he said. she said. a married couple's blog.

Thursday, June 30

We're off to the lake after work today.
Yay, to not working tomorrow.
Boo, to traffic on I270 and I70.

Tuesday, June 28

Keith sent along this link today. Try to throw as many pieces of paper in the trash can in a row as you can, taking into account wind speed and direction (of course). I'm only up to 11, I'm sure you can beat me.

Friday, June 24

photos updated

Brendan's been busy uploading our photos from the past 3 months.

Nate's 2^ndBirthday.

Box Factory/Ellicott City

Mother's Day with my parents.

Erin & Ben's Wedding

Paddy's Birthday and Weekend.

Visiting Steve, Andrea and Kaylee

and finally, my brother's family's going away party.

Wednesday, June 22

new digs

This is our new house. Yes, it is the aforementioned house. We settle mid-July. It's going to be a crazy few months. To the Lake for the 4th, settling on both houses (on the same day), and then to California for vacation in August. My bro is moving, too. His move is much bigger; he's moving to Portland. His company is moving most of its operations out West. They leave the end of the month. I'm totally jealous, of course.

Monday, June 20

on the hunt

Friday afternoon, we went and looked at a couple of houses. Of the three, there's only one possible contender. It's a four bedroom, two and a half bath with almost a quarter acre yard. There is a garage AND a shed. Hardwood floors, and a finished basement. Bren and I have started calling it the "Jesus House."

Now, we were both raised in Roman Catholic households, and if we were going to go to church, we'd go to a Catholic one; however, neither of us have ever seen a house so full of Catholicism. There were photos of Pope John Paul all over, and one of Benedict by the front door. And pictures of Jesus everywhere else. Crucifixes in all the bedrooms. All the books we saw had to do with religion. There were little fonts of Holy Water by every light switch (like these). Everyone was home while we were walking through. Dad and the kids were outside, trying to stay out of our way. Mom was in the kitchen and adjoining family room making coffee cake or some such thing. Brendan said (and I didn't see this, but I believe it) that she sat down at her desk and started reading the Bible.

My grandparents had a photo of the Pope in their house, but only one, probably a single crucifix somewhere, and a "painting" of the Last Supper in the dining room. This house was just over the top, full of Catholic paraphernalia. It beat you over the head.

But the house was really quite good. Some old tiling in the bathrooms, but it was in good shape; and some older kitchen cabinets. It's a strong contender at the moment. They did have an open house on Sunday, so it could be gone by now. It has been on the market for 60 days which is a really long time, even out in Prince William County. Someone might have scooped it up over the weekend.

Friday, June 17

i'm going nuts

I'm at home at the moment, waiting for the repairman. He was supposed to be here at 9, called to say he'd be a half an hour late, and now it's 955. He'll be here sometime, I'm sure.

However, work is a bit insane this week, and I should try and get in at a reasonable time today. Plus, we might be going to look at a few houses tonight. I feel like my body is firing on 8 cylinders, and it could really use another one. Everything's going at hyper-speed. And I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

9:58, thought I saw repairman's truck. Turns out I was wrong.

10:00, repairman here. It was his truck.

Everyone needs something from me. Two projects at work are going full speed, and there didn't seem to be enough time in the day yesterday to get everything sorted. One's settled a bit this morning, but it's likely to just be a lull, and not a full stop. The other, will go and go until August. Good times.

Hopefully I'll make it through everything in one piece.

Wednesday, June 15

RAWR!

I cannot stand stupid people. SP did the dumbest thing, and now I have to fix it. ARG. I really wish they'd stop having him write code. Period.

Tuesday, June 14

one step closer

We came home from our weekend to a contract on the house. Thankfully. It was the most excruciating week. Hopefully it will go smoothly. Now, the search for the new house can really get started. There are a few we've got our eye on. We'll see.

Thursday, June 9

a first

I took my fourteen year-old brother to his first concert last night. We saw Keane & the Killers at Merriweather. It was a good show. Kevin, even smiled, sang along a little and said it was "awesome" which is a lot for a 14 year-old boy. We met up with his friend Zach, and Zach's big brother. Nothing like hanging out with high schoolers to make me feel old. As everyone always says, the Killers but on a fab show. So much energy. There's something about 15,000 people jumping and singing along -- even if it's not my favorite song of theirs.

Today, however, I am completely wiped out. I'm at home; we're getting a new door today. But I couldn't sleep in, just in case someone wanted to look at the house (they didn't), and the window guy was also coming early in the morning (but he forgot to order the plastic thingy that holds the mechanism in), but he wasn't here long.

I just want to take a nap before I have to teach tonight.

Tuesday, June 7

insanity

I am going crazy. Who knew putting the house on the market was going to turn me into a more insane person than I already am. We've had at least two dozen people through to look at it in the three and a half days that it's been up, but no bites yet. It's starting to get frustrating. And it hasn't even been four days yet.

Monday, June 6

eight

Bren and I went to the Outback for dinner on Friday. Not because he wanted to take me out on a Friday night, but because our kitchen is spotless and we didn't want to mess it up. There was quite a wait, and as we were sitting there we noticed there were a lot of girls around the hostess stand.

It all started when I gave them our name. You see, the girl actually standing at the stand could not take our names. I walk up, and she looks at me like I'm a nut-job with an excuse me what are you doing at my stand kind of a look in her eye. "Party of two," I say.
"Did you talk to Mary?"
I'm sorry, what? "Um, who?"
"At the door, she actually has to sign you in."
So I go back to the space between the front doors. And there is Mary (I guess) taking names and handing out pagers. She opened the door for me but didn't say a word about being the one taking names. This makes me wonder, what does the girl at the actual hostess stand do?

So Brendan and I go to the bar, he gets a beer, and since the bar is totally packed we go sit down on a bench near the front door where I tell him what just happened with the supposed hostess. "It makes me wonder what she does."
"Look at them all," Brendan says to me. "There are five of them at the hostess stand and three at the door. What could they all possibly be doing?" Apparently it's quite an operation they have there at the Outback. Taking names, writing them in grease pencil on a chart and showing people to tables is apparently much more difficult than one would imagine. It takes 8 15-17 year old girls to do the job!

Thursday, June 2

finishing line

The house is cleaner than it ever has been before. Glen just finished up steam cleaning the upstairs carpet. Even the wax ring stain from when Brendan put the toilet down on the carpet came up! Amazing. Even the 20 year old carpet looks decent. The kitchen is more streamlined than it has been since we moved in. It even looks spacious. Now, all we have to do is wait. We hit the market tomorrow.