It's been way too long since I posted anything...this Craigslist ad I wrote is the most I've done in months.  Enjoy!


About a month ago my husband told me he was planning on going to an auction with a few of his buddies. I figure that's a pretty safe place for him to hang out for a Saturday, I mean how much money could he actually waste there, right? The day arrives, his friends show up and they all pile into his pickup truck and head out to the auction. Woo-hoo! A few hours to catch up on some housework (lol!) or read a book, whichever.

Several hours later finds me out in the yard watering my trees when the hubby pops out the back door and lures me in with his excited "Come see what I bought for you!" What could it be? Did he find me a beautiful, 1940s waterfall bedroom set for some amazingly low price? Maybe he bought me some cool fish tank stand so I can expand my aquatic hobby. The excitement is simply overwhelming, so I rush inside to see what he found.

Well, my hopes were dashed upon entering my kitchen to find my beaming husband standing behind a vacuum cleaner. An old, used and very chrome-y looking vacuum cleaner. Um, thanks? But I'm not a complete meany so I say "Oh, it's a vacuum cleaner. Okay, is it better than the one I already own?" And my overly proud of his purchase husband begins to extol me on the virtues of this amazing machine.

This, he informs me, is a KIRBY!!! vacuum cleaner. The very best of the best of vacuum cleaners. Why, all the women whose homes he has admired for many years use KIRBY!!! vacuum cleaners. Nothing less will do. And look at all the attachments, he says. There are some that we'll probably never even figure out what they're for, but certainly they are very important to have. AND, it has extra bags! So we don't even have to worry about buying new bags for a long time ("longer still because my wife rarely vacuums" was thankfully left out). He briefly mentions the shampoo attachment (for when the idiot cats throw-up, again!) and then, he pulls out an attachment and with a reverence usually reserved for vintage whiskey or especially beautiful revolvers, he intones "And this brush...this brush is so you can clean the blinds!"

I'm duly impressed with his sales spiel, but he's not done yet. Because, like any good vacuum cleaner salesman would do, he insists on showing me how it works. As an aside, I've been around vacuums for a very long time and am fairly well versed in how they work. Evidently hubby has forgotten this and I hate to ruin his moment in the sun so I go along with him. It should be noted that by this time, our twelve year old son has joined us to watch this new wonder do it's magic.

My husband carefully adds the attachment to the long hose and plugs the machine in. He wheels the whole thing over to the blinds on the back door, looks at me with a smile and says "Watch this!" Hitting the "on" switch, the KIRBY!!! comes to life with a "RAWR!" of power. You can feel the surge of adrenaline pulsing through it's chrome-y parts. The cats scatter to the far corners of the house and the dogs look on it with horror. It is an animal. It is power, and virility and beauty all wrapped up into one amazing machine. And then...our son says "what's that smell?"

Hubby continues to run the brush over the blinds only looking over his shoulder long enough to say "That's raw power son" before going back to obliterating the dust from the slats. I have to say that the speed with which that dust was sucked into the KIRBY!!! was a sight to behold. It never stood a chance. About four slats in, our son again says "what's that smell?" and I realize that I am starting to smell something as well. Something...burny...electrically...electrically burny...and then Hubby smells it too. He turns around and looks down at his amazing machine and says "OMG! It's on fire!" And I dumbly reply "What is?" My husband's eyes get huge and he shouts "The vacuum cleaner is on fire! OMG! It's on fire! Holy sh!!!t! Unplug it!"

I dutifully unplug the raging monster and my heroic husband picks the flaming beast up in one massive fist and carries it outside. Upon being released from the source of fuel, this cousin of the Kraken (land version) loses steam and puts itself out. The stench of it's fury permeates my house and now, my back patio as well. The neighbors may or may not now believe they live next door to a long time sailor. Our son stands transfixed on the patio, staring at his father in what I can only assume is awe at his heroic acts.

Once the emergency is over, our hero stands in defeat, looking at his beloved KIRBY!!!, still slightly smoking at his feet. Lifting his eyes to mine, he says sadly "I guess I'll have to throw it away...I'm sorry your gift sucked." It breaks my heart to see him so destroyed. He wanted to badly to bring me this wonderful machine that he knew would make me the happiest woman in the world. So I tell him that he shouldn't throw it away. It's too GOOD to throw away. I mean, it's a KIRBY!!! for goodness sakes! They don't get thrown away! I promise him I will salvage the parts and sell them to the good people of Craigslist. People who appreciate what a wonder a KIRBY!!! is, people who will want it's parts to replace the ones on their own KIRBYs!!! Not because they broke obviously (because KIRBYs!!! don't break), but because sometimes the parts on their own KIRBYs!!! can just no longer stand up to the raw power of the machine.

So, with all of that in mind, I'm offering the remains, no, the strongest parts, of my husband's loving gift to me. I'm asking $30 (obo) for everything you see in the foreground of the first picture. For you highly technical folks, that doesn't include the background items, desk, empty box, carpeting or any animals that may have slipped into the shot (well, the cats might be negotiable) Cash only and you must pick up.

