Well, our quest appears to be over. Last week, we placed a contract on a house and it was accepted, so we seem to be well on our way to becoming homeowners. It's a good little house that could use a very minimal amount of work in a great neighborhood at a price that couldn't be beat. We're pretty excited about it, although not looking forward to moving. I've uploaded an album of photos for everyone's perusal. Inspection is on Friday morning, so keep your finger's crossed.

No new news on the house search, but I did successfully achieve one goal. Last summer, I signed up for a community supported agriculture (CSA) share with my old co-worker. I loved getting all of the fresh organic produce and doing my small part to promote sustainable agriculture. It was one of the few things that I was sad about in leaving my old job.

Finding a new farm to work with closer to home has been a challenge. We're really smack dab in the middle of the two closest areas with farms--northern Baltimore County and western Howard County and it's taken a long time to get farmers from either direction to come out this way. But I have finally found a farm that does a local drop off.

I do think that shifting our consumption patterns to more seasonal foods and developing distribution methods to support this are key to creating a safer and more environmentally friendly food supply. If that means a few weeks of mystery veggies, I'm okay with that.

So, Nick and I have finally embarked on the quest to become homeowners. We thought we found something on our first day looking, but someone else got a contract signed before we could get ours submitted, leaving us a square one. I have to say, I've learned a few tips for homesellers.

1. Some of you people selling houses are out of your freakin' minds. It is not really my problem that you bought your house at the peak of the boom with a predatory, interest only loan and then tapped out whatever equity you might have had improving it well beyond the standards of the neighborhood. When you drop your price, we'll talk.

2. Yes, you have an adorable house. However, your lovely screened porch is of limited use if you are so close to the Beltway that I can't even hear myself think over the traffic noise while I sit in it.

3. Investors! Perhaps the $75K top-of-the-line renovation didn't make sense in the neighborhood in a flood plain, surrounded by ramshackle rental housing, and less than a quarter-mile from the railroad tracks.

4. And to the rest of the investors! If you have a large property with a lot of potential in a very nice established neighborhood, it would probably be worth it to you to spend a little bit to do a halfway decent renovation. Especially if you expect to double your money. At least fix the broken window.

5. To the owners of the small Cape Cod that got away. Your charmingly retro house was easily the nicest--and the cheapest--house we saw. We're sorry we didn't get it. Your real estate agent did a good job for you.

One side effect of the whole elimination of the 2 hours in the car each day is that, now that it is the holiday season, I actually have a bit of time and energy to be appropriately festive. Thus, I bought Christmas cards today (I don't care what anyone else celebrates or what they call the season; for myself, I just stick to the one holiday I celebrate.) I'm not creative enough to actually make a card, but I have a pretty gold pen to address everything with and pretty red foil seals. I also custom-made some seasonally appropriate address labels. Now, I'm very proud of myself. It's not often that my artistic vision actually comes to life.

Nothing much new here. New job is going well. I talk to a lot of interesting people and the work suits me. It also helps that people listen to me when I make suggestions. Best of all---the commute is about one quarter of what I had before, which makes me feel like I've gotten my life back. Also, it is awesome to be able to go to work and get into my projects and know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And, since I am making my boss a lot of money, everyone will continue to leave me alone to work.

In non-job related news, Nick's cousin is in the U.S. from Chile until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Right now, she has to do some work travel, but she'll be with us for a few days next week. Tonight, we had to step in to keep her from being marooned indefinitely in the airport in Savannah, GA. That's a long story.

I have gotten virtually nothing done this long weekend and I have a lot of picking up and decluttering to do here before we're fit to have a houseguest.

Ok, so I know I'm a loser who hasn't updated her blog in about a million years. But, this would be because I got a new job. I'm finishing up my third week there. I work for a small business that provides career consulting and resume writing services, primarily for clients looking to work for the federal government. I write and edit resumes and for their other publications (marketing brochures, books, etc.).

It's going pretty well so far. It pays more money than my previous job and it's only a couple of miles from home, so this is awesome. We're small and deal with clients all day, so there is less flexibility in my schedule, but the hours are reliably only 9-5 every day, so I can totally deal with that. It's so nice to be able to come home and still have the time and energy to deal with household stuff or to chill out before evening plans. It's so different than I'm used to that I was a little worried about it for a few days, but I think it's going to work out.

So, hopefully, I'll be around more often for the time being.

So, did you hear about this? I must say, that, if I were caretaker to a dog that was the heir to a $12 million fortune, I would have to insist on taking a long trip to Tahiti. You know, for the dog's health.

Also, news on the job front coming soon. Stay tuned.

Nothing much going on at the moment. Just interviewing a lot. Interviewed at one place that revealed just how backwards and provincial my current place of employment is. I didn't get that job, but within an hour of that, I was contacted about an interview elsewhere, so I can't complain too much. Something will come up.

On another note, Nick's mom and brother just got back from Chile and brought back some of my favorite Chilean product for me. It's a cosmetic product called crema de caracol. If you translate that, you'll figure out what's in it. It will sound weird, but trust me, this stuff is nothing short of miraculous and it is almost impossible to get here in the U.S.

Over the last few weeks, I've watched both of those new karaoke-style game shows where the contestants test their knowledge of song lyrics for money. Without wading into the Joey Fatone vs. Wayne Brady debate, I must say that, although I am not an overly self-conscious person, I would need to be very drunk to compete on a show like this. As in, so-drunk-I-won't-remember-what-I-did-tomorrow drunk. For the record, this has never happened to me.