Sunday Smash

Leslie and I ate some really great ($$$) food last night. Dan and Molly invited us to go to The Melting Pot with them. I had never been before and neither had Dan, but Leslie and Molly had been. We ordered the Fondue Feast, a 3 course meal you cook yourself for only $86 per couple. That expensive, but it was a real dining experience I suppose, not just a meal. The whole dinner took 3 hours, and the desert was amazing. Brownies, rice krispie treats, strawberries, bananas, oreo covered marshmellows, cheesecake, which you can dip in chocolate. Although it was pretty expensive it was very good.

Leslie and I both have Memorial Day off. I'm very excited about that. Since today is Sunday, it really is only like Saturday, when you think about it from that point of view. I took Walter over to Leslie's store yesterday and we went out to lunch. All the girls in her store were going crazy over Walter. For someone who gets so much attention, he's very apathetic towards people. He'd give his tail a quick wag, let them pat his head once, then he'd turn his head and be done with them. That's just how he is, not affectionate at all. He got really, really hot though from being outside and called it a day early. He slept the whole car ride back and the rest of the day yesterday too.

I've still been doing yardwork and cleaning up the house. I'm really happy with how things have turned out in one year. Next Saturday, I'm participating in "Motor City Makeover" with a church here. We go into Detroit, to houses that look abandoned, and fix them up for people. I wanted to do it to give a little something back, and it might be sort of fun. I'm going to be scraping the outside of a house and doing painting on it. It's in inner city Detroit, so that should be interesting.

Leslie's getting a new car this week. She's ending her lease early on her Jeep Liberty because she's over on her mileage and buying a new Ford Escape. The key word is BUYing. I'm so proud of her. Actually, she told me to pick it out and work out the deal, so I helped her with that. She was going to have to pay a huge amount of money in mileage, like, thousands, so this is cheaper. Plus Chrysler is bankrupt, and the Escape is very efficient for an SUV. So I'm happy for her.

Work, I don't really want to re-hash here. Let's just say I'm looking for another job, and I really want another job. I'm sort of "done" with this one, mentally and physically. I put in my time, and get out. The politics, negativity, and fakeness of that place is not for me anymore. I felt like I joined some sort of fraternity by working there, and it's completely unprofessional and not a good place to work as a first job, in my opinion (i.e. not a good place to develop professional work habbits). Anyway, I'm looking and I hope I can make a change soon.

That's about all for now I suppose. June is going to be a great month because Dad is coming up, and Paul, and Lindsey, so lots of good visitors!

Before and After

I don't mean to boast, I really don't...but I'm PROUD of my yard and its progress in one short year. The original owners of my house were "naturalists" as the neighbors put it. That's a nice way to say they didn't believe in using chemicals or even pruning/clipping hedges. Everything was just free to grow. As a result, the yard and landscaping looked like this when I bought my house in July 2008.


I suppose I really should have written this post in July, to commemorate 1 year of owning my house, but that will be a different post. For now, since it's spring and things are blooming and green, I want to focus on changes that have taken place to the exterior of my house since I've bought it. Thanks to help from Mom and Dad (providing a Japanese Maple, and pulling out old hedges), Leslie (being a BIG help with labor, and planting a tree), a co-worker (for using his SUV to pull out a small tree), and Scotts turf builder this is what I have so far this year:



I can explain about the improvements. First of all, we have landscape edging, which I feel provides a nice divide between yard and bed. It's relatively inexpensive for the look it gives, and just takes time to put down. There is red lava rock as a bedding, and under the red lava rock is a weed barrier. Under the week barrier is a mixture of Preen pellet weed killer and liquid round up, mixed for a toxic solution to ward off weeds. Don't judge me. As far as foliage goes, the small items on the ground are a blue star juniper (soft to touch) and a yellow/green juniper srub. These don't spread too large if taken care of. Next, is my favorite. A red lace leaf Japanese maple. It survived the winter and looks amazing. This small tree is gorgeous. I have two large boulders on the ground for a backdrop, and solar lanterns that give off a nice dim light at night...it looks amazing. Then there's the gnome who protects this area, his name is Barnaby. Moving on down now there is some sort of small evergreen tree, this was already here when I bought the house, we just trimmed it. Then there is a small green leaf Japanese maple that my dad brought me from South Carolina. This one is still very young and is staked to be straight. Then there is another evergreen, and on the end of the house is a weeping cherry tree. All of these should not grow much larger, just more robust if trimmed and taken care of. The weeping cherry tree looks excellent in spring, and is a popular corner garnish for houses in my neighborhood.

