The SoapBoxers

We recently celebrated our 250th anniversary! 250 articles, that is. I’d like to thank all of the loyal readers and my great staff of writers!

In the spirit of baseball season, I have broken down the process of buying a home into nine innings (technically, ten sections – there is also a post game).

Note: this advice is provided with no warranties. I am not a realtor or a financial advisor. If you have questions about the process, I would suggest that you consult with a professional. This is geared mostly toward the first time home buyer, although other some veteran homeowners might pick up a tip or two.

First inning: Clean up your credit – Your credit history will affect your interest rate. A mere one percent rate hike can add up in a hurry. One percent on an outstanding balance of $200,000 is an extra $2000 per year (this amount would decrease in future years as you pay the balance down). Pay your bills on time, and avoid doing things that could adversely affect your credit score (such as opening 85 new credit cards).

Second Inning: Determine your budget. Some people will go to a bank and ask how much they can get approved for. This is a bad idea, as it may cause you to take on a higher mortgage than you want. Instead, determine what you want your housing budget to be. Once you have determined your overall housing budget, subtract an amount to save toward maintenance and upgrades (a new roof, fixing a furnace, etc.) to leave the amount that you want to put toward the actual monthly payment. Then subtract the amount for insurance, property taxes, and PMI (if necessary) – items that are typically escrowed – to leave the amount of money left for the actual house. Run this number through a mortgage calculator to determine the maximum price of the house.

Sound confusing? Let’s do an example. Let’s say that you want to spend $2000 per month on your overall housing budget. You decide that $350 of this amount should go into a savings account devoted to maintenance and upgrades (to a new homeowner, this might sound like a lot, but a new appliance can quickly wipe this out). This leaves $1650 for the mortgage. You expect to pay $300 per month for property taxes, $100 per month for home insurance, and $50 for per month for PMI. Deduct these amounts from the $1650 and you have $1200 left toward the actual house payments. Assuming a 30 year mortgage at 6%, this means that you can spend $200,000 on a house. (Note: these amounts may not be realistic for you – they are provided simply to show how the math works).

Summary:

• $2000 : Monthly housing budget
• -$350 : Put towards maintenance and upgrades
• -$300 : Property taxes
• -$100 : Homeowner’s insurance
• -$50 : PMI (mortgage insurance)
• = $1200 per month toward the purchase price of the house

Plug $1200 (payment), 6 (annual interest), and 360 (months) into this calculator, and you get a mortgage amount of $200,000.

Third inning: What do you want? OK, you know you want to buy a house – but what sort of house? Ranch? Two story? Two bedrooms? Four bedrooms? Do you need a three car garage or a big back yard? Do you want to live in a particular neighborhood – or avoid certain parts of town? Make a list of things that are “must haves” and things that are nice to have. Look around a bit on realty websites and in your local paper to determine if you can realistically afford the type of home you want, based on your budget. If you can’t realistically afford it, begin to scale back.

Fourth Inning: Get pre-approved – Sellers (and realtors) love buyers you are pre-approved, because it avoids a situation where someone wants to buy a house but can’t get the financing. Get pre-approved for the amount you determine in the second inning – or perhaps a slight bit of wiggle room – but don’t get pre-approved for an amount you don’t want to spend. The availability of the credit might tempt you to buy a more expensive house than you really want or need. At this point, you might want to get an estimate of taxes, insurance, and PMI to get a better grasp on what everything is going to cost.

If you have a choice between a piggyback mortgage (such as an 80-10) and PMI, one thing to keep in mind is that mortgage interest is deductible, but the PMI is not. You will pay more interest with a piggyback (due to a higher rate on the smaller loan) than you will when you use PMI, but your out of pocket cost may still be lower.

Fifth inning: Get a realtor – Ask your family and friends for advice on a realtor. In most cases, you won’t be directly paying the realtor (they split the commission with the seller’s realtor), so get the best possible realtor – money is no object! Find someone who not only is good at his or her job, but also will mesh well with your personality.

