Random Ideas

Last night I showed some initiative and walked to Safeway/Movie Village at 5 to pick up food for supper and the next DVDs in the TV series we are watching. I was in the mood for chicken Alfredo so I ended up spending $50 on groceries & the majority went to just that dinner. Oh well, I'm impressed that I actually managed to pack myself a lunch of leftovers including a salad. Something I haven't done in a long time.

I enjoy cooking now that I'm also feeding Graeme and Olivia. We rarely eat together as they work different hours then me but I feel like a 50s house wife, all domestic...something I so rarely am...when I prepare their plates, cover them & leave them in the oven til they get home.

We even had some wine in the house to top off the meal so I'm declaring it a success. Now I just need to continue this on a regular basis. I was doing so when back in January & the beginning of February but then I had my little mental breakdown and lost the motivation. This is my first step to be proactive again.

Watched Buffy last night and ended up crying like a big baby again. The last two episodes were the ones where her mother dies and are completely different then the usual humorous satire that the show delivers. Makes you want to find your own mother and hug her. A good sign that I'm done with the self pity is that after the cry I was back to my cheerful self and didn't continue to cry.

In Angel they've introduced Fred into the story now. I had forgotten that her full name was Winifred. I've decided that this is what I will name my future daughter. I have wanted a girl named Fred(dy) and assumed I would give her Frederica as a full name, which I'm not that found of, never thinking of Winifred. Usually I'm completely opposed to naming your children after their relatives, that they should have their own unique name but I think this would be nice and fitting. I felt very close to my great grandma before she passed and she was a wonderful woman, so I'm making an exception.

This morning Marcia and I were taking about real estate. Mostly because the neighbors just sold their house for $127k & had listed it at $99k. Apparently the house was in worse shape then ours and needs a lot of work. Our other neighbors sold their house 1.5 yrs ago for $155k but they had put in new siding. Our mortgage is around $100k and we just added the garage so one would think that we could probably make a decent penny on it right now. The only difference between ours and the other 2 is that ours is a duplex & theirs was a single family dwelling. I think though if we added a door to connect the two suites we could market it as an either/or which is very appealing to first time home buyers. Who DOESN'T want to have some pay their mortgage for them? I would also like to redo the floors, the upstairs bathroom, & the yard but we could probably get away with not putting up new siding. The question is do we want to sell now when in a few years we could refinance to get enough for down payments on our own places and leave this one as a rental.

I looked into condos in Winnipeg right now that have 2 or more bedrooms and the price starts around $150k for something that isn't completely cramped, which is what I expected. Sadly with my outstanding debt and single salary I currently qualify for a $40k mortgage even with $25k down. Apparently if I had NO debt payments they might approve me for $90k but that's unlikely to happen anytime soon, I can reduce it but not completely get rid of it. My plan is to own my own place by 2010 and I'm not going to assume that I will be in serious relationship by then that I would want to commit to buying a house with them so my only other option to increase my household income quickly is partnering with one of my friends. More then likely Alan. Now I just need to pay down the debt and convince him!