Angelfish Babies

About a month ago, maybe a little longer, the angelfish in my tropical tank laid a bunch of eggs on a plastic plant.  For the record I do have real plants in this tank.  In fact, about half the plants in there are real and I'm working towards increasing that amount.  The real plants are lush, healthy and on the complete opposite end of the tank from the filter, which is the safest area in the entire tank.  I only mention all of this so you can understand my consternation at my fish for deciding to lay their eggs as close to the filter as possible and on the spindliest plastic plant they could find.  As expected with a first batch of eggs, these were unfertilized and the parents ended up eating them within about two days.

Fast forward to a week or so ago and I discover another batch of eggs from my angelfish.  Of course, my fish didn't get any smarter in the interim and ended up laying them in almost the exact location.  I figured there would be about a 50/50 chance of these eggs not being fertile as well so I wasn't getting too excited about them.  But by the end of the first day I realized that none of the eggs was turning white (which would indicate they were infertile.)  Then I realized that if in fact any of the eggs actually managed to hatch into fry, I had nothing to feed them.  Which in turn caused me to make a panicked trip to various stores in the area only to find out that none of them carries brine shrimp eggs anymore.  What the heck? 

By the second day, still no white eggs and mom and dad are vigorously defending the nest.  I had given up finding any brine shrimp eggs locally and went online to order some.  It wasn't until after I hit the "buy" button that I realized that he delivery date wouldn't be until some time next week.  Awesome.  So back to the store I went to try and find something to tide my babies over on the off chance they actually hatched into something. 

By the end of day two I notice the eggs appear to be vibrating.  It's kind of cool to watch the entire batch shimmy, but I try to avoid doing it frequently as it gets the parents wound up.

By day three I'm seeing little tiny tails hanging out of the eggs.  They are still vibrating and shimmying and I can also see two little eyes on top of their heads.  I want to hug them they are so cute.

Yesterday I noticed a few of the babies starting to launch off of the leaf.  This sends mom (or dad, I honestly can't tell the difference) into a frenzy of sucking up the wayward baby and spitting them back onto the leaf.  Kind of like when you chase your kid out of the pantry and set them back in the room where all their toys are repeatedly.  Apparently kids of all species pull the same stunt.  Anyway, they're not completely free swimming at this point but I knew they would be by today.

I got up this morning to see a cloud of babies swimming around their parents.  I fed the other fish at the opposite end of the tank and then put a little fry food in over the babies.  They came right up and started eating, which was awesome and short lived.  Mom (or dad) decided I was trying to poison their babies and proceeded to swim around sucking up the babies and spitting them away from the food.  What the hell mom (or dad)?  Eventually they gave up and let the babies feed, but it's been a repeat of this same procedure each time I've fed them today.

I don't know if any of the babies will actually survive to adulthood.  Their chances are pretty slim considering they're in a tank with multiple members, all of whom have mouths big enough to fit a baby in.  But you never know, one or two might survive.  And in the meantime, it's pretty cool to watch the parenting of the adults. 

So I don't know which fish is mom and which is dad, but you can see they are both parenting the fry which I think is pretty cool.

Avocado Chicken Salad on a Tortilla

 

This is my lunch today.

 

As part of my move towards a healthier lifestyle, I've determined that I need to greatly reduce foods from the White Group.  Now, my White Group is probably not your White Group.  Usually when I say this I get "Yeah, I avoid potatoes and white rice too."  Yeah, that's not what I mean.  My White Group consists of the really good stuff, like mayonnaise, sour cream, whipped cream and butter.  You know, the REAL White Group.  Anyway, in trying to reduce the aforementioned foods, I need to replace them with something comparable.  Or, in this case, something even better.  

And so I bring you my new version of the chicken salad sandwich.

4 oz white meat chicken, chopped or cubed

1/4 cup mashed, fresh avocado (NOT guacamole!)

Dash of sea salt

5-6 fresh, raw cherry tomatoes

Tortilla 

Mix the chicken and avocado together with a little sea salt.  Put on a flour tortilla and sprinkle with the tomatoes.

That's it.  Eat it.  Enjoy it.  Revel in it's awesomeness.  And know that it's really not unhealthy.  I've put together a quick comparison...

Typical chicken salad sandwich (made with 4 oz chicken, 4 Tbsp mayo, on 2 slices bread):

Calories:  640

Fat:  45

Carbs: 28

Protein:  32

Avocado Chicken Salad on a Tortilla:

Calories:  378

Fat:  15

Carbs:  35
Protein:  31

I do lose one gram of protein by going this way, but I also save 262 calories and 30 grams of fat.  I'm pretty sure that's a good trade.  And it really does taste a lot better.  Additionally, the cherry tomatoes came from my own garden and the avocado came from Bountiful Baskets (so they're local).  I'm going to try and find an avocado tree the next time I'm near a garden center so I can grow those myself as well.

So there you have it, good food that's good for me.  Can't beat that.

