A week of no blog posts....sorry...

Oh no!  I had no intention of leaving pictures of empty, dirty dishes up on the blog!  Hmmm...looks a bit like how I've left my kitchen sink for most of the day as well.  It's been busy busy the last week for me working with several buyer clients looking to cash in on the $8,000 federal tax credit that expires in 64 days, not that I'm counting. 

Also, I've been cooking chicken like crazy.  The Episcopal Presiding Bishop of North America is in Lexington for a Diocesan convention and I'm part of the lunch cooking team for Sunday when she is preaching at Christ Church Cathedral.  We're making Chicken Divan for 200+ people and I'm in charge of the chicken.  No, I do not have a commercial kitchen in my house.  I have two rather large crockpots.  My house smells decidedly like roasting chicken and the dogs are in heaven (or maybe that's hell when you can smell the chicken but can't have any).  They sit under the counter ever hopeful that someone might accidentally knock one of the crockpots onto the floor.  Meanwhile, I seem to have lost any appetite I might ever have had for chicken.

However, in April,  His Excellency Abdul Kalam, former president of India, is coming to dinner.  No, not at my house but for a special fundraiser dinner for the International Book Project.  I am on the committee though but fortunately Masala, a great Indian restaurant in town, will be doing the cooking for that and not me.  Want to know more?  Visit the International Book Project's website at http://www.internationalbookproject.org/ !   Tickets are limited and it should be a wonderful event.  How often do you get to have dinner with a former head of state afterall?

Oh look, here's a little dog now thinking about chickens (and looking very comfortable on my coat). 

Picture Challenge

Here's a little local flavor, picture challenge.  Can you guess what was in these dishes and where they were? 

snow + real estate = chilly sales

If you are checking here for the daily Lexington weather report, it is still snowing.  Yesterday's total was 5 inches although Will checked some drifts and reported back in with much higher accumulations.  And yes, he again shoveled sidewalks without being asked.  I continue to be amazed at his sense of responsibility toward this particular project.  Even more amazingly, he has asked for no financial compensation which is fortunate as I am discovering that blizzards make it extremely difficult to sell houses for two reasons:  A. no one wants to go out to look at my listings.  B.  none of my buyer-clients (or me for that matter) really wants to look at houses in the snow.  However, I did manage a walk-through yesterday of a new construction home and am off to take pictures of a new listing today!  Fortunately, I took exterior pictures before the big snow came so I only have to make it into the house and not around the outside of the house!

The hardest part is finding the road on which to drive!  I'm pretty sure there's a road under there somewhere. 

And, now I'm off to meetings and photo shoots! 

Stay warm!

Blizzard in the Bluegrass

As I sit stuck at home in the Bluegrass this morning, I'm beginning to think that my children may be in school until the beginning of July with add-on snowday makeups if the weather prognosticators are in any way correct.  As sad as that prospect looms for summer days better spent at the pool than in school, it's simply gorgeous outside today and I'm sure the newspaper will eventually get delivered.  This Kentucky weather reminds me of how I remember winter growing up in the Bluegrass minus the need to let horses out of the barn and break ice in water buckets. 

This picture is looking out my front door earlier this morning on my quest to see if the newspaper had arrived.  The gray quality is tribute to the thick flakes in the air and it appears that we have no roads in the neighborhood.  I can assure you that last night, I had not only a street in front of my house but a circular driveway about ten steps from where I am standing!  I can't find any of them this morning which could explain why the newspaper can't find its way to my house. 

To all of my relocation clients to whom I have extolled the mildness of the new Kentucky winter where snow is mandated to melt by the next day, I stand in apology.   We do indeed have Winter!  Snow can linger and accummulate.  And, it's lovely. 

Could someone please let Al Gore know that I'm rethinking the whole global warming thing?

Hot Yoga. Love it!

I love Hot Yoga


It’s actually called Bikram Yoga and I’m hooked on it in a totally self-indulgent, masochistic kind of way. Bikram Yoga (www.bikramyogalexingtonky.com) is yoga done in a 105 degree room. Really, it is 105 degrees in the room. It’s cool, I mean hot, and you meditate quietly on your towel and mat for 10 minutes before class begins so you have a nice sheen of perspiration right from the start.

I’ve been twice so pretty much that should qualify me as an expert now. Yoga is one of those things that has seemed so simple in concept to me that I’ve convinced myself for some time now that I do “yoga”. I realize that having done Yoga on my Wii Fit and with a video doesn’t really count. But, I’ve meant to do yoga at any rate! Growing up I did gymnastics, I could do the splits, I could do handsprings and back bends and walkovers. I mean, how hard could yoga be if used to be able to do that stuff?

