- Where did I walk/ride? To the farmer's market
- Treasures found: Fresh brussels sprouts and string beans
This is the front.
I fell in love with the4 wood floors and the woodwork. Not so much the celery-green paint.
My new kitchen
Dining room windows
My future office. I have no idea what is going on with that wall. The door leads out to a suicide balcony. The railing comes up about to my knee.
But, hey, we finally have a house! We made the decision to move out here well over a year ago. It's taken that long to pull it all together, but damn it, we did it! Now if I can just survive the renovations ...
NaNoWriMo going amazingly well. I am 1/5 of the way there, exactly on schedule.
Actually my whole life is a real estate nightmare right now. Every house I try to buy is jinxed!
But as I was perusing the listings this evening, I ran across this gem. Now, the picture of the house didn't look that bad. But the write up would scare anybody away. I've made offers on some pretty radical fixer-uppers, but I don't even want to look at this one:
"Charitable Trust Sale. One of the biggest fixers I've seen, and I've been around a while. Tax rolls show this as 20 units. Okay, well, there appear to be eight studios in the back with garages, plus a very big front house. It seems then that the front house is shown as 12 sleeping rooms, in order to get the 20 unit total. But I don't know for sure nor do I guarentee it. Tax rolls do show 6176 square feet total. This project is a major fixer, and could be hugely profitable. Absolutely cash only."
And you can own this property for a mere half million dollars. What a steal.
We are making yet another offer on a house tomorrow. It's not an REO, not a foreclosure, not a short sale. The owner is actually living in the house and we met him. So if fifty other people don't offer on this house, maybe there's a chance ... Wish us luck.
Not a good writing day for me. I'm stuck again. So I just took a nap.
Thanks for stopping by,
Kara
- Pages Written Today: Meh, 6 or 7
- Where did I walk/ride? All over the darn place
- Treasures found: 3 pennies
Today Rob and I stumbled on this great store. It sells recycled stuff for you to use as art supplies, everything from bottle caps to egg cartons, fabric scraps, paper scraps, rocks and shells. I wandered through there for about an hour and in the end didn't buy anything, it was so overwhelming!
This discovery was made during a looooong, errand-running walk today. We hit the library, the bank, the post office and the art supply store, and finally the grocery store. That's what I love about downtown Long Beach.
My writing is going better. I am actually making progress on my paranormal book (though the paranormal part is giving me fits).
Went to yoga tonight, had a "hamburger salad" for dinner (I saw Rachael Ray do this one time). You grill a hamburger patty, then make a small salad. You plot the patty on top of the salad, add some cheese and sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms, then slice it all up with a knife and fork and toss it. It's a burger without the bun.
And finally, I painted another ACEO. Here is the result:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32185268
Thanks for reading,
Kara
- Pages Written Today: Not sure, but I made progress.
- Where did I walk/ride? rode to the post office and art supply store, a couple of miles. Walked down to the Pike for dinner, maybe another mile.
- Treasures found: 2 pennies, one of them a wheatie!
- Affirmation of the Day: When I stay busy, I stay productive.
I decided I wanted to learn to watercolor. So I bought a box of kids watercolors, some cheap brushes, some watercolor paper, and I just jumped right in.
So far my efforts haven't set the world on fire, but I am having fun. Here is my little ACEO that I just listed in my shop for sale:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=31327821It's not a masterpiece but what the heck.
I rode my bike to the art supply store and the post office.
I'm working on my voodoo book. I wrote a hundred pages of it lo these many years ago, and it sucked, big time. Now that I'm revisiting it I can see why it didn't sell. (And that is a relief--maybe I am getting better???) It will be an entirely new book when I'm done. About the only thing I'm salvaging are the characters' names.
Date night tonight. We went to Islands, which is a chain but it started in So. Cal and I've never been there. We had some really, really fine burgers. (Rob and I were joking that if you see the word "fine" in a description of a restaurant, it's a code word for "expensive." These burgers were both "fine" and "expensive."
Going to bed early tonight. It's been a long day.
Aloha,
Kara
- Where did I walk/ride? rode 13.25 miles
- Affirmation of the Day: It feels good to stretch my abilities beyond their limits.
After a tasty breakfast at the Long Beach Cafe, Rob and I rode along the beach path to Belmont Shores, which is a lovely area of Long Beach (and the real estate far out of our reach, unfortunately). But there is a park and marina and a protected bay where people swim and kayak.