Cool Moon

Mister C and Master J were out getting new hiking boots for Master J this evening and on the way they called me to tell me about the moon.  They said it was copper colored.  Now of course I rushed right outside to see this copper moon and was sorely disappointed to see no moon at all.  They must have been driving out in the open to see this moon because my view was blocked by my neighbors houses.  I kept checking back and front until eventually I saw it creeping over a nearby rooftop.  Unfortunately by the time I saw it, the nice copper color was gone.  But it was still a pretty neat moon.  So I put on my telephoto lens and set about trying to take a decent pictures.  After nearly thirty shots, I ended up with two that I didn't hate.

It really was much better in person.

Where did the time go?

It looks like I somehow missed the month of May, hmm, wonder where I put it?  Ah well, I guess I needed a break from my ever so busy life of loafing around reading the internet.  That's not entirely true, I've also been reading a big stack of library books.  And working out at the gym.  And making trips to California to visit friends.  So yeah, pretty busy.  Much too busy to check in with my blog.  So how about that eclipse?  That was something right?  Yeah, couldn't look at it.  I started thinking about the viewing possibilities about two hours ahead of time.  Evidently most people planned better and bought up all the special glasses.  We improvised and did the pinhole thing to project it onto a piece of poster-board.  I tried to take some pics with my pinhole camera but have yet to drop them in chemicals to see if I got anything.  Probably not, I think I left the shutter open for too long. 


Our gardens are going gangbusters.  I'm getting at least a dozen cherry tomatoes every day, usually much more.  The biggest issue with them is that I didn't cage them so I had to leave the chicken wire up around the garden to keep them upright.  Which means I am either reaching over the top or scrounging around underneath with my face pressed into the wire.  It's a look.

Here's a picture of the first real day of cherry tomato harvesting:

The strawberries finally started producing as well and when I can get them ahead of the birds they are quite good.  We've gotten two (tiny) raspberries that Mister C said were "okay".  The lone blackberry wasn't as good.  I have eight sugar babies (mini watermelons) that are about the size of softballs and several smaller ones.  I'm really excited about those, cannot wait for them to be ready!  The cantaloupe vines are taking over more than their half of the garden they're in.  I have to keep untangling their spindly runners from my strawberries to prevent strangulation.  I am finally starting to see little bulb like things that I think are future cantaloupe.  Another one I am really excited about.  The cucumbers have four little (about two inches) babies starting to grow.  And the grapevine is all the way up the trellis and heading for the overhang.  So, gardens are going pretty well and we've learned a ton.  Next year the tomatoes will be caged and the cantaloupe will have their own garden.

On other healthy fronts (see how my segues have improved in my absence?) I've been working out.  I work out no less than five times a week, usually at the gym, but sometimes I do it at home.   Mostly I do it at the gym though.  And I've been logging everything I eat for the last month.  That was sort of eye opening.  Not in a good way either.  Anyway, through the magical pill of diet and exercise I've managed to lose nine pounds since May 5th.  So, about 19% of my total goal and just under 5% lost off my starting weight.  And I'm starting to look a little better in my Jeep, so that's a positive.

So speaking of the Jeep (damn these segues just keep coming!) I still have the doors and hard top off and am driving around with just the bikini top on.  It was 111 degrees today.  Sitting at stop lights is kind of like sitting in a convection oven, the heat comes from all sides.  But you know what?  I don't even mind for the most part.  So long as I'm moving, it's fine.  And, I don't have to deal with it being 150 degrees when I get back to my car and it's been sitting in a parking lot for an hour.  Whatever the temp is outside, it is inside.  I also think it makes me more appreciative of air conditioning when I am in it.  And also, the disbelieving look on people's faces when I pull up next to them is awesome.  So for today, the doors and hard top stay off and I'll put up with the heat.

I'm all out of segues.  And I'm all out of updates.  I'll try really hard to be more on top of this blog in the future.  And I promise I'll get some more pictures in the next post.   

From the Garden

I got the first food from our garden today. Unfortunately, the birds (or something) had gotten to the first strawberry before me so it doesn't look great and will be going to the chickens later today or tomorrow. However, the cherry tomato looks awesome and I suspect Mister C will eat that in about .005 seconds flat when he gets home today.

The cherry tomato came from this plant and it looks like there will be more tomatoes soon.



The grapevines are starting to look viable finally.

A few weeks ago they looked like this...



And today look like this...



Here's one of my raspberry plants starting to leaf out nicely...



My blackberries are as well. A few weeks ago this particular plant was just starting to leaf out.



It now looks like this...



Here's a couple of cantaloupe plants...



A few cucumbers...



Our strawberry patch...



And last but not least, here's something starting to push up through the soil in one of my pots. I'll be honest, I don't know what it is other than that it's not a fruit or vegetable. It's some kind of bulb that Mister C and I purchased through Master J's school last fall that I never got around to planting. There were two different kinds of bulbs and when I found them while cleaning out my pantry a few weeks ago I just threw them in the pot and have been watering them since. Should be interesting to see what we get.

Update post

Wow, look at me not posting for most of March! I guess this just became an update post...

