I called the mortgage broker that a friend of mine recommended at about 10:00a today. I got in touch with her assistant, who told me that I’d be getting a call back at 11:00a, after the broker got out of a meeting.

It’s 11:25a right now, and I’ve not gotten any calls.

I appreciate that people are busy and whatnot, but I value punctuality. Don’t tell me - or have your assistant tell me - that you’re going to call me back if you’re not.

It doesn’t help that I sent this broker an email on Monday and never heard back, either. This whole thing smells rotten. I’m wondering if I should just look for someone else. I mean, if I can’t count on calls getting returned or emails getting answered, why would I trust this person with the largest purchase I’m bound to make?

Greg told me I should talk to three different brokers anyway, to make sure I’m getting the best deal. I don’t think that’s too bad of an idea, but it does mean a lot more work on my part. I suppose in the long run it’ll be worth it.

*Sigh*

I wish this were easier, like buying a car. I suppose technically I could go to the “house lot” and pick out a house, but I’m not too big on the whole manufactured home thing. If only they could make manufactured homes as nice as regular homes.

I had an idea, too, and I’m not sure whether to go with it or not… For the first time home buyer, like me, it would be nice to see a journal-style account of some other first time home buyer’s experience getting a house. I’m thinking I may start a new category for blog entries and start the journal there. Then maybe it’ll be helpful to someone down the road. Or, maybe, just for me, to look back and see all the stupid mistakes I made. Hmmm. Maybe that’s not such a great idea.

Call me impatient, but it’s been 45 minutes and no word from the mortgage broker. Fuck this, man. I put in a request for consultation from MortgageDesignGroup.com, so we’ll see how that goes. Supposedly I’m going to hear from someone within 48 hours.

According to their site, rates are nice and low and I might be able to get somewhere between 5.5% and 6.125%. Not too bad; might mean I can get a better house.

I have this mug that a friend at work got me for Christmas. It’s a nice mug, but over the weekend I had a couple of problems with it.

First, it’s one of those mugs that can’t go in the dishwasher because of the way it’s insulated - water can get between the outer layer of plastic and the inner layer of metal and mess up the design that displays on the mug.

I took the mug home and put water in the mug and set it in the sink. No, the sink was not filled with water - it was just sitting there. Dry sink, mug full of water. By the end of the weekend, I was going to wash it but somehow water has gotten between the plastic and metal on the mug and has soaked down half of the design inside. So much for that.

Second, there’s something weird and stinky inside this mug. I’ve washed it over and over, using different types of soap, really hot water, cold water, you name it. It smells like sour-washcloth-meets-coffee. I can’t figure out what’s up with it. I have to drink with the lid on it because otherwise it’s… well, it’s just bad. I have no idea what it is.

I just got this week’s MSD2D SharePoint newsletter and I’m the Tip Of The Week! (At the time I’m writing this, they haven’t updated the MSD2D SharePoint home page to reflect that; it’s still last week’s tip.)

The toilet in the main bathroom (as opposed to the master bathroom) had the seat on it break (actually, it was a bolt in the hinge), so we reported that to the maintenance people at the apartment complex last week.

We found a note on the toilet a couple of days later that said the whole toilet needed to be replaced. Apparently it was cracked and was about to become a problem.

Sunday Jenn and I went shopping. When we came home our old toilet was sitting out on the curb and there was a guy in our apartment installing the new toilet. I talked to him for a bit and it turns out not only was our old toilet cracked, but it also wasn’t installed level, so we’re really lucky we didn’t end up flooding out the people downstairs.

Not that I would have minded that so much; they bug me. It just would have been something I didn’t need to deal with.

So we got this new toilet. Due to the old toilet not being level, there was a little bit of a gap between the toilet bottom and the floor. The cat liked to take a length of yarn and run feverishly around the base of the toilet until the yarn caught in the gap and then she’d wrap the yarn firmly around the base. This new toilet doesn’t have a gap.

The result of there being no gap is that we heard the cat running around the base of the new toilet for probably half an hour last night, trying to get that string caught in the nonexistent gap. Every once in a while, she’d be running so fast that she’d lose control and fly sideways into the garbage can in the bathroom, which would consequently *clang* against the side of the bathtub and echo. We thought there was someone hammering something or breaking in; turns out it was just the cat.

I’m not sure if she eventually just lost interest or got it hooked somehow, but when I glanced in the bathroom this morning, her yarn was wrapped around the base of the toilet.