It's Official, for sure, maybe, OH HELL I GIVE UP!

OK!  So the slow wheels of lending institutions being what they are, I FINALLY signed the papers for the new Casa de Dodson.  I won't bore you with the details here.  I mean if I did that what would I have to write about in 5-6 pages to wear your already shot peepers with.  HUH??

SO.. I am getting ready to start moving, packing (OH MY GOD NOT PACKING!!).

See this is the part where we start thinking..  How much insurance do I have on my stuff?  If I left the windows and front door open and conveniently left for a few hours, just think of how little I would have left to pack.  INGENIOUS!!

This is the start of the Dodson Moving Method (trademark).  you to can have State Farm/Farmers/Bobs Insurance Shack pay for your move.  Why move your old crap when you can have a newly furnished home!!

And after 3-5 years, you can enjoy it with your spouse after you get out for good behavior and say good bye to Bubba who has been just like your spouse for those lonely years.

Where was I??   Oh yea, back to that moving thingy.

So here is the new address.

Derrick Dodson (and clan)
6325 Matterhorn Drive
Sacramento, Ca 95842

Please update your address book/contact list/piece of paper you dropped and is now stuck to the bottom of your shoe because you walked over some gum and now every time you take a step you hear this crunching noise under your foot that you can't really tell where it's coming from until your kid says daddy what is that on your foot.

This way your letter/postcard/packages/small children don't get lost in the mail because they would get hungry and possibly die and I really don't need that kind of pressure on my head wondering if I made it down to the post office in time before the oxygen runs out in their box.

OH, almost forgot.  I'm doing this little giveaway thing.  If you have a chance and would like to get in on the action.  The cut off is on July 4.

Just leave a comment here with your address.  or email to me as it will never reach me before the 4th.  The email address is on the Aboot Me page.


If you run a blog, I would appreciate the kind mention of the goodies on yours, if you don't mind.

Well, I'm off to figure out if I can legally run a fire sale.  I mean hey, it's the 4th of July.  I have plenty of fire extinguishers  what could possibly go wrong.

A Call for Printers and Giveaway announcement

So, the slow wheels of the real estate market grind on.

Through this lovely process I have discovered a few things.

A. I am 43 years old.
B. I will DIE in this house.

I never want to go through this process again. Being that I will "hopefully" have this thing paid off before Kaylee is out of high school we shouldn't have to move.  I know, I know never say never.  or die for that matter.  Or pull my finger in mixed company after a trip to Taco Bell.

We almost lost the house yesterday when the appraisal came back 10k under our offer.  Remember kiddies, the bank won't let you pay more for the house than it's worth.  So my awesome agent got to work and saved the house for us.  The owner was going to pull the house and wait out the 6 months for the appraisal to run out and ask for a conventional loan (they can ask for what ever they want with that type of loan - see dinner and a show - you learned something today - you can now go home).  So with a bump in the interest rate and a cut in commission fro our agent (can't believe she did that for us) we are now on the path to home ownership.

Kaylee is enrolled in kindergarten and starts Aug. 9.  We are really excited about the school and Kaylee likes the teachers.  She met them at orientation. and it's only a few blocks from the new house :)

I have managed to get a few letters out and have everything I need for the giveaway, but I need to wait until I am clear to move in so I can get the change of address cards out and have a definitive place to have stuff sent.  I really don't like to have mail forwarded.

So with that..  I need some ideas on change of address cards.  Here is a chance for someone out there to get some printing business from me.  I would like letterpress if possible.  The order would be for around 120 cards.  Yes I have a bunch to send out.  Like you guys didn't know that.  How long have you been hanging out here??

IF you could send me a sample (email would be fine) and some pricing for quantity, you to could be the next contestant on The Price is Right!!

Now for the fun stuff.  The July giveaway.  You will be receiving in the mail a postcard with a number on it (I'm getting my stamping hand limbered up).  I have over 100 cards going out on this one and the prize it pretty good.  So here is a sample of the goods.


So tell em what they could win Chuck.

