A bajillion pictures here. I will try to post them here on the blog with witty captions this week.
Our second day of Legoland, we scooted right to the Road to Adventure ride, a ride-through-the-dark where you follow a light story line and shoot various targets throughout the ride. Arlo got 0, I got 180, Oscar got 210, Evan got 280. (The Goose just watched, and I think she got the best of the deal.)
We went on the plane ride again, and if you look at those pictures, you can see how much Arlo loved it.
Other pictures show the Speedway where one builds cars and then races them on a derby-like speedway, The Goose and Arlo attempting and failing to drive cars, Oscar being the on-stage volunteer for a stage show.
Let me tell you, it was the best family vacation we've ever had. We are lucky enough to go to Cabo St Lucas, Seattle, and Dallas every year, but we seem to have hit the magic point where no one needs to scream during the flight. We had a great time. The only thing that will stop me from turning into a big blubberly mess is knowing that some of you will come and visit us in our tiny apartment in LA.
Evan took Oscar to a Big Kid Ride and I took the little guys to the water park. It as tiny, and I didn't bring a bathing suit, so I had to stand on the edge of the pool with my jeans rolled up and watch the Goose wallow around in the water and Arlo go again and again and again down the slide. Arlo is generally afraid of heights and I couldn't believe that he shot right to the slide the minute he got into the pool, and then proceeded to do it again and again and again, all by himself. The Middle Kid rarely does anything by himself, and he didn't stop to check with me, he didn't check with an adult to make sure it was okay, he just BROUGHT IT. That's my boy.
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
LEGOLAND!
I can't find the cord for my camera, so Oscar's picture will have to suffice for now.
After 2 1/2 hours on the 5, we arrived at LEGOLAND! We spent a little extra for the hotel that had a private entrance at the back of the park. We made it to the private entrance by 10:30 with good moods intact; amazing after 2+ hours in the car mostly absorbed by electronics.
A bunny with a chainsaw. Hmm.
The first thing we encountered was a huge climbing structure. Lucy has recently shown a desire to keep up with her big brothers, and this was no exception.
Lucy trying mightily to keep up with the boys on a huge net
But the boys insisted that she make it up with them. They both encouraged her and held out their hands to tow her over the last few feet.
It is absolutely amazing to see your children help each other. Our guys are extremely bickery and make everything a contest. To see The Goose's big borthers actually act like, well, Big Brothers? My heart just fluttered up into my throat and stayed there all day.
It was one of the nicest days we've had in our family. There was a minimum of fighting and competition, and a lot of shared delight and discovery. We all have been operating on a high level of stress lately, with the looming move and the house on the market. This trip has, so far, been a perfect meld of discovery (Burbank, local schools, possible apartments) and fun (California, Auntie Jojo, Legoland).
More Legoland pics: the boys rode horses while Evan took Lucy for a Princess face paint (she wasn't old enough to ride the horses).
Of course, after all that helpfulness, the boys got put in the stocks.
Arlo and The Goose went on some planes, and I don't think I've ever seen Arlo so happy.
Here's a couple more pictures. We've had such an awesome day, topped off by a great hotel dinner (really!) and as much as I wish I could blog more, I think I will be up at the crack of dawn swimming in the beautiful yet nominally heated pool tomorrow.
After 2 1/2 hours on the 5, we arrived at LEGOLAND! We spent a little extra for the hotel that had a private entrance at the back of the park. We made it to the private entrance by 10:30 with good moods intact; amazing after 2+ hours in the car mostly absorbed by electronics.
The first thing we encountered was a huge climbing structure. Lucy has recently shown a desire to keep up with her big brothers, and this was no exception.
But the boys insisted that she make it up with them. They both encouraged her and held out their hands to tow her over the last few feet.
It is absolutely amazing to see your children help each other. Our guys are extremely bickery and make everything a contest. To see The Goose's big borthers actually act like, well, Big Brothers? My heart just fluttered up into my throat and stayed there all day.
It was one of the nicest days we've had in our family. There was a minimum of fighting and competition, and a lot of shared delight and discovery. We all have been operating on a high level of stress lately, with the looming move and the house on the market. This trip has, so far, been a perfect meld of discovery (Burbank, local schools, possible apartments) and fun (California, Auntie Jojo, Legoland).
More Legoland pics: the boys rode horses while Evan took Lucy for a Princess face paint (she wasn't old enough to ride the horses).
Of course, after all that helpfulness, the boys got put in the stocks.
Arlo and The Goose went on some planes, and I don't think I've ever seen Arlo so happy.
Here's a couple more pictures. We've had such an awesome day, topped off by a great hotel dinner (really!) and as much as I wish I could blog more, I think I will be up at the crack of dawn swimming in the beautiful yet nominally heated pool tomorrow.
Burbank, Day Three
We woke up at the entirely reasonable hour of 6:30. After puttering around a bit in the hotel room, we went to the Tally Rand restaurant. It's a Burbank landmark and it's been around for 50 years. Our combined ages were the average age of the patrons and waitstaff. Everything, but everything comes with avocado, which I can totally get behind. We took off to the Rancho Adjacent section of Burbank to see our friend Janice. We met her at her huge swanky new house that she is renovating with her sweetie, our co-worker Mike. It was literally 3 times the size of the houses we've looked at, with a gorgeous pool and spacious backyard. We look forward to many many parties in that backyard. She took us on a quick tour of her neighborhood and the neighboring Equestrian district, where the zoning laws allow people to keep horses in their backyard. Arlo was enchanted.
We took off for an appointment to view an apartment across the street from the Warner Ranch. It was a pretty big 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a small galley kitchen and combined living room/dining room. It would be great for a year or two -- Evan could bike to work, I could walk to the Ranch and the local school to drop off the kids. We had a forgettable lunch at a chain and my darling, darling husband took the kids for a swim so I could catch a few winks.
The apartment house on Hollywood Way
Picture of the Ranch taken from the same place as the apartment building
Adorable storybook cottages across the street
Refreshed, we drove over the the Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. We were pleased to discover that they weren't on spring break! We chatted for a while with the adults on the playground who were running the after school program, through the Boys and Girls Club. There were kids everywhere, shuttling between the playground, computer lab, and a classroom. We ran into the principal who gave us a lovely welcome and the newsletter. It's the smallest elementary school in Burbank and has about 15% ESL students, which made Oscar feel right at home. (Our current school is the ESL school for our district.)
