It's official...

Well, it's now official, Pete and I finally signed the lease for the new house yesterday. There was a bit of negotiation with some of the points in the lease, so it took a little while to come to an agreement that both parties could feel good about. We have a year lease to rent the place, and a two year "rent to own" contract also. If we are able to buy the place by the end of this year, with this new stimulus package that the government is giving the economy right now, and as a first-time homeowner, I would be able to qualify for $8,000 towards the down payment. If we wait two years to buy the house, when Pete's finally done paying alimony to his first ex-wife, then we'll combine our credit scores and get it with the money that is being set aside every month, as a down payment. If we decide NOT to buy the house, we'll lose about $2,000 in earnest money, but otherwise, we will be able to leave.

I brought my huge 3-ring binder full of decorating ideas for every room in the house, and showed it to the homeowner. You should have seen his face! I told him I've got way too much time on my hands, with no real long term job on the horizon, (just temp jobs so far), and so I need projects like this one to keep me busy. I also don't have any friends here in Pittsburgh at this point yet so I just keep to myself and entertain the dog and watch old movies on TCM like I always have.

Valentines weekend was really nice, Pete and I went out and about and had some fun. Friday we attended the National Symphony with Marvin Hamlisch conducting, he's so cool....and he came to a reception before the concert to greet everybody, and make some announcements about upcoming shows and stuff. After the concert ended, which was all about Showboat and Jerome Kern tunes, (extremely awesome), they had a Q&A session with Marvin and the two actors who sang many of the songs from Showboat. The song Ole Man River really gets me every time, I just love it. It was interesting to hear Marvin talk about all sorts of topics, he's a big fan of sushi, he said, which cracks me up. Ever since I moved here with Pete, we've been eating a LOT of sushi!! I love it!!

Anyway, then Saturday we took off to go shopping. I got a really nice mirror for the bedroom to match the new comforter set we bought, and then a pair of sconces to go on either side of the mirror. It'll look really nice. Then he got some stuff at the Circuit City that is going out of business, and then we got back home, took a nap, and we were going to go to the dungeon for a Valentines party, but instead we decided to take a walk down the street to a chinese restaurant for dinner, and before we got there, Pete decided on a whim that we should go into this nail care salon nearby and have pedicures! So we both sat down in the massaging chairs and had a pedicure together...it was his very first one EVER and now he's addicted to it. hehehehehe I told him he would be!! He loved it. He had everybody in the place laughing when HE couldn't stop laughing because his feet are so ticklish, and when they scrubbed them with a pumice stone, he was cracking up hysterically!

So then we had some chinese food for dinner, and we walked back to the house to just have a nice quiet evening together. On Sunday we signed the lease to the new house, then we drove to a local community theater where Pete sometimes performs in plays, and we saw a play there called "I Do, I Do." It was cute, all about marriage and the strange twists and turns that it takes. It was humourous, and we enjoyed it. Then we went to Costco to get some groceries, and then back home. Pete and I bought the movie "Charlie Wilson's War," which I had seen in the movie theater, and LOVED, but he had never seen before. We popped it in and watched that last night. Then Pete decided to give me a little "yum yum taste of the goodness" with the hitachi wand last night before we went to bed. He left me a limp rag doll at the end of it all, and I floated away into subspace and fell asleep.

I tease Pete and call him a "boob-chew-aholic," because every morning, he likes to nuzzle his face in my chest and have himself a little chewy snack on each nipple...which is funny because my dog Sassy gets up onto the bed and licks his face while he's doing this, to protect her mama from the boob-chewin-monster!! hehehehe It cracks me up every time.

Pete told me the other day, when we were discussing the play "I Do I Do" that I have changed a lot since I first moved here. I asked him what he meant, and how I have changed, and he said, "You're not so bratty anymore. You trust me more, and you trust the fact that I'm not going anywhere, and I'm here to take care of you, more than you did when you first met me." I told him I would have to step up the brattiness a notch or two, just to keep him on his toes. hehehehe He said I drove our friend Lisa batty whenever I would sit here and whine and moan about missing DC and Peter, etc., because SHE knew how good Pete was for me, and so did HE, but I didn't know that at all. He said he understood, even if she didn't, that I would eventually let down my walls built up around me to let him in, and once I did, he would make sure that I'm kept happy and safe at all times.

So yes, it was a very good Valentines weekend. Last year, Peter gave me a ruby & emerald cherry necklace, which was more like a collar than a necklace, and I cried the whole night, thinking he would get into trouble for buying me such an expensive gift, when his daughter deserved it much more than me. I thought about sending it back to his daughter, last year and this year too, but I remember he told me that it's for me, and I should keep it forever....so I guess I will just keep it forever then. I will never forget the significance of that necklace, or the meaning behind it, but I no longer wear it. He gave me a wooden box to put it in and that is where it is, safely tucked into my purse so that it's with me all the time. But now I wear Pete's collar. And our first Valentines Day together was very fun and very relaxing and enjoyable, I didn't cry at all, I didn't have a spazz fit, I didn't go all weird and crazy like I did last year....Pete bought me a couple of really nice gifts too.....he got me a brand new ipod nano, (my old one died), and he bought me this funky chair that looks like a high-heeled shoe....it's pink & black...I love it! It'll go into our dressing room in the new house!!

Well, so that's the scoop. We are moving in four weeks, on March 14/15. We'll be living in a better part of the city, off the beaten path so it's much quieter than this place has been (there's a school across the street, constant noisy kids everywhere, buses all the time, cars, etc.), so I'm looking forward to some peaceful quietness and a huge porch to sit outside and read all day long in the summertime. AHHHHH that'll be so nice. Plus I can walk Sassy around a corner to a dog park area every day! She will love that. She'll also love the big yard that we're going to have. Lots of trees and squirrels to chase! YAY!!

Bye for now.

Love, Sassy Girl