Aahhh! (sigh of relief)

Hooray! The heat wave has finally passed! We are not used to dealing with weather above 80 degrees here, but this past week it was in the 90's for about four days straight. Since that is very atypical of San Diego, our house, and most houses around here, don't have air conditioners and we don't usually need them, but let me tell you... we just about died. Starting at like 8:00 am every morning our house became a sauna and it didn't cool off until well after dark.  

We had every fan going at full speed, but that really just served to circulate hot air. We would take basically cold showers and be sweating again before we could even get dressed.  Being pregnant definitely didn't help either... with all that extra blood flowing through me I was like a walking heating pad. And poor Rider, our German Shepherd, had to wear a heavy fur coat through all of it. I've never been so excited to go to work and sit in the air conditioning. It was not a pleasant week to say the least. Maybe that's partly why my last post was so sour and it's definitely why I haven't written anything since -- it was too hot to even think! 

The house search is still on though (and our list of necessities now includes A/C). I search Craigslist and other sites multiple times a day and we've called or emailed numerous properties. It's a fine art trying to synchronize where we want to live and our budget to a place that's big enough, has a yard, will take our dogs, and that we wouldn't be embarrassed to have people visit. But I had a great idea the other night. It must have come to me in a dream, because we've already established I wasn't doing much wakeful thinking. 

I decided to compile a "Renter Résumé" for us and the dogs. It gives our contact information, "Quick Facts," "Dog Profiles," rental history, and character references. And I threw in a nice picture of us and the dogs for good measure :) I just really believe that if landlords could get to know us and see that we are responsible, mature renters/dog-owners they wouldn't hesitate to rent to us. I mean, as it is, they'd rather rent to a bunch of frat guys than us and that's totally messed up. I'm determined to convince property owners that big dogs don't automatically equal destructive/aggressive/hyper dogs. 

No joke, as I write this both dogs are sprawled out on the floor and couch perfectly content. Guess what they've been doing since we woke up... the same thing. And guess what they'll be doing the rest of the day... the same thing. In my opinion their size is no one's problem but ours; it just means that we share a space with two extra human-sized beings, not that they are going to attack the neighbors (with anything other than possibly slobber). 

We will find a place that is perfect for us and we won't settle for some crap hole of a house just because we have dogs over 20 lbs. We deserve better and this baby that will be joining us shortly definitely deserves better. So the crusade continues! I'm the great rental-warrior, slaying scammers and converting dog-phobics in my quest for a decent roof over our heads. I will prevail!