Prairie Dog Blog

ailThe little house on the prairie will be on the market as of February 19. I have had several inquiries already. Everyone wants to know how much I will be asking. I have been advised by my realtor not to set an asking price until the week before Feb. 19. But until then I continue to clean up, bag and box and get rid of junk. It is quite exciting to think that I really am moving to Vancouver.

I have been looking at some websites about apartment rentals in Vancouver. Here is one of the best. http://vancouver.craigslist.org/apa/ Some of them even have pictures. I was surprised to see how many are offered as furnished. Some are pretty expensive, too. But, hey, I can dream, can't I?

I have been busy. I subbed at the Island today. I have a job at another school tomorrow and on Wed. afternoon. And on Friday I'm performing a wedding. Two Chinese students enrolled at the University of Manitoba are getting married. I thought February 2 was an unusual choice of wedding day, so I asked them why they picked it. They said that the Chinese New Year is on Feb. 10 and it is luckier to get married just before the new year, not after. Gung Hei Fat Choy! is the appropriate greeting in the new year so I've been told.

Today I ran into my friend's daughter and her family. They had just returned from a trip to see the other daughter in England who just had a baby. Little Olivia. I've seen a picture and she is so sweet.

Last Friday the high temperature was -2 and it felt positively balmy. The next morning when I got up the temperature was -25! Such extremes. And it has been quite cold ever since. Every time I brush the snow off the car and scrape the ice off the windshield or freeze my hands I keep muttering, "Last winter in Winnipeg!" It's the only way to keep sane.

Well, it's late and I work tomorrow. Then I have supper with my friend D. and then HIP HOP DANCE CLASS, YAY.

So snuggle up and try to keep warm, all my friends here on the prairies. Cause, baby it's coooooold outside.

Every winter, When the great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into a vale of grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay-- Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.
Charles Kingsley
Craig's List, Chinese New Year, New Baby

The new blogs by Chelsea, Charlene and Gary were fun to read. Thanks to all for posting.

There is not much news here. I had three realtors in to look at the house. They all said that I don't need to do any more major renovations. My little three-bedroom bungalow is move-in liveable. They also all told me that not having a garage is not much of a liability. New owners could have one added for not too much money.

It's funny to realize that I chose a realtor using the same skills that allowed me to evaluate student projects when I was teaching. The first realtor was Alan whose company is called the Judy Lindsay Team. He was young, smart, enthusiastic with a sense of humour. He was the only one who empathized with my emotional attachment to the house. It was obvious he had put in more than a minimum of effort to get my business.

The second realtor had outdated information on sales in this area and evaluated my house $40 000 lower than the other two! I was underwhelmed.

The third realtor was very negative. He stated that "I don't do agents' open houses any more and if you really want an open house we can have one, but I don't recommend it. At open houses you usually get all the neighbours nosing around to see what your house looks like inside." Then he told me that, " I might have to tell you something you don't want to hear about your house." I asked myself: "Do I really want such a Negative Nellie trying to sell my house?" And the answer was a resounding NO.

So, Alan is coming tomorrow night to plan for when and how to put my house on the market. He has a plan that will sell the house in a week. The whole marketing strategy is already set out with specific days of the week for each step. He uses new thinking that sets the asking price at the low end of the range and attracts people to the open house, rather than asking high and negotiating for a lower price. By setting the asking price lower, he expects to have many interested people bidding up to get the house. Also, his company includes a free, professional cleaning and a handyman for 2-3 hours. I also like the team concept and he gave me many testamonials from happy clients.

Tomorrow I have someone coming to paint the back hallway. It is badly in need of fixing. There are many gouges and scratches around the back door. The kitchen cupboards will be fixed up as well, nothing major, all cosmetic. But I have to get someone in to cart away the rest of the junk in the basement before I can clean and de-clutter.

The house may be on the market as early as February. We will see. And there is no predicting what possession date will be requested. It could be as early as April, or as late as July. I am somewhat flexible on that. A later date gives me more time to get ready to move and more time to substitute and make a little extra money. An earlier date might make it easier to find a place to live in Vancouver as April/May is when many university students are finished and may be likely to be moving. And I get to be living near my daughter sooner.

I have been subbing this past week and enjoying it. I had lunch twice with friends. I took a few more baby steps to Vancouver in that I cleaned out the bedroom downstairs and the shelves in the family room. The next step and one of the hardest will be to prepare the rest of Dennis' clothes for giving to Canadian Diabetes.

Must go. Lots of work to do. Keep on blogging!

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule. ~Frederick W. Robertson
More Baby Steps, More Than A Minimum of Effort

I watched the Golden Globes tonight. I love those award shows. The designer clothes, the hair, the jewellry - and that's just the men. They serve booze at the Globes and Tom Hanks was in full anebriation. He gave the paean to Warren Beatty's career, praising his "balls" and kept repeating it over and over, adding, "...and by balls, I mean, his artistic vision." Tom Hanks seemed to be trying to outdo Sasha Baron Cohen's crude humour. But he couldn't hold a candle to Cohen's scatalogical jokes. It all seemed somewhat juvenile to me. In their attempt to distance themselves from political correctness they achieved new lows in humour. I honestly didn't find Cohen's humour funny, but I suspect the old prairie dog would have loved it. And he would have loved Borat, I'm sure. He enjoyed crude humour as well as subtlety.

Warren Beatty, who was first honoured in 1962 as most promising newcomer on TV, was classyand funny in his acceptance speech. I liked the way he thanked his wife, Annette Bening by saying she "... always makes me feel like a promising newcomer." I predicted that Babel would win best picture award and I was proved right. The award for classiest speech would have to be shared by Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. The Departed is about the only major film I haven't seen. I have been avoiding it because I feel uncomfortable with a lot of violence and I think there will be much in that movie.

