Better quality images…

So, I got a new kitten tonight. He’s about 7 or 8 weeks old–not sure exactly how old, but I’m sure a trip to the vet will probably determine fairly closely.

The friends who gave him to me called him Ewok-face, because of his poofy face. So, I was pondering calling him Wicket, for obvious Star Wars-type reasons.

I put up the question to all of you…What should his name be? The pic is pretty grainy, because I took it on my phone. I’ll find my camera when I’m not so tired and take a nice high-res photo of his mug.

So, I have been in Chicago & Milwaukee for the past week. It was a very awesome, relaxing and eventful trip. It was quite kewl, seeing the bro and more of the place where he lives.

Milwaukee is a smaller town that I would’ve figured–we had a bit of time to drive around downtown when we were looking for a local pizza eatery. We never found it, but did have a nice lil cruise through the city.

Chicago was as Chicago as always. We went to the Field Museum, MSI, and the Adler Planetarium. Good stuff. We stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel on Michigan Ave. Very nice place. From when it was built in 1893 up through the FDR Administration, presidents stayed there whenever they went to Chitown.

We saw a Cubbie game, and actually saw them win one *GASP* They won 7-2 in a pretty decisive game that was started by Carlos Zambrano. They have this little thing at Miller Park called “Take Back Miller Park”. Cubs and Cardinals fans come up to Milwaukee in droves, because of the proximity. That means that the number of Cubs or Cards fans rival those of Brewer fans. I don’t think their little campaign was worth the t-shirts they were printed on, though, because there were a heckuva lot of Cubs fans at the game we went to.

We went to the Miller brewery. That was quite the fascinating lil trip. I really don’t drink beer, but it was really kewl seeing how it is made. I even had some at the end of the tour, when they dished out free samples. I’m not entirely sure what it was, but it was dark. I know it wasn’t MGD or Lite.

Good times, good times.

Yep, it definitely was super 😀

The superness

Where has the sbemail gone? It’s been a month since the last one. Sad days, indeed.

I hate this house hunting crap. I got out-bid.

So, I ditched the county house. It was too much of a hassle, and too weird a situation.

I go to see two houses in Harvest this afternoon, while formulating my final decision. The first was absolutely an amazing house, especially for the price. The floorplan was 100 sq ft smaller than the other, but I didn’t even notice it. The house is laid-out very well. My only beef about it is that the washer/dryer are out in the garage. But, that’s a small price to pay for all of the kewlness that is this house.

It’s in Harvest, which is a town just north of Madison, where I am now. The drive wouldn’t be as long as that I would be making deep in Limestone County. It’s still considered rural. It has a septic tank, just as the other one did. The colors are very neutral and very not pink. New carpeting, laminate wood floors in the great room, hallway, and one of the bedrooms.

The house is pretty much 95% brick, with a little wee bit of wood siding on the back. The distance to Huntsville and the awesomeness of the layout had me in love with the place, despite the fact that I’ll have to endure Alabama summers in the garage while washing clothes. Given the spiffiness of the floorplan, I’m willing to deal 🙂

Yep…obligatory house pictures

So, I made an offer on the house, the county “pink” house, on Wednesday. Actually, it was turned in on Thursday, but still…I haven’t heard anything back at all, except that the listing agent said that the seller was in New York.

That is total BS. You would think that a person who wanted to sell their house would stay in some form of contact with the listing agent. I mean, it is the 21st century and all. It seems like it’s harder and harder to stay out of contact with people.

So, since I haven’t heard anything, I’m going to retract the offer. I’m not going to be left hanging like that. Even though I really like the house, it’s not worth it. I don’t have time to sit around, twiddling my thumbs while the seller does who knows what.

There’re a few other houses that I’ve seen online that I’m going to check out. The lease is up 8/13, so I do have a bit of time.

Ugh. I just want a frickin’ house. Is that too much to ask? 😛

Found a house, made an offer. w00t! I don’t feel as bad as before. It seems like the emotional steps to buying a home are as tiered as dealing with any great emotional stress. The stages seem to be ponderance, sheer mortification, doubt, and “ahh, hell with it. let’s do it!”.

It’s the second house I looked at. Really nice floorplan, although the entire house is frickin’ painted mauve (kinda dark pinkish). So, the first thing I’m going to do after closing–well, maybe second thing since my wrist will be tired from signing–will be to paint the whole thing. The place has sky blue carpeting which I’m not all that wild about, either, so that’ll go eventually.

Obligatory Pictures

So, I go to see a buyer agent early on this fine eve. Just about every aspect of this buying a house thing makes me nervous: What will break the bank for me? What the heck kind of maintenence would be waiting for me in such new digs? Septic or sewer (you pretty much have a choice since 10 minutes in just about any direction leads you into the country)? Resale value? Am I gonna get screwed by the interest rates that are slowly creepin’ up? Will I be able to find a decent and nice-looking place for the price range I’m thinking of? So many dire and dark questions, you’d think the end of time was swiftly approaching. lol.

I think what I’m looking forward most is the looking part. It can take a long time to find what fits you, as I’ve seen when my parents have taken me to look for the family house. I’m hoping that maybe by the end of July I’ll find something and perhaps by early August I’ll close, but we’ll see. The buyer agent is just that: he’s a realtor that’s focused on buying houses for clients and not selling to them. He came recommended via a friend, who said he was pretty awesome. All this stuff I’m learning–it’s almost like I’m in school again 😀 Ruthie is going to help me look. It’ll be good to have a woman’s opinion of it all, me thinks 🙂 I think she’d be a fun companion to search with, too. I have a basic idea of what I want in a house but her opinions will speak volumes, me thinks.

There’re so many things I’m going to have to buy, too, one of which being a lawn mower. I suppose I could start out with something relatively cheap from Target or Wal-Mart, given everything else I know I’m probably going to have to buy. A washer & dryer is something, too. I’ve been spoiled by the free one furnished by the apartment. That one is a bit of a more expensive proposition. Perhaps I can either roll it into the closing of the house, or maybe I could concievably save for one before or shortly after the move-in.

Still, despite all this worry and nervousness, it’ll be good to give my apartment office the proverbial finger for trying to up my rent 16-20%. Doofuses 😛 At least I know that, chances are, a fixed-rate mortgage will never go up that much. From what I gather, the only place that a fixed-rate is variable is in the property taxes. I’ll be saving a bunch of moola–of course, it won’t seem that way when I have to get the AC or the roof replaced 😛

Crazy stuff…

In other news, I finished Half-Life 2: Episode One in a matter of a few short hours. This included a number of deaths from either stupidity or sheer numbers of Combine or zombies. Despite the short game play, I did thoroughly enjoy the plot. I enjoyed that most of that plot meant that Alyx was fighting alongside you–it’s easier to play through it when you have back-up, even if it is a bot backing you up. I can’t wait for Episode Two. I think the $19.99 I paid for it was a bit expensive, mainly because of the short game-time. It’s still cheaper than the $29.99 I originally paid for the Bronze Steam account that came with Half-Life 2.

My mom is doing better. She’s still at home, resting a good bit more comfortably. My dad says that she doesn’t seem to be in any pain. I think and hope she’s less tired than she was throughout the entire ordeal. A lot of her tiredness stems from her liver condition, though. Her liver hasn’t gotten any worse but, from what I’ve heard, it’ll never get any better. It’s definitely an uber relief to know that she’s out of immediate impending danger, though. That was another crazy and certainly scarier ride :-\

Today’s Thursday. w00t!