Sunday, May 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Let the record show that I absolutely cannot take on any more projects at this time. I am so swamped and overwhelmed, I have forgotten how to just be happy.
As much as I think the idea is good and deserves execution, as much as I want to help, as much as I wish I had accomplished X, I must remember:
I absolutely cannot take it on right now.
As much as I think the idea is good and deserves execution, as much as I want to help, as much as I wish I had accomplished X, I must remember:
I absolutely cannot take it on right now.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Southern Comfort
OMG, did I forget to tell you all about my trip to The South?
When we told people we were going to Savannah and the south for vacation, we got a lot of confused looks from people. "oh... how interesting. ... how did you pick that destination?" as in "uh? why in the heck are you going there, of all god-forsaken places?"
We decide to take advantage of Paul's time off, and we also discussed the great trips we've had when we went to places we would not have necessarily chosen as our first choice vacation. Stuff like a roadside apple orchard in Wisconsin, a beautiful park in the middle of Atlanta, a tiny saloon in a town not really on the map near Cincinnati-- in short, there is a wonderful quiet satisfaction in the things you find when you aren't looking for them. And perhaps it's good to go off of your own beaten track of adventure. If my habit is to prefer big cities, then the only way to see something new is to go somewhere I don't want to go. It's a weird logic. Anyway, we made a list of places we'd like to see, and checked the weather for March, and found ourselves pointed to Savannah!
We booked our flights and were excited to see the old town in all its quiet charm...
And then we quickly discovered that Savannah was going to be hosting the second biggest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country that week. Gulp. well, we thought, how bad can it be, really?
So we went to see!
We flew out Thursday night on a red-eye, swapped planes in Charlotte, and landed in Jacksonville, Florida, where we picked up our sweet ride and headed north!
(our sweet ride)
Note: if you click any of these photos, it should take you to see the whole set.
First stop was Brunswick, GA, which our tour book suggested might be cute-ish. It really wasn't all that cute, but we did circle around some rather run-down neighborhoods with funny signs before getting lunch. Then on to nearby St. Simon's Island for our Very First Sights! we pulled over to see some slave houses
(in our neighborhood, they would try to sell this as a 3/2 for $850K)
and were attacked by the onslaught of Southern beauty in its purest form: the Spanish Moss covered oak giants.
Then we moved on to Fort Frederica, to see the remains of the fort founded in 1736. There's not much standing still, but they've excavated a lot and determined who lived and worked in some of the old buildings. There's a nice audio tour, and the grounds are beautiful!
After enjoying the tour and the views, we piled back into the car and headed to Savannah. We arrived in time to head out for dinner (Thai food) and a little walk. I immediately fell in love with the city's thoughtful layout and intimate squares and greenery. What I didn't love? Crowds. Lots of people, and it was only Friday--still days away from the main event. On the waterfront, we found throngs of revelers crowding in long lines to get into pubs and restaurants. Lines of porta-potties were in heavy use (according to the next day's paper, the porta-potties the city planned for the weekend were filled before Saturday noon, and they had to call in for emergency backups) an some smart enterprise had popped up with special fancy porta potties. You paid $5 for the night and had access to these fancy crappers. Genius. We had a nearby hotel, so this didn't impact us, but, from a woman's point of view, totally worth it.
("A regal portable restroom experience")
Saturday
We took Saturday to explore the city. Which? Is adorable. I would like to put it in my back pocket and take it home. I tried, but it was taken away by the TSA at the airport.
(the view I awoke to from our hotel room)
(enchanting public spaces, and again with the beautiful greenery everywhere)
(we visited the birthplace of Girl Scouts)
(we visited Colonial Park Cemetery)
In short, we had a grand time. Savannah is a gorgeous, full of beautiful rows of houses pushed up against public squares, all designed around the scale for, um, people! Not cars. It is wonderful.
But, the nicest thing about being in Savannah? You can drink in public! Which is one of my favorite pastimes, and here I did it with impunity! It is so delightful to get a bottle of wine and enjoy sitting in a square watching the world go by.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
We decided to go to a swamp and then on to Charleston.
So we hopped in our sweet ride and headed north. As soon as you leave Georgia, the sides of the road are littered with billboards for fireworks stores. Fireworks, how novel! But not here, where, when you get off the freeway, you'll find about 4-6 fireworks superstores clustered at each offramp.
(fireworks in South Carolina is like starbucks in California)
We did not stop for fireworks, as we were on a mission! To get to a swamp! Cypress Gardens, to be exact. And, for me, this was one of the highlights of our trip. We got there a little late, sadly, with only an hour and a half or so left before closing. We paid our ten bucks or whatever to get in and were asked if we'd like a boat tour. Well, yes, is there an extra charge? Only if you want a guided tour. Nah, we'll do it ourselves, we said. Now, being from California, I expected a 30 minute training video, fourteen pages of waivers, a life vest, and some stern warnings from uniformed killjoys. But, being South Carolina, what you get is a sort of quizzical look of, "well, the boats are there, obviously. Here's a paddle, now go." The guys at the boat dock also added a helpful "I think there's a female alligator right over there on the other side of this island. Um, really? No instructions? No opinions on how close we should get or what we shouldn't do to an alligator? No! In South Carolina,it's up to you to figure out how many limbs you want bitten off by alligators or blown off by fireworks. OMG, I'm an adult!
Anywho, this place was perfect. Just... and I mean this with no irony, for once: it was magical.
We took a ton of pictures, and if you click a thumbnail, you will be taken to the album to see your fill of them.
(our first alligator, the one the boat guys pointed us to. Apparently, she had been sitting there all day. Alligators are lazy)
(we paddled along between the trees)
(the water is black, and the lighting of the day created perfect mirrors, with the trees growing up to the sky, and their reflections shooting down over the water's surface)
(there were also lily pads and more gators)
(paul was there too!)
In all, we saw NINE alligators. One, we didn't even notice until we were looking at photos later and realized that there was a bonus gator hiding in the water in front of one we had been taking pictures of. They are very still critters.
After the boat tour, we took in more of the onsite goodness, first stopping at the alligator pit to see these lazy bastards:
(These gators were totally going to eat us. One of these days, when they got around to it)
We toured a little reptile/fishie museum, where Paul made friends with a cockatiel, and then we went to see the butterfly house, where we were greeted by this stern admonition:
Well! We most certainly will not Touch The Duck!
Well, at least we tried not to. But the duck, Cypress, took a liking to Paul, particularly Paul's shoes, and so he climbed out of the little fence area and proceeded to chase Paul. Paul valiantly rebuffed his advances, but Cypress was persistent.
(video of Cypress accosting Paul)
We had a few more minutes before the park closed (and there was a wedding setting up), so we took a quick hike round one of the nature trails. While we poked around the grounds, it started to drizzle. It was gorgeous. One of those perfect times and places you'll always remember.
(I love you, swamp day!)
