Monday, June 27, 2011

Sunday Adventures

Ok, so I have to tell you all how my Sunday went.  I’m wondering if the blonde highlights that I got last week are affecting my ability to think  J

I woke up Sunday morning to the house all to myself because my insane husband thought he should get up at 5:30 to go fishing.  Since I wasn’t home pretty much all weekend (even though I didn’t have any plans for the weekend) I needed to have a productive day of picking up the house, doing laundry and getting some groceries.

I put in my first load of laundry into the wash and per usual had to start the dryer to “touch-up” the last load that I left in the dryer from the last time I did laundry (apparently I lose steam when the last load is in and just leave it there for days).  So, I folded the clothes in the dryer after their “touch-up” and put the load in from the washer.  I started another load, folded up the dryer clothes and headed to Old Navy to do some returns (and more shopping).  When I returned home I put the load from the washer into the dryer and was folding the dryer load in the living room when all of a sudden I hear the dryer stop.

I wasn’t initially surprised since this has happened on many occasions because we have too many “things” running at the same time in our 100+ year old home that a fuse is tripped.  We usually march down to the basement and flip the switch back…problem solved.  When the dryer stopped this time, I listened to the silence that filled my home and realized….huh, the dryer was the only thing running in the entire house so how could I have blown a fuse?  I confirmed that I had not blown a fuse and was extremely disappointed to find out that our 70s Kenmore dryer had finally shit the bed.  While I’m texting Ben to tell him our dryer is dead I’m thinking what am I going to do with this soaking wet load of clothes in the dryer?

I decided to raid Ben’s quarter jar and head to the laundermat to dry my one load of clothes.  I was pleasantly surprised when I was greeted at the door by an employee and was escorted to dryer while she gave me instructions on how to use their equipment.  She recommended that I start with $1.50 for a 30 minute dry.  I put in my quarters and headed to a table to read my book.  I found it very difficult to concentrate on my book because I was repeatedly distracted observing my surroundings (aka – people watching).  There really wasn’t too many people worthy of watching, but I found it extremely odd that the couple sitting at the table next to me did not bring anything to do while they waited for their clothes to wash/dry and I didn’t hear them utter a single word to each other.  Once this couple stood up to take care of their laundry, the next couple that sat next to me thought that the laundermat was a good place to have public displays of affection…gross.

Overall, it was a pretty uneventful experience until I was grabbing my basket of folded clothes to head out and a rather creepy/drugged-out looking man asked me if I had a dryer sheet he could have.  Since my load already had a dryer sheet from my dryer, I didn’t bring a thing with me so I politely told him I was sorry but I didn’t have one.  He then insinuated I was lying and told me that I did have one.  I repeated that I was sorry, but no.  So then he asks me if I had a cigarette he could have.  Nope, sorry I don’t smoke.  How about illegal drugs, do you have any of those?  This is where I shake my head and turn around to leave without responding.  What a creep!

Thankfully, I won’t have to use the laundermat anytime soon because when Ben finally got home from fishing he looked at the outlet in the bathroom to find that the outlet tripped  J  What an idiot I am.  I checked the fuse box, but not the outlet.  Our dryer is just fine!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Seriously?! Thursday

Seriously….Rihanna’s Loud show was AMAZING!  I think I might have a girl crush on her  J  I was surprised that she played for a full two hours and I read that she’s trying to add more to the show.  She got so into the music…you can just tell she loves performing. I know most of my readers are local, but if you’re not, I would definitely recommend that you check to see if the tour will be coming near you.

Seriously….Cee-Lo Green (who opened for Rihanna) was awful!  Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was at least expecting him to have an extravagant stage or costumes.  NOPE – he was dressed in all white with his bald head exposed (no fancy hats or wigs), and the stage was bare besides a DJ behind him.  He stopped the DJ several times because he was irritated that the crowd just wasn’t into him and when he finally sang a song that we all knew, he decided to change it up a bit so we couldn’t even really sing along.

Seriously…why am I wearing a thick UnderArmour zip-up on June 23?  It has barely been breaking 60 degrees this week and I swear we had the first official day of summer this week.  DUMB!

Seriously…I don’t have any plans this weekend and I can’t remember the last time this happened.  Do I make plans or just enjoy it while I have it?  (I hope I’m not forgetting about something I should be doing this weekend).

Seriously…I really hope that The Bachelorette is just playing with us in the previews for next week by making us think that Ashley invites Bentley back as a contestant.  If she does, she’s a moron and ABC should feel bad for not showing her the prior footage of Bentley completely bad-mouthing her.

Seriously…Did I really get my hair cut twice in one week?  Typical me…change my mind after I get home and just can’t help myself…I just had to go shorter.

Seriously…Is it really Thursday already?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Seriously Thursday

I was catching up on BFF Andrea's blog today and saw that she was linking up to Seriously?! Thursday which I thought was a very clever blog topic.  That being said, I've linked up as well....enjoy!

1.  Seriously....I'm going to the Rihanna concert tonight at Target Center in Minneapolis so I've been listening to Rihanna all day today on my iPod!

2.  Seriously....I had to move my desk today to a different building across town.  Now I'm further from home and left all of my friends (except for one...my boss).

3.  Seriously...I might wear shorts to the Rihanna concert tonight and if you any of you knew me, you know this thought would have never crossed my mind a year ago before I lost about 60 pounds!

4. Seriously...where did summer go?  We went from winter to a short span of Summer (no Spring) and now we are having the Spring we missed...

5.  Seriously...is anyone else super excited for the next Challenge on MTV...it's seriously looking like a good one.

6.  Seriously...is Bentley seriously coming back to the Bachelorette?  I will puke if it's him behind the closed door...

7.  Seriously...did I mention that I'm going to Rihanna tonight?

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Not a Seller's Market

If you’ve been thinking about selling your house, you may just want to reconsider…unless your house is one of the lower quality homes in the neighborhood.

Ben and I have recently found ourselves completely shocked and helpless after consulting with a realtor and a property appraiser about potentially putting our house the market.  We live in a great neighborhood in which most of the houses are COMPLETELY different.  I don’t want to say that we have the nicest house in the neighborhood, but we definitely have one of the nicest because of all of the money and time we have put back into our house.  Ben was fortunate to have gotten a killer deal on house almost seven years ago.  It was a complete dump that was weeks away from going into foreclosure.  The house is now beautiful and full of character since it was built in 1887 (yes, that’s an 18).

After talking to a realtor and the appraiser, we have learned that the inside of our house (besides the number of bedrooms and square footage) has absolutely nothing to do with the value.  It all depends on what the comparable houses in the neighborhood have sold for in the last six months.  The appraiser was actually able to give an informal appraisal without even seeing the outside or inside of our house.  It doesn’t matter that we have refinished all of the original hardwood floors, or completely gutted the 100 square foot bathroom for a complete update, and completely updated the second bathroom, or redid the entire kitchen with new appliances, counters, backsplash and refinished cabinets, or that we built and expanded a new deck on our patio, or that we have a heated, large workshop with running water and a bathroom connected to the two car garage, or that we have all newly painted walls and new window treatments, new carpet and light fixtures…the list goes on.

I can’t be upset with the realtor or the appraiser because it’s simply how the market is right now…it’s a buyer’s market.  We are now left with the decision of whether or not we are satisfied with only getting enough out of the house to pay off the mortgage (which I’m thankful we are doing that well because I know there are a lot of people that won’t even be breaking even for years to come), or we sit on the house hoping the market improves but then taking the risk that the mortgage rates will sky rocket.

What to do, what to do.  Do you have any advice for us?