Sicka

I managed to go the entire winter, surrounded by coughing, wheezing sick people - without getting even the sniffles. My luck ended earlier in the week. I'm now in the final stages of this shitty head/chest cold it seems everyone has been getting as of late. Everyone I talked to either has it, had it or know someone who has it. WTF?

Tonight is Betsy's birthday @ Vertigo. Should be fun.

We're also meeting with a builder at a lot we like to talk about building a house. Very exciting.

Tomorrow we're going to Mom-in-law's for dinner.

Gregsta': Out

Taking the Day off

I took the right day off.

I'm feeling like ass today and I have things to do. This sucks worse than that time that I learned that Neil Patrick Harris was openly gay.

What about Wanda's needs, Doogie? What about Wanda's needs?

Gregsta': Left Field today

I heart the Free Market

After an exhausting search for houses yesterday, we came up empty handed - unable to find anything that would fit our budget and desires. Much of what's out there today is dilapidated and uncared for, in a terrible area, overpriced and/or over-taxed.

The hunt goes on, and we may put an offer in on something that fits into the over-priced category... and see where low-balling gets us.

Gregsta'

Grip-e

Getting up this morning at 5:00am means that I'm a productive machine. I've got updates running on servers, updates to the blog, updates to the realtor, updates to the knowledge base.

There's a theme here. It should be relatively easy to spot.

WHY THE FUCK DID I AGREE TO BE SO PRODUCTIVE AT 5AM?

That is all.

Gregsta'

What is the meaning of Tripe?

Thursday. What a weird day.

The sun is sort of out. I'm sort of getting caught up. I'm sort of wasting time writing this blog.

Gregsta': Sorta'

The Young Ones

It never ceases to amaze me how the younger folks (i.e. people my age and just slightly younger) who are just entering the work force still feel entitled. To what? Everything. I could go on for some time.

The other thing that scares me is that they are slowly loosing social skills in person. They continue to fall deeper and deeper into Internet/Text Messaging derived communications means. Are these really the kids their parents intended to bring up?

The fact that I'm posting this on my blog doesn't really relieve me from all guilt. I appreciate blogger, twitter and face book just as much as the next 20/30-something.

As this recession gets deeper, it's going to be continually difficult for these kids to hold down work and live 'normal' lives. Maybe they will thrive in that environment. I guess it wouldn't surprise me too much.

Time to study. Oh boy, LEED!

Gregsta'

Sold

After a mere month on the market, we have an accepted offer on our house. Now comes that period where everything is poked, proded and looked over. Oh, and we now have to find a house to buy.

The sad part is that houses here in Portland are ghastly overpriced and we're finding that our dual Professional income may not afford us much more than what we just sold. That said, we're starting to look around down south of here, too. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating Portland is becoming.

Gregsta'

Just another day in Paradise

Left the office early today. Good times. Nice weekend ahead. Nice weekend.

Gregsta'

Square 0

The house we were going to buy just got bought out from underneath us. Someone came in with a fully funded offer and the ass hole sellers accepted it. Fuck them and the horse they rode in on.

Meanwhile, some ass-munch developer up the street just built a new home just like ours (skinny) and is selling it for what we originally were selling our house for, making our house a harder sell at only $10k less. Oh, and we've had no showings this week at all.

Then there's the guy around the corner that put his house up for sale for almost nothing, likely on the verge of foreclosure.

In order for us to get what we want out of our house, we may have to pull our house off the market and wait a few months (or years). In the meantime, we've wasted a lot of money and time trying to pull this together.

Gregsta': PISSED

Epiphany

Thursday is the day you wake up and realize there's too much shit to get done before the end of Friday.

Gregsta'

Letter to God

Dear God,

It's Gregster. I know, it's been awhile since we talked last. In fact, I think the last time was when I was bent over the porcelain, puking my guts out while simultaneously proclaiming I would never drink that much tequila again. That must have been it. I know, it's been a really long time. There's no way I could drink that much tequila now. Hey, you were listening! While lowered alcohol tolerance wasn't exactly what I was after, it sure worked.

Since it's Winter, I've noticed a few changes in the weather patterns here in rainy Oregon. Okay, I'll stop sugar coating. We've had enough of the fucking snow. We get it. We're all a bunch of sinners and this is some sort of prophecy. Just make sure that I'm spared when you come through with that 'second ice age' everyone keeps talking about.

