Final Offer

Well, we made our final offer on the house. Considering the condition of the house, the amount of money it will cost to bring it into this century (ok, even the second half of the last century) and the depressed housing market, if they don't take it then I think they really don't want to sell it.

I'm about 50/50 on whether I want to do it or not. The amount of work it will take to sell this one (no guarantees there) and the amount of work I'm looking at for the next few years.....hmmm, I could go either way.

Considering how long it's taken them to respond every time we've had a counter, it could be a week before they say "yea" or "nay", no matter the deadline.

So we shall see.

"One Time at French Camp....."

Back to reality. Yesterday morning I woke up and the first thing I thought was "ok, how do I say......?" Oh yeah, I can JUST SAY IT! Woo hoo.

It was hard. No slack given for beginners. They just jabbered and jabbered away in French and you just hope you can understand enough to be in the right place at the right time (did I mention that I have always sucked at numbers in French? not good). Luckily, although my speaking is about on the level of French -101, my comprehension skills are much better. I caught just about everything that was going on. One of my cabin mates was not so lucky, and her frustration level by the end of the week was over the top.

First things first....it is way the heck far up in Northern Minnesota. I was on the Paul Bunyon Parkway for hours. Passed through a million fishing towns that consisted of a bait shop, a liquor store and assorted "resorts". And it was hot (79 degrees) all the way up there (it cooled down and got downright chilly during the night the rest of the week, but I was regretting the hiking boots all day long). Five hours north of the Twin Cities, people.

The food was FAB-U-LOUS. French pastries for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, foods from the different regions of France and the Francophone world (Quebec, Martinique, Africa). Cheese. Lots and lots of cheese.

My bunkmate was a Northwest flight attendant from Minneapolis-- she's scheduled to take the language exam on Wednesday so she can work the flights to Paris. There were about 40 people, more women than men, more retired (although older than they seemed, I was shocked when I found out one of my cabin mates was 69--I would've said mid-50's) and another had started learning French when she was 68--and she was pretty fluent. She was a retired actress, so language and memorizing were her "thing", but still. There were 10 or so from Kansas City who all take classes at home from one of the teachers at the camp (she also runs the Lac du Bois Savannah site for kids in the summer, so she remembered both J2 and J4). A few like me, whose kids went to Concordia Language Villages and decided to be brave and try it, too. An interesting mix, and only a few who were just annoying. There are always a few!

What did I learn?

1. I'm too stressed out at home. My headaches and bodily aches and pains disappeared the entire time I was there.

2. I'm still not a nature girl. I did not take any hikes through the gorgeous woods of Northern Minnesota during my free time. I went to Target in Bemidji, thanks to my GPS.

3. I cannot go a week without Diet Coke.

4. I suck at speaking French. But at least I can understand what people are saying and what I read. There were people who were totally in the weeds.

Will I go again? Maybe. All depends on what happens with the house (still no deal--they are coming down $10,000 at a time and we are getting the message that they really don't want to sell it or at the very least, the six siblings can't agree). I will definitely take classes at Alliance Francais before I even think about going back because I spent too much time remembering what I already learned once, but forgot.

How do I say...........? Oh yeah, I can just say it.

It was a nice break from real life.

Airplane Reading

I'm Back

Seriously, what are the chances? (do the quiz and look at the random questions and you'll see what I mean.)

You Should Live in Georgia

If you don't want to live in Georgia, you might also consider: South Carolina Texas Alabama Kansas Mississippi

What State Should You Live In?

Au revoir!

I am off to Minnesota for a week of French Camp!

Whatever.....

Have you seen this show yet?

"Whatever, Martha" with Alexis Stewart and her friend dissing segments from Martha Stewart Living, circa 1980-90's? On Fine Living Network, right after reruns of Martha's talk show.

Hilarious.

Dearest Friend,

I have a hotmail account dating back to when we first got connected to the internet. My junk mailbox has the fun little button "report phishing scam" and I have at least 10-12 of these a day. I've had "soldiers", "pastors", "barristers" and who knows what else want to be my "dearest friend". You know you get them, too. They crack me up and I can't figure out who is responding.

But you know, since I do want a new house and I really don't want to go through all the trouble of selling my old one.....maybe I should see if this guy is the real deal. 'Cause I'll need some extra for renovations, too. Hmmmmmm.

