Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving dinner was held at our home today. Normally we gather at Nancy's house, but this year she flew to Delaware to spend the weekend with her boys and their families. Richie cooked the turkey, I made the side dishes, and lots of people brought pies. The food was scrumptious and we all ate too much. After dinner, our group of 22 enjoyed a rollicking game of Taboo, once again choosing teams in our typical unimaginative and timeworn way - guys vs. girls. The guys built a healthy lead early on and ended up victorious.

Tomorrow it is back to the old grind of cleaning, organizing, sorting, and packing. It was pleasant to take a much-desired day off from moving-related pursuits!

Some Yard Pix

Here are a couple of photos taken in the backyard of our new Texas home. Jim did not snap any pix inside the house while he was there, which is just as well since it does need some TLC. We will be back down there in a few weeks and I'll take some more pictures at that time.

A view of our pool. It is a saline pool, which is apparently much less expensive to maintain than a chlorine pool. (And, yes, Jim is delighted about that!)

Look, we have a banana tree - I love the huge leaves! I think the foliage underneath might be weeds, though.

We are Texans

Kind of. We closed on our Texas house on Tuesday afternoon. Jim was there in person. I think that his involvement in the transaction was pretty easy because all he had to do was show up and scribble his signature on some documents. I, on the other hand, sat at the bank for over an hour on Monday afternoon manipulating our financial accounts and shifting money around. I signed all of the papers sent to me from the title company, had them notarized, and shipped them back to Texas via FedEx overnight delivery Monday evening. I returned to the bank on Tuesday morning with the final closing costs and wired the money to the title company's account in Houston. I was skeptical that everything would actually end up where it was supposed to be at the correct time, but, amazingly, all went very well. Jim got the keys to the house and brought a few things there after the closing. He took some pictures, but does not know how to send them to me via the internet. I will be able to post some of the photos this weekend, as Jim will be back home tomorrow.

November 15th

On this date back in 1991, Jim and I sat excitedly in an office, jotted our signatures on scores of forms, and were handed the keys to our brand new house. Now, eighteen years later, we are preparing to put our not-so-new-anymore home on the market. And, if I thought that cleaning and organizing our stuff for inspectors, appraisers, and movers has been annoying, I must say that I do not look forward to shining the place up for potential buyers. Especially because we will have to keep everything sparkling and tidy for any spur-of-the-moment showings. I rearranged our linen closet last night and discovered that we had over 25 sets of sheets hiding in the dark abyss! That makes me a bit apprehensive to begin the purge on the rest of the neglected closets, boxes, and storage areas that hold almost two decades worth of our odds and ends. Yikes!

We are purchasing a house in Texas this week, too. Jim will be in Houston for the closing, but I will have my share of duties to fulfill here in Michigan. Besides handling all of the banking transactions locally, I also have to sign the paperwork that is allegedly winging its way to me via express overnight mail as I type. I will have a few hours to add my signature to everything tomorrow, then drop it off at the post office for its overnight return trip to Houston. Jim has promised to take pictures of the new place after he gets the keys. We do intend to re-carpet and paint before we move any of our furniture there, so any photos I post will definitely be "before" shots. Too bad that November 15th fell on a Sunday this year. It would have been uncanny if we could have closed on our Texas home on the same date that we bought our current house back in 1991.

International Space Station

Ever since visiting NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, I have become quite intrigued by the International Space Station. It is really an incredible research facility whizzing around some 200 miles or so above us, traveling over 17,000 miles per hour. What I find especially amazing is that the ISS is now one of the brightest objects in the sky, and can be seen fairly easily with the naked eye. To find out when the Space Station will be flying over your town, click HERE. The ISS has been a work in progress since 1998, and is due to be completed in 2011. After that, it will stay in orbit for another five years before funding ends and it is scheduled to be destroyed. Some in the science community are optimistic that the ISS will continue conducting experiments and investigations long beyond 2016. I am one of those who hopes that it stays flying for years to come, because, despite my best efforts, I have yet to find the elusive thing in the sky after many viewing attempts. It has flown over southeast Michigan almost daily this month, but, even in clear weather, I haven't managed to spot it. I'll keep looking, though, and if I'm lucky, I will catch a glimpse of it sometime before the ISS mission ends!

The Movers are Coming

Our inspection and appraisals last week were fairly painless. The inspector found a few things that needed fixing, but he advised us to wait until we hear back from our relocation counselor before starting any home improvements. Naturally, we will only repair what is required! One of our appraisers was extremely friendly and chatty, but the other one was all business. Jim's relocating colleagues have received fairly low appraisals - some to the tune of $40,000 lower than anticipated - so we are a bit apprehensive of what ours will yield. We should find out our magic number in a week or two.

Jim's company has also hired a moving firm to haul our stuff to Houston. They have been nagging us for months to allow them to do an inventory of our household goods. I explained to them back in August, September, and again in October, that some of our furniture, etc. will be staying in Michigan and we had not yet decided what will stay and what will go. (Reminds me of a song . . .) We have finally determined what we want in Texas, so I contacted the movers this afternoon. They are sending over a "surveyor" on Thursday morning to record, itemize, and tabulate the bulk and weight of our belongings. I have spent the past hour writing "Do Not Move" on bright neon post-it notes and sticking them on the pieces of furniture that will be going to our condo here instead of heading to Texas. Can't wait to hear how much the movers will be charging Jim's company for their services.

Things That Go Bump in the Night

In the back of our house, we have two sliding doors and two doorwall-sized windows. Over time, birds, bugs, and bats have flown right into these glass doors and large windows, bounced off, and continued on their journeys, no worse for the wear. This has routinely happened about once a week or so for the past 18 years. We hear a thump, glance outside, and see some stunned wayward critter flapping away. On Monday morning, three birds, all within a few hours of each other, crashed loudly into our back window. I was somewhat surprised to hear so many bumps in such a short time period, but didn't think too much more about it. Later that evening, Jacob and I were sitting in the family room when we heard an intense boom. We both jumped up to see what was going on, and noticed that two robins had simultaneously flown into our sliding door - evidently at a very high rate of speed - and had ricocheted onto the deck. With the force of the collision, I was relieved that the doorwall was still intact! Jacob and I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation, and nicknamed the birds "Dumb" and "Dumber." Unfortunately, these particular avian visitors didn't immediately pop up and fly off like their counterparts have always done in the past. One of the robins writhed and twitched in obvious pain until it flopped over and croaked right before our eyes. The other bird loped around on an apparent injured leg, never hobbling too far from his deceased friend. He thrashed about and fluttered his wings, but couldn't seem to get airborne. We were baffled as to what, if anything, we could do to assist, and I tried to reassure Jacob that incidents like this just sometimes occur in nature. After helplessly watching the robin for about 20 minutes, we were happy to witness it miraculously maneuver up into our maple tree. We haven't checked underneath the tree for a bird carcass yet, but we are hopeful that "Dumb" is ok and back in his nest somewhere.

By the way, birds have continued to fly and divebomb into our glass with increasing frequency this week. And, no, we have not cleaned our windows recently. I wonder what's up with that?

Bye-bye birdie.

Halloween

It was a fairly cold Halloween around here compared to recent years. Jacob had intended to wear Adam's old Scottish kilt, but decided at the last minute to switch to his 2008 jailbird costume. Something about it being too chilly to run around outside in a skirt - sissy! Jenna came over to go trick-or-treating with Jacob, and they had a blast despite the blustery weather.

Jacob had to return to the pumpkin patch to purchase a new gourd last week because his original one rotted!

Jen posed with our scarecrow - the same one that used to frighten the bejeebers out of her when she was a little girl.