Note that your realtor will not help you on homes that are for sale by owner, unless you pay them. Why? Because FSBO homes don’t have a commission to split. Thus it is only fair that you pay them, since they can’t work for free.

If you have rollover minutes on your cell phone plan, you might want to roll some forward, as you’ll chew up a lot of minutes talking to the realtor, spouse, banker, etc.

Sixth inning: Find a house – This is a fairly important part of the whole process, right? You may choose to attend a few open houses, or you might share your list from the third inning and have the realtor find some properties that seem to be a good fit.

When you walk through a house with your realtor, give them feedback. Don’t simply say that you don’t like the house; instead, tell them what you don’t like. This allows them to focus on houses that are more suitable for you.

When it is time to make an offer on the house, your realtor can advise you on a good place to start the negotiations. You don’t want to insult the sellers, but you also want to leave some room for negotiations.

As a tactic to gain leverage, you may want to point out some of the less desirable qualities of the house – such as saying “we really like the house, although the yard seems a bit small.” In our case, we actually looked at both sides of a zero lot line home (referred to as a duplex in some areas). The homes were basically the mirror image of each other, with some small differences. Thus, we had some leverage based on the fact that a very similar house was for sale just a few feet away. If one of the sellers wouldn’t negotiate, we could just go next door and make an offer on the other house.  Do not, however, turn this into an all out attack on the house.  You won’t fool anyone, and you’ll make the sellers angry.

Seventh inning: Get inspections – While some people may be tempted to avoid the expense of inspections, you will want to strongly considering getting them done. They could find big problems that you might not have found on your own. Our inspector found a rotting window frame on the upper level – it is unlikely we would have caught this on our own. We were able to get the sellers to pay the estimated cost of replacement – this more than paid for the cost of the inspector.

Seventh inning stretch: OK, time to stretch your legs and get ready for the big finish.

Eighth inning: Closing – Finally, the day that you have been waiting for! First of all, you should have an estimate of closing costs from your lender. Make sure you have the funds available (and a bit more, just in case there are some “surprises” on closing day). Verify whether you can pay with a personal check, or whether a bank check is required.

If you have questions during the closing, make sure you ask them. Once you have signed the paperwork, it is too late to begin asking questions.

Make sure you know when the first mortgage payment is due, and where to send the payments. A lot of lenders allow you to pay online, which I have found to be very nice.

Ninth inning: Moving day – If someone gave me the choice of being hit in the head with a shovel or moving, I’d take the hit with the shovel. Moving sucks.

Having said that, there are things that you can do to make the process a little easier. This is a great time to get rid of things you no longer need. You can also work on packing a few things every day, to avoid a big rush to pack everything right before the move. Make sure that everything is completely ready to be moved when your moving crew arrives. They are your moving crew, not your packing crew. I have heard stories of people having laundry in the washer and dryer – that’s not good.

If you are renting a truck for the move, reserve it ahead of time, and pick it up the previous night, if possible. The rental places often get a big rush of traffic in the mornings.

If you have friends who are helping you move, remember to thank them. Multiple times, if your have a lot of heavy items.

Post game: After the move – Within a month or so, you’ll realize that you don’t like your house quite as much as you did when you agreed to buy it. This is buyer’s remorse, and it’s a very common feeling. Trying to focus on the positive aspects of the house.

Make sure to stock up on items you will need, such as furnace filters, salt for a water softener, and bulbs to fit the various light fixtures (wow – there is an incredible variety of light bulbs). Put new batteries in the smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, and thermostat.

When tax time rolls around, make sure to have records of the mortgage interest and property taxes you paid during the year. These are itemized deductions – if you have used the standard deduction in the past, it might make more sense to itemize because of these deductions.

If you have two mortgages – such as an 80% at a lower rate and a 10% at a higher rate, any extra payments should go to the loan that is at the higher rate.

If you have PMI, make sure to notify your lender when your loan balance is less than 80% of the home’s value. They don’t always drop the PMI automatically.

