Eek!

We’re doing it again, folks.  Buying a house.  Now, I know you’re saying “But, you already own a house in Boston and you are renting in DC.”  This is all true, BUT, just like in Boston, it’s a very rentable city, DC is, and one where we could buy a house, actually live in a place that we own, and rent it out when we move on to our next duty station, wherever that might be.

Dream sheet?  Single-family house near a metro station.  Our agent has so far sent us tons of townhouses, but we haaate townhouses.  Everyone all squished together, 3 or 4 stories of narrow living, and lots of stairs.  No thanks!    We are holding out for the elusive single-family in one of the most expensive cities in the country.  Yay us!

I’ll, of course, be documenting it all here, but keep your fingers crossed!

The Mysterious Beeping Noise

A few nights ago, I heard a little "beep" in the middle of the night, most likely a smoke alarm running out of battery.  I decided to ignore it for a while, and it stopped.  It happened again a few nights later when I was vomiting all night during a rough bout of flu/food poisoning.

Then last night, even in a Nyquil induced coma, I heard it again and it woke me up.  Apparently, it also irritates the dog because I heard the beep, then heard a commotion in Dash's room, then heard Dash slowly sneaking up the stairs.  I've always said that I'm never worried about intruders because our stairs are so creaky, you can't sneak up on us, but it was a little scary because Dash was creeping very slowly.  I woke Jon up, and I went to put Dash away while Jon stood in the hall listening for the beep.

Dash gets put back in his room, and I go upstairs to help Jon listen for the beep.  We hear it again, then hear a commotion in Dash's room, then hear Dash's paw land outside of his room and he runs up the stairs.  The beep must really irritate him to the point he gets on top of his cage, jumps over his railing and lands on the outside of his room.  We spent another 10 minutes or so getting closer and closer to the beep, and locking Dash into his actual cage, before finding it and taking the battery out.  Of course, it still beeps one more time, like some possessed beeping demon.  Then, it gives up.

Here's a video I found applicable to this situation:
Phoebe and the Smoke Alarm

The Church Search

I wish I was Catholic sometimes.  Not enough to put in the effort of converting, but almost every Catholic church is the same, so when you move and try out a new Catholic church, you know what you're getting into.  You already know when to sit, stand, and kneel, that the songs are going to be lame and won't rhyme and that there will be chanting of sorts.  Not so with Protestant churches, which is what Jon and I are looking for.  You never know if you're going to be the only white people in a church (NOT a racist comment, just saying it's hard to blend into a congregation if you're the only white person), if you won't know how to speak in tongues like everyone else, if you'll be disappointed because this church as 3 hour services or a praise band (hate them).

Jon and I are on the Great Church Search.  We started out last week going to a church in Swampscott that was pretty good.  Non-demonational, very pretty, with very nice people eager to look at Avery and ask about him.  Sparse population, but maybe because it was the holiday weekend.  There was some singing, some reading, and a sermon by a female British pastor.  I thought it was a 7 out of 10.  Jon thought it was a 5.  Although, Jon admits that he thinks a "seven is about as good as a church can be without them giving me money."  Yep, he's going to hell.

Week number two, and I think we found what works for us.  I thought it would take longer, but we went to a Unitarian Universalist Church in Salem and really liked it.  My friend's response was "was there any mention of religion at all during the service?" Ha ha.  This church, first, is in this amazing historic building, so I really love the whole vibe I get just from entering the church.  It's also right next to the "Witch House" in Salem.  Second, it's very much a "we don't care what you believe in" church that still teaches to love God and love each other.  It's nice because I've always been a big proponent in the idea that really every religion is the same, most just choose to call God different names and that we shouldn't judge others so much on their religion.  I also like this church because they read not only from the Scripture, but also from poems and literature that deals with the topic of the day and can show religious context in other writings than the Bible.  The church also has programs like a weekly luncheon meeting where people get together and discuss Islam and what it is and what it means.  Or a weekly series on "ias" and "isms" where they discuss how to stop bias and discrimination.  Everyone is welcome at the church, and we feel very welcome.

We've gone twice there, and we like it, especially since the 10:30 service fits in well to our schedules :-)  I'll update more if we change our mind, but I think, in our remaining time in Boston, we'll be attending this church.

