Pics: Epcot

I am terrible about taking photos when I am around other people. I'll click away when I'm alone, but when I'm with people, I get wrapped up in spending time with others & I tend to forget about my camera. Also, I usually don't like asking people to pose! So sadly, there are TONS of things I did not record for posterity with my camera. I just don't have nearly as many pics from Disney World as you'd expect. Oh well! I'll still share what I have.

We decided to go to Epcot on our first day. We rode everything & went everywhere, but took less than a dozen pics. Guess I was having too much fun. Or sweating too much. Or something.

Here's Ray about to board Test Track - the car-based pseudo roller coaster at Epcot. Ray will pose for anything!


We really enjoyed the Living Seas (which I think is called something differnt now, but I can't remember what). Tons of great fish, sea turtles, and even dolphins & manatees. Skip the Finding Nemo ride, though.
"Frogfish do not swim, tending to 'walk' or 'gallop' through the water instead."

"Frogfish have the ability to change their colors to blend in with their surroundings."

Cuttlefish! Mike was obsessed with these babies & captured some really cool videos of them swimming & changing color.

A living conch! This thing was simultaneously cool and gross. And it was covered in lots of tiny little shrimp-looking things. Or could they have been baby conches?

I tried to take pics of the sting rays and sea turtles and lots of cool fish in the ENORMOUS 30-foot tall wrap-around aquarium, but nothing turned out. Just believe me when I say it was fabulous!

Later we went on Mission: Space. In case you hadn't heard, some people with heart conditions have died on this attraction/ride/thingy. Now we know why. The G-forces were much stronger that I expected. It was fun, but frankly I feel less queasy on your average loopty-loop roller coaster. Seriously. Ray was so overwhelmed that he forgot his hat

Next we went on Soarin', a new attraction that is the highest rated in all of Disney World. I took a few pics while we waited in line. Seen here are Ray, Tim, my cousin's daughter Tiff, & me.

Soarin' was great! You know those films that are projected over half of a dome & are meant to make you feel like you're flying? Well, this was like that only MUCH better! We sat down on chairs that lifted way up off the ground! And a breeze was blown through the screen so it really felt like we were flying! And to top it off, subtle scents were caried on the breeze to complete the experience (pine while flying through a forest, orange while flying over an orange grove, etc). When it was over, everyone applauded! Good times.

And just so ya know, Soarin' is located inside "The Land" - one of my favorite parts of Epcot. I like how it's decorated & the food offerings are quite nice since the whole building is dedicated to agriculture & such.


Now is the point where I truly failed you, dear reader. For I failed to take one single photo of the world pavilion. All of those cool countries & great food & not one pic. How could I have done this?! Bah!

Epcot is actually the larges of all of the Disney amusement parks, so it's no surprise that we were all exhausted long before the fireworks that night. Tim, Tiff, and Mike all chose to go back to the condo to rest. Ray & I stayed behind with our parents & the entire Davis clan to enjoy the evening's festivities. It wasn't as good as in years past (I've been to Disney World 5 times, so I would know!), but we still had a lovely time together. Yay!

Pics: Jekyll Island

Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans! As I believe I mentioned last year on this blog, July 4th is a strange day in our household. Yet again, Tim has the day off of work so that he can celebrate a holiday that he doesn't celebrate. So we've spent the day sleeping in and watching an Eddie Izzard marathon on BBC America. Later tonight we'll watch televised poker while eating Indian food.We figure that there's no need to go out in search of fireworks displays because we saw TONS of fireworks while in Florida. The display at the Magic Kingdom nearly blinded me! Wowza! Good stuff, though.

So. Ummm. Yup. Sitting around. Watching TV. Pretty exciting times for us.

And that brings me to my next point. The fact is ... well, life is pretty quiet around here now & will remain quiet for the forseeable future. So I'm going to use this personal lull as an opportunity to FINALLY post some photos that have been lingering on my memory card collection for a while now.

Today I'll start off with some pics from our recent trip down south. We decided to take 2 days to make the drive down so that we could arrive in Orlando nice & early. We stayed the night at a hotel right on the beach on Jekyll Island in Georgia. I woke up before Tim & his mum, so I slipped out & took some pics of life on the beach in the morning.

Back from Florida

We're home! And we don't have sunburns! Huzzah!

Optimism & lightnin' bugs

Good news: I'm starting to get happy about the trip to Disney World.

Yesterday (Thursday, as I'm typing this late on Friday night) I was feeling incredibly intimidated by this trip. It's been a decade since I've been to WDW and, believe it or not, things can change there rather quickly. And since my beloved husband has never been to WDW, I was all the more concerned. So Sylvia (the mum-in-law) and I headed over to a bookstore to gather information.

Have you been to the travel section of your local bookstore lately? Have you noticed the SHELVES of books dedicated to Disney World? It's unreal! There's the offical guide, the unofficial guide, there's the guide for grown-ups and the guide to "the best of the best" (AKA the most expensive stuff). There's the Top 10 guide & the Zagat guide the interesting planne in a spiral bound notebook with tabs and on and on and on. And that's before you even start to consider other non-Disney options like Universal Studios or Sea World or a thousand other things. It's frightening! At one point, the mum-in-law sat down in a comfy chair with a book and let me do my research on my own, but before long I just felt dizzy from information overload. So I wandered over to her with 4 books in hand & said, "I just don't know what to do. It's so overwhelming!"

And then Divine Providence stepped in.

