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Crazymamie's 75 in 2012 (Page 3)
This is a continuation of the topic Crazymamie's 75 in 2012 (Page 2).
This topic was continued by Crazymamie's 75 in 2012 (Page 4).
75 Books Challenge for 2012
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Up, up and away in the beautiful month of May!
Currently Reading
Mark's Murder and Mayhem May
The Little Sister - Raymond Chandler (#12)
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain (#3)
The Terra-Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri (#12)
Anarchy and Old Dogs - Colin Cotterill (#21)
Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin (#12)
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson (#5/shared read)
Sacred - Dennis Lehane (#12)
Cold Granite - Stuart MacBride
TIOLI Candidates
No Longer At Ease - Chinua Achebe (#12)
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (#13/shared read)
The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan (#12)
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent - Galen Beckett (#4)
Insurgent - Veronica Roth
The Iliad - Homer
J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century - Tom Shippey
Pictures from Italy - Charles Dickens
Simmering on the Back Burner - Books Begun but not Yet Done
Cup of Gold - John Steinbeck
Lady Sings the Blues - Billie Holiday
Hey, This Wasn't on the List!
51. The Redeemer - Jo Nesbo (4.5)
52. Casino Royale - Ian Fleming (3.5)
53. If Death Ever Slept - Rex Stout (4)
54. Persuasion - Jane Austen (4.5)
55. Lost Light - Michael Connelly (4)
35. The Moon is Down - John Steinbeck (4 stars)
36. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley (audiobook) (4 stars)
37. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (4.5 stars)
38. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken (4 stars)
39. Blacklands - Belinda Bauer (4 stars)
40. Chess Story - Stefan Zweig (4.5 stars)
41. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh (4.25 stars)
42. Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George (3.5 stars)
43. All Shall Be Well - Deborah Crombie (4 stars)
44. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green (4.5 stars)
45. Rules - Cynthia Lord (4 stars)
46. Darkness, Take My Hand - Dennis Lehane (4 stars)
47. The Shape of Water - Andrea Camilleri (4 stars)
48. Cinder - Melissa Meyer (4 stars)
49. Binocular Vision - Edith Pearlman (4.5 stars)
50. The Wrestling Match - Buchi Emecheta (2.5 stars)
1. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes (4 stars)
2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor (4 stars)
3. 11/22/63 - Stephen King (5 stars)
4. A Drink Before the War - Dennis Lehane (4 stars)
5. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (4 stars)
6. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck (4.5 stars)
7. The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (5 stars)
8. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (audiobook) (4 stars)
9. The Woman in Black - Susan Hill (4.5 stars)
10. City of Bones - Michael Connelly (4 stars)
11. Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo (4.5 stars)
12. Mockingbird - Kathryn Erskine (5 stars)
13. The Wayward Bus - John Steinbeck (4 stars)
14. Pronto - Elmore Leonard (4 stars)
15. The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey (4 stars)
16. Riding the Rap - Elmore Leonard (3.5 stars)
17. The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien (5 stars)
18. Once There was a War - John Steinbeck (4.5 stars)
19. The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill (4 stars)
20. Below Stairs - Margaret Powell (3.5 stars)
21. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff (5 stars)
22. Blood Red Road - Moira Young (4 stars)
23. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (3.5 stars)
24. Thirty-Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill (4 stars)
25. King Soloman's Mines - Henry Rider Haggard (4 stars)
26. Still Life - Louise Penny (4 stars)
27. By the Iowa Sea - Joe Blair (4 stars)
28. A Share in Death - Deborah Crombie (3.5 stars)
29. A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch (4 stars)
30. The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien (5 stars)
31. The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck (4 stars)
32. Don't Look Back - Karin Fossum (3.5 stars)
33. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (4.25 stars)
34. Disco for the Departed - Colin Cotterill (3.5 stars)
An idea stolen from Heather (souloftherose), who borrowed it from Liz (lyzard): ongoing series that I am actively reading. This doesn't include series where I have the first book in my TBR pile (i.e. series I haven't started reading yet aren't included). An asterisk indicates a series where I already have a copy of the next book.
*African Trilogy by Chinua Achebe: Next Up: No Longer at Ease (2/3)
*Charley Davidson by Darynda Jones: Next Up: Third Grave Dead Ahead (3/3)
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache by Louise Penny: Next Up: A Fatal Grace (2/8)
*Commissario Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri: Next Up: The Terra- Cotta Dog (2/14)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: Next Up: Days of Blood and Starlight (2/3)
*Divergent by Veronica Roth: Next Up: Insurgent (2/3)
*Dr. Siri Paiboun by Colin Cotterill: Next up: Anarchy and Old Dogs (4/7)
Duncan Kincaid/ Gemma James by Deborah Crombie:Next Up: Leave the Grass Green (3/14)
Dust Lands by Moira Young: Next Up: Rebel Heart (2/3)
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan: Next Up: The Dead tossed Waves (2/3)
*Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly: Next Up: The Narrows (10/18)
*Harry Hole by Jo Nesbo: Next Up: The Snowman (7/9)
*The Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh: Next Up: River of Smoke (2/3)
*Inspector Sejer by Karin Fossum: Next Up: He Who Fears the Wolf (2/9)
*James Bond by Ian Fleming: Next Up: Live and Let Die (2/14)
*Kenzie and Gennaro by Dennis Lehane: Next Up: Sacred (3/6)
*Lady Julia Gray by Deanna Raybourn: Next Up: The Dark Enquiry (5/5)
*Matched by Ally Condie: Next Up: Crossed (2/3)
*Millenium Trilogy by Steig Larrson: Next Up: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (3/3)
*Philip Marlowe by Raymond Chandler: Next Up: The Little Sister (5/8)
Raylan Givens by Elmore Leonard: Next Up: Raylan (3/3)
*Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris: Next Up: Dead in the Family (9/12)
Temperance Brennan by Kathy Reichs: Next Up: Grave Secrets (5/15)
Vish Puri by Tarquin Hall: Next Up: The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing (2/3)
*Wine Country Mysteries by Ellen Crosby: Next Up: The Chardonnay Charade (2/6)
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION - check back later
5 Reserved spots and I'm first! I read your comments about why you are moving with great interest.
Now I will wait to see how you fill up the rest of these spaces!
Mamie - not fair importing the assistance of Superman to help your new thread onto to bigger and better! Congrats on your latest thread.
Hooray, the Superman photo at last!
Congratulations on the new thread!
Hi Mamie, just dropping by your new thread. Your current reads all sound good and I'm looking forward to seeing your thoughts on them.
Hi Mamie- Congrats on Page 3! You are going places, my friend. Is this little superman your son? Is it current?
What are the #'s beside the author? Remember I'm a little slow.
Lucy, Paul, Dejah, and Judy! Welcome! I don't know how you got over here so fast - imagine my surprise when I finished setting up my thread and find that I have already had three visitors!! And then Judy stops by when she is not even feeling well - Judy, you should be in bed. Okay, so here is my favorite Superman story:
When the handsome young lad exhibited at the top of the thread was little - the same age as in that photo, he used to think that if he tried hard enough that one day he would be able to lift our minivan up in the air over his head, just like Superman in that iconic comic book cover. Every morning he would get up, eat his breakfast, and then turn to me and say, "Ready?" Then we would proceed to the driveway where he would position himself near the middle of the van, grab ahold of the bottom of the frame, and attempt to lift the van. Every single time he would grunt, give it his best effort, and then let go, brush his hands off and state, "Not yet." I cannot say how many times we did this, but I will say that seasons passed. Just like the mailman, the weather did not deter his attempts. There is no photo because he insisted, "Wait till I can do it." It seems better that way because the moment is forever frozen in my heart and mind as some sacred right of passage that I was blessed to be a part of. It is one of my favorite memories, and I was a bit sad when he realized that he was never going to be able to lift up that van. He never seemed saddened by it though, he just said, "I guess that's why they call him Superman."
Mark - Here's the scoop just for you. Superman IS my son - you probably didn't realize that I had those kind of connections, huh?! The photo is NOT current. Superman is now 17 years old, 6 feet tall, and has found driving to be a remarkably reliable way to travel. (The changing clothes to fly is always so iffy, as you never know if you are going to be able to find a conveniently located phone booth.)
The #s beside the author in post 2 with the actual # sign in front of the number are the challenge # that the book fits into for the May TIOLI. The numbers in post 3 and 4 are what I rated the book after I read it. Maybe that is confusing - I'll edit the posts with ratings to make it clearer.
And I am going places - to Georgia, remember?!
>11 Crazymamie: that's a really cute story. :)
You have good looking kids. My son is about 6'1 but he's 20. Yours will probably grow taller. Is your husband tall?
Love the superman story! Super cute
Rachel and Chelle - Thanks! Almost all of his photos at that age show him wearing some article of clothing that features Superman or his logo! He was (and still is) a huge fan.
Mark - Craig and I are not tall. Craig is about 5'11'' and I am 5'2''
Liz.. What a surprise...um..*panicked grin, starts sweating* ..I really wasn't expecting to see you here...
I've been napping on and off the whole day, now it's 9:30 pm here on the west coast and I am wide awake! I love your list of series, Mamie. You'll have to let me know when you are planning on reading the 3rd Deborah Crombie and I'll try to join in.
Look at that little cutie! Superman or not he still is just adorable. We never knew where our 6'1" son came from either for the same reason....no tall genes.
I'm not reading enough series to list them all. It would be a paltry list indeed.
The series idea is a great one - Liz feels of course she is entitled to royalties although if you see the size of her wishlist she is gonna need all the help we can give her royalty wise.
I will try to do the same exercise but I fear it may overload your thread. Last count I had books in my library from 1,178 series so it will take me a little time to figure the active from the not.
Judy - Glad you are feeling better! I will let you know.
Bonnie - I cannot resist a good series - I am completely addicted to them. Especially ones that include an interesting detective. The Philip Marlowe series by Raymond Chandler is my favorite.
Liz - Okay, how can I make it up to you? It was just so fabulous that I could not resist. I checked out your thread and it is VERY interesting. I will be back over there when I have time to actually read through it all because there were some great discussions going on. I am especially interested in the development of genres that you have going on like that of the mystery genre and of novels in general. And I have already learned something,um, two things actually. First, the white alley is a marble usually used as the "shooter" and Second, don't steal from Liz 'cause she will totally catch you.
Paul - 1,178 series!! I don't even have that many books logged into my library here yet. Oh Dear! Perhaps you will have to do it in installments? And you should check out Liz and Heather's threads because they both used different formats, so you would then have three different templates to choose from. I did follow Heather's example as far as not listing series that I have not actually started reading even if I already own the first book. If I had included those, my list would be exponentially bigger.
Okay, so I thought everyone would get a kick out of this next photo. We are getting ready to put the house on the market, and so we are staging it. Staging, to me, means making it look like somebody stays at the house but does not actually actively live there - or perhaps someone who is obsessive/compulsive about cleaning lives there without any children or pets. Whatever...this is supposed to make our home more desirable. This always tickles me because obviously if someone bought the house they would fill it with completely different stuff... Anyway, we were told to "remove the books"...REMOVE THE BOOKS?!...um...NO...(we actually read, they are not decor, I whisper to her)...but perhaps I could remove some of the books. So I did, ensuring that my bookcases will look more attractive with their new svelte physique. Then I guess you are supposed to put different clutter up there with the books - this will be "pleasing to the eye and create contrast". Allrighty. So here is the first step:
Remove some of the books. CHECK.
I'd be happy to keep watch over those boxes of books for you, Mamie. I can totally be trusted. Really. I promise.
Yeah we had to remove books too. Also, family photos, tchochkes (sp?). Clean hand towels in the bathrooms every time somebody was going to look at the house....... oh there was no end of stuff! But it worked. Our house in Philly sold the day it went on the market. For what we were asking. So we were saved from the hand towel biz, but I had gotten a supply ready!
Katie - ROFL! Sure, I'll send them to you....*wink*
Lucy - Are you kidding me - the day it went on the market? AMAZING!! OK, what else?
Hah now that makes me laugh. My daughter and SIL are looking for a house and actually asked us to accompany them on a second "look" at what my daughter described as their "dream house" and it was totally staged. To me it looked like a hotel room; very nice but does anybody actually live here?? Oh yes, they ended up buying their dream house:)
You know I remember thinking it would probably be easier if the kids and pets headed down to GA with your husband, leaving you to live very tidily in your home while you sell it! Of course, that would probably be pretty boring, too.
Dejah - I like how you think!!! But the kids take online courses through Indiana University and they are still finishing up their current load, and we already have a proctor that is approved by IU to administer their tests at the local library. Also Rae, my oldest daughter, has Aspergers Syndrome and does not do well with change. Sometimes she has complete meltdowns, and so, even though she is twenty physically, emotionally she is closer to sixteen and still really needs guidance navigating her days. Luckily, my youngest is thirteen, and so they get that keeping the house looking
Your Superman is a cutie, and the story put a lump in my throat. Little boys are so earnest! We have one tall son that inherited genes from his Norwegian grandfather. He stands out in every family picture.
