The Clock Is Running.

It's moving day.

No time to talk.

You get back to bed, I'll take care of this.

Except Brian & Dennis.

You guys get your butts over here.

:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY ONLY SISTER!!!!

Happy B'Day, Mary!!! Here's to a wonderful, seaweed-free day!!!

Plants

One thing we're going to do with this new house, now that we have the room, is have lots if plants! We all love big green plants. They look great, add texture, cut down on echoes, and provide an almost un-measurable but mentally satisfying amount of extra oxygen.

Green, Yellow, And Heavy

Among other things, it's tractor day!

Somewhere in between driving all around the metro area looking for title companies and signing my name until my hand cramps, I need to go pick up our new John Deere.

It's not going to be easy. Home Depot will be loading the thing onto the pickup truck (rented, by the hour), but I am going to have to get it off there, most likely alone, at the other end. I have borrowed a couple of big heavy ramps to help me, but they don't attach so I expect the rollover risk to be very high.

I'm going to try to find a hill I can use to take some of the angle out of the unloading, but, as is generally true in life, anything can happen.

Zachy's Room

Mommy: "We're going to see your new bedroom tonight!"

Maddie: "No, I not see new bedroom yet."

Mommy: "Will you help me put your stuff in your new bedroom."

Maddie: "No."

Mommy: "Will you help mommy put her stuff in her bedroom?"

Maddie: "No."

Mommy: "You can help me with any room except Zachy's."

Maddie: "I help Zachy."

67 Cents

We closed on both homes today. The first one, to give away (just about literally) the house we love in Royal Oak, went off without a hitch. Ken and Barbie (the young couple who saved their pennies and love it SO much) were excited beyond jellybeans. They fidgeted and babbled like a couple of young squirrels on Mountain Dew.


The new house, the two-story one, well, that was another story.

There were missing documents, a plugged sewer pipe, held up wire transfers, title issues, and a huge email flame-war resulting from an argument between the listing agent and our bank officer that went all the way up to a stiff-suit bank VP and back down before it was settled to everyone's satisfaction.

One big chunk of money coming from the seller (yes, that happens nowadays) is held up for 24 hours so even though we completed all the closing paperwork, we do not get our keys until tomorrow.

And just to keep things lively, there was a miscalculation by the title company that kept the totals from balancing until we paid the difference. We were not told of this until we got to the closing, and we didn't have enough cash on us to cover it. We were about to just write a check for it when the builder reached into his pocket and threw a quarter on the table. Combined with the money we had on hand, we were able to pay off the debt and close the sale.

The amount of this mismatch?

Sixty-seven cents.

(Incidentally, just to show how good this market is for buyers, consider this: minus the quarter the builder donated, we had to put down a grand total of 42 cents to buy a brand new $300,000 house! The seller paid our entire down-payment).

100 Percent

Our new house is completely done. Everything.

Now we just need to make it a home.

If You Have To Ask...

This is our lodge (or as Zach called it, "Mansion") in Steamboat. It's called "Giant View". Any house that has a name is, generally, very big and very expensive. Meadowbrook Hall, Stan Hywet, San Simeon.

And Giant View.

Pennyroyal Toes

Rocky Mountain High

Steamboat Gondola

Closing Time

Tomorrow is a another big day for us, in a month of big days.

We're closing on our Royal Oak house tomorrow morning, early. As of about 10:00 AM we will officially be renters in the house we owned up until then.

And assuming our not-yet-deemed-to-be-trustworthy banker-man comes through for us with the ten or so signed documents he DOESN'T YET have in his possession, we will be closing on our new house later in the afternoon.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" - Closing Time, Semisonic

Week's End

Well, it's getting to be that time when we have to break ourselves free of the reunion lifestyle, pack our bags, say our goodbyes, and begin the long journey home.

The refrigerators at the lodge here contain the dregs of a week's worth of gourmet food gone bad, now resembling a series of runaway biology experiments.

