Penchuk.com

I’m currently on the road in Memphis, Tennessee and just got back to my hotel room. One of my co-workers and I went out for an evening of dry, smoked ribs. They were very good, I must say. I’m glad I brought floss with me… Beale Street was quite the party tonight as it was “bike night”. It was basically wall to wall choppers. And loud. Did I mention it was loud?

Since my last post we’ve had a visit from Mom and Artie, redone our dated bathroom by tearing down wallpaper and putting up new fixtures (towel bars and such), and taken advantage of the park being 5 minutes away by bike. Basically, we’re loving the new house. It’s been completely worth the move. Ben is doing great. He’s definitely a healthy 2-year old boy. He’s into everything, moving quickly and just enjoying being 2. Mommy and daddy are actually enjoying it, too.

Basically, all is well. Just wanted to let you all know.

We had a nice 2 1/2 hour power outage this evening. Good thing it was only 93 degrees today. Yeah, that’s sarcasm. I ended up taking Ben for a walk in the stroller so that he’d fall asleep. The house was just too hot. It took a while for him to doze off because half the neighborhood was out avoiding their hot homes. We really like it here and have met nothing but friendly people. We loved our house in Fuquay, but the neighborhood as a whole wasn’t nearly as friendly.

I wonder if that had something to do with the lots being larger and homes being set back further. We’re on top of each other here, so people are forced to interact more. Regardless, it’s an interesting dynamic. Well, I have to say, I would have preferred to spend my evening in an air conditioned house than meeting neighbors, but you deal with what life gives you, right?

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to the ol’ website, so I figured it was time to do so. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on…

We’ve been very busy over the last month, but we’ve taken a lot of pictures. I’ll try and post some in the next day or so. Adios.

The last week or so has been rough, but we’re finally in the new house. More to come when I find 10 minutes…

On Saturday around 1:30 Laura and I received a phone call from our realtor. She told us there were new listings waiting for us in our email. We got home, put Ben to sleep and then took the next few hours to look them over. We decided we should go look at 4 of them…and do it that day. Are we glad we did because the first house we saw turned out to be a great one.

After seeing the house, which you can see on my pictures page, we fell in love with it and decided to make an offer that night. We scrambled to find a mortgage broker who could write us a pre-qual letter so that we could be the first ones with an offer. We got one and the offer was in. So, it was waiting time.

Sunday morning around 7:00, I asked Laura if she was awake. She said yes. I said, what are you thinking about? Of course, I knew because I was thinking the same thing. We had to wait until a little after 3:00 to hear that are offer was rejected, but that if we came back with a different offer at a certain price, it would be accepted. We decided to meet that afternoon at 5:30 with both realtors, the sellers and us.

We signed the updated offer and we’re very happy to move to our new house, just 7 minutes from our offices. It’s located in Cary, just minutes from Preston Corners. It’s exactly where we want to be. The house backs up to a Greenway that leads to Bond Park. All in all, we’re thrilled to be moving.

Just this morning, Laura and I signed the papers to accept an offer on our house. We’re very happy that we’ve made this progress and that we’re getting the opportunity to move closer to our jobs, but we have mixed feelings. This is a great house in a great neighborhood. We will miss it.

Anyone selling something closer to Cary, NC?

Well, this weekend we went down to South Carolina to visit Baba and Grandpa. Uncle Matty and Aunt Carrie were visiting from Boston, so it was a mini-reunion. It was great to see everyone. Laura and I are suspicious that our visit wasn’t as important as someone who now measures 2 feet 10 inches.

And speaking of Ben, we just finished giving him his bath. Well, tonight as the water was draining and his bubbles were headed down the drain (he loves bubble bath), Ben stood up and started saying goodbye to the bubbles. I smiled because he often says adieu to material objects. When we turn off one of his TV shows, we say goodbye before the power cuts off. We’ve found that creating a transition is much more effective (and not as loud).

Tonight, after saying goodbye to the bubbles, Ben said, and I quote, “Mimi, bubbles. Mimi.” To the untrained observer, this sounds like baby gibberish, but we know this means “thank you”. When we give him something and gently chide, “What do you say?”, he responds by saying “Mimi”. How thank you made the transition to mimi, I do not know. In fact, thanks to Blue’s Clues, we know the sign language for thank you. In addition to saying mimi, Ben signed thank you. At that point, I broke out laughing.

Some other news, Laura was diagnosed with a bronchial infection today. Five days of antibiotics and she should be over that. In house news, there is no news. We thought one couple was likely, but we haven’t heard anything else. All is well with me. The job is still there and I’m still playing hockey. Until next time…

This week I had the opportunity to visit NYC for business. We visited one of RegEd’s clients, to talk to them about implementing new functionality above and beyond what they already have. It’s a big opportunity and very interesting. During my trip I had the opportunity to visit The Gates in Central Park.

I have to admit that my initial impressions when I read about it and saw it on TV was a big ho-hum, who cares. But, after seeing them, I have a completely changed opinion. They were really cool, brought a lot of people out and created a ton of interest. By no means were they beautiful, but they certainly added interesting color to the landscape, something that is certainly missing in Central Park during a typical February.

Some house news: It was shown again yesterday and will be shown tomorrow at 10:30. Tomorrow will be the 4th showing. Again, I’m cautiously optimistic.

Ben is doing great. He’s becoming much more communicative as he is trying (and we’re encouraging) more speech. We’ve also made an effort to cut back on pacifier time. He’s always had it in the car, but now we’re withholding it. And he’s doing just fine. He doesn’t even have one at daycare anymore.

It’s late and I should be in bed already (Sunday mornings are my day to get up with Ben while Laura sleeps in). But, I hadn’t posted anything to the site in a week so, I wanted to post some quick items…

The house officially went on the market yesterday. I got a call today at noon about someone wanting to come see it. Things move fast, I guess.