doubletake

Why is it that it always seems to go thus: there's either a million things trying to go on in the span of two days OR there's nothing going on and nobody's available for weeks at a time? It's like a giant sudden-onset socialization wedgie! :D Ah well, I'm not complaining.

I have pre-prepped gluten-free calzone for tonight--the filling is ready to go and the flours are all mixed up, so it should be a doable dinner project...I hope. They were ready for last night, actually, but David wanted to get out of the apartment so we ended up going to Claim Jumper to eat. We spent the whole evening talking about our respective parents, which is (to me anyways) one of the most fascinating topics of all time. I love hearing about the different ways people were raised and how they've reacted to that, and their parents quirks (it's always a little amusing--and scary!--to realize how many of those traits have passed along), and the things they remember most vividly. I wonder if I would be as interested if my childhood had been more mainstream (and all the GI Joe-Rainbow Brite-Count Chocula-New Kids on the Block stuff wasn't completely foreign to me)... Plus, people are often WAY more open about their childhood and their parents than they would be about themselves and their current hopes/dreams/likes/dislikes/etc...but I think you can learn almost as much from reminisences of preschool friends and The Most Trouble I Ever Got In.

Hard time sleeping last night, not sure why. It didn't feel like any of the usual culprits, and David was also having trouble. I hope it doesn't continue.

...we were very lazy today. Did make it out to get (even more!) groceries so we could grill corn-on-the-cob for dinner. Central had a half-flat of raspberries for $11 (!!!) and fresh Gurnsey cream-top yogurt from a local dairy, so that's what we're having for dessert. Nom!

Thunder and lightning now. I have a loaf of GF bread in the oven, so I hope the power stays on until it's done. We're prepared, though--I found one of the shaker flashlights and David's got Naruto queued up on the laptop. My hero.

I approve this weekend.

PS. The kitchen is still clean!

The trouble we've been having getting the house even close to finalized has been aggravating. I wanted to be moving by now! However, I've got to say that it has been very nice to have a slow, quiet weekend all to ourselves.

Played Red Faction at Adam & Kelsey's on Friday evening, which I am now completely hooked on and WANT for my very own precious. Yesterday, we slept in and then did our own things until early afternoon, when David had to go down to the office because of a phone problem he couldn't fix from home. I went with, and once the problem was resolved we dropped by PCC and got a picnic snack (cheese, crackers, bread, salami, drinks, fruit) and went to a park in West Seattle to eat. The weather was gorgeous--sunny, warm, and with just enough breeze to keep it from being stifling. It was very nice, even if it was cut a little bit short by a second work-emergency...which resolved itself JUST as we got back to his office...of course! Got groceries on the way home, including rhubarb for $1 a pound instead of the regular 2.49. This was David's first encounter with rhubarb so I made strawberry rhubarb crumble for dessert and we ate it with the remains of an ancient quart of vanilla ice cream (yay for cleaning out the freezer).

Today should be mostly taken up by chores, which have piled up over the last crunch-filled week. The cat needs a bath, I'm behind on laundry and packing, I need to mend a dress, we still need a menu plan for the week, and I 'd like to get the menus for Colleen's wedding done as well. We'll see how far I get, though. I'm feeling very calm. And lazy. :D

Tired. Stayed up until midnight last night--past--and am regretting it heavily. David's friend Dan came over and showed him a new (M?)MO called Evony. It's free and very number-heavy and has many real-time timers (8 minutes and you can have something new)...and is HIGHLY addictive. That's why we ended up going to sleep so late; David was captivated by this game and kept wanting to do "just one more thing"...I forsee a long road ahead of us here.

Bought black and cream cardstock for Colleen's menus and programs. Will have to order specialty paper online--called around but no one has exactly what I want.

Made quiche last night--nothing new. Made a teff crust for it--now THAT part's new. Teff is a teeny tiny grain (smallest grain in the world?) from Ethiopia (it's what injera is made from) and is gluten free (or close enough to it, thanks internet for never letting me sleep easy). The package describes it as a "nutritional powerhouse with a nutty taste" and from a quick glance around the internet, I'd agree. It's high in calcium, iron, fiber, and looks like a complete protien, too. David was very happy with the quiche, and I don't think we're buying Gluten-Free Pantry's Perfect Pie Crust mix again (Hint: it's not perfect. It's extremely crumbly and difficult to work with, plus it makes a ridiculous 4 crusts. Tastes good, though). I made 2 versions of the crust...because I could. I had to make two quiches anyways--I put bacon in his (no wonder he liked it).

