ShaneBertou.com

Facebook users may have noticed a slightly different look to their profile page today. (If you haven’t yet, you will in the coming days.) The social networking site has undergone an overhaul in an effort to make the site’s interface more efficient and less cluttered.

Personally, I like the cleaned up look. My favorite part is that it finally relegates most of those pesky applications to their own designated tab. But some users may be annoyed to find some applications such as “ILike” are no longer a part of their profile page.

If you’d like to get a head start on getting used to the new design, you can make the switch by going to www.new.facebook.com. The roll-out to Facebook’s 80 million users should be completed by the end of the week.

In preparing for the upcoming (pending) move we’re unloading a whole bunch of used music, DVDs and books. Check the “Buy My Junk” link regularly for updated item listings.

All proceeds benefit the Bertou Children’s Wii Fund (BCWF). Thanks for your support!

I will never forget the first time my father took me to see Yankee Stadium. It was June 27th, 1987 and I was eleven. It was my first time in a big city. It was my first time at a big league park. It was my introduction to the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. Everything, everything about that night seemed so huge, so electric, and so magical.

I’ll never forget Don Mattingly’s three run shot over the right field wall in the first inning off “Oil Can” Boyd. (High-fiving dad.) I’ll never forget the crowd heckling Jim Rice every time he took the field. (Dad wishing he could cover my years.) Mattingly, Randolph, Winfield, Righetti, Burks, Boggs, Rice, Baylor. (Dad.) There they were. Not just photos and stats on a baseball card, but playing right there in front of me!

I’ll be reliving a little bit of that magic tonight when I tune in to watch the All-Star Game. Reliving old memories and hopefully making new some ones with my son. Getting one last look at “The Stadium.” Passing baseball - Yankee baseball - down to another generation.

New stadiums. New names. New era. Same baseball.

I’ll be sure to call dad.

Apparently my incessant rambling about how Rochester is the greatest city in the world hasn’t done enough to convert the masses. Worse yet, it has done little to convince my fellow Rochesterians to view our fair city through the same rose-colored glasses that I do.

So the city has launched a new campaign in an attempt to encourage residents to talk up Rochester. And since my blog consistently doubles as an advertisement for The Roc, what kind of citizen would I be if I didn’t share the radio spots with my peeps?

We Roc - Anthem

We Roc - Economy

We run pools around here for everything from the NCAA tournament to the Kentucky Derby - so why not use the arrival of our new baby as another reason to pick a winner!??!

We’ve created a baby pool at ExpectNet. All you have to do is pick the gender (that part’s easy if you’ve been paying attention), date and time of arrival, length and weight. The winner will win some sort of baby-related prize.

Don’t post your guesses in the comments below, they will not count!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

From: “Jane Dough” <jane.dough@us.himc.com>
To: “Shane & Cheryl Bertou” <address@email.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 7:18:51 AM
Subject: Your mortgage application

Hello,

Your loan has been approved - please note the commitment letter will be mailed, once received please review and call with any questions.

Regards,

Jane Dough
Mortgage Lending Specialist
Huge International Mortgage Corporation (USA)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

It’s been a while since the last update on this. That’s because there have been some things we’ve been waiting to hear on/figure out before we knew what our next steps should be. Let me give you the run-down. (Warning: This could get lengthy.)

We applied for a mortgage through our bank, and on their end everything looked fine. But we hit a snag when it came time for them to submit the application to their PMI company. Because of the current mortgage crisis, the PMI company recently raised their standards - effective June 1st. Even though we applied on June 10th, the PMI company did not notify anyone at the bank that they were changing their policies or else we would have caught it then. Basically what happened is, because we are receiving so much grant money, and so little of our own cash is going into this transaction, the PMI company wouldn’t insure the loan. Smart for them, sucks for us.

In short, this meant we had to start the mortgage application process all over again with a different type of mortgage. It’s a New York State mortgage program called SONYMA (pronounced “Sunny May”). We fall well within all of their parameters and should be able to secure the mortgage without any issues - as far as anyone can tell right now anyway.

There have been two significant consequences of all this.

First, the “buy down” grant that we qualified for is not available on a SONYMA loan. So our interest rate will go up from an unfathomable 4.5% to a still-pretty-darn-good 5.1%. Meaning, the house will cost us a bit more in the long-run, but we’re still getting a pretty good rate.

Second, and probably most significantly, we lost three weeks. Since we told our landlord that we are buying a house and expected to close sometime in August, he has hired a realtor to begin showing the house to potential tenants. Long story short, we’re most likely going to have to be out of our place by August 31st. But the new tentative closing date is “sometime in September.” So we have some best/worst case scenarios to prepare for.

Best case scenario - the one we’re praying really hard for while crossing our fingers, wishing upon a star and eating boxes and boxes of Lucky Charms - is that the miraculous happens, this mortgage goes through fast and we still manage to (somehow) close by the end of August.

