http://www.cowgirljules.com Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:44:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Friday night, we decided to get out of Dodge for part of the weekend, so we packed the truck with the minimum and headed for the hills. It's archery season right now, so Junior brought his bow and we pulled into the camp some of his friends were using. We blew ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/08/24/stuck-my-foot-in-it/ We've got an empty water tank at my site that we need to get back in order for a tenant that wants to use it. It's huge: 700,000 gallons and 40 feet high. I emptied it out years ago in my previous job because one of the enormous pipes underground ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/08/21/white-knuckled-inspection/ Well, OK, more like walking down the dock of the Bay on the way to the boat. Junior's family invited us on a fishing trip in the San Francisco Bay they'd put together. We accepted and paid before this whole house this went through and besides, we really wanted to go. ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/08/18/sitting-on-the-dock-of-the-bay/ Because I might be crazy, in addition to heading in to our busy season and buying a house, I booked us on a weekend flight across the country and back.      Junior's folks were visiting his sister and neices for ten days, and he hadn't seen them for a few years either. ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/08/13/whirlwind-vacation/ When we started seriously looking for houses a couple of months ago, we really liked the first one we set foot into. It felt weird to make an offer on the very first one, but it suited us just right, so we did. Unfortunately, so did someone else, for some ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/08/11/the-countdown-starts-now/ I really liked the country house. Junior was sort of noncommittal about it, but I liked its personality. There were only two little issues with it. It had an older shake roof, which just isn't done in California any more, and freaks out insurance underwriters. We'd discussed having the seller replace ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/07/26/two-steps-forward-one-step-back/ When we started looking for a house, we sat down together and made a mental list of what qualities we wanted in a place we're going to live for at least the next ten years. We both are country people, and if possible, we wanted a place in the country. An ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/07/21/decisions-decisions/ It's a dirty job, working third shift, no matter what job you're doing. You're opposite from the rest of the working world. You're trying to sleep while everyone's up and about, running their leaf blowers outside your window and letting their dogs bark. Normal people don't get so much of the ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/07/14/third-shift/ Since a short sale can fall through at any time, or take six months, during which time we could find something even better, we keep looking. One popped up online this week, so we went to see it on Saturday morning.    From the front, it wasn't bad at all; obviously a ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/07/13/next/ The house hunt has been wearing on us. I flip through the online listings every few days, and talk to our realtor weekly. I examine the real estate ads in the paper religiously. We drive through neighborhoods, jotting down likely-looking addresses. We obsessively stalk one place that's been repossessed, waiting ... http://www.cowgirljules.com/2008/07/07/lets-try-this-again/