Wow, now what??......

Well, that was strange. The house didn't last 8 hours before a frantic offer was made with a screaming short deadline for our response. Connie and I were a continent apart last night and trying to come to terms with what was happening. We are ignoring the 4 hour deadline to give ourselves a day to think about it but I suspect we'll accept and need a new place to live by the end of July. Gordie

so why no paragraphs??

Tried to edit the previous entry into paragraphs but all I got was the stream of conciousness you see below. I really did try....g

Nana done, we start...

So, the word is that Nana's bank account took a nice bump this week when all the "I's" were dotted ant the "T's" crossed on the sale of the old family home. This will help secure her place in her new home for decades to come and frees her from snow removal forever. Now its our turn in Juneau.

Yesterday we signed the listing agreement with a Real Estate agent, may she be half the advocate of dear Ron Saylor, placing the Juneau house in play. She immediately told us another agent in the office had an impatient client with ambitions to buy exactly what we are selling: waterfront, 2,000+ square feet, and a budget $70,000 above our listing price. I immediately suggested we change the listing price but too much evidence says we are probably where we should be if we expect to get legitimate offers. The agent, Mimi Rothchild, has been very complimentary about the condition and presentation of the house. In fact it has been largley depersonalized and reasonably "staged" with the features of previous domestic modifications erased: No more solar murals, adventurous sponge-paint color patterns, or any evidence that a pet ever lived here. All the agents we interviewed have expressed generous expectations for a sale price. I know that's a salesman's ploy at times to get the listing but it is comforting to hear someone talk a good game on our behalf after the tough times we've seen in real estate. We have hired a cleaning service to begin coming to the house to prepare for future showings. The owner of that service immediately told us the house will sell "right away!!". I wonder if she has been coached by the agents to flatter all the customers.... In any case, final preparations are in the works.

We are trying to clean out sheds for our eventual move. I completed the new garbage shed at the top of the driveway to house the new automated refuse system that is coming to town. This is the best of what I have seen in Spokane and Austin: new big roll-away cans are provided so that a single driver operating a robotic arm will stay in the truck, grab and dump the can and move on without leaving his vehicle. We also get a big blue can that will take an expanded list of unseparated recycleables in the same fashion. No more trooping to Lemon Creek to shoulder up with the Volvo's and righteous Subaru's to divide our waste stream into more righteous dumsters of selected useful junk. As in Austin, this combined stream of recyclables makes me nervous. I can sort of understand how metal might be magnetically drawn out but I have this uncomfortable image of a behind the scenes 3rd-world rag-pickers bending over a stream of my crap picking triangle 1 from 2,5, or 7 at some cross-border midden heap of modern enterprise. I see modern community service obligations for Hollywood miscreants requiring them to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and appearing in telephoto images on the front of the Enquirer. Will that be my milk jug they are separating fom my soggy Sunday NY Times?? In any case, my stuff should be safe from the bears before it gets to them.

Next week, I go to South Carolina to do some CME. I committed to the plan to keep my medical license requirements up when it seemed like my retirement plans were not so solid as Mom's. We have just been told that the medical building has been approved for purchase by the Hospital, that's step one. If the house gets sold this summer, that's step 2. Then I have to work out an arrangement with Rob or the Hospital to make some kind of modest settlement for our investment in the practice and I can stop avoiding my wife's pointed stares when she is tapping her toes in retirement, step 3.

We are thinking about our transition if the house actually sells. Very few rentals are around. We may jump ahead to the truck and 5th wheeler idea to complete our time in Juneau at start retirement. As I look at the options in that market, I have the same experience I had looking at boats many years ago. I start with a modest expectation and budget and rapidly raise my sights to stratospheric options that seem so appealing just beyond my reach. You know, satellite dishes, serious flat screen TV, really fine cabinetry....We'll see.

Weird and great day!

Weird part first:  I had an "informational interview" today at a small biopharma place.  That's in quotes because I intended to find out more about this company, but ended up answering a tirade of really weird questions that started with "Tell me your life story." Moved to, "Are you smart?  How do you know, is it because things were always easy for you, or because you have done hard things?" well past, "Are you good in the lab?  Do you love it?  Did you love grad school?" and ended abruptly at, "Well, I wouldn't give you a job.  You don't have any experience.  But you've got something.  I like that."  Nifty.  A story perhaps best left for the other blog- but it is always nice to confirm that I have more personality than "the walking dead," as this CSO put it. However, I still have lots of questions about that company.

