Archive for the ‘Mindless Meanderings’ Category

I have a friend who is a real estate appraiser. I actually have quite a bit of contact with him, and know rather a lot about what is going on in our local housing market. I spend some time using his access to handy dandy things like the multiple listing site. This is how I know my aunt’s house is under contract; fingers crossed that this time everything works out for her, that her buyer’s Home Loans application is approved, and the sale closes on time. My aunt really needs to be free of the burden of that mortgage payment so she can get on with her life there in Nashville. I know she dislikes me, but I harbor no ill will toward her and truly hope this sale happens so she can have one less stress in her life.

It has been heart rending to see how the housing market has crashed the last few years. Knowing what we paid for our house in 2005, and knowing how little it’s worth today, a mere five years later. I try not to think about it too much, because the housing market will recover, and my house will again be worth at least what I paid for it, and not $80K less than what we paid for it, as it is today.

At the same time, I’m lamenting not having just a little bit of money to buy an investment property. You can pick up a condo in Orlando for as little as $9K right now. Granted, that condo isn’t in the best neighborhood, but it is in the next neighborhood over from where my MIL currently resides, so it’s also not the worst neighborhood. Oh how I’d love to pick up a condo for her for $10K and have her live there so she’s not throwing her money away on her crappy apartment in her crappy neighborhood. (Truly, I’m afraid of her neighborhood in the dark, and shame on her other son for encouraging her to move there, since we were excluded from the decision-making process.)

It would also be nice to just pick up a condo and rent it out.

Oh, and for just $20K, you can snatch up a condo in a nice neighborhood. I wish we had the extra cash right now. It would be so nice to have expendible income for real estate. Maybe someday.

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Last night, after a truly, um, eye-opening dinner with extended family in the tourist district, I came home full of unbloggable blog fodder. Because I feel it is unbloggable, and because I was filled to the brim with things that must be recorded because they are so, um, eye-opening, I did something I had not done in about four years: I found my favorite fountain pen (refilled it with my favorite ink color) and my journal, sat down, and put pen to paper. I ignored the usual distractions, including the ps3, the dirty dishes, the ::gasp:: internet, and (mostly) the television, and I wrote. I say mostly about the tv, because I did turn on a show I rather enjoy but rarely see because Wednesday night is usually poker night, and so I never see that show.

But the point is, I wrote. And remembered just how much I enjoy putting an expensive fountain pen onto expensive paper. The pleasant skritch of the medium point nib sliding across the paper. The ink staining my fingers because I never let it dry sufficiently before touching it. The suede-like texture on my journal.

Remember when I used to consider myself a writer? I must do this again… tonight.

And… my two gorgeous, expensive fountain pens found their way into my purse this morning. Such instruments should not be neglected as I have done for the past several years. And so, I’m using one of them all day today. I do love a fabulously expensive writing utensil!

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It seems I’ll have a birthday on Sunday. I’m not happy about it. For some inane reason, 33 intimidates me. It has something to do with the fact that 33 is divisible by 11 three times. That freaks me out for some reason. I’m not generally bothered at all by aging. Oh, sure, I cried at 19 and found it to be very traumatic, but no birthday since then has been traumatic at all. Thirty-three… gah! I can’t cope!

Anyway, my loving husband asked me the other day

He: What do you want for you birthday?
Me: Pig tails.
He: I know that already. What else do you want?
Me: It’s so hard to answer that; we tend to buy what we want when we want if we have the money.
He: I know. We’re impossible to shop for. So… what do you want?
Me: Stuff for the house. A kitchen sink. Plants. Oooh! Someone to come rip out and re-drywall my kitchen! That’s what I want!
He: Riight. We can get you that lemon tree you’ve been lusting after.
Me: It’s $70. For $70 we can have a really nice meal with tasty adult beverages.
He: So do you just want to go out to eat?
Me: Yes… but I’d also like to just keep throwing money into our mythical vacation fund.

