What made you smile today?

Hi Gus!

Do me a favor willya? Tell aunt Bea and uncle Clem that my new house is going to have AT LEAST one guest room. Tell 'em now they've got no excuse not to come up to R.I. and visit the yankee side of the family.


ehBeth

I should even be able to accomodate A2K friends who might take a wrong turn and land in Providence!


Hi Soz!

Nice to see you too!
You're home buying too eh? A word of caution. If you have a house to sell, get it under contract to a buyer BEFORE you fall in love with another house. Otherwise you get a purchase and sales agreement with a 'kick out clause' ie. the seller can 'kick you out' of the agreement and return your deposit if another buyer comes a long who is not so encumbered. I was fortunate to sell my house on the first day it was offered at the first showing. (it's in pristine condition and I priced it to sell fast) but I was still sweating for several days and fearing that the new house, which I was hopelessly in love with, would slip between my fingers.

I smiled when I saw jjorge's new house. It's beautiful.

< furtively getting out atlas ... figuring out where we'd have to be to make the wrong turn that lands us in rogues island ... hurry up, the dogs are waiting in the car >

Cute dogs!

You're gonna have to wait up though ehBeth. I don't even pass papers on the new house till 1/15.

When I first saw the house I was BOWLED OVER by the living room and dining room!

As you walk into the house, the living room is at least 25-26 feet wide from left to right (in the virtual tour you can see that it contains TWO SEPARATE living room sets!). Straight ahead it is about 14 feet deep to the french doors leading to the dining room.

To the left, off the dining room is a lovely den about 12X 14 that looks out over a large (for the city) yard. The latter is dominated by two enormous cedar trees. I think the den, which can't be seen on the virtual tour, will double as a guest room.

When I first saw this house, all I could think about was,
"what a great venue for a party!"

Who knows, maybe we can have an A2K party in Providence Rogues Island.
here's some motivational material:

http://www.providenceri.com/richardbenjamin/thumbnail.html
http://www.waterfire.com/
http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/providence.html
http://www.providencecvb.com/
http://www.gonewport.com/
http://www.newportmansions.org/


PS
Hi Montana! just saw your post. Long time no 'see'. Hope you're doing well.

Great house, jjorge.

The dining room is bigger than my house! (just about!)

Last night, "The Man Without a Past" made me smile. The new Aki Kaurismaki movie. It was funny, and cute, and beautiful.

Story is about a man who gets beaten up, loses his memory, makes a new life among the down and out who live in containers by the seaside, falls in love with a Salvation Army woman, shows initiative, gets into trouble, mystifyingly gets out of it again, too. None of that is brought with any great drama - the most bizarre turns of events are recounted as if they were merely the logical thing to happen next. But then someone can tell him who he really is ...

Bit odd at first, this movie, kinda alienating - made you think, 'why are they all acting so badly?'. And then you get into it, see the bizarre humour in each of the weirdly formal cardboard-cutout scenes, and witness the actors make deadpanning into an actual art form. But if it were just that it would be just another clever movie (and I remember "I Hired a Contract Killer" - Kaurismaki knows how to make clever, funny, bizarre movies). Instead, there was the music, the beautiful shots, the tender wit, above all the heartwarming humanity and love shining through the simple story. It was like a European version of a Jim Jarmusch movie (say, "Mystery Train"). Actually, it was striking how "Russian" this movie was, in mood and style - kinda downbeat and laconic, really melancholic - and rather slow. If you can imagine a Russian Jim Jarmusch, this is it. And just like in Jarmusch movies, the music is very cool, and plays a vital role. I'm listening to Annikki Tähti's Monrepos now ...

Heh .. I looked the movie up on the IMDB ... I guess this is one of those movies where cultural differences play a role ;-)

You can grade movies there, you know (I graded this one 8/10), and the site then shows you how other people graded them - and usually differences between categories of users are marginal. But in this case, 1693 non-US users graded it an average of 7.9, while 210 US users graded it a mere 6.8, on average. Also, the young uns (under 18) didnt like it half as much (7.1) as the over-45s (8.0). It takes patience, i guess - tho compared to the Hungarian movies I've seen it was pretty snappy ;-) - and you gotta get the jokes. (you should read the user comments on the movie - the contrasts are hilarious).

lol! hazy backwaters - yeh - count me in, too. even when i am in a city, around me all's a hazy backwater ...

Thats a beautiful, classic house. Its got character, thats obvious. The rooms, too. (Not sure about that leather couch in the living room, tho <winks>). And there's ten of them! Damn! The place is huge!
Ah - America ...

