Utopia

Having lived as a city mouse and a country mouse on both sides of this country, I have found that while both sides have their pros and cons, I think I belong somewhere in the middle. This is a list of things my perfect location would have. I don't know where this perfect place exist, but I will find it someday.

Location:
Less than an hour from a major airport
Less than an hour from a city that draws most music tours
Less than a foot of snow all year
Sun, sun, and more sun
Near a large body of water
A large variety of restaurants
A large variety of events to choose from
Less traffic than LA
No BSL
A place that allows Dave to have his toys

The living arrangement:
Single story- no stairs
Fenced in yard
Pool & hot tub
Neighbor's house at least 40 yards away
At least two car garage
No carpet
No HOA
Mom living less than a mile away

Semi- vegetarian aka meatloaf love

Lately I have contemplated becoming a vegetarian. My decision is not based on my love of animals or for health benefits. My contemplation is based on certain people (Carnivore Dave) complaining that I don't eat enough meat or turn my nose up when he mentions a beef based dinner. It isn't that I don't eat meat, it is that I don't like many meats. I like seafood, chicken, ground beef, and bacon. I don't like eating pieces of meat with a fork and knife and prefer my meat mixed in with something. Casserole, burritos, pasta dishes, I just don't want to taste just meat, unless it is meatloaf.

One of my favorite meals is meatloaf. People say meatloaf is boring, but they have never had my meatloaf because my meatloaf never taste the same twice. You start with 2lbs of ground meat, any meat. Dave likes a beef/pork mix while I prefer a beef/turkey mix. I added ground lamb to the mix once and it was pretty darn tasty. Add to that onion, 1 egg, and bread crumbs and you have the basic boring meatloaf. This is where the fun starts. I like different themes to my meatloaf.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf- Add crumbled bacon and shredded cheddar cheese.

Asian Style Meatloaf- Add any combo of Asian Sesame Dressing, Sweet Chili Sauce, Sesame Oil.

New Mexico Meatloaf- Add chopped green chiles.

BBQ Meatloaf, Add BBQ Sauce, liquid smoke, dry mustard or dry rub to spice it up.

Mexican Style Meatloaf- Add a combo of chili powder, cilantro, salsa, Adobo seasoning.

Italian Style Meatloaf- Add roasted red peppers, basil, Parmesan cheese, and Italian style bread crumbs.

Teriyaki Meatloaf- Add teriyaki sauce to the mix and top with pineapple rings.

You really can't go wrong with meatloaf and it may be standing in the way of me becoming a vegetarian.

Sunday Soapbox- Lazy Realtors with Bad MLS Photos

As you may or may not know, I have a little work in real estate. It wasn't really a business for me, but an expensive hobby that never panned out. I still scour local real estate ads and enjoy the same research that I did before only now I don't have to pay thousands of dollars in fees to do so. One thing that always amazed me was the laziness of some real estate agents. How do they manage to stay in business while doing a half ass job. Pictures in the MLS listing can be the easiest way to find a potential buyer for your property. You are allowed to post at least 10 pictures on the MLS. You should take advantage of that and use it to market the property.


Lazy agent #1

This property is listed at almost $3 million dollars. This agent could make a decent chunk of change if he/she sells this property.I have seen this faux pas at all price points in the MLS. It is hard to sell something that people can't see. Sure the homeowner could have requested that no pictures be posted for privacy reasons, but that seller isn't really trying to sell their property if that is the case. The address is listed on the MLS, so is someone is curious, they will be doing a drive-by. That seems more invasive than a picture of the outside of your property.

Lazy agent #2

This property is listed at around $750,000. Based on the photo and property description, I couldn't tell you what you are getting for that kind of money. Is it a house? Is it commercial? Get off your butt and take a drive to take pictures. Anyone can Google an address and get this same picture. You are doing an injustice to your seller by not providing an accurate description and pictures that show everything the listing has to offer.

Lazy agent #3

This is the only picture on the listing. This picture says,
1. I was in the neighborhood and only have my camera phone.
2. I didn't bother to get out of the car because I am either A) lazy or B) don't feel safe in this neighborhood or C) both.
3. Even if this house does sell, I won't make much money on it, so I am not going to put any effort into it.
4. I need to crop the picture so all you see is the house because there is no curb appeal. I also want to make sure I cut out the shadow from my car.

