Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Few pictures

Thanks for visiting!





My birthday prince :)



Funny looking cake, but pretty tasty. The Dairy Queen lady took it to the back to write on it, and was SO excited to show it to us, exclaiming: "It's my first time!!!" Yep, it sure is...and maybe it should be your last...



How old Sheepie thinks he turned:



One last one:

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Worst Olympics Ever

Well coverage that is. NBC in the US has taken something I look forward to for 4 years and turned it into the worst television week of my life.

It started by them choosing not to show women's gymnastics live, rather they taped it and showed it over 12 hours later.

It continued with the inability to show any other athletes other than Americans. Gymnastics apparently was competed by only China and the US. It continued further by their inability to show final results. An American came in 2nd. Who came in first and third and sixth and tenth? What were their times or distances?

It continued with incessant coverage of Michael Phelps. A great athlete? Yes. The only athlete? No but according to NBC the only athlete worth covering and lingering on and interrupting other events for and shoving down my throat all day every day.

Track heats have been completely ignored.

The icing on the cake was when NBC chose to tape delay by over 12 HOURS the men's 100 m track final. Not only the premiere event of every Olympics but in this case the fastest race ever. 9.69 seconds. And I still haven't seen it. And it happened YESTERDAY.

Worst coverage... EVER.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Condo for sale

So those who pay attention will remember that in the three days between our return from Nome and our departure for Romania we fired or real estate agent and hired a new one.

We arrived back from Romania with a very nice brochure on our bar and were told that a good number of people had looked at the place.

Because its been vacant for almost 4 months on our listing it was listed as "vacant - stop on in anytime". Since being back we've had 3 or 4 agents drop by unannounced. Once Swell was home by herself and was startled by the agent and her clients. The second time we were both home watching the Olympics when we heard them outside our door. A couple of other times we were out and came home to obvious signs that people had toured the home.

We have no problem with people dropping by anytime as we can run out and sit in the media room or go for a walk but we've put a "courtesy call" request on our listing.

We've received good feedback on our place and our agent does not think its time to lower the price yet. The only real negative is that we're on the first floor.

We don't think of ourselves as being on the first floor because although we're on level 1 it isn't street level. Rather we live above the parking garage. Out our patio doors is the courtyard but its closed to anyone without the code. So we're waiting and hoping someone who loves it will come by.

Our friend Maui-sha has a friend who, I think, was transferred to the Atlanta area so we sent some house pictures to her to share with her house hunting friend. I think Swell did a good job taking the pictures so I thought I'd share some here for those who have never been to our place.

Bonus room we use it as a guest room/library but our books are in storage


Bedroom




View of Bar/Kitchen from Living Room


Living Room


Living Room/French Doors leading to Patio


Kitchen and Living Room


Kitchen and Bar


Courtyard






Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Last set of pictures

Swell has a good point and shoot camera that she took a bunch of pictures with. She wanted to give all y'all the opportunity to see them so just click on the following and enjoy.

There are a few doubles.

Romania 2008


Budapest 2008


Prague 2008

Budapest Prague in Pictures

Here is the rest of our trip in pictures. I didn't take a whole bunch because many of the sites didn't allow indoor photos without a fee and I'm unwilling to pay the fee for pictures that wouldn't turn out. I, therefore, left my camera at the hotel most days.

Suffice it to say we had an enjoyable vacation. We had fun with Zumi and the Good One despite being with Zumi and the Good One. J/K don't get mad at me Zumi and the Good One!

So here is Budapest and Prague in pictures.

The Botel. A cool concept but we only stayed one night. Sorry Zumi


The Hungary Parliament and Swell


The Hungary Parliament without Swell


Inside Parliament




The Good One and Zumi on the hop on hop off tour bus


Hero's Square


I'm lucky aren't I?


Swell with Anonymous (looks a lot like death to me)


Food (on a bridge)


Funicular


For some reason red wine was dripping out of this guys mouth


Stained glass window in a church on Castle Hill


The four of us in Budapest


Statue in monument park


Monument to a fellow who was martyred by being put in a barrel of nails and pushed down this hill


Budapest


Prague






Swell on the clock tower (an elevator went all the way to the top! But we walked)


View from the top


World famous astronomical clock
(people stand around waiting for the clock to chime. It is very neat but after watching it I overheard a woman turn to her friend and say "let's make it a point to NOT do things this stupid on the rest of our trip".)




2.5 hour drive from Prague is an old town that has become a UNESCO world heritage site due to its oldness. Here it is.






It comes complete with a really cool castle and an even cooler theater. Here is the castle



Here is a link to the rest of the pictures (not as many as Romania). Click on the Botel
Budapest Prague 2008