Sorry to disappoint

I know I said I would post more pictures tonight, but I'm just too tired. It's 11:45pm and I'm ready to go sleep sleep for the night. I didn't sleep well last night so I guess it's catching up with me. Usually I'm up until at least 12:30a, but not tonight. I will post more pictures soon though. We painted the spare pink and white bedroom today. Now all we have left is to paint the trim and rip up the carpet. The color is Peach Praline. It's probably the brightest of all the colors we've chosen, but the room also has 2 windows and is going to be my sewing room. I want it to be the "happy" room. I will take pictures of it once we get the trim painted.

I haven't heard anything back about the job yet. I guess that could be a positive thing. If I was someone they eliminated immediately, I would have a higher probability of being rejected by now I would think. But I really don't know anything about this so I'm just talking without any backing.

GOOD NIGHT. Let's hope Obama is a USA born citizen.

House pictures...I tried to fix the weird way the pictures posted, but I can't. I'm no computer junkie so I guess you'll have to live with the funk.

So I finally took some pictures today. Granted, I didn't get pictures of all the rooms the way they looked before we started working on them, but I think you'll get the idea. Here's the outside of the house. We talk of eventually adding on a front porch to give it more dimension.

Here are some pictures of all the upstairs bedrooms. The picture on the left is a spare bedroom that will become our computer room. It did have a chair railing on it, but here it is already removed. Also, you can't tell from the picture, but the floral print is actually a padded wall. The cats enjoyed using it as a scratching post. The picture in the center is what our master bedroom looks like with cots and all. We have not worked on this room yet. Notice the beautiful wallpaper trim on top. The picture on the right is the other spare bedroom upstairs that will become my sewing room. This picture was taken after Mike had already primered over what was previously there. (If you look close enough, you can still see what was underneath.) This used to be a white and pink room with the pink that had been sponge painted on. It gave the look of wallpaper. Also, make note of the blue carpet in every room. Underneath those carpets are gorgeous oak hardwood floors.

Below is our upstairs bathroom. We plan to replace the tub and tiled floor. I also want to change the color scheme throughout the house to brushed nickel. All in good time. Oh, and, of course, don't forget more wallpaper to remove.

This is the dining room to the left. It is open to the living room which is where I took this photo from (on the right). We've already painted the ceiling and trim white. Previously, the ceilings and trim were the color of the wall...drab.



Below is the kitchen. The appliances are pulled out right now because we have been working to remove all the wallpaper. I didn't take any pictures of what it looked like with the wallpaper, but the picture on the right shows a little strip of what it used to look like. It was a leaf print wallpaper. Next on this room is to primer and paint...but we haven't decided on a color yet.

OK. I'm tired of posting pictures for the night because you have to upload these all separately and it takes forever. Tomorrow I'll post more. We'll make it into the basement and more of the outside.

I haven't heard anything on the interview as of yet, but maybe tomorrow I'll have an update on that as well.

Just another update

So, I still haven't taken even one picture of our house and it's definitely different than it looked even one week ago. I really need to get on the ball. Michael finished painting the trim and most of the ceilings in the upstairs today. He also started puddying in holes that were in the walls. I finished taking off the wall paper in the kitchen. That was a two day project. There is still a little area by the stove that has been stubborn. I'm going to leave it over night and then try again tomorrow, but for the most part, the wallpaper is off. Thank goodness. I would rate wallpaper removal right below cleaning bug poop and brown goop off of cabinets. There is still some trim wallpaper in our bedroom and the whole upstairs and downstairs bathrooms are covered in wallpaper. But I feel somewhat accomplished by removing the wallpaper from the kitchen. One room at a time.

Other than that, we are doing well. Mike went and became an official Virginian today when he got his driver's license, registered his car and registered to vote. We also briefly went to look at trucks. It would be nice to purchase one before my registration runs out on my car October 15. Otherwise, we will be paying for it to be registered and then probably buy another vehicle soon and have to pay the registration fees on it too. We'll see though.

This place is still making me sneezy and it's starting to get to Michael too. I really need to set up a duct cleaning appointment. I think it will be much better once those get cleaned out and we are fairly dust free.

