Breaking and Entering

So today is the day we go look at a house. But, I was so anxious about it, I went and jog stalked the house this morning. I wanted to jog past and look and think..."could I live there"...then continue jogging and decide..."could this be MY street" etc.

But I didn't just jog past. Really, that is all I meant to do...then the NEXT thing I know I am jiggling doors until I got one to open. I knew the house was empty from the pictures online, so I wasn't worried about a shotgun in the face. So I went through the whole house in my sweaty joggy clothes.

OOOOOOOOOOH...you know, I texted Mr. P that I was going to jog stalk the house and he replied, "Don't get caught" and I thought...well, who would know what I was doing, I jog by there all the time. He must have figured I would try to break in.

ANYWAY, it needs wooooork. Lots of work. I think Alice made the Brady's Thanksgiving dinner in the oven...there was a label that said, "Contstant Caloric Heat"...wtf? I am not sure how I feel about the yard...it looks like a laissez-faire approach to lawn maintenance has been taken in the past, which I don't hate, but no real place for me to garden. I like to garden. Enough room, but GIANT trees that shade it all up.

Pink tiled bathroom. A yellow tiled bathroom. Small rooms. But it has my favorite element about our big house that we moved out of...layered living rooms, both with fireplaces. We can set one up pretty, and let Mr. P man cave one up big time. One for football games, one for afternoon relaxing. The kitchen would need to be completely redone. There is a tiny room I would call the library with built ins, and swinging doors that lead into I am not sure what (I couldn't find the light switch, and I had been in the house for 10 minutes by now) and a garage.

ACK. 28 minutes until show time, then Mr. P and I have some shopping to do and will hash it all out, and I am waiting for my HomeBuying for Dummies to show up from Amazon. I am not sure this house will get scooped up that quickly, but if it does, it does. If it isn't...well, then maybe I am about to go into real estate.

Am I brave enough..

...to buy a house? That is the question that is making my stomach churn churn churn today.

I am 41 and have never owned my home, and I have always had a valid reason excuse why I haven't done it. Now that the kids are out of the house and I have tenure, those excuses are really dwindling away, and yet I still haven't done it and to be completely honest, I am pretty sure I don't want the responsibility.

At first, buying a home wasn't an option for us. We either didn't make enough money or our credit was too atrocious to even consider it. Well, those things are changing. We make a good living, and with that I have managed to rebuild our credit to a decent level.

But for the first time in my life, I feel like I only have to be responsible to myself and Mr. P, and I am not convinced I am ready to give up three times a year vacations for a new roof or wiring. I don't know if I want to spend weekends doing home repair and yardwork, when I can just call the rental people. I know, I know...it is a tax deduction...BUT, my argument there is that the mortgage I am willing to take on with the rate I am thinking I will get, will not put us into the Itemized Deduction category anyway...so no tax break...we could be building equity, not just paying rent, true. But if anything catastrophic breaks, I am not responsible...I call the people...not sure I want to be the people.

But all that aside, we have an appointment to go look at a house tomorrow at 1pm. It is a great location on a street we love. It is a bizarre, cute, older house---big kitchen, fireplace, deck. Big yard. But the price is WAY too right--about $20 a square foot less than the norm around here...

I know what we spent to get a RENTAL to my standards...what the hell will I want to spend to get a home I OWN to standards when I don't have the fall back of..."it's just a rental"... ugh.

Why did you buy?

Getting it together

We moved out of the house on June 30. Most of our stuff went into a pod type thing and sat in my sister's yard. Some of our stuff went with us into a one bedroom apartment. We squished in and were pretty okay. What made that apartment kind of fun is that there was no "upkeep". No consideration of painting, or replacing knobs, or major cleaning because we were only there for 30 days. Then on July 31 we moved into this house. We shoved most of the stuff into the 'office' and called it a move. We painted. Arranged. Pause. Now 30 days later we have put up some shelves. Unpacked our doodads. Repacked some doodads that still don't fit anywhere or that I decided I truly despise. Shoved that stuff and empty buckets/boxes into the attic.

I thought that we would be DONE today. Moved in so that we could truly begin to settle in so that this could start becoming our home, but our cable wires are too long (so they don't fit in the cable/hider thing), our kids didn't answer text messages about two more pieces of furniture that they wanted, I am short one accent chair that I want in the living room. The bathroom flooded.

Yep, flooded, water pouring out from the FLOOR. Stopped the whole process of washing clothes, etc. damnity damn damn.

BUT, we did manage to get our room done. I kinda love it.

