If I were to try to sum up this weekend so far, it would be six hours of driving for 30 minutes of candlelight skiing.

It’s been more than that, of course–among other things, I had a tasty hamburger on white bread–but if I were to expand on anything I’d have to expand on a lot of things, when my main reason for writing is really to take a break from studying for the GMAT. Damn you, data sufficiency questions! Argh.

The listing for our condo is up. We don’t have a for-sale sign up on the front lawn yet, but the first open house will be on Sunday.

The market in the Twin Cities has cooled down quite a bit, and the average property is staying on the market for almost four months. It’ll be interesting to see how we end up comparing to that.

I guess I had a big day today.

It’s late Sunday evening. Lisa’s sleeping, and I’m exhausted. The condo is pretty much ready to sell. I sent photos of our place over to our Realtor last night, and spent much of today filling out a property disclosure and a bunch of other paperwork. Most everything is done, thankfully, although I have to get a couple of financial documents from the condo board’s treasurer before I can tie everything up.

We still have no idea where we’ll be moving, although Hudson is starting to sound increasingly likely. I’m keeping an eye out for places in Minneapolis or Edina (yes, I know, but it has absurdly good schools), but our time window is getting kind of small. The last thing I want is movers arriving when Lisa’s nine months pregnant.

It still hasn’t completely struck me that we’re going to be moving, of course. I suppose the appearance of a for-sale sign will probably do that.

Time for bed.

Trillian Chat Log Monday, January 15

M: See, this is why people shouldn’t send out photos of their newborns.

L: Yeah, not the greatest, those pictures probably only mean something to the parents, although I’m sure we’ll be sending ones out too.

M: We can wait a couple days until our kid has slept some of the wrinkle off.

L: The wrinkle stays on for weeks, my love. Not to mention all the baby fat….

M: We’ll get some stock baby photo, then. No one will know the difference.

L: Only from a designer…

M: Seriously. Babies don’t start looking like their parents until their heads start expanding and shit.

L: It can take a few months for the babies to look like themselves, but you’ll still want to remember what they look like on the first day of their lives I’m sure.

M: I’ll have the video of it coming out.

L: Ah, no way. You’ll be too busy holding my hand. I was actually reading last night that you can get a labor masseuse who gives you a back massage the entire time you’re in labor, I’m going to look into that.

M: Since you’ll have your feet up, how about a pedicure while you’re there?

While the ultrasound technician said they’re never 100% sure about such things, as of today it appears that Lisa and I are going to have a baby boy.

Watch for a dramatic increase in the use of the pronoun “he” in the coming months.

Less than a year and a half after we moved into our wonderful little condo near the heart of uptown, we’re back in the real estate market. We’d spent some time figuring out how we’d accommodate a kid in a our modest 750-square-foot space, but after a lot of pondering and conversations with parents we know, it became clear our living arrangement was impractical. Yes, the baby will be small, but its stuff will not. If we were in a loft I’d just rearrange things, but we have load-bearing walls to deal with.

We’re on a budget, making our options in Minneapolis and St. Paul pretty slim. I’m OK buying a fixer-upper, but don’t want to have to do a footing-to-shingles rebuild. Lisa and I hit a couple open houses over the weekend, and everything we saw would require a massive amount of work. We don’t need great, but do need good enough.

I have little interest in leaving the comforting embrace of sidewalks and street grids, but have started to get myself used to the fact there may be a suburb in our future. It’s not just about me, though. I want my child to grow up in the city, if not a big city like Minneapolis, at least a reasonably-functional small one like Hudson or River Falls. (The small Wisconsin towns in the metro haven’t been screwed up by suburbitis as much as most of their Minnesota brethren… Yet.) Granted, there’s the problem of school quality, but I figure if we could find a place in Minneapolis, we’d have a few years to figure out how to pay for a private school, or at least figure out which public schools to avoid.

So much to do, so little time.

For the love of god, people, the pregnancy happened after we got married.  “Honeymoon baby” is not a euphemism for “fuck, we’re preggers, let’s get hitched!”

So stop asking.  Or suggesting, for that matter.

One other item from the past week worthy of note: Saturday brought a surprise birthday party for our friend Jason, who turns 30 today. It was a cool little party, a good chance to catch up with old college friends, and an opportunity to recognize that almost everyone I went to UW-RF with is about two to five years ahead of Lisa and I in the baby-making category. That’s neither a good thing or a bad thing, of course, but it did feel a bit weird.

On a slightly related note, I’m closer to 32 than I am 30. Just about everyone I know outside of work is younger than me. That’s generally not annoying, unless I bother to think about it, at which point it kind of is.

That’s what I get for flunking kindergarten, I guess. Hmm. Not sure where I’m going with this…

Well, it was kind of an odd week. We returned from Northeastern Wisconsin only to find I’d had some personal items stolen at work, and that Lisa’s car had been smacked by a moving truck. I’m not bothering to file a report on the missing items–they weren’t worth much, and I don’t think there’s any chance of finding the asshole who decided to take them anyway–but I’m still annoyed by it. As for Lisa’s car, everything is being covered by insurance, but while her Toyota is in the shop she has the most ridiculous rental ever, a bright red Dodge Magnum.

Trillian Chat Log Friday, January 5

L: I got a new red Dodge Magnum sports wagon, the visibility sucks! http://www.dodge.com/magnum/

M: Red?

L: Yeah, it’s kind of a weird car. I think it has tinted windows too, at least in the back…

M: Nice rims? Hell yeah!

L: Ha! I don’t think I noticed the rims, I was so offended by the cherry red color and the half station wagon/half sports car thing that’s going on. You will probably get a kick out of it. I guess it’s more interesting than the boat I had last time.

M: We need to drive around pimpin tonight.

L: Yeah, we’ll take it to River Falls baby.

M: It’s a good suburban parent mid-life crisis kind of car.

L: Yes and it’s disgusting is what it is. Dodge “Grab life by the horns!”

M: It’ll look great sitting in our driveway in Brooklyn Park.

L: Ewww, gross thought.