Off to Michigan!

We are heading out today to pack up our stuff in Michigan! It will be fun to go shopping in my own closet for once and pick out a few more things to get me through the summer. I know I have a pair of black kapri's hiding somewhere there. Steph was great about sending me a care package of clothes and a pair of very cute socks! I was questioned as to where did you get those they are cute. Hmmm.... they were sent by your favorite sister-in-law. LOL!
Waiting to hear about the offer we made and to get that ball rolling too. So what am I going to do in Grand Rapids? Well for starters I am going to hit Real Food for breakfast! I totally miss their banana granola pancakes. Nothing like that here or at least I haven't found it yet. That will give me lots of fuel for all the packing we have to do. Or at least all the supervising we will be doing. They do the packing and we watch I guess. Hoping the weather is mild there too. It's nice and cool here around 75 I think. Other than that I am leaving there early Sunday morning for a conference in Chicago. Another nice break - I really need a vacation!
Quick update on Mark's dad - he is back in the hospital for rehydration and some tests. So far so good and he even ate last night. A good sign that he was hungry for once. He is asking to come home now, but it's not quite time. Waiting to hear if he is given a new score for the liver transplant list - we'll see.

hiho hiho New Yorkers are way too s-l-o-w

Ok, now that we are ready to make an offer - after much pushing on our end to get info including me calling on my own to find out about zoning in the area because our realtor was much too busy - we now have to have the offer reviewed by a lawyer and then we can present it. They are known to take up to a week to look at it and then you can present it to the seller. ARGH! WTF! It's a standard pre-written document and a lawyer needs to review it? It is a freaking fill in the blank form! I wish I knew a lawyer here. Do we not know how to spell our names and put down the proper date? hmmm... I did graduate from college so I really hope so or Aquinas has failed me big time. Now we don't even know if our realtor has this lawyer set up for us. Probably not as she has now reached a special elevated status in my vocab.
So once we present this offer in a week the seller's lawyer will need to review and advise and then we might hear in a week or so. Not sure how that works if he has 24 hours to respond so maybe something is off here in my thinking. I sure hope I am wrong. He has to be just as anxious to sell so he can have the money so maybe that's a good thing. Nothing like dealing with two impatient people under the gun to get into something in 90 days. After 90 days our storage fee's are $120 a day I think. Something totally outrageous.
So my fun for tonight? A haircut. Yes, it's that time again and I am trying a new spot. It's free as they just opened. Just hoping the rain stops long enough for me to not get soaked going to the car. We've had tons of rain this past week and lots of thunder storms. Also heard there was a tornado a couple nights ago. Last night I thought we had something exploded in our complex and it rocked me out of bed. Since I was sleeping I was a bit disoriented. What was it you're asking. Not thunder, but fireworks. Yes, fireworks at 10:45 pm from the baseball stadium across the road. Can't be too upset about that they were very pretty. Can't wait to see more on the 4th of July! At least then I will be expecting them.

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

As soon as we make an offer on our chosen house and it's accepted I'll post some pic's - until then it might be bad luck. I will tell you it's in the country on a little road that is only 30 mph. There is a winery across the road and we have 6 new neighbors and more to come. The current neighbors include the rooster across the street. It's also brand new - never even thought we would be able to do that, but we can because it's almost done. Just in time for us to pick out light fixtures and have them do a few other minor things. They are sooo slow here in NY in getting things done. Our realtors calls their realtor for info and two days later we still don't the have the info. Hello, we want to buy the house NOW as in N-O-W!!! I have ants in my pants and I think Mark must have lots and lots of ants! After we get our house in Michigan packed up this weekend I'm off to the Windy City for a conference and quick visit with Rae before heading to Seattle and then I'm going to want to move into the house. That probably will take a bit longer so I'm going to need lots and lots of patience. The longer it takes them to get us the info the more things I think of adding to the list of things we want the builder to do so it's in his best interest to get this wrapped up or my "to-do" list is going to be a mile long! chop, chop....

WE ARE MOVING!

It's official! The house has sold and we are going to Michigan on Friday to oversee the packing. Kind of quick, but does it really matter - no. Off to go off house hunting today - more later.

Aquinas in the City

New York City that is! Friday night I went to the 3rd Annual NYC AQ Alumni Party. I wasn't sure what to expect except that I would see Sr. Alice. She's always fun to see and looks great still - I can't believe how many times she went to Ireland to teach. That would be a cool job in my opinion. Anyway... This year they moved it to someone's apartment and being that is was on the 27th floor near the river the views were amazing. I had the chance to go out on the tiny patio and look down - it's a long ways and then up - again a long ways. It was nice to sit donw then and get my balance. Being up on the bridge for some reason freaked me out more a few weeks ago. There was live music on the piano and wonderful treats to munch on. Interesting people too - met the editor of the Trenton Times, a dermatologist, and quite a few younger grads who are loving living in the city. Can't wait to see where we go next year! I'm hearing maybe they are coming to Chicago and having some sort of pizza party - now who has better pizza? Chicago or NY? I would have to say NY has great thin crust pizza and Chicago the thick crust, but I'm sure there are some other opinions out there.

Job Perks

One perk of having a job is the free meals. Last night I helped entertain some visitors from Arkansas and got to try out another new resturant in the process. Hudson's Ribs and Steakhouse is definitely a good place to go back too - even the steak looked very good here so maybe I'll rescind my ban on getting steak when we go out. They served us our cesaer salad family style and it was good, fresh, and cold. It gets an A as it had no fishy taste and homemade croutons. Instead of bread you get a popover that is freshly made. I ordered the stuffed flounder and it was very good. Lots of good lobster stuffing and a nice sauce on top. Can't cook fish at home so it was really a good choice. The sides were enough for 3-4 people and each person got a side with their order included. I was being good and picked rice pilaf - it also goes better with fish. It was tasty, but next time I will get the mashed potatoes or garlic fries. Being it was me and the boys of course they went for the kill and got dessert too. I couldn't be left behind so I ended up with a chocolate souffle, which was more like a little gooey chocolate cake. It was quite the meal. The steaks has those fried onion stacks on top and if you ordered a side of mushrooms you got a whole plate of them - at least 8 ounces and that is a meal in itself. Great place to do some sharing for sure!