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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Houses and more houses

Currently on the never-ending house agenda is the new roof and exterior painting at Party Central, a.k.a. my house in Anoka, a.k.a. the Enforcer's house.

Here's a picture of the "Before" exterior:

Okay, the pictures won't post for me tonight and I refuse to fight with blogger about it.

There's been a little bit of upheaval in my housing situation... On the 31st of March I gave one of my renters, the old guy, his 30 day notice to move out. He seems to live in a fantasy world watching old music videos from the 60's and 70's, so I hope he understands that he really does have to move out. So I've been advertising and looking for another renter for the house. Meanwhile my brain has been ticking along looking at other options, some of which are in the works right now... (ooooh... mysterious...)

V is looking to buy a foreclosed house, too. She and RR have been running around town looking at houses. She's made a few offers, but the foreclosed house market is super hot right now and she's been outbid every time. Hopefully something will fall together for her soon.

Meanwhile I'm the Force's financial advisor, helping him get out of debt and stay organized with his finances. He comes over every 2 weeks on pay day and we sit down and make sure all his bills are paid.

And right now I'm working on a friend's taxes, trying to get them done right before the final buzzer. I could have been a good accountant.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Zumbro Recap

So I had just finished my 6 mile treadmill run on Friday morning and was walking my cool down period when I thought, "hey... the 100k doesn't start until midnight tonight, so I could help with the roofing of my house all day, go to church, and STILL go and do the run!"

Of course I wasn't really prepared. I had not really been running as of late; by this I mean my monthly mileage from March to the present was about 25 miles TOTAL. And I had not replaced the miles I was not running with anything else other than television watching and some very casual weight lifting. I was REALLY not prepared.

But I made the drive and gave it a go.

Starting at the finish, I stopped at 27.7 miles, which is approximately 44.7% of the 100k. 27.7 miles is what happens when one does a complete loop, plan on stopping, but then feel like one may as well do the easy first section to not look completely foolish. I think it was about 7:20a when I reached the start/finish aid station and dropped, but quite frankly I wasn't wearing a watch so it might have been 7:40a.

I felt pretty darn good when I stopped. My knees and hips were definitely sore at the time, and I hadn't cut my toenails so my toes were hurting a bit from jamming the front of my shoes.

So why did I stop?

1). I was woefully unprepared and felt that an untrained 27.7 miles from which I would hopefully recover quickly was better than pushing it too much and risking injury or too much extra time off recovering.

2). I knew I could still finish it or at least go quite a bit further just walking/minimal running, but quite honestly, didn't really feel like spending all day to finish.

I'm happy with my decision to go down and do the run and happy with my decision to stop when I did. 2 days later and I have no soreness. I was able to spend all day Saturday after the run and a 45 minute nap roofing the house and did about 5 miles of mountain biking last night.

I enjoyed the course and would definitely consider doing it again. It was a tough one. Anyone ever notice there aren't very many courses out there that DON'T include long tough ups and downs? Why isn't there a nice one with lots of rolling hills?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Zumbro

Last minute decision to drive down to do the 100k tonight. I'll spend the afternoon roofing the house- busted by the bldging inspector, so I'm blogging remotely from the City of Anoka office. Good Friday service and then I'll head down. Gmail me at dcfarmer if anyone down there needs me to pick up anything!

Monday, April 6, 2009

And the answer is...

Wow, good guesses by everyone, and I bet Home Depot noticed an increase in customer traffic this weekend as everyone attempted to find out what the heck the WDGRPR9"RLCG was.

I'm very glad that I did not include the UPC# as part of the clue, as I think that would have made it much easier.

Honestly I thought that I was probably going to have to buy everyone a 9" roller cover, as that answer seemed right on.

Unfortunately we were all close, but all wrong, and remember, "close" only matters in slow dancing and hand grenades.

The answer was: 9 In. 5 Wire Frame Paint Roller Handle.

Thanks everyone for your guesses! That was fun!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Here's a contest for all my loyal followers

I don't really know if I have many loyal followers, although by definition, anyone who still casually follows along must have some sense of loyalty as I've been very bad about blogging.

I'm going over 2 years of receipts trying to get and stay organized for future tax filings. I've already (rather hastily) filed my 2008 taxes, but have realized there's quite a bit in I've forgotten to claim that could get me more of a refund back. Being that to claim it I'd have to do an amended return, I figure I better really have my ducks in a row in case the friendly IRS person wants more info. (I plan on drowning the forementioned IRS person in paperwork... imagine copies of 2 months worth of renovation receipts).

So anyways, I'm going through old receipts, categorizing what was purchased on each receipt (in general) and what bigger project that purchase might belong to. For example, on 3/13/08 I spent $174.56 at Home Depot on painting supplies for "Interior painting--office". (Have I posted office pictures before? I don't think I have, but will... RR's paint job, an artistic ragged glaze effect, always gets rave reviews).

Home Depot receipts are HORRIBLE for trying to determine what an item might be. Lowes often is okay... I can translate most items based on the purchase date, what project was going forward at the time, or the other items on the receipt.

Now here's the contest:

What on earth is this item (based on receipt description): WDGRPR9"RLCG < a > (cost $5.97 plus tax)??!?

Anyone who is able to tell me WHAT item this is will win said item. No, I don't have any clue what the item is, although as it only cost $5.97 in 3/2008, I feel comfortable volunteering to purchase it as a prize. If it ends up being a 10ft long item, I might have to drive it to you as opposed to mailing.