It's the Little Things

I love the idea of New Year's Resolutions.  The things you've been wanting to do for a while and the goals you've set for yourself but haven't accomplished become more solid in the dawn of a New Year.

Unfortunately, I suck at resolutions.  I make extremely lofty goals, or too many goals, and then I don't get them done and feel bad.  For example, I can't say "I resolve to work out every day" because I won't work out every day, I'll feel like a failure, and I'll give up on the idea of working out altogether.

So my new plan is little baby resolutions.  Things that I should be doing or habits that I want to form that don't take too much effort or planning.  Then, if I do them, yay for me!

My first resolution is to make my bed every day.  "What, you don't make your bed every day?!"  Snort.  Making my bed every day will take no time at all and it will make me feel better I walk past my bedroom.  Because SOMETHING in the bedroom will be in order.  And if I accomplish making my bed every day, I will add another resolution of similar very small sacrifice and then celebrate as though I am splitting the atom.

I can read!

So, for the last several years, I've really read very little besides horribly boring law casebooks, and I'm a HUGE reader, so it was pretty depressing.  Well, now that the bar exam is over, my job is nowhere close to starting, and I spend a good amount of time sitting on my butt with a baby in my arms or breastpump bottles on my...well, breasts....I've started balancing my kindle (thanks, Craig!) in one hand while babying/pumping in the other.  So I need suggestions on books!

I read Matched, which is supposed to be the new Hunger Games, but isn't nearly as captivating.  I would have liked it more if I had read it first.  Then I re-read Breaking Dawn, because I just felt like it.  I just finished The Help, which was truly an amazing book.  I've for $25 on my Amazon account waiting to be spent, so what should I read next???

It's free on the Kindle to read classics, so I'm thinking about reading some classic novels, but when you're feeding at 2am, you want something really captivating and I'm afraid I'll get bored.  Please make some suggestions if you have any!!

Beaches 1, Honda 0

Well, we bought a Honda Accord, so I can't really say that Honda didn't get anything out of the deal, but a 6-hour ordeal at the dealership today was pretty interesting.

Now, Jon and I use USAA bank, which is an all-military, uber-convenient, love-them-more-than-members-of-my-family bank. We do everything through them: bank, insurance, mortgage, investment. I hope they never go under, cause then....we'll be effed. Anyway, after months of discussion, we decide this is the week to get a new (to us) car for me to use. Something big enough to cart a kid or two around in. Jon set off on a research/test drive mission and came back to report that he thinks we should get this Honda. I was so relieved to not go shopping. I hate car shopping, mainly because I hate salesmen.

So, this morning, I called USAA and wrapped up some last minute finance and insurance details and Jon took the afternoon off so we could wrap it all up. We got to the dealership around noon, I drove the car to a mechanic, and he checked it out for an hour or so, giving it the all clear. We drove it back to the dealership, haggled for about 30 seconds, and decided on a price. We're happy, they're happy cause they are selling a car, and then....their internet goes down.

Now, I'm not sure how the internet going down affected us sitting in the financial manager's office, but we ended up there pretty quick, and he asked us what rate we were getting for our loan. Biting back the "none of your business, dude" that was on the tip of my tongue, we told him, and he assured us that he could "beat that all day long." (Really? Necessary to use that phrase?) So, we asked what he could give us. He quoted a much lower price, but alas, their internet was down, so he couldn't verify that. We tossed some numbers back and forth, and while financing with them would be less expensive in the long run, the convenience and ease of continuing to be USAA customers was worth some extra cost to us, and we told him so.

At least, I think that's what we told him. We might have told him that we drowned some baby kittens in his kitchen sink, because that's the face reaction we got from him. Complete depression. He walked out of the office to get some paperwork, and I expressed my concern to Jon that he might be fashioning a noose out of decorative car-dealership balloons. He comes back. The internet is still down, so there's really not a lot we can do to buy the car outright today. We're cool with that, because we're not in a rush. He's cool with that, because in the next hour...or two...he can talk us into financing with him. Seriously relentless. He seemed comforted by the fact that their internet was down, and as long as it was down, we were still considering financing with them. (We weren't). I guess we gave him too much hope by telling him that if his rate went down even farther, it might be up for discussion, but we weren't hardballing him, we were just being honest. And he ignored that anyway, and for some reason decided that if he could just fill out all the financing paperwork with his rate, we would sign it. (We wouldn't.)

