House shopping

Hi All,

Just wanted to give you a quick update on our house hunting adventures. In the past 1-2 months Mariah and I have seen at least 25-30 houses in all areas of Cincinnati. We've visited some of the roughest neighborhoods where house bargains are readily available and we've visited some of the nicest areas where the houses have a premium attached to them. Since the housing market is really bad at the moment in the U.S. because of the sub-prime mortgage disaster it is a buyers market, especially if you are a first-time buyer.

After all of this searching we have found two beautiful houses that we really like. Last Monday we decided to place an offer on the following house: 1301 Bursal St. We placed a really low-ball offer just to see what the sellers would do, not surprisingly, the sellers rejected the offer and asked for a much higher price. At this point we decided to walk away for a few days. On Monday we are going to place another offer on this house at a higher price. If the sellers continue to be difficult we will walk away and go to our number 2 option.

This has been quite the adventure for us. We've learned a lot about buying a house during the past few weeks. We'll post our learnings shortly, although they would only apply to the U.S.

Stay tuned...

In other news, Brock is no longer sick... no more Costco food for him. We weighed him on Friday and he is 35lbs.

Michael

Being a bachelor isn't quite the same anymore

Hi All,

With Mariah going up to Lansing, Michigan with all of her knitting buddies, Brock and I were left alone to be bachelor's for the weekend. Unfortunately, this weekend wasn't as relaxing as I had hoped.

We recently changed Brock's food from a $30/large bag of Purina One to a $10/large bag of Costco brand dog food. We decided to make this change because the Costco food was supposed to be better for the dog. The fact that it only cost $10/bag didn't hurt either. Since making the switch Brock's poop's have been less than solid. He has also lost the ability to control when he needs to go #2. On Friday we woke up to find out that Brock had pooped in his cage and inadvertently rolled in it. Mariah and I had to give Brock a bath at 8am and clean-up his lovely mess. On Saturday Brock was fine until Mariah left for her trip, he became mopey and wouldn't eat any food. This wasn't completely unexpected since Brock is Mariah's dog.

On Sunday morning, I awoke to find Brock's cage full of poop again. After an hour clean-up I took him to go to the bathroom outside but Brock didn't go. I took him back inside and after 10 minutes I heard his bell ring and before 2 minutes went by I came to take him out found a nice present in the living room. Brock took a liquid crap all over the floor. It appeared that he was running when he took the crap because there was a long trail of it. Needless to say, I was not impressed. After cleaning up that mess I was finally able to get the day started.

I'll be very happy to have Mariah home again to deal with her dog!

Michael

Websites I Like

Hi All,

I thought I would share with you all of the websites that I've enjoyed in the last few months. When you work for an agency you find out about all sorts of interesting sites.

Dave and Adrienne's Blog, http://daveandadie.blogspot.com

Dave is an old friend from my year at UMASS. We've kept in touch over the years and I was very happy to attend his wedding last summer.

Attempting to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle in St. Louis, http://livegreenstlouis.wordpress.com/

One of my good friends and former colleague, Todd moved to St. Louis, MO and decided to build an eco-friendly house. This blog is a great resource for those who are interested in eco-friendly industry.

Lufthansa to Europe: Virtual Pilot!, http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/useugame2007/html/play.html

Very cool travel game that tests your knowledge of cities in Europe. It's a lot harder than you think.

Stuff White People Like, http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Probably one of the funniest blogs I've read in a long time.

Stuff Bitches Love, http://stuffbitcheslove.wordpress.com/

A spin-off of the Stuff White People Like, very funny from the mind of my current co-worker, Anna.

Bush's Perfect Pair Contest, http://www.perfectpaircontest.com/

This is a recent promotion that we recently launched at work. Its a pretty interesting contest. For all the people in the U.S. who love to grill, you should definitely enter.

Finally an update......

Hi All,

I apologize for the very late posting, I blame Mariah :) Since the beginning of March we have been incredibly busy. What's been keeping us busy? House hunting!! Mariah and I have decided to get a house to store all of her stuff... and Brock. I'll get to Brock later.

The Cincinnati housing market, like the rest of the U.S. has hit hard times so there are plenty of deals out there. We have been looking for a house with 2-3 bedrooms, 1.5-2 bathrooms and air conditioning of course. After 2-3 weeks of looking we've found one house that we really like a lot. The house is located in a small town called Fairfax which is about 10 minutes away from where we currently live. The house has been completely redone with all new everything. We'll see in the next few weeks if we get it.

Another big update, we finally were able to get our wedding photos, only 2 months later. After many phone calls, emails and personal visits we finally were given the photos. We will be posting them online shortly.

Michael