I wish you all good luck on selling your house. Staging is the reason we will probably never move until the kids put us in a nursing home - and then they can box up the books!
Donna - Welcome to my thread! We can use all the good luck wishes we can get! This is probably good that we're moving now because it forces us to go through all of our junk - YIKES!!! It's amazing what you accumulate in twenty-one years of marriage.
>>#24 It was just so fabulous that I could not resist.
Well...I guess that will do in respect of "making it up" to me. :)
Yes, my thread is certainly a place to find plenty of useless information!! I do include series I haven't started in my list, but only when I am actively hunting a first book. I found I was spending lots of time working out which was the first book in a particular series (and where to get a copy), and then forgetting and having to do it over.
Good luck with the sale / move - I've been through that horror myself!
Mamie - Liz and Heather's threads are regular ports of call. I have a task for a couple of hours tomorrow to list down all my ongoing (i.e. already started series - completed series to be listed?) - I won't tell SWMBO that it was your idea!
Mamie - Once again it sounds as though you've got all this figured out. Good luck with the plan!
Paul - You are a man of great ambition. I have a mere 556 series according to LT, and I have absolutely no plans to try to list them! I stand (type?) in awe of your diligence.
Mamie /Liz/Dejah I seem to recall that Linda (alaskabookworm) has in excess of 2300 series so competition with that is going to be tough. As you know I am a devotee of stats (which of course this site ideally lends itself to that) - Liz has by far the most cumbersome library in the group (have you tried to load her stats page - a 50/50 chance to get it loaded!) and because her reading material involves an intriguing selection of books written before my dear departed gran was born, the site does not keep quite as good a record as it should. Therefore the last time I checked she had less than 300 series according to the stats page which is misleading as some of the earlier series are not actually listed as such.
I am also in awe of Liz's TBR list - and even more so of the one's she's read! As I've informed her before, I simply love her reviews - and her tutored threads.
I'm making a point of listing them - and of filling in the gaps in existing series. For a lot of the more obscure series there is very limited information and you can only do it all the hard way! "Fantastic Fiction" is a big help but it certainly doesn't have everyone. I do love its co-listing of UK and US titles, though.
Officially I have about 250 series but I know that's an underestimate... :)
ETA: Aww, thanks, Dejah!
Liz - *breathes a sigh of relief, laughs nervously * So great to see you back without your angry eyes. What I loved about listing the active series on the thread was just that - easy access to the information. Makes it so easy to see which book you're ready for - positively brilliant!! I will probably add to the list to include series not started if I plan on reading the book that month. I am new to LT (just joined in September), so I have been inundated with authors and series that were not previously known to me. So cool! I am learning so much! Anyway, it was getting confusing trying to keep track of the series that I wanted to concentrate on.
Paul - I will set aside several hours to peruse your list. Please continue to keep mum about the fact that it was...um.. LIZ'S idea, as I wouldn't want her to suffer any repercussions.
Dejah - Okay I checked to see how many series that I had since you and Paul were throwing numbers around. I have a mere 233. And that's counting books that I had no idea were a part of a series - like The One Hundred and One Dalmatians! An infant of a list. *hangs head in shame* I will try to do better.
All three of you posted again while I was posting back!!! Incredible!
I look forward to seeing your next "percentage increase in thread postings" figure!
Liz - stat attack.
Liz books - total catalogue to date = 20,425 (LT entire site position 7th)
Series 289 (an obvious gross underestimation and this is because)
Average year according to catalogue 1889!
Hahaha Liz - Mamie has risen from 42 to 35th place in the posting league in the first 4 days of May.
Liz - I starred your Persuasion thread; I was very excited to see it as Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorites and I wanted to read her other works. The only other one I have read is Sense and Sensibility, which I also loved but not as much as P&P.
Go Mamie! Go Mamie!
*doing my part to improve Mamie's stats*
Oh Mamie, you must read Persuasion. I'll probably reread it this month because of Liz and Ilana's thread. Join me?
Again?! Okay now you guys have figured out that I can't type. Oh the shame. My mother told me to take typing, and I didn't because...well...because my mother TOLD me to.
*jaw drops onto floor at Liz's stats*
Liz, I did not know that you were an LT goddess! Average year 1889...um...could you help out Jim (drneutron) because his dead author stats were really low for the quarter?
You guys are cracking me up! Dejah, your support means everything to me. YES, I will join you in reading Persuasion!!!
And now I will actually get off the computer and go read something.
Good night!
Dejah - your own stats are not shabby at all (you are also a mover and shaker in the posting league).
I have stats on all my friends and interesting libraries on LT which appears and probably is a tad obsessive/excessive!
Liz's catalogue is extraordinary and obscure (according to the site not myself I hasten to add) and it is the obscurity that reduces her numbers on awards and series etc.
Yay!! More Persuasion lurkers!! - and participants, I hope!
LT entire site position 7th
OMG!!?? I hadn't realised it was that bad!
I hasten to point out that 99% of my library is my wishlist, not my "real" books. I'm one of the people they're always complaining about over on the admin threads; my library doesn't actually exist.
Ah, yes, my beloved obscure books... They do tend to kill conversation. "Oh, well, uh, I've never heard of that and I'll certainly never read it." :)
Liz - some people are quite stuffy about cataloguing - it is not a competition for who owns the most books (although that would be interesting to know too) - it is called library thing and they wouldn't have sections for wishlists, tags and "read but unowned" if you weren't supposed to use them!
My own catalogue has plenty of my own wishlist. I am miles behind with my boxes and I am not sure how many books I have that are not yet catalogued but as of today :
Total catalogue 7,836 (212th by the way!)
Wishlist 1,400 (with my system this takes some working out)
Books read but unowned 520
Total physical library catalogued 5,916 (I guess a good 1000 + still to catalogue)
My wishlist is calculated
Fiction 403
From Lit review 362
Thrillers 56
LT Reccs 149
Non Fiction 214
short stories 2
cookery 27
sports 29
sci-fi 46
westerns 50
ya 25
scandi 37
Sorry Mamie sorry to clutter your thread with all these facts and figures - but it does help your own stats!
Clutter away, baby. My thread is at your disposal!
Pariah stopping by, with tats and all! I'm on my Harley, Mamie, sans helmet. I've decided to take your suggestions to heart -will you join me for a Friday night burn - out on the highway on my Harley? :)
Love that Superman story! Slightly scared by the "staging" the house scenario. I'm not sure if Mr Dragon and I would be capable of producing that with all his bookbinding equipment, old prints, old postcards, old directories, old everything....and my books! I really cannot think where we'd start!
Edited to add: if you wanted to add Persuasion to a TIOLI challenge, it fits my challenge (18) about words which form another word when reversed. Embedded words are allowed so you could use on/no. If you wanted to ;)
Morning Mamie- Wow, some serious chatting going on over here! I like your bookcase photo. That sums it up, right? Moving books, ugh!
You've only been an LT member since September? Could of fooled me. You fit right in with the old-schoolers.
If we can stage anyone can - my husband isn't really a hoarder, but he has the potential. I think we were very lucky with that house, a bit of timing and some extras the house had (parking, big garden) also a superb agent who had, I think, been fomenting a little bit of buzz and handled the people who bought it very well.
>59 sibyx:
Parking and a big garden in Philly? I can understand how your house sold in one day, Lucy!
BTW, good morning, Mamie!
Good morning, everyone. Wow! My thread was up before I was!!
Deb - Swing on by and pick me up, but I will have to wear a helmet at least until we're out of sight because I have to set a good example for my children. We can ditch it later.
Dee - The book removal was cracking us up because it wasn't like we had them stacked on the floor or slew across the coffee table; they were all organized in the bookcases like little soldiers waiting for duty. Too many books, she said, nobody wants to see all those books. So we're supposed to free up some shelf space and then put other non book items in there to add interest. I thought the books were interesting - who knew. Thanks for the tip about the challenge - I'll add it.
Mark - My thread was hopping last night, and now the secret that I can't actually type is out. Oh well, it was bound to come out sooner or later. Yup, just joined in September, but Lucy was my mentor so that probably helped. She advised me on starting my first thread and was my first visitor.
Lucy - My husband has the potential to be a hoarder, too. You would not believe the stuff we had in our pole barn! Luckily, he found new homes for a lot of it. I'm up for anything that sells the house, so the staging is fine, but it some of it cracks me up.
Dejah - Always good to see you.
okay... just skimmed...
Staging baffles me as well.. and I am not convinced that it works.. but..I am sure no expert.
Good luck with all of it.. especially selling quickly.... so you can get back to real life.
What's a pole barn?
Kath - Thanks for stopping by. I don't know if staging works either - I just do what I'm told. (If I am in the mood to do what I'm told, and deign to be bossed about. Actually quite a rare occurrence now that I think about it!) A pole barn is like a giant shed or a second garage. We have one at the back of our property that the previous owners built to put their boat in. It's big - about 25' by 40' - so it can hold a lot. My husband has kind of a workshop out there and we use the rest for storage.
Hi Mamie, just swinging through. I'm not sure what you mean when you say you "can't type" because I think most of us are just winging it. I did take typing in 9th grade, but I doubt anyone who really knows what they are doing would call my version "correct."
Hi Mamie, It's easy to see that your son is your favorite superhero. What a cute picture and great story.
I had not heard about staging a house until my mom's house went on the market a couple of years ago. It seems to have given a whole new segment of people employment, IMO. But if you can do it yourself it's worth a try and you've got a great start by the look of things.
Hm, I understand about the towel thing and the usual tidying up. I guess staging means it will look like in those house makeover shows, with a candle here and some flowers there, an arrangement of magazines on the coffee table and a bowl of fruits on the kitchen counter? But taking real books away (while others put fake books into their shelves)? I might be an unusual client, but if I were to see the house of a book lover I'd like it even more. And I'd get inspirations where to put up shelves for my own books later.
You are probably an unusual client! I am disturbed by houses with no books!
Good Morning, Ladies!!
Ellen - I meant that I can't type quickly - they were out typing me! I was trying to post a response to what they posted, and by the time I got mine up, they had all posted again. And then they did it to me again! Did you have a good weekend?
Lynda - Thanks! I think you are right about a whole new segment of employment being created. Some of it is just common sense - keep the house clean and fix anything that can and needs to be repaired. Remove clutter from rooms and cabinets. Repaint all the walls in a neutral color. Where it gets crazy is that you are supposed to make your house not look like YOUR house so that other people can see it as their house! WHAT?! They know that someone is actually living in the house, right? Anyway, you remove personal items such as family photos and kid's artwork, you clean and rearrange cabinets to make them look more spacious, you take all that stuff that normal families actually use everyday off of the kitchen counters... We are not paying for the service, a friend is advising us and so I feel free to say to her, "I think you are completely whacked, but I'll do it (grudgingly)" and she says, "Do you want to sell your house quickly or not?"
Nathalie - I completely agree with you, but I guess too many books is disturbing to some people. At first she wanted me to "confine the books to one room" which made me laugh. I had to explain that they don't usually wonder around on their own, and then I vetoed that idea. We have books in every room, but none of them are just lying about except for the ones beside my bed, which I agreed to move for showings. I did agree to lower the amount of books in each room, figuring that the books eventually have to get boxed up anyway. What really tickled me was that we were freeing up space on the bookshelves specifically so that we could put the kind of stuff I don't own up there - a bowl of marbles, perhaps, or a vase filled with stones!
Lucy - I love to see houses with books. And I always want to see what books they are, don't you? When we take the kids to see places like Monticello and Biltmore Estate, I would like nothing better than to spend a few hours in the library exploring - of course, they only let you see the books from afar, but wouldn't that be so fun?! I was using my camera to zoom in on the book titles at Biltmore, and the kids were laughing at me.
Too many books disturb people? Is this some sort of medically recognized mental illness or phobia?
Actually, I chalk the staging thing up to buyers having insufficient creativity or imagination. If a house they're viewing isn't neutral they can't envision their own things there. If it's empty, they can't visualize what it would be like with furniture. Mamie, I'm sure your house will be lovely and find a charming, wealthy, book loving buyer quickly.
I'm now going to get off the computer and memorize lines before rehearsal tonight. Have a good evening!
BTW, I love Biltmore, particularly the gardens!
>63 Crazymamie:.. OIC.. thanks ! I learn something every day .. I am behind, too.. :(
Hi Mamie- "I love to see houses with books." Hey, when are you coming by?
I would be disturbed by people that are disturbed by to many books, lemme tell ya. Spooky.
I blame the staging thing on one thing: HGTV. There are so many shows showing people how to sell their houses, how to remodel, how to landscape, how to use color, crash your house, crash your yard, crash your bathroom, list it or leave it. Oh, um, I don't watch these shows much but my daughter and her newish hubby do, all the time. Now that they've purchased their dream house, I don't know if they'll continue.
Hi Mamie.
