The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

The wife and I put in an offer on a house this past Monday. The house is a short-sale and therefore we will be forced to wait an excruciating amount of time before the bank responds to our offer. I hope we get it because it would be a great deal, but at that same time, I know we could find something else if this falls through. In the meantime I am learning lots about frugality that will help when the mortgage payments start coming due.

Any tips for a first time homebuyer?

A Little History

The past couple years I have really enjoyed riding my bike as a pastime, both solo and with friends. Being a somewhat competitive person, this segued naturally into duathlons and adventure races. My buddy Sam, and I have done several races together, but have always struggled to find the consistent third teammate required for most of the local races. This is cause for great frustration.

Last year I really started to feel the urge to do some XC races, but scheduling conflicts and insecurity about the quality of my 10 year-old $500 hardtail held me back. Sam and I did team-up for a duo attempt at a local 12 hour race, which was a great and humbling learning experience.

This year I have a new steed, a new focus, and a desire to take this cycling thing to a new level.

Top 10 Albums of 2007

Really belated, but hey, I just started this blog. I like music, a lot. My friends and I are what my wife and others would call music nerds/snobs. Every year, a group of us get together and send our individual top ten lists to our friend Jeremy, who then compiles them. This year, the group was considerably larger, and correspondingly the promotional aspect was further emphasized.






What a bunch of weirdos.

Anyway, here are what I considered to be the top albums of last year.

1 Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
2 Animal Collective Strawberry Jam
3 LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
4 Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala
5 The National Boxer
6 Menomena Friend and Foe
7 New Pornographers Challengers
8 Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
9 Okkervil River The Stage Names
10 Blitzen Trapper Wild Mountain Nation

I'll post an update when the composite list comes out. What was your favorite album this past year?

Stereotypical First Post

Well I thought I would give this whole Web 2.0 thing a try. The primary intent of this blog is to document my attempts to become a capable mountain bike racer. However, I would be kidding myself and you if I didn't admit that any given week might include posts about movies, books, my wife, my faith, Lost, etc. Basically, anything that pops up.