When it is too early to refinance? Never. Refinancing is not a question of time, but rather a question of cost savings. There’s also a rule of thumb that you should not refinance unless you can cut your rate by 1%. In the past, this might have made some sense. However, with the increase in housing costs over the past few decades, this rule of thumb is obsolete. For example, if you have a $500,000 house, a half point drop in your interest rate can save you $2500 the first year (and slightly lesser amounts each year, as you pay down the mortgage).

The best way to determine whether or not to finance is to figure your break-even point. First, figure out the costs of refinancing. Do not include prepayments on the new mortgage or re-establishment of escrow, as these are not true closing costs (prepayments are simply a mortgage cost, and re-establishment of escrow is offset when your previous lender returns the existing escrow balance to you). Take the refinance costs and divide by the monthly savings – this is your rough break even point. Actual break even will be slightly more, due to the fact that interests costs decline each month. However, this is typically a very small difference.

What did you miss over the weekend?

• Friday featured kosmo’s short story Drunk.
• Cheri Nobel made her debut on Saturday be welcoming us all into her country corral.
• Kosmo talks about the case of Jasmine Fiore
• We went North of the border with Tyson on Sunday as he shared Canadian fun and facts.

The body of model/actress Jasmine Fiore was found in a Dumpster earlier last week. Her body was found in a suitcase by a man looking for bottles to recycle. (Note: if you find a suitcase in a Dumpster, don’t open it.) Her husband, Ryan Jenkins, has been charged with his murder. He is believed to have slipped into Canada and Canadian law enforcement personnel have joined their US counterparts in a manhunt for Jenkins.

Fiore’s teeth had been extracted and her fingers had been removed. This was done in an attempt to conceal the victim’s identity. Fiore was identified by the serial number of her breast implants. This is not the first time that law enforcement has used this method to identify a body.

Ryan Jenkins (the husband who has been charged with the crime) is a contestant on the reality show “Megan Wants a Millionaire”. The show says that it fired an outside company to do background checks on contestants, and that the outside company missed Jenkins’ criminal history (a prior conviction for assault).

Apparently they also missed the fact that Jenkins was married, and thus not a great fit for the dating show. Whether Jenkins is actually a millionaire is unknown.

On a tangent – have you noticed that the word “Dumpster” is often capitalized? That’s because it is not a generic term, but rather a brand name.

UPDATE: Ryan Jenkins has been found dead in British Columbia.

Barry was blinded by the lights of the oncoming car. His hair stood on end when he noticed that the fool was in the wrong lane – headed toward him at 70 miles per hour. Barry tried to take evasive action, but his reflexes were slow and he couldn’t avoid the other car. He felt the impact of the high speed collision and heard the rending of metal before he blacked out.

When Barry regained consciousness, he was aware of bright lights flashing and lots of voices. After a few seconds, he noticed a police offer banging on his door.

“Sir,” shouted the officer. “Please step out of the car.”

Barry took a second to regain his bearings. He opened the car door and stepped out onto the highway.

“Have you been drinking?”

“Just a couple of drinks, officer.”

The office wrinkled his nose as if he was smelling an unpleasant odor.

“I’m going to have to ask you to take a field sobriety test.”

Barry wasn’t quite sure why the cop felt the need to do this, but it was probably just a formality. He wanted to help the officer, so he complied. He tried to walk in a straight line, but the highway was slippery from some earlier precipitation and he kept falling. He mentioned this explanation to the cop, who just nodded in agreement. The cop also administered a Breathalyzer test – probably a formality as well.

“OK, sir, we’re going to take you into the station to have a blood alcohol test performed. If you have only had a few drinks, then you have nothing to worry about.”

Barry nodded in agreement. Certainly the blood alcohol test would prove that he had only drunk a couple glasses of wine and perhaps a shot or two of whiskey. As the officer led Barry to the police car, he noticed an ambulance moving away from the scene. The ambulance did not seem to be in any particular hurry.

