House hunting late February.

We have put a bid in on a house, in Milford. We love it. Has 4 bedrooms, huge kitchen, large living room a decent bathroom, a half acre!! It needs some updates, as does every house in our budget. 

We love the thought of fixing up an older home. Come to find out my mom knows the old man that used to live there, he was very particular with how he took care of his home. 

John knows that I'm going to need to keep the bit of brick in the living room if not because it's damn brick, but because I need a background for my etsy photos. 

We have been looking at a bunch of other items that would really fit our style. We are interested in an old record player/holder table. It really would be amazing. I don't know if talked about it before but I collect records. I love colored vinyl particularly. 

So back to the bid, we are second in line, the first bidders actually backed out or their application was rejected earlier this week, either way, we're up. We actually sat down and typed up a letter to go with our bid. We feel that the personal touch of writing a letter may allow them to see our offer is great and we want to grow old together, in the house. 

What must have do you think is ok to buy vintage? Also, I've been baking and cross stitching like a mad woman because I hate waiting. 

I have a job, but it doesn't start until march 17th and I was approached for another position, which I'll be interviewing for tomorrow. It's competitive market out there and I've been offered 3 jobs in the past 2 weeks. I'm blessed and shocked and thankful.  

Is there any records you have that is a prized possession?? 

Favorite Things.

I'm a comic nerd. We are Comic nerds in this family. Whatever reading level you are, and what you think is appropriate for a child, there is in fact a comic for those readers.

I'm not giving anything away, I'm simply writing why we love these series so you can make up your minds if you'd like to support these artists.

Boys. Girls. Parents. Lonely folks. Couples. There are in fact a number of comics you can read and love.

One of my favorite artists, local artists none the less, is Ian Nichols. I worked with Ian a few years back at a shipping store that did graphics. This kid has talent, it seeps out of him. He's a tough nut to crack, knowing there was a high roll over rate in the front part of the store it took months for him to warm up to me, then again he's a damn artist and people just don't care about getting to know others because ideas are sometimes questioned at the beginning stages.

Well he has released a series, which I enjoy. Small Town Type.
Fat Cat Funnies Small Town Type
it's so well thought out you can't skip it.




The second series WE love in this house is Max Bemis from Say Anything/Perma/Two Tongues is Polarity.  Boom Studios Polarity

Max Bemis is open about his Bi-Polar disorder, and this comic book shows a superhero in their own right. I enjoyed this comic because many of my family member have been diagnosed with disorders and they let it define them. I think that the artwork is extraordinary and that there is something to be said about all this wonderful!

Also note that Evil Empire is coming out in a few weeks, another series by Max Bemis.  Boom Studios Evil Empire
Highly Anticipated in our house!


John's Favorite is Sledgehammer '44,
Starts in August of 1944, a man in an iron suit is dropped into a french battlefield from an american warplane. I'm told by John that it's a lot like Iron Man or Captain America or a mix of the two.  Sledgehammer '44
I've glanced at these, we stumbled across this awesome series when we bought a comic mystery pack up at Casablanca Comics in Portland Maine.  He read it, and tells me all about it. WE go on hunts for these down here, at Newbury Comics, winter's tough guys, we don't get to travel, and our comic collection suffers because of it.

Our Favorite Comic Book Store is Casablanca Comics. As previously mentioned it's located in Portland Maine. It's located in the Old Port, in a building with BullMoose and a tea shop, this trio makes us waste a lot of money on parking, go on a sunday, Parking is free. Fun FACT!  We go there, the employees, owner and everyone in there love talking about their passion, COMICS! They have these awesome 20 packs of comics for $7.99 it is a great way to get old and new comics, take a chance and possibly find a new favorite like John did.

Casablanca Comics

not a comic, but
by a very knowledgable
comic man. 

We love Kevin Smith, his podcasts, his movies, just him in general. Following him on his podcast; Smodcast!   There is something for everyone on there, besides kids, there's swears folks, but sometimes when we actually don't have Larry we listen to some Fat Kev Smith! We love Jay and Silent Bob Get Old. What's better than two best friends hanging out talking about life and helping someone stay sober in the process.
Kevin Smith knows his comics, he owns Secret Stash in Jersey, You may know this store from Comic Book Men. So this guy is fat, wears hockey jerseys, smokes the reefer and runs a store, a smodcast and has a hot wife and a teenage daughter. He recently showed at Sundance with Tusk, rumor has it it's been picked up, which I'm excited about. If you haven't seen Red State, it's bloody and amazing, and it has JOHN GOODMAN in it. If that doesn't sell you on it, well you're dead.
Smodcast


Ok, so I went off topic a bit, oops. It's passion.