The layout of the school had one long narrow building which had offices and classrooms (only one deep) flanked by the auditorium and gym at either end. It had a huge back area, with fields and play areas and freestanding classrooms (portables). Oscar got a kick out of their "cloakrooms," which were a line of hooks on the outside of the classroom.
We left the school feeling very relieved that even if Oscar and Arlo don't attend this school, they will go to a similar one, and they seemed pretty happy about it.
We drove down to the Magnolia Park shopping area. It reminded us a lot of a less swanky downtown Montclair or Fremont. Plenty of empty storefronts, but very few chain stores. Lots of moms-and-pops. We stopped in a collector shop, lots of Godzilla statues and dusty action figures. Next door was a Jellybean shop (thankfully closed) and a pet shop, where I fell in love with a golden lab puppy and Oscar fell in love with one of those tiny fluffly dust mop puppies. We also learned that gerbils are in fact illegal in California! I hope the Spanglers are enjoying their trial period and want to take them permanently.
We passed plenty of vintage shops and antique places and found a right-out-of-central-casting red sauce Italian joint, which was, well, adequate. I kept having a hard time sussing out the waiter's accent. I think he was Mexican but speaking in a put-on Italian accent. But the kids' bellies got full and Evan and I had a lovely quiet dinner after the kids shoveled theirs in and were pacified by various electronics.
Came back to the hotel, wrangled everyone into bed, and the kids were asleep in a record-setting 20 minutes. Evan read, I wrote last night's blog entry and packed up our stuff.
This morning we got up, fueled up with some hotel breakfast noshes, and we are currently on the 5 making our way down to Legoland, experiencing plenty of that famous California traffic. More later!
We took off for an appointment to view an apartment across the street from the Warner Ranch. It was a pretty big 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a small galley kitchen and combined living room/dining room. It would be great for a year or two -- Evan could bike to work, I could walk to the Ranch and the local school to drop off the kids. We had a forgettable lunch at a chain and my darling, darling husband took the kids for a swim so I could catch a few winks.
Refreshed, we drove over the the Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. We were pleased to discover that they weren't on spring break! We chatted for a while with the adults on the playground who were running the after school program, through the Boys and Girls Club. There were kids everywhere, shuttling between the playground, computer lab, and a classroom. We ran into the principal who gave us a lovely welcome and the newsletter. It's the smallest elementary school in Burbank and has about 15% ESL students, which made Oscar feel right at home. (Our current school is the ESL school for our district.)
The layout of the school had one long narrow building which had offices and classrooms (only one deep) flanked by the auditorium and gym at either end. It had a huge back area, with fields and play areas and freestanding classrooms (portables). Oscar got a kick out of their "cloakrooms," which were a line of hooks on the outside of the classroom.
We left the school feeling very relieved that even if Oscar and Arlo don't attend this school, they will go to a similar one, and they seemed pretty happy about it.
We drove down to the Magnolia Park shopping area. It reminded us a lot of a less swanky downtown Montclair or Fremont. Plenty of empty storefronts, but very few chain stores. Lots of moms-and-pops. We stopped in a collector shop, lots of Godzilla statues and dusty action figures. Next door was a Jellybean shop (thankfully closed) and a pet shop, where I fell in love with a golden lab puppy and Oscar fell in love with one of those tiny fluffly dust mop puppies. We also learned that gerbils are in fact illegal in California! I hope the Spanglers are enjoying their trial period and want to take them permanently.
We passed plenty of vintage shops and antique places and found a right-out-of-central-casting red sauce Italian joint, which was, well, adequate. I kept having a hard time sussing out the waiter's accent. I think he was Mexican but speaking in a put-on Italian accent. But the kids' bellies got full and Evan and I had a lovely quiet dinner after the kids shoveled theirs in and were pacified by various electronics.
Came back to the hotel, wrangled everyone into bed, and the kids were asleep in a record-setting 20 minutes. Evan read, I wrote last night's blog entry and packed up our stuff.
This morning we got up, fueled up with some hotel breakfast noshes, and we are currently on the 5 making our way down to Legoland, experiencing plenty of that famous California traffic. More later!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
A couple pictures to tide you over.
Oh, so yummy. It just makes me want to climb in and nuzzle up to them. As a matter of a fact, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Burbank, Day Two, Part Two
So! When we last saw our beloved bloggess and her family, they had visited some Burbank houses and the Warner Bros. Lot.
Still, not a lot of pictures. Many of the places we went, no pictures allowed.
After we chatted with the brave pioneering souls of Evan's company, we went over to the Warner Ranch, a smaller facility a couple blocks away. We had an appointment to visit the Warner Bros. Daycare there. I can't give you a link or even show you pictures -- I scoured the web, they have no web presence and there are no pictures allowed, even though the building have won major architecture awards, rightfully so.
This is pretty much the only thing I've found, and sadly, Pax and Shiloh are long gone.
We've heard nothing but amazing things, and we weren't disappointed. The facility has a couple of building scattered around with a fabulous centered courtyard, with sand areas, playground equipment, trikes, and all covered by awnings to shield the spawn of the Masters of the Entertainment Universe's delicate skin from the harsh Burbank sun. We toured through the three preschool rooms, which looked a lot like Playhouse (except with a computer and maybe a wee bit more learning), lots of "stations" and pictures of the kids and their artwork everywhere. 18 kids in each preschool class (two late 3s, one 4s about to start K, 3 teachers per class.) They are open 7am to 6:30 and serve 3 snacks and a hot lunch served family style, which is a heck of a lot more than my poor kids get.
A couple of interesting things. At the foyer of the rooms, where the cubbies were, each class had a digital picture frame. Every day at the end of school, it is filled with pictures of what the kids did that day for the parents to peruse. Each kid has a journal that the teachers add to every day, and the parents take home every weekend and write in to send back on Monday. The teachers' entries were long, informed, and included pictures. What a great keepsake of a year, right? But my favorite was this: outside each classroom is a small whiteboard that has that day's "car tip" -- something they talked about in class that day that the parent can use to spark a conversation in the car on the way home. They also had a basket at the front door filled with baggies of Goldfish, apples, and raisins for a snack for the car ride home. They've REALLY thought this place out.
Honestly? We didn't think we had any chance of getting in. It's 91 kids for all the thousands and thousands of LA WB folks. But the director was very frank -- this summer was out of the question (their year starts in the summer). But next year looks very good! Although the list is still long, many people who've had their kid on the list for five years aren't going to drag their kid out of the place they've been for four years for one last year. And, depressingly, people who leave WB on their own or not, must take their kids out a month later. So! Expect me to go around the lot with a bead on those people that have 3yos.
