Where to Party this New Year's Eve in Iowa City and Coralville - 12/31/09 09:39 AM
Tonight we're going to party like it's 1999... Prince had the right idea and with another decade behind us it's the perfect opportunity to party hard again as we ring out the old decade and step into 2010.Looking for ideas? I have a few for you that caught my eye here in Iowa City and Coralville... The Englert has got quite a show lined up with Public Property, Euforquestra & The Uniphonics. The start of a new decade warrants a big party and their first New Year's Eve Party since reopening in 2004 promises to be a "not to be missed" … (2 comments)

Reduce Your Heating Bills: Recycle Your Bubble Wrap For Window Insulation - And Yes It Does Work! - 12/28/09 10:06 AM
Another icy cold day in Coralville and Iowa City again today. Always looking for new ideas to keep my heating bills down I stumbled over a good one at the weekend at Build it Solar. I'm sure you all know that a large amount of your heat is likely to escape through the windows. Of course if you've upgraded your windows recently to take advantage of the Government's tax credit promoting energy efficiency you may be in pretty good shape.  If you're like me though and have that on your "to do" list.
Anyway, to use a common saying around here. … (2 comments)

New Movie Releases and Other Events in Iowa City & Coralville This Holiday Weekend - 12/24/09 10:51 PM
It's coming up to the weekend again. And it's a pretty special weekend at that...  Christmas is the one holiday I can say sneaks up on me every time... I know it's coming and am always surprised how quickly it arrives! Never more than this year of course as I move back into my house after my fire, am surrounded by moving boxes and no carpet... It's all good though, it beats the hotel room!Doing my research for my usual weekly look at new movies and events in the area I learned something new today. Initially I was surprised to learn … (0 comments)

Recipe For Rich Chocolate Fudge - A Classic Holiday Treat - 12/21/09 09:33 AM
Recipe For Rich Chocolate Fudge - A Classic Holiday Treat I included this recipe in my December Newsletter and after hearing back from an appreciative reader on just how easy it is to make decided to share it here today. Prep Time: 20 Minutes Ingredients: 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 14oz can SWEETENED condensed milk - (NOT evaporated) Dash salt 1 cup chopped walnuts 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Preparation: Over low heat, melt chocolate, sweetened milk and salt. Remove from heat, stir in walnuts and vanilla. Pour into an 8 or 9 inch foil-lined square pan, cool for about … (1 comments)

New Movie Releases and Other Events in Iowa City & Coralville This Weekend - 12/18/09 10:19 AM
It's Friday and just one short week until Christmas. Most of us will have stuff to do in preparation for the holidays, (like shop for instance). On the other hand, you may need a distraction... Maybe you'll find something of interest here with my round up of movies and events in Iowa City and Coralville this weekend December 18 - December 20. As always, I'll start with new movie releases. Two new movies to share with you this week. The first is the highly anticipated AVATAR, James Cameron's first new movie since the Titanic. Now that's a hard act to follow! … (0 comments)

Signs to Watch Out For to Avoid Electrical Fire or Shock in Your Home - 12/16/09 08:36 AM
Safety in the home. How often do you think about it? My guess is probably not that often, it's one of those things that just gets taken for granted. It was the same for me until about a month ago when I had a fire in my home. Now I'm somewhat sensitive on the subject and am likely to be writing more frequent posts on this subject that until recently I took for granted. Let me just give you a little background info on my fire. It was an electrical fire that started in the attic. Finding out exactly how it … (1 comments)

Don't Miss Out on the $5000 Grant for Eligible Veteran Home Buyers - 12/15/09 02:21 PM
Don't miss out on the $5000 grant for eligible Veteran homebuyers. The information below comes directly from Jessica Greving, loan officer and VP of Residential Mortgage Network, Inc. in Coralville. RMN specializes in VA Loans, FHA Loans and USDA Rural Development Loans. These are all specialty home loans that are not offered by too many banks in the area. Jessica is very familiar with the nuances of these specialty home loans and definitely someone you should visit with if you're thinking of buying a home in Iowa City, Coralville or any of the surrounding areas in Johnson County and need a … (0 comments)

New Movies and Other Events This Weekend in Iowa City & Coralville - 12/11/09 06:50 AM
It's Friday and time to take a look at new movies and other events in Iowa City and Coralville. This is what caught my eye this weekend December 11 - December 13.I'll start as I always do with movies. Two movies to tell you about this weekend. I'll start with the movie that you'd be hard pressed to miss when it comes to TV advertising this week. Invictus is a Clint Eastwood production starring two stellar actors, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman plays the newly elected President Nelson Mandela, who joins forces with the Captain of the African Rugby … (2 comments)

The Day After Our First Snow Storm in Coralville Iowa - 12/10/09 06:17 PM
Sunny Skies and Freezing cold in Iowa today. Ten years in Iowa and I still have trouble figuring out how cold it is based on the temperature. -3° Fahrenheit gets a quizzical look from me. -19° Celsius on the other hand, man that's cold! Our first storm of the season left us with a very pretty snow scene. This is in front of my house in Coralville.

