'Tis the Season

Thought I'd drop in to say hi, Merry Christmas, & update everyone on what's going on with us. We suddenly find ourselves 4 days from Christmas! Aahhhh! Kate & I went out to finish our shopping, & received a beat down of epic proportion. The traffic & crowds out yesterday in the Stonebriar area SUCKED! I kept thinking...."what recession?!?". There were so many people out & the lines at the check-out counters were so long, there's no way this area can be hurting. It was a huge relief to finally get home.

So we're under contract for the Hearthstone house, mentioned in a previous post. It's exactly what we're looking for & it was a relief to have the inspection & find out that there's nothing wrong with it, other than a few minor cosmetic things. We're looking at closing on Jan. 29, so stay tuned. As long as everything works out & we end up in this house as planned, we're thinking we'll stay at home next Thanksgiving & maybe Christmas, & invite any of our fam who want to come. This would save on the mental anguish holiday travel & traffic causes. But for this year we'll be making stops in Cleburne, Ft. Worth, & Austin, before returning home for a week off from work.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

--Josh

House Hunters: Plano

Helo valued reader. It's the Christmas season, & man have we been busy! We went to Austin for Thanksgiving, enduring the beating that is driving down I35 to spend time with Kate's fam & my Austin fam. We did the Turkey trot to work up a good appetite, & had a good time with everyone. We also got some good shopping in.

Right before Thanksgiving we initiated our home search with a visit to two houses for sale. Neither of us fell in love with either house, but we kept looking & today we wen out & looked at 7 more. I'd say 3 were livable, the other 4 were horrendous (much better looking from the pictures online). And of the 3 good ones, there's one we really like. We'll call it the Hearthstone House. Get this.....while we're there some other, older couple show up with their realtor to look at the house. WTF?!?! Nothing like a little competition to give us some anxiety. It's our luck that we find one house we could get serious about, & a retired couple could potentially be a problem for us. But we're trying to not get ahead of ourselves & just control what we can control. If it works out, we'll visit the house again next weekend & then....maybe.....possibly.......make an offer. It has everything we're looking for & is in our budget. But a lot could happen & I have to keep in mind that we might not get it, so all I can say is, we'll see how it goes.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, please. We have Christmas coming up in a few weeks & some much deserved time off from work! Who knows what the weeks ahead have in store for us with house hunting. We have a target in sight, but will we get an opportunity for a shot???

--Josh

Sokolewicz Bailout Plan

Dear U.S. Government,

I was just watching the news & hear that you're considering "bailing out" the auto industry. This comes after, as we all know, you "bailed out" the banking industry with almost a Trillion dollars (so of which I'll be paying. Thanks.). I can semi-understand the banking bail out, but an auto industry bailout would be a little ridiculous. Don't ya think? Let me say that my first vote would be to scrap that plan & move forward with a somewhat related idea. It's called the Sokolewicz Bailout Plan. Here's how it works:

Write Josh & Kate Sokolewicz a check, tax-free, for $500 million.

It won't even cost you a Billion dollars! Hey, Christmas is coming up & I have some people near & dear to me with expensive taste. Times are slow & my dollars don't go as far as they used to, so I really could use a supplement to my income from you. The great thing about this $500 million check is that it will even last me past Christmas. My wife & I could buy a piece of the American Dream (a few times over) & take advantage of our new financial freedom to pursue our real career passions (snow cone stand on the beach, anyone?). I suffer enough mental strain & anguish on a daily basis in corporate America, & I know my wife does too. We've put in our time & now we need you to bail us out of the corporate rat race. We promise to re-invest the money back into real estate, automobiles, retail merchandise, travel & tourism, etc. So you see, by helping us you'll also be helping others.

I believe you have our address to send the check to. If you'd like to do a direct deposit I can make those arrangements too. I could possibly be willing to negotiate on the check amount, or discuss payment in installments, so please call me if you would like to discuss.

Thanks a million! Or should I say, thanks $500 million!

