From the always delighful
CitySlicker MomQ)What were you doing 10 years ago?I was in college and home in Indiana for winter break. I suspect I was scheming how I’d get back to school early to hang out with K.
Q)What were you doing 1 year ago?I had the most miserable cold/flu/plague ever thanks to my darling nieces and nephews from my trip home at Christmas. Thanks kids!
Five snacks I enjoy:Pub Mix from Costco (I call it crack mix)
Kashi Go Lean Crunch
Apples
Pringles BBQ Fat Free (don’t judge – they taste weird and pleasing to me)
Nutri Grain Cereal bars – strawberry or mixed berry
Five songs to which I know all the lyricsPlease…
Five things I would do if I were a millionaire: Pay off all debt
Get some super swanky capped teeth like I'm a celebrity
Hire a personal trainer for every day
Go on a swanky vacation for weeks and weeks with Deeps
Set up college funds for my nieces and nephews
Five bad habits: Wasting money on dumb stuff
Nagging my husband
Picking at my finger nails
Mindless snacking
Ordering in instead of cooking
Five things I like doing:Hanging out with my husband – especially if he has a hilarious story
Going to the movies
Doing house projects – especially if my drill or saws are involved
Hanging out with friends and family
Writing or blogging
Five things I would never wear, buy or get new again:Jeans with any kind of spandex in them
DuWop Lip Venom
Horizontal stripes
Nylon shirts
Pantyhose – unless it is an absolute emergency
Five favorite toys:Laptop
Digital camera
Flash drive
Sawzall
Toro leaf blower/vacuum/mulcher
So here's the deal: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot
Big red blog
Greensunflower
me vs. rut
ala carter
Unhip
Then select five people to tag:NabbaliciousJascloMilkweed HillPoppy CedesLook at me. I'm so important that I have a blog.Labels: 2005, internet
By: Alyssa | Saturday, December 31, 2005 at Saturday, December 31, 2005 | | 
Greetings little helpers!
Long time no type!
I know I can’t be bothered to write you individually, respond to your emails, or consider engaging with phone technology – but isn’t this cute? Don’t you see the little reindeer border? That’s cute stuff. I got it at Costco!
Anyway, this year was a big one for the B family. We fought off a vicious squirrel attack (how they could afford F. Lee Bailey, I don’t know!), briefly dallied in synchronized swimming (which failed when one of Deeps little pool wings deflated) and finally decided to buy a house. Oh and the cat finally learned her name – it’s only been 11 years. Good for you, kitty!
Yes our year has been busy and full of blessings: like the mysterious flesh eating scab thing on my thigh. That’s always been a problem area for me and I was fortunate to lose up to 4 pounds and most the feeling in my left leg. When life hands you lemons, make cherry pie!
The mister has done very well for himself. He enjoys wearing a tool belt while doing things like loading the dishwasher. He says it makes him feel like the work is more challenging that way. Isn’t he a deer (like reindeer –hardy, har, har!)?
But our year hasn’t been just biscotti and sparkling wine – we’ve endured our share of tragedies. There was that day in August when the humidity made my hair very, very frizzy and people at the office saw me dabbing sweat from my neck. And then there was that time when we running the dishwasher and the washing machine at the same time I wanted to take a hot shower. I had to wait an additional 15 minutes before I could! But I was strong, friends. I took those 15 minutes to reflect on my life and think about how I could make it better.
I thought we might adopt a child from a third world country, but then forgot as the cool, rich scent of Frederick Fekkai’s glossing cream shampoo filled my nostrils. Delicious.
Where was I?
Oh yes – I wish you and yours a very happy holiday season. Don’t drink and drive and don’t forget to wear your seatbelt! You never know when you might find me behind the wheel of a car in your neighborhood!
*rated s for satire!Labels: 2005, holidays
By: Alyssa | Saturday, December 17, 2005 at Saturday, December 17, 2005 | |
You can fool some of the people some of the timeMy friend from LA called earlier this week.
“I just read your blog,” she said.
“And…?” I asked.
Em only mentions the blog when she has something to share about it. Like the time she mentioned that
Shannon Freeman from
Designed to Sell googled herself and found me. And wondered if I was like a stalker or something – then she figured out that we
attended the same wedding together.
I was expecting something along
those lines.
“Are you really going to make your parents dig holes in the yard?”
