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« Buying a home in California Part 3: The offer

Mike — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:06:09 +0000

Wow things have been incredibly busy around here. I didn’t intend there to be such a long delay since the last update in the series, but let’s just say that there have been other things keeping me from writing.

Stacy and I found a property in San Jose that we thought could work in January. It wasn’t perfect, but the layout worked for us. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large kitchen, and a small yard. The condition of things wasn’t great and it was hard for me to see past that. Stacy saw a lot more potential in the house.

At the exact same time, I found a house that I really saw potential in. It had a different style layout, and a larger and better condition yard, but there were somethings that Stacy just couldn’t see past.

After some discussion, we decided to make an offer for the house that she liked. This was going against our original plan of waiting until more inventory came on the market in the spring, but we thought we had an opportunity to get a property at a price that allowed us to immediately renovate some things.

Our realtor was very helpful during this process. Even though the property had its price reduced quite a bit before we came to see it, we decided that we wanted to offer less than what it was currently listed at. Quite a bit less, and hoped that the sellers would agree to the price.

We were in luck. Our offer was $25,000 less than the current asking price, and it was accepted. Next up, we get to learn about the closing process in California and how it differs from other states.

This week in balls

Mike — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:52:54 +0000

Sami Reiss for Vice:

Not everyone has the time or the inclination to follow sports full-time, or even real-time. So, VICE, the bastion of sports knowledge that you’ve come to trust since the newsprint era (trust us on this), combs the latest, greatest, and bestest stories from the world of sports this past week—Super Bowl, Puppy Bowl, and otherwise—so you can hobnob with the weird regular people at the office, your doorman, or your minions. Or so you can use all the new-fangled statistical knowledge as a ways to figure out the lottery like some sort of 5 percenter. Whichever.

(ht AJ)

« Game of Thrones Season 2 trailer

Mike — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:36:00 +0000

So many new characters to will be introduced this season. If you haven’t read the books, you would probably think you are watching a different show entirely. Can’t wait.

Watch this video on YouTube.

« 6 minutes with Addie

Mike — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:01:45 +0000

My mornings are pretty great.

Watch this video on YouTube.

I’ll be out back, I’m going to find a tree to chop down.

Mike — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:57:19 +0000

Watch this video on YouTube.

I might not be a huge fan of EVERY Wes Anderson movie, but you have to give him credit for having a very unique and identifiable style.

Chef Jamie Bissonnette featured in GQ

Mike — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:40:41 +0000

Jamie and I first met when I was 15 at the Tune Inn in New Haven, CT. Years later we’d be roommates in Boston (briefly). Now he is one of the best chefs in the country and I’d fight anyone that disagreed. Here’s a little list of places to hit in Boston that was a feature in GQ. Of course I disagree with his choices.

Ron Paul takes second in New Hampshire primary

Mike — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:59:37 +0000

A strong showing in Iowa, a strong showing in New Hampshire. It’s a few weeks until South Carolina, but things look promising for Ron Paul. Stacy thinks he needs to find a tailor to get his suits to fit better, but realistically I think he is probably the only republican candidate that can beat Obama in November just based on my unscientific polling of people that voted for Obama in 2008.

We love movies, and hate theaters

Mike — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:56:32 +0000

Roger Ebert writes a common sense summary of why movies had a bad year for revenue. Put simply: we love movies, and hate pretty much everything about movie theaters, but mostly the price of admission and refreshments.

« Nothing will change.

Mike — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:37:37 +0000

I’ve been reading so many little anecdotes of people working or interacting with Steve. I never got a chance to have a meeting directly with Steve, but I did have one encounter that I will always remember. When I came to work at Apple it was via a position in an Apple retail store. During my first week on campus there were some orientation meetings with my new manager, and other training type meetings. But really there was just a ton of excitement in the air because my first week working at Apple HQ was also the week that the original iPhone launched. I showed up on Monday, and it was launching on Friday. At 6 p.m.

Every summer Apple has their executives give lunch time talks to their interns. While I wasn’t an intern, I was eligible to attend these talks, so I decided to check them out. The schedule of which executive would be speaking wasn’t posted ahead of time, so it could have been anyone from Steve, to Jonny Ive, to Peter Oppenheimer. You get the picture. The talk was at noon, and the iPhone was launching at 6.

Probably the biggest product launch in the history of the company since the Apple ][ and Steve took an hour to talk to the future of the company.

« A very long overdue personal update

Mike — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:39:10 +0000

This has been long overdue, but here is what’s going on.

Two weeks ago Stacy gave birth to our first child, our daughter Adeline Rose Melillo. She was born 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 19 inches tall. She is doing very well, and is healthy. Here is a video of her kicking a toy bird.

Watch this video on YouTube.

In other news, I traded in my BMW about a month ago and got a Mazda 3 hatchback. My extended warranty and maintenance plan had expired and I wasn’t looking forward to the bills just to keep it on the road.

A few months ago I started a podcast called The UnRx (pronounced Unprescribed) Podcast. You can check it out in iTunes or on it’s web site. The show is about Crossfit, nutrition (mostly paleo related), and not much else really.

I finished reading A Dance with Dragons not too long ago. No spoilers. I liked the book, but it was also my least favorite of the five books so far.