Lazy agent #4


These are the worst offenders. Here in Syracuse we have four seasons. This picture is on the MLS in November showing a house covered in snow. The snow tells me that this house has been on the market for at least 6 months. That must mean there is something wrong with the house, right? Not necessarily, but that is what buyers will think. You are also telling your seller and potential buyers that the house is a lost cause and you as an agent have given up on it. When the seasons change, the pictures should too.


Lazy agent #5
While quickly browsing the MLS this morning I didn't find any examples of this lazy agent, but with it getting dark earlier now, I am sure they are right around the corner. I am talking about property pictures that are taken at night. I know you are busy, but you owe it to your seller to take pictures of their property with proper lighting. Sure it is better than not having a picture at all, but not by much. If you can't be at the house during daylight hours, you need to find someone to do it for you. I know most agencies have people that will provide this service. You are telling the seller that you have better things to do or don't want to spend any money to have it done right.


You don't have to be a professional photographer to get the job done, but there are things you can do to show that you are doing your job and not being a lazy agent.


http://cnynutsandbolts.blogspot.com/

Sunday Soapbox- I hate Craigslist

Once a week I torture myself by looking at the pet section of Craigslist. I always end up wanting to reach in my computer and slap people and not just because the majority of them can't form complete sentences or use spell check.


"Sharpie pup- 5 month old healthy black puppy needs to be rehomed"

While both are awesome in their own way, this is a black Sharpie:

This is a black Shar Pei:



"I have a 1 1/2 year old male Vizsla. He loves to play, dogs, cats, children and adults, he loves them all! Unfortunately for us he is just a little too energetic.
He is a pure breed with papers. He came from a good breeder."

You went to the effort of finding a "good" breeder yet you didn't go to the effort of researching the breed? Vizsla's are what you get when you feed a normal dog Red Bull. I like the part about "unfortunately for us..." since the dog will suffer more than you will.


Because of her past she is very anxious; she does well with some dogs (like our beagle-mix) but not others (usually larger dogs that look like pit bulls---we think she was used as a bait dog for fighting).
I really hate that people throw the term bait dog around willy nilly. This dog doesn't have a scratch or scar anywhere on it. I will save you the graphics, but do a Google image search for the term "bait dog" and see what one really looks like. Those darn pit bulls ruin everything, don't they?


Speaking of pit bulls....
"BLUE pitbull puppy needs a home (6 weeks old)he is 6 weeks old, had been his 1st set of puppy shots, going to be shourt n wide like his daddy, i dont have pic of parents,he is going to be beautiful when he gets older,he does come with papers but i will have to send them to you"

How is this dog Blue? The only papers that dog comes with is newspaper for it to pee on. There are no pictures of the parents for a reason.



Blue Fawn Rednose American Pitbull Terrier-If you are intrested or know someone who maybe please send me a message so that the details may be discussed.
Holy crap, it is a rainbow dog! Blue nose? Red nose? The only difference is the color. They are the same dog and neither are rare. You can find pit bulls of every color in shelters all across the country.


"FREE TO GOOD HOME"

If you must post your pet on Craigslist, please, please, please do not write that they are "free to a good home." Even if you plan on giving the animal away for free, do not let the person interested in your animal know that until the deal is done.

There are plenty of people who will recycle your free pet for profit. Your pet will be lucky to be re-listed on Craigslist with a "re-homing fee" and the person who picked up your "trash" will make money on it without caring where it ends up. They may end up in a good home, but they may not.

Class B dealers love finding free animals. They then turn around and sell your pet to be used in experiments. Animals are bought in bulk like scrap metal and your pet will be held somewhere until there is enough stockpile to cash in. http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pets_experiments/

Your tiny little kitten or puppy could end up as free snake food or a training toy for dog fighters.

If your dog is not spayed or neutered, it could end up as a puppy mill breeder. It doesn't matter if your dog is a mutt, designer mutt or purebred, people will breed to pay the rent.

Then there are the animal hoarders. They just can't say no to a free animal even if they can't afford to feed the other 40 animals they have in their house.




P.S. Of course your dog is special....all the dog's listed on Craigslist are special.

You can't keep your pet? Really? By a Shelter Director

This has made the rounds, but it needs to be re-posted over and over again.

I think our society needs a huge "Wake-up" call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a view from the inside if you will. First off, all of you people who have ever surrendered a pet to a shelter or humane society should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would stop flagging the ads on craigslist and help these animals find homes. That puppy you just bought will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. Just so you know there's a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it’s dumped at? Purebred or not! About 25% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays", that come into a shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses: "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".

Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because the shelter gets paid a fee to euthanize each animal and making money is better than spending money to take this animal to the vet.

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down". First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to "The Room", every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 shelter workers depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a shelter worker who we call a euthanasia tech (not a vet) find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the "pink stuff". Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. You see shelters are trying to make money to pay employee pay checks and don’t forget the board of directors needs to be paid too, so we don’t spend our funds to tranquilize the animal before injecting them with the lethal drug, we just put the burning lethal drug in the vein and let them suffer until dead. If it were not a “making money issue” and we had to have a licensed vet do this procedure, the animal would be sedated or tranquilized and then euthanized, but to do this procedure correctly would cost more money so we do not follow what is right for the animal, we just follow what is the fastest way we can make a dollar. Shelters do not have to have a vet perform their euthanasia’s so even if it takes our employee 50 pokes with a needle and 3 hours to get the vein that is what we do. Making money is the issue here not loosing money.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? Or used for the schools to dissect and experiment on? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right!

I hope that those of you who still have a beating heart and have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head, I deal with this everyday. I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and start educating the public. Do research, do your homework, and know exactly what you are getting into before getting a pet. These shelters and humane societies exist because people just do not care about animals anymore. Animals were not intended to be disposable but somehow that is what they are these days. Animal shelters are an easy way out when you get tired of your dog (or cat), and breeders are the ones blamed for this. Animal shelters and rescue organizations are making a hefty profit by keeping this misconception going.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about taking their dog to a shelter, a humane society, or buying a dog. For those of you that care--- please repost this to at least one other craiglist in another city/state. Let's see if we can get this all around the US and have an impact.

I Should Be Getting Paid For This Post (aka What I'm Eating)

1. McCormick Recipe Inspirations. No leaving spices out of a recipe because you don't have it. You don't have to wonder if the spices you have are fresh and best of all, no measuring. Flavors: Apple and Sage Pork chops, Garlic Lime Fajitas, Quesadilla Casserole, Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes, Shrimp and Pasta Primavera, and Spanish Skillet Chicken. We had the Apple and Sage Pork Chops for dinner tonight and they were to die for.


2.Chobani Yogurt. Greek Yogurt is not for everyone, but it has twice as much protein as regular yogurt. When I first started eating it, I had to mix in fruit and sweetener. No I eat it plain and the regular yogurt taste like chemicals to me. Mix in some fruit and Fiber One cereal and you are set. It is a little pricey, so I stock up when I find it on sale.


3. Boulder Canyon Malt Vinegar Chips. Yes, my vinegar obsession continues. It has gotten a little better and I no longer carry a bottle in my purse.


4. Cassava Fries. I tried cassava fries a few weeks ago and it was love at first bite. They were lighter and crispier than their nasty cousin the french fry. They were awesome covered in vinegar too. We went back the next night because I couldn't get that taste out of my mind. They were different the second night and not as good. Turns out I really like the commercial frozen cassava more than the fresh. They are both pretty good though. Goya makes frozen yuca which is the same thing, but of course I haven't been able to find it around here. I have a couple of places to check before I break down and order it online.
Picture and recipe found at http://radiancerecipes.com/chilli-garlic-cassava-chips



5. Green Hills Market. They post their specials on Facebook and Twitter every day and it always sounds so good that I skip whatever lunch plans I previously had. They have amazing sandwiches with meat cut as they go, a variety of pizza and hot food, soups, and salads that are so good it makes me want to become a vegetarian. I can pick up groceries and something to eat on my lunch break because they are so close to the office. I was going to one store for meat, one for produce, and one for everything else, but Green Hills has everything I need and and don't need in one stop. Visit their bakery department and you will see what I mean about things I don't need. They have it all.

I Miss Boston

A few weeks ago Dave and I went to Boston for a few days. Dave's mom's family is from Boston and this was my first trip out there. I was expecting a dirty harbor and a run down city since everything out there is so old and has so much history. I was completely wrong. Boston is the cleanest big city I have ever been in. The streets and buildings are a mixture of new construction and old construction that has been updated. There were no abandoned buildings covered in graffiti and you could walk down any street downtown in the middle of the night without constantly looking over your shoulder. What I miss the most is walking. Anything you wanted was less than a 10 minute walk away. Of course all of these conveniences come at a cost. We came home and got sticker shock from the housing prices. I can't wait to go back.