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Friday, September 02, 2005 at Friday, September 02, 2005 | |
Wind beneath my screens
Deeps is the master if tiny tools with fine control and cutting. Alyssa smashes things.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Sunday, July 31, 2005 at Sunday, July 31, 2005 | |
Okay - we're totally not finished
This was once a nice place. A family with children lived here - then they sold it to us.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Thursday, June 16, 2005 at Thursday, June 16, 2005 | |
Italians, your driving doesn’t scare meYou hear it in movies and people will warn you – beware the Italian drivers. The taxis will try to murder you. I wasn’t totally convinced…
We didn’t have a lot of cause to drive or ride in taxis. But we did have to drive up to the Villa for the wedding. Our taxi driver picked us up around 5 PM and zipped through rush hour traffic and up the hill – zigging and zagging until we arrived at the house. Several other people arrived in their cabs around the same time and literally stumbled out of the car all freaked out.
I was totally unmoved by our trip. Just picture it: lanes of speeding cars converging with little or no traffic coordination outside the notion of “yield” and a rotary: it was very, very familiar.
It was eerily like driving in and around Boston.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, June 01, 2005 at Wednesday, June 01, 2005 | |
He’s specialToday, to celebrate the purchase of our home, Deeps suggested we hit the JP Lick’s to get some ice cream. No I did not make up the name.
Anyway, with no coaxing by the staff my husband ordered the El Diablo waffle cone which is a regular old waffle cone that was filled with chocolate ice cream – chocolate ice cream that was enhanced with cinnamon and cayenne pepper.
I can’t really describe the taste accurately – of course I had to try some – but the flavor hits you in waves. First the chocolate, then the cinnamon (near the back of your mouth) and finally the cayenne hits the back of your throat and burns.
It was weird, but not bad. Not unlike your decision to buy a house.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, June 01, 2005 | |
He’s totally rightThe closing went very smoothly. It was a bit slow – but very, very smooth. When we’d signed papers for about 45 minutes and then waited for another hour for them to be filed – we got the good news. We’re officially home owners. The lawyer shook our hand and said “Congratulations and welcome to debt.” Yeah - he’s not wrong. But we’ve still got $80. Par-tay!
Right now I’m enjoying a little champagne and looking at the list of stuff we’d like to get for the new chateau. I’m thinking the burnt sienna blinds in the bedroom are going to have to go – but some projects can wait. I do only have $80.
We’ve already dabbed big splotches of paint on the walls. We’re sticking with all the paint color decisions but one. We’re dialing back on the teal and sticking with Waterfall (Benjamin Moore if you’d like to consult your color wheel). I was a little freaked out by the Stem Green and the Pear Green when I first painted them but they dried much darker and nicer. The pear looked totally neon when I first put it on the walls. I nearly passed out.
And the painter called to tell us that he can start our project a little earlier due to the bad weather they’ve had – thwarting their outdoor projects. I think we might do a little painting ourselves this weekend. I found a fantastic golden yellow to paint our office which is more of a dusky mustard/green right now.
Plus Deeps is itching for a project – so I figured this was a good one. I’ll watch him paint and after he spills half a gallon of Firefly on himself, I’ll take over. I’m really just looking for an excuse to buy one of those painter overall things.
I love accessories.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, May 31, 2005 at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
The House
Half a house - in 30 years and 4.35 gajillion dollars later it will be ours.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Entry to the abode
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
long view of the living/dining room
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
The book nook - or at least, that's what I call it now
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
More kitchen
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Mmmm.... shiny kitchen
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Built in hutch (and the basement door)
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
The partially finished basement
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
That's high efficiency baby!
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
One of our four new bathrooms
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Office - window view
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Office -slanty door view
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Master bed - bathroom view - we're testing bad paint colors
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Normal closets available for everyone in the master bedroom - no I'm not paint the walls teal
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By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
More Master bed
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 | |
Society of OwnershipI’ll admit I don’t really buy into the whole joys of homeownership thing. I didn’t set out to have a house. I figured it might happen some day – but it wasn’t like my dream or anything.
When we moved to Chicago and lived in the dumpy place where the guy beat his wife (below us) and the electricity failed with alarming regularity – I didn’t think we’d stay there forever. And as soon as the rent was raised we moved.
We found a great place that was big and had high ceilings and a large bathroom. We had plenty of room (although the closets left something to be desired). Plus we had a big balcony, parking for both of our cars and were closer to a more neighborhood (not on the ambulance route).
Of course when we rented that apartment on a warm summer night we didn’t know that it was across the street from a huge in-patient facility for people suffering from mental illness. It made for an awkward move when one of the patients spit on Deeps as we hauled in boxes. And it meant that we never hung out in the large neighborhood park because it was overrun by patients during the day. But in their own way, the occupants of the giant institution kept developers at bay and kept our rents in check. We only paid about $50 more when we left than we did when we moved in five years earlier.
