Craig and His Shady List

I will always have a slight allegiance to Craigslist due to my first experience with him.  Thanks to Craig, I was able to snag that amazing Vera Wang wedding dress for a steal!  So what, that I had to drive 10 hours, meet a strange girl in a mall and hand her an envelope full of cash.  The risk was totally worth it!

But all that aside - Craigslist is a dangerous sketchy world.  As I recently found out first hand.....

In all of our furniture buying, I have made one mistake.  The green chairs.  They looked cute in the store, but just didn't match the dinning room.  Unfortunately, they were on sale and I couldn't return them.  Doh.  But, wait!!!  No big deal - I'll just list them on Craigslist!  Piece of cake.

The listing process is easy, all I needed to do was to sit back and wait for the flood of emails from local folks wanting to buy my green chairs.  I even got a confirmation email that my chairs were listed successfully! 

But wait.  

You have to be concerned when the beginning of every email from Craigslist starts like this:

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Hmmmmm.  Concerning.  But my first experience with Craig was so great!  Maybe all those stories of serial killers and con artists on Craigslist are real?  That warning sure is harsh.  But scams can't be that common - right?  Hmmm.  Nah.  Can't be.

Just a few short hours after my post, I had a nibble from a fellow named Brian.  I replied to his inquiry telling him the chairs were still available and he could come look at them anytime this week, to let me know what day worked best for him.  Oh, and Brian - don't forget, I'll only take cash.

Then "Brian" replies with a few red flags:

- He needs my full name, address phone number and several other personal pieces of information
- He's such a nice guy that he'll pay me MORE for the chairs than the list price!
- He'll get the MONEY ORDER over to me as soon as I give him all my personal information.

I'm pretty sure 'ol Brian is a scam artist in Nigeria and had I replied, you would have seen me on the next Dateline NBC talking about how I was taken for everything I had.  Right alongside the little old ladies who lost their retirement.

Oh Craig.  Your list has so much potential, but hasn't seemed to help with the sale of my green chairs.  It has only succeeded in giving my email address out to shady characters who just want to steal my identity.  That was a bit more than I bargained for.  I just want to sell my chairs.  Is that too much to ask?

Anyone out there need some chairs? :)

Cheese + Bread + A Bus = Nom nom nom

Remember when you were little and your mom would make you grilled cheese sandwiches?  Every kid loves cheese and bread.  Of course, aside from those poor kids who were lactose intolerant - I'm just not sure how those guys survived.....

My sister recently told me about a new phenomenon hitting the Portland food truck market.  The Grilled Cheese Grill (http://www.grilledcheesegrill.com/).  What a phenomenal idea! Even into adulthood - everyone loves a good grilled cheese.  I have to admit though, at first I was a little skeptical - I mean how many ways can you spin cheese and bread? And on top of that, it was clear across town from my sister.

But regardless, we decided to make the trek and check out the grilled cheese guys.  Upon walking up to the spot..... my 4 year old niece immediately stopped and said she was NOT eating there.  You see, the seating at the Grilled Cheese Grill was in an old double decker bus.  Tallie exclaimed that she could not eat in there because the bus might roll away.  Once we showed her that there was no engine, she tentatively agreed to give it a go.  And I'm glad she did!  The food was delicious!  Perhaps even the best grilled cheese sandwich.  Ever.  Seriously.  I've tried to figure out how they made their bread perfectly brown and crunchy - but can't seem to get it just right.  If you're ever in Portland - you MUST check them out. 

Now if only the Atlanta area would jump on this food truck train.....



The terrifying seating arrangements

Skeptically checking out the bus and making sure there was no engine

The Grilled Cheese Grill

The Worst Thing in the Entire World

My four year old niece recently asked me an interesting question.  Our conversation went a little something like this:

Tallie:  Auntie Leslie, you want to know what the worst thing in the world is?
Me:  Gosh, I don't know - what is it?
Tallie:  Going to the bathroom on the airplane.
            The door was freaky and the toilet was gross.
            I walked in and said," What the mess is this?"
           The floor freaked me out.
            I don't ever want to use the bathroom on the airplane again.
            It was the worst thing in the world.

