License to Quill

This little fellow was, as Carrie puts it, trundling across our front yard. He crossed the driveway and went up our willow. He was making unpleasant remarks to me as he was doing so. Probably because I was taking pictures the whole time.

We've also seen something in the back yard with the rotund body of a groundhog, but the head of a ferret, pointed snout, mask, and all. We're thinking it might be a pregnant mustelid of some type, but we're not sure of the species. No photos yet, it's too still wary of us.

Changing Houses In the Middle of the Dream

The bottom line is, too many repairs and the sellers weren't willing to come down in price enough to cover them.

100th Post!

I hadn't realized how much we'd posted on our blog until I noticed on my "Dashboard" the number of posts. Before that, I was going to title this entry "Lighthouse Keeping" due to the content below. After I mentioned the number to Carrie, she suggested "Post Serial". But I decided to be plain and upfront about it just to blatantly point out this milestone.

Today we had some errands to run down Portland way, so we went a little further and saw the Portland Head Light again, just to check out the giftshop and museum, which were both closed the first time we visited.

Then, since the day was turning nice, we went to the nearby Spring Point Ledge Light, which is normally open to visitors on Saturdays, but wasn't this one. We even took off our shoes and splashed around in the water for a bit.

And finally we went practically next door to the Portland Breakwater Light, also known as the Bug Light, which is Carrie's favorite because of the ornamental work ringing the top. Click on Carrie's hat to enlarge the photo and see these details.

For those of you waiting to hear about our house in Augusta, well, we got the estimate for repairs to the roof, and it was not nice. We put together a brief of the worst things the inspector found, with an approximate cost to repair and sent in a request to the seller to drop that off the price of the house. We're now waiting to see if they'll accept, counter, or decline altogether.

Capitol Idea

I had "New Employee Orientation" today. After almost three months of employment. Some of the people with me at orientation had been working four months already. Made the "choose your health provider within thirty days of hire" stuff pretty stupid.

At least I got to be out of the call center for the day. Orientation was held right near the Capitol, so during lunch I went for a walk and took some pictures.

Roof Un-Ready

The roof is only 10 years old and what we could see from the ground looked fine. But up on top of the house was a different story altogether. Going through the house carefully with the inspector, there was also a lot of supporting evidence that the roof needs to be replaced. And before winter. We hope we can convince the sellers to come down a little bit more now so that we can afford to get it fixed.

Burning Down the House

The furnace is old and will have to be replaced. We're hoping that's the worst thing the inspector finds when he does his thing for us tomorrow.

Closing Counters

We got a counter counter counter counter counter offer and gave them a counter counter counter counter counter counter offer which was accepted.

Saturday we have an official inspection by a certified inspector with us present. Afterward we'll go to the bank and present them with all our paperwork to show how they really should give us that mortgage. Then we'll go look at paint and carpet samples.

Eerie Deer

It's Sunday and finally sunny, so we took advantage of it by first raking up all the piles of grass left after mowing last weekend. Then we took Pandora with us to the Brunswick Common, a pine barren with lots of walking trails. She didn't seem to notice the deer, so Carrie took her further along the trail while I got closer to the deer for a better shot.

Yesterday it alternated between rainy and sunny all day. Except for the brief hailstorm. So I mostly hung out at home doing a few chores and playing on the computer. Carrie had to work both Saturday and Friday.

Friday, Kemmer came up for a visit. And the weather was pretty nice then too. We also went to Brunswick, but stayed in town visiting a few favorite shops and having lunch at the Bombay Mahal. Kemmer bought a bunch of books at the bookstore and a few items at the health food store. All three of us agree that Brunswick is a nice little town.

Tuvok Amongst Men Vunce More

Deborak posted Inside The Box about her new Trek autograph, which reminded me that I had recently gotten these two trading cards signed by Tim Russ. He's apparantly starting to respond to fans again after a couple year lapse. The SASE I'd provided was addressed to Arizona and the postage was only $0.39! I hope we buy a house soon so I can start up some of my hobbies again.

House It Going?

We put in a bid. We got a counter offer. We gave a counter counter offer.

Meanwhile, the bank has agreed that we can still try for a mortgage even though we haven't had a credit card or borrowed any money in the past ten years. We just need to provide, amongst other things, 4 "Letters of Credit" from places that we have accounts. Like the utilities and the landlord. We are going to try and provide as many as possible to stack the deck in our favor. I've already gotten hold of the electric company, AT&T, Verizon, the vet's (both here and back in AZ), and the landlord. Carrie has letters from AAA and our insurance company already in hand.


UPDATE

We got a counter counter counter offer and put back a counter counter counter counter offer.