FROM THE DESK OF:
DESMOND DURU (ESQ)
ATTORNEY AT LAW
DURU INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATE
#14 PORT ROAD,
NEMBE,BAYELSA STATE NIGERIA.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Barrister Desmond Duru, a solicitor at law. I am the personal attorney to Mr.Nam Hyewon, a national of your country, who used to work with shell development company in Niger Delta Region of Federal Republic of Nigeria and as well a one time secret agent in transferring of money overseas for the Late head of state of Nigeria {Late Gen.SANI ABACHA}.Before his death On August 6th, 1997 in Korean Air Flight 801, which crashed in Guam on Wednesday [my client involved in the plane crash incident.

My Client Late Mr.Nam Hyewon}deposited the sum of US$9.5 Million United States Dollars in a commercial bank here in Nigeria for himself, with the hope of transferring it to his country as soon as he resumes his leave come August 6th, 1997),before his untimely death in a plane crash. Let me refer you to the front page of (CNN) World News,(CNN) Official passenger manifest You can check it through their website, bellow)

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list/

Since his death I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank where these Money was Deposited. Particularly, the bank where the deceased Deposited (US$9,500,000.00) Nine million five hundred thousand United States dollars only and bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin with in the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you are a foreigner, so that the proceeds of this deposit (Money) valued at (US$9,500,000.00) Nine million five hundred thousand United States dollars only can be claim by you and then you and I can share the money. 60% to me and 40% to you, I have all the necessary legal documents such as Investment Deposit Certificate and Death Certificate that can be used to back up the claim. Next of kin can be Brother, Cousin, Sister or well wisher, it does not matter if you have same last name with him or not all the paying bank needs is a foreigner to enable them release the money. If you are willing to transact this business with me, kindly get back to me as soon as you received this email, in your return mail, private contact telephone number, fax number full name and address to enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate departments for necessary Approvals before the transfer.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and I from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me for more information to enable us discuss further.

Best Regards,
Barrister Desmond Duru.(Esq.)

OK, so these are so ridiculous even with half a brain you'd have to know this is a scam. I usually just click the phishing scam button without opening them.

The other day, though in the midst of mild boredom, I opened one of the ones from the banks (half of the banks that tell me my account has been compromised, I've never heard of). This one was from Bank of America and it looked incredibly real. I read through all the information they wanted and it was scary. Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and six different security questions. They did screw up a little by asking for your father's maiden name and your mother and father's "middles" name, but I can see how a relatively naive person could buy into this. I'm sure neither of my parents would've noticed that the link first ran through a random web address before ending up on a so-called B of A address. I used to get ebay and paypal notices all the time, too, which made me very leary to even think about buying something on there (yeah, I got over it recently, but still....)

We've been connected to the internet for over 10 years and we've been getting stuff like this about that long. I would think after all that time this would've run it's course, but the opposite seems to be happening and I get more of these than ever.

It must be working.

Photo Op

First day of school at the crack of dark-thirty

Girls in Hilton Head

J3 spent the whole weekend on the sofa.

J4 tired, sunburned and ready to go home.

The view from our balcony.

Ying.....Yang

Ying....my refrigerator on the fritz. I have the digital control panel propped up against the ceiling of the fridge with a large yogurt container and it's dark in there.

Yang...the appliance repair guy told me to call the customer service center and ask them to cover the cost to fix it since they sent a service bulletin that this was happening (we've had it for 18 months, so of course it's no longer under warranty.) Fingers crossed.

Ying....yet another meal moth infestation. I discovered that double bagging everything does not help. Neither does putting every grain, cereal or nut in a plastic container. They are the bug equivalent to Houdini.

Yang....after searching for days, I finally found the nesting place and am now just killing the suckers one by one. They are losing their zip. I can grab them in my hand instead of waiting for them to land on the ceiling.

Ying....I've been working on pillows for my window seat for a week. You'd never know that I made a lined wool suit for my 4-H project (for which I received a purple ribbon) when I was 17 years old, because these pillows have me whipped. Who knew pom pom trim and brush fringe could be so difficult?

Yang....they look awesome, if I do say so myself.