Interview complete and update on house

So I just came back from my interview for DNA analyst 1. I think it went pretty well, though the questions they asked were pretty generic. I wished it had been a little more personal, perhaps the interviewers giving me a little background on themselves prior to me answering questions. I didn't even know one of the interviewer's position within the company until after the interview when she said she had recently been promoted to Supervisor. Oh well. They said they had several interviews but would get back to me next week sometime. The interview process itself was pretty quick. Usually I would think this was a bad sign, but they each had a sheet with identical questions on it and, in total, there were probably only 10 questions to ask. I think I did a fair job on answering the questions. The only one's I had trouble with were the questions that revolved around specific genetic questions. I did the best I could in answering, but I know I wasn't completely thorough in my answers. One question they asked about some extraction process that I had no clue on. But, all in all, I did the best I could. I guess I could have researched more into questions that could have been asked at the interview, but I don't think that would be a make it or break it deal. We will see though. Apparently there are going to be a few positions opening so I guess I have a shot. I know they said that their last two interviews were phone interviews so that could either mean that those people don't live in town yet and they couldn't travel all the way out here for an interview, or they are more qualified than me and they didn't need to see them in person because they already knew they were going to hire them. I guess I will find out next week. I'm quite anxious over this whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to calm down a little bit and just wait it out until I hear back. I leave next Thursday for TN so hopefully they will get in touch with me before I leave. I'll keep this posted.

As far as the work on the house goes, Mike has been very diligent with painting the last few days. He's done a great job with painting ceilings, taping up walls and painting trim. We still have A LOT to go, but we are moving forward. The kitchen was a big challenge to get cleaned up. It's a nice, updated kitchen, but apparently at some point they had a German Roach infestation as well as a rat in the kitchen. Cleaning out all the cabinets and drawers was disgusting. They had put this goopy brown insect killer in every crevice in every drawer and cabinet. In addition, there was plenty of dead bugs in the drawers, under the drawers, in the cabinets, under the cabinets and everywhere in between. I had a couple breakdowns over the course of a few days continuously cleaning these areas and just finding more and more disgusting things everywhere I looked. It still sickens me. But we brought in an exterminator to keep the problem from reestablishing itself now that there is food in the kitchen again. We had them spray inside and outside the house yesterday, they will come again next month, and then every other month from that point on. Apparently this is their normal schedule that keeps bugs from entering your home. If problems arise in between those times, they will come out also. I hope that as long as we stay proactive about this potential problem, that it won't become one. And, the kitchen is now clean. Except, does anyone know how to move the dishwasher out so we can clean behind it? Apparently there is some old rat poop back there. Yuck. I don't like bugs and I don't like cleaning so fixing up that kitchen was a very unfunny time.

Busy...busy!

Yesterday was a very busy day. I found out that we can get our windows replaced for free under warranty. This is great news! I just need to call them back today to tell them which windows need replacing. I have an exterminator coming tomorrow to give a quote. We'll probably keep the service up, not just a one time thing. I haven't talked to the contractor yet, but will call today. Home Depot was a fairly good success yesterday. Also, I found a free 13" TV listed on craigslist so we went and picked that up. So now we have a little TV to entertain ourselves at night. It's so silent in this place. We didn't do any housework yesterday as we were so exhausted from the weekend and from me running around everywhere and Mike working all day. Today I am much more revived and ready to continue cleaning the kitchen and putting in shelf liners so we can actually put some stuff away. We don't have much but the boxes that we do have are cluttering up our kitchen.

Our realtor brought us a wallpaper steamer today so we can start removing the lovely leaf pattern wallpaper in the kitchen and the other wallpaper around the house. Things are coming along slowly. I still need to take pictures. I will soon....I promise.

OK. Now it's time to work.

Greetings from Bardu Ave!

So we've semi-settled into our new home. At least, as much as you can settle without all your belongings. Hopefully we will set it up for them to come back to us in mid-October. This weekend has been hectic and exhausting running around from Home Depot to Sears back to Home Depot, etc. We've been mostly cleaning around the house but tonight we started painting the ceilings white. It takes a while to get the ceiling in one room completely painted, but it's so worth it. The house already is looking a little better. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day. I'm going to be trying to get to the DMV for my new license, yearly doctor's visit, going back to Home Depot (again!), calling a contractor, exterminator, window people and the place where I was going to take the GRE (I've decided to post pone taking it. There's just too much going on right now for me to concentrate on studying), hopefully waiting on my realtor to bring us a wall paper steamer and then waiting for the cable guy to come back to install some more lines around the house. And somewhere in there I'm going to continue working on the house. I'll be ready for my vacation to Tennessee and Michigan by the time it gets here in a little less than two weeks.

That's about all that is going on with me right now. Just a lot of house work. I'll try to remember to take some "before" pictures tomorrow before all the ceilings are completed. I keep forgetting but I think it's going to be a pretty dramatic difference once we are all done. Talk to you all soon!

I have an interview!