The rest of the evening was a bit of a haze. Barry woke up to find himself in a jail cell. A man in a suit stood at the door of the cell.

“Barry Larson? I’m Evan Andrews with the public defender’s office. We need to talk.”

The jailer led Barry and Evan to a private room where they could speak confidentially. Evan began to drop bombshells on Barry. Barry had blown a .26 blood alcohol level at the scene of the crash, and a later blood test had confirmed the result.

“OK, so I was drunk, but the other car was in my lane. I’m the victim here!”

“Well, Barry,” replied his lawyer, “that might be your recollection of the facts, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation. The skid marks at the scene clearly indicate that you were in the wrong lane.”

Barry was stunned, but recovered quickly. “OK, so I pay a fine for the drunk driving and pay for the damage to the other guy’s car. When can I have someone bail me out?”

“It’s really not that simple,” explained Evan. “Two people in the other car were killed in the crash. You’re looking at a charge of vehicular manslaughter.”

Barry stopped breathing for a moment. How could this be true? He only remembered a few drinks the previous night. How could he have gotten so wasted that he was driving on the wrong side of the road and killed two people. He shook his head to clear some of the cobwebs. Pieces of the puzzle were starting to click into place. The problems he had walking the straight line were probably not due to precipitation – and the ambulance he had seen leaving the scene wasn’t speeding away because the people inside the car were dead at the scene.

“Can we reach some sort of plea deal? A hefty fine, a few years of probation, and a lot of community service?” he asked, desperation in his voice.

“One of the victims was a seven year old girl, Barry. This is an election year, and there is no way that the district attorney is going to let you walk without significant jail time. You could face up to twenty five years in prison. The DA is offering a deal that would give you eighteen years.”

Barry was stunned at the prospect of losing eighteen years of his life.

“What’s your advice?” he asked.

“Honestly, Barry, I would seriously consider taking the offer. You don’t want this case to go in front of a jury – especially not with that little girl as one of the victims. The state has a very strong case, and I think they could convince the jury to throw the book at you, and you’d end up with the maximum. Think about it for a few days, and let me know whether or not you want to go to trial.”

Barry nodded. The lawyer shook his hand and left, and the jailer walked Barry back to his cell. The possibility of the lengthy prison sentence was not at the forefront of his mind, however. The heaviest burden on his mind was the thought that he had killed a seven year old girl, cutting her down before she had the chance to truly experience life. The prison sentence would eventually end, but the guilt would always be present.

Monday was a national holiday of sorts. It was the signing deadline for most of the players selected in this June’s Major League draft. College seniors (as well as Aaron Crow and Tanner Scheppers, who skipped their senior seasons to play in the independent leagues) were not bound by this deadline, but everyone else was.

My focus on this glorious day was on two pitchers – a righty and a lefty. The righty was top overall pick Stephen Strasburg and the lefty was Tyler Matzek, the #11 overall pick.

Stephen Strasburg

Strasburg has been the subject of much media attention over the last year or so. He has been an absurdly dominant college pitcher, throwing a fastball clocked as high as 103 mph. Superlatives were hurled at him by the bushel. Was he the best college pitcher ever? Surely the best in a decade? Many scouts deemed him to be the best player they had ever seen. To make things even sweeter, Strasburg’s coach at San Diego State – Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn – had made a concerted effort to avoid heaping abuse on Strasburg by avoiding monstrously high pitch counts in games. Many top college pitchers are overused by coaches eager to pad their own resumes with wins, at the expense of the health of their pitchers.

After the Washington National signed him, they bumped into the sticky subject of money. There were initial indications that Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, was looking for a deal around $50 million! Many thought that it was a slam dunk that he would hold out for $30 million.

