Archives for July 2009

The Joys of Home Ownership

On Tuesday, my sister and her fiance closed on their VERY FIRST HOUSE. It is an adorable house – it’s just about a mile from my own house, which is kind of an unexpected bite of awesome, because I think I’m going to like having my sister nearby (and not just for the free babysitting).

In true local fashion, turns out my sister’s house was previously owned by a girl I went to high school with. A girl that I cheered with on our high school squad. A girl whose sister currently lives across the street from me. I’m not a stranger to her, nor her to me – so it’s been amusing how she’s acted like she’s had no clue who I am.

No matter, I suppose I get the last laugh (or is that… shudder?) at the state in which the house was left.

My. Poor. Sister.

I cannot imagine leaving a house to a new owner in any less than pristine condition, particularly if all parties are local and there’s a possibility the new home owners would be likely to tell people at the local bar how the house smelled like dog pee. My sister walked into that house Tuesday afternoon and was immediately overwhelmed by the mess, the smell and the work that was needing to be done.

Welcome to home ownership, sis.

Between my mom, her fiance’s family and other assorted peeps, it’s coming together pretty nicely. After a day of intense cleaning, the house smelled WORLDS better. (Also, after scrubbing all the CIGARETTE BUTTS OUT OF THE DRYER, my sister felt a little less squidgy about doing laundry there. Cigarette butts. In the dryer. Huh? Also: dirty undies. Behind the washing machine.).

Yesterday, she was finally ready to start dealing with decor – starting with window treatments. My mom and I joined her at Target to look at curtains and blinds. Immediately, she was overwhelmed by choices. I felt horrible for her, but kept my mouth shut unless specifically asked for an opinion. It made me realize that my sister and I are very different in so many ways – the little details really bog her down. When it comes to home stuff, I tend to be a bit lax about the details. Paint colors? Eh, who cares? If I don’t like it, I can redo it. Curtains? If I hate ’em, I’ll throw them back in the package and return them. I tend to surround myself with things I find aesthetically appealing and I know pretty instintively what I like – my dining table took me mere minutes to select, and I’m just as much in love with it now as I was a year ago when I picked it. I love every color on every wall I’ve painted.

But now I’m wondering – am I in the minority – or is my sister? How do you select the things in your home? Is it a well thought out deliberate process or instinct?

A Little Ear Candy

And, eye candy too.

I don’t love Lady Gaga. That’s how I know I’m getting older – because I really don’t get her. God knows, when I’m driving in my car and that weird song of hers (yeah, that narrows it down, right?) comes on and my daughters ask me to turn it up, in my head I’m saying, “LA LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR THIS YOU CAN’T MAKE ME LA LALALALLALA!”

Yeah.

Aging? I am.

But then I saw a link for Chris Daughtry’s cover of “Pokerface” and well, I love it. MAAAAAAAAAAYBE it has something to do with adorable guitar playing guy, but I don’t think that’s all.

Enjoy your holiday, peeps.

Thursday Ten: Mostly Music Edition

1. I got to see the Counting Crows in concert last night. I’ve loved them since their first album, “August and Everything After” came out. I’ve seen them a few times and try to catch them when they are in town if I can. This show was at the fairgrounds though, so it was kind of the weirdest set up for a show. Basically a flat surface – so… it was kind of hard to see – I haven’t had such horrible seats for a concert in a very long time.

SarahTwo_304of365

2. They opened up their set with a song I didn’t know (it wasn’t one of theirs), but the rest of their show was a lot of their more popular songs – probably a good idea with the crowd last night. “A Murder of One”, “Round Here”, “Hanginaround”, “A Long December”… The encore was “Mr Jones” and “Holiday In Spain”.  I’ve never seen them do a show quite that way – I enjoyed it tremendously but it was VERY DIFFERENT.

3. Before the opening act, there was a very very bad local cover band, who actually introduced their cover of “Thriller” by saying, “You’ve probably heard… Michael Jackson died this week.” First of all, REALLY? Second of all, it may just be too soon for that. In fact, I’d be willing to place money on the fact that it’ll never be the right time for their cover of “Thriller” (or anything else).

4. Then the official opening act… slightly less bad, but still… Not good. At the end of one song, the lead singer said, “Wow! My guitar was REALLY OFF that song. Did you guys hear it?” I told my guitar teacher about it today and she said, “Wow, that PAINS me, and I wasn’t even there.”

5. Before the concert, we couldn’t find anywhere decent to stop on the way for dinner, so we ate CARNIVAL FOOD. I don’t even eat at McDonald’s so you know that this is not my favorite thing to do. Had the GREASIEST FAJITAS ever (bleh – they were nasty). Then some overpriced carnival alcohol. And then… THE ELEPHANT EAR. I should have skipped dinner, gone straight for the elephant ear and life would have been lovely and I’d have never mourned the fajitas that never were. But those fajitas – Yucky.

6. It should not have been that cold for an outdoor concert in July, but dangit. COLD.

7. Music I’m listening to lately: I just downloaded a song by Phoenix that someone blogged about, and like the sound of it. Also, an old acoustic demo of Counting Crows’ “Shallow Days”.

8. In guitar lesson today, it was more of the same – more “Won’t Back Down” (Tom Petty: GO AWAY!), “Mr Jones” (hee hee) and I started learning “We’re On Top Of the World” (Juliana Theory).

9. So, the holiday weekend is coming up. No big plans. It’s hard to get excited when you work from home and days off just means, hey, another day you’re at home. Who needs a vacation? Why… I think *I* do.

10. Hope YOU ALL have a terrific holiday weekend, though! Enjoy the long weekend! Take care. Be safe. Blah blah blah.

This Mom’s Wired…A Little Faster

I make no secret about my love for the iPhone. It’s handy, it’s functional, it fits in my pocket. With each upgrade to the software, I’ve loved each little addition more… but I kept my handy little first gen iPhone because really nothing was wrong with it.

So, I didn’t upgrade when 3G rolled around. Why, I figured. Sure, sometimes my phone was a little slow pulling up websites, but how fast do I really need it to be (Which is miraculous coming from me because I really don’t have much patience in general).

And then… WWDC announced 3GS.

And I finally caved. (And wow, the video quality is surprisingly pretty impressive). I love technology.