We have a pile of garbage outside that should require a permit.

There are shopping receipts, board game pieces, and mismatched Keens all over the floor.

But we also have a whole week's worth of reunion memories to carry us through until next year.

Various members of our clan hiked, rode horses, climbed, rode gondolas, shopped, tubed on the river, hot-tubbed, rested, and talked. We've seen waterfalls, hot springs, snow-capped mountains and glassy lakes, all under clear blue skies.

Kevin likes it so much here he put in an offer on an acre of land for a future log cabin vacation home.

We have mixed feelings about leaving this year. Although we have fun with our families in the exotic locations we immersed in, we also have two home closings looming on our horizon and we're anxious to get moving.

So it is with both sadness and excitement that we leave our big lodge mansion nestled amidst aspen trees, high up in the mountains of Steamboat Springs.

Gatorade Girl

During this reunion Madison has developed a passion for Gatorade. If she sees a Gatorade bottle (and they are always around here) she will cry and beg and do whatever it takes to get some of it into her sippy cup. Here, deep in Colorado, she has fallen for this most Floridian of beverages.

Gondola

We rode the big Steamboat Gondola up Mt Werner for what seemed like an impossibly long time, rolling up higher and higher over the grassy slopes. The trip was filled with wonderful vistas and jaw-dropping heights.

And when we got to the end of the line, we realized we were only a third of the way up the mountain!

Here's Heather standing in front of the huge Gondola terminal at the top.

Maddie N' Melody

Madison LOVES music. It's difficult to describe how much she adores it. She comes alive whenever she hears something catchy. She dances, grooves, shakes, and wiggles. And sometimes just stares into space and lets it soak into her soul.

We're thinking of getting her a pink iPod for Christmas.

Incomplete

No Wild reunion would be complete without a "healthy" supply of good cigars.

Missing Mommy

Zach has been missing his mother very badly. His only comfort is his daily call to her and the knowledge that he'll see her on Sunday.

Mansions In The Mountains

Here's a peek off one side of our 3,000 square foot deck. These are not hotels, they are vacation homes. There is some big money here, enough to match the big views.

We Have "Laser" Discs

Our big lodge/mansion in Steamboat has just about every distraction you could hope for. And buried deep in the extensive AV system is an old laser disc player, and about 50 movies in that format.

In case you don't remember this technology, it's a 12" disc that holds about a half hour of a movie on a side. So you're going to be flipping discs if you want to watch The Godfather.

Jamie, Part-Time Sushi Chef

Zach's birthday dinner was everything he'd hoped for. I made a mountain of California Rolls, with Jeff's girlfriend Jamie from Manhattan acting as sous-chef. She caught on fast and was rolling like a Kyoto master in no time. I don't know how many we made, but between the rolls and the giant Benihana salad and Brian's teriyaki chicken and noodles, everyone was "all full up" in true Wild fashion.

Sleeper

We drove by this house on our way to Steamboat...you may recognize it from the Woody Allen movie Sleeper. It was built in 1963 high up in the mountains of Evergreen Colorado.

Dust To Dust

I didn't forget ya Howard, Happy Birthday to you too! Did you get HeroScape warriors and Star Wars figures for your birthday like Zach did?

To The Nines

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!!!!!!

Eight years old is history! It's onward and upward!

Being that we're at reunion, everyone has wished Zach a big happy birthday.

Well, almost.

As Zach said, "Everyone wished me happy birthday except Brooke".

Being that she's not born yet though, he'll forgive her.

Not Too Well Traveled

I am normally a wine guy, and when I drink beer I like brew-pub beer, usually a Hefeweizen or other wheat beer.

But finding myself only a few miles away from the mighty Coors brewery in Golden, I just had to try a low-mileage beer, and it was really good.

Pavlov's Door

My nephew Justin got married last night in a nice but chilly outdoor place called "The Pines", about ten minutes into the mountains. I took my usual flurry of photographs during the ceremony with the reception dinner on my mind the entire time.

