Offer number one!

I got home from class to see sticky notes on my door and a business card shoved into the door jam... my real estate agent (my friend from church, and fellow acolyte...) came by with the news that there was an offer on my condo coming through! My mind starts to race and my heart begins to pound... this is really real! I tear open the door and rush to the phone to call Jon. He picks up in the middle of the first ring, we exchange pleasantries and he comes over to take a look at the contract. I look at the first page... scanning to find the offer price, and before I realize it, the words escape my lips...
"Really... well they can just kiss my ass!" Perhaps not the kindest thing - but neither was the offer! It was a full 16,000 less than my asking price. So instead of getting angry (or angrier I should say) I thought - let the games begin! There is a very good reason that I was a mediocre sales rep - and precicely deals like this show why...

However - good news - they have until tomorrow at midnight to accept or counter again, if their counter is as insulting, I'm making some changes to the structure of the deal that they won't like! Hmm - that sounds more like a threat than I mean - but it's been on the market for 15 days - and one exactly like mine (but with a park view) sold for my asking price yesterday! So I'm definately fairly priced!

On to other things. Class is interesting, the intersection of politics and religion (specifically the rise of the religious right in Canada and the US) is an interesting point of discussion. The influence of the Christian right can be summed up in a comment on the prospects of the Conservative Party by the Edmonton Journal (December 5, 2003, p. A16): "The [social conservative] bogeymen won't go away just because they'll be hidden from public view inside a new Conservative Party. They'll still be there, under the bed, waiting for a chance to spring up and spout their offensive anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-immigration, pro-gun, pro-death penalty views." Perhaps this seems a bit harsh, however the recent censoring of media coverage as dead soldiers are returned from abroad, and from the clearing of the press gallery outside the legislature, and only allowing certain reporters to ask certain questions, there seems to be a lot of secrecy surrounding the Prime Minister’s actions that give reason for concern.

Stephen Harper - a sheep in wolf's clothing - even he would appreciate that analogy! Harper and Bush make strange bedfellows (and strangely enough - that notion would make them both cringe... even if only on principal!)