( Gluten-Free Teff Pie Crust Experimenty )

Verdict: Pretty darn good! I don't know if I'd call teff "chocolatey" other than the color, but "nutty", yes. The crust rolled out pretty nicely and didn't stick too badly to the parchment I rolled it on. Both crusts turned out VERY similar, although the second one was a bit easier to work with (I stress, JUST a little bit). It came out of the oven a little softer and rolled out a little easier. I still had a lot left over (I only have 1 9-inch pie dish--the other one is 7, I think) so I dipped the scraps in cinnamon sugar and baked them too. Little crispies. Quite tasty. And now I have quiche to take to work.

Home ownership has once again stopped to smell the roses along the path to completion. Apparently, the bank does NOT have their shit together to the point that we--and they, apparently--thought. This could (does) mean another delay--up to 3 weeks. ARGH! But, we will not be discouraged...yet. This just means that we're keeping the apartment (and paying month-to-month rent, grr) for most of August, as well. We condsidered packing up our stuff and putting it in storage, moving out on the 22nd and staying in an extended-stay hotel but it would cost about as much as staying here. Meh, not worth it. I'll be a bit peeved if we have to pay rent AND mortgage in the same month, but even then...it's one month. We'll deal. If we get the house earlier than that, we can move at our lesiure, and take more time with repairs before filling up the place with our furniture.

Work marches on. HH submitted our new iPhone app to Apple for approval--SurrounDEAD, nyuk, nyuk. (dopey gameplay teaser link) I'm not on the team, but I've been sneaking playtime whenever the build is floating around, because its actually pretty fun. ZOMG, a game by HH with GUNS! And blood (albeit green blood). And wounds! Ergh, the wounds--Peter used a surgery textbook for reference and they actually make me feel a little queasy when they get too close... My main project got put on hold for a week so we could help with another one, but I'm not worried.

I've been on a bit of a baking binge. I think the excitement of actually possibly maybe going back to college FOR REALS is getting to me! In the last week, I made Michael Jackson tribute cookies (dark chocolate with white chocolate chips, har), cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, gluten free "hamburger buns", GF cornbread muffins, orange cupcakes with Swiss buttercream frosting (first time with this type of frosting), and GF lemon bars. This of course meant that I spent a significant chunk of Saturday morning cleaning the kitchen...sigh. But it's lovely and clean now. It'll be good practice to bake a lot and keep it that way.

Colleen's wedding looms in the future. I'm feeling pretty confident about my progress with the tasks I've taken on, but I guess we'll see. I'm going to walk down to Michael's this afternoon for cardstock and gold leaf adhesive. I was going to give Yumi a bath but it's gotten cold again so that will have to wait for a sunnier day.

We went to the Edmonds fireworks with Petra and Curt (had them over for ribs first) on the fourth, and it was very nice. David's day off was Friday, and mine is today, so I've got the apartment to myself. I'm actually feeling pretty good--the extra day of rest was Very much needed.

Wow. There are no more appointments on the calendar until August. Obviously, there WILL be, but for right now there aren't, and it feels amusingly odd.

Exhausted. Got home at 11:30 last night due to badly timing my bus ride. Took a long time to fall asleep. Got up at 10. There goes that sleep schedule. :P

Babysat Sean yesterday--3rd weekend in a row. I wish that I could afford to do something with him on a regular schedule all the time, because I could tell that we were finding our rhythm. He's the sweetest, cutest kid, but the sheer scope of his disabilities/delays makes babysitting him a very different beast. Most of the kids I've babysat before want to play with you constantly--a babysitter is (or at least I was) more of a five-hour playmate that happens to be bigger and therefore can bounce you higher on the trampoline, pack picnic lunches, and give you piggyback rides. Sean is so much more independent--there are times that he wants to play and then there are times that he does NOT, and I need to respect that and wait for him to be ready again or there will be screaming. I suppose in both cases I am an On Demand playmate, its just that Sean spends a lot more time watching some other channel (the Sean Network?).

