Wow! So Sudden

So, last time I was looking at a house we didn't get.
The following things happened in very quick succession that is resulting in me waiting for Denise to get home with the form for me to sign, scan and email to a property agent.
Sunday we went house hunting.
The second to last house of the day was 'The House'. It has everything! Newly carpeted, new carpets, new paint, new kitchen (never been cooked in) and HUGE backyard. I'm talking about room for a full size tennis court and swimming pool. Or an orchard of fruit trees and chickens. We were in love.
We showed my folks online. They liked it.
Monday I called up several mortgage brokers, a bank, the real estate agent and organised meetings.
Tuesday we had a meeting with two mortgage brokers.
Wednesday we walked through the house again and had a meeting with another mortgage broker.
Unfortunately my parents didn't like it as much as we did and put doubt in our minds. From what I've heard from many people, they did a very parent thing when the young chic not only leaves the nest, but starts building/buying it's own nest.
Wednesday and Friday I spoke with a friend of the family who is a real estate agent. She answered a few questions and concerns we had.
Anyway, we're now surer than we were before, we love this place, and provided there is no structural damage (and there could be doubts since one room has wall paper that has been painted over, and there are cracks under that), then we are going to be buying a house.
YIPEE!
And this is why I love it.BACKYARD! OMG!

House Hunting

It was a sad week. Our dream out finally got sold. It's been Under Contract for over a month, and I decided to email the agent saying that if things fell through, we're still interested as we now may have the money. They called back to say it had been sold that morning. Noo!!Oh well. It wasn't meant to be.
But we've got a lot more of our deposit saved up now, which gives us more options when we go to the banks.
Going through my house junk mail I'm getting sent to me (the lazy persons way to house hunt) I found an odd house out at Highbury. For what we're looking for $265,000 seems to cheap, so it makes me wonder what is wrong with it. What do you think?
Anyway, we're just waiting a bit, building up a bit more of a deposit so we can go for the nicer looking houses.
July 1 is time to start scoping out the banks, credit unions and home loan places though. Denise's HECS bill gets indexed, tax returns will be coming in soon and the new brighter financial year will start.
In the mean time, we look and wait.

Lizard Update

A little bit of sad news. Poor little lizard didn't make it.
He really picked up on Saturday night, running around our bathtub under the light bulb. We released him in amongst the plant pots, and went to check on him a bit later and he was doing his crazy headflips. So back inside he came. We rang up the people from Fauna Rescue who passed us on to a family who look after lizards.
They took him, along with another baby Blue Tongue to the vet. Vet said they were fine, probably just a little young and should be kept inside for a while just until he was older.
So we start running around trying to find a tank to house him, and heat lamps and such.
Unfortunately last night he started looking sick and didn't make it. Poor little thing.
I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Lizard!

Saturday morning when we went to the gym Denise got freaked out by a 'dead thing' on the footpath out the front of our house. Turns out the 'dead thing' was a baby Blue-Tongue lizard that had been living in our yard for a while. Actually I think there was a whole nest of them, and unfortunately one of the parents had an accident at the servo at the end of the street.
Anyway, our little lizard wasn't dead, just sick and/or injured. I put him up the right way and hid him under the hedge so he could recover and go on his little lizard way. Came back from the gym, and he's still there. So I moved to a safer location in our garden just in case someone's dog on it's morning walk found him.
Then we went off house hunting for the day. On a side note, turns out Denise and I are brickists. We can be rather selective about a house if we don't like the bricks. We both like dark brick homes. We don't like painted brick, sandy gray bricks are odd, and I have a thing against those reddish bricks that look like second-hand salvage used in a lot Housing Trust homes. Denise found a house she loves. I didn't like the backyard. Well, it didn't have a backyard. Not much of one anyway.
So, back to the lizard. So we come home, I go out to the front garden to find him still sitting in the front lawn, going around in circles and getting his front legs caught on things. He'll be okay? Won't he? I decide to try and feed him a bit of Frankie's meat. Don't know if he ate it.
Later that evening I feel guilty. Maybe we should do something for him. What do we do? Wildlife Rescue? Vet? Should we just let nature do what it needs to? Anyway, we decide to call Wildlife Rescue, and that we should contain him somehow. Upturned milk crate should let him enjoy the rain and not drown if a downpour hits. I called Wildlife Rescue, the phone was busy all night.
But we went outside to check on him, he was upside down and out of his milk crate.
Denise recommended we warm him up. So we bought him inside, put him in the bathtub with a towel (to grip while walking), a desk lamp, a log to hide near, various cardboard boxes and some water. Within an hour of sitting under the warm lamp he was able to stay upright. His front legs were still a bit sluggish. By the time we went to bed he was walking properly, although he was still sticking his tongue out.
This morning he's back to his grumpy lizard self, hissing at anything that comes near him, hiding under his Froot Loops box and sunning himself under the desk lamp. Hey, maybe we saved his life.
I'm still going to give Wildlife Rescue a call, but I want to release him back into our yard.

