The House. Much has happened on the literal "home" front this week. A week ago Sunday, my realtor, Jan, got two offers on my house, One was from a couple who parked in front of my house in red Jeep Cherokee the previous Wednesday and Thursday, and just kind of stared at the house for awhile. Turns out the loved the house, and made a very low offer on Sunday. The other was a "verbal" offer from this fast talking fat guy who was standing outside my house the previous Saturday taking pictures. I let him in the house and he looked around for maybe one minute. Anyway, this guy claimed he would offer me full price on the house is I would let him have all the appliances, and on the condition he could make certain alterations to the house as per city code. Apparently, he wanted to build a 6 foot tall adobe wall at the street. Can't do this, according to the city.
Anyway, we gave the bigshot two days to get a written offer to us. Meanwhile the red Jeep people put two different offers in, both of which were still way lower than I wanted. Finally, I gave up on fatboy, and the fourth offer by the Jeep folks was too good to pass up, although far from full price. So I accepted.
On the Monday of last week, Jan and I went to look at a house on Mountain Road west of Rio Grande in a nice gated community We walked in and our mouths dropped wide open. This place was gorgeous! Lots of Southwestern style, tile floors, tongue in groove wood ceilings with vigas, corbels and posts inside, bancos, and a great small backyard with patio,flagstone landscaping and separate areas for the dogs. Also the place is very close to the Mountain Road entrance to the Bosque bike trail. Obviously, I loved the house!
Jan had to go to Lansing, MI to look for a house since her husband Guy is set to start his new job there soon, but she called me Friday night saying that the realtor called her to warn us that they would hold an open house on the property Sunday. Jan suggested I make an offer, quickly. So I called her boss, Doug, and he came over at 9:30 Friday night and we wrote up an offer.
By darn if they didn't accept it Saturday! They wanted to take their backdoor that had a fancy electronic doggie door with them, and they also wanted to stay until May 4th, even though we close on April 30th. I didn't mind the doggie door issue, but the May 4th thing meant I would be homeless for 4 days, since my buyers wanted to take possession on the 30th. We we worked out a deal were the old owners of my new house would rent from me for 4 days, and I would rent my old house from the new owners for four days!
Anyway, I went to apply for the loan today, and all looks good. Inspections on both houses take place in the net couple weeks, and I expect all things will work smoothly This is literally my "dream house' and a big evolutionary step. I can't wait to move in!
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Harley Rocks! At 3:15 am Sunday morning, Harley wakes me up with hurling noises. Luckily I get him off the bed before he upchucks his dinner. He ate grass all day Sunday, so I knew he was still sick. Monday morning Dr. Blackstone took an x-ray and found a rock in Harley's stomach. Looked like it was on its' way out. Two more oral medicines for the helldog to take, to help him through the rock's passing. Today Harley seems to be his old self.

Who Are All These Clowns? There was a clown convention (really!) in town last week and on Saturday, they all came out to Old Town for a costume contest and parade. Some of the clowns were very talented and creative. I really enjoyed it. I've always wanted to be a clown, and someday maybe I'll take a class or go to clown college. I did hook up via email with the guy who is teaching the upcoming stand up comedy class at Laff's, and I plan on giving it another try. I will miss the April 4th class due to the Marlins exhibition game, but he said I could make up the class, and he could even give individual instruction on what I missed.

The Never Ending Comedy Show is Exactly That! Got a call from my old buddy Jeff, who was the mastermind behind The Neverending Comedy Show, a public access comedy show I was involved in during the mid 1980s. It was a mostly improvised, no-budget, amateur laughfest that probably was the most entertaining show ever shown on the channel. Hell, at least we had fun making it. Seems Jeff wants to do a reunion of all the cast members he can still find, and video record it as a parody of one of those VH-1 reuniting the band shows. He's shooting it with digital equipment, and it is pretty much for our own jollies, not for broadcast. He will give all the remaining cast a compilation of "greatest" scenes to ruminate on, and then he'll edit some of those bits into the show, along with our comments. I can't wait to do this! I've been dying to get the old gang back together, sure, but it means I'll finally have something to show all my friends, to prove I actually did this show. Most people just give me weird looks when I mention it. It'll be nice to have a nice DVD copy of "Matilda is a Stepford Wife" and some of the other goofy bits we did. You rule, Uncle Pug!

Saint Patty Fun. My sincere thanks to Bill and Kristine for inviting me to their GREAT St. Patrick's Day Party on Saturday. Fantastic food, lots of cool people, even if most of them were realtors (just kidding), and thanks to their great pool table I got "schooled at pool" by Sonya "Fast Eddie" Swing. Who'da thunk she was a skilled pool hustler? Actually, I've only played pool once, about 10 years ago at Brian O'Briens. At first I was really bad, but by the end of the game I was getting the hang of it. She only beat me by one ball. Thanks for the lesson, Sonya. Anytime you want to do it again, I'm game.
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Harley the Helldog. Harley hasn't been eating well this last week, and on Thursday stopped eating at all. Of course, this means another hair-raising trip to the vet, so Harley can be poked at by that big mean guy in the white coat. As usual, he plops his butt down in the front door, so I either have to drag him in or carry him in. As soon as he sees Dr. Blackstone, he tries to make a break for the front door, but my grip on him was tight. It is now standard to muzzle the little guy, as he gets a little nippy at the doc.
Thankfully, the vet assistant had a tight grip on Harley, and even though he tried to wiggle out of her arms a couple of times, he almost calmed down.
The doctor wanted to take a blood sample from his jugular vein, which Harley does not like at all. Blackstone calls in his secret weapon, a much larger, stronger female assistant, who on the first sign of resistance from our very uncooperative chihuahua kid, pulls some kind of Texas-Chainsaw-steel cage-deathmatch wrestling hold on our boy, and pins him down on the table, putting almost all her upper body weight on top of him! It was incredible!!! Give this woman a raise! My hero! It was hilarious! Harley knew he had finally met his match!
Anyway, the doc said that the blood levels were fine and that the not eating was a common reaction to an anti-inflammatory medicine Harley had just finished taking for his right rear leg, which he sometimes was limping around on. So I have to give Harley another pill for his tummy and I'm putting this "Mix-It" stuff in his dog food, which makes it more palatable to eat. He seems to be eating again fine. Hopefully this will resolve itself quickly.
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Shorter Takes.Okay, so my last attempt at short posts totally failed, so here goes again.

