So big!!

Yesterday we took the girls downtown to the Ann Arbor Art Fair. It ended up raining on us, and we got soaked. And it was ridiculously hot. It felt like the first week of Chris's and my honeymoon. We stayed in the jungle in Belize, in a bungalow with only screens and no electricity. We hiked most days in the jungle, and I stopped wearing makeup because it would melt off anyway. Yesterday felt like that. It was fun, though, interesting to see all the art. The girls loved seeing all the dogs that were walking around, they are really into dogs lately. Rowan even convinced one owner to let her pet her little puppy, with all her pointing and grunting. She says "daw" now when she points. Apparently she wants a puppy. Not that she's going to get one, she's going to have to depend on the kindness of strangers.

While we were downtown, we stopped and had lunch. Saoirse felt that we were feeding her too slowly, I guess, and when our backs were turned she grabbed a fork that was sitting near her. We had no idea she could use utensils. She can't get the food on the fork yet, but she can definitely get the fork in her mouth.

And we're connected!....

Thank you, Comcast, for pulling your head out of your collective asses and getting us hooked back up to the outside world.

So...we're in the new house. We've been in for about a week and a half now, and we love it. I've been trapped in the house a lot during the days, because there are workmen coming to finish things, fix things, or install things. But that's slowing down now. We've been working like crazy to unpack, organize, and buy things. Since we've always lived in apartments before, there's a lot of homeowner stuff we've never had. We're getting there, though. The girls were away with Grandma and Grandpa this last Friday night, so Chris and I got to spend some time furniture shopping and made some great finds. So in about 3 weeks, the house is going to be a lot less empty.

I think I'll just leave you with some pictures of what's been going on around here:

Going on a week

Sooooo, comcast sucks. So does Verizon. And At&T, Dish network and Direct TV have inferior products. None of this is really news to me since I have been dealing with these companies for years now, but I am starting to get pissed off. We live in Ann Arbor, a fairly modern progressive town that is by no means rural, yet comcast cannot seem to find our house. It is supposed to take 24 hours for them to determine serviceability for a house that is not in their system. I called them on June 27th. The request didn't go in until June 30th, and yet they still don't even know if we can get their service. I have literally called every phone number I can find for comcast on the internet. I keep getting automated service that asks for my phone number (I use a cell with a NYC area code) or an address (which is not in their system). It eventually spits me out in Chicago. They can't help me so they send me to a "local" comcast number but they don't know what to do with me either. And for the life of me I can't figure out why their customer service people can't talk to their service people. I mean, they have no way of communicating at all. They just put in a service request and sit and wait. If a job is not done or done incorrectly, they just put in another service request. I went through some of the same crap at our last address. The only way these morons can stay in business is because they have a monopoly. We should open up every market to allow more than one cable company to exist so that customer service becomes something these guys work on. By the way, never call a customer service help line. Always call their new subscriber line. Wait time is zero vs. 20 minutes for current customers. Fucking absurd.
Anyway, we still don't have internet so Gwen can't post.
The kids are doing great. Saoirse is walking all over the place. They really like their new home and clearly understand a lot of english. When we talk to them now, they listen (if they feel like it) and respond accordingly. It seems simple, but its amazing to see things finally connect.
Last weekend Gwen and the kids spent the 4th with their grandparents and uncle Blake and aunt Katie. They really loved the water, which is great, cause I do too. Unfortunately, I was on call, so I stayed home, but I can't wait until next time.
In the meantime, here are a few pictures I pulled off an old email. Goddamn they were small.

In Limbo

Hello all. I just wanted to write and let you know that while Gwen, myself and the kids are doing great and settling in to our new home, we do not have the internet yet. In fact, the cable company can't figure out how to find us at all. It has been five days and about 10 customer service rep calls and still we have no idea when they will be able to hook us up. I guess that's what happens when you build a new home. I am writting now from work (don't tell my boss). In a short while, we have to give up our condo where Gwen used to post, and when that happens it will either be writing from work or public facilities in Ann Arbor for a while. Don't fret though, as soon as possible we will be back blogging in full force (or at least Gwen will be). In the meantime, a short update. We are finally making the transition to a crib for Saoirse. She has been on the floor for about 3 months now. It isn't going so well, but in no time mom and dad should have their bedroom back. Yeah!!!

