I was in a pissy mood last night after the Kings stunk up the joint in New Orleans, but a trip to Old I helped with that. There was rock'n
'roll to be had and sometimes I forget just how good it feels to pogo. Even at the end of the night when certain people got all mushy-pushy (you know what I'm talking about - it's closing time and your drunk acquaintances (CASUAL acquaintances) are suddenly your new best friends), I felt as if the pressures of the week had finally lifted away. The whiskey-and-diet-cokes probably didn't hurt either.

Yesterday I drove to Woodland for a baby shower and on the way back into town I took note of all the new subdivisions cropping up around the freeway curve near the airport. I swear, every single time I make that drive it seems as if a new subdivsion has reared its ugly little beigy-bland head. A few weeks ago Cory & I were in Woodland on Co. Road 102 and noticed a little plot of land near the gas station that's close to the freeway - there was a sign promising the forthcoming of a new neighborhood --something along the lines of Stonegate or Stonewood or Stonehenge. We were both horrified -- this was a tiny piece of land. How many homes could they possibly fit into it? Enough to qualify as a "neighborhood"?

Every so often someone who knows that we are looking for a house will ask me if we've thought about buying a new house. Usually this is someone who does not know me very well, or at least well enough to know that I'd rather stick newly sharpned lead pencils in my eye than buy a house in a subdivision. I mean, forget the aethetics (or lack thereof) involved...these houses are built to such crappy standards that it frightens me to put so much money into something that may be crumbling on its foundation in just 20 years. Sure you have to put a lot of money into older homes, but at least you've got a solid start --something that was made to generally withstand a little time, a little nature, a little bit of passing fancy. That said, Cory and I have both agreed that we could probably even be happy with a 1960s tract home --like the ones we both grew up in --because those too are generally more sturdy and even though they were part of the subdivisions of their time, there's still enough aesthetic varience to make them interesting. Also, these houses are not completely crammed together - there is at least a semblance of space in the neighborhoods -- and they do not have those stupid vaulted ceilings that only make you think that you are in a big house. I hate vaulted ceilings in new houses - it is the biggest insult-to-injury factor I can think of. Tiny rooms with giant pockets of air floating above you...so wrong.

Which brings me back to the baby shower (like how I've tied it altogther?), Heidi & Dave's house is a 60s tract home (at least I believe it's '60s era....Heidi? Dave? Anyone?) but they've done amazingly cute things with it and seeing it again yesterday in all of it's generous square foot/painted walls/gleaming hardwood floors/converted garage glory made me realize that there are indeed still good pickings out there for those of us who are not fortunate enough to have huge down payments at the ready. Still, I'm not looking forward to diving into the housing market fray and I predict some extended crankiness over the next few months. You've been warned.


Alright, today's the premiere of The Surreal Life 4. So much preparation needed before I tune in, so little time.