rainy day

Looks like warm weather (20's) and rain for most of the week! Oh well - typical Fall weather, I suppose.

well, it's been one of those days....

My Open House went well. The property is conditionally sold, but since the open house was booked already, I was obligated to go ahead with it.

My first group through were 3 elderly couples travelling together (or in a pack, one might say, maybe a gaggle...or a pod....)

Anyway, the very first words out of one old fellow's mouth was "how come you Renfrew agents list properties in Arnprior?" (free country maybe?????) Then, when I explained that, although the seller lived in Arnprior, I had been working with her off and on for a couple of years, he said she was retired so how could I have worked with her? So, I explained that I MEANT "working" as in showing her properties. sigh - I should have stopped being nice right there!

While I was talking to him explaining this, he wandered back to the pod and then came back and told me I had the address wrong on my listing - "it is Drive not Street" he apparently felt obliged to tell me. Since my listing said Drive not street, I don't know what the hell he was referring to - maybe the newspaper ad - I don't know - and I don't care -old coot!!

When he said he liked the place and might be interested in buying it, I explained that there was a condtional offer on the property. So, he said if I'd tell him what the offer was for, he'd bid a dollar more and buy the place himself!

By THAT time I was TOTALY, freaking sick and tired of this old guy and happily told him I could NOT tell him the amount of the offer!! He didn't like that and with anyone else, I would have explained about the confidentiality of offers etc. but honestly, I was just sick of him!!! I was quite happy when he grumbled his way outside. Being old should NOT give one the right to be that cantanerous!!!

Several other nice people through, which reminded me that people can be nice and pleasant!

Today, I had the dubious pleasure of wasting a ton of time on the phone trying to get a RBC branch phone number. no matter what number you call for the RBC, it goes to a main number where you get someone who can't help you - but sounds real cheery and chipper in spite of not having a clue - and won't give you the phone number you want!!!

Finally on my 3 or 4th call and after many, MANY, MANY minutes of being on hold, one nice young man finally agreed to put me through to the manager of the RBC Kanata branch I needed to contact.

I'm not sure why he suddenly put me through when no one else would - maybe it was the tone of my voice or mayby it was when I said, that since I only lived an hour away from this particular branch, I could always get in my car, and simply DRIVE there!! ANYHOO, he put me through and I talked to the manager. I still don't have the branch phone number though......

hahaha - he's probably blogging tonight about the grumpy old real estate lady he had to deal with today!!!

Then this afternoon was a quick trip to Douglas for a market evaluation and then on to meet up with an electrician at one of my listed properties on Mink Lake. - busy day.

no pictures - sorry, guys- too tired to look up some old ones - but here's a link to one of my favorite game sites -always good for entertaining oneself while sitting on hold!

http://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/escapa.html

hope this link works -for some reason, I can't copy and paste in this blog any more. one more weird technology thingy, that WAS such a timesaver and now doesn't seem to work in an increasing number of places.

Another technical weird thingy - is a website called Geni that Phil put me on to - it's a geneology website which is kind of neat. I forgot my password the other day and for some reason my password reminder came in Swedish (I think - I can't actually READ it - but it looks Swedish) Now when I log into my Geni account - everythings in Swedish - and since I haven't a clue what I'm reading in Swedish, I have no idea how to fix it - cuz, I don't know what to click on. At this point, I don't think I care any more.....,........ g'night, all!

busy week

Usual week for us - much running around - listed a house in Arnprior and got an offer on it on Friday - nice when that happens. Doesn't happen often in this sluggish market!

Rick had a great golf game on Wednesday. It was sponsored by the Renfrew Country Real Estate Board - a charity tournatment, of course. He's played two tournaments so far this summer - both for charity - the other one was sponsored by Aikenhead's drug store (isn't that a GREAT name for a drug store) anyway both times, he played with some people from my office - which is super - because I really SHOULD play these charity tournaments as it is good for business, but I don't play golf, so this is one area Rick will excel in! Go Rick!!!

He thouroughly enjoyed both games and in spite of not playing often over the past few years, he played well and back at the office I heard many comments about his ability to smoke a ball (whatever that means....) but I believe it is a good thing!

We've been out and about a bit this past week - up to Eganville at least once - what a pretty town. In fact, I plan to start spending a day a week in our Eganville office.

This weekend, we're catching much of the Barrett-Jackson car aution - always fun to watch - although, I basically watch for the strange cars. But, I have noticed that prices seem to be lower over the last few years - a sign of the times I guess. Sellers and buyers both pay a commission at Barrett-Jackson - 8 percent charged to the seller and 10 percent to the buyer.

