Man, sometimes I can't believe how good my timing is for posting old Horribles. It snowed without sticking yesterday. The forecast calls for 2-4 inches of snow for Saturday (if it gets cold enough). Very strange weather for a rather cold start to Spring.
We're still hoping to close tomorrow. We're not sure if the escrow company will have the papers ready for signature, but we are hopeful. We're keeping our fingers crossed.
Even though we're less than a week away from closing on the Villa, we've not been that busy. Julie has just about finished scheduling all the contractors that will swarm the Villa once closed, and we've sent about a thousand copies of our financial documents to the banks (we remember fondly the non-doc loans that got America into this mortgage mess). But even though we're not busy, things are not quiet. The anticipation itself has a weighty roar.
As you can tell by my badly formed first paragraph, I haven't done much writing or creating recently. Even my doodles have dwindled from once a week to when there's a blue moon in Seattle when it's above freezing (which seems quite rare for early Spring). I keep kicking myself about falling into a rut, but kicking myself and doing something about it are very far apart.
Not that I should complain. There are other people who are supposed to be working on a ping-pong story, and who, while understandably busy with a new job and new apartment, have yet to provide a single update or progress report, other than, "wow, I'm really stuck on this."
I'm very tired. To catch up on my lost sleep, I need to sleep in. When I sleep in I wake with a headache. This is a vicious problem.
Julie and I went out to dinner last week. This was one of those bad days where my head was pounding. We walked back to the parking lot to drive home. I opened the door to a gray Prius and slid in. It felt different, but I didn't know how different until two women approached. "What are you doing in our car," they asked. We got out, apologized, and found our gray Prius two spots away. This can only happen in Seattle.
I cut back on my Horribles postings again. With preparing the Castle and finalizing the stuff for the Villa, I haven't had much time to doodle. That my computer still is acting weird hasn't helped things. I now only post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I still have a nice backlog, and I'm averaging about a new Horrible every week, so things should continue to move along smoothly.
We lifted the Villa's inspection contingency yesterday, and the next step is closing, which is planned for March 31st. Julie has been doing a wonderful job of preparing our post-close activities, including getting people into the Castle to fix it up for showing, planning the Villa's dogroom, invisible fence, painting, and floor rebuffing. While doing that, she also picked out our new furniture and has arranged for it to be delivered after the contractors (should) finish. The earliest move-in date would be April 6, although it may be later, depending on how quick the contractors and movers work.
For now we wait and enjoy our last few weeks in the Castle. Jennifer is visiting this week, so we've been trying to entertain her.
I finally got around to designing Julie's website for her clinic. I went with something simple for the first draft. The next one will likely be more interesting. Take a look and tell me what you think:
We visited Jeff and Mary on Whidbey Island last weekend, and brought the dogs.
I drew this after attending a very scary Tori Amos concert. She gave us the finger during her first act. Jennifer told us that this was her "character"--that she chooses a different character to play at the beginning of every show, and we lucked into the angry chick.
I'm still recovering from the incident.
Today was a beautiful Post-Headache Day. That means, of course, that yesterday was an absolutely painful, over-tired, stop hitting me with a frying pan day. I was miserable. But since I'm an eternal optimist (when not being hit by a frying pan), I want to focus on today's renewed energy.
The house buying continues to move along. We're in negotiations over the inspection contingency. The Castle is getting in shape for showing. We're thinking of listing it next week. We have lots to do before then.
I like to pretend I create worlds: whether they are story worlds or video game worlds. When I create them, I imagine I look like this guy.
Another busy weekend. We went to Whidbey Island yesterday. The rain stayed away but it was overcast most of the day. A bit cold in the evening, but a nice way to spend a Saturday.
Today we started moving some stuff to Julie's parents' house for storage. We want the Castle to be clutter free when it's time to show it.
The change in daylight savings messed up my schedule. I'm not sure if I'm overtired or undertired. Something is definitely amiss.
With everything going on, I forgot to post this yesterday. We finished the Villa inspection yesterday morning. There were a few minor issues that will require repair (and probably a price break), but nothing major. We're close to locked on our financing. And the contractor for the dog room is onboard and preparing an estimate.
This weekend promises to be just as busy.
Things have been chugging along around these parts. We're working hard to get the Castle in order for selling, lining up mortgages, scheduling inspections, looking at furniture, trying to decide wall colors. It's been very busy. Combine that with a computer that has started crashing again, and I haven't doodled much lately. I'm working through my large backlog of Horribles, and I will hopefully start doodling again soon. For now, enjoy the leftovers.
We did a bunch of measuring in the new house, and Julie took more photographs.
Julie and I went with another couple to a French bistro and a cute bar downtown Seattle. I drew this one awhile ago, but if felt like a timely doodle to post.
We had a busy weekend, preparing for the sale of the Castle and purchase of the Villa. We made a list of things we need to get done, and started checking off a few of the easier items.
Tonight we're heading to Lowes for supplies to "fix" the Castle. We figure investing a bit of money now making it more presentable will result in much more monies in the long run. At least that's what we hope.
