New Home Ideas

Still house hunting. Decided against an 1898 Revival style in downtown as it would need more money than I have to fix up. But...

Here's a style that I think I might want to emulate:

Party Crashing

I met the woman whom the White House should have had as security to prevent Tareq and Michaele Salahi from crashing the party. She is the woman who stopped me from crashing Governor Richardson's home party last night!

I drove up to Santa Fe to attend a reception at the Governor's Mansion. Parked the van. Straightened my tie and proceeded in through the front door. Only to be stopped and told that my name was not on the guest list. Sternly.

Checked my invitation again. Oh, yes. It says that I'm invited to a reception alright...but not until next week! Hopefully, the same reception lady will not be present. Perhaps she'll be in D.C. training presidential security staff.

Precious

I'm thinking ahead to the Academy Awards. When they announce the nominee's for movies, they typically name the book that one is based on, if it is.

So with "Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" as part of its title, would they announce this movie as

"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire", based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"?

Photo Gizmo Replaced

So I can upload pics again. These are from my flight with my parents in October.

Looks like the seller's realtor, Ida Kelly, snookered us. As soon as I made the offer, there was suddenly another one already on the table. When I moved to make a higher bid, they reported that the other offer was already accepted.

On to more house hunting.

Made offer. Seller's rep reported that there is another bid in on the house. Have to decide another offer in AM.

House Hunting

I decided back in October to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit, if it was extended. It was and I am.

I have been looking for three weeks at homes and, after one that was too big and was that was too small, have found one that seems just right. It is an adobe in the north valley (Los Griegos area). Two carpeted bedrooms, one brick floor bedroom that can be a great den area, a large eat-in kitchen, and a large living area with a kiva fireplace. Two full bathrooms, viga ceilings thoughout, an adobe doghouse and a blue goose on the chimney. I even found out that the newest next door neighbor is someone whom I know.

So far, everything has aligned itself for a good purchase. I am going to make an offer today at one o'clock.

Big weekend!

The little gizmo to transfer my own pics to the computer broke. In the meantime, here are some photos taken of my parents and me on a recent balloon flight here in NM.

Take off!


Abducted!


Celebrating!

I actually began taking some pictures to post here. Then my upload doohickey broke. So, all you get for now is text. (Guess what? "Doohicky" gets an auto spell underlining to check spelling; "doohickey" does not!)

I enjoyed planting bulbs in my garden and flower bed all day on Halloween. Then I carved a pumpkin while listening to "Something Wicked this Way Comes." Ray Bradbury is quite a talented writer. Since our book discussion in the dorm, I've been going back to read some of his writing that I missed in high school. Great stuff.

Pumpkin must have worked...no demonic visitations throughout the night.

Flatbread Pizza

I was reading the packaging while waiting for a pizza to bake last night. There was this very prominent warning:

"For Food Safety and Quality Cook Before Eating to an Internal Temperature of 160 F."

Where do I put the thermometer to check this? It's FLATbread, for cryin' out loud!

I don't think that my ink pen has run completely dry yet. (Or the ink ribbon on the typewriter, the blue smelly stuff on the mimeograph, etc.) But, I did get incredibly busy there the past few weeks and felt the crush. Then my parents were visiting last Thursday through Sunday.

I hope to be back in tip-top writing shape. So, in response to recent comment, no, I have not stopped writing my blog. Just had a little reprieve there.

Better Left Unsaid

I love Pandora, the Web site that lets you name a station after a song or musician and then it tailors a selection based on that.

I have one named "George Winston" that plays soft piano music. It's pretty good music, as long as I don't read the titles of the songs!

"Deep Within" "Eternal City" "Love Song to a Ballerina"

Ugh.

This Week:

Godson (Atticus) was here for his 10th birthday. Read as: dinners with friends, laser tag, Santa Fe excursion, swimming, zoo, etc.

Trying to finish MHP Annual Report.

Preparing for annual AOC BBQ.

Mayoral and city council elections swung to the Republicans. Funding for affordable housing did pass.

Winds blew mostly north and easterly; balloons from fiesta did not fly over my home.

My recipe has been steeping overnight for this evening's chili coo-off.

Obama won Nobel Peace Prize crushing my hopes, yet again, that I might be the humbled recipient.

My Favorite Song

...and why I like Dylan.

You Know You're in New Mexico

...when helping a friend move involves digging up buckets of dirt and moving them, too!

I recently helped a friend to move and we did exactly that. We dug up dirt, put it into buckets and transferred it to her new house. Never in a million years would I have thought of doing that back east! But she was right. Here in New Mexico, you can spend a lot of money enriching the earth to get it bear fruit. You really don't want to leave behind an expensive flower bed only to have to replace it at a new place. (Just this weekend, in fact, I spent $35 on soil!)