Great part: Nana's house sold!  And closed!  And it's done.  Nice!  We celebrated by going to Tandem- which would be my new favorite restaurant even if it weren't run by my cousins.  Seriously, that food is crazy good, and Nana's niece is the hostess.  It's technically a wine and cheese bar, but you'd be a fool not to eat the halibut or the crab cakes or cheesecake.  They get as much local and organic as possible, grow at lot at their own Bothell home(!), and send your to-go box home on a plate from the kitchen.  So you have to come back.  Like you'd protest. 

And by way of announcement, we are going to Concrete to visit Betty for the weekend.  We are taking Nana.  We are told that there are even MORE hummingbirds, if that is possible.  We are also going to try to drive across the pass to Winthrop, which was the home-base of the Froggy 5*, Nana's life long college and camping friends.  None of them live there now, but it's cool to visit old stomping grounds.  The trip is to celebrate Matt getting a day off from truck driving, and the approximate anniversary of our being together for TEN YEARS.  Or a VERY LONG TIME.  I think we must be old because our best idea for how to celebrate was to spend time with our family.  Heh.

*Nana story.  Heard it?

Nearly an Official Toddler

As a follow up to the last post, Tyler went in for his checkup at two weeks after the surgery and everything looks just great. His ears seem to be doing really well for him and there's no more sign of infection. Of course, there was rarely any sign of infection before he got the tubes in, but I'm just going to assume that everything is going well.

Tyler is still *technically* in the baby program at Day care, but he has been spending time, along with some of his other classmates, out in the playground with the toddlers. His whole class has become pretty adept walkers, and so they're out there doing all sorts of crazy things with the REALLY old kids. His teacher tells us that all the other babies tend to stay within sight of her, just to be sure to be safe. Tyler, on the other hand, is off and exploring the whole place with no fear at all. Definitely his moms baby.

Here's some other neat things he has done:

-He wears shoes all day now, except for when he is at home. We've even had to abandon some of the smaller shoes: he's grown out of them.

-He likes throwing balls. He has a small whiffle-ball sized one and one only slightly smaller than a Yoga ball. He saw the latter one day at target and we decided to get it for him. He was really excited the whole time at the store. Now he likes to grab one of his balls, run forward, and throw it as hard as he can, all while squeeling.

-MORE TEETH. His bottom left molar is starting to peek through, and if you feel around in there you can feel the top two molars coming in. Because Tyler is the best baby, he's not complaining about this.

-He likes buttons. He is, therefore, obsessed with the remote and with his little baby laptop that we got him. This also makes it difficult for us to skype with people: he's found the power button on my laptop.

-Jess is at Derby tonight, and I just put Tyler down to bed. After a few minutes, I heard the mobile music turn on through the monitor. Yeah, he did that.

I've been doing Judo, still, though a bout of some sort of nasty fever/throat infection kept me out for a week or so. One our old school at the gymnastics academy had to move, the school pretty much split into two, so I tried going to the other one for a while, which is nice because it has more people for me to practice with.

Jess is doing lots of derby and has even signed up for an ice hockey tournament this weekend. She's worried, because worrying is what she does, but she can skate on ice just fine, and it's actually a mixed-skill-level tournament, so she doesn't have to skate against the really good guys, just the other C-level skaters on the other team.

Our cats are fuzzy, adorable, and REALLY into getting attention, especially in the early morning. Gizmo has taken to jumping up on the bed, meowing a bit, and then taking up a sleeping position in my armpit. To each their own, I'm sure it's really warm there.

Diablo 3 is out, and Jess and I are playing together. Yes, it's a video game, but it's something we're doing together, and we're having a lot of fun in the process. We can't do it lots and lots cause, you know, *baby*, but what time we do get together is really nice, both in and out of game.

-N

The last details...

