Buying a House Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Actually, I should call this "You don't have to get dumped to feel the sting of rejection."

I made an offer on a house last week. My realtor and I spent quite a bit of time hammering out a number we felt was reasonable. We didn't expect them to accept, but we expected a reasonable counter-offer. The offer was about 6% below asking, and less than $2,000 below the appraised value according to the county auditor.

The counter offer came back; it was for the asking price, less $100.00. No, I didn't mis-type that, one HUNDRED dollars less than the asking price. Not even worth driving to the realtor's office to sign the paper work to make the offer, in my opinion!

My realtor called me and I thought about it (for about half a second) before I told her not to bother writing up another offer. The situation is that the husband has been transferred to Texas (he's there now) and the wife is there with two small children, a cat and a dog. The house has been on the market over four months. School just started, so no local family is going to be looking because they aren't going to be willing to pull their kids out of school now. The holidays are coming up, and my realtor tells me that it's very slow during this time of year. On top of that, it is very much a buyers market here right now.

So, I think I'm right to walk away, but like most relationships, I find myself thinking about what could have been. How nice it would be to kick-back on that deck after work. Then I find myself wondering what the house is doing now? Does the house ever think about me? Does it regret it's decision? Maybe the house and I could reconcile, but wouldn't I always be thinking in the back of my mind how the house cruelly cast me aside before and my do it again? Maybe the house is seeing other potential buyers? Maybe it's having these huge open houses, with any Tom, Dick and/or Harry walking through it, checking the closet space, measuring the bedrooms, examining it's fixtures...

Uh... Sorry...

Some People Have No Freakin' Class

So, unless you've been living under a large, rock-shaped object for the past week, you've probably heard by now that Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter" was killed in a bizarre accident. Bizarre when you consider that the first time I saw they guy, all I saw was his feet and the rest of him was wedged into a rattlesnake den beneath a large boulder-shaped object, from which he was grabbing said snakes and pulling them out of the hole, and this behavior was not unusual for him.

I was a casual fan, and I wasn't going to post anything because pretty much anyone with a website already has, and how much more can someone say about what happened. It was tragic and weird, but life is like that sometimes.

That was until I saw this comment from Germaine Greer, the author of "The Female Eunuch":

"I really found the whole Steve Irwin phenomenon embarrassing and I'm not the only person who did, or indeed the only Australian who did."

She then called anyone who is mourning Irwin's death "stupid," sucker-punched an orphan, burned down a hospital and ate a live puppy.

OK, I made those last three things up.

Geeze, is it just me or does this broad need to get laid?

I would remind this dried up, man-hating bag that

• No one asked her


• She hasn’t done anything culturally relevant in about 20 years (and no, bailing out of the British version of “Big Brother” doesn’t count)


• Irwin did a lot to help endangered animals not only in Australia, but the whole world


• He has a wife and two kids who are going to miss him. Are they stupid?

I would also like to remind her that just because she is miserable and unhappy is no reason to be such a bitch.