I just checked my email account that I have linked to job applications and I have an interview with the DNA company for next Friday! That's great news! Now I have to freshen up my interview lingo and put on the business face, and go put on a good show! Hopefully they'll like me and I'll get the job. It would be awesome to say I finally got the exact position I've been wanting since I was 21 years old! But I still have to keep my head on that says it could go either way, otherwise I'll be too disappointed if I don't get it. A lot is going on next week. Trying to get the house worked on, studying for the GRE, taking the GRE on Thursday and then an interview on Friday. Busy busy...and stressful! Oh, and I now have to go out and buy an interview outfit since the only clothes I currently have in my possession are shorts, jeans, t-shirts and tank tops. I don't think any of those would qualify as business apparel. Good thing that I'll be working in a lab so I'll only have to wear dress up clothes for the interview...at least, that is what I'm expecting. We'll see on Friday. Wish me luck! I'll definitely keep this thing updated!

We REALLY have a house!

We closed on our house in Springfield today! Thank goodness the hotel living is over! Tonight we are going to bring some things to the house from the hotel, including the kitties. I'm not sure if we are going to stay one more night in the hotel or stay on our cots in the new place. That cats did a good job of not destroying too much in the hotel room. Skye ate the telephone cord so we'll need to get a new one tonight to replace it, and they've left quite a bit of fur around the place, but all in all, nothing terrible. We'll do some moderate cleaning in the morning before we leave to assure no extra fees. I'm sure the kitties will be very happy to be able to roam around a house since they've been confined to one room for 3 months now! And they'll get to play with and eat spiders! Yum! I've seen so many spiders crawling around that place it's disgusting. As long as there aren't any poisonous spiders, then I will be happy to let the cats have their fun.

Our phone, internet and cable will be turned on tomorrow night as well. Since we don't have any TVs at the moment (they are all in storage) we won't be using that service just yet, and since we don't own a home phone (I guess we are going to need to purchase one now) we won't be using it just yet either. So, we'll have internet tomorrow night. We are going to be busy working on the house for the next couple of months so not having an extra distraction around will actually be a plus. And not having a TV for the next week for sure will help with my GRE studying. And, now when I stay up late at night studying, I don't have to keep Mike awake which I'm sure he will appreciate.

We have a house....well...almost

Yep...it's true. Our closing has been moved up to tomorrow at 11am. That is great news! It's been quite a hassle these last few weeks for sure. Earlier this week we discovered that our earnest money check had never been cashed. They are required by Virginia law to deposit the check at least 5 days prior to closing. Yes, they are in infraction of the law. So, anyways, the seller's brokers have been searching for this check for several days. They couldn't find it, so today they told us to cancel the check. Well, since we are buying a foreclosure property and it is difficult to get anything signed from the seller's side, we couldn't just NOT get them that amount of money because in the contract it states that we would be providing a certain amount of earnest money. If we didn't provide that, the contract would have needed to be amended, signed by the sellers (aka THE BANK), and then the HUD-1 document would have needed to be amended. All of this was not going to happen in one day to close by Friday. So, we had to wire money over to the settlement company today. To cancel the original check it cost $29 and to wire money it cost $20. Add that to the $75 it cost the day we had the inspector come out the first time and he couldn't inspect anything because the floor was flooded, yes, I say they owe us some inconvience money. Purchasing this property has been a much bigger hassle than purchasing a home from a person, but for this area, I think we did get a pretty good deal. Maybe for our next home we'll be more accostomed to the prices out here and will be able to buy from an actual person saving us lots of trouble. We'll see. We may not even stay around this area. Maybe we'll move back to a cheaper area of the US where our money will go MUCH further. Only time will tell with that one.

Still haven't heard anything back from the DNA people. I probably won't before the weekend but I keep checking my email box.

Anyone want to come out to VA for a painting party?

How can it be only 10:45pm?

It feels like it is 2 in the morning. It must be because Mike has been asleep beside me since a little after 9pm and it's thrown my natural rhythm out of balance. He usually doesn't fall asleep until at least 11 if not later. I'm currently watching The 40-Year Old Virgin on USA. I forget how funny this movie is until I see it again, and with the additions to change this R rated film into a film suitable to view on cable television, it makes it even more entertaining. I really need to be studying for the GRE right now since I take the exam in one week from tomorrow, but my motivation has been lacking. It's been even more so since speaking with the company I applied to. I guess somewhere inside I really hope I get this job, so I'm not preparing as well as I should for the back up plan at this point. Or maybe that's just an excuse for my procrastinating and lazy personality. I guess I'll have to put it into full gear starting tomorrow. And that sounds like people that yo-yo diet..."I will always do better tomorrow."

As of right now, we are still set to close on our house on Monday but we will find out by tomorrow if all the documents will be in place to close by Friday. We are going to be strapped for cash for the next week or so. Hopefully we'll have some money left over to where we can at least go and get the necessary equipment to begin painting. Then we can buy more things as we get the money. This stock market crashing thing isn't helping us at all either.

Send me studying vibes. I need them.

I'm BACK!!