Ahh.  That little one is wise beyond her years.

A few more wise thoughts from a four year old:

- My mom is never driving a minivan!  Ever!
- If you cheat at the Disney Princess matching game, my dad will ninja chop you. 
- Freaky looking people live in Portland.
- Policemen come to get you if you're bad, firemen come to help you if you're in trouble and ambulances come to get you if you're dead.

Just Call me Nostradamus

About a year ago, while on a trip to Oregon, TB and I took a little jaunt out to the coast.  While at the town welcome center, we snapped this photo:

Notice the little card in TB's hand.  It says "Tsunami!" and gives instructions on what to do in the event of a tsunami on the Oregon coast.  At the time, we had no idea that a tsunami really can occur in Oregon.  Or perhaps I didn't consciously know, but my Nostradamus skills were showing themselves........

Humor aside, the family in Oregon is safe and sound since they're many miles inland.

See the original post here:

Original Tsunami Post

Winery in Georgia?

Going on a wine tour in the state of Georgia is like sushi in a gas station.

I like sushi.  And the gas station is someplace I frequent, I do occasionally even find a gas station that I could say that I like.  But when thinking about going out for some sushi - a food that is quite delicate, that has to be handled properly and not kept in a walk in fridge next to Four Loko, chocolate milk and a hard boiled egg in a bag - I want the environment that sushi is served in to be a certain way.  I mean, the sushi could pick up the common smells of cigarettes and petroleum if not kept in the proper environment.

Back to the wine tour of Georgia.  Wine is good.  But mind you, I am not a wine connoisseur.  I pick out bottles based on price and pretty labels.  Occasionally I'll luck out and find a wine I like to go back to.  But even considering my lack of knowledge on wine, I have never purposely chosen a wine grown in Georgia - it reminds me of the sushi in a gas station.  I imagine wine from Georgia to be grown next to chicken coops, carpet factories and peanuts.  And who knows - it might pick up some familiar characteristics of that Georgia red clay that it's grown in.

As luck would have it, I went on a mini (perhaps only one) winery tour of Georgia recently.  In celebration of a friend's 30th birthday we decided to spend an afternoon doing something decidedly different - a Georgia wine tour.

Much to my surprise the scenery on the Georgia wine trail was quite nice.  I mean no fooling anyone into thinking you were in Napa - but not bad.  Our actual wine was hit and miss but in general not bad - no essence of peanuts or red clay - success in my book!  It even seemed that the wineries in those parts of the state have become equivalent to the local bar.  Several locals stopped in and the "bar tender"  knew exactly what to pour for each of the regulars.  All in all -not a bad way to spend a few hours in north Georgia.

Perhaps I'll even try that gas station sushi next time...... errrrrr, maybe not.

On the Road Again

These days I've been doing a good bit of traveling for work, which really means that I spend lots of my time trekking through airports and driving in circles trying to figure out where I'm going.  I do however, get some good people watching in and have made some observations and discovered quite a few new things recently:

 

The TSA needs a new marketing department.

• With the TSA installing the new body scanner machines in airports all across the country, they decided to post signs throughout security explaining the procedure to you.  That does seem nice enough, right?  It is good to know what you're getting yourself into when you step into one of those contraptions.  However, one would expect that the explanation would make you feel better about getting in something called a "full body scan".  The only problem is, the pictures posted all over the airport look a little something like this:

                 Now, I'm not so sure about you - but that picture certainly doesn't make me feel any better.       
                 Seriously?  There is nothing left to the imagination.  They really should just take the pictures 
                down, as that doesn't make me feel one bit better.  I think I'd just rather not know what they see.