"Excuse me," a voice said. "Are you going to Florida?"
The question came from the man sitting across the way from my MIL.
"Yes," we said. "In fact, we're leaving for Disney World in just a few days for a family reunion. But we've been too busy with other things to plan our trip and now we don't know what to do!"
"Well," said the kind man, "I used to be a travel agent. Maybe I can help."
And help he did. He gave us handy advice and even told us which books to ignore and which are actually helpful (and luckily, the helpful books are smaller and cheaper than the not-so-helpful books). This man was fabulous! After chatting with him for 10 minutes, he went about his way. He never even told us his name. But ever since I spoke with him, I've been feeling much much better about this trip. Yay. :)

In other news, I am tipsy. Tonight is the mum-in-law's last night in NC, so we decided to have a bottle of wine with dinner. The others gave up early, so I ended up drinking about half the bottle on my own. As a result, I am making TONS of typos and I am trying my best to fix them as I go along. I hope I'm doing an excellent job and when I come back to re-read this post tomorrow I'll be supremely impressed with my own Tipsy typing skills.
Anyway.
We decided to eat dinner in the breakfast nook so we could enjoy the beautiful view of our wooded back garden. While we were eating dinner, Sylvia noticed some small flashes of light. And for a moment she was concerned that maybe there was something wrong with her! Maybe the alcohol was affecting her vision. What else couled explain these tiny flashes of green light?!? Luckily, she said something to us and Tim explained that what she was seeing were fireflies ... or "lightnin' bugs" as we call 'em in my neck o' the woods. She had never seen them before! Can you imagine? It was then that I realized that during the past week, we'd always been out shopping at dusk so Sylvia had been missing this every night. How glad I am that we started dinner later tonight and she was able to catch our own, miniature electric light show. Yay. :)

Orlando - T-minus a couple days or so

Tim's mum arrived on Monday evening. Poor jet-lagged thing! But she is recovering nicely and we've been very lazy together for a few days and plan on continuing the laziness until the weekend. Because it aaaaaaaaall comes apart after that.

Ya see, next week is the final week of June. The week I've been dreading for nearly a year now. Because next week I have to be in Orlando.
UUUUuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhh.
Now don't get me wrong. I've been to Disney 4 times. The place is great fun! Love it! Unless, of course, I'm there during the heat of summer when, coincidently, the parks are the busiest. It is HELLISH!!!!!! But this is what Mom wanted to do. This, for some ungodly reason, is the way that my mother wants us to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of my parents. So I and 15 other loved ones will be down there together, burning and sweltinging and melting and suffering from heat stroke, all for the love of my parents.

Seriously, Mom. You want proof that you and Dad are loved? This is your proof. Because this is the closest approximation to "going to hell and back" than can possibly be conceived of while we are still living. You're welcome.

The good news is we'll be around loved ones, of course. That will be fun. But other than that, I have no earthly idea what we're going to do with our time. Tim and I have been totally consumed with house stuff for so many months that I have not spent even 5 minutes planning this trip. So that is my goal for the next couple of days: research Disney & Orlando, find out what sort of weather is ahead of us, & maybe possibly make some decisions about something.

Or I'll just sit around and eat grapes with Tim's mum. One or the other.


Final kvetch: It's steamy hot in this part of the country. High of 97 two days ago with humidity to match. I wish I were in Seattle!!!!!

Shut the damn windows!

Once upon a time, my mom's best friend, Helen, lived in a haunted farm house in Pennsylvania. That's right - haunted. Helen & her family believed that the ghost was a woman because some members of the family had seen her silhouette from afar. Also, the ghost had a habit of moving Helen's jewelry around and rearranging the china in the hutch - typical girly stuff. The only bad thing about this ghost is that she had a habit of opening the windows and the front door and just leaving them open. It didn't matter what the weather was like outside; she just kept opening the windows! Well, one cold and snowy winter's night, Helen and the family drove home after an evening out to find the windows WIDE open & snow blowing into the house.
Helen had had enough.
She stormed into the house & yelled, "Listen. I don't mind that you move the china. I don't even mind that you play with my jewelry. But will you PLEASE shut the damn windows!!?!?!?!!!!!"
And the ghost obeyed. From that day on, the doors and windows were never mysteriously left open.

I love that story. I often think of it whenever I'm closing windows, be they the windows on a house or even the internet windows on my computer.

The problem is ... well, I have a nasty habit of leaving windows open for a loooooong time. Internet browser windows, I mean. I just keep finding good stuff! Not great enough to add to My Favorites, but still really good, ya know? Plus I like to have a lot of windows open at once. A LOT. For instance, I have 13 pages open on my browser right now & that's actually a fairly small number for me. This isn't good because, inevitably, Internet Explorer will crash from my over-enthusiasm & I'll lose all of those precious windows that I had kept open. This always breaks my heart.

So I think occasionally I will post links to interesting things here on my blog so I can shut some damn windows and still be able to refer to them later. And if any of you feel like following the links & enjoying my finds, so much the better!

Bake & Destroy blog: nataliecakes.wordpress.com/
Married ... With Dinner blog: marriedwithdinner.com/
Recipe for ice cream in a bag: www.kidsdomain.com/craft/icecream.html
Paris Daily Photo blog: www.parisdailyphoto.com/
"Durham: The Making of an Image" article: www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A31990

And here's a simple recipe I like. I found it at one of my very favorite blogs: Posie Gets Cozy.

(Bis)Quick Applesauce Muffins
2 c. Bisquick
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. applesauce
1 slightly beaten egg
2 T. vegetable oil

Melted butter
Cinnamon sugar

Mix ingredients together for 30 seconds. Fill muffin pans 3/4 full. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Cool slightly, then dip top lightly in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar. Makes a dozen.

PS: Yes, I know I should be posting the 400 photos I have saved on my camera. It's just such a hassel & I can't get things to look the way I want on the screen and blah. If anyone has some tips, I'd appreciate it.

PPS: One more link. This one is for george.
NPR/Marketplace story: "What's an escrow?"

Quirks of marrying a Simpson's fan (who also happens to be a foreigner)

Scene: Mary and Tim are sitting on the couch, looking at the Falkland Islands on Google Maps. After much hunting, they finally find a city.

Tim: That must be Stanley.
Mary: Stanley? They have a city called Stanley?!
Tim: It's the capitol.
Mary: [stunned with confusion & awe]
Tim: What. It's a perfectly cromulent name.
Mary: I've never heard anyone use the word "cromulent" in ordinary conversation before.
Tim: And that's why you love me.

Indeed.

Tony or Tony?