Thanks everyone who stopped by today..um...yesterday. It was a long day as we are getting ready for Craig to head down to Georgia, and there are a lot of loose ends to tie up. On top of that, I started packing the personal photos away today as I had left our very favorites out until the last minute. We have really silly photos of our two middle children getting married repeatedly. Abby, my middle daughter who is now sixteen is a real girly girl and when she was little, she was obsessed with weddings. So, every morning she would beg Daniel, "Please, just a quick wedding." He always obliged her, as he has a generous heart just like his Dad, but he would say,"Make it quick so I can save the world."
Dejah - I agree with you completely, and am so very thankful for all of your kind words and thoughts. I love the gardens at Biltmore, too, and the drive up to the house, and the view from the balcony...I would love to have been a fly on the wall when it was in it's heyday - can you imagine?
Kath - Don't worry about being behind or about catching up, I am always happy to see you. Thanks for stopping in.
Mark - I promise to drop in later today. Somehow today got away from me. Crazy, crazy day...but I baked chocolate chip toffee cookies for everyone tonight and now everything is all better.
Bonnie - I think you are right about HGTV! I used to watch those shows all the time, but it makes me kind of sad that people feel like they have to present a false image. I think Dejah is right about people just not having enough imagination to visualize themselves in a space that is either too empty or too personalized. Your post made me laugh - thanks for that!
Hi Mamie, sounds like you are having a very busy time "staging" your home. The In-laws that we visited this weekend have their place up for sale and have run into the staging instructions as well. I don't understand it either, they were told to pack away all personal pictures, some of their artwork was deemed to be to antique for general taste, and they were told to repaint the living room in a more neutral color. I think Bonnie is right too, HGTV has every home buyer looking for open concept homes with granite counter tops, hardwood floors and walk-in closets!
I don't think I've heard of this 'staging' business in the UK. We do have the same sort of TV program's but the ones that I've seen focus on difficult to sell houses and I haven't heard of anyone doing it in real life. I've got a friend who's been buying over the last few months and it doesn't seem that buyers are having to go to such huge lengths to sell their houses if they're sensibly priced. It may be though that that's just a reflection of the area where I live? We've got really good secondary schools in the town where I live and so there's always an influx of people with 9 or 10 year old children moving out from London because of the schools, so the market for family houses is quite good
Bonnie.. I agree with you re: HGTV
I can't bear to watch those house hunter shows.. they make me furious.. LOL
Over privileged and spoiled and GAH! Dan likes them.. I busy myself elsewhere. Maybe I am just envious.
So is it Georgia that you are moving to? Is that one of the things I missed?
Your story about weddings is so sweet :)
Judy - That's just it - buyers want all the extras for a bargain basement price. Part of the problem is that the economy took a hit and so the housing market was at a stand still in the area which we live in - it's picking back up now, but it's very competitive. We are lucky because there are a lot of low end houses and a lot of high end houses on the market and not a lot in the middle, which is where ours will be.
Rhian - There's a whole lotta staging going on here! The housing market in our area is quite competitive, partly because of the economy, but also partly due to the fact that the area is glutted with houses. When we first moved here seventeen years ago, a lot of families were moving to the area because the school system was great, and the town was close enough to the larger cities of Muncie, and, if you didn't mind commuting, Indianapolis (the state capital), that people could enjoy living in a smaller community and working in a bigger one. Developers were buying up farmland and putting in housing additions like crazy. But Muncie lost a lot of its jobs when it lost a lot of its factories years ago, and with the economic problems of the past few years that are nation wide, the housing market here collapsed. Suddenly people found themselves living in homes whose mortgages were larger than the worth of their houses, or quite frankly, with mortgages that they simply couldn't afford in the long run because the banks had lent them more than they could afford to borrow. Anyway, the market seems to be picking back up now, but I believe that the key to selling our home quickly will be pricing and first impression. And part of that is the first impression that you make when the other realtors come through as the house first goes on the market. We want to create a buzz so that the people whose job it is to bring buyers to us will be saying to their clients - this house is a deal, it's priced right and has a lot of amenities.
Kath - Don't you just love those shows where the house hunters are a young couple about to be married and they "need" a house with five bedrooms and a gourmet kitchen even though they don't have any children and they don't cook?! Amazing! They are not buying a house for them; they are buying a house for people to see them in. I do like to watch the ones where the people are house hunting in a different country just because I like to see houses in different countries. It's really interesting, I think, to see what is standard in a house in England versus Brazil versus the U.S.
Yes, we are moving to Georgia, and we are very excited about it, but not so excited about the selling the house thing.
Hi Mamie, Every time I get bummed about moving my mom to her apt, I think of what you are going through and realize I have nothing to complain about. Her move will be short and sweet compared to the work you need to do.
Wishing you a very quick and successful sale so your family can all be settled together again :)
Mamie - I love the wedding story! Your kids sound charming. I have say, though, that a series of wedding photos of the kids might be, hmm.... confusing to potential buyers? They might be so amused by the photos that they forget to look at the house!
Dejah - SO True!
Two of my favorites!
80: Adorable! My boys have always been comfortable in pink and feathers too ;-)
We have no gender rules in this house!
Excellent wedding photos! And I was right - they are far too entertaining / distracting for your average house hunter to resist!
Thanks Dee and Dejah - my sister always laughs when she visits because I have them in formal frames and place them with actual wedding photos.
Good luck with the staging (and the selling!), Mamie! When we bought our house in Seattle in fall 2007 (yep, at the height of prices -- ugh), my promise to myself was that we'd see about getting a nicer (larger, more open spaces, perhaps a view.....) place "in 2012." Well, 2012 is here and we're definitely not going anywhere. Luckily, our house is in a category that probably held better than some, but if we sell now, we'll definitely lose a chunk of our equity. We've made improvements and our garden is coming along nicely. We'll be staying put for now!
We got lucky, Ellen, in that we bought our house thirteen years ago and got a really good deal on it. Still, we could have expected to see a bigger return if we had sold it about five years ago. Oh well, we have loved living here and the location and the property have been great, so I can't complain whatever our lot. We are lucky to have a house to sell. As my kids' kindergarten teacher used to say, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."
Your good wishes are noted and we are thankful to have them!
When we were house-hunting 15 years ago, there didn't seem to be any staging. Maybe it was the very-low-end price range we were in, but it appeared that sweeping up the falling plaster was about all the staging the sellers managed. One house had two feet of water in the basement when we looked at it. The one we bought was absolutely empty except for sheer curtains, an ancient stove, and an old fridge. Oh, and the previous owner left her old crutches in one of the few tiny closets! I guess you'd say it was a fixer-upper.
Hi Terri! Our current house was a fixer upper, too. They didn't do staging thirteen years ago either. I think the general consensus is correct that it is an HGTV phenomena. I will be soooo happy when it is all over. Today has been really long, and it is only 6 pm - Oh Dear! I'm having a mental moment!! Craig leaves tomorrow for Georgia, so then things will be slightly less hectic as a t least we will have him taken care of. Looking forward to late tonight when we quit for the day and sit down with a glass of wine and a good book for a few moments respite.
Mamie- I hope you can kick back tonight and have a relaxing evening. Sounds like you need it. You mentioned your husband going tomorrow, when do you guys follow?
Love the photos! Superman, is a boy of many faces.
OMG, Mamie!
Those wedding pictures are soooo cute! I can only imagine them in formal frames...
Fun family ;-)
Mark - I don't think it's going to be a relaxing evening, but that is such a great thought. If I can just carve out half an hour for wine and reading, I will be so happy! Luckily, Craig also loves to read, so he will be amenable. What am I saying, he's almost always amenable to whatever it is that I want to do!! We don't follow until the house sells - so send good thoughts for a quick sale!
Cee - Thanks for stopping by. The pics are so funny in frames interspersed with actual wedding photos. Everybody always gets a laugh.
Love the wedding pics!
I admit the ones where they are looking for houses in other countries are more interesting...I will watch those now and then. Some are astounding in their differences! Often, I like them :) and with those..
Some make a lot more sense than some of the houses here. And as you say.. those kids whith a 1.5 mil budget and mansion needs make me crazy :PPP I just try to avoid them.
I saw an apartment hunting one once, where the kids were looking at a big, spacious, open plan apartment. Nice and cozy. Nicer than any I ever lived in as a young married. They did not choose it and cited the plants as one of the reasons. THE PLANTS.. Hanging plants!!! sheesh! Where do those people come from ?
Mamie, I think those adorable pictures of your children would help sell the house. Putting them in with the real wedding pictures is brilliant! I like houses that have fun memories and stories that go with them. Do you have a new house in Georgia to move into?
Kath - Don't tell on me; I'm sitting down for a moment! You always make me laugh! The Plants!
Donna - Nope; no house in Georgia yet. I didn't even want to look until we sold our house. We did go down and check out neighborhoods and housing prices, but no specific house shopping was done.
Mamie- You did a good job of selling your house and the wider community. I'd buy it myself based on your blurb but would not be able to manage the commute! The best of luck with selling and moving on to pastures new.
Paul - Yeah, that commute would be a killer! Thanks for the good wishes.
Book #51: The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
I love, LOVE, LOVE Jo Nesbo! This is the fourth Harry Hole book that has been translated into English (it's actually the sixth in the series). Dark, gritty, and deeply layered, these books are not to be missed if you like a series that draws you in and slowly reveals an intricately plotted storyline around a main character that is damaged and deeply flawed. I love how Nesbo weaves a tapestry with his books so that the connections are delicate and subtle at first, but eventually reveal more and more of the big picture. Start at the beginning because you will want to watch this story unfold without spoilers.
In this episode a Salvation Army worker is murdered by a professional assassin who finds out too late that he has murdered the wrong person. Now the killer must abandon his perfect getaway plan in order to correct his mistake; he also must stay ahead of the hunt, as Oslo homicide detective Harry Hole and his team are on the job, and they are slowly closing in on him.
Also a huge fan of Nesbo Mamie and have read all the Harry Holes currently available in english except Phantom which is the latest.
Lucy - Yes! The first in the series that is available in English is The Redbreast. Truly excellent books that get better as they go along - that first one is the weakest, in my opinion.
Paul - Why oh why have they not translated the first two books of the series into English? I really want to read them and see how the whole thing began. I have the next two waiting for me - The Snowman and The Leopard, with Phantom preordered (it comes out Oct. 2 of this year here in the states).
Georgia is so hot.. are you sure that you ahve thought this through?
It's hot? Oh dear! And he's already signed the contract!
oh dear... remember to send me your snail mail addy and I will send boxes of snow
LOL! Wouldn't that be great because I LOVE snow! I am sure that the first year down there will be a big adjustment season wise for all of us as we have always lived in Indiana. We do usually vacation down in South Carolina every July, but I suspect that Georgia runs a bit hotter than that. On the plus side, it is absolutely gorgeous down there.
I haven't seen much outside of Atlanta...
I don't like Atlanta.. my son loves it :P
So that's where he has chosen to live.
He doesn't like snow..
I have not been to Atlanta -I would like to visit it, but I don't think that I would want to live there. The traffic was bad enough when we lived in Indianapolis - especially in May because of the 500.
Those Nesbo books sounds pretty good. It would bother me to start the series on the third book though so I'll wait until the first one is translated
I know - right? - why didn't they translate the first one first? I just don't get it.
Adam doesn't drive.. he uses MARTA. Darryl has a dim view of MARTA...
but the worst issues Adam has encountered ( that I know of, at least )
are of people flinging themselves in front of trains. Adam tells me a lot.. so..
Okay, educate me, what is MARTA?
Hi Mamie- Everyone seems to love The Redeemer. I've only read the 1st 2 translated titles and look forward to continuing the series.
It's my favorite one so far, Mark. You NEED to read Devil's Star first - also excellent, and then get to it. I was thrilled that you liked the Camilleri - what's up next for Murder and Mayhem?
My favourite is probably The Snowman although Devil's Star would run it close. Great series. Love the idea of taking a box of snow to Georgia with you to remind you of home.
It's brilliant! Our system in Beaver and Allegheny county SUCKs
Mamie- My next M & M will be Voices. It's the 3rd in this series. Have you read this Icelandic crime series?
Paul - really I almost want to start them over again and read them back to back because it was so long between books, but I'll wait to do that after I've caught up in the series. I really want to see what comes next, so forward I go!
Kath - Thanks, now I'm with you. Um... Yorktown does not have anything like that - maybe because there is no traffic?!
Mark - No - but I will check it out because if you are reading the third one, you must have liked the first two!
Hi Mamie, I have Nesbo's Redbreast sitting on my shelf. Does it matter if I read it having not read any of the others? I saw it at Walmart and picked it up but then I thought I'm probably supposed to read from the beginning which is _________ don't know where it starts.
Hi, Bonnie! The Redbreast is the first book for those of us who read in English! So, you did good. It is actually the third book in the series, but for some reason the first two have never been translated into English. I hope you like it - I think you will based on what I know about your reading from your thread.
The Redbreast kicked it off for me, so I think it's a perfect place to start.
Mamie- The 1st book is my current Iceland series is Jar City, which I really enjoyed. Yes, I NEED to get to the Devil's Star. Hopefully soon.
Okay, adding Jar City to my obese WL! Thanks, Mark!