Our trip to Wilmington was a success. We retrieved the washer and dryer and made out with a few pieces of lawn equipment too. We forgot the push lawn mower (not too big of a deal since it was a non-motorized one..cost a little less than $100). And our weed whacker and shop broom were missing...we suspect the neighbors. Oh well. Our house down there is no longer our house as we sold it officially to Cartus on Monday. Farewell 1502 King St.

While we were down in Wilmington we noted how terrible of a real estate agent we had. David A. Robertson with Century 21....DO NOT USE THIS MAN TO SELL YOUR HOME! HE'S A LIAR. We listed with him on May 1. We went on a mini-vacation for 5 days in May where I had my friend come and check on the cats every other day. Well, after one of my friend's visits, the cats had somehow closed the door to the litter box room (with one of the cats still in there...with no food or water). Although we got home the next day, my friend had not come back since the door had been shut to the litter box room. When we got home, I immediately noticed the door was shut. I opened it up and there was poor Skye locked in there. He actually seemed fine and didn't run over to the food or water bowl immediately like he was starving or anything. However, when we walked upstairs to our bedroom, there was an incredible stench! The cats had decided to use our punctured air mattress as their new litter box. It was a horrible smell...something I've never smelled before and hope to never smell again. I don't blame them as they didn't have a place to go, but it was blatantly obvious as to what was in there due to the retched smell. The reason I tell this story is because, once we returned from our trip, we called our realtor and asked if the house had been shown while we were gone. He told us that HE showed it during the weekend once. At the time, we had hoped that he happened to show it prior to the pooping party. He definitely didn't mention anything else to us about it. However, from the next couple paragraphs, you will find numerous lies that he told us, which makes me believe that this is one more we can add on to the lie list.

During the course of the 1.5 months we still lived in the house after listing with DAVE, he didn't call to update us with anything. I gave him the benefit of the doubt at this point. We moved up to DC on June 21st. How many times has he called us without having to first prompt him with a phone call? ZERO! NADA! ZILCH! Not once did he called us himself to update us on the status of the home, how many times it had been shown (or not shown) or on how the property was looking (aka curb appeal). After we called him one time to ask how everything was going, he told us that he was having an open house for that Sunday and he would let us know how it went afterwards. Well, Sunday came and went and nothing. We contacted him and he told us that we had some interest and it went well. After weeks of not hearing anything again, I sent him an email telling him how I felt his service wasn't exactly how I had hoped and that I would like him to contact us at least once a week to update us on the home. I also asked him the number of times the house had been shown in the course of the previous two weeks. He emailed back saying the house had been shown 8 times in that two week period and that he would call us by the end of the week to update us. Nope...no phone call came. A couple weeks later we were told that he was going to have another open house that Sunday. We didn't hear from him then at all either. Since May 1, we reduced the price of the home 3-4 times. On the second to last occasion, Michael wrote him an email asking him his opinion on how low we show go since previously we had always just told him an amount. He wrote back saying he'd look into it for us. After waiting a week to hear from him, I finally said we just need to decide for ourselves without any help from him. And that's what we did...again. A couple weeks later, Michael wrote him an email saying we would like to drop the price again. He never replied to the email, but when I went to the listing, the price was reduced. He didn't even bother to call or write to say OK.

Well, back to this weekend. When we got to the house this past Saturday, the outside was just COVERED in weeds! We've been paying a guy to cut our lawn every other Monday since we've left, but we haven't had anyone doing yard work. You couldn't even see the bushes in the front yard because all the weeds were so overgrown. Point #1: If your realtor had been by your house at any point during the 3 months that we haven't been living there and weeds were overgrown, don't you think he would call us and let us know that we needed to get someone out there to pull the weeds? Also, when we arrived, the FOR SALE sign in the front yard was missing. We still had the post there, but no sign. When Michael called him about this, he used the excuse that they took it down for the tropical storm that was going to hit....OVER A WEEK PRIOR TO OUR ARRIVAL!!!! Point #2: If selling our house was a priority, don't you think he would at least put a FOR SALE sign in front of our house soon after the storm subsided? Who knows how long it would have been there without a sign if we hadn't have made an unannounced trip? Once we made it inside the house, the thermostat was set at 83 degrees on both the upstairs and downstairs units. This is the EXACT same temperature I had left it on June 21st when we moved to DC. It was not a comfortable temperature inside the house. Point #3: If our realtor did actually have two open houses, as he had previously claimed, and had to stay inside the house for 3-4 hours during those days, don't you think he would have turned down the thermostat to a comfortable temperature? And if, in fact, he thought to turn it back up before he left, that he WOULD NOT turn it back to exactly 83 degrees as I had left it? ON BOTH THERMOSTATS IN THE HOUSE!!! Across the street a new house for sale was having an open house. We went over to talk to the agent. When speaking with her, she said that since she's been doing open houses at that location since August, she had NEVER seen anyone do an open house at our property. She also said that in the 1.5 months that she's been doing open houses at that property, NOT ONE PERSON HAS COME TO SEE IT! Point #4 and 5: If the brand new house across the street has not had any one view it, why would 8 people view our property in the course of 2 weeks? And since she had never seen our house have an open house, how could this man, DAVID ROBERTSON, not be lying to us? The next morning we spoke with our next door neighbors who confirmed that, in the last 3 months that we have been gone, they have NEVER seen an open house held at our property.