Well Derrick, if they call back within the next 10 minutes they can get this:

This lovely hard bound Legends of the West book with cover to keep those nasty dust bunnies off of your treasured collection (bad bunnies).

But wait there's more.  As you are one of the callers in the next 10 minutes you will also receive this:

This absolutely lovely collection of stamps all un licked by the house Chesapeake Bay Retriever (you can find your own dog - or I'm calling PETA)

And if that's not enough we'll throw in this:

A full set of first day release of The Legends of The West postcards.

Now our offer would be an istillwrite giveaway with out an added bonus..

But Derrick, you've already provided so much in this amazing offer.. what else could you throw in??

I'm so glad you asked.  I've been searching high and low and I've found something unique.  something made from the finest fuax bronze that could be had from some third world country. (sorry no pics - yet) a Pony Express commemorative coin.

Oh MY.. you can offer all of that can you for that price!!

YES, I' Can and yet I'm not done.  I'll also include a pony express advertisement and a pony express route map!!

But Derrick, How much are you selling it for?? $800?

NO, not $800.. Not even $400.. Not even $100

REALLY??

I'm offering you all this for the low, low price of a stamp (well that and some paper, you gotta stick that thing to something).

So hope that wet's the appetite.  All of the pieces are there, I just need a permanent address.

So what do you folks think?

I get almost ALL of my addresses from Good Mail Day.  So if you would like to be included in the mailing leave your address there by July 4th.  I will begin the mailing after that.  There are over 100 addresses in that listing.  I have my own  as well, so this will be the largest mailing I have done to date.

There may be some other goodness included as the prize mailing will be around Sept 1st (allowing for respondents) which coincides with Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento.  So I will be picking up some more goodies at that time.

There will be some secondary prizes, I have a bunch of coins and posters of the pony express to spread around and some pressed pennies.

Bear with me folks.  I just need to get settled in the new house and get caught up.  Remember if you send me something I will write back.  Just might take a bit longer than normal.

Of Clampettes and Maui

The Clampettes are movin to Maui.  OK not really but close (ish).

We are in a CONTRACT..  and the peasants rejoice (yea)..

On Saturday we finally entered into a contract on a nice little house. A bit smaller than what we are in now but to my liking and in a MUCH better neighborhood.  Close to what will be Kaylee's new school (she starts kindergarten in August) within walking distance.  And work is now only 1.4 miles (according to google) away.  So with that whole math thing.  I "should" be able to go almost an entire month on 1 tank of gas.  Yea right and pigs might fly out my butt.. I mean if I never went anywhere other than work and home.  Which for the next few months might be the case.  I can feel the vacuum that is a home purchase already taking effect on my bank account.

This is what I can't believe.  We found a selling agent with morals.  WHAT????  Yup, they do exist.

They looked at our offer which was for asking (and what the house will actually appraise at) and accepted it within hours of submission. A lovely little 4bdr 2.5 bath 1435 sqft home.  with REALLY nice landscaping.  Kim and I get separate offices (BONUS).

We even managed to do a little recon after the office was accepted.  The owners wanted to go through with the open house they had scheduled for Sunday.  So we went.  Why not.  The selling agent had never met us, so we went in undercover to see what would happen.  To our surprise Mr. Morals was just that.  We were greeted at the front door with a pamphlet  and the statement "We are currently under contract as of yesterday"  YES!!  " But fell free to look around".  So I started chatting with Chad (agent) and told him our tale of constant outbidding on all of the previous housing purchase attempts.  He informed me that the offer they accepted was for asking and if they had had a bidding war offer (you know those 20-30k over asking to "get in" offers) that they would have turned it down as the house wouldn't appraise for that and they didn't want to have to re-negotiate the contract.  You Go Mr. Morals!! 

See..  Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus.

So, now I can stop pouring over listings every waking hour of the day.  Am I sleeping any better?  NO.  Not until my posterior is sitting on my couch looking through the screen door my puppy is bound to destroy (I have faith in her) in our new home.

