Big Day Saturday

Ok... here is my shameless plug for our moving date... this Saturday, April 12th. Erin and I are finally moving into our own place here in the Worcester area.

You may remember a blog I wrote in January where I mentioned that we placed an offer on a house. We had our hearts and money invested into this place. The story did not end well as the seller (banks) cancelled the sale. They did not properly foreclose the house which then caused errors in the Title record. Our lawyer and the title examiner insisted (for our benefit) on changes to their documents to correct the error. This was out of the banks protocol and they would not make the change. The result: we did not get the house and we are now entangled in a bit of a dispute with them.

Erin and I realized that we would have to wait for a long time to try and resolve this dispute, so we decided that it would be better to look for a place to rent for the next year or two. We found a great deal in Worcester, right off of Grafton St. We'll share pictures soon, but if you want to see it in person, we'd love to arrange that too.

Write to me at my new Gmail address (jdestratis@gmail.com) if you're interested in helping with the move for a part of... or the entire day. The schedule looks like this:

8:00am - My brother-in law and I will pick up the truck
9:00am - Arrive at Extra Space Storage on Ararat St. in Worcester
10:30am - Arrive at our new place
11:00am - Begin placing and re-assembling of beds, etc.
12:00noon - Finish off loading the majority of our stuff (hopefully)
12:30pm - Lunch... we'll order some sandwiches or pizza
1:30pm - A run to Spencer to pick up items there
3:00pm - Unload remaining items
5:00pm - Return truck

See ya then!

Bob Lobel

Today was one of those days where you hear some news that catches you off guard. I don't even know a world in which Bob Lobel is not my local sportscaster and yet that is what I'm faced with today. I was driving down the Pike this morning when word came across the airwaves that WBZ was going to cut Bob Lobel, Joyce Kulhawik and Scott Wahle. Scott's been around a while, but Bob and Joyce have been on my TV since I was 3 years old (keep in mind that I don't remember much before I was 3 years old).

Bob Lobel may not be perfect (I'm pretty sure he's perpetually drunk), but he is my local sportscaster... who understands the agony of defeat and doesn't hide it when he's on the air. And how in the world can I go on without Joyce Kulhawik's movie and theater reviews... is there anyone in Boston more cultured that Joyce... I doubt it!

So WBZ... you have some explaining to do... I've been a loyal channel 4 guy my entire life and now you want me to turn on the 6 o'clock news and not think about the fact that I'm lost.... lost without these icons of Boston local news. I guess all I can say is "shame on you" and you better hope that I don't end up at WCVB where at least the broadcast is in HD.

I'm thinking of switching to Google

I'm playing around with the idea of switching my email from Yahoo to Gmail. I've been with Yahoo for about 9 years, but have just about had it. Its probably a product of having had the address for so long that every spammer in the world has me on their lists, but I just get so many useless emails. I'll post my official change (as well as our new physical address) in the next week or two... but I wanted to get you ready for the change (and maybe me as well).

Besides, with Google coming up with amazing technologies like this one... how can I resist!

http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/press.html

Today is so much fun.