Not sure why people have cars?

On a morning like today i'm not sure why people have cars.

View from the SW Hill climb. Here you can see the tops of the city buildings popping through the fog layer, in the background, Mt.hood morning ride

From morning ride

From morning ride

So far this week I have cycled about 104 miles but by the end of the week, should be around 190 - 200 mainly commuting miles maybe 40 or 50 training miles. The commuting miles pretty much do nothing for my speed, they just keep my level of aerobic fitness and get me to work in a nice relaxed manner, not having to put up with traffic.

Mortgages - why fill my brain?

So the past week or so has made me realize that I know a lot more about mortgages and finance than I ever really wanted to. I would have rather allocated this space to design thinking, but oh well, i guess being financial aware is part of being 34!. So the mortgage thing is getting done, pretty good interest rates at the moment and the inspection of the house went well, with only minor and cosmetic things needed to be addressed.

It's been a strange week weather wise, some days it's been in the high40's low 50's and raining and other days it's been close to freezing. I have rode to work all this week, the roads are still pretty yukky to ride due to the gravel, dirt and old leaves in the bike lanes. A lot of this gravel is sharp and can cause flat tyres easily, I try and ride in the rode to avoid this, sorta annoys drivers, but it's not them who are changing my flat tyres every 2 mins. I have about 180miles on the bike and another 50 or so miles to ride on Sunday, so thats not bad for a week in January.
Work has been interesting, we are just about to make a public announcement on the 19th which has high potential to make the company a chunk of money in 09 and the future.

I have a few fog filled tree pictures from my commute on the colder mornings.

House - Hunted!

So big news, I found a place I really liked, I could not afford it, the price they were asking was not really market. I made a low low offer, negotiated back and forth and got down to something I could afford! I accepted a counter offer after several rounds! , agreed upon and signed off!! So at least the negotiating back and forth is done, and now under contract. It's not a fully finished deal (in the sense that I still have to do the inspection, lock in the financing and all the other steps of home ownership).



The skinny:
- 3 level townhouse (terrace house) 1980
- 2 car garage (inline) & driveway, Plenty of room for bikes, snowboards and tools.
- Small rear garden / yard
- 3 Bedrooms (2 good size 1 small), 1.5 bathroom
- Open plan kitchen to lounge.
- Balcony off master bedroom
- Skylights in stairways and rear bedroom and main bathroom.
- Located in a great part of town.

Here's some photos. these are from the estate agents website, so they may look a little ritzier than in real life!