Well, the funeral went well - is it just me or is that a weird thing to say? My mom's sister went up for it and had a lovely visit with their brothers. And things, around here anyway, are settling back down again (though I'm still not making it to bed before 3am).
Most everything else going on here is trivial:
1) The other day I bought the new Tori Amos album on iTunes and I absolutely HATE it - which is shocking! Tori has always been one of a handful of people whose albums I just automatically buy when they come out - no hesitation. I managed to give one song a 3 star rating on iTunes (which means it'll come up in my playlist), and I gave another one 2 stars because I don't totally hate it. The rest of them I can't stand :(
2) I am getting my financial ducks into a well-ordered group (not quite in an actual row yet, lol) involving more automatic savings transactions (always pay yourself first!), a new Roth IRA Sharebuilder account (in addition to my regular Sharebuilder account and my Roth IRA Savings account), and some less traditional investments through both Microplace and LendingClub (which I found after prosper.com shut down - the feckers!).
3) I am doing pretty much ALL my online shopping (and so are my parents, because they are nice like that - and because I nagged them enough, lol) through the Delta SkyMiles Shopping site, and have earned about 5,500 miles this month just from doing my shopping this way. It's not very impressive when you consider I need about 75,000 to get a R/T ticket ... but it's all for stuff I was going to buy anyway, so there's a bit of a "FREE MONEY!" feel to it :)
4) Today I feel like I'm coming down with the flu. If it's swine flu I shall blame it on the pork in the Italian sausage in my Domino's pasta bowl - because we all know that's how you get it, LOL ;)
Now, as for the not so mundane .... it's looking more and more like Vegas isn't going to happen for us. We're still looking there, sort of, but we're
SO fed up with the way things are working out there (specifically, the
'special' set of rules the Banks are playing by), that we've narrowed our search criteria to exclude foreclosures as well (we had already excluded short sales), and since very few people are stupid enough to voluntary put their house on the market now (unless it's a short sale) we are down to VERY few options in Vegas.
I had long ago gone very Zen about the whole thing -
we'll get the right house when we get it - but now it's looking like Vegas is just a total 'no go'. If the banks would just play by the usual rules of the game, we'd have been able to close about 10 times over by now! But instead they're doing things like dangling houses on the market at prices they never really intend to accept and ignoring the offers they get (even full price ones) for months (!!!) while waiting for a number they like better. The whole market in Vegas is being run like some sort of auction with no set ending date. But the banks are pretty much the only game in town nowadays - and they know it!
So, we broadened our searching to other places in the region, including California (what we liked about Vegas was mostly that it was similar to California in many ways). And we seem to be settling on the area around Hemet, CA (go figure!). There's a cute house there (3 bed, 2 bath, 1438 sq ft. on .41 of an acre) we like a lot, and it's a probate sale rather than a foreclosure, but there are others we like too. The hospital there seems to be equivalent to the one we lived nearest to in Fullerton (and other even better ones are nearby), and there's more than one LDS church (another one of my mom's requirements); it's near enough to UC Riverside for me to avail myself of their fabulous-sounding Comparative Ancient Civilizations program, there's an Archaeology/Paleontology museum I can volunteer at, and the climate seems to be slightly more amenable for growing certain thing than Las Vegas would have been; and there's a massive man-made lake my dad can go fishing at, and a Bob's Big Boy just up the road (another one of his requested items).
So, it seems like it's now a VERY real possibility we're going to move back to Cali!
I am surprised ... but also pretty damn happy about it! :)
But seriously ... whether it's Vegas or Hemet, or Timbuktu, this is my last move (at least with all the people, pets, and possessions involved). If, after this move, either one of my parents ever mention the idea again .... I will be moving one last time ... into the State Pen - for murder (jk ... mostly ... LOL).
BTW, is it a good or bad sign that my inclination for this move is to just get rid of EVERYTHING I own except my bed, a box of computer stuff, and what fits in my luggage?
Labels: blah blah blah - but in a good way, Family, moving?
