My friend Sanjaya flew in this afternoon, on a business trip. We were coworkers and good friends, and I was sad when he moved away. It was definitely more enjoyable working with him there than after he left. We learned to snowboard together, played computer games, and golf.
As far as golf, we like the par 3 game the most. Crossroads, a nearby park had a course, so we would leave a little early on nice days and play a round, dragging another friend Ken with us. The Crossroads par 3 course was cheap and convenient, most games lasted about one and half hours, and we could play with just two clubs: the 9 iron and the putter. I like par 3 golf courses so much more than a full length course, mostly because I can hit fairly accurate up to 80 yards or so - any more distance means a much higher chance of veering off to the side. There isn't any hassle with scheduling a tee time and expenses are minimal.
We drove over to see my house, and we went to eat at a favorite restaurant. After getting Ken we drove over to the course and found they made several improvements, including opening a driving range and a clubhouse, and changing the start point.
Back when we played once or twice a week, we had an ongoing competition: whoever lost the match treated for ice cream. We had an elaborate handicapping system designed to even things out, but since it had been over four years, all of us were theoretically equally rusty so we just played.
Sanjaya started out hitting the green with his tee shot, putting the pressure on! Ken landed by a tree and I shot just to the side and short. One tough thing about golf is putting so despite the great first shot, Sanjaya was only up by one stroke.
Par 3 golf moves quickly, which also helps. On hole 4 I managed a birdie, but again, all the fairways are short - this particular hole was only 64 yards from the tee.
We played around and in the end, Ken was the most over par. I ended 8 over par, Sanjaya ended 11 over par, and Ken was 14 over par. So Ken honored our tradition and treated us at the nearby Baskin Robbins. :)
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Cascades Edge Sprint Triathlon
My second warmup event was this morning. While it was cool, overcast, and had recently rained, at least there wasn't any during the event.
I showed up and picked up my registration info, and to my dismay I saw my race number was 666! I know somebody has to have that race number (unless the race just doesn't assign it) and I'm generally not superstitious, but I still didn't like my race number. ;)
Race Number and Cool Hammer Socks
I saw my friend Christina in the transition zone before the race, and she joked that she would be hunting me down. My wave (sprint tri - all men started at 9:00 am) launched 5 minutes before hers, so at least I had a head start!
The swim was cold and as I got in the water I remembered a coworker in Florida telling me that she had never worn a wetsuit for a tri. Apparently the water so nice and warm wetsuits aren't even allowed at many events! I pondered how nice that might be, discounting the flotation and time advantage a wetsuit provides. But, I tend to run cold so maybe I would welcome warmer water.
The race started and I swam to the side to avoid collisions, and fell into a rhythm. After exiting the water I jogged through transition, and carefully put on my biking gear, including a jacket because I felt cold. Past the timing mat I struggled for a few seconds with my gloves as another friend Patricia zoomed by. The bike was uneventful, and felt odd because nobody was passing me! However, I knew I didn't take a wrong turn because I've done four other triathlons at this park and so I knew the bike course. Once I passed the turnaround, I saw Christina and we yelled hello to each other.
The run was two loops of a 1.4 mile path around the lake. This was a trail run which was great because those are a little easier on my feet. The course marking was excellent - last year there was one fork that wasn't well marked but this time someone dumped a lot of chalk to point out the correct way.
Midway through the first lap, my race number payed off: someone yelled "run like the devil" at me as I passed them. :) I finished up 1:27:17, 13/15 in my division and 51/100 overall. I have a little more info on the race over here.
On the drive back, I pulled up behind a car that had a funny bumper sticker. It made me laugh.
Funny Bumper Sticker
Now, I'm off to shower. This time, I'm really going to scrub my calf so get my race number completely off!
I showed up and picked up my registration info, and to my dismay I saw my race number was 666! I know somebody has to have that race number (unless the race just doesn't assign it) and I'm generally not superstitious, but I still didn't like my race number. ;)
Race Number and Cool Hammer Socks
I saw my friend Christina in the transition zone before the race, and she joked that she would be hunting me down. My wave (sprint tri - all men started at 9:00 am) launched 5 minutes before hers, so at least I had a head start!
