Mailbox

Prior to moving into our new house, we noticed there was no mailbox. I asked the builder and they said they don't provide mailboxes since many people like to pick out their own.

So without a mailbox I decided to take the opportunity to meet the mailman as he was delivering the mail from his Jeep. I explained that we'd just moved in and didn't have a mailbox yet. The mailman was very nice and said it was no problem. When I saw him drive up the street I could come outside and he would give me the mail until we got a box. He also told me that the mailbox needs to be on the opposite side of the street from our house, since our street is a driving route and he does not get out of the Jeep.

I got the mail the next day, but unfortunately the following 2 days were his days off and the mail was delivered by substitutes who did not know why I was standing outside in the cold at the end of the driveway with no coat on.

We purchased a mailbox but did not purchase a post for it. I really didn't want to have to try and dig a hole in the frozen ground, get the post in straight, and then attach the mailbox. Its been really cold and windy here, despite the fact that we live near the beach. Plus, I reasoned, our neighbors across the street have a mailbox on a post that could easily accommodate a 2nd box. So I asked the neighbor about adding our mailbox to their post and they quickly agreed. It would prevent the street from getting crowded up with mailbox posts AND keep me from having to install the post or pay someone to do it. In the meantime, we still wanted to get mail so I had to come up with a way.

I took one of the large packing boxes I'd emptied and placed it next to the neighbor's mailbox post and set my mailbox on top of it. That seemed to work well the 1st day. But the next day it was very cold and very windy. The temporary mailbox stand (the large cardboard box) did not handle the gusts very well. I heard a clankity-clank sound, looked outside, and saw the mailbox in the street and the large cardboard box in a neighbor's yard. I went outside to get the box out of the neighbor's yard and get the mailbox out of the street, set them back up, and put a scrap piece of wood on top of the cardboard box for weight. Several minutes later I heard the mailbox hit the street again, so I repeated the above mentioned steps, but this time took my neighbor's trashcan (which hadn't budged an inch) and put it next to the cardboard box, wedging it between the neighbor's mailbox post and the neighbor's trashcan. (Fortunately they are very nice and are only here on weekends.) A few minute later I heard the mailbox hit the ground again. I repeated the above mentioned steps and this time picked up a bag of Qwik Crete and weighted down the cardboard box with it. "I don't think you're going anywhere NOW!" I said out loud to the cardboard box. The mailbox and cardboard box remained in place and I got the mail.

However, yesterday morning I happened to look outside and noticed the mailbox was gone! It wasn't particularly windy outside, and the large cardboard box (with the scrap wood and bag of concrete) was still in place. I'd gotten Saturday's mail out of the mailbox on Sun afternoon when we returned from VA, but Mon morning the mailbox was missing.

Several ideas began to float around in my mind. Why would anyone want a mailbox with someone else's address on it? It wasn't a particularly 'nice' mailbox. It was black metal, and was the least expensive one in Wal-Mart.

Had the neighbor's handyman taken the box to add a bracket in preparation for mounting it? Not likely, since the box disappeared sometime after dark Sun night and before light Mon morning.

Had the mailbox blown off its 'stand' by a strong gust of wind? If so, I should have been able to find the box somewhere nearby, but a search of the surroundings did not reveal the mailbox.

Had some teenager decided to play a prank on us by taking our mailbox? If so, then perhaps the prankster would return the mailbox, again under the cover of darkness, in a day or 2.

So we're going to give it a day or so and if the mailbox isn't returned 'miraculously' in the night or by a neighbor who found it in their garden, we'll buy another and actually attach it to the post.

Drag Queen name of the day: Bess Wishes

Real progress

I thought we'd be able to set up all 3 guest bedrooms on Fri night, but realized we needed to go shopping for groceries and other home stuff. So after dinner and a trip to the Super Wal-Mart we set up the 1st guest bedroom, the one that my office is in. We got the bed set up, decided on which bedside tables to use, and moved some boxes into the closet.

On Sat we really got busy. After walking a block to a moving sale, we went to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and the linen outlet in search of curtains. We bought more inexpensive curtains panels and tension rods, then headed back home. We set up the other 2 guest bedrooms, put up curtains in 1 of them, and got them ready to be used later that night.

Then we started working in the living room. There was a huge pile of furniture and boxes from the VA house that actually belong in the new living room, there were things that belonged in the new house but not in the living room, AND there was furniture and boxes from the beach house that Joe's brother Paul was coming to pick up. We decided to move the furniture that was leaving over to one spot, and stacked it up on top of each other. After that we took the miscellaneous items out of the living room and to the rooms where they belonged. Then we began moving the pieces that were staying in the living room to their approximate locations to see how we liked the arrangement and see if it fit. With a few adjustments we decided on a floorplan. We vacuumed and Swiffer-ed the floor, unrolled the area rug, and got the furniture set up. I couldn't believe what a huge difference it was from just a few hours earlier! Actually, it went pretty quickly, once we had the other stuff out of the way.

