I extended my rental agreement on my apartment to a month to month contract (w/ 60 days notice).  So I’m basically locked into my apartment until the end of January.  I can’t imagine myself being there that long but its a good back up plan.  It beats putting my things into store and begging people for a place to stay anyway. 

The search for a house continues and I’m about to pass 50 showings.  Its a good thing my realtor doesn’t charge per showing otherwise I’d be broke.  I’m going to see some more places tonight in south Minneapolis, a couple of them look promissing on paper.  I’ll find out soon if they are up to FHA standards. 

I’m also still looking in NE but anything thats good that goes on the market up there gets gobbled up pretty quickly.  I saw a nice place yesterday that was put on the market on Sunday afternoon and by Tuesday morning it had 3 offers already.  Yikes.  It was a really nice house but I don’t want to get caught up in a bidding war.  Fortunately (or unfortunately) that house had some minor FHA issues… they could be repaired but the house is bank owned so guess who would have to pay for them.  If you consider that you have to pay for an inspection, an appraisal, pay for the repairs, have a follow up appraisal and go then through the underwriting process… who knows how long all that will take, not to mention how much it will cost.  Here are the neighbourhoods I’m looking at (in order of preference – #1 & 2 are not going to happen):

1.  Uptown (ECCO, Carag)
2.  South West (East Harriet / Lynhurst / Linden Hills)
3.  North East (Aubudon / Waite / Windom Park)
4.  Nokomis (Regina, Field, Northrop)
5.  South West (Fulton, Armatage, Kenny)

The search for a house continues.  I had to back out of an offer because of FHA reasons and had another offer turned down.  There’s a house out there for me however its looking like I may have to wait for the stars to align before I can find it.  I think I’m going on 40+ showings now.  I’m… getting… tired… of… this…

Glaciers fall outside my back door
run into the alley and out into the sea
I call, I’m on a line but you’re too far
I thought I saw you melting, come back home to me

Rain fall turns into a free fall
decending from the cardiac and through the arteries
Mountains drift into the ocean
can’t you hear me hollering from the tallest tree

9/27/2009 1 AM.  Saint Paul.

Steve P:  We should write EPs and see who’s comes out better.
An H:  Yeah that would be cool but how would we determine who’s is better?
SP:  We could have an unbiased panel of judges.  The loser should buy the winner either a Packers jersey (for Steve) or a Vikings jersey (for An).
AH:  Football jerseys are huge on me, even the small ones.  How about soccer kits?
SP:  That’ll work.
AH:  How many songs?
SP:  How about 5 songs that are no longer than 7 minutes? [Steve sips his whiskey and coke]
AH: I have a ton of songs already.  How about 5 completely new songs? [An sips his whiskey and coke]
SP:  How about 4 new songs and 1 existing song?
AH: Sounds good.  Lets have the deadline be the New Year’s Day.
SP:  Agreed [Steve smiles then sips his whiskey and coke]

What is the deal with people not returning texts?  Its not that hard people and it takes 2 seconds.  I’m starting to separate the normal people who return texts from the people who only texts when they want something.  What a world.

Its been about two weeks or so now and I believe I’ve found a house in Northeast Minneapolis (aka nordeast).  I put an offer on a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 0.12 acre home and got a counter offer which I accepted.  I had an inspection done on the house earlier this week and we are requesting that the seller have the furnace cleaned and inspected before we proceed (that sounds pretty reasonable doesn’t it?).  But I’ve got the feeling that the seller doesn’t want to put anything else into the house (anything that will cost her money anyway).  So we’ll see how that turns out.  If all goes well then I should close on the property on 10/28 if not earlier.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Blogs.  When I was 22 everyone had one.  Now hardly anyone has one or has let theirs slowly be forgotten.  Perhaps now with Facebook and Twitter there is less of a need for one.  I mean after all you can have everyone’s thoughts brought to you instead of searching for them.  Its annoying at times but less of a hastle.  So goodbye blog links.  Well, most of them anyway.

In the beginning there was one man, one dream and one million dollars.  Okay, one of those isn’t true.  I’ll let you guess which one.  Being the procrastinator that I am I waited until the end of the year to finally start looking for houses so that I can finally get my own place and cash in on the $8,000 tax credit. 

I started looking at properties yesterday and decided, if its going to be in Uptown then its going to be a condo and if its going to be a house its going to in Northeast.  I saw four properties yesterday, the first one, a condo, was too small.  The second one, a house, was beaten up and blah.  The third one, a house, was better than the first two but was still a little run down and had a weird small yard.  The fourth one, also a house, was probably the best one but had a small bedroom.  So if I had to choose from those four I’d select the last one but the search will continue.  Hopefully I can find something by early October and close on it shortly after that.  The deadline is November 30th.  Thats the last day you can get the tax credit and also the same day my rental agreement ends.  Hows that for motivation?

The concept album I dreamt up nearly six months ago has been put on hold for several months now however now that the weather appears to be cooling off I’ve spent some time (mostly on the rainy days) revisiting some previously recorded ideas.  I think there is some material that has some potential which has prompted me to initiate the recording process once again albeit not on a “full time” basis.  Perhaps when winter rolls around and I’m forced indoors again I’ll decend on my musical undertakings full steam once more.  In the mean time I posted one scrappy piece of music on myspace that I recorded last year:  www.myspace.com/mundanecontinental

Do you have time to unwind, settle down and have a glass of brandy
All my friends are telling me its fine, dance all night and go along with it baby

But I can’ t endorse this, no matter how hard I try
And the longer I’m at it, the more things just don’t feel right
I’m not out to make fools (or cry foul), I’ll just keep it light
Why am I on this island

What have we done here, to make the night sky cry
Exposed and shoeless, this night’s going down to the wire

There’s nowhere to take shelter, except for in the hands of a thief
An opportunist judged by their number of drinks
Whose gun shy and modest, except for in the middle of the street
Why am I on this island

[bridge]

I’ve got palm trees that throw up coconuts
they hit me in my head from time to time but I’m better off dead
if I sacrafice, I please but I end up lying to myself

I’ve not no qualms with me or anyone else
I just wish from time to time I’d get a little something that was better than myself
This life’s right on time, but sometimes I can’t be lieve the hand I was dealt