Okay well I'll start with what just happened then go into the details of the last, what, three weeks?

I got a message today on my phone saying my profile was cute and to go to blah blah blah... You know the spam drill. FIRST time this has happened to me. I know. Lucky. But then I realized, I don't know of ANYONE that this has happened to. And I had no clue what to do about it.

So I called AT&T customer service and spoke to a truly nice woman named Erica. (Or Erika, idk.) And she told me that there's this handy little part of AT&T called mymessages.wireless.att.com which lets you pick who you want text messages and emails from. Amazingly, as much as I access my account online, I never knew this. So as helpful and informative as she was (she explained everything that happens and what all I needed to do) I thanked her and set up my online messaging account. Who knew you needed to register for that one individually? Of course it never occurred to me to change message settings because well it never occurred to me that I HAD any.

So I logged in, registration went painfully smooth. Set up my block/allow list, put up my alias phone email and viola! Done. No more phone spam.

A call to customer service that went smooth, registration to an account online that had no glitches, log in that for some reason didn't not (ow that hurt to say) recognize my password and a simple painless solution? All in one day?

Needless to say I'm waiting for the anvil to drop on my head and let me know it was all too good to be true lol

Here's the thing though, I have never, EVER had issues with AT&T customer service. They have always been super pleasant and helpful and have no issue saying "Well, I'm not sure what to do about that, hold on a moment and I'll get my supervisor."

Major change from T-Mobile CS which always gave me hell. There were times I had a problem and just didn't call because it wasn't worth it to me.

On the home search front though, I've got some great news. We bought a house! Closing will be on Feb 4th and it's a lovely place near a lot of shopping and major highways/intersections. MUCH closer to my parents store. Easy access to everything but deep enough in this residential area that we can't HEAR the highways.

And it has a pool that is coming with a one year warranty from the current owner. Fenced in back yard (great for a certain puppy), beautiful hardwood floors, bright sunlit windows, huge trees, very little mowable yard, lots of landscaping in the back with a huge patio, a deck, and a three season porch. The upstairs bedrooms are nice size and there's a formal dining room that's got a bay window that mom's going to turn into a reading room. And the kitchen is lovely, appliances need serious updating though. I think the stove is from 1950 lol But we'll put the fridge in the garage for extra space.

The basement will be mine, it's finished but there's a lot of things I want to do with it. It's painted lemon yellow right now (all over) for instance with wanes coating across the bottom and a chair rail with molding at the top. I'm going to paint the molding and chair rail alabaster and the dry wall section antique white, then paint the wanes coating hopsack brown. (You can go to http://www.sherwin.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/index.jsp and select color visualizer then find color. They're all listed in the top section of colors around the browns.) The floor is just painted/sealed gray right now and I'm thinking of taking on the extremely large job of faux painting it. (Not sure what yet.) The basement has never had any problems with moisture or leaking and there are no cracks. The foundation was done perfectly, and for a house made in 1965 I don't think we're going to see anything bad happen.

There are some cheapo shelves put in the basement too, built in to block off an opening to a storage room which has a curtain for a door. I'm going to hang a curtain rod and use the shelving for clothing and misc items and I won't have closet or cabinet space for. Cheap easy solution.

The basement is very large, which is awesome because I can now put up my shelves my parents got me TWO YEARS AGO lol, and finish the desk I bought at a thrift store and finally use it. I can even put in some seating for reading and watching TV. (Hello thrift stores and craigslist! lol)

Anyway very excited about this house, even though there are some obvious drawbacks. Such as a two car garage when we really need a three or four car. No central air, and no air ducting installed which means we're going to have to use window air until we can afford to $8k plus to install AC. The pool is as much of a drawback as a bonus, because A) you have a lot of maintenance, B) when it snows you can't tell WHERE the pool is because of the cover, and C) it leaves no room for a grassy back yard. (C is also a plus because my dad hates mowing, but it's a drawback because of the dog.) Anyway, it will all eventually get fixed.

Another issue is the payments. Because we couldn't afford a down payment the monthly will be $2,100 which is much more than we wanted to do. It's going to stay that way until we have accumulated enough to equal 20% down, then it'll drop to about $1,800 we HOPE. Plus once my parents' credit gets better (mom's has gone up 70 points in the last year) they can refinance and get a better percentage, which will cut their payments down considerably.

Now to another issue that I need to fill everyone in on... We didn't put Tiger down. I know, I was shocked too. He got so bad so fast we decided that we'd just let him pass at home... except it didn't happen. He started to get better. He started eating and drinking and getting his mouthy attitude back. We were all stunned. He's now plumped back up and is as mouthy as ever. We still have to deal with the occasional "accidents" around the house but it's nothing major. In the last week we've only had one little accident, and the normal cat puking that all cats forever do lol (Amazing how they ALWAYS puke on the carpet isn't it?)

