Madrid, Ho!

The reveal was revealing. There were 16 offers. One (albeit low) was all-cash.

It's customary these days for a buyer to write a letter to the seller. We did this when buying both of our houses. One couple had a 15-year-old cat, loved New Zealand and wanted to make this their home. Both they and another buyer volunteered that they'd continue our position in the neighborhood disaster preparedness group. You want to choose them all. In the end we took the high offer -- a father and son buying the house together for the son and his girlfriend to live in. Like mrguy, he's a recording engineer.

We'll see how it goes. Could fall apart, but the early stages have been promising and the sums we're talking about are not small, so the high offer really was higher.

In the meantime, our band has been asked to play at the Aloha Festival. The kumu hula we're working with has decided upon the theme of "Colors of Hawaii" for their set. This means playing a lot of hapa haole songs (Blue Hawaii, Pretty Red Hibiscus). I draw the line at "Little Brown Gal." Your "Colors of Hawaii" are not allowed to refer to the colors of people.

Also happening this week is a nasty cold that's had me laid up for days. After trying several cold preparations without any relief, I finally approached the pharmacist at CVS and said "Here are my symptoms. What active ingredient should I look for?" He suggests Claritin, but I find a little Mucinex D and an Alka Seltzer plus nightcap seem to work, as well. This morning I awoke feeling a little better, which is great because I get on a plane in ten hours and I don't want to have that icepick in the ear sensation that happens when your cold goes into your eustachian tubes.

I haven't even packed, but I do this trip regularly enough that I can get it together fairly quickly. Then tomorrow I'll be in Madrid. The Prado, the flea market, and forklift work at the museum.