My father in law spent the better part of March here at our home in Arizona. He and my mother in law had planned to spend a week at the very beginning of March but then he decided to try a laser spine surgery. While she went home, he ended up staying for three weeks. At first I was a little concerned about having him (or anyone) in my house for that long. Turns out my fears were unfounded. He and I had a really nice time together. Since he's a photographer (and a Realtor) and an avid people watcher, we had a lot in common. We managed to go out shooting pictures one day and would have liked to have done more but it just didn't seem to work. We enjoyed our days drinking coffee and talking on the patio. Just my kind of company. I was surprisingly sad to see him go when he finally did leave.

The Flockers are no longer at our property. They are now residing at Mamoo and Papa's acreage where they enjoy several snacks a day (instead of just one), bedtime stories and constant supervision by Mamoo. One of those things is a fib, I'm not saying which one. So basically one of our neighbors had a problem with the racket the girls were making on a daily basis. The singing about laying an egg routine was one particularly annoying factor apparently. So I begged Mamoo to please take them to her home so we didn't have to give them away. Eventually she and Papa gave in and said they would take them on. Mister C and I loaded up the coop in our neighbor's pickup truck (why yes, it was the same neighbor that complained, why do you ask?) and loaded the girls up in a kennel in the back of the jeep, and headed three miles over to my folks place.

Unfortunately, since they had been free-ranging for a majority of their day at our house, they were less than thrilled at being more cooped up (literally) in their new locale. You see, Mamoo and Papa live on a acreage that is in a little bit more natural setting that our home. They have coyotes running through their property regularly and hawks circling overhead daily. So the girls couldn't just be running around loose unsupervised. Additionally, while our yard is small, we have a substantial number of trees, shrubs and plants. If a hawk did fly over, the girls would dive under the nearest plant and get out of sight. While my folks property is about seven times larger than ours, they only have a few trees that are fairly far apart, and a couple of shrub-like plants. The girls would be sitting ducks, sort of.

Last week I started searching in earnest for fencing to put around the coop so they could be loose safely during the day. I tried Craigslist with no luck and finally decided I needed to buy new. I priced out Home Depot for their fencing and then decided to try Lowes. Lowes had a ten by ten dog kennel that was six feet tall. And it was going to cost me about 1/2 the price of the same sized fencing at Home Depot. Additionally, since this was a kennel and not a fence, there was no holes to be dug for the support poles. Perfect. So I got the go-ahead from Mister C to make the purchase and Papa and I went back after he got off work to pick it up. In the meantime, Mister C had suggested using the block wall surrounding my folks place as two sides and expanding the kennel from ten by ten to twenty by twenty. Good call Mister C! Papa and I put everything together and released the Flockers, who proceeded to get even dirtier than normal taking a sand bath in their new expanded space. I haven't spoken to my folks yet but I think I'm going to try and get a few plants in the fenced in area for my girls to chew on. I'll just casually sneak them in under the cover of darkness and claim ignorance when they ask me about it.

Moving on.

Everything is leafing out in my yard. My strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries are really putting out leaves and looking good. My grapevines both look really healthy and are growing daily. The cherry tomatoes have a bunch of green babies all over them and the peppers are starting to get little peppers. We have sprouts of cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumbers starting as well. The orange tree is finally finished flowering and if even half of the currently pea-sized fruit makes it to fruition it will be a banner year for oranges. I still haven't plucked the last of the lemons off the tree yet and Mister C is working his way through the grapefruit (which I don't love). Yeah, it's looking like there's going to be some awesome fresh food in our backyard this year.

And lastly, I am now on the "Jeep Diet". What the heck is that you might ask. Well, that's when your charming husband removes the doors from your jeep and you realize that all the world can now see exactly how much extra weight you're carrying so you decide to start keeping track of your food and trying to exercise. Miserable man.

Easley's Fun Shop

We accompanied Master J to Literacy Night at his school last night. His role was that of a colonial soldier. Now, I knew about the whole Literacy Night thing, but I didn't know that he was supposed to dress up for it. I figured that out on Wednesday morning when he mentioned it over breakfast. Having nothing in the house that remotely resembled the uniform of a colonial soldier, and no real way of creating one without a whole lot of time, money and effort, I did the next best thing. Or in this case, the first best thing.

I popped on over to Easley's Fun Shop in downtown Phoenix. This awesome, family owned business has been around for over six decades and been run by four generations of the Easley family. There's an unimaginable number of costumes covering just about anything you can think of. I mean EVERYTHING. When I walked in, some guy was picking up a frog costume, complete with huge froggy head. The wall behind the registers is a showcase of at least fifty kinds of high heels, platform shoes and boots of varying heights. The whole place is wall to wall, floor to ceiling costumes and the props that go with them. It's incredible!

But here's the really cool thing, it only took about fifteen seconds for Debi (probably spelled wrong) to find me a colonial costume. And while I was checking out the costumes for sale, she went and pulled several rental costumes out for me to look at. After seeing the awesomeness that was one of the rental costume, I just couldn't resist. I decided it was totally worth it to rent a costume for just one night.

And I don't think I was wrong...