There was a strong possibility that the Nationals would not be able to sign Strasburg, and he would re-enter the draft next year. The Nationals would be compensated with the #2 pick in the 2010 draft (an “n+1” formula is used to compensate teams that are unable to sign picks in the first two rounds, so the #1 overall pick in 2009 would yield a #2 in 2010). The Nationals are also likely to hold the #1 pick in next year’s draft by “virtue” of having the worst record this year. However, they would be unable to draft Strasburg a second time without his consent.

So, what happened? Negotiating went deep into the night, and the sides emerged with a deal that will pay Strasburg a reported $15.067 million and keep him under control of the Nationals for four seasons – at which point he will go into the arbitration system. This sounds like a ton of money (and it is) but I score this as a win for the Nationals. If they can lose enough games to land the #1 pick next year, they could add catcher Bryce Harper to the mix, and have a couple of very nice players for the long haul.

For more on Stephen Strasburg, read my fake interview from a few months ago.

Tyler Matzek

Rockies draftee Tyler Matzek garned a bit less attention than Strasburg. The Matzek selection was noteworthy for Rockies Nation, however. The small market Rockies have typically drafted players who were considered to be “signable” (a baseball euphemism for “cheap”) while eschewing players whose upsides were perceived to be higher.

Matzek, however, did not fit this description. Widely considered to be one of the top pitchers in the draft, high schooler Matzek slid down to #11 due to signability concerns (i.e. he wanted a lot of money), where the Rockies picked him. This move was the complete opposite of how the Rockies have historically drafted. Some observers felt that this was a strategic move by the Rockies. The thought was that they really didn’t want to pony up the money to pay a top pick this year, and would prefer to just take the compensatory pick next year.

For his part, Matzek talked a good game, talking about the opportunity to pitch and play first base for the University of Oregon.

Matzek arrived in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday night, which was not a good sign. However, when reports surfaced that Matzek had not attended Monday classes at the University of Oregon, my spirits soared. This was an indication that he might indeed sign with the Rockies.

In the end, Matzek left behind the world of co-eds and spring break for a reported $3.9 million bonus.

If you wonder what my initial response to the draft was, read the draftermath from June.

The American news media, from time to time, is accused of trying to create the news rather than simply report it. The American outlets, however, have nothing on Brazilian news personality Wallace Souza.

Souza was the host of the news show Canal Livre, which was popular in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Souza would often rail against the violence in the area, which has a reputation of being quite lawless. Canal Livre would often focus on killings in the Amazon region, including showing graphic footage of murder victims. Canal Livre was often able to beat its competitors to the location and score an exclusive story – which resulted in a ratings boost.

How was Souza able to consistently beat his opponents to the punch? I know what you’re thinking – that he paid off the cops to notify him when the crime had been uncovered. Of course not – let’s not be ridiculous.

What Souza was actually doing, according to the police, was setting up the killings. His crews would be first on the scene simply because he knew that the killing was about to occur.

What sort of anchor man has the connections to get people whacked, you might ask? The sort of anchor man who also dabbled in a bit of drug trafficking. The guys he had whacked were rivals, so he was killing two birds with one stone. Souza’s son has been jailed on charges related to murder and drug trafficking. Souza himself has not yet been arrested. He also happens to be a legislator in the state government – and thus has immunity (just a thought, but perhaps the immunity protections could be scaled back a bit at some point). In the last elections, Souza garnered more votes than any other member of the Azononas legislature.

Souza is also a former police officer, so he really has all the bases covered. Committing crimes as a criminal, arresting criminals as a cop, reporting the crimes on TV, and making the laws. Souza has responded to the allegations by saying that he is being set up by political rivals.

This story really stunned me a bit. As much as Americans distrust the media at times, I find it hard to believe than any members of the media would have someone whacked just so that they could report on the story. I’ll eat my hat if my favorite news anchor is ever arrested for setting up a hit. (Note to Steven Colbert – try to avoid having people killed, OK? )

Their business is death, and business has been good

On the topic of death, I’d like to point out a favorite web site of mine, Dead or Alive Info. If you ever have a question about whether or not a public figure is dead or alive, pop over to this site to check. You can also take a gander at a list of people who are 85 or older and still alive. You can see which people died young (younger than 30) or old (100 or older) and sort by field (science, entertainment, etc), gender, or cause of death.

