Friday, June 30, 2006

Occasionally, I'm going to vent about apartment living. For the last 7 years, my husband and I have lived in houses, not apartments. This apartment living is an adjustment for us. For instance, most apartments are located at intersections of major roads. Not only is ours on a major road, our "den" window opens up to a major road that leads to the city airport and is a growing area (lots of condos/townhomes going up).

We are also on the first floor. That means that our apartment is "ground zero" for anyone wanting to burglarize or vandalize stuff. Our front passenger window just got dinged on Wednesday afternoon - I parked in our carport spot at 5:15 and there was no ding - came back out to the car at 6:15 and there's a crack in the window. Pretty high velocity impact. It's either schoolkids, teenagers, or someone who hates SUVs. Trust me, if it had happened while I was driving, I would have heard *that* crack. It almost went through the glass and it will likely spider sometime soon, meaning we get to replace the window. Ugh.

Last night's apartment fun? The folks in the apartment above us. We've nicknamed them the "Elephants" because every time they walk across the floor it's like a stomp. Well, they were "stomping" last night until 12:30 a.m. - and I get up at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, I'm just a little tired. :)

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Ah! That was much cooler last night! A nice breeze came through, cooled off the entire apartment, made it very easy to go to sleep last night. :)

One of the most recent music purchases I made on CD was Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." I saw the video on someone's blog, listened to the song, and figured the rest of the CD was worth checking out. Fairly decent album - there are only a couple tracks I tend to skip.

What is your most recent song/CD purchase?

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Well, last night was pretty much our last visit to the "old" house. We emptied the refrigerator and freezer, we put some stuff in the trash, we did a walk-through to make sure we hadn't left any items of value behind (other than the refrigerator, washer, and dryer)...and now we're done! Today, Merry Maids is coming in to do a one-time cleanup of the interior, and on Friday ServiceMaster Clean is coming in to "professionally" clean the carpets as requested by the buyers. We'll go back one more time, just to take pictures of the interior and exterior of the house. This is more for our peace of mind, as it provides a record of what it looked like when we handed it over, so they can't come back a year from now and say it was trashed and try to get something out of us.

The back of my vehicle is filled with stuff to go to storage. Guess where we're headed tonight?

It's only supposed to be in the low 90s today. Big whoop! I won't be happy until the average temperature is in the mid-70s....this blazing heat in an apartment with no A/C is not good for a successful night's sleep. Ugh.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Moving is NOT FUN in record breaking heat. Yesterday, Portland smashed a record of 95 degrees with a temperature of 100 degrees - IN JUNE! Who'd have thought we'd need A/C in June?

Speaking of A/C - the apartment DOES NOT have it. Ugh. We're on the first floor, which means it isn't *that* bad, but because of the proximity to a major thoroughfare road, as well as to the covered carport spaces, we cannot leave our windows open to get a breeze in overnight. Well, at least not until we get some kind of dowel that will keep folks from trying to slide our window open to break into the apartment.

Tonight is the last night we'll be going to the "old" house. We're going to empty the refrigerator and freezer, plus take one more load to the dumpster. Tomorrow, Merry Maids comes in and does a thorough wipe down cleaning. Friday, ServiceMaster Clean comes in to clean the carpet. The carpet cleaning was requested in the repair addendum, so it has to be done. The house cleaning is on our dime, for *our* peace of mind. After Friday, we'll go back one more time, to take pictures of the state of the house. We don't want the buyers coming back in six months saying it was in "this state" when a few minutes snapping a bunch of photos on our digital camera will cover our butts. :)

Friday, June 23, 2006

One of my favorite 80s song is one I especially love to hear played on Fridays: Loverboy's "Workin' for the Weekend."