Here is where we started:

Here we are today:

I sleep on the side of the bed cutoff in the picture and there is a long wall over there with no furniture and it has my favorite part of the room on it...BUT the picture is weird because I couldn't get it at a good angle in the 3 seconds I had in my room when the plumber guy wasn't going back and forth, and I wanted to do this blog post.this.exact.second.

It's all pictures of me and Mr. P...two of them are collages that I got printed as a poster at Walgreens then put into some frames that Mr. P "rescued" and repainted with some of our leftover trim paint. We also mounted my tv on the wall...which did cause some tension yesterday since I CAN'T REACH the power button. But whatev. I can deal. I tried three times to post a picture of how high the tv is (it works fine for sleepy tv watching...I fell asleep very quickly last night) but the bitchy police must be monitoring my activity as it kept failing. I will try to sneak it by tomorrow.

I hope this plumber guy is fast, I want a shower and to get in that bed before the sun sets. I am TIRED. I have my alarm set for 6am. The predicted temperature is 64 degrees. Perfect to getting my now bigger ass back into gear with a run/walk before what I predict to be a KILLER week of work---I have 6 research based deadlines and 21 projects to preliminarily grade and turn around to my grad students.

I got a major slump going on up in here

So, last I left you, Mr. P had been laid off and we were headed out for my birthday weekend. Let's see, since then:

• I turned 41. Mr. P threw me TWO birthday parties. One drinky party and one family party. My mom pitched a fit that she was not invited to the drinky party.
• We moved out of tiny apartment into tiny house. The house is tiny. Tiny. t.i.n.y. I got bummed out at the tinyness and the crampedness and quit unpacking about a day in. I am still not moved in nearly 6 weeks later.
• I kept Eli for a weekend. Wow. 4 is tough.
• Went away with my highschool girlfriends for a weekend. Awesome. Laughter. Hugs.
• Joined a new gym and got a personal trainer. Quit running. Quit everything. Even bailed on my trainer this week.
• Mr. P got a new job where he has to travel out of town at least one night a week. It is way harder than I thought it would be. So much so, that I went with him last night. (The job is great, he loves it, he is making more money than before, he is happy and he has a company truck that he digs driving around Alabama.)
• I joined a bowling league and on the first day I bowled a 150 and 141, but now two days later my knee hurts and my middle finger does too.
• I got a health screening and my numbers are good. (Blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc.)

I don't know what is going on with me. I feel guilty and shitty for getting behind on stuff. And my new diet of hydrogenated/fructose corn syrup snacks that I enjoy with beers probably doesn't help my attitude or motivation much either.

I took before pictures of the house o'tiny when we moved in. My plan is to be able to take the after pictures on Sunday. Plus, I have a huge harvest of peppers and I want to invite the family over for stuffed peppers next week. Will I get it done? Time will tell.

silver linings

I am waiting for some clothes to dry and then Mr. P and I are off to the beach for to celebrate my birthday. No, my birthday is not for another week, but I enjoy at least a week of getting my way with the ever popular (in my family), "...but it's my birthday!"

I am going to eat crab, drink something fruity whilst reading in a lounge chair, walk on the beach, and generally r.e.l.a.x.

OH, and I am very sorry to disappoint, but Mr. P took some time this week and schmoozed our way into NOT having to live at Mom's for that week...we will stay in the apartment for an extra 2 days, then move into the house 5 days early!

SH it happens

Thanks for all your well wishes and thoughts out into the blogiverse, but alas, Mr. P did, indeed, get the BIG.FAT.LAY.OFF. He got a month of severance pay, and directions to the unemployment office. Jerks.

He is okay. Actually better than okay. He is nearly giddy with relief, you can almost see the stress draining out of him. I feel awful about how unhappy he must have been for him to be so happy to have gotten let go. So we are going to look at the silver lining and enjoy having a bunch of time together. I have worked, shopped and cooked sauce for dinner. Mr. P has filed for unemployment, taken out the trash, cleaned the litter box, and swept the floors.

Now we are about to take the College Kid to buy some some khaki pants and pick out a refrigerator. Talk about living the dream.

things were going a bit too well, apparently

We settled into our tiny new digs, and other than the tiny brown bugs in our ice cubes, the washer only rinsing in scalding hot water and the refrigerator smelling like bizarre flowery cleaner, we were happy to be downsized. Waiting patiently to move into the house in a little less than a month, even though a week with Mom lies in between.