So which did you watch: Tony Soprano & the series finale of "The Sopranos"? Or did you watch the Tony Awards? Honestly, I have never seen a single solitary episode of "The Sopranos" (yes, really!) and since I don't have HBO, it didn't bother me one bit that I was missing the big finale. Probably a good thing, though, as I hear that tons of fans are seriously pissed off with the lame ending to the show.

Oh well!

Good thing I was watching the Tony Awards. :D

The only problem, of course, is that there are now all of these shows that I desperately want to see! I have spent a LOT of time today watching footage of "Spring Awakening" on YouTube, so I have "Bitch of Living" playing on repeat in my brain (complete with stomping and jumping around). And oh how I looooooong to see "The Coast of Utopia"! I don't care that it's 9 hours long. I want to see it! Or at least read it. The very very best part of the night, though, was when David Hyde Pierce won his Tony for "Curtains". Oh my god. When they were listing the names of the nominees, you could see the blood draining out of his face, as he realized that there was no possible way he could beat the competition. He was heartbroken. I felt ill just looking at him because I was so sure that the kid from "Spring Awakening" was going to win. But then .... but then! ... They called his name! And the man was so shocked I thought he was going to pass out. You know how people say, "You could have knocked him over with a feather"? I think that was literally true in this case. It was amazing. He started to cry a bit as he walked towards the stage & it was so clear that this meant the world to him. Loved it. LOVED IT!

So of course, the down side of this is that I find myself REALLY REALLY missing the world of theatre today. It's been a year and a half since I've been on-stage. It doesn't feel like that long, but there you have it. I've got to fix this. Really. I know that this is a new town and they do things differently here and I'll have to start from the bottom, but I really need to start. This is just too big a part of me to let it die.

The only problem? I got to put together a resume. I can't remember half the stuff I've done, let alone when I did it! Eep!

Good-bye Friday

So what does one say after neglecting one's blog for a while? I know it is customary to apologize, but that's boring. So forget that mess. ;)

It's been a week now since we walked away from the old house. That was a sad day for me. I really grew to love that house. I enjoyed the colorful walls. And I will desperately miss the enormous bathtub.



And of course, Dinosaur Duck, the bizarre bit of statuary in the back garden that (at least, in our eyes) looks more like a brontosaurus than a bird.

There are oodles of things I like better about our own place, but ... well, it's always hard to say goodbye to something. So last Friday when I shut that door for the last time, I got a little misty-eyed. Plus, the old owner of our new house stopped by one last time before flying out to Italy. And then my mother flew back to Tulsa that evening. So it was just one good-bye after another last Friday. No wonder I've been feeling low since then!

Luckily, before Mom left, we found a little time to visit a tea shop in Raleigh. The place is called V's and it is located in a Victorian house that, oddly enough, is laid out almost exactly like the house where my mother grew up. It was the perfectly, girly way to end her visit. The food was soooooo good. Tim likes a nice cream tea, so I'll have to take him there sometime.


So that was last week. And I've felt a tad low this week as a result, but I'm starting to perk up a bit. I have plenty of projects lined up in my mind. And I'm meeting a potential new girlfriend Saturday morning! So now that things are starting to happen in my life, maybe I'll actually start posting a few times a week again. Ya never know ...

Not dead, just moving

Run-down of recent events:
Wednesday, May 23rd: Pack! Pack, I say!
Thursday, May 24th: The movers arrived at 9:30am. The movers finished unloading everything into our new house shortly before noon. AND they didn't break anything! Talk about some kick-ass movers! We still left a lot of little stuff at the old house, though (mainly pantry stuff), so our work is far from over.
Friday: The washer & drier were delivered, but the drier is the wrong color. They brought a blue one. They'll bring a white one to us later, but left the blue one so I could do some freakin' laundry. By the by, I LOVE these machines. Holy crapulence.
Saturday: Ran out to the old house to grab some pantry stuff. The cable man arrived and gave me my blessed internet connection. Yay!
Sunday: Went to Mark's to watch the Monaco race. Boooooring. Ran out to old house to get more food items. Then returned to our new house and cleaned like the dickens! I unpacked all of the kitchen items and then ran to Target to buy a new lamp because ...
Monday: Mom arrived!!! Mom is here for 5 days to see the house & to help with the final details of the move. She loves the house, of course.
Tuesday: Back-breaking labor. The old house has to be cleaned within an inch of its life (or within an inch of our lives, whichever comes first) in order for us to get back our enormous deposit. Tim has to work, of course, but Mom is here to help! Yay Mom! We took a break to eat lunch at the local patisserie/bistro and to stop into the little yarn store so Mom could meet the owner. But other than that, we spent many an hour scrubbing and vacuuming and scrubbing some more and we STILL are not done! Ugh.

So you see, my life is just waaaaaaay too exciting to be posting anything on my blog right now. :P

The House: first pics

Yesterday while walking through Our House for the first time, I finally got around to snapping a few pics to share with you all. Here are a few of them.

1. The front door as seen from the front path. Notice the pink climbing roses on the handrail.


2. The stairs, carpeted for your stair-sliding comfort. ;) By the by, the half-bath is under the stairs.


3. To the left of the entry, the dining room. The downstairs hallway is to the right in this photo.


4. To the right of the entry, the living room.


5. Here's a view from the back of the living room looking out through the front windows.


6. The breakfast nook, overlooking the deck & back garden.

The Key Fiasco

Yesterday was sooooooo damn exhausting. When it was all over, I had blisters on my feet & felt totally zapped of my strength. That's why I only posted the photo of the keys last night. But oh what we had to endure to get those keys ...

The closing itself was easy. Over the course of an hour we signed dozens of documents & handed over a cashier's check. Luckily, the paperwork was in line just as we were expecting. All we needed were the keys.

Ah, yes. The keys. Those all-important keys.

For those who have never purchased a home before, the seller's portion of the closing is very short. They were there for maybe 15 minutes. Once they co-signed a few documents with us, they were free to go. Unfortunately, they forgot to leave the keys. Once we realized the problem, the attorney called their cell phone. The sellers were at the local university, packing the husband's office. We could have met them at his office for the keys, but the idea of navigating that campus and (worst of all) finding a parking place sounded like a nightmare. They had to go back to the attorney's office in a couple hours to pick up a very large check, so we suggested that they just leave the keys there. No problem, right? Right.

