Facts & Oberservations about Lexington

Fact Number 1:  It is officially only 30 days until the start of the World Equestrian Games.  If you don't live here, that probably doesn't seem like a big deal (actually I live here and while I hate to say it I'm not sure it seems like a big deal). 

Fact Number 2:  The Wall Street Journal had an article on the best and worst markets to invest in real estate.  Lexington was ranked as number 5 on the BEST markets.  Pretty cool.  The worst markets are in Florida and Las Vegas.  Imagine that. 

Fact Number 3:  School starts too early in Fayette County.

Fact Number 4:  Horse Mania is back and well underway. 

Observation Number 1:  Over the last 6 months, I have noticed more and more bikers (not the motorcycle kind) riding the streets of Lexington.  These aren't just the usual plethora of neon Lycra-clad ectomorphs who speed by on their racing bikes heading for country roads doing Lance Armstrong impersonations.  Those people have been around for years.  What I'm seeing are normal folk on bikes with baskets, wearing backpacks and actually using their bike as an alternative means of transportation!  Some of them are college students but many of them appear to be from the ranks of the gainfully employed.  It's so cool!  Even kids are out riding instead of being driven.  Will found his freedom this summer on his bike and has ridden to school and spend whole days meeting up with friends and roaming Chevy Chase in his throw-back 1950s lifestyle.  It's true functional and practical biking that includes dining at the counter of Wheeler's Drugstore or Graeter's Ice Cream and then heading over to Wyatt's pool or to throw some smoke bombs in our backyard.  I'm part of the biking revolution too, as I have have tried to make all of my mini grocery trips and around Chevy Chase errands on my bike.  In fact, I think Mary Rollins and I rode somewhere nearly everyday this summer doing virtually all of our grocery shopping by bike. 

I'm seem to be writing about biking a lot lately, don't I?

The end of summer hours

MR & Friend at Gray's Arch

Hi all.  Summer ended.  Last Wednesday.  Children back to school.  Back to work at a more normal pace.  Oh well....it ended all too soon so I'm going to write my state representatives that they need to pass the Save our Summer legislation that mandates that school may not start before the end of August.  I've actually written them before but just not lately. 

Here's a farewell to summer picture of last Saturday's hiking adventure at Red River Gorge.  Technically it's from after school started but it was 94 degrees so it still sure felt like summer...

Lakehouse this weekend, anyone??

Bike Lexington...

I started this posting last Thursday to be exact and had a variety of different names for it.  Like...

Why we live inside the Circle...

Or, when the boys are away, the girls will play...

So many different title thoughts for a fun-filled day in the Bluegrass.  When you get all your work done in the morning and the boys of the house are off to other various points and the girls are left alone.

Nothing beats a morning started with a good 3-mile run, a little bit of real estate (really a closing would have been the best but I'll settle for a listing appointment) and an afternoon spent with your favorite teenager.

Here we are setting off for an afternoon bicycle adventure on empty stomachs.  Mother and daughgter (taking the photo and refusing to be in a picture) committed to boosting our local economy and saving the environment at the same time.  Equipped with a wallet, a gift card, a reusable shopping bag and my handy bike basket, Mary Rollins and I are ready to hit the road. 

First stop...Le Matin (a.k.a.  Zuni).  I'm certain that I've blogged about Zuni before --  My favorite European-style bakery and cafe.  On this particular charmed afternoon, my favorite table (and as it turns out Mary Rollins' favorite as well) was available. We arrived chez Zuni just in time for a torrential early afternoon thunderstorm but lucky for us the awning of Zuni proteced our bikes perfectly and we could keep an eye on them from our front and center window seat.  And, of course, Lexington being what it is, we had kind offers of rides home from other diners worried about our having to ride in the rain.  But confident that the storm would pass in good time, we enjoyed perusing the menu and deciding on delectable desserts to follow our meal. 

Mary Rollins declared that multiple desserts are acceptable when one bikes to lunch.   I think we can safely say that she does NOT have an eating disorder.  Here we see the infamous Simply Chocolate and a Peanut Butter Fudge Torte.  Can you have too much chocolate?  Not if you ride your bike to lunch! 

And clearly, we are trying hard to be members of the clean plate club.  Waste not, want not.

Our thunderstorm ended just as we licked the last crumbs from our plate. I wanted to buy a baguette so that we could re-enact Fou de Fa Fa from Flight of the Conchords but Mary Rollins indicated it was time to go and she would find the baguette embarrassing. 