I hunted down the video at youtube.com, just for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5In4747n9YU

Didn't get quite as much done last night as I wanted to, but at least the office is mostly clean and unpacked, AND you can see the floor. A couple more things moved off the floor and we can even inflate the airbed for our guest tonight. :)

TOOT! I got an email from Ready, Set, Create e-zine about a submission I made. They want my layout about my husband and the time he used a "Little Bobcat" to move 5 cubic yards of river rock over to the side of our house. It was for their "Boys and Their Toys" page call. I'll be submitting more over the weekend, only if I've already created them and they match the existing calls.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Almost done unpacking! Just in time too, since one of our friends from Eugene is visiting this weekend. Her visit was great incentive to make sure we unpacked in a timely manner. Besides, I'm getting tired of catching on open box flaps... :)

This weekend, the two of us (my friend and me) will be going scrapbooking on Saturday with three other friends. Five of us all in one place, just to paper scrap. FUN FUN FUN! :)

I barely squeaked my entry for Week 2 into the gallery for the TDC "28 Days" challenge. Here it is:



I went to get my "must have" supplies out of the storage room last night. ARGH! One of the boxes is on the highest level, on the back wall of the storage room. I can NOT reach up that high. There is also a box with the acrylic paper trays somewhere in there...and I'm sure it's probably in the stack somewhere, but it shouldn't be...I did write "DO NOT STACK" on every side. Sigh. Ah well, my husband gets to help me find it tonight. :)

Monday, June 19, 2006

Phew!

Almost everything is out of the house. The only things left are the widescreen TV (ain't no way we were letting movers touch it), and some assorted items for Goodwill or another charity...and our bikes in the garage.

We'll be picking up the TV and the bikes today.

Well, the plumber didn't show up on either Friday OR Saturday. My husband called all the other plumbers in our area, and no one called him back. Guess I get to try again today.

The customer service rep from Milgard that I called last week did not call back either. So I called again today, asked what specific information I needed to have on hand to talk to her, and mentioned that I'd left a message last week. The receptionist said that if my rep did not call back by the end of today, to call back tomorrow and she'd get a supervisor to talk to me. We are the original owners, the window is less than 2 years old, and it is still under manufacturer's warranty. There should be no issues. We just need to get the ball rolling so the buyers know it is in process.

Speaking of the buyers, they tried to slip a couple of fast ones into the repair addendum. No way, no how. Remember that Milgard window? We were originally told that they would not include that in the repair addendum, because they didn't want to hold up the closing while it got fixed. Well, somewhere in translation, a window *above* the sliding glass door got turned into the sliding glass door seal repair on the addendum. Not only would that have required us to replace the sliding glass door, but it would have been expensive...and they got it wrong to boot! *mutter mutter grumble grumble* And they had the nerve to say that any bills due to the seal repair would be sent to us AFTER closing. Uh uh. Did the words "manufacturer's warranty" mean nothing to them? There is NO COST to them. Geez.

On a better note, we have unpacked the kitchen. Of course, we still have NOTHING in the fridge except for water, so we *have* to correct that issue tonight. We have a good head start on the office, and have made some headway in the bedroom.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Look what I got a photo of this morning! :)

He was in our neighbor's backyard across the street.



Well, today's the day! We pick up the keys to our new apartment right after work, then head to a banquet for the local chapter of STC. Gonna be a busy day!

Tomorrow, I stay home and supervise the movers packing all of the rest of our stuff. Plus I get to deal with a plumber and an appliance repair man (for repairs requested on the house in the repair addendum). Fun fun fun! :)

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I made it to the 2nd round of the CT search for DigiChick Designer Heather Roselli! :)

Because of all the moving stuff this week, I downloaded her kit and promptly did my layout, even though it wasn't due until 8 p.m. Friday. Tonight, we sort stuff for the movers (needs packing, we are moving it ourselves, post it notes on more stuff), tomorrow night we go get the keys for our apartment and then go to a banquet, and Friday night I could conceivably be without Internet connection! *gasp*

The appraiser came at 7:30 this morning - we were gone by 6:45. Of course, that's much later than we normally get out of the house (6:15), but we still got out before they got there.

Oh yeah, here's the layout I did for Round 2! :)



Supplies:

Heather Roselli, "Simply Delightful" kit
Virtual Photographer, Sepia filter
Atomic Cupcake, Wild Tear action
Font: CaslonNo540SwaD

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

I did it!

