Of Selling Our House, Skills Not So Highly in Demand, and Rollicking Good Entertainment

So...we're moving. Surprise! Happy birthday, Mr. President! We've decided to sell our humble abode and move southward, closer to my work, probably Lehi-ish. The reasons are manyfold--spending less on gas, getting Tingers into a school with a Chinese immersion program, really hating our front stairs, etc. Actually, aside from the stairs, I now find myself in the strange situation of kind of...how do you say...LIKING the house. I remember five years ago when we were first shown inside the house, with its walls painted pink and its rotting floorboards from where the toilet was leaking and its carpeting that looked like crazed teenagers drenched in motor oil had been break-dancing on it and the ugly window seat in the living room and the fireplace in the family room that took up an entire wall (our PROJECTOR wall, if you can imagine the nerve) and all of the little signs of the previous owner's insanity, such as the desk lamp installed next to the shower head in the hallway bathroom and the back porch supported by car jacks and the towel rod attached to the siding. I remember leaving, and Alyssa asking me what I thought, and I remember me saying something typically Benlike, something along the lines of "Well...it's kind of a manure pit." We bought it anyway. Alyssa's idea. Over the next few weeks we fixed it up pretty well, considering all of the aforementioned. New paint, new carpet, new tile, window seat and fireplace ripped out, etc. Beyond all odds, we actually made it livable. I wish now I'd spent more time enjoying it and less time complaining. Anyway, we've spent the last few weeks fixing up the joint so it's show-ready the day after tomorrow. Alyssa's family has been helping a lot. Last Friday evening we moved out and into Alyssa's parents house so it stays as untouched and pristine as Mother Nature intended.  

Other than that, I can't think of a lot that's been going on of late. Last night we had dinner with a ward family, the Sanders, which I had "won" in our recent ward service auction. That's where everyone donates acts of service, and you get to bid for them. Alyssa donated making potstickers and bread and washing someone's windows, and I donated pretty much the only thing I'm good at besides writing blog entries rife with wit and ingenious socio-political commentary--editing a document. Unfortunately it turned out to be one of the lowest bidding items in the auction, and when it was finally purchased, it was by a seven-year-old girl who's not even in our ward. Yeah, I don't know what kind of document a seven-year-old girl needs editing services for, either. Ten-word book report? Letter to whichever heartthrob celebrity bonehead is the current flavor of the week? I don't know. Anyway, we also went to Arsenic and Old Lace at Hale Center Theater a few days ago, and a rollicking good time was had. Yeah. You heard me. "Rollicking." Now that's a word I definitely need to start using more often in conversation.