stuff before move.....

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving with either friends or family (or both). We had a nice quiet time with a few friends. It was nice. Did not go anywhere on "Black Friday", though I saw from Casey's posts he purchased a new TV.

If you did not see, there was a tragedy at the WalMart in Valley Stream, New York (last town on Long Island before it becomes "the city"). Let's see what legal charges and lawsuits come out of this event. Maybe then some retailer will think twice before doing these "teaser" ads next year.

I have been doing a ton of little things concerning the office, the upcoming tax season, the move, and the new house. There are so many little things in different areas that need to be done, it seems like I can't get any of the "piles" to get any lower. I finally decided to take care of the office / tax season first, and leave the house / move for after the holiday.

At this time of year, I have to get "year-end notes" to the business clients so that, so that they can start getting those last few figures together to tie in their year-end numbers. With our short schedule (25 days from today we leave SD) I just needed to get this done earlier then usual, but at least it is "off my desk".

The other project I finished was getting a letter to all my clients with the new office information. Luckily, I have a good "employee" (who didn't complain too much) who labeled and stuffed about 250 envelopes. Plus, she gets paid in parental love. Once the new business cards come in, we'll throw them in, close the envelopes and mail them out.

On the house front, I have been moving around on getting a mortgage. We are already approved and set-up with the NC State Employees Credit Union, as Morgan had banked with them forever, and we have always used them for our mortgages since we moved to NC in 1993. Well, a client through a "fly into the ointment", and has been able to get me a lower rate (by 3/8%), and lower fees (about $400). It is hard for us to move from SECU, but for a 20 year mortgage, this is a $17,000 savings. Can't pass that up. If SECU lowers the rate in the next week or so, we'll stay with them, otherwise we will have to cancel the application with them.

Then yesterday, my client's site changed their 15 year mortgage to under 5%, so that is now something else for me to think about. Ugh!

Was able to get new phone numbers set up, and internet service installed the afternoon after we close on the house. If I wasn't forced to have a "land line" because of the office, I would look at alternatives, because basic phone service pricing is out of control. Could have sworn in I remember AT&T being broken up years ago for having a monopoly, and now after all these years, they are back again to controlling it all.

The next morning, DirecTV will be installed. I hope I have the sightlines for the dish to get a signal. I would have thought about using Time Warner, but their high definition service and their HD-DVR has just been a nightmare as of late. Between the boxes not recording because they need a "reboot", or they just rebooting on their own at any given time, we have had more problems with Time Warner Cable in the past 16 months, then I ever had with DirecTV in the ten years time I subscribed to them.

We also hope on that evening after we close to get our refrigerator and Cassie's bed delivered to the house. And maybe if we get lucky, also have the blinds installed that afternoon/evening.

OK, my head hurts again just thinking about it, so I'll stop for now. :-)

The Hurricanes beat the Flyers yesterday in overtime, 3-2, which snapped the Canes 3 game losing streak, as well as the Flyers' 6 game winning streak. I know the Canes have injuries, but they better get more consistent if they want to make the playoffs, and not be looking from the outside for the third straight year. Also they need to win soon to keep Coach Laviolette around. He is not on the greatest relationship terms with management (undeservedly so), so any prolonged slump might be the end for him.

- These people really love "A Christmas Story".
- The iPhone killer? Blackberry & Verizon hope so.
- Really, a Shrek Christmas special?

Until the next time.....