The swim was cold and as I got in the water I remembered a coworker in Florida telling me that she had never worn a wetsuit for a tri. Apparently the water so nice and warm wetsuits aren't even allowed at many events! I pondered how nice that might be, discounting the flotation and time advantage a wetsuit provides. But, I tend to run cold so maybe I would welcome warmer water.
The race started and I swam to the side to avoid collisions, and fell into a rhythm. After exiting the water I jogged through transition, and carefully put on my biking gear, including a jacket because I felt cold. Past the timing mat I struggled for a few seconds with my gloves as another friend Patricia zoomed by. The bike was uneventful, and felt odd because nobody was passing me! However, I knew I didn't take a wrong turn because I've done four other triathlons at this park and so I knew the bike course. Once I passed the turnaround, I saw Christina and we yelled hello to each other.
The run was two loops of a 1.4 mile path around the lake. This was a trail run which was great because those are a little easier on my feet. The course marking was excellent - last year there was one fork that wasn't well marked but this time someone dumped a lot of chalk to point out the correct way.
Midway through the first lap, my race number payed off: someone yelled "run like the devil" at me as I passed them. :) I finished up 1:27:17, 13/15 in my division and 51/100 overall. I have a little more info on the race over here.
On the drive back, I pulled up behind a car that had a funny bumper sticker. It made me laugh.
Funny Bumper Sticker
Now, I'm off to shower. This time, I'm really going to scrub my calf so get my race number completely off!
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
New Pedals
I had a RAD pedal fit this afternoon (Rotational Adjustment Devices). The RAD fit process involves replacing your pedals with the RAD device, which is a block with a swivel part. Two colored sticks extend from the RAD device, which give a visual feedback to what needs to change in order to angle the cleat to match your biomechanics.
Pedal "float" is the angle the pedal allows your foot to move through (think of your heel as swiveling around). Foot swivel in turn rotates the tibia, which in turn rotates inside the knee joint, so getting fitted means matching the cleat angle to keep everything aligned.
Mike at Sammamish Valley Cycles adjusted my right cleat quickly. But, he couldn't get my left cleat adjusted. After fiddling with it for a while, and moving it to its maximum adjustment, he said that I need more pedal float for a proper fit. I looked down and indeed, the angle formed by the red and white sticks was indeed just slightly off.
The suggested new pedal system was Look or Speedplay. I have friends who use and love Speedplays, so I decided to go with those, especially since they offer more float than the Look pedals, so I now have Speedplay X/5 pedals on my race bike! Buying new pedals also means getting new bike shoes, so I did that too.
I practiced for a few minutes in the store and the shoes and pedals felt fine. I was able to clip out easily enough, but clipping in was slightly trickier - sometimes my foot would slide right off. No biggie, I am convinced with a little practice on the trainer I'll have it down in no time.
Pedal "float" is the angle the pedal allows your foot to move through (think of your heel as swiveling around). Foot swivel in turn rotates the tibia, which in turn rotates inside the knee joint, so getting fitted means matching the cleat angle to keep everything aligned.
Mike at Sammamish Valley Cycles adjusted my right cleat quickly. But, he couldn't get my left cleat adjusted. After fiddling with it for a while, and moving it to its maximum adjustment, he said that I need more pedal float for a proper fit. I looked down and indeed, the angle formed by the red and white sticks was indeed just slightly off.
The suggested new pedal system was Look or Speedplay. I have friends who use and love Speedplays, so I decided to go with those, especially since they offer more float than the Look pedals, so I now have Speedplay X/5 pedals on my race bike! Buying new pedals also means getting new bike shoes, so I did that too.
I practiced for a few minutes in the store and the shoes and pedals felt fine. I was able to clip out easily enough, but clipping in was slightly trickier - sometimes my foot would slide right off. No biggie, I am convinced with a little practice on the trainer I'll have it down in no time.