Second worst case scenario is that we’ll have to move all of our stuff into storage for a couple of weeks while we take refuge in someone’s guest room and wait for the closing. This would kind of suck because we’d have to move our stuff twice. Not to mention living like a vagabond with a five-year-old and a newborn is sure to get on some nerves. Oh, and don’t forget our roommate. We had a college student live with us last year who is planning to move into the new house with us until she’s done with school. This would no doubt be a bit tumultuous for her as well.

The worst case scenario is that we don’t get this mortgage, we have to figure out some other way to secure one and we’re homeless indefinitely with all our stuff in storage until we figure something out. But we’re not thinking about that right now, every time I do I start convincing myself that cyanide is a key ingredient to Kool-Aid.

So there you have it. Hooray!

Found this on Christianity Today’s website today. I found it pretty touching.

So let’s use this as an opportunity for discussion topic shall we?

Have you/would you ever consider adopting a child from another country? Would you adopt a special needs child? A child of another race? What about the adoption needs in our own country, in your own community? Have you ever considered opening up your home to help meet those needs?

Happy 5th Birthday to pretty much the coolest kid I know. Your mom and I are so proud of you, and we know you’re going to be an awesome big brother!

I’ve reaped the multitude of benefits from having a dad in my house who busted his back to make sure we had the best he could provide. Thanks dad. I’m eternally grateful for your sacrifice.

Now, I’ve got two boys dependent on me, and I hope I can be half the man to them that you were to me.

Happy Father’s Day. I love you.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Just a quick update this time. Not even worth posting a header image.

Last Friday, Cheryl and I signed the mortgage application at the bank. We’re not expecting to hear from them for another couple of weeks.

As part of the program, we have to take a couple of first-time home buyer courses. The first of which is this Saturday.

Tentative closing is now mid-August.

So did anyone else tune in to watch Big Brown flame out at Belmont? Not only did he fail to win the race and take home the Triple Crown, but his jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled him up down the stretch and the horse finished dead last. Lame.

On a related note, Josiah and I made a return trip to the track at Finger Lakes on Saturday. Just before he left his grandmother gave him $2 to bet on a horse. Sure enough, he picked another winner and his $4.20 in winnings went straight into his piggy bank. I went 2-for-3 on the day, and my winnings are in his piggy bank too. If we keep this pace up we just might be able to put him through college!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

This morning Cheryl and I went down to City Hall to put the house under contract. Putting it under contract effectively takes the house off the market and begins all of the legal paperwork for the transaction.

We had to initial and sign a bunch of legalize and write a check for $1,000 to act as our deposit on the property. Now the paperwork will go to the Greater Rochester Housing Partnership for them to sign off on, as well as to our attorney for his review. After the GRHP signs off on it, we’ll have to work with our bank to finalize the mortgage application and secure the funding.

Our closing is scheduled “on or around” August 8th. Of course, with Cheryl due about a week before that this whole thing should be really interesting come closing time!

Yesterday afternoon I received the following email from Cheryl:

So do you think that maybe at our new house we might NOT have two homeless dudes screaming profanities at each other in front of the house because one thinks the other one stole his cans?

A bizaare scenario to be sure. Equally bizaare was the conversation I had while home on my lunch break this afternoon.

While sitting in front of a large bay window in our dining room/office I see this dude carting a huge bag of cans from the back part of our lawn to the street. Now, there is a large fence surrounding our yard, so I was annoyed to think this dude (obviously) hopped our fence to cut through our yard. So I went outside to confront him.

Me: Say man, I’m gonna have to ask you not to climb our fence or cut through our yard. You can go around to get to the street.

Homeless Dude: But, I didn’t climb your fence.

Me: (Confused) Well, I saw you carrying your cans through our yard, so you must have climbed it to get there!

HD: No. I kept my cans in your yard last night, behind that tree right there. They were too heavy for me to carry anymore.

Me: Ooooh kay. Well, in that case I’m definitely going to have to ask you not to do that again!

For Father’s Day a few years ago (or maybe it was my birthday?) I got a real boss two-basket deep fryer. Since then we’ve had numerous opportunities to fire that bad boy up and gorge ourselves on some deep-fried goodness.

I’m pretty much addicted to wings, so we have a tendency to make them on a fairly regular basis. And whenever our friends have been over for one of our fried food frenzies my wings always get compliments. For whatever reason, everybody likes them. But the sauce is so ridiculously easy to make I’m amazed more people don’t know how to make a decent wing for themselves.

So for the betterment of the human cause, let me take a minute to share my “secret ingredients”: Red hot, butter

Seriously, it’s that easy folks. But let me break it down a little more specifically.

Step 1:
Melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter in a large plastic container.

Step 2:
Add 1 cup of Frank’s Red Hot, “Original” flavor, hot sauce. Stir in thoroughly.