I put up the curtain panels in the dining room as Joe took a shower. I was going to shower after him, but our friends arrived.

Kerry, Hugh, Kelly, Ana, and Emely had come from VA for the Polar Bear Plunge, a fundraiser for Special Olympics. This is their 3rd year participating. So we showed them around the house and got caught up on the latest news. Then we went to dinner at La Rosa Negra, an Italian place Joe & I had recently rediscovered. We had a delicious dinner complimented by a live jazz trio who where very good. After dinner we sat around in the living room and talked. Ana, Emely, and Kelly went to bed at around 10, but Kerry, Hugh, Joe & I stayed up talking until 12:15.

Sun morning we had coffee, dropped off some stuff in Ocean City, went to breakfast, then went to Rehoboth Beach for the Polar Bear Plunge. We were running a little late, but fortunately arrived just in time for our participants to shed their clothes (they had their swimsuits on underneath) and run into the water. We all came back to the house for hot coffee and to change clothes, and then they left.

It was a terrific weekend in my book; we made real progress on getting our house set up AND we had a great visit with our friends who are really more like family.

Drag Queen name of the day: Iris Bulb

The Moves

Last Thurs after I disconnected the computer and the TVs I loaded them into the Suburban along with Jordan the dog and Pouncer the Wondercat. On my way out of town I stopped by the cable company to drop off the cable boxes, remotes, and cable modem and then hit the road.

Jordan travels well; she’s made the trip to and from Lewes many times. Pouncer was a different story; he hates riding in the car. Pouncer has only left the house 3 or 4 times in the last 8 years, to go to the vet and be boarded when we were on a 2-week vacation. But there was no way around it – he had to get to Lewes in the car.

For well over an hour he howled and moaned, making sounds I’ve never heard from a cat before. I tried to reassure him with a calm tone and kind words, but it didn’t have much effect. For the last hour or so of the trip he did ‘maintenance moans’, not nearly as desperate as those before, just enough to remind me he wasn’t happy. We arrived at the beach house and I dropped off the pets, got them situated, and Joe & I headed to the new house for our walk-thru with our realtor, then to the settlement office.

The settlement went quickly, as we signed our names a thousand times on papers we’ll never read. Then it was done. Joe & I had dinner and then I headed back to VA. I had to meet the movers Fri morning. Joe stayed in Lewes so he could meet the cable installer Fri morning.

Fri I got up early and began packing the last minute stuff you can’t pack in advance: the shower curtain, bath towel, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste. At 9:15 the movers called to say they were traveling slower than normal due to the icy roads, but had just crossed the Bay Bridge. Having made the trip a thousand times, that told me they should be there in a little over an hour. Unfortunately, they did not arrive until 11:00. It was bitter cold and very windy. It was difficult to be outdoors for more than just a few minutes.

The 4 movers came in two 24-foot trucks. For the next 5 hours 3 of the men carried everything outside and the last man packed the trucks. During this time I closed up some boxes I’d left open in order to toss in last minute items, and then I carried out to the Suburban some awkward items that wouldn’t pack well. Finally at 4pm we pulled away and headed into the city. I tuned the radio to WTOP for the traffic reports every 10 minutes. Just my luck there was a disabled car blocking one of the westbound lanes of New York Ave – the route we needed to take. New York Ave was bumper-to-bumper. Instead of the normal 30 minutes to get through the city, it took us an hour and 45 minutes. Lucky for the movers, who were being paid by the hour. We arrived in Lewes a little after 8:00.

Because of the cold, wind, and darkness I agreed that the movers could take the trucks back to their heated garage overnight and then deliver the stuff on Sat. They were scheduled to move our stuff out of the beach house Sat morning anyway. With a little schedule juggling the dispatcher told me the movers should arrive with our VA stuff at the new house between 12 noon and 1:00. They’d call before they left, she promised. At 1:10 I hadn’t heard from them so I called the office. They were running a little late but were leaving then, I was told. They arrived at 2:30 and began unloading the stuff. Fortunately the weather was much better – around 55 degrees – since I had to stand outside and tell them where all the stuff should go. They finished unloading at about 4:00. Then we drove to the beach house, only about 3 miles away, and began loading up the furniture from there.

It was not our original plan to move all the furniture from VA and the beach house to the new house. We thought we’d have lots of time after we’d move to the new house to sort through the stuff at the beach house, decide what we wanted to keep, and arrange for the rest to be picked up by relatives or donated. But when the beach house rented in just 3 days and the new tenants needed to move in on Jan 31, we didn’t have time to do anything. It all had to be moved out. The movers brought the contents of the beach house and unloaded it at the new house by 6:15. After having been on my feet for 2 days, I was exhausted.

