You Load 16 Tons, What Do You Get?

I have some good news to report.

Last night, I put in an offer on a house! Yes, I have taken a major step towards digging a quarter million dollar hole for myself.

Of course, it's a nice house, and in the end it will cost me about the same each month as my current rent would, meaning that it's more-or-less revenue neutral for me. (The total cost will be more each month, but I'll also get significant tax breaks from buying, making it cost only about $10-15 more than my current rent each month.)

The house is a 3-level (basement, main floor, and finished attic/master bedroom) 5 bedroom, 2 bath Cape Cod-style home. It has 2 bedrooms, a bath, and a kitchenette area in the basement with a separate entrance, creating a mother-in-law apartment area, and a deck that is big enough to throw one heck of a barbecue. It even has some nice French doors leading from the kitchen to the deck.

Now, it will need a lot of work, but it's livable immediately. The kitchen will need to be completely redone, but that's more because I want to build my kitchen, not because it's a disaster area. I figure that I can fix up the kitchenette area first (it needs some minor work), and then use that as a temporary kitchen while I remodel the upstairs. Like any new living space, it will need a coat or two of paint, and there are other minor updates.

I'd love to add a small workshop area (but, unlike my father's shop, I think I will focus on more hand tools than power tools). I hope to add a good set of food storage shelves. I'd love to take out the crumbling stone chimney/grill in the back yard, and replace it with a brick or stone smoker. But those are all things that can wait for a while, if need be.

Is it the perfect house? No. But if all goes well, it will be my house, and that's the most important part.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

I love baking. One of my favorite foods is freshly baked bread. Not only does it just taste good (I can eat it as a complete meal, fresh from the oven), but it makes the kitchen, and from there the entire house, smell incredible.

Last week, my mother sent me this link to a recipe for making artisan-style bread. After trying it out, I had to run out and buy a copy of the cookbook it came from. Let me tell you, it is amazing!

The basic idea is that you make a large batch of a wet dough, and then store it in your refrigerator. When you want to have a loaf of bread, you pull off a chunk of the dough, shape it, let it rise, and bake it. Other than the time that you spend waiting for it to rise or bake, it takes all of about 5 minutes of work.

Even better, it's cheap. I figure it costs me about $0.50-$0.75 per loaf, and a similar loaf (not as fresh) would cost me about $4.00 from the store. I can live with those sort of numbers.

So far, I have stuck with the basic recipe (given at that link), which produces a wonderful sourdough flavor. And the longer you let the dough sit around in the fridge, the better that flavor gets. However, the cookbook has recipes for everything from bagels to pitas. The recipe I am looking forward to making next (after I use up the dough from my current batch) is oatmeal pumpkin bread:

Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread

1 c. pumpkin
2 c. lukewarm water (about 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit)
1 1/2 T. granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 T kosher salt
5 T. unsalted butter, melted
1/3 c. honey
1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. rye flour
4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

Mix the yeast and salt with the water, melted butter, and honey in a 5-quart bowl or a lidded container. Mix in the oatmeal, pumpkin, and flours using a wooden spoon. Cover (not airtight) and allow it to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and slightly collapses. (This should take about 2 hours.) The dough is now ready to use. You can refrigerate it for about 1 1/2 weeks until you want a loaf.

When you are ready to use the dough, grease a non-stick bread loaf pan. Dust the surface of the dough with flour, and pull off a large chunk, about the size of a cantaloupe. Form the dough into a ball, and let it rise in the pan for about 40 minutes (if the dough is fresh) or 2 hours (if it has been refrigerated). Twenty minutes before you plan to bake it, set the oven to 350 degrees and put a pan on the top rack to hold water. Place the loaf on a center rack and pour at least 1 c. of hot water into the pan on the top rack (to create steam during the baking). Bake it for 45-50 minutes, or until done.

Cool and serve.

As soon as I can find a decent supply of rye flour, I plan to try this recipe out. They claim it should make about 3 loafs.

I highly recommend this cookbook. It is easily one of the best ones I have found, anywhere.

Sorry Carrie

but you just can't match the original. But then, very few remakes or covers ever can.

In case you are wondering, Carrie Underwood recently did a cover of an old Randy Travis song that I love. I'm sorry, but she just can't match the rich, gravelly quality of his voice, and that is exactly what that song needs. But don't take my word for it.

The original:


Carrie's version:


I don't usually care for remakes, whether it be songs, movies, or anything else. But there are a few remakes that I think equal or even exceed the originals. Chief among those is Battlestar Galactica. If you have not seen this show, you need to get your hands on it right now. But don't start in the middle. Whatever you do, start it from the beginning and do not skip ahead. If you skip ahead, or (heaven forbid) start watching the new episodes this Friday (there are only 4 episodes remaining in the series), you will ruin the entire mystery and suspense of the show. Don't do that to yourself.

