Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Twofer Tuesday

Twofer Tuesday is where I post two thoughts for the day.

I have a bunch of vacation time built up and they are not going to let me carry it over this year. This mean s that I have 14 1/2 days to take before the middle of April. A surprising amount since I took a vacation in August, a vacation between Christmas and New Years and several random days off. Yup. I had not used my vacation time up in several years. Anyway, my husband and I are considering taking a vacation and leaving the 15 year old home alone. Let me say that again. Leaving.a.15.year.old.home.alone. Needless to say, he is very excited. He is going on a school trip in April and isn't really that interested in going on another vacation. If we go a week besides school vacation week, the prices are much cheaper. Are we nuts to leave.a.15.year.old.home.alone? Of course, the rest of the story is that we live next door to his grandparents and they have agreed to feed him and keep an eye on him. We are thinking about paying one of his friends to take him to school in the morning. I am sure that Nick would do it for free but i don't mind throwing him a few $$ as he is a really good kid.


Extreme Home Makeovers came to a nearby town a couple of years ago and redid a house. That house is now on the market for sale. This redo was the main reason that I stopped watching the show. It came out that the father was an ex-convict for armed robbery. They put the wrong birth date down so the show didn't discover it until after the house was done. Also, I heard many other rumors about the father and alleged misbehavior after the story. Not sure if they are true but it does make me question his selection as a "deserving" individual. I know someone who volunteered on the project. She said that she would never want the house. In her opinion, the focus was more on a design that would photograph well and not on a home that is practical. I hate to be cynical about things like this but unfortunately in this day and age, things are not always as they seem. I did hear that the stars of the show actually spend very little time on the set. They will come in, pick up a hammer for 5 minutes and get the "shot" and then hand the actual task over to someone else. They were actually working on 2 shows the same week. One was in Maine and one was in Massachusetts. Anyway, if you want a house that was built for one of the shows, you can buy one in Wells, Maine.

That is it for today. Have a great Tuesday!

Heres to short posts.

7 comments:

  1. Since the grandparents are next door, and from what I've read, your son is a pretty good egg, I'd have no problems letting him stay home, as long as he understands the house rules.

    Nobody in, nobody out.
    Call grandparents when you get up and when you get home from school.
    Homework before goofing off.
    Clean up after yourself.
    Don't eat everything that isn't nailed down.

    I'd left my daughters home at that age, with a neighbor checking in, and a friend as the go-to person for daily phone calls. Everything went well...I was probably more worried than anyone else.

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  2. I think you should go somewhere wonderfully warm and leave 15 yr old at home. With grandparents next door, he can't have a rager of a party.

    Bummer about the Extreme Home Makeover house. That is just very disappointing. Friends of ours did the trading spaces show and those people were around the whole time.

    Happy vacation planning!

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  3. How did your friends house come out on Trading Spaces? I used to love that show. I did wonder, however, about the quality of the work that got done.

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  4. I am in the same boat as you...considering leaving my 16yr old home for a weekend...yiyiyi...I keep going back and forth we dont have grandparents that live next door or else I would do it in a heart beat

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  5. Grandparents next door? GO!!!

    They did a house near us a few years ago. The family knew weeks ahead of time, the crew showed up for the final shoot, and the mom couldn't pay the taxes afterward. So disappointing.

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  6. i heard that a lot about the extreme home makeover too.

    thanks for your comment on my blog the other day...26 years is amazing...and I am in awe of that...congrats.

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  7. only if it's in a part of Maine that doesn't get below 55 degrees......

    ;-)

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