 

 

A bit of fashion advice:

• By no means am I what you would call a fashionable person, but wow.  There are some crazy things walking through the airport.  I can occasionally pick up some good fashion tips on what NOT to wear while on the road, due to seeing so many people trek through the airport.  So speaking of what not to wear,  there seems to be a recent trend of wearing leggings or tights as pants.  These items can often be see through, not to mention skin tight - but maybe people mean to do this.........  you have to realize that what you are wearing is see-through.  Right? 

Pumping Gas

• It's highway robbery not to fill up a rental car before returning it, so I often find myself at a gas station near an airport driving up to a gas pump and hoping that I guessed correctly as to which side of the car the gas tank is on.  UNTIL, a co-worker pointed out a little something I had never noticed... An arrow near your gas level gauge, which indicates the side the tank is on.  Wow.  Did I feel stupid.

Comfortable Shoes are a Lie

• Due to all my trekking through long terminals in work clothes and shoes, my feet have begun to look a little something like this:



Definitely not my foot - but they do look strikingly similar.



      So imagine my excitement when I found some heels that were made in collaboration with Nike! Imagine - work shoes that are as comfortable as your running shoes.   Those have to cure my gimp feet - right? Wrong.  The shoes were a lie.  My feet still look scary and my shoes are still quite painful.  Comfortable work shoes just do not exist.

I'm beginning to think I spend too much time on the road....................................

A Green is Not a Green

When talking about that arbitrary difficulty rating of ski runs, that is. 

On my first true winter vacation experience last week in Copper Mountain and Vail CO, I decided (among many things) that there needs to be subcategories of green ski runs.  I'm sure there should also be subcategories of the blues and blacks, but surprisingly I haven't experienced too many of those.  Only one.  And that was one too many.

In order to make my inaugural ski trip the most positive experience possible, I signed up for a private lesson on the first morning.  Ski instructor and I had a great morning cruising down the bunny slopes!  My kind of skiing - just cruising.  No fear for my life.

"Falls without reason" - totally me.

At the conclusion of the lesson, ski instructor highly encouraged me to stay on that slope for the several days and not to let TB and his friends push me into anything that I was not ready for.  We could even leave our skis at right there with him and return for them after lunch!  I should have known the day would take a dark turn when TB politely declined and said we would just take our skis with us.  As we rounded the corner away from ski instructor, TB confidently said, "We don't need to come back here".  Riiiight.

Later that afternoon I found myself falling off the ski lift at the top of the mountain, only to come face to face with.................... a BLUE.  Yep.  A blue that really should have been classified a double black due to the death defying drop that I was staring at.  After realizing I had no alternative, I started down the cliff.  Started and didn't get very far.  Ten feet down the blue that should have been a black, I lost both skis, a pole and every bit of confidence I had gained with ski instructor.  TB and I then proceeded to get an amazing upper body workout thanks to miles of cross country skiing on catwalks, as every trail going down was a black, blue or a green that looked suspiciously like the blues and blacks.  It was a one lift afternoon that included some yelling, tears, curse words and swearing that this was the worst sport in the world and I was done.  D. O. N. E.  Well, I couldn't actually be done until I made it off the mountain, but I would be done once I figured out how to get down. 

After eventually making it off the mountain, I was then left with a delima.  This was day one of four full days of skiing and we had pre-purchased lift tickets.  Groan.  I'm not one to waste money, but I wasn't so sure I was into the whole skiing thing.  In the end, my stubborn side won over and I refused to waste 3 days of lift tickets.  I did eventually master those easy green slopes, appropriately tittled Kokomo (you know, the song about taking it slow). I even got to know the ski lift workers as they wondered why I would only ski one run on the entire resort.  The first winter vacation ended on a high note and I may even be willing to go on another ski vacation provided I get spa breaks and have an easy green friend along for the trip.  I'd at least consider it.

Getting fitted for ski boots.  I was happy and naive.

Amazingly, no emergency phone was needed.  Although I did seriously think about it.

Special thanks to Amanda C. for the loaner ski clothes which kept me toasty!