We ran out of time at Cypress Gardens, sadly, we had to go. (knowing what I know now, I would have allowed several hours to do this-- you can actually take off and paddle around the lagoon freely wherever you want, and there are trails we didn't get to see)
We got to Charleston in time for dinner at a brewery and then a walk to Waterfront Park well before sunset. Waterfront Park has a pier with the great swinging benches, so you can sit and watch the water while swinging and listening to bats. At the end, we watched the birds (pelicans, cormorants, gulls, an some mystery birds) and then got very excited to see fins. FINS! OMG! A DOLPHIN!
This was terrifically exciting. Then we saw another. And... another. And then we realized the harbor was lousy with dolphins, and yelling every time you saw one was a little ridiculous. Total newbie move.
We walked down the waterfront and around to the Battery Charleston, at least this area of it, is full of grand old mansions. It sort of reminds me of the Nob Hill/Pacific Heights areas, but the mansions are more densely packed in. Each of the houses had at least one giant covered porch, and it was easy to imagine wonderful parties on these piazzas (as they are apparently known there). We hiked through these neighborhoods and noticed a lot of For Sale signs. In fact, Charleston's historic districts were full of For Sale signs, on historic mansions and iconic commercial buildings alike. We stopped in at a pub where we conversed a bit with the bartender (I was able to help him remember a motorcycle part he wanted) and his friend who laughed and told us that Savannah's St. Patrick's Day was "the biggest party on the East Coast." Oh, boy. We were in for it.
Monday
We had seen enough of Charleston to be intrigued, so we decided to head north again the next day. This time we stopped to experience a fireworks store. These places are all branded with themes and some of them decorated quite kitschy and fun. Each one had hand painted signs of the fireworks brand logos, each one made different by its owners hand. The best we saw was actually the one closest to the Georgia border:
(Joes seemed to be a common theme: Papa Joe's, Hobo Joes, etc.)
(well, you can't very well have fireworks without.. fruitcake?)
(and, you know, elephants. of course.)
Inside the store, the cashier was exactly the guy you imagine was working there. Ponytail, a couple of teeth, flannel shirt, watching daytime TeeVee.
(the array of fireworks was dizzying. This is only one end of the store, probably about a quarter of the whole thing)
And, onward!
Our plan was to see a plantation and then go back to Charleston. We knew we couldn't see everything, so we went looking for old decrepit plantation, rather than fancy maintained plantation. Drayton Hall fit the bill pretty well. (though we both had expressed an interest in something totally overgrown and ruined, but we'll look again next time we're in the South)
(Drayton Hall has not destroyed during the war because it was used s a hospital. Now it stands in wonderful condition, but without being filled with restored furniture. Here you can see that if you stand on one sie, you can see right through. Just the house, nothing else. This comforted us)
We skipped the formal house tour, due to time constraints, but took the two walking tours of the grounds. This was a really neat tour because the little hike straddled about three different types of ecosystems.
And finally, we got back to Charleston We could not resist the dolphins in the harbor again:
(this is video of two of the many dolphins, showing off just a few feet from us)
Our second afternoon in Charleston, we again walked around, traipsed through graveyards and peeked in the windows of mansions wherever we could, getting soaked in a rainstorm, and had dinner in a church-turned sports bar. Charleston is a big old town, full of grand buildings, but not a lot for us to do there on such a short visit.
Tuesday! The Big Day!
We'd toyed with the idea of spending Monday in Savannah so we could avoid the whole St. Patrick's Day thing by fleeing to Charleston Tuesday, but then decided that since we were there, and suffering through the weekend crowds, we might as well just see the thick of it. Each night we'd been in Savannah, we'd seen more people than I've ever seen before. Worse than Burning Man, worse than Gay Pride in San Francisco. More like Halloween in Castro, but the whole city was covered. Lines a block or more long, to get into pubs (not even dance clubs--pubs!) Every restaurant full to the gills, and crowds wandering around every street. We'd come to call them the green zombies. We saw them from our hotel every morning (yes, morning), clusters of people wandering mindlessly in the streets, clutching plastic cups of beer, covered in head-to-toe St. Patrick's day junk-- green mardi-gras beads, blinking green LED hats, and requisite green shirts and flip-flops.
So there we were, in the thick of the biggest party on the East Coast, per our barmate in Charleston. And off to the parade!
We took quite a few pictures of the parade, but rather than go through it all, here are some higlights:
After walking around the waterfront, in the evening, we hit up The Pirate House! Which sounded totally cheesy, and I guess if animatronic pirates are cheesy, I'll take the cheese! It was also set in several historic buildings that had been cobbled together, so we had fun poking around there a bit after dinner.
(Paul took a liking to the pirate. I think the feeling was mutual.)
The next morning we headed back to the Jacksonville airport, a little sad to leave so early. We loved Savannah, and really wished we could have seen her without all the St. Patrick's Day craziness. I definitely want to return to Savannah someday, to spend more quiet time, and to see some other nearby sights, and more swamp please!
When we told people we were going to Savannah and the south for vacation, we got a lot of confused looks from people. "oh... how interesting. ... how did you pick that destination?" as in "uh? why in the heck are you going there, of all god-forsaken places?"
We decide to take advantage of Paul's time off, and we also discussed the great trips we've had when we went to places we would not have necessarily chosen as our first choice vacation. Stuff like a roadside apple orchard in Wisconsin, a beautiful park in the middle of Atlanta, a tiny saloon in a town not really on the map near Cincinnati-- in short, there is a wonderful quiet satisfaction in the things you find when you aren't looking for them. And perhaps it's good to go off of your own beaten track of adventure. If my habit is to prefer big cities, then the only way to see something new is to go somewhere I don't want to go. It's a weird logic. Anyway, we made a list of places we'd like to see, and checked the weather for March, and found ourselves pointed to Savannah!
We booked our flights and were excited to see the old town in all its quiet charm...
And then we quickly discovered that Savannah was going to be hosting the second biggest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country that week. Gulp. well, we thought, how bad can it be, really?
So we went to see!
We flew out Thursday night on a red-eye, swapped planes in Charlotte, and landed in Jacksonville, Florida, where we picked up our sweet ride and headed north!
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Note: if you click any of these photos, it should take you to see the whole set.
First stop was Brunswick, GA, which our tour book suggested might be cute-ish. It really wasn't all that cute, but we did circle around some rather run-down neighborhoods with funny signs before getting lunch. Then on to nearby St. Simon's Island for our Very First Sights! we pulled over to see some slave houses
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
and were attacked by the onslaught of Southern beauty in its purest form: the Spanish Moss covered oak giants.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Then we moved on to Fort Frederica, to see the remains of the fort founded in 1736. There's not much standing still, but they've excavated a lot and determined who lived and worked in some of the old buildings. There's a nice audio tour, and the grounds are beautiful!
