I Want To Rock and Roll All Night...

and not pay any property taxes.

We have run into our first minor snags in the adventures of first time home ownership. I came into work today to find two emails, one from Gemini Title and another from Chris the Realtor. Gemini Title informed me that I am required to pay $2,900 (and change) in second half property taxes. Chris informed me that the Gemini request was legit.

After 10 minutes of sending spontaneous emails that ran the gamut of rehab program emotions, I opened my settlement paperwork. You know what? Gemini was right. I was credited about $1,900 (and change) at closing to pay for property taxes from April 1st through August 3rd (we closed on August 4th). So, in reality the roughly $5,000 that we thought was saved at closing is really more like $3,000. Still not bad for a day's work.

Sadly, this minor irritation came on the back of yesterday's debacle with DirectTV. Some context: a representative from ADT (security company) came by on Monday to survey the house and recommend a security system makeup for the house. All is well, but the security system requires a hard line to run through.

This meant that on Tuesday, Laura and I decided to purchase the bundled Verizon package (Internet, phone, cable). The phone? No problem. The Internet? It will be installed on August 20th. The cable? DirectTV (Verizon's cable service) asks customers which 4-hour (YES, FOUR HOUR!!!!!!) window they'd like. I chose yesterday (Wednesday) from noon-4:00, keeping in mind that Laura and I had softball later that evening (6:30 PM). In anticipation, I left work around 11:45 and spent the first few hours unloading my remaining junk, setting up our 14-inch TV (pictures to come), cleaning some of the windows, and measuring out all of the window enclaves for blinds. This took me until about 3:30, whereupon I receive a call from DirectTV saying my guy will be over in 25 minutes. At 5:00, after getting lost, he shows up. He was really nice but then proceeded to take until 6:30 to set up the box and satellite that I anticipated having finished by 3:30.

Needless to say, I was late for the game, felt like I had wasted the entire day waiting around, and was all around frustrated. Oh well, a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of things.