We decided not to try and stay overnight at the new place, which was in a total state of chaos. Instead, when the movers left we went back to the beach house to care for the pets, washed up, and went to dinner. Then we went to Wal-Mart and purchased some curtain rods and curtains for the bedroom and bathroom windows, and then went back to the beach house and slept on an air mattress.

After a brief breakfast Sun morning we headed over to the new house with a priority list.

The first thing was to get our bedroom set up. We cleaned the floor, attached the mirror to the dresser, moved the dresser and armoire into place, vacuumed and placed the rug, attached the bedrails to the headboard, put the mattress and box springs on, and made the bed up with clean sheets. Then we shirred the curtains onto the spring rods and squeezed them into the windows. Since the windows have lovely trim and crown molding we didn’t want to cover them, so we opted for the light curtains on spring rods mounted inside the window casings.

Next came the bathroom. I put up a similar curtain treatment on the bathroom window and hung the shower curtain while Joe gave the bathroom a quick cleaning and put down the new bathroom rugs we’d bought the night before.

Next we unpacked all of our clothes and loaded them into the closet.

Then we worked on the TV room. We moved the sofa, chaise, and ottoman into place, removed some items to be donated, played around with the placement of 2 chairs and a lamp, put down an area rug, and then vacuumed everything in the room. We connected the cable to the TV and breathed a big sigh of relief when it actually worked.

After dinner we went back to the beach house to load up the remainder of our stuff. Since we’d had no time to pack the kitchen, pantry, or closets, the movers couldn’t take that stuff; they only took the furniture. We filled a few empty boxes and several laundry baskets with dishes, glasses, and food until there was no more room in the Suburban. We brought it to the new house and just added it to the pile in the living room.

Then we went into one of the guest bedrooms that also serves as my office. First I set all of my work and personal computer components on the desk, only to find there was no possible way it would all fit. I removed the personal computer components, since I knew I would need to use the work computer the next morning. After hooking it all up to my new cable modem, I just couldn’t get internet access. It was almost 9pm and I was exhausted so I decided I’d figure it out in the morning.

For several hours on Mon morning I disconnected and reconnected the computer components and cable modem, checking all the connections to make sure they were tight and to make sure nothing had been left unplugged. Then I realized that I needed to download the cable company’s internet software onto my work computer using the CD they provided. Ooops – my ‘new’ work computer doesn’t have a CD drive! I talked to a colleague who suggested I use my personal computer, which already had the software on it, since all I needed was to access the company’s network remotely. So I disconnected my work computer and reconnected my personal computer with hopefulness. I still couldn’t connect to the internet! Finally, in sheer desperation I called the cable company for help. After less than 2 minutes the technician told me over the phone that it appeared the modem had not been ‘activated’ when it was installed on Fri. Ugh… all that time wasted! The technician ‘activated’ the modem in seconds and I was in business.

Before I knew it it was 5:00 and Joe was home. It was time to make another trip over to the beach house to load up more stuff. We really didn’t want to; we wanted to start organizing our new house. But with only 2 nights until we had to be out of the beach house, we really didn’t have any choice. So we took the same boxes and laundry baskets over and filled up the Suburban again.

After work on Tues we made another trip to the beach house to load up. Every time we thought we were just about done, we’d open another cabinet or closet and find more stuff. Oh yeah, there was stuff in the garage too. We filled the Suburban but realized we were not done. We unloaded it at the new house and went back to the beach house again. We took a load to the dumpster, then filled the Suburban up for the last time, vacuumed the carpet and cleaned bathrooms, and drove off. We were finished loading! Meanwhile, back at our new house we still had yet to unpack a single box.

Wed after work Joe had his appointment with his personal trainer and I was exhausted so we ‘celebrated’ being done with the packing and moving by taking the night off. When he got home at 7:30 we had dinner and watched TV, then went to bed at 10:00.

Tonight after dinner we tore into the boxes of kitchen stuff like maniacs! We unpacked and put away 10 boxes of kitchen stuff from VA and 2 laundry baskets of kitchen stuff from the beach house! We can actually walk in the kitchen now without boxes scuffing our legs! The kitchen looks really good and I feel really good about our progress.

Our goal for tomorrow after work is to move the boxes and furniture out of the middle of the guest bedrooms, put the beds together, and stack the boxes and furniture neatly so a person can actually walk around in them. I think we’ll tackle the dining room on Sat. We need to move the furniture into place and then unpack the 5 large boxes of ‘fancy’ dishes and flatware, stemware, platters, and serving pieces. Then we’ll have to obsess over how they should be displayed. On Sun Joe’s brother is coming with a van to pick up some of the furniture from the beach house we don’t need/want anymore that’s piled in the living room. That will really help to open that room up so we can walk around in there, too.