On the way home tonight, we stopped by our big box home improvement store to look at the plants. We seriously have a plant problem in that we have no self-control. We can’t remember which big box store we recently saw baby papaya trees for cheap (compared to our nursery of choice that is super expensive and really far away and sucks away so much of our money). This was not the right store for the papaya. But… they had my variegated pink lemon tree for $20 compared to $70 at the nursery. Granted, the tree at Lucas Nursery was much, much larger — a tree — and the one that came home with us is more like a shrubbery, but look at the difference in price! And so… I give you my birthday lemon tree whose name is Floyd:

Isn’t he pretty?! I heart him! Supposedly his fruit will resemble small, lemon-shaped watermelons. Here’s a close up of his newest growth:

Such a pretty tree.

And while I’m posting pictures of trees, let me update you on Manny, my ice cream mango tree. He’s trying so hard to produce fruit for me this year:

I just love all our trees. And am thrilled with Floyd. What a great birthday present! And since he only cost $20, we also were able to bring home two strawberry plants, a muscadine grape (we’re expanding our vineyard!), and a raspberry. And some flower pots for our existing, need-to-be-re-potted herbs. All for $20 less than what Floyd would have cost at Lucas.

My fingers are still crossed for dry wall installers to re-do all my horrid textured walls for my birthday, but I won’t hold my breath.

Bonus: pics a few weeks ago of the itty bitty baby lemons on Oscar the Meyer Lemon:

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We had a free pass to go see Hot Tub Time Machine last night. We went into it with very low expectations, and… it was hysterical. Those of you who know me in real life know I’m not generally a laugh out loud kind of girl. Some of you have complained to my face that I don’t laugh at your jokes. I’m not a laugher. This movie had me loudly guffawing in the theater, grabbing my sides, crying. It was so funny. It’s rated R, and I hope the eight year old in the front row appreciated all the sex and nekkid humor and blatant drug abuse, but I will not allow my thirteen year old to see this movie. Crispin Glover’s character drew the loudest laughs from a theater full of UCF students and we two fuddy duddy adults. I would not have regretted paying to see this movie. This is from the lady who flat out refuses to go to movies anymore because of the price and rude theater go-ers.

In other news, I’m looking at our home insurance policy and wondering if our network of webcams placed around the house qualifies as one of those wireless security systems that might then qualify me for a slight discount on my insurance? I will have to put on my adult hat one of these days and call to see if that would work out or not.

We had Hot Dog Heaven for lunch yesterday. Shortly thereafter, my stomach started screaming at me. I had some soup before the movie last night, but I sat through that movie with a very strong stomach ache, and no relief in sight. Safe at home, I climbed into bed but tossed and turned all night long due to a raging head ache and my screaming stomach; there just was not a comfortable position available. This morning, I stayed in bed until just before 9. I got up and showered, which absolutely wiped me out. And the stomach and head: screaming at me still. There’s someplace I need to be, and I just can’t bear the thought of driving ten miles to go there. I put a pot of chicken bones on the stove to make some broth for me. And I’m sipping ginger ale. But, honestly, if my stomach is going to feel like an alien is trying to break through it, shouldn’t I at least have the benefit of puking to alleviate the pain? Alas, it has not been in the cards for me. Just ridiculous stomach pain, and a headache to match because I’m afraid to put advil into my aching tummy.

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I know I just blogged about this a couple hours ago, but I am so stinking excited about the ski hat I ordered today! I can’t even justify it by saying I’ll give it to myself for my birthday because I plan to wear it as soon as it arrives.

In other impulse buy news, my husband found an amazing deal for an electric guitar on Friday. With shipping, it came to just over $30! It should be arriving any day now. We’re quite excited. He’s so good at finding clearance deals or superb coupons online.

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Thank you, Amanda, for offering to search for the other curtain I need on your local clearance racks. Unfortunately, I threw the packaging away and can’t find it online, so I can’t take you up on that offer. But I do appreciate it. And, yes, I have considered hanging the set of two black curtains in my bedroom, and they do fit nicely over the sliding door in there, but we already have those nice roller blinds that darken our room sufficiently, so we don’t need additional window treatments in there.