It also means that our life plan is looking better. If The Goose is in an awesome preschool/daycare in 2012, that means I can go back to work full-time sooner than we thought. Two, three years in a rental apartment, and we can rebuild our down-payment fund and buy a great place by 2014, should we decide to stay here.
And the cost of this awesome daycare, which every single human being out here has widened their eyes with awe and whispered "You can get into there?" when told we are on the list? $1150 a month. (Those of you without kids: that's about $400-500 less than a merely okay place in NJ, and about $800 less than NYC or LA proper.)
Stunned, we went back to our hotel and vegged out n front of the TV a bit. Evan and Oscar went to a quick trip to the House of Secrets comic shop and returned with Boom! comics and impressed. The little guys and I watched TV and wrassled (them) and tried valiantly to nap (me, failing miserably).
We took off for West Hollywood, through Griffith Park and past Sunset Blvd and all of the tourists in Hollywood. (We were thinking about doing something touristy the next day, but why fight through the swarms of tourists when we can go any random Tuesday in a couple of months?)
My dearest Sister from another Mister has relocated back to LA, and her parents are there, ready and willing to be our kids' Local Jewish Grandparents. Let me tell you, every kid needs a Local Jewish Grandparent. They have our beloved Grandma Shelia Kaplan in NJ, I grew up with my sorely-missed Eva Mol. We had a lovely sedar, complete with The Ten Plagues of Egypt Finger Puppets. Lucy chose the sleeping furrowed-brow baby, which of course was the Death of the Firstborn. For the rest of the dinner she tucked him under her plate and shushed everybody, saying "Mah baby is sleepin!" We ate lots of matzo ball soup, drank plenty of wine, and had a grand time. Took them back to the hotel and plopped them in bed -- everyone under the age of 40 was conked out in fifteen minutes. Evan read his book and I drank wine (too much, in retrospect...ow!) and listened to the Carter Family and wrote the previous blog entry.
Tomorrow: Some Pictures! Really!
Still, not a lot of pictures. Many of the places we went, no pictures allowed.
After we chatted with the brave pioneering souls of Evan's company, we went over to the Warner Ranch, a smaller facility a couple blocks away. We had an appointment to visit the Warner Bros. Daycare there. I can't give you a link or even show you pictures -- I scoured the web, they have no web presence and there are no pictures allowed, even though the building have won major architecture awards, rightfully so.
This is pretty much the only thing I've found, and sadly, Pax and Shiloh are long gone.
We've heard nothing but amazing things, and we weren't disappointed. The facility has a couple of building scattered around with a fabulous centered courtyard, with sand areas, playground equipment, trikes, and all covered by awnings to shield the spawn of the Masters of the Entertainment Universe's delicate skin from the harsh Burbank sun. We toured through the three preschool rooms, which looked a lot like Playhouse (except with a computer and maybe a wee bit more learning), lots of "stations" and pictures of the kids and their artwork everywhere. 18 kids in each preschool class (two late 3s, one 4s about to start K, 3 teachers per class.) They are open 7am to 6:30 and serve 3 snacks and a hot lunch served family style, which is a heck of a lot more than my poor kids get.
A couple of interesting things. At the foyer of the rooms, where the cubbies were, each class had a digital picture frame. Every day at the end of school, it is filled with pictures of what the kids did that day for the parents to peruse. Each kid has a journal that the teachers add to every day, and the parents take home every weekend and write in to send back on Monday. The teachers' entries were long, informed, and included pictures. What a great keepsake of a year, right? But my favorite was this: outside each classroom is a small whiteboard that has that day's "car tip" -- something they talked about in class that day that the parent can use to spark a conversation in the car on the way home. They also had a basket at the front door filled with baggies of Goldfish, apples, and raisins for a snack for the car ride home. They've REALLY thought this place out.
Honestly? We didn't think we had any chance of getting in. It's 91 kids for all the thousands and thousands of LA WB folks. But the director was very frank -- this summer was out of the question (their year starts in the summer). But next year looks very good! Although the list is still long, many people who've had their kid on the list for five years aren't going to drag their kid out of the place they've been for four years for one last year. And, depressingly, people who leave WB on their own or not, must take their kids out a month later. So! Expect me to go around the lot with a bead on those people that have 3yos.
It also means that our life plan is looking better. If The Goose is in an awesome preschool/daycare in 2012, that means I can go back to work full-time sooner than we thought. Two, three years in a rental apartment, and we can rebuild our down-payment fund and buy a great place by 2014, should we decide to stay here.
And the cost of this awesome daycare, which every single human being out here has widened their eyes with awe and whispered "You can get into there?" when told we are on the list? $1150 a month. (Those of you without kids: that's about $400-500 less than a merely okay place in NJ, and about $800 less than NYC or LA proper.)
Stunned, we went back to our hotel and vegged out n front of the TV a bit. Evan and Oscar went to a quick trip to the House of Secrets comic shop and returned with Boom! comics and impressed. The little guys and I watched TV and wrassled (them) and tried valiantly to nap (me, failing miserably).
We took off for West Hollywood, through Griffith Park and past Sunset Blvd and all of the tourists in Hollywood. (We were thinking about doing something touristy the next day, but why fight through the swarms of tourists when we can go any random Tuesday in a couple of months?)
My dearest Sister from another Mister has relocated back to LA, and her parents are there, ready and willing to be our kids' Local Jewish Grandparents. Let me tell you, every kid needs a Local Jewish Grandparent. They have our beloved Grandma Shelia Kaplan in NJ, I grew up with my sorely-missed Eva Mol. We had a lovely sedar, complete with The Ten Plagues of Egypt Finger Puppets. Lucy chose the sleeping furrowed-brow baby, which of course was the Death of the Firstborn. For the rest of the dinner she tucked him under her plate and shushed everybody, saying "Mah baby is sleepin!" We ate lots of matzo ball soup, drank plenty of wine, and had a grand time. Took them back to the hotel and plopped them in bed -- everyone under the age of 40 was conked out in fifteen minutes. Evan read his book and I drank wine (too much, in retrospect...ow!) and listened to the Carter Family and wrote the previous blog entry.
Tomorrow: Some Pictures! Really!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Trouble! And that starts with T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Burbank!
