Bruno! (Avec Accentuation)

Our house was built by a Frenchman.

Bruno!

In the last month that we have owned our home, we have discovered things about Bruno, whom we have never met, which has occasionally resulted in us shaking our fists in the air in the French manner and shouting "Bruno!"

With emphasis (avec accentuation). In a French accent.

Good Time Girl

When Anita walked into the closing, the first thing we noticed was the fire orange hair. The second thing we noticed was the extremely heavy makeup. She was obviously a bit flustered, and really ready to have this over. She carried a large handbag and was wearing a leopard print shirt.

Plant Sitting

A couple of weeks before we closed on our house, a friend of mine went out of the country and asked me to come over a couple of times to water the plants. Since she was, in fact, referring to not only her plants but the plants I asked her to watch for ME while we were between housing situations, how could I say no?

So, she gave me the garage code and the alarm code, told me how to turn off the sensors before they called the police, and left me a vase to water the flowers on her front and back porches. We figured we were set.

Let me tell you about all the ways I can screw up simple tasks, like say, closing and locking doors.

Scrub-a-Dub, or "Why Is It Taking SO Long to Unpack?"

We lived in four caretaker houses in the last year (and totally drank wine in a fifth, then packed everything back out again). Our deal with caretakers was that the clock started ticking the moment we stepped over the threshold: 5 days, and that place better be ready to show. Furniture set up, décor out, boxes tucked away. People thought we were crazy - how can you be ready to go in five days, but each time, we were.

It has now been 19 days since we moved into our "own" place, and there are still 4 boxes in the living room that I haven't opened. There are empty spaces above the kitchen cabinets, a bare wall above the fire place, and closets I haven't touched. Why is this taking so darn long??

Well, the answer to that is two-fold.

1) We really did only ever unpack a tiny fraction of what we owned each time we moved, and still have a ton of stuff, despite not one but TWO garage sales, Craigslist ads and several well-timed runs to Goodwill.

2) Dirt.

A New Chapter

Some time in December, 2014, we decided to sell our home. This singular decision ushered in 18 months of unexpected adventures, including selling our house in less than 24 hours, falling into the caretaking business, multiple crazy garage sales, moving between 5.75 homes (the house we sold, the House in the Woods, the House on the Prairie, the House in Town, that house we only kinda moved into, House 6, and our friends' home), dealing with buyers, real estate agents, sellers, repairs of every kind imaginable and then some, poop, animals, some travel thrown in there, frustration, hilarity, and a more or less permanent sense of never really knowing what was coming next.


June 25, that story came to an end. We are happy to report, we (after a little drama and delay) CLOSED on our own home. We are homeowners again, and ready to start our new adventure.

Race Report: Garden of the Gods 10 Miler

I'm writing this because life goes on, but so you know. I've written letters to all my members of Congress twice (once with the content of my previous post, once to support Senator Chris Murphy's filibuster), and this evening, called my House of Representatives member to ask him to support Rep. John Lewis's sit-in to force a vote on preventing those on terror watch lists from purchasing firearms. I do not expect him to support this, given the letter he wrote me back from an earlier contact, but I believe it is important to remind him that in his constituency, there are people that support these efforts. I stand (or sit) with John Lewis. Now, on with your regularly scheduled post.


A week ago Sunday, I did the Garden of the Gods 10 miler. I had registered for this race long before I had any idea where I would be living - something like December. As it turned out, we are staying with our wonderful, generous friends Tim and Susan at the moment. Tim is a seasoned runner (see Greenland Race Report), has run GOG several times, and he decided to run with me. However, Tim and Susan had our mutual friend Jen's girls over that weekend. On Saturday, Jen's oldest daughter caught wind that Time and I were planning to do this race. She's a naturally athletic kid, and she asked if she could run as well.

Next in Line, Please

I wrote this, and another post, on Friday, in the waiting room of the IRS office in Colorado Springs. I didn't get around to posting it, and then Sunday a mass murderer in Florida killed 49 people and wounded an additional 53. I'm not feeling the funny right now, but it seems a shame to waste a post. So, here you go. When you're done reading this, I recommend checking out Samantha Bee's rant from Full Frontal. Her thoughts are exactly mine. Sorry for the swearing. PS: I wrote all my members of Congress and plan to continue to do so until someone gives me a better idea of what to do.


I am sitting in the waiting room of the IRS right now. Today has been an interesting day.