Squeaky Balls

First, i'm aware i haven't had a chance to post anything in the last month with everything that has gone on.  I'll be posting about everything real soon.  But this is something that absolutely needs to be posted.  

Moby, our greyhound, loves squeaky balls.  Not just any balls, the balls in the shape of a tennis ball that squeak when you squeeze them.  He loves them so much in a matter of ten minutes, he will have the squeaker disabled and the ball split open so you can flatten it out.  Does the death of the squeaker discourage him?  Absolutely not.   Recently we purchased a three pack of those squeaky balls.  These were the medium orange tennis balls, his absolute favorite.  Of course he couldn't contain himself, nor could he get a hold of one quick enough. After what seemed like an infinite matter of doggie time, the netting package was open.  The very clean, very soft, and very orange ball is now reflecting off the ambient light into the "sushi" look of the greyhound ready to pounce and sprint the 3 strikes to 45mph.  A quick through and a drooled catch and he is gone into the next room to chew to his orgasmic doggie pleasure.  This of course didn't last long.  Long enough to put the other two on the patio table and walk over to the pool and relax with our feet in there when the squeaker suddenly stopped.  Seeing as how his new toy died and remembering there was another two in the package,  he went searching.  Low and behold he found them sitting on the patio table.  Without any regard to a big "HEYYYY",  he snatched the balls off the table, package and all and ran back inside to his chewing delight.  Laughter burst out from the pool as the squeaker of an ill fated ball echoed from inside the house.  This wouldn't be the last....

FOOD OR PLAY?
First off, Moby is on a see food diet.  He see's food he eat's it.  Frankly, he'll even eat the boogers attached to the tissues that we throw away in the bathroom trashcan.  We've caught him going in after the tissues while we take showers.  Why tissues?  I have no idea.  Usually he pukes them up so you would think he would learn by now, but he hasn't.  The good news is that he did learn his lesson after eating the swiffer duster and having to poop it out.  Swiffer dusters are no longer on his diet thanks to 2 days of vomiting before finally passing it out.  I guess it's one way to clean out your intestines.  Anyways, recently he got into the trash can that i left open and had recently threw away some old chili.  The tomatoes, spices, and onions are not a good thing for a dog to have.  So i had the fun job of inducing vomiting before anything get absorbed.  Yahoo.  But how soon we forget... 
So last week my coworkers threw me a daddy shower for the upcoming birth of my little girl whose name is *%&%#)$*%*%(%()$.  Sorry can't reveal it just quite yet.  The one advantage of being a male nurse and working with a bunch of women is they loving doing showers like that.  I was able to take a small cake home and sat it on the counter in our kitchen.  Why not?  It's not like Moby has ever tried to get anything from the counter.  Nope instead he usually tries to raid the trash cans or the dinner table after we get up.  The good news is that he doesn't beg while we are eating he just lays next to us laying in wait... 
A few days ago my wife went out and bought more of the those yellow squeaky balls that he loves.  I of course opened the netting pack and removed one of the three balls and started playing with him.  Without thinking, i placed the other two balls on top of the counter next to the cake.  So yesterday i was trying to get him to play with the one ball that i had already taken out but he wasn't interested in it at all.  What does that little stinker do instead?  I walk back into the living room to find him playing with two balls still wrapped up in the netting package.  Not only did he reach up on the counter to get those balls, he totally bypassed the cake that was sitting right next to it when he had a choice to eat or play with new squeaky balls.  Crazy Dog!!!  I think that's the first time he has every turned down food.  Just shows you how much he really loves those balls.

24 Hours

Well, here we are.  Less than 24 hours away from actually beginning the long process of owning a house.  Pics to come after we move in of course.  The weekend is going to be fun packed of disorganization and clutter strewn all over the place, but it'll be fun.  Our biggest concern is Moby.  In packing up our house, we have learned a few things.  One, he gets stressed out very easily. Two, he is deathly afraid of cardboard boxes.  Seeing a box in our hand has him running away as if a knife weilding clown is chasing him.  The second the box leaves our hand he is plastered up against us leaning on us for dear life for reassurance that everything is going to be okay.  The question that has come to our mind since he's toally going to freak out this weekend is should we get him some doggy prozac?  But then again what happens when you give a dog whose baseline is 22 hours a day sleeping some sort of anti-anxiety/sedative drugs?  Would we need to invest in some sort of greyhound recuscitative kit incase it totally knocks him out? Also as goofy and clumpsy as he has been sometimes (he has walked into the glass sliding door, the chair, and the wall a couple of times) would he be more goofy and clumpsy?  I guess we could wrap a blanket around him to protect him from falls and what not.  We would need to get a doggy helmet as well.  Could be quite entertaining considering how he reacts and walks with the paw protectors on.  Another interesting note is the fact we now have a pool.  Considering his complete and utter dislike of water, i'm looking forward to how he reacts with the huge cement pond we will have.  I see him totally hating life after he falls into the fall the first time.  Look forward to updates on that. 