18 percent- WOW!

We popped over to Shawville yesterday to the good ole' Giant Tiger (or Geante Tigre - since we were in Quebec - lol) we've discovered we quite like sheets with a higher thread count and I've found that Giant Tiger is the cheapest place to buy them! $30 for queen size, deep pocket sheet set - thats a good deal, folks!!!! I won't buy any more queen-size though, as we've been talking about trading up to a king size bed in the next year - that will probably be our next big purchase.

Actually, I think our next BIG purchase will be a pellet stove for the kitchen - our kitchen is generally chilly and we have a big old electric heater (energy sucker) in there that we could replace with a pellet stove. I guess we'll start checking some out soon - if we're going to buy one, we should do so soon!

A chipped back tooth this week, sent me to the denist in a hurry - will need to be crowned - so, wait, our REAL, next BIG purchase will probably be in my mouth!!!! lol

Tomorrow I'm in Arnprior doing an Open House - 235 Allan Drive - from 2 to 4 if anyone is interested! A lovely home - today's picture, in fact!

Fall is here!

It would seem by the weather than Fall is officially here! only supposed to be around 11 degrees tomorrow - that's chilly! We don't like to put the heat on at this time of year, but we have had several fires only the past few days. I quite like a fire!

We've been quite well lately, too - no stitches or blood transfusions!!! No visits to emerg or doctor. a good thing! I think the stitches in Rick's hand can come out in a few days. Fortunately Kris has a pair of those special stitch-remover scissors that Rick can use to remove them. Scissors from about 3 months ago when Kris got a couple dozen stitches in his leg after he sliced it open going over the handlebars of his dirt bike! In this house, the men take out their own stitches!

My week's turned quite busy - off to Arnprior tomorrow to list a house. It will actually be the first one I have listed in Arnprior, but hope to do more in that area.

Today's picture is another treasure from our local landfill site care of Kris - Rick seems quite excited about it. An old Fender reverb thingy, I think!

been a while, huh?

w0w - I just realized I haven't posted for a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time and figure I better get to it or people will just stop checking it.

We are certainly giving our emergency department a lot of business lately. Last week Jamie was in for about 4 days with stomach issues. His girlfriend Julie brought him out here last Monday because he was so sick and so weak he was barely able to stand up. The nurses immediately popped him on a gurney and started him on an IV. He was admitted about 4 a.m. and in the morning our local surgeon did a scope on his stomach which revealed a small tear in the stomach lining. Not much to be done but let it heal - not a chronic thing, but he had lost so much blood (being sick) over a couple of days they gave him a blood transfusion on Wednesday.

Anyway, he was released on Thursday and spent the long weekend getting back on his feet - and is back to normal now. A little stressful though - he didn't much care for being in a hospital!

Then this morning, Rick was putting out the garbage and cut his hand on a small piece of metal and so we were back in emerg. for stitches for him. We're getting to be on a first name basis with the nurses!

Thanks to all for Rick's B-day wishes. We didn't do anything exciting - went up to Pembroke for a drive and went to Burger King - Rick had been drooling for a Whopper. I planned on getting a salad, but when I got up to the counter, somehow the words - "Texas steak burger" popped out of my mouth instead! Hahahaha! funny how that happens!

Actually, we rarely eat out - not sure why, but we rarely do. And, as we were eating our Burger King burgers yesterday, we both admitted that our own home-cooked burgers were just as good. I do have a serious Timmy's tea habit, that I am trying to cut back!

I hear Hydro rates are going up (again) we heat with electricity - so this is always a bit of a worry and we just got word from our municipality that our water rates are going up to around $100 a month. We currently pay around $40 a month but that's not enough to cover the cost of the new pump house building & chain link fence and the cost of testing the water everyday that the M.O.E. says we have to do. Everyone's freaking out, but what are you gonna do?

Not much else new - we were over at Bill and Andrea's last week for the NASCAR race (my driver still sucks) and had Bill's to-die-for ribs and Andrea's super potato salad. Had a great time - race was a night race and was quite late when we got home.

Don't know if I mentioned before, but Rick is going for his real estate license and is halfway through the second of 3 courses he must complete before getting his license. He sailed through the first course (taken on-line) with a final mark of 94% - very good! We plan to work together as a team and I think Rick's quite looking forward to it. The hours are good - even though one does work evenings and weekends sometimes - but that just means one takes days off during the week!

well, hell - this has been a long post - that's what happens when I get lazy about posting. I don't think I even have any new pictures! Will try to post on a more regular basis!