So, this is what I've been busy spending my days working on this spring, and I still need to finish up (if you can see, more lava rock needs to be put down on the end). Take a look at the grass though. That's a big improvement in just one season. I'm very happy with it and I've had a great time working on it. This is a fun part of home ownership to me!

Also:
- Leslie and I are coming to South Carolina July 2 - 5
- Go see State of Play in theatres
- Happy Mothers Day mom, I love you!

Meet Barnaby S. Greenthumb

Take a look at this great landscaping work Leslie and I did this weekend! It's about 70% finished now, but will still take more time until complete. I will take some complete pictures, but for now, this is what the front looks like. The lights are solar and give off a nice ice blue color, and reflect off the Japanese Maple and large rocks. It looks amazing at night and I have a wonderful girlfriend who helped me!

Tomorrow is our 5th month anniversary together. We're going to celebrate in Plymouth.

Orange Chicken and Water Chesnuts

That's what I ate tonight and it was really good. Is it weird to just do lists instead of writing? I'd rather list things than write them down and worry about the "flow" of something. So I'll do it. I'll do it because I think it's logical and I like it, and I'm a little hamster following cheese all day at work with menial rules and tasks, so I'm going to rebel. Let's go, come with me!

- Leslie and I. Gosh, where do I begin? This is like a mad, true love. I didn't know you could fall more and more in love with someone each day. I thought you just fell in love, and that was it, you were in love with them. This is growing. The more I learn about her the more I love. I wouldn't change ONE thing about her...not ONE thing, and that's an honest fact. I love everything about her. I love how she takes care of her sister and brothers with things like Easter, how she helps them with school stuff, how she does an amazing job at work, how she's responsible, how she's caring, supportive, and builds confidence. It's just amazing and this is going somewhere awesome, beyond what I imagined.

- I went to Dan and Molly's wedding this past weekend (Leslie came too). It was nice, very low key and laid back, but tasteful and it looked good. Next weekend we have another wedding (Leslie's friend). So, this past weekend I was a groomsman and Leslie's was executive assistant to the groomsman. This coming weekend she will be a bride's maid and I'll be an executive assistant to the bride's maid. Isn't that neat how it works out that way? We can swap jobs on consecutive weekends.

- Possible 5 day Labor Day trip to South Carolina (Charleston)

- I've listed out home improvements I'd like to do, both interior and exterior. Does anyone have any foliage ideas? I want evergreen, small, and easy to maintain. I love Japanese Maple and already have two of them. I'm exciting about spring and planting and doing yardwork. I had my large 3 foot diameter maple tree trimmed this morning. It was "crowned" which is when the lower limbs are removed and the tree canopy is lifted so branches don't come close to the ground. It looks good, and I love that tree for it's shade and size.

Gosh, this post was all over the place. That's mostly what's been going on with me. I want to get Walter a little brother or sister, he seems so lonely but I want to hold out for a little while. That's it for now! I'm going to update the Pokemon of the week now. Have a cup of green tea and a few mango slices while looking at a few pictures from the weekend:

Grass

I have grass growing now! This is a momentous time for me. Since I've owned my house I've dealt with looking at dirt and weeds and random grass sprouts. Raking the lawn cleaned up a lot of dead grass. The front yard is finally growing. There are teeny tiny little sprouts coming up. I'm excited.

I did the back yard tonight. I finished raking it, then seeded it and fertilized it. Hopefully the resutls in the back will go well. I think we only have a few more weeks left until leaves start to fall so I'd like to get some grass before then.

Tonight I'm going to do research on grad schools. It is something I am considering, an MBA. I feel like I want to further myself and keep moving. I do NOT want to become stagnant and common place. I know now, if I'm not challenged my mind will rot. I need something to stimulate it, pretty much at all times. I hate not being productive with my mind.

