There's so much going on!

Dinner, Movie, and an Offer

Sorry, I still haven't gotten used to posting on a regular basis. I'm sure it will become a habit one day. It's also been pretty hectic, so there hasn't been much time.

Andrew went back to work a couple weeks ago. He still has weekends off, but doesn't get home until fairly late. He's off around 6:00 PM, and stays at work for an hour or so (playing WoW, of course) until traffic eases up a little. This means dinner is even later than usual, which is difficult for me since my body really wants its biggest meal around 2:00 PM and isn't all that happy about waiting as long as it already does to eat something substantial.

Right before the run started, Andrew and I went to Irori, a Japanese restaurant in Marina Del Rey, with a few of his co-workers after seeing Coraline (which was amazing). They all talked me into having people over for crepes before crunch starts, so I've been menu planning and shopping for that all week long. I can't buy too much at one time when Andrew isn't with me, since it's just too hard to get all those groceries up to our second floor condo. I'll be finishing up the shopping tomorrow. We are expecting around 20 people in our little condo. It should be fun!

Oh yeah, I wrote an offer a couple days ago. We tried to make it as strong as possible while still staying within budget. So far, it's going well. We won't know for sure until they accept or counter our offer. It was a foreclosure and banks are really trying to sell their properties, so they price them well and buyers end up in bidding wars. Believe it or not, we are seeing multiple offers (sometimes over 20 of them) for properties that are well priced. I try to avoid bidding wars (which usually drive up the price) and focus on finding properties that have room for negotiation. The seller might take less (sometimes even less than if it were priced aggressively) because nobody else is offering anything.

Valentine's Day at the Rhoades House

Last weekend was Valentine's Day, which at our house is pretty uneventful. I don't like dealing with all the crowds (and neither does my introvert husband), so we usually stay home and relax. Andrew has been warned to never by me flowers on Valentine's Day or else I'll have to divorce him for being fiscally irresponsibility. I don't have anything against getting flowers, and Andrew is more than welcome to buy me flowers any other day of the year. I just don't get paying more for something for no other reason than it was purchased on a specific day.

I made Andrew bacon and eggs for breakfast, and then we got a special surprise. Our friend Jennifer got her dates mixed up and showed up a week early to our crepetastic get-together. She had flowers with her, but I'm sure they were from Trader Joe's or someplace responsible like that. It was a great Valentine's Day topped off with Indian food at my mom's place for dinner. She did have two screaming grandchildren with her, but the cuteness overrides the screaming, for me at least. I don't think Andrew would agree.