So that obviously made my world a much much happier place.

But... We are dealing with a new issue. Biscuit has decided it's perfectly okay to dig through the trash. I honestly think this is frustration on his part because he hasn't really gotten to spend time outside in over a year. (Dad took his lead off over a year ago and has refused to put it back out. Meaning since our yard isn't fenced and we all work a lot, Biscuit is spending a lot of time indoors, alone.) I know he's not happy right now and I'm hoping that once the snow melts and Biscuit learns where the pool is (we don't want to let him run out there because he'll fall into the pool) that his attitude will get better. I know he's unhappy and frustrated and I wish I could fix it. I've tried to play with him and baby him more but it's just not enough. He needs space to play and run.

The last two days mom's gone downstairs to find the trash bin turned over and garbage strewn all over the house. This morning she absolutely lost it. His behavior has gotten so bad lately I can't blame her. I think I need to get him a new toy, like a Kong, and stuff it with treats before we leave for work or shopping. Give him something to do for a while. He used to spend hours on his old one working to get the treats out. I think I'll pick one up next time we go to WalMart, since I have no idea what happened to his old one.

On to family issues.

My cousin Lisa is moving to Mexico and her younger sister Martha is moving to Arizona to be with my aunt (her mom) too. So the only family left here will be my cousin Matthew and my grandma Mary. My parents are planning to leave Minnesota as soon as they get the business to the point they can sell it (they're thinking about five or so years) and Will and I only want to be here two or three years before we move (back) to New York. We both (me more so) think that we can stash away enough money by then to get a halfway decent place there. But this also highly depends on how long Biscuit lives, I refuse, absolutely completely, to make him live in an apartment. He's too big for that, he needs a yard.

My grandma had skin cancer on her hand. So she went to her doctor (alternative healing) and showed him the spot. He picked out a bunch of herbs/plants to mix together and gave her this mash of them. When she asked if it was cancer he just looked at her for a moment before saying "Well I'm not qualified to determine that." All it took was one look to know that's what it was. My dad's had skin cancers before, I know what they look like. She had a huge spot on her hand.

Anyway I really can't talk more about it, FDA is very um... Pushy about these kinds of things so I'll just say that she's fine now and if you want to know more you can email me. (Or leave a comment and another with your email which I won't publish, all comments are moderated by me, no one else will see your email.) The story is really cool but I'm not going to publish something that might get people in trouble.

(None of these claims are approved by or investigated by the FDA. All claims are not proven. "It is one of the requirements of the alternative practitioner to disclose the patient's bill of rights in Minnesota as of July 1st, 2001 because of their new Complementary and Alternative Health Care Freedom of Access bill Gov. Jesse Ventura signed into law." Quoted from http://homeoinfo.com/04_the_case/legal/legal_issues.php [There, my ass is covered lol])

Okay what else...

OH! Yeah! Will was here for two weeks! lol

And it was an amazing two weeks. I forget how quickly I get back into the groove of living with him. It was great just sitting on the couch watching TV. I always forget how good it feels to be cuddled up to him at night when I'm falling asleep... even if he snores and decides it's perfectly alright to steal my half of the blankets lol He cocoons himself. Seriously. It's like sleeping next to a crocodile doing a death roll sometimes lol But usually it's quite comfortable.

I showed him the pot and pan set mom got me/us for Christmas and the dish set they gave us. (Pretty plain white with a lined pattern around the edges. They'll be nice everyday dishes.) He bought a new coffee maker when he was here. We talked about how we're going to make his move here work.

We've figured that he'll get an apartment in the cities for six months to a year, and build a renters record before we try to buy a place. Since there's no way I can move into an apartment with Biscuit and I'm absolutely NOT leaving him with my parents. My mom can't handle him and she's home way more than dad. Her shoulder just isn't strong enough to deal with him. He's a 90lb dog, he packs a pulling punch. BUT... We'll make everything work. It's not going to be easy but it never is.

Good thing is that even though Will doesn't have his license, the new house is near a bus route, six blocks away is the stop. And the cities have a lot of stops. Will's place costs $950 a month now and for him to get a place about the same size, with more amenities will cost about $650 here, maybe less. So his expenses will take a dive, but the slack will be taken up by paying back the student loan. Good news is that public trans costs about half as much here. So that expense will get cut too.

Whew. Think I got everything caught up. If I didn't, I'm sorry lol It's gonna have to wait for another post.

That's all for now! Enjoy the rest of your night or morning!