08/15/2009 -Eastern- Tortola Treasure Seekers Part 2

[kritter]

Morning ABBY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Morning ABBY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

What???

No "good morning" fer me Kristen?

Sigh.... ?

< snif - snif >

​

 

[kritter]

What???

No "good morning" fer me Kristen?

Sigh.... ?

< snif - snif >

​

MORNING CRASH!!!!!!! MISSED YOUR BACK ??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kritter]

Hello folks!

Just swinging by ta say hello... lurk a little ... I've been blessed to have been given this lingering FLU + a non-stop schedule with visiting relatives, friends and just plain chaos on account of so many other things interferring with my DIS time.... and having found a moment to visit here I just noticed this sequence of recent comments that left me thinking something similar... but for different reasons...

Crash,

Glad to see you back and "lurking" among us....................................................We are going to be counting on you to come up with some "lively" posts...............................................................





Now I understand how all this must seem a bit ... suspicious ....

As a SAHD who's still running a business of 20+ years (however with less intensity as a SAHD) I've embraced the child caring chores and rituals we've all come to expect as familiar: The visits to local parks, parties, dance, gymnastics, soccer, etc... and as such .... I've sort of noticed how there are penny clusters of Moms in another little "world" all by themselves. Not to say I would have expected to have been approached as an unknown male element by Mothers tending their kids alone - which is common ... as this sometimes might seem a bit ackward if taken the wrong way by some ... so I understand. However, there sometimes seems to be a bit of what's been described.

On the other hand - I do believe there is a harmless element too. As I have "our neighbor friends" whom I'll engage in active conversation when we encounter one another. And this may seem to others as if we're shouldering them aside. So the opposite can occurr too.

As a result I tend to subscribe to the belief that there is little down-the-nose treatment being exercised out there. Well, yes... sometimes there will be too - but on balance - most folks are caught up with similar circumstances in our own respective communities. It takes the same commmittments and routines to ARRIVE at a particular dance or athletic event/practice... and I believe folks are pretty much BUSY with life. I confess to sometimes - ok, maybe OFTEN - showing up with a child in tow and in a hurry - maybe late. And it takes me a few minutes to get settled and ... dare I say, socialable. Knowing this - toss in that these kids diversions are just 45 minutes long or so - and most of the time we're focused watching our kids, on a cell phone or reading something. Leaving little wiggle room to "mix".

Well... I guess what I'm trying to say is the invisible barriers we sense may not be all that "real". It may not really be all that insidious or planned by others to be "closed" or "snobbish" to "us". So - I would encourage a lite hearted, tolerant attitude. AND... having said THAT.... in counter-point.... I tend to be gregarious and thick skinned sometimes. My spouse would probably chime in now and add that I'm also thick-headed too. However, as I admit to being a bit extroverted ... I tend to have little trouble in engaging folks whom I want to chat with in spite of any predisposition or barrier driven body language. It's in my nature to possess mild persistance in pursueing a little conversation if I want to chat with someone. SO - when there's no chatting ... in part it's beacuse I don't want it either.

At any rate - I wuz just swinging by to take a glance. I happened to notice this thread on the meet list and thought I'd pop in. I've been lurking a lot more then posting in the last 2 months with the schedule and FLU I've had (as previosly mentioned - and yes - I am a bit anal retentive ... I know) ... as the holidays + social calandar was overwelming combined with the lite travel we undertook. Only now are things beginning to relax a bit. But only just so cuz I still have a tidy backlog of chores and business to attend to.

OK.... gonna go now .... I hope everyones' been well... happy and safe. I swing by from time to time - but tend to focus a little more on the upcoming sailing I have in Aug of '08 before I turn to Aug of '09. So, I promise to try and visit here more often. Almost certainly I'll post a lot more after the PCREPO this Aug.

Cheers!

Crash,

Glad to see you back and "lurking" among us....................................................We are going to be counting on you to come up with some "lively" posts...............................................................

 

[captaincrash]

Yeah...

I had some "business" which sort of awakened me this mornin' ... an' you know me... the nite owl .... once up I found myself wanderin' around... checking emails and shopping ebay. The usual drill ... especially since my schedule has a bit of normalcy on the horizon ....