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
After enjoying the tour and the views, we piled back into the car and headed to Savannah. We arrived in time to head out for dinner (Thai food) and a little walk. I immediately fell in love with the city's thoughtful layout and intimate squares and greenery. What I didn't love? Crowds. Lots of people, and it was only Friday--still days away from the main event. On the waterfront, we found throngs of revelers crowding in long lines to get into pubs and restaurants. Lines of porta-potties were in heavy use (according to the next day's paper, the porta-potties the city planned for the weekend were filled before Saturday noon, and they had to call in for emergency backups) an some smart enterprise had popped up with special fancy porta potties. You paid $5 for the night and had access to these fancy crappers. Genius. We had a nearby hotel, so this didn't impact us, but, from a woman's point of view, totally worth it.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
("A regal portable restroom experience")
Saturday
We took Saturday to explore the city. Which? Is adorable. I would like to put it in my back pocket and take it home. I tried, but it was taken away by the TSA at the airport.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
In short, we had a grand time. Savannah is a gorgeous, full of beautiful rows of houses pushed up against public squares, all designed around the scale for, um, people! Not cars. It is wonderful.
But, the nicest thing about being in Savannah? You can drink in public! Which is one of my favorite pastimes, and here I did it with impunity! It is so delightful to get a bottle of wine and enjoy sitting in a square watching the world go by.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
We decided to go to a swamp and then on to Charleston.
So we hopped in our sweet ride and headed north. As soon as you leave Georgia, the sides of the road are littered with billboards for fireworks stores. Fireworks, how novel! But not here, where, when you get off the freeway, you'll find about 4-6 fireworks superstores clustered at each offramp.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(fireworks in South Carolina is like starbucks in California)
We did not stop for fireworks, as we were on a mission! To get to a swamp! Cypress Gardens, to be exact. And, for me, this was one of the highlights of our trip. We got there a little late, sadly, with only an hour and a half or so left before closing. We paid our ten bucks or whatever to get in and were asked if we'd like a boat tour. Well, yes, is there an extra charge? Only if you want a guided tour. Nah, we'll do it ourselves, we said. Now, being from California, I expected a 30 minute training video, fourteen pages of waivers, a life vest, and some stern warnings from uniformed killjoys. But, being South Carolina, what you get is a sort of quizzical look of, "well, the boats are there, obviously. Here's a paddle, now go." The guys at the boat dock also added a helpful "I think there's a female alligator right over there on the other side of this island. Um, really? No instructions? No opinions on how close we should get or what we shouldn't do to an alligator? No! In South Carolina,it's up to you to figure out how many limbs you want bitten off by alligators or blown off by fireworks. OMG, I'm an adult!
Anywho, this place was perfect. Just... and I mean this with no irony, for once: it was magical.
We took a ton of pictures, and if you click a thumbnail, you will be taken to the album to see your fill of them.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(our first alligator, the one the boat guys pointed us to. Apparently, she had been sitting there all day. Alligators are lazy)
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(we paddled along between the trees)
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(the water is black, and the lighting of the day created perfect mirrors, with the trees growing up to the sky, and their reflections shooting down over the water's surface)
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(there were also lily pads and more gators)
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(paul was there too!)
In all, we saw NINE alligators. One, we didn't even notice until we were looking at photos later and realized that there was a bonus gator hiding in the water in front of one we had been taking pictures of. They are very still critters.
After the boat tour, we took in more of the onsite goodness, first stopping at the alligator pit to see these lazy bastards:
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
(These gators were totally going to eat us. One of these days, when they got around to it)
We toured a little reptile/fishie museum, where Paul made friends with a cockatiel, and then we went to see the butterfly house, where we were greeted by this stern admonition:
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Well! We most certainly will not Touch The Duck!
Well, at least we tried not to. But the duck, Cypress, took a liking to Paul, particularly Paul's shoes, and so he climbed out of the little fence area and proceeded to chase Paul. Paul valiantly rebuffed his advances, but Cypress was persistent.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
We had a few more minutes before the park closed (and there was a wedding setting up), so we took a quick hike round one of the nature trails. While we poked around the grounds, it started to drizzle. It was gorgeous. One of those perfect times and places you'll always remember.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
We ran out of time at Cypress Gardens, sadly, we had to go. (knowing what I know now, I would have allowed several hours to do this-- you can actually take off and paddle around the lagoon freely wherever you want, and there are trails we didn't get to see)
We got to Charleston in time for dinner at a brewery and then a walk to Waterfront Park well before sunset. Waterfront Park has a pier with the great swinging benches, so you can sit and watch the water while swinging and listening to bats. At the end, we watched the birds (pelicans, cormorants, gulls, an some mystery birds) and then got very excited to see fins. FINS! OMG! A DOLPHIN!
This was terrifically exciting. Then we saw another. And... another. And then we realized the harbor was lousy with dolphins, and yelling every time you saw one was a little ridiculous. Total newbie move.
We walked down the waterfront and around to the Battery Charleston, at least this area of it, is full of grand old mansions. It sort of reminds me of the Nob Hill/Pacific Heights areas, but the mansions are more densely packed in. Each of the houses had at least one giant covered porch, and it was easy to imagine wonderful parties on these piazzas (as they are apparently known there). We hiked through these neighborhoods and noticed a lot of For Sale signs. In fact, Charleston's historic districts were full of For Sale signs, on historic mansions and iconic commercial buildings alike. We stopped in at a pub where we conversed a bit with the bartender (I was able to help him remember a motorcycle part he wanted) and his friend who laughed and told us that Savannah's St. Patrick's Day was "the biggest party on the East Coast." Oh, boy. We were in for it.
Monday
We had seen enough of Charleston to be intrigued, so we decided to head north again the next day. This time we stopped to experience a fireworks store. These places are all branded with themes and some of them decorated quite kitschy and fun. Each one had hand painted signs of the fireworks brand logos, each one made different by its owners hand. The best we saw was actually the one closest to the Georgia border:
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Inside the store, the cashier was exactly the guy you imagine was working there. Ponytail, a couple of teeth, flannel shirt, watching daytime TeeVee.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
And, onward!
Our plan was to see a plantation and then go back to Charleston. We knew we couldn't see everything, so we went looking for old decrepit plantation, rather than fancy maintained plantation. Drayton Hall fit the bill pretty well. (though we both had expressed an interest in something totally overgrown and ruined, but we'll look again next time we're in the South)
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
We skipped the formal house tour, due to time constraints, but took the two walking tours of the grounds. This was a really neat tour because the little hike straddled about three different types of ecosystems.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
And finally, we got back to Charleston We could not resist the dolphins in the harbor again:
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
Our second afternoon in Charleston, we again walked around, traipsed through graveyards and peeked in the windows of mansions wherever we could, getting soaked in a rainstorm, and had dinner in a church-turned sports bar. Charleston is a big old town, full of grand buildings, but not a lot for us to do there on such a short visit.
Tuesday! The Big Day!