So I chose to stay in town and wait.
And wait.
I got some lunch.
I went to a bookstore.
I talked to people on the phone.
I went to Target and wandered every single aisle.
I even tried on bathing suits because I figured that Murphy's Law would kick in and I'd get a phone call while naked in a dressing room.
No such luck. Four hours had passed. Nothing.

Fifteen minutes before the attorney's office closed, I called to see if somehow I'd missed their call. Nope. They hadn't seen the sellers yet. I started to freak out. We'd signed all of those papers! We'd paid all of that money! We NEEDED those keys! Eeep! The attorney's assistant hit the phones & tried to find the sellers. And then, miraculously, they appeared at the office 7 minutes before the office closed. Luckily, I was right around the corner. When I walked into the office, the clock was chiming the hour. The assistant placed the keys in my eager hands. It was over. It was over! The house is ours!!!

Keys

Episode 12: The first feathers

Recently I was reading a real estate website written by a realtor. I was researching what happens at a closing (Me? Doing internet research?! What a surprise! :P) and at the end of the article, the realtor said something that really opened my eyes. He said that after a closing is complete, a buyer will often say, "Well, it's not like I really own the house. The bank paid for most of it!" But he said that no, that's not true. When you sign that paperwork at the closing, you become a homeowner. You own that house. You just happen to owe the bank a lot of money!

All this is to say that we will be homeowners in less than 48 hours. See those bricks? Those will be ours. Same with the windows. And the deck. And the oodles of trees and bushes. I'm still totally stunned by this. I think I will be for a long time.

Of course, the problem with buying a nest is that then one must feather it. Today we bought our first feathers (although they will be extraordinarily useful feathers); we bought a washer and dryer. The current owners of the house - being the sweet eccentric Europeans that they are - own one of those combo washer/drier all-in-one machines. I cannot understand why they did this to themselves. I've used those machines before (in Scotland and England) & I've always found them to be complicated and slooooooooow. Slowslowslow. It could easily take a couple of hours to wash a load of laundry. And the drying cycle? Forget it. There's a reason why the current owners have drying racks all over the scullery; it's almost faster to air dry your laundry than to use the pathetic dryer that comes in those all-in-one jobbies. No disrespect to the current homeowners (because, honestly, I love them dearly), but I thought one of the few joys of leaving Europe was that you could use a decent washer & dryer set! Luckily for us, they are taking their wacky little contraption with them, giving us the opportunity to buy a fancy schmancy top-o-the-line set.


But what did we get, you ask? Well, ya know those TV ads for the fancy LG washing machine with the steam cycle? That's what we got. Consumer Reports gave them fabulous ratings and Sears was having a sale, so we went for it. We just went with white machines, though, because the fancy colored ones cost extra (and I knew I'd get sick of the colors anyway). But these machines are GORGEOUS. Sleek & sturdy. They have LCD screens, for heavens sake. My washing machine will talk to me in French if I want it to. How freaky is that?!? I'm sure my mother-in-law will be rendered speechless when her sweet little English eyes fall upon the amazing works of modern engineering that will soon find a home in our scullery.

Mkay. Must go. Time for din-din.

Woot!

Since it's been a week, I thought I should post a wee bit o' an update. Mkay? Mkay!

1. All the paperwork for the loan is DONE! DoneDoneDone! They've sent it all over to the closing lawyers & everything. No more searching for old tax forms! No more nervous phone calls to England to confirm account info! No more! Woot!
2. The appraisal went great. And according to the appraiser, the house is actually worth more than we're paying for it. So we have already earned some equity! Woot!
3. Tim had his annual review at work & got a nice raise. Woot!
4. The closing for the house will take place on Monday. That's right, kids. We will be homeowners as of Monday afternoon. WOOT!

The bad news is that the movers will be here next Thursday & we've barely packed a thing. Also I need to call the various utility companies and get things switched over into our names. But still! Woot!

Pessimism

My mind was not made to deal with finances. I know this sounds strange because I'm known for being financially responsible, but that's mainly because I fear money. It confuses me. And it bores me. In the past, I have said that the surest way to cure my insomnia would be to repeat words like "mortgage" and "interest rates" and "escrow" into my ear. Just the sounds of those words would send my eyelids sagging.

Strange how those words are now keeping me awake at night.

The last 10 days or so have been hellishly stressful for me. The work involved in picking a mortgage lender was almost enough to give me a stroke. I felt utterly hopeless & overwhelmed by pessimism. I had horrific headaches, dizziness, and even random twitchiness. I barely ate. I slept only a couple hours per night. I couldn't drive. I didn't get dressed for days. I began to feel very odd sensations in my head & began to worry that the stress was affecting the cyst in my brain (the beloved Brain Spider). It was baaaaaaad, kids. Very bad. Loved ones became concerned for my health and urged me to contact a neurologist. But I knew - I KNEW! - that as soon as we were finally able to settle on a mortgage lender, I would feel better. Easier said than done, sadly, but it is done now. Finally. Finally done.

I could bore you with the details, but I see no need to torture you as I have been tortured over the past 2 weeks. Instead, I'll just tell you that (a) despite what we had been told originally, the company we really wanted to work with was able to find the time to work with us afterall and (2) they were able to offer us a rate that will save us thousands of dollars.
Hallelujah!
If you're looking for proof that there is a God, this may well be it. Or maybe it's thanks to the 4-leaf clover from my last post. One or the other. At any rate, once I heard from the manager of the mortgage department at Prefered Lender Co., I suddenly felt such relief. It's all going to be okay now. Whew!

But as the photo suggests, there is still much more to do. There's more paperwork to send to loan officers & attorneys & agents & inspectors. And bills to pay. And boxes to pack. And more money just flowing out of our hands than I care to think about. But the headaches & pessimism are fading. I even managed to sleep last night.

