Follow-up

Loan docs are signed, and the loan should be funded tomorrow. Whew. We're outta here as soon as we can get the moving truck here and our stuff into it! I can't even believe this is really happening.

Springsteen still rocks, even if he didn't play Rosalita tonight. I love going to see him - this was my fourth time - the first time was 22 years ago (which makes me feel a teesey bit old). I love his passion.

Bendites, hoping I'll get the chance to meet some of you once we make it up there! If anyone enjoys emptying moving trucks, let me know - if I could make you very happy by putting you to work, I'd be happy to do so. Ha ha. Or we can have a beer some time soon instead. That's probably more likely. In any case, I can't wait to meet you all!

Jealous much?

I'm outta here for the evening. Heading up to LA to see Springsteen!! He gives great concert. ;)

Getting to see Springsteen again almost makes the last few months of suckage less painful. Almost.

Finally!

Our buyer is finishing signing her loan docs right now, and the docs should be processed tomorrow!! Once her loan closes and the funds are wired, we'll be able to close on our new place in Bend -- and that'll probably happen tomorrow!! We've called to order our moving truck - we think they can be here on Friday and we can be out of here early next week!! FINALLY, good news that is solid and won't change in 25 minutes!! I feel like I can breathe for the first time in months.

Walk Through

I just got a call from our realtor; the buyer (who's now dealing with a real, known lender) wants to do a walk-through our house before she signs the docs. She'll be here between 4:30 and 5:00. I guess I should go clean up or something.

Halloween Costumes and Teenage Girls

Today I took Burger out shopping for a Halloween costume, and oh my - I've apparently gotten old and stodgy all of a sudden. Finding a costume that I didn't find entirely inappropriate was much harder than I had expected it to be. Most of the costumes are low cut and very short, and I guess I'm not as ready as I think I am for such things on my 14 year old! The odd thing is that I ended up insisting on one costume because, while it's skimpy, it's at least not entirely slutty (cheerleaders wear less clothing). It's still less modest than I want to encourage her to wear, but I guess it is what it is...

Yes, my darling Burger will be Supergirl, sans 6" heels. I can't believe this was more okay than the other costumes.

For some reason, she refused my idea of being a large furry creature of some kind. Sigh.

Interesting Food?

Warning: if you're squeamish, stop reading this post now.

Last night while I was waiting for our take-out to be made, I went and walked aimlessly around my favorite grocery store (well, I have lots of favorite grocery stores. I dig this one because they sell tons of cool stuff that I haven't seen before and they cater to a Russian/Slavic/Middle Eastern/Greek kind of clientele - my fascination with all things Russian extends to food). I found something I'd never seen in a grocery store before:

Yes. It's a lamb head. Dig the eye. (and no, i didn't buy it. i wouldn't know how to cook it)

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic. I should probably be sorry for posting this at all, but I'm mostly not.

Adding to the family

Right now, there are four people who live in our house (me, Mr. LT, Burger, and Zippy) and two dogs who have become outdoor/garage dogs since we've lived in Southern California.

I always think that the outdoor/garage dogs thing makes them sound neglected. Which they aren't. My "office" is in the garage/workshop area, and Mr. LT spends a considerable amount of time being a guy in the garage/workshop. Zippy is outside so much of the time it's insane. So the dogs usually have people around to keep them company. And to lean on - our dogs find that putting their chin on our legs while panting slightly (to better share their oh-so-lovely breath) is an entertaining way to spend some time each day.

Our two dogs are Sandy, a neurotic seven year old lab/shepherd mix who was apparently abused before we got her when she was seven months old. Her tail had been broken, and she was (and is) a very shy, sort of socially awkward dog. She does not like baseball caps or blue coveralls on people and will bark at anyone who dares to wear such things. Shelby is our three year old chocolate lab - we picked her up duing the short time when we lived in Arkansas. She is still quite the sweet puppy, although she's long since outgrown our laps.

Because things aren't busy enough for us, or something, we're getting a third dog. Natalie says her name is Cocoa (she's the chocolate baby in the above photo), the rest of us are still debating names. I do think she'll end up being Cocoa, but I think that's a dorky name for some reason. I want to name her Nadia, Rufus, or Spike. Cocoa is a result of Mr. LT's peanut butter experiment earlier this summer

(hmmm... reviewing that post, I note that I didn't mention the peanut butter that was, um, used as incentive to hook the dogs up. So yeah.) - nine puppies resulted from that union, and Cocoa was the second born. The photos here were taken about a week and a half ago, and I think the puppies have doubled in size since then - they now easily jump over the wall keeping them in in these photos. Thank heaven our neighbor was smart enough to add the hinged part or there'd be puppies everywhere all the time!

