Friday and Saturday

On Friday we finally closed on the downtown gem I was so excited about in July! Here are some pictures. I'm going to give it a good scrub-down tomorrow, and it also needs some touch-up painting and trimwork, but it will be ready to live in by the end of the week.




It has two bedrooms plus a small office, two bathrooms, hardwood floors throughout (tile in bathrooms) and great touches like beadboard and French doors and a covered front porch. The kitchen is large enough to eat in but there's also a formal dining room (which, alternatively, could work as part of the master suite).

The back yard is huge, especially by downtown standards. There's plenty of attic and basement storage space, plus a tool shed. Best of all, it is a block from Broad Street (the center of downtown).

Available for $800 with flexible lease terms. Washer, dryer and refrigerator are included. If you know someone who might be interested, let me know!

Friday afternoon, Matt's dad called to say he was flying home from the Turks and Caicos because his island was being evacuated because of the hurricane. He had planned to be there for another month and a half or so (once he's there, he tends to have trouble leaving). But on Saturday he called to say his flight had been canceled and no more were coming in, so he was going to ride out the hurricane.

We haven't been able to get through to him yet, but so far no injuries or deaths have been reported, so that's good, although it does sound like Grand Turk got pounded. I think Ike was a category 4 when it hit there overnight. As long as Ron survived, it should make for a great story, and definitely will add credibility to his proposed grandparent title of Pirate Ron (no "Grandpa" for him).

Yesterday was what I consider an absolutely perfect day. I had such a great time doing nothing with Matt. After finally getting out of bed we drank an outrageous amount of coffee and had a long, interesting, unrushed conversation on the porch. Then we ate a late lunch, cleaned out the garage and some closets and made a Goodwill drop, checked out the Habitat resale shop furniture (I found a great mirror to paint for $5) and bought an outdoor rug for the porch with some of my birthday money. We added some bookshelf space and rearranged our books, then read on the porch until it got dark, then ordered pizza and watched "Weeds" on DVD until almost 2 a.m. It was awesome.

Also, somehow we're getting the newspaper again -- weekends only -- I have no idea why. I think it's a sneaky marketing effort to make me realize I miss it. I think it's working. Chilling on the porch with a big cup of coffee and http://www.newsobserver.com/ pulled up on my laptop somehow just isn't the same.