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We’re more than halfway through the whole home buying process! We’re going to approve the house inspection despite some problems with the roof since they probably won’t affect us for the next 5 years. The sellers can’t negotiate on price since they’ve maxed out their equity and have already purchased another home, so we asked for a grill, lawn mower and a nice rug to compensate for some of the minor flaws the house inspection turned up. Kim loves to negotiate and I’m accustomed to it from traveling, but there wasn’t much opportunity to do so here since there were other offers competing for the house. We still think the house is a great deal though. The kitchen is easily the nicest in our price range.

We’re starting to look for roommates to live in the two upstairs rooms, so let me know if you’re interested or know someone who might be. We’re probably going to be asking $450 to $500 per month plus utilities. Closing will probably happen mid to late October so that’s when we’ll move in. We’ll find that out on Monday when all our loan details start to become clear. Can’t wait to move in!

We put in an offer, they countered, we accepted. We’ll be doing a neighborhood review and inspection in the next five days, then we just wait for the financing to all work itself out. Phew! We can’t wait to move in.

After all the ceremony of the weekend, it was nice to take a day to relax and have fun with my parents. We took the canoe to Davis lake and paddled around. We went to the cliffs but didn’t jump off since it was too cold out.

After saying goodbyes to my parents, we went to Spokane to visit my grandma. We sat and talked with Grandma for about an hour and then we went with her to see Joyce, Sarah and Joe. After a quick visit we set off for Seattle. The ride back seemed a lot shorter than usual because we were listening to The Da Vinci Code on audio book.

Back to work and house hunting.

Despite the lack of a rehearsal, the wedding went off without a real hitch. It didn’t even rain! The groomsmen met early, dressed in our suits and drank shots of Jagermeister. Danny’s parents were very busy touching up last minute details and taking pictures. Mike and Barb were gracious enough to allow Duane and Tiffany to have the wedding at their house. The wedding started a half hour late, but most of the guests were late so it worked out well. The music for the wedding was, well, let’s just say unconventional. The priest gave a very nice speech about marriage and then they said their “I dos”. Duane’s son Alex didn’t quite know what to do during the wedding, but he was very well behaved.

The reception was definitely the most fun I’ve had at a wedding, probably because it was with all my friends. The dinner was fun. They had roasted a pig and everyone else had brought food. There were too many toasts at the dinner, but some were nice. I think the best thing said was telling Duane that his father would have been proud of him. After dinner there was dancing and fun. I caught the garter since I was getting married next anyway.

There was all kinds of dancing, lots of country, lots of pop. Everyone got to dance with the bride and groom. I danced with both myself. At one point during the evening we all wanted more Jaeger, so Danny’s mom drove into town to try to get some. Of course, it was too late, so we ended up with wine coolers.

Toward the end of the night the party moved to Roy’s house, but by that time Danny was too drunk, Duane wanted to go enjoy his wedding night, and Kim and I were tired, so we went home. I’m glad that Duane could decide to finally marry and love the woman with whom he’s raised their child all these years. I admire their ability to deal with unexpected hardships and less than fortunate circumstances and still build a relationship and raise a wonderful child. I wish them both all the happiness possible together in the years to come.

I took off work early Thursday to attend my friend Duane’s bachelor party in Spokane. Duane and I have known each other since first grade, and although we haven’t had much contact since high school, we’re still good friends.

Duane’s choice for a best man was in Iraq, so there was nobody to plan the bachelor party. The groomsmen and some other friends met at Duane’s house and we whipped up an outfit suitable for Duane. From there we visited 4 or 5 bars in downtown Spokane and the Valley. Duane got himself cutoff by the 3rd bar, but washing the marks off his hands had him back drinking in no time. We had every girl around sign Duane’s shirt and give him a kiss on the cheek. Duane loved this.

We ended the night back at Duane’s house where the bachelorette party also returned. There was some drama with some drunken people, but I was tired and left for home by 4 in the morning.

The next day there was supposed to be a wedding rehearsal at noon, and surprisingly all the groomsmen showed up on time. However, the bride and her party weren’t there until around 3pm, by which time the minister had already left. So the groomsmen and Danny’s parents setup tents, chairs and the dancefloor while it poured.

I swear all the best internet names are already taken. The hardest part of setting up this new political blog was finding a name that someone hadn’t already registered. There’s so many people who just register a name because they can and then never use it. It’s exasperating, but what can you do?

