Closing In

Another day of house hunting, and finally we have a candidate. I'm putting an offer in on a condo tomorrow, so I may have a permanent address in the near future. The place I like has 3 levels. There's two bedrooms and a full bath upstairs. The main floor has a living area, dining room, and kitchen, plus a half bath. Then downstairs there's a finished room and a laundry/storage area.

The downside is that it needs to be entirely repainted. The walls have a little orange peel texture to them, and the last time someone painted they filled in nail holes with compound. Unfortunately, they used too much compound, so there are patches on the wall all over the place. I'm having an estimate done for getting it professionally repainted, but if that ends up costing too much you can expect to be invited to a rather large-scale painting party in the next month or two. Yes, wine and cheeses will be provided. Of course, this is all contingent upon agreeing to terms, inspection, etc, etc. But it's progress.

Television is my Friend

Bravo is showing one of my favorite episodes of Six Feet Under tonight. It's the episode in which Nate accidentally takes Ecstasy. The stray pill that David had hurriedly hidden in the family aspirin bottle during a previous episode. David has recently come out to his mother, and she arranges a family dinner. Nate takes the pill for his headache before the meal, and ends up high at the dinner table. This episode is one of the early defining moments for the show. A lot of the plot lines start to take root, and begin to develop more seriously. Also its damn funny.

I miss this show -- especially the first three seasons. Its just so good. Someone buy it for me so I don't have to watch the edited-for-television version.

Also, the Sorkin movie American President was on tonight. I haven't seen the movie since before the West Wing started, and I forgot just how many people form that movie are in the television series. Not to mention the number of West-wingers who found their way onto Studio 60. Well okay, just Bradley Whitford.

I Like to Watch Cute Football Players Play Football

And score ridiculous goals.

STARBUSTS

Living in Wisconsin is already entertaining. Today one of the supervisors was running to get coffee, so I asked her to get me some. "I'll take the lightest roast they've got," I said. So off she goes to get me a cup of java. She returns just a few moments later and explains, "They only had one roast, so they added some hot water for you."

Yes, I asked for a light roast and I received a watered-down-something-or-rather roast. I'm not prima facie anti-Starbucks or anything, but this is bizarre behavior. I hope it was her first night on the job.



Also

Yesterday: Sunny and nearly 70
Today: 7" of snow by noon and cold cold cold.

The Trifecta

A week or two before I found out I was moving to Wisconsin, my friend Lexi was in the cities paying a visit. She's been working for an online baby magazine in New York for the past few years. During her visit, she received a call from another magazine offering her a job. The catch was she'd have to move out of NYC, and into a much smaller community in Massachusetts. Of course, she accepted the offer, and is now finding herself in a similar position.

Then, maybe one week after I found out about my move, Cupcake gets an offer from a competing firm in NY. And she's in transition now as well. Although admittedly not leaving Brooklyn anytime soon. The downside for Cups is that she has to train in her replacement.

So there you have it. A collective "movin' on up" for all three of us. I've heard before that bad things always happen in threes. Maybe the same anecdotal law applies here as well. Way to go chicks! Now you can afford to come visit me.

It only takes 5 minutes

of watching The Truth about Cats & Dogs to be reminded of what a genius that Janeane Garofalo is. Too bad about Air America.

Went to see the motion picture version of Running with Scissors today. Gotta say this is one occasion where I may have enjoyed the film more than the book upon which it was based. Burroughs writing in Scissors always seemed exaggerated and just a little too over the top to be true. The movie does a good job of making the situation feel uncomfortable, bizarre, and slightly dangerous, but I never got the feeling that it couldn't really happen to someone the way I felt when reading the book.

Sure, they leave out most of the graphic sex descriptions, but that's why you've got that imagination of ours. You can fill in the details.

Buy this House!

I looked at more than 20 houses yesterday. Of the places I saw, there is one (1) I liked enough to consider making an offer.

For anyone who maybe didn't know this already, buying a home is a pain in the ass. There's a whole different language spoken in the real estate world. Not to mention a slew of important considerations that were of little to no concern when looking for apartments. I've been apartment hunting enough times to be able to tell a good layout form a bad one, but when it come to some of the more subtle nuances one should look for when buying I have a lot to learn.

How old is that furnace? These windows look like they need to be replaced. What is the condition of the roof? How much are the taxes? It looks like there's some water damage in the basement. What's that, the siding is giving way on the corner of the house?

Fortunately, price cures everything. Unfortunately, price cures everything.