to formalize or not to formalize?

last night I actually got some sleep. At 1145 I went upstairs, put on pjs and zonked out. That's 7 1/2 hours folks! yippee!

also, I have decided I will not miss:
~the sounds of the page road traffic in the AM
~the awkward left turn on my route
~the annoying neighbors
~the construction on davis and 54
~all the stoplights
~my 10 minute commute

I am also excited about
~making...7 turns to get to work, 9 if you count in the parking lot.
~my 4-5 minute commute
~being thisclose to my favorite sushi place
and, of course, all of the awesome owning-my-own-place, living-with-matt joys. :D

Last night we went to World Market to get our patio furniture (ps, go to worldmarket.com and sign up for their emails to get a 10% off coupon) which BARELY fit in my little Mattie the Mazda, and then went to dinner. Adam, his Dad, Taylor, Katie and I were there--we went to Bella Monica. And it. was. yummy.

It was nice to drink wine (matt is anti-wine, believe me, he's tried to like it but he says it tastes like rubbing alcohol) and eat outside (I'm having the baked ziti leftovers for lunch as I type this!) and hang out with such fantastic people! I am happy for Adam that he's moving to be with Kristin, but it makes me so sad that he'll be so far away. :(

And then Matt and I almost broke my car. We went to our new place to unload the set and we literally had to rock the car and shove and push to get it out. I got up in the front seat and put my back on the dash area and pushed with my feet and we FINALLY got it out. I laughed when I realized I'd totally messed up the mirror AND managed to eject a cd with my shoulderblades. :)

Also, I need opinions/advice/insight. As you know, Matt and I are moving in together. We are really, REALLY excited about this and think it's going to be AMAZING. As a matter of fact, we've figured out that we fight less (which is pretty much .001% of the time) when we see each other more. We know that living together will take some getting used to and that the financial parts can be kind of tricky but overall we know this is going to be most excellent.

Together we also decided (after someone else asked about it, I might add) that drawing up a contract was unnecessary. I own the house, he's on the insurance, and if we ever had to split up for any reason (breaking up, one of us having to move to be with family, job, whatever) we would be adults about it and not, like, the people who steal each others cars or have screaming matches where they throw hand mixers and mirrors and whatever into walls. Should that unfortunate circumstance ever arrive, we will still be reasonable about it.

We thought we had this all decided. Until...

So, I am somewhat of a frugal person. Not parsimonious, but thrifty, if you will. Sure, I buy pretty much anything I can justify the purchase of as long as it's either a)logical or b)cheap, but I try to do so in a cash-friendly way. It's how I can do that in the first place.

Matt and I had decided to try out not having cable for the summer. I'm buying a dvd recorder to replace the one the cable company provides, and we're just going to see what happens for a little bit. It's a good time to test it out, I think. However, we are going to have internet because, clearly, I am an internet junkie. Give me firefox or give me death. Um, er...

So we decided to put the cable in Matt's name since new customers get ~$12 off a month for the first twelve months--that's a GROSS amount of money, get it get it? And then I figured out that if you refer someone to cable they give you a $25 visa gift card, pretty sweet, huh? So, I signed us up with Matt's name and info and made our appointment for next Thursday and all was to be hunky dory.

until I got the email saying they'd canceled our service appointment because they couldn't figure out how matt was associated with that address. which got me to thinking--he isn't on the deed (no duh), he isn't on any of the utility bills or the HOA list, he doesn't have his name associated formally in any way. So how do I fix this?

I looked up "rental agreements" and "occupant agreements" and "cohabitant agreements" but all of them are very formal with move out notices and security deposits and damage acknowledgments, etc. We don't need that. We basically need a proof of residency for him, I guess? I don't know. We'll see. If you know anything let me know. I just don't want to get into some ultra-formal agreement because I don't feel it's necessary for us. But this is all very tricky, very tricky indeed. hmm.

also: tomorrow, I promise pictures of the kitchen. I think Matt is going to try to paint the yellow today, and if that doesn't happen I'll still show you the orange. yikes!