So, the uber-Realtor Ron who has shepherded us through the details of converting the old Family Home into a cash asset for Nana's retirement has told us the its all over but the ca-ching in the next day. After restraining my instincts to remodel everything about the old place and aiming us at the critical clean-up/paint-up that really mattered, a fair price was obtained and the treacherous path of inspection and appraisal was negotiated with minimal pain. We have substantially improved mom's resources for the years ahead, distributed a ton of memories and memorabilia, settled Mom in a wonderful situation close to family that cares for her, and in a setting that seems to work very well. I'm still young enough to find it reassuring that my Mom is OK and old enough to look forward to my own path down the road of retirement. I hope it goes as well for us. We have spoken to agents about listing the house in Juneau and may have to start some of our own transitions soon. Would that it go as well as mom's sale did.

Thoughts on the price of gas

Today in Matt's CDL class, they filled up the trucks.  Each truck takes more than 100 gallons of diesel fuel- or well over $500.  That is pretty much why everything is more expensive when gas prices go up.

That is all.

Happy Mother's Day!

Traditionally, we here at the blog mark every Mother's Day by having a blog.  Really, our primary audience is our Moms and Grandmothers.  So, for you dear ladies and all you do- Happy Mother's Day.

This year, Matt and I got to celebrate Mother's Day hole hog.  But before we get there- it's been kind another crazy week.  Matt's CDL class takes up so much of his time that we try to plan for fun things when he isn't working/driving.  Friday night he went for a ride and had a bonfire with his bestie Jeffrey, but we didn't stay too late because of the CDL class, which was EXTRA early on Saturday.  Like 6am leaving from Renton early.  Sometime later, when I woke up to go to the bank, I had a confused memory of Matt asking me for my pillow- the fluffy pink one, not the understated green one Matt sleeps on.  I asked him later if that really happened and why, he said "It was kinda a tough morning.  I was confused, and your pillow looked like the best." (It is.)  He said that morning all the guys looked like the were going to a slumber party.  (They can sleep in the sleeper part of the truck while they take turns driving)

After a long day of driving to Yakima, Matt and Nana and I jumped into the car and headed up to visit Betty (meta-Mother's Day!).  It was a beautiful day for a drive, the Cascades and Olympics were out, the Skagit River was high and the roads were clear.  Brilliant.  We went "in to town" to have omg-super-yummy-pizza at the local Pizza joint which was a nice start.  But come Sunday, we got serious about Mother's day.  Betty and I made a pretty wicked breakfast (if I do say so myself)- awesome spring hash with asparagus and salami, a cheesy veggie omelet and a fresh fruit salad.  While Matt and I cleaned up, Nana and Betty started on a garden tour, but quickly got way-laid with gardening projects.  All in all, we planted carrots, weeded many beds, strung up the peas, swept the roof, cleaned the gutters and re-potted some plants (which were for me to take home).  All this with the some hot sun and the constant buzzsaw background noise of hummingbirds at the feeders- Betty must have a cycle of no less than 15 regulars constantly taking turns and waiting in the wings for their turn.  They are amazing, and if I get the pictures of Matt's camera I'll share some here.  Matt topped off the day with a unicycling demonstration that wowed the crowd.  It was a a fantastic day, the kind of day that makes us really glad we get to live in the same state as our family. 

To all the Mom's we didn't get to see today, Happy Mother's Day to you too!

Blah-blah-blog

I have two main excuse for intermittent blogging- 1- working and job hunting keeps me crazy busy, 2- I see my primary audience quite often.  I tend to think of my core readership as, well... Nana.  And I see her about as often as I might blog, so it seems less pressing to get a post together.  But I blog for my MOMMY, so here is a little effort.

Real quick, no updates on the job front.  Although I sometimes wonder if I'll ever miss semi-regular coffee meetings with strangers and unending follow-up/scheduling meetings.  Ahahaha...

I'm taking this class at the community college which is proving to be interesting.  Introduction to Project Management- it's a good add-on skill to the many skills I have (on the other blog, I am using my job hunt as a case study for project management).  I am thinking about taking the next class,or possible the Intro to Technical Writing Class, or possibly... studying for the patent agent bar- because having a B.Sc. in Biochemistry allows me to skip Law School for this purpose.  Basically, I'm bored with not knowing where my career is going so I am scrambling to make up more viable paths for myself.  Would anyone like to weigh in on which of these things seem most in-line with my interests in skills? 