Ying...I have to go to the office all day today because DOTR is working at the polls. We have a special election to extend the sales tax for our schools. Unfortunately, the newspaper has had a heyday with negative articles against extending it thanks to the larger county system. We are the lean and mean city system and we haven't done anything for years to make the paper mad (since we built a $56 million taj mahal high school back at the turn of the century) so it sucks that we are tied to their system in these referendums. We moved out of the county school system 11 years ago because the board was whacko then (7 different supts. in 6 years and continuous redistricting--J2 played softball with a girl who had never moved from her house, yet had attended 3 different elementaries and two different middle schools) and hasn't gotten any better, IMO. They have a central office staff the size of a small third world nation. When we've got county students paying tuition to attend our high school when they offer the same program as a magnet (IB) for free.....well, what's that tell you?

Yang....I'm glad I moved away from outer suburbia.

Ying....still no deal on the house. We are in the midst of the back and forth volleying on price. It will be a money pit. This I know.

Yang...which means my house is not for sale. Yet. So I don't have to do the dishes. Yet.

Ying....because of the state budget crisis, the girls didn't get their jobs back at GT. If they'd worked this summer, they would've been able to keep them, but they put a hold on any new hiring so if you weren't on the payroll during the summer they couldn't hire you back.

Yang...J2, of course, has already found another job. J1 is still looking, but has a couple of prospects.

Ying...DOTR took great joy in telling me yesterday that the temperature in Bemidji, Minnesota was 46 degrees. I leave early Sunday morning for my French Immersion week.

Yang...good, because I'm hot.

How Hot?

Anybody have a clue how hot the light bulbs in your refrigerator get if they don't turn off when the door closes?

Hot.

Really, really, reeeeeeally hot.

Sometime on Thursday afternoon, the computer that controls that little phenomenon in my fancy schmancy refrigerator started to override the information from the door telling it to turn off the lights. The whole thing finally melted away enough that I could reach in and unscrew the light bulbs. Everything on the top two shelves of le frigo......toast. In the trash.

Smelly melting plastic is so appetising.

Saturday Again

It comes around every week, yet I seem surprised.

It takes me until at least noon to do anything productive. Every week. Yet I seem surprised.

We have an unusually quiet day planned for a change. No baseball game for J3 (good thing, he is sick with a cold and/or allergies). We may wander over to watch the GT-VT game with our friends at Oakton (where do you put a big screen in an 1838 house so it doesn't look out of place? the kitchen, of course!) It's fun to watch there, but DOTR suffers from the inability to watch one football game at a time and likes to be in charge of the remote. So we usually end up staying home. We'll see what mood strikes in an hour or two. I'm sure it will all depend on his interest level in the games that are on at the same time. (BTW, Kirk Herbstreit is going with GT as the upset team for the second week in a row....hmmmmm).

Last night was the Blue Devils home opener. Great big picnic before the game catered by 5 Guys Burgers. Delicious. Nice change from The Varsity gut busters and much more organized (the last two years, the Varsity insisted that 3,000 people stand in line to get their food out of one window in their catering trailer). Hotter than hades and absolutely swimmingly humid. Not a good hair day. But nice to be back at the city's biggest cocktail party (sans cocktails, of course...this is high school). Blue Devils won but will need to play a lot better to beat the big rivals coming up on the schedule. DOTR is in his 7th year on the "chain gang" and still the only non-native born person to do so. Yeah, it's that big a deal here.

Tomorrow we have been summoned to the in-laws to see some old neighbors who are visiting (from when DOTR was a kid--they all lived on the University's Agriculture Experiment Station). I usually try to beg off most anything involving the in-laws, but Favorite SIL called at the crack of dawn this morning and told me I have to go or she'll come and get me. So I guess I'll get psyched up to "be nice". The older I get, the harder this gets!

Back to the couch.

It's Saturday again.

In Remembrance

These are the flags that flew at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park on the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11. Our Kiwanis Club organized the placing of a flag for each person who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 on the second anniversary. The response was incredible, and included an aerial shot during the opening of Good Morning America. Because it was such a huge project, they did not do it again until the fifth anniversary. J2 was a member of the Key Club and helped put up all the flags.

