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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Foot Fizzling 

dan brought back some gifts for me from michigan, including some "Foot Fizzle" from jackie. (she also got me some very pretty soap-covered flowers. i had never seen--or smelled--soap-covered flowers before, but they are lovely.)

I got some tasty jelly, and a very cool little mouse carved by uncle bert.

dan was determined that i deploy the foot fizzle right away, since i tend to get sort of overwhelmed and put things off (even things i want to do).

so last sunday, as i entered the den to watch a PBS "Inspector Morse" mystery, there were the Foot Fizzle marbles and some hot water in a large bowl in front of the couch. After inquiring as to the appropriateness of the water temperature, dan added the "fizzle" aspect of the program to the mix (three--no more, no less-- compressed pellets of herbs and other powders).

i kept my feet in the bowl for almost the entire two-hour show. I have plantars fasciitis, and the marbles felt wonderful on the bottoms of my feet.

almost as enjoyable as the fizzling feet were dan's digital photos from michigan. between the pictures and the gifts, i felt almost as though i was there.

our renter for our new little rental house has moved in. he's a lawyer for an escrow company in our neighborhood. he's used the $200 stacked mini-washer and dryer i found on craigslist, and it works--yay! dan is going over thursday night to do a walkthrough of the house (shouldn't take very long--the whole house is about 450 square feet), so our renter won't be held liable for any damages that already exist.

there's always some trouble when we buy a rental house. with our first rental, our insurance company wouldn't cover us until we'd hired someone to come by *twice* to inspect (almost) nonexistent lead paint on the house (there was a small amount of lead paint that had been painted over on the exterior windows). fortunately, our renters agreed to do the work (scraping all the paint off the exterior windows and repainting them in accordance to strict lead-paint removal guidelines) in exchange for a month's rent plus some cash--and that was about half of what one company had bid for the work. then the insurance company decided the *inside* of the house had to be inspected.

we called other insurance companies to see about switching our policy, but they all had their little idiosyncrasies, too. with one we had to switch all our automobile coverage over to them (which we didn't want to do), another insisted that we pay to have the roofs of both our own home and the rental house inspected (at close to a $1,000 cost--and nothing was wrong with our roofs!). it took months to get our insurance in place, but we eventually did convince The Gods Of Lead that our rental house was lead-free.

with this second rental house, an insurance rep from a difference company came out to look at the house (the house has a post-and-pier foundation, so it needed to be covered by a different insurance company). this insurance company's issue doesn't appear to be lead; it appears to be occupancy, or rather, the lack of it. the rep saw the house wasn't occupied, and without checking with our local insurance agent, immediately cancelled our insurance coverage. our mortgage company then immediately cancelled or mortgage.

our insurance agent in seattle then called us and asked us to get him a copy of our rental agreement immediately to show that the house would only be vacant for a short period of time.

then we got a bill from the insurance company that had dropped us, asking us for $368 (this was a new one: you pay for the privilege of being dropped by the company?). dan called the insurance company and asked why we owed the money. it turns out the company had sent us a $368 refund when they'd mistakingly cancelled us. we hadn't gotten the refund yet, just the request to give it back.

it is at times such as this that one must repeat the "Pride Of Ownership" mantra softly and for an extended period of time, thumb and forefinger gently circled together.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

My Day Apres Dropping Off Mr. Green at Seatac Airport 

well, i had an interesting day after i dropped mr. green off at the airport saturday. i got back to seattle at about 8:40am. i had no idea stores were open to darned early! even though i'd been up all night and morning, i managed to get a few things done saturday morning and afternoon.

ended up getting to sleep about 3pm saturday afternoon, getting up about 10:45pm (actually, pretty much when i generally wake up, even if i've gone to sleep in the late morning).

dog-gone tired was i, but it was kinda nice to be in the sun and not be such a vampire bat.

i got us a new, better fax, with a nice rebate (somehow we always end up sending and receiving a lot of faxes--mainly forms that are rental house and medical in nature). who knew office max was open at 8am???

got a pair of those $7 chinese strappy shoes in the u-district (had admired them at clarinet choir two weeks ago). i had resigned myself to never getting to the store because of the 6pm closing time. (yippee!)

got some stuff at fred meyer. didn't know fred meyer was open (and crowded!!) at 8:40am (it had opened at the ungodly hour of 7am!).

i got a chicken sandwich and biggie fries at wendys, and darned if they didn't taste like the best thing i'd ever eaten in my life--and i eat fast food maybe two-three times a year! (d.b.--our little black "nerf" cat-- and i ate them in bed.)

i got a watch on sale just like the one dan got before he went to michigan. we'll see how he feels about that when he gets home. he should've suspected trouble when i immediately wrapped his new watch around my wrist and excitedly swooned over all the features (and wouldn't take the watch off). all major warning signs of watch envy.

got sorta cryptic email from jim lyons, the tax preparer for my late father's estate. (i think it's cryptic to me only because i'm not a tax preparer.) financial ramifications for dan and me and my brother loom. many line item changes and monetary figures bandied about, along with the mention of amended returns. so, even though my father died in 2002, the financial ramifications will carry over into 2005. my mother's separate testamentary trust will also affect our returns in 2005. but then we should be done!

a funny thing is that jim has a buddy with whom he attends seattle mariner games. he and his game buddy have a rule. it's a simple rule, really. when the opposing team is ten runs ahead of the home team, jim and his friend leave the ballpark. unfortunately, this occurred in the fourth inning, setting a record for the earliest exit from the ballpark for jim and his friend. (yikes! i hope they didn't pay much for parking!)





Monday, August 16, 2004

Gradually Trying to Wiggle My Way Back Into Blogdom 

since i've had a very bad summer, health-wise, i've been missing in action for a very long time.

dan helpfully suggested that two paragraphs i sent to a friend might be blog-worthy, in terms of briefly describing how i've been feeling this summer. so here goes:

"hey, there! i've been thinking about your kind offer to pick me up and transport me to the locks sunday[ed.'s note: where i was to have played in a sousa band concert.]. i've had a very bad summer, health-wise--i'm currently taking cipro for several tenacious infections, and have a couple of other extra-special debilitating things going on. my attendance at summer events (especially those during the day) has been *very* spotty, since i'm still not able to get to sleep until 9-10am. without dan home to wake me up, roll me out of bed, pour coffee down my gullet, and feed and medicate me, i'm not sure what the odds are that i'll be locks-worthy come sunday at 1:15pm (it really *does* take a village to get me rolling!)."

Thursday, August 12, 2004

saturday morning, my mission, chez seatac, providing ride to mr. dan green to green family reunion in michigan 

i will drive my favorite bear
just about...
well, anywhere

i would drive him
to despair
(we hope not)

i would drive him
to o'hare!

i would drive him to a fair
(dancing visions of veggie corndogs on sticks!)

i would drive him
to eau claire
(love my home state!)

i would drive him
*even before*
i part my hair

i would drive him
with such flair
(his eyes wide w/wonder and shut w/fear)

i would drive him
through the air,
honda nosing up, up, up to stratosphere

i would drive him till
they stare (*where* exactly is she taking him on such a tear?)

i would drive him briskly
on a dare (4 cylinders w/stick roars past taciturn saturn, thumping base notes flying from dash to open air)

i would drive him through
the morning glare, with *much care*
(after so much posturing)

i would drive him from our lair,
and our seatbelts we would safely wear

the wind would blow...
and we'd be there.


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