Note to self: Try not to have to move out of 2 houses in the same week.

Drag Queen name of the day: Tanya Body

Best Gay Blogs

I was a little surprised to receive the following email recently:

"Your blog registration at www.bestgayblogs.net has been accepted. Your blog is now listed in our directory. To login and change your blog details, and to add further information, you will need to use your e-mail address and the password (removed)."

Then I remembered a blogger buddy had suggested I submit my blog for consideration. It was quite some time ago and I had forgotten about it. Apparently my blog 'cut the mustard' and was accepted into their best gay blogs directory. Does this mean I'm now a published writer?

Drag Queen name of the day: Gwen N. Barrett

This is it...

Today I am taking Jordan the dog and Pouncer the Wondercat with me and driving to DE. We have the walk-through and settlement on the new house this afternoon!

Then after dinner, I will drive back to VA so I can be here on Fri morning to meet the movers. Joe will stay in DE in order to meet the cable installer on Fri morning. Hopefully all will go well and I will be reconnect to cyberspace by the weekend. Cross your fingers.

So this is my last blog post from VA! I'm literally disconnecting the modem as soon as I post this and power down.

Drag Queen name of the day: Ginger Ale

More packing and Snow

This weekend Joe & I once again spent several hours packing.

Its amazing to me how much stuff we've accumulated in the 6 years we've lived here. And I'm not a pack rat either. About 2 or 3 years ago we had a yard sale to get rid of some stuff, and then took all the unsold items to Goodwill. Twice a year I go through my closet (and sometimes Joe's too) and filter out the clothing I haven't worn and don't want to wear anymore. I either take it to Goodwill or allow Value Village to pick it up. Yet we still have too much stuff to take with us.

We went through the storage area of the basement and came up with 2 large boxes of good, usable stuff to donate. Then we went through the attic and bagged up 7 large trash bags full of Joe's clothes to donate. We filled up the Suburban and took the stuff to Goodwill.

Then we unloaded the pantry and packed all the stuff into boxes. Today Joe's sister Mary, neice Anna, and mother Evelyn came over to 'help'. Between the 3 of them and Joe, they finished packing up the kitchen while I worked on re-packing some boxes in the storage room. I decided to edit some of my old papers and re-pack the items in newer, sturdier boxes. I also packed some loose stuff that had been left from the last time we had worked in there.

Around 1pm it began to snow. When Joe's relatives arrived we didn't think much of the snow, since it is not unusual to get a light dusting that quickly melts. But it continued to snow for about 5 hours, and I'm guessing we got about 3 inches of snow. Of course the entire DC metro area is paralyzed. I'm sure they'll cancel school tomorrow for the kids - for 3 inches of snow.

The snow is pretty because its hanging in the trees. I don't mind it.

Drag Queen name of the day: Barb B Doll

Last Thurs night dinner with Evelyn

Tonight was my last Thurs night dinner with Evelyn.

I brought my aunt Mary along, since Evelyn often asks for her. Mary had a good idea of where to go for dinner: Espisito's in Fairfax. Its an authentic Italian family restaurant. Mary had taken Joe & me there before.

I had to go to Richmond but was able to get back in time for dinner. I picked up Mary and then Evelyn and we went to Espisito's. I had canneloni filled with ricotta and veal. Mary had lasagna, and Evelyn got the special linguini with mussels and scallops. And for dessert we all shared tiramisu. It was a great dinner, and an appropriate way to 'celebrate' our last Thurs night dinner together.

Drag Queen name of the day: Tyne E. Bubbles

Redneck Pick-up Lines

A friend sent me this and I think its one of the funniest things I've read so far this year! Enjoy.

Redneck Pick-up Lines:

1) Did you fart? 'Cuz you blew me away.
2) Are yer parents retarded? 'Cuz ya sure are special.
3) My love fer you is like diarrhea . I can't hold it in.
4) Do you have a library card? 'Cuz I'd like to sign you out.
5) Is there a mirror in yer pants? 'Cuz I can see myself in 'em.
6) If you was a tree I were a squirrel, I'd store my nuts in yer hole.
7) You might not be the best lookin' girl here, but beauty's only a light switch away.
8) Man: "Fat Penguin!" Woman: "WHAT?" Man: "I just wanted to say something that would break the ice."
9) I know I'm not no Fred Flintstone, but I bet I can make yer bed-rock.
10) I can't find my puppy, can you help me find him? I think he went inta this cheap motel room.
11) Yer eyes are as blue as winda cleaner.
12) If yer gunna regret this in the mornin, we kin sleep til afternoon.
And.... the best for last!
13) Yer face reminds me of a wrench, every time I think of it my nuts tighten up.

