longer and consistent, although she does babble like a talking chimp as well. Lots of energy, but great night's sleeps. For all of us. And she's eating quite a bit more. When I pick her up, she's heavier and just...bigger in general. Not a baby anymore, by any stretch of the imagination.

Brief movie review: Children of Men was really good. Bleak, depressing view of the future, but with brief beautiful moments of levity amid the chaos. I like Clive Owen quite a bit. He plays the "ordinary man caught in extraordinary circumstances" role triumphantly here.

Well, that's about it for tonight I suppose.

Taking the lead

It is official. I am ahead in the Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament. The score as of today is 15-14. I'd like to think that my skills have only improved and Marc has no chance, but that theory is highly unlikely. Hey, I was down by six!

For other fans, it was thrilling to see Jack Bauer again last night. The new season of 24 had begun. Poor Amy started watching a rerun on another channel and missed the first 15 minutes. She thought for sure she was done for the season. A bit conflicting to rerun an old episode as you are premiering a new season. Wonder how many people watched the wrong channel thinking they were duped into watching a rerun?

Marc and I have been giving some thought to adding on to our house. Anyone know of a good draftsman? Contractor? Any suggestions?

Lola has been signed up by Nevada Casting. We went in thinking it was open call, and it had been canceled for that week. The woman in there asked Lola a few questions and to smile. She signed her up right then. She loves to have her picture taken. We'll see how it pans out. I'll keep you updated.

Watch The Inconvenient Truth. It is a way to start. We have some serious issues facing our planet. As a parent, do it for our children.

Addendum

Couple of things I meant to record for posterity but that slipped my mind...

• As Morgan mentioned recently, the new season of 24 is coming soon.  It's one of the few "can't miss" shows on TV.  Should be extra special this year thanks to DVR.


• Some of you may know that we incurred a pretty big spill of bright yellow latex paint on our basement carpet some months back.  I've finally relaunched my mission to clean it up and found the chemical to do the job.  Goof Off is doing it, slowly but effectively.  Only problem is the fumes.  Might have to wait until spring.


• Some long term ideas/retirement plans/what I hope will make me rich someday: open a store that sells beer, beermaking supplies, and provides a place where people can brew AND for coffee, green beans, self-serve roaster, misc gear.  Beer and coffee, two of my favorite things in life, both require brewing.  Coincidence?  I think not.  I also think I have a book in me, just not sure what about or when it will come out.

We now return you to our regular program.