All those county fair [inlink]matthew,603[/inlink] pics inspired me to change my userpic. That's all for now.

Oh crap, of course that's not all! I can't stop thinking about [inlink]twisted,253[/inlink] it! I'm sorry but I've gotta go through the winning equation one more time for my own sanity. Hey, if I hadn't scrounged up the $7,200 down payment for my first [inlink]twisted,217[/inlink] house, I'd still be living in Boston spending $1400/month in rent. That's $1400 x 12=$16,800/year x however many years since I took that leap would = a bunch of money down the toilet. Instead here I am. Just something to remember.

So...

The TIC-expert friend of my neighbor really called it. I told him about Steve's and my plan and he said our competition would be groups of 3 partners, each willing and able to pay $600k. Damn, he was right. That's exactly what the winning bid works out to. Exhorbitant as that price might sound, it's still the best deal going for a 3BR Edwardian flat in a great neighborhood, not to mention the rounded bays, two fireplaces, wood floors, Victorian detailing...

Ok, despite my apparent success impersonating a real estate mogul (I still can't freakin' believe Denise pre-approved us for that much $$$ even without my house sold), $600k is too rich for my blood. Although, my little 2+BR bungalow is expected to bring close to that. (I know - that's even crazier. But "entry-level" single-family residences are rare in the Bay area and Alameda's one of the few places that's got 'em.) So, you could rationalize it would be an almost-equal exchange. But it doesn't work like that, because of the stepped-up property taxes. (I really don't want to explain it and I KNOW you don't want to hear it. Speaking of which, any of you who haven't already turned on the California filter, be forwarned my posts for the next month or so are going to be a lot like this one. I'm sorry, but it is my journal after all. You might want to skip me until I get this move thing sorted out, then I should be back to normal. Whatever that means.)

In other news, and getting back to my title, have you ever gone through a period in your life where it seems every new significant person has the same name? It's freaking me out, man! Ok, I really don't know if this guy's going to be significant or not yet, but clearly the cosmos is trying to insert a Steve into my life.

The "precipitating event" leading to this development - besides the obvious need for a distraction from all this real estate drama - was getting a glimpse into the online dating scene in order to give a friend some feedback. One look into that world drove me right back to craigslist m4w. Sure, a LTR would be great, and if I could combine all my Steves into one SuperSteve that would be oh so convenient. But in the meantime, all I can really deal with is adding one more regular Steve to the mix. (To take up the slack I'm sensing from "E" if you must know. Which may or may not mean anything, but in the NSA world I don't get to ask that now do I.) On the bright side, if one of the Steves ever jumps the ladder I'm less likely to get his name wrong at a crucial moment. ;-)

This post is already too long to go into details, so here's a timeline instead:

8/18 6:31pm
SWM Music Lover - 39 (USF / panhandle) -
Yada yada. "I go to a lot of live shows. Do you like live music?" Yada yada.

8/18 7:50pm
My response-
Yada yada. "Yep." Yada yada.

8/18 11:01pm
His reply-
Here are some of the bands I'm thinking about seeing in the near future:

08/23/05 – Name removed – Hemlock Tavern
08/25/05 – Knock Out Pills – The Parkside
08/26/05 – Flying Luttenbachers, TITS – Hemlock
08/26/05 – Particle, Gabby La La – GAMH
09/08/05 – The Planet The – Hemlock
09/12/05 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – GAMH
09/14/05 – Spider Compass Good Crime Band – Hemlock
09/23/05 – Experimental Dental School – Make-Out Room
09/24/05 – Dengue Fever – Hemlock
09/24/05 – Xiu Xiu, Yellow Swans, Okay – BOTH
10/08/05 – English Beat – Red Devil Lounge

8/19 10:16am
My response-
(Bingo!)

So we're going to see Name removed at the Hemlock Tuesday. Easiest damn personals transaction since "E" belatedly responded to my Mission of Burma [inlink]twisted,169[/inlink] ad way back when. That reminds me, I'll just have to see how big this guy's entourage is. I really don't feel like fighting my way up to first string again.

Later.

Hi Denise. I don't know how quickly the word is getting around, but the
property at 23rd Street received a whopping 41 offers, with the winning
bid in the $1.8M range. So if Steve and I each shacked up with a partner
and ransomed our firstborns do you think we can swing it? (Just kidding!)

$1.8M. Yeah right! That's roughly twice the asking price. Even I'm not that delusional!

Back to the real estate listings.

p.s. - Did I mention that the latest strategy had been for me & Steve to move into the top floor flat together and find another partner to buy the middle flat (thereby dividing the cost by 3) while we collected $2000/mo rent from the bottom flat to go toward our share? I thought that was a brilliant plan, if I do say so myself. Not quite enough in the end, though.

Please pass the wine.

I transferred custody of Mark to his brother last night, so I'm back to making and eating breakfast on my own. It's quite a contrast. One lasting improvement for me is now I know when I'm treating myself to "shirred" eggs (Mark's term) which sounds so much fancier than "scrambled in the pan" eggs (my old term). While Mark was here, I bent one of my core tenets of solo cooking and scrambled our eggs in a separate bowl before cooking. Then one day he asked if I ever made "shirred eggs." I didn't know. (Am I the only female on the planet out-femmed by her ex-boyfriend?) So he described the cooking methodology and lo and behold that's what I usually do just for myself. Who knew I was so fancy-schmancy? So, I'd been making special considerations while he was here, he observed. Oh, you have no idea the special considerations I'd been making on his account! Like what? Like, I don't usually eat at the table. So, you usually eat over the sink? No!!! I wasn't raised by wolves! I usually eat at the computer like any civilized person. I like to call it multitasking.