The idea to buy a house first came up when we started looking to rent a place in Cambridge. The rents were – roughly – three times what we paid for similar size places in Chicago. That sticker shock sent us reeling. After we signed the lease and paid our first month’s rent we started planning for a future purchase. We wanted to make a move as quickly as possible.
When you’re throwing away a small portion of your annual income for a place to live – well, it doesn’t seem as dramatic. We didn’t have any liabilities, we could break our lease any time, and we were happy enough with our space. Our biggest complaint was that we could hear the dude upstairs getting it on with his girlfriend. But then they broke up – so things got quiet.
As soon as we started tossing away thousands of dollars a month on rent, well we changed our tune. And we had to contend with living below our landlord. This was usually fine but did create a different set of annoyances. For some reason I found it more bothersome to listen to the person we were paying good money to stomping around in the middle of the night. The fat dude who would never answer his door who lived above us for five years in Chicago never raised much more than passing ire. As soon as we didn’t get a clear sidewalk or easy parking – well I think that’s when we started to get fed up. We didn’t have the easy life of renting that we had in Chicago. In these small buildings, we were at the mercy of a landlord who was more often than not the occupant as well. All the things we paid for in the past – and were paying for now – were no longer quite so easy to get. Plus we were paying three times as much for it.
Which brings me to tomorrow: we will enter the bitter world of home ownership. I think for lots of people it is exciting – it is for us – but it was more a financial inevitability than anything else. We conducted a little cost benefit analysis and figured it would be easier for us to own than to continue to rent. Plus, the lady upstairs is getting on – I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to want to keep this house. Inevitably we’d be forced to find another place to live. And the vicious cycle continues. So that was the big driver.
But now that I have the possibility of ownership dangled before me – like a juicy carrot – I must say I’m buying into it more. I can’t say that I’m traditionally motivated about my home the way others are – but I am delighted to have walls that are not white. So after the closing we’ll head over to the new chateau and dab (that’s what Deeps calls it) paint on the walls to finalize our color choices. We'll take some measurements for a semi-swanky closet system and the storm door for the back of the house.
And then I’ll start complaining about property taxes.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Monday, May 30, 2005 at Monday, May 30, 2005 | |
Shut up, MaverickLook, I haven’t said anything about it for a while – but the tiny megalomaniac that is Tom Cruise is really, really, really starting to
freak me out. Like way to turn off the 30-something women, dude. That’s going to do wonders for your box office.
Nicole must be super psyched when she sees him on TV now being all
churlish and
freaky.
Oprah was right - we've never seen him like this before. And God help us if we have to keep seeing it. When is that stupid movie coming out again? I'm making a note to skip it.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Sunday, May 29, 2005 at Sunday, May 29, 2005 | |
Super smartWe’ve been looking at storm doors for the back door to the new house. Deeps is officially calling it “ours” since we are less than 48 hours from the closing. Way to get on board, Deeps!
So we took measurements several weeks ago for new blinds (because my husband cannot be party to hideous blinds apparently) and the storm door. Except that apparently we took the measurements wrong….
Thanks to the Interweb we’ve discovered what we did wrong and are hoping to
get the correct measurements. I’m less optimistic about getting the door, however, since the size appears to be narrower than what is usually in stock.
But we don’t get the house for another couple of days to re-measure. Now we wait and I demand Deeps hand over his keys so that he can’t stage any late night door measuring missions. Seriously – we’re going to have to live there. No need to freak out the neighborhood before we even move in.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Sunday, May 29, 2005 | |
Fun with packingI’m not sure when we managed to get weird bleach-like stains on every single towel we own. But we did.
I guess new towels will be added to the “to buy” list. I'm not sure how we'll fund that list - but I'll worry about that later.
Also: Deeps is not allowed to buy ANY more bandaids or eye drops. Seriously – we have about 50,000 of each.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Saturday, May 28, 2005 at Saturday, May 28, 2005 | |
Nice round numberWe got the final number for the closing costs on Friday. I flipped because the number was significantly higher (about 40%) than anything I’d be quoted previously. I should note that I had asked weekly for about 3 months what our closing costs would be on each respective bid we made.
I would ask “Is there anything else? Do I need to allocate for more?” but didn’t get any answers. So I was annoyed but not totally surprised – although I was surprised enough that I hadn’t actually budgeted for it. The lender is not trying to be sneaky – there’s just optional stuff that you don’t know about. So do yourself a favor, homebuyers of the future, budget 40% overage for whatever you think your closing costs will be based on your talks with your lender.
That way you won’t have to declare financial lockdown and “martial law” to get through a holiday weekend. Not that anyone in this family did such a thing…. Nope. No one made the declaration that, “You’ve got enough damn pants and you can wait until June 1.”