Drag Queen name of the day: Donna Venuday

Packing

Last Wed I purchased some moving boxes, bubble wrap, and packing paper from an ad on Craigslist. A woman had just moved to the area from Oregon and had lots of moving boxes and packing supplies to get rid of. The ad said she paid $200. for the boxes and supplies (which I'm sure is true) and I bought them for $50.

Yesterday Joe & I began packing. I'd been dreading it for weeks, even having dreams about the movers showing up on moving day and me running around in a full-on panic because I hadn't finished packing yet. But fortunately things went well yesterday as we packed up the books, papers, and decorations from the office/library and our bedroom, as well as the linen closet and one of the bedroom closets. Afterward we picked up my aunt and Joe's mother and had dinner at Red Hot & Blue.

Today we worked in the basement. I packed up a box of vintage decorations from the family room, and he and I sorted through the boxes in the storage area. Despite having had a yard sale and having sorted stuff a few months ago in preparation for listing the house, we still managed to identify several trashbags full of stuff we could throw away, as well as 2 large boxes of stuff to donate to a charity. After sorting it all we began boxing up what we were keeping, and then took a few loads of trash out to the curb.

Tomorrow my aunt is coming over to help us pack. We're working on the main floor of the house, and my aunt will be assigned to the dining room because everything in it must be packed. There's no sorting to do in there - all the glassware, dishes, trays, serving platters, bowls, and flatware will get packed. While she's doing that Joe & I will go around the rest of the main floor wrapping all the decorative stuff (vases, framed photos, etc) in bubble wrap and safely tucking them into padded boxes.

I'm crossing my fingers we'll find places for all this stuff, PLUS the stuff from the beach house, in our new house!

Drag Queen name of the day: Alberta V. O'Five

Renter found

With our move to full-time living in Lewes we had no more need for the beach place in Lewes. We discussed the situation months ago with the other owners and all agreed we would put the place on the market for sale and for rent, and would be happy with whichever came first.

But knowing that the real estate market has been in transition for several months now, we were not optimistic about either a sale or a renter coming forward quickly. We mentally prepared ourselves to be patient for several months.

The listings went into the MLS on Mon, and on Tues we learned that an agent wanted to show the place to a renter on Wed. This was not entirely surprising, as properties often get some initial 'action' when they first come on the market.

But I was completely surprised when our listing agent called me on Fri morning to let me know the renter who saw the place on Wed had submitted an application! They did a credit check and prior rental history and both came up great. So we agreed to rent to them! 5 days on the market and a renter was found!

I called Joe first, and then the other owners who had left on vacation the night before and told them the good news. Like me, they were all surprised but delighted. One of them said "You guys should play the lottery because it seems like things are really going your way!"

Drag Queen name of the day: Deb U. Taunt

Gay, Straight, & Taken

On Mon night I saw this new show on Lifetime called 'Gay, Straight, or Taken'. The concept is for a woman to be introduced to 3 guys, one of whom is gay, one of whom is straight and available, and one of whom is straight but taken (in a relationship). She spends some one-on-one time with each of them doing activities of her choosing (like yoga, ballroom dancing, etc) in an attempt to identify each guy's status. If she can correctly identify the straight and available guy, she and he go on a fancy weekend trip. If she does not correctly identify him, then the guy she picks gets to take the trip with his boyfriend or girlfriend.

I thought it was a clever concept, and when I watched both of the 1/2 hour shows I really liked them! Even I had trouble correctly identifying each guy's status. Young, straight, urban guys appear so gay these days. In both of the episodes I saw, the woman was not able to correctly identify the gay guy. In one case she did correctly identify the straight and available guy, but had the 'taken' and the gay guy reversed. In the other episode the woman didn't identify any of the 3 guy's status correctly.

I like the fact that it is only a 30 minute show. If it were on a network I'm sure they would have drug it out into the typical 60 minute reality show formula, which would just be too much. But kudos to Lifetime for correctly limiting this show to 30 minutes, which to me feels just right.

Keep your eye out for 'Gay, Straight, & Taken' on Lifetime at 9pm ET on Mondays!

Drag Queen name of the day: Henna Roid

Myspace

My friend Sean convinced to sign up for a MySpace page.

I was a bit skeptical at first, since my only exposure to MySpace was hearing stories of teens pouring their hearts out on their MySpace pages and middle-aged perverts trying to prey upon them. But then I reasoned that, like any component of the internet or life in general for that matter, there will be a few freaks along the way.

So I went about creating my MySpace page. Then I started looking through the directories of MySpace users and requesting others to allow 'friend' links from my page to theirs. It seems everyone has a MySpace page these days, from TV and film celebrities, recording artists, and average Joes. It can get a bit addictive, looking at people's pages, seeing who their 'friends' are, and clicking on the links to their friends' pages. Time just flies by.

