So Katie and I decided to buy our first home (a condo) in California last year. From our first house (in Minneapolis) the lessons we learned was to have your 20% saved up ahead of time before taking the plunge. We’re fans of traditional 30-year loans (or 15 year loans if you can swing it) as they are fairly predictable and 20% will buy your way out of mortgage insurance.
20% seems like a lot, and it is, but that seemed to be the least of our problems. Here’s some more advice:
more…
Every time I put in a DVD (House, Bones, almost anything) I’d get the parental control screen that I’d have to temporarily unlock. While entering 0000 wasn’t that difficult, it was annoying to have to do this before I could get through all the FBI warnings and to the DVD menu… and finally to my content.
Unfortunately it’s hard to figure this out and the instructions are buried in the manual. It’s like this:
- Play a DVD
- Stop the DVD
- Enter select to get to the custom menu.
- Enter X on the briefcase icon.
- Select the “lock” by moving right.
- Go down to the parental settings and set the level to ‘OFF’
It’s more complicated than any game cheat I’ve had to do.
In short I am quitting my awesome job at Yahoo! working on Delicious and will be starting somewhere else next month.
Delicious has been one of my favorite web “properties” for a number of years and has influenced my work long before I started here. I’ve really respected my fellow engineers, managers and product team despite all the transitions we’ve had to bear. I am really amazed by how much everyone in our current team has changed over the year and a half.
Delicious has had it’s ups and downs, both as a team, as part of Yahoo! and even for me personally. Lucky for me, I stayed motivated the whole way through and I am glad to be leaving the party while its still fun.
Last Sunday (April 26 2009), Katie and I decided to stay in and enjoy the rest of our weekend. We heard our cat, Buster, vomiting as he sometimes does. Katie was a little concerned since he wasn’t vomiting up food as he normally does – we were worried that he had ingested something. Then he got curiously lethargic and unresponsive – so Katie and I rushed him to Adobe Animal Hospital.
Adobe was phenomenally quick, but on our way to the vet and in the operating room we knew we didn’t want to prolong our cats not so pleasant life and we had him euthanized.
It turns out that there were multiple tumors near his spleen. He had probably been suffering mildly for a few months. At least it wasn’t as prolonged as his brother’s (Panther’s) death.
I still remember being thrilled earlier that week that I was able to hold him without him putting up a fuss (as he normally does) and I’m glad for the six years I’ve known him. He will be missed.
When Panther died, I felt that Buster started adopting his traits… likewise, Dante (our other cat) has seemed to pick up some of Buster’s traits… like sleeping on Katie’s face 
Bauer Transit, a local corporate shuttle service, has commuters attach their bikes to racks on the rear of their busses.
This always alarmed me because it increased the danger factor of attaching and detaching your bicycle. The straps were always precariously worn down. This Wednesday the 18th, however, the straps were just fine. I ride the shuttle a few miles from downtown Mountain View to the Mission College Yahoo! Campus. Unfortunately this Wednesday my bike was not there when we arrived.
The driver had missed an exit and we must have clover-leafed quite a bit. I kept looking out the window and not recognizing the familiar things that dot Highway 101. Amidst this maneuvering and correcting turns, the securely fastened straps must have loosened.
The bike racks are similar to ones that you would install on a trailer hitch. Normally they are fine, and you can strap them down, and of course you are keeping an eye on them. On a corporate shuttle there is no way to see the bike unless you use a video camera – whose screen was not turned on.
When we arrived to Mission College, I no longer had a bike. I did the math, about $1100 went into that bike, and that’s not a high end bike by any means – it’s just my ride to work.
The driver graciously offered to look for the bike, and an hour later he brought it to me, after it had been run over. It suffered very little damage that I could tell, but upon further inspection by a local bike shop, the frame was as the shop owner said, “totalled.”
I hate spending money as it is – and I hate it when my trust gets violated. I’ve told Bauer and Yahoo! that our shuttle racks are unsafe and should be replaced with front-racks as you would find on busses. I always received “no” as an answer.
I put together a list of all the non salvageable items and will see if I can get Bauer to cover my costs (even the brand new 8-speed hub I added, was not worth salvaging 
). Then there’s the bike-attachment issues. I really like my bike – the way people really like their cars. I’ve had this for two and a half years, and I’ve liked it since.
In the mean time, I’m looking for a new bike. Looking at Dahon’s folding bikes. They seem to match my commuting needs. I think I can get a Vitesse D7HG for a fraction of what I put into my Breezer. The cost still hurts – bankrupt economy or not.
Update: Bauer gave me a check on April 28th, after I made a request a month back and following up with the workplace team at Yahoo! I used this money to help purchase a Bike Friday Season Tikit.