I know, right? How cool does Master J look all decked out? He was a hit a Literacy Night for sure. Several people were taking pictures of him.

So, if you live in the Phoenix area and you're ever in need of a last minute costume because your kid forgot to mention that he needed one until the very last possible moment, head on over to Easley's Fun Shop. If they don't have it, it probably doesn't exist.

*Also, the fine folk at Easley's did not compensate me in any way, nor encourage me to write anything about how awesome they are. They are just that awesome. That is all.

Murmuration

Amazing!

http://vimeo.com/31158841

Horse Races

I haven't been to the races in years, maybe decades. Today, Mamoo and I went to hear Music Man sing (and Miss Lee as well) at Turf Paradise. In between things, I got to watch the races. I'm not a big gambler so after picking three losers and one winner I was only down $2.60. But it sure was fun to watch the ponies run.

Another Update Post

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in a week. What on earth have I been doing with my time? Well, we won't count today where I spent a good portion of my day looking up and watching Tim Hawkins videos and laughing my backside off. But mostly, I've been playing catch-up with life.

For instance, I finally got around to moving some plants into new pots this week. The pots we had all of our plants in had been falling apart for some time. They were those clay pots that apparently get weakened every time you water your plants. This starts by just leaving a little rust colored ring under the pot. It escalates to where little pieces are flaking off the pot. And it eventually ends up where large chunks are breaking off. So several weeks ago Mister C and I hit the home repair store and picked up some nice, environmentally unsound, fiberglass pots in colors not found in nature. We also bought some new soil in large bags that would tear open if I so much as looked at them. That weakness lasted right up to when I wanted to actually open them and get at the dirt, then the plastic would rebind itself and be nearly impossible to tear open. Anyway, two days of work later and I had moved all my previously potted plants to their new homes as well as moving the gladiolas and remaining calla lilies out of the garden that will soon be used for vegetables.

Mister C and I also finally got around to attending class to get our CCW license. This past Saturday we had Mamoo watch Master J while we spent five hours learning the rules and laws and practicing on the range. Which, by the way, was quite interesting. Because a few of the guys were pretty cocky when they got out there, until our instructor singled them out for their transgressions. Not to worry, he got after me as well, but at least I admit I'm no professional. But, there was a gal out there that was not in our class but was on the range with us that made me smile widely. We went up to shoot in groups of five and since there were eighteen of us in the class, there were four different relays. This lady was number six in each relay.

When we first got to the range I noticed this older gal up speaking with the instructor. She looked to be in her late sixties, maybe early seventies and probably eighty pounds soaking wet. Her dyed blond hair was piled on top of her head in a loose bun. She had red lacquered fingernails, full makeup and cat's eye sunglasses on. She was carrying a large, straw bag with her wallet, bottled water and whatever else it was she needed. Which in this case was her not so dainty weapon. Now, I don't know enough about guns to be able to identify what kind it was, I just know it was comparable in size and look to the one Mister C was using, which if I recall correctly is a 9mm glock. And man could this gal shoot. Since she was a part of each relay, she ended up firing sixty rounds. And I'm not joking when I tell you that not one of those rounds went anywhere except within one of the three target areas. Not one. Maybe she's a natural, although I'm sure she practices regularly to get that good. But however she does it, she was awesome to watch. She would be in a perfect stance, snapping her gum, he would blow the whistle, she would aim and fire. And it would be perfect. Man I love old ladies like this one!

The flockers are doing well. They're growing daily and feathering out nicely. They also have learned that when I greet them with "Hi girls, you want a snack?" there will be good stuff involved and so they come right over. While I don't think they'll ever be "pets", I do think good planning on my part will make removing their eggs a lot easier later I have no desire to have to fight my girls so I'd rather socialize them now while they're still babies.

Here's four of them in the snack bowl this morning.



My photography class has been really cool. I love the actual creation of pictures, it is amazing. I forgot my negatives at home the other night so I didn't get the chance to print out any pictures but hopefully I'll be able to do something tonight that I can post next time.

Finally, Mister C and I are taking an organic gardening class, which will be followed by a container gardening class. There's a ton of information to learn for us, and it's being presented pretty fast and furious. Hopefully between the two of us we'll get everything we need to get moving on our gardens.

I think that about wraps it up. Lots of stuff going on as well as lots of learning. So, it's all good.

September already?

So yeah, I've been out of touch with my blog for several weeks now. It's not that I didn't want to update, and really it's not that I haven't had time, it's just I haven't been motivated to do anything with it. I'm sorry. That's just pathetic. I know. So, I'm regrouping. I'm starting over. In more ways than one.

So real estate kind of sucks right now. I haven't been happy in it for awhile now and I think I've finally hit my personal wall as far as how much more I'm willing to do. I'll be honest, I'm not the best agent around. I don't advertise. I don't try to find and follow leads every day (or any day truthfully). I don't call on past clients to see if they have any "real estate needs" or if their friends and family do. And I don't push buyers into buying a house just so I can close a deal. In the past two weeks, I went from having one offer in escrow, one client writing offers and one that was coming in to town ready to really buy this time (I swear), to no offers in escrow, one buyer that wants me to write offers at eighty three percent of list price (seriously? WTH?) and my out of town buyers back out of town without offering on anything. So I think I'm done.

