a win for the boys in blue

Monday night Justin, Doug, and I drove up to Baltimore to see the Royals play the O's. The Royals had been on a bit of a losing streak - the previous series they snapped a ten game losing streak - but they played well.

In a pitching battle for the ages - Bruce Chen vs. Rich Hill - the Royals managed to prevail. The good guys went up early, fell behind, came from behind in the 8th, and won with a solid outing from the bullpen. Billy Butler was 5-5 for 3 ribbies.

Not a whole lot positive to say about the Royals season, but at least they won the one time I got to see them all year.

Sold!

For some strange reason we chose not to blog about our housing situation over the past several months. I think, in part, it was an effort to minimize the emotions surrounding a precarious and constantly evolving situation.

Basically, at the end of April we found out that our landlords were going to be foreclosed upon (despite the fact we’ve paid rent every month) and the condo we lived in was going to be sold at auction. One of the worst things about finding out that news was that we found out through a notice sent to use by the DC government and not by our landlords. However, our landlords tried to make up for it by offering to sell it to us at a really great price…a price we couldn’t refuse in high-cost real estate city of the District of Columbia.

I think we were a little awe-struck at the idea that we could be homeowners, not be house-poor and possibly sell the place for a profit to help us buy our next place. Plus, there was this $8K tax credit we heard about that didn’t sound so bad either. So, we decided we would go for it. Thus, begins our adventure with preventing a foreclosure, short-sale with two bad mortgages and an inept real estate agent named Vicki Lee Bauer (landlord’s agent).

To keep the blood pressure down, I’ll just say having a good real estate agent (our agent) and lots of patience are key to being sane if you are pursuing a short sale. Another point I feel like we should make is that if you are in the landlords’ situation, surround yourself with knowledgeable people you trust. This isn’t the time to find someone from an ad in the mail or a blind internet search. Unfortunately, this is advice I think our landlords didn’t have.

But without further adieu, we are proud to announce we are now the owners of our condo! We are very excited, but unlike some of the shows on HGTV like “My First Place” it is a bit anti-climatic. We get to basically go back to the same home we’ve had since 2006. But, after a few quick looks on craigslist at apartments, we are happy not to move and to stay in the same place with all of our amenities.

wilco

Wednesday night we made our first trip to Wolf Trap to see Wilco, one of my favorite bands. We just saw them at Jazz Fest, but they put a new album out last week so it was nice to hear a lot of new material.

They aren't exactly Lelaine's favorite band, but she was a good sport and went with me. You can bring in your own food and drinks inside, so before the band started we sat on the lawn and had a little picnic dinner, plus a couple of IPAs for me. It was great weather and you could even see a lot of stars, which aren't the most common sight in the DC area.

The highlight for me was hearing some of the new songs, particularly Bull Black Nova and Deeper Down - which I don't like on the album but was great live - and Spiders, which I hadn't heard played at my previous three Wilco shows. The night ended well as Lelaine bought a t-shirt for me, an early birthday present.

obx

We celebrated America's 233rd birthday in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We left Friday morning and made relatively good time, at least for a holiday weekend. After checking in at one of the lovely Days Inns in Kill Devil Hills, we spent the afternoon on the beach.

Friday night we went to the Blue Moon Beach Grill in Nags Head. The food was good and they had Fat Tire on tap (the New Belgium Brewery doesn't distribute to the DMV [District, Murland, or Virginny] so this was a rare chance to have my favorite amber ale). Lelaine had the "Truckstop", which was a fried egg on top of gravy on top of a pork chop on top of fried potatoes, and I had chicken with pineapple and coconut rice. After finishing dinner it was too early to go to bed, even though this oldtimer wanted to, so we went to see Transformers 2. Lelaine enjoyed it. I wasn't a big fan.

Saturday morning we woke up and the sun was shining. A good sign for the day. We had to hunt for a breakfast spot without a massive line, but we found Bob's Grill, whose motto is "eat and get the hell out", which probably explains the lack of a long wait. We then packed a cooler with water and snacks and set out for the beach.

What seems to separate the Outer Banks from other east coast beach vacation spots is...the beach. While some parts of the beach and towns look similar to places in Maryland, Delaware, or New Jersey, the OBX has the advantage of 100+ miles of beach. There is a 50 mile stretch between Nags Head and Hatteras that is relatively undeveloped, including a national seashore. There are areas along the only road running down the coast where you can legally park on the side of the road, climb a dune, and share miles and miles of beach with only a few other people. We were at a "busy" area and there were maybe 30 other people within sight. We saw nearly as many sand crabs as people. The water wasn't too cold and the waves were big enough for some good bodysurfing. It was a wonderful day.

After dinner at a pretty good restaurant on Collington Ave in Kill Devil Hills we drove down to a nice bar/bistro in Kitty Hawk for a drink outside as we watched several municipal-run and amateur fireworks shows. Apparently there was a horrible accident at a public fireworks display further south when a fireworks truck exploded and killed at least three people, but we weren't close to that.

Sunday morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and planned on some beach time. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to find a public beach in tony Duck. We couldn't locate public parking and most of the walkways through the dunes were labeled private. After getting stuck in traffic we ended up at a beach in Kitty Hawk. It was overcast and after an hour we decided to pack up and begin the drive home. Although it only took us a little over five hours to make the drive on Friday, which included a couple of areas of somewhat heavy traffic, the trip back took over 9.5 hours. We ended up avoiding the interstate and taking back roads from Williamsburg until just a few miles south of the district. I-64 between Norfolk and Richmond and I-95 between Richmond and Northern VA were ridiculously slow. But at least we made it.

On the long car ride home we talked about how great it would be to one day own a house down there. While I don't think that that will be in our immediate plans - unless someone is dying to give us a million dollars - the waiter at the bar on Saturday night told us that the water and air stay warm into November. Maybe we will be able to go back down for Columbus Day weekend.