I'm still adding and tweaking my page, but feel free to visit and leave a comment (either there or here) if you'd like: http://www.myspace.com/singjaz

Drag Queen name of the day: Gerrie Tall

This weekend

This weekend Joe was going to come home and we were going to start packing. However, I wasn’t able to find any boxes yet, so there wasn’t much point in him coming here again.

He’s come to VA the last 2 weekends in a row, and will be coming to VA the 2 weekends prior to our move, too. If he were to come this weekend, it would be 5 weekends in a row for him.

Also, I got to thinking that if I went to DE this weekend, not only would it give Joe a break from the weekend commute, but it would also give us a chance to clean the beach house thoroughly before it is listed for sale and rent. I’m bringing the carpet shampooer with me so we can freshen up the carpet too. Additionally we needed to get a check to the realtor’s office, so if I came to DE for the weekend we could simply drop it off, eliminating the 2 or 3 days for it to arrive in the mail.

So, I’m going to DE tonight, after the traffic dies down a bit. I emailed our realtor and asked if we could get a key so we could go inside our new house and take some measurements. We have a good idea where most of our furniture will go, but do have a few pieces still in question.

I’ll be back Sun night.

Drag Queen name of the day: Dee Face

New Years Eve

Kerry & Hugh invited us to their house for a NYE party in their new great room addition. The party was very warm and casual, with about 15 people.

Of course there was lots to eat; several people brought food in addition to what Kerry & Hugh had provided. The dining room table was covered! I brought a crockpot of meatballs in my 'secret' beer barbecue sauce.

We talked and laughed and ate and mingled until somebody suggested we start the karoke. Kelly brought her karoke machine and CDs. Kelly & I started off with the duet "I Got You Babe", only she sang Sonny's part and I sang Cher's part. It was a blast!

Shortly before midnight we turned on the TV for the countdown. I brought my bag of vintage tin noise makers and passed them out to everyone. At midnight we all shook and twisted our noise makers and shouted "Happy New Year!" and then had a festive champagne toast.

This NYE was SO much fun than last year's, since last year Joe & I basically did nothing except watch the ball drop in Times Square and then go to bed. NYE parties are SO much better than staying home!

Drag Queen name of the day: Deb O'Nare

Last dinner party in this house

Last Sat we had the last dinner party in this house.

24 friends and family members came for a very casual dinner party (styrofoam plates and plastic cups) of baked ziti, meatballs, sausage, salad, and cheesy garlic bread followed by various desserts and coffee. It was a great way to wish everyone Happy Holidays in person, as well as celebrate the last time we'd entertain in this house. It was kind of like a very scaled-down version of the old holiday open houses we used to have. Everyone seemed to have a good time eating and talking and laughing.

Drag Queen name of the day: Ruby Redd

Holiday wrap-up

On Christmas Eve I finished making the goodies to go in my goodie baskets, assembled all 12 of the baskets, and then delivered 7 of them to my neighbors. They were all delighted to get them! The other 5 were earmarked for family and friends.

The goodie baskets included chocolate covered pretzels dredged in nuts and rainbow dots, 5 different kinds of chocolate bark, cocoanut cheese cake squares, red and green M&Ms or Hershey's kisses. Some of the baskets also included a box of 3 hand painted glass ornaments. I had a great time making the goodies and assembling and decorating the baskets with artificial poinsettias and spray painted pine cones.

Then Joe & I went to his sister Mary's house to meet up with the other family members. Christmas Eve is also Joe's mother's birthday so we always have a birthday party for her. We had a honey baked ham, potato salad, pesto dip, sun dried tomato dip, corn casserole, rolls, and tons of cookies, brownies, and other baked goods. It was practically vulgar, but delicious. It was a lot of fun.

For her birthday Joe & I gave his mother a pair of earrings, pendant, and ring (matching set) with beautiful purple stones on them. She loves jewelry and wears lots of it, depending on her outfit. She often 'matches' her jewelry to the color of her outfit. She loved the set, which made Joe happy since he'd picked it out.

We visited with all of the family and then went home around midnight.

On Christmas morning Joe & I had Christmas breakfast together. He made 'yule log waffles', which consisted of waffle batter sprinkled with left over pieces of the bark I'd made the day before. They tasted great! We also had hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits, orange juice, and coffee. After cleaning up the breakfast mess, we just relaxed on the sofa in our pajamas and watched TV, with Jordan the dog and Pouncer the Wondercat next to us. It was divinely relaxing.

Later we showered, got dressed, and loaded the Christmas gifts into the back of the Suburban. Unfortunately it was raining, so I had to hold an umbrella with one hand and 1 or 2 gifts in the other, making what felt like 101 trips until everything was in the truck. Then we picked up my aunt Mary.

