Friday Fill-Ins!

1. I have a history of not communicating well.

2. Real estate law is something I wish I knew.

3. I'm eating (or recently ate) a roast beef sammich.

4. I love to be on the road.

5. So that's it, that's the end.

6. Another question is better than nothing!

7. And as for the weekend, last night I was looking forward to our annual fundraiser for the United Way, today my plans included watching my Dawgs play LSU and tomorrow, I want to watch the Dolphins and hang with my hubby!

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We got some bad news this week. The house that we are renting, which we JUST moved into about two months ago, has gone into foreclosure. We're still not sure what that means for us. It could mean moving again before we're ready (and we REALLY don't want to leave this house). Or it could mean an unforeseen opportunity to buy the house (although we're not really ready for THAT, either). I'm hoping for the latter. We love the house and the neighborhood, and our long-range plan was to try to buy it. I was heartbroken when I heard, but I'm in fix-it mode now. So we're withholding rent, putting it essentially in escrow in our savings account, since the JERK who entered into the lease with us in July knew he hadn't paid his mortgage since April, and I refuse to pay him another red cent to live here. If the bank wants us as tenants, we'll happily pay them, but we'd rather try to work out a sweet deal on the purchase of the property. Time will tell, I guess, but it's hard to just sit here and wait.

Haven't Read a Thing in Weeks

Well. My first week in the new office is behind me. I'm a bit homesick, when I have time, but am starting to get a handle on things, I think. Ricky and I are still unpacking the house. I just finished the kitchen today, so we can get back to cooking, instead of getting take-out all the time! We still have work to do on the house, but it's coming along, slowly but surely.

I have had ZERO time, or inclination, really, to read in the last few weeks. I can't find my book in this mess, anyway, so it's not a big deal. I've been catching up on about three weeks' worth of blog-reading that I didn't do (over 400 entries in my feed reader!), so that's keeping me busy. Usually, I'm simply too tired after work and the commute and unpacking to much more than rot on the couch. We're watching a lot of Food Network and Golden Girls reruns, since the summer is winding down. Hopefully, things will get back to normal soon (and I'll find my book). I just got a new BookMarks magazine and a new Glamour to peruse, so maybe that will kick me out of my funk! But college football season is starting soon, so I'll have another distraction to battle...always something.

How is your reading coming?

Sunday Salon of Sorts

I'm not really a participant in the Sunday Salon series, but it's been a while since I updated, so I felt it was due.

I finished Katherine Neville's The Fire a week or so ago. Since then, I've been bringing myself up to speed on back issues of magazines that I put off in trying to finish The Fire. I've now picked up a book again, though: Angela Carter's Shaking a Leg. This book is a collection of her journalism and other non-fiction writings - literary criticism, essays, etc. It's been a LOOOONG time since I read a non-fiction book...almost a year, since I was reading Defending the Damned last September during my sister's wedding. So I thought sprinkling in a little non-fic would be good. I've never read any of Carter's fiction, but I've heard nothing but good things about her. I'm looking forward to diving in to this book!

HOWEVER, I'm not sure much reading will get done over the next couple of weeks. Ricky and I are moving into a new house, and I am starting my new position (well, it's a lateral transfer, really) in a different office...it's going to be hectic, to say the least. We've already started packing and moving a few things...our lease here is up on the 31st and our lease in the new place started yesterday, so we can move a little at a time. I HATE moving. I always swear to myself that I won't do it again for X amount of years. But we've been unhappy with our current apartment for some time; we've wanted to get into a house; the rent here is going up; I got transferred...seemed like the right time. And so we go. The plan is to stay in this place a couple of years, pay down our...ahem...substantial...debts, and save some money to buy a place. I hope that happens, so we DON'T have to move again after that for quite some time.

Hope everyone is enjoying their reading! Have a great weekend!

