Moved!

I'm in! The movers came this morning and, with a few exceptions, my stuff is now located in the new house. I left a very curious cat sniffing everything and came into work for a few hours.

Now to clean the old place.

I'm a HOMEOWNER!

Closing went pretty smoothly (completely smoothly from my end, the seller caused a few hiccups, but my folks got tough on them and it's all straightened out.) As of noon on Friday, I own my home.

I'm not sure it's sinking in yet that I own the house. It's so much bigger than the apartments I've been living in. It's got a whole extra story for crissakes! And a yard!

My folks were in town this weekend to see the house (and me). We got lots of good stuff done. We blew insulation into the attic, changed the locks and all of the smoke detectors, amongst other things. My dad is so happy to have a house to putter in for his little girl.

The weather was nice, so I did some work outside. I met a bunch of my neighbors. It's a very close and friendly neighborhood.

More later.

New closing date

New closing date was approved. I'll be a homeowner on the 19th! Yay!!!

Inspection passed

So the house passed inspection. YAY! There are, of course, a few things to take care of but nothing that puts the kybosh on the purchase. So now we head in to the final weeks of stuff before closing. Whew.

Bid accepted!

Yay! The owner/bank accepted my first bid (finally - took them an excruciatingly long five days). I'm on my way to homeownership.

Want to see pictures? http://picasaweb.google.com/karen.pollard/GoodrichHouse

The bid is in!

That's right. I put a bid on a house. 420 Goodrich to be exact. Now I wait and see how the process unfolds.

For house photos, check out http://picasaweb.google.com/karen.pollard/GoodrichHouse.

House hunting

So the first trip went well. Found a couple of possibilities, but no real winners. Enough, though, that I feel like I will find something that will suit me well. There are some SCARY houses out there, though. And some crazy ideas of decorating.

This week - we explore the few St Paul houses that are in my price range.

Fall is approaching

The trees are thinking about turning color. There's a yellow/orange/red aura about their leaves. They can't wait to show off.

The muggy weather disappeared in a torrent of rain last night as I was leaving the bar. Ethan and I were soaked. Today dawned crisp and clear. Sky so blue you want to swim in it. And tomorrow is my first day of looking at houses. Good omens, I think.

Alas, State Fair, I hardly knew ye

Thus ends this year's State Fair. I went twice and tried lots of new and familiar foods. Road some new rides and generally had fun. I'll miss it until it arrives next year.

Added bonus - I got 2nd place for my crop art this year!

Turns out my crop art was due Monday. It was a bit of a scramble, but I got it in in time. This is what I did this year.


The catagory is special occasion, which is broader than I expected. Seems like almost any occasion will do. Ah well. I like mine and I had fun making it. Here's me with some of my competition. Wish me luck.

Full of Accomplishment

I had a lovely weekend. It rained almost the whole time so getting outside felt extra heroic and staying in with a mug of tea felt cozy. I made it to the Midtown Farmer's Market for the first time. Quite nice. Smaller than my St Paul market with a more obvious influx of Hmong fav veggies. I grabbed some huge Hmong cucumbers and salsa fixins. They've got a crepe stand there so I had a buckwheat crepe with market sausage, gouda and market veg. It was steamy and savory, perfect for a cold rainy morning as I ate it in my car.

I had a huge To Do list on the white board - just a ton of stuff I had put off until the travel was dine (like 5 loads of laundry, house cleaning, bills, etc) and I made a hefty dent in it. I also have my crop art for this year 95% finished. Filling in the background with poppy seeds was tougher than I imagined. It was exactly like working with glitter when I was 10. The seeds stick everywhere and the hard part is getting them off the places where you don't want them. Tonight I'll check for any bare spots or lumps and try to smooth everything out. State Fair starts this weekend so I take the crop art in sometime this week.

Whew...

I love traveling and seeing friends and new places, but I'm glad to be home. Especially with the knowledge that I don't have to go anywhere this weekend. I've got a mountain of laundry calling my name and I'm looking forward to buying some fresh stuff (and having time to eat it before it goes bad).

Thanks again to everyone who hosted me. I'm happy and sated and looking forward to returning the favor.

I'm alive

Weird night last night. I left work around 7:30 and got a message from my dad asking about the bridge collapse. I had no idea what had happened. Then I saw the footage. It's not a road I take very often, but the weird thing is - Because of the free tickets to Bourne, I was going over that bridge on Tuesday at exactly the time the bridge fell the following day. Creeped me out.

Keeping up with the curve

I spent a lovely long weekend with Susan and Brian in Philly. The house is lovely and I can officially recommend the guest room. In addition to catching up on some missed foods, we also cooked in a bunch (Brian makes out of this world breakfast potatoes). Susan and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie and Ratatouille. We also managed to both tear our way through the last Harry Potter book. There was a plethora of Potter dishing going on this weekend.