Once at Joe's sister Mary's house again, we hung out for a little while until dinner was ready, then after saying grace we all loaded up our plates. Two days before Joe had gone to Mary's and had helped her make homemade ravioli and gnochi, so for Christmas dinner we had both of those plus stuffed shells, homemade meatballs and sausage in tomato sauce. (Can you tell his family is Italian?) It was all super delicious!

After dinner we had the family gift exchange. Since everyone knew we were moving soon, they wisely gave us gift cards! Those will be very convenient when we move into our new house, and we don't have to pack them. Everyone liked the gifts we had picked out for them, which was validating. Anna played a few Christmas carols on the piano and David played a few on his cello. Not quite as Normal Rockwell as it sounds. It was another wonderful Christmas.

Drag Queen name of the day: Jenny Fur

Blog anniversary

Yesterday, Dec 28th was the 2 year anniversary of this blog.

During this time I've posted nearly 200 times. Although this may be less than others, I bet the length of my posts would rival most!

Happy anniversary, blog!

Drag Queen name of the day: Peggy Backride

Our new house

Only about an hour after we faxed the signed offer to our realtor, we got the call.

"Its been signed."

"You mean the offer? Its done?" I asked.

"Its done. You got the house! Merry Christmas." she confirmed.

Needless to say, we were both very excited! At the same time we were also a little scared about the payments. But we went over our budget and found places where we can save money without really feeling it, and we will also save money because when I begin working from home my company will pay for the broadband internet service and telephone - 2 expenses we are currently paying ourselves. Plus, working from home means I won't be spending $150. a month on gas and tolls commuting to the office.

This house was built in late 2005 but has never been lived in. It has 3 finished levels, with 5 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. On the main floor there's a large living room with a corner gas fireplace, dining room, kitchen and breakfast nook, a master bedroom and bath, a 1/2 bath, a washer and dryer, and a screened back porch. On the 2nd floor there is another master bedroom and bath, 2 additional bedrooms that share a hall bath, and a laundry room with a 2nd washer and dryer. On the 3rd floor there is a 3rd master bedroom and bath, and a large family room. All 3 floors of the house have hard wood - there is no carpeting at all. According to the listing it is 3,776 square feet. There are lots of nice touches like granite counters and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, a whole-house music/intercom system, stained glass windows, upscale light fixtures and ceiling fans, beadboard ceilings in the wrap around porch, and lots of trim and molding around the doors and windows. As I mentioned in a previous post, the drawbacks include no garage and not much storage space. However, we believe the driveway can be covered with a carport that matches the trim of the porch so we'll check into that at some point. And maybe the reduced storage space (from what we have now) will help us to not keep stuff we really don't need.

We're scheduled to go to settlement on Thurs, Jan 25th and the movers will move the contents of our VA house to DE on Fri Jan 26th. Now comes the daunting task of packing.

Drag Queen name of the day: Wendy N. Cold

And then there were three

On Fri afternoon our DE realtor called to tell us that our offer on the Donahue house had been countered. Despite nearly a year and a half on the market with NO offers, the counter was still unrealistically high, so we told the realtor we did not wish to pursue it any further.

We then instructed her to present the offer on the basement house. Since she was representing the seller we knew this would go quickly. Sure enough, an hour later she called back to say that our offer on the basement house had also been countered. I was very surprised at how high the counter offer was. We'd been told that the seller was "very motivated" and that he'd told the realtor earlier "anything to stop the hemorrhaging" so we expected his counter to be closer to our price than his. When I mentioned this to the realtor she explained that just recently the seller had refinanced the mortgage and been hit with a big penalty, so he wasn't as 'motivated' to sell low as he had been earlier.

We then instructed the realtor to present the 3rd offer, on the water house. By this time it was 4pm on the Fri before Christmas so I wasn't surprised that we didn't hear anything that evening. But I was optimistic since the house did not "show" well, and had been on the market for nearly a year, and was an estate. I thought the benefactor of the estate would be happy to finally get an offer so they could get their cash.

At 8:30 Sat morning our realtor called to say that the offer on the water house had also been countered. Once again, the counter was closer to the asking price than to our price. More than a little surprised, I told the realtor that we would think about the 3 houses again, and possibly on Tues (after Christmas) we'd contact her about making follow-up offers on these houses.

Before we hung up the realtor told me that the deal was still not done on the New Victorian. Apparently after nearly 2 weeks, the potential buyer was continuing to ask for changes and modifications to the house, as well as a further price concession. She confided that the seller, whom she was also representing, was really sick and tired of the potential buyer to the point that he was thinking about discontinuing negotiations with them. The seller built the house and felt it was 'top notch' so his feelings were bruised when the potential buyer kept asking for modifications to be made at the seller's expense.

