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pandonkeyI've been meaning to post since Friday, so I've been adding more and more to my mental list of things to write about. I'll try to be brief. (Okay, coming back to this from the end of the entry, I'm lying. But I tried to try.)
Friday got off to a rousing start as I was pulled from my nice, cozy bed at a quarter to six to drive Doug to the airport for a business trip to Cleveland. He did offer to take a cab, but that would violate one of my chief Rules for Avoiding Tragic Irony: Must see the boy off for trips and say g'bye at the airport if at all possible; must also do so cheerfully. (That last part was a bit trying, as I'm not inclined to be chipper before 10 a.m.) In any case, I got him to the airport, bid him farewell, and managed to make my way home to collapse back into bed. Unfortunately, due to very bad timing on both our parts, I was unable to get to sleep due to the early morning sunshine, and he was unable to make his flight due to an exceptionally long security line. Oops. He did make it to Cleveland on a slightly later flight (why he couldn't have been booked on that one in the FIRST place, I'll never know -- his company's travel agent must have it in for him), and I managed to make it through my work day on only five hours' sleep.
Saturday I visited houses with our realtor, and it was actually quite a lot of fun. Most of them were culls, but there was one house that might stand as a potential successor to the Mint House in our hearts (more on that later). One of the most interesting of the ruled-out houses had rather uncommon decor. Walking into the place was like walking into an issue of Southern Living magazine. The dinner table was set with a full set of china and wine goblets (with cloth napkins fanned out in them!), and the sitting room had an antique sofa and chairs and a genuine church organ. And oh, the wallpaper. Never have I seen such wallpaper in all my days. Hideous, hideous wallpaper -- in EVERY ROOM of the house. The place was actually in great shape, but luckily it had almost no backyard to speak of, so I could scratch it off the list in good conscience. The thought of going through the slow, messy process of removing that stuff from every last wall in the house...ugh.
Oh, I also went to see Troy just for the hell of it. I must not be womany enough, because I just don't get what people see in Brad Pitt -- okay, he has a nice body and all, but his face just seems grotesque to me. His character, a cardboard cutout version of Achilles, was basically just a jerk occasionally bothered by twinges of guilt that passed as angst. Very whiny and annoying.
I was amused that in this version of the tale, Paris was considerably prettier than Helen (who looked like she was dressed for a Stevie Nicks concert).
Doug's return from Cleveland was, if you can believe it, even more of a comedy of errors than his departure. His plane arrived early, so he wound up sitting around the airport calling the house over and over while I was in the shower. Once I finally did take the call and get out of the house, the real fun began. They've been doing some much-needed resurfacing work on the roads around our apartment complex, which is great, but they're doing it in the most inefficient way imaginable. I wound up sitting in stopped traffic for ten minutes while they routed cars coming and then going along a stretch of road they'd reduced to just one lane. Then I was unable to make a turn I needed to get to the airport because the entire intersection was a mangled mess of construction equipment and bored guys directing traffic. The whole thing was a mess of frustrated cell phone calls and the unpleasant odor of tar, but I made it to the airport in the end, where poor Doug stood waiting on the sidewalk looking half-dead. Turned out he hadn't gotten to sleep at all the night before, because he was working all night on the project in Cleveland. A good portion of the evening was apparently spent putting colored tape on Ethernet cables.
Nevertheless, he wanted to go along with me for the day's visit with the realtor, and we went to see the house I'd liked best from Saturday. It's a bit on the high end of our intended price range, but the price per square foot is just about the best we've come across. The house is in good shape, for the most part, and quite large; it also has a nice, big backyard with a small wooded area at the back. The downside is that it's on a corner overlooking the entrance to the development and the street outside. If we could build a fence, it'd be fine, but we haven't found out yet if that's allowed. The current owners have three kids and a dog, so if fences were allowed, I'd think they'd have built one already. People don't always do what you'd expect, though, so we'll see.
