A transplanted Southern Californian living in North Dakota Idaho, with some insights on life with deaf dogs, a gluten free spouse, and the occasional mischievous garden gnome. Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy.





Friday, April 24, 2009

Doctor Alycia In the House

Well everyone, you may know by now that it is official - Facebook or e-mail should have told you - that Alycia is officially a doctor. Her proposal defense the other day was a magnificently triumphant affair that couldn't have made her happier or me prouder. Her dissertation committee not only passed her and signed off on her graduation, but didn't even ask for any re-writes or minor changes to her paper, a pretty rare happening in the PhD world.

We happily celebrate her doctoring this weekend with a no-holds-barred shindig that may actually keep us awake past our normal bedtime of 10:00pm. It promises to be a grand affair with guests flying in from near and far (OK really only the bay area) to celebrate with Alycia in her moment of glory.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

And the Water Rises.....Part II

So the water continues to rise in Grand Forks, though not alarmingly so that fear of the whole town flooding is present. This is good since it allows us to continue to plan an above water move and not consider the extreme situation of buying water wings for all of our furniture - this expense can add up.

Want to know what's happening right now with the water levels in Grand Forks, check out their newspaper - The Grand Forks Herald.

We're scheduled to fly out there the second week of May and have us a look-see at 10 or so houses that have made the final cut. We have a meeting with a mortgage person set up and he should give us the go ahead, from there all we have to do is find the perfect house and we're set. We're still looking at only spending about 150k to 160k for our house, a large sum of money in North Dakota, but not enough to buy a decent garage here in California.

Despite all the technological advancements in real estate, being able to see pictures of the house, review the MLS listing with all the facts and numbers, you still can't get a good feel for a house until you see it first hand. Pictures just don't seem to do many houses the justice they deserve.