Bella... Italian... and Vietnam's Dirty Dishes

We went downtown today to look for houses. All of the sudden, we're in buy mode and we're searching.

The Bella Part of The Story

We started looking around Colin's neighborhood and in Bella Vista and surrounding (going East). Everything seemed expensive. In fact, we went into an open house and could not believe it.

It was on a bad street, first of all. The kind with a few delapaded buildings and kids hanging out of dark oopen doors with TV's on way too loud (and way too long). A real "stoop" kind of street with an abandoned lot filled with cars and a very trashy BBQ. But Mike and I could see right passed it and were (actually) kind of excited knowing full well the value of the house would be affected by the neighborhood.

We went in and I could not believe my eyes. Everything had been freshly "redone". IN fact, to go upstairs, we had to take off our shoes so as not to stain the new rugs. As we entered the front door, we were greeted by a freshly LOWERED ceiling in a sparkley stucco style. The walls were covered with brand new grey wood paneling, printed wiht far too much texture, accented with a gigantic floor to ceiling pinkish mirror. Enter into the microscopic dining room with plastic "snowflake trim" dripping off the sparkley ceiling. Bad fake flower arrangements were scattered around the kitchen, and some kind of insane lace curtain.

After taking off our shoes (so as not to staing the pukish, beige rug), we went upstairs through the trinity. I was mentally tearing the house apart thinking that , if we buy it, what a waste it was that they did all this work. At the top of the stairs Mike told me the "Asking Price".

310,000

I was like "let's get out of here". As soon as we got downstairs (as I'm making a b-line out the door) the agent looked at me squre in the eye and said "of course, ANY offer will be entertained". I'm thinking, would like 60,000 be entertained?

The sad part of the whole thing is that I saw the sellers and I could tell we were exactly who they had in mind as buyers. They "upgraded" hoping to impress some small, white yuppie family. The problem is that I can't imagine anyone willing to spend that much on a house actually spending that much on this house -- due in part to how ugly the style was. But the people were proud of the place and that's what made it kind of sad.

The Vietnam Part of The Story

We walked on (all this occuring with Colin the GREAT) and eventually made our way down to Washington where we got Vietnamese. Colin had been to this one place and said it was pretty good. Mike wanted to try a different place so we went next door to this (seemingly) fancier restaurant that was totally empty. When we sat down, the cups and plates (literally) were dirty. We decided to go.

We went next store to the place Colin had originally been to and it was FABULOUS! We were the only non-Asians in the place. It was So, So good. Colin and I got soup and Mike got a vermichelli dish. The tea was delish and the conversation with Colin was, as always, amazing. We left stuffed with a small girl that looked like a boy wearing a shirt that said something about her being a girl was saying hi to a delirouslly happy Emmett.

The Italian Part of The Story

Mike kind of forced us to do it. I went begrudgingly. He wanted to find some Mexican restaurant South of Washington, and I was just like ugh. We trekked down there and on the way were looking at the dozens of vacant store fronts. All of teh sudden, in the middle of it all, was this shop. This little hairdresser--spray painted silver and looking EXACTLY like a store from South Street in the old days. All of the sudden, Mike and I knew what we wanted and where.

I believe that area is the next South Street. We're looking for a storefront building ON 9th street passed Washington and near Genos. Those places are open 24 hours. Another great sign.

So that's it. That's our lives.
Emmett is cuter than ever. He says "ca" now (trying to say cat) and "mamamama" and "dada". The other day we thought he said "Aunt Ana". As crazy as it is, I'm serious. He's definately a drummer. He's definately intelligent. I put my fingers in his mouth to see how his teeth are coming in and he puts his fingers in my mouth and smiles. He feels my gums and then my teeth.

I got two new clients this week. That was totally God. He's with us again and our lives are getting better.
Much more is happening, but I can't write anymore.