What can we do about this man? Our realtor out here in Virginia told me to find out his brokers name and talk to him. I don't know what exactly that would do, but maybe it would prompt them to do something. Also, she said to request the information from the lock box on who and how many people came into the home. She said this was perfectly legal and our right. Michael emailed David yesterday asking for this information and we still have not heard back from him. I don't want this man getting any kind of profit from our home selling. I can understand a market being slow, or dead, but all I ask is for the truth. My whole life revolves around the truth. I've always hated liars with a passion and to know that this man blatantly lied to us on several occasions just burns me up inside. Michael has tried to keep me from calling him myself, and so far I have, but I really feel it would benefit us all if I had a one on one conversation with him. I would get to call him out on all his lies and hear him try to cover them up. I would also get to tell him how I will never recommend him to anyone and will do quite the opposite. I will also let him know the things he needs to improve upon in the future in order to have a successful career in real estate. I honestly don't know how he's been in this business as long as he had if all of the homes he's sold have had a similar record. He's just awful.

I think Michael and I have agreed to always go with women from now on. I don't just mean for Realtors, but for everything. They are more upfront and honest and aren't afraid to tell you the truth even if it is going to hurt. My gender is the best....I would have to agree.

I will leave you with a picture of the infamous cargo van with no windows that we used to bring the washer and dryer back here with us. Also, if anyone has any advice on the realtor issue, please add a comment and let me know. I would love for this guy to get what's coming to him.

(Also, I spoke with the hiring manager today at the company I applied to. He said by the end of the week, he should know who he's going to bring in for interviews. Keep hoping for me!)

You won't be hearing from me tomorrow

Since we are leaving for Wilmington in the morning and then staying the night, I will not have internet again until we get back here on Sunday night. We ended up renting a cargo van. It is white with no windows in the back. I told Mike we should buy some ice cream and some drugs and see how much money we can make in the next two days! I can't wait to ride around in that van in downtown Wilmington on a Saturday night. It will be sweet!

Our house has been fixed. We have another inspection on Monday at 9am. If everything goes well, we will close next Friday, or at the latest, the following Monday! Thank goodness! We will officially sell our house in Wilmington to Cartus on Monday. Bye bye Wilmington. We'll come back to visit occasionally I'm sure. We just won't have a house to come back to next time.


Talk to who ever reads this again on Sunday night or Monday!

I think I'm getting a little cold

Yep. I think I'm a little sickly. I woke up this morning with a hoarse voice and a scratchy throat. I thought it was because it was cold in the room and I was breathing in cold air, but as the day continued on, I started feeling very tired and my body aches a little. So, I guess I've caught some kind of virus. I am out of echinacea but I did take a total of about 2500mg of Vitamin C today. I'll keep up that routine until I start feeling better. Maybe I'll try and find a vitamin store tomorrow and get some more echinacea as well. I'm almost out of my daily vitamins too so I can get both.

This weekend we are heading to Wilmington for a very quick trip. We are renting a truck and we are going to get our washer and dryer out of the house. We'll be there Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning. I don't want to leave the cats alone in the hotel room longer than that. While we are in Wilmington, we plan to eat at Flaming Amy's and Nikki's. I'd love to eat at a few other places as well, but we just won't have the time. I look forward to going back there, even if just for a day and a half. It will be the last time I see my first house. :(

Today I've been studying vocabulary words for the GRE. I am going to have a tough time trying to memorize all these unusual words. I'm not a good memorizer. But I will try my best. I definitely could use some more motivation because my studying habits are hurting.

Just call me the pooper scooper

You ever wonder why the litter scoop for a litter box is called the pooper scooper? I mean, the scoop is just a tangible object used for the scooping of the poop. Wouldn't it be more accurate to call the person using the scoop the pooper scooper? I am my cats personal servant. I feed them and water them daily. I give them multiple massages that, if added up during the course of one day, would total several hours. I give them kisses, more kisses than I give my husband daily. And, most importantly, I clean up their poop. I AM THE POOPER SCOOPER.

