WE HAVE AN OFFER!!!

Well, Mark and Lesley *****, from jolly old England offered us our asking price for the house and we will pay $3000 toward closing costs. All in all an excellent outcome. We will close either late July or early August. Hopefully we will not have an underlap with purchasing a new house and selling this one - we need the proceeds from this house to buy the next one.

On another note, Kev and I cancelled our purchase of the townhouse - too many negatives. We are back on our original track looking for a house with a very large lot and lots of parking.

I did get the job working at the Albany wastewater treatment facility. I will work just a few hours a day for about 6 weeks or so. I will be collecting effluent water quality data for several large companies with discharge permits.

and stevie wonder.  

don king here.  

Belated Father's Day photo

Belated Father's Day photo
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

I found this after the fact... but all three kids are

there! The back says June '98... this looks like the

Garryanna street house.

Grandpa and Papa

Grandpa and Papa
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

Dad found these photos of Grandpas Hoy and Takigawa.

Grandpa and Papa

Grandpa and Papa
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

Dad found these photos of Grandpas Hoy and Takigawa.

Happy Birthday Debbie

Happy Birthday Aunt Debbie!!! It's your day! Enjoy it. We love you tons.

Arigatou Papa

dad
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. You're the greatest. Love you and miss you over here and can't wait until you arrive.
I think this photo posted earlier is the best picture i could hope for to represent Father's Day. But this one is pretty cute too!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Happy father's day to father, grandfather and great grandfathers Hoy and Takigawa. We miss you both.

niji

niji
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

yesterday, we went to jiyugaoka - "cake city" - and it

was lovely, and we ate nice cake. but i think this is

a better documentation for our day. this was taken

outside of naruse station at about 630 pm... people

were staring at the sky in hordes, stopping strangers

(even us gaijin) to point it out to them.

We Have Bought a New Townhouse

Ok, here it is. Kev and I have contracted to buy a new townhouse which is scheduled to be built in January. Your mother saw similiar models when she was here. This unit will be a two-master-bedroom house with both bathrooms in the bedrooms. There will be a half-bath in the living area. The living area is very simple - living room and kitchen. There is a two-car side-by-side garage.

We will meet with the decor folks next week and add options. Our plan is to have laminate wood floors in the living and kitchen areas and carpet upstairs. Floor tiling may be prohibitively expensive. We'll have central a/c, gas range and probably set up for gas dryer. We are not yet sure about other options and upgrades, but we don't want to get carried away and get things too expensive. But we do want it to be really nice.

The HOAs include all exterior landscaping and maintenance, roof and siding maintenance, insurance for everything outside of the interior wall paint, and a T-1 internet connection, which is among the fasted you can get. The HOA fees are a low $124/mo. This will also reduce the cost of homeowners insurance associated with the mortgage.

I have to have the official mortgage approval within about another week, so I will be busy on that score.

On another note, our neighbors down the street toward 3rd, just put their house on the market. It is the blue house (I think 1130) with a garage about three houses from the corner. I didn't have a chance to look at their info sheet to see what they are asking so I don't know how it impacts us. They are using a realtor (REMAX). I'll update you tonight.

cake again

cake again
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

zunda keeki - cake made with green soybeans!

jetlagged

muffins
Originally uploaded by selenahoy.

there is a benefit to getting up at 4 or 6 am (oh-dark-thirty and the crack of butt, respectively). hours before anything is open or anyone else is up. that benefit is muffins. i've been baking them for the last two mornings.