some non house related items...

to say i've been preoccupied lately would be an understatement.. things are crazy busy with work(s), and i've been looking for a new address... but that is not to say i haven't made time to have fun..

i saw Role Models this weekend with KW... it was very very funny. i think i have mentioned before how much i like swearing in movies, well this movie didn't disapoint. there were many times where we were laughing out loud at the screen. seann william scott is a great actor, so is paul rudd. i'm so glad to see him making a comeback. (did he really leave though?)

this morning on my commute to work i ws driving along as i always do, and there was a part of the road that merged from 2 lanes to 1 lane.. people generally weave in one from each lane nicely, there are never any road rage episodes that i've noticed... 'cept for today.. this a-hole in a red chevy sedan who is half a car length behind me to my left decides they want to be ahead of me going into the merge.. i just kept driving towards the single lane maintaining my place in line behind the car ahead of a-hole. so when i was totally in place in front of a-hole she starts honking.. and honking.. and riding on my ass. every time she got so close that i couldn't see her headlights she would honk again. i had about 3 miles till my work and figured she would turn of at some point.. no such luck. she kept tailgaiting me all the way to the office par i work in. i went straight so i could get an iced tea at DD, but she turned into my road honking as i drove off.. there are other businesses on my road, so i am not sure if she works at my company or not.. but i hope to piss her off again some morning.. for the next month, it's now my new goal.

omg.. i just saw that this is 9 posts away from my 1,000th post! woo who!

also.. today is my aunt jules birthday, and i know she's a regular blog reader, happy b-day AJ!

so excited.

woo who! so i submitted an offer on the clover ridge house last night, and this morning they accepted!! i'm so excited. next up is the home inspection, radon inspection and they start the mortgage process.. the sellers want to close more than 2 weeks before we proposed.. so we are going to try to do this in 30 days.. i think that's a little tight, but we'll see. :)

i worked up a little map to illustrate where my new place is in relation to a few places...



(click on the map for a working version)

the volcano icon is my new house!
the red triangles indicate where my two jobs are.. the top one is OBG, the bottom one is the station..
the green man and woman in teh bottom right is where my parents live.
the green man on a horse is Bilo, of course.
the red bed is the block that 2 of my new coworkers live on.

so to say i am so excited would be an understatement.. i'm thinking that i need to have a big birthday party this year and break in the new bar. :)

houseshopping with the roommates.

i looked at about 4 houses on saturday with cath and 2 houses on sunday with mike. i expected it to be easier to house shop with cath, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. she was a "negative nancy" or a "debbie downer" most of the day.. when she didn't like something she didn't keep it to herself.

on saturday we looked at two new places and 2 places that i had looked at before. nothing really caught my eye..

sunday KM and i had planned to go to two more places. negative nancy wanted me to cancel the day, saying it was a waste of time, but mike and i were glad we didn't listen. i think i found a house i am going to put in an offer on. :) actually both the places today were great.



clover ridge
this is listed as a 2 bedroom, and i guess technically it is, but it's got a LOT of room. my bedroom could be on the 1st floor, there is a 3-4 season brick room with a gas fireplace/stove, a room i could use as a studio, the kitchen has decent space and is open to the living room. there is a converted attic that is a good sized bedroom, the downstairs is very dry ad mostly finished. there is a laundry room with a cedar closet and brand new washer/dryer, and a rec room that could sleep many easily witha full wet bar at one end. it has 5-6 stools.. and another fridge.. there is also a 2nd stove/oven in the basement. you can shut all the doors to the rooms you are not using, and save on heating.. there is also 4 zones of heating, so you can turn the thermostats down in areas you are not using. the garage is one car, but it's really large. and the best part of the whole place is that it's been meticulously maintained by the previous owners. there is a new roof, new windows, and all the appliances stay. i'm really excited about this one...

listing | my pics



mosley
this place is on a hill, it has a VERY small garage, but a big enough to turn around in driveway. it's an old style house, it has old windows though. there is a sun room, an open living/dining room, hardwood floors, three bedrooms, the 3rd being a loft/style. it's really cool... the fridge is okay, the bottom shelf has broken off the inside of the fridge.