New News

Well, plans have changed a little. Things happen for a reason, I'm sure. The Husband and I were quite disappointed a few weeks ago when we found the CUTEST house to rent in the neighborhood we love, and someone rented it out from under us. We kept diligently looking (the lease is up at the end of the month), but couldn't find anything we liked in our price range. Just as I was giving up, thinking we were going to have to rent a condo instead of a house...work surprised me by notifying me of a transfer to another office. This transfer solves several problems for us. Number one, it will be a good change for me. I've been in my current office for over two and a half years, and it's started to get a bit stagnant. I like a good shake-up every once in a while. Number two, it solves the housing dilemma for us. The county where I'll be working has much more affordable rentals (and many more of them than our current county does). We'd debated moving there, but at the time, it didn't make sense since we both worked in the county we live in now. With my transfer, we feel a little freer to go ahead and move up there. So now we have SO many houses to choose from, and they are much more affordable. Hopefully, in a year or two, we'll be ready to buy...if the market is still favorable.

In reading news, I'm ALMOST done with my current read, The Fire by Katherine Neville (which I've been working on for QUITE a while). I have about 30 pages to go, and I think I'll be able to finish it up tonight. Then I've got some magazines I want to catch up on...the last couple of months have been VERY slow for reading, even for me.

And now I'm off to finish up on the internet and read those last 30 pages. I hope to have a review up later this week!

How Weird Is This?

I don't really want to have kids, never have. But I love playing around with names, always have. In fact, my sister and I used to have name books that we would go through and make up lists of "Fake Friends" just because we liked to play with names. Or else because we were incredibly lame children. Since I've become engaged, however, it's become very clear to me that I will probably be having at least one child. Maybe two, because I always hated those only children...spoiled.

Anyway, the Fiance' and I have already picked out our children's names. Not because we're expecting or anything, but because 1) I like to be prepared, 2) he likes to imagine the day when we will have kids, and 3) I'm apparently still obsessed with names. So we now have two boys' names and two girls' names socked away (in case we have twins) for future use. I think we did pretty well.

Now on to the major task of cleaning an apartment that hasn't been cleaned in probably a month and a half. Sigh.

NOT Homeowners

Well, the fiance' and I sat down and had a LONG and PAINFUL discussion last night, the outcome of which is that we are NOT going to be making an offer on the house we like. In fact, we are not even going to continue looking for a house right now. When I sat down and figured up the finances (AGAIN...I feel like I do this every damn month), it appears that we are living beyond our means as it is. We have a lot of debt that we need to get under control before we even think about taking on a mortgage and the additional costs that come with owning a home. I'm sad, but SO relieved. I didn't realize how stressed out about this I'd been until we decided to put the brakes on it. I didn't want to disappoint him, he didn't want to disappoint me, neither one of us wants to give up the fantastic opportunity we have in the current buyers' market. But the bottom line is, we are not financially ready. And I think there is something in realizing that and acting appropriately. Maybe at this time next year we'll have paid off a credit card or two (at least that is my plan), and we'll be ready to get out of here and into a home of our own. At that point, we might even be able to afford more house, without some of our debt dragging us down. Although it's been fun looking, and I'm sad to see it end, I KNOW we've made the right decision. I wouldn't feel this relieved if it were otherwise.

Homeowners?

Well, I finally got around to speaking to the leasing office in our complex about our lease and whether or not our condo is selling. Turns out they are NOT selling our condo, as we had originally thought, so the pressure on us to find a new place to live is off. Whew. (Imagine that, a sale not going through in this market!) However, now that we have been thinking about it for the past few months, we might still want to buy. Our lease is up as of June 30, so we don't have as much time as we thought (we thought it was up Sept. 30...due to the transfer of leases, apparently it is not).

I think we want to stay in the county we are currently in. But we have to come up with a down payment of at least 5% on any house we might buy. We can probably afford about $150k, so that means we need to come up with...gulp...$7500. For a couple who are never very far ahead on the financial end of things, this sounds like a fortune. However, tax season is nigh, and I am hoping to get a nice chunk of change as a refund. We are going to pool our refunds, save as much as we can between now and then, and then beg our parents for early wedding presents. Maybe that will be enough.

In the meantime, I get to start going to open houses, and searching the web for a place!!! I can't wait to have something else to do in my "spare" time at work! LOL!