Anyway, onto knitting content. I have one word on that. Babies!!!
So many people we know are having babies, or have had babies. I'm knitting small beanies, socks and jumpers like crazy. And I'm loving it.
Did I also mention how damned clucky I've become? But first we need a house before we have kids. So I'll live vicariously through others, and knit myself a baby. Or at least enough clothes that if I stuff them with newspaper it might look like an ugly black and white print baby.
Most of my baby knitting is now in use, and there are no pictures. I must remember to buy more camera batteries.
I've discovered my new favourite pattern. Its Tycus from Knitty. A short row beanie, and I've had fun experimenting with colours, size and yarns. I started by knitting one for our neighbour for his birthday. Then I realised, what would happen if I made it with one stripe of sock yarn and one of a solid colour. This is what happened. I knitted it for a pregnant woman at work who is hoping for some cute knitting things for the baby.

I've also experimented with what would happen if you knit one panel solidly in one colour, the other half in a different colour. It looks like a circus tent.
But they knit up so quick, no circular needles needed, they are a great way to use up odd bits of wool. It's really brain-dead knitting, so great for the bus.
Denise has knitted things too, the main being a beautiful knitting blanket for her cousin's baby. I'm hoping for pictures of that once it's finished. Oh, and crochet baby overalls for a lady in our knitting group. These are so cute she has to make a pair for our kids. Hmm, just getting in early with the clothes so we have enough.

Anyway, time to drop offline and call Wildlife Rescue. Damned dial-up Internet.

We're Still Around- Life Just Hit

Wow. It's been so long since I added anything to this. Personally I blame Facebook and Ravelry.
The last few months in a nutshell:
On the spur of the moment we bought a new(er) car. A lovely 99 model silver Volvo S40. Her name is Velma- after the chic from Scooby Doo, and because it starts with V for Volvo.
We both competed it NaNoWriMo. Denise finished, I didn't (although I'm still working on my novel)
Christmas happened, with the madness of knitting several gifts for people within a month
My Grandfather passed away just after Christmas after a two year battle with lung cancer. Umm... don't smoke kiddies. It's not a nice way to go.
Our neighbours got married. They had the same celebrant as us. It was a lovely day, although a bit touch and go with the weather. Who could believe rain in January.
Denise started her first real job as a graduate with the government. Yay two regular incomes
Poor Velma was in an accident. Stupid tart on her mobile phone didn't watch what was happening in front of her. We stopped. She didn't. $6000 of damage to our car, her's was written off. Yeah, small red Barina's fold when they hit nice solid Volvo tow bars.
We almost put an offer on a house we found. It was perfect apart from one thing. The time. Give us another 4 months and we'll have the deposit.
Easter... not much to say there apart from Chocolate.
My job has been turned into a permanent roll. As my charming co-worker mention, now they're stuck with me.
Denise and I celebrated our first Wedding anniversary. Hard to believe how quickly the time has gone. We both had the day off work and went back to Waterfall Gully to walk around and remember. It was a fantastic day.
And tonight Denise is downstairs suffering with the boogie monster- aka a cold, while I'm up here trying to get another 500 words written in my novel but procrastinating yet again.
So, that's been us recently. Must try to get back in the blogging mood, especially when we ramp up the house hunting. Oh won't that be a fun journey.

My First Knitted Project

Okay, this is for all the GLBT-Knit list people.
One member asked what everyone's first project was. In my attempt to clean out all my childhood memories and random junk, I found not only my first piece of knitting I did when I was five, but also my first project.

It's a small piece of knitting, about 5cm square in a pale pink yarn. I did this when I was five. It was my mum's way to try and stop me from learning to read before I started school. She did this so I would be at the same level as everyone else when I started school. Didn't stop my voracious reading appetite.
You can see where I added a few stitches, and I think I tried turning when I wasn't meant to. But still relatively square shaped.

My first full project, started when I was about 8 and worked on intermittently for the next 4 or so years, was the obligatory scarf. Its about a metre long, and I changed yarns when I ran out of the previous, never at the end of the row. You can see that clearer in the second picture. I've also used different ply yarns. It is honestly the most hideous thing you can imagine, and like most of my projects, its STILL ON THE NEEDLES!!!!

Click to enlarge the picture, only if you dare!

And here's the Transcript...

Ooh, I got my name on the screen.
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/sa/content/2006/s2022241.htm
I got my 10 seconds of fame, as did my hands several times and my socks, which I'm wearing today. Denise had a few shots as well, as did the baby socks she was knitting.
Yay for us!