Tony Brewer

There is no argument about it, it is a buyer’s market in real estate now, if the buyer can get the financing they need to buy the home that they want!  In this particular economy, I’d like to recommend that people get preapproved for a mortgage by the bank or mortgage company of their choice before they go shopping for a new house! 

Once they are preapproved, I’d suggest that those who are looking for Austin Real Estate purchases would be well advised to check out the Realtors in Austin through the homecity.com website.  The homecity.com website can help chose which neighborhood is the right fit for the buyer, and has virtual tours the buyer can check out before making any appointment with a realtor to actually make a physical trip to the house.  It’s worth a check!

I know that the Amish people still drive a horse and buggy for their transportation, and there have been a lot of trips that I made in the past to parts of the country where there are a lot of Amish people and it is not unusual to see them.  But I did not realize that there was an Amish community in Maryland, and I was driving there a short while ago and was surprised to see an Amish family driving along in their horse and buggy.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I was just surprised to see it!  I do wonder how they manage to stay warm in the buggy during winter drives.  I’d hate to rely on just a lot of warm clothing and blankets to keep me warm in the car in the winter time!

A friend of Teri’s friends (Janet) came over to join us for dinner tonight.  She brought her three month old baby daughter with her, and they left a short while ago.  It’s absolutely amazing how much “stuff” you need to haul around with you when you bring a baby anywhere!  Teri’s been talking about picking up a few baby things to keep here for when her friends with babies come visiting, and I think that actually might be a pretty good idea.  She does seem to have a lot of friends with babies and young children! 

One of the coolest things Janet brought with her was one of those baby slings that I see from time to time when Teri and I go out.  A baby sling is a great way to keep a young baby close to his or her mother (or father) when the parent needs to be able to move around and keep their hands free.

Janet told us that she shopped for her sling on the Internet and found a site that sells nine different brands of slings: hotslings, Beco, Didimos, K’Tan, Elleroo, Ergo, Maya, Moby and Zolowear.  I didn’t realize there was that much competition in the baby sling market!  She showed us the website and some of the slings that they sell.  I think that the Baby K’Tan 8 position wrap looks like the most versatile one, but I also like the hotslings one made out of hemp.

Teri brought to my attention a “fashion” article on the website by msnbc.  The article was talking about men wearing pantyhose that was specifically designed for men.  I was surprised, to say the least!  But then I read the article and have to say that it does make sense for anyone, regardless of gender, to be able to wear hosiery that gives them the support and warmth that they need.  The article was talking about how men seem to be embracing the product and it is gaining in popularity quickly.  I don’t know if I’ll ever need that kind of warmth or support, but I would be open minded enough to try a pair and see how they feel!  I don’t know that I’d go around announcing to people that I am wearing pantyhose, but then again women don’t usually run around bragging about their undergarments either!

In this part of the country this is not the time of year that folks would normally be thinking about their car’s air conditioning.  But Teri’s car last year was starting to act up towards the end of the air conditioning season and we put off repairing it; justifying that we wouldn’t have to deal with it last year, and we’d deal with it this year.  Our mechanic tells us that we will need a new Air conditioning compressor if we want to be comfortable this next summer.  I’ll be ordering a new one from the 1airconditioning.com website for him to install for us so that the car will be ready to go when we need it!