Strangely, the movie I saw most recently, Curse of the Golden Flower, has an ending just full of over-the-top violence. Yet, I did enjoy it. What is it about Chinese period movies that is so appealing? Color, drama, larger-than-life characters, and a look at an exotic culture, maybe. I find them to be elaborate fairy tales. Asian Shakespearian tragedies, like Hamlet, where everyone dies at the end. I wondered about the costumes of this movie, specifically, did the women of the Tang dynasty really wear those bosom-revealing dresses or were they just tarted up for a Western audience? If anybody out there knows, I'd love to know.

Anyway, tomorrow I sub in the afternoon and in the evening it's back to Hip Hop dance class! Yay, yay, yay!

Keep dancing out there.

Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
George Burns
Hanks Praises Beatty's Golden Globes

Hello all out there in blogland. It has been a sad two days . I have been missing him. Here is a picture of my beautiful daughter and her gorgeous husband. It was taken on the sleigh ride at the top of Grouse Mountain on December 16, 2006. We had a great day seeing reindeer and drinking polar bears. I miss them tremendously.

This past week I had three realtors in to look at the house. It really is a sellers' market out there. I think I will get a good price for the house, which is good because it is my little nest egg. I will probably put the house on the market in March unless the realtor advises sooner. But I think it will take that long to get the house ready anyway. Vancouver, ready or not, here I come.

I went to see a play at MTC on Saturday, "The Rocky Horror Show." It was a play that I know he would have enjoyed tremendously. Full of double entendres and sex jokes. And I was missing him. Then P. and P. and J. and I went to a Mexican Menonite restaurant for dinner. It was very good and I enjoyed it. But I was missing him.

On Sunday I went to the Western Canada Aviation Museum. Mike told me he and others were remembering him on Dec. 16. I saw a tour guide taking a group of ten and eleven-year-olds around. And I remembered him taking tour groups around. His spirit lives on. But I was missing him.

A and J are new grandparents. Congrats to them. A new granddaughter!

Tomorrow I go to the dentist. I have a molar that is acting up. Then on Tuesday I have a sub job in the afternoon.

Thanks to Lyn for recent postings. I see by Gary's blog that Lewis has a new girlfriend. Good for him.

Tata, and take care and PEACE.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Alan Kay

Realtors, WCAM, and New Life

Hello everyone. Here is a picture of me with my two beautiful nieces in Victoria. We had a great time. This was taken the night we all went out for dinner.

My friend's daughter has decided she wants to keep Suzie, so the canine princess is gone. It's pretty quiet around here. I do miss our walks. She loved her walkies. But I think I can now concentrate on getting the house ready to sell.

I have three real estate agents coming to evaluate the house tomorrow and Thursday. I will listen to the advice of each and their sale price and then decide who will be able to get me the most for my house. I spoke to a friend today who sold a house last year and she advised me to shop for an agent, and to negotiate for the commission rate. I still don't know when I will put it on the market or what possession date I would agree to. I guess I'll figure that out as I go. And I need to know what I should do to the house other than de-cluttering and cleaning to prepare it for putting on the market.

I spent most of today and yesterday being very domestic. I made banana bread, red pepper jelly and almond haystacks. If all else fails, I'll feed them. Maybe that will sell the house.

It's really real. I'm really going to live in Vancouver! It's very exciting and a bit scary.

Tata and take care and PEACE.

Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix.
Christina Baldwin
Changes, Changes, Changes

Hello, everyone out there in blogland. It's been almost a month since my last blog. My, how time does fly when you're having fun.

I enjoyed my trip to BC. It's always great spending time with family. I haven't been able to download the pictures from my camera, so I can't post pictures with this blog. I will keep trying. I spent many happy hours with Margot and Joel. I was also able to spend time with my sisters and many nieces and nephews and their families. I connected with my friends L. and B. and learned much about renting an apartment in Vancouver. Expensive! But, I'm still moving there. I'll manage.

Since I got back I have been cleaning house and going to see some movies. It's my plan to see as many movies as I can that are likely to be nominated for Oscars. I went to see "Dream Girls" and "The Good Shepherd" this week. Both are recommended for different reasons. Dream Girls is about an African-American (my how times have changed - we used to call them "black")girl singing group a la The Supremes. The original music was great and the costumes were stunning. I agree with the critics who say that Jennifer Hudson is the best thing in this movie.

Matt Damon does a super job of portraying a founder of the CIA from youth to middle age in "The Good Shepherd." Angelina Jolie was a pleasant surprise. She did a good job with a role that was not her usual.

I also saw "Babel" in Vancouver and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think this one just might win the award for best picture. It's similar in structure to "Crash", last year's winner, and "Syriana" in that it tells three different stories in three different countries and brings them all together under the theme that: Everything is connected to everything else. These episodic films tend to make possible ensemble acting, rather than having one or two leading roles. I think they should institute a new category for the Awards, ensemble cast.

My dog, Suzie, has gone to live with a friend's daughter's family. So far things are going well and they are enjoying her. In a few days they will let me know if they'll be keeping her. I do miss her tail wagging and the walks she loved, but it's better for her if she has a larger family.

Well, pretty soon I'll be back substituting - classes restart tomorrow - and looking forward to it. Lyn, thanks for blogging.

Happy New Year to all. Hope 2007 is a great year for everyone.

The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn.
~Hartley Coleridge
Back Home, Movies, Suzie