We are to close on July 1.  When I know for sure it's going to happen I will post the new address as well as sending out change of address cards.  I there any of my readers out there with a letterpress that wants some work???

Derrick

And the hunt goes on

So, yes I'm still hanging around.  Yes, I'm still sending our stuff albeit at a much slower pace right now.  and YES house hunting is the most time consuming and frustrating thing I have done in YEARS.

Child rearing is not this frustrating.  I'm not sure how many of you guys have gone through this process but for all the stories in the press stating the housing market sucks, they should try to be out there searching for one.

While the NEW construction sector might be in a downturn, the existing market is BOOMING.

We live in the Sacramento area which is fairly spread out.  Much like any urban/suburban area all over the country.. out instead of up in the city.  There are good and bad areas like anywhere.

Now one would think that your spouse, who has lived in this town/city/area for the past 30+ years would know the city.  Might even know how to get from point A to point B  (yes I'm making a sexist remark here).

So here is the problem when you are having your significant other searching for houses using various real estate searches on the internet or ipad app.  While she is finding houses, she is neglecting to actually look at the MAP on the SAME PAGE and zoom out a bit to actually show where that house is.

Ooooo  Look at this one..  Dear that house is at the end of the runway..  Oh.

Ooooo Look at this one..  How fond are you of backyard train sets.  Because it's going to seem like we have one in our room at 2 am.  Oh.

Oooooo... Look at this one.. Fan of helicopters??  Cause I can guarantee you be hearing them at least 3 times a week with a loud speaker yelling GET ON THE GROUND..  Oh..

So this has been my life for the past 2 months.  So while I have not been posting much lately, I have been busy :)

So bear with folks, I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hopefully it's not an officer shining a light in my face asking me to step back from the ledge.

And with that, I promise to at least keep ya'll up to date on my pending mental trial (I think it's scheduled for mid July) on my ongoing housing saga.

more to come..  getting ready for another mass mailing (think horseys and indians)

Of AWOL and Hunting

Just a quick note to let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth (it's round silly).

House hunting (Adventure is out there).  I would never wish this process on my worst enemy.

For those of you who have never had the "pleasure" of house hunting (buying) you are in for a taste delight like no other, or smells delight for that matter.

So with that - update coming this weekend - new mail. 

Kim and I are off to Reno this week for our 10th wedding anniversary. Hopefully in a housing contract :)

Till Next time

Derrick

Of Taxes and Winners

So here we are on lovely tax Sunday, April 15th.  Yes I know that it was pushed until Tuesday because it fell on a weekend.  Doesn't make it anymore pleasurable.

We are still recovering from that lovely year and a half of out of work time for me.

So with that cheery note.  Bring on the WINNER for the baseball giveaway.

There is one big winner and I have a bunch of the lapel pins that I will be sending out to the folks that actually sent me in letters with baseball memories.

This was a fun contest for me, as I really enjoyed the incoming stories that people wrote about.

So without dragging this our further.  The Winner is..  SHANNAH!!

Random.org number pull from everyone in the contest.  13 people eligible (out of 80 cards sent, not bad really).

So, what did Shannan win?

20 prestamped cards

A full sheet of one of the 2 stamps below.  The Rube Foster sheet is a .44c and the Take Me Out To the Ball Game sheet is .42c (now why couldn't they make THESE Forever stamps?)

And lastly, the stamp above was also made into a lapel pin and she will get one of those as well.

So here is the BIG question.  I have 4 things in the hopper for future giveaways.  All based on time tables.  As well as when ever the move happens (have I mentioned before house hunting sucks).

1. Something to do with cowboys (this will happen around Sept.) to coincide with the end of the Pony Express.  To include some REALLY cool stuff.  Postcards, book, poster and a bunch of Pony Express stuff.  

I live in Sacramento, the end of the line for the pony express.  During the fall, we have Gold Rush days.  During which, they hold a running of the pony express through town, ending at the Wells Fargo office in Old Sacramento.  I will be getting a whole bunch of mail with the pony express cancellation on them at that time.  

