Time for Love

Posted on 10/08/2008 by chick

I have many things to do this week in preparation for the wedding on Saturday. I should be taking care of those things now but, right or wrong, I allocated this time today for writing. Writing eases stress, and I really need to destress. Any posts you see during the next couple of weeks will probably be the products of this day, as I doubt I’ll have time for writing again until after the wedding.

I’m working hard to catch up on my blogging. I just finished a post about late September. I didn’t want to forget about those things, and I hope that the post gives you an idea of how hectic (and yet fun!) my life has been lately. While the post was mostly upbeat, you can probably see that I wasn’t entirely happy with the purchase of my house.

The house was (and still is) an emotional roller coaster. First we had the false radon readings. Then we had the global credit crisis. The final “kick to the head” came on the closing day. Using a comparable sale in the area, we had determined we were getting a 10-15% discount by renovating rather than buying a “perfect” house, but the bank’s appraisal did not agree. They estimated we were paying roughly its market value. By the time we put pen to paper, I didn’t want the house anymore.

How do you recover from that kind of buyer’s remorse? How do you come to love a house that you’ve already started to dislike? And when you discover hidden sump pumps and realize that certain repairs are more expensive than you thought they would be, how do you not cry?

I didn’t cry over it, though I have to admit to some moping. Then, when I got sick of moping, I started looking for reasons to love the house. The most obvious thing to love is the property itself. We’ve got two acres of wooded land, enough that I will be able to create a private rock garden (my “secret garden”) in the back yard. Even better, we can reach state park land from the back yard, so we have miles of woodland trails to explore. Isn’t that worth some love?

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Wazzup Was

Posted on 10/07/2008 by chick

The events of late September—

Faithful Reader took me to a Ben Folds Five concert to celebrate my birthday. It was an outdoor concert. The weather was chilly but otherwise cooperative and I was happy sitting with my honey, listening to music under an autumn sky, surrounded by the tall and elegant buildings of downtown Providence.

Faithful Reader surprised me with a beautiful diamond wedding band. I had been looking at it on the website but had been afraid to buy it, given that we were just days away from the purchase of our first house. He knew I would probably choose the plain, cheap band and he wanted me to have the one I really liked. Sometimes he is the best man in the world.

Saturday, September 27th was my wedding shower. I had lots of food, laughter, and conversation, not to mention the requisite “shower” of gifts. Such kindness and generosity helps make up for the Hell that is wedding planning.

We tried our first slow-cooker recipe on that same day. Early in the day Faithful Reader said, “It’s almost impossible to cook it too long.” That kind of comment is just asking for trouble, don’t you think? It’s like thumbing your nose at Fate. Later, he went to pick me up from the shower and while we noshed on pizza at an impromptu dinner get-together, our curry chicken cooked to a rich, burnt brown. But looking on the bright side, the experiment proved that the slow cooker works.

We bought our house at the end of September. It was scary to be signing papers on a mortgage at the same time as the financial system seemed to be imploding. I still don’t know what to think about it. Only time will tell if we were geniuses buying near the market bottom or morons buying on the leading edge of another Great Depresssion.

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Fall Is Here

Posted on 10/02/2008 by chick

There have already been several days that felt like autumn, but today was the first day that smelled like autumn.

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Trying to Stay Calm

Posted on 09/29/2008 by chick

It’s scary buying a house.

It’s absolutely terrifying buying a house during a global financial crisis.

I’m just trying to stay calm.

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They Said Nothing

Posted on 09/29/2008 by chick

The second worst thing about RSVPs is that some people don’t bother to repondez. At least we were lucky in this regard. We sent out over 50 invites and only four of them went unanswered. We’ll be contacting those “stragglers” today.

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They Just Said No

Posted on 09/29/2008 by chick

I think the worst thing about RSVPs is that there’s nowhere on the card for the person to explain why they can’t go to to your shindig. It just says, “Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So will not be able to attend.” It feels almost like a snub.

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A Month of Sundays

Posted on 09/28/2008 by chick

September 7

The first Sunday of September was notable for the Joshua Bell concert in Hyannis. I had purchased tickets because I wanted a reason to spend a weekend on the Cape. It did not turn out quite as I planned. The remnants of Hurricane Somebody came through that weekend and spoiled the weather, so we went only long enough for the concert and dinner. I was impressed with Bell’s playing. It didn’t sound anything like a dying cat (which is, unfortunately, how some violin playing sounds). My only complaint was that the concert was so short. Dinner was so-so. And the Cape? I didn’t see enough of it to say. I’ll have to go back again someday.

September 14

Finally. My parents came to Rhode Island to meet Faithful Reader’s parents. It was a definite clash of cultures, but we all survived.

September 21

Faithful Reader, soon to be a Handyman Extraordinaire, has decided to buy a truck. He found an inexpensive one on Craig’s List and we drove up to Saugus to take a look at it. On the way back, we spontaneously exited the highway in the middle of Boston. We took a trip down my memory lane by walking around the BU campus. We also explored a part of Boston neither of us was really familiar with—Chinatown. There we bought some interesting Asian pastries, including a moon cake, as well as some Vietnamese sandwiches and bubble tea. We had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. My duck soup was surprisingly excellent. It was also difficult to eat, because there were jagged bones still attached to the meat!

