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Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakoma!

It’s been a busy May. An intensive project at work (not bad, just really busy!), helping someone out after their surgery, multiple trips up to Pennsylvania (including for my grandmother’s funeral), not feeling well for about a week and a half (and having to scratch a planned triathlon), that sort of thing.

Oh yeah, and Charlie and I put an offer on a home.

We’ve been talking for years now about buying a place together, when we found the right one. We’ve talked about different neighborhoods in DC as possibilities (Downtown, Logan Circle, U Street, Atlas District, Southwest Waterfront, Brookland, Brightwood Park, you name it) and casually checked out open houses and such. But nothing jumped out at us. So we continued to bide our time and figured it was still a ways off, until we saw a listing for a condo in Takoma that just screamed, “You must buy me.”

The listing was too good to be true, so we went to see it at an open house… that turned out to be a glitch in the system and there was no open house. (Fortunately one of the owners was home and graciously let us in to look around.) Ten minutes later, we were in love. Two days later, we’d gotten a pre-approval letter from the bank and put an offer in. And the next evening, we heard our offer was accepted.

Now obviously until every last paper is signed things could still go south. We just had the home inspection, which went well. But the bank still has to do their appraisal, and of course this is the age of nervous banks. So even though all our ducks are in order something could go wrong with the appraisal, or perhaps Venus will eclipse Mercury and the bank will freak out and decide to grant no one their mortgages for the next two months. But, knock on wood, so far so good.

It’s funny because while we both love the Takoma neighborhood of DC (and the neighboring Takoma Park, Maryland), neither of us figured we’d find anything there. But sometimes a winner just drops into your lap. We’ve got great restaurants, retail, grocery stores, the pool, a farmer’s market, a library, the metro station, and yoga studios just a short walk away. It’s in many ways the perfect mix of small town and big city all in one.

So, more updates to eventually come. In the meanwhile I am playing the game of starting to sort, pack, and discard books. It’s going to be a busy June as well, it seems!

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Gravy Rainbow

This morning I saw a post on Facebook from Gregory Feeley about an article called “Fired.” It talked about what happens when you’re suddenly (and with no warning) dropped as a friend, and I was entranced by it, in part because so much of it sounded awfully familiar.

After writing a long blog post about it, I carefully saved a draft on my computer, then deleted the post itself. It didn’t seem to go anywhere, and it was ultimately going to hurt the feelings of someone. Just wasn’t worth it.

So instead? My friend Dan just sent me this music video for “Gravy Rainbow” and he has declared it the official Thursday themesong. I am down with that. Enjoy!

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Airline Safety

Let’s face it, no one (including myself) watches airline safety videos any more. They’re all the same old thing, right? Well, Air New Zealand is determined to make people pay attention, and credit where it’s due: I watched this, wide-eyed, from start to finish. Willingly.

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Good God, People, Just… No

If you are sitting at home wondering how you’re going to cook chicken, trust me, there are lots of better options than dropping huge globs of cream cheese onto it and stir-frying. Seriously. Trust me. You can do better than this.

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Not Doing So Well, In Terms of Shoes

I think I pissed off the patron saint of athletic shoes.

About a week and a half ago, I went to buy a pair of cycling shoes at a local bike store. When I did so, I also asked for a pair of cleats. “I want to use these at spinning class,” I said, “so all I need is a pair of cleats to go with these.”

“No problem,” the clerk said. “A pair of cleats for spin class.” It wasn’t until I got home that I looked at what he sold me, and it was in fact a pair of pedals (that came with cleats), which cost $70 more. (And also explained why the overall price was higher than I thought.) I ended up returning the entire purchase (the manager was extremely apologetic the second I explained what happened), and I’ll try another store in the area this week to get my spin shoes and cleats.

Later in the week, I called up a (different) local running store and asked if they had my running shoes in stock. Because I need to get them in a 2E wide size, they sometimes don’t have them in and need to order them. They didn’t, but they said they’d call the other stores in the chain and get back to me. After about 20 minutes, they called back and nope, didn’t have them in, but they’d be glad to order a pair for me when their weekly order to the distributor went in on Monday.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning (today), I get a call from the running store. A different employee called to say that because this was a type of shoe they didn’t carry, they wouldn’t order it until I came in and paid a $20 deposit. And in my head, I’m thinking, “…which means the order won’t go in until next week. Great.”

