One in Hand is Better Than a Maybe From a Realtor

What do you know? The buyer who might proffer a contract on our house was in fact turned down by another seller, but they did not come back to us, they put another offer on some other house. The result of this is Brandi feeling crushed. Thank you miss realtor. DON'T TELL ME SOMETHING MIGHT BE COMING!!!!!! So the wait continues.

As another weekend comes upon us, we are heading up North. We will have guests this weekend. Kristi, Michael, and Hunter will be spending the weekend with us. Michael is participating in a shooting match held in the foot hills of Mount Vernon. It is trap shooting. That is they shoot at clay disks. Michael won $300.00 dollars last year, though it did not cover the entry fees. But a win of any size is a good thing.

My main focus this weekend will be to find a piece of polished steel to use as a new spindle for the wheel barrow. I think, if I can fine it, then I can buy a new tire with bearings, and we will have a very good wheel barrow.

Not really sure what Brandi will be up to except playing with Hunter. I do know that both of us will do some reading. Later.

Change in the Weather

Wow! Two days ago, I was sitting by our community pool soaking up some rays with the temp at about 80. For the past two days, it has been in the 60s, gray, and wet. Yesterday we had winds up into the 30 mph range, which made the temp feel more like 50 degrees. Looks like more of the same today.

If you noticed, the background on this blog changed. I noticed that all of my children's blogs had some cool background and I thought I would get one. Well, being the dimmest bulb in the chandelier, I had to have DeAnne do it. She picked this one out and I like it. Since we do a lot of travel where they have palm trees, this is appropriate. Thanks DeAnne.

Our realtor has been buzzing that we may get a contract for the Hansville home. Let me explain. There is a family who likes this house, but they also like another house in Poulsbo. They actually like the other house better, so they put an offer on it. The offer they proffered was rejected out of hand. What the buyer wants is going to cost the sell a bundle. So, we told our realtor to contact the buyers and let them know that we would entertain an offer. Our realtor thinks an offer is coming this week.

My feeling on this. Don't be telling you seller something like this until you have it in hand. After waiting 10 months to sell, all this does is create anxiety. Who needs it. Just how disappointed can we be if it does not come through?

An Easy Weekend

Yup, another trip to Mount Vernon. Though this was a relaxing weekend. We had some weather come in and dropped a bit of much needed rain, so we pretty much sat around and read our novels. With regards to novels. I will pick up the latest novel by Riddley Pearson (Killer View) from the Kitsap County Little Boston Library this week and I will have finished reading the new books from my favorite authors. I am reading a novel by Brad Thor called Blowback. Want to see the coolest author's web site? Go to bradthor.com. This is the fourth book by him that I have read. I will finish his remaining three books soon.

We did get out once and bought a much needed new set of cooking wear. The old ones were coming apart, literally. These babies should last a life time. Stainless steel and pricey. I hope the cook appreciates them. LOL We decided to have lunch at Applebee's after spending so much money. We had a gift card, so we thought it wouldn't be to bad. I guess we had used it once before as it had a grand total of $2.39 remaining on the card.

I guess the other things we did was look for a wheelbarrow spindle. That is the part the wheel rides on. The one on our wheelbarrow is shot. It does not appear that replacements exist, so it looks like at some point, we will need to by a new one. Why only pay for a small part when you can buy the whole wheelbarrow? You can find replacement wheels, but not the spindle.

Oh, our Hanesville house was shown on Saturday by a realtor who has shown it once before. No offer yet, but at least someone is looking at it.

What, Mount Vernon Again

We are back from our weekly trip to Mount Vernon (MV). We watered the flower beds and lawns as they were pretty thirsty. It looks like the lawn will go dormant as we are unable to water through the week. I did mow and edge, but that was all the lawn work that was done.