Good Evening To You!
I'm enjoying the conversations regarding staging your house. Oh, my, if staging the house includes de cluttering the books, I am in BIG trouble.
I sold my cute little cottage seven years ago. I hated, hated, hated strangers walking through making comments. And, I truly disliked some of the realtors who felt the need to give daily comments. Actually, the house sold in 2 weeks. I was relieved!
Good luck!
Linda - What a nice surprise to check in late tonight and see a message from you! I hate the idea of strangers walking through, too. However, I would LOVE to sell the house in just two weeks - how nice for you! We shall see. When I feel the stress creeping up on me, I just remind myself that we are lucky indeed to have a house to sell. It's easy, I think, to forget all the things that we are fortunate enough to be able to take for granted. Tomorrow will be a crazy day, I am sure. The POD people are coming to pick up the POD, the cement people are coming to break up the yucky cement on the side patio and prepare the area in order to be able to pour new cement on Monday, and the realtor is supposed to call (she has been on vacation and was getting back tonight).
Thanks for the good wishes - I am hugging them all to me!!
I am glad to hear that some houses sell so quickly, Linda.. !
I hope yours follows suit mamie...
So you are moving to Yorktown? I have never been there..
I have never liked Atlanta, but I don't like most cities...
( Roanoke excluded) Boston is a nice place to visit.. but you wouldn't
want to drive there! lol.
Seriously, I hope all goes well and smoothly...
No, we currently live in Yorktown, Indiana. We're moving to Albany, Georgia. I think Atlanta would be fun to visit, but I'm sure I would want to live there, just because it's so big and busy. We used to live in Indianapolis years ago, and it was fun to be close to so many things to do, but I am not patient with traffic. I also don't need so many things to do - I like to be home. However, it would be nice to have a decent library and a grocery store in town!!
oh.. I see.. Sorry to be so dense.. I would like to blame the early hour...
but, that isn't it so? I like being home, too!
Go ahead and blame the early hour!!
Aww! Thanks mamie...
Just too early to think straight!
( that work okay? LOL)
Happy Mother's Day, Mamie! I hope you have a wonderful day with your kids. How is The Worst Hard Time coming?
Thanks so much, Mark! I am really liking The Worst Hard Time. It's not at all what I was expecting - I love how it is written, and the back story about how man contributed as much if not more than nature to the disaster because of how the land was raped in the preceding years. Truly fascinating stuff; an ugly story that is beautifully told.
For those of you who own Kindles, the Kindle Daily Deal is truly great today. Twenty different titles - books that have been made into movies, each for only $.99! Here's the list:
*Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut Series) by Kurt Vonnegut
*I Am Legend (RosettaBooks into Film) by Richard Matheson
Wizard's First Rule (RosettaBooks into Film) by Terry Goodkind
*The Day of the Triffids (RosettaBooks Into Film) by John Wyndham
To Dance with the White Dog: A Novel of Life, Loss, Mystery and Hope (RosettaBooks into Film) by Terry Kay
*Who Goes There? (RosettaBooks Into Film Series) by John W. Campbell - Made into the movie "The Thing"
*The Midwich Cuckoos (RosettaBooks into Film) by John Wyndham - Made into the film "Village of the Damned"
Make Room! Make Room! (RosettaBooks into Film) by Harry Harrison - Made into "Solyent Green"
*Shoeless Joe (RosettaBooks Sports Classics) by W. P. Kinsella - Made into "Field of Dreams"
*Red Alert (RosettaBooks into Film) by Peter Bryant - Made into "Dr. Strangelove"
Midnight Cowboy (RosettaBooks Into Film Series) by James Leo Herlihy
Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late (RosettaBooks into Film) by Harry Kemelman - Made into "Lanigan's Rabbi"
*The Sand Pebbles (RosettaBooks into Film) by Richard McKenna
*In the Heat of the Night (RosettaBooks into Film) by John Ball
Bang the Drum Slowly (RosettaBooks Sports Classics) by Mark Harris
*Fuzz (RosettaBooks into Film) by Ed McBain
*The Asphalt Jungle (RosettaBooks Into Film Series)
by W. R. Burnett
*An American Tragedy (RosettaBooks into Film) by Theodore Dreiser - Made into "A Place in the Sun"
The Brave Cowboy (Edward Abbey Series) by Edward Abbey - Made into "Lonely are the Brave"
*edited to star the ones I purchased, which turns out to be twelve, not eleven
Hi Mamie - I'm finally caught up!
Going back to your last thread, I really enjoyed your review of Binocular Vision. I also enjoyed your stories about your husband and his last days in his old job, he sounds like a really special doctor, person, father and husband (etc.).
#5 Aw shoot, looking through your series list I can see some I'd forgotten about!
#25 You have to remove the books to sell a house?!
#57 Dee, all the bookbinding equipment, old prints, old postcards, old directories, old everything and books would probably make me want to buy your house... if they all came with it!
#80 So cute!
#97 I really ought to try a Jo Nesbo, my husband has most of the books and I enjoyed the Stieg Larsson trilogy.
Heather - Really so wonderful to see you over here! This year has been an interesting journey so far, and as I don't journal, it is fortuitous indeed that this is the year I joined LT, as I will be able to look back on the year by looking back through my threads. I am so happy that you enjoyed what I had to say about Binocular Vision, which might turn out to be one of my favorite reads of the year. I'm also glad that you enjoyed the stories about my husband. Craig is quite simply the best person that I have ever met, and I am not just saying that. My favorite things about him are: he never tries to be someone other than who he is, he actively listens when you speak to him, and he does not see admitting that he was wrong about something as a weakness. These qualities have also made him an excellent pediatrician. Craig is really blessed, too, because he gets to earn a living by doing something that he truly loves - not everybody gets that. His patients are still stopping by the house to say good bye, and he is not even here.
The thing about staging the house that has been an eye opener to me is that by removing our personal touches and our personal photos, we are removing our personalities from the home, turning our home back into a house. This is so that viewers do not have to look past our own personal lives in order to "see" the structures and amenities of the house and visualize themselves living here. This is disturbing to me because I also see this in society - we make it easy for and encourage people to look at the surface qualities only. Staging is a way of eliminating the need for people to look beyond the outer layers to see the treasure within. If people need this kind of handicap in order to value a house, then how will they ever be able to value an actual person. It takes time and effort to see past the surface of another person and value what is inside, all of what is inside, the good with the bad, the shared with the different. It is our differences that make each of us unique, and how wonderful is that? I worry about a society that only wants cookie cutter images to process. But I digress...
If you liked Stieg Larsson, then I think you will like Jo Nesbo - he creates a very good thriller that is layered and complex with interesting, fully developed characters. Start with The Redbreast because, like the Larsson trilogy, the stories build on each other with additional pieces of the backstory revealed as you go along.
Happy Mother's Day, Mamie. Thanks for the list of the Kindle Daily Deals. There is at least six that I am very interested in. Now I'm off to buy myself some Mother Day presents! Have a great day.
>132 Crazymamie: I love the definition you have written of staging a house, and turning a home into
a space. I think that you are dead on and it makes me sad....
Hope you're having a good day!
Judy - I thought there might be some in there to interest you! I bought several of them myself!
Linda - The same to you - hope you are having a great day!
Kath - Thank you, it makes me sad, too. I hope you had a relaxing day.
No I refuse to add more Kindle books that I won't read, at least not now. Grrrr why did you have to post that list Mamie? I can feel my resolve diminishing. Help! It's happening again.....
But Bonnie, they are only $.99 each...such a great bargain...
Thanks, Lucy - hope you had a great day!
Mamie - hope your Sunday is going as Mothering Sundays should go with your children attentive, the hubster attentive and with plenty of quality time to look over your new reading material. Are you saying that you bought all the 20 titles? There are a few on the list that I will look forward to your views upon.
No - I was just listing them for Judy so she would know what titles were available. I did buy eleven of them though, after all, it was Mother's Day - or as I like to refer to it at my house, Mamie's Day! And I did have a nice one. Hubster was not attentive as he is in Georgia. I always tell him that he isn't required to do anything anyway, I'm not his mother - he should call his mother on Mother's Day!
My children gave me the gift of a perfectly lovely day. I got to sleep in, and when I awoke it was to the smells of freshly brewed coffee (which might be similar to the kopi 0 in your coffee houses, Paul, as they used double the amount of coffee required to brew a full pot) and a full brunch menu - bacon, eggs, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, toast. Then later they each told me their favorite funny story about me and presented me with an Amazon gift card (which meant a lot because they bought it themselves). This evening I have been served a glass of white wine and a plate of sliced cheeses (we're out of crackers, they informed me, as they set the plate down). My daughter Abby also baked me a cake which she decorated herself. She did the basket pattern around the outside of it, and it turned out quite good - you'd never know it was her first try at that pattern. The top of the cake said simply, "Happy Mothe's Day" (in her excitement, she forgot the r). I think she took photos of it, and if so I will post a few tomorrow.
Ha - I wish SWMBO shared your sensible view of the father's reduced role in Mother's Day. I have tried in vain pointing out that since she is not my mother I am excused from providing liberal funds for her celebration and that she should refer to her, admittedly, impoverished offspring. It didn't work last year and it failed again yesterday (it is Monday here by now of course). Went for a lovely Japanese buffet at one of SWMBO's favourite haunts. My best friend locally Jos (a Dutch chap who works on a dredging vessel six weeks on and six weeks off) is outstation so I took his wife and two girls with us as well and our sometimes house guest (korean student and close friend of Yasmyne), Koo Yong also accompanied Hani on the premise that they don't celebrate Mother's Day in Korea (actually I know she loves Japanese food!) and wanted to show her appreciation of SWMBO.
Paul, what a ladies man you are, surrounded by women of all ages on all sides! Did you at least have Kyran along to take some of the pressure off? My son spends a lot of time surrounded by females, too. I always tell him it builds character. He always tells me that he thinks he has enough character!!
Kyran was there too Mamie. Two guys out of 11! (I forgot to add my SIL and Erni my housemaid who decided to celebrate too!)
You poor, poor dears! How wonderful that so many wanted to show their appreciation of SWMBO (um...and eat delicious food, which I am sure was a secondary consideration)!!
I've never read a Jo Nesbo book, but you've got me interested. Which would you recommend?
Kath - It does sound like a fun group, doesn't it?
Hi Rachel! Start with The Redbreast as it is the first that's available in English. Each book has its own stand alone story, but what Nesbo does so well is to interweave a backstory through the thread of all of the books, making them, like real life, a continuum.
I read Snowman, and thought it was good, but I wasn't inspired to follow the series,
not because I didn't like the book.. just..so many books so little time :P
Mamie, you got me out of lurk mode to respond to your thoughts on "staging" in our personal lives. I so agree with you. We spend so much time projecting the image of who we would like to be (or be thought of by others) that the "real" person inside gets lost.
I also loved the way you described Craig. I'm sure you miss him. Living apart is no picnic. My husband and I did that when he moved to Colorado in the early '90s and we had separate residences while I stayed behind here in Missouri to let our youngest son finish his last year of high school in familiar surroundings. I hope your reunion occurs much sooner than that!
I'm so glad you had a Happy Mothe's Day. Lol. Your kids sound pretty special. Are they looking forward to the move?
Kath - I know just what you mean by so many books, so little time. If it doesn't grab you, then move on because there are so many good books out there. Just curious what made you start so far into the series though? To me, one of the best things about the series is the continuation of the storyline of Harry Hole, and this is one of those that if you miss the things from the beginning, you miss a lot. Nesbo doesn't explain as he goes along, so if you didn't get the info from the previous books, then some things will not mean much or seem like extemporaneous info.
Donna - Good to see you! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. How long did you and your husband have to live apart? We're really hoping for less than six months. If we have to, we could just pay off the mortgage and rent the house out, but I REALLY don't want to do that unless we have exhausted our other options. If the kids were younger, I think it would be much harder for Craig to be away, and for me to have him be away, but our youngest is thirteen. So far he has called everyday; he has been very busy settling in and learning a new computer system - every hospital and practice has their own EMR (electronic medical records) of choice, and while they share similarities, there are always new things to learn. Tonight is his first night of call - YIKES! He is also on call this weekend. That is one of the things that he had to sacrifice in order to be part of a privately owned practice - in Muncie, all of the pediatricians shared the call schedule, so he only had to take call about four times a month. Now he will take call every third day and every third weekend. So this week he is on call Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But, he had more control in other areas, so it all works out - more call in exchange for more of a say in how things are done and how people are treated is a good exchange for Craig.
