Alas, I thought that my sporadic appearances here on AR would keep me under the radar enough to hide me from the Memes.  Not so - nothing gets by Missy Caulk, which is why anyone looking for help with Ann Arbor real estate needs to get in touch with this savvy lady.  She saw through my tricks and meme'd me anyway.

Thanks.

Before I get started, here are the rules of this so-called non- meme... (why is it called a non meme? If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it sure ain't a hippopotamous.  And I'm amazed that I spelled that correctly after spending the evening simul-blogging on Dave Barry's blog along with other rabid obsessed devoted fans of JACK as we watched him try to find peace and tranquility and zen and all that in a war torn African country.  On Dave's blog, I'm known as Wizzy.)

Oh, wait, that was a rabbit trail, sorry.

THE RULES:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next two to five sentences.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one. Pick the Closest.

6. Tag five people to do the same.

And the Bible is not allowed.   (now, I am not sure who started this or the rhyme or reason for the rules, so don't shoot this blogger)

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Well, there are many books I could have chosen, as there is often a pile of 'em on my night stand next to my box of Lucky Charms, or on the floor by my slippers. 

At any given moment, I could be reading Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier or Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchel - they are my two favoritest books of all time, and I've read them mulitple times.  I might be growing professionally by reading Sell With Soul by our own Jennifer Allan.

Or I may be reading the non-fiction book about The Great Influenza of 1918 (I have no idea why, but I find it rather interesting.) 

Most recently, I have read Highland Mystique, which is fun because I am very good friends with the author, and in fact, I took her photo for the jacket. How cool is that?

The book that alarms my husband is The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, and it's sort of frightening that I know that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Silence of the Lambs were both inspired by a real life guy, or that I know a lot about Ted Bundy, or that The Green River Killer is Gary Ridgway. 

This is alarming stuff for a mild mannered real estate agent/working mom/loving wife to be interested in....but this is why I wander into Forensic Files when channel surfing...if I can't find an old episode of House to drool over Wilson to watch.

BUT, (thanks for bearing with me - I have a problem, I know.) 

BUT the nearest book happens to be Hallow'een Party, by Agatha Christie.  This is one of Dame Agatha's more disturbing books, in that one of the victims is a 12 year old girl.  Granted, she's a mouthy girl, but still...

I LOVE Agatha Christie, and especially her hero, Hercule Poiroit. (Enough already, just get with it.)

PAGE 56, Sentence 5:

"Difficult?" said Mrs. Drake.  "Of course it's going to be difficult. It seems incredible, absolutely incredible, that such an awful thing should have happened."

"I suppose," she added, "the the police may know something?  Inspector Ragland has a very good reputation locally, I believe. Whether or not they ought to call Scotland Yard in, I don't know."

Mrs. Drake is talking to Hercule Poirot about the murder of the little girl, which happened at a Halloween Party, right after the girl declared that she had once witnessed a murder.

(insert creepy/tense music here.)

NOW, who am I going to torture meme non-meme in return?

Michael Delp - you can stop blogging but you can't hide.  Come on out of the woodwork Michael and play with us again.

Jennifer Allan - come on, since I gave you a link, ya have to play along.  ;)

Ruthmarie Hicks - what's that on the table by your bed? Come on, fess up.

Kelli Fronaberger - met Kelli way back when along with Thesa, Marchel, Ashley, and several others during our Blogging Experiment with Karen George.  Kelli, haven't heard from you in a while? Whatchu reading?

Lisa Ryan is kind of a neighbor of mine.  We have talked about meeting up at Triple Play (which is a convention in Atlantic City for some of us local yokels).  Alas, I'm not going to make it this year, due to a conflict,  but I'd like to find out what Lisa's reading anyway.

Now guys, please post a link to your Meme in the comments here.  If you don't, you'll have umpteen years of bad luck, and every transaction from this day forward until you link it here will be jinxed until you comply.  ;)

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: I've made a NEW flyer from GoGoPin, and I really like this one. I've left the old one there just for conversation's sake. Next, I'm going to try this out on CraigsList.

And now, the original:

 

For more information on The Hideout, click here.  Would you like to receive Hideout Homes For Sale updates via email?  Email me for info.