So, I told them that meant I wouldn’t have the shoes in time, and to not bother. Went online and in less than 2 minutes I have a pair of the shoes heading my way and they’ll be here by Thursday, because I no longer have time to play these sorts of games.

None the less, I can’t help but feel that I have pissed someone off. If my next attempt to get my spin class shoes goes equally awry, I will get the hint. (I do have four pairs of my old running shoes in the trunk of my car right now to drop off at the recycling bin at one of the local shoe places. Maybe I need to sacrifice one of them?)

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2011 Oscar Live Action and Animated Shorts

Charlie and I got to see all of the Live Action and Animated Shorts over the weekend (we just couldn’t squeeze in a showing of the documentary short subjects too, alas) thanks to Landmark’s E Street Theatre in DC. Have to say, there are no duds in either category, just ones not up to the strength of its fellows. So good pickings overall. I definitely want to make seeing all of the nominees a tradition.

ANIMATED SHORT:

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage — The one that, were I a voter, I’d cast my ballot for. Someone’s sketch-journal coming to life and illustrating a trip to Madagascar, which switches styles effortlessly and looks amazing. I was almost disappointed they showed this one first because nothing else could live up to it. (It also helps that I am a big fan of travel writing.)

The Lost Thing — Based on Shaun Tan’s children’s book of the same name, it’s got the strongest “message” and the inventiveness of Tan’s illustrations is just amazing. Beautiful, beautiful work.

Day & Night — The one everyone’s seen thanks to it being at the front of Toy Story 3. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really good, one of Pixar’s best short animated features to date. The only reason why it’s not at the top has to do with the strength of the first two (especially Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage). If Day & Night wins, it’s not for a lack of talent and skill involved. I’ll still be pleased if any of these first three win, honestly.

Let’s Pollute! — A fun parody of informational films from earlier days with a strong, in-your-face environmental message. I suspect that’s going to actively turn some people off though (there’s no subtlety at all involved).

The Gruffalo — My least favorite, it’s not bad but it’s a very literal adaptation of a children’s book, and it overstays its welcome at 29 minutes. The repetition of events and phrases that works well in reading a kid’s book gets tiring in this adaptation. It’s nicely animated and the actors they got for the voices are all strong, but toward the end I began actively wishing it was over.

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:

The Confession — Once again, the best one was the first one aired. Great child actors, emotionally brutal, and even though you see some parts totally coming a mile away it still grabs you and squeezes hard. Really happy this one was nominated.

God of Love — This one was, however, the most enjoyable one to watch. Loved the entire cast, the sensibility, the music, everything about it. It’s very light and fluffy unlike The Confession, and this is one I’d want to watch again. Just great, and I want to see more from this filmmaker.

Wish 143 — It’s good (and it’s got the best basic concept, with a teenager with cancer getting a facsimile of the Make-a-Wish foundation asking what he wants, and he says to lose his virginity), and it earned its nomination, but… this is a short film that felt like it was trying to cram an entire movie into its shorter length. Emotionally it’s all over the place. I’d actually quite like to see this one remade into a full-length film; it’s got more than enough material to do so. (Added bonus: Margaret Slitheen appearance!)

Na Wewe — Is it wrong to say that this short film needed a minute or two trimmed off of it? I can see why it got nominated, because it’s an extremely tense story set during the Hutu/Tutsi conflicts in Burundi. But the cycle goes one too many times, I think, and part of the resolution ultimately relies on an extremely lame pun. This is one that I liked less the more I thought about it, and while it still ended up in 4th place in my book, the amount in which it was in fourth place slid down a great deal.

The Crush — It’s not a bad idea, but the child actor who plays the lead is really poor. As the entire short film hangs on him (he’s in all but maybe two scenes?) he drags this one to the bottom. The other aspects (the writing, the directing) are good, and when it was all said and done I had a smile on my face, but I think this film is lucky that everything else was strong because that kid needed to be recast and badly.