We'd toyed with the idea of spending Monday in Savannah so we could avoid the whole St. Patrick's Day thing by fleeing to Charleston Tuesday, but then decided that since we were there, and suffering through the weekend crowds, we might as well just see the thick of it. Each night we'd been in Savannah, we'd seen more people than I've ever seen before. Worse than Burning Man, worse than Gay Pride in San Francisco. More like Halloween in Castro, but the whole city was covered. Lines a block or more long, to get into pubs (not even dance clubs--pubs!) Every restaurant full to the gills, and crowds wandering around every street. We'd come to call them the green zombies. We saw them from our hotel every morning (yes, morning), clusters of people wandering mindlessly in the streets, clutching plastic cups of beer, covered in head-to-toe St. Patrick's day junk-- green mardi-gras beads, blinking green LED hats, and requisite green shirts and flip-flops.
So there we were, in the thick of the biggest party on the East Coast, per our barmate in Charleston. And off to the parade!
We took quite a few pictures of the parade, but rather than go through it all, here are some higlights:
- Apparently, it is tradition for the ladies to run out and kiss the troops as they parade through. I imagine this started innocently enough, but has evolved to this: young women piling on the thickest layer of the reddest lipstick they can find, and then planting lipstick all over the guys as they walk through (they have to stop every so often due to parade traffic, and then they re left quite vulnerable) Every unit that came through was covered in lipstick. But even funnier was that the tradition seemed to be leaking into new territory, such as: a father carrying his small daughter (maybe 4y/o? wearing lipstick) who lost her courage at the last minute and refused to kiss the soldier; the female soldiers also covered in lipstick, other random paraders also getting lipsticked, and finally, a float that had a dancing bunny mascot? Also covered in lipstick. Why not.
From 200903 Trip to the South - Shriners. A lot of Shriners. But they don't have the little cars! instead they had a bunch of other weird vehicles and vaguely un-PC things (an "oriental" band?)
- Sons of the Confederacy. "Southern Loyalty is Not Hate" said their sign. I had my doubts. The places we went were sprinkled with memorials and plaques honoring the confederate dead and their good fight and oh isn't it a tragedy we lost the war? It made me very curious and very irritated-- did these people honestly believe that victory should have been theirs? Obviously the war was about many things, but slavery being a part of it, I found many of these plaques offensive, and imagined that all people of non-white heritage would too. So when the confederate glorifiers came by during the parade, there were a few very noisy people cheering them as loudly as they could, and the two African-American guys next to us were visibly discomforted (I can't remember their comments, but Paul heard them berating this part of the parade)
From 200903 Trip to the South
After walking around the waterfront, in the evening, we hit up The Pirate House! Which sounded totally cheesy, and I guess if animatronic pirates are cheesy, I'll take the cheese! It was also set in several historic buildings that had been cobbled together, so we had fun poking around there a bit after dinner.
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| From 200903 Trip to the South |
The next morning we headed back to the Jacksonville airport, a little sad to leave so early. We loved Savannah, and really wished we could have seen her without all the St. Patrick's Day craziness. I definitely want to return to Savannah someday, to spend more quiet time, and to see some other nearby sights, and more swamp please!
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Yes. Thank you.
Homeopathy and all manner of stoopid pseudoscience crap bugs me. Particularly when it pretends to address medical issues.
Really. So here:
From here
Really. So here:
From here
Monday, April 06, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The view from here
streets with yahoos. But a beautiful town.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
But we are still going to Savannah, GA, so if anyone has recommendations for that area (anywhere between Charleston and Jacksonville) please let me know!
We'll have a car and want to spend some time seeing the surrounding area... swamps, plantations, anything of interest.
Friday, March 06, 2009
etc.
These Tawny Frogmouth Chicks are adorable.
For my sister, via boingboing:
Who is convinced that her fear of geese need not extend to Canada Geese, don't be so sure!
Also for my sister, perhaps. Maybe it was the wine, but I laughed uproariously at this. I guess I'm the right age to have seen this video over and over at an impressionable age.
Billy Idol, literally:
And for me, I have found, via etsy, a delightful blog. A goat blog. And in the process, also a goat store. OMG.
For my sister, via boingboing:
Who is convinced that her fear of geese need not extend to Canada Geese, don't be so sure!
Also for my sister, perhaps. Maybe it was the wine, but I laughed uproariously at this. I guess I'm the right age to have seen this video over and over at an impressionable age.
Billy Idol, literally:
White Wedding: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos
And for me, I have found, via etsy, a delightful blog. A goat blog. And in the process, also a goat store. OMG.
another bad realtor, and also a good one (wait, the world is NOT black and white?!?!)
My post about the realtor(tm) and "creative" listing the other day drew a few comments. One from another couple who is in a similar boat, another from a friend offering a referral to his agent, whom he liked, and one, that I'd like to highlight, from a REALTOR(tm). Who happens to be my uncle.
Before I talk about that, though, I should mention that I got trapped in a conversation yesterday with a starry-eyed realtor, who emphatically and repeatedly told me, and I know this will sound shocking, "Now is a great time to buy a house." Oddly enough, every realtor (that doesn't know us) we've encountered in the past two or three years since I've started watching the market, has said "Now is a great time to buy" and frequently this is paired with some of my other *favorite* real estate platitudes "Houses will always go up" or "renting is throwing money away" or, and this was a San Francisco staple "Buy now or be priced out forever."
Thankfully, we did our reading, and didn't take the bait. We did actually qualify for way more loan than we even wanted (we told the mortgage lady that no, actually we didn't want that much, and she dutifully explained that it was best to maximize leverage), and had I not seen a glimpse of housing bubble, we could have ended up stuck in an upside-down mortgage right now.
Back to the point. Not all Realtors(tm) are bad. However, the huge (huge. really.) influx of real estate agents in the years of the bubble really diluted the pool with people who were badly educated at best, and in many cases just plain shady, trying to make a buck on the bubble.
Think about all the idiots who thought they were stock market geniuses because they were going to make millions on pets.com stock. oops. It doesn't mean no stock adviser is smart, it just means the good ones were lost in the noise.
And by that same token, anyone who tells me I should buy a house two minutes into a conversation? Also obviously screwed up. Without knowing my finances, how long I want to stay here, what family needs I have, my tolerance for risk, how much money I have and how much I save by renting... "Now is a good time to buy" displays a lack of understanding of, or a lack of respect to what ought to be a delicate, complex equation. And to me it really sounds like "Now would be a good time for me to have you buy a home, through me." Or, at all. Because housing prices are stalling and we need buyers to come to the table.
Which brings me to my next point. Part of yesterday's realtor(tm) conversation went like this:
Bull. Again, macroeconomics. We are in a deflationary environment. (others may disagree, but this is my strong opinion) Housing was probably, across the board, one of the most uniformly overinflated assets, and certainly in the Bay Area. (your area will be different). Job losses are mounting, and there is no end in sight (your area probably won't be very different there). Shipping orders around the world are down drastically, factories are shutting down, and retail is crashing. People, a lot of people, are going to lose their jobs. Financing standards are tightening (as they should), and the credit that allowed people to drive up prices beyond their means, will have to come down.
