On last night’s 10 p.m. broadcast, CBS13 ran a story by Mike Dello Stritto on a deaf family’s collection of over 4,000 Santa decorations. Their cameras panned silently through the house, showing Santas covering every surface, including the bathroom vanity, which was adorned with a windup novelty item depicting Santa and Mrs. Claus having a very merry Christmas in the bathtub, if you know what I mean. It was absolute genius, check out a screenshot or check out the video online. Stay classy, Sacramento!

Amanda Levy of Metroblogging Sacramento asked on Saturday what we have probably all wondered for a few months now…

I was just exiting the 80 by P Street in downtown Sac…I saw a sign for Real Estate Investor…make 10K to 20K per month…has anyone EVER made money by calling the numbers on one of those signs and signing up???? Seriously!!!

You’ve seen these hand-written signs, correct? I always assumed the reason he/she needed an apprentice was because he/she was clearly so busy making billions and billions of dollars in Real Estate to find a way to get those signs printed all professional-like!

Via KCRA, the pot house crackdown is still turning out results:

Police in Elk Grove raided several homes overnight and discovered more indoor marijuana-growing operations.

The homes are on Snowy Egret Way, Oreo Ranch Way and Haflinger Way

Oreo Ranch Way? No wonder they were growing pot. “Dude, I heard this street was like named after this real place, this real ranch where they grow giant Oreos.” My wife gets the credit for that one.

Maybe it’s my sensitivity of being a newlywed who’s selling her house, but what’s up with everyone wanting to know personal financial information like how much you paid for your house and how long ago you bought it?

I realize such questions became part of the daily chatter before the real estate bubble burst, but when you think about it, how obnoxious is it for someone to boast over how much equity they have? How gauche is it for someone to ASK how much you’re making on your home sale? Why don’t we all carry around laminated copies of the previous year’s tax returns while we’re at it? Would you like to see my medical records too?

This came to light a couple weeks ago when Mr. NonRunnerButHeSwimsALot and I went to Fro’s to celebrate having faxed my signed counter-offer to my prospective buyer’s agent.
Continue reading ““I’m surprised you would ask such a personal question!”” »

OK, remember what I said the other day about treating everyone nicely (yes, Kit, including hipsters)?

The one exception is Nick from Ameriprise Financial. “Who’s Nick from Ameriprise?” you may ask yourself.

Answer: He’s the guy who called me to tell me that he’d plucked my business card out of the fishbowl at Kamon Sushi, entitling me and nine of my friends to a complimentary sushi lunch.

I immediately called my hubby, and we brainstormed on our favorite sushi eaters who would be on the invitation list (yes, you were all on the list), and we compared Outlook calendars to coordinate good days for our complimentary lunch.
Continue reading “Where’s my sushi, Nick?” »

By now you’ve heard of the Police pursuit that ended in a scary crash at 59th and Folsom, right in front of Corti Brothers, on Saturday. Well, we hadn’t yet when we found ouselves at Big O (just across the street) just after lunchtime, just a few hours after the incident had taken place. (Link below, but wait for it, trust me.) The manager reported to me that the suspect had tried to run, and had been taken down and taken from the scene in an ambulance. Later, I overheard the same manager saying that it had taken several officers to subdue and handcuff the suspect, that he had been “a pretty big dude.” Police tape cordoned off the entire intersection of 59th and Folsom–clearly, some bigtime shit had gone down.

Not being satisfied with one source, I chatted up one of the shop guys while he rolled my repaired tire out to my car. According to this young man, the suspect had flashed a gun, and when cornered, had fired into his own car, killing his passengers, before being gunned down by officers and “taken away in a body bag.” How did he know this? His boss had gone down there, don’t you know, and asked around.
Continue reading “Tall tales at the Big O” »

Competitive cup stacking, cheerleading, and double-dutch jumproping will soon take a back seat to the next craze that’s sweeping the Midtown area: XTreme Blood Donations!

I give blood about every eight weeks, and I was overdue for this most recent appointment — with the wedding a couple weeks ago, I knew that if I gave blood that week, that would be the one time that they nicked something and my whole arm would be purple (for those who don’t give blood, that’s a rare occurence, so don’t let that scare you.)

Sitting in the snack area post-donation and noshing on my 2nd plate of nachos, my attention was diverted from the May ‘97 issue of Better Homes & Gardens when an older gentleman asked me how often I donate.
Continue reading “Coming Soon on ESPN2″ »

One of the first things I learned when moving into my house in ‘97 was that my phone number confused a lot of people — namely, people trying to call the auto parts store and drug treatment clinic/halfway house, both of which are one digit off of my number and yield no fewer than three wrong number calls per week. You’d think that with my answering “HELLO” and not “Hello, Cheezer’s Pizza!” or the name of some other business, that they’d clue in that they’d called a private residence.

With the house on the market, I answer all calls since it might be a realtor calling to show the house. Yesterday, the Caller ID showed a 415 area code calling, so I picked it up. A woman said she was moving to the Sacramento area from the Bay Area (”This is going well so far,” I’m thinking), and she needs to make an appointment. I said, “OK, when do you want to come over?” She told me she needed to get set up on her regular schedule. “Regular schedule?” I asked, especially confused since she woke me up from a nap that had me in deep REM mode.
Continue reading “Sorry, wrong number” »

Entirely predictable protests at yesterday’s Sac City Unified School District hearing on whether to endorse this year’s nationwide Day of Silence for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students.

The district’s LGBT Task Force, itself a product of a 2004 board resolution to make schools a safe place for “gender nonconforming” students, recently asked the board to approve a symbolic resolution acknowledging April 26 as a Day of Silence.

No word on whether the district would consider a day of teaching, to ensure that the students learn enough about the world so they don’t grow up to be bigoted jackasses (that was supposed to link to a picture of a bigoted jackass from yesterday’s protest, but not even Fox40, where we saw this story, has anything). Maybe if the district needs a kick in that direction, they should remember the group of student protestors who managed to get CalSTRS to tentatively divest from its investment in the Sudan. Nice work, kids!

Ok, so I’ve been sitting on this one for a few months, but something happened this morning at the gym that really sent me over the edge. I haven’t heard back from the Sac Rag Legal Department yet regarding what I can and can not say so I’ll try to be vague.

A few months ago I was shopping at my local Raley’s Supermarket when I noticed a large, (are there any other kind?) tricked out Hummer H2 parked in a handicapped parking spot (she had a placard). Hey, no judging, right? Well, as I continued on to my car to unload the groceries I saw a woman in her late 40’s, early 50’s lightly jog to said SUV and literally jump in and drive off.
Continue reading “Now I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger…” »