After a much longer than necessary trip home, I arrived back to discover I won two free tickets to an advance preview of the final Bourne movie. Yay! Rebecca and I went and rotted our brains on fantastic car chases and fight scenes. It was a wonderful third act.

This is a big travel month. I leave on Sunday for St. Louis. City Museum - Here I come!

Reigning in the home frenzy?

I attended a home buyers workshop this weekend and I'm struggling now to keep my terror and excitement in check. Just about everyone knows I'm buying a house now and everytime they ask me about it I get all bubbly and giddy. But I'm not ready to jump in with both feet yet. I've got some more budget rearrangement to do and I'd like to pay down my debt some more.

I've got three trips on three consecutive weekends coming up (Philly, St Louis, and VA). Then I'll take a weekend off to recover. That gives me a month to chill out, look around and educate myself more. Then I'll find a realtor and things will really take off.

News

I've managed to fit in two (2!) games of putt putt today. This is a great day.

The news is...I've decided to buy a house. So I'm starting to do all that background research and reading and stuff. I've got a workshop next week that's offered by the state of MN for first time homebuyers. I'll know more after that. But I've started spreading the news and getting recommendations for agents and inspectors and stuff. Fun!

FYI - the headache lasted the entire day, but was gone by morning. Now I'm reveling in 80 degree weather and crystal clear skies. Did I ever mention how good the air smells here? Funny detail, but true.

Am I paying for last nights fun?

I had a lovely night last night. Talked with Dennis (Hi, Dennis!) and then went to a wine tasting. The theme was interesting labels. Surprisingly, the wine was really good, too. My favorite was one of the ones I brought, a lovely pinot verde that turned out to be sparkling, too. It was perfect for summer.

I'd like to point out that I did not overindulge (maybe a glass and a half total) and I went home at a reasonable hour (9pm) and yet today I'm afflicted with a wretched headache. One of those that feels like someone is stabbing you in the temple with an icepick (the left temple, in case you are interested). Plus I overslept this morning by a lot (not sure if the headache is tied in with this, but I was having some crazy dreams). Luckily, the meeting I missed was cancelled instead. Whew. Now the question is, can I make it through the rest of the day. And with that cliffhanger, I leave you.

Hot

But the east coast is hotter. Actually our 95 degree weather broke on Sunday with an smashing downpour that lasted a few hours. But before that happened, I got a good visit in to the farmer's market. Picked up all sorts of lovelies. Mixed lettuces, shelling peas and mint, tomatoes and basil, the first corn of the season, some tiny first carrots (to small to peel, you just eat them), tender zucchini. I went with a chowhound friend and we split some of our purchases (since you get a lot for a little and there is no sense in letting this stuff go bad before you get to it). Thanks to Kate, I've got a baby bok choy in my crisper, too. I want to see if I can recreate the Napa Snappa that I used to enjoy in Norfolk.

Predictably, after a lovely morning at the market, I did not feel like cooking anything I had purchased. So I scraped together a bit of cash and ordered chinese. I'll eat the leftovers for lunch and start on my fresh veg haul tonight.

Birthday fun...

My family came up from Virginia to help me celebrate my birthday. I picked them up from the airport on Saturday and we headed to the Science Museum. They checked out my Light exhibit and then we headed outside for mini-golf. Mom won, but I was a close second. Dad and MF cheated and still lost (of course, they say it's only cheating if you win.) We had dinner at Sara and Brian's house, grilled pizzas - which were a revelation to Mom and MF, and then we played Mexican Train dominos. So nice.

Sunday, we went to the MN Arb (the big one, far away out near Lake Minnetonka, not the small, close one at Como). They have an Art to A-Maze walk which is a bunch of installed art exhibits throughout the grounds that form a trail which leads to their new garden maze. The weather was perfect and we had a lovely time wandering around and then conquering the maze. MF and I made it through first, but Dad was the most crafty. If I'm ever lost, I'll follow him.

Monday was my birthday and I had my birthday meal at Hell's Kitchen. Best bloody mary every, plus lemon ricotta pancakes and a cup of mahnomin porridge all to myself. I was in heaven. Plus, the server carded me for the bloody mary (yay!) and when he found out it was my birthday, he comped us a caramel pecan roll. So decadent.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Full of sweet and salty and dominos and family. Couldn't have asked for better.

Green tea cake with red bean filling

One does not expect to see this when one wanders through the break room. Yummy, though. The green tea cake was light and spongy. Not too sweet with a pronounced green tea taste. The red bean paste was sweet and textured just like in bean cakes (the bun kind, not the layered kind). The icing is whipped cream (not whipped cream icing, just whipped cream very lightly sweetened. The whole cake was topped with fruits....and parsley.