Is it just Murphy's law that when you finally get your running distance and times in a positive sync that you’ll contract the granddaddy of all colds and not train for a week. Oh well, sleeping in a little is nice, too.


We're nearing the end of January and I'm reflecting back on how my New Year's resolutions are holding up. Running wasn't tied to a resolution for me but I did resolve to do a number of other things better in 2010: writing regularly and being a bit more organized in my work and personal life. I'm happy to report some success so far. My 2010 mileage log is up to date through today and Sunday night I organized my kitchen drawers. Kitchen drawer organization may seem trivial but these drawers were in dire straits and I task I've been putting off for years.  I literally dumped boxes of utensils into these drawers 6 years ago when we moved to our current home and have done nothing..NOTHING...to them since.

If you need a visual, I have three kitchen utensil/item drawers organized into various levels of use: Daily use (bottle opener, cork screw, garlic press); frequent use (big spoons, salad tongs, whisk); and possibly used this decade items (cookie press and the cutest little sandwich shape maker my sister gave me). Scattered amongst all three drawers were a varied assortment of items that have seemingly bred in the enclosed space:  chopsticks, old wine corks, matches (some used, huh?) shish kabob skewers, egg slicers, citrus presses, plastic cutlery, used birthday candles, and an electric knife that I used back in 2000 when I was making my own baby wipes. These drawers were so bad that as a general rule, I don't allow any friend helping me in the kitchen to open them lest they become horribly frightened and run away screaming.

So Sunday afternoon, I sorted all three drawers while watching old Get Smart episodes and nursing my cold.  My children and I enjoyed guessing what various items could possibly do and pondered over what we were planning to do with all those wine corks -- possibly a craft?  Possibly science fair?

I can't begin to tell you what a beautiful thing they are to behold, today. But I can show you a picture.

And, let me tell you, that people do, in fact, open your kitchen drawers (and your pantry and your closets when your house is on the market AND they judge you by them). While my house is not on the market, I can proudly say that my kitchen drawers are officially staged for sale! Are yours?

You must be present to win...

That’s the lesson my 13-year old is learning about success these days. And I’m glad to say that she’s learning it from the right angle. If you know Mary Rollins, or know of Mary Rollins, to say she spends a lot of time dancing would be to say that Smoky the Bear spent a lot of time talking about forest fires. It’s what she does, it’s who she is these days.  Ballet girl!


Mary Rollins isn’t the best dancer in her level. I know it, she knows it and she willingly admits it.  Even though I’m her biggest fan, I can say she doesn’t have some of the natural ability of her peers (probably because she’s related to me). She’s got a huge heart though and an incredible work ethic…showing up to class and rehearsals even when she feels like sleeping in or hanging out with her friends.

Mary Rollins has had some great dance roles recently – parts that she dances beautifully when she gets on stage – parts she performs flawlessly because she’s studied those parts, and danced those parts over and over in her head while we’re riding in the car, while we’re eating breakfast in the morning and while she goes to sleep at night. These are roles earned because she was present at rehearsal as the understudy when someone else didn’t show up. She was present and on-hand marking the part and paying attention so when the director shouted, “hey Mary Rollins, fill in for ____ “, she could. She knew how to do the job and do it without complaint.  In fact, she told me driving to ballet last week, “you know why I got that part in Chairs, Mom? Because I was there.”  My daughter knows that you have to be present to win.

The first step to success is just being there.

Being successful in real estate is like that. You have to be present to win---being on time to show a house, being there for your clients and being present in their transaction from the beginning to the end. And, that’s goal.  Thanks for the reminder MR!

A familiar sighting in the horse capital of the world.  I especially like that our mounted police have color coordinated horses. 

Vote for Lexington Children's Theater

Today's blog entry was either going to be about Ale-8 or skinny jeans.  As it turns out, today's blog entry is a shameless commercial for Lexington Children's Theater. 


Lexington Children's Theater is one of Chase Community Giving's finalist for a $1,000,000 grant from Chase Bank.  Cool stuff.  Here's the deal, you must be on Facebook to vote.  You can click on the title above or below and from there place your vote for Lexington Children's Theater.  You have five votes total so please take a moment to use one of those votes to benefit Lexington Children's Theater.  Voting will take place through January 22 (as in tomorrow---Friday!).  Click here to vote:  http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/662899?src=wallpost&ref=mf

If you have ever loved anyone who grew up or lived in Lexington during the past 40 years, you know someone who benefited from the presence of this wonderful organization.

