Thursday, May 11

I've now learned the necessity of including the day and date in the title, since if I happen to be publishing after midnight it looks like two posts in one day. Of course chronologically it is, but that's not the point.

Today was a blurry flurry of phone calls. Picked the kids up at Dave's and took them to school as per the usual, but that was where the usual ended. Talked with Danny at least six or seven times today, the first time when he called with a market analysis for the neighborhood. It showed the house appraising for considerably less than what Vance and Chrisana were asking, which prompted a later call from him saying that he'd called in a favor with the appraiser and been told it almost surely wouldn't appraise for much more than $100,000. In and around all that Carole was talking with Vance about it all. At least twice we were talking with Vance and Danny at the same time. In the middle of all that we did the Photowalk stuff we'd normally have done the night before, and then called Margie about doing our own scheduling. Thus began an afternoon of working on work schedules, phone-tagging Margie while still fielding calls to and from Vance and Danny. Picked up the kids from school and brought them back with visions of Milo and Otis, but we didn't even get to that before leaving again to go back to Vance and Chrisana's again to attempt to fill out the sales contract for the house. That was a rather comical blind-leading-the-blind affair, but we think it worked out all right. Everyone's out to do the fair thing, fortunately, so it was a good experience. We joked that we wanted to buy their house, but we'd rather them move next door so we could be neighbors. The kids had fun playing with their son Travis, and we slid him a twenty for the video games. Vance said he was embarrassed his son was taking money from us, but it was Carole's suggestion. She didn't think he should be giving away his video games. I wouldn't have argued if he did . . . . Then to Sonic to feed the kids and back here to attempt to get them in bed ASAP, since it was already past 8:00. I think they were down for good by 8:45. Yeesh. And then to the roast that Carole had put in this morning and continued commentary on Field of Dreams. ("I just thought it would be funny to watch Kevin Costner try to kidnap James Earl Jones" -- director Phil Alden Robinson, roughly.)

Now let's spin the random thoughts wheel:

a) Thanks to yet another trip to Walgreen's for diet drinks for Carole, I'm amazed all over again how many variations on just diet drinks there are. Diet Dr. Pepper is fine, but then there's Diet Coke with Lemon, caffeine-free Diet Coke, Diet Coke with Splenda (bad choice on my part), and some other taste variation on it. Is the market for Diet Coke really that splintered, and if so, yikes?

b) Life would be a lot easier with a lot of money. Certainly buying a house would be easier. "I want your house, and everything in it." "Okay. I want $XXX for it." "Done. Here's $XXX for a tip."

c) I really, really need some new jeans.

d) Is that a spider bite?

e) It seems almost impossible for me to get to bed before midnight.

In that vein, Carole has resumed her almost nightly pre-bed nap on the couch. How I envy her borderline narcoleptic tendencies. Since I've mostly caught up on the news and commentary I'd like -- I'm being driven almost daily toward some political rants about Republicans and Democrats both -- I can now retire to bed and my new, comfy Bed Bath & Beyond $99 pillow. (Texans Credit Union called this morning to make sure the $300+ purchase there the other day was in fact ours. "Yes," I told her, "that was our wedding gifts spree.")