Our Kiwanis Club puts up flags all over town for every holiday. Both J1 and J2 spent many early Saturday mornings putting up flags, but I think this was the most memorable. After the event, the flags were available for purchase. We have one--and it came with a certificate with the name of the person it honors, one of the thousands of people who went to work on Sept. 11 and never came home.

Never forget.

A Milestone

Last night J4 and I went shopping for jeans. If you can't tell from pictures, he is very small for a 9th grader. As in 5'2" (maybe) and 95 lbs. He wears a boys size 12 shorts, but 12 jeans are too short. A couple of weeks ago, we got a pair of 14 slim jeans at Abercrombie kids on super duper clearance, but he's tired of shopping at kid stores.

Last night we stopped at Aeropostale (middle school kids' dream store!) and he tried on some "grown up" jeans.

28/28 super slims.

They fit.

He's a big boy now.

Button Bustin'

Sunday afternoon we had the honor of attending the induction of one of our dear friends into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (Georgia Chapter). He and his wife have been our friends since our kids were small--we went to church together, the kids went to preschool and elementary school together, and now he coaches both boys at the high school. DOTR eats lunch with him at least 3x a month and they've gone to many, many UT football games (since DOTR is the world's biggest college football fan, no matter who's playing), Braves games, high school football games and wrestling tournaments. His wife has made every beautiful window treatment, dust ruffle, pillow, etc. for this house and the last. I was telling a story Sunday about how we went to Cracker Barrel almost every single preschool morning and I could still tell you what we ate (egg in the basket, bacon, hashbrown casserole) So what I'm saying is....we've been friends for a long time.

There were six people honored this year and there were over 500 people there. I was amazed. Although it's one of the oldest sports in history, wrestling is not that big a deal here. (Yeah, I know all star rasslin' is big...but this is different!) The SEC has no schools with wrestling, and the ACC only has a few. Thanks to Title IX it's one of the first to go when they have to make the numbers work. There are no college programs at all in the state of Georgia. Most of the high school coaches in the Atlanta area have been recruited from out of state. I think there is only one native born Georgian in the Georgia chapter of the Hall of Fame, and he was a wrestler.

Our friend is from upstate New York, the second youngest of 7 kids. His dad is 87 and in poor health and they'd told him that they probably wouldn't be able to come. His younger brother, his two sisters and husbands, his wife's sister and husband, her parents and their spouses all came from New York, Tennessee, Colorado, etc. There were old wrestlers there, one in particular who brought his wife and mother, current wrestlers, former administrators, and athletic boosters from town. We filled 5 or 6 tables.

In the end, his parents decided to make the trip. His dad looks very frail. We were sitting at the next table from the immediate family, and several times during the long speeches (he was last to speak) when I looked over, his dad was patting him on the back. It was so sweet--his buttons were bustin', he was so proud.

It was heartwarming to see such a supportive family and community. And so special, the frail old man patting his son (now over 50) on the back for a job well done. I'm glad he was there.

I'm glad I was there.

Busy, busy, busy

Not really. More like I do a lot of spinning my wheels. Wandering around forgetting what I was doing. I really need to go to the office one of these days. Then I can get sidetracked on a faster computer.

I actually drug out the old sewing machine and I'm working on some pillows for the windowseat in the kitchen. We are still hemming and hawing on a deal for the other house, and after a week our first rather "creative" offer was rejected (but not right away, they actually considered it). It was worth a shot. Now we try something else. Which means I'm still cleaning my house. Again. Or not so much.

J4's new bed looks spectacular in his room. J3's room is in an identity crisis. Am I a boy's room? Then why do I have the whole set of Traveling Pants books next to my bed? Must work on that.

Open House last night at the high school. How intriguing that only four weeks in and J3 has missing work ALREADY. Just a minor detail, a study guide for a test. Did crappy on the test. Perhaps because he didn't do the study guide? Duh. Remind J3 to remove head from ass. Again.

I tried to pay my speeding ticket online and it says they have no record of it. Which means now I have to go pay it in person. Luckily it was only $33 (especially since I really don't think I was speeding since I was looking RIGHT AT my speedometer). At least it's the city and not the county. When I had to pay my last "speeding in a school zone" ticket, I had to stand in line for two hours at the courthouse. While I was standing there, I read the little detail that I could pay it online. Remind myself to watch the lead foot in school zone. Again. Third ticket in my life, all after I turned 40.