I did have a very good Mothe's Day! My kids are so great - I would like to be around them even if they weren't mine. They are very excited about the move, which always surprises everyone because the youngest is in middle school and the rest are in high school. A few years ago - when our middle two were ready for sixth and seventh grade, we offered them the chance to homeschool. Our original idea was to take them out of public school for the middle school years and pop them back in at the high school level. Our reasoning was that no one ever looks back and says, "Boy, middle school, those were the best years!" If we homeschooled, we would be able to spend more time together as a family and really learn about things by first studying about them and then investigating them. Each child got to decide for themselves, and they each said yes (our youngest was ready for third grade, but we didn't want her left out, so she also got to decide). At the time everyone said, "You're crazy, Mamie!" But it turned out to be the best thing that we have ever done. My daughter's best friend joined us for her middle school years and we had so much fun. We studied the American Revolution and then went to Williamsburg, VA and heard the Declaration of Independence read out loud, the way it would have been all those years ago; we went to Monticello and observed the sad irony that the man who wrote those beautiful words, "...all men are created equal..." also owned slaves. We studied the Civil War and then went to Gettysburg. We stood were Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, and we walked in Devil's Den, and we were moved as we looked across the land from the vantage point of The Angle, knowing that many, many years ago brave Union soldiers watched as more than 12,000 equally brave Confederate soldiers marched in a straight line of assault in the battle known as Pickett's Charge. Hallowed ground that we stood upon and understood the significance of, but now we also felt the history - more than a picture in a book, a living memory that will forever be a part of our fabric. If you ever want to feel history to your very core, go to Gettysburg.
So, to make a short story long (sorry about that), yes, the kids are excited about the move. They had a voice in whether we moved to Georgia or not, and we visited Albany together before the decision was made so that they could see and experience the area. They are ready to embrace a new adventure in the journey that we are traveling together. I hope they will look back and understand how very much they were loved, and perhaps even more important, how very much I LIKE and RESPECT each of them. I would choose them for my own and cannot think of anyone that I would rather spend time with.
Mamie, I'm glad you're liking (or have you finished?) The Worst Hard Time. Timothy Egan also wrote The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, which I recommend even thought it's not quite as good as The Worst Hard Time.
Ellen - Thanks for stopping by! I'm not quite finished with The Worst Hard Time, but I am really enjoying it. I will have to add The Big Burn to my WL because I would love to read something else by Egan. Thanks for telling me. Glad you had such a great time on your weekend away!
Mamie.. it was a Vine book.. or.. maybe an LTER.. either way, it was a freebie.
When we moved our kids ( 7-12 ish) to the Boston area from Pittsburgh. ( after stell went away ) . it was fine with them. Sadly, it was only a three year stint in the wilds of Boston, because my husbands employer , Domino Sugar, closed its sugar house where he worked. So.. we came back. I will never know if it was a good decision or not. I think good in many ways.. but bad in that my husband never got over it and had a mantra about how bad Pennsylvania was and how there is nothing here. How he ates it. They all moved away. I blame him. ( fairly or unfairly, we heard that almost daily in some form. brainwashing )
Kids are resourceful ... they will be fine.. great, probably.
I do not regret our years away from here.. I think my kids learned things about life that
they might not have were we to have lived in the same little house ( that I loved ) in the same little town ( that I did not love) for their entire childhood. So... good furtune to all of you.. luck is something I doubt
you will need.
Kath - A freebie - totally makes sense. Only three years! I think I would hate that because moving is a big hairy ordeal any way you look at it. Plus, I don't know that I would deal well with having to move because the job dictates it. We are moving because of a job - but we got to choose the job and the location. If I had to move back here in three years, I think I would rip my hair out - I do not plan on coming back except to visit. I think you have a good point about your husband resenting the move back and having a negative attitude about living in Pennsylvania because I do think that parents' attitudes make a big impact on our kids. Did YOU like living in Boston? I think as parents we always worry about the decisions that we make that affect our children; I always try to remember what I felt like and thought at that age, and then think about their individual personalities and choose carefully and wisely. But none of us are infallible, so in the end, the most we can do is our best. Sometimes that is good enough, and sometimes it isn't. So where do your kids live - I know one lives in Atlanta...but what about the others?
The Angle at Gettysburg
Dan and Birdy capturing the view from Little Round Top
Birdy learns best by immersing herself in and soaking up the local atmosphere!
Love the photos, Mamie!
Glad you are enjoying The Worst Hard Time. Sometimes true stories are more amazing than fiction, and I think that was definitely a case where that applied!
Hi there Mamie, love the Gettysburg photos. Add me to the list of those who loved The Worst Hard Time. I used to read very little NF until I joined LT and started following Mark around haha. Now we suggest good NF to each other and get lots of suggestions from everyone else too. What a place for great book suggestions! How did I exist w/o it???
Wow to the photos Mamie. I know so little about American history but I've been trying to think of a comparable event/site in British history that we visited when we were young that had such an emotional impact. I can't think of anywhere in the British Isles but we went on a school trip to the WWI trenches and cemeteries at Ypres in Belgium and that was very powerful.
Mamie- I love the Gettsyburg photos! I should borrow the top one for my next thread! Sadly, I have never been there and I am a fan of Civil War history. We were supposed to go a couple summers ago and it fell through. Boo.
Have you read Confederates in the Attic? It's very good.
ETA- Bonnie says she follows me around and I think it works the other way. We just circle each other, how about that?
Went on the school tour to Gettysburg a couple of years ago when we were still in Philadelphia (long story Mamie) - I think I have a photo of almost the exact same spot on Little Round Top. It was a miserable cold day, snow in the air.
Glad that you loved the photos everyone!
Terri and Bonnie - I am really trying to branch out this year, so that includes more nonfiction which I have tended to shy away from in the past. I think when the kids were little, life was so busy that when I had time to read, I just wanted something uncomplicated and entertaining that was easy to pick up and put down a million times. During the kids middle school years, I taught all the history and so I learned a lot, including the fact that history is quite simply fascinating. We read the complete Joy Hakim series A History of US together for our US history unit, and that was a great jumping off point to explore other works. I now have a deep love for American history. I get the feeling that LT could whip me into shape in a very short time with my nonfiction reading!
Heather - I think seeing the trenches from WWI would be so powerful. It's so hard to envision the conditions of a war just by reading about them, and WWI was all about trench warfare. And the cemeteries - seeing the tombstones has an impact. It puts a visual to what had been just a number, and then to realize that that is just a small percentage of the whole...
Hi Kath!
Mark - I will make the photo available for snagging. We have some other really great ones, too. I have not read Confederates in the Attic, but I will check it out. You NEED to go to Gettysburg, and make sure you allow several days to completely explore the park and the museum (which is fabulous). You will not be the same.
Lucy - Bummer that the weather was not good when you were there because it begs to be explored, and it's hard t concentrate on that when you are cold and miserable. We were there in much better weather - only needed sweatshirts.
Because it is so quiet on the threads today, I am going to post a few more pics. First, my lovely Mothe's Day cake.
Next, just for you Kath, our pole barn and greenhouse.
Finally, the deck that Craig and Dan built, and the view of our back yard.
I'll buy your house! Love all that space and it looks so quiet and peaceful :)
Whew! Katie, that is so great! What a load off my mind! LOL!
Wait a minute.. you are selling that cozy place?
Complete with all sorts of extra good stuff like shade and space and pole barn and greenhouse?
Is it too far for him to commute..?I hope you can find one as niice and cozy and wonderful!
That cake is absolutely beautiful! looks yummy, too!
Hi Mamie!
Trying to catch up here. Love the stories, etc.
Great pics! Great kids, Nice house, Beauteous cake, and Gettysburg as I remember it.
I don't have much time for LT tonight - good luck with viewers and generous offers :)
Mamie - What a tremendous series of photos over the last day or so. From the atmospheric shot of Gettysburg and the nice one of your kids taking in the vista all through to your sharing photos of your lovely home with us - thought I was on the Hello! website for a second there!
Just asking and please excuse my rank ignorance but what do you put in a pole barn?
Kath - It is indeed a pretty piece of property, but we think it is too far to commute!! My daughter was excited that you liked her cake.
Cee - Welcome!! Don't worry about catching up, I'm so happy that you stopped by. You have been in my thoughts a lot lately - hope the move of your Mom is going well. Thanks for the kind words.
Paul - What do you put in a pole barn? Whatever you want!! We keep our riding mower and all its attachments in there, all of Craig's big tools - like table saw, jigsaw, chainsaws, we have a generator because we have a well and so if we lose our power, we also lose our water, um...Christmas ornaments, snowblower, boxes of books that don't fit in the house, camping equipment....It's like a glorified garage that you don't put your car into! This is my Hello website, Paul! I just joined LT in September, and did not join any groups or start a thread until mid-January, so I have only been posting for four months. Plus, I am feeling a bit nostalgic with Craig being gone and putting the house on the market (we fill out all the paperwork tomorrow), and preparing to leave my home state to adopt another one. It's a lot of changes - exciting, but it also makes me think of all the memories that we have with this house and the years that we have spent in it. Plus I am not getting any vacation this year because we are moving so I have to make do with...um...exotic photos of my real life.
Mamie - love your post and your thread too if truth be known. Got the idea of the pole barn and I may try to import one full of bookshelves. Only four months - I am just over a year - and noted a few hurricanes coming through the threads in my short time blowing fresh air and invigorating everything. Of new additions after me Chelle stands out from last August, yourself earlier this year and now Callia and Josh trying to put their respective parents in the shade!
Mamie.. we will be here for you when you are too busy to visit..
and when you are in a panic over your move. We will be here when you
hate your movers, or love them, and realize that you can't find your favorite
snack food in Georgia. So we will give you recipes to try to make it.
We will listen when you brag that you gave five boxes of books to the library...
or didn't need to.
And tell your daughter that not only could I never ever do such a beautiful cake,
She made me crave cake. For days :P
Signing papers is serious. I prescribe dinner out with wine ...and cake.
Paul - Thank you so much! I love the idea of a pole barn just for books! Why didn't I think of that?
Kath - That is just the sweetest thing - I am deeply touched, and I am so very thankful to have all of you!! I will tell my daughter, and she will be so delighted that you said so. And I love the signing papers celebration idea!
Your house and grounds look so inviting - I love the deck, i bet you've had some nice times there.
Mamie- I love your photos! What a great backyard. Perfect for get-togethers or just chilling. Nice pole barn.
Book #52: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
This is the book that introduces us to James Bond, also known as secret agent 007, the main character from Ian Fleming's series of books that launched an icon. This book is worth the read for fans of the genre, as it provides a bit of backstory to Bond's OO status and insight into how and why he can seem so heartless. Anyone who knows anything about Bond understands not to expect political correctness. Fleming also does not deliver fully developed characters or brilliant plotting, but he does provide an interesting look at the man who is not yet the smooth, self-assured, sophisticated player of legend. He is cocky, and he is opinionated, but he has not arrived at cynical yet. That's about to change.
"You see," he (Bond) said, still looking down at his bandages, "when one's young, it seems very easy to distinguish between right and wrong, but as one gets older it becomes more difficult. At school it's east to pick out one's own villains and heroes and one grows up wanting to be a hero and kill the villains."
Lucy and Mark - Thanks for stopping by! Glad you liked our deck and yard - we spend a lot of time out there. When the kids were little, we had soccer goals out there and the regulation size field for their age group was painted into the grass. Craig coached their soccer teams and the practices were always in our yard. We didn't have the deck then, but we always had a yard full of parents who loved to just come and hang out during the practices. It was loads of fun. We just built the deck a few years ago but have loved every moment we have spent on it.
Lovely spot you have there, Mamie. And I love the pics of your trip to Gettysburg. Cute kids. :-)
Thanks, Ellen! Gettysburg is one of my favorite places to have visited - truly hallowed ground. My kids thank you for the compliment!!
Mamie- See, if you were sticking around, your beautiful backyard would have made a perfect LT Meet-Up place!
Mamie, I think you found LT (and us) at just the right time!
When you get to Georgia and everything is new and unfamiliar, we'll be the consistent thread in your new life.
It's clear your family has very strong bonds - you will all do fine! And your new neighborhood will be lucky to get you ;-)
But - why do they call it a "pole" barn?
That's so true, Mark! And we throw a mean party, too!
Cee - I think so too! Thanks so much for your kind words and support. It means a lot to me.
Okay - here is why they are called pole barns - because of how they are built. The main support of the building is poles (ours has 6 x 6's) - the poles are spaced around the outline of the building every so many feet. Then the outside shell which is usually metal (ours is aluminum) wraps around the outside of the poles, so when you walk into the barn, the inside is all open, and you can see the poles - thus, a pole barn.
You're so very welcome!
Book # 53 If Death Ever Slept by Rex Stout
Review coming soon...
Just popping in to see how you are holding up with
all of this stuff going on? When we moved to Boston.. Dan had been there working for 3
months. He had the car ( we only had one) and The kids and I had to walk to buy groceries and so on.. fortunately it was spring, also. We had shopping not too far away. The
Moving itself was so hard! I had a yard sale.. and we ( I mostly) did all the packing and prep.
I can hardly remember.. it was such a blur then and so long ago, now...so believe me.. you are in my thoughts :)
Hi Kath! So far, so good. The realtor was back yesterday, and we went through all the paperwork together. The forms are all signed by me now, and so she will have to fax them to Craig for his signature, and he will fax them back. We are hoping to get the sign in the yard on Monday morning. She is coming back to get photos either today or Saturday - our house faces East, and so because she came in the late afternoon/early evening time, it wasn't a good time to take photos of the front of the house. She did say that she thinks our house will sell quickly, so keep your fingers crossed.