listing | my pics

so all in all househunting with mike was much more productive. ;)

we also drove by the house caths grandmother lived in on plymouth drive.

more of the same

tomorrow cath and i are going to look at a few places and then a few more on sunday, but only after i sleep in.

cath and i are trying to catch up on the DVR...

working so much has made me rather boring i think..

but i did have something exciting happen to me today.. i got my award in the mail! woo who. i need to expense that. i'll take a picture soon.

i've been reading a lot lately about eating raw.. and i stumbled upon this website today... it makes me so inspired to make some of these delicious sounding recipes.

here is a link that caught my attention this morning.

amazing race - episode 6

i missed most of this last episode due to a craptastic date, but lucky me caught the very end.

HEKD things weren't looking good for you... but luckily you squeaked out a win.

rebecca aja and ty (ninjas)
cathy andrew and dan (frat boys)
mike mark and bill (comic book geeks)
amanda nick and starr (brother & sister)
ryan terence and sarah (newly dating)
emily anthony and stephanie
hope ken and tina (football player & cheated on wife)
dan marisa and brooke (southern idiots)
sarah kelly and christy (divorcees)
jr toni and dallas (mom & son)

house looking...

so saturday was rather exhausting looking at 9 places, but i got a good idea of what my money is going to get me.. we looked in two areas primarily... east syracuse and eastwood (a division of syracuse) i saw an adorable place in east syracuse that was built in the 1930s and looks like it wasn't touched since then. it had beautiful woodwork, but the kitchen was nearly unusable, and the bathroom was just as bad..

i found i am really drawn to natural woodwork. it killed me in some places where the owners had painted the woodwork.. all of it. badly..

one place we looked at on sunday had 2 dead mice in the kitchen... we skipped looking in the nooks and crannies of that place for fear of what else we would find.

one place i had to go to the bathroom really badly, and only after i went did i realize that they had turned off the water. :( oops... sorry.

i've kind of fallen in love with this one... listing | my pics
it's very open.. had a lot of parking.. a beautiful deck, new windows, newer appliances. a decent basement. a huge attic, looks like its been insulated.. cute bathroom.. central air...

there are a couple of others that i liked as well..
this one | listing, and
this one | listing...

weekend wrap up.

this weekend was quite exhausting.. i spent a great deal of it looking at houses. i looked at 12 in total, 9 or so on saturday, and 3 more today. there is one that i really like, but of course its the one at the top of my price range. i saw some beautiful old woodwork, as well as some frighteningly horrible painting and do-it-yourself jobs... i also am horrified to see that people paint over woodwork. it pains me to see that.

when i wasn't looking at houses i was eating with JBP and SF. we met at SFs this morning for a delicious egg casserole and bagels. little KF is crawling now. she's so cute. i also saw a movie and had dinner with DFG. never again. i am livid.. the plan was to meet at the theater and then get dinner.. i was less late, so i got us tickets. i got a "thanks" as we headed into the theater. no big deal. i figured that i would pay that much less for dinner... well... it was suggested that we just go to the crappy ruby tuesdays in the mall. i vetoed that, saying that i hate RTs. so i offered up one of my winning gift certs at either gentiles, or coppa de copani. we tried the former, but were told they were closing an hour early and had already closed the kitchen. so we went to CdC. they were still serving.. i ordered the eggplant and a glass of wine for a total of about 17. i had a $25 gift cert too.. he ordered a $15 meal. the bill was $35. he says, "how much is tip?" like he's just going to throw in the tip. i said, "well, the difference is about $24." not even mentioning that he owes me $7.50 for the movie ticket.... he puts a $10 in the check book, i looked at him. he was putting away his wallet. i was dumbfounded. then he says, "thanks for taking me out". wtf!! i don't even like this guy. i was going out because i was feeling pity on him. i can't even believe he didn't pick up the rest of the check. when we got out to the parking lot i quickly said goodbye and he said, "if you find yourself with lots of spare time let me know". yeah, sure guy.. when i have a free moment from my 55 hour work week i will surely waste it on your cheap loser ass. fat chance a-hole.

ugh. i wanted to write some pros and cons about the houses and the experience in general that i've had so far, but i am too angry write now to write that up... maybe tomorrow.