Blowing My Mind

Argh! Our buyer didn't get the loan. Well, she got the loan, but they wanted her to put $$ in escrow before they'd send the docs over to the escrow folks to get signed. So the lender approved the loan, the buyer put her funds into escrow, and then the lender discontinued the program the buyer had originally applied for! So the buyer had to apply for a different program, and that's the one for which she didn't get approval.

Or something like that. The story changes every hour.

We've struck a deal with the buyer that will give her three more weeks to get a loan, and if not, we'll keep a not-insignificant (but not enough to make you gasp) amount of cash from her escrow deposit.

So three weeks. November 8 is the drop-dead date.

Argh again.

We really really really didn't want to move that late in the year. But the second we can go, we're outta here. Fingers crossed.

Karma, or something

I spoke too soon. When our buyer's money went to escrow on Thursday, we thought we were pretty much at the finish line - all that was needed was for the docs to be sent from the lender to the escrow company, the buyer to sign them, and for the docs to go back to the lender. Well, here we sit three days later and the docs have still not made their way to the escrow company. I hope that good things will happen soon. I'm really an eternal optimist, but this mess is testing even my outlook on things!

Hardball Works

Well, we put our foot down yesterday and told our buyer's agent that we were just about done because their story we've been told has changed every day and we can't live in limbo forever. Today, the buyer had their downpayment wired into escrow. Docs are supposed to be there later today, and we've been told we should be able to close on Monday. I won't get excited until the docs are signed. Then I'll be able to relax. This has been a ridiculous roller coaster ride.

Selling Our House

Well, it's been forever and a day since we signed the contract to sell our house. We've been put through the wringer, have been told different stories numerous times (often from the same person), and have been up and down and all around with this sale. We understand that the market sucks, and that we should feel lucky to be able to attract a buyer in this market. The fact is that we still haven't closed. We had to cancel our contract on the house we'd wanted in Bend. Our lives have been put on hold for the past two months while we've been waiting for this place to close. And I've been depressed and absolutely no fun to be around as of late. This ends soon, one way or another. More soon, I hope.

Ringing Phones and Other Things

Our listing agreement with our realtor here in California expired yesterday, and weve had ten phone calls from other realtors so far today, with all of them wanting us to relist with them. The first guy was a huge jerk, woke me up before 8 am (7:17, to be exact) and then was rude when I told him I didn't appreciate the phone ringing before 8 am. I wish I hadn't been sound asleep when he called so I could remember his quote. Unfortunately, he doesn't answer the phone number that shows on caller ID, or we'd have had another conversation by now. Hell hath no fury than a woman woken up early on a day she could have slept in.

So... what are we doing about the house situation? Well, right now (hysterical laughter in background) we're just waiting. We cancelled the contract on the house we'd wanted in Bend because we felt like we were doing a disservice to the owners by keeping them hanging on - we know how much that sucks. I know they were disappointed, as we are, but there wasn't more we could do. We'll have a mad dash to figure out things if this place does close, but we can always move in with Mr. LT's mom for a little while while we sort things out, if necessary. We'll cross that road when/if we come to it.

In the meantime, poor Zippy is sick again - she'd been sick-ish all last week and last night her fever was 103 or so - some Motrin and a cool, wet washcloth on her head made things better. The fever came back again this morning, so we gave her more Motrin and it came right back down. She was still zipping around the place like she's fine, and grandma wanted her, and she had to see grandma, so Mr. LT and I drove her over there and then went and had a nice breakfast together, just the two of us. Yay!

Today is Columbus Day, so we will hear nothing about the house today. Patience. I guess.

Zen and the art of annoyance

Things have been sorta stinky lately. On top of the house mishaps, Zippy, Burger, and I seem to be catching every little bug out there these days. Burger missed an entire week of school because she was sick, and the Zipster and I have both been whining, "I don't feel good" all week long (except I'm gracious enough to whine in my head, unlike Zip who feels the need to restate her current level of health every two and a half minutes. We get it. Really.)

Mr. LT has somehow avoided all of the muck. He's generally much more stoic than the rest of us anyway (something about testosterone), and would ignore most illnesses anyway. When he goes down with something, you know it's bad. But usually he'll just power his way through a cold. I admire that capability, except in cases where it makes me look like a wuss.

Frankly, I'm tired right now. Tired of the daily good news-bad news game with the house. Tired of the germs that seem to be picking on us. Tired of not knowing where I'll be living in a week. Tired of Burger whining that she HAS TO finish her freshman year of high school here now that she's started. Tired of Zippy telling me she needs jelly beans right now or she'll die or something. I guess the bright spot here is that I'm only irritated with 2/3 of the other people who share my home instead of being three for three.

Why am I so cool with Mr. LT? Well, right now Mr. LT (who, like me, has a quick temper) is being cool as a cucumber. We're both oddly Zen (should Zen be capitalized? I think so.) about our housing situation at the moment, but I do fear that we're both just a nudge away from screaming at the closest realtor we see.

We're just trying to breathe. Ommm.