I exercised last night at the gym. One down, two to go this week! :) Turns out, our athletic club has upgraded the machines so that there are flat panel tvs in front of a lot of the machines, with a remote control that has a headphone jack. Those 25 minutes went by in a flash last night, since I was watching "While You Were Out" on TLC (the episode with Roger Clemens). I plan on walking around the building at work at least once today - twice if I'm inspired. :D

We haven't gotten the official repair addendum, but we've been told they are asking for two repairs, one that we expected (gas stove problem) and one that we didn't (drip from connection to water meter down in the crawl space). Guess we'll see if they ask for anything else - it's not like there could really be much wrong with a less than 2 year old home. :)

Monday, June 12, 2006

Things are moving really fast!

We did some last minute errands yesterday to make moving easier this weekend. Picked up some bright neon post it notes to mark what stays, what *we* are moving, what goes to the apartment, and what goes into storage. That way, the movers know what to pack on Friday, and what to move on Saturday. They will bring two trucks on Saturday, and one will go to storage room(s) and one to the apartment.

So, I've probably mentioned that our buyers haven't set the home inspection. :) Well, we got a call at 9 a.m. this morning from our agent, and the inspection is scheduled for 2 p.m. TODAY! Talk about short notice! The house is certainly not "show home" clean, as we have post it notes stuck all over the house, boxes leaning up against walls, and we might have left a dish or two in the sink instead of in the dishwasher. The crawl space access is not accessible without moving "stuff" in the hall closet, which we did not get a chance to do - we were waiting for notice before doing that. Guess they'll just have to deal with it...

We met with a couple of friends yesterday for dinner, and arranged for one of those friends to stay with us on the 24th. She'll get to sleep on our newly acquired queen size Aerobed from Costco, because we really didn't expect guests. She'll be going scrapbooking with me.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Starting tomorrow, it's 28 days to July 4th! I have committed to a challenge on the Digi Chick to do something related to weight loss for the next 28 days.

They say it takes 21 days to form or break a habit. Well, I’m going to use the next 28 days
to form a new habit: exercise! I admit, I’ve gotten out of the habit. My biggest exercise is
walking around the office during the day, or walking to and from the car at home and
work. This does not give me near enough exercise.

I am so out of shape.

I’ve gained weight.

I’m a size 18 in pants and skirts purely because of my stomach. My legs *swim* in pants
that size, but the fabric holds on to my “football” stomach like a banana peel on a banana.
Wearing clothes this big makes me feel HUGE, like an overstuffed sausage.

I’m a size 18 in shirts as well. And my bra size? It's way too big. This is
unacceptable. I’m wearing XXL in t-shirts purely because of the size of my chest.

Here it is, almost summer, and I am in the worst shape I’ve been in since 2002.

My goal for the next 28 days:

Exercise 30 minutes three times a week, no matter what day it is (weekend or not).

There are no excuses, not even moving.

I will take my bicycle to the shop for a tune-up.

I will ride my bicycle to work at least once in the next 28 days. More if I feel like it, but I
must do it at least once.

There are no excuses.

I will form a life-changing habit, regardless of whether I lose any weight. I will not allow
weight gain to torpedo my exercise habit, I will use it as incentive to accomplish my goal.



























One of my friends, Lisa, graduated from the local community college last night with an Associate of Science Transfer Degree (she can transfer into any Oregon 4 year university with the first two years done).

I'd say she was pretty happy to have this first phase done - off she goes to Portland State University in the fall!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Week 1 on Weight Watchers ended yesterday, with a *3* lb loss! :)

Yes, I'm back on the WW wagon. Not only do I feel out of shape, I seem to be out of breath just walking up the stairs. And next year is my 20 year high school reunion! EEK! I intend on getting in shape and healthy for myself, but a little incentive doesn't hurt. :D

No home inspection yet. The movers came yesterday to look over the house for a packing/moving estimate. Looks like it will take 6 hours (or less) to pack up the rest of our stuff, and about 7.5 (or less) hours to move it the next day. They'll actually have two trucks on moving day - one that goes to the storage room and one that goes to the apartment. Since it's such a long drive one way, it's more efficient to pack both up at the same time then just head for their final destination.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

We have reserved an apartment, and will get the keys on June 15th (next Thursday).