But yesterday, he was much more receptive and willing to go along with me. His down-times were shorter, too...and we had NO meltdowns! He showed me when he needed to use the toilet (which he didn't do the previous two weekends) and repeated (some of) the hand-over-hand signs I used. We played a lot more and he didn't shove me away nearly as much. We did the same things we did on the previous weekends, because I've read that most autistic kids do better with routines, but this time when we got back from our outing he didn't need an hour+ of alone time. He was even up for an extra walk! And I was having a much easier time telling when it was time to back off, too. Hooray! Improvement! (Or he was just having a better day, but I think it'd be a weird coincidence that three days just happened to be ordered meh-good-better.)

Hopefully, going back to school will mean more regular contact with my little buddy (since phinnia and tallin 's apartment is two blocks away from the college). I need to ask Colleen about some signs for next time.

We also attended (accidentally) the PRIDE festival, which was both cool and crazy. I was given free forget-me-not seeds by a gay-friendly church, and saw a burlap-sack-race with a couple of participants in pasties. Capitol Hill is...wow. Just...wow.

Now there shall be a trip to Costco, wherein we shall procure much cardboard. And bubble wrap. And milk. And then I shall pack the rest of our extra dishes and books and the DVDs, and catch up on laundry, and bake gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.

PS. TOP Foods has a new store-brand (Haagen) line of gelato. YUM. I love living in Seattle!

Picked an inspector. Two, actually--this company works in teams of two for approximately the same cost as a single guy. Well recommended by David's coworkers. Jackpot!

House has water and power turned off. Can't do the inspection until they get turned back on. Have to have the bank turn them back on. This could...take a while...not happening this weekend.

Took placement tests for Math & English, since the stuff I did years ago doesn't apply anymore. I tested into English 101 and Match 084 (Elementary Algebra). Damn. There weren't any geometry questions (which is the stuff I really got into in high school), it was all quadratic formulas and stuff that I have not used once in the last 10 years. And once I started failing miserably at those, it dumbed down the test to applied arithmatic--fractions and percentages and stuff, which I actually enjoyed solving. Imagine that! I enjoyed taking a math test! It was fun! That makes me even a little more excited for school.

Last night I hung out with Adam--we talked about homebuying because he's kind of interested in doing it himself, and then he let me play a bit of Prototype, which was more entertaining than I thought it was going to be. The violence and gore is so outlandishly unreal that it really didn't affect me much on an emotional level, on top of which the models were all a bit "off". I didn't feel like I was crushing people with cars, I felt like I was doing it to Sims (that just happened to speak English. And curse. A lot.). Which I assume the developers would feel was a failure of imersion, but honestly, if it were more realistic looking/feeling  I wouldn't have played it. Some of that stuff is just Too Real.

Tonight we're going to see Transformers 2. Haven't seen the first one but that's probably OK.

This weekend: must get glasses, order packing supplies, choose the classes I'm going to sign up for, catch up on laundry, drop off the next round of donation stuff, and PACK. Pack, pack, pack. And write invitations for Colleen's bridal shower.

Our offer was accepted!

Next is the inspection. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Also, we've been over our (new) budget and we're not as badly off as I was afraid we might be. I forgot that my school loan payments should defer while I'm in school. And we only have one more payment on the car and then we're DONE (and it's still in excellent shape)! We'll have to be extra careful about casual spending, and I will need to work during school, but we knew that anyways, and pretty much anything I make, once I pay for tuition/books/supplies, can go straight to home improvement projects or savings.

The tax credit will go towards a fridge and lawn mower, then we'll squirrel the rest away to start working on a real 6-month emergency fund. We can do the other appliances (washer, dryer, etc) and big-ticket stuff over time, and make do while we wait.

Our State Farm guy is working up a house insurance quote for us, one of the only items I had NO data on for the budget. I'm pretty sure that I over-estimated, but that's the name of the game--for MY budgets anyways.Much better to have too much at the end than not enough.

Feeling slightly less panicky--although the inspection looms terrifyingly in my mind. I really hope there's nothing seriously wrong...

No word on our offer yet. I am feeling slightly more calm, probably because my body decided it couldn't sustain that level of intensity for much longer without exploding and forcibly shut down all the stress circuits. Or I shorted them out.

Did start packing the things we won't use before the fall. Even if this doesn't work, we're still going to be moving...month to month here is ridiculously expensive. Might as well get going on it.

Space Bags are my new best friend.

