neutopian's Profile

Any time I've left SF I've been miserable, couldn't wait to move back. People are just different here! I'll stay no matter what it takes.

It's not at all helpful, but here's a fun fact: that black grimy city dust is mostly composed of ground-up tire rubber from all the cars! Even here in SF where the wind off the ocean is constant, it still gets everywhere. Not much to do but filter the air and encourage 'traffic calming'.

Have been considering one of these very clever looking desks..

It's a matter of conformity, if this is what you've seen all around you, then you think you should have it, too..

I'm a native of California, but my partner is from back east. He used to chide me for using natural mulches, because 'they always turn grey and ugly', couldn't understand why I didn't want to use the 'nice' dyed red mulch. I ignored him, of course. Mulch is meant to break down, not act as some sort of crumbly artificial hardscape!

Our landlady rented the unit next to ours to a guy that then spent the next several months losing his mind. Banging on the walls, smashing things, and shouting gibberish in, I swear to god, a Jamaican accent that he didn't have when we spoke to him in broad daylight, we lived in fear of what crazy thing we'd hear next.

Sooo, after the 4th time the cops were called to wrestle him into submission, strap him to a gurney, and cart him off for '48 hour observation', all right outside our front door, we decided to take advantage of his wide-open door to have a look..

The place was a ruin, everything smashed. He'd punched the bathroom mirror out, bloody broken glass galore. He'd stabbed a huge long steak knife through his laptop screen, right out the back of the case. Best of all, he'd written himself crazy memos on sheets of toilet paper, and stuck them on every surface. It was almost funny at first: a combination of trite rap lyrics, shopping lists, and Ja worship, until we got to the ones where he expressed his revelations that good old Ja wanted him to kill our little dog for our presumed sins.

We were out of there before he could be released again. Needless to say, having lived the adventure, I would never consider any potential nest of crazy as a home.

As mentioned several times, a good housekeeper can and will do these things, after enough time to really get to know the household's needs and preferences..

I would add that when you offer extra cash to tackle extra work, you should consider the time involved, as well. Having the housekeeper come in an extra day to overhaul your closets is one thing, asking him/her to just go ahead and do it during their regular visit, which has surely been planned out like clockwork, is another.

As their neighbor, I too think Shannon and Alicia should get a house tour. It's a really lovely place!

Karen is awesome..you should do an article on her garden, too!

My partner and I always end up in a row afterwards, as he keeps inviting more bodies as the night approaches, and I get more and more uptight about it..so the short version is that we are immature idiots.

If Hindsvik had a card I'd probably apply.