Is it true that Mormons sometimes have multiple wives? I've never seen it in person, but there's a really interesting and often times difficult to watch show on HBO about a polygamist Mormon family. You don't really condone that sort of behavior, right? Right?

So, as I'm sure you noticed, Betsy and I are doing very well (yes, we're actually married, stop questioning it - I know our minister also moonlights occasionally as a Strip Club DJ - so fucking what?). This whole buying/selling a house process is really getting to us. I hope this is all worth it. Because, you know, if something you've got control over that screws this up, I swear we'll start going to a Fundamental Baptist church. I know how much you hate those bastards. Don't try me. I'm serious.

Hey, you know, I wanted to make sure that this new President being in office isn't some sort of cruel fucking joke. Everyone really likes the guy. What you did with Kennedy was just downright mean (I'm sure it was really frickin' funny to you at the time), so do me a favor and put a few extra guardian angels around Obama. There's a lot of your crazy "followers" that would just assume do him in.

Hey, speaking of those wingnuts, when are you finally going to appear and let them know it was all a joke and they're a bunch of idiots? Soon, I hope?

Well, I'm supposed to take care of some things, so I'll finish this up and get it in the mail.

Humbly,
Gregster'

Things you can't do when you're trying to sell your house...

1. Bake anything. Your baking utensils have been packed and put into storage.

2. Have people over. The blank looks on their faces will only be outdone by the baren "staged" appearance of your home.

3. Get in quality TV time. Your big screen was also packed. It makes the house feel "small" said the agent...

4. Enjoy a beer. Nope, that would leave a negative scent (alcohol) in the air. Buyers associate it with a bad homeowner.

5. Sleep in until just before you have to leave for work. Sorry, you have to clean house before you leave in case an agent wants to show your house during the day.

6. Stay organized. Remember that file cabinet? Um, yeah, it's in storage, too - along with your baking utensils.

7. Do the dishes tomorrow. Wrong answer! Dirty dishes? What would a potential buyer think? SLOBS is what they would think.

8. Fix Computers, Cars or just about anything else. Your tools? Spare parts? Reference manuals? Yep. All in storage.

9. Save Money and Time. Nope, you're out at the store every 15 minutes buying something that's in the back of your storage unit. Do you see a theme here?

10. Eat in more. Ha! Risk making a mess of your lovely kitchen? Yah, right!

Gregsta'

Hominy

Rather than going out last night and hanging out with friends, Betsy and I took a nice tour de Southeast Portland instead. It was a nice break from routine. Rarely do we get out and drive on the freeway or into parts of town we've never been. Living in inner southeast generally means that everything you need is a short drive on side-streets away.

Today is a lovely day. We don't have anywhere to be. No appointments, paper signings, storage unit runs - nothing. While I admittedly need to spend some time studying for my LEED exam in 21 days, 3 hours, 18 minutes and 26.4 seconds, it's not that much of a big deal really. I suppose it might be easier if I had spent some time in the last month keeping my knowledge fresh by, you know, scanning the book now and then? I've got 20 days. I'll be sharp as a tack and know every credit in and out by the end of it! Right? Right?

That's all for now. I'm going to get started on this day of doing very little.

Gregsta'

The Update

This has been a busy few weeks (perhaps months) for Betsy and I. We're in the process of selling our house and purchasing a larger house. We found the dream home and have put in a contingent offer in. I'm happy to report that after only one round, we accepted the counter offer. Our odds for pulling this off just went up to 75% from 50%.

We also just found out that they have tracked down the people who hit our car back in September. While I may never know (the Insurance company won't disclose readily) who hit us, it is nice to know that they we're successful in nabbing the bastards. The insurance company happily refunded us our deductible.

My studying for LEED kicks back into high gear this week. Already have the materials out and am starting to re-acquaint myself with the material. It's not the most interesting or otherwise easy-to-learn material, but it will help me wrap up a few necessary political issues at the office.

Betsy continues to kick ass at her work. I continue to kick people in the ass at work.

I had to work from home this morning. I'm getting quite a bit done. Yes, including updating my Blog.

Gregsta'