« Archives in February, 2006

Looking For A Home

February 18, 2006 / Paul posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

It’s starting to sink in that Alexis and I are going to own a house in the near future. I’ve finally started to get excited about it. There are a lot of things that will be much more convenient with a house. No more loud neighbors. No more stupid maintenance people. More room to put things. No more worrying that a stupid neighbor will burn down the apartments. Finally having a garage. Being able to install ceiling fans where we want them and making the place we live our own. I realize that there may be other headaches like having to shell out money to have things fixed, but at least it’s spending more toward an investment. I know eventually we will sell the house and if we take good care of it and even improve it we’ll get a better return than if we didn’t take care of it.

Speaking of taking care of houses, Alexis and I have seen a couple of pretty neglected houses. I can only image that they were once rented, because I could not see myself letting a house I owned fall apart. Most of the neglected houses we have seen have been older houses, built before the mid 1980′s. So we have decided to look at the newer houses in the areas we are looking to buy.

Zebras Need Glasses

February 6, 2006 / Paul posted in Hockey Talk, Uncategorized / No Comments

This season of hockey has been plagued by the guys in black and white stripes. If a player takes one hand off of his stick when jousting for the puck, it’s a penalty. If a player has his stick behind or in between the legs of a player who falls, for whatever reason, it’s a penalty. The quick whistles have spawned dives to draw penalties, which in itself should be a penalty, but is rarely ever called. There is seldom a time when three minutes pass without a penalty being called. Not only do they call phantom penalties, they miss calls and can’t seem to get out of the way half the time. In the last Dallas Stars game I attended, the refs were a hazard on the ice, like a broken stick or a fallen player. I have never been to a game that had so many incidents of a ref getting hit with the puck or obstructing another player. The popular excuse is the rule changes have made the game faster, but it just seems like there is a shortage of good referees. What’s certain is that just when the game starts getting interesting and the players seem passionate about the game, a penalty is called which usually deflates the team gaining momentum. The playoff games are the most exciting and emotional games of the season. With officiating going the way it is, it could easily turn into a major debacle.