In addition to the raw facts, there are also some fun quizzes on the site.

Those among you who participate in celebrity death pools could make good use of this site when you’re setting up your board for the next draft. Take a quick look at the people who are 85+ and put them at the top of your board!

What did you miss over the weekend?

• On Friday, the fiction story Warm Feet appeared. Gay Marriage was the topic of the story.
• Saturday featured a “write your own adventure” story. Kosmo wrote the first 200 words ot the story Lindsey and asked readers to continue the story in the comment section.
• Tyson Turned weighed in with 3 things on Sunday.

OK, today we’re going to kick off a brand new type of article on The Soap Boxers.  I will begin to write a story, and then stop after a couple hundred words.  I am asking all of you, the readers, to continue the story by adding a comment.  Take over the story from where I left off and write a hundred or so words.  Each successive writer should build upon the previous comment.  I do ask that you not finish the story if you are one of the first commenters – the goal is to have a lot of people play along.  If the progress stalls out, I will go ahead and write a conclusion to the story.

(Note to Evan @ 40Tech – your stuff is still getting caught in the spam filter, so if you want to play along, use a different address.  Otherwise, the sequence will get messed up a bit.)

If you have  never left a comment before, go ahead and take the plunge today!

Without further ado …

Lindsey

After thirty seven minutes in the air,  Lindsey turned the plane sharply to the east, deviating from the flight plan she had filed earlier.  She was beginning to sweat.  It was uncomfortably warm in the cabin of the plane, and the stress of what lie ahead for her only served to intensify the perspiration.  Lindsey pushed her auburn hair away from her eyes and wiped the sweat off her brow with a filty blue hankerchief.  She forced herself to avoiding thinking about what would happen on the ground, and instead focus on the task of flying the plane.

Shortly after she had passed over the mountains, Lindsey saw the runway in the distance.  It was rudimentary, but it would serve serve the purpose.  Lindsey had landed on aircraft carriers in the Navy; she could handle landing on a poorly maintained landing strip in the middle of nowhere.

The potholes, small bushes, and a lone misplaced goat made the landing a bit more rough than usual, but Lindsey was a pro and easily taxied the plane to a stop.  As soon as the vehicle had come to a complete stop, Lindsey popped open the door, grabbed her Nevy duffel bag, and hopped out of the plane.

OK, readers – what happens next?  What the heck is Lindsey up to?  Honestly, I have no idea … you tell me.

Do you know other people who want to join in on the fun?  Send them a link, or simply hit the “Tweet this” button.

Note: the topic of this story is gay marriage.  While the story itself is positive in tone, I do realize that this is a controversial subject.  If you feel that this story may upset you, this would be the time to stop reading and peruse another of the many articles at The Soap Boxers.

Kate Kubek took a moment to gather her thoughts. Today, the day she would marry her best friend, had been reached after a long and winding journey.

Kate remembered peeking through the curtains of her parents’ house, watching the Mayflower van pull into the driveway next door. Her parents forbid her from visiting the new neighbors until they were settled in their house. Kate dutifully obeyed her mother and father, but kept up on the drama by manning her station near the window. Almost immediately, her excitement had been intensified by the presence of a young girl in pigtails – a girl who seemed to be about seven years old, too.

After waiting for what seemed like years (but was actually just a few days), her parents allowed her to go next door to visit. She carried a plate of her mother’s chocolate chip cookies as a “welcome to the neighborhood” present. The girl next door – Robyn – was excited to meet a girl her own age, and thus began a wonderful friendship.

During the summer, they spent countless hours in the warm sun playing tag, hide-and-go-seek, and even trying their hand at croquet. Their croquet matches were an utter failure when judged by the quality of the execution – but a rousing success when judged by the decibels of their laughter.