Did I mention how humbling Bikram Yoga is? And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even the 105 degrees that made it so challenging. It might be the fact that I can’t do handsprings and the splits any more. I can still touch my toes but the more I run these days the farther my toes seem to get. It could also be that I’m getting old but I prefer to think it’s the running that makes me stiffer. I even had to stop and kneel on my mat for a little while during that first class and concentrate on not throwing up. I wasn’t alone though which was some comfort. When the instructor said the most important goal for the first class is to stay in the room for the full 90 minutes, I thought she was kidding. I stayed in though! Class 2 on Monday – huge improvement in my stamina but incredibly intense nonetheless.

If you want to try Bikram Yoga for the first time keep these tips in mind. Don’t get in the front of the class—yeah I really didn’t mean to do that but apparently people point their heads to the front not the back of the room when they lay down to meditate. Who knew? Also, don’t get by the actual heaters…common sense would tell you that it’s hotter by the heater. Apparently, some people’s common sense melts at the door. In addition, I’ve learned you don’t have to be in Lexington to try Bikram Yoga. There are Bikram Yoga Studios in all kinds of places – Mt. Pleasant, SC , Germany and even in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. How about that!?!

Now, go get bendy and sweaty…it’s good for you.

Stuck in the Bluegrass from special Guest Blogger Isabelle Selby Linaburg

Hello there. My name is Isabelle and I'm not sure what my last name is yet. Don't get any weird ideas now, it's just that I got married in the last year and I haven't quite decided on which name to take/keep. So, we're all a little confused. That has nothing to do, however, with "Living in the Bluegrass" so I'll hurry along to that point. This past Nutcracker season.. ahem.. Christmas season I boarded a plane from a little old town called New York City and flew to Lexington. Now, this place is one of my favorites in the US for a variety of reasons, with most having to do with my wonderful glorious family. I also like horses, but that's secondary. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I made a little wish that I would get to stay longer than my plane ticket allotted for - something that has happened before when I got stuck here during an Ice Storm - when the weather guy in the sky decided that I could stay a little bit longer and brought me a ton of snow. Snow that meant that when I checked my email next I would find that my flight home had been cancelled and I was STUCK IN THE BLUEGRASS for another TWO days. Let me tell you, people. I had a horrible time. And thus being: my list..




Top Ten Reasons You NEVER Want to Get Stuck in the Bluegrass...

10. Building snowcats is a drag. So last year...

9. Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the shape of snowmen - are you kidding me? Excuse me while I dream of eating these again...

8. Having to go to Tea at The Greentree Tearoom. The food is only so-so. Can you tell?

7. Watching your mother and aunt sled down a snowy slope is something you'd rather miss. Believe me!

6. You'll have more time to geek out over iPhone apps (among other things) with your Aunt. Embarrassing!!

5. There are babies with dog ears in Lexington that hang out at Savane Silver. Beware of incredibly cute babies!

4. If you stay you get hit with lots of snowballs. Never mind that there are wonderful people throwing them at you...you just got hit. That's a fact.

3. Visiting homes with more space in their bathroom than you have in your entire apartment (remember, I do live in NYC)... not good, not good at all.

2. You never want to get stuck with dear, darling cousins and have to resort to eating ice cream at Graeter's Ice Cream on Romany Road.  That was the worst, the absolute worst.

1. And after all that.. you just might not want to leave.

Please excuse the blurriness as some photos were taken with my iPhone. Oh, you're intrigued and think my pictures are great? I would love to tell you more about my iPhone. Really, I would.

I love...a snow day (and child labor)...

As much havoc as a snow day can wreak on your plans for the day, there's still something absolutely magical about waking up to a world of white and the opportunity to put your head back on your pillow for a few more marvelous moments. 

Makes me feel a bit sorry for chldren who live in places like Charleston where you probably never get to experience that joy.  Sure, you might get a day off for a hurricane but I can't imagine that it's nearly as carefree as a snow day!

Of course, it's not quite as carefree if your evil mom puts you to work for a little while.  But rumour has it there might be some money in a well-shoveled sidewalk!

Favorite new iPhone app...

I love my iPhone.  Really.  It's the coolest.  I use it everywhere.  See, I'm even checking my email at Doughnut Plant on the lower East Side while on vaction!

Frankly, I never thought that the iPhone could possibly live up to all the promised hype of Apple (and I'm sure I don't need an iPad).   But wrong I was!  About once a week my favorite app changes.  Last week, it was my Milelog app (I should mention that it is February 4 and my mileage tracking is STILL up to date.  My accountant would be very impressed but he doesn't read blogs or believe in the magical necessary qualities of the iPhone  for that matter).

This week my favorite app is from Realtor.com.  For the house- fascinated, your iPhone can fix upon your exact location and tell you every home nearby that's on the market.  How cool is that?  The best part is it doesn't replace a good buyer's agent (i.e. me) but it can give a consumer a great view of the market and the app is so much better than the options for looking at listings that I had in my old not-so-Smart Phone.   

I love Keeneland...

in the Fall and the work of very talented equine artist Lynda Williamson Selby.