Hoz it with ya in your neck of the woods? Anything new goin' on?

And "good mornin'" ta' you too K...​

 

[kritter]

Yeah...

I had some "business" which sort of awakened me this mornin' ... an' you know me... the nite owl .... once up I found myself wanderin' around... checking emails and shopping ebay. The usual drill ... especially since my schedule has a bit of normalcy on the horizon ....

Hoz it with ya in your neck of the woods? Anything new goin' on?

And "good mornin'" ta' you too K...​

Morning Crash,

Anything new you ask?? Well, we just contracted a contractor to put an addition onto the house...And still trying to get over the staph infection I got from my surgery................And you ????????????????

 

[captaincrash]

Crash,

Glad to see you back and "lurking" among us....................................................We are going to be counting on you to come up with some "lively" posts...............................................................

Lively?

What on Earth ARE you talking about K?​

 

[kritter]

Lively?

What on Earth ARE you talking about K?​

Your posts always seem to "liven" things up..I count on them for some FUN humor...........Keep 'em coming..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Morning Crash,

Anything new you ask?? Well, we just contracted a contractor to put an addition onto the house...And still trying to get over the staph infection I got from my surgery................And you ????????????????

Oooo....

.... that sounds like some real "fun". As you may recall - we've seen a couple of contractors over the YEARS - as to adding an addition. Still - we had not done anything yet - as you might recall we were gonna add solar power to our home. Us being the enternal "green" advocates... but that has been weighing in the balance of uncertainty since my investigation suggests we use too little power to have this make much sense. Plus the technology is emerging (supposedly) that will make future solar arrays far more practical - even for low volume consumers like ourselves.

Aside from that - we've got sadnes for some of our neighbors and friends since thier employer Countrywide was acquired by B of A. Friends with good or great jobs are facing job loss (or already been let go) as a result of the mortgage melt down and subsequent weakness at Countrywide. On top of that Amgen - the other major employer in our community has been showing some weakness as well - and letting a few hundred or thousand go too.

On the flip side - this all points to better "buying" opportunities for real estate - which is an area of interest for us. And you may recall we were in the market to acquire with the emerging downturn. Thus we had another reason to wait on the side lines with major projects.

At any rate - things are cool here... just been busy lately.

 

[kritter]

Oooo....

.... that sounds like some real "fun". As you may recall - we've seen a couple of contractors over the YEARS - as to adding an addition. Still - we had not done anything yet - as you might recall we were gonna add solar power to our home. Us being the enternal "green" advocates... but that has been weighing in the balance of uncertainty since my investigation suggests we use too little power to have this make much sense. Plus the technology is emerging (supposedly) that will make future solar arrays far more practical - even for low volume consumers like ourselves.

Aside from that - we've got sadnes for some of our neighbors and friends since thier employer Countrywide was acquired by B of A. Friends with good or great jobs are facing job loss (or already been let go) as a result of the mortgage melt down and subsequent weakness at Countrywide. On top of that Amgen - the other major employer in our community has been showing some weakness as well - and letting a few hundred or thousand go too.

On the flip side - this all points to better "buying" opportunities for real estate - which is an area of interest for us. And you may recall we were in the market to acquire with the emerging downturn. Thus we had another reason to wait on the side lines with major projects.

At any rate - things are cool here... just been busy lately.

Soo sorry to hear about your friends. I did hear about Countrywide. Terrible, for your friends what will they do???

Now you will be "buying" up more properties and adding to what you already have.

Our addition will be about 700 plus square feet. A large four seasons room with a bathroom and laundry out there too in a sep. room not in the bathroom. SO when the kids come in from the pool they will have a bathroom etc. Then the four seasons room with the heating in the floor radiant heating Then a Giant Master Bathroom above it. Two closets his and hers. One will be mine one Bruce's mine is bigger by two feet....LOL!!!!!!! Then a big tub, shower and a toliet in a sep. room.. Love that. We each will have our own vanities, etc. and linen closets..Going to be a HUGE undertaking but will make things the way we have wanted them to be. When we built the house these were the things we wanted to change then..Also, my laundry room now is going to have a built in with a bench etc. So it will turn into a mud room off of our garage........So that is it in a nut shell........Bet, your sorry you asked Crash....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

Soo sorry to hear about your friends. I did hear about Countrywide. Terrible, for your friends what will they do???