Commercial now over.  Thanks for taking the time to vote and please return soon for our regular programming.  Or, if you have a favorite memory of LCT please share!

Good blog and great pizza

Happiness is...learning enough about the blog settings that you finally figure out how to cut out those spammers who have such lovely offers to make more money and enhance yourself in interesting ways.  So, hopefully from here on out I have defeated the spammers!

Happiness is also a great big slice of pizza from Goodfella's.  A wonderful Downtown hole in the wall where you can buy just a slice.  A bigger-than-your-head slice of the best (per my daughter) darn pizza in town.  Or, a whole darn pizza that I promise you only barely fits in the trunk of my minivan.

Standard Thursday night operating procedure for Mathews' family dinner:  Minivan pulls up on sidewalk across Mill Street from Goodfella's after picking up ballet dancers.  Ballet girls (as they are now known at Goodfella's) hop out with $20 in hand to fetch one 1/2 cheese/1/2 chicken & bacon pizza.  Girls leave store straining to carry this over-sized monstrosity as mom pops trunk and girls wedge it into a hopefully empty Honda Odyssey trunk. Change from the $20 is given back to mother.(amazing). Carpool riders are dropped off and much happiness ensues at the Mathews' house as Mathews' girls attempt to get 3 foot pizza box through door of the house.

Ahhh, such delicious specialness.  If you haven't been to Goodfella's, you've missed one of the best deals in town and maybe the experience that Lexington is a little bit New York cool afterall.     

(Above photo was taken on an Actual Thursday night -- ballet girl is at the counter in there!)

A love letter to Messrs. Dacci

My fingers are finally warm as I write this in my home office.  A lovely change from the chill 60 degrees experienced this morning as my little frozen children huddled by a space heater for warmth as they dressed for school.

Sometimes it is time to say good-bye.  Farewell upstairs furnace who successfully outlived your design life by a good twenty years!  You were a faithful source warmth for much longer than anyone ever anticipated.  I would be sadder except that we have known since the day we bought the house that you were long past your expiration date.  Every day with your heat was a bonus.  Were you milk, you would have been down the drain.

And, to my dearest Dacci brothers, Bud and Jim.  I love you, man (okay...men)...You guys are the bestest HVAC people a homeowner/Realtor could ever hope to have.  Thank you for getting enough kick into the old girl to last me until you can call me with the cost of a new one.  And my deepest thanks for keeping her alive these many years and not issuing her death certificate before her days were truly done. There's something to be said for honesty and truth these days.  Jim, Bud, you all are the best!

P.S.  Sorry that I didn't offer you that space heater sooner, Bud.  I promise you can put the garage door down and use it when you come back to put in the new furnace.

Homes in a year?

Anybody curious about how many homes a Realtor shows in a year?  I am!  Okay, I'm actually curious about how many homes I (notice that in bold) show in a year.  So along with tracking my mileage for my accountant, I've decided I'm going to track how many homes I show a la the Julie-Julia blog recipe count.  Now, I just have to figure out how to add that as a gadget somewhere here on this blog.  Isabelle, are you there????

I'm at 7 houses for 2010.   Six of those today which included tromping in the snow and discovering my new Honda Odyssey is WAY better on steep, icy hills than the old one! 

Great local talent

On this snowy morning enjoy a wonderful song by Perry Ritter, a student at Henry Clay High school and son of good friends, Dave and Kathy.  It's really special. 

http://perryritter.bandcamp.com/

Let me know if you like it.  And,  if you do download and pass it on.

Snow Day

9 degrees at 8:30 a.m., 8 degrees at 9:20 a.m.  What?!!?  That's just wrong in Lexington but makes for a well-worth it Snow Day!  Congratulations Fayette County Public Schools for making a good choice in closing school yesterday. 

By the way, those are ducks and geese out on the lake late yesterday afternoon. 

and an attempt to see if the Lake really was frozen enough to stand on.  Answer:  yes.

