Owning a home comes with new chores responsibilities.  Mowing the lawn is something I haven’t had to do since living with my parents, so it was oddly exciting to start mowing my OWN lawn now that we have a house.

Feeling the pride of home ownership swell, I tromped into the backyard with my newly purchased lawn mower, quickly studying the land.  I notice on one of the stepping bricks, some little ants have attempted to make a mound.  I smush and scatter their home with my shoe, destroying all of their hard work, and I get on to mowing the lawn.

About 3 minutes later, in some sort of unholy synchronization, I feel several stings on my legs.  I frantically start swiping off these once innocent ants.  Of course, the act of swiping only seemed to spread them to other places on my body – including my arms and neck.

At this point, I was confused, and slowly realizing how many times I had been stung.  Michigan has no such little demon ants – I recall playing with ants several times as a boy.  Some days I would take the role of their merciful god and offering them chocolate and other goodies, and other days taking on the role of a benevolent overlord, causing spontaneous combustion with a simply magnifying glass.

Revenge was to be had on these new ants!  It took all of 60 minutes for me to check the internet, identify the assailants, and go to the local store for some fire ant killer.

Revenge was had swiftly, but they certainly left their marks on my legs.  It took a surprisingly long time for those stings to heal, and I think there are still little scars there.

I am happy to report though, our backyard has been fire ant free now for at least a month.  I swear, I’m not cowering inside afraid of my own backyard.

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There are certain items in life that I have come to realize that you really shouldn’t skimp out on.  The problem for me is that my Dutch community upbringing keeps egging me on to pinch pennies.  I have tried to skimp out on many items: “Hey, item X sure looks just as good as item Y, but it is half the cost!  Why wouldn’t I go with X?”  Often, that works out fine, but in certain situations, I urge you to avoid X.  X is the plague.  While they may not be the most glamorous items, they can add quite a bit of functionality and calm to the day to day life.

Umbrella

The inspiration for this post I suppose.  It came to me at work after running through the shallow pond outside that they call a parking lot.  Where I sat completely soaked after (yet another) torrential downpour in Texas.  Unlike Michigan, Texas never really has a light rain or drizzle – it is always raining hard with gusting winds.  Needless to say, my $3.49 Walmart umbrella does just about nothing in this scenario.  I have yet to choose just not to use it and make a run/swim for it, but I swear it does very little to keep me dry.  I spend most of the time trying to make sure it stays in “umbrella” form instead of “bucket” form.

Mouse/Keyboard

Spend 6 to 10 hours a day working on a computer, and that little uncomfortably shaped HP mouse and keyboard may work fine for you, until you try an upgrade.  I am convinced that most people don’t upgrade their mouse and/or keyboard because they think that they are fine with there current hardware.  One point for the “Ignorance is Bliss”mindset I suppose.

Cookware

Do NOT touch that $6 frying pan.  Yeah it looks all new and shiny and non-stick, but 6 months down the road, you will be wishing you had sprung for a more durable one.  The non-stick teflon will be wearing off, the bottom of the pan will no longer be flat, and your food just won’t taste the same.  A nice set of cookware will make cooking all the more enjoyable, hopefully offsetting the extra expense by reducing the number of meals eaten out each month.

Shoes

Runners know this, the rest of us, not so much.  Spend a full day on your feet or go running for anything more than 1 mile and you will understand the importance of a good pair of shoes.

Mattress

Tempting as it is to think you should go with the cheap mattress, you really need to splurge a bit.  Spend the extra couple hundred dollars.  We spend thousands on TVs, Cars, and furniture, and yet we spend more time in our beds than any of those other items.  Not to mention, if you end up upgrading your mattress, and using your old one as the guest bed, your guests will love you all the more.

What are some of the items in your life that you have learned not to buy the cheaper alternative of?  Leave a comment below!

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So, strike that last post, reverse it.

We ended up walking away from that house, towards a nicer house.  The last house, we were forced to work with Haliburton’s Relocation company, which became annoying very quickly.  While the (latest) house doesn’t have a pool, it is on the end of a cauldisac and has lots of windows overlooking the park and lots of trees.  So barring any major event, we think this is the house that we will be moving into June 12.

For your photo viewing pleasure:

2008 05 New House

Now, remember, not all of our junk is in it. I took the pictures while the inspector what doing his thing.

See, the last two houses we put offers on, Jenni sent out big mass emails.  She has not done so yet with this one, due to how the other two turned out.

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Certain decisions in life are like that – the decision causes you to toggle between extreme excitement and extreme panic. Buying a house is one of those events.

I can say with pretty high confidence that as of this past weekend, Jenni and I have bought a house in Fort Worth!

Woah, it is like we are all grown up with ‘real’ jobs and a house now. Maybe that is a part of the freaking out. We won’t move in till mid June, so we have a bit of time yet. I will post more pictures once we actually move in and make it our own a bit. Right now, the pictures certainly have an old person feel to them seeing as the couple we bought the house from is at least in their 60s. Pool Party at my place this summer!

Per Amanda’s request…

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After playing Guitar Hero III on the Wii for countless hours, I’ve come to the conclusion that the game should come with a warning label:

Warning! This product may cause spontaneous air-guitar moves when out in public and one of the contained songs becomes audible. This product is not recommended for those individuals that are easily embarrassed.

I realized this after hitting up Rhar Brewing company for free beer. A guitar hero song came on, and I wasn’t quite sure how I knew the song, but I and a fellow Guitar Hero player both had strange urges to bust some of our best air-guitar moves.

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So I was going through my receipts the other day and found one from JD Reardon’s dated January. I almost tossed it but then I noticed that it said “Discover”. Hmm, that’s weird. I don’t have a Discover card, and yet I signed it…

I looked at what was on it. Wings and a pitcher of PBR. I dug deep into the recesses of my memory to think of what I was doing then. What day was that…?

I looked at the calendar. Aha! That was after the Auto Show down at DeVos. I stopped in for the wings and PBR pitcher special – by myself. Haha, no wonder I signed it! I guess the bar tender must have mixed up the cards.

At first I felt bad for whoever’s card it was. Oh well, it wasn’t much money. Then I got to thinking about what happened to MY card… Great, some dude’s gonna have a $50 tab on ME!

I found nothing. I couldn’t believe it!

And that’s how I got my free beer and hot wings.

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