More spring flowers

I just gotta say ... Spring is truly gorgeous in this part of the world. Here are a few pics from the front yard.

Ummm ... why are we house hunting again?

Diagnosis

Hee.



From Cat and Girl

The Break-up

I think we broke up with The Bad Boyfriend house yesterday. We're dumping him for someone taller & younger. Isn't that typical? Here's the break-down on the break-up.

I thought about the renovations that need to be done to The Bad Boyfriend. At least one bathroom NEEDS to be renovated, that is for certain. Because of the way the master bath is situated, the only way to expand it would be to break into a corner of the large kitchen, resulting in two rooms that need renovation. And not just any two rooms, but the two most expensive home renovation projects that you can do.
So.
I actually decided to be generous.

1. I found a website that will help you figure out renovation costs, taking into account the region in which you live, the quality of materials you'd like to use, the size of the room, etc. I found a fairly average estimate to renovate just the master bathroom & ignored the kitchen for the most part.
2. Then I added the price of the renovations to the listed price of the Bad Boyfriend House.
3. After getting that figure, I looked on Realtor.com and the MLS (that's Multiple Listing Service for those of you who haven't shopped for a house lately) and found a house that perfectly matched the price I was investigating. I had driven past this house earlier in the week & was intrigued. Now I was even more intrigued. Let's call it. Mr. Tall&Handsome.
4. On Saturday afternoon, Tim and I went out & drove past a few houses. We drove past Mr. Tall&Handsome & Tim really liked it, too. So we called the realtor & arranged a showing for that very afternoon.

One word: Wow.

Wow wow wow.

Mr. Tall&Handsome is more than 200 square feet larger than Bad Boyfriend. And the floor plan is perfect for us. And it has a two car garage! And an additional half bath. It even has a nice soaking tub in the master bathroom. And although it's in a newer neighborhood, it has tall pines in back. And the insulated windows make the house feel just as quiet as our current place out in 'burbs.

I immediately knew that it was time to dump the Bad Boyfriend. This other house (Mr. Tall&Handsome) has so much more to offer. Plus it's move-in ready. No need to threaten our marrige with the stress and strain of home renovations.

So are we making a bid on Mr. Tall&Handsome? I don't think so. Even though I think we can afford him, it would be tighter than I'd like, so we're just going to take a deep breath, keep our eyes open, and show some patience.

Sigh. [this time in relief]

The Bad Boyfriend

I spent the afternoon driving around again. Looked at some more houses. Showed some of them to Tim after work. Wash, rinse, repeat. Some of the houses seem nice, but either the neighborhood is sketchy or the parking is terrible or the house just doesn't grab our interest for whatever reason. Nothing is tugging at us like that white house in the trees. Uuuuuugh. It's like falling in love with a bad boyfriend. You shouldn't and you know you shouldn't, but the attraction is so strong and you just can't fight it ...

And like a lovesick fool, I have to show you the object of my desire. Here are a couple pics of Bad Boyfriend from the street. Forgive me for not showing too much. This is a public blog, ya know. ;)






Great things about this house:
1. It is exactly in the part of town where we want to live. Believe it or not, this house is well inside the city limits & within a quarter mile of tons of shops and one mile away from a major shopping area (mall, movie theater, etc).
2. Trees! Tons of them! Mostly enormous pines, but I think there are a few oaks in there. The only other house we saw with a lot of trees like this is waaaaaaay out in the boonies. The trees look nice, create privacy & keep the AC bill lower.
3. All those trees means no mowing. Seriously! That's how many trees it has!
4. The neighborhood is small and very quiet. Very quiet. When I've been there, I've heard nothing but the chirping of birds. George would hate that, but we love it. Also, it's clear that the neighbors really care for their properties, which is super good.
5. No Homeowners' Association fees! And no covenants! Did you know that my brother- and sister-in-law have a convenant on their house that says they aren't allowed to make soap? Seriously!
6. There is a covered, screened porch on the back. So we could sit outside and enjoy the trees and NOT get eaten alive by mosquitoes.
7. Kitchen is situated so that I could actually watch TV while working at the stove or the sink. So I'm not totally cut off from the action in the living room while gettin' my bake on.
8. Nice long drive with plenty of parking for us and friends.
9. There is a very nice, paved biking trail very near-by. So we could start riding our bikes regularly again.