Speaking of being productive, I think laughter is a good thing. Especially when you're on the edge of using language you normally wouldn't because a program is being retarded. For example, this afternoon I had a headache, and I was dimensioning a drawing. At times, the dimensions did not want to cooperate and it was getting rather frustrating. This went on and on, and I would simply recite to myself (maybe my lips even moved, I'm not sure) "NOOO stupid, that's NOT what I meant". Stupid refers to the computer by the way. This went on and on for a while, then one of those friendly little warning boxes with a red "x" popped up, and said:

"At this time, it is impossible to dimension the selected element"

Right. At this time it's impossible. First of all, nothing is impossible. Second of all, how is it impossilbe at this time? Will it be possible 5 minutes from now? Maybe. Yes, it will be possible. I know it's possible because I did it. But not before I did a print screen and taped the warning sign to my computer so I can remember how a little warning box can sound so stupid, but make you laugh.

Mail to ME Please

I'm declaring this week "send David mail week". I've been getting an awful lot of store advertisements and decided instead of that and bills, I'd like REAL hand written addressed letters and/or postcards from people. With real, peel and stick stamps (the lickable ones are OK too). So, can you make it happen?

If you're a complete stranger from some random place that reads this blog, I will be happy to give you my address in exchange for mail.

Thank you.

What I Did This Weekend

I think I accomplished a lot this weekend. As I sit here relaxing now I have a sense of accomplishment. Saturday I helped my friend Bill from work fix his windshield wipers on his car, and then he came over and helped me finish the electrical outlets in my house. They have all been changed out now. We both got shocked, again. For some reason random outlets are not on the same circuits as the rest in the room, so you get a nice suprise when you touch the bare outlet. It doesn't hurt, but just suprises you. It takes around a second or two for your brain to register that the feeling you are experiencing is you being shocked, and you should let go. Bill got it pretty bad, I heard his yell quiver as the juice was going through him.

Today I completely pulled up all the ground cover in the front of the house to prepare for some landscaping that's going to happen when mom and dad come. I left the small trees, but pulled up all the garbage and weeds. It looks better. Then, I came inside and painted the small bedroom. The result is below. I'm very pleased, I think it came out amazing.

Where did I get that really cool black chair you ask? I'm glad you did. I bought that today for $20....$20!!! It was the last day of a yard sale and everything was half off. Baaaaargain.

I like my Honda a lot, but I swear, for a car that is bigger than my Saturn it sure doesn't hold odd things like my Saturn could. I think the Saturn had larger doors and a larger trunk opening, because I remember fitting some pretty large/odd things in that car. The Honda just can't really hold much. It has lots of interior space, but the openings are small. When I bought that chair and tried to load it in the car I got really scared because it wouldn't go in the trunk, and not in the back seat. Finally I pushed the passenger seat back as far as it would go and then laid it down, and shoved the chair in. So I got it home. It had cat hair all over it I had to vacuum up, but for $20 I'm happy. It's a great chair to read in and is very comfortable.

Bill brainstormed turning the living room into a theatre with a projector and movie screen. I like that idea...a LOT. Maybe with more money...

Maple Me Crazy

I've been doing a lot of outside work on my house lately. It's a slow process. Very slow. There are so many weeds. Tiny, little weeds that take forever to pull up. You should see some of the root systems on these weeds too. I like laughing when I pull them up though because although the root system is large, it's really pretty weak and chinsy. They're fun to pull up.

I have a really nice plan for the front of my house. A Japanese theme. You wouldn't think that would fit Michigan, but it will. Another house in my neighborhood has a Japanese themed front and it looks really great. When I say Japanese themed I mean lots of rock, and small pruned trees. I got my inspiration from two small trees that are already in front of the house that look Japanese like. Then, I saw a gorgous red tree that looked like a marijuana plant outside of a house and found out it was a Japanese Maple. Look!

Today after work I needed to get some things at Home Depot and they didn't have any Japanese Maples. I went to a nursery close by and they had about 20 of them. The problem is Japanese Maples are really expensive. The cheapest they had was $99. Luckily my dad is able to get one for me from a lady he knows. So I can hopefully get a free one. I'm excited about that and the landscape work to come.

