deer creek lane

oh yes ... our fort wayne home is on the market again after our renters ditched us a few months early ... which works for me because it positions us for the peak selling season for homes.

the home is VERY competitively priced. homes with similar square footage are on the market in glens of liberty mills for at least $15,000 more! it's a great home and i wish we could move it to arizona! the home is meticulously clean thanks to my parents and in-laws - who we can't thank enough for getting it ready to sell!

if you know anyone who is looking for a home in the fort wayne area, please send them this link. the slideshow link will direct them to a quick webpage i made that will allow them to schedule a showing.

i learned about this fancy little "sprout" thing today from that weird website i blogged about earlier. pretty cool stuff. if you have a myspace page or facebook or whatnot, you can add it my clicking on "share" below the slideshow.

anyway, direct the people to me because if i find a buyer myself i can direct them to a real estate agent other than the listing agent and collect a referral fee since i am licensed in arizona.

thanks!

save money. get an iPhone.

I love technology - but I love it even more when it saves me money. Today, Stacey and I went to Staples to get a new office chair. We found the one we wanted for $171 - a bit more than we wanted to spend. I jumped on my iPhone and did a price comparison for the chair ... low and behold it was available on a website for $139. I asked if they'd price match it, showed them my iPhone with the price and free shipping the site was offering ... and STAPLES matched it. NICE!

Do that a couple of times a month with any purchase and the damn phone plan and the phone will pay for itself! Good thing I don't pay for my plan ... but it's another benefit of getting with the times! Everyone should have an iPhone.

what the hell is this?

have you seen this website yet?  it's been creating a little web buzz but nobody knows what it is ... hmmm.

off to buy a new office chair.  stacey's back has been killing her due to our very unsupportive, old chair.

It's official ...

Stacey's been stressed so naturally her back is tense.  Tonight, I was giving her a back massage and she was laying on her stomach when all of a sudden she jumped up and yelled "holy shit!"  I said, "Shit!?? What's wrong?"

Yes, that's the reaction we had when Stacey first felt the baby move.

It kept kicking or tugging or whatever babies do at 17 weeks while I was giving her a massage.  

We were at the doctor on Cinco de Mayo and the doctor said we have a lively one on our hands - it was kicking and moving around quite a bit (probably realizing it was Cinco de Mayo and was ready to party just like mommy and daddy).

Do we want to be called "mommy" and "daddy?"  Hmm ...

Brad's Tucson Trip ...

Well, I spent the last two days in beautiful Tucson.  Usually I think of Tucson as a dirty, nasty town but for some reason it didn't bother me this time.  In fact, I finally found some very good restaurants (which in my rating system is a requirement for making a town acceptable).  Maybe it's because the last time I went to Tucson for work I went with another person and he annoyed me and wanted to eat at Red Lobster.

Anyway, I went to Tucson on Monday afternoon (for work, again, in case you missed that).  I stayed at "The Varsity Clubs of America."  It happened to be half hotel and half interval ownership suites which in everyday talk means time share.  Funny thing.  I was looking at the other properties available and one of them was Rancho Manana in Cave Creek, Arizona.  To most of us this means nothing - but it's actually a resort owned by my friend Matt's family.  I've only been there once but it was beautiful.  It was ironic to me because the "hotel" I was staying in was nothing spectacular.  I'd never spend more than the $125 a night my company was paying for me to stay there yet this beautiful resort in Cave Creek (just north of Phoenix) was also an option.  Huh.

I was supposed to be in Tucson all week but it seems that the world's largest communication company has issues communicating.  The work force I was supposed to be training was at a different training all week so my first class on Tuesday only had three people - which was fine because they were all business reps.  I was supposed to have an afternoon class on Tuesday as well but it was cancelled early last week.  So, I asked the participants in the class where I should go hiking.  They recommended a place called "Sabino Canyon," which is where I ended up going. 

I hiked a total of about 5.5 miles round trip and went up 2,500 feet.

Here are some pictures from the hike:  Click here.

I've decided I've gotten a little to plump and made a promise to myself to not be a fatty when my child is born.  I also made a semi-intoxicated promise to my brother's girlfriend, Kelly, that I'd do a mini-triathlon on September 6.  Therefore, I've been picking up on the working out and overall activity since May 1.  I am hoping to do that triathlon ...

Today, after I went to the hotel where I was conducting training and nobody showed up, I decided to drive to Mt. Lemmon which is only about fifteen miles east of Tucson but about 30 miles of road and an hour of time.  When I thought (ten years ago) I was going to go to The University of Arizona I had read about Mt. Lemmon which promised snow skiing in winter which amazed me considering the winters in Tucson were usually in the 70's.  So, since I had nothing to do today I took that drive to see what all the talk was about ...

The drive starts at the entrance to the Coronado National Forest.  It's 100% desert with huge saguaro cacti powering through the rocky desert floor.  That was an artistic sentence, wow.  Five minutes later, due to the altitude, there are no longer any cacti, just small bushes.  Twenty minutes into the drive pine trees begin to appear.  By the time you get to 8000+ feet you are amidst a dense pine forest ... pretty amazing to see everything from desert to deciduous to pine in one one-hour drive!

Here are some pictures from that drive:  Click here.

I was planning on hiking today too but I got the "go ahead" while driving up to Mt. Lemmon to cancel the rest of my classes and go back home so I decided to do that instead.  But, to keep up with my "training" I did work out right when I got home.  Then I ate a great pasta bake I made for us for dinner.  I need to work on the "good eating."