A Warm Welcome

We just got back from our week long house hunting trip in Tampa. As you know, we are in a rental and they have been showing the house. At some point during the week, some genius real estate agent decided to close the bathroom where the cats' litter boxes are (even had the door propped open with a full canister of litter). Since the poor cats couldn't get to their potties they decided to use our couch as their litter box (no...not the leather one). I think they started off using Oreo's brand new ($40) pillow and when that was full they moved on to the couch. The couch is unsalvagable. We have already moved it to the curb. Oh and they also left the front door unlocked.

We are so happy to be home...and really can't wait to move!

House Number Two

Here is option number two. The pluses are: 3 car garage, larger house, $40K less than option one, larger yard, gated community. Minuses: longer commute (25-30 minutes), no screen around pool (bugs, cats can't go out), bathrooms can use updating.

Nice curb appeal.

Cute little pond in front.

Kitchen to left, living to right, breakfast table to far right.

Dining area (right inside the front door).

Master bedroom (opens to the backyard behind) and bath on far end of picture

This is L.A.'s favorite room. It is the fourth bedroom/office. It opens to the backyard too. (Actually there are 5 exits to the back!)

Washroom. Lots of built-ins and wash basin

Kitchen (from the living room)

Den - Standing in the front door looking to backyard. Kitchen is the opening on the left of the picture. Master bedroom is to the right (not in picture)

Lanai. You can see the door to the living room, bathroom and office.

More Lanai. Door to entry way/den straight ahead and living room to right.

Secret garden...hidden spa on side of house.

Sitting area in back left of yard

Pool
More pool

Let me know what you think. We are looking at more tomorrow. I'll let you know.

House Options

We are down in Tampa this week on our House Hunting Trip. Today was our first day of actually looking at houses. We had a pretty successful day. We looked at about 15 houses and had six true contenders. We narrowed it down to two really good one and two back-ups. The two that we really like are completely different and the pluses and minuses are totally different. Here are a few pictures from the houses.

Gardenia House

This is one of the front runners. The minuses are that it only has a one car garage, one bathroom, small kitchen (but it opens to den), small master bedroom and only one bathroom. A few of the pluses is the location (South Tampa...about 5-10 minutes to base) and the back yard (see pictures below). One funny side story is last night we were driving around and L.A. tells me "I really think that we are going to buy a yellow house".

This is the living room (right inside the front door) and it opens to the kitchen toward the back of the house.

Here's the kitchen (not gas). It's nicely done but on the small side...but it opens to the living room so it doesn't feel that small.

This is the den. It is right off the kitchen at the back of the house. Very cozy. Opens to the lanai toward the right.

This is bedroom number two.
This is the master...big enough for a king (but not much else).
This is bedroom three/office. It opens out onto the lanai with french doors.
This is the one and only bathroom (and only one sink).
Sitting area in back yardA view of the back yard and lanai...beautiful (this doesn't do it justice).
View of the pool...the cats would LOVE this because they can go outside.This is the lanai (outside). It really is another room outside. I LOVE it!!!

What to do...what to do...

So...I just got my copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard on my doorstep. It is addressed to me but I know L.A. ordered it with the intention of giving it to me for Christmas. I knew about it when he ordered it so it's not a surprise...should I hold off or open it (since it is addressed to me) and pretend I forgot????

LSU vs. Arkansas

Well it's the final game of the regular season...I have mixed feelings...bittersweet. I love love love LSU football and enjoy watching even during seasons like this one. But I'm hoping that the offseason can help us regroup and stop the bleeding. I hope that we get a decent bowl game but I'm sure it will be the Indy Bowl...although I'm sure the peeps in Louisiana (especially S'port) will be thrilled. I think we have wonderful potential for next season and I'm really looking forward to the future but I'll miss my boys in the meantime!

Twilight Movie ~ My 100th Post

I noticed a few weeks ago that I was nearing my 100th post and decided that I needed to make it an extra special post...but what to write about??!!??? I pondered that for a few minutes but couldn't come up with anything substantial so I put the thought out of my mind. As I was sitting down to write my personal thoughts on the Twilight movie I noticed that this would be my 100th post...I thought this was pretty appropriate as this book has been a slight obsession of my for a while now. :-D

I'll admit I was a late bloomer when it came to Twilight. (I guess I don't hang around with teenage girls enough.) In fact, the only reason I even found out about the books was because I kept seeing "Edward Cullen" flair on Facebook so looked it up on Wikipedia. I thought these books must be pretty good to get this much attention so I read them (and subsequently I have gotten at least 7 other people hooked as well...you're welcome). A group of my girlfriends and I even took a road trip up to NYC to take part in the Breaking Dawn Concert Series. It was a combination music concert (with Blue October lead man) and book signing. Pretty cool concept and a great time (minus the 20K screaming teenage girls perhaps). So with this in mind, I'm sure you can understand that I was a little underwhelmed about seeing the movie.


I know that no movie can live up to the book. The actors aren't what you picture in your head when you read the books...the story gets altered and your favorite parts are sometimes cut all together...but it does give you the opportunity to relive your book in a compact time frame. If you haven't seen the movie beware...there will be spoilers.


The movie was pretty much as I expected...OK but not great. This definitely had an Indie Film feel. The story was confusing and hard to follow even for me so I can't imagine how someone who hadn't read the books could follow what was going on. There were way too many parts where there was no talking...at all...for like 5 minutes. In general I thought that the movie was visually stunning but the acting wasn't that good. Alice was the closest to what I pictured but was it just me or was she the worst actress ever??!!?? And Nikki Reed (who plays Rosalie) is beautiful in her natural state but didn't come close to how I pictured Rosalie in my mind's eye.

This must be the most chaste movie ever...even more than the books...which were pretty chaste. There was one slooooooooooow kiss but that was about it. And what in the hell was up with Bella's prom dress? It was so mawmaw with that cardigan and leggins...really, really bad!

I felt like the entire movie Bella was not really interest in Edward...if there was interest at all it was mostly just trying to figure out what he was. The only time there was any kind of desire from Bella at all was in the hospital where Edward was trying to talk her into moving to Jacksonville.

But I think the most disappointing thing about the movie for me was the meadow scene (my FAVORITE part of the book). It was pretty much butchered...non-existent.

With all of that said, I will watch the movie again and almost certainly buy it. But my fervent recommendation...READ THE BOOKS!!!!

Thanks for reading!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there in Cyberland. Our friends Tommy and Janelle came over to pigout and spend the day with us...and we had a great time doing both!

Janelle and Tommy

L.A.

Janelle, Tommy, Me and L.A. (This was taken right after round one)

Tommy, Janelle, Me and L.A. (Taken after round two)

Zeus giving L.A. a hair wash.

Oreo...this picture just makes me laugh

Kahlua...Miss Priss

Tommy and Janelle

L.A. and Me...he's telling me that he's not in the mood for self-portraits...hence the maniacal look in my eyes.