And they should come down. A house is a place to live. When housing prices are astronomically high, it hurts people and families, who have to work harder and take on way too much risk and financial hardship just to put a roof over their heads. So I think it will be a good thing when a basic need (shelter) is not a huge hardship, nor a golden ticket of speculation. And in the Bay Area, where I live, we are just not there. Houses here are still wildly overpriced. If the average family can't afford that house based on 33% of their average-family income, those prices can't hold across the board. (clearly there will always be regional differences, and pockets of wealth and pockets of poverty) Considering the economic conditions and the fundamentals of salaries, these prices cannot, and should not, remain this high.
Your situation is your situation. Any agent that tells you it's a good time to buy, without knowing your situation, is not your agent. They are their own agent. They may want you to buy, but not necessarily for your own good. Again, yesterday's agent: rattled off reasons why with all the tax incentives, it would likely mean it was actually cheaper to buy than rent. (tax incentives that I don't agree with, but anyway don't really help me-- the CA one, I didn't have the heart to tell him, only applies to new construction, and the federal one, at 8K, is nothing, literally, in the scope of the local pricing. $8000 is a rounding error here. A 1% reduction is still cash in pocket, but not enough to make me want to buy anything. Besides, like other subsidies, it will, some economists would argue, and I agree, just raise the price of housing by $8000. Great.)
But back to the agent, and his assumptions.
Quick back of envelope guesses:
But that's all a rant about an agent I had the misfortune of talking with yesterday. I've met a lot of other agents like him, and I've gotten a really bad taste in my mouth from some of the more egregious liberties I've seen in MLS listings and real estate cheerleading. But "reasons I never trust a real estate agent." was an overstatement. There are good and there are bad. So let's look a little at what Mike said.
I think the real estate industry could be greatly helped by being a lot more transparent. People are used to transparency and freedom of information now, and lots of people who are used to managing information will want to manage the search themselves and use a trusted agent for the paperwork and legal and, as Mike called it, the CYA bits (think inspections, permits, etc.) There will still be people who want the whole shebang, but then there are still people using travel agents for simple trips. Most of us are used to booking air travel now, and would only call a travel agent for the really complex bits.
Then Mike gives a bunch of math about return on the agent's time, which is detailed and thoughtful. In summary, the agent would rather sell the house quickly for a little less, than waste their time showing a house repeatedly for a slightly higher price. (better ROI) I agree here 100%. I think the inflated list prices generally come from stubborn owners. A good agent would tell them the price was too high, but I think a lot of owners would just go to a less-good agent who'd take the listing with the price they wanted. (likely to their detriment later) Owners are stubborn, and I think there is also a lot of emotion wrapped up in admitting your house isn't worth what you wish it was. Another downside of listing high, in this market, is that you can end up chasing the downturn. I've seen it on a few properties, that have languished, being dropped every so often. If they'd sold it a year ago, it would have gone for more than now, but they were stubborn. I'm sure all but the worst agents know and understand this.
He goes on to talk about relationships with agents and some interesting tips (one that I will try next time we visit an open house). Worth a read if you're interested in housing, but I'm not going to cover it all here.
And in conclusion of this longwinded post, I should apologize (especially to my two beloved and smart, trustworthy uncles-- and for once I am not being facetious) for "never trust a realtor" as it was a flippant overgeneralization. I do know a few agents that I really would trust to handle a transaction, and do understand the value of that service.
However, realtors(tm) should be aware of the tarnished image that comes with these behaviors (particularly dishonest listing practices, and ridiculous claims that you should buy a house! now! even though I don't know anything about you!) because regardless of whose fault they are, it is the agent whose name is on it, and their reputation on the line.
And lay off the fisheye lens, people! I have no idea where I could buy curved appliances to fit in that spherical kitchen.
Before I talk about that, though, I should mention that I got trapped in a conversation yesterday with a starry-eyed realtor, who emphatically and repeatedly told me, and I know this will sound shocking, "Now is a great time to buy a house." Oddly enough, every realtor (that doesn't know us) we've encountered in the past two or three years since I've started watching the market, has said "Now is a great time to buy" and frequently this is paired with some of my other *favorite* real estate platitudes "Houses will always go up" or "renting is throwing money away" or, and this was a San Francisco staple "Buy now or be priced out forever."
Thankfully, we did our reading, and didn't take the bait. We did actually qualify for way more loan than we even wanted (we told the mortgage lady that no, actually we didn't want that much, and she dutifully explained that it was best to maximize leverage), and had I not seen a glimpse of housing bubble, we could have ended up stuck in an upside-down mortgage right now.
Back to the point. Not all Realtors(tm) are bad. However, the huge (huge. really.) influx of real estate agents in the years of the bubble really diluted the pool with people who were badly educated at best, and in many cases just plain shady, trying to make a buck on the bubble.
Think about all the idiots who thought they were stock market geniuses because they were going to make millions on pets.com stock. oops. It doesn't mean no stock adviser is smart, it just means the good ones were lost in the noise.
And by that same token, anyone who tells me I should buy a house two minutes into a conversation? Also obviously screwed up. Without knowing my finances, how long I want to stay here, what family needs I have, my tolerance for risk, how much money I have and how much I save by renting... "Now is a good time to buy" displays a lack of understanding of, or a lack of respect to what ought to be a delicate, complex equation. And to me it really sounds like "Now would be a good time for me to have you buy a home, through me." Or, at all. Because housing prices are stalling and we need buyers to come to the table.
Which brings me to my next point. Part of yesterday's realtor(tm) conversation went like this:
Are you in the market for a house now?(I am not making this up. He seriously told me that--as if he knows what the market will do, and at what percent.)
Not right now.
What are you waiting for?
We're waiting for fundamentals to be more in line.
Well, housing prices aren't going to go down any more. They've already had their big drop. I mean, maybe incrementally, 3%, 5%, at most 10%, but then they're going to start going up again
Bull. Again, macroeconomics. We are in a deflationary environment. (others may disagree, but this is my strong opinion) Housing was probably, across the board, one of the most uniformly overinflated assets, and certainly in the Bay Area. (your area will be different). Job losses are mounting, and there is no end in sight (your area probably won't be very different there). Shipping orders around the world are down drastically, factories are shutting down, and retail is crashing. People, a lot of people, are going to lose their jobs. Financing standards are tightening (as they should), and the credit that allowed people to drive up prices beyond their means, will have to come down.
And they should come down. A house is a place to live. When housing prices are astronomically high, it hurts people and families, who have to work harder and take on way too much risk and financial hardship just to put a roof over their heads. So I think it will be a good thing when a basic need (shelter) is not a huge hardship, nor a golden ticket of speculation. And in the Bay Area, where I live, we are just not there. Houses here are still wildly overpriced. If the average family can't afford that house based on 33% of their average-family income, those prices can't hold across the board. (clearly there will always be regional differences, and pockets of wealth and pockets of poverty) Considering the economic conditions and the fundamentals of salaries, these prices cannot, and should not, remain this high.