Damn this yin/yang role reversal! I won't even go into our breakfast table conversation about strategies for eliminating tea spout drips. I suppose if I'd been leading the conversation it would have gravitated to my looming real estate transactions. So just as well I wasn't.

Speaking of which, my intended Tenancy in Common (WIKIPEDIA - Tenancy_in_common)partner and I are scheduled to sit down with our respective realtors to write up our offer this afternoon. Offers are due on my place tomorrow at noon, and on the 3-unit in SF tomorrow at 5PM. Barring any last-minute surprises, cold feet, or objections from persons present, looks like we'll be throwing our lot in together, at least on this one. We probably won't know whether our offer is the winning bid before Friday. I still think it's a longshot, but you never know.

I'd better double-check those numbers again. Ay yi yi. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

p.s. - holy crap! My mortgage guy just asked me if I saw the front page of the today's Chronicle:

Breaking barriers in S.F.'s housing market
Marin bank first to lend to individual owners in TICs

(I thought that might get your attention.)

So, I put my house up for sale last week after I found a gorgeous 3-unit Victorian in a great neighborhood in SF. The catch is, the 3-unit building is so "reasonably" priced it's sure to get multiple bids way over the asking price. In other words, their ploy worked. Once you're hooked, the next thing you know you're making rationalizations like "this is like buying three houses in one, each with 3 bedrooms, double parlour, 2 fireplaces, rounded bays, ornate trim..."

Come on (e:peeps)! Doesn't anybody want to go in on this one with me?

So, why not just buy a single family home, you ask? Same reason you can't buy one in Manhattan. Here the footprint where everybody wants to live is bounded by the Ocean and the Bay. Thankfully in San Francisco that just means most buildings are 2-4 unit Victorians, not the more modern skyscrapers common in Manhattan. Sure, there's the occasional multi-million dollar mansion. But that is sadly out of my price range.

The other alternative, condos, are expensive for a variety of complicated reasons. So the best value (just trust me on this) is to buy a building either alone, or with partners for each unit, and go through the lengthy condo conversion process yourself.

Since I can't wait around for a few dozen more of you (e:peeps) to move out here to start an (e:commune), I turned to the usual resource for any deficiency in the Bay area: craigslist.

Oh crap. Somebody's coming to see my house now and I still have to make guacamole for the monthly pot-luck BBQ this afternoon. Much as I would like to skip this party, I've got a lot of explaining to do to all my friends who are royally p!ssed that I'm making life decisions without consulting them first. At least I'll get plenty of chances to fine-tune my story before my weekly phone call with Dad tomorrow. Oh boy.

To be continued...

Wow. That went amazingly well. I didn't get to explain all the details, but most everybody is onboard with the gist of my plan. It's just weird that the more I convince everybody else the less convinced I become myself. I hope I haven't outsmarted myself this time.

p.s. - the first reaction across the board has been to fix me up with the guy I'm partnering with. I just met the guy on Thursday! I'm not that crazy!

I was cleaning out some of my old crap and happened upon a bunch of my old business cards. I forgot everyone in the design group had cards made up for our alternate identities. Ha!

Living off the land.

If the craziest thing happens to you in the forest, and there's no high-speed connection by which you can document it ...

The Joy of Self-Exposure

Ok, obviously this whole p:mobl thing was just a ploy to get me to post. How am I supposed to resist that kind of pressure? (jk!)

(e:Mike) - you can't leave us with a cliffhanger [inlink]mike,359[/inlink] like that for long! I'm dying to know what happens. Maybe you can write in a part for Shana's long-lost cousin, once-removed, last seen heading West but never heard from again. Unbeknownst to her friends and family back home, she has been keeping tabs on them from afar. She hears of Shana's plight, and racked with guilt for abandoning her loved ones in their time of need, decides to make amends and unequivocably show her loyalty by sacrificing the 6 months she has left to live due to a fatal but non-communicable disease that thankfully does not affect any of the organs Shana needs transplanted in order to survive. In a heart-wrenching video enclosed with the bio-packed organs, the cousin professes her love for Shana and the others and assures them she is certain this was meant to be her destiny ever since she and Shana found out they were a perfect match when they registered for the bone marrow donor program when that kid in second grade was diagnosed with leukemia.

It's just one way you could go with it. I'd be happy to moblog the audition in for your consideration. Oh yeah, feel free to harvest some eggs from the dead cousin since obviously Shana's accident left her unable to conceive. That'll give you a few more twists for the next season. haha!

"2-story cottage 4sale"



The catch? The only way to get to the kitchen is to go down that outside staircase. I am not kidding!

The 5th Internet Dating Conference (San Francisco 2005) event will cover Mobile and Wireless Technologies to the Dating and Social Networking industry. Topics included will be new and existing technology and business management for Dating and Social Networking businesses that are entering the mobile/wireless space.

and

New mobile dating services allow people to browse profiles via cell phone and message potential matches -- even on the spot

(as long as I'm already in the top 12 might as well post again.)