There are also a few songs that have been excellent remakes. I think that Clint Black's rendition of "Desperado" easily equals (but doesn't exceed) the original version by the Eagles. And Chris LeDoux's version of "Life is a Highway" (not to be confused with the crapfest remake by Rascal Flatts) beats (barely) Tom Cochrane's original.

Another remake which has grown on me considerably is Alison Krauss' remake of Keith Whitley's "When You Say Nothing at All". At first, I didn't care for her version, until I heard a remix that combined both versions into a duet, and I heard how perfectly her voice matched the words and music. Now, when I hear her version, I don't even find myself missing the differences between her interpretation and his.

Now, don't get me wrong. Carrie Underwood's version of "I Told You So" is wonderful, but she's no Randy Travis, and that song really needs a deep voice like his. If Josh Turner had done the remake, it might beat Travis' version, but I can't think of another artist today who might come close.

Promises to Keep

I made a promise to a friend a while ago, but never got around to keeping it. Since I'm having trouble sleeping tonight, I thought I'd finally catch up and get it out of the way.

And so, for your enjoyment, here are some recipes I have collected from a variety of sources. Some of them are crock pot recipes (as I promised you, Amy), others are old family favorites, and still more are from a variety of other sources.

I'm still adding to the file, but I figured I'd put the current version out there for now. I'll let all of you know when I've updated it.

Planning

Last Monday, I started actually looking at houses to buy. I went and saw 5 houses spread out all over Northern Virginia, a couple of them are very real possibilities. I'm already moving forward to the next step of locking down my financing and getting pre-approved for my mortgage.

As I go through the process, I am becoming more and more grateful for the summer I spent as an intern at a mortgage company. Even though I was developing a disaster recovery procedures database for them, I still managed to pick up a lot of information that I didn't realize I had learned until I started to need it. It's funny how you never know what you really know until you have to use the knowledge that you have.

I have also started looking at plans for this year. Last summer, I was asked to play "big brother" to Kandice, one of my younger sister's friends who was here for an internship. We got some groups together and did a variety of trips up and down the East Coast, to places such as Williamsburg, Philadelphia, or Monticello. While Kandice has gone back home, and a few other people from those groups have moved away, I think that I want to start assembling groups for similar trips this year.

For example, according to this list, there were 123 civil war battles fought in Virginia, not counting another 2 in Pennsylvania, 7 in Maryland, and 15 in West Virginia. Most, if not all, of those battlefields should be within range of a weekend day trip.

I am somewhat ashamed to admit this, but I have never been to New York City. I've passed through the city twice: once on train, and once driving, but I have never actually visited the city. I think that this year I'd like to get some people together and change that. (I have, however, seen the Statue of Liberty from a distance, courtesy of a business trip to New Jersey. Someday I want to see it closer up.)

When I was in elementary school, I was required to read the book Misty of Chincoteague. I'd love to be able to visit Chincoteague Island or its neighbor Assateague Island where the book was set. If I can work it out, I'd love to be there for Pony Penning Day, although with my plan to buy a house in June that may not be an option this year.

I'd love to visit the Naval Academy in Annapolis. My father was in the Navy for over 18 years (although he didn't attend the Academy), and I would love to go visit all of the history there.

This may sound funny, but I'd love to visit the top of the Washington Monument on a clear day. I've lived near DC for the past 23 years, and I have never gone to the top. I've visited all of the other memorials and monuments, but that one has always seemed like too much of a hassle because of the lines.

Similarly, I've travelled to Atlantic City for work dozens of times in the past three years, but I've never actually gone down to Atlantic City itself. I've always stayed close to the airport, where my work was. One of my trips this year, I want to go down and walk on the Boardwalk.

Most of all, I want to find more people to go and do these things with. (If anyone knows anyone who would be interested, let me know.) I don't even have to get to everything on the list this year. I'm already committing to staying in the area for another 5 years or so. I just want to get in the habit of doing trips like this, before I miss out on so many opportunities.

So, if any of you think you might be in the area and interested in some sort of outing or trip like this, please let me know.

A Time for Changes

Well, it's a new year. (Yes, I know I'm a week late. Get over it!) A lot has happened for me, so I guess it's time to review a bit of it.

First of all, I can finally be a bit more specific about my plans for the future. As of January 1, I have enough money in the bank to make the down payment on a house in the DC area. I can now afford to buy a house costing up to $250k.

The only catch is that now I need to find the right house. What does that mean? Well, I'm looking for the following features:

1. Detached, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house (but I'll take more rooms if I can find them). This is important to "future proof" the purchase, and also just to have room to live. After all, if I buy the house, I'll likely be living there for at least 5 years, and who knows where I could be by then. (Married with 3 kids? Certainly possible in theory.) It will also maximize the resale value whenever I do finally sell it.
   
