Naughty v. Nice Poll Results

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well you voted. And I am happy to inform you that 100% of the responses are included in the results.

Natalie - Nice...........................52%
Natalie - Naughty...................48%

Mark - Nice.............................44%
Mark - Naughty.....................56%

Responses are still rolling in, so i will be updating these up through the New Year. Do the right thing, and embrace the Holiday Spirit before somebody's feelings are hurt!

-M


Well, it looks like I just squeaked it out! Awfully close for comfort, but at least I'm ahead in the nice votes for right now (just in time for Santa's visit last night!)....if you haven't sent in your ballot yet, keep them coming - we do want to know what you really think!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!!

-N

Kickin the Flip

It started on a Sunday. Jeff and Cindy were taking their weekly road tour through Western MD and spotted a darling little cottage on a hillside embraced by evergreens....

Close anyway. Jeff was looking for cheap stuff on Craigs List and saw a 3BR end unit townhouse in Frederick across from Ft. Detrick.

So he gives me a call and it's off to the races. Luckily we had the funds all ready to go from the last fiasco near the train tracks in Mount Airy (old story). A day later we were walking through the cat & dog infested, 5 pack a day, pot smoking hideaway. Jeff started sneezing about 5 minutes into the tour and i soon followed. Despite the attack on the olfactory and respitory systems it was in good shape and as they say "had great potential". Quick curb side chat with the Mike (the seller's rep, also aka "slim shady" we found out later) and we had a nice number to negotiate on.

Jeff takes me on a trip down memory lane for a call with our future agent to handle the transaction, Ricky Hahn from the Magruder HS days. Thankfully Jeff and I both agreed right up front that we were not doing this deal on the sly like Slim Shady wanted, we were doing this straight up with a standard real estate contract. I'd get into it but it's old stuff now, suffice it to say that there were actually two Slim Shady's working with the seller. 7 days later, they were out of the picture and Ricky got the seller at the table to sign a real contract. 14 days later, on Nov. 30th, we closed that deal with one or two 11th hour musings from a mad woman, but at least we were done. Or really just beginning. And now for some pictures of the new home to the North.

Mark & Natalie are Online!!!!

Well it's about time we did something like this. Three computers in the house and no web page or anything. Heck, i've got my MGWSolutions.net domain but I've never put the page up. Hey, at least i use it for email.

So you might ask, why are we getting online now? Well, that's simple... because Mark got off his lazy bum and had a lot of crap to get off his chest and couldn't take it anymore. He needs an outlet. So how about Natalie? Well I guarantee she'll be taking this over very quickly. It's the holidays and she has about 10,000 pictures I know she'd love everyone to see. So brace yourself because the inescapable slideshow of our last 10 years together is coming. And with technology the way it is today, we'll be tracking your attention to our comments on our lives using those cookie things.... hmmm, i think it's time for a raw cookie dough binge... or maybe not because Natalie will most certainly comment on that in a negative manner here.

Anyway, this is only posting number one. Soon to come are:

• Holiday commentary
• Results of our Holiday Poll (what poll? you'll find out soon enough)
• Mark's job search (yeah right!)
• Mark & Jeff's House flip (oh god, what have we done!)
• Pictures - Old and New...and more old, and more old, and more old...gotta catch you up
• And of course random commentary & rants from Mark (aka "whatever bug is up my A$$ at the moment")
• And if you're really lucky, an unabridged version of Mark's theory of economics. If you haven't heard it yet, stay tuned because it's better than those "how to make millions in real estate" infomercials. (Sure there's some similarity/conflict with doing the house flip. It's called hedging your bets. If you don't understand, retake Econ 101 or play Blackjack and DO buy the insurance. Actually that's a known bad bet, have some stones and split a pair of tens instead. It'll be glorious or you'll get the greatest look of disgust from the other players at the table. - disclaimer: I recommend doing so only at a $5 table.

And that was a rant.

So Truely Yours for the Very First Time,

Mark