As for this past weekend, we continued the process of packing things up.  We shot the wedding on saturday to some great success of course.  The pictures came out great.  We'll have to see how the bride and groom...er well maybe not the groom so much like the pics.  The reception was quite entertaining, and of course we have determined that one of the requirements to live in florida is to either be named rob or donna.  We have met realtor rob, bike center rob, mortgage rob, and now dj rob.  I think there is even more robs that i'm missing somewhere.  I will assure you our child will not be called either one. 

The Happening

Well it has happened.  The past few weeks have been quite interesting to say the least.  First, the appraisal came in low on the house we are building.  BIG Shocker there!!  It actually came in higher than we anticipated at 148,000.  So that is our final out.  However, getting them to agree with our request has been quite difficult to say the least.  After all why wouldn't we want the house that doesn't appraise for the price we decided on, and yet still has many issues to resolve.  The tile was laid, and low and behold it was on the diagonal like we said, only it was tiled in the wrong area!  One of the doors was put on wrong, and yet there is still one of the arched windows that would need to be removed to complete our contract as written.  Long story short, we are done.
Other news that is quite exciting is the fact we placed a contract on the house that we really really like.  The home inspection went beautifully and we were just waiting for everything to clear when low and behold the appraisal came in low.  Seeing as how the appraisers got the brunt of the blame for the financial crisis with housing for overappraising everything, we are now in a time where everything is under appraised to cover their own butts. With the appraisal 10,000 less than what we had anticipated, it has been a whirlwind of negotiations with the seller.  The breaking point came monday when the seller went by the house and the water softener was spewing like old faithful.  Thankfully this happened prior to closing and not right after.  Realizing how close he would be to closing had him reworking the terms of sale along with us being willing to work.  All in all i believe we are both quite happy with the outcome.  So now the fun begins.  We have exactely 1 week to closing and 1 week to moving out of the house.  The only bad thing is that i work the majority of the week for next two weeks.  The lack of sleep will definitely be a precursor to the next few months.  After all we hit the lovely 30 weeks on tuesday.  10 weeks to go but who is counting!!  Anyways off to prep for the next few weeks.  Pics to come of the new house and other things but may be a bit depending on how we get settled. 

Two Weeks!!!

I wish i was saying our house would be done in two weeks but... not even close.  Nope the drywall and the stucco just arrived onsite.  Still sitting in a huge pile outside and inside the garage.  The good news is they have taken to our recommendations and the recommendations of the financing company to go ahead with the appraisal.  So... I'm thinking since they can't get us into the house quick enough they think they are going to appease up by getting the appraisal.  I'm not holding my breath.  I still think the appraisal will come in round about 140's, nowhere near the 160 they hope to get.  Either way, it should be an interesting next two weeks.  Since we are so confident the appraisal will go through, we've decided to start our scout work in looking for a preexisting house.  Of the five houses i scouted yesterday on my bike, we have two potentials with 1 possible.  Today, i plan on scouting another 3 houses but will more than likely only get 1 potential with 1 possible from that trip.  That leaves us with only 6 houses to determine our house from that would meet our needs.  The questions is what house meets our needs the best?  Each house has unique features that set them apart from the others all have at least one advantage and one disadvantage.  I feel like we are on the show house hunters only this time it's in real life.  The good news is in the next two weeks we will find out either way if we are going to buy the house we are building or else buy another house.  Time will only tell.

So....