So anyway, the new political blog is up and running at http://ministryotruth.blogspot.com. There’s very little in the way of content right now, but that’s something that everyone can help me remedy. I’m planning on soon posting on the topic of why the major news media isn’t doing their job and what to do about it. There’s something called a tagboard on the left side of the page that will allow people to discuss in general what topics should be addressed and who would like to address them. It’s even possible that in the near future I will be purchasing a domain name and some web space so that PHP, Perl and other web scripts can be run more easily and so that the site can have it’s own email addresses, but for now I’m just going to use the free and easy to setup blogspot address.

I’d like to thank my friends Brian and Travis for being the first to agree to contribute to this endeavor. They’re both very intelligent, knowledgeable and concerned with the current state of politics, something that’s a rare and admirable trait in our often apathetic age group.

Tonight I organized a small group of friends to go see a documentary at the theater. The documentary was ‘The Corporation’ and it got me all fired up about politics. I’ve been considering for some time now getting involved in some way in our democratic process. The weakest area of our democracy that I know of today is our free press, so I would like to provide information about current politics in an interesting way to my friends, family and anyone who will listen. To do this I will be starting up another blog that anyone can contribute to. The focus of this blog will be politics. I want to encourage discussion of issues that are actually important to the upcoming elections such as voting history, campaign finance, health care and whatever else people tell me that they find important. Check back soon for exact details including the new blog address as well as how you can participate. The more people participate in this the better, because a participatory democracy is far more valuable than a passive one any day.

I got back some blood tests that I had done at the doctor’s office, and it turns out that I have hypothyroidism. This means that hormone that my thyroid normally produces is lacking in my system. Actually, the hormone that my thyroid produces, thyroxine, is at normal levels, but my immune system overproduces antibodies that attack the thyroxine. This was noticeable in my blood test results because I had an unusually high level of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) which is produced by the pituitary gland when it notices low levels of thyroid hormone.

This form of hypothyroidism is a common form known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This could have been linked to something genetic or it could have been triggered when my body was exposed to a virus or bacteria that resembled my thyroid hormones. My immune system would have then developed a resistance to this virus and in turn, my thyroid hormones.

I had the blood tests done because I’ve been having trouble losing weight despite eating healthier than I ever have and exercising regularly. The literature I’ve read says that approximately 10% of the population has some form of thyroid disorder and only half are diagnosed since the symptoms are often attributed to aging.

Having health care such a valuable thing. Just knowing that I can see a doctor without worrying about going into debt is an invaluable relief. It’s too bad our health care system is so messed up and lagging behind the rest of the developed world.

Kim and I spent Labor Day at Bumbershoot. This was by far the most crowded day of the festival. A little too crowded, but still fun. We saw two reggae bands in the morning. The first, Toots and the Maytals, which my coworker Dennis told me about. They have a really great album with all sorts of guest musicians including Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. Great stuff. The second band was the Marley Brothers with Ziggy Marley and 4 other brothers. We both had a lot of fun dancing.

We saw some break dancing and some comedy as well. We finished by seeing the Pixies, but I didn’t really know any of their stuff and didn’t think it was that great anyway.

Kim and I immediately had to try out our new hammock, so we went for a hike to Annette Lake near Snoqualmie Pass. It’s a little over 7 miles round trip. We started hiking around one in the afternoon. We got a little bit of a late start because Kim had a job interview this morning for a Nan position. The environmental job hunt has been a rough one. This job would only be four days a week so she’d have an extra day to volunteer with vironmental organizations and hopefully make some contacts and get some experience for future jobs.

As soon as we got to the lake we set up the hammock and ate lunch. Then we lounged by the lakeside while playing with a roaming puppy and all the punk grey jays that were sweeping the area. There were a half dozen or so other people around the lake area, but everyone was quiet and it was very peaceful. The only downside was that it was a little chilly today, especially when the sun went behind a cloud. Normally I’d jump in the freezing cold sub-alpine lake, but I didn’t bring any warm clothes and the sun was so unreliable.

We were famished when we got back to Seattle so we went out to eat at a vegetarian restaurant on Roosevelt that we hadn’t been to before. I’ll miss being so close to so many good restaurants and bars when we buy a house, but I certainly won’t miss the noise and traffic.