Next stop:  John's on South Ashland.  (Please note, it's also embarrassing for your mom to document a day with iPhone pictures but I gave in on the baguette.)  John's, like Le Matin, has a lovely awning perfect for bikes if the rainstorm might return.  I love John's.  I love the shoes at John's and I love the clothes they now sell at John's. I love that the old manager from Laura Ashley now works at John's and remembers baby Mary Rollins and my Laura Ashley-loving sister.  I also love the great packable dress I bought at John's that fit nicely in my bicycle basket.  Fortunately, there was room for it since I hadn't bought the baguette!!

And off we go again, pedaling down High Street, waving at my office over Starbucks!  Hi everybody!  Past Woodland Park and arriving at Calypso -- Mary Rollins' most beloved of all Lexington boutiques.  Calypso is probably worthy of its very own blog post.  Run by a twenty-something graduate of UK financed by her dad, Calypso opened a couple of years ago in the eclectic Woodland Park shopping area.  Filled with adorable (and affordable) dresses, tops, bottoms and vintage cowboy boots that can only be worn by the young (not to be confused with the 40-something young at heart), Calypso is the ballet girls' favorite store.   Here you can find the perfect dress for Cotillion or the ideal dress for shopping in New York.  It's even more perfect when you have brought along both a gift card from your birthday AND an AMEX-carrying mother.  I noticed several combinations of cool-looking girls and not-quite-as-cool-looking mothers shopping there.  Apparently, mothers are a good accessory to take shopping with you when your fourteen.  Baguettes, not good accessory.

And finally, a quick trip into The Black Market, our other favorite boutique around the corner from Calypso.  Not quite as affordable but fashionably fun.

As much as I love all the wonderful places we've travel to and visit on a regular basis, sometimes there really is no place like home. 

About the summer...

And summer hours.  I'm loving them.  Really.  Now don't get the idea that I'm not working but let's just say that things are a little more relaxed so far in the month of June!  I have harvested the infamous thistle patch in the side yard and reclaimed the land that I've been trying to pass off as part of my neighbor's yard.  I'd hate to have people think those were my weeds.  The dogs are back on their summer morning walk regime.  I was told by the vet that Cleo, aka The Fatness, was a bit plump.  Summer schedule allows for both running in the morning AND a dog walk.  We'll see if she slims down.  If not, we're resolved to the fact that she's a lot cuter when she's fat even if she sometimes makes funny pig-like noises when she breathes.  Can you have sleep apnea when you are awake?

What's the most fun though is having MR and Will home.  Mary Rollins has been at ballet the last two weeks but Will has had two weeks of nothing but playing with friends.  I felt badly about his current lack of activity (as I may have previously mentioned)  but I do believe that children with nothing to do lends to the development of their creativity.  In fact, just this morning Will asked if he and his friends could use the glue gun. 

Ummm....why?

We're making air-soft grenades?  Where's the aluminum foil?

About 20 minutes later, I heard an "Oh Crap!" in the backyard.  I was assured all was well by a boy holding a box of matches and another boy with a handful of bottle rockets. 

And, a minute ago, I saw three 12-year old boys dragging a big plastic wagon across the backyard. One of them has a shovel.  I wonder if I should be worried as I just picked them up from watching the new A-Team movie.  Apparently, it was THE BEST movie any of them had ever seen.  I'm having flashbacks to a little Williamson family incident where my brother pistol-whipped me after watching Wild Wild West. 

Oh...Will says he was just getting the shovel to put it back in the garage. Huh?  (I think I might suggest they play XBox.

Next week, we're going to Holiday World on Monday for Will's birthday party (I'll have to tell you about Holiday World if you've never been) and then Will's going with some cousins to our Tennessee lakehouse.  Mary Rollins was invited to go too, but for some reason, she was really excited about being home alone.  Without any 12 year-old boys. I can't imagine why. 

For Transy friends (and family)

This is really for Transylvanians.  I loved it. 
for Transylvanians

Summer hours...

Mystery Falls en route to Rock Bridge

It's official.  Summer is here and I am now on summer hours.  Last day of school was Thursday and also, I am the parent of a high schooler.  My golden year of two children at the same school is over.  Sigh.  It was so nice while it lasted.  I suppose when Mary Rollins and Will are both in high school it'll be all different as they won't need me/my transportation quite as much anymore.  Sigh.  All good, all good though.  Teenagers and almost-twelve year olds are really fun.

To celebrate summer hours, I'll be taking two boys (Will and Wyatt N.)  to Red River Gorge tomorrow all while working from my iPhone and Mary Rollins goes to Ballet Summer Intensives.  Then it's back to work the rest of the week but I'm pretty excited about tomorrow's summer hours.