Lucky

This morning - for the first time EVER - I found a 4 leaf clover. Then I found another. And another. Then I decided to stop looking because that seemed greedy.

But the point is that this has NEVER happened to me before! When I was a kid, I spent sooooooo much time looking for 4 leaf clovers with friends. And every time one of them exclaimed, "Found one!" my heart sunk a little. It never happened. And eventually I convinced myself that it would never happen. No 4 leaf clovers for me. I decided I just wasn't lucky enough.

Fast forward to last week. A few times while George and Holly were here, they mentioned how lucky I am. And I have mixed feelings about that. It's true that I have a sweet, loving husband. It's true that I don't have to work anymore. It's true that we're about to move into the cutest freakin' house ever.

But this Stepford-Wife existence isn't quite as blissful as people might assume. Frankly, it's rather lonely. And there are other not-so-pleasant issues in my life, but I'd rather not discuss them. In fact, I'd rather not discuss a lot of the negative things because when I talk about them too much, I focus on them too much. And that depresses the hell out of me and keeps me from appreciating the good things around me. I don't want to seem ungrateful. I truly appreciate the things Tim and I have accomplished, the place where we are. I feel we are quite blessed. And I find that as I get older, I also appreciate the little things more than ever. I appreciate the roof over our heads, the food in our pantry, the cool breeze that is blowing through the garden, the bunny rabbit that didn't scamper away as I watched it munch on the grass.

Could it be possible that I'm turning into ... [gasp!] an optimist?! Could that really truly happen? Or is it just easier to be an optimist when things seem to be going right? Will this optimism fade this week as I wade through the nightmare called Picking A Mortgage Lender? We shall see.

But my point is that, yes, I am lucky. And you know what? So are you. You don't even need a bit of clover to tell you so. Just look around.

Busy

Last week was sooooo busy - far more busy that this calendar page can reflect. I'm still trying to recover from it all! It was so nice to spend time with George & Holly. It's just a shame that all that driving made me so exhausted. It's been 3 days since I left Holly at the airport & I'm just now starting to feel like myself again. However, I still have SOOOOOO much to do! We close on the house in just 3 weeks, so I still need to research mortgage options & find a moving truck/company & PACK & ... well, it's a good thing we've started a To Do list. Ugh. Just please forgive me if I get caught up in my own flurry of activity & fail to post details from Girl Fest '07 for a while.

Gotta run. Must go to the bank & pay the rent ... for the LAST TIME!

Yup, she's here

First Blogiversary

Today is my mom's birthday (Happy b-day, Mommy!), which means that it is also my first blogiversary! It's amazing what we've been through over the past year. In fact, the last few years just feel chock full of so many big events, both happy and sad. It's astounding what life can throw at you.

But I'm also struck by the little details, some of which I never recorded here in the blog. There have been quite a few dinner parties that never got mentioned in here. And that time that Tim and I drove out to the beach and watched the kite surfer. And even the Sundays that we've spent at Mark's watching Formula One races. So many little things. Maybe I'll try to be better about that in the coming year.

Of course, I have been very open about the whole house hunting situation and I'm SOOOO happy about that because it means that you, dear reader, will appreciate my news.

We got the house.

WE GOT THE HOOOOUUUUSE!!!!!!!!

But which house? Could it be .... this house?

No. Cute, but no.

How about ... this house?

No, not quite. A little too ... crowded. Heh.

How about ...
THIS house?

Yeah! That's the one! That's our house! As you can probably guess, I did not take this photo. This is the only pic of the house available on the internet. It looks like it was taken in late winter because the trees are still missing their leaves. If you look closely, you can see that there's a plum tree right smack in the middle of this pic. See? LOTS of trees. And a cute little porch. And you can even see the scullery there on the side (which other people might call a mud room or laundry room or utility room, but Tim calls it The Scullery, so there ya go). And ... well, I could go on for a loooong time! You'll hear more about this house in the coming months, I'm sure.

Here's how the deal went down.

Remember how yesterday I was so full of woe because I was sure that the other people would out-bid us? Well, I was right. They offered more money than we did. Ya see, our original offer was for the asking price, but 2.5% of that was supposed to go to our realtor for his commission. So even though we were offering the full asking price, the sellers would not have gotten that full price in their pockets. So after they got the 2nd offer, they called our realtor, Jim. And Jim called to tell us the hard news. And we talked. And we negotiated. Because Jim didn't want us to lose this house just because of him. Within 15 minutes, we worked out a really fair deal. Jim called the sellers & told them about our counter-offer. They told him that they would like to "sleep on it".

The waiting began AGAIN.

This was awful. We didn't know what to think. We said that this would be our final offer, so we feared that the sellers would contact the other party & they would counter-offer again and it would all fall apart and I would slip into a horrendous depression & refuse to bathe for weeks. Heavy drugs were considered, as well as various methods of self-mutilation.

Luckily, all of that horrendously terrible waiting lasted for about 10 minutes. The sellers called Jim. They told him that after they spoke to him, they sat down to watch a movie & realized that they couldn't focus on it. They didn't need time to make their decision. They decided that they really like me & Tim & they want us to have the house. No more counter-offers, no bidding wars. They picked us.

When Jim gave me the news, I broke down crying. I'm still surprised by that. Maybe the squeals of glee & bouncing around will come at the closing. For now I just feel shock. And relief. And peace. And surprise. And a subtle tingling of excitement underneath it all.

Our house.
Our first house.
Amazing what can happen in a year, isn't it?

Episode 8: Offering

Yesterday marked one year since I arrived in North Carolina. Yesterday was also the day we put in a bid on our first house. You'd think I'd be happy. Excited. Brimming with anticipation. I'm not.

So I guess I should back up a bit.

Monday night we went to tour the creamy yellow For-Sale-By-Owner house that I found on Friday. The owners were there during the tour which was kinda strange. I certainly wan't expecting them to be there. So I felt rather odd poking through their kitchen drawers with them in the same room! But Jim the Realtor did his best to snag them into conversations so that they'd focus on him more than us. Yay for Jim!