I love my cats. I would do anything for them to make them more comfortable in their surroundings (minus the divorcing of my husband which would probably be their first request if they could speak human). But I HATE cleaning the litter box. Since moving into the hotel, I feel like my life has come down to eating, drinking, occasionally showering and scooping poop. Being in such tight quarters with 4 cats, it seems like all day long one of them is venturing into our bathroom (which just so happens to be their bathroom as well) and scratching away at that box. Then, soon afterwards, I either smell the lovely scent of cat pee (if you've ever been around felines, you know this smell is retched) or cat poop. They can't all go at the same time and make it one trip for me to scoop and flush. No. I must get up multiple times during the course of the day and clean up their box. But, I shouldn't complain. They bring me much more joy than annoyance, but I don't like being the pooper scooper.

I think we may try and invest in one of those boxes that attaches to your washer and dryer water source and scoops, dissolves, washes and dries your litter box as many times as you set it to daily. Then, the box will be the pooper scooper. And I will just be mom.

It's Skore's 1st birthday!!

I can't believe it. One year ago today I watched as my little girl was born. She was pushed out of her mother, Skinny, between the hours of 3 and 6am, 9-9-07. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKORE!! My sweet little girl is an adult now.

Nothing too interesting to report today. Laid in bed, watched Days of Our Lives and Ellen, studied for the GRE. Yep. That's about it. Oh yeah, washed dishes. Yep. That's really about it.

Oh, I wanted to recommend what I call "butt wipes". They are like baby wipes for adults. I prefer the Charmin brand personally. These things are great. Instead of just wiping your butt after going, you can actually clean yourself. I don't know why they didn't think of these things earlier. I mean, they really didn't need to advertise them for adults; we could just as easily use the ones made for babies. They would work just as well I would assume. But since finding these butt wipes, I am sold for life. You should try them too. They are well worth the $3 per double pack which should last for a couple months. Yes. Yes I did just talk about wiping your butt on my blog.

Good night.

It's preying mantis mating season

I just heard that on Jay Leno so it must be true. I almost forgot to update this blog today. I'm already starting to slack. Today has been extremely uneventful and wasted. I didn't do any studying for the GRE. I did search online for trucks to rent and plane tickets for Mike to Nashville. I didn't buy anything though. I also called and talked to the HR outsourcing guy for that company I applied to last week. He said he had received all my information and that they are currently reviewing everyone's qualifications and that he will know more at the end of the week. I think I will try again tomorrow to call the actual company and see if I can get ahold of a hiring manager or something. We'll see. If not, it will be just a wait and see kind of thing. For dinner tonight I made a Parmesan cheese sauce over whole wheat cheese tortellini with broccoli and spinach. It was good and Michael didn't have to eat one of his frozen microwaveable meals tonight. I guess that was it for today. I'll make this a short post since it's almost tomorrow and Mike is complaining since I have the light on and TV on. I need to pick one and stay with it. Talk later...K

Sunday brunch and Wegman's

Yes, today was not a typical Sunday for us these days. Usually our weekends consist of sleeping in till after 10a, laying in bed with our laptop computers on our laps till after 2p and then eating some kind of make shift first meal. We may or may not decide to shower and will usually just lay around watching TV all day or, in Micheal's case, taking periodic naps throughout. Well, today was not a typical day...thank goodness. We did start off the day late, getting up after 10a, but then, oh yes, we TOOK SHOWERS!!!! ON A SUNDAY!!!! And after that we picked a brunch restaurant out that I found online and decided to try it. It is this place called Clyde's. They started out with just one (in Tyson's Corner where we went) and have since expanded to a total of 13 sister restaurants. Their menu changes daily so the menu we saw online was not accurate for the current day, but the things that were listed looked interesting enough so we decided to try it. We got out there a little after 2p. I ordered the Challah bread french toast (which was supposed to have blackberries on it) with a side of fruit and Mike got some kind of sandwich with an egg, and ham with some kind of sauce on top (it wasn't hollandaise, but was slightly reminiscent of it). He also got a cup of the soup of the day, wild mushroom cream. They brought out a homemade crumb cake first. I guess this was their appetizer bread. The crumb cake was good. So, I had hopes for my main meal. We haven't had much luck around the DC area finding restaurants that we want to go back to, so I was excited to eat something that may bring on a good main course. Mike's soup came out next. He said it was really good. Another plus! Then came our main courses. My Challah bread french toast looked beautiful, but did not have any blackberries on it like I was expecting. I didn't think it was a big enough deal to say anything so I ate it without. The fruit was a disappointment as all it had in it was one tiny slice of a plum and all the rest melon. Yuck. I don't like cantaloupe or honeydew and the bowl was full of both. So I realized then I was going to have a meal that consisted solely on bread. That was another slight disappointment. I took my first bite and was completely satisfied. More than satisfied perhaps. Today's french toast may have been the best french toast I've ever had. The bread was almost like bread pudding in my mouth. It was soft and supple and dense all in one, and not overcooked! Even the crusts were soft unlike most french toast I've had in the past. I was happy. I asked Mike how his was and he said "Pretty good". That's all I got out of him. I think we were both fairly impressed with the place and will probably be back. That will be a first for us in this city!! Yay!

