Valentines, etc.

Tim and I did the most romantic thing on Valentines Day - we went and met with a realtor, to get our dreams of home ownership off the ground. The guy we met with seems like a good dude - he's been in the Culver City area for thirty years, and is the second generation owner of the family real estate business. The initial meeting was just to sort of feel each other out and see if we liked him. I think we do, and our next step is to look at some of the listings he'll be sending us, and of course, to get pre-approved for a home loan.

We're looking for a single family home with at least two bedrooms, and at least a bath and a half. We'd like a two car garage but could live with a one car garage and a driveway for the second car (we stack park now, so we're used to moving one car to get to the other.) We're fine with a house that needs some surface repairs, but not looking to rewire or rebuild anything. Our goal is to stay on the Westside, but we're not married to the idea of a particular neighborhood or zip code. My biggest goal is to stay north of LAX airport, so that my commute doesn't turn into a nightmare.

We're looking for something we can afford on Tim's salary alone, to give us more flexiblity in terms of my future work schedule (or lack thereof, depending on how cute our offspring turns out to be. If it's ugly, I'm just going to leave it for Lulu to raise. What? She raised four kittens when she was only 8 months old, she can parent a human baby, I'm sure. And we got her after she had babies - we were not the irresponsible owners that let their teenaged cat daughter get PG.) Thankfully, the market has begun to drop in Los Angeles and we are in a much better position to get into a single family home than we were a year ago.

The whole experience was really exciting and also nerve-wracking. At the end of the meeting, the realtor was like, "well, let's get started. We could probably have you in a home by the end of the summer." I have to be honest, I got totally freaked out at that point - my heart started racing and I got a little teary. It's just amazing to me that we are going to take such a big step towards grown up time. We've been living in our postage stamp apartment for almost five years now (which is four years longer than I hoped we'd be here for) but what we've been saving in rent will go into our house downpayment. We're going to get a house and pay a mortgage and be homeowners, and providing we can get all of that stuff figured out, then we will become parents, to human babies (we are already very successful cat parents, as evidenced from recent posts.) Who would have thunk it?

I love building my life with Tim. He's the best Valentine ever.

Another Crazy Cat Lady Post.

I had a lovely weekend. We went down to Laguna Niguel on Friday night and hung out with the fam, including Auntie Lisa, and then on Saturday morning brought Sara back up to LA for a massage at Burke Williams, a little sushi, and a little fun time with her big sister (and Tim, who she likes better than me anyways, even though I have known her since the day she was born.)

We had dinner with mom and dad at the new fancy dining room table, handmade by a lovely Amish man. No power tools! It was especially nice because now they have new chairs, which aren't in danger of breaking to pieces at any moment.

But now I am back home. Here is a video I took of the "kids" tonight. They are both chatty buddies. And yes, I am wearing my footies. It's COLD here. I mean, it's like 50 degrees outside. I could get frostbite.

Furball Football Party.

So it's Superbowl Sunday, and now I will go into mourning over the end of the football season. What am I going to do on Sundays? What will I watch at the gym, while trapped on the treadmill?

Tim convinced Jake to have a party for all of the nerds. I thought about going, and then figured that much as I like all of those boys, there is only so much shop talk and geek smell I can take in an afternoon. I knew that the evening would end with Rock Band being played loudly while I fell asleep on the couch. So I was a hermit and stayed home and hung out with the cats (I did make a plate of cookies from Tim to take along though.)

Here are the pictures from our party:

During the first half.

Lulu hopes that someday she will get the ability to circle things on TV like John Madden.

Thor is such a dear little weirdo. This weekend he has woken up a couple of times and sort of flung himself a few feet from where he was sleeping. He then starts crying until I pick him up. I think he's having cat nightmares. It's obviously not been healthy for us to leave him alone so often lately. Poor little dummy.

Their final cuddlefest during the last few minutes. Yes, we know Lulu is kind of porky. But look at how cute her extra toe is! She's our Thumbelina. Of course, as soon as the game was over they both woke up and started squealing about their dinner.