There you go.  Blizzard in the 'hood.

...and the hill was fast!  We'll be off to Lexington's best sledding hill at Shriner's Hospital this afternoon. 

More snow, please!

Boones Trace...

I may have confessed previously to being an Inside New Circle Road snob when it comes to my personal life. But that said, I'm not above pretending that if I didn't like my own neighborhood so much, I'd live in ____________ (fill in the blank here).

I think today, I'd live in Boones Trace. This great neighborhood is just across the Fayette County line in north Madison County. My favorite part of Boones Trace is the drive across the Kentucky River which can be achieved on the big I-75 bridge or the little blue Clays Ferry bridge underneath. I prefer the latter. I have a wonderful listing there at 143 Gleneagles Boulevard which every time I visit wish was my house. Last week driving from there I slowed for three deer crossing the road to the Clay's Ferry-first deer I've ever seen in my life in Fayette County proper!



This picture is taken from Avawam Drive (i.e. The Main Drag through BT) looking over and across the river to the I-75 Bridge on a stark winter day. If you live on the right side of Avawam, you have the spectacular view of the Kentucky River.

If I lived in Boones Trace, I might even try to play golf.

Snow in Kentucky...

I try hard not to envy my friends in climates with oodles of gorgeous white snow but I'm happy to say that Kentucky winters provide just enough snow for adequate winter entertainment. With an insider's knowledge of the right sledding hills, you can achieve maximum sledding! And, with the right assistance, a good four-foot snowman is possible with just an inch of snow.

Bybee Pottery

My name is Gwen and I'm a Bybee Pottery addict. It started about 20 years ago. I had just graduated from college and I needed a few things for my new apartment. My sister suggested that we take a trip to Berea (I'll get to that in another post) and why not stop at Bybee Pottery on the way there. And so we did, and that's where my troubles began. A few coffee mugs, a butter dish, a pie plate or two from the seconds shelf. Today, we dine off Bybee plates, eat cereal from Bybee bowls and if you ever get a plate of cookies or a pie from me you can bet it's on Bybee!

Bybee Pottery, in Waco Kentucky, has been in business since 1809. Their distinctive primitive style is familiar to most Kentuckians in Bybee blue as well as their very attractive speckled finishes. While you can find Bybee at various gift shops around the South and at the occasional quality garage sale, the best way to get Bybee is to get it yourself. A worthwhile visit to Bybee means being out the door by 7:10 a.m. from Lexington to make certain you are in line for the sale room's door opening at exactly 8 a.m. Pictured above we stand with our recent Bybee purchases in mid-December. When shopping's completed you can give yourself a tour of the pottery (also pictured above). We always like to see what's being made, talk to the craftspeople AND as we discovered on our recent chilly morning -- stay warm from the fiery kiln. Little has changed in the way the pottery is made in the last 200 years. The clay still comes from a short distance away and rumours are always in circulation that the pottery is soon to run out of clay and will close its doors forever. I no longer believe those rumours but I like to use them as an excuse to stock up whenever I'm there. Did I mention my addiction?

Important to remember for shopping at Bybee: doors open at 8 a.m., what's there is what's there and that's it for the day. They don't take credit cards but they do take cash and checks. You can order things but don't ask when you can pick the order up, it's worth the wait anyway. Don't touch anything on the floor -- that's somebody else's stuff so make your own pile on the floor when your hands get full. You will get dusty. If you like something just take it and put it on the floor -- things go quickly and she who hesitates will lose that piece of pottery. So, keep in mind that some of your fellow shoppers are dealers on buying trips. Grab quick, because if you don't, they will. Oh and have fun, it's one of those things that make living in the Bluegrass special!

Happy New Year!

from chilly Lexington on this cold, cold Saturday morning!

I'm thinking Spring! Anybody have any advice on where to buy an attractive indoor compost bucket to sit by my sink? One of my 2010 resolutions is to be a better gardener which shouldn't be difficult. I'm resurrecting one of the nice composters the previous owners of my house had built (the other has had the wood salvaged by Will to build a ladder up one of our pine trees) and looking forward to some soil improvement!

Ideally, I'm looking for one that looks like a canister, not like a plastic compost bucket...