News from the North

First, let's send a very happy birthday to Raymond today and to Kean tomorrow... and a Happy Ground Hog Day (tomorrow) to everyone!  If the Groundhog lived in Chicago, he'd not see his shadow today (and probably not tomorrow either).  We're being pelted with another winter storm and headed toward a foot of snow before it's all over.  As I write this, Will is outside clearing the driveway with his new 2-stage snowblower with ground lights and electric starter (he'd be disappointed if I didn't list some of the best features).

With today being the start of a new month, I felt it appropriate to start a new message to the group - the group we sadly left behind when we moved from Frisco back in November to pursue career growth and financial gain.  Today is especially relevent in the financial gain department because this is the first day when we don't own a home in Texas and a home in Illinois.  Instead, we only own our home in Illinois.  The sale of our house at 2304 Aspermount Drive in Frisco closed successfully yesterday, 01/31.  We consider ourselves to be among the fortunate few who have sold their homes during the real estate collapse that appears to be gripping the nation.  We actually sold our home for exactly what we paid for it in 2005 when it was new plus the cost of the Hunter Douglas blinds we installed shortly after moving in.  I don't think we recouped the cost of the paint in the few rooms we did paint, nor did we recoup the closing costs.  In the end, it was far better to sell the home and breakeven than to continue to pay $6K worth of two mortgages, utilities, and insurance each month waiting for someone to buy the house at a higher price or for an improvement in the real estate market.  Unfortunately for those living in The Fairways, the low price for which we sold our house ($239,900, in case you're wondering) won't do much for the current home values of those who might be thinking of or who are currently selling their homes.  Then again, that's not really our concern.  Looks like the house around the corner on Sonterra that smells like cat pee in the closet (so sayeth the realtor) will have to ferment a little longer on the market or come down more in price.

Work is going well up here though the business as a whole is relatively in the toilet.  Retail across the nation is lagging in year-over-year sales unless you're Wal-Mart or Target, and even then Target is still behind last year's figures.  Sears Holdings has just fired its CEO and a restructuring of the organization is underway with promises for a much brighter 2008.  Good thing I was happy with my base salary and not reliant on the 20% bonus that will most likely not be coming this year.

We've met lots of great people up here and befriended a few of them.  Unlike Frisco, the gay community tends to be spread out more and the group to which we belong is comprised of people from communities as far as an hour away from us.  We get together monthly for some sort of event, usually at a restaurant, but for the holidays, we went to one couples townhome for New Year's Eve and hosted the group's Christmas party at our home.  We had a lot of fun and attendance was great.  We ended up with so much food that for a week or so, we were eating party food for dinner - not a good thing for one's figure.  Then again, when your wardrobe consists of bulky clothes at least for the next four months, we still carry off impressive profiles despite a few extra winter nesting pounds.

We keep in touch with some of the members of Frisco Pride nearly on a daily basis and hear about the goings on in the community.  It seems that we aren't the only ones beginning 2008 with big changes in our lives and changes in friends.  Like the new fallen snow outside, perhaps 2008 will paint a brighter picture than 2007.  Speaking of new friends, we've met our neighbors to the north of us.  They're school teachers nearby in Schaumburg.  She's an English teacher and he's a phys ed teacher (who just turned 30).  What a nice, clean couple they are; sincere and reliable too.  We were invited over for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Will cooked dinner at home both days and we entertained company.  We did pay them a visit on Christmas evening and met their families.  They have a dog who likes to rub noses with our dogs through the fence and last weekend when they had a chance to go snowmobiling in Wisconsin, they called us to look in on Kodi.  He's a good dog and only barks to say hello to Eli (our Great Dane) and Faye (our Greyhound).  Otherwise, he's very well behaved.

We've not formally met any of the other neighbors, but everyone is neighborly - waving when they go out to get the mail or pick up the paper, waiting for you to pull out of your driveway before they continue down the street, shoveling your sidewalk before you wake up in the morning.  All-in-all, we've found ourselves a wonderful community.  I wonder if warmer weather in the spring and summer will bring people closer.  The neighborhood is still very small and with the housing market what it is, it will probably be that way for a while.  The most drama we've seen so far is when one of the neighbor's strings of Christmas lights went out before Christmas and he never fixed it.  The shame of it all... what an embarrassment, but I guess he was clueless.  We'll find out later in the year I'm sure.

We had considered having our own version of the Plano Party in our backyard this summer, but then the lack of mature landscaping to create a more intimate setting changed our minds.  So instead, we'll probably come back to North Texas to enjoy the original event!  For now, we have a dinner party most weekends with different sets of friends and sometimes the entire group - but it's a little louder with 30 people.  This weekend, we're going to buy a new dining set for the family room.  The dining room seats only eight and currently, the family room seats four.  We picked out a set last weekend that seats six regularly but expands with a really cool leaf system called a butterfly leaf (it folds up and conceals itself in the middle of the table and the two halves of the table slide closed).  With the expansion, it will seat eight.  Shane and Romel, the table is the same height as yours - you'll remember that since we first saw your dining set, we wanted to replace ours.  We'll put the other two chairs at the island in the kichen when the leaf isn't in the table.

That's about all for now - hope to see you soon at a Starbuck's near you (because if it was near us, we'd probably not be seeing any of you).  We're considering starting our own Friday night coffee and inviting the community out to attend.  We might try something more subtle than a purple bracelet, like a floral arrangement on the coffee table.  We'll let you know how that goes.

All our best~  David & will