I am now keeping an eye on the clearance racks for a curtain rod that will be exactly what I’m looking for at the price I’m willing to pay to hang my fabulous $4 curtains on. Also, I need someone ::cough::sherlock::cough:: to move the curtain rod from RTY’s old bedroom to her new room so I can hang her curtain up.

In two to three weeks I’ll begin demolishing RTY’s old room. It’s time to get that project started. And I’m dreading it, so much that we’re going to tackle Steve (the hedge) first. And the trellis project I haven’t bored you about yet.

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I have the greatest readers! And not just blog readers who subscribe and only see me in the RSS feed, but readers who actually still visit my humble little blog and take the time read my little plurk widget. Sometime last week, I lamented being unable to find a certain knit hat I had seen spectators wearing at the downhill ski events on the Olympics. I posted my thought on plurk. Today, I checked my email, and one of my wonderful readers (who I won’t name because she may not want to be named, but can feel free to out herself in my comments should she so desire) sent me a link to the exact hat I coveted! And… I ordered it. Woo hoo! I’ll model it for you when it arrives. You know, I need a nice, warm ski hat in Orlando!

In other news, several of my readers contacted me in various media about the post I wrote last week regarding weight loss. They were mostly cautionary, but some wrote to tell me products that worked for them, including Stimerex ES. I’m still sticking to the plan of exercise first to avoid yo yo weight loss/gain.

I appreciate you, my faithful reader, more than you know. Thanks for coming back and suffering through my inane ramblings.

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Things I scored on clearance during the last few days:

42″ wide x 84″ long set of 2 black curtains: $4
42″ wide x 84″ long 1 black curtain: $3
Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Greatest Hits: $5
Super cute note cards: $2 (because I like to send notes to people in the mail)
Colorful tissue paper: 68 cents (for gifts, I hate spending $ on this crap)

I’m super excited about the curtains. I found the single panel at one Target, and bought it for RTY’s room. The plan was if I couldn’t find another panel at another Target (and I’ve been to 5 stores now), that I could still hang it in her room and cinch it in the center with a big silver bow to go with the purple mural on her wall.

Then, I found the set of 2 curtains at another Target today. It’s a different style, and I heart it. I might hang it in my family room over the sliding glass door, even though the curtains are not wide enough to cover that opening. It’ll appear to be sufficient. And it’s not like I want to cover those doors, except when it’s no pants time and I’m worried about random fishermen in the back yard looking into my house and seeing me scantily clad.

Apparently I’m nesting! I’ve never had an interest in curtains before. And we’ve lived here since 2005.

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Have you noticed what a gorgeous day it is? We have thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine and warm temperatures after an uncharacteristically cold winter (damn global warming). Tonight, were heading to Universal Studios for the Blondie concert. Here’s hoping it’s a mild evening, as I’m much too much of a wuss to deal with the cold for a concert (is partly why we missed Dennis DeYoung and Heart).

Have you noticed when they’re spotlighting an olympian, and they show the olympian working out and training, you never see them utilizing ellipticals, but they all seem to mountain bike?

Have you noticed that I’m having a fantastic hair day today? And, since I got something like eleven much-needed hours of sleep last night, I even managed to get eye make-up on. It’s nice to feel pretty.

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Something happens to me when the winter Olympics are on: I start whining about how I was to skate, I want to ski, I want to curl… I’m a Northern girl who somehow got stuck in Florida. It happened after the 2006 winter Olympics, which resulted in my January 2007 ski trip. That was my last time skiing. And, here we sit watching ladies downhill skiing, and I’m itching to go skiing again. Why, oh why, do I live in a snow-free, flat state?

Clearly it’s time for me to plan my next ski trip. Surely I have managed to increase muscle mass since January 2007, since I’ve done a marathon and a couple half marathons since then, and surely that will make me a better skier, right? Right? Doesn’t matter, really, as I’m quite pleased with my mediocre ability to ski. Gosh I miss living in snow states.

Skiing 011207 from wRitErsbLock on Vimeo.

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