Bolder Boulder 2010

Not much to report.  We've partially moved into our temporary housing, but are awaiting the movers to show up on Friday to really get moved in.  It's a pretty cool little place, I think we'll enjoy being here for a few months.

Our new temporary address is 2548 Mapleton Ave, Boulder, CO, 80304. We're still looking like crazy for the next permanent place, and are going to spend another week and a half looking.  At that point we'll probably narrow our options down to a few places, and then make some hard decisions. 

Our current flavors of options seem to be:

1. Great location, at the top of our price range, and needs a lot of work.
2. Mediocre location, near the top of our budget, but remodeled beautifully.
3. In the hills, near the top of our budget, not in great shape, septic and well adventures.

Any opinions?  I seem to migrate toward number 1, Kristen seems to like #2.  We're both not 100% we're ready for number 3.

Last Monday was the Bolder Boulder, and we once again ran it slower than we ever have before.  We had a lot of fun, we don't get to dress up and act like fools very often.  We were blessed with another year of no injuries, fights, or arrests, so we're counting it as a victory.  The weather was great.  Out of the 24,000 men who ran the race, only 5 were slower than we were.

Houses & Running

We continue to view houses.  So many houses...  The good news is that we've found another house that we both like.  It is nearby, is in good shape, has a large yard, and is in a good location.  We're trying to figure out the best way to proceed, either by doing the contract writing without a buyers agent, or negotiating a kick-back from an agent.

It's newly on the market, and we'd offer substantially less than what they're asking, so it's not a sure thing by any means.  Even if we managed to arrive at a deal on this house, we'll probably have to move in to temporary housing for a bit.  We've been spending time each evening packing up more belongings, and taking them to storage.

I had a bunch of guys lined up to help move the heavy equipment out of the garage, but the weather didn't cooperate.  It's been a very rainy/snowy spring here, it doesn't much feel like spring.

We did manage to make it to Grand Junction last weekend to meet up with Katie and Jordan for a race.  Kristen, Katie, and myself ran the 10k variation, while Jordan manned-up and ran the half marathon.  I think we were all happy our times, it definitely inspired me to get more serious about running.

This Saturday we headed down to Denver since Kristen and I had long ago signed up for a half marathon.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, and only cost $20.  We both weren't in half marathon shape, but spurred on by my experience last weekend, I decided to give it a try anyway.  Our friends Mike & Sharon had signed up too.  We met them for dinner on Saturday night, then got up bright and early today to run.

It was fun, although by mile 10 I really wanted to walk the rest of the way.  I made it across the finish line with my worse 1/2 marathon time ever, but was still happy I did it.  This race is about five months earlier than our typical 1/2 marathons, so I have some time yet this season to whittle that down.

Kristen headed to Dallas tonight for a work thing.  She'll be gone until Wednesday.  Will I just lay around in my underwear for three days, or get stuff done around the house?   Only time will tell...

A lot of stuff

It's been an exhausting whirlwind of activity around here.  We're looking at houses a lot, but haven't found the right one yet.  We're continuing to move stuff out of the house.  I can fondly remember packing everything I owned into the '78 Pontiac, hauling everything back and forth from Rapid to Cody.  That seems like forever ago, and apparently we've accumulated additional belongings since then.

Zack was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes on Saturday.  We're going to change up his diet and hope that improves things a bit.  He's fairly normal healthy so far, but we expect that won't last forever.

Under Contract

We have a signed contract to buy our place for the full asking price!  Only two days on the market, can't complain about that.


Kristen and I (and the cats) need to be out of there by June 14th, so we need to find a place soon.

House for Sale!

The house was listed on Tuesday.  We've had 5 showings today, and have a fairly attractive offer.  Things are moving along!

http://www.coloproperty.com/Reports/index.cfm?&Action=DetailReport&MLSNumber=626462

Rapid trip w/ Jacoby!

Kristen and I just made it back from a quick Rapid City trip.  Becky, Jason, Jacoby, and Ma were planning on seeing Nono, so we figured it was a good excuse to make the trip again.

Everyone enjoyed Jacoby at West Hills Village.  A baby in a retirement center is like catnip for the elderly, or something.

Saturday afternoon five of us headed up to Dinosaur Park, where a quick-footed juvenile Tyrannosaurus nearly made off with Jack.  Luckily Jason was fast on his feet, and snatched Jack away before disaster struck.

Later in the day we tried to imagine what Jack will look like once he grows his hair out.

We returned to two lonely cats, and a spruced up house.  The "stagers" had worked their magic, leaving us with a place we don't feel very comfortable in.  We now have to do things like "pick up", "stay organized", and "use the trash can".

Hopefully the place will sell quickly so we can relax again.

Not much spare time

It seems like it's getting harder to update this thing. 

Two weeks ago was Easter weekend.  I headed in to work on Saturday for a bit, while Kristen headed to Denver to make some Easter eggs with Maddock and Allison.  Later we continued to pack up the house, trying to un-clutter things as much as possible.

Kristen and I saw a movie on Sunday, and took a load or two of boxes to the storage place.  It's starting to fill up, we don't have a lot more room in there.


We've started talking to a Realtor, and had a "Stager" come over on Monday to give us some feedback on how to organize and clean up the place.  Too many browns and too much white, was the conclusion.  They're promising to add "some color", so we'll see how that goes.

We had a few visitors at work for the second half of the week, meaning several nights out with a larger group. Lots of rich food.  Kristen and I need to get our running regimen back into action!

Friday we headed to Denver for the Rockies season opener at Coors Field.  Jordan had tirelessly watched online for a decent set of tickets, and eventually bought 4 consecutive seats in the lower section.  Shortly afterward Katie got 4 free tickets from her office.  That saved us some serious cash, and introduced Jordan to fine art of scalping.  Luckily no one got stabbed and things turned out OK.

Downtown Denver was crazy.  Lots of people out enjoying the 70 degree weather and opening day.  We all got a little sunburnt, and had a good time.

The next afternoon we headed to Allison's for Maddock's birthday celebration.  I can't say I've seen a more excited four-year-old in a long time.

We're continuing to move stuff out of the house at an alarming rate.  We did notice today that the house we were interested in is under contract.  Oh well, we'll find another, I'm sure.  We have cleaners, furnace people, window people, and the stagers coming back this week, so it ought to be exciting.