Last night we sat in a short meeting with ACORN Housing.

ACORN Housing Counselors make the home buying process more accessible to first-time buyers. Instead of having to approach bankers or contend with brokers, first-time homebuyers can meet our counselors in the local ACORN Housing office to pre-qualify for a mortgage.

The advantage of going through ACORN is that homebuyers can gain access to mortgage programs with lower interest rates, lower down payments, flexible underwriting guidelines and lower origination fees. And the biggest advantage is that you do not have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) regardless of how much you need to finance, even if it is 100%. I’m not sure if I stated everything correctly or not, but so far the program seems to be worth the $20 it costs. Perhaps Kim will add a comment sometime since she is the one with the finance degree. :)

Since we already had an approved contract for a home and all of the paperwork filled out, they had us stick around so that we could be pre-approved (which we already were) and receive the certificate of completion. That has to be some sort of record! We completed their entire program in about an hour, although there is a required class towards the end of the month. Luckily the lender that Kim had already talked to was also at the meeting, so just about all of the paperwork has now been completed. I think today we will be locking in a rate and then from there we are almost done.

Hopefully that wasn’t too boring. The sad part is I know very little of what I just said, although I have learned a bunch this past week. Seriously though, if you are considering your first home, I would highly recommend this program. Sorry bro, it doesn’t look like they have any offices in Ohio.

We had an inspection performed on the house yesterday. It ended before I could get there, but both Kim and our agent were there for the whole thing. We are now trying to sort through the issues that were reported to see if anything could be considered a deal breaker. The nice thing is that there aren’t any glaring red flags in the report, at least from my point of view (I think my dad agrees though).

We’ve already been pre-approved for a loan, but now we need to look around to see what all is out there. We are quickly discovering that many banks will require some upfront fee just to get started. US Bank even has fees and we’ve got 3 different accounts with them. We thought about using the credit union that I belong to, but they don’t have any authority (license?) in Ohio. Feel free to point us to any lenders you’ve used, enjoyed, and have low rates. :)

Today’s entry comes from a soon to be homeowner. This weekend Kim and I spent a bunch of time working out the details to buy the house I mentioned last week. If all goes as planned we will be moving all of our stuff in just over a month, the weekend of May 12th. Overall I would say that it has been very nerve racking, but at the same time also very exciting!

Besides all of the time spent on the phone and signing our names on the dotted lines, we had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday night we went to a Shaking Tree concert. Saturday we played nine holes of golf (although Kim was on the phone most of the time) and then hung out at the Brooksider for the night. Sunday we ran some errands (including faxing in our official offer for the house), hung out with Bianca, and I even got in a game of hockey.

This week is definitely going to be a busy one. Heck, the next month or so is probably going to be jam packed. That should give me plenty to write about, I just hope that I still have the time to do it.

Last night, while Kim was busy working on all of this house stuff, I took some time to create a new layout for Phil’s site. I was amazed that I could come up with that in just a couple of hours, especially when I’ve been working on my own redesign for months. I guess I’m just too picky. Kim agreed and called me a perfectionist. That’s not a bad thing, is it? Anyway, I figure this is gonna cost him a couple rounds at Brooksider! :)

I just sat in an hour and a half long meeting about the sales system that my company now sells. Basically, salespeople at every local television station use this software (or something similar) to sell commercial breaks to potential advertisers. It then hit me that the revenue brought in from these commercials eventually is what makes up my paycheck, since the television stations are mostly the ones who buy our software.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, I don’t think I’ve watched a commercial in months! Ever since I bought a ReplayTV box a couple of years ago, we have only watched recorded TV shows. Even when we watch the news in the morning, we watch it delayed so we can start at the beginning, which we often miss by ten minutes or more. I know there are tons of people (myself included) who are in love with DVR technology, but I hope it doesn’t catch on too much, at least not until I find myself at another job.

We are so unpredictable. One minute we both are thinking of how to move back to Cincinnati and then the next minute we are out looking at a house for sale. We started a few months ago by looking at a couple of condos that were close to the plaza (within a mile or so) and then moved on to houses from there. A few weeks ago we toured a house that was in our price range and in the plaza area only to find it was a complete piece of crap! From there we sort of gave up on the idea until Kim was contacted yesterday about a wonderful house that was affordable and close to the plaza. We toured it last night after work, and it really is a nice house in great condition. Who knows how long it will last but we are actually attempting to get info on it and do some additional research.

Wait, what was I just talked about? Moving to Cincinnati? You see what I mean.

Oh yeah, we looked at a house last night. After that was over we drove right up the street to Jazz for dinner. We had a gift certificate from awhile back that we had surprisingly not used yet. Dinner was delicious as were the drinks. After we were completely stuffed, and we collected enough leftovers to get stuffed once more, we headed home to watch some TV.