Also, I'm open to suggestions for fun things to do with an almost-twelve-year-old boys who do not want to go to baseball camp, take tennis lessons, golf lessons, batting lessons or go to ballet summer intensives.  Any suggestion that does not include the playing of XBox 360 is welcome.

Lexington Herald Leader Reader's Choice Poll now out...

A past client and friend alerted me this morning to the poll for the 2010 Lexington Herald-Leader Reader's Choice poll.  And, of course, one of the items is your favorite Realtor.   I was actually voted #2 the year before last!  Whether you live near or far, you can offer your opinions on many of your Central Kentucky favorites, be that me or not!  To vote, click on the above post title link or click on the link below.

 Lexington Herald-Leader Reader's Choice

Here's to Uncle Marc...

Per reader request (Isabug), here's a special profile for Lexington resident Marc Mathews who is in fact, At Home in the Bluegrass.  And why is this man riding his bike in his home, you ask?  Because it's his birthday!!!  He doesn't look a day over 12 does he?  Marc says this is probably his last bike and he loves it.  At least he loved it for the 25 seconds he sat on it at 7 a.m. this morning.  It's an extra cushy-seated Giant from Pedal Power who kindly delivered it  for free which was awesome because my power-life trunk broke yesterday -- not a happy Realtor/mom was I. .In fact it reminded me of a certain camping trip on the Olympic Peninsula with a baby Mary Rollins and a Suburban whose back end wouldn't open.  Any readers remember that little week of fun Selby/Mathews adventuring? 

Old red bike, which some readers here have ridden in past, has been donated to Kentucky Refugee Ministries.  It will be overhauled by Pedal Power and somebody will have some new wheels!  Marc did not ride the new bike to work.  He claims that he would like to ride it to work but...

So here's to Uncle Marc who loves many of the blog readers as well as the blog writer but does not in fact read the blog.  Thanks for being so wonderful and not being mad about my posting that picture on Facebook this morning or here on the blog now.  You're not mad, are you Marc? Of course, you're not.  You aren't even reading the blog!   Happy Birthday anyway!!

(Ooo...and look DeMarcus Cousins is STILL on the wall in the family room.  I'm leaving him up through the NBA draft to wish him luck.)  

I voted...

but I'm not going to tell you who I voted for.  I will tell you that I ran to my voting precinct at 7:15 am this morning.  I think the poll workers were a little confused about the iPod-wearing, very sweaty woman who came in to vote but did have her driver's license with her.  I felt like such a good civically-minded, heart-healthy, earth-friendly person.  Then I went to the office for our regular Tuesday morning meeting and had a donut.  The Hippo Crate people keep sending us donuts for office meeting.  I think they want to make us hippos...

Open Houses...

I'm holding 841 Burkewood Drive open this Sunday, May 16 from 1-3 p.m.  This is a really great two-story in the Eastwood neighborhood which is a short trip to the new Liberty Elementary and it take about 5 minutes to get to Hamburg and about 10 minutes to get to UK and Downtown from here. Truly a great location and a lot of house for the money too!  Plus it has central vac.  I love central vac

Anyway, I don't do a ton of open houses and it seems like when I do host one, it's almost a guarantee that I'll generate some kind of record-setting rain storm that devastates small surrounding communities.  Really, people ought to pay me not to host open houses...or they should pay me if we are in the midst of a drought. 

Here's my question, and I'm looking for responses...do you ever go to open houses?  If you don't, why not?  When you go to open houses, what do you like about them, what do you hate about them,  do you lie to the person hosting it about why you are looking at the house?   

Calvin Borel

I wish the newspaper would do a life-size photo of him that we could put next to DeMarcus Cousins (who is still up in our family room).  Wouldn't that be hilarious?  It would probably only take two days of newspaper!

First Saturday in May

Happy Derby!  If you didn't make a contract on a home by last night, you are out of luck for the tax credit.  Today is the first day I haven't worked in about two and half months.  And a perfect day it is not to work!  It's Derby Day.  I want to go ahead and say that I am rooting for Noble's Promise!  We've had the TV on all day, what with not having tickets to the Derby and no way will I ever go at this point in my life unless I'm sitting in a box, enjoying the stories and fashions of Derby getting ready for Mary Rollins' birthday party tonight. 

(Isabug!  You should see the three-layer caramel pecan cake I made from my Magnolia Bakery Cookbook...it's amazing if I must say so myself.  I was going to try the famous banana pudding but maybe another event...like my birthday!).

Anyway, now that the tax credit deadline is passed, who knows, maybe I'll have time to blog some more.  Well, once I get all my pending sales closed! 

Go watch the Derby!!!!