Now you will be "buying" up more properties and adding to what you already have.

Our addition will be about 700 plus square feet. A large four seasons room with a bathroom and laundry out there too in a sep. room not in the bathroom. SO when the kids come in from the pool they will have a bathroom etc. Then the four seasons room with the heating in the floor radiant heating Then a Giant Master Bathroom above it. Two closets his and hers. One will be mine one Bruce's mine is bigger by two feet....LOL!!!!!!! Then a big tub, shower and a toliet in a sep. room.. Love that. We each will have our own vanities, etc. and linen closets..Going to be a HUGE undertaking but will make things the way we have wanted them to be. When we built the house these were the things we wanted to change then..Also, my laundry room now is going to have a built in with a bench etc. So it will turn into a mud room off of our garage........So that is it in a nut shell........Bet, your sorry you asked Crash....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nawwww..... <wink>

I'm NEVER sorry ta ask anything - especially anything of you K. U may recall the plan for us was to be something similar - except we were wrangling over keeping it under 500' as that would have saved us a little in zoning and permits - and we would have used the extra footage to add a grand bathroom suite for the master - with mostly a huge closet for my dear sweet spouse. Something she would exploit to the fullest even more so. Plus modeat expansion on two bedrooms to make them ... big. This would have triggerred redesign / remodeling inside the existing house to add another bathroom - something we could use but really don't need - and possibly some other minor changes which my spouse dismessed as nonsense.

Of course, my 1st plan was for the LARGER addition - but I'll not go into that since we now know the hillside would have required costly engineering which I did not want to get into - once we discovered that.

Aside from all that - we've actually been bidding on RE, nothing major and nothing quite as I spoke of in buying stuff for the kids. Just straight up income properties. Really, the idea I spoke of earlier in buying matched houses for our daughters near by was far too fixed and inflexible in thinking - with insufficient merit.... after we reflected some. To think... we were wanting to PLAN where our daughters would LIVE down the road and they're only 4 and 6 now! Well... in reality - stuff we have in excess now is still earmarked for their needs down the road so it does not matter either way, eh?

At any rate, back to talk of additions ... we always wanted to keep it all on 1 level. Did you know that something like the 3rd leading cause of death behind heart disease, auto accidents and cancer was falling down stairs? Or something like that at least? SO.... we've had a quirky desire to keep it flat. Plus - we have a nice sized (for our neighborhood) lot - but NOTHING like some folks have outside of California... or major cities in general. On the other hand... some folks have major stretches of land out here too in our neighborhood - but in our particular neighborhood it hangs near 11,000' at the max - which is what I have - except about 20% of that is hillside .... bringing us back into line as a normal lot... RATS!

As for our friends facing job change.... In one case - a bible study friend of ours was a VP overseeing the repackaging of mortgage paper to be sold in the secondary market. ANd that is PRECISELY what Countrywide could NOT do any longer when the notes started defaulting in greater numbers. So here was my pal with NO work to do and a train wreck of work which could NOT be sold! They essentially dissolved his "section" and he has been out of work for about 1.5 months now.

He has spoken of reinventing himself or simply starting a new business from savings. He has an MBA and is about to finish on a 2nd MBA from a more prestigious University. SO I think he's in a quandry of being overqualified - demanding too high a salery - and having precisely the wrong sort of experience to transfer over to another firm. So - it is very difficult to say the least. Fortunate for him he has a ton of money banked and lots of equity in his home. SO he's been actually kind of patient in his pursuits - while at the same time urgent about taking on a new "path".

Many of the other folks out here are waiting for the proverbial axe to fall. SO they're getting defensive or searching for new work NOW.

Aside from that - most of the real esate locally is not priced right for us to buy since the rents are still trailing too poorly. SO - any moves we make are gonna be strictly money makers going IN ... not necessarily long haul plans. WHich is not necessarily our first choice - which is why our bidding activity has been out of state - where sweeter bargains can be had.

At any rate...

