July 31, 1997
Dear Everyone:
Still edging closer to going through with selling /
buying / moving. I contacted
a Realtor in
Dublin yesterday and faxed her a list of my demands.
What is a “Must Have” (like central
air conditioning), what’s a
“Needs to Have” like a dishwasher in the kitchen, and what’s “Nice to
Have” like allowing pets.
Nearly everything is negotiable except location and price.
I have no intention of going as high as the financial people tell
me I can. And I want to be
near the office because the main reason for all of this is to reclaim
about eight to ten hours per week that I currently spend commuting.
I’ll call the
Concord Realtor when I get back from
the conference I’m going to tomorrow and tell her to go ahead and start
the ball rolling at this end.
(Hoping it doesn’t roll over me.)
I can’t deal with a business trip and real estate agents at the
same time. I’d be too likely
to pack the real estate file and forget to pack a change of clothes.
The conference in question is a Leadership
Development Conference being held in
San Jose (which means no flying
this time). It’s put on each
year by the ARMA people. I’m
attending because I’m going to be on the board of directors for the new
East Bay ARMA chapter. In
other words, having fought tooth and nail for the East Bay chapter so I
wouldn’t get drafted as president of the Golden Gate chapter, I’m now
going to be the charter vice-president of the
Mt. Diablo chapter.
Or, as Robin Hood would put it:
“Out of the frying pan and into the
Friar.”
But it still looks good on a résumé.
And we get to pick the new logo.
Still nervously watching Company’s stock as it
edges up towards $80 per share.
If I exercised my option yesterday (79-3/16), I would have netted
about $2342. Someone at work
created a spreadsheet and sent it out by email.
All you have to do is change the value of the stock and it
automatically computes how much you’d make at that value.
Even subtracts
withholding tax for you.
Someone in “Livermore”, who actually invests in the
stock market regularly, told me to hold on unless I have specific plans
for the money (like closing costs).
His broker predicts that the stock will reach $85 by the end of
this year. But the way I see
it, the more money I have to put down on this new condo, the less my
monthly payments will be, thus leaving me with some to cover really
important things like Lancôme makeup and movies.
Movies...
Saw
Air Force
One last weekend. This
is a Bruce Willis style action thriller, but with the hero upgraded to
Harrison Ford. Ford plays
the kind of President that
Tom Clancy would like to put in the
White
House. In other words, he’s
a President, not a
politician.
Bad guys, led by
Gary Oldman, take over the President’s plane.
They expect the soft American to be a pushover.
But guess what? Not
only does he speak their language, but he can beat the crap out of your
average third terrorist from the right without breaking a sweat.
Glenn Close plays the vice-president, a politician
evidently chosen for her gender and the fact that she could guarantee
California. Suddenly she’s
faced with a problem for which there is no acceptable solution.
The President is a hostage, what should we do?
Answer: Call in a
Constitutional lawyer.
“Jeannie” and I agreed that this has been the best
movie to come out so far this summer.
And there’s still been no sign of the James Cameron film,
Titanic. This was
supposed to be the summer’s big
movie, but the studio apparently pulled it.
“Jeannie”, who has time to read entertainment magazines, reports
that they have rewritten the ending three times already.
Let’s see, rewriting the end of the
Titanic. What could they
possibly have in mind? We
want a happy ending, so the ship didn’t sink after all, it was all just
a dream? How in heaven’s
name can you rewrite the ending of the
Titanic?
And only one more week until
Ashland.
Love, as always,
Pete
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