Bad things about this house:
1. The roof is 21 years old. The owners' inspector says it's okay (and I did some research & it seems this type of roof can last 25 years), but I'm worried.
2. No garage. Where do we put the bikes? Would we need to get a shed?
3. Here's the big one. The bathrooms in this house are SOOOOO tiny! The smallest bathrooms I've ever seen! Imagine if you tightly crammed a tub, toilet, & sink in the smallest space possible. That's the situation in both of the bathrooms. I honestly think your average handicapped toilet stall is bigger than these bathrooms. There's a linen closet in the hall for the public bathroom, but the bathroom attached to the master bedroom is just as tiny and has zero storage space. Where am I supposed to put towels and extra rolls of toilet paper and my make-up and hair drier and Sheff's electric shaver? Where am I supposed to put my freakin' tampons, fercrissake?!?

And yet ...

And yet we like the place. It feels like home. All the other places have just felt like houses, but this could be home.

So like a desperate, idiotic girlfriend, we defend the house. "We can change it!" we proclaim, knowing full well that the stress and strain and finacial expense of a bathroom renovation terrifies us. And the only way that we could renovate that master bathroom and stay on the house's original footprint would be to bust through the large kitchen. So it would be a bathroom and kitchen remodel rolled up in one. How could we ever do this? How could we possibly think that Sheff and I are really cut out to do this kind of crap? Why on earth would we sign up for this?

So we're considering getting a very young house in a very young, very large neighborhood just so we can avoid the renovation nightmares. But we agree that if we do that, we'll always look back on this place as The One That Got Away.

Sigh.

Real Estate Market Madness

I have been consumed by real estate lately. It has taken over my life. It has infected my mind and eaten away any part of my brain that was not already dedicated to thinking about real estate. The other night I was awake until 4:30am just looking at house listings on the internet. I'm beginning to understand how Frodo must have felt about the ring. The power and the longing and the total consumption of it all ...

The good news is that my insatiable desire to go deeply into debt has gotten me out of the house a TON over the last week. And it's all thanks to my darling GPS, Sally. I feel that I should write Sally a poem sometime. She's just so amazing and has improved the quality of my life by leaps and bounds. Dear Sally ... how do I love you ...

But my love for computerized navigation systems can only be matched by my fever for house shopping. I blame it on spring fever. The flowers start to bloom & suddenly everybody feels like nesting. And god help be, I've been sucked into it, too.

I should admit, though, that this fascination with local real estate has been going on for months now. In the past, I've spent the odd hour looking at houses on-line, occasionally driving past ones I like, or even driving through neighborhoods I've never seen before just to see if there are any places for sale. My darling husband had been totally uninterested ... until one week ago. That's when I told him that we need to buy a house before he can buy his beloved Audi TT. Tim was confused. He could not see the logic. So I showed him a mortgage calculator & talked about investing money in things that might actually provide a profit some day. I don't know if he absorbed the fine details. But he certainly learned that in the Dictionary of Happy Marriages, "House" will always come before "Sports Car".

Since that night, we have spent hours pouring over listings. I have spent 3 days & much too much gasoline on the roads with Sally, visiting house after house, investigating neighborhoods, & taking notes on my impressions. Since all of this began, we have formally toured three houses (4 if you count Mark's house since his is laid out exactly like one of our old contenders). It's been crazy.

Now we have narrowed it all down to one. One house. One house that we really like. And a part of me is stunned and scared because I've never bought a house before & I can't believe that we may have found Our House in such a short period of time and what if we screw up and what if this is a big mistake and what if it doesn't work out and we have to keep looking but what if it does work out and I'm stuck with this house with these teeny little bathrooms and I don't know exactly what we should do.
Really. I don't.
But when I look at this house, I feel that it is just right for us. Even with all of its flaws, I see hope and possibilities. I almost feel that it has been sitting on this lot, just waiting for us to come home.