This weekend I'm hoping to paint the small bedroom and finish up changing out the electrical outlets. This blog is becoming like a home improvement blog, but I guess I can post about other things next time. Stay tuned.

Some Pictures

I decided to post a few pictures of the rooms I've painted so far in my house. I've done the family room, dining room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms. I still have the living room, hallway, bathroom, and one bedroom left to do. Hopefully you like it, I'm pretty pleased with the results!

I'm Back

So many things have happened since I last posted! First off, I didn't get internet until this past Tuesday so that's why there was no posting.

I have internet now, so I can post. I guess since the last time I posted I have officially moved in my house and am now living here. This past weekend Paul and Lindsey came up to visit and made it one of the best weekends ever. I had my housewarming party this past Friday night and a huge number of people showed up. Some people I didn't even know. I'd say there were around 30 people here at any given time. It was a lot of fun though.

I'm going to have to start posting some before and after pictures of rooms in my house. I have painted 2 bedrooms, the family room, and the dining room. I still have to finish the kitchen, living room, hallway, and small bedroom.

I've also been doing some outside work with the yard and landscaping. I want to plant a small Japanese maple in the front of the house. They stay pretty tiny and I think they look really cool.

I'll post more later, but I am back.

Green is Go

The green bedrooms are staying. I was going to paint them darker tonight, but realized do I really want to spend $60 and 10 hours or so going a shade darker? You're right: NO.

So they look good now. I think it will really become whole once my furniture is there. I move in tomorrow, by the way. The inside is starting to come together now. I have the family room painted in a warm grey with white trim. The fireplace looks awesome there with the grey brick around.

Tomorrow I will be taking pictures to show you the fruits of my labor.

I Though Being Green Was Good

The green idea in the bedroom is a mixed one. Nobody will flat out say they don't like it, and I think I've only had ONE truly positive comment. What I get in person is them walking around, and then a "hmm, it's kinda limey" or "hmm...it looks really bright in this light" or something to that effect. The reactions I get in person are someone basically walking around, and thinking VERY carefully about their response. They have to think how to plan a response that sounds neutral. So now when someone walks in one of the green rooms I just watch their face to see what they think. Those response that AREN'T really responses are the worst. Examples:

"It's green alright"
"It's different"
"It's bright"
"Well, you could change it later" - that's the WORST

I honestly don't know how I feel about it. Looking back, I wish I wouldn't have taken Paul's wife's advice and gone a shade lighter than I originally wanted. Even though I may be colorblind I can still pick stuff out. I've been to their house and all their colors were pale. I like a little darker. I may go darker.

I'm honestly still convinced once I have my dark brown/black furniture in there it will all come together. Blank rooms always look scary, to me atleast. The family room is coming along in grey with white trim. It's not as daring, so I think I'll have a more positive response.

All I know is this house isn't going to have any white walls. I saw Terissa today and told her she needed to come take a look and she smirked and said "I'm nervous for you". I asked her why and she said "well, you're colorblind and picked out colors...that's scary David" and then she walked away. Ooof.

I Need Your Opinion Below, But Here Are More Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the living room and one of the hallway looking down towards the bedrooms. This will all be painted "classic taupe". Behr lists this color as the most popular in all regions of the country. A nice deep beige looks really classy and clean to me. With white trim to make it pop ofcourse...

What's Your Opinion?

I've spent a lot of time painting. I'm taking my time, because I want my house to look good...fabulous actually. I took a BIG gamble with 2 bedrooms. I wanted a green with white trim, if you remember. Paul's bedroom looked really good in green. I had originally picked out a darker, more deep olive green, but was told by a wife of a co-worker (she came over and looked at the lighting) to go a shade lighter, since my rooms are dark because of large trees that shade the windows. So, I went with "grass cloth". I spent 2 days doing 2 bedrooms. One of them is 12 x 10, and the other is 13 x 10. When I first applied the paint I flipped out because it looked neon green. It dried darker, and in the back bedroom is turned out really good (I think). The front bedroom is a little lighter, so the green looks lighter in there.

I'm mixed. Sometimes I walk in the bedrooms and think it looks really vibrant and good, and then other times I walk in and think it's a nursery or it's way too loud for a bedroom. Here are some pictures. Tell me what you think...honestly!