"They say twins are easy"

The other day I was in Target doing a little shopping with the girls. Picking up whole milk, deoderant, that kind of thing. I get several of the usual "Double trouble" or "You've got your hands full" comments. Then this older woman who's shopping with her grown daughter says, "Oh, someone's got twins!" as she comes over to the girls and stops me by standing in front of the stroller. "Yep" I say. What else to say to such an inane comment? Then she says, "They say twins are easy." I must say, I've never heard that one. I was actually speechless for a minute, then kind of laughed and said, "Huh. Well, not for me." She says, "Oh, my husband is a twin, and my mother in law always said that raising him and his brother together was easier than raising her daughter." Apparently the daughter was a hellion. And there's a whole other issue here related to your mother in law telling you about raising her son that I won't even get into. Suffice it to say you usually need to read between the lines there a little. But I just said, again, "Well, they're fun. But I wouldn't call it easy." And walked away. Easy! Huh. It's news to me.

St. Joseph

So yesterday at the closing, the seller's agent was dragging out stuff to try to entertain the girls, right? And she brings out this bag with ribbon and some odds and ends of wrapping paper in there, and they're sitting on the floor playing with it. And then when I get down on the floor with them, there are a few little boxes with plastic figurines in them. I almost cracked up when I saw what was in there, and I had to stash one in my purse to bring home. (for which, of course, I would go to hell if there were such a place)




Okay, I know that there are several (maybe lots) of Catholics reading this right now. (Donna) But seriously, people. Look at this nonsense. Notice how the box says this is "the authentic" St. Joseph. Apparently the foster father of Jesus has been copyrighted in 1992 by the Micklewright corporation.

And inside there are papers that explain what you're supposed to do. The pamphlet goes on at length about how this legitimate practice has been blurred by people resorting just to superstition, burying the statues. But the point is not the burying (although you are supposed to bury him somewhere on the property) it's the asking and the faith. And the Micklewright corporation has made these statues "...to provide everyone...with the opportunity to personally experience the power of St. Joseph. The sad truth is that, simply because of the overemphasis on burying techniques, many good people are continuing to lose out on the tremendous benefits, which St. Joseph never fails to provide." Yes, that is sad.

There is this caveat, though:
"For this practice to be fully effective, however...sellers must, of course, first do such practical, yet all important chores, as completing all necessary fix-up, properly staging the home and finally, adjusting the price so as to reflect true market value...then...just watch St. Joseph make it happen...!"

I don't want to make fun of anyone's faith. No, that's a lie. I do. I really really do. This is ridiculous. A plastic statue that you say a prayer to and then bury in the yard is not going to help you sell your house!! According to this box, burying it, and focusing on how deep it's buried or where it is, that's just superstition. But if you really believe, and THEN you bury it, it's somehow elevated out of the realm of superstition. And, apparently, if you buy your plastic statue from the Micklewright corporation. Please, someone out there, (Catholics) please tell me I'm not alone here in seeing the absurdity of this and the clear exploitation.

I'd love to be able to organize my thoughts and be more eloquent here. Maybe later. For now, I just had to point this out, because it made me laugh. In a "the world is going to hell in a handbasket" kind of way.

July 1, 2038

That's the day that we will make our last mortgage payment. That's right, people. We are HOMEOWNERS!! We had the closing this afternoon at 4 PM. I didn't really believe that it was going to happen until it did. There were several phone calls between Chris and I today, I met Bruno and our agent this morning for a final walk-through and took the girls along. I'm amazed at the loose ends that have come together in the last few days. Of course, there were a few little odds and ends left, like the garage door opener and my darkroom sink. But plans are in place. The closing itself was a circus. We took the girls with us, and the seller's agent was a woman who we had never met before. We really just went through our agent, and went directly to the builders. She's the agent in name only. She was this really loud, chatty Italian woman who spent about half the time we were there dragging toys out of the cupboards and stuff for the girls. This despite me saying about a thousand times, "Really, they'll be fine. They can entertain themselves." She announced to us all that she didn't have any kids of her own, that she just wasn't with the right guy at the right time, and said over and over, "I'm like a professional babysitter." To be honest, I would have preferred that she pay a little more attention to the closing that we were trying to accomplish, and a little less to my kids. She was so incredibly disorganized, we were there almost 2 hours. By the end, I was really working to keep a smile plastered on my face when she was chatting me up.

Nonetheless, we survived!! And now we own a very beautiful house.

Here's the view of the great room from the above balcony

Here's the shower and jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom

Here's a closeup of the tile border on the tub and the faucets

Here's the floor in the bathroom. Love the little glass tile insets!

Here's the kitchen viewed from the great room (and Rowan)

Here's my library :) The wall to your left is all shelves, I took it this way so you can see the walls, I love the chocolate color. And if you look out the front window, you can see the park across the street with playground equipment for the kids.

Here's the entryway, viewed from the dining room. The library door is just left of the area you can see.

This is the master bedroom window. Love the view of our trees in our backyard, and I am so happy with the way the color turned out!

This is the girls' bedroom. It's huge!!


I know, I know, this is a book. But I just love this house. Chris and I are 32, and this is our first house. It felt like we were never going to be done living like college students. I guess we're done now. :)