Soooo...the weekend was made up of pretty much only two things. Saturday was eaten whole by babysitting and then a stupid SNAFU in which I read the bus table at the Park & Ride wrong THREE TIMES and sat around waiting for busses that weren't coming for an hour and a half before figuring it out and walking home (40 minutes). DOH. Sunday, David and I had The Townhouse Discussion. You see, the two houses we've loved have been just out of our reach for too long and we haven't been finding any alternatives we liked and so we went viewed a townhouse on Friday. While we were there, a nicer townhouse next door  opened up (like THAT HOUR). Sooo...we looked at that one too. And then spent long hours discussing whether we could deal with a yardless townhouse that is at least in the area we like. (...long sigh...yeah...) Then the second order of business was deciding whether to put an offer in on the smaller, cheaper townhouse (a great deal), or the larger townhouse (which we liked better). A lot better. Big rooms, HUGE kitchen, cute little landings, balconies, 3 garages...okay the 3 garages thing is just ridiculous, but we could make it work to our advantage...annnnndddd...it's also almost $50,000 more in terms of purchase price. I couldn't JUST go to school, I'd have to have some sort of part time job. So we finally decide that we really do like the more expensive one more enough to warrant the extra expenditure, and decide to put in an offer on it.

So, Monday, we put in an offer. On neither of the townhouses.

Because, guess what! The Wisteria, the horribly hunchbacked, emotion laden, emo backstory love of our lives, with all the other offers and the paperwork mixups and the short-saledness...is actually available. For $240k. $15k over our upper 'ideal' price (townhouse was $220), and at the very high end of our we-can-still-do-this-without-living-month-to-month budget. Yep, it's pushing it. It also doesn't have most appliances (the townhouse didn't either), has wisteria vines growing up through the gutter, an overgrown yard, and disgusting stains on the carpet. And we love it.

So pretty much I spent yesterday in a state of abject terror. Because what if we make the Wrong Choice?

( Pros/Cons )

I know that this is not a (badly designed) video game in which there is only one right answer. I just don't want to look back in five years and wish that we had chosen to continue to rent... And I'm afraid that someone will snatch up the townhouse and then the house will fall apart and we'll be back to looking...
We should know by Thursday if the bank will accept our offer. Since it's a short sale, we can back out at any time.

I'll just quietly go somewhere and have about 300 panic attacks until this whole thing is over. House hunting is too hard on my heart.

Status Update:

Work: Tiring, stressful, manic, but manageable and once again mostly fun. RC1 delivered on time Friday. Gold is on Wednesday, and we've got a huge list of polish items but gameplay is solid. I keep goggling over the part where it's a Real Game. Like, you can play it. And it works. And stuff. :D

House: Found a second house we really liked, codenamed: Smash Through the Heavens With Your Giant Tree!!! (guess what dominates the back yard) It's a flip and the sellers don't want to negotiate the price (250k) at all but our realtor is skeptical that they'll get an offer that high. He counsels us to wait a month or two if we really want it and maybe they'll be more willing to haggle. It's in a really cute neighborhood, though. Wisteria is still sitting out there, becoming more overgrown by the week (the wisteria for which it was codenamed has grown at least a foot out of the top of the gutter drainpipe since we saw it last). There is a cash offer on it that we might be able to beat but the paperwork has stalled while they find the deed co-signer or something. Sigh. So basically we're still looking, and we have two long shots on our plate, both which we won't know about any time soon.

Social: Very full at the moment, since we recently realized that moving may/will jeaprodize a lot of our friendships if we don't maintain them. Begin thorough maintainence. We did sushi with AJ and Liz on Wednesday in a bid to make David's Very Bad Week a little better, and had Petra and Curt over last night for grilling (we went to see Up again, too).

Me: MY TEETH, THEY ARE NICE AGAIN! I went to the dentist on Wednesday for round 4 of fillings (I hate my teeth so much) and he was working right next to the one that had a horrible brown rotten spot on it (it was so gross), which was supposed to be a $2000 root-canal+full crown and he pokes around and says that the decay hasn't gotten to the root. That maybe he can fill it up with "like a gallon of resin" and I might not need a root canal on it at all. And I say, "sign me up baby!" because I'm full of nitrous and that sure sounds better than spending another $2000 on dental work when we're trying to buy a house. And he does. And it looks GREAT and I'm really excited because I can SMILE AGAIN! I've been doing this horrible tight-lipped smirk because it was so embarrassing to look at photos and realize that A) I look like I have a giant chunk of brownie stuck in my teeth and B) it's not even brownie. :( But now I can smile really big for Colleen's wedding photos. I just have to re-learn how.

