Brett & Megan

Selling Your House 101

May 13, 2009 · 7 Comments · Outside the classroom

Tip #7: Take good photos. This is the entry in the Idiot’s Guide to Selling Your House. OK I didn’t really look but it’s gotta be in there.

Ever since we’ve been married, Megan has been on the hunt – for a house. Visiting Zillow & Realtor.com is not a daily hobby for Megan, it’s an addiction. She’s always scheming some way for us to get into an area with good housing and good jobs. The search has taken us physically to a dozen places here in CA as well as virtually to just about every state in the West.

Recently, we stepped things up a notch by going out to look at places with realtors. We feel we’re getting to know the market and the game pretty well. We’re on the MLS list serve which sends us houses in our price range and geographic area. These emails come daily and most have pictures. The pictures are usually taken by the selling agent who wants to show off the attractive features of the house. They’re supposed to be good advertising, which is why it always surprises me to find something like this:

ladder in stairs Yes, these are actual photos from the real estate listing for a house here in SoCal. What does this say to the potential buyers? “Yardwork and ladder to fix consistently leaky roof included. Creative storage opportunities for ladder & tools.” It was accompanied by the text, “Classic house, high on hill, montrous lot”. Apparently spelling and focusing the camera are not qualifications for a real estate license. How about this:
chaos bedroom

“Our decoration approach is best described as chaos theory.” And finally . . .

gross tv

Oh . . . This one is pure sabotage.

Tags:house photos

And it’s . . .

April 23, 2009 · 3 Comments · Embryology 101

We just finished another successful ultrasound visit to the doctor. This 5-month ultrasound is mostly so that you can see how all the internal organs are developing. Here’s a shot of the backbone. Once again, Brett used a handy, online photo-doodling tool to add his own interpretations (we were kidding before, it’s not really a tool on the ultrasound machine).

It’s so cool to see these pics live while the fetus is squirming. Hey, I’m a biology dweeb. And of course, we also found out the gender – we’re having a GIRL!

It’s a little hard to tell but the thing that looks like a horseshoe pointing to the right is a view from underneath the fetus’ bottom and legs. Dr. Teng (who seems super proficient with the ultrasound tools) typed the word ‘girl’ right where a boy’s pee-pee would be. You can barely make out two small white buds that are the labia. Then it a rare moment, she turned her head to show off a pink bow on her head (see lower photo). That pretty much made it a slam dunk.

We both took the day off to go to the morning appointment. Afterwards we ate at Marston’s – a fantastic little restaurant in Pasadena where all the students from a nearby culinary school get jobs because it’s known for it’s fantastic food. After some huevos rancheros and macadamia nut pancakes for brunch we sat and digested in a bookstore while looking through baby name books. We’ve got some in mind – but we’re going to keep them a closely-guarded secret until she’s born.

We’re totally excited and can’t wait to meet this next little Harvey girl!

Tags:

Good fortune

April 5, 2009 · 3 Comments · Outside the classroom, travel

I pay as much attention to the fortunes in cookies as astrology predictions. I’m glad these free sources of ‘entertainment’ provide jobs for all those English majors who weren’t sure what they were going to do after college. And though recently, some very good fortune came my way, I’m still not giving any credit to those plastic strips of paper that ruin an otherwise good cookie (am I the only who actually likes the cookie).

The big news – I’m going to China!! Oh yeah, and I’m going totally FREE. And I will be taking 4 of my high school students with me for FREE, too. Why? I was accepted as one of several teachers for part of Discovery Student Adventures pilot program. Discovery is getting into the student travel business – but in a way that I believe will blow away the competition. They are putting together student travel ‘adventures’ in which students truly get to experience the full culture and wonders of the world in the same way the Discovery Channel brings the world into your living room. Check out www.discoverystudentadventures.com. If these trips are anything like my experience with Discovery, they will be top-notch.

While they are already starting to take teacher applications for 2010, they needed a few teachers to volunteer to pilot three trips this year – for FREE. They had over 160 middle & high school teachers apply to go on 3 pilot trips to Australia, South Africa and China. We had to do an online application and a phone interview. They selected 3 teachers for each trip (9 total) and I was one of the 3 they chose to lead students to China.

During the trip, we will take a Tai-Chi lesson from a master, visit the Temple of Heaven, see the Olympic stadium and ‘water cube’ from the 2008 Olympics, & meet Chinese Olympians training for 2012. We will also be doing some service in a couple places including a visit to a Chinese orphanage where we will read to the children in English. Throughout the trip the students will be engaged in learning activities and be sharing their experience via blogging, twitter, video, etc.. I’m already putting together some lesson plans. It’s pretty darn exciting.

Megan came home just as I was on the phone with Discovery finding out I had been picked. When she overheard my conversation she started jumping up & down. We were really excited. Then it quickly dawned on me that she would be 8 months pregnant in the hottest part of summer alone with our crappy window air conditioner that only works if you sit right in front of it (in which you then freeze and have to move to a warm spot). But my blessed wife had already given me the green light when I applied. She said “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and you have to take it!”. I think I have the coolest spouse on the planet.

I’ll be sending updates for all the avid bmharvey.com readers while I’m halfway around the world – after I learn to type on a Cantonese keyboard.