--Josh

my newest obsession...

ahhhh...beautiful...don't you think this would be perfect for a winter wedding?
-Kate

couch love

The below posting does not even begin to express Josh’s anger on Monday night. In the many years I have known Josh; I have never seen him this upset. Now that we have the couch and all the anger is behind us, I’d like to tell you the story of “Josh & Kate’s Couch Adventure” (I think it should be a movie).

Well, as Josh said, the delivery hours are 7am-10pm. We were both on-call all day at work, and we couldn’t even run errands or go vote in the evening because they were so late! 10 o’clock rolled around and they still weren’t there, so Josh and I decided to leave and run our errand. Actually, we were spooking. My office does “Secret Spooks” the week before Halloween, so we always go up there really late so we don’t get caught. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, the delivery guys called and said they were 10 minutes away. SO…we had to go all the way back home to meet them.

By this time it was 10:45pm and I was cranky. They were hauling the couch up the stairs and realized (after gouging huge holes in our walls) it wasn’t going to fit around the corner into the living room. So what were they going to do? Oh…well according to Trina, “she’s been working at Rooms to Go for 8 years and pulls couches over balconies all the time” – whatever. And by the way, who hires a WOMAN to deliver FURNITURE?! I’m not trying to be sexist (we all know I’ve done some pretty manly things in my life), but SERIOUSLY!? Anyways…so after Trina’s bold statement we were all back outside in the 32° temperature hauling this HUGE couch over the balcony.

Josh & Dante were on the ground and Trina and myself were on the 2nd floor balcony. You can imagine how this went. After many fearful minutes the couch was pulled over the balcony. There were a couple times, when the couch was teetering over the edge, when I really thought it was going back over.

After a good hour, the couch was placed exactly where I wanted it and we got to sit on it for like 5 minutes. Then it was back up to the office for spooking!

Even though it was a really late night, and we were both ready to curse Rooms to Go out; we are really enjoying our couch…and so is Mavy…

-Kate

What ever happened to serving the customer??

So I'm sitting here in our apartment in the only seat in the house. This is because last night we tossed the futon couch. Why did we do that? Because Friday we bought a couch. The couch is supposed to be delivered today, & it's 5:30. They deliver until 10. You would think that they would give us a timeframe for when it would be delivered, since we were so kind as to go into their store & spend $$$ on an item they sell. You'd think they would be happy to serve & eager to prove we were wise in buying from them, in an order to earn our business again. Well, it appears RTG doesn't care. The timeframe for delivery they gave us for delivery was 7 this morning until 10 tonight. I don't know if they call before they get here. I called the store at 5 & the girl couldn't give me an update as to where our couch is or when, if ever, it might be delivered. At this point I kinda feel like I gave them $$$ in the hope they remember that they're supposed o give us something in return. When I was on my way home from work I was at a red light & guess what passed in front of me going down the road? A RTG delivery truck. Salt in the wounds. I'm sure the couch will eventually show up. Maybe even today (tonight). IT just seems that RTG should be able to give us more info & a little more respect in delivering on their end of the deal. It just sucks when you're waiting & waiting & not getting any updates.

In other news, we're doing good. Kate's job keeps here busy & mine is approaching the slow season. The next big event we have on the radar is Doug's wedding & then...........Thanksgiving!!!! Can't wait!

I can look out our front window & seethe old futon in the dumpster. Where's my new couch?

--Impatient Josh

Bob Marley won't get out of my head

So we're just about 3 months into this wonderful journey called marriage & what have we learned? It's wonderful living with my best friend & love of my life. We really are a team. Margaritas are good but too many can make a day disappear. Trips to Garden Ridge are inevitable. Date nights are important. The economy really sucks. Politicians suck worse. Altimas are nice. Weekends always end up busy. Jamaica is awesome & we need to visit more often. Compromise. I can't tell my wife enough how much I love her.

I didn't really have a plan for this blog. Life is going good & even in these times of economic struggle we have an optomistic outlook for out future & discuss plans for our future. It's fun hanging out together everyday & telling each other about our days, & then laughing at the things in life that are rediculous. But these are things you all already know. So, on to the holiday season! Our next vacation is being discussed & we're taking suggestions from our loyal fanbase. Keep the letters coming, & stay tuned. My lovely wife is home from work now, & I have to go.

--Josh