We told him he was welcome to run credit checks on us and tell us what their bottom line rate was, but assured him, and the other guy he called it to good-cop us, that the rate they were quoting, albeit lower, was not enough to change our minds. He heard the exact opposite. He assured us that by going with USAA, despite what USAA told us earlier, there was no way we could get the car today, that it might stretch through the weekend before we got the car. Lots of trailing off ensued. Sorry buddy, still not incentive enough.

Then, while he was restarting his computer, praying that would restart the internet, Jon stepped out to make a phone call. I thought it was for work. It wasn't, it comes into play later.

So while I'm stuck in toolbag's office, he tells me that even though the internet is down so he can't tell us their bottom line rate, he's definitely going to print out the Honda finance paperwork as though we are going with Honda for the rate we had already rejected. "Go ahead," says I. Kill a few trees senselessly, if it makes you feel better. I kinda felt bad for him, and probably gave him hope. I sure as hell wasn't going to sign anything he put in front of me. So he's clicky-clacking away, Jon returns, he prints out paperwork, and another 40 minutes or so goes by (it all kinda meshed together) when my phone rings.

So, I step outside to take a call from my best friend, Justin, relaying the story to him, and listening to his story about his new brother-in-law's wife. It's a good story. I'm on the phone for about 20 minutes or so. I come back in to see Jon looking kinda smug, car guy looking a combination of pissed/depressed, and the USAA paperwork in progress. When he turned his back to us, I mouthed "What did you do?!" to Jon, who only smirked and winked. With the internet down, he assured us the paperwork would be finished the next day, that we could pick the car up on Thursday, and a couple of handshakes and we were outta there.

So, what happened while I was gone? Apparently, Jon's phone call was to USAA to see if they would lower their rate more. They did. Jon, being a decent guy, went back in and was hoping that the internet would be down, we'd leave, and then call the guy later once we got their bottom line, let him know via phone that USAA was giving us a rate we wanted, and that we were staying with USAA. This saving paperwork and a bit of face because we weren't turning him down sitting in his office. BUT, no such luck! While I was on the phone, he kept pushing, filling out his own finance paperwork with a rate we had already rejected, so Jon pretended his phone was buzzing and stepped into the hallway, clearly visible from the guy's office. Jon then proceeded to have an imaginary phone call with USAA about the lower rate they were offering. He hung up, went back inside and told the guy "USAA called, they lowered their rate, and we are going with them." The guy started manually ripping up the paperwork he had prepared before Jon had even finished the sentence, he was so pissed.

A few lessons here: I guess we really weren't getting our point across that the rate they were offering was not going to cut it. They hinted around at a rate even lower, which might have actually been attractive to us, but when it came time to do paperwork, went back to their original rate. It was a great rate, but we had already rejected it a couple of times, so pushing and pushing wasn't going to make us change our minds. Perhaps we should have been clearer, although it would have bordered on rudeness had we been much clearer. A lesson for them: As Kenny Rogers said, you gotta know when to fold 'em. I'm sure you'll get the next guy.

Now, please make sure the car is cleaned and gassed up for us on Thursday afternoon.

Shaken, and Stirred

So, last September, our house was robbed. I'm not sure when exactly it happened. I could have been in the yard, on a job interview, or in the shower. And let me tell you, that really terrifies a person. Now, I consider myself fairly kick-ass, even though the dark weirds me out a bit. But, the idea of someone in your house is just beyond what I can take. For weeks afterward, I would be in the shower, think I heard someone and have to stop my shower SEVERAL times to make sure no one was in the house. (It was usually the dog running about). I changed the color scheme in my bedroom because the idea of someone rummaging around stealing all of my jewelry (asshole) just made me shudder.

What's interesting, and sucky, is that it's 7 months later, and I still get creeped out. We aren't great about blinds and windows, and I feel like we are exposed a lot. A few minutes ago, my cat Harley, who was lounging on the back porch started screeching and something pounded against the screen door. Hopefully she chased off the robber/raccoon that she saw outside. Scared the crap outta me. Every time I take the dog for a walk, I wonder if someone is watching me leave so they can run in and grab our television. I pass people on the street, and I wonder if they recognize my dog because they walked by him in his crate as they headed up to my bedroom. I'm not a crazy walking around with a gun, but I am surprised that after this long, I think about it every single day.

I wonder if this feeling ever goes away?