Let me know what your favorite Comics are and why!?  It's cool if you send me some spoilers. I love that stuff.

House hunting 2nd weekend in February

So, we had scheduled 5 houses to see, we ended up seeing 4 out of 5.

I don't even know where to begin. How about this; If you are trying to sell your house, please do 2 things.

 1. Clean your cat litter box. I don't know if you realize it, but some of us don't have cats, and don't really want to buy a house that smells like cat litter dust and cat poop. GROSS!

 2. Have a lock box/key box. Whatever you call it, you do not want your realtor telling our realtor, "Just use the side door, it's unlocked." When you initially stated, "Someone will be there to let you in." You look so unprofessional, you look sloppy and it makes me nervous to enter a house without someone there, or a key to get in. (This is why we only saw 4 houses.)

House 1, lower Uxbridge, MA. We have discussed this house before, this is the house from a few weekends ago where they locked the door and we couldn't get to the key box. Well this time we actually got to go into this beautiful house. It was way more impressive than I thought it would be. It's a short sale, has just under 2 acres, it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. It's wonderful. I really liked it. I could see adding a beautiful farmer's porch down the line, having a dog, some neat furniture. Well the downsides to this house, it's at the higher end of our budget. We loved it, BUT it was AS-IS. This means that you need to do whatever this house needs. I can tell you there were mice in the basement, I can tell you that the kitchen was original 1970s. The house came with a stove. Yep. Only a stove, no negotiating with that. A stove. I mean for $215K it's amazing. But 215 that needs washer/dryer, fridge, microwave, dishwasher. The bathrooms were ok, the first floor was a little busted, but again they had kicked out some people who were renting and this is how they left it.  This is one contender.

House 2. Uxbridge Ma, right near the schools. It was a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house. It was adorable. The house had a great layout, kitchen was tiny, living room was between the kitchen and the dining room (so strange to me), and an office on the first floor. I didn't hate it. They had a cat, which didn't bother me, he pretty much was our tour guide, the litter box was in the basement, (I'm ok with this, and it wasn't smelly in the house) The second floor was a nice bathroom and really neat rooms, I mean the rooms had dormer type nook and such. We liked the house, not the teeny pie slice shaped lot that could barely hold a picnic table and a grill. I mean it was really strangely shaped. This one was not a contender. Whomp whomp.

House three, this was in sutton, Ma. It was built in 1867 or something insanely old like that. It was a flip. We also had to take our shoes off upon entering. WTF?! The person bought this house on it's last leg and they bought it pumped a bunch of money into it, and relisted it. I can tell you that the first floor was beautiful. The hardwood floors were spectacular. The bathroom was impressive and roomy, I could do yoga in the bathroom then shower. It was massive. The upstairs left something to be desired, like head room. That would have been nice, it it wasn't basically a finished attic it would be better. There was a 6 foot wide slice down the center of each room and then a 45 degree slant on each side that stopped about 18" above the floor. I was let down, so we were like, "Maybe make those the offices. Let's see the basement." Well, let's say that they have done nothing to the basement since it was built. My grandmother's dirt and gravel drive way was in better shape. So. Yes this house was not a contender.

House 4, The house we didn't enter because we act like vampires and need to be invited by a key or person. This house had a lot to offer us. Third of an acre,  large spacious open floor plan on the first floor, a garage, a shed, and a back up shed in the yard? I mean ok, I get the garage and a shed, but a second shed, I can only hope you grow pot so it makes sense to have so much extra space. Well they yard was filled with young kid's toys. It looked like they loved their yard. The porch, was built for entertainment, they had a speaker system and a BAR. It was awesome. Then we left. We were not going in there.

