Monthly Archives: January 2009

Jan 17 2009

the ants, the ants!

The recent cold snap we’ve had has caused all the ants outside to come into our apartment. (I’m not kidding – I’m pretty sure all the ants in Atlanta are inside our place.) The first few attacked the bathroom a while ago, and now they’ve moved on to all other rooms except the bedroom. Yesterday marks them reaching the kitchen so now dirty dishes can’t be left.

I should take some pictures, but I’m feeling lazy right now. :-p So I’ll just send you here.

I’m getting so fed up right now. I’ve been avoiding using poison, because we have cats (and because I’d rather avoid using poison around us, too, if I can help it). But, it’s getting too much. I think I have an idea where they’re coming in (the big window in the living room), but not sure what to do about it? I was thinking of getting some caulking but Paul doesn’t seem to want to. I also have to be careful with anything that might be labeled as “damages” when we move out in a year or so. Going to the apartment complex is out of the question because their method for everything is poison.

Does anyone have ideas? “Safe” poisons? Natural methods that work? It isn’t about keeping the dishes clean – they seem to love stuff that isn’t food. For example, the BATHROOM is their favorite place to be. Oh boy, it’s a sink!! Oh and water doesn’t seem to deter them – they simply walk on top of the water. (We try to put water down to keep them out of the cats’ bowls and out of the plants.)

We have 2 weeks until we leave for California. We’ll be gone 10 days, and I don’t want to think of what ants can do in 10 days without anything stopping them. :-( So my goal will be trying to get them under control in the next two weeks. Sigh. I sooo do not have the energy to deal with this right now.

Jan 12 2009

update to the update

I’m so original with my blog titles. Ha!

If you haven’t read my last blog post, go do so now.

I got my paycheck in today’s mail! Hooray! The mail carrier was still there and so I gave her an evil eye. I also saw another resident there who was saying that she isn’t getting all her mail either. I hope the mail carrier overhead us talking.

I forgot to say something else that was keeping my attention. We’ve had a lot of trouble with ants since we moved in. I won’t use poison because of the kitties, so I’ve been trying to research natural methods of getting rid of ants. So far, spraying vinegar has been the most effective. We still see them, but not in hoards like before. Oh, and they’re mostly in the bathroom and some in the living room… the kitchen is devoid of ants! Go figure.

I was looking at my Christmas cactus the other day and noticed tons and tons of ants all in the pot and around. My mom thinks I have a nest in the pot itself (since there were no other ants anywhere except right there). So I stuck the plant on the porch to get the ants out of the house. (It worked; haven’t seen any other ants in that spot.) But, I don’t know what to do. I have a feeling the Christmas cactuses are dead since the temps dropped to the 30s these past few nights. But otherwise I don’t really know what to do with the plants. Any ideas? Anyone want them? :-) I like the plants, but I don’t want the ants! And I don’t have the time or desire to figure out how to get an ants’ nest out of a potted plant. Plants are such a pain! You can’t make them look nice in your house because there isn’t enough light, the cats get into the dirt and pull off the leaves, and ants make nests in them! My mom likes to make me feel guilty for not having any live plants in my house, but I personally prefer to stick to animals. It’s harder to kill them! :-)

Oh and if you’re reading this via an RSS reader, click through and see my new template! It still needs some work but I like it. Hopefully it looks like it should on everyone’s computer.

Jan 12 2009

update on some other things

I have a lot on my mind these days. It’s hard to keep it all straight and sometimes I just want to give up. Life is like that… I can’t give up, I can’t cut things out… I just have to figure out a way to deal with them.

Our mail keeps getting stolen. I told you about the check that was stolen and used to make other fraudulent checks… No updates on that, BTW. We’re waiting on the bank currently to replace the money… we FINALLY got our debit cards so we have access to that money again. The bank has been not very helpful in this ordeal so we’re going to move our money somewhere else as soon as this is straightened out. (Hopefully my bank is not reading this right now! :-))

We’ve had at least two packages never arrive (something we ordered, and Christmas presents from the in-laws). On Saturday I realized that my paycheck never arrived on Friday, which is bad. (Note to self: go check the mail as soon as as I finish this.) We decided that we need to get a P.O. Box now. It’s ridiculous! I hate that I have to pay for a box when the post office isn’t doing their job and delivering the mail. (I think it’s the postmaster who’s stealing our stuff – we’ve had the locks changed on our mailbox here at the apartment so I am doubtful that it’s someone here.) The good news is that when we move again we won’t be changing our mailing address. (And everyone says “yay!”) But yeah – if you mailed me a letter or package and I never said anything to you about receiving it, could you send me an email? I’m trying to get an idea of how many occurrences this is happening. It seems that all the stuff that has been taken so far has obvious benefit for the thief from the outside packaging (versus something like a Christmas card).

