the.saga.continues...

i figured it was time for another update. im thinking of starting to blog for everyone who cares to know this stuff so i dont have to send out a dozen different emails, and just let you guys know when i update. ill let you know about that if and when it happens.

so where we last left off, i believe we had just been re-countered by the bank for 33k and i was not all too happy about it. on the work front i think i left you guys knowing that at some point in the near future i was going to have a conversation with my boss to discuss my full-time employment salary and benefit options.

a lot can change in two weeks.

so lets do this chronologically by subject shall we?

housing.
well after the bank countered with the 33k we were very confused and i was upset about it and we took a day to consider our options. i wasnt really sure what i wanted to do when that day had passed, but we were going to the realtor (scott - great guy) after work and i needed to decide. karen wanted to just accept, get it over with, and be done with it. well... im an idiot. i thought it over really hard and decided i wanted to let the bank know just how serious we were about this offer. i told karen i wanted to re-counter their offer with the exact same offer we'd just sent, 17.5k. i mean obviously the house is in a certain condition, no one is buying houses right now, and they need to get rid of this thing, they'll have to take us seriously. wrong. so we did just that and the bank came back saying "this offer has been rejected." thats it. no counter. no nothing, the end. oops... ha, to say the least. karen was not a happy camper. so what we ended up having to do was start completely over with a new contract, fresh offer, lets take it from the top folks. so we got the hint, they werent ready to budge on their offer, definitely not to where we were wanting it to be, so we decided to compromise and be very conservative on this offer, 30k. thats reasonable right? we thought so. and just in case we never hear from them again because theyre fed up with dealing with us, it was probably a good idea to start seeing what else was out there again. we looked at another house around the corner and 2 houses down from the original house we looked at, what seems like years ago. it was okay. i guess. about half the size of the one we really wanted, and it definitely was going to need some similar work done to it. but it was cheaper, only 23k listed. we decided to wait on the bank for a few days and see what other options were out there as well. well at this point it was nearing the end of the week and by the weekend, august 30th & 31st, we had to be out of our apartment, our lease was up. great... more fun. well since we already had the storage place, that weekend started off a little easier. im not going to go into all the gory details, but we did find a new apartment on saturday morning and were able to take one load of stuff there by the end of the day and 2 or 3 loads to the storage. and then sunday we spent the entire day doing the same, truck loads of stuff to both places, packing, cleaning, & laundry. by sunday night we had moved everything to the new place and storage except for the few things we needed that night and the food in the fridge. we decided to stay at our place sunday night because technically we didnt have to be out till the 1st, and the new apartment didnt have any electricity. a problem worsened by the fact that it was a holiday weekend and so we werent actually even going to ba able to get the energy company until tuesday and it took 2 days before they could turn the electricity on after you called them... thats wednesday if youre keeping score. well monday morning we got up early, gave the lace one last cleaning, and got out of the apartment. now what? well... we had an entire fridge full of food in coolers in the back of my truck, no electricity in the new place, and no clue what we were going to do. we ended up getting an extended stay hotel room (the kind with fridges and appliances in them) and had to stay there two nights. the food was okay at the hotel, we made it work even though the fridge was ridiculously small, but we had to fork over two nights stay in a hotel when we already paid for an apartment and a security deposit. not cool. wednesday we did get the electricity turned on and we ended up staying in the apartment for the first time wednesday night, but it takes 24 hours for a fridge to get cold... guess the food is staying in the coolers for a day huh? well... thursday is here. i go to work, karen spends another day unpacking and cleaning the new apartment (she is the most awesome wife ever, love her to death!) and come noon she calls me and says um chris... the fridge is not getting any colder... at all. oh boy, good news. i told her to call the landlord and let them know the fridge was busted and so she did, they had a guy come and look at it, and eventually the landlord had to order a new fridge to be delivered friday hopefully. well, so much for the food. at this point it what we hadnt been able to eat had been sitting in a cooler for 2 days getting bad despite our attempts to put ice on it. we ended up throwing away about a hundred dollars worth of food thursday night. oh-well, thats the way it goes i guess. on the house side of things, we got a call on wednesday from scott that the bank had looked at our offer and had countered. yeah, you guessed it, 33k and an even later closing date, october 6th now. well we discussed it, and having looked at a few other houses in the area and looking at prices vs amenities, etc. we decided this house was really the best deal in the whole area, even considering the work that needed to be done, so thursday afternoon we accepted the offer of 33k. we havent heard anything back yet today about it, but we're very hopeful that they'll accept and we can finally get the house! so keep your fingers crossed :)

work.
so the same monday we head back from the bank that they rejected the offer, two weeks ago, i finally had my meeting with my boss. we sat down and he told me that they werent going to be able to offer me full-time employment after all. they just didnt have enough work on the books for the next 3-6 months to sustain a new full time hire. great. just... great. well, i certainly dont hold it against them, i mean, if they dont have the work, they dont have it. i understand, the economy sucks really bad right now and its really hurting my profession. it does kind of suck that they made me feel so secure in that id get hired, but i think they really were intending to when they said so. they said theyd really love to hire me, theyve been really happy with my work, etc. and even said theyd let me stay on 3 more weeks (till sept 12) so i could try to find another job to move to when they just couldnt keep me on anymore. so i worked on my resume and updated it. i started a new portfolio, but then just decided my old one was good enough. and friday afternoon i emailed 17 firms in cincy about a job. then this week on wednesday i found 8 more and emailed them, and then yesterday i found yet another one. so in all ive emailed 26 firms and so far ive heard back 4 no's (they just arent hiring right now, dont have enough work to do so) and 2 or 3 let me know they were passing along my information to the people that do the hiring for review, etc. so.. i guess thats not really a whole lot at this point, but i have no choice but to be hopeful. what else can i do? hopefully but the end of next week i'll either have a job or at least some interviews scheduled. either way i better find something soon or else... i just dont know.

karen.
to make things even more interesting, on tuesday after dropping me off at work, karen was headed to the apartment and the truck went crazy on her. turns out the serpentine belt popped and so we had to deal with all of that loveliness. luckily i got her towed and to a repair shop and 3 hours later she was able to drive out of there all fixed up. definitely could have been worse. also, karen has officially completed the quarter at school and she did great! shes gotten all her grades back and she did very well for her first quarter, im quite proud of her. now shes heading into 2 quarters (about 6 months) of co-op and luckily she has that lined up with a firm downtown, so at least we'll have one income when she starts working. (sept 23rd)

other than that... life is just exhausting. work is slow, but im staying busy for the remainder of my time here. karen and i have started running a lot more, we try to run at least a mile a day if not more in conjunction with our working out. in all we usually run/walk 3+ miles a day, so thats pretty good for us and im getting in better shape. who knows maybe someday ill be able to run a 5k with her or something.

well. i think thats all ive got for now, its time to get back to work - lunch is over. let me know how things are with you, i love getting email at work, haha!

love yah