Monday, April 20, 2009

The First Monday of the Rest of Our Lives


Slowly but surely uncertainly we are tackling managing our affairs business.

I knew I was not ready to post today. This is more like Mad Libs than actual writing.

Saturday morning the children turned, sorted and matched sixty-seven pair of guy socks. Geoff thinks that it's sufficient to get by... I think sixty-seven divided by 4 is sixteen, and sixteen pair of socks is way beyond sufficient.

Besides matching socks, we vacuumed and mopped, and moped, and we dusted, scrubbed, and shredded paper work. I swept chicken straw, and made a really scrumptious falafel dinner. Eww... that is not a very appetizing compound sentence... chicken straw---- dinner. Good grief. We also had a movie night and dinner at Tutu's house, which made for a fun evening. Cousin Nick came over for some Sunday game play. Geoff and I took Maria to the farmer's market and we discovered the sweetest-juiciest grapefruit ever. Geoff joined Facebook.

I did not take any pictures of this, but Geoff and I made huge progress on Chickens Abroad. This is not easy. Everything is very complicated when done x six and in a far-far away land. Maybe it's appropriate that as our twentieth wedding anniversary approaches we are organizing an event as complicated and elaborate as a wedding! We have all flights ticketed. We have one week in Barcelona reserved. We have our last night in London booked. We know positively where we want to stay while we are in the Netherlands and the rest of the days are loosely, vaguely kind of figured out in a general way. Somebody keeps putting the Alps on the table and I keep referring Someone back to the wisdom of friends and world travelers like Lesley, of Chapter III. We really have tried to simplify and reduce the number 'must see' destinations and we have been successful, but in the end I suspect we are going to wear ourselves out... but in a fun way... lol. Still left: rental car, London B&B, Paris hotel, some museum tickets, and stuff.

So. I bet there is Monday stuff I am supposed to be doing, like making phone calls and moisturizing my feet, paying bills, dumping rain water from backyard containers, returning a library book, changing the cat litter, buying groceries, making the bed, finding my glasses, organizing confirmation numbers and doing sit-ups.

One more thing. I hesitate to mention this, because I know we are the Housing Whiners, but just for the sake of true record keeping... our offer on the home we like best, so far, the one on life-support, the one we put in last summer... it's moribund.

Know this... you do not have to pay your mortgage or your second mortgage. I can put you in touch with the "owner" of a comfortable 4 bedroom house, who has not made his ten thousand dollar per month mortgage payments in well over a year. CountryWide Mortgage gave this "owner" many dollars in home "equity" loans and now that he is under water and cannot pay, his lender with the help and sheer "genius" of our government is helping rewrite the loan and reduce his debt. It's brilliant really. I wish I had thought of it... buy a home I cannot afford, then take out more loans against the "value" of the property, fill my house with designer furniture and big screen TVs, drive a new Cadillac Escalade and skip mortgage payments for 18 months, because we all know the only consequence of this can be the kindly help and taxpayer dollars of my neighbors.

And now I am going back to read the email from Oprah.com about "How 6 Experts Cheer Up" and a "Recipe For Happiness."

8 comments:

judy in ky said...

The guy with the $10,000 mortgage? That's disgusting! Some people really know how to work the system, I guess. I know I don't!

Your trip is sounding tres exciting.

Natalie said...

Disgusting. I'm glad you think so too... until I share this ridiculous information it just rots in my head and makes me cry. The house is worth SO much less than he's borrowed against it and we've been trying and trying and trying to buy it, because he and his bank keep listing it, but just when we get close to having a chance at it... he gets to renegotiate... It's sick and it's only one drop in the corruption bucket.

The trip... oh boy! It's going to be amazing! Thank goodness for over the top distractions.

Anne Marie said...

with a name like chicken blog I had to come by and see what a chick like you is doing!!

Very nice to meet you- and I think from what I gather, that you have 4? children??
We have 5 on a farm :) and would love for you to stop on by sometime-
Blessings for a safe trip!!
Anne Marie

Julie said...

We have the same sock issue here as you can imagine. Smart*ss dh commented yesterday "I have 14 white t-shirts so you know when I say I'm getting low, we are 2 weeks behind on laundry." We?

Liz said...

LOVE the sock picture. And that homeowner makes me sick. Bleck.

nikkipolani said...

Hey Natalie, I'm still hoping there's a perfect property for you whatever happens to the market. And I had a dream about being in your home -- it was full of inventive things like a tricky refrigerator-type thing and a big backyard full of wavy grass and clumps of western junipers. I don't remember too many details except that you were so hospitable and happy.

Mary Smith said...

Gotta love those socks!!!

Tracy said...

HI, Natalie! That's a LOT of socks--LOL! So sweet it's a family affair to get them all sorted, folded and ready. :o) So exciting about the next bit of Chickens Abroad...Wishing you all a safe and very happy trip! ((HUGS))