House Appraisal
My realtor called up to say an appraiser would stop by in the afternoon. I immediately had an impulse to run home and clean up a bit, but I quickly realized now that my home is off the market, I don't have to have it ready to show all the time.
The appraiser's purpose is to make sure the house appraises for approximately the loan amount. This is to protect the bank from a bad loan, and also reel in the sometimes crazy bidding that goes on in this area. Read this article for more examples of the hot Seattle home market (I hope the Google cache link stays valid for a while).
If somebody bids too high for the house, then they'll have to make up the difference on their own. So for example if a house that is really only worth $300K gets an offer of $400K, the bank will say hey that is great, but we're only loaning you $300K, so then the buyer will need to come up with the remainder from somewhere else.
It apparently went well. One possible issue is the roof - since it needs repair, it is possible the appraiser would say the home only appraises correctly after repairs are completed. If this were to happen, it just means more paper shuffling to file new financing documents and so forth. However, this didn't come up. He just took a few measurements - apparently square footage is the dominant factor in what a home appraises for - and finished up fairly quickly. As my realtor later described, he didn't ask about the roof, and I (my realtor) didn't point it out. :)
The appraiser's purpose is to make sure the house appraises for approximately the loan amount. This is to protect the bank from a bad loan, and also reel in the sometimes crazy bidding that goes on in this area. Read this article for more examples of the hot Seattle home market (I hope the Google cache link stays valid for a while).
If somebody bids too high for the house, then they'll have to make up the difference on their own. So for example if a house that is really only worth $300K gets an offer of $400K, the bank will say hey that is great, but we're only loaning you $300K, so then the buyer will need to come up with the remainder from somewhere else.
It apparently went well. One possible issue is the roof - since it needs repair, it is possible the appraiser would say the home only appraises correctly after repairs are completed. If this were to happen, it just means more paper shuffling to file new financing documents and so forth. However, this didn't come up. He just took a few measurements - apparently square footage is the dominant factor in what a home appraises for - and finished up fairly quickly. As my realtor later described, he didn't ask about the roof, and I (my realtor) didn't point it out. :)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Blue Lake Olympic Triathlon
This morning was the kickoff of my tri season, which so far consists of three events: two warmup triathlons, and IMCdA.
I drove down yesterday afternoon, and met up with Jennifer and her husband Duncan, and some other triathletes Jen knows because they are all working with Coach Cal of Critical Speed. We met at an Olive Garden, and the waiters came in pushing bottles of wine... but a group of triathletes, most of whom were racing the next morning, is a tough crowd to sell alcohol to! We settled on our dinners and eventually left stuffed.
The morning was overcast, drizzly and chilly (mid 50's), so not the greatest weather. But, all I wanted out of this event was to shake the rust off from the long winter of training, and get some practice participating in a tri again. I'm not quite so amazing as Francesca to open my season with an Ironman. ;)
The race went pretty well - I knew before going in that I was going to take it easy. These last few weeks are the so-called "taper" phase for me, where I still workout but mostly rest up for the main event. So I paced myself conservatively and had a pretty good time. I feel fortunate I didn't have any bike issues, because I was working on mine off and on for a few hours yesterday: putting my race wheels together and making various tweaks and adjustments. Plus, the spectre of the dreaded flat tire - they are more common in rainy weather because junk sticks to a wet tire better, and then sometimes it will work through and eventually cause a puncture. I passed at least a dozen others who were on the side of the road fixing flats.
I'm a bit on the cold side, so I bundled up with a long sleeve jersey, jackets, and full-fingered bike gloves, for the bike ride. Just seeing some others in short sleeve jerseys made me cold. I even wore my skull-cap (the orange thing on my head in the pic) which helps keep me warm.
Blue Lake Oly 2005
A photo of me after the event, with my race bike. I finally got around to putting on my race wheels, and now I think my race bike looks really cool. ;)
Total time was 3:05:52. Not the fastest effort I've done on this course, but it was a solid training day for me, which was my goal. I have a little more detail on the event over on my training blog.