..."To Make it Pop"

I'm a homeowner now. It feels more real and exciting as each day goes by. It feels so real because I got the first water bill in the mail today: $334. Apparantly the lady who lived here didn't think she needed to pay her water bills, and racked up $198 in late charges. The water bill comes every 3 months and includes water, sewer, trash pickup, yard waste pickup, and recycling, so $130 or so is pretty reasonable I think.

I have really nice neighbors on both sides of me (so far, I think). One set (Joe and Marge) are in their late 60's and have been living there for 30 years. I think that's a good neighbor to have (to keep an eye on the house). The other set is in their late 30's or so with 2 girls, around 11 and 13 if I had to guess. I can't remember their names though.

So far I've mowed the lawn and cleaned the gutters. The yard is bad, really bad. The landscaping and lawn needs major work. I also patched a hole in the wall tonight. It was the size of a broom handle, and it was in the dining room. I was really proud of myself. It took me an hour or so, but that's because every time I smoothed it out I thought I could do it a little better if I did it once more, and that became a cycle of insanity so I stopped after it was level and smooth. I also sanded down some other patches that were done previously.

I'm excited about painting. I have some paint colors picked out. I want to do the living room, kitchen, dining, and bathroom in a light brown/beige color. The family room I'd like to go with a light grey. For the bedrooms I'd like to do an olive green color (the one I picked is called Guacomole) for 2 of the bedrooms, and then a blue/grey color for the really small room. White trim throughout to make it "pop". I love the floors in this house too. The living room/hall/bedrooms are a light natural oak color with thinner planks.

If you have any paint ideas let me know! Don't let me know if it's yellow though, because I don't like that.

Are you wondering how the game convention was in Ohio. Let me just say that Ohio (yet again) is a collection of NUTS. Being in Ohio is bad, being a game convention just exacerbates the weirdness of those people. Seeing grown adults dressed up having sword fights and rolling around on the ground is sad...very sad.

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Gosh I haven't posted in a long time. The summer will do that to you. That and buying a house.

Tonight is my last night of not owning a home. Tomorrow, I officially become a home owner. That's a scary thought but it's exciting at the same time. I think this makes you grow up really fast, owning a home. The responsiblity seems to be overwhelming. I'm looking forward to the challenge though.

I'm taking a half day at work tomorrow. I'm going to do a final walkthrough of the house and the closing is at 12:00 PM. This weekend I'm going to the land of the weird (Ohio). Dan and Terissa and I are going to meet Alex in Columbus for a board game expo. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and there will be lots of fun games to play.

The first thing I have to do with my house is patch a few spaces in the walls and do some painting. I will be moving in very slowly. Housewarming gifts are always welcome...because I'll need lots!

Maybe you're wondering about what happened with that email at work? Nothing. My boss brought it up jokingly, but didn't make a big deal about it and nothing ever happened. That was scary though.

I'll post back after I have my new house!

A Sunday Update

Yesterday was the home inspection for the house it seems like I'll be getting. Overall everything checked out OK. For some reason only 3 of the 4 burners on the furnace would ignite so the inspector suggested a heating and cooling specialist come take a look at it and give it a tune up. I didn't know you could tune furnaces up, but I guess you can.

There were a few other things also, like an exposed wire outside that needed to be taped up, and the driveway had settled some so it wasn't exactly level. That's expensive to replace and not very important to me.

I didn't have to pay for the inspection either which was nice, my agent covered that. So things are moving along and the closing of the house is scheduled for the end of this month.

I haven't really done much at all this weekend, it's been pretty boring/dull. I've done a lot of reading. Yesterday I played 2 games over at Alex's. I guess that's really about it. I miss Walter a LOT and wish he were here to take on walks and get me outside. I hope I can get him back very soon.

What You've Been Waiting For

The Pokemon of The Week is a good one this week, if you ask me. While finding this Pokemon of The Week I learned that this particular PT Cruiser was given away in some sort of contest. What is important to know, is that someone from OHIO of all places won this car. If you've read this blog or know me at all, you know what I think of people from OHIO. They all have a few screws loose in one way or another, for good or bad. It's fitting, that this car goes to someone from OHIO though. It doesn't belong in any other state.

