2:00 PM: I'm off today... we did our HOME INSPECTION on the new place this morning, and this afternoon, I'm waiting at the Palace for the second appraiser to come in and tell me how little this place is worth. 

Don't want to jinx anything... but I am dying to share a couple of photos of our new digs...

We went with home #1 from the line up:

Here's the view from the front door:

Straight ahead, obviously, is the fireplace and the family room. To the immediate L is the stairway going into the basement. To the R is the spare bathroom and the two spare bedrooms. 

This is the view from the kitchen eating area, with the fireplace off to the L and the kitchen off to the R. 

Partial view of the kitchen. It's harder to take these pictures than it seems. It's hard to get a good view of EVERYTHING I want to show in the little camera viewfinder. But this shows the kitchen, the nice appliances, the sink, and the eating area. 

Master bedroom and master bath + closet. 

Looking into the Master bedroom. The bathroom is on the L. 

I have some other photos, but I simply can't do the space justice. I suck as a real estate photographer. 

There is also a dining room, a little staging area for wine glasses/ misc liquor, laundry room, 2 other bedrooms, another bathroom and a full (huge) basement. There's a deck immediately off the back. 

We're pretty stoked. 

10:27 AM: So... in the midst of all of this relocation action, I've been having dreams about running. Yes. You read that right. Running. The dreams are so real and so vivid and are so... awesome... that I'm thinking of trying to run again.

I only say this because a long long time ago, (in a land far far away....) when I was just a kid... I wanted to learn how to rollerskate. I had tried and failed on several occasions, and I finally gave up after simply being unable to gain balance with wheels attached to my feet. Then, one night, I had a dream I could rollerskate. The next day, I went out to the garage, put on the skates, and actually successfully rollerskated. I fell in love with skating and became sort of a rink rat @ the Westmont Skate Center. So maybe this is the same sort of thing. Maybe I'll lace up my shoes, have a couple of good runs, and go on to become a regular at track sessions with the local running club. I don't know. I am finding myself envious of other people's runs, and I'm dreaming about running. Maybe I give it a go again. I just don't know. I'm honestly a little scared.

And 103 degrees + 90% humidity probably doesn't set me up for a great outing. Maybe I'll try it on the treadmill.

2:05 PM: I purchased a pair of Brooks Adrenaline running shoes today at lunchtime. I used to wear these back in the day. I got distracted by the Kayanos, and I did love them for a long time, but I've finally admitted that they give me foot pain. Also, I never lost a single toenail before I started wearing those Kayanos... and now I can say I've lost 4. Ow. It's not about the shoes. It's mental for me just as much as physical, and it's going to be HARD for me to whip up the courage to go out and run a single mile, after how epically I've been beaten by it in the past. But I'll give it a shot. I feel like I sort of "miss" it. Not something I expected.

OH DEAR GOD! IT'S WEDDING WEDNESDAY! I've forgotten!

Do you BT peeps know who these two are? Do you recognize them? Perhaps a little bit? These two fine looking specimens are MissKelly and drewb8. They met at IM KS 70.3 in 2008 or so, while she was living out here in Chicago, and he was living out there in Colorado. You can obviously tell from the surroundings, that this particular wedding DID NOT occur in Chicago. Kelly left Chicago and moved back out to Colorado in 2010. She has family out there and of course, she had Drew.

The wedding was a very small family-only affair, held with the spectacular Rockies as the backdrop. They're off on their honeymoon now, and don't you worry, I did obtain their permission to use some of their photos for Wedding Wednesday, even though I wasn't at the wedding myself.

Can't you feel the love!?!

Paperwork. Signatures. Finances. Sign. Countersign. Inspect. Appraise.

Clean. Vacuum. Wipe. Sell. Please.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Plates are spinning! Plates are spinning!

WOW. What some people have done to their houses... (And that's not "WOW" in a good way, necessarily)

10:19 AM: I made it to work after a particularly challenging ride in. Lots of stop and go and stop and go and go and slamonthebrakes and stop and go. Jesus. One must stay alert, lest one end up in the back seat of someone else's vehicle. Job security, I suppose.

My patch of R shoulder road rash is very irritated today by my bra strap. I haven't noticed this in the past, but today... OW! My brastrap is rubbing the scab off! And the road rash is leaking (weeping) onto my shirt. Very glamorous. Very very glamorous. I'm so hot. Not temperature hot... but like sexy hot. Yes. That's right.

Tomorrow we set forth to find the Perfect Parker Pad. We have 8 properties to look at, and I like each of them in a different way. Of course you can't tell a thing until you actually get into the house and take a peek around, because the internet photos make every house look absolutely flawless... but I'm filled with hope. There are many nice houses out there for a STEAL right now. I mean our house isn't worth anything at all, but, by the same token, neither are the homes we're looking to buy. So... let's see what we can see. These are a couple of the front runners...

This is a ranch, obviously. I don't know if I like that or not. It seems a little smallish, although like I said... we haven't seen it in person yet. Kitchen looks beautifully updated. Gorgeous.

This one is a little further west. And actually west of the river... the price is right and it has a 2.5 car garage, great landscaping, and is a corner lot. Dying to see it in person. And dying to gauge it's proximity to major streets/thoroughfares. Kitchen is fine. Fireplace is good. Looks great from the photos online. I believe it has a finished basement as well. I love all that extra room!

This one is bigger than it looks. 4 bedrooms! Family room + dining room + separate living room. Decent kitchen. Chris and I have both liked this one since we started looking online back in the winter. It's been on the market that long, and that worries me a bit. Dying to see in person.

We also have 5 others that we're scheduled to see... maybe one of them will take us by surprise... and maybe one of these will disappoint us. Don't know. But I'm excited to find out! Yay!