Then TODAY. Mr. P texts me to tell me that a lady at his work got laid off. THEN about an hour and a half later, the axe men walk into Mr. P's office (he works in a satellite office about 45 minutes away) and are RIGHT.THIS.MOMENT huddled in the manager guys office. The manager guy that we call the Gelmet because he wears his dyed black hair slicked back, a la, Sha-Na-Na. This same dude that has been carrying on a game of grab ass with a co-worker for nearly 6 months. This same dude that threw Mr. P's friend out to the wolves and she got fired. The same dude that treats Mr. P like his secretary (calls him and tells him to email him reminders, tells him to send his UPS shipments, etc.) even though Mr. P is a project manager. This guy is slimy and will sell Mr. P out as sure as anything.

Now, Mr. P is miserable and wants to quit daily, but we are kinda dependent on his money...and we just kind of encouraged our kids to do some stuff that would require more help from us. Blech.

If it happens, we will manage, but man alive, can we not have 4 freaking months of peace???

Greetings from my kitchen floor

I am sitting in the corner of my kitchen on the floor because that is the only place I can sit. All of our belongings are either outside in the Mobile Attic, or stacked up in the breakfast nook because the entire rest of the house is carpeted and the carpets are being cleaned right now. The oven, refrigerator, bathrooms, all baseboards, chair rail, spider webby corners and fan blades have been cleaned. The inside of the windows. The sheers have been taken down, washed and re-hung. (Except the set that was MINE that Mr. P ruined. "by accident". He hated those flowy flowery drapes, I know it.) Decks have been sprayed down.

When I was showing the carpet guys the layout of the house I remembered the day we arrived from Texas. The CK and I were ahead of the boys, and we could not even believe how HUGE this house was. It is pretty immense. 3 living rooms. 4 bedrooms. 3 bathrooms. Dining room. Kitchen. Laundry room. Breakfast nook. Screened in porch. Deck. On a huge lot, on a little lake. We were amazed at our good fortune. (We rented it sight unseen as we couldn't take a trip East before we had to get place.) We had always lived on top of each other, and in this house we could really spread out. I am not happy with the status of our family right now, and I wonder if it is we really don't function as well spread out as we do right on top of each other. But spread out is how it has to be, and as excited as I am for this phase in all of our lives, right now, I really, really miss that day that we were all so happy to be here in this house.

OH, and I got struck my lightning on Saturday.

what I did today

• Slept through the alarm set for 5:30am and managed to drag out of bed at 7am. I set the alarm so early because starting next Monday I have to teach a class at 8am and the heat makes it impossible to run at times other than 7am and 7pm. I like TV at 7pm.
• I weighed in DANGEROUSLY close to scootching up a decade. I immediately logged into http://www.weightwatchers.com/, updated my weight and made a note to self to get shit together. asap.
• Started week 2 (note that week 1 happened several weeks ago) of my half marathon training. AND AND AND, I warmed up and stretched before I ran. Pain free the first mile (well, my hip/knee crap, lungs? different question), then a bit of pain the second mile. Managed a decent time for me. Stretched again. Iced hip.
• Made a frappe with my new Mr. Coffee Cafe Frappe. YUM. (Impulse buy yesterday because I was sure that it would help me through said early morning class starting next week.)
• Watered plants. Fell in love with my baby cucumbers all over again. Tried to decide how many times we are going to have to have Thai food based on the 450 peppers that are growing.
• Showered.
• Wrote three blog posts and deleted every.one. of them.
• Quit the gym. OF COURSE, you have to quit by the 20th so you don't get charged an extra month. I bet they change the form every day so that you are always a day late. fuckers. I want to quit the gym!
• Changed my address at the post office.
• Went to Chick Fil A for lunch and to read to decompress for class.
• Taught an hour and a half class about writing queries.
• Taught an hour and a half class about accounting for corporate bond issues.
• Graded projects while eating a Fage 2% with Honey yogurt thing. I almost threw it away because it was weird. But then it got a bit warmer and blended and then I liked it...but maybe not 4 points liked it. I added some Corn Flakes. Did you know that Kellogg's Corn Flakes contain high fructose corn syrup? Yeah, I didn't either.
• Came home.
• Made HOMEmade salsa/pico. Tomatoes, red onion, homegrown jalapeno/serrano/habanero peppers, fresh corn, black beans, garlic, cilantro, salt/pepper, red wine vinegar. DAMN it is good. and fresh. and delicious.

Now I am waiting for Mr. P to get home from his run, and we are going to eat the salsa/pico stuff on corn tortillas with some refried beans and a bit of 2% cheese. We have 8 days left in this house, and it can't happen soon.enough.