We shall see ...

I am blind. And clueless.

I have very poor eye sight. If I want to read a book without the aid of vision correcting apparel, I have to hold the book within 2 inches of my eyes. That is not an exageration. Since I usually wear contacts, my horrible vision is not a big issue most of the time. But I've been wearing my glasses lately. And if I misplace my glasses, I'm in trouble.

For example. The other day I took a shower. While I was drying off afterwards, I realized that I could not find my glasses. I felt around on the seat and the little shelf in the shower. Nothing. I felt around among the detritus on the countertop. Nothing. I felt the top of the toilet tank and I felt around the edge of the bathtub and I even felt along the towel bar next to the shower. Nothing. So I walked to the top of the stairs and called down for help.
"Tim? Honey, can you help me? I can't find my glasses."
Dutifully, he appeared at the foot of the stairs, so I explained the situation as he walked up.
"I felt all over the place, but I just can't find them. I'm pretty sure they aren't in the shower, but-"
And at this moment, my husband reached the top of the stairs. And he reached out towards my face. And he plucked my glasses off the top of my head. And handed them to me.
I could see the grin on his face quite well even without the glasses.

Is bigger always better?

As you noticed, I found a way to make the pics bigger here on the ol' blog. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Let me know. In the mean time, here are some more flowers from the front garden (all taken on March 5th).

I got a GPS!

Ask and ye shall receive! After my horrible experience nearly 2 weeks ago, my dear Tim ordered a Garmin GPS for me and my car. Originally he was going to give it to me for my birthday at the end of April, but it arrived sooner than he expected. Plus, I obviously needed it ASAP! So earlyt in the week, Tim let me open up the box of joy. I was so excited & relieved, I actually cried. Seriously. This weekend we tried it out & it is fabulous!!!! We drove to the other side of the metro area & back ... and did not get lost at all! And so ya know, the voice on ours is the same as on George & Derek's GPS, we are also refering to our GPS as "Sally". It just feels right. ;)

Anyway!

So, you ask, What else have you been up to, Mare? Not a whole lot, as you can probably imagine. The weather around here has been gorgeous, though, so I've been taking some photos.
What's that?
You'd like to see some of them?
Well, I don't care what you want. I'm posting 'em anyway! :P But not a lot 'cause it's bed time.

Here are some shots from around this nameless little town in which I live. I really don't want to reveal the name of the town, so I can't share a lot, but I think these will give you a good idea of the cute quirkiness of the place (Our local bait shop is located between the paisserie/bakery & a coffee shop. I think that's great). I took these on our first really warm, beautiful sunny day in a long time (2/28). I didn't even need a jacket. Lovely.

I need a GPS system

The Bad: Today I got lost. Really lost. After a bit of shopping, I left the local Trader Joe's & I drove around in circles for 45 minutes until I mysteriously found myself back at the very location I had left three-quarters of an hour earlier. Somehow I managed not to burst into tears, although I did say, "You gotta be kidding me," to no one in particular at least 5 times. After I finally found my way back home, I felt exhausted and discouraged. Hours later when Tim came home, I still felt wiped out. At least I got some of those papadums, so the trip wasn't totally dismal.

The Good: It's warm & sunny & Spring is springing! Here's the evidence from our front yard.

Caturday!

Okay. Fine. I give in. So many of my favorite bloggers have written the "5 Things About Me" entry & have said, "Now it's your turn!" So I guess now it's my turn.

Hmmm. Let me think.

1. I have a tiny bit of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - especially when I'm stressed out. At those times, I count my steps & I avoid cracks in the sidewalk. If I hear a word, I will spell it over and over and over again in my head until I can't even remember where I first heard it. I will count on my fingers obsessively, but the number I stop on must be divisible by 4 or 10. Really. I hope this makes you feel better, Liz.