No pictures today. Except this one:
Oscar and Arlo watching Pee Wee's Big Adventure, mostly filmed on the Warner Lot.
We woke up at the crack of dawn. Chicago dawn, that is. We persuaded the kids to lie down until 5am local time. I grabbed The Goose and Arlo and went down to pillage the breakfast buffet. Real milk for our brewed-in-room coffee, muffins, bagels, yogurt, fresh fruit (IGNORED!) and wee containers of cream cheese that my little guys ate with a spoon instead of spreading in on a poor excuse for a bagel.
The hotel has a lovely little outdoor heated pool. But it's not so lovely at 7am when it's 55 degrees and overcast and your children are ready to play Marco Polo and Who Am I Going To Throw the Ball To, It Won't Be You, Or You, I Think I'll Just Keep the Ball Because It's Fun to Torment My Siblings.
I LOVE that game.
We scooted on inside (OH BEJUS IT WAS COLD) and gave everybody a bath and hairwash. I'd love to tell you that this was a light-hearted fun activity. I jumped in the shower to the screeching of my clean-scrubbed kiddos. We got everybody dressed and headed off to the Lot.
Now, Evan won't really be working on the lot. Currently, he will be moving (last day n NY: 7/1, first day in LA: 7/5) into a building right on the edge of the Lot. The first floor is where the tourists clamber into carts to be driven around the lot. We met Evan's HR person, Dee, at the entrance and we all immediately fell in love with her. Dee is blond, bubbly, smarky, and smart. She led us on a tour of the lot (note to self: bring a stroller next time!).
Many years ago I was sent to Universal Studios after San Diego Comic Con to ferret out material for a card set. My contact very kindly gave me a tour of the lot in the ubiquious golf cart (I was wearing sunglasses, and was young and skinny, quite a few tour groups took pictures of me!)It was a weird feeling because the general public paid cash money to be on an enclosed, extended golf cart and be driven around.
I had the same feeling today traipsing through the lot with the kids, seeing cart after cart pass us by and take pictures of us, in the hope that one of us were famous. Dee took us first into the Jungle Set, which is an overgrown section draped with plenty of imported Spanish Moss. We creeped down a path to discover Merlott's, from True Blood, and plenty of techies getting it ready for the next season. Keep in mind that this overgrown, sultry, lush NOLA set was less than 20 feet from a Burbank parking lot.
We pressed on to the pet shop where Pee Wee saved the snakes, the theater that the barker ping-ponged his ball in front of in the House of Wax, and a subway entrance that looked familiar to the kids until they got to the bottom of the steps and realized there was nothing there.
We hit the WB museum where I got within two inches of the ballgown Bette Davis wore in Now, Voyager, the piano Sam played in Casablanca (not to mentions Elsa and Rick's costumes) plus the top that Leo spun in Inception to make sure he wasn't in his wife's dream.
We went upstairs to the Harry Potter floor. We saw Harry's nook under the stairs, plenty of costumes, models for monsters, and gorgeously made costumes. The suits that the Weasly twins wore during the opening of their store brought me to tears. The Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin. I can't say that I'm all that surprised. Oscar was sorted into Hufflepuff, which I agree with completely.
We went to the Commissary, and got fantastic amounts of food for very little money, all the while being surrounded by friendly Union sorts that loved seeing the kids on the lot. We walked past the sound stage that houses Chuck (a show we've never gotten around to watching) and the amazing sweet tech guys waved us in. We walked into a huge sound stage that looked exactly like our neighborhood Best Buy. Dee, Evan, various tech guys and I explained to Oscar and Arlo (Lucy couldn't care less) about how this was a set, and look at all those guys in the rafters working on the lights.
And the stars aligned, and Oscar figured it out. TV shows and movies are made by grunty guys and ladies just like your mom and dad.
Dee took us to the prop department, and I laid my hand down on an sideboard from the Malese Falcoln, and the angels sang.
We detoured to Evan's office and chatted with a few beloved employees. Plus a few new employees who thought our kids were cute.
HAH! Suckers.
The rest of the day, I'll write tomorrow. Why don;t you mouth off in the comments?
We woke up at the crack of dawn. Chicago dawn, that is. We persuaded the kids to lie down until 5am local time. I grabbed The Goose and Arlo and went down to pillage the breakfast buffet. Real milk for our brewed-in-room coffee, muffins, bagels, yogurt, fresh fruit (IGNORED!) and wee containers of cream cheese that my little guys ate with a spoon instead of spreading in on a poor excuse for a bagel.
The hotel has a lovely little outdoor heated pool. But it's not so lovely at 7am when it's 55 degrees and overcast and your children are ready to play Marco Polo and Who Am I Going To Throw the Ball To, It Won't Be You, Or You, I Think I'll Just Keep the Ball Because It's Fun to Torment My Siblings.
I LOVE that game.
We scooted on inside (OH BEJUS IT WAS COLD) and gave everybody a bath and hairwash. I'd love to tell you that this was a light-hearted fun activity. I jumped in the shower to the screeching of my clean-scrubbed kiddos. We got everybody dressed and headed off to the Lot.
Now, Evan won't really be working on the lot. Currently, he will be moving (last day n NY: 7/1, first day in LA: 7/5) into a building right on the edge of the Lot. The first floor is where the tourists clamber into carts to be driven around the lot. We met Evan's HR person, Dee, at the entrance and we all immediately fell in love with her. Dee is blond, bubbly, smarky, and smart. She led us on a tour of the lot (note to self: bring a stroller next time!).
Many years ago I was sent to Universal Studios after San Diego Comic Con to ferret out material for a card set. My contact very kindly gave me a tour of the lot in the ubiquious golf cart (I was wearing sunglasses, and was young and skinny, quite a few tour groups took pictures of me!)It was a weird feeling because the general public paid cash money to be on an enclosed, extended golf cart and be driven around.
I had the same feeling today traipsing through the lot with the kids, seeing cart after cart pass us by and take pictures of us, in the hope that one of us were famous. Dee took us first into the Jungle Set, which is an overgrown section draped with plenty of imported Spanish Moss. We creeped down a path to discover Merlott's, from True Blood, and plenty of techies getting it ready for the next season. Keep in mind that this overgrown, sultry, lush NOLA set was less than 20 feet from a Burbank parking lot.
We pressed on to the pet shop where Pee Wee saved the snakes, the theater that the barker ping-ponged his ball in front of in the House of Wax, and a subway entrance that looked familiar to the kids until they got to the bottom of the steps and realized there was nothing there.
