Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Checking in

Been a while since I posted... Since the last post, Mom & Dad visited for a long weekend, Mare broke her ankle, we started the house search, we put in a contract on a house, it was rejected, we found another, we've gotten turned off to the neighborhood, we're warming back up to the neighborhood and I was on the interview team for a forensic medical lab here in Baltimore. Whew! I'm tired & we go to Vegas next week! I hope to rest some there, but I doubt it'll happen!

Nice visit with Mom & Dad. They flew in LATE Friday night & flew back out EARLY Wednesday morning, so they stayed almost a week. They kept the kids while we met with a realtor on Saturday. We did family photos Monday evening. I had much work to do, so I worked Monday & Tuesday evenings from home. Monday, they chaperoned Mare's field trip to the Museum of Industry downtown. Tuesday, they did Munchkins for Moms at school & then took the big kids to Port Discovery & had a blast!

Hired a realtor - real nice guy named Randy, relatively new to real estate, but seems to know his stuff. We looked at several houses Tuesday night while M/D kept the kids. Didn't see much then, but saw a couple of good ones on Friday night & then fell in love with one on Sunday night, while Leslie kept the kids. Put a contract in Sunday night around 9. The seller's agent called Randy & said he was taking our contract over to the sellers that night. I got pumped because this house is beautiful. 10:20 PM Randy called & said the other offer was well above our's plus it had an escalation clause meaning their offer would automatically go up should our's have been higher. Let them have it! The asking price was $249,900 & we offered $249,000. I felt that was over-priced by $10-15,000. More on that later.

Last Thursday, a kid grabbed Mare from behind while playing Capture the Flag in gym class. They both went down, he got a demerit & Mare got a small fracture in her ankle. Went to the ER at St Joe's Thursday afternoon & they took x-rays & sent us to an orthropod Friday. He put her in a hot pink cast for 4 weeks. Good Friday we go back to see him & hopefully the cast comes off. She's a trooper, but school days are beginning to take a toll. Doc said she could put weight on it as is comfortable & I think she puts too much weight on it. Should be exciting.

Monday, I was on the interview team for a new forensic medical center here in town. It was a DGS interview, so its a crap shoot whether we won the job or not. I think we did a good job & I'm glad to have the first interview with the new firm under my belt. I think the next one will go more smoothly although the boss came by yesterday afternoon & said I did a great job in the interview.

Took a 2nd look at a different house last night. Had Randy write a contract, but we haven't signed it. Got nervous about the neighborhood. Wife went by last night at 10:00 PM & felt there was a little too much vehicular traffic for that time on Monday night. I'm going by around 9 tonight to check it out as well. Wife talked to a co-worker today who used to live in the area. He liked it & said the traffic is because there's only 1 way into & 1 way out of the 'hood. Makes sense. We found some internet articles on some apartments nearby that were less than flattering. We're slow playing this one, so we'll see.

We fly to Vegas for the CSI convention Tuesday afternoon. Part of me can't wait, but part of me is also exhausted! More on that later....