You poor baby with no car and all those details to handle!! I cannot imagine Craig being gone and not having a car. We are so lucky because the group that Craig is joining is paying all of our moving expenses. We will have a moving company that will come and pack it all up for us and transport it down to Georgia. Then they will unpack it for us if we want them to.
Glad you're making progress with your move. We had nine months apart just after getting married when my husband changed jobs and decided to teach rather than being an accountant. We weren't too far away so we did get to see each other every other weekend at least and I got to keep the car! But I think it's much more difficult for the one that's left behind. He was doing something new that he really wanted to do and meeting new people, whereas I was on my own in the same old job and managing on a lot less money as we only had one salary coming in while he was training.
I'd definitely recommend the moving company doing your packing and unpacking. We had another similar situation when my husband got his first job in the town where we live now back in the early nineties. While it wasn't hundreds of miles away it was too far for a daily commute. We couldn't sell our flat and made a spur of the moment decision to rent it out and rent somewhere else together in the new location. But we only had nine days between making that decision and needing to move (including time to find a rental property) so we had to get the moving company to do everything as there was no time to do anything else. It was absolutely the easiest and least stress free move that I have ever done as there was no time to worry about anything at all.
Rhian - Lovely to see you! Wow! Nine months apart - thank goodness you got to see each other on weekends. So far, things have been pretty busy on my end just because I have had to handle all the details of finishing the preparations and work with the realtor alone. With four dogs and four kids, there is never a dull moment in our household - well, maybe from 1-6 a.m.
So happy to hear that you had such success with your moving company - we have never used one before. I am so thankful that we will be using one though because I can't even imagine packing up all this stuff myself -YIKES!! Any tips? My sister said a friend of hers used a moving company, and they moved literally everything - the trash, the ashes in the ashtray... So I know to empty all of the trash. Chelle said to make sure they know what not to pack, as hers packed all of the cleaning supplies she had set aside to use to clean up after they were gone!
#195 I'd agree with your sister - make sure you throw out any rubbish first or they will pack that too. But otherwise just make sure that you've got any essentials that you will need immediately put to one side in separate boxes so you can find them as soon as you get there.
OK, thanks Rhian.
EAGLE! We had a bald eagle in our yard this morning! I was sitting out on the deck with the dogs, and this huge shadow passed over us. When I looked up, expecting to see a hawk, imagine my surprise at seeing an eagle - GORGEOUS! But also scary, as we have four toy poodles and they were all out on the deck with me...um...exit stage right! I am taking my camera back outside with me in the hopes that if I see him again I can capture a photo. I will leave the poodles inside.
Hi Mamie, thanks for posting all those great pics!
That cake looks almost too good to eat. And your house MUST sell quickly - it looks so beautiful and idyllic, and then there's all the land! What a wonderful place for a family with children.
And an eagle! Never seen one in my life, not even here in the Alps.
Yes, I agree, your little toy poodles would look like chicken mcnuggets to the Eagle. Yikes...what are the chances that an eagle would be in your yard.
Last year we were wary of leaving our dog in the yard. Often we spotted two fox and a cayote in the wooded area in back of our house.
Later we learned that the cayote was rabid and was killed when a neighbor observed strange behavior and called the authorities who came and shot it.
Wildlife = nice to observe but from a far-- way a far.
Although I hope that your little McNuggets stay safe, I hope that you do see the eagle again, AND that you get pics! I would love to see an eagle :)
I haven't had to move in 32 years and hope not to any time soon as the memories of that time are still fresh. You have my sympathies on all that's involved Mamie.
Mamie - if I could devise a reason to relocate to Indiana I would gladly buy your place - it looks great. I could make the pole barn my escape pad from SWMBO!
Nathalie - Glad you liked the pics. The cake was delicious! And now it is...gone. The property that our house sits on is indeed a beautiful spot, and we have really enjoyed it these past 13 years. The house itself is a bit small for us - just three bedrooms, and trust me, all three of our girls in one bedroom is a recipe for disaster. Rae, our oldest, really needs her own space. I would also dearly love a bigger kitchen as I love to cook and to bake, and the space we have now is tight when we all try to cook together, which happens a lot at our house. I have my eyes peeled for that eagle!
Linda - We have been here 13 years, and I have never seen an eagle in our yard before - the wing span is incredible! The fox and coyote would be scary. We used to get coyote every once in a while. Mostly we just get deer and for the past two years we have had several hawks - which you also have to watch with small dogs. So, we never let our dogs out on their own, but they do love to sit on the deck with us.
Kath - I have my camera at the ready, so hopefully if he comes back I can get a picture - that would be so cool.
Bonnie - We have moved several times - twice within Indy before we had kids, then the move to Yorktown 17 years ago to our first house, then the move to this house in 1998. Each time we had more stuff cause each time we had more kids! We have never done such a big move, and we have been settled in for a long time, so if I had to pack it all up myself I think I would be completely overwhelmed. Thank goodness I don't have to! I am not looking forward to all of the necessary paperwork involved with changing states and addresses, though - UGH!
Paul - Somehow I cannot picture Hani settling down in Yorktown! A pole barn as an escape is a great idea, though - I will have to keep that in mind.
My daughter had 2 owls who lived in the trees near her house in NC. She managed
several really good shots. Nothing too exciting here.. a fair amount of hawks..
rarely any up close and personal though. I hear an owl out back, but have never seen it..
I agree... the paperwork will not be fun. But once done, a whole new life to enjoy!
Supposedly raptors plucking up small dogs is an 'urban legend' - you never actually talk to someone who witnessed a capture first-hand. But who knows???
Your eagle sighting confirms what I've read - your seeing an eagle in yr. yard - they have made a terrific comeback, apparently. This is great news!
I was musing earlier today how LT really sustained me during the chaos of the move (we spent a few years in Philadelphia, long story) back to Vermont. I could dip in and out and get all that worry and fuss out of my mind for a moment.
Hi Mamie. Wow - an eagle?!
#182 I quite enjoy the original James Bond books despite how unpolitically correct they are :-)
Oh that reminds me -- I loved yr. review of Casino Royale.
Hi Mamie, love all the pictures you have posted. Gettysberg is on my list of places I really, really want to visit someday. Your house and property look lovely so I am sure you will sell quickly. Looking forward to sharing in your moving adventures from the comfort of my armchair!
Hi Mamie- I hope you are enjoying your day. I've been busy so far but it's time to crack open the book(s) and a couple cold ales. It's hot here and we have the a/c on.
Lucy - So great to see you! I think you are absolutely right about LT being such a nice diversion when things start to spin slightly out of control. It's so very nice to check in and find so many really nice people who are so supportive and caring. It's a great thing any day but especially when the day has been hectic or stressful. I'm so very thankful for all of you! (And I'm so glad that you liked my review!)
Heather - How are you? I'm still hoping to catch a glimpse of our eagle again but so far nothing. It reminds me of Lucy and her mooselessness! I like James Bond, too, and am hoping to read through them all in publication order this year or at least make a decent dent in the stack.
Judy - Hope you are having a great weekend with your Mom! Gettysburg is truly unbelievable - you can really feel that it is hallowed ground. It's a very moving experience. As far as our actual physical moving experience - we are hoping to launch our full efforts on Monday. The realtor is supposed to put the sign in the yard tomorrow if she gets all the paperwork filed. WahHoo!! Sure hoping for a fast sale, but we'll see.
Mark - Today was busy but also enjoyable. I did get time to read on the deck for a bit in the late afternoon which was so relaxing as the weather was perfect. The realtor was here tonight to take photos of the inside of the house and ask a last few questions. Please, please let her get the sign in the yard tomorrow.
Lucy - Back to you to add that I am trying to choose joy over righteousness, but today was a close call. The realtor has been late for all three of our meetings and has had to leave early twice, which is why it has taken us three meetings to get everything done. Really frustrating! But I'm done now (with complaining), and I feel a bit better for sharing.
Thank you so much, everybody for your kind thoughts and words. It means so very much to me.
Some righteousness is allowed. Especially when realtors are involved. Also, other drivers. I'm always right.
LOL! Thanks, Lucy! So we knew everything was going too smoothly, right? No air conditioning today - but luckily they are coming to fix it this afternoon. It's always something, right?!
Hi there, Mamie! I was way behind on your thread but what a nice treat to see the wedding pics of your kids. Adorable.
Gettysburg pics are so good too. What a great place for kids to wander around and absorb its history. My son was so attentive listening to every word that came out of our guides mouth!
And it looks to me like you will have no problem selling your home! It's so picturesque!
Hi Mamie -
You have FOUR toy poodles? yikes - yes, I see them on your profile :)
That must be fun at feeding time - or when someone comes to the door! And so many other times I can think of...
I can tell you from experience, if anything is gonna happen to the house it will do so while it is on the market. Here's a strange one - while the realtor and prospective buyers were going over paperwork in our kitchen (we were not home) a light bulb in the basement right under them exploded in a million pieces! We never figured out what that was all about and they DID buy the house. Oh, btw, that was our haunted house. Hmmm
Mamie - sending positive vibes across the water for the best of luck with selling your home, pole barn included.
Cee - I was most happy living in Johor Bahru (near Singapore) in a house that was definitely haunted but then again I don't want to send shivers up everyone's spines so early on a Tuesday morning (for me leastways).
Thanks, Lynda! It would be so sweet not to have to mess around with too many showings. Hopefully the right person is out there and will be one of the first ones to view the property. It is a lovely piece of land, but the house has some quirks that will not suit everyone. Um...no official dining room. We have a huge living room that we have our dining room table in and also a sitting area. There is another huge family room down about six steps - our house is a tri-level. Also, and this is a big one, the laundry is in the kitchen. I know, right?! We put in large capacity front load machines and ran a countertop over the washer and dryer to add extra counter space. The machines are our second set (we do a TON of laundry) and thus, practically brand new, and we are leaving them with the house to sweeten the pot. So, I guess we'll see if someone will embrace the quirkiness in order to get such a prime piece of land. Hopefully, yes.
Cee - Yes! Four toy poodles - together they make about one medium size dog (about 30 lbs total for the four of them). They LOVE to bark when someone comes to the door which is extremely annoying. You are right about the house rebelling - do you think it's trying to keep us? The motor on the AC is going out and the coil under the furnace is leaking freon. The repairs will cost just under $2500 - can you believe that?! The problem is that in order to replace the coil, they have to completely take out the furnace, replace the coil and the box it is in (the repair guy is drooling about this because he says he has never seen a box that old and he wants to see what brand of coil is inside!), and then reinstall the furnace. The furnace itself is only ten years old, so it still has loads of life left in it. It will take about 1/2 day to do it all - the good news? They can do it this Friday!! Alas, the house is not haunted - though that might be fun with the right sort of ghost.
Paul - I can use all the positive vibes I can get. Don't tease with the haunted house - we want the scoop!
Kath - What's your haunted house story?
Well, there was actually more than one. Three if you count the little house we rented in the woods.
I love those photos. I can't see how anyone looking around your house and grounds could resist!
I've lived in a haunted house too!
Kath - Three?! Have you been hogging all the haunted houses? Little house in the woods just sounds like it should be haunted, doesn't it?
Dee! Good to see you! I'll let the realtor know that I have it on good authority that our house and grounds are irresistible - perhaps she should add that to the advertisement! How are the corgi and hamster - still incognito?
Actually, it was the least haunted :) Unless you count the landlord.
I was trying to find where I posted about it before, but can't find it yet.
Lots to tell about a place I lived as a child, and our first house :)
220: They have been released! I haven't seen much of the hamster but J has fallen in love with the corgi. It may have failed as a pet substitute however as he says he now wants a real corgi even more! Does anyone know how much walking corgis need?!
Lucy has a corgi!
Mamie - OK
We lived in Johor Bahru from 1996 until 2001. In an area of the city called Taman Nong Cik which was the area where the Japanese made examples of their chinese subjects for a few brief torrid years in the 1940's. We lived in a huge rented house of almost 30,000 sq ft living space. Despite the fact that the house was up for rental at US2,000 pcm the owner snatched my hand off when I offered her about $1,400 which I told her was all my company would pay me (it was my company). Despite the fact that there was undeveloped land to two sides of the property and the fact that virtually all the homes in the area had been burglarised at least twice no attempt was ever made to enter ours. The upper levels of the house my in-laws would not visit for love nor money and my then only daughter Yasmyne was terrified unless Daddy was in the house. She told her mum that she could see a "momot" - which means ghost or ghoul following her but that the thing was scared / liked Daddy. We had electric gates and she would quieten within a minute prior to my activating them on the way home. My business prospered in the nearly six years we lived there. When my SIL and SWMBO were packing away the toys in the nursery when we wanted to move to Kuala Lumpur - a talking doll suddenly activated itself. Hani told her sister that the thing was getting on her nerves and that she should remove the batteries to stop it yapping - there were no batteries. Lots of similar stories - I'll save them for a future LT meet-up!
