Crack house

The house behind our home just went on the market after a few weeks of renovations. According to the MLS ad, this 1530 square foot, 3 bedroom house is listed for $329,900. It sold in March for a mere $155,000, according to Wake Tax records.

And they say there are no crack problems in our neighborhood.

Getting on the bus

As I breezed through four straight traffic lights on the way home yesterday I figured I’d be home in record time. Right about then I heard something pop and then my bike began slowing down.

A flat tire: my first as a bike commuter. Fortunately my coworker was 50 yards ahead, getting into his car. He gave me and my bike a quick lift home.
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Love is blind

Remember the deal on Levolor blinds I mentioned way back? Looks like the promotion is still good! Our new home needs 7 sets of blinds, so I ordered them through Levolor and bought them all for $334 with free shipping. That would’ve been over $600 at my local big box hardware store, and I would’ve had to make two trips and waited all day for them to be cut!

So, if you’re still needing some amazing blinds at an amazing price, shoot me an email or leave me a comment. You can get 50% off, too!

They call him Bruce?

I headed home from work early yesterday, not because of some emergency, but so my wife could spend the evening with some guy from New Jersey. Name is Bruce something.

At least she called from the show and shared some music with me. Here’s the set list from the show, too.

Frog strangler

Last night’s rain was what we Southerners call a frog strangler. I don’t have my weather station set up at the new home, but if I did I’m sure it would’ve clocked rain rates above 5 in/sec. I’m sure we got at least two inches of rain in under 3 hours.

The good news is our roof kept the attic completely dry: the first time since we moved in. The bad news is we had a river running through our backyard: so much rain that our fence was buckling from the weight. Water streamed through the cracks up to two feet from the base of the fence.
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Commercial debut

The Janet Cowell campaign commercial I mentioned is now available on YouTube. The first few times I watched I actually missed our scene. Then I realized we’re on the bottom of a split-screen part. Its not much screen time, but considering how Travis was making faces and our nerves were getting a bit shot, the scene is better than I expected. Regardless, it was a lot of fun!

Look for us 19 seconds into the commercial across the bottom of the screen when the announcer says “improving our schools.” Blink and you might miss it: we’re there for less than half a second!

Wikijackpot: I made the front page of Wikipedia!

I’m told that one of my photographs appeared on Wikipedia’s front page yesterday. The “Did You Know?” section showed a fact about Raleigh’s Long View Center and my photograph from the article was included. Alas, I didn’t get to see it on the front page because I just found out about it this morning.

I feel famous. If anyone knows how to display the previous day’s Did You Know page, let me know!

Hobnobbing with politicos

I voted early on Friday, stopping by the downtown Wake County building around 2 PM. On the sidewalk I encountered both Democratic candidates for the District 16 N.C. Senate seat being vacated by Janet Cowell: Jack Nichols and Josh Stein. I can’t tell you how wonderful they both are, because they are both excellent candidates. I voted for one and I suggested that Kelly vote for the other.
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Why two car garages are bad for the neighborhood

Kelly and I were discussing neighborhood traits last night. I’ve always thought the thing that brings neighborhoods together is the sidewalks and front porches. This creates interaction, where you see your neighbors.

Kelly pointed out something that I never before considered: that two-car garages inhibit neighborhood interaction.
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