We hit the WB museum where I got within two inches of the ballgown Bette Davis wore in Now, Voyager, the piano Sam played in Casablanca (not to mentions Elsa and Rick's costumes) plus the top that Leo spun in Inception to make sure he wasn't in his wife's dream.
We went upstairs to the Harry Potter floor. We saw Harry's nook under the stairs, plenty of costumes, models for monsters, and gorgeously made costumes. The suits that the Weasly twins wore during the opening of their store brought me to tears. The Sorting Hat put me into Slytherin. I can't say that I'm all that surprised. Oscar was sorted into Hufflepuff, which I agree with completely.
We went to the Commissary, and got fantastic amounts of food for very little money, all the while being surrounded by friendly Union sorts that loved seeing the kids on the lot. We walked past the sound stage that houses Chuck (a show we've never gotten around to watching) and the amazing sweet tech guys waved us in. We walked into a huge sound stage that looked exactly like our neighborhood Best Buy. Dee, Evan, various tech guys and I explained to Oscar and Arlo (Lucy couldn't care less) about how this was a set, and look at all those guys in the rafters working on the lights.
And the stars aligned, and Oscar figured it out. TV shows and movies are made by grunty guys and ladies just like your mom and dad.
Dee took us to the prop department, and I laid my hand down on an sideboard from the Malese Falcoln, and the angels sang.
We detoured to Evan's office and chatted with a few beloved employees. Plus a few new employees who thought our kids were cute.
HAH! Suckers.
The rest of the day, I'll write tomorrow. Why don;t you mouth off in the comments?
We're here! And we're tired.
Yesterday we roused the babes at 4:30am, trundled everyone into a taxi (after getting the house back to showing-worthy tidiness) and took off for the airport. We barely made it to the plane on time (the earliest they could pick us up was 5am for a 6:35 flight, and we needed to check two bags. We kinda forgot that everyone else was having spring break, too!) and then sat on the tarmac for 35 minutes while they swapped out a computer. And then we were off!
The six-and-a-half-hour flight passed pretty quickly. We had a ten-minute spot of the worst turbulence I've ever had -- the teenagers and adults were nervously smiling and giggling throughout, the kids were oblivious until Oscar looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said "It's really bumpy, what if the plane crashes and we never get to California?" I assured him it was just bumpy air and we'd be okay.
BIG FAMILY MILESTONE! this was our first flight where nobody cried.
Lucy opens up the window to see the mountains and gasps, "So BOOTIFUL!"
Oscar, art-directing his self-portrait.
We picked up our ginormous car and drove to the hotel and collapsed. At this point, it was a little before 11am local time!
Family portrait, taken by Oscar. Evan pokes away at his iPhone, I'm looking for the nearest playground online, the little guys are wrassling.
We didn't have any real plans for today. After an hour of unpacking and being crabby, we do what we always do: head for a park and a playground.
Lincoln Park is a beautifully manicured park with a covered play area for little ones with a sandbox floor and plenty of Cozy Coupes to ride around the grounds. The weather was beautiful and the people were friendly. They were even shooting some movie (a student film) in the park! How Hollywood can you get?
The park borders the Burbank Library, and since I am my mother's daughter, I went in and got plenty of community information, including -- SCORE! -- the Recreation Department's catalog, including summer camp info and preschool programs.
The library itself is beautiful. It's got a great program where you can take a plastic shopping basket, fill it up, and take the whole thing, including the basket, out for three weeks. We saw lots of families reading to their kids and enjoying the space. You can see pictures of the library, including the huge tree in the middle of the children's section, here.
Afterwards, we drove around a bit and visited a couple open houses.
This place was tiny (under 1100 sf), filthy, had revolting carpet (with hardwood underneath), a postage-stamp kitchen with old, crappy appliances, one bathroom, and three tiny bedrooms, one of which had the only access to the back yard. It needed a good scrubbing, fresh paint, and new landscaping. It faced out on a crazy busy street. And it was listed at $20,000 MORE than our lovely 5br Victorian. And that was a reduced price! DEPRESSING.
We were luckier driving into the residential streets of Magnolia Park. This place is about 100k out of our price range but would be perfect. The layout was a bit off -- the addition to the regular house is a little tacked-on, but adds an additional bath and beroom (bringing it up to 2 baths 3br) plus a gigantic family room in the back (look for the Brady Bunch siding!). The kitchen was big enough for a table, with lots of beautiful old wooden cabinets. The house has an amazing amount of built in storage. But the real selling point was the backyard. Gorgeous rose bushes, enough grass to play on, a covered patio, and room for a hot tub. We clicked with the Realtor at this place as well. He's originally from Morristown, NJ so he understands the move we are making. He gave us a little tutorial on Burbank houses that was great. Even better, he served in Iraq and Bosnia in the 90s and actually handed out many of the anti-land-mine comics I art-directed for the Army and DC! I think we will be in touch with him when we move out.
We finally saw a storybook little house with just needed one more bedroom and a half bath. It was really cute and in our price range.
At this point everyone was exhausted and hungry. It was about 3pm local time. We hit a Trader Joe's for cereal bars, juice boxes and cookies (not to mention beer and wine for later) and, fortified, went to downtown Burbank and discovered a great arts festival going on to support Burbank Arts for All, a nonprofit providing arts in the public schools. We saw a group of Indian girl dancers that Oscar and Lucy loved.
The clincher was the rock bank of middle schoolers (complete with middle aged dad roadies) that had met in an after-school arts program in elementary school. The tore up the joint with a rendition of Crazy Train. Oscar had stars in his eyes.
Here's a video that Oscar took.
We went out for Mexican, where many chips, Margaritas, and rice was consumed. Not much else. Came back to the hotel, the kids were in bed 6:15 local time, conked out by 7. I was out at 7:30 and Evan lasted all the way until 9am.
The six-and-a-half-hour flight passed pretty quickly. We had a ten-minute spot of the worst turbulence I've ever had -- the teenagers and adults were nervously smiling and giggling throughout, the kids were oblivious until Oscar looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said "It's really bumpy, what if the plane crashes and we never get to California?" I assured him it was just bumpy air and we'd be okay.
BIG FAMILY MILESTONE! this was our first flight where nobody cried.
We picked up our ginormous car and drove to the hotel and collapsed. At this point, it was a little before 11am local time!
We didn't have any real plans for today. After an hour of unpacking and being crabby, we do what we always do: head for a park and a playground.