2. I think my first appearance on stage was when I won a Halloween costume contest at the old Broken Arrow Community Playhouse. I was 5 & I was dressed as an angel (My mom made the costume). My best friend's mother was the artistic director of the theatre company. I'm sure that this fact did not influence the outcome of the contest, as it really was a great costume.


3. I was a Clown for Christ. Back in high school, my family's church had a small clown troupe made up entirely of kids. We went to hospitals, day care centers, and retirement homes where we would perform skits. My character did not speak. I used sign language & gestures. That's right ... I wan't any ordinary clown ... I was a MIME! I wore a billowy white suit with pastel ribbons around the seams. My make-up was a white face with small pink lips, purple eye shoadow, & a pink jeweled tear that I glued onto my cheek. I performed Sandi Patti's "Love In Any Language" in sign language. And my clown/mime name? Gentle Spirit.

4. I hated eating in public until I was about 17 years old. Even then, I still wasn't fond of restaurants or the school cafeteria, but I was able to get over it for the most part. See, I had a lot of digestive issues as a kid (a LOT!) & was terrified of having sever stomach cramps (& everything that came with it) while away from the house. Even the smell of food could bring on an episode. This is why I never worked in food service. And this is the main reason why there are so many foods I've never tried. I just had such terrible experiences with food when I was little. But my guts are better now & I'm far more open to culinary experimentation than ever before. Yay. :)

5. It's the little things that make life worthwhile, ya know? One of the little things that I enjoy is silly pictures of animals. And if those pictures have wacky captions? All the better. This picture in particular makes me smile to no end.
I can't explain it. I just LOVe this pic! Last night I was on the phone with george and just thinking about this photo made me giggle. If you like this sort of thing, too, then check out this website: "I Can Has Cheezburger?" It'll make your day brighter.

Sicky Sunday (and Seattle Monday)

Don't come too close. The residents of this house have been infected with some sort of bug. Sore throat, sneezing, headache. I think this is the first time ever that Tim and I have been sick at the same time. Seems that we react very differently to sickness. Tim has spent the day buried in the duvet on our bed & reading every book he can get his shivering hands on. I, on he other hand, have been laying limply on the couch, watching figure skating. Ya see, reading requires that I hold up a book. And that takes too much effort for me. But I can understand why my darling husband might not be tempted by the lure of televised figure skating. To each his own. :)

While I'm here, stuck on the couch, I thought I might post the next batch of photos from Seattle. These were taken on the last Monday in January. George and I spent the whole day with my internet pal, Leslie, whom we met while running down the ramp to catch the ferry that was about to leave. Seriously! The rest of the day was spent shopping for cheese, spices, & art. We ended the day with a cozy meal at an Irish pub. Good times!

Mary's got a big ol' butt!

During my stay in Seattle, I noticed a magnet stuck to g&D's fridge. I knew that I'd seen it before, but I think it had slipped my mind. I mentioned to george that I really liked the magnet. So she gave it to me. She's like that. What is that culture that believes that if someone compliments you on an object you should give it to them? I can't remember. At any rate, george must decend from those people because she gave me a ton of stuff while I was visiting. And don't worry; she swears she isn't planning on killing herself any time soon.

But that's neither here nor there.

I have a fondness for quotes. One year I asked for a giant dictionary of quotations for Xmas (and I got it!). I love to hear the differnt perspectives that people develop throughout their lives. That's why I liked the quote on george's magnet (now my magnet).

"You can't make footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt. And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?" - Bob Moawad