Also on my mind is the need to purchase a new washer/dryer VERY soon. In December, our dryer broke and so we have been without one. We did a bunch of laundry at my parents’ house at Christmas, and we’re getting to the point where we need to do laundry again. I am dreading having to take it to the laundromat – our apartment costs $1.25 per load! But since my washer still works, it makes the most sense to wash the loads here and then take them downstairs to the apartment’s dryers. (I *could* try air-drying them but I don’t have any sort of rope or line, and laying wet clothes on the couch doesn’t appeal to me!)

I have been trying to decide what to get as far as washer/dryer, and I think I’ve picked out what I want. I just need to go get it… And then wait for delivery… It will be nice to get rid of our current washer/dryer! (It’s a stackable unit.) It served us well for the time but… yeah it’s time for a new one!

Okay I am going to go check the mail now. Praying for my paycheck to come.

Jan 10 2009

thoughts on home buying, part 7503

As I was reading through all my posts from 2008 for my annual New Year’s Eve post, I was surprised at how many times I wrote about home buying. We have wrestled with this decision for quite a while now, and we continue to wrestle with it. We have moved twice since we started saying “This is the last time we move before we buy a place”. I’m getting a little tired of moving, let’s be honest!

I like our apartment. We’ve been here 3 1/2 months now, and it feels like “home”. It’s small (1 bedroom), but the layout makes good use of the space. I still want to declutter, but I think that I’d always feel like that no matter how big or small a place. I haven’t been able to sell things like I wanted, so I’m giving a lot more away, but Goodwill probably likes that. It’s okay. I’d love for our mail to stop getting stolen – I hate the fact that I am going to have to pay for a PO box but other than that and the ants I’m pretty happy here.

When we moved here, we thought we would buy a condo when our lease is up in September. Condos in our area go for about the same price as renting an apartment with the same number of bedrooms. We had never lived in this area of Atlanta before, so we moved here to see how we liked it before committing to buying a condo. And overall, we like it a lot. However, I’ve realized that I really want a house. Or maybe a townhouse. A condo to me just seems like renting an apartment, minus the free maintenance! Of course, on the other hand, if my alternative is to rent an apartment, then wouldn’t it be better to build equity in a condo? Especially when the market is GREAT for buyers right now. Those are the things running through my head.

So we’ve been talking about what to do come September. (This conversation is stemming from our talks about whether we should get a PO Box and where we should get it so maybe we can stop changing our address.) And I think we’ve decided one thing: that for now, we’ll keep renting.

That’s hard for me to say, because it’s not what I want to do. But I think it’s the wisest. And I told Paul I’d blog about this so I can go back and read it when I’m frustrated with dealing with the leasing office or the landlord, when I just want my own place like all my friends. Our time will come!

1) I was able to get hold of some of the information that only real estate agents have – information that helps us a lot in determining how much we can afford. We found a specific condo in our budget that met our needs (3BR/2BA) and calculated the estimated monthly mortgage with the down payment we would be able to put down. Then we factored in the monthly HOA fees, as well as the estimated property taxes. When all was said and done, we realized that it was more than we were wanting to spend each month. And that didn’t include PMI, homeowner’s insurance, routine maintenance costs, and any sort of moving/closing costs! All for a condo – which I don’t even really want anyways; I’d rather have a house. (Houses are out of the question financially for us.) So we’d have to lower our budget, which makes finding a 3BR/2BA condo harder.

2) As I was trying to figure out how much of a down payment we’d be able to put down (somewhere between 5 and 7%), I realized that it would really wipe out our savings to buy something. Right now, we have about enough money in savings (provided that the bank replaces the stolen money) to last us about 6 months if Paul were to get laid off. To be honest, in this economy, it frightens me to deplete that. I think it might be better to put a down payment on top of having 6 months of living expenses in savings.