And how are things at your house?

Busy, busy, busy, I'm sure.

Dear Neighbor,

You are so kind.

Instead of leaving your little pile of dog poop in front of my mailbox (as you are prone to do about every other day), you were kind enough to put it in a little blue bag and throw it in my recycling bin.

Like that makes it OK?

Bite me,

MOTR

A Little Housekeeping

And I don't just mean around my house. On that front it's a lot of housekeeping.

I'm talking about blog housekeeping.

First, thanks to those who bestowed awards on me lately. I promise I will get something together and pass them on. I think I still have a couple from the last go 'round that I haven't done. So....seriously, there are so many great and entertaining blogs out there that it's overwhelming. Must do it when I have a big block of downtime. I promise.

I need to update my blogroll, so leave a comment and your blog address. I keep finding great new blogs and then forgetting to add them. Merci beaucoup.

Didn't mean to leave everybody hanging on the "surprise". Yeah, y'all were right, we are thinking about selling the house. But there's only one house we want and we have to sell this house to get it (long and boring story about self employment, mortgage paid off on this house, so not a lot of liquid assets, etc. etc. etc.). And if we don't get that house, then we don't want to sell this house. So the first step is underway with a somewhat complicated offer and we'll see what happens. In the meantime, my house looks like it was tossed and is nowhere in the neighborhood of being ready to list. Nor do we even know a possible selling price yet (another long story about where we live and the difficulty in setting a price). One bright spot today was the call from Ethan Allen to schedule the delivery of J4's new bed. Last week they told me it wouldn't be here until after the 15th. Now they're bringing it on Friday. Maybe that will make a better impression on potential buyers than a mattress on the floor. I'm just sayin'.

In three weeks, I'm going to Bemidji, Minnesota to an adult French immersion week. No clue what I was thinking when I signed up, but I have a plane ticket and a rental car, so there's no backing out now. I also found out that it's Homecoming week, so I will miss it. We have four away games in October, so that's why it's so early. Guess DOTR will have to supervise the dates--last year J4 said he thought that would be really fun to get together with your friends and go to dinner and the dance. Now if he can just find a girl who's not a foot taller, he's set. Here's hoping J3 can find a date that's not a skank. And that's all I have to say about that. You moms with boys know what I mean. It's scary out there.

I guess that's all the blog housekeeping I can think of right now. I guess that means I have to do real housekeeping.

Bloggy housekeeping is so much more fun.

Nose to the Grindstone

Even though school started almost a month ago, the big September 1 on the calendar seems like a new start. Forget about new year's resolutions, the real "first day" and "new beginnings" should be September 1. Time for the closets to be clean and organized, the menu planned and supplies stocked, summer clothes put away and new jeans in drawers in their place (ignoring that it's still shorts weather here until about Halloween).

Summer's last hurrah last weekend, time to get serious again.

We had a good weekend at Hilton Head. The boys left school after second block because we had to be there to pick up the key to the condo between 4:00 and 5:00. The girls left later after class, so they didn't arrive until about 7:30. That gave DOTR and me time to hit the Piggly Wiggly for supplies (margarita mix, cereal and milk, deli meat and bread...the basics) and bike rentals taken care of. We got the big seafood dinner out the way the first night and basically just lazed around for the rest of the weekend. If you wanted to go somewhere, there was a bike. Go. Please.

The weekend, of course, coincided with the kickoff of college football season (we had a bye this week in Blue Devil land, so we were free to leave the area!) We opted out of the first GT game on Thursday night because we were going out of town the next day. J1 didn't even get to go, she had a lab that night. DOTR was up bright and early Saturday so he could get a visit to the beach "out of the way" before College Gameday. It was so hot and humid, I didn't mind vegging out in front of the multiple tv's either.

We did minimal shopping despite all the temptations in Hilton Head. We stayed at Shelter Cove Harbor, so there were enough stores right there to keep us occupied. We scored some great Vineyard Vines stuff on clearance and ladybug stuff for the girls to give as gifts to their "Bug Buddies" (new pledges). Otherwise, it was just chillin'.

But now we're back.

Back to work. Back to school. Fresh start.

Nose to the grindstone.