My general strategy for wedding feasts is to position myself at one of the Lagrange Points between the bar and the appetizer action. If you are a wedding feast amateur, you may not realize that appetizers are served in a definite pattern. The servers always start and end in the kitchen, and follow one or more comfortable routes. With experience you can learn to read these "currents" and use them to your advantage. Like a game trail, but with stuffed mushrooms.

It was no time before I was "in position" for optimal beverage/munching efficiency. There was a sweet spot, close to the bar, far enough away from the kitchen door to comply with its sign that read "PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM KITCHEN DOOR", yet close enough so that a minimum of piranhas will have attacked the appetizer tray before I can get to it (piranhas of course being the other hungry guests, the competition).

I began to notice that whenever the squeaky kitchen door opened everyone would rush to gather at the Larange Point in a salivating mass of tuxedos and cocktail dresses. From what I remember in Psych 101, this is a clear indication of the Pavlov Effect.

Hi From CO

Hello there, blogo-buddies, from the lovely but raining cats and dogs and a few stray mountain goats Denver Colorado. We're going to a BBQ tonight at my brother Kevin's place, and otherwise resting and drinking insane amounts of water. I'll write more when I accumulate some worthy stories...

Heatherbaby McGee

Heather used to sing karaoke with Lisa when they would go out. She has sung for me many times and she's really good.

Her favorite was Janis Joplin. She sings "Bobby McGee" so well you would think you were listening to the reincarnation of Janis herself. It was surprising to hear her sound like that, because it's so different from her normal voice.

She's keeping the tradition alive too, she sings "Mercedes Benz" to Maddie every night at bedtime. And Maddie sings along. It's just about as cute as I can stand to hear a 30 lb Janis Joplin singing about Color TVs and nights on the town.

Goodbye To A Couple Of Old Friends

Despite the love and loyalty I have for my favorite shoes ever, I could no longer justify keeping them any longer. They have seen me through many years of ups and downs and ins and outs. They were once my flashy "out on the town" shoes, and then became comfortable old dependable workhorses. Eventually they helped me mow the lawn and bang around the garage. I don't know how old they were, at least 15 years, probably more.

They are now retired, out to pasture. Gone. It's a sad day.

It is my firm opinion that Doc Martens are the greatest of all shoes. Born in the ruins of post World War II Germany, they migrated to England in the early sixties and, sporting the now iconic yellow stitching, worked hard in the factories and played hard in the pubs. The punk generation gave them a radical new image that they still enjoy today.

Rarely is something so practical also so cool.

A Degree Is A Degree Even If It's 80 Degrees

Our next-door neighbors (Zach calls them "The Italians", but it's evolved into one Italian and a couple Californians) are also moving out at the end of the month.

Except instead of moving four miles north to Troy, the couple is moving back to California and the Italian guy is moving to the Caribbean to study medicine.

I thought he was joking, but when I looked it up, turns out there are some really good medical schools in those islands. And they are far cheaper than US schools. In fact, ask your doctor where he or she went to school. You might be surprised.

Although coconut drinks combined with the study of anatomy may seem like a dangerous combination at first glance, you're going to get the most relaxed doctor you've ever seen. And with a killer tan.

Dreaming Of Laptop Dances

I packed up "The Beast" yesterday. After doing one final backup, reading it a bedtime story, and wishing it goodnight, I shut it down with the promise that the next time it wakes up, it will be in its new room in the new house.

The Beast was excited. I think it will have good dreams.

The Glass-Blockhead Window

Our bathroom window has been a huge, petrified dinosaur-bone of contention between our lovely young buyers (Ken and Barbie as Heather calls them) and us. In this dysfunctional relationship, HB and I are the sensible, logical, and patient ones. Our "other half" is impetuous, flighty, and without sense.