Mom and Dad were down for one scant day over the weekend, but it was enough to showcase the great digs Nana has set up in Bothell and catch up a little.  I don't mind if they come for short visits so long as they come often.  On a related note, the campaign to have the first "Post-Retirement Vacay" at my house has already started.  Noel, I think we could easily rope together a couple legs of this journey, as a "Make Dad jealous of Mom's travel schedule and want to retire, too" trip.  We can discuss more later.

Matt's CDL class is moving along.  They've been driving on the streets, and will probably be on the highway this weekend.  I'm glad he is making progress, but I can't wait for it to be over.  To adjust to his new hectic schedule, we are trying (trying) to go for some short runs in the evening.  I don't mind jogging at night, but it seems silly to do after some of the beautiful days we've had here.  Matt is just about down to a 6 minute mile (what?!), and whatever his whole warm-up/cool down cycle is is how long it takes me to run a mile as well.  Oh, and another favor dear readers: I am re-reading a Terry Pratchett book (Feet of Clay, I forgot how much I like that one), which is a sign that I am both over-extended, and out of good reading material.  Suggestions?

Post-Op

Tyler is Just fine. It's important to lead with the headline.

So we got up at a little after 7 today and got ourselves ready while leaving Tyler in his crib for a while. We heard him wake up, but he wasn't allowed to have anything in his stomach for his surgery, so we figured our main obstacle would be a starving-hungry baby. After we were all ready to go, we got Tyler up, changed, and directly into his car seat. Despite the change in schedule, he was actually in pretty high spirits. The drive went fine, and then we got to Simply Pediatric Surgery Center, a place clearly designed to help your kid get in and out of his (hopefully quick) surgery with the minimum of fussing. Lots of bright colors and lots of rooms with parents and babies getting ready for their procedures. And I checked for dad, they did have red wagons that they use when they need. We spent a little bit of time filling out forms and having any questions answered (very few, it's a simple procedure) and then it was time for him to go. We gave quick goodbye hugs and then the nurses took him away, distracting him with stickers. He didn't make a single fuss. We went off to the recovery room to wait, and 10 minutes later the doctor came by to let us know he was done. They kept him in a stage-1 recovery room to make sure he woke up okay (they put him to sleep with gas) and then brought him to us.

We heard him before we saw him. He was fussy in an unhappy way. He went right to mommy who soothed him with a bottle for a while. The first 15 minutes were pretty unhappy, but then he calmed down and got a bad case of the sleepy-faces. We got ourselves paperwork-ed out, and then went for lunch at Home Slice Pizza with a very sleepy baby. He conked out in the car and slept through all the pizza. He was in a good mood for the drive home, though, and has been doing just fine every since.

His ears have been draining, there was evidently a lot of fluid behind the ear from his most recent runny nose. I'm guessing if it wasn't for the tubes, we would have been back in for antibiotics pretty quickly. Oh, and when we got back I took a nap for 4 hours. I guess I was more tired than I thought.

Anyway, that's the story of the surgery. Enjoy some pics of the process!

Distractions with Daddy

Distractions with Mommy

Just back with us, unhappiness in the face.

After a little more time, feeling better. 

Identification

-N

Pre-op

Just a short note, for now. As most of you know, Tyler is going in for that most common of baby surgeries, ear tubes. I'm not worried as to the outcome, they do this sort of thing probably 50 times a day just at the one surgery center we're going to. It is sort of an odd day, though. And there's no getting around the general worry that you have whenever your kid is about to go do something even remotely dangerous. I do hope it helps out his ears, though. He's starting to learn words and sounds, now, and he'll need as much of his ears as he can. We have to get there at 8:45, and surgery is at 9:45, so by the time most of you wake up, it'll already be over and we'll be able to share the news. The hardest part is that they want Tyler's stomach empty for the surgery, and so as soon as he figures out he doesn't get breakfast today, he's going to be a real grouch. Wish us luck! 

-N