I spent the afternoon cleaning out my dresser, consolidating the clothing I actually wear a lot, and boxes most of the rest, so that Fuzzy could use half my dresser, and his old chest of drawers can be removed from the dressing room.

Half of staging a house for sale is getting rid of excess clutter.
Sometimes, this can include furniture. Also, less furniture makes the room seem bigger.

On a more personal note, I restored my writing blog to existence. I don’t update it very often, and right now it’s really playing host to some stuff I’ve also posted to my page on fanfiction.net, but once in a while I plan to add other stuff.

And on that note, I have some laundry to do, so I’m calling it a night.

People in my parents’ generation have “senior” moments, but I’m far too young for that sort of thing. Instead, I have “stupid” moments.

Twice yesterday, once at work, and once at home, while working with people who are far more graphics-savvy than I am, I forgot that I own a copy of Photoshop 5.5. No, it’s not the latest and greatest. Still, it would have done what we needed it to do.

Yeah, I have working braincells.
No, really.

The number in the title is the MLS ID number for my house here in San Jose, the one I listed for sale last night. This makes it official, and everything. The sign won’t go up til tomorrow – Jeremy designed a logo for the quasi-company my boss is using to list my house, and the sign won’t be READY til tomorrow – but the feature sheet is done, and the outside work is complete.

Beginning today, we work on the inside, in preparation for an open house on July 17th.

The scan of the feature sheet is at 440Halsey.Biz

The actual MLS listing is here..

Click image above for larger picture.

It’s not up on MLS yet, and my boss is waiting for signs to come in to stick in the front yard, but this is my house, which we’re selling.

You can’t tell that I spent $200 filling the front flower box, but my friend Clay is altering the images some, to make the flowers pop and clean up some of the rough edges.

It’ll be listed @ $599,000
San Jose prices are sick. Yes. We know this.

Click image above for larger picture.

Saw this in Lisa‘s blog.

Name That Candy Bar

Today, I feel so tired that it literally hurts to be awake, and so, even though I slept half the day away, and lounged around during the other half, I am going back to my bedroom, to bask in coolness and soft sheets.

* * *

Zinnias have never been my favorite flower, though I love their name, but I bought two for my garden today anyway, because they were vibrant yellow and I tend to gravitate too much toward blues and purples in my gardening. Punches of vibrant yellow and glowy orange actually make the blues and purples stand out, which is why I bought some marigolds, as well. (Also, marigolds grow fast, so I can stick them in the foot-wide section of unused yard between the end of the lawn and the fence, and they’ll grow up against the side of the shed, and look charming.)

The Zinnias have been planted already, despite the fact that I asked for help with planting. This is because once I got started mucking in the dirt, I didn’t want to stop. And also because it’s a 30-foot long planter box (about 2 feet wide) in front of my house, and that’s a LOT of flowers.

I admit that my flower purchases today might seem a bit over-zealous (that counts as a z-word, really!), but 30 feet is a LOT to plant, when you consider that we’re trying to increase curb appeal to sell the house, and further consider that 30-feet is a LOT of planting space. epecially since the only things I didn’t remove from the box before I started were some foxglove, two rosebushes, and a dwarf grapefruit tree. This last has never borne fruit, but I refuse to remove it, because the previous owners, wacky as they were, planted it in honor of their dead father, and I respect that. After all, we mixed some of my grandparents’ ashes in with our own plantings.

In any case, I’ve planted one of the zinnias, two containers of delphinium, one of cosmos (daisies), one sixpack of marigolds, and three sixpacks of petunias.

I’ll post pictures when the planting is done, and the house looks cute enough.

* * *

On another note. If anyone knows where to find a lemon zester for less than $7.00, I’d really like to know. I’ve been looking for one for AGES.

* * *
This post is my last post for the Alphabytes meme. It was supposed to be all done in June, but I figure finishing it at all is better than not, and some days the muse just doesn’t want to cooperate.