 

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Do you have a home in Pike or Wayne County PA to sell? Email me and learn about my innovative marketing plan which will be personalized specifically for your home. Are you interested in Pike or Wayne County PA homes for sale? Visit my real estate website to see all the property for sale in Hawley, Honesdale, Greentown, Lackawaxen, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and the entire Lake Wallenpaupack region of Northeast PA's Pocono Mountains. Registration is NOT required to search the Pike/Wayne MLS. You may create an account to save your searches and keep track of your favorite listings.
WEICHERT, REALTORS® - Paupack Group Independently Owned and Operated

Karen E. Rice is a real estate agent working in Pike & Wayne County of Northeastern PA in the Poconos. The Hideout in Lake Ariel and nearby Lake Wallenpaupack are among Pennsylvania's most popular destinations for vacations, retirement, and purchasing a home.

I really like what PA mortgage pro Jason Sardi has shared here - as is his style, he does not pussy foot around or mince words.

I was taken by his final comment:

One final note that I'd like to point out.  I've heard a lot of yells hype whispers from folks waiting to do anything (buy a home or refinancing) until the market 'comes back'.  Ponder the following:

The best time to buy something is when nobody else wants it.

It is a good time to get a mortgage - it is not as difficult as many think; particularly if it's a primary home.  Vacation homes require more of a downpayment than in the past, but it can be done.  Contact Jason, or another mortgage pro of your choice and get the skinny.

Now: enough of my babbling and on to Jason's blog: (thanks Jason for letting me post this on my blog!)

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Do you have a home in Pike or Wayne County PA to sell? Email me and learn about my innovative marketing plan which will be personalized specifically for your home. Are you interested in Pike or Wayne County PA homes for sale? Visit my real estate website to see all the property for sale in Hawley, Honesdale, Greentown, Lackawaxen, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and the entire Lake Wallenpaupack region of Northeast PA's Pocono Mountains. Registration is NOT required to search the Pike/Wayne MLS. You may create an account to save your searches and keep track of your favorite listings.
WEICHERT, REALTORS® - Paupack Group Independently Owned and Operated

Karen E. Rice is a real estate agent working in Pike & Wayne County of Northeastern PA in the Poconos. Lake Wallenpaupack is one of Pennsylvania's most popular destinations for vacations, retirement, and purchasing a home.

I'm Sorry, I Thought Your Home Was FOR SALE © 2008 by Karen E. Rice. All rights reserved. Originally published by the author on PikeWaynePABlog.com - as "How Not to Sell Your Home"

Affordable Hideout Home For Sale - Lake Ariel PA - $139,900

One of the most common requests I have for home searches is "single level" or "ranch" homes.  The second request is for homes that are less than $150,000.

I can fill them both right here in one convenient location!

This home is perfect as a starter home...or a weekender home....or a "downsizing empty-nester" home.  Much of the updating has already been completed: the carpets are like new, the kitchen has newer countertops and ceramic tile flooring (along with the dining area), and the interior is warm and friendly with a buttercream yellow color scheme.

The cathedral ceilings give this ranch home the character of a chalet, and genuine feeling of airy openness, which is often lost in typical small ranch style homes.  The living room is defined by the brick fireplace (wood burning) and larger windows to let in lots of Wayne County sunlight!

By far, the most charming aspect of this rancher is the completely remodeled bathroom.  The ceramic tile floor has an art-deco flair with midnight blue diamond-shaped tiles interspersed with the gleaming white ones.  This bathroom does pack a decorative punch!

 

Rounding out the package are the enclosed sun porch overlooking the woodsy back yard, and the attached one car garage.  The coolest part about the garage is the storage loft - hey, if this were my house, that storage loft would be my kids' clubhouse!  They would LOVE playing there....but, well, it probably is better served as an AWESOME storage area!

CLICK TO SEARCH FOR MORE HIDEOUT HOMES 

View the Virtual Tour (don't forget to look at More Pictures at the end!)