So fascinating!! I love to hear ghost/haunted house stories.Thanks for sharing, Paul!
224> Incredible, wonderful stories, Paul!
Mamie, I so well remember the agony of trying to sell a house. I was anxious every day. I hope yours goes soon so you can move on to the next step of this process.
Thanks, Ellen. Good to see you - I need to get caught up on your thread - I am 33 posts behind. YIKES!
I do know that corgis tend to get overweight easily so probably they benefit from lots of exercise.
I have a five pound Yorkie ... and a 13 pound cat:
229: Not a pet for us then! I have arthritis in my knees and hips which is getting progressively worse so don't want to commit myself to too much mandatory walking right now. And we also have a slightly overweight cat. She won't go outside unless it's warm, then comes back after 5 minutes and she is very good at persuading different family members that no-one's fed her. Ever!
224: Good story. I'll save mine for that LT meet-up!
Hi Cathy! I don't know anything about corgis. Your pictures of your cat and Yorkie are too cute - and I LOVE your cat's name!!
Dee - We have toy poodles which we do not walk. We just play fetch with them, and that provides them plenty of exercise. Sorry about the arthritis in your knees and hips - no fun. My husband had a hip replacement a few years ago because of that. He now has a titanium hip and is a new man.
229> Adorable critters, Cathy. Thanks for sharing that link.
I kind of want a dog to go with my beloved Abby-cat....
Book #54: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Review coming soon...but I really loved this one.
I loved Persuasion too. It's ALMOST up there with Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
Rachel, that's funny you say that because I was trying to decide if it just barely edged ahead of Sense and Sensibility for me. Pride and Prejudice is still firmly in first place.
Sense and Sensibility really touches my heart for some reason...I'm not sure what I like so much in it, but I like it just as much as Pride and Prejudice.
Corgis need almost as much exercise as a medium, to large-sized dog -- however -- having the small profile you can, if you have the right sort of house, set up somewhere where you can sit and throw a tennis ball (say down a long hallway with some kind of rug for braking on at the end) until they wear out. Your son could do this. I had one that played frisbee too, or would run back and forth between two people playing frisbee until she collapsed, or she would run around the swimming pool ditto, when people were in it. My new puppy loves to retrieve and mostly gives the ball back to me (that's the kind of thing to work in in obedience class). They were bred to work outside all day and they are tough and full of energy and they are also smart, since they were farm dogs and herders - somewhere around 10 or 11 in the 'doggie intelligence' scale, which means that dog obedience class is a really really really good idea.
The biggest problem with corgis is that they end up fat. A) they are greedy B) they are clever and cute C) they wear you down so they get too many treats -- another reason why they really do need a solid hour of exercise a day. An adult corgi needs a ridiculously small amount of food. I've never had an overweight corgi, but I've seen so many.
They are funny and bright and dear animals. I keep saying to myself, when it is time for a new dog, that I should try another breed or no breed, just pure dog, but I am so attached to the corgi presence.....
Some corgis are really big -- over thirty pounds and not fat. This last time we made an effort to look for a smaller 'family' - I think Posey, our latest, won't be much over 20 pounds and I'm glad of it. If she was a male from the litter I expect she would weigh 25-28 as an adult, the males are considerably heavier as they fill out in the chest at around 3 years. She fits in my lap which the last few corgs really did not, even though they thought they ought!
OK I've blathered enough, but I am happy to be corgi central for you and help in any way I can!
Oops mamie, I got so excited! Sorry about the hijacking!
I'm thinking Persuasion is my favorite; or is it Emma? No wait, Pride and Prejudice. You get the idea Mamie;-)
Mamie- I've been meaning to book-horn in another Austen book. And it looks like it''ll be Persuasion. Fortunately I have it saved on audio. Maybe later next month.
Rachel - I love Sense and Sensibility, too. I think perhaps I just have to love it and Persuasion equally. Although the characters in Sense and Sensibility... Colonel Brandon...*swoon*...I love that man! OK, and the movie - Col. Brandon played by Alan Rickman! Does it get any better than that?!
Lucy - I love your love of Corgis! Posey is a very lucky girl to have you!! Hijack away anytime.
Bonnie - I know just what you mean!
Mark - Liz is tutoring Ilana with Persuasion right now which I have been following. Ilana is asking excellent questions, and Liz is providing wonderful insight. And the rest of us are trying to behave as we lurk.
Drum roll, please...The FOR SALE sign is in the yard as of this minute!!!!!
Thank you, Rachel and Cee! I LOVE that drum roll!!
Lucy, I LOVE your description of corgis and our dear sweet Posey. Makes me want one....
Mamie, yay for the official yard sign!!
I'm really looking forward to getting to Persuasion. I loved P&P and S&S and liked Mansfield Park and Emma a lot. And yes, wasn't that film with Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon just wonderful?! I've been obsessed with Alan Rickman since seeing him in the film adaptation of Beryl Bainbridge's An Awfully Big Adventure when I was in my twenties! I recommend!
Fingers crossed for you with the house, Mamie. It sounds wonderful and in Britain laundry rooms are luxuries rather than automatically expected and many dining rooms have been turned into other rooms, so your house's little peculiarities sound entirely normal to me!
Thanks for the corgi info, Lucy. I always planned to get a family dog and my older son is obsessed with corgis so it is tempting. However my knees hurt thinking about any exercise at the moment and judging by my family's indulging of our cat, the food thing could be an issue. Also our cats hates dogs. Really hates them! So it's probably not really an option but it's a nice idea!
Morning Mamie- Hooray for the House for Sale sign! Fingers crossed for you! Enjoy your day.
Wow! Lots going on here....
Corgi info..
Signs up for short times, as house will sell promptly...
Animated drums...
Can't.Keep.Up. !
I hope you don't have to have the sign up for too long. Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen by the way.
Thanks for all the cheering Ellen, Dee, Mark, Lucy, Kath, and Rhian!!
Dee - I must look for that film! Not sure which Austen I'll read next, but I want to read them all. I just love her sense of humor and her clever dialogue.
Good luck for a quick sale! I agree with the others that your house looks very welcoming.
Now I want a corgi! Or any other type of dog... I so miss dogs in my life!
Good luck for the sale Mamie!
I was only able to finish Persuasion on my second try. The first time I was in an Austen funk, having read too many of them in just a couple of weeks and found reading English books still very demanding then. When I picked it up again and restarted it after two years I liked it so much!
Thanks, Carol and Nathalie!
The Austen books can be challenging for those of us whose first language is English, I cannot imagine tackling them if I were you - I am in awe of you, Nathalie! She is worth the extra effort though - so witty and such wonderful characters...and women who refuse to fit the mold society at that time would have them fit into.
Oh wow, I poke my head in here and there's corgi talk! I love those dogs so much. I wish we had one. Instead, we have an Australian Cattle Dog - just as energetic and supposedly as smart as a Corgi.
I have Persuasion sitting around here, waiting to be read eventually. I read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility a long time ago. I like P&P a lot, S&S not as much.
Hi Ursula! Another Corgi fan!! I predict that you will like Persuasion when you get around to it - and it is much shorter than S&S. Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorites, so it would make my "if you were stranded on a desert island and could only have five books..." list.
Any big plans for the big premiere tomorrow night?
OK, so I just finished Lost Light by Michael Connelly. It's the ninth book in the Harry Bosch series, and I really like these books. Now I am behind by three reviews...sigh. I hope to get to them soon, but it will probably not be tomorrow because we have two showings!! I am having a slow reading month, and cannot believe that it is already May 23rd - almost the 24th. Gheesh, where did it go?!
Sign just up, and two showings already! Good luck selling the house, Mamie!
The month of May has just flown by. Heck, the whole year has so far. I can't believe my son gets out of school for the summer on Tuesday.
>257 Crazymamie: Mamie,
I have read the first 4 Harry Bosch books, Black Echo, Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and The Last Coyote and I, too, really love him as a character and Michael Connelly as a writer. I also read the Lincoln Lawyer and really enjoyed that. Fun reads!
Thanks, I've been dreading Persuasion a little and that makes me feel better about it!
No big plans for the show, really. I'm going to watch it with my husband, that's about it. :)
Perhaps just a red carpet to the sofa then?
For a series nut like me it is almost to my own surprise that I haven't read any of the Bosch books yet (I have a couple I think). Did promise to list out my active series earlier but haven't got round to it yet. All the very best with selling your place in order to move on to pastures new.
Cathy - Yeah! A Harry Bosch fan! I also loved The Lincoln Lawyer, and was glad that I started with that book because then I knew how good Connelly's writing was going to get - it was what, his 16th book or something like that. I think the Harry Bosch series just keeps getting better.
Yes, Paul, we want to see your active series! Also you should make time for Harry Bosch - the writing improves greatly as the series goes along, so do not judge by the first two books because it gets so much better. The first book by Connelly that I read was The Lincoln Lawyer, which I loved. Then I went back to see what else he had written and was shocked to see how prolific he had been. Connelly is a big fan of Raymond Chandler and it shows in his books. Like Chandler, Los Angeles is like a much-beloved character in the books, and I love the history of the city that Connelly throws in from time to time. And thanks for your good wishes!
I see you are a Harry Bosch fan too! There is a new one coming out in November called The Black Box
eta apparently it will be the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Bosch novel too!
Hi, Chelle! Wow, the 20th anniversary! I'm so glad he is still writing them!
We have a third showing scheduled for today!!!
Good luck with your showing today.
I stumbled on a great site for organizing your series, check out -
It allows you to choose which series you are following, list all the books, tell you both which book is next for you and when a new book is forthcoming.
Wishing you well on your home sale!
It is looking promising :)
I read a Harry Bosch.... I thought it was pretty good... but never carried on with it. IT was one
that I got from vine I think?
I have seen that fictfact site before.. it's a great idea! I have never done the deed though...
Well let's hope the next time you come online it is to say SOLD! Mamie. Fingers crossed:)
Judy - Thanks for the good wishes - sounds like a cool site. I'm off to check it out as soon as I finish here.
Kath - I am excited that people at least want to see the house, so it is looking promising. I really like both Harry Bosch and Connelly's writing style. I am determined to read all of his books. I have never heard of the fictfact site, but I can't wait to check it out.
Bonnie - Well, it's not sold yet, but we do have two showings scheduled for tomorrow already, so I am feeling very hopeful that the market is moving. Keep those fingers crossed, please.
I am guessing that you are having to busy yourself outside of the house?
Taking the pups with you? Amy had to do that every time they showed her house.
Two big dogs and Amy driving around til she got the all clear.
Her agent was a FAIL from the get go though. I tried to talk to her but it made her angry.
She told me later that she should have ( basically done what I had told her to do )
It did not make me feel better at all..
Mamie - great news on the fact that people are looking forward to viewing your place - good luck for a quick sale.
Started tabulating "live" series but having trouble deciding what constitues a genuine series:
1 Not included books that are merely a novel cycle (Proust/Zola)
2 Trilogies such as The Balkan Trilogy, The Cairo Trilogy etc not included
3 Series I have finished not there either (Poirot, Famous Five, Dr. Who, Smiley, Harry Palmer, Wallender etc)
4 Series I own books of but have not started yet (loads of those!)
Hope to finish it soon.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kath - Thanks for keeping an eye on me - I need it! We do have to busy ourselves outside of the house and take our doggies with us - um.. not so great in 90 degree heat when we have to be gone for several hours. On Thursday we ended up just boarding them at the vets overnight because we had three showings and then another scheduled for early Friday afternoon, plus we had the furnace guy coming at 7:30 Friday morning. We had another showing Friday evening and one yesterday afternoon, so things have been kind of crazy! Oh, and Craig flew home for the weekend because he got a great deal on a ticket - we were so excited to see him, and he doesn't have to leave until Monday afternoon!! WahHOO!! Our realtor seems to be doing fine so far after a bumpy start - I think the bottom line is that the buyers have the money and so they get the courtesy. The thing is that once you sign the contract, you're locked in for six months so there's not a whole lot you can do about it.
Paul - I kicked out series that I was not currently working on, series I had finished (although Heather starred those at the bottom of her series post, so I am thinking about that). I like you idea about a series not including books that are merely a novel cycle. I think trilogies count. I also did not include series I have not yet started even though I have the first book. I am still thinking about mine and trying to decide exactly what I want to include. I plan on dragging it from thread to thread with me as I continue to tweak it. I do LOVE having it right there at the top of the thread reminding me what I need to get back to. Can't wait to see yours, so please don't give up. Hope your weekend is/was lovely. Ours is a three day weekend for the Memorial Day holiday - which is why Craig got to come back for a visit.
Okay - everyone who has a Kindle, the Daily Deal from Amazon is a good one if you like Karin Fossum. Seven of her Inspector Sejer books are on sale, today only, for $1.99. Here is the scoop:
May 27, 2012: Today only, seven best-selling "Inspector Sejer" novels by Karin Fossum are just $1.99 each.
