Strike One

Pretty much immediately after deciding that we wanted to combine our two families into one giant mish-mash of kids, pets, empty juice boxes and dirty laundry, we did what every normal couple would be expected to do in our situation. So after the Percoset and a few shots of tequila, we combed craigslist.

On Sunday, the gods were smiling upon us, feeding us cake on a golden platter. We found the perfect house in the perfect location at the perfect price. AND they took pets. It was, how shall we say... perfect? Yes.

On Monday, however, the gods decided meh, no cake for you. The pets weren't a problem at all. Two dogs? Phhht, who cares? Throw a cat in. And a goat. Whatever. No. The issue was that they didn't take KIDS. And despite that it breaks an anti-discrimination renter's rights law, the wife had no problem informing me of that. And the way I was informed... She wasn't merely kicking at the law to see if it would scuff, or throwing a little dirt on it.

This was like a back-street, baseball-bat, old-fashioned law beating.

From the tentative: "I am nervous about the kids...

To the bold: "Six kids? Are you crazy?"

To the outright illegal:"What if we increased the deposit to cover the children?"

To the just-plain-weird: "A friend of mine suggested that I come and see your houses, you know, to inspect them, to see how, you know, things are. Would that be alright with you?"

Needless to say, her husband called later to tell us we didn't get the house. They decided not to rent quite yet. Seems that despite being on the market for the last month and dropping the price by $400 per month, still, somehow, they weren't ready.

And so we wait.