House 5, We had seen this one, the porch collapsed thru the garage and was beautiful and close to John's work. Well it is not worth the 200K they're asking for it, because frankly the cost of inspection and tearing up that porch (still slightly attached to the house) isn't worth it, kitchen needs an update, the entire house needs to be bleached. It too is sold AS IS. I mean if they want to leave the ps4 and the xbox 360 ok, I'm game. Then again how is your house in Short Sale if you have over 20 new games for the PS4 and like 15 games for the XBox?! I'm not entirely sure. I just know that I was disgusted by the disarray of this house, I know as home buyers we have to be prepared for anything, Well, trash bags on the porch, a litter box in the kitchen, filled to the brim with poop and clumps of pee. I mean come on, we're told this is "Vacant" but if I moved out fast, I'd have taken the 2K worth of electronics out of the master bedroom. But that's just me. John talked to the town assessor, they had no information about the collapse, it was never reported. They have almost a dozen open permits, (that's scary) it's septic and private water, another 5K to shell out to get those passed. I mean if we bought this house at 150K we could still pass 200K and still have holes in the wall that need patching, since it looked like a frat house. We love the location of this house, that's about it.


This week just doesn't seem like it's going to work out for us. We're thinking about looking a little bit north of where we have been. I say WE but I think if we go north there's a chance we'd be able to afford everything, with some to spare. We can find jobs and people that actually want to hang out with us. I know that sounds stupid, but it's been impossible down here for us lately, everyone knows everyone and there is more Drama than Saved by the Bell.

That was our misadventures in house hunting this past weekend. (This was all on Saturday)

Oh we also had a birthday party we had to attend for a classmate of Lars, it was in an indoor trampoline park, it was awesome. Lars had an asthma attack and nearly threw up. Kid doesn't understand the whole, "Know your limits"  It was fun non the less.

Thank you for reading,

Happy House Hunting,
Amanda

Impending Snow Storm means Baking.

We have been warned about today's snowstorm for a number of days, once the buzz about the Superbowl was gone, it was all about Snow!!! We all love to enjoy some hot cocoa after we take the time to shovel out, so I made some Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I have a favorite measuring cup, it was my Great Grandmother's she used it a lot, and it's in wonderful shape, and I use it for most of my dry ingredient measuring tasks. I just love old and vintage items. The simplicity of them and the construction are things that just don't happen today. That being said, I'm lucky enough to actually have a beautiful KitchenAide Mixer, it's a hand-me-down from John's family, but it gets the job done. I love my paddle attachment, I think I've used the whisk maybe twice and the dough hook once. So those are my weapons of choice. I do have a pyrex plastic measuring cup I received for Christmas a few years back, and that's great when I need to have melted butter, or liquid measurements since it's clear and well labeled.


We don't bake with eggs in this house, Larry is allergic to eggs so we use applesauce as a replacement. Helpful hint, for every 1 egg you replace it with 1/4 cup of applesauce. It works great! Often times you'll look at the batter and be like, "CRAP!!! It's not mixing right!" Let me assure you, that's how it'll look.

So I was searching high and low for a good recipe, and I checked every package of flour and sugar in this house, then I looked on the Hershey's Cocoa Powder container, who would have thought! I always cut the recipe in half when I do a test run, Larry is extremely picky.

I always check before I start baking because I hate not having everything listed.
Not Shown is the baking soda.

I had everything it needed:

1 1/8 Flour

1/4 Cocoa Powder

1/2 teaspoonBaking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 egg (1/4 cup applesauce)

1/2 cup Butter (I like earth balance for Vegan edition)

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

1/8 + 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar (3/4 cup normally)

1/8 + 1/2 cup Brown Sugar

(3/4 cup normally)

1 cup Chocolate Chunks

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  It says ungreased cookie sheet, so I always use nonstick aluminum foil. It makes for easy clean up and you know you're not going to burn everything to the pan. 

Start by measuring out your Flour, Salt, Baking Soda and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside. 

Into the mixer, put your butter, and let it get a little whipped up, I love a soft cookie and this is a way to achieve such a cookie, whipping air into the batter before you add the flour because the glutens if over mixed will get tough and you'll get a dense cookie.  Once the butter is pretty and light add the granulated sugar,  let that completely mix into the butter, and add the firmly packed brown sugar!  Allow that to mix for a few seconds. Add the egg or applesauce pending your dietary needs; mix in completely. Then add your Vanilla. 

 One all those beautiful and delicious ingredients are well mixed slowly add those previously prepped dry ingredients, a great tip; slowly, I usually do about 1/4-1/3 cup at a time, and with my adorable little measuring cup it's easy enough to do so. Just another reason to love it so much.