Lincoln Park is a beautifully manicured park with a covered play area for little ones with a sandbox floor and plenty of Cozy Coupes to ride around the grounds. The weather was beautiful and the people were friendly. They were even shooting some movie (a student film) in the park! How Hollywood can you get?
The park borders the Burbank Library, and since I am my mother's daughter, I went in and got plenty of community information, including -- SCORE! -- the Recreation Department's catalog, including summer camp info and preschool programs.
The library itself is beautiful. It's got a great program where you can take a plastic shopping basket, fill it up, and take the whole thing, including the basket, out for three weeks. We saw lots of families reading to their kids and enjoying the space. You can see pictures of the library, including the huge tree in the middle of the children's section, here.
Afterwards, we drove around a bit and visited a couple open houses.
This place was tiny (under 1100 sf), filthy, had revolting carpet (with hardwood underneath), a postage-stamp kitchen with old, crappy appliances, one bathroom, and three tiny bedrooms, one of which had the only access to the back yard. It needed a good scrubbing, fresh paint, and new landscaping. It faced out on a crazy busy street. And it was listed at $20,000 MORE than our lovely 5br Victorian. And that was a reduced price! DEPRESSING.
We were luckier driving into the residential streets of Magnolia Park. This place is about 100k out of our price range but would be perfect. The layout was a bit off -- the addition to the regular house is a little tacked-on, but adds an additional bath and beroom (bringing it up to 2 baths 3br) plus a gigantic family room in the back (look for the Brady Bunch siding!). The kitchen was big enough for a table, with lots of beautiful old wooden cabinets. The house has an amazing amount of built in storage. But the real selling point was the backyard. Gorgeous rose bushes, enough grass to play on, a covered patio, and room for a hot tub. We clicked with the Realtor at this place as well. He's originally from Morristown, NJ so he understands the move we are making. He gave us a little tutorial on Burbank houses that was great. Even better, he served in Iraq and Bosnia in the 90s and actually handed out many of the anti-land-mine comics I art-directed for the Army and DC! I think we will be in touch with him when we move out.
We finally saw a storybook little house with just needed one more bedroom and a half bath. It was really cute and in our price range.
At this point everyone was exhausted and hungry. It was about 3pm local time. We hit a Trader Joe's for cereal bars, juice boxes and cookies (not to mention beer and wine for later) and, fortified, went to downtown Burbank and discovered a great arts festival going on to support Burbank Arts for All, a nonprofit providing arts in the public schools. We saw a group of Indian girl dancers that Oscar and Lucy loved.
The clincher was the rock bank of middle schoolers (complete with middle aged dad roadies) that had met in an after-school arts program in elementary school. The tore up the joint with a rendition of Crazy Train. Oscar had stars in his eyes.
Here's a video that Oscar took.
We went out for Mexican, where many chips, Margaritas, and rice was consumed. Not much else. Came back to the hotel, the kids were in bed 6:15 local time, conked out by 7. I was out at 7:30 and Evan lasted all the way until 9am.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Brace Yourself!
Another bunch of posts in the making, more in the "LA" part of the blog title than the "NJ" part.
Here's the NJ part: we had a showing with a well-known, respected SOM Realtor today. She will be returning with the same clients tomorrow. This is our first "second showing." We have another showing at the same time tomorrow. I am hoping that this means that the market is picking up a bit.
Tomorrow we will transfer our beloved gerbils to the Spanglers' house. They are considering adopting them when we move, so they are taking them for the week as an experiment. Although we could certainly move them with us, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that gerbils explode on airplanes since they can't handle the air pressure change. Best to leave them in the care of beloved friends, me thinks.
After the Great Gerbil Transfer, we have a birthday party at 12:30, another one at 4. I broke down and booked myself a facial at Fringe at 3pm, since my eyebrows are approaching Sasquatch levels, my nose is rufflily with dried skin chunks, and my roscecia is out of hand. I'm about to go to LA and need to put a good face forward to my husband's employers, and why don't I get a nice foot massage while I'm at it?
Our beloved mother's helper will be over from 3-7, so after the Large One has the birthday party 4-6, Evan and I will leave the Small Ones with her and go have a drink aprés Birthday Party.
Then we put the kiddos to bed, pack for six days for five people, get the house back to perfect showing stage, put all the bags on the front porch, sleep for about 37 minutes, get up and rouse the kiddos at 4am, and catch a cab and a 6:30 flight to LA.
What's in store for next week? A Seder with my sister from another mister and her folks, a few apartment showings, a visit to the Lot, a visit to the WB Child Care Center (where Lucy is roughly number 1894 on the wait list but hey! maybe we can see Shiloh and Pax during the tour!).
And then? Two days at Legoland. So that during the next three months, when the kids think about moving to LA, they will think, LEGOLAND!
I promise to blog heartily if you will comment. Deal?
Here's the NJ part: we had a showing with a well-known, respected SOM Realtor today. She will be returning with the same clients tomorrow. This is our first "second showing." We have another showing at the same time tomorrow. I am hoping that this means that the market is picking up a bit.
Tomorrow we will transfer our beloved gerbils to the Spanglers' house. They are considering adopting them when we move, so they are taking them for the week as an experiment. Although we could certainly move them with us, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that gerbils explode on airplanes since they can't handle the air pressure change. Best to leave them in the care of beloved friends, me thinks.
After the Great Gerbil Transfer, we have a birthday party at 12:30, another one at 4. I broke down and booked myself a facial at Fringe at 3pm, since my eyebrows are approaching Sasquatch levels, my nose is rufflily with dried skin chunks, and my roscecia is out of hand. I'm about to go to LA and need to put a good face forward to my husband's employers, and why don't I get a nice foot massage while I'm at it?
Our beloved mother's helper will be over from 3-7, so after the Large One has the birthday party 4-6, Evan and I will leave the Small Ones with her and go have a drink aprés Birthday Party.
Then we put the kiddos to bed, pack for six days for five people, get the house back to perfect showing stage, put all the bags on the front porch, sleep for about 37 minutes, get up and rouse the kiddos at 4am, and catch a cab and a 6:30 flight to LA.
What's in store for next week? A Seder with my sister from another mister and her folks, a few apartment showings, a visit to the Lot, a visit to the WB Child Care Center (where Lucy is roughly number 1894 on the wait list but hey! maybe we can see Shiloh and Pax during the tour!).
