Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow Day!

It snowed last night. We don't know how much. Mama doesn't have a ruler. It's probably 2" to 3". Here is the view from our front window. We have our own fire hydrant. See it in the photo?

Here is the view from our patio door.

We went out around 5 a.m. We saw our first snow plow and it scared us.

Last night, the pizza man came. Yes, we are really starting to like this city living. We have leftovers for today. Yummy!

Mama was happy yesterday because we finally got mail. She had just called the post office to see if anything was waiting for us back home, but he said nothing was there. We had only received two things in two weeks. We used to get mail every day. Yesterday, we received several things including Mama's paycheck and our new coats. We like our new coats. They are not the heavy duty kind, but fleece ones. They fit really nice and we think they will suit us for our activities. Scout even got excited when she tried hers on and normally she doesn't like to wear anything.

Mama did something silly yesterday and now her glasses are scratched. She was closing the drapes in our room and the rod that you use to pull the drapes somehow fell behind Mama's glasses. I know, it's hard to imagine, but it happened. Mama didn't think anything of it until she sat down at the computer and she thought she had a long hair stuck to her glasses. She then discovered it's a long scratch right down the middle of the lens. She's really upset about it because she needs her glasses to read. She does not know if the scratch can be fixed, but said she will check into it.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Has Snow Today

Monday, January 10, 2011

Room Service - Sort Of

(Jack hanging out at the old house.)

After Mama and Daddy got home from house hunting, they debated what to order to eat. This city living is definitely different than our old home. Mama cooked about 97% of the time at home and here it's like 50/50. They debated between Chinese food or pizza. Mama decided to give the Chinese food a try. I was more excited over the Chinese food than the pizza we had last week. It smelled so good when it arrived. Mama ordered Cashew Chicken-fried and the sauce came separate, so Mama gave us each a piece of the chicken. Yummy! We tried the fortune cookies and Scout liked them, of course. Scout likes almost everything. I, however, do not prefer sweets and spit mine out. Mama was very happy with the food and said we are definitely ordering from them again. Yeah!

The house hunting did not go well. There was one that Mama said she had high hopes for and it had a huge yard. They discovered that it was a mobile home and modular home put together. Daddy does a lot of research on the homes before they look at them and he found one site that said it was a mobile home. They couldn't figure out how it could be because it looked like a regular house. Mama said it was really nice looking and it was huge. It was almost too big for us since we are downsizing. It needed some repairs, such as a new roof. Anyway, once Daddy and the agent figured out it must be two homes put together, red flags went up. (The big tip off was the heat registers went down the center of the floor in one section - which would be the mobile home part. Also, Daddy said the bathtub was definitely a mobile home bathtub.) The agent told them that they would need to find the tag number that is on all all mobile homes when they re-sell it. That could be a problem because it was completed sided. Since we are cash buyers, it's not an issue for us, but it could be a big problem later on. Daddy was also concerned about how everything was connected together and it just seemed like it could be a big problem. The resale value of it is questionable. It's been on the market for quite a while and maybe other people have figured out the problem, too. Mama was disappointed because she said it had almost everything we wanted, especially a huge yard, but she needs to think with her head and not her heart.

They looked at another house that Mama said was okay, but there wasn't a way to get us to the backyard without going down steps or having to go out the front and then around to the backyard. Mama wants to be able to open a door and let us out. She said she is not ready to just settle for a house yet.

We are still considering one of the homes that they looked at on Friday. Mama says that one is looking more and more promising, but there is something up with that one too. The agent is not responding to our agent with the questions we have. Mama had actually called that agent about a month ago about the same house and he was really rude to her. I guess selling homes is not a priority to him.

We are supposed to get snow later today. Daddy is headed out of town, so we are on our own for the week. Mama said we will order pizza and just hang out together.

(Scout in the snow in 2008.)

Jack
The Greyhound Who Likes Chinese Food

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Weekend Update


Mama and Daddy went house hunting on Friday. They looked at five and said that only one is still on their list. Mama said three of the homes were foreclosures and while they are not afraid of foreclosures, these were terrible. The house they bought in 1990 was a foreclosure and it was not in bad shape. It was just outdated. It had wallpaper in the living room that had dead trees on it. Mama said the house was built in the 70's and it was still in the 70'w when they bought it. Anyway, the foreclosures they looked at Friday were in really bad shape. Daddy said they were not a good deal considering they would have to be completely gutted. He is willing to do a kitchen or a bathroom, but not both. The pictures on the Internet didn't look bad, but in person, they were. The one house was only three years old and Mama thought in the pictures it looked like the carpet had mud on it. It was not mud. It was stained with urine. The entire carpet was covered in urine. Mama said she had trouble breathing in that house.

Yesterday, they went to an open house, but no one was there. What's up with that? They came home and checked the computer and yes, it was scheduled for yesterday, but they guess it was canceled and not updated. Grrr!

Mama bought a new coat yesterday because she is freezing on our walks. She got new gloves, too, so she is set for the snowstorm that is coming tomorrow. We are not looking forward to more snow.

Today, they are headed out to look at three more homes. There is one that Mama is really interested in and if these pictures lie, Mama is going to give up on the Internet search. LOL She said that she thinks one of the three will be nasty, but Daddy is determined to see it.

Scout and I are not happy being left behind on these home searches, but Mama says it's for the best. Best for who? I think we should have a say on where we live.

Daddy is headed out of town tomorrow, so you know what that means? Pizza man is coming over. Oh, that doesn't sound very proper does it? He's just bringing us pizza and then leaving. LOL

Jack
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like Being Left Behind On Home Searches

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Two Weeks Of Hotel Living

Well, it's been two weeks since we moved into the hotel. Last night, Daddy said that he doesn't think about our old house and he doesn't miss it. What? How could he say that? We miss it. We miss our yard. Scout really misses running laps in it. Scout would just break into a run without warning. She would run four laps one way and then turn around and run the other way. The whole time she was running, Mama would be screaming "BE CAREFUL, BE CAREFUL". You see our yard went down a hill and Mama was scared she would run into the fence. We also had a mole problem and our yard was pretty torn up. Mama was so scared we would get hurt.

Personally, I miss running in the house. I would always get in trouble for it, but I still would take off and run until they stopped me. I only got hurt once and that happened a few months after I moved there. I crashed into the wall and broke it. Daddy repaired it several times, but it never looked quite right. I didn't get hurt bad. I just scrapped my leg, but the wall lost a lot of dry wall.

Hotel living is a lot noisier than our old house, but you have to remember that not much happened there. We saw more wildlife than people. We miss the deer, turkey, and birds. We hear people closing doors around here and airplanes fly over quite often. We are getting used to it, but it's not as exciting as you might think. We had a hotel worker come to our room the other day and that's why our beds got stacked. Mama needed to make room for him to walk through the room and then we decided we liked it that way, so during the day we have a stacked bed and at night it is taken down.

The parking lot is full of vehicles of the claims adjusters that are staying here due to the tornado damage nearby. Daddy said the disasters are good business for extended stay hotels. He's been in the hotel business for 24 years, so I guess he knows.

Mama and Daddy are going house hunting tomorrow with the agent, so maybe we will have a fenced yard soon.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Is Getting To Be A Pro At Hotel Living

Home Again - Part 3

 Well, we just realized that we didn't finish telling you about the rest of our trip home.  I don't know if we even remember the res...