John Borwick’s blog

Yesterday I went to the Latino festival downtown.  Its origin was at Fourth and Spruce, and encompassed the parking lot where kids’ putt-putt is sometimes set up, plus in front of the Stevens Center.  You had to pay $2 to get in to the stages: one stage was where musicians performed, and the other was for traditional dancing.  You didn’t have to pay to go to the food vendors, who were set up on Spruce down behind the Sawtooth Center’s fancy city park.

I ate a mango on a stick.  The vendor, who sold me the mango, said I could choose my own toppings.  The toppings included salt, chili powder, and a strange pink paste that probably had dairy in it.  I added a little salt to the mango.  A mango on a stick is actually kind of heavy, and it’s messy, but it was my best vegan option and I’d eat it again.

I went to the “Spanish Conversation” group last Wednesday night, at the language center downtown where the restaurant “Cat’s Corner” is.  I had a good time practicing my Spanish, which I’ve had no call to use since college.  The teacher, Luigi, was also the MC for the Latino festival.

Lauren and I joined the YWCA yesterday (note: please check out the website–”please check back in October 2005″).  We joined the new YWCA, near Salem College and NCSA–it’s about 10 blocks from our house.  We used their treadmills; the treadmills have TVs in them!

Today I mowed our house’s lawn.  I remembered for the first time in ten years what it’s like, for example, to section off the yard into segments for mowing.  I had a hard time remembering how to start the mower (besides pulling the starter you have to put the engine in “fast” mode and make sure the mower is pointed downhill).  I was paranoid about carrying the gas can in the car.

Plus, it’s almost embarassing to be mowing the yard right now, because everything’s about dead because it hasn’t really rained. I mowed because we have a few more resilient patches of grass that were about twice as long as the rest of the grass.

Yesterday Lauren and I finished cleaning up and moving out of our apartment.  We didn’t have any power, since we’d gotten the electricity cut off.  As far as we could tell, the apartment’s now pretty clean!

Our power cut out yesterday.

Lauren and I still have around 10 days before we have to be out of our apartment, but today we and a bunch of our friends cleaned the apartment up a bit.  I assembled around 10 garbage bags of trash; the friends packed dishes and some of them hauled off a bunch of our cat-infested furniture to use in their house.

Our apartment is still quite dirty and embarassing, but we made enough progress today that I can readily visualize the apartment being empty.

Last Friday night we started staying the night in our house.  The refrigerator came last Thursday, finally, and the stove and microwave got installed Monday.  (Mom talked to the local Sears store, cancelled the sears.com installation, and then the local Sears store got us up and running the next day!)

Our cats are still locked up in one room, partly because they’re a bit destructive and we’re concerned about letting them roam free while we’re out.  We’ve started stocking the pantry and we put together a few good recipes that didn’t require a stove.  I’ve walked to Washington Park (proper) a few times, which has been really relaxing.

We’ve still got some stuff at the apartment (plus the Saab to take care of).  We’ve got some furniture at the apartment that we’re going to get rid of, too, so if you need a couch, book shelves, etc., let me know ASAP.

So, on Friday the 13th we closed on our house.  Our apartment lease doesn’t run out until August 31, so we can take our time moving.

Last Sunday we bought some furniture, which’ll be delivered soon.  We’re renewing the Wilson Pest Defense termite warranty.  We just bought paint for the one room we want to repaint, and we taped the room for painting.

Each day we’re moving 4-5 small boxes over.  We’re getting more and more excited about living there!

Lauren and I are going to close on our house this Friday!  We’re really excited!

Right now our mortgage company is preparing (has prepared?) the paperwork to send to the lawyer people.  The lawyer people then look at all the costs, figure out what Lauren and I owe at closing, and then they tell our realtor and the mortgage guy how much money we are supposed to take to closing.

Then Lauren and I will get notified by our realtor, and we’ll go to the bank to get a hugemongous cashier’s check.  Apparently you can’t write a personal check for your house!  Go figure!

Then we will sign like 45 minutes’ worth of paperwork.

Lauren and I are both a little stressed out because we have never purchased a house before and because, although we trust our bank people and realtor, we’re still not sure what to expect at signing.

Sunday, the Heavy Metal fans were setting off firecrackers.

Then last night, starting at around 10 PM, construction workers shook the earth for hours, digging for something. I can only assume they were digging for the water pipes, because our water was also cut off. At midnight the earth-shaking stopped; it was replaced by a noise that sounded to me like a “weed whacker” outside our window. This noise continued until at least 2 AM, when I finally fell asleep.

Then, when we got home today, I noticed the building at Sixth & Liberty they’ve been demolishing now has fancy red caution tape around it. The demolition company’s sign proudly states they specialize in industrial lead and asbestos removal.

Yay! Lead and asbestos remover experts, just across the street helping manage the tons of debris laying everywhere!