Got Kim a new phone yesterday. Droid Incredible 2. Has a video call camera. Got it in time to still get the unlimited data plan… Sweet.
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In a chat about Rianna, Kim says:
Apparently Rianna and Kim just had this exchange: Rianna: “Mommy, where’s daddy?” Kim: “At work.” Rianna: “At the castle?” Kim: “Uh, you think daddy works in a castle?” Rianna: “Yeah.” Rianna, sitting in Damien’s chair, is eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and asks, “Daddy, are you a ‘W’?” I’m at a loss for words so I say, “Sure, I’m a ‘W’.” She, of course, has had this joke already planned out so she says, “I’m a ‘M’, mmmmmm.” Then she turns around and looks toward the bathroom, where mommy is dropping a deuce. She says, “Mommy, what one are you?” Kim can’t hear her of course, so I say, “Mommy’s pooping… so she must be a ‘P’, heh.” Rianna smiles at this, then says, “I don’t want poo poo in my mouth, daddy,” she points at her belly, “it fill me up to my mouth and I spit it out, ptoo, yuck.” Again, I’m at a loss… Next month is apparently “National Preparedness Month.” I checked the associated website, www.ready.gov, and I came away not knowing exactly what it is I’m supposed to be prepared for. Therefore, I’m going to prepare myself for the eventuality of the Earth being overrun by zombies. The preparations will include shooting drills (aim for the head!), bite avoidance training (stay out of arm’s reach!), and reading of http://www.zombiedefense.org. This is a little bit out of character, but I’ve just had probably my best Realtor experience ever and I feel like sharing. Two years ago I had temporarily transferred out to Virginia and had left my home in Idaho to be rented out. It was supposed to be a temporary assignment and I had intended to move back into the Idaho house at the end. Unfortunately Micron did some layoffs and I had to get a new job. The new job didn’t pay as much as the old one, which meant I couldn’t afford to pay the difference between the rent and mortgage anymore, which meant it was time to sell the Idaho house. I started the process in April. I found a Realtor by doing a quick Internet search and chose the first one with a decent website. The logic being that a good Realtor will be well ranked in the search, and will put some effort into their website. I chose http://www.idahoproperties.com. I was quickly contacted by Zachary Lopez and we started the process. Zachary started off by checking out the property and sending us a bunch of nice pictures of the current state of the home. I knew it would be difficult with the tenants still living there, but we had to at least give it a shot. Our first problem was that I hadn’t lived in the home long and hadn’t paid down the principal much. Luckily I had bought the home before prices had spiked a few years ago, and the payoff was at least close to the current market prices. We decided it was worth trying at a higher price, just in case, and that we would lower the price when it looked like there was no interest. There was no interest. We even had a complaint from another Realtor about the price per square foot! It was even more difficult since one of the tenants worked nights and the home could therefore not be shown during the day while she was sleeping. The tenants finally moved out at the end of June. This put me in an even worse situation with the mortgage, but it wasn’t as if I could afford it anyway. Zachary suggested we leave the price as-is for just a bit since it could be properly shown now, and I agreed. We left it that way for a couple more weeks, still without offers. Finally, we decided it was time and lowered the price. I decided on a price that I thought would leave enough room to pay off the loan, but when the offers started coming in I found out I was mistaken. Zachary, seeing my situation, helpfully offered to reduce his commission to 1%. It helped, but when the offers peaked it still wasn’t high enough to pay off my mortgage. I shared my payoff documents with Zachary and he spoke with the buyer’s agent. Things weren’t looking good for completing the sale and paying off my mortgage. Then, Zachary came through and took the bullet. He offered to pull out of the sale thereby removing his 1% from the equation and making my payoff possible. This just happened on Friday, so the sale hasn’t happened yet, but with Zachary’s sacrifice it looks like there may yet be a happy ending. Thanks for everything, Zachary! I can easily say you have my recommendation to anyone looking for an honest and hard working Idaho Realtor. Ramen noodle soup …but I can’t get enough of The Penguins of Madagascar cartoon. I don’t even pretend to record it so my daughter can watch it, I record it so I can watch it. I will be sad when it is gone. Yesterday was Father’s Day. I’m a big fan of any day that gets me special treatment, and yesterday was just that sort of day. Unfortunately it started off painfully, with Rianna’s normal wake-up procedure requiring my attention every half hour, until Kim got up with Damien around 8-ish. But after that it was beautiful. I was allowed to sleep undisturbed until just about 11 when Rianna came in to wish me Happy Father’s Day and I was informed breakfast was waiting. Breakfast was IHOP take-out. Kim had taken the kids and picked up breakfast while I slept. She rocks. I ate too much, but it was good. Then I was hurried up into the shower to get ready for something, but that apparently didn’t include leaving the house because Kim wasn’t getting the kids ready to leave. I was suspicious. And what do you know, there’s Guillermo pulling up with his bike racked up on his roof! I didn’t catch on until I noticed Kim wasn’t surprised that he was there. Since I rarely spend time away from the house without the kids, she had apparently decided I should go out and have fun without them. It was very thoughtful of her, and much cooler than most of my attempts at thoughtful gifts. So we brushed off my bike, oiled up the rusty chain, and headed off to Wakefield Park, in Annadale. I was a little worried about being so out of shape and attempting any kind of crazy bike ride with Guillermo, but it ended up being at least as much fun as pain. We took a few interesting detours before hitting the main trail and making our way all the way around lake Accotink. At one point I had the pleasure of experiencing a mud puddle in my eye, but after a good water-bottle flushing I was back on track. Near the end of the ride there was a really long up-hill slog, and when we stopped to rest at the end of it I had my first experience ever of nearly puking from overexertion (though I’m betting the big breakfast didn’t help). I survived and we had some fun downhill stuff on the way back to the car. After a good, hard, muddy ride what do we do? Yup, catch a movie. We made our way to a theater in Fairfax (yes, still mostly mud-splattered) and got there just in time for Star Trek. I’m happy to report that it was a thoroughly enjoyable action flick, (with all kinds of terrible physics) and I am looking forward to the sequel. A quick bite at Potbelly and I made it home in time to get the mud off and put Rianna to bed. An excellent day, thanks to my excellent wife. |
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