Friday, we got up, had breakfast, and drove down to see if we could find the roses we needed for the memorial rose garden and we did. Brandi planted and mulched them leaving room for Aunt Stell, who is just waiting to cross over. At least we did not get the call this weekend. She is feisty and that is the name of the rose we have selected for her. I guess we stopped at the library first and I was able to pick up two new books from my authors including, Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva and Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman. Finished Moscow Rules in two days. Hey, I am retired. Brandi finished the book Sail by James Patterson. I had finished it a couple of days earlier.

Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, and went down to see the movie Black Night. I know there is a lot of positive talk about this movie, but I frankly saw little redeeming value in it. Gratuitous violence would not describe the stuff that takes place. There is one scene where they show that mankind can fine humanity in tough situations, which was a good thing. I think the hype is for Heath Ledger.

After the movie we did some grocery shopping, which needed to be done for both houses and pretty much read our novels. Needless to say, we did not do our planned bike ride. Maybe next week.

On Sunday, we attended a community church that Brandi wanted to check out. Nice building. Not to ostentatious. The Pastor did a nice job with the sermon in both content and presentation style. The worship team was not as good as the team at Bayside Community Church in Kingston, but it is a smaller unit. I guess I got my hackles up a bit when the worship team leader was talking about having lunch with a Mormon friend (who sounded like he was having a crisis in faith). The worship team leader talked about giving a free will offering after suggesting the LDS Church forced tithing on it's membership. I suspect he and I will have a talk some time soon if we stay at this church. I hate it when other faiths talk about us when they know nothing.

On our way out of MV, we stopped at the library where Brandi picked up a couple of novels for her read. We then headed down to our friends Michael and Susan's house in Everett where a barbecue was planned. We got there and met their friends. Michael works as an engineer with a Boeing contract company. Michael has several friends from different parts of the world. His workers at the barbecue came from England and Brazil. I am moving to Brazil. I can't think of a time when I have been that close to women who are out of this world beautiful. Incredible brown eyes and the rest was pretty incredible as well.

I got to play a couple of games of horseshoes. I am telling this because I won both of the games I played. Though Mike's pits are the pits (grass landing zone instead of sand), I was able to get some early scores and was able to hit the winners before my opponent.

I guess that is all for this weekend update. Oh, our Hansville house was shown on Friday. Yea!!!! No feed back as of yet.

A weekend away-again

Today is Thursday and we are heading up to Mount Vernon again. No surprise there. This weekend will be unlike the others though in that we will not be doing much yard work. It is likely I will have to mow and edge the lawn, but no real back breaking things to do.

But before we go up, we will be having lunch with friends Jim and Gail. They are the parents of the bride Kelly whose wedding we attended on Saturday evening. Well done by the Marriott on the Waterfront. I was not keen on the pastor. Seemed overly anxious and tended to sway during his part. Oh, we are having dinner at a little restaurant in Kingston called the Main Street Ale House. Yup, they do serve adult beverages.

I know too that we have to go to Flower World in Maltby to look for roses, but I don't remember if we are doing that after dinner or coming back down from Mount Vernon. Brandi has made it part of her gardens in the past to make a memorial rose garden for those in the family that have crossed over and that includes pets as well. We have some roses that are missing for those already gone. Either before or after, we will be getting some roses.

So, getting back to Mount Vernon. We will go to the library to return her book that she finished last night and I have to pick up a book by Jonathan Kellerman titled Compulsion. I am slowly working through my authors new books. It is a bit difficult staying up with James Patterson though. I think Saturday morning, Brandi and I are going to take our bikes down to the valley floor and do a bike ride on a very flat piece of road. It runs along the highway and is flat and straight for a couple of miles. Should be a good training ride for some old legs.

One final thought with regards to the results of baby Natty's CPT conference. Actually, I can't write my thoughts as they are hardly Christ like and could be taken as terroristic threats directed at one small, stupid, and self serving bureaucrat in Mr Larson. To make a unilateral decision that goes directly against and entire team speak volumes as to why this state has so many huge mistakes and legal issues with regards to child protection. He should have his social work license removed for endangering his clients, that would be Natty. My only hope is that the team will step up and write the letters that need to be written for a favorable appeal.

