We just finished with our home inspection.
It was a surprisingly fun and informative afternoon.
It's nice to hear from a professional that our crappy new house
is actually full of potential, sturdy, and will survive much longer
than any of us will.
He lives in a 125 year old home that he's invested a lot of his own
time into, and it was really encouraging to hear his advice and positivity.
There's a part of me that fears we've bought into a Money Pit,
and I have visions of david falling through the ceiling and dangling over
the dining room floor for the evening. (ala tom hanks)
we certainly have our work cut out for us, but it's not even that bad.
a little paint, some new floors - maybe a new kitchen in the next 8 months....we'll survive.
If you've ever seen our little NYC kitchen, well, you know we've come out of the pit of hell.

On a more interesting note, we pulled up to our current abode this evening and a neighbor was standing with a guest on the street. We thought the guest was vacating the parking spot and so stopped up the street a bit. The neighbor, and we've lived here for nearly 15 months now, looked in the car and said, "are you looking for an address or a parking spot?"
HUH?
We've lived across from this person for more than a year now and have had many conversations. The same little black civic has been parked across the street from her driveway for who knows how long? All we could do was chuckle. Such is life.

I like to think genetics play a part in how much weight a woman gains during pregnancy. I'm pretty sure, if I remember correctly, that I had a healthy pre-pregnancy lifestyle. Living in NY helped - no car to sit in. Walking and climbing, running around the reservoir, membership to the New York Sports Center. So nearly 60 pounds later, I don't know what happened. Anyway, I'm proud to say that this morning, I successfully put on (and zippered and buttoned) jeans from before I was pregnant! I have officially 10 pounds to go until I'm back at pre-prego weight. Pretty good. How did it happen? Torture. Less 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee. 50 miles of bike riding a week. (5 days a week for 10 miles) walks. nothing crazy, actually. what if I had been doing something crazy? who knows what could have happened? anyway, we're not quite there yet, but I'm pretty proud. And no...sadly the baby didn't weigh 60 pounds. He didn't even weigh 8. Shocker.
And oh yeah.
We bought a house.

I bit the inside of my lip a couple days ago and it developed into the most painful swollen sore ever. It's awful.
For some strange reason, while I was brushing my teeth tonight, I was overcome by a strange desire to scrub the sore. I did and it was so intensely painful....it's funny. I don't know why I had the urge, but I did. And now, even more strange, is that while it's still swollen and uncomfortable, it doesn't hurt as much.
I was trying to decide if the pain from the scrubbing was so bad that now the pain blanches in comparison.
But then I remembered someone once saying that it's the white part of the sore that makes it hurt and if you get rid of it, it will stop hurting.
Anyone?

sorry if you don't want to hear about this....not really sorry, actually. too bad for you.

so the last house we loved was an easy one - nice, new stuff....duh.
it's funny to be considering a home that needs a little TLC. it's completely livable - the work would come as we were living in the home. but it's going to have to happen.
on the one hand, it so exciting. you get to pretty much start from scratch. I don't have to put up with someone else's idea of pretty tile or cool flooring or creative cabinet arranging. we would make those decisions ourselves. that's the exciting part. it would be completely ours.
on the other hand, it would be nice to move into our already dreamy house with landscaped backyard and fancy kitchen.
it's easy to talk us into the romantic idea, that's for sure.
there's also something to be said for buying and living within (or below) your means. there are plenty of new and exciting ways to bring used things into your home that doesn't involve picking them out of someone's garbage - our living room sofa was such a gem for years when I was little.
anyway, we'll see. I didn't want to get ahead of myself - the last rejection was a blow to the ego. but sure enough, I have clippings from Dwell and Metropolitan Home, websites for recycled countertops and glass tiles and floors. did you know you could buy countertops made out of recycled paper? pretty cool.
anyway, we'll see.

still looking...
so we are actively looking for a home, and it's hard.
I'd thought choosing a name for a baby was hard.
HA.
I'd say we're pretty picky, as one should be when they're making a huge investment,
and we actually walked into a home and LOVED it. It was totally not in a neighborhood that
we'd ever thought about....we wouldn't have even seen it if our realtor hadn't tricked us. we
had asked to see one home in particular, it was a crap-hole, and she said that she thought we
would love this one. we did.
long story short, someone else beat us to the punch which totally stinks.
anyway, we're still looking....looking...the market stinks right now, I've decided.
I feel like we're looking at the same houses we looked at 6 weeks ago.
Our house is out there somewhere, the people living in it just need to up and move.
(I wouldn't mind if they renovated the kitchen on their way out, either.)
Thanks. Would you mind?

charlie!

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Originally uploaded by p. magilicutty

3 cousins...

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Originally uploaded by p. magilicutty

confessions from a whatiffer

Life is absolutely full of what ifs. All day, all questions...
I have to go grocery shopping? What if all the moms go at once and it's crowded with screaming kids?
I need shorts? What if they're not on sale anymore?
He just woke up from a nap? What if he's still tired?

Anyway, as life gets more complicated, so do the what ifs.
We want to buy a house? What if I don't really have a job in 5 weeks?

Here's to rising above the what ifs and making brave (and wise) decisions.

What happened to my dear old friend the Stink Bug?

I miss the days of last summer, chasing them down and flushing them towards their demise.

Come to think of it, I may have wasted a lot of water doing that. Oops.

Where are they this summer?

I can say that I saw and killed one back in May and haven't seen one since.

Perhaps drawing and quartering the little bastard, and sticking each part of his body

onto a little toothpick, to be an example to his friends, worked.

Just kidding.

I hadn't really noticed or remembered until VanMan and I were out on a walk and it came to me.

Anyone know what happened to our little friends?