I'm thinking that I should call this my Buttprint Year. Honestly, I have done sooooooo little with myself. Back in Tulsa, my days were spent at a job that kept me extremely busy and my nights were filled with rehearsals and performances.
But now?
I'm not working. I'm not involved with any groups. I've made a few friends here, but I definitely talk to my old friends more often. Basically, I spend my days waiting around for Tim to come home. And on the weekends I am either cleaning & cooking in preparation for a dinner party or I'm doing nothing at all. I know this sounds pathetic and terribly sad. Sorry. I don't really want us to focus on that. Because the fact is ... well, that old job was HELL. I spent hours raging about it to whomever would tolerate me. As for theatre, I worked on 4 shows in a row after the wedding! I couldn't even move here at the same time as my husband because I was busy with a show. All of that time in theaters meant that I didn't spend nearly enough time with my husband & our relationship suffered as a result. None of this is true of my life now. Yes, sometimes it is hard to be in this new, strange place, but most of the time I appreciate the peace it brings. I notice that my shoulders are soft and relaxed. And shopping for nice ingredients and making dinner from scratch ... well, it's far more satisfying to me now than ever before. I still worry, of course - it is my super power, afterall - but not nearly as much.

The strangest thing, though, is that I think I am more friendly now than ever before. Remember scared, shy litte Mary? She still exists, but we don't see as much of her now. I find myself getting into conversations with random people all over the place. Sometimes I initiate the conversation (which is big for me!), but sometimes others randomly start talking to me. I wonder why this happens. Do I look lonely? Or do I look friendly? Or what? I can't say it's because the people here are just super nice because I've gotten into conversations with people from all over the country. Yesterday a woman from Florida started talking with me about lemon curd & Nutella, for heaven's sake. And that's a good thing! I love it!

But still ...
Something is missing.
Tim is worried that it's his fault. He worries that he forced me to move and that I'll never be happy here. I assured him that this is not the case - that I'm married to him, not Tulsa. And luckily, I'm emotionally mature enough to realize that I cannot and should not blame all of my problems on my partner. No, this problem is mine. It's aaaaaall about me.

I feel as though I am not participating in life. Rather, I am anticipating. I am patiently waiting. Waiting for Tim to come home, waiting for the next dinner party, waiting for my next vacation, waiting for my family to visit. But that's a hell of a lot of waiting. On my butt. Every day. There's got to be something more for me out there.

A funny thing about that magnet: yesterday I did a google search for Mr. Moawad. Looks like he lived in Tacoma, Washington. He had offices there and everything. And I use the past tense here because Mr. Moawad passed away recently. Indeed, it seems as though his funeral took place on the very day that george gave me this magnet. As silly as this may sound, I imagine it must be satisfying for his loved ones to know that he is still affecting people's lives, even though he is gone. Makes me smile.

People making me happy this week:
Tim (Of course!)
Derek (for probably the funniest phone call of my week)
Mom (for laughing with me when crying would have been equally appropriate)

Time & Gravity

You know what sucks? When it's nearly midnight and you really want to go to bed but you can't yet because your sheets are still in the drier. And the drier has already completed its cycle, but the sheets still feel just a teensy bit damp ... just damp enough that you know you can't put them on the bed yet. Yeah. That sucks. Not as much as a broken wrist, of course, but it still sucks. But luckily, sheets dry eventually and, given time and the right care, broken wrists heal. That is what Corey has learned.

I haven't mentioned it on here, but about 2 months ago our dear Corey was reminded that Gravity is a harsh mistress ... that Mother Earth likes to hold us close to her bosom. Twas a painful lesson, though. Corey had been out at a Tulsa watering hole, enjoying a fair amount of the water, when he suddenly got the bright idea to place his 6-foot 5-inch, 280 pound, clumsy, drunken frame atop an unsteady barstool. Not long later, he found himself on the ground with a broken wrist. And within a couple of days, he was turned into the Bionic Man when a fancy metal structure was implanted into and around his wrist. I got to see this armature a few times. Grossed me out each time. So of course I had to take some pics.


Sorry the pics aren't better quality, but as I said, it really was gross. I couldn't look at it for too long. Just the sight of those rods of metal piercing his flesh & imaging them going all the way through to the bone ...
Uuuugh.
Anyway! The good news! The good news is that Corey's wrist is better now. This morning he went in for surgery & all the metal bits that have been holding him together for the last 8 weeks were removed. Hooray! So next time ya see him, remind Corey that when he's reaching for the stars, he better keep his feet on the ground. You can also ask him if the evil little Ariel cat has resumed chewing on his right hand. That's her favorite hand to chew & I know she's missed it.