Don't Look Back (Inspector Sejer)
He Who Fears the Wolf (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
When the Devil Holds the Candle (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
The Indian Bride (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
Black Seconds (An Inspector Sejer Mystery)
The Water's Edge (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
Bad Intentions (Inspector Sejer Mysteries)
Hi Mamie- With your husband home for the long weekend, it sounds like you'll have a perfect one. Keep cool, though. It's gonna be a scorcher here!
Here too, Mark. We're supposed to hit 95 today - what's up with that?
Oh so tempting.. I have the first 2 Fossum books.. but haven't read them yet.. so ?
Thinking on it. Maybe I will open the first one to page 88 .. which is how I test drive a book..
yeah, busy. I wondered how you would manage wrangling the pups. I know that Amy had a rough time.
Her realtor was bad from the get go. The photos for the flyer were TERRIBLE. The made all the rooms look tiny and narrow.. and they were the opposite. She took her own and made them redo the flyer. I had a bad feeling about her realtor before she signed, but she was in a mood to not listen, and did regret it in the end. A whole list of things, including not showing up for open house and blah blah. She now has the house rented :( Know anyone who wants a cute house in Charlotte backed by woods, on a cul de sac?
It has a new roof! and all sorts of new things.. anyone :P
I can see that you are off to a great start, and I think it will sell soon.. good market for buying
( It was the opposite 2 years ago when amy sold. She put it on the market a week after the tax benefit for new buyers went away ... another thing she didn't listen to me about.. kids!)
Glad hubby made it home.. enjoy!!
Yeah - the market was terrible two years ago. Sorry your daughter had such a bad experience. We could rent if we had to, but I really don't want to go there if I can help it. Really, I think the market is just starting to pick back up - at least in our area. Two years ago I'm not sure I would have tried. Scary to think that real estate used to be a sure thing for your money and now it is hit or miss. What really makes us look good is the two acres - land is expensive in Yorktown.
I read the first Karin Fossum in March, and I thought it was pretty good - and everyone says they get better as they go along, which I find to be true with almost every mystery series, so I snagged them with the rest of my Mothe's Day gift certificate.
Hi Mamie!
I see that I missed a lot of great reading! I liked your review of Things fall apart in the last thread. I own that book and I hope that I can read it this year.
I also have to reread Chess Story again! I remember it as such a great piece of literature.
I need to continue with my Austen reads. But I think that won't be too soon.
By the way - great pictures and fantastic house! I wish you good luck and every success for selling it!
Kathy!! So excited to see you! How goes the thesis? Thank you so much for all of your kind comments and for your good wishes. I think you would like Things Fall Apart.
Hello, I loved Superman at the top of our thread, so I kept reading :-) Good luck with the house - your photos are beautiful, and it is good that you have viewings already. Interesting about the staging though - when I bought my flat about 14 years ago it was PACKED with books, overflowing the shelves, and in fact stacked all around the top of the kitchen cabinets too. I don't think the owner had heard of staging - her boyfriend had moved in with her after selling his own flat and there was stuff everywhere. I still bought it! I had a container of furniture and household stuff shipped over from New Zealand, and one of the first things I found when I opened one of the boxes was a large round object. I couldn't remember owning any large round objects (it was about the size of a basketball) so I started unwrapping it, and after layers and layers of newspaper I found...a ball of string. It is definitely worth having a bit of a declutter before the packers arrive!
Hi Mamie, just dropping by for a quick hello. I'm sorry I've been so bad about visiting threads this year... I feel like I'm missing out on so much. Now if only I could figure out how to be everywhere at once!
I'll come back and try to catch up with you a little, though I'm sure you'll be on to thread #4 any minute now!
Susan - Welcome to my thread! Thanks for your kind comments. I would love to view a house filled with books stacked everywhere, but it would probably distract me because I would want to read all of the titles! I think staging is a relatively new phenomena. Your story about the string made me laugh -string shipped all the way from New Zealand - and carefully packed!!
Ilana! What a lovely surprise to check in and find you here! I have been trying to get caught up on your thread and am almost there. I LOVED your review of The Glass Room - you got a thumb from me, and I added it to my WL. Don't stress about catching up on my thread - it's enough to just get a quick hello from you. I am really trying to hang in with this thread until June - which is next Friday. Where oh where did May go?!
Where oh where did May go?!
Tell me about it! But I ask myself that about every single day, every single week, month and year!
I've been feeling really guilty about not visiting you before Mamie. You've been such a constant and enjoyable visitor and I feel it isn't fair that I'm not as generous with my time. Trouble with this group is there are just too many wonderful people in it! You being one of them of course. xx
Hi Mamie,
I'm another big fan of Michael Connelly although I haven't read anything by him in a few years so he doesn't show up on LT for me. And, I also have Things Fall Apart on the TBR pile; perhaps we can both get to it in the next few months.....
I am sure you are busy enjoying hubby's company for the holiday, but I don't want to lose track of your thread, so here I am! keeping you floating upon my page :)
Just dropping by to say hello Mamie!
Hi Mamie, just looking in to see how the house selling is going. I know about the "finding something to do while the client is looking" from the client's POV. My daughter and her husband asked us to come and look at her dream house. That was her second visit. Then they took her hubby's parents so that made three times. But they did get the house in the end. And you will sell yours in the end too.
Oh dear Mamie - your needing to get the dogs out of the house for showings reminds me of having our house on the market.
I had a cat and a dog.
The dog was pretty easy to get in the car.
But the cat was another matter!
First I'd have to find her - usually under the bed (she always knew). Then the broom trick to get her out and nab her. Then stuffing her in the carrier, to the car, and getting her litter box in too!
So where can you bring a cat and a dog on a hot afternoon? Well, we went to McDonald's a few times and I'd get a huge cup of iced tea and read in the car.
I had to guess when they were finished...
Oh, so glad that is in the distant past!
Best of luck for a quick sale! Glad to hear hubby was able to get home for the long weekend :-)
Ilana - Don't feel guilty! Thank you so much for your kind words - they mean a lot to me. I think you are very generous with your time, so don't feel like you ever have to apologize to me. I love visiting your thread and seeing all of your creativity, and the time that you put into every thing that you do is obvious, so when you have the chance to drop by here it is an added bonus. I don't expect it, so don't stress about it.
Ellen- Another Connelly fan! Yeah!! I actually read Things Fall Apart already - in April, so I think my review of it is at the top of my previous thread. I really loved it and gave it 4.5 stars. I didn't realize when I read it that it is part of Achebe's African Trilogy. The second book is No Longer At Ease, and I was hoping to get to it this month, but that is not happening, so June for sure.
Kath - Thanks for keeping track of me! I loved the baptism pics on your thread. That Owen is a cutie!
Heather - Always good to see you, thanks for stopping by. Hope you had a great weekend and that the week is off to a good start.
Bonnie - A house is a BIG purchase, so seeing it multiple times is just a part of the process. We are really wanting to sell, so we are thrilled with each showing.
Cee - Oh dear, a cat would be tough. Three of our dogs love to ride in the car and are always up for a road trip. Our youngest dog, Bella, is seven years old and just wants to be home. She shakes and whines in the car and also during thunderstorms. However, recently we discovered the Thunder Shirt - ever heard of this? It's a shirt for dogs that have high anxiety - it fits snuggly around the body and applies pressure to the central nervous system, which is calming. Our vet was selling them with a 100% money back guarantee if they don't work for your dog. We tried it and the results were instant and amazing! We simply put the shirt on her before we leave the house, and she is fine. Now she loves to ride in the car, and she doesn't have a nervous breakdown at the park. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. Anyway, the timing of this discovery could not have been more perfect because we have had to take her in the car a lot lately. I can't wait for a thunderstorm to see if it works for that, too. I will have to try to get a picture of Bella in her shirt - she is so proud in it!
So, the husband is back in Georgia after a fabulous three day weekend in Indiana. One of my sister's and my nephew came to hang out today which was fun - we spent almost the entire time on the deck. It was hot, but our yard is so shaded and there was a lovely breeze, and we have fans on the deck, so it was glorious. We have a showing tomorrow and are optimistic that all the activity at our property will lead to a quick sale. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to hope. Please keep sending your good wishes everyone; I'm convinced that they are working!
I have heard about that Thundershirt for dogs, Mamie.
I really should try one on Loki as he hates riding in the car, and pants & trembles the whole time till we get back home. No matter where we go.
We took him on a daytrip once and he was a wreck ALL day. Would not pee anywhere! Would not eat anything... We were all glad to get home.
He just wants to stay home/go for walks.
That is exactly what Bella was like! It was like she was having a panic attack - which I hated because I have a niece who has those and they are so scary for her. I hate to think about anybody feeling like that. But now she is a completely different dog in the car and in public which is good because it is so much less stressful for her.
I'm glad to hear that the thunder shirt works :)
I had heard of it too, and wondered. Good that you
have it now, when you need it :)
I had a rough time of it with Duncan for a while
when it came to car trips...when he first came home
he was afraid of everything. I suspect he was put into
a car and dropped off somewhere. Afterward, he was
a stray, someone shot him... he was alone. Lucky for
me someone found him and the rest is happy history !
He learned ( eventually ) that he was home to stay and
he stopped fearing the car. Until that happened I used
Rescue Remedy when we went out.
He was afraid of thunder and fireworks, too. But I worked with him..
for a while, when there there was thunder and lightening or loud
fireworks, I just sat with him and gave him a bit of treat, and a petting.
After about 6 months he associated it with good things. I still give him
a cookie if it starts to storm, Not because he is afraid, but because it's
a good excuse to give him a treat :)
Oh, Kath, I'm so glad he has you! His story makes me sad, but I'm glad he got his happy ending - he probably thinks you hung the moon! How long have you had him?
He came home 11/04
He tried to die on me the july after.. that is when we got him diagnosed with Addison's
His story makes me sad, too. I can't think about it :P
But he was found, a kill shelter had him, and he ran out of time, so since he looks
very Golden, they called a last chance rescuer of Goldens who took him.. and I found him online!
5 hour drive to get him.. the trip home almost killed him literally..
since stress and Addison's do not get along.. and he was plenty stressed!
Amazing - you were meant to be together!
Wow, Kath, that's great that you got him to stop being afraid of thunder...especially if he's been shot! My cat was rescued off the streets, too, and is afraid of a lot of things. Getting a fearless kitten to keep her company really helped, though. I tried to comfort her during thunder storms at first, but unfortunately it seems like there must be a lightening rod or something similar close to my apartment complex because EVERY time we have an electrical storm lighting strikes very, very, very close--and always in the same direction. How am I supposed to calm my cat down with it startles the bejeebies out of me every time it happens?
Rachel, Bach's Flower Remedies...
Rescue Remedy.. it comes in drops or spray.
Spray is easier, since you can just push her lips back and spray.
The alcohol free is best..
It comes ( these days) designated for people or pets..
they are the same. Just spray a few times during storms..
no way to overdose with it. I have used it for people and pets
for YEARS
The Thundershirt sounds incredibly useful. So far Posey seems OK with storms - we're having intense ones today in fact and she was just blobbing out even in the worst cracks. Interestingly though, she HATES gunshots and fireworks, knows the difference. (We have a 'down the valley' neighbor who does target practice every Saturday afternoon for an hour, ah, rural life.)
We tried the Flower Remedy with a cat that couldn't travel, and it helped some, but not quite enough.
What a great invention! We so would have needed one of those shirts for my parents's dog Emma!
She was a happy co-driver, but hated thunderstorms, fireworks and camera flashes. Taking her to a restaurant usually was a nightmare because someone would always take pictures and then the trouble started. But she also panicked when we left her at home and she didn't stay quiet with other people, just running in circles and whining for hours and making the poor dog-sitters (nice dog-loving people like my grandma) all nervous.
But good to know about it now, should they ever get a new dog.
Hi Mamie, now that summer has been launched I have a hunch that your lovely home will have a SOLD sign out in front in the very near future. Maybe you could get that eagle to fly over just as your next prospects get out of the car!
I'm glad your husband had a 3-day week end at home recently. Carrying on a long-distance marriage gets old quickly. We did it for about 10 months back in the '90s.
Kath, Lucy, and Nathalie - So very interesting to hear everyone's dog stories. I had never heard of the Rescue Remedy before. And treats sounds like a good idea, too. The rest of our dogs are not nervous at all with storms or new people or places, or car rides, but Bella has always been so anxious. When we board them at the vets for a long stay - like a week - they can put all of our dogs in one big kennel with a run, but they still have to medicate Bella or she will come home with a bladder infection. Nervous boarder she is tagged! I guess I had never thought about dogs or cats having panic attacks before, but it makes complete sense.
Donna - I'll see what I can do about the eagle - good idea! We have two showings today and two scheduled for tomorrow, so things are looking good. One of the realtors that showed the house on Saturday said she might have a possible offer - they have narrowed it down to three houses. SO, we'll see. Pretty good for being on the market less than a week.
I think the long distance is harder on Craig than on the rest of us because we have each other and all the comforts of home. I felt bad that he had to go back all alone. Poor baby!
*Decided my thread was getting a bit lengthy, so please join me on page four as the adventure continues.
This topic was continued by Crazymamie's 75 in 2012 (Page 4).
Group: 75 Books Challenge for 2012
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