I officially own land

It's been an interesting week. The biggest news is thanks to a slow real estate market, I was able to purchase a vacant lot in Cayucos, CA very close to my parents' house (click on image to see more detail). The road to it is not complete yet and the water pipes haven't been laid but it's all due to come together in the next couple of years. So the thought is I'll pay on the land while the infrastructure comes together and TPTB willing, be able to build on it in several years making me an actual home owner. A home owner in California. A home owner with an ocean view. Booyah! Of course this means my disposable income has just been eaten up in a mortgage payment and for the first time in several years I'll have to start balancing my checkbook to keep on budget. But it's a small price to pay for the long term goal of living the American dream. Today as I signed all the paperwork I really felt like an adult.

On the not as good news front, I've been sick as a dog this week. I had to work most of Saturday night and all day Sunday due to a server migration not going as smoothly as planned and between the stress, lack of sleep and prior exposure to ill person Saturday I ended up with a horrific respiratory infection. In two days despite my trying to rest and taking all the right meds, it had escalated to sinusitus, ear infection and upper resp infection bordering on bronchitus. The doc gave me some mondo antibiotics which have helped and some cough syrup/decongestant which has some sort of narcotic in it. The first night it knocked me out for 5-6 hrs so I finally got some consecutive sleep instead of the sleep an hr-cough for 2hrs pattern I'd established. The second night it made me jittery and completely sleepless. I hate narcotics for this very reason-- they don't always do what they're supposed to within my body. Anyway I'm on the mend now but still at only 65%. I have one more day of antibiotics so here's hoping it does it's job... but I can already tell I'm gonna be coughing up residual crap for a couple of weeks. It's the first time I've been sick in about a year so it was a doozie. Unfortunately it's messed up my female cycle so it'll be June before I resume my frozen swimmer project. :)

Also this week I lost my Californian cherry. I was working Tuesday morning on end of the quarter craziness when the world shook-- I experienced my first earthquake. A 3.9 hit about 10 miles from Morro Bay. It only lasted about 3 seconds but it was exciting. The whole fight or flight instinct did not kick in. I sat there as my computer chair rolled to the middle of the room with me in it, staring at the cat who did not look pleased to be woken from her nap. Windows rattled, items in shelves shook but nothing fell down or was damaged. It was pretty exciting.