I drove down yesterday afternoon, and met up with Jennifer and her husband Duncan, and some other triathletes Jen knows because they are all working with Coach Cal of Critical Speed. We met at an Olive Garden, and the waiters came in pushing bottles of wine... but a group of triathletes, most of whom were racing the next morning, is a tough crowd to sell alcohol to! We settled on our dinners and eventually left stuffed.
The morning was overcast, drizzly and chilly (mid 50's), so not the greatest weather. But, all I wanted out of this event was to shake the rust off from the long winter of training, and get some practice participating in a tri again. I'm not quite so amazing as Francesca to open my season with an Ironman. ;)
The race went pretty well - I knew before going in that I was going to take it easy. These last few weeks are the so-called "taper" phase for me, where I still workout but mostly rest up for the main event. So I paced myself conservatively and had a pretty good time. I feel fortunate I didn't have any bike issues, because I was working on mine off and on for a few hours yesterday: putting my race wheels together and making various tweaks and adjustments. Plus, the spectre of the dreaded flat tire - they are more common in rainy weather because junk sticks to a wet tire better, and then sometimes it will work through and eventually cause a puncture. I passed at least a dozen others who were on the side of the road fixing flats.
I'm a bit on the cold side, so I bundled up with a long sleeve jersey, jackets, and full-fingered bike gloves, for the bike ride. Just seeing some others in short sleeve jerseys made me cold. I even wore my skull-cap (the orange thing on my head in the pic) which helps keep me warm.
Blue Lake Oly 2005
A photo of me after the event, with my race bike. I finally got around to putting on my race wheels, and now I think my race bike looks really cool. ;)
Total time was 3:05:52. Not the fastest effort I've done on this course, but it was a solid training day for me, which was my goal. I have a little more detail on the event over on my training blog.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Better Movies
After the disappointing Napoleon Dynamite, I watched the far superior and all around excellent movie The Shawshank Redemption.
I apparently was living under a rock for never seeing it. I'd summarize the plot but everyone else has seen it so there isn't any point. ;) Let's just say this movie is all about friendship, courage, patience, redemption, survival, justice, and above all hope. I highly recommend seeing this, and if you already have, check out some movie trivia. The movie was so good, I'm planning to buy the DVD special edition.
I also watched a documentary called Running on the Sun, about the 1999 edition of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135 mile running event that starts in Badwater (Death Valley, CA) and finishes at Whitney Portals (Mt. Whitney, CA).
I couldn't believe what these people were subjecting themselves to: sleep deprivation, blister and toenail problems. Heck, the sheer idea of running in a desert with daytime temperatures above 130 degrees F seems like lunacy to me. Still, it was interesting to watch, just to see that there are crazier people than me out there.
I apparently was living under a rock for never seeing it. I'd summarize the plot but everyone else has seen it so there isn't any point. ;) Let's just say this movie is all about friendship, courage, patience, redemption, survival, justice, and above all hope. I highly recommend seeing this, and if you already have, check out some movie trivia. The movie was so good, I'm planning to buy the DVD special edition.
I also watched a documentary called Running on the Sun, about the 1999 edition of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135 mile running event that starts in Badwater (Death Valley, CA) and finishes at Whitney Portals (Mt. Whitney, CA).
I couldn't believe what these people were subjecting themselves to: sleep deprivation, blister and toenail problems. Heck, the sheer idea of running in a desert with daytime temperatures above 130 degrees F seems like lunacy to me. Still, it was interesting to watch, just to see that there are crazier people than me out there.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Home Inspection
Another installment in the ongoing tale of selling my house... ;)
Mona, my realtor, got the buyer's home inspection report back, and told me to sit down before she summarized it. The buyers were asking for a little over $11,000 off the price of the home!
