International Toothpaste

We ran out of Fuzzy's favorite toothpaste a couple days ago, and since there's been no time to go shopping, we've been raiding the tubes we bought while on various vacations. This week, we're using a tube of Canadian Colgate, instead of our usual American AquaFresh.

I'd noticed when we were in Baja for Christmas, the year before that, that CocaCola was sweeter, and chocolate was grainier, but I'd also noticed that the toothpaste was, well, gloppier. It didn't come out of the tube in a pasty cylinder, much like the toothpaste equivalent of canned cranberry sauce (you know, the kind where, if you don't take measures, you can see the ring-marks from the can?), but instead sort of splatted onto the bristles of my toothbrush. It was also sweeter than I generally expected toothpaste to be.

I was mildly suprised when the Canadian toothpaste, which Fuzzy had grabbed while in Toronto for a Geek Conference, was much more like the Mexican stuff than the American stuff: Gloppy, sweet, and sort of glowy green, despite not being a gel.

Do we, as Americans, have such bad teeth that we require a more abrasive toothpaste, or is this just a result of the difference in which chemicals are allowed where? Or is the real problem that I'm comparing American AquaFresh to Mexican Crest and Canadian Colgate?

Just an idle thought while trying to survive the work day.

Full Price Offer!

So, I just got off the phone with my realtor Anne Hansen, and she said she'd received a full price offer on our townhouse today. Yes!

The buyer has asked that we pay for Section I termite items, which is a normal seller-paid cost anyway, and any HOA transfer fees, which our HOA doesn't charge.

We're countering, with a capped liability of $3,000 for those termite repairs. The person wanting to buy didn't ask about the floors, so we're not offering to resurface them, but we got a quote to have it done.

Mysteriously, that number $3,000 is haunting us in another way. We're $3k short of the cash to increase the deposit (which sits in escrow until closing), and only because lenders are taking so long to fund stuff, that I won't get commissions for another two weeks. ARGH.

Well, we'll figure it out somehow.

In any case, we're glad that we got an offer so soon when the average time on the market in this city is currently around 38 days.