The map made me smile, too, btw - man, they do mean it when they say, "zoom out", huh? ;-). So, it's quite close to the park, with a lake, on one side? And on the other side, there's random harbour area? Is that empty lots now, or is there still riverside bustle going on, with the Amtrak rail leading there?

I love areas near the harbour, especially where there is this borderzone between residential and industry areas that seems to belong to noone anymore ... it looks a bit like that, on the map.

I never knew of a thing called an "in laws apartment", btw, that's interesting ...

<he's having a conversation with himself? Dare we intervene? Might get violent. . .>


So. . . <small voice> over on the pitfalls of dieting thread, remembering all the goodies that I used to eat before the low-carb revolution in my house was incredibly smile-inducing. . . I walked to the chocolate store in Little Ukraine and bought myself a hefty bar of Niederegger Lübeck marzipan. . . my favorite, and I placed it on the shelf, where it is now smiling back at ME. . . but I think I can wait until tomorrow :-)

Oh, additionally, I'm doing a set of German exercises intended to refresh my grammar before I go abroad, and some of them are REALLY silly. This one's about choosing good conjunctions:

Ich liebe dich. Du hast einen Dickkopf.

:-)

Who is having a conversation with himself? I'm a just talking to jjorge and 'bout a movie i've seen ... thaz about all.

I just ended with two posts on each cause i was too impatient! (Normally i wait with posting till i've said all i have to say bout it for the moment ...)

hehe. . . riiiight ;-) <yanking nimh's chain just a bit>

Quiz for Princessash



How do you say:

1. 'railroad train'?

2. 'railroad track'?













































1.
derhuffenpuffermitderschmokenschteamen

2. derrodendatderhuffenpuffermitderschmokenschteamenbenoberengoin

LOL. . .

tehehehe. . .

I don't think I'll tell the hihpster that one. . . he wouldn't appreciate it :-) ("Hey, it's not my fault that english speakers think EVERY WORD WITH MORE THAN SIX LETTERS. . . blah blah". . . usually stop paying attention after that part)

Smiling at jjorge's new house--beautiful!--and at his 'German' lesson.

Nimh, one thing about getting older is that patience allows one to appreciate so many more aspects of life. The movie sounds lovely, I'll be looking for it here.

Hi nimh, good to 'see' you!

Glad you like the house. I'm in love with it!
I will probably eventually take in a house-mate to share expenses as the mortgage is a significant increase over what I now pay.

The new house has about 2 1/2 to 3 times the square footage of the cottage I now own but I was able to sell my current house for about 70% of what the new house is costing me. Supposedly it's because my current suburban location is more in demand than the city. Nevertheless I am THRILLED to be moving into the city from the suburbs.

In the new house I will be about a 4-5 minute drive from my work, 4-5 minutes from downtown Providence, with all the good restaurants, theatres, clubs etc. and 5-6 minutes from College Hill (the Brown University area).
I wil also be about 3-4 minutes from a public boat launch where I can put my canoe and kayak in the harbor when the weather is warmer.

The park that you noticed, Roger Williams Park (also about 3-4 minutes away) is a very large and beautiful city park. with lots to see and do, including a great zoo:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60946-d105259-Reviews-Roger_Williams_Park_Zoo-Providence_Rhode_Island.html

http://www.osfn.org/museum/

The harbor area was once busy with commerce but we have a different economy now and it is underutilized. One portion of it is now the harbor campus of Johnson and Wales University. Recently there has been talk of developing much of the rest of it as shops, condominiums, marinas etc. One proposal was reportedly for a billion dollar development project. My street (ie. my NEW street) is about 4-5 blocks from that area.

My immediate neighborhood consists of a mix of mostly one and two family houses on quiet, tree-lined, dead end streets but I will be only one block from a major artery into the city (route 1-A).

In recent years my new neighborhood has been become home to many immigrant Portugese. They make wonderful neighbors as they invariably have well-maintained homes and manicured yards/grounds.

Well, I guess that's enough of my blathering about the house. Sorry to get so carried away.

PS
Around here an 'in-law apartment' refers to an additional living space created in what is supposed to be a one-family house. Although in-laws are not strictly legal, the local authorities typically ignore the violation, particularly if it actually houses an in-law or other relative.

PPS

Hi (((Diane)))!

Hi (((Margo)))!

***warning: kinda gross***

Sozlet has been in a rather, um, authoritative? mode. Lots of hands on hips and glowering and issuing orders.

She had a booger almost out of her nose (this is the gross part, sorry) and I flicked it out. She didn't like that AT ALL.

[glower]"Put that booger back in my nose, NOW!"[/glower]

I cracked up, which didn't go over too well.

Hey jjorge !!! Howdy mate ?? You ever got that T-Shirt made ?