APOLOGIES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

As you can tell, I haven't been posting much lately. There is a reason for that, which I will get to further down this post....but first an apology.

To those of you who are (or were) regular readers, I apologize for not having posted more frequently, as in the past, and for not putting this post up sooner. For those of you who have just started reading my blog I also wish to apologize.

To those of you whose blogs I visit daily (usually) I apologize for not having visited much lately, if at all. I especially wish to apologize to Fixer, Gordon and AOB at Alternate Brain, Shea at Constantly Amazed and Liberal Thought, and sweet Tina at Fuzzy And Blue....who gets an extra apology because I think I may have offended her with a response to a comment she made to one of my most recent posts. I am sorry if I offended or upset you, kid.

Now to try to give you an explanation as to why I haven't been posting and visiting your blogs without going into all the long boring stuff.

About two months ago Mary's parents offered us one hell of a deal on their house....one we just couldn't pass up. It's an older home that has had several additions since the original house was built in 1841. There is a carriage barn behind the house which is in great condition, and the property is 410 feet deep....a full acre.

Getting the loan was a real pain in the ass, though. The morgage company made us jump through all kinds of hoops. We would get done jumping through one set and they would have another set waiting for us. After alot of scrambling, the loan finally went through.

Mom and dad have moved out, but have moved to a much smaller place....so there's a lot of stuff that they left behind. Some of it will be sold at the rummage sale Mary, her sister, and her mom are going to have later. Some will be split up between Mary and her sister and Mary's two kids. The rest looks like it will end up at Goodwill or in the trash.

Both Mary and I are going to be very busy over the next couple of months with this list (and probably much more) of things:

1) Make room in the carriage barn for things from both the new and old houses.
2) Get the rest of the things left behind by mom and dad from the house to wherever it's supposed to go.
3) Paint the rooms in the our new house before we start moving in. It's been several years since they have been painted...and neither Mary nor I like her mom's color selection.
4) Move all of our things....including Mary's 23 years of "collecting"....into the new house.
5) Do all the things....painting, repairs, etc....that need to be done to the old house in order for us to be able to rent it out or, eventually, sell it.

All of this plus all the regular lawn maintinance on a full acre and another half acre, along with Mary looking for employment.

As you can see we both are going to be very busy over the next couple of months...cause it's gonna take that long, at least. One of the easy parts of this whole thing is that the new house is less than a block away.

I will try to get at least a couple of posts up every week, and I will try to keep you updated on our progress. I will also try real hard to get around to other blogs for visits.

Please accept this apology and thanks for your patients.