Wrist problems are resurfacing but under control. I think I can make it to August without incident, although I may ask for another physical therapy scrip.

Bought invitations for Colleen's bridal shower. Am going to order some decoration things I need and a hairpin to go with my new dress from Etsy today. Colleen is not so sure about playing "I have never" with her mother present so I'll have to figure out another "get to know you" game.

Weekend before this was Mark & Janine's wedding in Las Vegas. Very much awesome. More details and photos should follow soon before I forget them, however, I have no time for that right now.

Taking a 5 day vacation smack dab in the middle of:
A) Alpha deadline of game at work
B) Trying to find a house
C) Registering for college in the fall
D) Making major budgetary decisions that may affect us for the next 30 years
E) Doing an at-home project for someone at work
F) Deep-cleaning, clutter-reducing, organizing ALL of our stuff
G) Cleaning up our credit
H) Beginning to pack in anticipation of moving
I) Planning our 5-year wedding anniversary
J) Planning a bridal shower for my best friend
K) Trying to lose weight
L) ...and getting in all of the socialization possible because we might be moving an hour away from most of our friends

...may not have been the wisest of choices. However, it was awesome to see Mark & Janine & Jen again, and Robby, Howard, Kristen (in?), and Jeremy for the first time. We didn't do a lot of vacation-y things, but we caught up on sleep and did a lot of half-cuddle-half-lounge-while-playing-Peggle-on-the-iPod-Touch-together...ing. It was nice.

But now we have returned and (see list above) is back in our life and I don't know what to do first, so I'm flailing around like ADHD-Kid after a Fun Fruity Part of this Complete Breakfast, and to be honest, if Mama had warned me there would be days like these I might have followed all those people who were jumping off a bridge.

I have acquired an appropriate dress (+shoes and "Power Panty" Spanx) for Colleen's wedding. Of course, there is also the Bridal Shower and I'm pretty sure it's in the rules somewhere that you can't wear the same formal dress to two linked events less than 3 days apart. So I need to find another dress, but less formal. Hopefully one that doesn't require me to buy yet another pair of shoes, because if you count my old sneakers I now own more than 5 pairs of shoes and I'm feeling Mighty Full Up.

Saw UP with Adam & Kelsey last night. Very enjoyable. I'm personally happy that Pixar is moving away from kiddie-product-selling movies (there's plenty of those and to be honest, why waste the talent on another Spunky Princess shill?), but I could tell that some of the kids in the audience weren't quite hooked. Oh well. There's a huge back-library of excellent children's films to choose from.

Viewing another 5 houses or so this afternoon.

So tired.

Exhausted.

Requested Friday off to fly down for Mark & Janine's wedding, but schedules got switched around and suddenly Friday was ALSO Alpha delivery date for one of the games I'm working on. So today is pretty much Alpha. Going in early. Probably staying late. Today is going to suck hardcore.

We fly out tomorrow morning, excessively early. I still do not have a dress (I can buy one in LV). We are not packed (David may have to do this). I need to reorder my transcripts because I cannot find the ones I was mailed 2 months ago. I need to take work with me.

We went and saw more houses on Tuesday, some townhouses and a regular house that was A) a good deal, B) had all of our criteria and C) not something I liked one bit, try as I might. :( I really don't like ramblers, I guess...sigh... very depressing. David and I are pretty much burnt out on the house hunting thing. I'm hoping the LV Vacation will help us get up a second wind. Did find out one bit of good news, month-to-month may be cheaper than previously thought ($80 extra instead of $250 extra) but I DO need to call the apartment complex and find out for sure.

I AM SO NOT READY for this trip. However, I am VERY ready for a vacation.

The house we put an offer on got 10 offers total. Yeah, we're probably not getting it. The house we fell in love with got a much higher offer than we could afford. The next in the 'like' line is a short sale, and we're a bit wary of that because even if you offer list price the bank may not take it.

Our weekend with many homeowners has caused at least one shift in the force: we got a lot of advice NOT to rush it, to pay the extra rent for this place if we need to wait and find something great. Of course, that will depend heavily on Greg's plans--if he gets a new apartment for himself we go from spending $1000 ($1250 for month-to-month) to $1500 ($1750 month to month)...that's not quite as convenient. Of course, his current plan is to eschew housing altogether and put his stuff into storage and just sleep on the boat until February. Certainly would save a lot on rent...

