Beethoven In Trance - Episode 65

2014, what a year.

When I said "we started the new year with a bang" in my last annual letter. I didn't realize it might become a theme. 

One Wednesday afternoon in Feb, I received a phone call from the contractor who had been working on the drywall in the Mayfield house. He told me the house is completely flooded. As he was describing over the phone, I pictured the basement is filled with water and he needed to dive into the water to shut down the water. Well, fortunately, it wasn't the case, as I found out soon after I arrive. The water pipe was burst due to the abnormal cold weather. The pipe under the sink and the one in the second floor attic. The water floods from the 2nd floor to the 1st, then the basement. My neighbor dropped by and looked the situation, he suggested to handle this situation ourselves. I thought about it and decided to submit the claim for it because it's too large of a project to handle myself. That was the right call, but my next one is not. After talking with my neighbor, I decided to give the project to him, he claimed to be experienced and he could take care of the situation immediately. Considering that he knows the house and he could use the project for some extra money, I said yes. In the next 3 to 4 months, I gradually realized that I made a mistake. I summarized the learning to: 1) always agree on and write down the job, time frame of the project before the project start, 2) always demand receipt, 3) always put friendship aside whenever in a business transaction. The decision to give him the project costed me, but I learned the lesson. We finally finished the project in June, and put the house on the market right away. I really didn't feel to talk to the neighbor any more after that. We didn't have good luck with selling the house, there were two offers, and we turned down the first one because we thought it was a low ball. The second one didn't go through because the house inspection wasn't to buyer's satisfaction. The house inspection report claimed house having major issues and the buyer got scared and backed out. Then came the 3rd offer, lowest of all, and the only catch is that the buyer waived the house inspection. We finally decided to sell because my wife couldn't keep checking the house every week after work. We sold the house bargain basement price, and we closed the deal in October. 

This transaction also got me thinking about the value of paying down the house. We paid down that house, and it ended up to be a big loss. If we didn't pay down the house, we won't be fully penalized by the housing market condition. I think we will stick with 30 years in the future, unless we are in a growing housing market. 

The house selling takes us all the way past the Summer. My parents have been with us since April so they experienced some of it too. I decided to take the family to Seattle for vacation in September. I thought it would be a good place to explore to see if it could be our future destination. I got this idea after I moved to the new house. Moving to the new house was expensive but worth the cost, so why stop? If Seattle is a better choice, then we should move again. We had a great time in Seattle, one of our good friend also recently moved to Seattle. We met our friends, listened to their experience. We were sold after this trip, we started to talking about the plan to move to Seattle. It was a very important trip, because we felt we found our dream again. This is the first time we had that feeling since we graduate. We are excited about the new adventure to Seattle. We didn't know where it would lead us but we are willing to find out. We are hitting 40, I feel we need to reinvent ourselves again. In 2015, we will dedicate time to research and explore opportunities in that area.

2014 was also a good year for my career. I got promoted when I was on vacation in Seattle, with a salary bump. That gives me leverage for my future adventure in Seattle I think. My wife still does well at work, she has hit the ceiling in terms of level. She has some thinking to do for her next step in Seattle.

My wife started to get into dance performance last year. She joined classes and performed in a show hosted at Case. Alice went with me and enjoyed the show. She also performed in a private party for a girl's birthday party. She enlisted for some Chinese dance performances in the next year and has been actively practicing for it. She was in a dragon boat race this Summer, her team didn't win but she had fun. I like that she explores new opportunities and fun activities. She rented a small space in community garden this year for the vegetables as we don't have the space in the back yard. I trimmed the bushes and trees just weeks ago. We will have a better looking Summer next year.    

Alice turned four last year. She is drama queen and stubborn as always. She started to like playing in the swimming pool. She had great time in Seattle hotel swimming pool. We moved her into a different daycare because I didn't like the last one. The teacher didn't seem very excited about their job and some of the parents there didn't have good influence on the children, hence not an overall good environment. We moved her to the most expensive daycare in the area and she loved it. I liked the new daycare better too. Environment is indeed important.

We spent the Thanksgiving on a Cruise ship with my in laws last year. The trip was fine, but I don't think I would do it again. The fun activities are on the island and it was too short. I got sea sick on the fourth day due to the rough sea. We ate way too much on the boat as well. On the bright side, I did rock wall climbing on the ship, it was fun. I reached to the top while Alice was cheering below. I also had a great time snorkeling with my swimming gargle in Cozmel, the sea water was so clear I could see all the fishes and reef. I could spend the whole day doing that.

We did all right this year in investment. The market wasn't doing well early in the year but rebounded in the last quarter. We are not feeling the pinch in any way, but I like to have a good cushion when we move to Seattle, as the house there is 2 times more expensive.

Interstella is the movie of the year, I watched alone in xD and it was the best $14 I spent on movie. I recommended my wife to go, and she brought her parents with. They watched in a local theater with only three of them in the show. She was able to explain the move to her parents without worrying about other audiences.

As for sound, I am pleasantly surprised by Jennifer Warnes. Her song "Come to me", and "I'm restless" are exceptional. Horowitz playing Chopin Ballad No. 1 is a masterpiece. Martha Argerich playing Chopin preludes is in shipment. I also like Olga Kern's performance of Rach No. 3, better than Wang Yujia's. Wang is very talent, but she tends to run fast and furious.

 I bought a PS4 this Christmas, it was the first PS I ever own. I bought it on promotion, package deal with the game "last of us" and "far cry 4". I haven't spent too much time on it, but I look forward to it.  Another good buy is the Sony blue ray player. It's small and it plays media files on a USB hard drive. I don't need a computer hook up to the TV any more. I have watched couple TV shows and movies that way, it worked like a charm.

I am looking forward to see what I am going to write in my next annual letter.