I've had it with some other agents having an attitude of arrogance. I called a listing agent about a house two days ago because I was out showing to a client and could not find the property. Literally, his directions led me to a house that was not for sale. So I called. He said (and I am quoting verbatim here) "I don't know what mls you're using because the directions are fine. Plenty of other agents have been able to find the property." Really? Okay, that's pretty shitty but maybe I am being dumb. So, seeing a guy a few doors down walking out to his truck, I pulled up and asked him if he knew where the house was. Turns out I was in the wrong neighborhood, because the agent's directions were wrong. So I followed the neighbor's directions to the correct neighborhood and showed the house. Then I called the agent back and left him a message. In it I said that the directions were in fact wrong and gave him the correct directions. It was polite. I never heard a word from him, but he did change the mls listing. Idiot.

I've had it with investors who want to make HUGE profits on houses that they've done a minimal amount to. They buy it at auction, slap some paint, granite and new carpet in and list it at twice what they paid. And then try to put a clause in the contract that says the purchase price has to be paid regardless of what the house appraises for. Um, no. I am not going to have my client sign a contract that could potentially screw them out of tens of thousands of dollars. But it gets better, because I'm pretty sure at this point that because I advised my client not to sign that potentially expensive contract, she isn't returning my calls or emails. I think she's upset that she didn't get the house and I'm to blame for trying to protect her interests. Guess I should have allowed her to go ahead and sign away her rights so I could get my commission. See, I told you I'm not a good agent.

Moving on.

I started another photography class last week. This one is a black and white film and digital class. I'm really more interested in the film part but I'll do what's required from the digital side as well. Last night we made pin-hole cameras, took a picture of a vacuum cleaner and developed it. Dude, it was awesome! I can't begin to tell you the feeling of dropping what looks to be a blank sheet of paper into a vat of chemicals and watching something develop. It was magical. This is what photography is about, it's incredible. So our assignment before next week is to take a bunch of pictures with our pin-hole cameras so we can develop them in the lab after Labor Day. The one drawback to this type of camera is that it takes time to get the picture so I'm fairly sure I won't be able to get any photos of my dogs or anything animated. Hmm, I could probably get any of the cats though. Anyway, I'll give a better description of the camera itself and show the results next week. I'm so excited about this!

I think I'll end on that happy note. Glad to be back, thanks to you that checked in regularly to see if I had anything new, I appreciate your loyalty. All three of you ;)

Veterans Day

Thank you.

Weston, Missouri Funeral NOT interrupted

The town of Weston, Missouri pulled together to allow the family of a fallen soldier to bury their son in peace. We need more of this.

I pulled this video from
Fox4kc.com

While I understand that this man has the right to do what he does, I am deeply saddened (and exceedingly pissed off) that he chooses to do so in a way that is so very disrespectful of both the soldiers and their families. He may have the legal right, but he does not truly have the right to use their tragedy to bring attention to himself.

Car Show!

So, there was another car show this weekend and this time I had my camera. Master J and I met up with Mamoo, Miss Lee and Music Man to start off. We ended up dragging Mamoo with us to look at everything while Miss Lee hung out in vintage attire and had her photo taken with people. Mister C was unable to go with us as he got a work related phone call as we were heading out the door and ended up spending three hours on it trying to figure out some emergency.

Other than having to leave Mister C at home, I don't think it could have been a better day...sunny, a slight breeze and about 78 degrees. I took a ton of pictures and these are just a few. The biggest issue at any car show is maintaining my composure when I am on my knees in front of a car, lining up the perfect shot, only to have some half-wit walk into the frame as I'm pushing the button. I cannot tell you how many times I want to stab people at car shows. I really should work on that.

Anyway, here's some prettiness for you to view...

Music Man!

Mister C and I finally got a chance to see Music Man perform last night. Mamoo took Master J to spend the night at her house last night. Since we were free we decided to take advantage of the time and go out.

Music Man got us on the list of people to get into the show which was held at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Miss Lee saved us front row seats. It was wonderful. We've always known that Music Man is a talented musician, we just didn't know how talented. Seeing him play for over two hours solidified for us what an awesome musician he is. There was another gentleman in the front row that is a photographer/videographer (whatever the word is for that). When he puts out a video, I'll link to it in another post. I took 111 photos. Most of them weren't fantastic because I was avoiding using my flash since I was so close but a few came out.

Here's Music Man



Miss Lee joining in



Miss Lee & me (photo by Mister C)



If you're ever coming to the valley and looking to hang out in a dive bar listening to great music, here's a link to Music Man's myspace page Pat Roberts and The Heymakers. They update it with new gigs as they have them. It's worth sitting in the seedy bar to hear him.

Also, Miss Lee did a great job up there as well. As brash, blunt and loud as I am, I don't think I'd have the guts to stand up in front of a crowd and sing. Be grateful.