This weekend was LOT of fun, mainly because of Saturday. I spent the day with a few other people from work at Ford's Proving Grounds for an SAE conference. The morning was a panel discussion about Engineering for a Sustainable Future. Speakers were there from Ford, GM, Tesla, and Toyota. The afternoon is where the real fun happened. We spend about 4 hours on their test track doing anything imaginable in cars WE got to drive. There were 9 events, and they shuttled groups all around the proving grounds to different drive events. We started driving Ford Fusions on a wet track to test the car's stability under wet roads. Then we drove Ford Taurus's through a slalom course. I LOVED getting in the car and being told to get the car to 60 MPH as fast as I could, and take it around a hairpin turn, with the rear end sliding around. Next, we took Ford Edges/Lincoln MKX's through a slalom course. This time I was driving it much more agressively and this event was REALLY fun because of the high center of gravity. The rear end of the MKX I was driving started to slide around in one turn which was so much fun.

The next set of events had the best one of all. It was titled "Giddy Up Mustang". They had drivers for us, and 4 Bullet Mustangs - with V8's and manual transmissions. We had to wear helmets and the drivers asked "How comfortable do you feel being more aggressive?" I told him to be as aggressive as he could, that I wouldn't be scared. It was AMAZING. The car was powersliding around turns and we got air as we went over hills. So much fun. They also had Ford Escapes/Mercury Mariner/Mazda Tribute Hybrid SUV's for us to take around slalom courses. I actually got to drive one with just me and the instructor, and he said he didn't care what I did as long as I didn't hit cones so I drove that one very hard through the course.

The last set of events was made up of high speed driving on a banked track and rough road testing (potholes, cobblestones, etc.). I got to drive the new Ford Flex (the crossover my stabi-link will be on). The high speed driving was made up of a Ford F-150, Flex, Lincoln MKS, and 2 Ford Focuses. There were no instructors present in the cars for the high speed course, you just filled the car with kids and drove the track following a pace car. I got in one of the Ford Focuses with 3 other guys. I was in the backseat and noticed a loud roar from the tires. I learned why. The guy driving got on the backside of the track, and slowed the car way down to get space ahead of him. He was in a spot where the control tower couldn't see him. He punched the gas and got the car up to 90 MPH then yanked up on the emergency brake. The rear tires locked and the car started fishtailing down the course. That was a little scary and definately not allowed. I can imagine the tires on that Focus had a bunch of flat spots in them. Apparantly, those 3 guys had been taking turns driving and doing that to the car the whole time.

It was an AMAZING opportunity though to be at the proving grounds and see how cars are tested. The best part was it was free.

Today I did much of nothing, except for grocery shopping, car washing, and laundry. It was a nice "me" day.

The *maybe* house seems to be more "it will happen" now. The price has been agreed upon by the bank and I (although a little higher than I originally thought). The closing is supposedly supposed to be at the end of this month which is WAY sooner than I thought. I'm nervous, excited, and I guess some other things I'm not sure of yet. The emotions come and go. Sometimes I think it's scary and I shouldn't do it, but mostly that goes away when I know living in an apartment is an absolute waste of time and money (in my opinion). It will be an adventure, for sure.

One thing I do know is that I love one of Dan's cats: Harley. She is not like any other cat I've met. She comes when you call her, she's extremely affectionate, and she doesn't act ungrateful or hateful like most cats. She's gotten so close with me that I let her sleep up on my bed. This was her today, taking a nap. I'm going to miss her.

Haiti and Pikmin

This is a Pikmin. A red Pikmin. Remember that, I'll come back to it.

At church today we talked about guarding your heart. The pastor talked about being in Haiti on a mission trip. I've never been to Haiti, but I've heard it's a disgusting and filthy with no order, and that they've destroyed all their natural resources. It's a Francophone country, if that gives you a clue...

Anyway the pastor was dicussing when in Haiti he felt overwhelmed because of the large number of non-Christians there. He told us he had NEVER in his life witnessed a "hard heart" when someone said "We should just leave these people alone - this is a lost cause". Ouch.