We stopped to watch the boats
And we heard a strange noise in the tree and we saw several of these guys:
It's a night heron of some kind--black crowned, maybe. I have to look him up.
I've been uploading lots of new goodies to my vintage shop. If you haven't looked lately, here is the URL:
http://vintagedazzle.etsy.comMore later,
Kara
- Pages Written Today: I dunno, but I did write some.
- Where did I walk/ride? just around.
- Affirmation of the Day: Don't get attached to your stuff.
I went to the farmer's market today and bought a big bunch of basil for $1. Such a bargain! so I did the only sane thing I could do, which was to make it into pesto.
This is something of a trick when you don't have a blender, a food processor, or any sort of slice-and-dice appliance except a big knife. So I spent, like, 20 minutes chopping stuff up (including pepitos, which I used in place of pine nuts). But it turned out pretty well. Even Rob liked it (Rob is sort of like Mikey: "He won't eat it. He hates everything.")
At the farmer's market I also bought a praline, which made a nice dessert. It was an eclectic night--Italian and American south. And a bit of California, what with the whole wheat pasta.
We did not get the house from the previous entry. But we've made an offer on another, and we are supposed to receive a counter offer tomorrow. It's a beautiful house, not as close to the beach as I want, but still bike-ride-able. It would be so nice to have a house. And a food processor. I miss my stuff.
Take care,
Kara
The bank required some additional information. Everyone who made an offer on this house was told to give the bank their "best and final" offer. (They are going to squeeze every dollar out of this deal that they can. It's like a silent auction. We have no idea what the other bazillion buyers are offering, so out of paranoia we raised our offer.)
We should find out in a day or two whether we get it or not.
Regarding my website:
If you've visited lately, you may have gotten a message that said my website was dangerous. That is because someone hacked it and put some kind of malware on it. I have since re-uploaded every single page, so it should be okay now. I've requested Google re-evaluate it.
However, my website hasn't been updated in forever.
I've finished with my online class--that's the last one of those for a while. Now finally I can focus on my writing. It's nice to have time again. I have nothing to do in this apartment except write--no home improvement projects looming, no packing. (I suppose I could update my website!)
My etsy shops are back in business.
For handcrafted notebook necklaces:
http://karalennox.etsy.comFor vintage jewelry and small, special things:
http://vintagedazzle.etsy.comTa,
Kara
- Where did I walk/ride? The Nina memorial walk (I'll explain later)
- Treasures found: 2 pennies this morning
- Affirmation of the Day: Some senior citizens have it really, really good!
I am visiting my in-laws at their lovely retirement community in beautiful Carlsbad, California, about 1.5 hours from our new home in Long beach. We are walking on the beach, we visited a museum, and of course we are eating and drinking in excess because the food here is just excellent.
I will be back on Tuesday, I hope!
Kara
- Pages Written Today: Read, rather than wrote
- Where did I walk/ride? Down Pine St. and back, just to cool off
- Treasures found: 2 pennies
- Affirmation of the Day: I breathe easy all the time.
We went to see a new listing today and it was so cute we immediately wrote up an offer. Us and a bazillion other people ... we'll just have to wait and see.
Another house that we offered on went to someone else; we are once again given the status of number one back-up offer. I'm starting to feel like Avis.
That's what we did all afternoon. In the morning, I read my dragon book with an eye for how I could revise it. But, darn it, I like it the way it is. One editor wanted me to make the hero a were-dragon (rather than a mere human charged with protecting a rare dragon. But that changes the whole story, and I'm just not sure I want to write that book. So I might move on to something else.
My dear friends back in Texas sent me video e-mails today. I was so touched. They are carrying on with critique group without me, and I really miss them.
Tomorrow I go to the doctor for a physical--yucky but must be done.
Ta,
Kara
- Pages Written Today: Finished final polish of YA proposal and sent it off
- Where did I walk/ride? To the library and post office
- Affirmation of the Day: I always make the right decisions.
We've received a counter offer to one of our offers. It seems pretty fair, so if we really want this house, it's ours.
But do we really, really want it? I can't believe I'm even asking this question, as buying a house has been incredibly difficult in this market. This is an adorable house and it needs very little work. It has the bare minimum of square footage we want and it even has a garage. But some of the others we've looked at are so much larger. Considering we plan to live in this house the next twenty or thirty years ...
It's an exasperating decision.
I sent off two manuscripts to a prospective agent today. Whew, that's a load off my mind. It's time to start a new project and I have no idea what that should be. Any suggestions?
Tah,
Kara
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