The House. No new bites on the house, although it got shown about 6 times last week. Not bad. The people that made a very low-ball offer a couple weeks ago backed out completely, when I wouldn't cut the price by $20K!!!??!! Hello???
If you want to see the house, Click here!. I have been looking at a few houses, too, and have narrowed it down to one I really like. It's a bit further from work than I originally wanted, but the house is near perfect.

Dead Poet's Society kiss my Butt! The best, most hilarious and uplifting movie I've seen in many moons is School of Rock. Please check it out. Jack Black is a God!(of Rock!)

I went to the fights last Friday, and a hockey game broke out! Yeah, finally after two years of trying to drag people to a New Mexico Scorpions Hockey game, I finally succeeded! The lovely Barbara accompanied me to a game against the Fort Worth Bramahs last Friday. The Bramahs played like a ninth grade girl's field hockey team, and the scorps beat them 6-0. Some observations: It's harder than hell to toss a rubber scorpion on the ice from the middle of the seats, although Barbara, who has an arm like Randy Johnson, got one go to into the player sidelines. Me I throw like a ninth grade girl who didn't make the field hockey team! Also, they had this "kissing cam" thing which was sponsored by The News Stand, a porno book shop! I just thought this was weird. What, no intermission lap dances from the girls at TD's? Funny, I thought hockey was still a family spectator sport. The Scorps have added a bunch of stupid diversionary promos, contests and other stuff to the game, just like the Isotopes and Lobos, in an effort to get more sponsor money. Such is modern life!

Recent Books
The Codex by Douglas Preston. Lame solo effort by Preston. Three estranged brothers go looking for their father who has supposedly buried himself deep in the Amazon with $500,000 in treasure. Not very exciting, too much slogging through the jungle, too much male bonding touchy-feeling crap, but a somewhat funny ending. Skip it.

The Prisoner of Vandam Street by Kinky Friedman. Another solid effort from the Kinkster. This has Kinky laid up in his apartment from a malaria relapse, and witnessing some curious goings-on in an apartment window across the street. This Rear Window homage even less plot than usual, and more emphasis on kinky's cracked philosophy and his group of wacko pals the Village Irregulars, who spend more time going in and out of his flat here. If you like Kinky (who will be the next Governor Of Texas, if the state wises up), check it out, if you've not read any of his fine prose, check out Greenwich Killing Time.

The Feng Shui Detective by Nuri Vittachi. Not finished yet, but a very funny and original book. This has a Cantonese feng shui master and his teenaged American-Australian intern tracking down a missing girl in Singapore and Australia. He is helped by his friends, the International Mystics Union. This is a very funny book, which much of the humor coming from cultural clashes and language barriers between the Chinese, Australian, Malayan, and Indian characters. Great, wacky plot, too. Highly recommended!

Music.Went on a buying spree and here's what I've been listening to lately:
The Very Best of Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart.
Be Bop Spoken Here. A four disc set of great be Bop jazz.
The Whole Story. Kate Bush. Love her, miss her.
Rainy Day Music. The Jayhawks. THE best album I've heard in years. Great!
The Red Thread. Lucy Kaplansky. Another great album from the most underrated woman in folk.
World Without Tears. Lucinda Williams. Finally bought this. Gutsy, rootsy, and cool!
Feels Like Home. Norah Jones. Damn, can she sing, but I wish she'd do an all-out blues album.
Crimes of Passion. Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Great mix of rockers and ballads. Fabulous song writing. Quickly becoming a favorite band.

Laugh while you can monkey boy! The Stand-up comedy class at Laff's is starting up again. I WILL attend. Hopefully this time there will be enough interested folks to actually hold class!
Enuffa my yakkin! OUT.
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Short Takes. Okay, it's been forever since I've posted, mainly due to exhaustion and a packed schedule. Here's what's been consuming my life lately.

Church. Gee, where to begin? It started on Valentine's Day, when my minister announced he would be leaving in about a year, basically because there was a faction at church that felt he was not taking the church where they wanted to go. Basically, the church as a whole has no idea what it wants to be. He promised he would stay long enough to get the church healed enough to continue on its next growth stage, then move on. Plus, there's been our home study groups for the 7-week program, which has been a blast, but it has taken up every Tuesday. I will miss it. Then there was my duty on the celebration committee for the program. It was my job to help create a suitable celebration on the last day of the program. It ended up being me and one woman who did all the work. That's ok though, because it worked out fine.