After brunch we drove over to "our" house. We weren't expecting to get in, but we wanted to look around to see if any trees had toppled over into it or if there was any damage from the storm. We got there and from the outside, everything seemed OK. When we walked around to the back yard, me, being the inquisitive person I am, decided to check out the locks on the windows in the kitchen. I found that at least one was unlocked. So, I pushed aside the window and climbed in. Yep. I trespassed on to our future property. Mike followed me in and we checked out the inside. We were both concerned about the standing water in the basement that we didn't think had been fixed. We went downstairs and the water was gone. The pipes didn't look like they had been fixed yet, but water was not dripping anywhere and the standing water was non-existent. So, someone had definitely cleaned up the mess. This was a relief. I was sure that we were going to see mildew growing on the walls in that room. Now all we need is to have that contractor fix the pipes that were leaking and then we can get in our inspector in there again. And then move in. We are both very ready to get working on that place!

We left "our" house and then went over to the grocery store, Wegman's. Mike has been complaining that we don't have any food in the hotel room (which we do, but you actually have to prepare the food, not just pop-it-in-the-microwave). So, I made him shop. He picked up TONS of processed, prepared foods for himself for both dinners and lunches. Yes, he is now going to be bringing his lunch to work. He's like a little kid going to school. The lunch he made himself for tomorrow is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (not natural peanut butter...the gross processed kind) on what I would call "brown" bread (not whole wheat but one that they call "Honey Wheat" on the package....he chose this kind only after searching for "Bunny Bread" to no avail), 2 Capri Sun's (yes, the kind with the straw you stick in that comes glued to the side), a single pack of Doritos, a Jello in one of those prepackaged containers, and two mini-chocolate candy packs (I didn't really look too close to see what it was). I feel like I'm married to a 12 year old. But I do love my 12 year old. (I guess I like them young.) I told him he's going to gain weight now eating all this crap. And that's only part of the crap he bought. I'm sure I will talk about more of the crap he bought in future posts as he eats everything.

And here's to getting fat...

Tropical Storm Hanna made her way to Fairfax, VA

I guess it's that time of the day to write another blog. Since it is the weekend, and Michael is off from work on the weekend, we tend to be even more boring than we are when we are alone. Today was no exception. The majority of the day was spent listening to the continually falling rain outside our 3rd floor window (which ended with a total of over 8 inches). We woke up late (after 11am), sat around until around 2pm when we ate "breakfast" (his consisted of a microwaveable box of Kung Po and mine was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich), then around 3pm, the fire alarm in the building started going off. The sound of the alarm was extremely loud and the cats reacted accordingly. I'm sure they heard the sound 100 times louder than we did. They spread out around the room and hid. I tried to reason and decide whether or not I needed to pack them up and move them out with Michael and I, or whether to take the risk that this was a false alarm and leave the building without them. Well, we decided to exit the building without them with my full intention to getting back in if there was any danger to them. After about 10 minutes of standing outside under the awning shielding us from the pouring down rain (along with 30 other people in their shorts and t-shirts who looked just as bad as we did at that time) the firetruck pulled up. With their oxygen masks and axes in hand, they went into the building. A few minutes later, they came back out. And all of us herded back into the hotel. When we got back to the room, the cats were no where to be found for a few minutes. Then they all came out to say that they were OK and that they were glad we were too. Michael then decided to take his daily nap alongside Skye, Sabrina and Skore. Stumpey decided to sleep on the windowsill. I LOVE CATS!

So that's been our day. It's definitely time for dinner, but I'm not sure what to make yet. It's already after 8p and neither of us have showered today. AHHH....the life.

The Friday before the storm

So tonight Tropical Storm/Hurricane Hanna is supposed to hit somewhere near Wilmington. I'm sure our house will be fine and there won't be too much damage except for a fallen tree here or there. (Hopefully NOT the tree in our backyard though.) Then, possibly Hurricane Ike. Let's hope that one doesn't come anywhere near the coast, but I think they are pretty sure it's going to hit somewhere on America's shores. I think we will have sold our place to the company, Cartus, that is handling Exxon's buying of our place by then. I wouldn't want to risk our house being blown away during that strong storm and having to deal with all the mess of insurance companies, etc. And, we, thankfully, will not have to evacuate for anything since we live 250 miles away! We are supposed to get some strong storms up here tomorrow as well, but I can handle a storm or two.