And then? Two days at Legoland. So that during the next three months, when the kids think about moving to LA, they will think, LEGOLAND!
I promise to blog heartily if you will comment. Deal?
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
My New Jersey Bucket List
So, we are moving from the Northeast to SoCal in a couple months. Although we are both Northeast kids, there's a big list of things that we need to do before we abscond to the West Coast. Here's my list. (This doesn't include Robyn's list, my best friend, life long Jersey girl, wife to my other best friend and godmother to my daughter. Her list consists of White Castle drive thrus.)
1. Take the kids to the Statue of Liberty. I haven't been since my family hosted its last exchange student in 1988. Evan hasn't been there since "the Incredible Hulk was on the air," probably 1980.
2. Go visit my darling Elizabeth's family manor in Martha's Vineyard. We are set to go Memorial Day. I am planning on lots of Revolutionary Outfits for Today.
3. The Camden Aquarium.
4. Evan's 20th college reunion, booked the first week of June.
5. One more trip Down the Shore. One more visit to that awesome ice cream place in Ocean Grove, one more free-for-all using all our leftover tickets at Jenkinson's Boardwalk.
6. One more trip down to Princeton to visit Evan's childhood friends, and to meet and lavish love upon baby Daniel Altman.
7. Go see the Daily Show (ticket procured May 4th, now to deal with the childcare...)
8. Go see The Book of Mormon.
9. Cub Scout summer campout at the reservation.
10. One more kick ass BBQ in the backyard, with ribs and potato salad and beer, and Mister John's ice cream truck pulling up to the driveway for dessert.
What else have I forgotten? Please let me know in the comments.
1. Take the kids to the Statue of Liberty. I haven't been since my family hosted its last exchange student in 1988. Evan hasn't been there since "the Incredible Hulk was on the air," probably 1980.
2. Go visit my darling Elizabeth's family manor in Martha's Vineyard. We are set to go Memorial Day. I am planning on lots of Revolutionary Outfits for Today.
3. The Camden Aquarium.
4. Evan's 20th college reunion, booked the first week of June.
5. One more trip Down the Shore. One more visit to that awesome ice cream place in Ocean Grove, one more free-for-all using all our leftover tickets at Jenkinson's Boardwalk.
6. One more trip down to Princeton to visit Evan's childhood friends, and to meet and lavish love upon baby Daniel Altman.
7. Go see the Daily Show (ticket procured May 4th, now to deal with the childcare...)
8. Go see The Book of Mormon.
9. Cub Scout summer campout at the reservation.
10. One more kick ass BBQ in the backyard, with ribs and potato salad and beer, and Mister John's ice cream truck pulling up to the driveway for dessert.
What else have I forgotten? Please let me know in the comments.
Welcome Baristanet Readers!
If you came here from the link from this article, thanks for stopping by. Ya wanna buy a house?
Sunday, April 10, 2011
a wee bit of an update
It's been an interesting couple of days. My mom had her hip replaced last week, and she's doing fantastically. She's a great example of taking care of your body. She's going home today after two weeks in the hospital and rehab. We spent the weekend visiting her and wrecking her house and making the first real dinner that my dad has eaten in two weeks.
Mom came home today, and we stocked her fridge with plenty of unhealthy food.
We had two showings this weekend, and I don't think one of them showed up. Dear Realtors®: For the love of Pete, if you expect me to close the toilet seats, leave on all the lights, plump the pillows, and hustle my three kids out of the house, would it kill you to actually SHOW UP?!?
Another interesting thing this week: a reporter from Baristnet contacted me because of my blatherings on MOL and my blog, and interviewed Vanessa and me about the frequency of open houses in today's market. Hey, any publicity is good publicity, right? Unfortunately the reporter took a picture of Vanessa (tall, willowly, stylish) and me (troll like) in front of our house. I hope it turns out okay.
We bit the bullet this weekend and signed up from Westside Rentals, after determining that the WB will reimburse us for it. We are finding a lot of townhouses in Burbank in our price range (3br in Burbank for less than $2200 with a two car garage that you can use as secured storage and park on the street -- there doesn't seem to be any parking rules in LA). Right now we need to find a place where Evan can have a quick commute from and that the kids can walk to an excellent school from.
Me? What do I need? I need a decent kitchen, a washer and dryer in the unit. I need the master bedroom to be big enough to hold a king size bed and my desk ( we don't have a king size bed, we were planning on giving The Goose our queen bed and getting a king for us). Someday Evan and I will be able to stretch out in a big bed, but lately we always have a kid with us. So what the hey, let's give The Goose the queen bed, to be used as a guest room -- The Goose can bunk with the boys -- and Evan and I can splurge on a king size bed. I would love to walk to school. I would love to find a preschool nearby to enroll The Goose in.
We will be heading out to LA next Sunday, visiting lots of schools and apartments. Keep tuned for crabby updates about tiny apartments and expensive food and awesome theme parks!
Mom came home today, and we stocked her fridge with plenty of unhealthy food.
We had two showings this weekend, and I don't think one of them showed up. Dear Realtors®: For the love of Pete, if you expect me to close the toilet seats, leave on all the lights, plump the pillows, and hustle my three kids out of the house, would it kill you to actually SHOW UP?!?
Another interesting thing this week: a reporter from Baristnet contacted me because of my blatherings on MOL and my blog, and interviewed Vanessa and me about the frequency of open houses in today's market. Hey, any publicity is good publicity, right? Unfortunately the reporter took a picture of Vanessa (tall, willowly, stylish) and me (troll like) in front of our house. I hope it turns out okay.
We bit the bullet this weekend and signed up from Westside Rentals, after determining that the WB will reimburse us for it. We are finding a lot of townhouses in Burbank in our price range (3br in Burbank for less than $2200 with a two car garage that you can use as secured storage and park on the street -- there doesn't seem to be any parking rules in LA). Right now we need to find a place where Evan can have a quick commute from and that the kids can walk to an excellent school from.
Me? What do I need? I need a decent kitchen, a washer and dryer in the unit. I need the master bedroom to be big enough to hold a king size bed and my desk ( we don't have a king size bed, we were planning on giving The Goose our queen bed and getting a king for us). Someday Evan and I will be able to stretch out in a big bed, but lately we always have a kid with us. So what the hey, let's give The Goose the queen bed, to be used as a guest room -- The Goose can bunk with the boys -- and Evan and I can splurge on a king size bed. I would love to walk to school. I would love to find a preschool nearby to enroll The Goose in.