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Saturday, May 28, 2005 | |
Note to selfKeep that internal dialogue you always have running in your skull to yourself. Because loudly stating, “Good God it smells like day old fish,” while waiting at the bank will not endear you to your linemates. Especially the guy in front you who works at the fish market.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Saturday, May 28, 2005 | |
Just Married
Let them eat cake - but first, how about a little spumante?
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Friday, May 27, 2005 at Friday, May 27, 2005 | |
Lovely and Amazing
Behold the newlyweds - ET and EK looked fantastic and do those people know how to put on a party.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Friday, May 27, 2005 | |
TiFauxI did it people – when I made the arrangements with the cable people to set up the cable/internet/phone service I figured I’d cough up the extra $9 and get the DVR.
So now when there are nights like tonight and I’m watching LOST and I need to pee – I can just pause it. Or I can ask my husband “What happened?” and then he’ll smirk and tell me to ask the Interweb.
I don’t want to say that he’s on thin ice – but seriously – that’s not cool. And so close to our anniversary as well.
And by the way – that was a good episode. Whew!
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Thursday, May 26, 2005 at Thursday, May 26, 2005 | |
For the love of DOur friend took care of the mighty Poopus and our apartment whilst we were frolicking in the sunshine.
He also provided us with “the safety net” on TiVo. We taped lots of TV but he also provided a backup in case there was an incident. Like how Deeps forgot to put the Thursday night taping on the correct channel and we taped The WB instead of The OC on Fox. We watched all the taped TV shows on Sunday after we got back.
I was really enjoying the Gilmore – some jetlag weeping, some jetlag laughing. Then Lorelei was talking to Luke in the diner near the end. And then Ryan Seacrest’s face appeared. No ending!
I immediately called D and just started yelling “What happened!” into his answering machine. Luckily, Deeps translated – and then D called us back to tell us.
Thank God – it was nearly grounds for divorce. I mean, you know – jetlag divorce.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
CountdownWe close in a week.
We move in three weeks.
Nobody has done any packing since returning from Italy.
I guess we need to get on it. Pronto.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
In the dark, we are all ItalianThe night of the wedding – wow, those people know how to party – we drank and danced and ate a 17 course meal. Afterwards, our hosts were kind enough to provide transportation back to Firenze (that’s Florence to the Americans) from Fiesole.
Now I’d like to paint a picture. Imagine 45 really, really, really drunk people and like 5 sober people and the world’s most talented and patient bus driver (named Tomas) and you’ve got an idea of what we faced that night. I’d pretty much sobered from my red wine buzz. I don’t know what it is about red wine – but one drink and I’m done.
The bus was brimming with people including an English woman who was yelling about her hat and someone who kept yelling “Freebird.” I’m surprised Tomas didn’t drive us off a cliff to save himself. Anyway, the bus dropped us off at our respective hotels before heading to a discotheque – hence the bus became known as the Disco Bus.
We disembarked from the Disco Bus for many reasons – not the least of which was because we were exhausted, our feet hurt (fancy shoes!) and we had one day left in Firenze. I wasn’t going to sleep through it. We were dropped off in the middle of a busy street near several discos. We made our way through a darkened park and over to a parking lot where some drunk dudes were fighting.
We scrambled past – the night had grown very cold – and made it to a small footpath that dropped near our hotel.
A couple of young Americans were arguing about directions to somewhere.
Then they turned to us. “Scusi!” one of them said. He then proceeded to ask us how to get to the disco, in Italian.
At no time during our entire trip to Italy did anyone ever speak to us in Italian except: for a Korean shopkeeper and our taxi driver. Both times, when faced with rapid Italian – I responded in French. I’m cool like that. I’d like to think that we could – you know – pass for Italian if needed. But let’s be honest, the pasty redhead and the Indian guy aren’t fooling anyone. We’re clearly not locale.
Anyway - this time, we both responded to the bad Italian with our own bad Italian. And then we pointed. The dudes followed our directions and thanked us.
Only in the dark would we possibly be mistaken for Italian. And then only by Americans.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
Florentine Holiday
See those 14 million tourists? Yeah - that's the Ponte Vecchio.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
Bella
A fountain, a balcony, and some red flowers - everywhere I went I felt like I was in an Audrey Hepburn movie.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
Fakes
Look at us - we're fake Italians!
He is totally going to make me take this down in like 20 minutes.
Labels: 2005
By: Alyssa | at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 | |
Stormy
The view from our balcony on the afternoon we arrived - a mighty storm was rolling in.