If you like your wings a little hotter and the sauce a little thicker in consistency, give it another dash of red hot. If you like it more mild, use maybe a 1/4 cup less red hot.

Frank’s original is king, don’t buy another brand and don’t go for any of that “Chile ‘n Lime,” “Xtra Hot,” or “Buffalo Wing” nonsense. Just go with Ol’ Faithful. You can buy it by the gallon at Sam’s Club (we do), and it’ll keep forever.

Step 3:
Give it a taste. If you like your wings with some more kick, add a tablespoon of Tabasco. Again, stick with the original flavor.

That’s it folks. Two (or three) steps is all it takes to make Buffalo Wings that will forever gain the praise of your party guests. Except now that everyone knows how ridiculously easy it is, my wings may never be complimented again!

Part 1, Part 2

On Friday we looked at this house in the city’s 19th Ward. We had peeked in the windows while driving through the neighborhood on several occasions, but this was our first chance to see it on the inside.

The house is gorgeous. It’s about 1,300 square feet with three bedrooms and one bath. It has parqued hardwood floors in the living room and dining room, with carpeting upstairs. It also has a nice wide open kitchen with all new cabinets and countertops. It has a spacious attic that could make a nice playroom for the boys someday. It also has a deck off the back entrance, a good sized yard for the boys to play in and a one car garage.

The neighborhood is very nice. Most of our neighbors are owner occupants and it also has a very active neighborhood association. It’s still relatively close to my job (3.5 miles), a few blocks away from the airport and has easy access to the 390 Interstate.

We’re meeting with the city on Friday morning to put the house under contract. This means that, pending final approval and clearing a few hurdles, we’ve effectively started the buying process. According to the realtor, if all goes smoothly we could be closing on the house in as little as 45 days!

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Trey Anastasio seemed to drop some fairly heavy hints that a Phish reunion might be in the works.

“When Phish broke up, I made some comment about how I’m not gonna go around playing ‘You Enjoy Myself’ for the rest of my life,” Anastasio said with a laugh. “And it’s so funny because Fish and Mike and Page have been talking to each other a lot lately and now — it’s not that I can’t believe that I said that, but its symbolic of how much I lost my mind or how much I lost my bearings or something. Because at this point in time I would give my left nut to play that song five times in a row every day until I die. I certainly thought about that while I was in jail.”

Trey. I’ll give you both of mine after the vasectomy, just bring back Phish!

Part 1

Last week we received word that we were pre-approved for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at a very modest interest rate through our bank. Additionally, we qualified for a $5,000 “interest rate buydown grant” that would effectively bring our interest rate down to under 5% for the life of the loan.

With that victory under our belt we held our collective breath while we waited to hear from the city on our application for the program.

We received a letter while we were away over the holiday weekend asking us to schedule a time to come in for an interview with a representative from the City’s Bureau of Housing & Project Development. As it turns out, the “interview” was merely a formality as all we really had to do was sign some paperwork agreeing to the terms of the program.

We’re in!

This essentially means that we can take advantage of up to $6,500 dollars in city, state and federal grants to help cover the down payment and closing costs.

At this stage in the game all we really need to do is find the right house. If we found the right place, there’s really nothing keeping us from pulling the trigger right on the spot.

We looked at one today that has some potential. It’s in the lower 19th Ward which is actually a nice little community (for the city’s west side that is). Location isn’t quite where I’d want to be, but the neighborhood was definitely one of the better ones we’ve explored since beginning to look for houses in the city.

That’s all we have for an update right now. Stay tuned!

On Memorial Day, in an effort to pay tribute to those soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Iraq, I posted a list of every U.S. casualty from the beginning of the war until now.

The list contained over 4,000 names, including the age, rank and city of origin of each soldier.

If you would like to view that list you can do so here.

A few weeks ago I shared with you all that we were going to go take a look at a house. We didn’t necessarily consider ourselves in the market to buy a house, but hoped that looking at the property would provide the motivation we needed to start seriously considering taking the plunge.

Since then we have looked at several more properties and have actually started the application process for the HOME Rochester program. From there we basically need to do the following:

• Be approved for the HOME Rochester program
• Qualify for a conventional, fixed-rate mortgage
• Find the right house (in the right neighborhood)

This afternoon we received the following letter from our bank:

Dear Shane and Cheryl:

We are pleased to inform you that you have been Pre-Qualified for mortgage financing.

Pre-Qualified Interest Rate: 5.5%
Pre-Qualified Term: 30 Years Fixed

Additionally, you are eligible for a $5,000 FHLB interest rate buydown grant.

The buydown grant gets applied to the interest over the life of the mortgage and essentially brings the interest rate down to about 4.8%.

One down, two more to go.

Our application for the HOME Rochester program has been received and we are expecting to hear back from them any day now on whether we’ve been approved. If we are it’s just a matter of finding the right place!