We don't have any update on the house we have a contract on except that, as of yesterday, the owner of the house (aka the bank) has not yet officially approved the cost of the repairs caused by the leak in the pipe. This means that water has been standing in the utility room in our basement for over a week now. I haven't been back in there since Thursday when we found the leak, but I can only assume when the contractor went in there to assess the damage, he did not do any cleaning up of it at that time. This is not good news. Also, since we didn't close on the place at the original time we had planned, our interest rate has run out. This would actually be a good thing since today it was quoted at 6%, 0.25% less than what we were locked in at, but they cannot lock in another rate for another 30 days OR we can pay $60/day to hold that rate. The company told us they would pay for 10 days of extension fees but that we would have to cover the rest. I highly doubt we will have closed in 10 days from now. At this rate, we will not have closed by the end of the month. We are semi-stuck right now and I am personally pretty frustrated. I mean, I've been through the process of buying a house before, and I know there are almost always issues that arise, but we have been faced with the epitome of problems from day one out here. MY CATS NEED A HOUSE!!

To close, I sent my transcripts off to the company I wrote about yesterday so I'm one step closer to an interview. I still don't expect one, but I'm going to try my hardest to get one. I just don't want to get my hopes up and then be let down. I also did some more petting of the kitties and I sang the song "Maria" from the West Side Story to Sabrina today replacing her name every time the name Maria came up in the song. I think she liked it. Not sure what tonight will hold, but I'm pretty certain it won't be too entertaining.

Bu-bye.

First day of the rest of my life

So, since everyone was doing it, I thought I needed to join in the blogging community too. I don't think my life is interesting enough to actually have an audience, but maybe there is someone out there more boring than me that would find my mere existence an exciting one. Hmm...let's see. Well, today I've woken up, petted the cats and got on-line. I checked my email and all my community accounts, updated Mafia Wars on Myspace (I bought my first beachfront HOTEL! YES!) and then I thought about starting this blog. After I finish with this first post, I'm going to eat some breakfast and start today's studying for the GRE. I started looking over the books just a couple days ago, and last night's lesson was READING COMPREHENSION. After reading all the hints they try and teach you using the Princeton Review, I tried one. Yes, I am officially stupid. Out of the 4 questions that came after the passage, of which I thought I answered correctly mind you, I got 1 question right. Yes, that's right folks, I succeeding in scoring a 25% on that one. I went to bed after that. So, hopefully today's lesson will be a little better than that. I can't have people thinking that I'm an idiot trying to get into grad school.

On another note, hotel living has been grand. We have now been living in a room, yes one room, for 10 weeks and 5 days now. Granted, we do have a bathroom and a pseudo kitchen (there are two burners and a refrigerator) but we are ready to have a living room and a couch again. And I am ready to get all my kitchen supplies back. I have been aching to bake for months now and haven't had an oven or any baking supplies to do it. Yes, I need my Kitchen Aide and my Cuisinart stuff back! Pronto! For those that do not know, we have a contract on a foreclosed house in Springfield, VA. We had hoped to be in by this week, but we were set back at our inspection last week. We had the seller's agents turn on the water in the house so we could perform an inspection. They didn't go check it after it had been turned on. Who knows how long the water had been off. Anyways, one of the pipes in the ceiling of the utility room in the basement was leaking...and had been leaking for what appeared to be days. There was a substantial puddle of standing water on the floor. If there wasn't mold growing in that room before, if this water was to stay there, there would be soon. So, we weren't able to perform the inspection and the seller supposedly got a contractor in there that night to try and assess the situation. Although we are going to be buying the place As Is, as you have to when it's a foreclosure, since this was NOT the state the house was in when we signed the contract, they agreed to fix it. So, once we hear back from our realtor that they have fixed those problems, then we can reschedule the inspector and move forward. At this point I feel like we are going to be living in this hotel forever.

Oh, one more thing before I sign off for now, I found a job that was posted yesterday that I would love to get. The title is DNA Analyst 1 and I would be working in Lorton, VA which isn't too far from Springfield. I applied online and also left a message and sent an email to them. If I don't hear anything back today about the questions I asked, I'll call again tomorrow. If I was to get the opportunity for this job, I would still take the GRE but wouldn't go to grad school. At least, not yet. This is the exact job I've been looking for, but most of the time you have to have a Master's degree to even be considered. This is an exception. I would definitely still like to go back to school to further my education, but maybe this place would reimburse schooling. Who knows? But I was excited about finding it nonetheless. Cross your fingers for me that I'll at least get an interview. I don't have any experience doing that kind of work except for the couple month internship I had way back in the fall of 2001. But I'm hoping since I do have 2.5 years of lab experience plus that little bit of time with the internship, that they would at least give me an interview. And then they would be mine....Ha Ha Ha....

Au revoir for now.