As the leaves began to display vibrant hues and the wind began to blow with cold intensity, they retreated behind the brick walls of Robyn’s house. Winters were spent playing Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, as well as that rite of passage of every young girl – Barbie dolls.

The girls quickly became inseparable. Kate’s parents had a standing invitation open to Robyn, and the Murphy family reciprocated by welcoming Kate into their home at every opportunity. Kate and Robyn even took summer vacations together.

When the girls finally were old enough to date, it was only logical that they would double date. They would help each other with their hair and makeup and chat excitedly about the fun they would have on their dates.

However, regardless of how handsome, smart, and charming the boys were, neither of them ever felt that magic feeling of being in love. Some day, surely, their princes would come.

Kate slowly began to realize that she had feelings for Robyn that went beyond friendship. She was scared at first – scared that unrequited love would mean the end to a friendship that meant the world to her. Finally, in their dorm room late one night during their freshman year in college, Kate broke down and told Robyn about her feelings. Robyn began to cry. Between sobs, Robyn told her that she felt the same way. As they held each other and shared a first kiss, they finally experienced the electric feeling of love.

They kept their relationship a secret for nearly a year before they could no longer hold it in and confided to their parents. Their parents were in heavy denial at first. Eventually, however, they couldn’t help but see the love that Kate and Robyn felt for each other, and in time the families grew to accept their relationship and eventually to support them fully. Kate and Robyn knew that they were incredibly fortunate to have such supportive families – many other lesbian couples experienced hatred from within their own families.

A loud squeak interrupted her thoughts.

“Kate, honey,” called out her mother, “It’s time to go. You don’t want to be late for your own wedding.”

Kate smiled, got to her feet, and followed her mother up the stairs.

As an extra long version of “Here Comes the Bride” played, Kate took her father’s arm and walked up the aisle toward the front of the church. Butterflies began to flutter slightly in her stomach. She looked toward the front of the church – there were three bridesmaids on each side, with Robyn standing in the middle.

When they reached the front of the church, Kate stood next to Robyn and held her hands. As they gazed into each other’s eyes, they each felt the power of the love they felt for each other, amplified by the support of the family that had gathered to share their special day.

Today was the first day of the rest of their lives. What a wonderful life it would be.

You might have noticed a few changes to the design.

• I have added some splashes of pink to the main (center) column.  Everything that is pink is a clickable link (the article titles are also links, despite not being pink).  Additionally, virtually everything in the left and right column is a link.  Poke around.  Click on the links.  Why did I choose pink for the links in the center column?  Because it seemed to provide good visual contrast from the background.  However, design is definitely not my strong suit, so if there is a backlash against pink, I will reconsider!
• Related articles (from The Soap Boxers) and related websites (articles from other blogs) will be highlighted at the bottom of articles.  I am using a plug-in for this (Related Websites) and it can be a bit hit-and-miss at times, so you might see some things mentioned that don’t really seem very related.
• A few more incredibly minor changes minor changes that I doubt anyone figures out 🙂

I have been writing fiction stories since elementary school. In sixth grade, my teacher gave me the opportunity to attend a local young writer’s conference – if I could produce just one non-sports story for her. I dashed off a story about Bigfoot and got the chance to spend a day with a few classmates, attending writing workshops. On the same day, most of our class was pent up in the boring old school building.

It was also during the sixth grade when I first plunged into the world of publishing. I convinced a lot of classmates to write articles for my newly formed magazine, Howdy. Howdy was a critical success, but operations ceased after just one issue after a discussion on the proper and improper use of the school copy machine.

In high school, my short story The Case of the State vs. Santa Claus was among a handful selected for publication in the school paper.  The story detailed the prosecution of Santa Claus in the death of grandma (sing it with me – “Grandma got run over by a reindeer …”).

During my college years, my fiction writing ground to a near halt, due in large part to the increase in writing required for term papers.  I wrote a few very short stories, but really nothing subtantial.  Oddly, although I obtained a minor in English while in college, I did not take a single creative writing class; choosing instead to focus on pre-19th century British literature.

