Ice, ice baby....

The parking lot as seen through a shelf of books in front of the library



Several sculptures you could take a photo with your head inside. Also a variety of ice thrones to sit on

Lots of Frozen characters, favorite of all little girls: Anna

Eagles are a part of any ice show

People took advantage of the warm temps yesterday to go outside after a week of very cold days. And by warm, I mean that it was almost just below freezing. How quickly we adapt! But perfect to visit an ice show that occurs annually in our new town. Actually it really won't be our new town though we will have a Plymouth address, we will be living in a different county than this town and township. Somehow the title company messed this all up and will have to correct the papers. Still it is a mystery why the post office chose to include land in a different county. We also did some comparative mileages: 7 miles to the Ann Arbor Kroger's: 6.5 miles to the Plymouth Kroger's though we can take the expressway most of the  way to the Ann Arbor one. The Plymouth downtown is much closer than the Ann Arbor downtown though and features free parking (though not yesterday! They were milking that Ice Festival for everything they could get).

Much of the weekend revolved around dealing with this house. So much to do!!!! On Saturday, the boyfriend of my cooking classmate came to see what he could do. More cleaning before he came lest he report back to his girlfriend

 That friend of yours? Total slob!

And despite it being especially cold (pipes froze!!!!!)it was very sunny highlighting to my intense embarrassment, areas I missed. How the sun picked up those cobwebs!. We went room to room with him offering suggestions. Work will begin soon. Although he was very helpful, I was left feeling hopeless that so much needs to be done. But then yesterday, Steve went to an open house in our neighborhood to a 'benchmark house' (same style and size) that was asking $65K more than what the realtor thinks we'd get for this house to find out that within 2 days of hitting the market (just last week), they received 2 full offers. The best part is that the house inside is very worn out and downright ugly, much uglier than what the photos suggested. To Steve, our house looks like Home Beautiful in comparison. He quickly fired off an e-mail complete with his photos to our realtor to adjust her expectations. So that made both of us feel better. Why didn't I go to the open house? I knew the realtor, an unpleasant to me woman. Steve would fly under the radar.

At the same time, though I discovered this late in the game, free Showtime for the weekend so I half watched TV while dealing with the lower level of our house. Sadly a small dent in the total. I will have to up my nagging especially since this move is almost all Steve's doing (I do want to move...just not now!)
 
And what days did I run?  The coldest ones. I was too tired yesterday except to tromp around Plymouth. And now a thick blanket of new snow will be an obstacle. I am hoping that they will tackle the bike path behind my house soon.

We did go out to eat Saturday with Josh, Allie and Julie in their town. The restaurant featured lots of Brussels sprouts, lots of other vegetables and quinoa. My dish was quite tasty but I was surprised that this place was so popular in a working class town. They were able to build a house there that is very nice for about half of what it would cost in hoity-toity Ann Arbor. Perhaps expectations are rising there. When I was helping them research areas to live, I noted that the average ACT score was about what Naomi received, much less than the children of University professors and scientists get in Ann Arbor. Also, diversity in this town is close to zero. It is near lots of bike paths and parks though. And for our commuters, they can get on the expressway in a few minutes.

It was fun seeing what new tricks Allie has. Such a clever, pretty little girl.

And last night, another break..making fun of actresses dresses, an especially bad crop of dresses this year) with a friend watching the Golden Globes. What we had hoped for were more clips from the movies and much shorter Thank-you speeches.