Tim's B-day (and a Sunday in Seattle)

Hey, gang. Sorry I haven't up-dated the blog with new pictures in a more timely fashion. This week was kinda crazy. The event that garnered the most attention was Tim's birthday! Yes, Thursday was Tim's birthday. Woo hoo! Tim's a quiet guy, so we celebrated in a quiet way - homemade pizza, his requested birthday fruitcake (complete with candles), & episodes of Dr. Who - and he said it was perfect. We continued the celebration on Saturday night when the gang came over for shepherd's pie & games. The game of choice? Tim's own creation. For years he has been working on this board game called Empire. George and Derek have road-tested an old version of this game, but it's even better now. Tim tweaked the rules a bit and made some truly fabulous game pieces (I'll have to take pictures next time he gets it all out). Well, the game was a big hit with this geeky crowd. It takes a long time to play (after 3 hours it still wasn't over), but they ate it up & want to play again soon. So yay! Good times!

Now we are enjoying a quiet Sunday. Don't you love those? It's sunny and happy outside & we're cozily sitting around in our sweaters, playing about on our computers. Tim is working on yet another game. And I am watching cooking shows while updating my blog. Such a perfectly happy day.

Another perfectly happy Sunday from my memory occured 2 weeks ago when I was in Seattle with George & Derek. For brunch, we went to a diner (can't recall the name) where I ordered the cheddar pancakes. Yep, you read that right. Derek had the bacon pancakes, which sounds even more amazing! George had something with fruit on top so that she could pretend that she was eating something healthy, but Derek and I were under no delusions. We even had sausage on the side. "Heart attack on a plate? Why, that sounds delightful! Bring it on out!" We needed to walk off this amazing meal and luckily for us, Seattle's new sculpture park was nearby.

Have I mentioned that it was GORGEOUS the whole time I was in Seattle? Not a drop of rain. Most days looked exactly like this - sunny with beautiful views of the water & mountains. Marvelous.

Our next stop was the glass museum in Tacoma. Well, honestly, our next stop was the apartment where we sat around & said, "Whaddayawannado?"
"I dunno. WhaddaYOUwannado?"
"I dunno. WhaddaYOUwannado?"
Repeat for a couple hours until Derek suggested we go to the glass museum. It is a really cool looking museum. If you get the chance, you really need to check it out.

The problem, sadly, was that we got there kinda late (we got stuck at a railroad crossing for aaaaages) & the museum was about to close, so we decided to keep our 10 bucks. But the good news is that they had a lot of Chihuly pieces on exhibit outside. Yes, Chihuly! OUTSIDE! We got to see them for free! How cool is that?! All the pieces were located on a pedestrian bridge that goes over the highway & connects the glass museum to the rest of the Tacoma arts district. I thought it was super cool.

That last picture is from the tunnel-like feature that Chihuly does so often. It's about 50 feet long and above your head are all of these piles of twisted, brilliant glass. Most pieces look like strange sea creatures, but there's the occasional cherub thrown in just to keep things sureal.


Next stop: Chinatown! Which I LOOOOOOOVED. My new goal is to live in a city that has an asian quarter. Something about all those signs I can't read makes me pretty happy. Plus, there's good food and all the Kawaii you can buy! We stopped at a Chinese bakery & had dessert first. "Please do not squeeze the bread too hard. Thank you." :)

We drove past a chinese grocery store & we just HAD to stop in. And this was no little corner shop in a strip mall. It was a full sized grocery store! I confess to spending a lot of money on adorable San-X stationary goods here. I also got quite a kick out of the food on offer. There was a whole aisle dedicated to ramen! And the cookie aisle was even better.


We polished off the night with some Ethiopian food. A new culinary experience for me (and another ethnic food to add to our list for the week). It was certainly different, but I really enjoyed it. A lovely way to end a lovely day.

Who needs a photobooth when you have Derek?

Additional photos from Saturday, Jan. 27th. This time Derek is at the helm!