2. It must have natural gas available. If I am buying a house, I want to be able to build my kitchen, and that will require a gas stove. I've spent too long cooking on electric stoves with little or no control over the heat. If it doesn't have a gas stove when I buy it, I need to be able to put one in with a minimum of fuss.
3. My commute cannot get any longer. As it is, it takes me about an hour each way to get to work. I'm not willing to sacrifice even more of my life to my employment. That means that I can't move any farther away from DC than Fairfax, where I currently am. Also, the closer to Metro, the better.
   
4. I would like at least either a basement or a fireplace. Preferably a basement (I can always put in a wood burning stove). The basement should be big enough to give me enough shop space for minor woodworking.
5. Most importantly, it cannot be located in any ward where I either have lived before, or have close relatives. My mother's brother and sister have both lived in their respective wards pretty much since before I was born. I would never be able to effectively build an identity separate from them if I moved into either of their wards. Similarly, I couldn't move into the ward that I grew up in, because it would be too awkward, and I don't think my brother needs me moving into his ward for the same reason.

If all goes well, I'll be able to find the right place and move in by the middle of the year. I'm sure I'll write more about it as it gets to be more of a reality.

This may surprise or shock some of you, but I also have become a certifiable gun nut. I've always enjoyed spending time with quality firearms (they are true marvels of engineering, and it helps that my brother worked for the NRA for 10 years), but I have finally joined the ranks of gun owners. My current collection stands at three guns - a hunting rifle, a handgun (a Colt 1991 .45 - the gun that served as the military's standard from WWI up until the mid-80s, and is still preferred by Special Forces), and a "fun" rifle (a WASR10 - the Romanian semi-automatic version of the AK-47, which is probably the most common rifle in the world because it is so well designed). When I get the chance, I will post some pictures if anyone wants to see them.

But before any of you can get worried, let me just say that there is nothing to fear from any of my guns. I am well trained in all aspects of gun safety, and keep them properly secured whenever they are not in use. The only people who have anything to fear from my guns are those who try to harm either me or my loved ones. Guns are not something to be feared, but they are deserving of respect. As long as they are properly handled, maintained, and stored, they are perfectly safe.

I am also in the process of applying for a CCW (Concealed Carry of Weapons) permit in Virginia. As part of that, I am required to demonstrate proficiency both in using a gun as well as in when not to use a gun. It also requires a lot of study and thought about the law on self defense, and is not something that should be done without careful thought. For me, it will simply be one more tool, in addition to others that I have, to defend myself and my loved ones. It is always better to learn how to use tools before you need them, even though I hope I never need to use them.

Other than that, I have very little I could complain about. I have a good job, good friends, and a good life. My family is all in good health (with the exception of my father's broken leg/ankle - be careful on the ice), I got to meet not one, not two, but three new neices and nephews over Christmas, and I spent some good time with my two older nephews. My brother-in-law is back from a year overseas, and I look forward to seeing him in the next few months. I have some homemade baklava sitting on the table downstairs, just waiting to absorb all of the syrup so I can eat it, and I am feeling healthier than I have in a long time.

Right now, it looks like 2009 will be quite an active and momentous year for me. I've pretty much put my life in order, and am moving myself out of the holding pattern that I've been in for the past year or so. I'm finally getting around to doing several things that I have meant to do for a while (including starting a paper journal).

In other words, life is good! Why should I complain?

It's Official: I'm Old

Last night, I got to attend my 10 year high school reunion. I had a good time, but it's hard to believe that it's already been 10 years since I graduated. That means that I'm just over a year away from hitting 30. Next thing I know, I'll be as old as my older sister, who's an old married woman in her 30s. I'm supposed to still be a young, eligible bachelor! (You know I love you, Em! Just face it, compared to me, you're positively ancient. :p)

Still, it was good to see some old friends and meet some new ones last night. There were quite a few surprises.

I saw a lot of people who couldn't stand each other in high school greet each other like old friends. If anything, that underscores how petty things that seemed important then are when viewed through the lens of time.

Some of the people who were most awkward in high school are now some of the most successful. At the same time, some of the people thought to become the most successful aren't.

A lot of people had trouble recognizing me. I guess contacts and a goatee (not to mention finally putting some meat on my bones) makes a real difference. On the other hand, evidently my voice hasn't changed that much. Several people claimed not to recognize me until I spoke.

In a class of 700+ students, there were a lot of interesting people that I never got the chance to meet in the 2 years I actively attended that school. I look forward to getting to know a few of them better.

Most of my old friends that I lost touch with are doing well and are quite happy. I look forward to staying in touch with them in the future.

Most surprising of all: There was one guy from our class who evidently is no longer a guy. What's even more surprising is that I wasn't surprised that he (she?) did it, once I thought about it.

Most of all, it was a good evening spent with good company. I wish some other friends could have been there, but I understand why they weren't able to attend. All I can do for that is offer a toast from Babylon 5: "To absent friends, in memory still bright." While they couldn't be there in person, they were there in memories, and we all hoped that they could be there next time.