A good time to quit....

My fiance and I are going through a lot of change lately.  She got a new job which makes it great since we now both work downtown.  She is now less than 3 miles from my office!  That means time to move!  Now, my history with moving has always been an interesting affair.  There is always this love/hate relationship that I go through.  "This place is great!  So quiet, affordable..."  10 seconds later...."I hate this place!  No W/D, have to walk half a mile to the car...."  Nevertheless, there is a certain excitement that fills the air.  Almost bringing out that explorer feeling, I suppose.

So, we found a couple of places.  We thought about the run of the mill apartment complexes but those are so hit or miss.  We need a place close to downtown, hard wood floors will be nice, W/D is a must, in a neighborhood where we can walk the dog at night.  While true, it is hard to get everything, what we were looking for isn't an outrageous request.  We did find a lot of places that fit the bill but they were lacking in some area.  Great layout, affordable, less than a 10 minute drive (UNHEARD OF FOR WORKING DOWNTOWN), but no W/D.  The closest laundry room was down 3 floors in the next building. No way.

As you head away from DT, obviously you get more for your money.  We went out a little bit farther and found a great place.  Affordable, great layout (one of the nicer ones for this price point), hard wood, no W/D but the unit was just down the way from the laundry.  We decided to take it, signed the papers, paid deposit etc.  Only, the unit was NOT available but rented to us anyway.  Now we have to change the moving date, maybe not the same unit. etc.  At some point, you make sacrifices but too much is too much.

Now we are looking at privately owned places and I got to say, there is much more available for sure.  We are paying a bit more, but there is much more for your dollar. A friend of mine suggested this route and so far it looks pretty good.  Everything we are looking for plus a bit of character.  When you share a complex with 300 other people, the layout and privacy seems to suffer a bit...unless you like that sort of thing. But there are another host of problems.  Are they reliable?  What happens if the fridge breaks or a/c?  Will they jerk you around on rent?  Well, we might take our chances but so far, the places look great.  I will let everyone know!

Also, we are trying to quit smoking.  It is a touchy subject now since I have been crazy irritable.  But, it has to be done.  People say it is not good to but a deadline on this kind of stuff but it is a good time to quit.  New jobs, new place...why not clear out the 'ol lungs and take it all in. 

Nothing new on the networking front, been taking some more practice tests and scoring 80-87%.  Not quite where I want to be before the actual thing but getting there.  A big improvement over the 60s a week ago.  Almost there.