CTS

CTS is the the code for "offer accepted" on a listing in the Multiple Listing Service. As in "I put in an offer on a condo and my Realtor called me Thursday to tell me that the seller has changed the status on the listing to CTS."

I'm going to be a homeowner!! It makes a great brithday present for myself, doesn't it?

It's a little scary, because the longest I've lived in one place is three and a half years, and that was during college. Buying a home feels so stable. But the good news is that my commute to work will go from about three hours a day to about fifteen minutes a day. You can bet I'm doing the happy dance over that!

Of course, there's still lots of stuff that has to happen before the place is actually MINE. I have to get the inspection, I have to review the condo docs, I have to have my attorney review the contract. Oh, and then I have to get a bank to lend me the money. Details, details.

By lucky happenstance, my parents are here this week (to celebrate my birthday), so they get to see the new place, and my dad can even be there for the inspection, which definitely makes it all a little less scary.

And my lovely brother said that he's getting me a doormat. My choice: Your Home or You're Home. Isn't he sweet?

Marvin the Mole.

I have no idea what made me think of it, but Marvin the Mole just popped into my head. Marvin was the anthropomorphic rodent that my high school chemistry teacher used to help my sophomore chemistry class understand the concept of the mole (6.022 x 10^23 molecules of a substance). It's really not that difficult to understand if you think of it like a dozen. A dozen = twelve, a mole = 6.022 x 10^23 (that's Avogadro's Number by the way). Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

I'm actually not sure why Mr. Korin introduced Marvin. But sophomores will be sophomores, and it wasn't too far into stoichiometry that poor Marvin became "Marvin da ho-mo mole." Whenever Korin would start to talk about a mole of this or a mole of that, someone--usually one of the boys on the football team--would squeak "Marvin da ho-mo mole." Poor Korin would flush bright red and try to ignore them. He actually took a LOT of crap from the kids in my class that year and the next year when I took AP chemistry.

A favorite saying in AP was "Bend over, I'll show ya." The class was mixed juniors and seniors, but mostly seniors and boy did they torture Korin. He got them back one day during lab though. One of the usual suspects made the mistake of saying "What's this thermometer for?" and Korin quickly replied "Bend over, I'll show ya."

I suppose that kind of thing wouldn't be tolerated these days. Maybe I should change the names to protect the innocent.

What was I doing while all this was going on? Mostly trying to ignore it. I didn't mind Mr. Korin, and I loved chemistry and I was good at it. I tutored chem in college. One of my drunk tricks is that I can still derive the Henderson-Hasselbach equation.

Hey! After a little Googling, I discovered that Marvin was not the personal invention of my high school chemistry teacher. He even has his own day! (Marvin, that is, not Korin.) Who knew?

And speaking of moles, I love Trader Joe's Avocado's Number guacomole. Get it? Guaco-mole? Avocado's Number? They are so clever!