After my terrible predictions for the last couple rounds of the NCAA tournament one thing has been solidified, I will not be winning any of the fantasy leagues that I am in. Regardless of what happens I cannot get any more points in this tournament, but the same can also be said for all the other people at the bottom of each league.

I will finish in 10th place out of 11 in one of the tournaments. Guess who’s at the bottom though, finishing in last place? That’s right. Kim is, so at least I can claim victory in the apartment! In the other two tournaments I’m participating in, I will finish 40 out of 50 in one and 14 out of 16 in another. Pretty embarrassing, but who * would have thought that an eleven seed would be in the final four. I’ll be pulling for George Mason the rest of the tournament.

* I guess some people picked George Mason into the final four, whether they meant to or not.

My birthday weekend is now over. This 26 year old is back at work on what seems to be another typical Monday morning. Before I can say goodbye to the weekend here is my recap of the events.

After work on Friday I drove home to find boxes of wrapped gifts from Kim. She bought me all sorts of clothes and even a new pair of shoes. After opening all of the boxes we quickly drove down south towards Overland Park and Olathe (Kansas suburbs). We tried to get in a few different restaurants for dinner, but each place we went was packed and had hour long waits for a table. Luckily I remembered there was a Moe’s nearby, so we settled on burritos for dinner. Next up was a hockey game at Ice Midwest. This was not your typical game though, it was a “NHL rules” game that a couple guys from my team played in. This game had it all: big hits, nice goals, good goaltending and even a fight. The standing room only crowd was estimated to be 300 deep. Overall “Friday Night Lights” seemed to be a huge success, and the guys from my team said they would play again. From there we went back home to rest up for Saturday night.

During the afternoon on Saturday we preparred for a little party that would later take place in our apartment. Mike and Christie helped kick the party off shortly after dinner. We played a game of euchre before other partiers arrived, if I remember correctly the guys won! Todd stopped by early in the night, but had other events to attend. Doni, Phil, Maria, Christina, and Taylor all helped in celebrating my birthday. Later in the night we made a trip up to The Levee for some music and a couple rounds. All in all it was a very nice birthday party!

Sunday turned out to be a fairly nice day, so we started off at the driving range with Maria. I hit everything really well except for the stupid 6 iron. I could not get that one right, and I’m still not sure why. Hopefully next weekend we can squeeze in a round of golf. From there we had lunch at Ponak’s and completely stuffed ourselves. Next time we go, I’ll have to try one of their Margarita’s which I’ve heard great things about. After lounging on the couch for a few hours, I drove up north for the first round of playoff hockey. We faced off with the same team we beat up on just one week earlier. This must have got to them though because they came out flying and hustled the whole game. In the end we lost our second game of the season, and will be playing for 3rd place this coming weekend. I guess it was only a matter of time before we lost.

Up and down the puppies’ hair
Fleas and ticks jump everywhere
’cause of original sin
Down the hill fell jack and jill
And you came tumbling after
’cause of original sin
Rip away the tears
Drink a hope to happy years
And you may find
A lifetime’s passed you by
What would you say
Don’t drop the big one
If you a monkey on a string
Don’t cut my lifeline
If you a doggie on a chain
Don’t bite the mailman
What would you say
I was there when the bear
Ate his head, thought it was a candy
Everyone goes in the end
Knock knock on the door
Who’s it for, there’s nobody in here
Look in the mirror my freind
I don’t understand at best
And connot speak for all the rest
The morning rise a lifetime’s passed me by
Every dog has it’s day every day has it’s way
Of being forgotten
Mom it’s my birthday
What would you say

-DMB

College basketball is back on TV again tonight. Here are my picks for who I’d like to see win in this round:

• Duke over LSU – I picked Duke
• West Virginia over Texas – I picked WV
• Memphis over Bradley – I picked Memphis
• UCLA over Gonzaga – I picked Marquette, so I really don’t care
• Washington over Connecticut – I picked Washington
• Wichita State over George Mason – I picked Wichita State up to this point but unfortunately had Michigan State winning this game
• Villanova over Boston College – I picked Nova
• Georgetown over Florida – I didn’t pick Florida, so screw everyone who did

If all of these happen I could improve my position in all of my fantasy leagues, since I have the same picks in all of them. I am currently in 4th out of 16 in one, 4th out of 11 in another, and 20th out of 50 in the last.

Let’s not forget about Cincinnati, who has won two games in the NIT tournament and will be playing against South Carolina tonight in the quarterfinals. In other Bearcat related news, Bob Huggins will be following my lead and moving out to Kansas to become the coach of the Kansas State Wildcats. This could be the only time you’ll see me cheer for a team that wears purple!