And they are hamstrung by a terribly inept realtor who should probably have gone into cosmetology instead of real estate. (with all due apologies to my cosmetologist readers)

First they asked us for $4,000 to fix the bathroom wall that their inspector said was rotted and about to collapse. After we had a contractor in and he said the wall was fine, they asked for a new window to fix the improper sealing situation. They were cool with either a new glass block window, or a standard frosted-glass variety. We agreed that the window was not installed right and just to get the sale finalized we would put a new window in or fix it.

After the first contractor decided to break up with us and stopped returning our calls, we got a window company in and put in an order for a brand-new frosted glass replacement window.

But they didn't want that. Now they just wanted the money.

So we told them the window was already bought and paid for and they were ok with that. They also asked if they could put in extra money to get a "deluxe upgrade", whatever that would be on a bathroom window.

So I got the number of the window guy to my realtor. But before he could do anything with it, he got another call from them. It seems they had changed their minds and wanted the money instead.

Enraged and way past the boundaries of my patience, I called the window company and cancelled the order. It will take a few weeks before we get our money back.

I just got a call from my realtor. If you can believe this, they called back and asked if I had cancelled the window yet, because they change their minds again and they want to go through with it.

"Too bad", says I. That ship has sailed. In fact, it's already in China being loaded up with plastic toys.

I'm going to write them a check for the price of that window and tell them where they can stick it.

They're lucky I don't charge them for my time.

The things we do for one more bedroom.

Cool Central

Mike & Deb's condo in San Francisco is for sale! It's right smack at the entrance to Golden Gate Park, in The Haight, at Fell & Stanyon. This is legendary territory. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Janis Joplin. All of them and more lived in this neighborhood. It was the center of the 1960's Hippie counter-culture movement. Ground Zero. But it hasn't been standing still for the last 40 years. It's since evolved into a deep-dish cultural pizza with toppings from everywhere.

So if you absolutely have to live in hip-ville, one of the coolest places on the planet, and you have one huge hunk of cash lying around, give them a call.

I just hope you like the smell of patchouli.

240 Seconds

Our current drive to Harbor Springs is 267 mi – about 4 hours 8 mins. When we move, the drive will be 262 mi – about 4 hours 4 mins.

Four minutes closer, baby! That's a hug, three crackers with smoked whitefish, four sips of wine, a glimpse of Fraidy, and a couple of quick stories.

Another unforeseen benefit of moving!

If we were to make a move like this every year, we'd be neighbors with my sister in only 53 and a half years or so.

Flying Sqirrels

I thought my new tractor was quite a lawnmower...until I went to the mowing supply center and saw where the real lawnmowers live.

There were some fire-breathing beasts there that would scare the fenders off my new tractor. Look at this one:


35 Horsepower. Six-foot-wide cutting deck. Zero turn radius. Those were the official specs.

But unofficially, this thing could throw a squirrel 300 yards, easy. You can mulch, but if you use the bags you won't have to pick up the pedestrian body parts from all over the yard. Just imagine what this mower would do to your in-ground sprinkler system.

I have stood next to this thing. It's intimidating. Stay away, if you value your feet.

My Uninvited Guest

So, I have this thing on me called an Actinic Keratosis. It's a pre-cancerous thingy with a bad attitude.

I hate having uninvited foreign stuff on my body. Kinda creepy. My doctor tells me I did invite it though, and just don't remember. It comes from never wearing sunscreen and failing to have enough recent African ancestry. So, half my fault, half great-great-grandpa's fault.

It's like a bad party guest who shows up suddenly, slurps down all the Jell-O shots, and crashes on your living room floor in a pool of bright-green vomit.

Anyhow, I have to go in on Sept 11th and have it removed with a light saber, or some similar but less-exciting tool.

I'm going to make a mental note to stop inviting these things to my parties.

Letting Off Steamboat

We're getting very close to reunion time!!! We'll descend upon Steamboat like a plague of coolness. We'll rest, hike, ride, rest, drink, eat, rest, and have fun catching up on a very busy year for all of us.