Your situation is your situation. Any agent that tells you it's a good time to buy, without knowing your situation, is not your agent. They are their own agent. They may want you to buy, but not necessarily for your own good. Again, yesterday's agent: rattled off reasons why with all the tax incentives, it would likely mean it was actually cheaper to buy than rent. (tax incentives that I don't agree with, but anyway don't really help me-- the CA one, I didn't have the heart to tell him, only applies to new construction, and the federal one, at 8K, is nothing, literally, in the scope of the local pricing. $8000 is a rounding error here. A 1% reduction is still cash in pocket, but not enough to make me want to buy anything. Besides, like other subsidies, it will, some economists would argue, and I agree, just raise the price of housing by $8000. Great.)
But back to the agent, and his assumptions.
Quick back of envelope guesses:
I just looked at the MLS listings for my neighborhood. Houses in my 'hood range from (current listing price) 899K-975K.The point? He might have been right, about someone else (someone with higher rent in a neighborhood with lower house prices, perhaps). But a good agent wouldn't be trying to convince me to buy something without knowing my situation.
Let's say we get a "great deal" at $850K for a 2/1 (Oh boy!) or maybe a 3/2
Assuming I put 20% down ($170,000 and I don't have that right now), living in that 2/1 in my neighborhood is going to cost me on the order of $4K per month (maybe a little less) The mortgage tax deduction won't come close to bringing me in line with my current rent: $1475.
But that's all a rant about an agent I had the misfortune of talking with yesterday. I've met a lot of other agents like him, and I've gotten a really bad taste in my mouth from some of the more egregious liberties I've seen in MLS listings and real estate cheerleading. But "reasons I never trust a real estate agent." was an overstatement. There are good and there are bad. So let's look a little at what Mike said.
Many of us are honest and helpful, all of us have studied the laws and machinery of real estate, many from a different perspective than yours, and just having that perspective can make a big difference on the CYA aspect of what is most people’s biggest purchase of their lifetime.This is a good point. It is not impossible to buy a Nolo Press book and process this transaction without an agent, but even though I am somewhat independent and adventurous, I probably wouldn't want to do that. I would like someone with experience for that aspect. Paul and I have discussed this in the past and generally I think we would like the process help.
I think the real estate industry could be greatly helped by being a lot more transparent. People are used to transparency and freedom of information now, and lots of people who are used to managing information will want to manage the search themselves and use a trusted agent for the paperwork and legal and, as Mike called it, the CYA bits (think inspections, permits, etc.) There will still be people who want the whole shebang, but then there are still people using travel agents for simple trips. Most of us are used to booking air travel now, and would only call a travel agent for the really complex bits.
Before you are in the market to buy, and only you will know that, do yourself a big favor and find an agent that you can trust. I highly recommend a real live agent, who can explain fiduciary duty to you (that might be one good litmus test). Being a member of the National Association of REALTORS® among other things means making the commitment to upholding the best and most in-depth set of ethical standards that I have seen in the industry. I know that not all Members (REALTORS®) do a great job of keeping to the standards, but many do.I do believe that my family members have a higher standard of holding up commitments than average Americans, and I think there must be a lot of realtors who don't take this commitment seriously, or just have a very different idea of what ethical means. Either way, the NAR's reputation in my mind is severely tarnished by the likes of David Leareh, and the constant cheerleading during the bubble. I realize Mike likely won't agree with me on that. But, then, like any professional organization, it's made up of a lot of people who are all very different. Of course, anecdotal evidence is usually defined by outliers, since they make the most impression. Meaning, I remember bad experiences more than good ones.
On this, no, it was not a bedroom. Bedrooms typically have doors, or at least a doorway with a beaded curtain. Or, at least three or four walls. You had to see it to believe it. (embarrassing) But it's a good point, maybe the owner was being a real pain in the ass, and maybe the agent just had to take the listing as it was. It surely doesn't reflect well on her, though, so she might not want to do that in the future. As a consumer, I am now way less likely to trust her, and somewhat less likely to trust realtors(tm) in general. Consumers are unlikely to think about whether the perceived dishonesty is coming from the owner, whose name and face aren't in the marketing. So as an agent, this is not something I'd compromise. But maybe she really needs the work. I don't know. (or, and I'm not taking this off the table, maybe she's got a loose grasp on truthiness.)
As to the definition of a bedroom, believe it or not this is not quite nailed down. Most counties permit and collect taxes based on bedrooms as a room that is big enough (the county sets that) and has not been excluded from being a bedroom in the permit process. Some say it must have a closet, some a window, some give minimum sizes of door and window openings. Owners will sometimes dodge paying property tax and service fees by calling a room something other than a bedroom even when that is what you or I might call it. On the other hand, the same owner might call a walk-in closet or landing, a “bedroom” if they think that will sell the house. Make no mistake here, I said OWNER. The agent is just that an agent of the owner. And all to few are immune to the temptation to “puff” especially when the listing might depend on it. Each agent draws his or her own line, a point that having a pro working for you can counter.
Then Mike gives a bunch of math about return on the agent's time, which is detailed and thoughtful. In summary, the agent would rather sell the house quickly for a little less, than waste their time showing a house repeatedly for a slightly higher price. (better ROI) I agree here 100%. I think the inflated list prices generally come from stubborn owners. A good agent would tell them the price was too high, but I think a lot of owners would just go to a less-good agent who'd take the listing with the price they wanted. (likely to their detriment later) Owners are stubborn, and I think there is also a lot of emotion wrapped up in admitting your house isn't worth what you wish it was. Another downside of listing high, in this market, is that you can end up chasing the downturn. I've seen it on a few properties, that have languished, being dropped every so often. If they'd sold it a year ago, it would have gone for more than now, but they were stubborn. I'm sure all but the worst agents know and understand this.
He goes on to talk about relationships with agents and some interesting tips (one that I will try next time we visit an open house). Worth a read if you're interested in housing, but I'm not going to cover it all here.
And in conclusion of this longwinded post, I should apologize (especially to my two beloved and smart, trustworthy uncles-- and for once I am not being facetious) for "never trust a realtor" as it was a flippant overgeneralization. I do know a few agents that I really would trust to handle a transaction, and do understand the value of that service.
However, realtors(tm) should be aware of the tarnished image that comes with these behaviors (particularly dishonest listing practices, and ridiculous claims that you should buy a house! now! even though I don't know anything about you!) because regardless of whose fault they are, it is the agent whose name is on it, and their reputation on the line.
And lay off the fisheye lens, people! I have no idea where I could buy curved appliances to fit in that spherical kitchen.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Realtor(tm) vs. Reality
Paul and I have had an eye on the real estate markets for a couple of years now, and like to visit houses for sale when we can. We are sort-of in the market, though not really at today's prices.