I want this little girl in my family. I have to come to love this little muchkin and she will be a wonderful granddaughter to have. And she could not have more loving parents in Jenny and Michael.

Again with Mount Vernon

Well, we will be off to Mount Vernon this afternoon. In route, we will stop and see our financial advisor and discuss the changing stock market and best where to put the green stuff.

Glad to say the vertigo is getting better. The room spins for a little when I lie back, but I look at it as a cheap ride.

We will be in Mount Vernon for only tonight and until Saturday morning. It should be enough time to get the mulch down and mow if need be. We are attending a friends daughter's wedding in Seattle. The wedding and reception are being held at the waterfront Marriott later in the afternoon. Should be a nice affair. I know the bride will be drop dead gorgeous. I've know her and her parents since 2000, and have come to know her personality is as beautiful as is her outside.

This will give us a chance to attend our churches down here. Something we have not been able to do is some time. A chance to see good people.

Pop, Bang, Boom

Well, our trip to the Mount Vernon home did not turn out as expected. Of course it was the 4th of July and all the pops, bangs, and booms were going off as I am sure they were in your respective neighborhoods. Our problem was with Eli. It seems, for some unknown reason, he was more agitated with the noise and colors than in years past. I could tell by his panting that he was getting worked up. I had enough of his barking and charging the bang, so I decided to take him for a ride.

I loaded him up and took him off the hill. Our first stop was at Safeway where I filled up the gas tank to a fine tune of $57.23. We then went over to the shopping mall by Home Depot, which is pretty far from any residential areas. I could still see the flairs and here some pops, but I had the music on and Eli laid down and slept some. Well, about 10:15 P.M., I was feeling pretty tired and decided to head up to the hill hoping most of the banging would be done. Not.

We got in the house and "BANG!". Eli went nuts. Now Brandi is asleep, so I wanted him to be good. I laid on the floor with him and we played roll ball/ fetch. This seemed to take his mind of the popping. It got quiet for a bit and I laid back and actually fell asleep, that is until the next boom sent Eli nuts again. So, we played some more. I was able to lie on my side with head on my arm for awhile. At some time around 11P.M. I had had it and when up to bed.

Upon rising from the floor, I could tell that I had some vertigo. Now, I have had this in the past and it usually hits me one of two ways. One way is when I lie back the room will spin, and this last for a brief time. The other type is when my head feels like a 600 pound ball and whichever direction my head goes, there I go. It is this type that came upon me with a vengeance.

Through the night with my necessary trips the bathroom, I swayed like a drunken sailor aboard ship on rough seas. In the morning, I found my way into my reading room and tried to read, but is was not easy. Oh, I should mention that I awoke with this walnut size feeling of nauseousness, but didn't think much of it. Brandi came up and asked me if I would like something to eat and I did, but not anything big. I asked for an English muffin and a Chai. Well, as it turned out, we did not have any muffins at the house, so she went down to Hagen's and picked up muffins and a Chai from Starbucks. She also talked with a pharmacist who directed her to pick up some motion sickness pills.

She returned, gave me two of the pills and a little water. Down the hatch and not 10 seconds latter, that little walnut size nauseousness came a calling. Needless to say, I will not go into detail. Fortunately, it was quick, violent, and final. No other issues with that.

I ate my muffins and drank my Chai and that was good. The real bite of all this is I was unable to do anything this weekend. That means my plans of getting the mulch down did not happend.

The only good thing that happened was Brandi picked up a new Robert Crais novel that I had on hold at the Mount Vernon Library. Since I could do nothing but sit, I finished it in one day. A good read and was fun to get back to the characters of Elvis Cole and his very lethal side kick Joe Pike.

We are now home and I am still locked into my vertigo. Yea. Oh, and we still own two houses. Not so good.