3) I think it would be awesome to put down a significant down payment when we buy a house. Something like 20% instead of 5%. So waiting, continuing to save, will help us in that goal.

4) I am not worried Paul’s going to be laid off. However, you never know – jobs are definitely not a sure thing right now. If he was to need to find a new job, I don’t want him to be limited to Atlanta. I want to be able to go wherever the job is – even if it means moving to another state. This is a lot easier when you’re renting! Of course, this won’t keep us from ever buying a house, but right now it is a reason for me.

5) We don’t know what we want right now. We disagree about where we want to live. I want a house, Paul wants to live close to the city. Houses in the city are way out of our budget right now and for the forseeable future. I’m fine with the location, but to me I’d sacrifice and move out to the suburbs to be able to afford a house. Paul just loves the city and doesn’t want to move away from it. He also says that jobs will always be found in the city. He’s afraid that if we move to the suburbs he’s going to end up with an hour+ rush hour commute each day, or worse – not be able to find anything nearby. And, he loves the option of taking the train. They are all valid points, and I don’t want to discount them. However, it leaves us with the only option of buying a condo. So we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I don’t know the answers.

6) We have yet to live in an apartment for more than a year. This actually worries me with buying a condo and then feeling “stuck”. I’m so used to moving. I’m never content. I think this is a personal problem, but it makes me wonder if I’m ready to buy anything.

So yeah. That’s where we stand. Whenever we have kids, we’ll probably move to a bigger apartment. And we’ll probably look to renting instead of buying. We’ll buy eventually – my goal is to have a paid-off house before we retire, but we’re definitely not there yet. It’s only going to get harder I think as we have kids and we are the ONLY ones still in an apartment. I’m going to struggle a lot with envy. (I already do!) But, it’s just not worth it for me to have to work full-time for the forseeable future in order to afford a larger mortgage… or to get ourselves in over our heads financially and be drowning if the worst should happen.

Jan 5 2009

something needs to be done

I was talking to my mom tonight and I was surprised to hear that she hadn’t heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). So, I sent her a link and I decided that I’d blog about it here to help promote awareness.

This is something I feel very strongly against. I think it’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater – and in general I oppose laws that do that. If you don’t know what I am talking about, here is an overview I pulled from this site:

The CPSIA aims to set what would be the most stringent guidelines worldwide for children’s products containing lead and phthalates (a chemical used in some vinyl products). Due to largely go into effect February 10th, 2009, anything at all intended for children ages 12 and under must meet these guidelines with certifications of doing so from a CPSC accredited laboratory.

As a father of two, this sounds great! In fact, I was so concerned about lead contamination in toys that I started my own company making unfinished wooden toys. But as a manufacturer who must comply with this law, I’ve learned it’s not as pretty a picture as it might seem.

For starters, anything, and I mean anything, intended for children 12 and under must be tested, at a cost of up to $4,000 with an average of around $500. The difficulty for most small and mid-sized companies, however, is that they will often be the ones responsible for having this testing done, for each item they make, per batch.

This would, in effect, make it illegal to sell anything second-hand without hundreds of dollars in third party testing first. That means… Goodwill, Craigslist, eBay will all be adults only. When your kids have grown out of their clothes, you better make them into rags or throw them into the trash. And you have to buy everything new from large retailers who have the ability to absorb testing costs without it affecting their business. And forget about trying to make some extra money with your sewing abilities or woodcarving abilities – unless the government agrees with your declaration of it being for adults only.

This is truly a scary law and I shudder at the thought of what our economy (and our own personal ability to clothe and entertain our children) will look like once it goes into effect. I plead with you – we only have a little over a month. Write your congressman, sign the petition, stay informed – we must do all we can to oppose it.

This site is a really good overview, and includes many links at the bottom where you can show your support and read more information about what this is exactly. You can also go here and here for more information (the latter link provides a sample letter you can use to send to your Congressman and/or Senator). As well, you can vote for it here. They have dubbed February 10th as National Bankruptcy Day – let’s do our part to see that it doesn’t become that!

(Oh and I just want to point out that when this went through the House, Ron Paul was the only one who opposed it. :-))