Yo Programo

Hi, all, and welcome back. Sorry for leaving you hanging in suspense so long.

The realtor that showed me around that city I referred to as Timbuktu (in a previous post) called me back and told me he had a two-bedroom house going up for rent (at a reasonable rate) quite soon. Besides being a real estate agent, he buys and rents out houses in about the price range that we were looking to buy in. Renting a house in a city where the housing is affordable is a probably a good way to go because we can wait for a good one to pop up and then pounce on it like a kitten who just knocked over the fish tank (that one was for you, Becky. Aren't I so clever?).

So I asked him some questions about it and made plans to go up and see it on the weekend. It was reportedly in a good area that doesn't have any alleys. I figured Becky and I could go up and buy the SUV from my dad on the way up, and my parents were happy to have us do that. Then he called me back on Saturday and told me that he did find a lot of cigarette butts, but told me that he was having all the carpet replaced and all the walls painted that day. I told him I'd call him back in about 20 minutes and let him know if we were still interested. Then I discussed it with Becky and my dad, and we came to the conclusion that at this time and with our circumstances it just wasn't worth all that driving to go look at the house. After all, it might still smell like smoke from how much the ceiling soaked it up, and the timing wasn't really a fit because of Eric's pending birth and the 30 days' notice we have to give our current apartment.

One of my uncles is going to try to help out by asking his young crew where the cheap housing is, and he mentioned some cities that I might try an internet search on. Another relative of mine offered to get us some information on a Riverside condo that may be in our price range. We really do need to get a bigger place, because I work in our living room and I'm sure Eric's not going to be content to be holed up in the one bedroom all day with his mommy--not that that my phone conversations would be uninterrupted even if he was. We're thinking maybe a month after he's born we'll be ready to think about moving. Maybe that's realistic, maybe not. Guess we'll see.

How's Becky Doing?
She's kind of uncomfortable. Eric's doing well, though, moving from side to side visibly and kicking Mommy whenever he feels like it. We were still considering going up to my parents' on Saturday, when there was something that didn't seem right with Becky. The doctor on call said to head on into the hospital and get checked out, so we did that. They hooked her up to an external monitor and we both dozed off a little while we were waiting to see what they would find. They determined that she was having some mild contractions. They gave her a shot to make her womb relax, monitored her for a little while longer, and then put her on a moderate form of bed-rest, so we headed back home and modified the plans.

At that point, I hadn't gotten the call from the realtor and was still planning to go up to see the house and get the SUV so we'd have something more roomy to take Eric home in whenever he shows up, so I rented some DVDs for her to watch, made arrangements with both of my sisters to come over in case Becky needed help or needed to be driven somewhere. They were happy to do this, but shortly after one of them was on her way, we made the decision not to go, so we ended up all hanging out here at the apartment and watching a Reese Witherspoon video that one of them had brought over, and that was more preferable to me than the ten or so other chick flicks they had brought with them. I had originally opted for another one that advertised its similarity to "Clueless", which I found revoltingly more like Pride and Prejudice, so I was happy that the girls, who had seen that movie before, were willing to stop in the middle and switch to the other one, which I did enjoy.