... on another topic - we've got a little skiing trip planned for presidents' day weekend, and a vegas trip again set for May as we have cousins from Hawaii going into Sin City for a girls soccer tournament - which we'll hang with as observers. And over spring break we are developing plans to visit Yosemite again. And of course, there's Boston in June. And our the outer limit of planning is the multi-family visit to Italy in 2009 with a cruise + this Tortola sailing. So - it's a sort of busy near term travel schedule we're sorting through now... or at least busy fer us by our standards.

Ya got some travel in your schedule K?

 

[captaincrash]

Morning Crash,

Anything new you ask?? Well, we just contracted a contractor to put an addition onto the house...And still trying to get over the staph infection I got from my surgery................And you ????????????????

K...

You did know about my flu and intense cough fromthese past few weeks, right? Well... it's mostly subsided. However, one of the girls came down with a fever recently... however, it turned out to be viral and ran its' course in 72 hours. Still - that was totally disruptive for those 3 days.

SO - I hope your recovery is coming along well. I've read very little of this thread so don't know much of what transpired prior to now.

I gotta go now though - the kids need me and it's on to other "chores" after that!

C-ya all later!

 

[kritter]

Nawwww..... <wink>

I'm NEVER sorry ta ask anything - especially anything of you K. U may recall the plan for us was to be something similar - except we were wrangling over keeping it under 500' as that would have saved us a little in zoning and permits - and we would have used the extra footage to add a grand bathroom suite for the master - with mostly a huge closet for my dear sweet spouse. Something she would exploit to the fullest even more so. Plus modeat expansion on two bedrooms to make them ... big. This would have triggerred redesign / remodeling inside the existing house to add another bathroom - something we could use but really don't need - and possibly some other minor changes which my spouse dismessed as nonsense.

Of course, my 1st plan was for the LARGER addition - but I'll not go into that since we now know the hillside would have required costly engineering which I did not want to get into - once we discovered that.

Aside from all that - we've actually been bidding on RE, nothing major and nothing quite as I spoke of in buying stuff for the kids. Just straight up income properties. Really, the idea I spoke of earlier in buying matched houses for our daughters near by was far too fixed and inflexible in thinking - with insufficient merit.... after we reflected some. To think... we were wanting to PLAN where our daughters would LIVE down the road and they're only 4 and 6 now! Well... in reality - stuff we have in excess now is still earmarked for their needs down the road so it does not matter either way, eh?

At any rate, back to talk of additions ... we always wanted to keep it all on 1 level. Did you know that something like the 3rd leading cause of death behind heart disease, auto accidents and cancer was falling down stairs? Or something like that at least? SO.... we've had a quirky desire to keep it flat. Plus - we have a nice sized (for our neighborhood) lot - but NOTHING like some folks have outside of California... or major cities in general. On the other hand... some folks have major stretches of land out here too in our neighborhood - but in our particular neighborhood it hangs near 11,000' at the max - which is what I have - except about 20% of that is hillside .... bringing us back into line as a normal lot... RATS!

As for our friends facing job change.... In one case - a bible study friend of ours was a VP overseeing the repackaging of mortgage paper to be sold in the secondary market. ANd that is PRECISELY what Countrywide could NOT do any longer when the notes started defaulting in greater numbers. So here was my pal with NO work to do and a train wreck of work which could NOT be sold! They essentially dissolved his "section" and he has been out of work for about 1.5 months now.

He has spoken of reinventing himself or simply starting a new business from savings. He has an MBA and is about to finish on a 2nd MBA from a more prestigious University. SO I think he's in a quandry of being overqualified - demanding too high a salery - and having precisely the wrong sort of experience to transfer over to another firm. So - it is very difficult to say the least. Fortunate for him he has a ton of money banked and lots of equity in his home. SO he's been actually kind of patient in his pursuits - while at the same time urgent about taking on a new "path".

Many of the other folks out here are waiting for the proverbial axe to fall. SO they're getting defensive or searching for new work NOW.

Aside from that - most of the real esate locally is not priced right for us to buy since the rents are still trailing too poorly. SO - any moves we make are gonna be strictly money makers going IN ... not necessarily long haul plans. WHich is not necessarily our first choice - which is why our bidding activity has been out of state - where sweeter bargains can be had.

At any rate...