Tonight we went to see Shrek 2, and we both greatly enjoyed it. Reports that it is better than the first are inaccurate, but it's quite funny and a worthy sequel. Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots made the movie for me. Make sure you wait for the end of the credits (even though the music sucks). I've got to dig out an old sketch I did after the first movie came out. :)
Friday got off to a rousing start as I was pulled from my nice, cozy bed at a quarter to six to drive Doug to the airport for a business trip to Cleveland. He did offer to take a cab, but that would violate one of my chief Rules for Avoiding Tragic Irony: Must see the boy off for trips and say g'bye at the airport if at all possible; must also do so cheerfully. (That last part was a bit trying, as I'm not inclined to be chipper before 10 a.m.) In any case, I got him to the airport, bid him farewell, and managed to make my way home to collapse back into bed. Unfortunately, due to very bad timing on both our parts, I was unable to get to sleep due to the early morning sunshine, and he was unable to make his flight due to an exceptionally long security line. Oops. He did make it to Cleveland on a slightly later flight (why he couldn't have been booked on that one in the FIRST place, I'll never know -- his company's travel agent must have it in for him), and I managed to make it through my work day on only five hours' sleep.
Saturday I visited houses with our realtor, and it was actually quite a lot of fun. Most of them were culls, but there was one house that might stand as a potential successor to the Mint House in our hearts (more on that later). One of the most interesting of the ruled-out houses had rather uncommon decor. Walking into the place was like walking into an issue of Southern Living magazine. The dinner table was set with a full set of china and wine goblets (with cloth napkins fanned out in them!), and the sitting room had an antique sofa and chairs and a genuine church organ. And oh, the wallpaper. Never have I seen such wallpaper in all my days. Hideous, hideous wallpaper -- in EVERY ROOM of the house. The place was actually in great shape, but luckily it had almost no backyard to speak of, so I could scratch it off the list in good conscience. The thought of going through the slow, messy process of removing that stuff from every last wall in the house...ugh.
Oh, I also went to see Troy just for the hell of it. I must not be womany enough, because I just don't get what people see in Brad Pitt -- okay, he has a nice body and all, but his face just seems grotesque to me. His character, a cardboard cutout version of Achilles, was basically just a jerk occasionally bothered by twinges of guilt that passed as angst. Very whiny and annoying.
I was amused that in this version of the tale, Paris was considerably prettier than Helen (who looked like she was dressed for a Stevie Nicks concert).
Doug's return from Cleveland was, if you can believe it, even more of a comedy of errors than his departure. His plane arrived early, so he wound up sitting around the airport calling the house over and over while I was in the shower. Once I finally did take the call and get out of the house, the real fun began. They've been doing some much-needed resurfacing work on the roads around our apartment complex, which is great, but they're doing it in the most inefficient way imaginable. I wound up sitting in stopped traffic for ten minutes while they routed cars coming and then going along a stretch of road they'd reduced to just one lane. Then I was unable to make a turn I needed to get to the airport because the entire intersection was a mangled mess of construction equipment and bored guys directing traffic. The whole thing was a mess of frustrated cell phone calls and the unpleasant odor of tar, but I made it to the airport in the end, where poor Doug stood waiting on the sidewalk looking half-dead. Turned out he hadn't gotten to sleep at all the night before, because he was working all night on the project in Cleveland. A good portion of the evening was apparently spent putting colored tape on Ethernet cables.
Nevertheless, he wanted to go along with me for the day's visit with the realtor, and we went to see the house I'd liked best from Saturday. It's a bit on the high end of our intended price range, but the price per square foot is just about the best we've come across. The house is in good shape, for the most part, and quite large; it also has a nice, big backyard with a small wooded area at the back. The downside is that it's on a corner overlooking the entrance to the development and the street outside. If we could build a fence, it'd be fine, but we haven't found out yet if that's allowed. The current owners have three kids and a dog, so if fences were allowed, I'd think they'd have built one already. People don't always do what you'd expect, though, so we'll see.
Tonight we went to see Shrek 2, and we both greatly enjoyed it. Reports that it is better than the first are inaccurate, but it's quite funny and a worthy sequel. Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots made the movie for me. Make sure you wait for the end of the credits (even though the music sucks). I've got to dig out an old sketch I did after the first movie came out. :)