We met to go over the report, and found they listed a lot of nit-picky things. Items such as "sliding glass door sticks" for which they wanted $150 to fix. Fix windows that have broken seals, $600. Replace partially rotted deck stair, $150. Fix pocket door, $150. Fix support beam under house, $350. They also put down "add fan to bathroom" for $500, "new water heater" for $500, and of course the big one "replace roof" $8000.
Instead of any fixes, they just wanted the cash transferred to them in what my realtor called an escrow holdback. This is very unusual, and after a few phone calls, my realtor found that their own lender was unwilling to do this. Since we didn't want to do the escrow holdback, this was good news as she could show to the buyers their own bank didn't want to do it.
Mona commented that half the items they listed were cosmetic and expected in a 25 year old home - if the buyers want new water heaters and things like that, they should look into buying a new home. Plus, all the prices were inflated. She also said it was odd to basically ask a seller to begin renovations for them, such as adding a bathroom fan. Same goes with GFCI outlets (I have a few, but none in the kitchen) - while that is the current spec, when my house was built it wasn't. Again, if you want a home that meets current codes, buy a new house, or do these sorts of improvement after the purchase.
We went through the list and marked the "must fixes" which we had to do for any seller. There were only three of these: the roof, the windows, and an allowance for a support beam under the house. For this, we counter-offered $7000, to be applied towards their closing costs. I got a bid on replacing the roof for $6300, for fixing the windows for $400, and we decided to allow the support beam cost since by the time we got someone out to check for us, it would cost that much anyway.
I decided if they wouldn't accept this, I'd back out and put the home back on the market.
Later in the day Mona called and said the counter-offer on the home inspection report was accepted! The $7000 was split partially towards closing costs and partially towards the price of the home, so the official sale price is now $363,500. I think this is pretty good considering my next door neighbors sold their home a few months ago for $365,000.
Now, the process moves along to the bank, which will send an appraiser to check the home appraises for about the amount of the loan. I guess this is a step to verify the bank won't have a bad loan, if there is a default.
Mona, my realtor, got the buyer's home inspection report back, and told me to sit down before she summarized it. The buyers were asking for a little over $11,000 off the price of the home!
We met to go over the report, and found they listed a lot of nit-picky things. Items such as "sliding glass door sticks" for which they wanted $150 to fix. Fix windows that have broken seals, $600. Replace partially rotted deck stair, $150. Fix pocket door, $150. Fix support beam under house, $350. They also put down "add fan to bathroom" for $500, "new water heater" for $500, and of course the big one "replace roof" $8000.
Instead of any fixes, they just wanted the cash transferred to them in what my realtor called an escrow holdback. This is very unusual, and after a few phone calls, my realtor found that their own lender was unwilling to do this. Since we didn't want to do the escrow holdback, this was good news as she could show to the buyers their own bank didn't want to do it.
Mona commented that half the items they listed were cosmetic and expected in a 25 year old home - if the buyers want new water heaters and things like that, they should look into buying a new home. Plus, all the prices were inflated. She also said it was odd to basically ask a seller to begin renovations for them, such as adding a bathroom fan. Same goes with GFCI outlets (I have a few, but none in the kitchen) - while that is the current spec, when my house was built it wasn't. Again, if you want a home that meets current codes, buy a new house, or do these sorts of improvement after the purchase.
We went through the list and marked the "must fixes" which we had to do for any seller. There were only three of these: the roof, the windows, and an allowance for a support beam under the house. For this, we counter-offered $7000, to be applied towards their closing costs. I got a bid on replacing the roof for $6300, for fixing the windows for $400, and we decided to allow the support beam cost since by the time we got someone out to check for us, it would cost that much anyway.
I decided if they wouldn't accept this, I'd back out and put the home back on the market.
Later in the day Mona called and said the counter-offer on the home inspection report was accepted! The $7000 was split partially towards closing costs and partially towards the price of the home, so the official sale price is now $363,500. I think this is pretty good considering my next door neighbors sold their home a few months ago for $365,000.
Now, the process moves along to the bank, which will send an appraiser to check the home appraises for about the amount of the loan. I guess this is a step to verify the bank won't have a bad loan, if there is a default.
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