So the house. My instincts were right. We both really really like it. The layout is lovely. The lot is lovely. Even the bathrooms passed Tim's inspection (by far the best bathrooms we've seen yet). I didn't take pics because that seemed strange, what with the owners standing right there & all! But it's okay. The owners actually seem very nice. And better yet, we like the house. We really like it.

We decided to sleep on it, but the next morning we still felt the same so we told Jim we'd like to make an offer. I spent most of the day with Jim, getting everything arranged. We decided that we wanted to avoid all the crappy headgames that people play in real estate. We just wanted to be open & give them a fair, attractive offer. And since we felt that the asking price was fair, we offered the full asking price. An unusual step perhaps, but we thought it would help. We agreed to their prefered closing date. And we provided proof that we are pre-approved for a mortgage (which is an excellent thing to have in our corner). Indeed, we were able to lock in a very reasonable interest rate, which will certainly make the process much smoother.

At 8:30pm last night, Jim met with the owners to give them our offer. The owners said that they had spoken with some other people about the house so they would like to have 48 hours to consider our offer.
Forty.
Eight.
Hours.
Doesn't that seem a bit excessive? I mean, since we're offering them everything they've requested? Or is it just me?

So. We wait.

A few minutes ago Jim called me. The owners of the house had called. It seems that they will be receiving another offer tonight. After that meeting they will call Jim. Then Jim will call us.

Siiiiiiiigh.

Jim reassures me that we have a lot going for us. He said that the owners genuinely liked us, which definitely helps. Neither of the owners are originally from America so maybe Tim's accent endeared us to them. Plus, ya know, we are nice! Hell, just look at that offer! And of course it helps that we already know that we can easily get the mortgage for a good rate. And we're flexible on the closing date, too. All very good things.

But I have a bad feeling about this. I feel that we will not get this house. I fear that these people who are making the offer tonight are work colleagues of the owners. Maybe they'll go with them just because it would strenghten business connections or something. Or maybe these other people don't have a realtor, which would save the sellers that 2.5% commission. Who knows.

But it is so fucking unfair to think that we might not get this house after all that we have done! If you speak to sellers, 99.9% of the population would kill to find buyers like us! So it's insulting to think we may be passed over. It's giving me terrible headaches and I just feel like crying. I haven't gotten a single thing done today because I'm so upset. I haven't even eaten. I'm just distraught. Jim says to think happy thoughts & eat some chocolate (yes, this is my realtor telling me to do this!). He's trying to be positive. I just told him that I'm glad he's talking to the sellers for us because I am far too emotional to deal with this myself.

But I don't have a good feeling about this. Here's hoping this is just my pessimism rearing its ugly head. And here's hoping I'm in a better mood when I make my next post.

Episode 7: Hope & intrigue

Friday the 13th was good to me! Hooray! Here's how it went down, as the young folks used to say.

1. I took our pre-approval application forms to the mortgage broker lady. About an hour later she called & said that we easily qualified! We're pre-approved! And that's without checking international credit. Wee! This is important because this is that tiny bit o' official documentation that we need before we can actually make an offer on a house. And we also have a very good idea of how much the banks will allow us to borrow & how much we need to have for a down payment. These numbers weren't a big surprise, though, because I did my homework. Sometimes it's good to be addicted to the internets.

2. Shortly before 6pm we toured a house. This is the blue house that costs almost exactly the same as the Mauve House, but is on a prettier, more private lot & it does not need any rennovations. No paint, no gutters, no flooring, no nothin'. It's in perfect shape. It's also about 25% smaller. Hmm. We thought it was worth a look. And it was really adorable inside. Truly.
But the bathrooms.
It's always about the bathrooms with us, isn't it. I think if we were able to spend 25K more, we'd be able to get a house with Tim's dream bath. As it is, we're just looking for something that doesn't make us claustrophobic or suicidal. The baths in this house were tiny & cramped (only a thin shower in the master) so Tim's nose wrinkled. And that was that. Honestly, there were a couple other things wrong ... like the strange, tacked-on breakfast room that overlooked the parking pad (?!). A total waste of space for us.
The best things about this house, though, were the 2 cats that live there. Simply put, these were my dream cats. There was a marmalade kitty and a smaller tuxedo kitten. And they were the sweetest, friendliest, most lovey-dovey kitties on the planet! LOVED them! Too bad the cats don't come with the house or they might've had a sale. But since that isn't the case, we moved on.

3. Between dropping off paperwork with Mortgage Lady and touring the cutesy blue house with the amazing cats, I went on a little drive around the neighborhood. I won't name it here in the interest of privacy, but in many ways the name does not matter. There is only one neighborhood for me. And honestly I suppose we should call it a "community" because of the size of it and all of the ammenities, but that sounds rather soulless. "Neighborhood" is better. And I love this neighborhood. I decided about a week ago that I am no longer interested in looking at any houses outside of this particular neighborhood. It just feels right. So when anyhing goes on the market in it, I wanna know.
Anyway, I was driving along, checking out some houses that Jim the Realtor had e-mailed to me when I saw a sign out of the corner of my eye.
For Sale By Owner
Hmmmmmm ...
I turned around & pulled into the cul-de-sac. And oooooh my. Ooooh my. So pretty. I would have taken a photo, but the neighbors across the street were doing yardwork & I thought I would look too suspicious. Here are the basics:
Two stories. Very pretty lot with oodles of trees and shrubbery. And the exterior of the house looks very nice, too. It isn't a cookie-cutter house, but it still looks classic. Me likey.
"But certainly we can't afford it," I thought. "It'll be just outside of our price range. Oh, but look! Fliers!" I parked the car, walked around to the sign and took a flier.
The house is in our price range.
EEEE!!!!!
The square footage is the same as the mauve house BUT it's on a much prettier, much more private lot! Just what I wanted!!! And the floor plan was printed on the flier, so I can tell that the layout looks very promising.
Phone calls were made. We can't tour it this weekend (the husband is out of town & I guess wifey doesn't feel comfortable showing it before he comes back), but we will be touring it Monday evening.
EEEEE!!!!
The house isn't listed on Realtor.com or anything like that, so there's very little competition at this point. This is good. I feel very good about this. Can't wait until Monday!!!