Early this morning, I padded through the house, barefoot and wearing ratty old sweats. My husband was still sleeping, and dogs were out back, basking in the morning sun.

I went out the front door to water the garden box. I set the sprayer on mist, as all the other settings are too strong for the stuff I planted, and communed with the flowers for several minutes, breathing in the clean smell of wet earth and growing things.

In the distance, I could hear the faint sound of church bells, though I don’t know what church. I think we’re too far from St. Leo’s to hear their chimes. Above my head, the birds were singing and twittering, already well into their day, and from another house on the block, I heard organ and panflute music, a not-quite-new-age blend of the two. I think I recognized “Amazing Grace,” which is a favorite song of mine despite any formal religious beliefs, the rest was less distinct – I couldn’t even tell when one song ended and another began.

Still, standing there barefoot, in the cool mist from my garden hose, and the still-soft morning breeze, listening to the chimes and the music, my heart expanded, and I was, for a moment, in a place of perfect peace, and at one with the universe.

All days should begin this way.

* * *

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I had this cool journal entry all planned, and did I manage to get it posted before I got distracted and lost it? You know the answer to that, already.

Instead, brief news: I bought a new domain name. YouMe.Us

There’s nothing there right now, but I think the name is catchy enough. Don’t you?

I had a long conversation with my aunt, over the phone, yesterday. We talked about her book, and the beach, and how she’s far too young to be thinking about marrying men with grandchildren.

We talked about her ex-husband. He was a seminary student when they mat, and he left to marry her. She went on to get her doctorate at Stanford, and he worked in construction, and as a painter to support her. In the 13th year of their marriage, they buried five family members, had a miscarriage, and were building a house – enough to strain any marriage to the breaking point. She mentioned that her one regret is that in severing their marriage, he severed his relationship with me.

I explained to her that I didn’t mind. I have great memories, and if they’re both at peace with each other, that’s what matters.

My favorite memory of him: He taught me how to play with a yo-yo. I was never very good, but he had amazing, strong, brown hands, and he was so patient, explaining the physics behind the winding and unwinding of the string. I never learned the really advanced tricks, but I was passable at a couple.

I miss yo-yos.
I had a Duncan Imperial, and I loved it.
I’ve played with modern yo-yos and I just don’t like them as well.

My wish is that everyone has a chance to spend five minutes learning something silly and innocent, like how to make a yo-yo work.

And now, to bed…

(Oh, wait, you were expecting something about the cello and Yo-yo Ma for this entry, or a reference to curling up in bed watching Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood again, weren’t you. Well…sorry to dissapoint.)

::Yankee Doodle Dandee::

Onesome: Yankee- Hey, this is the 4th of July weekend here in the States; do you have any plans? Fireworks? Watching the Boston Pops? Hiding under the bed with the dog?
I like fireworks, but we seem to always be involved in something major around this time of year. Like, this weekend, we’re working on the outside of the house, preparing to list it for sale in another week or so. Still, my personal observation of Independence Day involves surfing the airwaves for the annual airings of the musicals 1776 and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Twosome: Doodle- Is there any paper safe from you, or are you a doodler? If you are, when are you most likely to doodle and what do you draw?
I have not once ounce of drawing talent, but I doodle anyway. I’m very good at reproducing panels of Calvin and Hobbes comics on poster board, as well (free hand, not tracing). But, yeah, I doodle.

Threesome: Dandee- Or dandy. It’s one of my favorite words. How about you, do you have any favorite words that you like to use, just because you like the way they sound or just because you can?
“Spiffy.” I use that word a lot because when I worked in tech support at Gateway (in another lifetime), someone wrote a letter to the company newsletter complaining about the over-use of the word “cool.” So, I adopted “spiffy.” It’s fun to say, and people don’t expect it. I also like the word “quirky,” because it is, and then there are the ever-popular susurrus and tintinabulation.

The Thursday Threesome is a regular feature of The Back Porch. Play along!