The craft store on the east side of town is going out of business. I was doing just fine resisting it, too, until they announced the additional 10% off of everything in the store this week. And it was on my way home from work anyway, seeing as how the roads I take are also on the east side of the lake. It was only a couple more miles east from there.

I managed to resist the heavily slashed prices on picture frames and sculpey clays, the weird beads and rubber stamps… but the yarn, the yarn I could not resist despite the fact that I have an entire desk drawer filled with the stuff at home. It sang to me it’s siren song and I drowned in fourteen skeins of fluffy sock-yarn goodness. But ten of them are for Mym. I’m selfless like that.

Oh, and I bought him two new treasure chests, too. Maybe I should have kept one for myself. I’m sure every self-respecting yarn pirate has one. Arrrr.

When shopping around for a loan, don’t give the propective lenders any information you aren’t ready for them to use right then and there. Any assurances they give you regarding the use of that information are completely ignored the second you hand over your social security number.

Even if you don’t fully complete the online application they insisted you fill out before they would even spend more than two minutes on the phone with you.

Be particularly wary of responses such as “there’s no commitment for just submitting an application” after expressly stating that you do not want them to run a credit report at this time. While this statement is generally true, it neither answers the question nor indicates any degree of concern for your wishes.

If, however, you find yourself in this situation, waste no time in making them aware that they will now have to work harder to earn your business. Keep them in the pool of prospectives to improve your options, then take the best offer of the lot to the lender who was willing to spend an hour on the phone walking you through the whole process without even asking for an application and sign it with them. Theoretically speaking, of course.

Before I get started, you should know that I just took a dose of NyQuil to combat a raging cold. Just in case I start saying things that are, you know, weirder than usual.

So, my new obsession is this house. Seriously. I go to bed at night thinking about it and it’s the first thing on my mind when I wake up. It is the desktop picture on my computers at home and at work.

Or, I should say, OUR house. Someone else found it just before we did and has put an offer in on it, but I prefer to think of it as the Universe’s way of licking the house for us until we get our ducks in a row. We intend to become homeowners within the next several months. I even started calling lenders this week. Far be it from me to wish evil on a perfect stranger, but I am eagerly waiting for their deal to fall through so we can claim it for ourselves.

This house is perfect for us. It’s outside of town on the other side from where we’re living now, but the commute would stay approximately the same. It sits on over an acre of land. Hardwood floors, wood burning stove, modern and spacious kitchen, and unlike any other house in the area in the best way possible. We haven’t even seen it in person yet, but I don’t care. It’s priced right at the top of what we can afford, but if we’re going to stretch ourselves for a house, this is the one to do it for.

Come on luck, bring me this house!