New House, Old Snake

It's been a long time since I posted, but there are good excuses! We got a house, and we're moving this coming Saturday, so we've been pretty busy packing and planning, etc. As soon as we have our house full of stuff and organized, I'll post some pictures. It really is a beautiful house! We have a ton of people who are going to help us move, and we'll have conference playing on the TV and pizza ordered so it will be like a moving conference party, I guess.

I was down at Mim's a little while ago. I went for Jorgen's birthday, so I spent almost all of Saturday hanging out with him. We went shopping and saw a movie. While I was there, though, I helped my mom get things put together. She's moving back to her big house, so we painted and got floors ready to be installed and stuff. Anyway, she doesn't have a place to keep Roach (her boa constrictor), so she's giving him away. Before he left I got some pretty pictures of him. He was HUNGRY. I would get close to the cage and he would coil up as if to strike me through the glass. But, when we tried to feed him, he wouldn't eat! Weird. Anyway.



He's gorgeous. Six feet long! It's sad to see him go, but it's very expensive to feed a boa constrictor! And dangerous. We always had to keep weights on the top of his cage because even though it supposedly locks he can still muscle his way out. He could have strangled someone easily.

Up And Running

So my toes are healing. They are healing slowly, but healing nonetheless. My feet still hurt, which makes me not want to walk around anywhere. Oh well, there aren't that many places to walk anyway.

I finished a baby blanket for Mim's friend Lisa's granddaughter. It took me about two weeks or so to make it...nothing compared to the one I'm working on now for Scott's sister's baby.

I'm rewatching Gilmore Girls, because it makes me happy.

I got my stuff up and running again at work.

That's basically all the news for now. More later this week, I think.

Intentional Chemical Burns

So yesterday I went into the doc to have him look at some ouches on my toes. I expected him to look and then schedule a surgery, but he did it right there! So, my toes are gross, and wrapped up and swollen, and it was fun to drive home yesterday without being able to feel most of my feet...Hello gas pedal! Hello brakes! I went to work today anyway, since I figured I could figure a way to be sitting most of the day, which I did successfully. Anyway, the procedure was pretty simple, since he just had to work on two of my toes. He got in there and basically gave me chemical burns with sodium hydroxide intentionally, and in specific places, and then put acid on it to neutralize it, and over the next two weeks it will heal and I won't have ingrown toenails any more. Hopefully. Crossing the fingers.

We had a lab meeting today, and they ordered Chinese food, and since I'm on Atkins I couldn't have any and I was so sad because it smelled ridiculously good. And everyone kept trying to get me to eat. It's getting really annoying telling people every single day that I can't have carbs. I explain what I can eat and what I can't, and people still ask every time, and are all like, why don't you eat, blah blah blah? People should mind their own business and stay out of it if they've been told ten times.

I did something difficult today. My boss was talking about a woman at my work yesterday. He was saying things about her weight and eating habits and how she's so fat, blah blah blah. Well, I overheard and was completely offended and very hurt. I mean, if that's how you feel about one fat person, is that how you feel about others? I'm overweight...I hope people don't talk about me behind my back. Anyway, I went into his office today to call him on it. I was so nervous...I didn't know how he would take it. For all I know, he could have gotten mad and said something mean. Anyway, I just went in and told him how I felt, and that it isn't fair to say things about a person behind his/her back, and how if she had heard it she would have been devastated. I said how I was overweight and have a sister who is overweight, and told him he can't understand what it's like, since he's never been overweight. For all we know she could have a thyroid problem or an eating disorder. You just never know. Anyway, he was very gracious about it. He said he wouldn't talk about it any more and that he was glad I was honest enough to just tell him.

New House and Mim

So this weekend was busy, fun, and interesting. We have been looking at this house a few blocks from here. It's a rent-to-own, which is pretty much what we're looking for. We don't want to take out a home loan yet, but we want to start building equity. Anyway, this house is a perfect first flip. It was funny: the first thing we thought when we saw it was, "Hey, it looks like my Mom's house!" Then, when we walked in, we noticed that it had the same layout on the main floor. So we called it Mim's "mini-me" house.

The house is in a good neighborhood, just off the main road we live near. It's close enough that we're still super close to the stores and restaurants and such, but far enough that you can't hear the traffic on that road. It's blue with stony-looking brick accents on the outside and has a reddish-brown fence for the backyard. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom, but hookups in the unfinished basement for another bathroom. It is in really good shape, too. We talked to the owner today and filled out an application and made him an offer, which he took. We talked him down $100 from what he wanted for rent, and we talked him into cutting the security deposit in half! It will basically be a lease for a year with a portion of the rent going toward a down payment on the house, and at the end of the year we have the option to buy, and we are pretty sure we are going to buy it, assuming we can get the loan in a year.

Upstairs there is a wall between the living room and the kitchen that we want to knock out and build a nice island there instead. The way into the backyard is on the side of the house, with this little deck that really looks kinda silly, and doesn't flow. So we're thinking we'd like to put a double door in the dining room leading out to a deck we want to build. Also, we want to finish the basement and add that second bathroom. We figure we'll live in the house for about three years total, doing one project at a time to update and renovate, and sell for a profit. Then we can move to another home and do the same thing. Eventually, we would like to build up enough profit that we could buy a house to live in and buy another to flip, so we could stop moving. We'll see.

We had a three day weekend, and on Friday there were only five samples to test, so I'm betting tomorrow there will be quite a few and I will be there a long long time. Oh well. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to look at my foot and hopefully we can figure out why it's been hurting and swelling.

Scott and I had Mim up this weekend, too. She came up Sunday evening, and we took her to see the house, and we had steaks on the grill for dinner, and we watched TV and talked and had a lot of fun. Then today we all went to look at a different house (for comparison purposes) and we went shopping a little bit. We watched some Stargate and did pedicures and we all slept in today, which was nice. I don't mind getting up so early as much, since it's straightened out my sleep schedule and now I have more energy and don't feel tired during the day as much.
Tomorrow I will go back in to work. That will make three straight weeks of not working a full workweek, so next week will feel so long in comparison! That's ok, I like my job.

I can't believe we're getting a house. I feel like I'm a grownup all of a sudden...it's weird.