Work yesterday was awful. I couldn't concentrate and it felt like I wasn't getting anything done. I took a few minutes at the end of the day to look at what I'd done and I WAS working the whole time, but so much of it was trying out different solutions for a problem we've got and none of my solutions really worked, so it felt like a failure to get stuff done. BLEH. I hope today isn't like that too.

5 stars all the way!

Seattle weather cooperated in a manner previously unheard of. Gorgeous, sunny, blue sky, birds chirping...

Visit with Aunt Kath went very well (IMHO, I hope she enjoyed herself as much as we did). We met up with her downtown and sort of picked our way through the Cheese Festival--since there were 3 of us, one would stand at a predetermined location, David would go off and sample cheese and come back with little bouquets of yum-on-toothpicks, and the other would go forage for picnic things (bread, water, fruit). Gradually worked our way down to the little grassy park-thing at the end of the market, sat on the grass in some shade, and ate veggies and hummus and bread and cheese and fruit (David went off and got actual wedges of cheese) and it was lovely. I personally think picnics are the nicest meal you can have. And this year I brought ziploc baggies so we didn't have to struggle to rewrap any of the cheese. Came back with the required Beecher's (traditional cheddar and some Just Jack) and two kinds of Gouda--one triple cream (my new favorite!) that's cleverly packaged as "Gooda" but maybe truth in advertising should have made it "Greata", har har--and one more traditional.

We had Mark & Cindy up to dinner as well in our CLEAN! apartment. Served the now well practiced cherry-balsamic steaks, with mini twice-baked potatoes, salad, steamed veggies, roasted cauliflower, and oranges with cinnamon. (Our upstairs neighbor poked his head over the rail of his deck and told us that the grill smelled great and that he totally didn't want his fried chicken anymore, heh!) Went over Very Well, and despite the trouble they caused in the morning (I forgot to turn the oven on), the Grand Marnier creme brulees were fabulous. We got to show AK the Wii and a bit of WOW (she's a therapist and I guess a lot of her patients talk about games, so it was more educational than play) and sat around and talked houses after dinner.

Sunday David, Greg, and I went to brunch in Tacoma with a big pile of family! (Aunt) Kath, (Uncle) Dave & his partner Hank, (Cousin) Anna & her husband Rob (and baby Patrick!), (Aunt) Cindy and her husband Mark, (Uncle) Chris, and (an extra unexpected treat!) his wife Alice (who is, I think, somewhat agoraphobic? is that the fear of large groups of people? and usually opts out of the crazy family things). We had a hilarious waitress who endeared herself right off the bat with her perfect teacher voice "I am speaking now." when half the table didn't realize that she was going to announce the specials.

Spent a little time at Anna and Rob's, further shooting the breezewith the fam. Got some great advice from U. Dave about houses. He does architecture for a living (I think he reviews people's renovation plans before they get their permits?) and promised to come up if we were really serious about something and needed a second opinion. Also suggested that we draw him a floor plan and take pictures and he can get a good idea from that. He also showed us how to reliably guess which walls are load bearing and what to look for in plumbing (apparently one should sniff around the toilets for smells of bleach or mushrooms, both bad signs).

Swung by Renton house (the one with the offer on it) so I could see...new Pros: gorgeous view of Mt. Ranier, tons of healthy rhodedendrons in the back yard, excellent light, pretty quiet. Also some new Cons: good god is the hill up to that house steep! Also, there was a bunny in the backyard, so there may be a fence in order if we're planning for a garden. Still, the place is very, very unlikely to be ours. I can see why David was so in love with it, though.

Spent the evening washing & waxing Greg's new car and the Ion. They look very nice. I did the Armorall.

Coming home to the clean apartment was very, very nice. Very much want to try to keep it this way until the move.

LONG-shot offer in on house in the nicer part of Renton. Pros: great neighborhood, beautiful house, good shape, big yard, 10 minute commute. What we call a good deal. Cons: Very close to the top of our budget, short sale, a lot of other offers in on it. We made a full price offer but probably won't find out until Tuesday if it was accepted. There were two offers that came in the same morning ours did, so we are not suspending the search since nobody is very optomistic about this one working out.

Aunt Kath visiting today! Unluckily, David was wiped last night from an insane day at work, so we did NOT get to go do grocery shopping like I was hoping. That means a 7 AM groc run and then prepping ALL of the food when we get home. Nutty, as my mother would say, as a fruitcake. And I wanted to make creme brulee... Apartment is fairly clean.

