Three, three, and one joke.
Thanks for coming back, I've really missed you. It's been awhile since my last post due to all the real life that's been happening at us recently. It's been...well, real. Have some updates! Update #1: FENCE IS COMPLETE!
Here's a photo.
That photo makes our backyard look HUGE. It's not though, it's just a normal sized Kansas yard. Any variation you think you might see in the relative height of the fence posts and/or planks, that's all due to the photo. NOT the workmanship.
The dogs love the new fence. As soon as it was up Mardigan started doing his patented morning wake-up call for everyone in the neighborhood. Every morning, you (and by "you" I mean Joel or myself) open the door and he runs, at top speed, from the house to the fence doing his beagle-y howl-bark-thing the whole way. Neighbors love him.
We're now just working on shoveling up all of the dirt from around each of the posts. I figure if I clear one a day, I'll be done in a month and a half. Not too shabbs, flabs.
Update #2: SANTA BARBARA, CAYUCOS AND ALASKA ARE ALL NEAT.
The long delay between posts can, at least partially, be blamed on a couple of vacations that the husband and I took.
Me ma and I went to California, to the aforementioned places. It was magical. First, the Santa Barbara airport is, balls to the walls, the CUTEST airport I've ever experienced. A short aside, I don't know sayings. I think "balls to the walls" is supposed to be used more to express hard work, but here I'm using it to express how much effort someone put into planning/designing/engineering/thinking about this airport. Think about it; If one literally put one's own balls on the walls, he would have to care A LOT about those walls. To sacrifice your own testicles for them. Ya know?
Anyway, the Santa Barbara airport smells so good the smell of puke probably wouldn't even ruin it. It's that good. We also played a bit in Cayucos and Cambria - two coastal towns a couple of hours north. Both awesome. My mom and I closed down the bar in Cayucos on a Tuesday night. That's a good vacation.
Joel went to Alaska with my dad, uncle, and brother. They caught lots of fish, saw bears from an uncomfortably short distance, flew over glaciers (again, perhaps uncomfortably close) and I think might have had a beer or two. I could see Joel's liver through his shirt when he got home.
Look, pictures! First Santa Barbara.
Now Alaska.
Update #3: OUR HOUSE IS A LEMON
And no, not the kind you make lemonade out of, because these lemons will give you mold poisoning . I had been feeling extra allergic in our house, and we already knew there was a small amount of mold in the kitchen where the kitchen door leaks.
Don't worry, none of this was in the Seller's Disclosure or inspection report, so we totally had no idea what we were getting into when we bought the house.
Plus, it seemed like every day we found a new leak, extra problem, broken something in the house. SO, we decided to get an environmental inspection to see whether we had a big mold problem or just a little guy. Turns out, everything in this house was made cheaply and is covered in mold. NEAT!
There is currently a mold abatement guy in our house looking at what we'll have to have done and how much it's going to cost. This has been a truly opposite-of-fun experience for us. I hope that no one that I enjoy will ever have to go through this, because it blows like a tornado during a hurricane. On the other hand, I hope that every person involved in the selling of this house, and the subsequent lying about the condition of the house, gets his or her comeuppance.
Not bad, just an equal monetary, allergic and stress-inducing blow.
Oh, not really. I just hope they feel really bad about what they did for the rest of their annoying lives.
In lieu of disgusting photos of mold, I'll give you these 3 pieces of advice to match the 3 updates:
1) Choose a good realtor. Not one who just wants to sell you a house.
2) Always be present at the inspection.
3) Don't ever buy a house. Totally not worth it.
Instead of going out on that downer of a note, I'll tell you a quick joke that I heard from Garrison Keillor at some point in my life - Two penguins are sitting on an iceberg. One penguin says to the other penguin, "You look like you're wearing a tuxedo." The other penguin says back, "What makes you think I'm not?"
HA!
One glass of wine in on this fine Thursday afternoon,
Kiley