2. I'm headed to D.C. on Thursday with my youngest son to visit my parents and my sister's family, which now includes the beautiful Cole. I'm very excited to meet my godson. And, Liam seems to fully understand what the trip is all about. Besides getting frothy about the peanuts he'll have on the plane and that we'll get to see our old dog, Coltrane, he does mention "meeting my cousin, Cole."
3. After 5 months of unemployment, I have finally settled on what I'm going to pursue. I'm going to be a real estate broker. Yeah, yeah you say, they are a dime a dozen. But, I am confident I will be part of the million dollar club within a few years. Everyone who knows me well and hears of my plans immediately tells me I am perfectly suited for this. And, I have a friend in the real estate business and a friend in the mortgage business. They are both surrounded by realtors every day and if they tell me that I'm going to, and I quote, "Run circles around all the brokers out there," then I'm confident I'm going to succeed.
I'm in the middle of studying for the licensing exam by way of an online school. It's a lot of dry material -- contract law, real estate law, forms of ownership, foreclosure, taxes, and the like, but I'm really enjoying it. And doing quite well, I might add. I have a knack for this. I'm gunning for the November licensing exam. I've already been recruited and accepted by a very dynamic, and small, real estate agency that is expanding rapidly on the west coast. Exit Acclaim Realty. What's so nice about Exit is that the commission split between broker and company is much better for the broker, and there are no desk fees (which run between $20,000 and $25,000 a year at places like Re-Max and Century 21).
4. My good friend, MSL, who visited briefly last month, brought us a bottle of wine that Colleen and I drank on Friday night. 2003 Gerard Boulay Sancerre Chavignol. Imported from France. It was wonderful. Here are my tasting notes I shared with MSL:
We opened it during the last hour of simmering for the Bolognese sauce, as we
turned on Star Wars for the boys on the computer, and kicked back to watch the
Red Sox begin to dismantle the Yankees. About 15 minutes later we poured
two glasses of it and returned to the game.
The nose was strong and bold– and just a tinge too much alcohol. I was expecting for it to be very sharp. When it hit my lips, all I could think of was silk. It
was the “wettest” red wine I’d had in a long, long time. And that was a
very good change in pace for me. The top note was very sharp, as I
expected, which I wasn’t too fond of, but within less than a second, my mouth
was enveloped in an earthy curtain of flavor. Simply wonderful! As
the wine opened up a bit more with subsequent glasses, that sharp top note all
but disappeared.
Colleen’s short, but spot-on, description: “It’s fruity but not sweet.” She tasted berries and chocolate. She compared it at first to Pinot Noir, but then thought it was a bit bolder.
5. Why is it that when people put decals on their back windows (college, bands, slogans, etc.) that they don't take the time to center it? Often I'll see someone displaying something they're proud of, but it's two or three inches off center, or tilted, or sometimes both.
6. I'm a recent convert to Craigslist. I was not having any luck finding a bigger dresser for Liam's room on eBay, so I checked out the Portland portal on Craigslist.com. Whoa! I had about 75 dressers to choose from. As a result, we got a big dresser in perfect condition for $200. New it would have been $750. I'm also intrigued by the "Wanted" section on Craigslist. People post what they need, often asking for the items gratis. I love it! And, I've given away our old, but perfect, answering machine to a young lady who moved here from Philadelphia, and an old bookcase to a musician who just moved here from Athens, GA. They were both SO appreciative, and it made me feel so much better than getting a few bucks for the items on eBay or at a garage sale. And, Craigslist is how Exit Acclaim Realty found me. I know I'm so late getting on the Craigslist bandwagon (heck, I even met Craig at Web 2.0 in San Francisco about a year ago), but I can't sing it's praises enough.
7. LET'S GO RED SOX!
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