Lovely Saturday

My first thought when I woke up this morning (at 8AM!! - sleeping in is so awesome!) was 'a blissful day with no commitments'.

Then J. reminded me we have tickets to the Modesto Symphony tonight - and amazingly enough, I was excited to be reminded.  It's Rhapsody in Blue and Fanfare for the Common Man - and H. is actually going with us!  And we're doing Sizzler for dinner!  ('cuz they have burgers for H. - and/or steak).  It will be a second late evening in a row but we'll be OK.

We headed to Thunder Valley not too much after 1PM yesterday as planned and of course, as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, the rain started.  There were a few white knuckle moments for me as the driver on the freeway - mainly when big rigs were tossing up so much water, it was hard to see - but we made it and luckily, there was light rain or no rain all the way home.

We are in possession of a certificate that entitles us to a free 7 day cruise on Norwegian cruise lines. We have 60 days to call and book the trip and travel has to be within the next year.  Totally free except 'taxes and port fees'.  Of course, it won't be totally free 'cuz there's no way I can do an inner cabin - I need a window and hopefully a balcony - and we don't exactly have evening wear though our friends who cruise often say there's very little issue with that these days.  Unless you're seated at the captain's table, it can be more casual.  And it says 'some meals' so we'd have to upgrade to 'all meals'.  Still, we're looking over the catalog and trying to decide where to cruise to.  The easiest is out of Los Angeles - the Mexican Riviera - but J. has already been to all but one of the ports we would spend a day at - so I'm not sure.  He's interested in Alaska and I guess I am too - so maybe that's the best option.  We're going to decide and call by the end of the 60 day window to see how much the actual cruise would be.  March, 2017 would work as would October, 2017.

I did not win at slots and we were home before 8 so it was a nice time but quick.  We ended up not eating together 'cuz I got on my favorite slots and didn't want to lose the machine - J. had the buffet and I ate finger foods at the cruise event.  But as J. said 'we've had 4 hours of travel time with lively communication - including politics which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.  My husband is very knowledgeable about so many things and it was nice to talk through things I'd heard, factor in things he knows.

You can have a lot of conversation around how in the hell America is actually looking at a Presidential candidate who is a horrible human being....but that's where we are in 2016.  And you can argue til the cows come home that his opponent has her issues as well - but....seriously.  There's no comparison, in my opinion.  Making mistakes and taking responsibility for them is one thing.  Being an asshole of a guy - who commits sexual assault on women because he can - because he's 'famous' - no matter what other mistakes his opponent has made, she's a stellar person who's life has been about serving our country in the many roles she's held.

Today, we celebrate the 27 years and one month anniversary of our engagement and it's a beautiful, sunny day after an afternoon/evening of rain.  Chloe isn't feeling too well - she had a lunch bag feast night before last when somehow, my lunch bag was on the floor again - we left quickly for our nutrition class and she feasted on a couple bites of leftover chicken fajita, edamame (shelled, thank goodness), nuts and raisin trail mix and carrot sticks.  She was unwell this morning - declined her breakfast - but a little bit ago, she had her waggly dog tail back and was a little more animated.  She also (finally) finished her first breakfast - and she's not asking for seconds (yet) so we aren't serving her.

Update:  J. told me 'today is the anniversary of our engagement' and I was all 'oh, yeah...yay us'! Four hours have past and after a phone call from him about stuff at Costco, I'm thinking 'today is NOT our anniversary - 'cuz this is OCTOBER not September.  So the paragraph above had to be modified slightly.

We are finally scheduled to sign for the refinance next Friday so it looks like it IS going to happen - and in a moment of 'really?  Seriously?  OK!', because our property taxes and insurance are due within the next 60 days, we would have had to pay them - and the likelihood of having proof of those payments in time for the now 'rushed' closing (because they've been jerking us around for two months and the rate lock ends in 16 days), they offered to roll those payments into our loan amount and pay them out of the escrow.  So miraculously, those amounts now in savings for those purposes can be moved to 'regular' savings - thus providing cash flow to help H. with tuition and books and ensure that no matter how short notice of a ticket we need to get for B. to be home whenever he can, we can do it - no problem.  Yes, I should technically just send in those amounts with the first new payment as 'extra principal' and immediately pay them down - but I'm not really going to worry about it - having that unexpected increase in savings is a blessing - so I'll accept it!

Fingers crossed it all works out the way it's supposed to.  Considering this is our current loan holder; it was supposed to be easy and painless - it's been none of that - I'm still skeptical.  But there's no doubt we qualify for whatever amount the loaned amount will be and no doubt we can afford the payment - so it should be fine.

Today, I'm on a 409 mission - I see places that need 409 - door jams, light switches, etc. - I want to go around with cleaning cloths and my spray bottle and clean, clean, clean!