We will be heading out to LA next Sunday, visiting lots of schools and apartments. Keep tuned for crabby updates about tiny apartments and expensive food and awesome theme parks!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Life is a story, told by an idiot--noisy, wild, and meaning nothing.
Nothing to report. We've had a couple interested parties here, but they all need to put their current place on the market before they can think about giving us an offer.
My husband sez, and I agree, that the minute the leaves are on the trees, this place will sell. The view down Hixon Place from our front porch is so lovely then, and our backyard becomes so private and intimate when the leaves come.
Still, it doesn't mean we aren't freaking the funk out.
I led our Cub Scout den today in the Good Manners belt loop. It was like teaching a pack of wild ocelots how to do the Virginia Reel. Three hours later, Evan and I are watching RED (two thumbs up, although I want to see more Cully Hammer in the production design) and Oscar is still up, working on the origin of Bomb Man and Wolf Man, his comic book creations. God help us, we just can't send him to bed when he's having this kind of a creative spurt.
I've been spending a lot of time on Craigslist LA. Since the rental market (not to mention the sales!) has bottomed out there, it looks like we can find a 3br apartment or house in a decent elementary school district for $2200 or less. That means that maybe I can stay home for at least a year (hopefully two, until Lucy enrolls in kindergarten), do my freelance work, and seek out a great neighborhood for us to settle in. We will have two years before our capital gains taxes kick in. I have to say, I am really looking forward to having a landlord to fix everything, a house that isn't 100 years old, and fruit and avocado trees in the backyard.
The casting in RED is top notch.
I've been thinking about the family we bought the house from lately. It was flipped by a family that lived here, and they did the bare minimum. (They also cleaned out their fridge by dumping all their plastic and glass straight into the recycling -- full of mustard, jelly, and what have you. I spent my first recycling day rinsing out literally 50 moldy jars.) We've spent a lot of money fixing their mistakes, and then even more money getting the house to a level that we wanted. It makes me both sad and proud to sell this house. Everything we've done has been at the quality that we expected would hold us for the next 20 years here. I don't feel like I need to hide anything from potential buyers, and for that, I am proud of both our house and the work that we have done here.
My husband sez, and I agree, that the minute the leaves are on the trees, this place will sell. The view down Hixon Place from our front porch is so lovely then, and our backyard becomes so private and intimate when the leaves come.
Still, it doesn't mean we aren't freaking the funk out.
I led our Cub Scout den today in the Good Manners belt loop. It was like teaching a pack of wild ocelots how to do the Virginia Reel. Three hours later, Evan and I are watching RED (two thumbs up, although I want to see more Cully Hammer in the production design) and Oscar is still up, working on the origin of Bomb Man and Wolf Man, his comic book creations. God help us, we just can't send him to bed when he's having this kind of a creative spurt.
I've been spending a lot of time on Craigslist LA. Since the rental market (not to mention the sales!) has bottomed out there, it looks like we can find a 3br apartment or house in a decent elementary school district for $2200 or less. That means that maybe I can stay home for at least a year (hopefully two, until Lucy enrolls in kindergarten), do my freelance work, and seek out a great neighborhood for us to settle in. We will have two years before our capital gains taxes kick in. I have to say, I am really looking forward to having a landlord to fix everything, a house that isn't 100 years old, and fruit and avocado trees in the backyard.
The casting in RED is top notch.
I've been thinking about the family we bought the house from lately. It was flipped by a family that lived here, and they did the bare minimum. (They also cleaned out their fridge by dumping all their plastic and glass straight into the recycling -- full of mustard, jelly, and what have you. I spent my first recycling day rinsing out literally 50 moldy jars.) We've spent a lot of money fixing their mistakes, and then even more money getting the house to a level that we wanted. It makes me both sad and proud to sell this house. Everything we've done has been at the quality that we expected would hold us for the next 20 years here. I don't feel like I need to hide anything from potential buyers, and for that, I am proud of both our house and the work that we have done here.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Things That You Need to Know Whilst Selling Your House
1. You will spend a lot of money. To wit:
$66 today, at Home Depot, mulch and pansies. We had to spend an extra 9 bucks on pansies for our kids' teachers; they insisted on bringing each one of them a flower. A testament to my kids and their teachers.
$56 today to see an awful movie while a realtor showed the house from 5-6pm.
$250 lost on a freelance job yesterday because I needed to get up at four, do the least bit of work I could get away with, do a bevy of dropoffs and then clean the house to the bone for a noon showing, that never showed up.
2. You will get really excited during bad movies: Hey, kids, look! The Easter Bunny landed in Hollywood! We're gonna live in Hollywood!(Not really, but close enough.)
3. As if you haven't spent enough money, every appliance in your house will break. (Last week: $186 to fix the washer. This week: who knows how much to fix the dishwasher that decided to stop working yesterday, because, in the words of our appliance guy, "it got jealous."
4. You will get really familiar with all the takeout in town. I am sick of Tinga, Open the Sesame is great but too pricey. Tonight was Lalibela, fantastic but we will be fighting each other for time on the commode tomorrow.
5. Along with all the money you will spend at Home Depot, on stagers, on handymen, on napkins to stage your kitchen, you will spend lots and lots and lots of money at the liquor store.
$66 today, at Home Depot, mulch and pansies. We had to spend an extra 9 bucks on pansies for our kids' teachers; they insisted on bringing each one of them a flower. A testament to my kids and their teachers.
$56 today to see an awful movie while a realtor showed the house from 5-6pm.
$250 lost on a freelance job yesterday because I needed to get up at four, do the least bit of work I could get away with, do a bevy of dropoffs and then clean the house to the bone for a noon showing, that never showed up.
2. You will get really excited during bad movies: Hey, kids, look! The Easter Bunny landed in Hollywood! We're gonna live in Hollywood!(Not really, but close enough.)
3. As if you haven't spent enough money, every appliance in your house will break. (Last week: $186 to fix the washer. This week: who knows how much to fix the dishwasher that decided to stop working yesterday, because, in the words of our appliance guy, "it got jealous."
4. You will get really familiar with all the takeout in town. I am sick of Tinga, Open the Sesame is great but too pricey. Tonight was Lalibela, fantastic but we will be fighting each other for time on the commode tomorrow.
5. Along with all the money you will spend at Home Depot, on stagers, on handymen, on napkins to stage your kitchen, you will spend lots and lots and lots of money at the liquor store.
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