Going to have to make this one interesting as the giveaway is a good one.

2. Halloween.  I'll leave your imagination up for that one.  I have all of the pieces in place for that.

3. Field Notes Brand.  I am a big fan of these little notebooks and have been purchasing them for the past 2 years.  They just came out with a new box set for spring and I will be sending this out to someone sometime in May/June me thinks.  Still have to put it together with something else and figure what the mailing will be. 

4.  My regular "Box/Tube of Krap/Movie" Giveaways that will be a rolling thing as I purge for the move.

With that, do you guys have anything you would like to see up for grabs.  I'm game :)

Of Zombies, Mail and Housing

Well greetings campers!  It's a great day here at Camp Little Big Mosquito.  Hope everyone got a good nights sleep.

Things here have been rolling along and the house hunting continues.  I can't wait till this is all done as the mileage is killing the bank account.  Driving to homes that are no longer available and unknown until you get back to write an offer.."I'm sorry, we sent you there to see a house that was already off the market because we could".  Is it still illegal to shoot people?

Until the housing situation settles, I may be a bit slow in responding.  I assure you though if you write, I WILL write back.  Campers honor.

So with that on to MAIL CALL!!..  No Johnny, you still haven't gotten anything from your mom!

First up DODSON, D!!

From Ms Patty (who emerges from the ashes like the recycling phoenix) , who reminds us to never totally throw out that junk mail.  And SEE.. I was Pre-Selected! cause I'm special..

DODSON, D !!.. Another..  Stop whining you'll get something janice.

This is from a new sender Ms Marie, this is one of her drawings which was also on the letter she sent me. Quite nice.  She wants a hand made postcard from me.  So let it be written, so let it be done!  See how I worked in that whole ten commandments thing.. Subtle huh?

DODSON, D!!

This one comes from Elle (mental).  I wish I could show you the other side.  Alas it did not fair well in the mail.  There must have been some rain somewhere (it's all Limners fault).

DODSON, D!!  (I'm starting to make the other kids kinda mad)

This one comes from Lainey.  It's my first card from Jamaica (she sent 2).  Both cards were very scenic and both with Mr. Marley on them but different stamps.  I'll post the other card next time.

DODSON, D!  STOP IT.  He has people that like him.  Maybe if you stopped putting worms in the girls sleeping bags.

From Ms. Rebecca in London (GMD) another notebook/paper fan.  Working on her reply this week.

DODSON, K (HA Gotcha, thought I was just gonna run it into the ground!)

These next few were for Kaylee, Now how can you go wrong with swimming pigs.  The first thing both she and I thought of was Nanny McPhee Returns.

From The Netherlands (postcrossing).

From Ms. Keli, (GMD) with whom I am sharing a Circle Journal.

From Ms. Juli (GMD).  On a recent trip to the Postal Museum.  From the Titanic and Hindenberg Exhibit.  Going on from March 22, 2012 - January 6, 2014 (You've got time)

From Ms. Sharon.  Really like the Owney stamp (not cancelled)

From Ms Bean.  And my absolute favorite this round and hanging on my wall from my baseball mailing.  The "card" is a round cut and decorated on both sides.  Came in a clear plastic cd case.  Ms. Bean lives in Reno.  They also have a triple A team there (Reno Aces) that play in the same division as the Sacramento Rivercats (also triple A).  She writes to tell me of the memories she has of watching the Detroit Tigers (MY TEAM!!) play ball with her dad and grandfather.  

Like I said.  Take your kids to the ball park folks.  It is a memory they will NEVER forget.

Well  I hope ya'll had a great zombie day yesterday and don't forget that the drawing for the baseball giveaway is this weekend.  I have to get that out of the way t start on the next one and it's gonna be HUGE..  Hint.  cowboys.  That's all you get till you start seeing the cards coming in.  I "almost" have enough.  Stamps in possession, cards are getting there.

So remember campers.  Keep that mosquito repellent handy and lights out at 10..