Good thing, since my husband booked the movers for the 17th (Saturday). I just realized that it is the same day as my nephew's 2nd birthday party, but we'll work around that. I may end up going while he deals with the movers.

I'm looking forward to being closer to work. The apartment is within a mile of work, which means I *could* ride my bike during the summer months. I may just do that, while we still have access to the showers here at work. The apartment is also less than 2 miles from the gym/athletic club, so we may end up biking there too.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

It's been a LONG weekend!

On Friday afternoon, at 4:15 p.m., my agent called to let me know that they wanted the house. Unfortunately, the husband of the couple was still at work and would be there until 1o p.m., so they would sign the paperwork the next morning. No problem.

Saturday morning, we ran a whole bunch of errands over on that side of town: moved a load into storage, got a second storage unit for furniture (um yeah, the first one was filling up fast with just boxes), deposited some checks in the bank. All the while, we figured we'd get a call and we could head straight over to the real estate office and get the paperwork over with. We even called our agent twice - no "news" from the buyer's agent. So, we left for home around 2:30 p.m., and pretty much figured that since we weren't hearing anything, that the buyers jerked us around yet once again and that we needed to rev up the marketing on the house.

Around 9 p.m. last night, my agent called --- good news! The buyers had signed our counter offer earlier in the day. Our agent got the paperwork this morning via email and sent it to us. Lo and behold, it turns out that the buyers signed the counter offer at 2 p.m.! I'm not very happy with the buyer's agent - they let us stew for hours thinking that something had gone wrong.

We have an apartment complex sorta lined up, but my husband wants to check into long term executive suite type rentals. So, we'll delay for a day or two on applying for an apartment, while he checks it out. I think he'll find out we can't have 3 cats in one of those places - but he needs to find it out his way. :) Plus, it will be good to wait just a day or two to make sure that the buyers don't back out, given the last 10 days.

Today, we took another load to the storage room and did some more errands, then cleaned out the fridge, did some laundry, and just sat and relaxed and watched television. Kinda nice! :)

Friday, June 02, 2006

Still waiting to know if our house is sold, or if they are going to counteroffer, or if they are going to back out. Stay tuned, it should all be over by 5 p.m. Pacific. :)

In better news, I'm on day 3 of Weight Watchers online. I've done well at keeping within my points, resisting temptation, and trying to drink more water. Some of the tricks I use to keep myself on track:

- Make Kool Aid with Splenda. I hate plain water all the time, and this makes it easy to get water down.

- Have options at work other than vending machines. Thankfully, work has several refrigerators, so there is room to put some groceries. And unlike other workplaces, I rarely get my food stolen. :)

I'm going scrapbooking tonight with my best friend. I'll be leaving work early so I can pick her up and take her home to get her supplies. Then we'll head over to the store and scrap our little hearts out. Well, I might scrap...I think I'll just be happy to get "out" and socialize. :)

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Well, not the update I expected to post, but better than nothing:

The buyers asked for a 24 hour extension on our counter offer. Turns out that they were outside our house for 2.5 hours trying to get their boat (must be a land yacht) to go up the driveway. Something about the motor being too large. While they are deciding what to do (back out, find an older house with more land, find a newer house with more land and no HOA), they need time. Apparently one of the kids got sick, and the husband had to go to work, so our deadline of 5 p.m. PST today is too fast.

We gave them the 24 hour extension. No harm done.

I just hope to be giving better news tomorrow. Right now I'm just disappointed to not have it over with, one way or the other.
So, I got home last night and found out that the buyers have "unofficially" accepted the offer, but they wanted to check *one* more thing out: they wanted to drive their truck (with boat in tow) to our house, and back it up the driveway. The reason? They want to see if the tow hitch bottoms out on the driveway. Ooookay....whatever....just don't back out on buying the house. :)

Right now we are waiting to hear from my agent, who is supposed to hear from their agent when they are done. Presumably, if the driveway is acceptable, the agent and buyers are together and can sign the counteroffer and get it back to my agent ASAP. After all, they want the house to close *5* weeks from today. That's not a lot of time to get an inspector in, much less fix anything (not that there is anything to fix). We need to line up an apartment, turn on/off utilities and all that stuff...we need some closure man! :)