Ouch to me! This is where that little red Pikmin comes in. When he said that it reminded me of Pikmin. Basically in this game, you are a space captain who crash lands on a planet, and Pikmin are little creatures who help you collect pieces of your ship (or treasures). They are essentially migrant workers. I sometimes called them little Mexicans. Well for the MOST part they were well behaved and listened to my orders. There would however be that ONE ignorant one who would wander astray and try to attack a predator all by himself. By doing that, he would make other Pikmin join in. Why would something only a few millimeters tall try to attack something 20 times its size? Dumb that's why. So when that would happen, I'd walk off and let the 10 Pikmin or so who decided not to obey die for punishment. They should have listened to me. By the end of the game I had lost 1,098 Pikmin. I like to think of that 1,098 as the number of Pikmin who decided to be dumb and kill themselves.

So, is this the same as the Haiti/hard heart reference? Of course not, it's a video game. It just reminded me is all.

I got some news on my *maybe* house last Friday. The case has been assigned to someone at the seller's bank so the process is moving along. Juanita said this normally takes 30 days to do so I guess the process is moving along a little faster than originally planned.

Crysta my car is doing well. I LOVE this car so far. Driving it is a dream and I wish I had enough money to buy another one to keep pristine so in 10 years I can swap over to that one. I think this is the best Honda to date because of looks, gas mileage, and the way it drives. The size is just perfect. It's also denoted as a "ULEV" vehicle which stands for Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle. That's probably just a marketing gimmick because all new cars probably pollute the same but the sticker looks cool and makes me look good with the environmentalists.

Look at the Pokemon of the week. That is probably the MOST unique name I've ever seen for a Pokmeon.

Potential Good News (60 Days Age Time)

I have some good news. It's good news so far, and in 60 days it could still be good or maybe not. The news is that my real estate agent showed me a really great house in Plymouth 2 Saturdays ago - the best house I've seen so far (I think I've looked at 15 or so). The house was priced well, and was a "short sale" which basically means the sellers are going to have to foreclose if they don't sell soon. The catch is they owe more on the house than what they can sell it for, so it goes something like this (in my own paraphrasing method).

Seller: OMG: I have to sell this house for (x) reason, and I can't sell it for what I owe on it...I might have to foreclose.

Bank: We can forgive the debt you owe if you can sell the house, because we don't want to foreclose - maybe - but you're going to have to prove it to us by filling out lots and lots of paperwork - but it's still better than us taking your house.

Seller: I will sell it for the best I can and tell you what I sold it for.

Bank: OK, then we will decide if we want you to sell it for that much and forgive (x) amount of debt.

So that's how it is. Basically Juanita (she's my realtor) threw out the idea of placing a REALLY lowball offer ($50,000 less than asking). She asked for 6% seller concessions too (another $10,000). She plays hardball, but she's justified while doing it - that's why I like her. So I talked to Mom and Dad, and decided to go ahead with the offer having the attitude of "I'll see what happens, I'm 90% sure they won't go for it". The day I signed the offer letter she presented it, and had an answer for me that night. The sellers countered, which I was sure they were going to do, but they countered NOWHERE near what I thought they would. I'll save the actual numbers for later (if it actually works) but feel free to ask me, because I don't care.

So I ran numbers, found out that a mortgage for this house (with taxes and insurance) would be about $350 more per month than my current apartment. I would have a garage, a yard, a piece of property, a nice house, 2 more bedrooms, a basement, and a Plymouth address. Worth it? For me it is. I'm tired of this renting garbage. I haven't had a "home" since I left for college and I'm ready for something more permanent.

At this point the seller accepted my acceptance of the counter offer and the paperwork is going to the bank. I've been told short sales take about 60 days to process (which puts me into July for an answer) then another 30 days to actually close and move in (which puts me into August). That fits in with my original plan and I would get the house for about $15,000 less than the average home price in Plymouth. Here's a picture of the house. It's cookie cutter yes, but the neighborhood is wonderful, the school district is probably one of the best in Metro Detroit, and Plymouth made the 37th best place to live in the U.S. this year.

So we shall see what happens. If it's meant to be it will happen. If not, then no. I'm not excited yet because a LOT can happen. I'm sure I'll give updates (but I have 2 months to wait - so that's not so exciting to post about).