oh George Takei....

i love your facebook post:

house to home

So, all of our new sinks have built in soap/lotion containers. i cannot wait to fill them up....and put yummy soaps out.  Since i don't use pinterest, here's my excited to useness:

 
Yes....i know, you are thinking---oh the deliciousness! And, dear whoever reads this, you are soooooo right. Bring on the hippy dippy hand made ish. Someone, not me, will only use handmade soaps in the shower....so there will forever be yummy smelling things in BOTH (omg, more than one!!) bathrooms.

however, i am always down to hear what products you are using, recommend, smell the best, etc.

T- a couple weeks

The last major hurdle has been crossed---the sellers are making the requested changes/fixes/upgrades, so barring the back door not opening again--closing is in less than a month.  Which means i feel confident showing you small snaps of the interior. :)

This is my new kitchen. The red is gone...we are contemplating shades of blue or green instead. It is a gas range--I am beyond excited. Because we got Adam a nice book reading chair, i get final say on all things kitchen related....which is exciting. i foresee chalkboard paint on the wall between the fridge and the garage.

Our days have been filled with furniture shopping, assessing and reassessing the furniture budget, contemplating the quality of area rugs, which dishes we like/don't like, and debating whether we need the really nice table or if the cheap set will suffice. And in the back of my mind i am still looking for a way to only have handmade ceramics in the house....a la familia Ravines.

The only thing we know for sure is that i (and neah) will not be present when it comes to moving everything out of our apartment. After a near end to a our engagement the last time we tried to pack a moving truck together, we have learned our lesson: Two control freaks cannot pack a truck jointly.  Thus, we will box it all up together, he will pack the truck and i will unpack on the other end. Eeeeee!

home inspections....physical and spiritual

i would like to say that i think we all have this naive idea....but it might have just been me. the idea being that once you find a home, the universe aligns, the stars become perfect constellations that somehow transmit suggestions of colors, design, and lottery ticket numbers so that you can afford the PERFECT library reading chair you found.

brace for bubble bursting. it's bullshit. (like all the b's...i'm working on my alliteration).

i went to our home inspection and really liked the guy who did it. Kevin Jones with Quality Home Inspection in Anchorage----FYI. He was charming, answered all my questions regardless of how silly they were, told me all the things i could do to make the place better, was a total perfectionist, and more or less refused to talk when the seller's agent showed up to watch part of the inspection.

turns out there are three good sized spiders living under the house. good to know. i am sure as hell not going down there. the back door doesn't seem to open anymore. Not sure why, but i think that's a problem. and a few other things that are odds and ends, but need to get fixed. it is this strange limbo place...the post inspection wait. you send your list, coupled with your hopes and dreams, to people you have never met and pray that perhaps they will do the right thing (unlike the laminate they clearly installed themselves) and fix the things on your list---especially since you weren't petty enough to ask for EVERYTHING, just that windows and doors function.

i spend a lot of time reading websites about kids with incurable illness, the blogs of their daily life, pet adoption things, Gol's tear creating letters to her son, Dus's endless speed cyclones in his mind, and generally any heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, heart swelling thing i can.i think i do it to remind myself of the bounties i have each day, how beautiful life can be. i also read a critique of that author i told you about in the last post--someone accused her of being whiny. it made me realize that there is a certain level of honesty that most people are not comfortable with. The parents of those sick kids are---they are honest about their heartbreak, anguish, suffering. The animals are--there's no hiding abandonment or hurt. With Gol it is the purity of the depth of her love for Phix.  but the majority of mere mortals and angels in hiding among us are really uncomfortable being honest about struggles. the reason i like Ms. Lamott's books is the same reason that i read the websites/blogs --- i feel soothed by the honesty they bring, the lack of pretense, the purity of faith and tests and struggle, the ability to admit that there may not be right answers.

that's what i try to conform my writing to---to be honest with all of you about the fact that i clearly have all kinds of fantastic notions about life, but no real answers besides faith in a Creator who seems to bail me out a lot. so, in that vein, i created this fabulous perfect, spider free house--which as it turns out has some issues. Here's to hoping they are willing to fix them rather than lose the sale and send us back to the hunt.

a must read...for realz.

I think a lot about the kind of writer i want to be when i grow up. i know some people who write these brilliant missives as if it miraculously came out of their head all stream of consciousness. granted, i have been accused of writing poetry and an ungodly speed---but i am more literal and less poetic/obtuse/mysterious than some of my writer friends.

My friend Leslie handed me a stack of books when i was over at her house a couple weeks ago for book club. I am about to finish one of them and am now in love with the author and am pretty sure that i must have everything she has ever written RIGHT THIS MINUTE.Anne Lamott, where the hell have you been all my life??

For my friends who struggle with irreverence and faith, which human nature and beauty, with loss and grace....this is a MUST READ: Just read the description if  you don't believe me.
http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Mercies-Some-Thoughts-Faith/dp/0385496095

i.am.not.kidding. #readitnow

obedience training round 2

I promised some folks a description of our dog classes. It is interesting----last night, the number of folks in the class had decreased---at least, it seemed like that but i think there were only two dogs not there. The first was an Afghan Hound, who's owner too had a long face, tall stature, and quiet demeanor. The second missing dog was an over excited sled dog who was clearly in control of owners who had no idea what to do with it, engaged in pulling competitions around the room, and got dragged around like it was no one's business. The sled dog, in its thrashing, bumped into Neah---who looked horrified at its rude behavior and hid between Adam's legs to prove she knew it was mentally unstable.

The other freak show dog is a jack Russell terrier mix owned by a tall skinny chick in her 20s who lets it get away with murder. It is getting better, but she doesn't exude confidence. I take that back, there is also a springer spaniel with world's largest head that looks crossed with a Bernese but isn't that takes its yuppie mama owner to humiliation each class. this week her significant other/housemate/whatever came to get the dog in the door since last week it dragged her in and pulled her off her chair about 800 times.

There are two boxers...a black male and a brown female. The female is very cute. The male less so.

Neah's closest doggie friend is named Callie and is a husky mix about her age with similar coloring.
The teacher is a late 70s woman with red hair in a 4 inch long buzz cut, who owns a dachshund named speedy. watching this dog sit is funniness, mostly because there's only 1 inch between the ground and its stomach. her praise is always the same "look how smart you are speedy, good for you!!"

Neah's doin great....best dog in the class by far :) She's calming down much faster and minding very well even with the distractions. And we learned that pinch collars are magical things.
Bring on week 3.

Dear Housing Goddess: I apologize.

this is my formal apology for having discounted that you were in fact looking out for our best interests.
I admit that my impatience is unbecoming.

but....eeeeeeeee!  
if all goes to plan....in just over a month, you will all walk up this path when you come to visit our new home: