Home is the word you sigh in your heart. Its the place where the people there know what comfort foods you like and the best hairbrushes for making the headaches go away. Home knows all your in-jokes and laughs at the stupid one-liners you pop off with. Sometimes, its a place of hurting and grief. But overall, Home is where your heart lives in contentment.

Home has the best coffee.

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Talked to Mom on the phone for, oh good God…must’ve been an hour and a half. Not much, you know-hugely important, but good catch up. Bro and SIL are checking on their upcoming baby’s gender. I am not surprised. They’re both extremely organized people & would want to make appropriate plans. I think they’re going to be very good parents. I am also thrilled that the folks are getting a grandbaby closer to where they are. I feel the Girl is missing out on a lot, not getting to see her Nonni and Poppy. I know they miss her, too.

We are moving in just a few weeks. Our official move out date for the apartments is 2/26/2006 – but we are going to start taking over non-essential stuff in the next week or two. We just have waaaaaaay too much stuff. We are hoping to have movers for the large stuff like the OG chest, the entertainment center, the 90 metric tons of books and the other 90 metric tons of cooking gear. C and I are both cooks – good ones, too! – and between us we have enough gear to furnish a small restaurant. Twice.

The kitties, Macha and Grumpicus will become indoor/outdoor kitties. Grumps is already mostly an outdoor sort, anyhoo. Macha however…well, we’re going to have to get a dog door just so she can squeeze her fat butt outside.

All of us have been fighting a rather nasty cold. Allergies set it off but it developed into something with a bit more bite. I thought I had the sucker licked but then the Girl came down with it and in turn re-infected me. Blech….I must’ve taken over 2500 mgs of Vitamin C today. Hopefully, that will kill whatever evil germs that are causing me to be a mucous factory.

I have gotten so bad at updating this darn thing. Sometimes, I am tempted to just chuck it and give it up entirely. But I eventually find myself back here, jotting down my little notes, greeting new and old friends.

Hi.

Things are going well. Part of me is wincing and waiting for the shoe to drop as I say that. But, I just am about done with being negative all the time. I can’t stand it in other people; why do I put up with it in myself?

I have my sweeties, my family. J, the Girl and C. I am blessed and blessed. Plus, two warm, only slighty feisty kitties. I generally wake up with at least part of the family heaped around me on Sunday mornings. I’m looking forward to it. Kitties and J and C kissing me goodbye on his way to work and the Girl bouncing on the bed and Macha looking alarmed and Grumpicus looking pissed. That’s how I know it’s my day off. The hullabaloo and love.

We’re moving in Feb. Its a giant house. Room for everyone and their projects! Plus, the owner is a friend so credit check is a done deal. The bad part is that its in Leander. But for 2200 square feet, I think I can suck it up. You know?

My weight has been pretty stable for the past few months. For those of you keeping score, its been a 120# loss.

I’m pondering some plastic surgery. Breast reduction, for one – with the smaller me, they are really uncomfortable now. There’s a surgeon in Houston that does work on post WLS patients. Plus, he takes my insurance. Plusses all around!
I’d like to see about standing on a beach in a bikini next year. Wouldn’t that be a fabulous thing?

I hate allergy season in Austin.

*sneeze* *eye-itchiness* *cough.SNORK.cough* *….nooooooooot…quite…a…snee….dammit!*

Yeah, that’s been my day.

On the plus side, I think I am doing very well at my new job. At least, they seem to be giving me more responsibility. Further, they don’t seem to mind — and in fact, encourage me — to act as a resource for the other folks in my department. Which pleases me to no end. I get the feeling that if I work hard and apply myself, I could be offered a chance to move up in the company. So, you know..huzzah!

***
We had a talk – the Boyz and I – about living situations. It wasn’t terribly fun but I felt it was necessary. I am just so uncomfortable with the whole nebulous feeling of not knowing where we are going to be in a couple of months. It bugs me; I want there to be a plan of some sort, if not for my sake then for the Girl. I want it to be as smooth as possible for her — she doesn’t need huge hiccups in her stability.
At any rate, we nailed down some alternatives. Of course, all this is contingent upon the house selling. If it doesn’t, then we shall be moving back there. 😦 Not, NOT happy about that. But, we’ve got a realtor – a real one, Keller Williams – and we have *fired* that twat who so totally mis-represented herself to us.
Just as an aside – if any of you, Gentle Readers, need to sell or buy a house, make sure that you are working with a real realtor. The one we worked with to sell our house wasn’t and its ended up costing an additional metric ton of money. This could have *all* been avoided if we had done some research and gone with a person with a realtor’s license. *sigh*
She (the twat, mentioned above) pinged our renter’s credit *32* times in an effort to get them financed. Of course, this lowered their credit score/rating. Drastically. We had no idea about this until they moved suddenly at the end of November. Or at least it was sudden to us. The non-realtor lady apparently had their notice 45 days prior to their moving out — and didn’t tell us until it was almost December. So of course, we had to come up with January’s mortgage AND rent. How’s that for a fuckarow?

ahh…but I digress….

So we’re listed with a good realtor now. Paperwork is complete and he says he has high hopes for our house. We only want to break even on the darn thing. We know we are never going to see a dime of anything and honestly at this point, we just don’t care. We have learned our lesson(s). Real reputable realtors and build what we really want when we are ready to own again.

***
Allergies aside, I am in a fabulous mood. My house is fairly clean AND picked up. My shoulder is finally starting to heal. I’ve got some really cool stuff to look forward to this weekend. Tomorrow’s plans include playing with the Girlie – possibly tickling her until she pukes :0), hanging out with some of my favorite people, drinking champagne with J, gaming, calling the folks in DFW (*mental note* MUST find out where Bro and SIL have their baby registry), laundry and finishing up the 5th in the Gunslinger/Tower series by S. King. Monday’s plans include some apartment/condo/townhouse searching, petting T’s kitties while she is out of town and turning in my insurance paperwork at my job.

Did I mention? I am a *permanent* employee with like, benefits and such! w00t, sez I. After so many years of contract work, it’s a little odd but I must say, I am enjoying it. I guess it all depends on liking the company you work for. And brother, do I like my work!

so for now…I think I’ll play some CoH and drink some hot lemon tea and just generally veg out. If you are a night owl like me and see me online, feel free to ping me.