In my post-college years, I would write the occassional story.  The story Tina, for example, was written for a long-forgotten acquaintance by that name.  I also began writing invitations to a weekly dinner/movie event.  Most people would simply send out the location of dinner and the choice of movie.  I unleashed my creativity and typically threw several hundreds words into the email.  This would occassionally cause some confusion – such as the time when one person ended up at the wrong Australian steakhouse.

After moving back to my native Iowa, my writing once again dropped off.  It later regained some momentum when I joined a simulation baseball league (essentially, a cross between fantasy baseball and Dungeons and Dragons, with fake players).  Credits could be earned by writing about your team, and my favorite type of article quickly became fictional accounts of my player’s lives.

During my time in the league, I shared  my tongue-in-cheek investment advice.  After encouragement from friends, I launched a blog in October, with the investment advice piece as the very first article.  The blog was unlike many blogs in that it did not focus on a particular niche, instead trying to bring a diverse group of topics under a single umbrella.

I picked up my fiction pen again in November when I wrote  about Oregon’s election process.  After a few more satires, the first true original fiction piece, Release Point, became the first story in the Fiction Friday series.  Shortly thereafter, The Soap Boxers moved to its current address.  In recent months, I have added several writers to the staff, in an effort to add diverse content, as well as allowing me to focus on a handful of topics.  The most important of these topics is definitely the fiction stories.  In July, the Fiction Friday stories were collected into an eBook (along with a longer bonus story).  (If you’re a repeat visitor, you can click on the “Free eBook” link at the right edge of the blue bar toward the top of the screen).

I plan to perodically release new volumes of the compiled fiction – always with at least one brand new story.  I also have a few other irons in the fire, including a couple of possible book ideas.

While I do wish to devote energy to novels in the future, I do not want to forget my short stories, either.  It is for this reason that I am announcing my intention to enter the 2010  Iowa Short Fiction contest (see details about the 2009 contest).  The contest requires a 150+ page manuscript of short stories.  I will not be able to have a manuscript ready in time for this year’s content (submissions are due on September 30), but this is my goal for 2010.  I plan to dust off some of my books about writing (including on book that is devoted entirely to writing better dialogue) as I attempt to refine my writing style.  My hope is that this will result in stories that are more enjoyable to read.

What’s the moral to the story?  If you have the itch to write, grab a pen (or keyboard) and start!  It’s a cheap hobby.

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had a magical night last night, recording five hits in five at bats, hitting for the cycle (a single, double, triple, and homer all in the same game), driving in seven runs and scoring two runs.  It was the type of night that he will remember forever.

Interestingly, his night could have been even better.  In the second inning of the game, Tulo (who had already homered in the first inning) hit a towering fly ball that soared an estimated twenty feet above the one hundred foot tall foul pole in left field.  The umpire immediately rule the ball foul.  The Rockies manager protested, and the call was reviewed via instant replay.

Unfortunately, the disputed play occurred at dusk, and it was difficult to determine whether the ball was fair or foul.  Thus, they had no option other than allowing the initial call of foul to stand.  Tulo did single home two runs in the at bat, but if the foul ball had been ruled a homer, it would have been a grand slam.  (Note: I find no fault on the part of the umpires – it was a tough call.)

In early June, Tulowitzki was mired in a season long slump, on the heels of a injury-marred and lackluster 2008 season.  When play began on the day of June 7, he was batting .216 with 5 homers and 16 RBI in 167 at bats (.683 OPS).  At that point, he found his stroke and has batted .324 with 16 homers and 44 RBI in 236 at bats over a span of 57 games (1.059 OPS).  During stretch of 62 games that encompasses those 57 games, the Rockies have gone 42-18 – rebounding from a 20-32 start to the year to find themselves with a record of 62-50.  The Rockies are atop the wild card race and a mere 5 ½ games behind the hated Dodgers in the National League West.