I still haven't decided whether or not I should crash for a few hours tonight, before we leave to catch our flight tomorrow morning to the Pacific Northwest, where Attila the Hub will be running a marathon on Sunday.

Why can't we just take a red-eye, like normal people?

I'll probably be talking to the husband's former boss during the event, since his wife is running a marathon in a different city at the same time. I hear T-Mobile is setting up a special "Embittered Athletic Spouses" rate.

I've had a lot of trouble focusing on the race, for obvious reasons. When I look at the map of the race course, my mind goes kerflooey. And yet I've really enjoyed the two marathons I went to in support of the husband. I think this one will be especially nice: for one thing, the weather will be cooler up there than it is here. For another, I suspect that A the H will set what they call a "PR" this weekend (stands for Personal Record, of course).

It'll also get me away from the real estate front for a while. But I am getting good at this: I keep thinking that if I can sell a couple of books this year, I might be able to pick up another condo before the market recovers completely, and rent it—or flip it, maybe. Though flipping really depends on market timing, which is why I prefer the idea of renting places out—it's more of a "buy and hold" strategy. (A the H reminds me that commercial real estate has the advantage of not leading to phone calls in the middle of the night because people's pipes burst. True enough; but people always need to live somewhere, no matter how tough times are. When there is a recession, though, they just conduct business out of their guesthouses, garages, extra bedrooms, walk-in closets, and the like. It's especially easy to work from home these days, and the whole thing has gained a respectability—even a cachet. So I'm more nervous about commercial R.E.)

On the home front, we're figuring out where we want to cut costs right now, so we can get the most important tasks accomplished before we move into the condo. I should be getting a more exact cost breakdown on flooring this coming Saturday. We might end up carpeting the entire condo, but we may be able to scrape up the dough for some premium fake wood (industrial-grade—not the cheap, icky shit). The contenders: quasi-bamboo; quasi-teak; quasi-cherry (with a super-light "stain"). Possibly some rustic greenish discolored pine. Elm, maybe. Or Alder.

We'll see how our finances look, and we'll see whether the HOA at the new place will give us the go-ahead, if we can get the noise-muffling level right.

The "window" I want to drill between the dining area and the kitchen can wait. Furniture can wait. Even decent window treatments can wait, at least for a few weeks; I'll put rice paper up if I have to.

Floors and walls have to be done now, even if it means we have to compromise on the exact materials we use, and re-do it a few years down the line.

I'm off to work on my May budget; it was due today. I'm starting to get looks from the person whom I was going to go over it with. Those sorts of looks.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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