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Do you have a home in Pike or Wayne County PA to sell? Email me and learn about my innovative marketing plan which will be personalized specifically for your home. Are you interested in Pike or Wayne County PA homes for sale? Visit my real estate website to see all the property for sale in Hawley, Honesdale, Greentown, Lackawaxen, Hamlin, Lake Ariel, and the entire Lake Wallenpaupack region of Northeast PA's Pocono Mountains. Registration is NOT required to search the Pike/Wayne MLS. You may create an account to save your searches and keep track of your favorite listings.
WEICHERT, REALTORS® - Paupack Group Independently Owned and Operated

Karen E. Rice is a real estate agent working in Pike & Wayne County of Northeastern PA in the Poconos. The Hideout in Lake Ariel (Wayne County) is one of northeast Pennsylvania's more popular home owner communities for vacations, retirement, and purchasing a home. Read More on The Hideout here.


The Hideout, Lake Ariel PA

The Hideout Has a Hideaway for You © 2008 by Karen E. Rice. All rights reserved.

DO YOU CRY...

When you see Veterans, both young and strong and old and feeble, marching behind the colors?

When you see them stand at attention, saluting our flag?

When you hear the National Anthem, It's A Grand Old Flag, God Bless America?

How about when you hear the Military Branch Songs...

ARMY!

"Over hill, over dale, as we hit the dusty trail...."

NAVY!

"Anchors aweigh, my boys, anchors aweigh..."

MARINES!

"From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Triploi....."

AIR FORCE!

"Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, flying high into the sun...."

COAST GUARD!

"Here's the Coast Guard Marching Song, we sing on land or sea...."

I do. 

Tonight was the Veterans Day program for my son's school, the Wallenpaupack North Intermediate School.  My heart was bursting with patriotic emotion - pride for the veterans who attended, sorrow for the ones who could not, because they were killed in the line of duty, or have been a POW.

You could hear nothing but the rhythmic steps of the Veterans as they marched together into the gymnasium.  You could hear a pin drop as they placed a ceremonial wreath before us, to honor those who have fallen.  I could not keep the tears from escaping as the mournful sound of Taps echoed throughout the room.

I could not sing with the audience as we ended the program with God Bless America - but my heart was singing:

GOD BLESS OUR VETERANS.

Thank you for all you have done, for all you have sacrificed, for all you are doing.  You are loved and appreciated.

 

Vietnam Memorial Photo courtesy of hookbrother, Child with Flag courtesy of Jeff Turner, via Flickr Creative Commons.

Remember the featured post from Benjamin Clark last week, "Why Would Anyone Leave Active Rain for Another Blog?" 

Many people commented, stating that they were loyal to Active Rain (as am I) and had no interest in creating "another blog."

While I am totally an Active Rain loyalist - I left my first office because the broker told me to quit Active Rain or leave the brokerage - I can see the value in having another blog, even if it's only as a back up plan...especially after the AR outage today.

Like everyone else, I was thrilled to finally log in tonight, and I read A Day Without Rain with about 9,000 other eager 'Rainers, one sentence made me go ..."ooooo, never thought of that..."

Jorgen said: "The fact that it happened on a Sunday without any data loss is a very thin silver lining on this black cloud."

Oh my...what would happen if all of your blogs were gone?  Do you have a back up plan?  This is why I post on an outside, non-Active Rain blog as well. 

So even though I missed the 'Rain today, and I was aggravated that I couldn't post and read and comment like I had planned to - I still have my other blog that is active, alive, and also has good google juice and SEO.  So if AR goes down in a really bad way, all of my hard work doesn't have to go down with it.

As many people stated on Benjamin's blog, it is not a good idea to put all of your eggs into only one basket.  So if you have a blog elsewhere and don't see a need for Active Rain, think again - what if your non-AR blog goes down?  What is your back up plan?

I am not complaining about AR here, this is NOT a slam on AR for this disaster today - this is a call to action to make sure your bases are covered SHOULD the unthinkable happen and the next time, the blogs are lost.

AR is a terrific community, I appreciate and admire the hard work that goes into creating this network free of charge.  I just need to know that I've got an ace up my sleeve should something go terribly wrong.

 

Photo Credit Miss Rogue on Flickr/Creative Commons