Okay, the last few weeks have been lacking in post.  Funny, It's just like the lack of work that's being done our house.  Needless to say it's been almost an entire month and we haven't seen hardly anything completed or even fixed for that matter on the house.  Phone calls have been giving us the run around with empty promises of how things are moving along.  What they fail to realize is i used to work in construction as an electrician.  So back on the 4th of april we met wit the superintendent of the job site.  Suprisingly he remains optimistic that the house will be completed in the first week of may.  Just like all the superintendent's i worked with back then, he has no idea what he's doing.  The house isn't going to be completed in the first week of may.  The drywall still isn't even onsite as of today.  I'm thinking we'll be lucky if the house is completed by the end of may at the earliest from my predictions.  I would definitely say we have become realists with everything in this house.  We realize that the house wouldn't be completed in six months like they said it would, nor will it be completed by the beginning of may like they said it would.  Also we've pretty much realized there is no way this house is going to appraise anywhere near what they are asking for it.  I'm expecting this house to appraise somewhere in the 140's range at best.  Nowhere near the 160's they are asking for it. Frankly i wish we lived in the same make believe world they are living in because who knows maybe money does grow on trees there.  So Plan B was started again.  After all we all need a fallback, right?  The good news is we have a potential fallback.  We have started potentially looking at preexisting houses once again.  We have a few on the grid that are potentials if the builder isn't willing to negoiate, which we don't think they will.  After all why would they want to lose money?  The biggest concern is that this same house is going for 30,000 cheaper about 45 minutes away from here.  Now i'm not a rocket scientist, but i know for a fact that the labor and building materials in these two areas isn't going to make up the difference of 30,000.  Yeah i will admit the cost of the lot may be a little cheaper there but nowhere 30,000 cheaper.  According to the everybody is building, since it will be complete by the first week of may, we should find out about the appraisal at the end of this month.  I guess time will tell.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Well it's official.  We hit the 4 years of being together yesterday.  Surprise surprise!!  We are still together and still going strong.   We had a lovely lunch to celebrate our four years together.  We at Carrabba's.  Unfortunately, it wasn't our first choice for lunch.  We had hoped to eat at a japanese steakhouse but the one we intended to go to wasn't open for lunch.  It was excellent as usual.  It rieminds me on our wedding day as well seeing as how prior to our marriage ceremony, we had a prewedding lunch at olive garden.  I remember our wedding all too well. Considering we officially got married at the justice 4 years ago, it definitely wasn't a big ceremony.  I do remember feeling like i was on display from where we stood and all our friends and family lined up and took pictures of us.  I will never forget saying those words and looking into those beautiful eyes of the woman i loved and wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  It was been the best four years of my life.  I'm looking forward this upcoming year the most as lots of changes are taking place.  New baby and potentially new house has definitly got me excited to experience it with the woman i love.   I'm also looking forward to the years to come as we get to experience so many more things together.  

The Look

The yesterday morning i got to experience the Look.  It's funny how all animals, human and dogs alike, can have the look.  The look is sheer terror.  The terror that something is happening or going to happen and nothing can be done about it.  My wife gets the look quite often when we are messing around in a tickle war and i lift her arm over her head.  I don't even have to tickle her armpit.  All i have to do is think about it and she has the look.  As uncommon as it is, Moby, our dog gave us the look.  After all it's really hard to scare a dog.  Surprisingly, it was his own doing.  After coming home from an uneventful night, i was greeted at the door by moby like usual.  After crawling into bed next to stacey, i found out moby is in total rebellion with sleeping in the same bed as my wife.  I gave the explanation that it's because she uses her boppy body pillow, and moby uses it during the day when he is sleeping in the bed.  After yelling up, our signal for moby to jump up on the bed, moby jumped up on the bed and decided to lay down at the foot of the bed.  After like 5 turn arounds he finally laid down precariously close to the edge of the bed.  At first he was totally fine laying down like most dogs lay down.  His front body was upright with his nose between his two front paws, and his back legs turned to one side.  Moby however doesn't like to sleep like this.  Instead he loves to flop down so he is laying completely on his side as if somebody left him for dead.  So me and my wife are laying there and he does his flop.  Only his flop shifts his center of gravity and now is butt is sliding off the bed.  In like slow motion the sheer terror look quickly comes across his face as he bolts his upper body upright and digs his front claws in the bedspread.  It's no use. A body in motion remains in motion.  He falls off the bed taking part of the bedspread with him.  Laughter erupts in our room as both stacey and i witness this event.  Moby gets up and walks around the room trying to either shake off his embaressment or figure out who moved the bed.  Either way he decides to play it safe and lay down on his bed on the floor.  A lesson had been learned but will probably be repeated sometime in the near future.