House-hunting in Sacramento

So I am really getting settled in Sacramento and into a routine. I drive up Monday and back on Friday, go to the gym pretty much every day, and have taken some time to get to know the area. I almost know my way around! Sometimes I mess up my routine by going out of town to Southern California, or on vacation to Ireland, but mostly, I'm in a routine. However, being away from Gordon and Aisling during the week is getting old, so I'm looking forward to them moving up here. So it's time to get serious about buying a house. It should be easy, right? There are lots of houses for sale, and we have very stringent requirements - must have a pool, and must be within certain school boundaries. Not so easy!

So since we're serious about buying a house, a couple of weeks ago, Gordon and Aisling came up to Sacramento to spend the weekend. We went out looking at houses on Saturday with our real estate guy, Charles. We looked at lots of homes. A couple of interesting points. First, some houses were just trashed by the people who got foreclosed on. We saw some that had been covered in graffiti, on the inside, in every room! We saw others that had paint poured on the carpets in every single room. We've also seen every glass surface and toilet in the house just smashed up with a hammer.

But we did see a house that we loved, and we put a bid in on it. That was two weeks ago. The other thing we learned is that when there's a bank involved, it doesn't move too fast. One would think that the banks would be anxious to move the properties, but they don't seem to be too worried about responding fast. Oh well. So we went and looked at more homes this weekend. We might have to make two or three offers before we get a home! Stay tuned.

Trip to Ireland and France summary

Aisling and Helen in Dublin

Last month, we had a great vacation to Dublin, Ireland to visit my family, with a side trip to a town called Carcassonne in France. The photos are posted, of course, on flickr and can be seen here. We had a great time meeting with old friends from college and of course spending a lot of time with family. We also did a little sightseeing in Ireland and a lot of sightseeing in France. As a special bonus, we saw Oasis in concert in France - quite an experience. More detail is posted in my daily blogs below.

Trip to Ireland and France - Final day, Wednesday February 25th

Wednesday was our last day. We headed to Dublin airport, and caught the direct flight to San Francisco. It was a very smooth trip. The plane was an airbus, so we could select our own movies, which was great, so I watched four movies on the way back since I couldn't sleep, the best of which was probably W, just because Josh Brolin was so good as George W. Bush. We arrived in SFO on time, and then headed home. Dara, Zach and Aidan came over to see us, which was good because we missed them so much, and then I showered, and headed on Bart over to Oakland International airport for a business trip to LA. Another uneventful trip. The weather in LA was just so different to the weather in Ireland and France. I calculated that by the time I got to my hotel in LA, I had been awake for 23 hours. I think that might actually have helped me get over my jet lag! I spent Thursday in LA, flew back to Sacramento and then took Amtrak back to the bay area on Friday evening. Given that I used the bus and light rail to get from my condo to work on Friday, I believe I used every mode of mass transit in this timeframe!