Ten Random Things About the Last 10 Days

1. We have been on a documentary kick this week. We have seen Fahrenheit 9/11, Friends of God, Diary of a Political Tourist, The God Who Wasn’t There, Tracking Down Maggie, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Don’t Look Back and way too much History Channel than I can or should admit to.

2. Jason made the most amazing jack o’lantern that I ever could have imagined.

3. We only had three trick-or-treaters. Two kids then one. All teenagers. The pair like gang members. Or at least I assume it was a costume. One was wearing red and the other blue. I can’t imagine that real-life Bloods and Crips would go trick-or-treating together. But it is a bit shocking to have kids show up at your door in gang-member costume and for it somehow to be socially acceptable.

4. I took down the horrible light-blocking ivory blinds in our living room and put up nice white curtains that hang at the ceiling. I am so happy I can hardly stand it. Thank you Ikea!

5. I made an appointment with an architect. He is coming to take a look at the house next week.

6. I bought a new couch today. It is really soft and comfy and leather. I got it for a great price on the Macy’s clearance sale. However, it isn’t cocoa brown like I imagine nor is it mid-century modern in any way shape or form. But it is terribly inviting and homey, and I decided that is what I really want.

7. Today, Jason and I went to Oak Mountain State Park to look for an oak tree to get married under. We had a lovely afternoon, though the right oak tree was nowhere to be found.

8. We have our first houseguest! Jason’s friend Jason is staying with us for a couple of days. Jason and Jason have known each other since 3rd grade. Jason (not the one I live with) lives near the Tennessee border and has a job a few miles away, so he is staying here for a couple of days.

9. After 8 years of LA’s eternal summer, it is amazing to have seasons again. The leaves are all changing! This is what fall is like!

10. Everyone I meet here is so gracious and generous to me I almost can’t believe it is real. Except that I know it is real. I have been making networking calls for a couple of weeks now, and I have had incredibly good luck with setting up meetings. I have been making the rounds and chatting with all the political types in town, and I have had many interesting conversations about Birmingham, history and politics.

Welcome to Alabama – real estate edition

Today was the first day I went to go look at open houses since I arrived in Alabama. My first stop was at a house a couple of blocks away. On the outside, it looks like it’s 2 steps away from being featured on HGTV’s What’s With That House because there is a very architectural, modern addition on a 1930s siding box. I can’t figure out why they didn’t paint the part of the original facade that is left — or if they did paint it, why they didn’t paint it dark like the rest of the house. But it did get me inside so perhaps that was the point. (BTW, you can’t really see this issue from the pictures, because they very cleverly took the photo at night to show off the lighting and disguise the incongruous façade.)

Anyway, the inside looked great — nice dark bamboo floors, doors on barn-door tracks, and sparking white walls. Very Hollywood. The kitchen was my last stop and I finally looked at the setup sheet with the price ($419,000). I thought to myself that it was a really really good deal, because I expected it to be much more – like two or three times more. Then I realized where I was. In Homewood. So now I say good luck with that one.

I am still trying to figure out this whole blogger thing, so here’s a link to the site for the house:
http://lah-re.com/propertydetail.asp?id=rs009186

I promise to figure out the hyperlink thing tomorrow.

In other news, Jason and I are (allegedly) making candy tonight. We have been talking about making candy since April or so, so let’s see if we can make it happen.

Open for Visitors.

So we did make candy last night — until 4 a.m. I was in a gingery mood and made chocolates with ginger jelly, chocolates with a caramel ginger filling and chocolates with an apple-ginger filling. Jason, being the nut that he is, stuck with the more traditional hazelnuts, peanut butter, toffee, and chocolate crunch. I never thought I would say this, but I was seriously chocolated out by the time we were done. While the smell (and taste) was tantalizing as first, it quickly become overwhelming. I did have a piece of the ginger jelly bonbons today, and I have to say that they were yummy.

In other news, I finally got my act together and put sheets on the bed in the guest room. This means that we are officially ready to receive visitors.

Jennifer Gardner is everywhere

I have been reading about and seeing Jennifer Garner EVERYWHERE. I love love love the gossip blogs (tmz is the new page six BTW, but you already know that) and she always pops up b/c she is married to Ben Affleck and has an adorable, well behaved child (kinda like Reese Witherspoon). She has a movie out (The Kingdom-got lots of press but no one went to see the movie) and apparently, based on the commercial I saw tonight, she is a spokesperson for Neutrogena.

Is all this somehow a result of Bennifer?

Clearly, I have too much time on my hands.

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