House of the Future!

Where?
I'm trying to convince Fernando to move to Nanaimo if we move to the Coast. ...He hasn't lost interest in The Move to begin with, which is impressive--he talks about it like it's a fact. I planted the seed years ago, so maybe it's come to fruition.

But he's all about living in a big city. My problem with a big city is that, to get a big-gish house like I want, we'll end up in the suburbs or hell-and-gone. And I'm too lazy to go into town. Whereas he goes downtown all the time.

In Nanaimo I could afford to live in the neighborhoods around the "downtown." Now, the downtown is a far cry from Vancouver or Montreal, but it's cute and by the water.


If I'm finally in College Teaching Land by then, Vancouver would offer way more opportunities. But... the teaching things doesn't feel very *real* at the moment. Oh well. This is why I like the 5 year plan; because it gives us lots of time to think and dream and plan and save.

I'm trying to come up with excuses to get Fernando *in* for Nanaimo. There's no all-night eatery, which disturbs him. I told him my parents can drive us around when needed! Help us look for a home! (Or will they be So Aulde we'll have to drive them around and help them into their nursing home? Okay not that old.)

My other argument: Nanaimo has cute street names. I said: "Wouldn't you love to live on Jinglepot Road?" He was so enthusiastic, he said we should only buy a home on Jinglepot Road. (Or was it Buttertubs Marsh road? Or Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace?)

NN's
So on to the Dreaming/Planning part. I get regular updates on Nanaimo homes in the area I want, and it's fun to look at them and think about what I want. A basement, or faux-ment, is a non-negotiable. Fernando has to have his own floor, physically separated from mine by a staircase. Even a split level would make me nervous... the staircases between levels are so short. (Anyway the split level is more of a Montreal thing.)

My mother pointed out that on the coast they often don't have basements, but an entry-level floor which they call the basement. That's fine. As long as there's a big staircase, and a bedroom on the main level for me. I don't even want a house with a big second floor, if there's no bedroom on the main floor. If I take up room in Fernando Land, then he'll insist on taking up room in mine!

Fernando's non-negotiable is he doesn't want an old house. I admit old houses are beautiful but a PAIN. My parents had a couple, and they're always full of structural/plumbing/wiring freakiness. Fernando's watched too much Holmes on Homes to want anything older than 10 years.

Those are the only NN's that have so far turned up. Besides the general desire for a decent amount of space. (I don't know the square footage. I can only say I know it when I see it. Swis: How big is your house? It's perfect.)

Bedrooms: I don't care what the bedrooms look like. The biggest one will be my office-library, the smallest one for sleeping in. I do like big windows. (Fernando doesn't, which is why I can relegate him to a basement.)

Bathrooms: I don't care much about bathrooms either. Maewitch has a lovely bathroom with a bath right under a big window and such--definitely a nice place to hang out in. But not an NN. If everything else was right, and the bathroom was tiny and ugly, I'd be fine with that. I don't even need two bathrooms, though they're common in two-level homes anyway.

Kitchen: More mixed feelings about a kitchen. I can live with any type of cabinetry, because at least if I owned the place I could paint over crap and change doorknobs. Ideally I'd like lots of storage room, and a bigger counter than I currently have. Those are the only two almost-requirements. I can function in a small kitchen like I now have, but I do like to cook, so...

Living room: Just not tiny and cramped. I already know the couch I want, so it has to fit. :-)

Yard: The smaller the better. All I need is a wee garden and a compost pile. And if possible, zoning for a cat run. ;-)

Cabbage violence

We got in a bunch of discount DVDs at work, including the first three seasons of the A-Team. They're 19.99 instead of the usual $50-60. Meep meep! The A-Team is comfort food for me. I am periodically overcome with the need to watch back to back episodes. And since I've cut myself off from buying books, yet still have a GC to spend...

"Only during the 1980s could this peculiar blend of lefty politics and military fetishism have thrived. Though supposedly mercenaries-for-hire, the A-Team usually finds itself defending the downtrodden and helpless out of sheer cussedness. In the second season they helped abused migrant workers form a union--which, naturally, required transmogrifying farm equipment into a cabbage-shooting cannon." [from the amazon description]

I have never forgotten the cabbage canon, since I first saw the episode as a child.

Love Song of the Day: Talk to me dammit!

Take your choice...

1. "Taking Chances" co-written by Dave Stewart with a little "talk to me talk to me like lovers do" thrown in (which is the best part of the song); or


2. "Here Comes the Rain Again." The original talk-to-me-walk-with-me plea for love. [I post this just as it starts to rain again! But not on my head. ...And not like a tragedy.]

Love Song of the Day: A widow's song

Here's a gorgeous one. Patti Smith wrote an album dedicated to her husband Fred when he suddenly died of a fatal heart attack at the age of 45. This is one of the songs from the album. Ohhhh so sad! (Or for a downloadable live version: here.)

I met a Real Harlequin Hero!

I had a customer today who asked for a Harlequin title, for his daughter. I looked around for it and realized it had already been stripped to be returned (it was last month's set of books.) When I returned to tell him, there was a woman with him, but she looked to be his age (30s?) so I figured this was his wife, not the daughter. As we were ordering the book she told me that they're buying it because her husband's on the cover, and he 'fessed that the daughter thing was a cover.

At first I thought it was a joke. I looked at the cover on my computer screen, then looked at him and said: "Oh my God! That IS you!" He was pretty bashful, but his wife was Appropriately Proud.

And I can tell you... he didn't just have a pretty face. And he was even better looking in person. Must have been the Bashful Look. It was irresistible. ;-)

Did you have this board game?

A radio announcer mentioned it today on CJAD, because he remembered one of the songs from it: "Bonjour my friend, how are you mon ami, ça va très bien, thank-you!" Oh my days I totally remember the songs and the game. It was given to us free at school.

Now one of my favourite games to play alone in my room was School. I was always teaching, and I loved to *teach* French. This was before I came to Quebec and knew any French. I used this game to *teach*, and also a little blue book of travel French (how to order eggs etc.) Hours of fun I tell you.

I had a little green chalk board, but I used it so much it became shiny and un-write-able. So one year, in my late childhood, the folks bought me a Brand New Chalkboard. It was beeootiful. It's hard to grow up believing the world is a harsh and terrible place when you grew up with beeootiful chalkboards. Maybe if we all had chalkboards, there would finally be world peace.

Love Song of the Day: From one of the great bachelorettes of all time

I wanted to post a later Joni Mitchell song called "Come in From the Cold" but it's youtube-banned. So here's one of her classics: "A Case of You." Either written about Graham Nash or Leonard Cohen.

Just before our love got lost you said,
'I am as constant as the Northern star.'
And I said, 'Constantly in the darkness.
Where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar.'