The House, the CFA, and Costa Rica

Hey Everybody,

I´m writing you from our hotel in Costa Rica. We´ve got lots of stories, pictures and news from the last week or so, but because time is currently limited (we´re paying by the hour for the computer here), I´ll fill you in on the main points.

- Could the house situation finally be over? The day we drove away from Colorado, even as we were getting in the car to leave, a couple drove up to have their second showing of our place. They would later make an offer and we are currently under contract. The price we settled on was very low, and we have to dump even more money into fixing stuff we didn´t even know was wrong, which turned up in the inpesction. So, the deal here is definitely being had by the buyer - they are milking us for every penny they can get. (I have thoughts about how, even as capitalistic as I am, it is wrong, as a decent human being, and especially as a Christian, to kick somebody while they are down in the name of free markets, but that's another post.) But at least we may be getting out. I won't really celebrate until the closing at the end of September.

- I passed Level II of the CFA. Some of you know how much of one's life the CFA program consumes for four to five months, three separate times (if you pass all three on the first try), so this was good news.

- The move to Chicago went pretty well. Moving is basically an excercise in minimizing the bad, as opposed to generating good. Nothing broke during the journey, we're more or less set up and ready to go in Chicago, and our marriage survived. I would have liked to have spent about half of what we did, but I guess that's not "realistic", as my wife likes to say.

Now, we are in Costa Rica for a week, and we've been enjoying zip-lining, snorkeling and natural hot springs in between torrential, Hurricane Dean-induced rains.

The wheeler adventure continues. More stories and pictures to come when we get back...

Josh