Episode 6: Financing and doubt

We are finally getting our crap together and applying for pre-approval for a mortgage. Took us long enough, right? Sorry, but I've never bought a house before so I'm kinda fuzzy on what one does when. Anyway, we're getting our details together & filling out paperwork. And we've sadly been reminded that we do NOT look good on paper. Everybody keeps saying, "Don't worry about it! You'll be able to get a loan from somebody." Yes, but whom? And at what percentage rate?
Sigh.
And to compound all of this, two houses just came up for sale in the same community ... two houses that are smaller square-footage wise, but which are on gorgeous lots and don't need new roofs, gutters, or exterior paint.
Sigh.

We haven't even put in an offer and I'm already having buyer's remorse.

But that's good, right? Because it means we haven't made the wrong decision yet. So it's okay. Right? Or am I just too picky? Or are my commitment issues rearing their ugly head? And yes, I do have commitment issues. Big ones. I think one of the reasons why I like theatre is because I know I won't be tied down to one thing forever. There's always another play, you know? Lord only knows why my commitment issues don't affect my marriage (and thank our blessed zombie Jesus for that, right?), but I certainly am commitment-phobic in other areas of my life.

It'll be so nice when George gets here & can give me her opinion or slap me around or whatever. I'm sure she'll think that all of these houses are painfully cute & suburban, but it's nice to have a friend who will give you an honest answer. If I showed these places to my few girlfriends here in NC I'm sure they'd just politely tell me that everything looks lovely & that I should just do whatever makes me happy. That's fine and all, but it isn't what I need. There's nothing like an old friend who has known you forever.

Speaking of friends, I may have a new one. I met her on-line. Her husband is a games programmer & they're moving down here so he can take a job. They will be moving down here to the Triangle this month. And the house they bought is within a mile or two of all of the houses we've been considering. How random is that! We get along great in e-mail & I think we may have quite a few things in common. I told her in my latest e-mail that Tim and I met on a feminist message board. If she's cool with the F Word then I think we'll be fine. Fingers crossed!


Randomness ...
Kvetch: Tim is having tooth issues. The crown that Dr. Monty gave him last year no longer wants to stay on.
Anti-kvetch: Meatloaf for dinner!
Kvetch: 3 zits on the middle of my face all at the same time. What am I, 15? Geez.
Anti-kvetch: There's another F1 race this weekend!

The last 5 minutes: A short play

Mary: [reads george's latest post]

[gets to the end of the post and sees that george bought the plane tickets]

[does classic double take & reads that part again]

WOOT!!!!

Crap, now I gotta clean the guest room! ;)

The Mauve House (AKA Episode 5)

The Mauve House is an interesting place. I've tried to come up with a good nickname for it, but it's just so ... mauve. You can't get past the color when naming this house. I think that's the building's biggest problem. It's ... mauve. And not an attractive shade of mauve, might I add. There's a lot of grey in it, so it looks rather sad & unloved. And the grey shutters & roof just emphasize that sadness. It's dreary. It's dowdy. It looks the way I feel on those days when I don't get dressed & I just lie around all day in my robe. A truly despondent shade of mauve.

Have you ever noticed that it's nearly impossible to say "mauve" quickly? That "au" bit just draaaaags itself out. And is it pronounced "mAHv" or "mOHv"? Merriam-Webster approves of both pronuciations and we honor that in our little family (Tim says "mOHv"; I saw "mAHv". Kinda like how we don't pronounce "capillaries" the same). But either way you say it, you can't help but drag out that vowel sound. Mauve. Maaauuuuve.


Anyway, about this house. The first time I saw it, I was not exactly impressed. Hated the color. Noticed that it had no guttering. And this made me suspect that the roof was probably 20 years old. I instantly imagined that the interior would be in worse shape than The Bad Boyfriend & quickly moved along. But one night our realtor, Jim, had it on our list of houses to see. We were scheduled to tour 4 houses that night & I thought, "Oh, what the hell. I'm sure Tim will hate it, but we can always leave."

Well, I was wrong. I liked it. I liked it! But I was still sure that Tim would hate it, so I didn't investigate it thoroughly. But the next morning when I woke up, this was the house I was thinking about. The Mauve House. We toured other homes, but still ... The Mauve House stuck with me. And I was wrong about Tim because he actually liked the house! So I thought about it for a week as we toured other homes. Then on Thursday I talked to Jim and told him that I just needed to tour it one more time. So on Thursday night, we took another walk-through.

And god help us, we really like it.

The square footage is generous. The layout is nice. The storage is amazing (lots of big closets & the biggest kitchen we've seen, and the crawl space is tall enough for our bikes). Even the bathrooms are up to Tim's standards. And if we want to expand the master bath & get the garden tub we long for, it could easily be done with very little sacrifice. The interior has almost everything we want. There were even two "signs" that I'm sure mother would love:
1. There is a stained glass window in the stairwell that features a cardinal
2. The back yard is currently covered in wild violets.

But the exterior. Oh my. Besides the horrific color, the house is at the end of a cul-de-sac, so there are streets on two sides. Plus the neighborhood walking trail runs along the back of the property. Luckily, the house is set up on a slope, so there's no way that people using the trail could look into the house. But still. It could use a little help. It could use a few more trees in the back & maybe a few more bushes along the side. It already has a good bit of vegetation, but it could use a little more. No big deal.

We decided we need to know more. So on Friday Jim hit the books & called a bunch of people. He even had someone go out & give him an estimate on painting the place & putting up gutters (the roof man will see it next week). He unearthed various bits of information, but the most surprising fact is that the house has been on the market for much longer than we originally thought.

This house has been for sale for a. whole. year. Twelve months. I'm not kidding. Why? What is the problem? Is it haunted? Did a horrific crime take place there? Could it really be just that it's so ... mauve? The investigation continues.



