Yeah... I mean NO, but yeah...

Big day big day.

We went to Corsicana this morning to make an offer on the Stanford Ct. house.

I stayed up too late, and this morning was worn out and suffering from the effects of an apparent skirmish between my guts and the chiles rellenos I had for supper last night. It's the closest I've come to feeling hung over in a long time.

We wanted to do some modest haggling over the price. We like the house a lot and were determined to be of one mind.

So we sat down at the table knowing that:

1. She's already had a cash offer on the house
2. She showed it to someone last night (and it's not even listed yet)
3. She was a real estate agent for 20 years
4. We really want the house, and the market in Corsicana is lousy. We've scoured it top to bottom, and in fact, there have been NO new listings in two weeks.

And THIS is when she comes out and tells us point blank she won't come down off the asking price.

So it was "take it or leave it." Zero leverage. Her asking price wasn't awful, at least, and it was certainly less than most of the other houses we looked at.

As Beth left the room I quizzed Kelli in Spanish, which she's been studying lately for a class: "Tu quieres pagar todo?" ("You want to pay it all?").

Yeah... I mean NO, but yeah, we didn't have much choice, and really, we didn't have much regret. To get that house in that location in THAT lousy market after shopping for a relatively short time... so be it.

***

Kelli let me take a nap after lunch, and man, she earned her wings. I woke up feeling human again.

***

We returned home and THEBOY and I went to see the Texas Rangers game. We had pretty good seats that were eight rows from the field, about halfway between first base and the right field fair pole.

He had this running commentary going through the whole game, and everyone around us was clearly paying attention and having the occasional laugh.

"Sorry--he doesn't have a volume knob" I told one, who didn't care.

He can ask pretty good questions about players. "Is this a big guy? Does he hit home runs? Where do they go? Is he out?"

Hank Blalock was batting, and he asked, "How many home runs does he hit?" I told him probably about 30 this year, and a middle-aged man turned around and said something about how it was great that he was into the game and wanted to know so much about it.

***

Flash forward an inning or so, and the man returned to his seat from somewhere. He turned around and handed THEBOY a ball covered with reproductions of Rangers autographs. We both thanked him enthusiastically, and I told him I know he spent some money on that. He tried to fib: "Aw no, it's a promotional thing, it's... I've got connections." No, I see those in the gift shop every time I go out there. The guy probably bought that for THEBOY. Very nice.

THEBOY and I got up to walk around and play some of the games in the park. I meant to buy the man a beer, but we were gone a long time and he was gone when we returned.

***

Now that would have been a sight: Me carrying a bottle of Budweiser. I didn't even like that swill when I DID drink.

***

Toland got a car--hoorah!