You can’t help but smile…

Free Hugs

…our kitty is the Cutest Kitty Ever…

Eat Better!

This isn’t really a New Year’s resolution as much as an ongoing project. I’d like to spend less money on eating out, and eat healthier, more balanced meals. The Crock-Pot will be key, since I am essentially a very lazy person. Into this Crock-Pot I’ve thrown:

• 4 chicken thighs
• a couple tablespoons of Thai Ginger and Red Pepper peanut butter
• about 10 quartered and marinated artichoke hearts, with a bit of the oil
• about three cups of organic vegetable broth
• several sweet potatoes (or are they yams??), chopped
• a couple regular potatoes, chopped
• some kidney beans
• a couple tablespoons of minced garlic
• a dash of merlot
• enough water to cover everything (about a cup)

I’ll cook it on high for about 5 hours, making it ready to eat just about the time Preston gets home from work. How’s that for domestic planning?

I’ve been tracking all my food intake and calorie output for the last couple weeks. My sister passed on to me a highly organized Excel workbook that helps to track the calories, fat, carbs, protein, fiber, and calcium of all your daily intake, as well as tracking daily exercise. I’ve discovered that I love love love fat. While I don’t have any trouble staying withing the USRDA for calorie intake most days, I usually more than double the recommended fat intake. Something to do with root beer floats and peanut butter cookies, maybe. Also, I don’t eat anywhere near enough fruits and veggies. I think this makes me pretty much your typical American. I do not like to be typical anything, particularly American, so I am working on eating more fruits and veggies and less fat. Nothing radical though. I still like me some peanut butter cookies.

The seller made a counter-offer last week, which we signed. She didn’t want any more money, just wanted to move the closing up from 60 days to 30 days. That makes the closing date February 9th. I checked with the bank to make sure that was enough time for all the paperwork to be done, and we signed last Thursday. Yesterday (Monday) we met the house inspector at the place and spent two hours walking through the place. He looked at everything, inside and out, top to bottom. The results were surprisingly good.

There are some things that need to be done. The back half of the roof is due for re-roofing, but the type of roof that’s on there is fairly inexpensive. The inspector was guessing in the neighborhood of a couple thousand to have it done. All the roof trusses and floor joists are solid, with no signs of water or bug damage. We get termites here, so it’s good news that there’s no sign of them. The inspector said that this was probably the driest house he’s been under in the last year. We were worreid about the rust on the appliances in the kitchen, but he said that things just rust here really fast. Especially since the heat has been off for a month in really cold temperatures. Also, they shampooed the carpets after the heat was off, so that moisture had a chance to attack the little scratches on the appliances. There was no sign of water damage at all anywhere else in the kitchen or underneath the kitchen floor. Even the bathroom floor, which we know is a little mooshy passed the inspection with flying colors. We told him that we were planning to re-do it, so it only needed to stay standing until next summer. He said it would stay standing for years, even after getting underneath and looking at the floor from below. He didn’t even seem too worried about the back deck.

There’s still one big hitch in the forward motion of our plan. When the inspector got there and we started walking through the house, we discovered that the pipes were all frozen solid. The water was on, but even the toilet was filled with solid ice. That doesn’t happen around here often, and I’m sure the seller (currently living in Mexico) didn’t even think about it, but those of us from colder climes know that bad things can happen when you freeze all your pipes.

The real estate agent is going to get in touch with the seller and once the pipes are thawed, the inspector will come back and check out the plumbing situation. He will inspect the water heater too, to make sure it’s working. But even if they do have a burst pipe, it would have to be pretty darn catastrophic to do something irrepairable. The seller has a local handyman, so hopefully he will take care of the situation promptly.

We’ll be getting the official inspection report from the inspector in the next day or so, so I’ll have a better grasp on all the little details that would need to be updated over time. After that, we’ll probably re-offer based on reducing the offer by however much it will cost to re-do the roof, and to fix any problems there might be from the burst pipes. If she agrees, then it’s just a matter of signing the paperwork for the loan, and we’re in. We have until February 9th to do that. it still feels kinda stressful, but we feel really good after the positive inspection.