And work is wacko. I will probably swing by there tomorrow at some point to pick up some art so I can experiment with it. Also need to buy a copy of the Imagine:Music Fest game. Even if I get a comp I'd like an extra to send to my sisters-in-law (I know they'd appreciate it, even if it's made for a younger audience).

Well, the darling Wisteria is doable, but the rumor is there's going to be a full-price offer on it soon. Damn. We're still keeping our eye on it, but... David has found several more houses that he's interested in, so I forsee a lot more touring in our near future.

Work is fine, although my stress level is through the roof again. My wrist is holding up surprisingly well, although I am putting that down to all that physical therapy, plus me avoiding overworking it as much as possible. And judicious icing.

We are down to the last clutter in the apartment. Unluckily, as is with the end of all projects, this means all the bits and pieces that I've never known what to do with. Yesterday I got fed up and emptied all of the little "pre-sorted" tupperwares, boxes, bins, bowls, and baskets into a set of file boxes. So now there are 7 boxes of complete and utter misc (plus what's left on the patio). My plan is to take one item out of a box and either find a home for it or toss it. Even if it's a teensy thing like a nail, I will do it one at a time. Because having all of the nails and screws and fasteners in a bowl wasn't working. This is either a brilliant idea or a collosal waste of my time. I guess we'll find out soon.

Making progress on school and credit report clean-up.

Still need to find a dress.

Filled with Emergen-C.

Going to work early tomorrow, and probably again on Wednesday, on the slim chance that there will be houses to visit before standard let-out time. David has viewed Codename: Stand-in, which is sounding more like a compromise between The Stripper and The Dream Home than just a Plan A replacement. Priced right between the two, with none of the architecture or parking or charming landscaping, but two kitchens and a big backyard. Now somehow I must get down there to see it also. I'm kind of excited. The pictures looked promising.

Apple's new 3.0 requirement means that suddenly I cannot use my personal iPod Touch to test/review our iPhone games, so that pipeline just got a lot rockier. Rethinking large portion of design of one of my games. Most of tomorrow is slated for gameplay testing and level tweaking, which means by 5 PM I will never, ever, want to play this game again...but I'll have weeks of it to look forward to.

Little brother is graduating college at the end of this week, so I'm both filled with pride and shame that I'm still not done.

Very excited about Aunt Kath visit. She's just like my mum, only shorter and lesbian and with more freckles on her nose. And she has dogs and likes to make chocolates. And wear tie-dye. And she has the most cozy sounding laugh! But they smile the same and hug the same and I haven't seen her in a long time.

Weekend down.

Another 2' or so of paperwork shredded/sorted/filed/recycled. David had the excellent idea of getting one of those 'neat receipts' scanners and using that to cut down on the stuff we're keeping (recipe clippings, project sketches, interesting magazine articles, lists). They use them a lot at work, apparently. Also finished organizing the chest freezer and donated a ton of extra food to the Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

Curt and Petra came over with their truck on Saturday and were wonderful and helped us get rid of a lot of the big junk that we couldn't put into the apartment dumpster. They ended up wanting the giant desk, but will have to come back for it later this week/this coming weekend. We splurged a bit on dinner and got T-bone steaks (monsters) for the grill and had corn and twice baked potatoes and caesar salad and caramelized pineapple over ice cream. And I made mango lemonade. And then we all exploded. Very good though, from what I heard.

Yesterday, Greg (with David for support) went to the dealership to get a new (used) car to replace the Breeze, which at this point has really seen better days and is becoming unreliable. He picked a Ford Focus, a stick shift, so there was some weird shuffling of cars so that David could drive it home and then give Greg some lessons. Sounds like he'll be fine...I'm not too nervous.

David and I also discussed house options. Extensively. With everyone. AND our mothers. Got some really good advice, and some that was not-so-helpful. Mom says that we shouldn't be looking for an investment, because what we're really buying is the place we're going to live in. Discussing it so much really solidified in my mind that we really aren't into The Stripper, even if it is a good deal. And that we are really crazy about the Wisteria, and want to try as hard as we can, either to get it (ideal) or to get it off the table and out of the realm of possibility. We've got what I think is a good plan to try. David is talking to the mortgage consultant today.