A couple of weekends ago, we visited one that reaffirmed my "reasons I never trust a real estate agent." Bells went off in my head when I read the ad anyway. Listed as a 3/3 (that's 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms) in a nearby neighborhood that I actually like. Sure, it, like all other listings around here, was waaaaaaayyyyyy overpriced for the local fundamentals, but that doesn't seem to matter to a lot of people.
But the ad, it read "one bedroom currently configured as loft." Which? Made no sense to me. There are rooms that are structural, and there are rooms that can be swapped out. Garages, kitchens, bathrooms, and lofts have structural qualities. Bonus rooms, dens, bedrooms, maybe an office, these I can see interchanging. But hey, I can be wrong, and we went to see it.
First, the 3 bathrooms were actually 2.5, a fine detail, but second, this was a two bedroom house. The third "bedroom currently configured as loft" was indeed a small loft, open on one side to the living room below (it really had two walls, and no door), not big enough for anything but maybe a twin bed and nothing else, had no closet, had to be walked through to get to the actual bedroom, and most importantly? WASN'T A GODDAMM BEDROOM AT ALL, AS ANY PERSON WHO'D EVER LIVED IN A HOUSE COULD TELL YOU. It was the landing at the top of the stairs. The landing at the top of the stairs of the house I grew up in was bigger, and had more walls, and closet space.
Who cares? I do. We've been looking at really dishonest listings for a long time now. All the relisting to hide price changes and days on market, the insulting abuse of fisheye lenses to try to make a kitchen look bigger (bigger, and spherical), and, the classic fake furniture to trick you into thinking full-sized furniture would fit in the room of the house they are trying to sell you for 40-50% too many dollars is totally out of hand. And I wonder how much longer people will take it.
At this particular house, for the first time since we've been visiting open homes (a few years) another party also snuck out in outrage at the overpricing. (there have been multiple occasions where Paul and I have snuck out the back exit of a property to avoid having to face the real estate agent on the way out) Too embarrassed to face the agent in the face of an inflated price for a not-up-to-the-listing house? Me too!
When we are ready to buy, I am not sure we'll want anything to do with a real estate agent. I've just been too fed up with the loose interpretation of reality and shady practices. Will Realtors(tm) go the way of the travel agent? I hope transparency will cut through the worst of them and put them out of business. For us, a little research and sunlight on the housing bubble a few years back kept us out of the market, even as we had a loan officer trying to convince us to "use more leverage" based on our qualifications. We are those fabled solid buyers that everyone is seeking right now, and hell no, we won't buy your overpriced 3/3 with "bedroom currently configured as loft." I suppose the attic is currently configured as sky, and the basement currently configured as dirt?
(ps, since visiting, this listing was updated to show 2.5 baths, and the price was dropped $50K. Which is still way too much)
A couple of weekends ago, we visited one that reaffirmed my "reasons I never trust a real estate agent." Bells went off in my head when I read the ad anyway. Listed as a 3/3 (that's 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms) in a nearby neighborhood that I actually like. Sure, it, like all other listings around here, was waaaaaaayyyyyy overpriced for the local fundamentals, but that doesn't seem to matter to a lot of people.
But the ad, it read "one bedroom currently configured as loft." Which? Made no sense to me. There are rooms that are structural, and there are rooms that can be swapped out. Garages, kitchens, bathrooms, and lofts have structural qualities. Bonus rooms, dens, bedrooms, maybe an office, these I can see interchanging. But hey, I can be wrong, and we went to see it.
First, the 3 bathrooms were actually 2.5, a fine detail, but second, this was a two bedroom house. The third "bedroom currently configured as loft" was indeed a small loft, open on one side to the living room below (it really had two walls, and no door), not big enough for anything but maybe a twin bed and nothing else, had no closet, had to be walked through to get to the actual bedroom, and most importantly? WASN'T A GODDAMM BEDROOM AT ALL, AS ANY PERSON WHO'D EVER LIVED IN A HOUSE COULD TELL YOU. It was the landing at the top of the stairs. The landing at the top of the stairs of the house I grew up in was bigger, and had more walls, and closet space.
Who cares? I do. We've been looking at really dishonest listings for a long time now. All the relisting to hide price changes and days on market, the insulting abuse of fisheye lenses to try to make a kitchen look bigger (bigger, and spherical), and, the classic fake furniture to trick you into thinking full-sized furniture would fit in the room of the house they are trying to sell you for 40-50% too many dollars is totally out of hand. And I wonder how much longer people will take it.
At this particular house, for the first time since we've been visiting open homes (a few years) another party also snuck out in outrage at the overpricing. (there have been multiple occasions where Paul and I have snuck out the back exit of a property to avoid having to face the real estate agent on the way out) Too embarrassed to face the agent in the face of an inflated price for a not-up-to-the-listing house? Me too!
When we are ready to buy, I am not sure we'll want anything to do with a real estate agent. I've just been too fed up with the loose interpretation of reality and shady practices. Will Realtors(tm) go the way of the travel agent? I hope transparency will cut through the worst of them and put them out of business. For us, a little research and sunlight on the housing bubble a few years back kept us out of the market, even as we had a loan officer trying to convince us to "use more leverage" based on our qualifications. We are those fabled solid buyers that everyone is seeking right now, and hell no, we won't buy your overpriced 3/3 with "bedroom currently configured as loft." I suppose the attic is currently configured as sky, and the basement currently configured as dirt?
(ps, since visiting, this listing was updated to show 2.5 baths, and the price was dropped $50K. Which is still way too much)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Want no silver threads among the go-o-old(a song that we love, recorded by the Mills Brothers in 1951)
Want no silver threads among the go-o-old
Want no silver threads, want some action instead
Want no silver threads among the go-o-old
Be my life's companion and you'll never grow old
I'll love you so much that you'll never grow old
When there's joy in living you just never grow old
You've got to stay young 'cause you'll never grow old
People who are lonely can be old at thirty-three
Don't let it happen to you, and don't let it happen to me
Be my life's companion and you'll never grow old
You'll never grow old, no, you'll never grow old
Love and youth and ha-appiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life's companion and you'll never grow old
I-I-I know a man who's lonely and he's old at thirty-three
No one wants to be - old at thirty-three
Your-our-our disposition sours like a lemon on a tree
Don't let it happen to you and don't let it happen to me
Be my life's companion and you'll never grow old
Yes I'll love you so much that you'll never grow old
Love and youth and ha-appiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life's companion, be my life's companion
And you'll never grow old
When you are a teenager and you start to get acne, you are told that it's a teenager thing. No one ever told me I'd have acne and wrinkles at the same time!
In the past few years, and particularly the past year, I've noticed the fine lines becoming deeper in my face. yes, I am getting OLD!
I take comfort in the fact that the lines appearing in my face and in Paul's, were worn there together. Like a chain and sprocket, our wear lines come from each other, fitting together perfectly as we age into something made only to fit one another. Will the way he looks at me become permanently marked on his face? I see lines now where I raised my eyebrow at his jokes and knitted my brows in mock disapproval.