And did I mention rest?

With all this packing and moving stuff we have been doing lately, it will be good just to sit and relax. No paint samples to look through. No addendums to sign. No windows to fix. No football-sized rats to chase out of basements.

(just kidding about that last one)

We have a birthday party planned for Zach during reunion, on our night to cook. Needless to say, I'll be making California Rolls by the dozen.

And resting.

Take My FM-3 From Me

A few of us wayward business travelers went downtown to the Mexican Consulate on the 8th floor of the Penobscot building to have our Mexican Visas (NOT Mexican Pizzas!) cancelled.

When we asked the kind woman at the consulate desk what would happen if we didn't have these revoked, she said that if we were to find ourselves in Mexico and they found out we had outstanding work visas...

"Well, they could give you trouble" was her exact response.

That's all I needed to know. Get this thing off the books, rapido.

So I am now legal in Mexico again.

And just to celebrate we went to the excellent Los Galanes restaurant in Mexican Town in Southwest Detroit.

Our fiesta complete, we all came back to work, needing siestas.

Yet More House Stuff

Zach picked out his room at the new house. We gave him first choice (well, after the master...) and he went for this room, looking off to the side of the house.

That also determined Maddie's room, which is the next-biggest and faces to the front. Here they are, happy in their new, unfinished spaces.

More Signs

First there was the glory of our "Pending" sign, now this on our new house...we are getting goosebumps.

It's getting more real by the minute.

Killing Trees

I just found this photo of our lot from 2005...our house would later be built somewhere in that natty nest of trees.

You Have What?

A combination of Heather's pregnancy-swelling-induced hearing loss and my noisy car phone produced the following mistranslation yesterday:

I said: "...we have to go cancel our Mexican Visas..."

HB heard: "...we have to go cancel our Mexican Pizzas..."

And then later, as we were bringing the pizza (not Mexican) and everything else out onto the deck for dinner, the lack of car noise didn't stop this gem:

I said: "I have her piece..."

HB heard: "I have herpes..."

I can see why she might be concerned, at first. I was talking pizza and she was hearing the introduction of an STD onto the marital scene.

We laughed about that last one late into the night. It still makes me giggle.

Cash & Stainless Steel

We spent unholy amounts of cash this weekend as we accumulated stainless steel appliances and tractors. We got a new fridge, range, washer, dryer, and of course, the lawn beast. Everything except a microwave oven, which, unsurprisingly if you know me, I'm in no hurry for.

Colors

We met with our painter yesterday. Quite a character. He was expecting us to give him two or three shades of "White or Almost White" from his thin pamphlet and he would be done with us.

Man was he was wrong.

We were his worst nightmare. We showed up with a list of colors that would make a rainbow turn green (or purple) with envy. Every room and hallway is a different color.

Or two.

He's going to start painting today, and it will take him a week and a half of taping and rolling before he gets to leave. I can't wait to see what the whole thing looks like when the dust settles. We took some dramatic chances...

We were pretty surprised that he agreed to do all this painting, he was clearly not expecting such picky and demanding customers bearing paint chips.

On the down side though, we were looking forward to Ingrid flying in to town to help us paint. Now we'll have to think of another excuse to get her here.

Where's R2 When You Need Him?

And so another crazy weekend in the Wild House comes to a close.

The packing was intense and prolonged. The floor is completely covered with "stuff". No matter where you step there is a box, a tape dispenser, a dog, or another dog. It's a little like the trash compactor scene in Star Wars...the walls of junk are closing in, and our blasters don't seem to work.

I Change Diaper!

Maddie's already a good mom, at two!

Ladylike

Maddie has a way with pretzels.

The Box Fairy

The Box Fairy came, early this morning, and left us a bunch of sexy cardboard.

Amazing the things that turn us on now...

A New Sign

It's getting exciting now...the "Sale Pending" sign is up at our house!