Here's the thing: what we thought was going to happen with this process:
Buying a house and paying the mortgage is a better option right now than renting. We can't afford very much and our credit is meh and we don't have a down payment saved up, so there's no way we'll find a 'dream home' on our budget. This will be a starter home, not someplace we stay in for years and years and have kids in. This will be a house we deal with until we can move on. We'll find something we can deal with. We'll buy it, put up with the problems, live in it for a few years, maybe do some upgrades, and meanwhile save for a down payment on the home we actually want.

And then we found something we actually DO love, and could have kids in, and would want to stay in. This is the house we were thinking we'd have to wait 3 years for.

But the two plans aren't even comparable. We can't put these houses next to eachother and pick the better one. We have Plan One: Stopgap Measures While We Save Up, and Plan Two: A House We'll Stay In For A Long Time. They were supposed to happen in order. Now there is the possibility of skipping Plan One and going straight to Two, and MAN does that look good. So now we're looking for two homes: one that fits the Plan One criteria (not that bad, could handle it) and one that fits the Plan Two criteria (love it, see us continuing to love it). ARRRGGGGGGGGHHH! *rips hair out* I do not like difficult decisions! (David has found something in Auburn that looks like it might be a nicer Plan One than the Stripper...I forsee another long drive coming our way...)

Thursday I took my old portfolio and some sketchbooks into work for Jay to look at. I got a lot of compliments and suddenly I feel awful about not drawing for two years. I thought I didn't enjoy it anymore and I wasn't good enough at it anyways and so I was okay with not having time/energy/pain-free hand but now there's this awful gnawing, gaping HOLE in my gut that's saying "OMG what the hell is wrong with you, painting makes you HAPPY and confident and you've been avoiding it for years." Uhg.

( This week's stuff TO DO )

House hunting has officially become depressing again. We have found a house that we both really liked freaking LOVED on sight (codename:wisteria), in a great neighborhood, close to a bus stop, park AND a community college. It's got an awesome backyard, deck, just the right amount of space, great layout, 2 car garage, etc, etc. The problem is that it's a short sale, someone else has already put in a cash bid...and outbidding them would put us very much smack-dab in the middle of the 'pushing it' portion of our budget. Which is depressing. We could probably do it, but we would have nothing to save, so it's both a good decision (I KNOW this house would increase A LOT in value with just a little cosmetic work and that we'd want to stay there for much longer than a few years...this is a house for kids) and a bad one (we also KNOW that we shouldn't 'push' a budget.) We wouldn't be going over, but we wouldn't be saving much, either.

Yesterday we also looked at a very cheap "no" (too lame for a codename)...too loud (right next to a VERY busy street), too creepy (even though it was big, half of it was small basement rooms with teensy windows and cement floors). It had a nice wraparound porch and a big kitchen, but a crummy backyard. Well, I could do container gardening but I don't think I would go downstairs very often if ever, and David wasn't set on it sooo... no.

We also looked at something that both of us were'nt crazy for, but was doable (codename: the stripper)--both on the  budget side and the layout/rooms/etc side. The problem was that the kitchen and bathroom both take up the space of one large kitchen--and they do it in STRIPS. So the kithchen is laid out like a really long skinny hall, and the bathroom is laid out like a really long skinny hall. Neither David nor I liked that at all. We looked at having it redone--doable, but not by us. There's no way I'm moving plumbing for a toilet by myself. It was in a decent neighborhood, on a scary hill but right next to a bus stop. But overall the feeling was 'meh'...I don't see us there with kids.

Went out to eat at  Sizzler on the way home but both of us were just...not enthused. The problem is that this budget is a temporary thing for us--school will only take a year and a half, two years at most. Even in the startery-est of starter homes, we're guessing we'd stay at least 5 years. Can we push the budget or make up the difference for two years? Would it be worth it to move into a home that needs work...but work that we could (A) do, and (B) would be excited about doing? David said not to get attached but I KNOW that we both are (lots of KNOWING lately). For that house (wisteria), I'd be willing to take a part time job alongside school (but does that work later on, with the possibility of a kid?). I'd even be willing to push back school a quarter (but that wouldn't solve the problem).

We're going to take another look at the budget today. And talk to Petra and Curt, and I'll call my Mom & Dad, and David will call his Dad, and there will be Much Examining of Priorities. Because, dammit all, I thought my priorities were finishing culinary school and then having a kid...and now I'm not so sure.

STUPID VISCERAL RESPONSE TO INANIMATE OBJECT that is exactly what we want...