Vitatops

These are Vitatops...



I don't usually plug products on this blog, mostly because I think people should make their own decisions about what they eat or use in their daily life. But also because I'm not getting paid. Kidding. I wouldn't plug a product that sucked even if I got paid for doing so. But these are pretty good as far as health food goes.

Some back story...

On September 14th, I joined Weight Watchers. I have been struggling with excess weight for a few years now and doing nothing didn't seem to be helping it any so I decided to try something different. And that is "doing something". It's a concept.

The thing is, I absolutely refuse to eliminate entire food groups from my diet so most "diets" won't work for me. I can't eat carbs? Not gonna happen. Avoid all fat? Please, that's one of the five food groups (FYI, the other four are sugar, caffeine, chocolate and meat). So basically, I knew I needed to do something that would allow me to consume all of the five food groups and still lose weight. Which brought me to Weight Watcher's doorstep.

Using their point system, every food is assigned a number of points. Points are based on calories, fiber and fat. As you would imagine, higher calories or higher fat equates to higher points. Higher fiber means lower points. I have a set number of points I can use in any given day, plus an additional thirty five to use at my discretion over the week. All I need to do is stay within the total allotted points for the week and I'm good.

The important thing here is that they don't tell me how to use my points, that's entirely up to me. If I want to use all of my points for the day on a Starbucks coffee and a cheese danish, nobody will tell me I can't. They might raise an eyebrow and hope for my sake that I make a better choice, but they won't say the dreaded words "You can't have that!" Because I can. And because I can choose to have anything I want, I have found myself making better choices. Because knowing that I can have the cheesecake if I want to makes it less of a burning desire. I can choose to have a healthier breakfast and dinner if I know I'm going out to lunch with a friend. Mostly, I am making better decisions about what I put in my body because nobody is telling me what I can't. At some primitive level I am apparently a three year old who goes around saying "You're not the boss of me!"

Which brings me back to the Vitatops. These are basically low calorie, low fat, high fiber goodness that are only worth one point each. And they're not half bad. I only bought the two flavors in the picture because I wasn't sure if I was going to like them. But I really do. If I'm really craving chocolate, the double fudge takes the edge off. It's not as chewy or decadent as a brownie, but it seems to work. And because of the high fiber, I'm not starving fifteen minutes later. I tried the corn muffin a little bit ago and while it's not the same as real corn bread, it works. I will say I had to control the very strong urge to drown it in butter and/or honey but I made the right choice (for me) and abstained.

Oh, and as of two days ago, I've lost twelve pounds so "doing something" seems to be working for me.

The one time I forget my camera at home

So on the way home from church today we needed to drop some mail at the post office. This brought us past the local Chevy dealership, which was having a corvette show. Of course we stopped in. There was probably about a hundred corvettes there, from a brand new model all the way back to a 1957 convertible. All shined up and beautiful, gleaming in the sun. A hundred or so cars, a hundred opportunities to get a great shot of a great car. And my camera is sitting at home on the kitchen counter. Sigh.

Bryan Adams at the Orpheum

When my friend A called me up to ask me if I wanted to see Bryan Adams in concert, I almost said "no". I mean, really? Bryan Adams? Is he even still singing? What was the last thing he released? Is he even alive? But I said "yes" because at the end of the day I enjoy spending time with her and I figured what the heck, it can't be as bad as sitting through the warm up acts for Nickleback right?

So we met up at a pseudo-Italian restaurant prior to heading to the concert. I say "pseudo-Italian" because while they purported to serve excellent spaghetti (and accompaniments), they were less than stellar on the delivery.

The side salad was a handful of iceberg lettuce, a few shreds of purple cabbage and five croutons. I got my dressing on the side and thank goodness for that as it was about a half a cup's worth. If they had dumped that much on my salad I would have had iceberg ranch soup.

I kept it simple and ordered spaghetti with meat sauce. It showed up within about five minutes of ordering which is suspicious at best. The spaghetti noodles were somewhat gummy which I can only assume is because they had been cooked some time prior and kept warm. The sauce was okay. Not great, not horrific, just okay. It had an odd taste to it that I couldn't quite place. I'm sure it was some spice, just not one that necessarily belonged in any sort of spaghetti sauce.

But the best part came when I went to top my spaghetti with some powdered Parmesan (is it that much cheaper than shredded?) Because before I tipped it completely over, something in the container caught my eye. Turns out it was a rather large bug. Poor fellow had apparently aspirated on the powdered Parmesan and died an untimely death. Lovely. And appetizing.

While the delivery of the food was rapid, seeing and catching the attention of our waitress in order to get new Parmesan was not. She flew by our table several times like she'd been shot out of a cannon. Her eyes were fixed on the kitchen door each time so there would be no way to catch her eye. I didn't feel like yelling to get her attention as that is crass at best. Eventually she served the table next to us and made the mistake of turning in our direction so I was able to catch her eye. Anyway, long story short, she replaced the buggy Parmesan and thanked us for bringing it to her attention.

That's a pretty big lead in for a post labeled "Bryan Adams at the Orpheum" isn't it? Sorry, I get a bit long winded occasionally. But wait, there's more!

