10 Year Anniversary!

Drum roll please....

On May 11, Steven & I will be celebrating TEN YEARS TOGETHER! I can't actually believe it's been that long, which is a good thing--time really does fly when you're having fun. :) Yes, I realize that now that we're married, the wedding anniversary could trump the dating anniversary...but honestly? I feel like those 10 years encompass such a significant decade of our lives, and the vast majority of our relationship, so focusing on the relatively short, but admittedly more "official", 2 years of marriage seems a little...bleh?

If I had the time, energy, and motivation to make a highlight reel, it would go something like this: senior prom, graduating from high school, white water rafting trips, Woodstock '99, going off to college, many trips to mid-coast Maine, graduating from college, great trips abroad with great friends, getting our first 'real' jobs, moving to the Boston area, getting engaged, a couple more trips, getting married!, becoming Uncle & Auntie, a couple job changes, and viola!

Here we are, reminiscing.

To celebrate, we're going away for a weekend and I am really excited! We are heading up to the Franconia Notch area of New Hampshire and treating ourselves to a stay at the Sugar Hill Inn, which looks beautiful, and is known for it's delicious gourmet breakfast.  YUM.  By day we'll be hiking around, getting a good dose of the outdoors and checking out the scenery--by night we'll be dining fireside, sipping bubbly, and enjoying our suite.  Cannot wait!

The Circle of Life :(

The darling baby squirrels only made it through 1 more day. On Monday, when I came home from work, they were still bumbling all over the place, oblivious to pedestrians, cars, cats, the works. While that was cute during the day, it unfortunately did not fly at night.

After hearing some alarming squeaking around 10pm, I grabbed my flashlight and went outside to see if I could figure out what was up. Both had been nabbed--one by a big nasty looking possum & the other by a skunk. (Jerks.)

Okay, I know that possums and skunks need to eat, too. And there is certainly no shortage of squirrels. But it still sucks.

Be Still My Heart

I'm in love. The object(s) of my affection? Two adorable, thoroughly confused, baby squirrels. I happened upon one of them on Friday evening, and again this morning, but this time with a sibling. Let me just say, that at first, the word RABIES was definitely flashing in my mind. Most startling was that they don't take off running when we're near them--in fact, these little guys have actually approached me & Steven several times. Additionally, they're clumsy. God, they're clumsy. But after watching them out the window for a few hours now, I've decided that they're basically the squirrel equivalent of kittens, when they just get old enough to start playing & tumbling & falling all over the place. They even pile up on eachother when sleeping, which happens every half hour or so. In other words, these guys are young, inexperienced, and extremely vulnerable. So far they've managed to fly under the radar of both the neighborhood cats & the neighborhood children. But considering the way they just chill in low branches (we're talking about 5 feet off the ground), don't run away when startled, and lie around in a pile of mulch next to our side fence, I have to say I'm concerned that survival of the fittest is not going to work out favorably for these two.

And to combat that, Steven and I are giving them a little help. First, I put out water for them. And we gave them some peanuts (not interested). I offered them some banana, but that also failed to excite them. Then Steven noticed them picking up some old dried up cherries from the cherry trees they're cavorting in, and he came up with THE prize: Craisins. He tossed them a few, and they immediately went nuts, frantically foraging for them, wrestling eachother for them, and downright pigging out.

Noshing on some Craisins:
Wrestling over Craisins:
Washing it down with some water:
Relaxing by the fence:
Aren't they adorable? Hopefully they'll be okay these next few days/weeks, while they grow and perfect their tree climbing skills. We'll be keeping an eye on them, for sure.

40 days and 40 nights

Well, more like 7. That's the number of days/nights that we figure water was shooting out of the broken pipes in our *almost* house before we found out and alerted the seller's agent and the water was turned off.

It appears that the seller's agent, in an effort to be frugal, set the thermostat to 40 degrees. During a New England cold snap. Einstein she is not.

So now, about a month later, the deal is totally off. The seller's plan was to fix the burst pipes, replace sheetrock, remove the carpets, and then winterize the house. We didn't feel comfortable with these simple cosmetic repairs after days of full-blast water flow. So we cancelled and got our 5% deposit back (which was a little iffy anyways.)

Aaaaaaaaaand, we're back to square one with the house hunt.

Closing Postponed!

That's correct. Two days before we were supposed to close, after we had given our lender every possible form of documentation imaginable (purchase & sales agreement? check. employment verification? check. receipt from last gallon of milk purchased? check. VIN# of your neighbor's first car? check.) and had gotten the greenlight, there was a sudden hitch.

The seller (a bank) never recorded the foreclosure deed. As in, they were 2 days away from selling a house that they didn't technically own.

On one hand, we were really disappointed. So we don't get our house yet? When will we get it? On the other hand...RELIEF! The closing is postponed and it's not our fault!

This is a particularly important point for us, as the house is being sold via a real estate auction site, RealtyBid.com. We weren't scared off by the unconventional venue, but there were some daunting conditions to the transaction:

1) You must close within 30 days of winning the auction.
2) When you sign and submit the purchase and sales agreement, you must also submit a 5% deposit. That's 5% of the purchase price.
3) If you fail to close in 30 days, your 5% deposit is kept by the seller.

However, if the seller cannot provide a clear title on the day of closing, the buyer is not held to the above conditions. And that's where we are now. The deal is still on, but we can breathe a little easier knowing that our 5% deposit is no longer at risk, and it's up to the seller to move this forward.

Phew!

Vánočka Bread Pudding

I am a big fan of all things pudding. So when we ended up with leftover Czech Christmas Bread (called "Vánočka"), I immediately thought: Bread Pudding!

Yes, maybe we (my Czech grandmother, my mother, and I) did go a little overboard this year when we made 15 loaves of vánočka...but this was so freakin' good that I think we'll make just as many next year and reserve the less-than-perfectly-braided loaves for New Year's Bread Pudding:


I used the recipe for Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce from Epicurious, but substituted the vánočka for challah. Very easy, and I definitely recommend making the rum sauce...it was delicious and added that extra ooomph, nevermind holiday spirit.

And just for reference--the beautiful, sweet, buttery wonder that is Vánočka:

Happy 2009...

So I'm hoping this year will be a big one. After a tumultuous year-long househunt, we might actually be getting a home. We're scheduled to close on January 14th, but in the words of W:

"Fool me once, shame on--shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again."

My sentiments exactly...So until I have a key in my hand and 30 years of debt in my name, it's just cautious optimism and daydreams of domestic bliss, which is what I plan to detail on this blog...as well as any other noteworthy events in my pursuit of what the Costa Ricans call "Pura Vida".

Welcome to my blog.