... on another topic - we've got a little skiing trip planned for presidents' day weekend, and a vegas trip again set for May as we have cousins from Hawaii going into Sin City for a girls soccer tournament - which we'll hang with as observers. And over spring break we are developing plans to visit Yosemite again. And of course, there's Boston in June. And our the outer limit of planning is the multi-family visit to Italy in 2009 with a cruise + this Tortola sailing. So - it's a sort of busy near term travel schedule we're sorting through now... or at least busy fer us by our standards.

Ya got some travel in your schedule K?

Additions are such a BIG headache,. I'm wondering why we are deciding to do this now??LOL!!!!!! IT will all be worth it in the long run though I guess., Hey, how did the bunk beds come out..?????

Travel you ask?? Well you know with us it is the usual WDW. April and June and July we will be in Florida...Then Vero Beach too in July. THen the October cruise. We will be going to NYC in May for the weekend, Then going to DC too with DH in May. Other than that oh yes and the Tortola crusie. We will most likely go back to WDW in APril 09 too... Have to see what it is like when we are there this year in April...SO other than that a day trip here or there. We need to spend the summer getting the yard back to "normal" after they wreck havic on it with the additon...


Hope your things turn out "ok" for your friends. It is always nice to talk with you Crash.............

 

[kritter]

K...

You did know about my flu and intense cough fromthese past few weeks, right? Well... it's mostly subsided. However, one of the girls came down with a fever recently... however, it turned out to be viral and ran its' course in 72 hours. Still - that was totally disruptive for those 3 days.

SO - I hope your recovery is coming along well. I've read very little of this thread so don't know much of what transpired prior to now.

I gotta go now though - the kids need me and it's on to other "chores" after that!

C-ya all later!

I hope that the flu thing is better now. Hope had a fever like that too. It was crazy how long it lasted...Hope your all on the mend now....!!!!!Tell Alicia I said Hello tooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Disney Fans]

OMG!! So many pages to read!!
I can't catch up now but hope everyone is doing well!!

We just got back from our trip to WDW this past week and we had fun but boy was it crowed!!!! It was like high season.
We think it was because of a few reasons. Looks like WDW must have gave some kind of deals to families from Brazil ( about 50% of people were from there in the parks) then alot of cheerleading groups and other large groups.
It was crazy but still fun.
We did a rebook for BB for next Aug. Don't know if we can go but better to hold onto the booking. since we could get the BB offer. I am never lucky enough to get a pin code, email or post card offer.

Anyway our Birthday boy had fun turning 8 on this trip!! And his brother had fun also! We all did. We didn't win a dream like we did last Aug. but thats ok, we feel lucky to have at least win one the 1s time!!

Whats up with everyone and hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!!

 

[kritter]

OMG!! So many pages to read!!
I can't catch up now but hope everyone is doing well!!

We just got back from our trip to WDW this past week and we had fun but boy was it crowed!!!! It was like high season.
We think it was because of a few reasons. Looks like WDW must have gave some kind of deals to families from Brazil ( about 50% of people were from there in the parks) then alot of cheerleading groups and other large groups.
It was crazy but still fun.
We did a rebook for BB for next Aug. Don't know if we can go but better to hold onto the booking. since we could get the BB offer. I am never lucky enough to get a pin code, email or post card offer.

Anyway our Birthday boy had fun turning 8 on this trip!! And his brother had fun also! We all did. We didn't win a dream like we did last Aug. but thats ok, we feel lucky to have at least win one the 1s time!!

Whats up with everyone and hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!!

Glad you had a fun Trip... Post some pics. when you get a chance.......................

 

[kritter]

Crash,

Forgot, want to see pics. of the bunk beds when you have a chance............Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hmansure]

Work sucks today.... sitting on a conference call..... my secretary is stoooopid (I know that's not nice or appropriate, but she's driving me nuts today).

Anyone else having fun today?

 

[kritter]

Work sucks today.... sitting on a conference call..... my secretary is stoooopid (I know that's not nice or appropriate, but she's driving me nuts today).

Anyone else having fun today?

Oh gosh, I feel for you .. DH's last secretary was that same way. He is thankfull that he finally got rid of her................

 

[nikkistevej]

I don't feel like being at work either!!!