Although dangerously close to being unethical, our realtor told us "If you guys want this house, I think I can get the seller to sell it to you for the same price the other potential buyer has already negotiated. I think he'd really like to stop dealing with those other people. But you can't ask for anything to be done." We were quite happy with the house 'as is' so this condition didn't present a problem for us. However, the pre-negotiated price did.

The price of this house was higher than we were expecting to pay, not just for this house, but for any house. However, at the same time, it was also the best 'deal' we knew of. The 3 houses we'd already submitted offers on were all countered at just a bit under their asking price. The New Victorian's pre-negotiated price was significantly lower than the asking price, making it the only real 'deal'.

We considered the fact that it is brand new, doesn't need any updates or remodeling, can accommodate all of our furniture, is move-in ready, is the largest of all the homes we'd considered, and is located in the area we most want to live. So, we had our realtor email us an offer for the exact amount that had been pre-negotiated with the other potential buyer, signed and faxed it back to her, and waited.

Drag Queen name of the day: Celia Later

The final four

This is a house in the downtown/historic part of Lewes we've been interested in. We call it the "New Victorian" since it is not an old house. Its got loads of 'new' charm and space, but has no garage or storage, and is priced well above what we want to spend.

This is another house in the downtown/historic part of Lewes we've been interested in. We call it the "Donahue house" because the owner's last name is Donahue. Its got loads of vintage charm and space, but hasn't been modernized since the 60s or 70s and would require a fair amount of work and money to update. It is unrealistically priced.

This is a brand new house in the Rehoboth Beach Yacht and Country Club community in Rehoboth Beach we've been interested in. We call it the "Basement house" since it is the only house in contention that has a basement. It has a garage, a basement for storage, and good space inside. Although its location makes it a 10 minute bike ride to the beach, it is 10-15 minutes further away from Joe's office, and it is surrounded by other new construction. It is not as over-priced as the New Victorian or the Donahue house and we've been told the seller is "very motivated".

This is the view from the backyard of a ranch-style home in Edgewater Estates (Lewes) we've been interested in. We call it the "water house" because it backs to a huge natural pond. It even has its own dock. On the back of the house is a room made up of 7 sets of sliding glass doors, to maximize the view of the water. This house is significantly less expensive than all of the above houses, although it is also the smallest of all the houses we're interested in. The house is very dated inside, but wouldn't take as much work or money to update as the Donahue house. The lot is big which would allow us to add on later if we wanted.

We have been following these 4 homes along with several others since we began house hunting in the Spring, and we've narrowed down our selection to these 4 and ranked them in the order above.

Last Tues when our VA realtor confirmed that our VA house had a renter, we made an appointment with our DE realtor for Sat. During that call our DE realtor informed us that she'd just gotten a call from another agent indicating his client was likely going to make an offer on the New Victorian. The rest of the week we waited to hear that the offer had come in. When we met up with her on Sat she said the offer had not yet come in, but that the agent confirmed the offer was coming on Sat.

We did not want to compete with the other buyer (which gives the seller the upper hand) nor did we want to move forward with our 2nd choice until we knew the disposition of the house, so we decided to keep on waiting. Mon we learned that the offer was received and that the seller countered it with a price less than the asking price but higher than the offer price. It sounded like it was going to be a 'done deal', so on Tues we wrote up 3 offers, at significantly lower prices, for the Donahue house, the Basement house, and the water house. Our realtor presented the offer to the Donahue house's agent on Tues, and today the agent presented the offer to the seller. We continued to wait.

Meanwhile, our DE realtor called me back to say that the deal on the New Victorian was not 'done' yet. Apparently the buyer is taking their time considering the counter offer, so it is not yet sold. However, it is now out of contention for us, since our offer would have been lower than the one now under debate.

Our DE realtor called again this afternoon to tell me that the owner of the Donahue house wants more time to consider our offer. She wants to talk to her children and consult her accountant. Our realtor said it would likely be Fri before we hear back on it. More waiting. But far from being daunted, Joe & I were excited that she is taking the time to give full consideration to our low offer!

Our offer was not a random one. We took into account the 'sold price' for the only two comparable, nearby houses that have sold in the last 7 months. We also factored in the amount of work and cost required to update the house, as well as our budget.

If Mrs. Donahue accepts our offer we will have truly gotten a 'deal', and we will do again what we have done before: live in a house that is a work-in-progress. But it will be worth it because we love the location, the vintage charm, and amount of space. But if Mrs. Donahue does not accept our offer, we won't be heartbroken. We'll simply move onto the Basement house which is move-in ready, and if necessary, the water house which could be a spectacular property due to its water access and view.

Although we don't yet know where we'll be living in 2 months, we're actually in a very good position because we have 3 houses in which we believe we can be happy living and on which we can get a good deal. Stay tuned...

Drag Queen name of the day: Eileen Over