Summertime, and the livin is.....

I am again, lacking anything important to say. Sometimes no news is good news though, right? Or silence is golden, or whatever would be a fitting term for the fact that I have nothing of substance to say. I am going to ramble some more instead though. Please, please, hold the applause ;)

The rental house was nice, very nice in fact. There were a few key things that I really enjoyed, and a few that I certainly did not. The house itself is much smaller than the one we have, however it's still very roomy in all the right places, which genuinely surprised me because it looks so small from the outside. That, I enjoy. I don't enjoy the fact that the entire house is painted the same color inside, because I think that makes it less likely that we could repaint any rooms, or be able to match that color again to paint them back. Master bedroom/bath/closet are big like we have here, but other bedrooms are smaller, and it has a dining room that seems far too large for it's own good. One of my main turn offs is that it's in the curve of a cul-de-sac and I felt very claustrophobic and cut off, I have NO clue why. I myself prefer a "straight" street, with houses on each side. Our street has a cul-de-sac, but we are on the straight part. I like being able to see people. Ok, now I'm just sounding weird, so moving along... It also has NO backyard, just preserve. Which is nice in a way because right now we have a "lake" (us WV girls would call it a pond LoL) view, and while I thought that wouldn't matter, I have grown quite fond of looking out at the water instead of directly at someone else's house. Especially given the close proximity that they build houses within each other here. So it would be nice to still have privacy in the back. But at the same time, I don't want the kids to have to play on the street, though sometimes that is the only choice since I seem to see red ants no matter where I go. Not to mention, we have the worst, most stiff, and most annoying grass ever. I wonder if that's everywhere here.....Damn. I should have checked the grass...

The main point was that the house was much overpriced for rent, and we put in an offer for a lot less. If they don't take it, we won't counter because it isn't that important. We couldn't figure out why the rent was so high, and found the house online for sale for $420K ????! Seriously people I promise you it is NOT worth that. Even the realtor told us she thought it was probably listed for about $200K or mid $200K at most. I don't know if that price was a typo or if they were delusional or what, but that's not happening. At all. Not ever, and especially not in this market. The house we are in now is much bigger than that, and priced way less. We'll see what comes of it. We should hear from her tomorrow, if not then on Monday we will just tell our landlord that we will stay here another year. He's breathing down our necks for an answer and so far we've avoided him for about 4 days now. Eek.

The warm FL weather is back in full swing, and I met it today with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was tired of the freezing temps, and our entire neighborhood looks like a desert because everything is dead and brown. I was ready for a warm up.

We took the kids to the zoo today, and by the time we left it was 81. It felt HOT. It really wasn't, in comparison to what it will be here in about 2 months. Of course I was in jeans because I am SO not a shorts person, and aside from that my legs are stark white, more blindingly so than usual. I will bust out the shorts, or capris, when it hits 90. But for the most part I would rather wear some sort of dress, at least I feel more covered up.

I had multiple flashbacks to last summer when we moved here, mid JUNE and it was hot as two mice in a wool sock. It rained literally everyday for like 3 months straight and I was sure that it was all our fault for coming here and leaving the family, the grey clouds would follow us wherever we would go, to punish us for what we had done. Though I have since regained some of my sanity and I realize that it does in fact rain here a lot in the summer. I will be prepared this year. We just came into the "sunshine state" at the wrong time, as it was more of the rainy state. ;)

In any event, today had me thinking of how freaking INSANE it is in the summer, when you get into your car and it's like 103 in there and the kids are ready to pass out, and you're dehydrated just from walking to the mailbox. Or you're dumb enough to go out not once, but multiple times, without an umbrella, and the heavens open up, you're sure the Arc will float by at any minute, if you aren't struck dead by a giant lightening bolt before then (I did this in case you're wondering).

Ah yes, today made me realize that it might be ok if it doesn't get too hot, for just a little bit longer ;) But, at least once daughter is out of school , I fully intend to spend the summer in the pool and at the beach :)



Aside from that, I felt like doing something different with my blog tonight. I just spent far too long straightening up the house, so rather than do something that is actually going to cause me to have to get up and put forth a lot of effort, such as take pictures, etc., I came up with a different idea. I guess today also had me thinking about tourist season, because I haven't ever lived anywhere that is a huge tourist destination, and I know that that will be a pain this summer as well. So in the spirit of travel, I ask:

How long would it take you to get to where I live (zip code 32092)?

Would you drive or fly?

What is your favorite thing about summer?

Your least favorite thing?

What is your most favorite summer memory?


Feel free to answer me in the comments. I don't know why those came to me, but I will answer about the longest destination that I would have to travel, which would be Karla at To Alaska and Beyond-
* 76 HOURS according to Mapquest. Wowza! I think I would find that to be a bit of a daunting trip, and I can imagine that it would take even longer in the winter, given what I have read in her blog. However, I think that I would drive it, and alone. Maybe a cross country alone trip would be good for me, as long as I didn't make the national news for one reason or another.

*My most favorite thing about summer is the feeling in the air, if that makes any sense. If it doesn't, then you're just not as weird as I am ;)

*My least favorite are the bees, because I hate them!

*And by far, my best summer memories are the yearly trips that I took to Myrtle Beach with my dads parents. My grandma took midnight walks on the beach with me, we spent way too much money on junk, and we ate pizza at 1am every night. I spent all of my days in the pool, and evenings at the Pavillion which is no longer there. Those are definite things that I sometimes worry that I may forget, but I know I never will :)