OH.MY.GOD. I have the Bachelorette on and I think one of the dudes got a tattoo with her name on it....what the hell man??? psych.o.

How was your Monday?

EDITED TO ADD: My iPod had died, and when I charged it the date/time was funky, so it logged my run at May 5, so it isn't showing up with my Nike girl. My next run (Wednesday) will be there.

another decision MADE

Remember last year when I almost was VERY neighborly with my sister, but then the super flaky ballroom dance teacher decided not to rent to us? (By the way, her house is STILL on the market. ha.) And then I got all flummoxed and decided to stay in our house for another year?

Well, here we are, round the sun once more and we are officially going to be semi-neighbors with my sister, a mere 1/2 mile! I have already signed the lease on a little house, with many weird amenities like a bathroom with yellow and black tile (a la a bumble bee), washer and dryer in a line NEXT to the stove, NO dishwasher and NO fenced in yard. BUT it is a great location, perfect for walking to football games, my office, outings for pizza and frozen yogurt, and feeding the turtles. Another big plus is that we will be paying about half for our living expenses as we are now (we are starting to save for a down payment on our very own house, yikes), so I just have to learn to be more efficient with my dishes and really suck up to Mr. P so that he is willing to take the dog out at 3am since he will have to be watched...oh, and we have to buy our own refrigerator, but I am kind of excited about that...I am thinking stainless steel with an ice-dispenser!

Now we just have to figure out what we are going to do about the slight (35 day) gap between leases in our current and new abodes....but none of this will even happen for 3 months, ahh, the joys of living in a college town!

when is enough really enough?

First off...let me just assure everyone that I did NOT go all shooty when I was denied tenure...as alas, I still.don't.know whether I got tenure. However I got word that the decisions have been made, letters printed and are awaiting signatures and 'hopefully' will go out tomorrow. They will come through campus mail and I should know Wednesday after lunch at the very latest. Hopefully. Hopefull.y.

Now that that is cleared up I have two big things that I want to tackle today, and a million little things I want to tell you about because stuff has happened, but let's get the big stuff done today so you can decide whether to block my IP address, or ban me to Reader purgatory, I completely understand if you choose either.

Here goes: I can't live without some of the blogs I read. BUT, there are some blogs that I definitely have to break up with. Some bloggers just, to be completely honest, annoy the fuck out of me, and for some convoluted reason I believed that if someone EVER commented on my blog I OWED them blog loyalty for now and ever more. I was finding that if I opened my Reader and certain people had blogged, I felt dread at reading those posts and then just wouldn't read any posts because I felt all guilty and angsty and blech. I know some people tag blogs at Good, Better and Best and read down as time permits, but I find if I have anything 'unread' I am anxious about that as well.

Here is what is stuck in my craw: I have read posts about what annoys people about blogs, Facebook and Twitter and frankly, I don't give a shit about what people put on Facebook or Twitter...I find the mundane chatter to be interesting. I don't mind knowing about your child's potty progress (chances are I want to know, that is why we are friends on Facebook), or what you are having for snacks on the train. Here is what gets me all upset and twisty: bloggers who don't know their place in the blog hierarchy or WORSE, want to be considered an expert in something whether it be weight loss or running or photography or mothering or beastiality or any combination of the above when they just are not. I don't want to be your fan on Facebook, I don't want to Twitter about your contest, or link to you on my blog unless I WANT TO...I just want to know what makes you tick and how you are and really, who annoyed the fuck out of you and why and what curse words you said (either out loud or in your mind) and maybe who you want to have fantasy sex with (this week I am into the Skipper of the Swedish curling team, YES, I know he is a tiny baby, but he is so pretty.) So that is where my head is at. Charming, no?

Plus, keep in mind that I am very NON-confrontational so don't ask me if you annoyed me, because chances are I will say, "NO, I love your blog" because either I do love your blog or I don't want to read your blog, but I don't want to tell you that I don't want to read your blog because I don't want to hurt your feelings even though I do think you are annoying as hell. I feel better and worse all at the same time. So, on to another issue that is very important to me:

How many t-shirts is the appropriate amount of t-shirts? I have not counted, but I probably have 50, which I know is TOO many. Mr. P says to keep 5, which I know is TOO few. What is the baby bear of t-shirts? AND, for the t-shirts that must depart my wardrobe, do I throw them away, or donate them? Seems weird to donate a t-shirt. But I totally will if that is appropriate.