We left the pseudo-Italian place to drive 1.3 miles down the road to the theater. It took us thirty minutes. To go 1.3 miles. Not even joking. The problem seemed to be that the parking garage was directly past the traffic light and there was a backlog. So, every time the light turned green exactly ONE car would go through it. Oh. My. Holy. Hell. I was ready to get out of my car and start ripping the other driver's heads off. When it came to my turn, I made a radical move and actually turned right. Onto the street. And then I (gasp!) drove down the street and found a place to park. Apparently the other drivers couldn't figure out what those weird posts sticking up out of the concrete in the sidewalk were. You know, parking meters. Goodness gracious. The best part was that since it was almost 8:00 by the time we got there, we didn't even have to pay to park. Bwahahahaha all you fools clamoring to pay money to park in the garage!

Okay, so I'm rambling again.

So we park. And then we walk two blocks to the theater.

The Orpheum Theater is a small venue with only 1364 seats. Originally built in the late 1920s, it retained it's ornate, Spanish Revivalist roots after a major renovation in the 80s. It's cozy, comfortable and beautiful to look at. What more could one ask for? Oh that's right, the main act!

For those not in the know (read: me) this the "Bare Bones Tour". Which means effectively no band, no special effects, no "show". It's just Bryan with his guitar, harmonica and microphone accompanied about half the time by Gary Bright on the piano. I didn't know this because I never bothered to look anything up once A asked if I wanted to go. She had the tickets so I just showed up. Seeing nothing but a piano and a mic on the stage once we got seated was a little worrisome. What if Mr. Adams, in his advanced age (joking), couldn't sing like he used to? What if the songs lacked the fullness that a band adds. What if I just wasted sixty five dollars to hear some old man waver through a bunch of songs that I didn't recognize? Mostly, what if this sucked?

But you know what? It was awesome! Bryan's voice is nothing if not powerful. It's still the same gravelly goodness it always was. The songs sounded just like I remembered them. And I remembered them all. Best of all, it was such an intimate setting that it felt like I was hanging out with a bunch of friends listening to another friend serenade us. It was really cool.

I honestly can't remember what song he started with but he worked his way through the last thirty years of writing and hit all the good ones. His stage presence in this cozy setting was, again, like having someone you know up on stage. He spoke with people in audience. He had us laughing. And singing. Out loud. As a minor side note, while I belt out songs in my car on the highway, I generally don't sing out loud at concerts. I'm an introvert at heart (you just shush!) and self conscious enough that I don't want to bring any undue attention (seriously, shush!). But I just could not help myself, I had to sing. I forgot that I knew all the words to most of his songs. I forgot how much I enjoyed Bryan Adams.

But I remembered it all last night. It brought back a lot of memories. Memories of high school dances. Memories of listening to albums repeatedly, of trying to tape songs from the radio without the dj screwing it up with chatter. Memories of dancing with Mister C to "Everything I Do"after watching Robin Hood. Great memories of great times.

It was awesome.



Yeah, I get that my iPhone takes crappy pictures and I couldn't zoom in. But look how close he is! How cool is that?

Eeek!

So I've got a new addition to my tank. I went out yesterday in search of an electric blue ahli to replace Elvis. When I was sick a while back, Mister C decided he just had to move my fish tank two days after I had done a huge water change. He put Elvis, along with way too many of his companions, into a five gallon bucket containing about three gallons of water. And then he put the lid on tight. He didn't insert an aerator. By the time I came out several hours later to see what was going on, most of my fish were dead. I was left with my five clown loaches (The Ross Street Gang), my over sized plecostomus "Yuck!", and Vinny the venustus.

Vinny's mate was gone as were Elvis and his mate Priscilla. It was a very sad tank for a while there. Since Mister C accepted full responsibility for the untimely demise of my tank denizens, he's been very accommodating in my search for replacements. I've started referring to the newcomers as "the school of guilt fish".

Anyway, I've been searching for a new Elvis but having a heckuva time with it. Either they're too young and small to survive in my tank, or they just look sickly. I finally made a trip to my favorite little shop in down town Phoenix to see what I could find. Unfortunately, they didn't have what I wanted. But I did find something cool.

World, welcome "Eeek!", my new eel.

















Is that the most horrifying thing ever? I know, awesome right? So here's a fun fact: Eeek! will only eat krill. Which I need to thaw out and get as close to him as possible since he's fairly blind. I tried using a skewer to get it to him but the krill kept breaking up and he couldn't find it. Today I resorted to using an extra set of grilling tongs to get him his meal. Which would have been a whole lot easier if I wasn't having to wave off Vinny and Frank (my small spot starry night cichlid) to prevent them from snagging the krill before I could get it to Eeek! Good times.

The only other issue I will be having is that Eeek! will grow. Big. He could get up to two feet long. Which could be a real problem in the future. Because as you can see in the photo series above, he eats things that are bigger than his head, whole. I'll have to keep a good eye on him and the rest of the tank to make sure he doesn't end up an only child.