Monday Updates

I have a few updates for today.

1. Looks like Blogger has increased user friendlyness. So I took a little stab at playing with their new beta version. Do you like the look? Do you want your blog added to my links? Does something look weird? Comments welcome.

2. This weekend I got "spoofed." Now. thousands of people around the country have reieved e-mails from my domain name on how to "enlarge their penis". And now I am getting a bazillion returen e-mails into my mailbox. So let's take a daydream into Brooke's mind. What kind of person can sleep at night knowing they are an internet spammer. After several contestants competed in my head for the rights to trigger a mental image when I think of penis enlargement spammer the winner is....(drum roll please).... a 35-45 year old while male, with black greasy hair, sleezy eyes, skinny as a rail, sitting in the dark basement of his mother's house trying to pass the lonely night. Enough about that, I am making myself nasous.

3. Well we found a house! Actually it was one we found a few weeks ago but now Nathan is on the bandwagon. So we are making the offer today, trying to keep Nathan's words of wisdom in mind "Don't come to the negotiating table, being emotionally attached to the house". We will just try to forget that yesterday we went to Menards and a furniture store to look at paints, curtains/window treatments, browse at flooring, and chat about small projects for the next 5 years.

4. You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks but no one ever said an old dog can't teach you new tricks. Mason is on Rimadyl for his arthritis. He is doing wonderfully on it. He gets his chewable pill (aka treat) after our morning walk and after he goes outside around 7pm. Over the last couple days i noticed that every 15-30 min he wants to go outside, when he comes in he goes to his Ernie cookie jar to await his medicine. If you don't give him a treat he whines to go back outside.

5. Oscar has found a brand new place to sleep. In our apartment we have a stackable washer and dryer. We usually leave the dryer door opened a little. Well if the there are clothes in there and the bell has just recentely went off, it is nice and cozy and this is where we can find Oscar.

Cake vs. Child.

This week I finished my second Wilton Cake Course. My final project turned out as above. I realize that I took some crappy pictures of the cake. But despite my troubles with Royal icing (2 weeks in a row), I was able to produce a descent cake. So needless to say this cake took me about 8 hours to make (over about 4 weeks). I brought the cake into work (as I usually do) and placed it in the staff lounge. Usually the cake sits there on display until very late morning or early afternoon.

Now on with the story. So one of my client was paying her bill and had been allowing her 3-4 year old daughter run around. Her daughter went into the staff lounge, saw the cake and with her grubby little fingers started stuffing my uncut cake into her mouth as fast as she could. When the front desk staff alerted her, that her daughter was doing this all she said was "She Loves Cake". No apology, no discipline, no guilt. This story would have been cute and funny if...the daughter was taught a lesson or the woman apologized. But instead you are left to wonder... Obviously the girl knew no better but instead of being told that is not acceptable behavior she now thinks it is OK to use/eat/handle(whatever verb you put in her) other peoples things.

Ok, a little more about our househunting experiences. We saw several more houses (that were much closer to what we were looking for). One house we saw, looked gorgeous on paper (and from the pictures). The layout was perfect, the backyard was huge, and it was in a nice neighborhood. Then we saw it in person. Apparently some guy bought this house (built in 2005) when there was only the frame and tried to finish it himself. The drywall was curvy, railings were loose to the point of breaking off the wall (not to mention the one railing that was a bit too short and lengthened with putty). The beautiful granite counters put on the cheapest cabinetry you ever saw (not to mention that the inside of each cabinet contained several "extra" screw holes where he had messed up). One side of the cabinet didn't quite meet up with the window the other side partially covered the window. The beautiful wood fence didn't meet up quite perfect and where each fence section was suppose to align there was 20-30 screws and nails attempting to hold it together. Outside, some siding was falling off, and the rest of it was put on crooked. It was a shame, this house has soo much potential but at this point it needs to be striped own to the studs and be rebuilt.

We did however see two houses that I liked. They were right across the street from each other in a cul-de-sac of a very nice neighborhood. Both had great properties, nice kitchens, good layouts. Nathan is concerned that their laundry rooms are in the mudroom (that is essentially a small hallway from the kitchen to the garages. Once house would need the kitchen floor replaced and the interior would have to painted in colors that fit our style, while the other house didn't have a fence or a deck built on it yet. But they two are definitely at the top of our list. I will keep you posted.