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April 28, 2007

Road trip

Today we are going here and here for a brief day trip aimed at obtaining book shelves and brunch. We hope to return with furniture and full bellies.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2007

What to do?

Do I want to wake up at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, or to sleep in, but eventually wake up to the sound of dying frogs?

Ben and I can't sleep in all day, because we have a number of important tasks we must achieve on Saturday. We can set our work alarms. One beeps, the other plays classical jazz, they both go off around 7 a.m.

Or we can set the secondary alarm. Ben tells me it's supposed to sound like a breeze or a brook or birds or something. Something natural; I can't remember what. To me, it sounds like dying frogs or drowning ducks. What a way to wake up. I sit bolt upright in bed, and say, "Ben! Wake up and make it stop!"

As of 8:25 p.m. on Friday, I am inclined to wake up peacefully and early and have coffee and a croissant before we head out on our journey. If I stay up too late, however, I'll probably opt for the jarring croaks of the later alarm.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:22 PM | Comments (1)

April 22, 2007

I couldn't update my web journal for a month, and now that I'm back I feel like I've lost the ability to be funny and interesting. Boo hoo.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 12:46 PM | Comments (4)

April 21, 2007

An atheist's response to the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2007

Tonight

Sitting on the couch with a cat on my lap, listening to Ben play summertime on the saxophone in the other room.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 09:02 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2007

on current events

It is a nasty, cold, rainy day. Hail fell. I followed the news. Thirty-three dead at Virginia Tech. I almost went there. People I know did go there, neighbors and family and friends. In Iowa, a Grinnell College student who went missing six months ago was found dead, under the tarp of a swimming pool that was covered two weeks before he disappeared; suicide. In Iraq, a single bomb killed 120 people, 50,000 people leave the country every month, and 40,000 children have entered orphanages since the war began. It's genocide awareness week, but everyone's too distracted by death to notice.

A few blessings: life, books, friends, cats, family, hail, jazz, pizza, movies, newspapers, language, Portland, thought, love, volcanoes, caves, snow, sun, bodies, materialism, Buddhism, diversity, wine, warmth, color, ambition, community, humanity, weakness, trees, the Internet, empathy and magic.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)

Running and home buying

Things are going well with the home purchase. It's a long process, filled with lots of back-and-forth. We make an offer, they make a counter offer, we counter their offer, they sign our counter offer, we review documents and make counter offers based on the documents, we inspect the property and make counter offers based on the inspection, they counter the counter offers, we accept with counter offer counter with several provisions. The mortgage process runs parallel. We apply, they tentatively approve and ask for more paperwork, we fax the paperwork, they ask for more, we send more, they talk to the real estate agent, he talks to us, we talk to the mortgage folks, they order an appraisal (which we pay them for), they need more paperwork, etc. That's where things stand now. We're pretty much approved to borrow the money, we've pretty much agreed to buy the property, but there are lots of little steps to make it formal. Every step requires signatures on every line, initials on random paragraphs. We're scheduled to sign the final documents and hand over a large chunk of money on May 10, and to take possession of the place on May 14.

Meanwhile, I've started a new running program, Portland Fit, aimed at helping people build endurance for long-distance running. I am very slow. V.e.r.y. s.l.o.w. I'm not worried about speed right now, though. Just distance and endurance. Last Sunday I ran five miles. This upcoming Sunday I'll run six miles. Sunday after Sunday of new distance records until October, that's the goal.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

I'm baaaacccck

It's early, and I'm too tired to think of anything clever to say, but my web site has been fixed and after a month of relative silence I should be able to share my inner secrets with the universe again. Morgan wins kudos for his behind the scenes server wrangling. Updates on home buying progress and the aches and pains that wrack my body should be along in the next day or so.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

post test

Testing Courtney's blog. Hope this works.

Posted by Morgan at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)

April 09, 2007

Broken Internet, house of the future

So.... My web site is hosted on a new server, as of about a month ago, and the move seems to have broken my web editing software. I haven't really been able to update, and I'm only able to post this latest news thanks to my elite haxor skillz, also known as html editing experience.

Meanwhile, a lot's been going on over the past month. Ben and I traveled to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia in a week long friend-and-family-visiting spree that included roller derby, live jazz in Manhattan, a hike through an urban park, brief stolen moments with siblings and parents, and way too much grumbling at the decay of America's airline industry. I did not manage to see the new TMNT movie with my brothers, even though I really wanted to. Too much chaos was in the air.

When we got back to Portland, we found a townhouse we like and decided to buy it. I guess that happened a week and a day ago, but apparently home ownership comes as you at the speed of light. Our offer has been accepted, our mortgage has been approved, and there are just a few little details to work out before we can take possession of the place. We expect to move around May 13 or so.

So, yeah, with all this stuff going on I haven't had time to figure out how to fix courtneysherwood.com, which has been pretty frustrating. I like to write at least two or three times a week, and a month-long hiatus has been unheard of for at least six years. I'm not sure how long it will be before I can do normal updates again. With all this home buying stuff, plus work, Ben's frequent saxophone events, and trying to keep the cats fed and the bills paid, I just haven't had time to track down and fix the problem.

Morgan might normally be able to help with these technical difficulties, but he and Robin are preparing for their own impending chaos. They're uprooting their lives and moving to Portland in the next month or so.

There you have it.

Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)