Once mixed put onto the prepared cookie sheets, by rounded teaspoons, ok, let's be honest here, you're thinking about licking everything the second these bad guys are in that hot oven. If you do heaping teaspoons I'm not going to judge you, I did heaping teaspoons and it took about 11 minutes for perfectly browned cookies. If you do follow the rules and do little itty bitty teaspoons they take about 8-10 minutes. My manly man cookies took between 11-13. What's a 3-5 minute difference if it means you don't have to get up as often.

Awe Look my towel is all ready for Valentine's day. S'cute.

Checking to see if there's enough for 1 more panful,
yes Grumpy Cat is my spirit animal

Alright those those into the oven, and set the timer, don't be stupid, set the timer, and grab the wire racks. I know you're about ready to drool with the amazing smells going on in the kitchen, but hang in there, and GET THE WIRE RACKS OUT!

In the mean time, I suggest scrapping the bowl down to see if there's a need for another batch to go into the oven. The recipe says it makes 5 dozen teaspoon sized cookies, I cut the recipe in half for us, so we get about 30 cookies. I even made about 24 large ones, because well Larry is a cookie MONSTER!

This was the one that was suitable for sharing. I Love dough

I had enough for 1 more batch after those two went into the oven, so I got the batter into the bottom of the bowl for easy scooping. I got my batter paddle and enjoyed the silence in my house while I cleaned it like a puppy I have little to no interest in actually washing things until my cookies are completely done. I do as much as I can before I have to turn on the water.





 I checked the first batch after the initial 8 minutes, and remembered I made manly cookies, so I set the timer for 3 more minutes.  I like my racks in the middle of the oven, but my oven is uneven so I think that they bake unevenly, so I'm super strange and I spin my baking sheet so the cookies in the back now can see me peeking into the window, drooling. I do this about 6 minutes in, because you really aren't supposed to because the heat escapes and blah blah, but I do it because the back ones would be super done and the front ones would be like lava cookies.

I take them out of the oven, let them sit for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then I transfer them onto the already waiting wire racks, because we're awesome and think ahead, right!? So they came out really beautifully, and they taste even better.

Finished and cooling. Larry Approved.

You can add nuts if you like that stuff, but we have the allergies in the house and would rather enjoy our chocolate choco chip cookies instead of having DEATH BY CHOCOLATE!


 So there they are, out Tuesday pre-storm Baking!

Now I'm going to make some amazing Hot Chocolate to go with the left over ones so when Larry finishes sledding we'll be ready to Watch some Cartoons and enjoy these. If you want them warmed up, throw them in the microwave for 15 seconds!

Thanks guys, what are your favorite Recipes for Cookies? Are they family ones, Pinterested or cook books!

Amanda 

First Weekend in Feb 2014

The weather was AMAZING considering it was New England, in the midst of Winter. The groundhog says 6 more weeks of winter, The Seahawks Won the Superbowl in impressive fashion at that. And we didn't look at any houses.

We instead made it more of a family and somewhat lazy weekend. We had Larry and with my constant complaints about his room and the smell, we went to Ikea and bought him a new mattress. Let's face facts, he had my mattress from when I was little, it's at least 25 years old. It was most definitely time for a new one. We always enjoy our trips out to Ikea, we like the soda, the super cheap hot dogs (more so John and Larry, I usually get the cinnamon roll) We were there for hours, letting Larry try out all the mattresses in my price range and in his Twin Size. We agreed on a memory foam one since he is a kid that plays hard we think the less bouncy the better. We opted for a great $79 one and it came rolled, so that was really a plus.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00139752/


We didn't do much yesterday, went to Trader Joe's and got food. Larry won a box of Chicken Parm Lollipops, (http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=1412) they were amazing! We bought things to make turkey burgers and I made Guacamole to go on top of them, which John's amazing mashing skills it was an outstanding Guac!

We also now buy ourselves Soda at Ocean State Job Lots, I know how lame that sounds, but they sell Polar soda. Polar is my favorite soda company, having been a Massachusetts staple for over I think 100 years now. Their Ginger Ale is my favorite. If I wanted to spend way too much I'd obviously opt for Canada Dry, but I'm on a tighter budget than most would think.

We are debating on looking at houses a little more north than we have been. The houses are larger for the same cost as this area, and we need to find one soon. I'm going stir crazy not being able to apply for jobs in a central location and know that's where we will be.

So, What's your favorite soda brand? What soda should I try next?