Random news
Last night I experienced 2 "firsts" in my life:
1. My first professional hockey game (Our team lost. Boo.)
2. My first snow in April. Snow! Not a lot - maybe a quarter of an inch - but enough to accumulate in places. Eeeee!!

Out of Order

Due to technical difficulties that I cannot fix at the moment, today's blog post is currently showing up below yesterday's post. I know how to fix it, but that would require using the right button on my mouse ... a button that has died within the past hour. I wish I were kidding. Anyway, please scroll down to below the anniversary post in order to read today's post. Thanks!

Best. Wife. EVER.

Late in April last year, shortly after we moved to North Carolina, we got a phone call from Peter & Susan - my brother- & sister-in-law in London. While talking to them, it hit me that their 2nd wedding anniversary had passed just a few days before.
Me: "By the way, happy 2nd anniversary! Sorry I didn't sent you anything."
Susan: "Oh, don't worry about it. Nobody remembers your 2nd wedding anniversary, anyway."

I thought it was interesting that there was absolutely no sense of sadness or disappointment in Susan's voice when she said that. But now I understand. On Monday Tim and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and we made no big deal about it. No cards. No expensive gifts. Indeed, I gave him a jar of his favorite peanuts & he gave me some gummy dinosaurs. Junk food. That's what we gave to one another on our 2nd wedding anniversary. And we loved it.

Note that this is quite different than our elopiversary which takes place in February. On April 2nd two years ago, we stood in front of our families and exchanged vows & took lots of photos and ate some fantastic cake. Of the two anniversaries, it's the day that means the most to me. When my mother thinks back on that day, I think her eyes well up with tears. That's probably why she remembered to send some flowers.

But despite the fact that this anniversary is supposed to mean more to us than to anyone else on the planet, we've been very lazy in celebrating it properly. Last year we packed up our apartment on our anniversary. But at least we had a plan. This year we didn't even have that. I figured we would just stay at home, make a little dinner, & watch a David Attenborough nature show.

Well, things didn't go quite as planned. Late in the afternoon on the day of our anniversary, I got a phone call. My cell phone said that the call was from Tim.
Me: "Hello!"
Mystery voice: "This isn't who you think it is."
It was our friend, Mark. Mark works with Tim. Mark called to say that .. well, I'll spare you the details. Basically, the team's boss was going to take the team out for dinner to celebrate the completion of a project. When did he want to take them out? That very night. The night of our anniversary.

An ordinary wife would have said no. No way in hell. An ordinary wife would have said that her husband better come home & enjoy his freakin' wedding anniversary with his charming, gorgeous, & wonderful partner. An ordinary wife would have been enraged that her husband would even consider asking this ... and probably even more pissed off because he made his friend do the dirty work for him.

But not this wife.
The fact is I felt miserably sick Monday. Aunt Flow had kicked in the front door of my uterus that morning & was making herself comfortable (and making me rather uncomfortable). I'd managed to take care of the taxes that day & even went to the grocery store, but I was on my last legs and I soooooo did not want to cook dinner. I just wanted to lay on the couch and be alone for a few more hours with my precious, precious bottle of ibuprophen. To me, the idea that somebody out there wanted to feed my husband for free sounded like the best anniversary gift I could receive.

So yes, I let my husband go out with the guys on our anniversary. While he was gone, I baked us a cake. And Tim decided to bow out a little early from the celebrations & got home by 9pm. So we still got to curl up on the couch together & eat cake while watching a David Attenborough DVD.

It was just what I wanted.

Real Estate Madness, Episode 4

I have a weakness for handicapped animals. When I go to PetFinder.com and look at the dogs and cats available, I intentionally look for pets featuring a little green heart next to their listing. That green heart means that this is a special needs pet. A handicapped dog. An imperfect cat. A cuddly friend who is often overlooked by others, but who will love you dearly if you just give them that little extra time and attention they need. I think my ideal dog is probably 8 years old, greying around the muzzle, and missing a leg.

And it seems that my taste in houses is similar to my taste in dogs.

So, we've been touring houses. With the help of our realtor, we have toured 6 homes since giving up on The Bad Boyfriend. Most were promising in their own right, but two have stuck out in my mind more than the others.
1. The Three-Legged Dog
2. The Mauve Monster
Today I'd like to tell you about The Three-Legged Dog.



When we first saw this house, we really like it. The lot is gorgeous. There's no garage, but the parking situation is great. The rooms were spacious without being too big. And the sunroom/breakfast area that looks out on the back yard is simply to die for (It looks better in person than in the photos). Yes, it's a bit old and feels slightly dated, but a few cosmetic changes would fix all of that. As we walked around, we felt certain that we had found The One.




(Tim is sneezing. :) )


Good bones. Very promising.

But the bathrooms. The bathrooms!!!!! The Bad Boyfriend had bad baths, but these were a step beyond. Tim actually refers to the master bath in this house as the Slit-Your-Wrists Bathroom because it is so bleak and depressing. The sink in the master bath actually had a big black crack/hole in it. It kinda looks as though it has been worn through, if that makes sense. Note that this is a cultured marble sink. I cannot imagine how the owner accomplished this damage, but there it was. Worst of all, though, were the bathtubs. Plastic. Flimsy, greenish-grey, cheapy plastic bathtubs. And the walls around the tubs were made of the same awful greenish-grey plastic, but they did not seem to be sealed properly. I could easily imagine the water damage that lurked beneath. And did I mention that they were small & that both bathrooms were crammed up against one another in the corner of the 2nd floor? A slight renovation might be possible for those bathrooms, but they could never be expanded. I think I might be able to live with the size. Tim, however, could not.

I've spent a good deal of time thinking about this house. I keep thinking of that upstairs layout & trying to find a way to make it work Maybe if we take out the master closet and ... no. Perhaps if we shift the washer and drier into the next bedroom and ... no. I don't see how we could make it work. Even if I could, it is bound to cost tens of thousands of dollars - dollars we don't have.

Oh well. Tonight we will be looking at The Mauve Monster again. Details to come ...