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You might see a little more content coming from this blog now that I have this theme, as I actually want people to come here now.  Hopefully everyone (or at least a few people) enjoy.

Now you might say to me, “But the budget/deficit are out of control, and we need to get them fixed.” To that, I would agree, but a shutdown will not fix that. It will only cause serious hardship on those workers who depend on a salary to pay their bills. Remember that just because the government shuts down, that doesn’t mean debt collectors shut down. Bills still need to be paid.

There is already a process in place to handle the fixing of the budget. It can be found in the Senate and House of Representatives members we all voted for. A shutdown is a serious failure in both Congress and the White House.

So I emplore those advocating a shutdown to remember the full cost. Cause if we shutdown, the effects will not only be felt by government workers, it will trickle down to all of us.

Our initial plan was to purchase a house that was preowned.  We started the search by searching online a house listings just to see what we could get.  Our initial plan was 3-4 bedrooms and 2.5-3.5 baths.  So we found some addresses and drove around in the areas we liked to look at them.

The driving around plan didn’t work too well for us.  It was hard to get a feel of what the house was like from the outside.  While driving around we drove through Green Valley Ranch and saw that they had models to walk through.  We didn’t realize that the models that were being displayed were for new build homes.

As soon as we walked through the Green Valley Ranch models I was hooked.  The options available looked great, but it took Heidi a little longer to come around to building.  Luckily we were able to set up a time with a sales rep to go through pricing and see exactly what we were getting into with a dirt start.

We took the pricing information home, and took a few days to discuss it.  After discussing we realized that the price point of the first floor plan we like was a little more than we could handle.  So we went back to the web.  While Heidi spent time looking for other preowned homes, I went to the web and looked for more dirt start options.

I was lucky enough to find another floor plan that we both liked.  It was much smaller than the first floor plan, but it would fit our needs nicely and be a good starter house.  So we went back to the sales rep and priced out that floor plan with the options we wanted.  The price point fit much better into our budget, so we proceeded to the next step of the process.

The next step of the process was the Home Design center.  This consists of all of the interior options available to us.  We went through and got an idea of what we wanted in the new house, but had no full decisions.  So we went home and thought more about it.

Unfortunately, when we got to the sales office, our rep told us that the floor plan that we decided on was not available to have a basement.  So we went back to the drawing board and started looking at other models in the collection.  We decided on another floor plan that we liked and decided to get pricing on it.

While pricing the newest (3rd if you are counting) floor plan, our sales rep showed us a floor plan that had just become available.  As soon as we saw it, we knew it was perfect.  The starting price was within our budget, as well as all of our (not very many) structural upgrades.

The newest, and best, floor plan was perfect.  The Francisco as it is called, is 2200 square feet.  Comes with a 2 car garage, 3 beds, 2.5 baths and an upstairs bonus room.  It also comes with a partially finished basement.  The floor plan will fit us perfectly for now, and give us the ability to expand in the future.

Though no longer a starter house, this house will fit our needs now and give us plenty of room to grow.  It also stays within our budget (though on the high side) and give us a fantastic house.

We will be keeping up track of the progress of the build here on this site, as well as with pictures on our MobileMe photo gallery. Wish us luck!

Both Heidi and I have been very thankful for family this year.  We have realized after observing others and their struggles with family, and our struggles with our own families in years past, that we are very blessed by the families we have.

We are also very thankful for the progress of our careers. Heidi has been progressing nicely in her career with Lockheed Martin.  She is very much enjoying her work and the people she works with.  I personally have loved the work I have done this year.  My work at Crowd Favorite has been very rewarding.  It is also has been nice knowing the stability in both of our jobs.  We have been very lucky that the bad economy has not affected either of us.

2010 looks to be an exciting year for us.  Our current plan is to move out of our current apartment and either buy or rent a house.  We are currently unsure of our plans on that, but figure the chips will fall where they may and we should know by April where we will be for at the very least the next few years of our lives.  We also plan on extending our family in 2010.  Although not what most people would think as an expansion we plan on adopting another Great Dane.  We have been planning on doing this for a while now, but have been unable with the size of apartment we are living in.  We are very excited for the possibilities that 2010 will hold.

Hopefully everyone else’s 2009 was as good as ours, and hopefully your 2010 will treat you good as well, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All.

As I was working tonight I thought it would be nice to use the MLB.com At Bat app for the iPhone to watch the Rockies take on the Dodgers at Coors Field here in Denver.  When I tried to load the TV broadcast I was told that I was in the local market and was unable to watch the game.  I have a home office that I do my work in, one that I specifically don’t have a TV in so I can focus when I work.  So I had no options to watch the game, only listen to the radio broadcast.  It just wasn’t the same.

Those who know me know that I am a huge Cubs fan.  The reason I am a huge Cubs fan is that I got to watch Cubs games growing up on WGN throughout the summer.  This is not the case anymore.  Most of the Cubs games that are broadcast on TV are done by Comcast Sports Net Chicago.  That is great for the people who live in Chicago, but as a Comcast subscriber in Denver, Colorado I am unable to get the network.  (I wish someone would explain to me why I can’t get a channel that is named after the provider I pay so much money to get service from)  The only way for me to enjoy those games would be to get DirecTV or Dish Network, and from what I hear the games are still blacked out.  This makes no sense to me.

The blackout process to me ultimately restricts people selling ads on those networks to just being able to sell ads to the local audience.  Though I may not make it to Chicago anytime soon, if I were to see an ad on during a Cubs game, I would make a mental note of that place and try to visit it when I do visit.  I do this all the time with Cubs radio broadcasts (Binny’s Beverage Depot is one I hear all the time on WGN Radio).

Blackouts also tell me that TV station and broadcast rights owners are still living in the 90s with their ways of thinking. This is the year 2009 and we have hit an explosion of new media sources across the web.  From services like Hulu we see how easy it is to monetize the web streaming process.

Years ago I bought a TiVo so I could fast forward through commercials, but the way that Hulu handles the ads makes me stop and watch them when they come on.  The MLB could take a hint from this.  Right now when a broadcast goes to commercial in the MLB At Bat app on the iPhone it just shows a banner that says the game is at commercial.  Why not sell ads spots here?  This would eliminate the need for people to pay so much money to watch the games on the web, and most likely earn money for MLB in the long run.

All in all I know that my thoughts fall on the deaf ears of the people who run Television stations and own the rights to various broadcast items, but I am hoping that over the next few years those people will wise up and realize that the web is here to stay and hopefully they can make it a better place to view what anyone wants to watch at any time.

Watch here

I have posted the general details about this blog in my About page that you can link to at the top of this page.  Feel free to look around, once I get some stuff up, and comment.