Do I want to know what's happening with Little League?

A sad thing. The south Chicago team that won had its title stripped because they had team members from outside of their region and lied about it.

Ooooh, Amy, that sounds pretty wonderful.

Thanks, guys! Good birthday so far: Wonder Woman underwear, penguin socks, breakfast out with leftovers for lunch, I've got a cupcake from yesterday for later, and my co-workers decorated my cube (also with a cupcake theme). Still have actual work to do, which is not ideal, but not so bad.

I'll try to remember to look up the Little League stuff later, I don't think I want depressing news right now.

ETA: argh, flea. Couldn't just be easy, could it?

Oh, Birthday Happies, -t!! Cupcakes!

It's pretty much all they're talking about here this morning.

The seller came down a lot on price before the inspection, and feel like she doesn't need to come down more. But we bid low because we felt the house was overpriced and it needed a lot of cosmetic work. The electric stuff didn't come out until inspection. It's a lot of bullshit little stuff (hot water heater doesn't have a required expansion tank, chimney needs a cap, which we can tell because there are animal bones on top of the hot water heater, etc.), but it adds up.

What kind of electric code violations? Old wiring, or poorly done wiring that's newer?

I dunno. We accepted the offer on our rental that didn't ask for an inspection, because we can't actually afford to put any money into the house, and it's old, and inspections turn up a lot of things, most of which aren't critical fixes. So I can sympathize if she feels she won't put anything more into it--if she was asking too much, I wonder if she had a pretty specific break even point like we did.

Which reminds me, smooth closing ~ma, please. God, I don't even give a shit about the capital gains that is going to bite us in the ass later if this sale goes through and we stop being accidental landlords.

(The offer was over asking, too. Inventory is a joke around here right now.)

In our case, the seller and her late husband bought the house for $16,450 in 1964. So, I'm assuming it's paid for. The electrical problems we asked to have fixed are double-taps in the (modern) fuse box, illegal splicing, and ungrounded outlets and uncovered floor outlets. All work that the seller had done (or, possibly, did themselves, but I doubt it.) There are a zillion things we're NOT asking for compensation on (like the ac unit dating to 1985 that will probably die as soon as we move in). We deliberately kept it to material defects that could be proved by inspection.

Happy Birthday -t!

One of the editors that hit me with the tidal wave of short-deadline work was unable to turn some of it over to me by yesterday, so the deadline has magically been extended. Amazing!

Happy birthday, -t! MWAH!

chimney needs a cap

Should you need a recommendation for a chimney person, I know a guy who's excellent.

(The offer was over asking, too. Inventory is a joke around here right now.)

Stuff in our neighborhood that's remotely decent is staying on the market for days (sometimes not plural days). Friends of ours just went under contract for a house on our street, and the house had been on the market for 36 hours by the time they made their offer, and they weren't the only buyers making an offer. It's weird to me to see the market picking back up, because there were 4 empty houses around us for years. (We started to think maybe we were creating some sort of GTFO vibe on our street.)

Happy Birthday -t!