As it turned out, Faithful Reader didn’t buy the truck, but I’m glad we took the trip.

September 28

So many things to do, so little energy with which to do it. Today was a day for small chores—laundry, dishes, etc.—and little else.

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The Woooord of Gaaaahd

Posted on 09/25/2008 by chick

I love religious radio broadcasts. I heard one just the other night. Like many evangelists, the host of this show had a peculiar way of speaking. He would emphasize certain words by drawing them out, increasing his volume, and adding an echo. Here’s one of his pearls of wisdom—

The reason GAAAAAAAHD put the WOOOOOOORD on paper was so you could mark it up.

Personally, I’m not sure Gaaaaaaahd wants people messing with his perfect Bible pages. I mean, if he wanted scribble on them, wouldn’t He have created them that way?

😉

P.S. Don’t worry. I’m not going to Hell. My God has a sense of humor.

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It’s Crazy!

Posted on 09/24/2008 by chick

When I first started investing in individual stocks, I was told that I needed to make rational decisions and not be swept away by emotion. That made sense until I had been investing for a few months. Then I realized how irrational the market itself was.

“It’s not fair,” I objected, starting to pout. “Even if I stay sane, the craziness in the market will wreck my investments!” I was right, too. I made sane investments that did poorly because everyone else was acting crazy. It gave me that horrible feeling of being utterly alone and losing control. I pouted more.

But there was some comfort to be found in an unexpected place—an investment book.

Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World
Grade: A-

In the first chapter, Cramer says,

While science has made tremendous strides in hundreds of areas of life, the stock market is not a science. It is just a humbling collection of pricing decisions involving the supply of equities and a level of demand mitigated by greed and fear, two animalistic, psychological components.

Amen, brother! After reading the whole book, that paragraph is still my favorite. It means that I am not alone and it means I might still be able to conquer the market. I’m going to rephrase his words and make my first investment rule.

Karen’s Investment Rule #1: The stock market is insane. Get over it.

One piece of advice that Cramer gives is to go ahead and make speculative investments but to limit them to a small percentage of your portfolio. As much as it pains me to admit it, that sounds smart, as do several other things he says in the book. I guess I had gotten so bored with his manic TV persona and his glib daily soundbite at TheStreet.com that I began to doubt his ability to deliver intelligent advice.

The book’s main flaw is that it’s a big ego-stroke for Cramer. Surprise, surprise.

I can’t predict whether Cramer’s advice will do me any good, but I’m willing to give it a try and see what happens. If I do well in the market, I’ll come back and give the book a higher grade. Of course, if I do badly, he can kiss that A- good-bye!

😉

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Reading Trio

Posted on 09/23/2008 by chick

I prefer to review books one at a time, but when you get as far behind as I am, that becomes impossible. I don’t remember enough to write full reviews anyway, and even if I did, it would take forever. So here are brief reviews of three mysteries I read earlier this year. All three were bought at the Westerly book sale.

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
Grade: B-

I love Agatha Christie. Her books are quick, easy, and for the most part, well-written. She is the only author completely immune to the GLP, though not for the reason you would think. She wrote so many books that I don’t dare get rid of any of them, lest I inadvertently buy them again!

The Seven Dials Mystery is one that I would definitely not want to buy again. It starts with an intriguing practical joke and the way that the joke goes bad for the characters makes an excellent start for a mystery novel. It also has one of the most entertaining characters I’ve ever met in a book, Lord Caterham, who says things like, “I don’t like anyone who comes and dies in my house on purpose to annoy me.” I’m sure many people would feel that way if a stranger was inconsiderate enough to die in their house, but few would have the audacity to say so.

I read along happily for quite a while, eager as always to be duped by the end. But Christie fell into the trap that lies in wait for all intelligent writers of formulaic fiction—the reckless desire to break the formula and add the ultimate “twist.” The ending was not only unrealistic, but dumb. Yeah, just plain dumb. This mystery only barely got a B-level grade, and I would not recommend it for anyone but a die-hard Christie fan.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Grade: B+

In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a small English village is rocked by two deaths, one an overdose and the other a murder, and luck has placed Hercule Poirot on the scene. He will need all of his finely-honed detective skills to determine whether the two deaths are related and who might have had a hand in them.

It’s not the best Christie mystery I’ve ever read, but it is clever. I was certainly fooled. If I graded it purely on the outcome, it would fare better, but the situation and characters are slightly boring. Still, I would give this one a go if you’re a fan of the genre, particularly if you like the ever amusing Hercule Poirot.

Death in the Andamans by M.M. Kaye
Grade: B-

The Andamans are an island group in the Bay of Bengal. Near the beginning of the last century, the British had a penal colony there, and that is the setting for this book. The odd setting, particularly the creepy house in which the main characters stay and the hurricane that starts the action, make this a memorable book.  Unfortunately, the characters and story are an entirely different matter. I would summarize the plot for you but it’s hazy in my memory. I only remember being aggravated by the silly dialogue. However, I’m still so charmed by The Sun in the Morning that I won’t let this failure turn me from Kaye’s other books. I fully intend to read more of them as time and circumstances permit.

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