The stress lines of our trials and the remnants of the crooked smile I give him are, like it or not, becoming a more prominent feature, a permanent map of our times together. I don't know what to make of the acne and twisty fishing line grey hairs. Am I growing old and regressing to teenage years at the same time?
It's a salad dressing! No, it's a hair conditioner!
Lately I've been trying a lot of natural body care stuff. It started a few months ago when I got this book from our Li-Berry, and continued when Santa read my Amazon wishlist and brought me this book.
So I've tried a few recipes from the new book and had mixed results. Mostly good.
I've always been somewhat aware of bad ingredients in body products, but now I know enough to never want to buy any "normal" product again.
But I like crafty endeavors, so I enjoyed ordering up a bunch of ingredients from Mountain Rose, and who doesn't love the mad scientist feel of mixing up concoctions with eyedroppers and glass bottles?
The olive oil from Mountain Rose smells sooooo good (really good quality) and I'm enjoying smearing it on my face every night. Paul can never tell whether some food item is in the cupboard for eating or smearing on my face or hair.
Thus far, I'm still looking for a real conditioner recipe. I mean something that feels like regular conditioner. I know people are making conditioner and selling it on etsy, so it has to be easy to do. But so far, I'm only finding food-type conditioners (avocado, eggs, honey, stuff like that) So the search continues. My hair being as long as it is, a lot of the basic assumptions about making conditioners don't work. For instance, a "hair butter" that contained mostly oil was way too heavy and hard to wash out. (maybe I should try it again and dilute it with glycerin?)
So I've tried a few recipes from the new book and had mixed results. Mostly good.
I've always been somewhat aware of bad ingredients in body products, but now I know enough to never want to buy any "normal" product again.
But I like crafty endeavors, so I enjoyed ordering up a bunch of ingredients from Mountain Rose, and who doesn't love the mad scientist feel of mixing up concoctions with eyedroppers and glass bottles?
The olive oil from Mountain Rose smells sooooo good (really good quality) and I'm enjoying smearing it on my face every night. Paul can never tell whether some food item is in the cupboard for eating or smearing on my face or hair.
Thus far, I'm still looking for a real conditioner recipe. I mean something that feels like regular conditioner. I know people are making conditioner and selling it on etsy, so it has to be easy to do. But so far, I'm only finding food-type conditioners (avocado, eggs, honey, stuff like that) So the search continues. My hair being as long as it is, a lot of the basic assumptions about making conditioners don't work. For instance, a "hair butter" that contained mostly oil was way too heavy and hard to wash out. (maybe I should try it again and dilute it with glycerin?)
Friday, February 20, 2009
There's No Place Like Home
Kansas!
Paul and I spent a few days in Overland Park, KS a couple of weeks ago. Highlights?
I saw cardinals for the first time!
And they have proper Blue Jays. Their Jays look very different from our Stellar's and Western Scrubs, but most interestingly, they sound completely different. Jays are corvids, and so related to our beloved crows and ravens, as well as the ever-present European Starling. I'm accustomed to our Stellar Jays angry squawk, and our Western Scrub Jays questioning screech, but the Blue Jays in Kansas sound like... regular birds. Whistles and tweets, almost.
On a side note, we've recently been getting Western Scrub Jays at our backyard feeder, and I love the yelling in the morning. It's like waking up at camp.
In addition to the two new birds, we also saw Paul's Dad and Stepmom for their birthdays. It was relaxing, of course, because there is not a lot to do there. We caught up with family, which is wonderful, and drank lots of wine. Saturday, I took over the kitchen with Paul's wonderful stepmom and baked snickerdoodle cookies. On Sunday, Paul and I ventured out into the Big City to see what we could see. What did we see?
First, I lived out a childhood dream, and died of Cholera.
Next, I found a beer, where we sat at the bar. It was superbowl sunday, which meant nothing to us. The Superbowl was to start at 2pm, and it was much earlier. Most screens in the bar showed pre-game bullshit (I don't even understand watching sports, but watching people talk about sports???? WTF?) but one screen was set to Puppybowl, which? Genius. Now, if the sports pubs would set half their screens to sports and half their screens to Puppybowl (or Puppy World Series, or whatever) then couples could actually go and enjoy game days together. And families. Who doesn't love puppies?
After fortifying ourselves with beer (for me) and sody-pop (Paul), we decided to tour the Big City... by car, because it was assbitingly cold, and it's miles between interesting things. After a bit of driving around looking at buildings, and getting out once to look at historical markers and an overlook, we decided it was too cold and too boring, so we went back to the house.
...Where we did some IT (did you know there are still people running Netscape as their browser?) and more relaxing and catching up.
Then? At the airport, I figured, "this is Kansas!" so I clicked my heels together three times and found myself at home. Hooray.
Paul and I spent a few days in Overland Park, KS a couple of weeks ago. Highlights?
I saw cardinals for the first time!
And they have proper Blue Jays. Their Jays look very different from our Stellar's and Western Scrubs, but most interestingly, they sound completely different. Jays are corvids, and so related to our beloved crows and ravens, as well as the ever-present European Starling. I'm accustomed to our Stellar Jays angry squawk, and our Western Scrub Jays questioning screech, but the Blue Jays in Kansas sound like... regular birds. Whistles and tweets, almost.
On a side note, we've recently been getting Western Scrub Jays at our backyard feeder, and I love the yelling in the morning. It's like waking up at camp.
In addition to the two new birds, we also saw Paul's Dad and Stepmom for their birthdays. It was relaxing, of course, because there is not a lot to do there. We caught up with family, which is wonderful, and drank lots of wine. Saturday, I took over the kitchen with Paul's wonderful stepmom and baked snickerdoodle cookies. On Sunday, Paul and I ventured out into the Big City to see what we could see. What did we see?
First, I lived out a childhood dream, and died of Cholera.
Next, I found a beer, where we sat at the bar. It was superbowl sunday, which meant nothing to us. The Superbowl was to start at 2pm, and it was much earlier. Most screens in the bar showed pre-game bullshit (I don't even understand watching sports, but watching people talk about sports???? WTF?) but one screen was set to Puppybowl, which? Genius. Now, if the sports pubs would set half their screens to sports and half their screens to Puppybowl (or Puppy World Series, or whatever) then couples could actually go and enjoy game days together. And families. Who doesn't love puppies?
After fortifying ourselves with beer (for me) and sody-pop (Paul), we decided to tour the Big City... by car, because it was assbitingly cold, and it's miles between interesting things. After a bit of driving around looking at buildings, and getting out once to look at historical markers and an overlook, we decided it was too cold and too boring, so we went back to the house.
...Where we did some IT (did you know there are still people running Netscape as their browser?) and more relaxing and catching up.
Then? At the airport, I figured, "this is Kansas!" so I clicked my heels together three times and found myself at home. Hooray.
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