I just realized that I never posted...our boat is sold! Mafalda will officially belong to another couple by this weekend. Actually, she's belonged to them unofficially for over two weeks now. We head out this weekend, during this gorgeous weather we've been experiencing, for a turnover sail. Mafalda will then return home to a new slip at the marina while Nathan & I drown our sorrows at the marina's tiki bar...or at least one of us will. The other one has to drive home (Kids, don't drink & drive...and stay in school). The day we sold the boat was NOT one of the happiest days of our lives, which just goes to show that you really can't trust a cliche.
In addition, tomorrow we sign the listing agreement for our house to go on the market as well. We were all set to list and felt great about the neighborhood "competition" until we found out that a townhome just a few doors down from us hits the MLS tonight...for significantly less than we'd planned for ours. Now we're having to hold off a bit in hopes that this place has a bidding war and goes quickly for well over list (for those of you in different parts of the country, that is actually fairly likely on our street, despite the housing meltdown).
I have a really cool picture to post here, but I'm lazy (really, really, really lazy) with photo organization). To the point that I don't even take them off the camera until the memory card is full. Anyway, the picture is of Nathan and his uncle working in a constant, unrelenting downpour last weekend to get our planter box (large, 3' high, built-in planter box) shortened and off our neighbor's property. They succeeded, although they had to battle the rain and mud that Uncle Ted said was more like cement than mud. Since I spent Monday putting in all new plantings in said planter box, I can now attest to the fact that this mud is no ordinary mud. It's evil and pervasive and still under my fingernails. I returned home from babysitting my three lovies to find they had not just thrown in the proverbial towel and headed down to the local pub. Amazing! Thanks, Uncle Ted!
In other news, Nathan has had an order modification, meaning we now will not leave for Italy until September. I have no idea whether we'll go early or late. I loved it when our Realtors (they're a partnership team) looked at us quizzically and asked where we'd go if the house sells quickly. My response: "I've lived in hotels plenty of times before and for a lot longer than a couple of months." Now finding one that will take Nutjob, I mean Scully, might prove a little more challenging. When we were first moving to the DC area and despaired of ever finding that home that was perfect for us, Nathan suggested we live in a "van down by the river." I suppose we could always revert to that plan, although we have a station wagon, not a van. It would probably be pretty comfy though.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Unemployed
Yesterday was my final day of work. And guess where we went to celebrate! To get gelato! It's a real gelateria in Arlington, and the pistachio flavor tasted just like we should already be strolling down those ancient, Italian streets. Nathan went for Chocolate Guiness - it was pretty good but tasted more like regular ice cream.
Today, it was so wonderful to sleep in a little...or I imagine it would have been if Scully the Dog had allowed it. Nathan left about 5:45am, and the Dog promptly decided to stand in our family room and bark. After three episodes of this in half an hour, I made him come into the bedroom and shut the door. He hates the door being shut and proceeded to spend the next hour jumping on the bed and off the bed, on the bed and off the bed, standing over my head and panting, standing at the door and whining - you get the picture.
We hope to put our house on the market by next week, so I've been working on cleaning and organizing. Today has included painting the bathroom ceiling after Nathan's repair to the joint tape, and deep cleaning/staging of the dining room, bathroom, family room, and kitchen. Plus all the ironing and posting a book review on Library Thing (Love Library Thing - it's an online site for the OCD book lover where you can catalog all your books. One of the neat features is that publishers provide pre-releases of books, and users can sign up to review one/month. If you haven't heard of it, check it out!).
This weekend, I'm off to babysit my lovies (niece and twin nephews) while Nathan works in the yard. Oddly, he suggested he'd have an easier time getting his project done without me around telling him how to do it. Confusing.
Today, it was so wonderful to sleep in a little...or I imagine it would have been if Scully the Dog had allowed it. Nathan left about 5:45am, and the Dog promptly decided to stand in our family room and bark. After three episodes of this in half an hour, I made him come into the bedroom and shut the door. He hates the door being shut and proceeded to spend the next hour jumping on the bed and off the bed, on the bed and off the bed, standing over my head and panting, standing at the door and whining - you get the picture.
We hope to put our house on the market by next week, so I've been working on cleaning and organizing. Today has included painting the bathroom ceiling after Nathan's repair to the joint tape, and deep cleaning/staging of the dining room, bathroom, family room, and kitchen. Plus all the ironing and posting a book review on Library Thing (Love Library Thing - it's an online site for the OCD book lover where you can catalog all your books. One of the neat features is that publishers provide pre-releases of books, and users can sign up to review one/month. If you haven't heard of it, check it out!).
This weekend, I'm off to babysit my lovies (niece and twin nephews) while Nathan works in the yard. Oddly, he suggested he'd have an easier time getting his project done without me around telling him how to do it. Confusing.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Orders Arrived
Nathan got his actual, written orders. This means it's truly official, so now the hoopla begins: government passports, overseas health screenings, setting up personal property moves, and so on. And the biggie, we can actually list our house. We plan to do so in a month to give us time to finish all those projects I've already talked about.
And in bigger news, our boat is sold! I don't think the saying is true that the best two days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat the day he sells it. We're pretty sad to be saying goodbye to Mafalda. We will be especially sad this summer during sailing season when we're spending our weekends in the city and dreaming of sitting in Mafalda's cockpit, at anchor, in a beautiful, Chesapeake cove. But, it's a load off of us in that our marina slip was up at the end of March, and we had no other arrangements. So now, only the house and car to go.
And in bigger news, our boat is sold! I don't think the saying is true that the best two days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat the day he sells it. We're pretty sad to be saying goodbye to Mafalda. We will be especially sad this summer during sailing season when we're spending our weekends in the city and dreaming of sitting in Mafalda's cockpit, at anchor, in a beautiful, Chesapeake cove. But, it's a load off of us in that our marina slip was up at the end of March, and we had no other arrangements. So now, only the house and car to go.
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