 
Couldn't resist posting a pic of my cat, Tigger too. Looking especially cute as they do when they're asleep.This is in our hotel room, in case you're wondering about the sparse … (4 comments)

The Not So Fun Side of Winter in Iowa - 12/09/09 04:45 PM
We're in the middle of our first winter storm of the season. This photo was taken about an hour ago in front of my house in Coralville. In the meantime it's started snowing again. It seems the chaos is not going to end just yet. Everything has come to a complete standstill - Even Coral Ridge Mall has closed. (A rare occurrence indeed!) The winds are very high and we have a blizzard warning until midnight. More details at kwwl.com
 

 
 
Not my son's favorite job, but he's a good lad...
 
 

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Social Media - Sinkhole, Magic Bullet, or Just the Best Bang for the Buck You Can Get? - 12/09/09 11:41 AM
I have seen 2 posts recently sharing Mike Parker's (negative) view on social media. Here's a link to an article of his on the BrokerAgentSocial network. (Note the irony of posting this article on a social networking site - Hmm??)Let's check out whether he is qualified to state his opinions as facts on the subject of social media: First of all, Mike Parker is the Principal for Compass Internet Systems, an SEO Company that charges mega bucks to optimize agents websites and get them on the first page of Google. Part of Compasses pitch is to assure you that you will … (16 comments)

Google to Incorporate Real Time Results in Searches: Yay for twitter!!! - 12/09/09 09:16 AM
It seems you either love or hate twitter. I love it. For me it's preaching to the choir, but I figure there are still some folks out there that need convincing, so I've got something for you...Eric Schmidt, CEO at Google is now on twitter. That alone is an endorsement, but it gets better. If you take a look at the screenshot below you'll see that Google is incorporating real time results into its searches. Yay twitter!

 
 
 
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Damage Points: Common Mistakes That Affect Your Credit Score - 12/07/09 06:39 PM
Last week FICO released information on just how much your credit score is affected by negative activity.
Times are tough when it comes to getting a home loan and the banks are looking ever more closely at home buyers credit scores. Maybe that's the reason why FICO has had a change of heart in its policy of keeping its points system under wraps.  Whatever the reason, they are now sharing some information with us on how many points you are likely to lose for common credit mistakes. It's not that they're sharing all their secrets, but as you can see from … (5 comments)

Interactive Map Shows Crime Rate in Iowa City Neighborhoods - 12/06/09 11:18 AM
Iowa City Police Department's interactive map shows the crime rate in Iowa City neighborhoods  What's the neighborhood like? Folks relocating to Iowa City ask me that all the time. This week I came across an article with info about a really cool interactive map that I think will be helpful to you if you're in the process of relocating to Iowa City and looking for information on crime stats in the area. I'm pretty sure if you live here in Iowa City already you'll find it interesting too, especially if you're thinking of moving anytime soon. I love collecting data, so … (0 comments)

North Liberty Real Estate Market Report November 2009 - 12/04/09 10:24 AM
North Liberty IA Real Estate Market Report November 2009 It's the beginning of the month and time for my North Liberty real estate market report for November. 
The number of homes sold in North Liberty in November was up 77% with 53 homes sold in November 2009 in comparison to 30 in November 2008. Can't beat numbers like that. Of course we had the first time homebuyer tax credit that was due to expire on November 30 and that probably contributed to the large increase in year over year sales. Having said that, North Liberty has profited big time from the … (2 comments)

New Movie Releases and Other Events this Weekend in Iowa City & Coralville - 12/04/09 06:08 AM
It's Friday and time to take a look at new movies and other events in Iowa City and Coralville. These are a few things that caught my eye for this weekend December 4 - December 6.I'll start as I always do with movies. Everybody's Fine looks to be a nice holiday movie with Robert De Niro. He sets off on the holidays to make nice with his children after they all cancel their trip home to see him at Christmas. Don's worry, it's sure to have a nice happy end. If you're looking for something a little meatier, then Brothers might … (2 comments)

Coralville Real Estate Market Report November 2009 - 12/03/09 02:11 PM
Coralville Real Estate Market Report November 2009 It's the beginning of the month and time for my Coralville real estate market report for November 2009. The number of homes sold in November in Coralville was up by and amazing 92%. There were 25 homes sold in Coralville in November 2009 compared to 13 homes sold in November 2008.
The average price of homes sold in November was $225,136 with an average of 98 days on market. The average price is up by 3% compared to last year when it was $218,246. Coralville is still bucking the trend we have in Iowa … (0 comments)

Iowa City Real Estate Market Report November 2009 - 12/02/09 08:10 PM
Iowa City Real Estate Market Report November 2009
It's the beginning of the month and time for my Iowa City real estate market report for November.
The number of homes sold in Iowa City in November was up by a whopping 90% with 59 homes sold in November 2009 in comparison to 31 in November 2008. Can't beat numbers like that. Of course we had the first time homebuyer tax credit that was due to expire on November 30 and that must have contributed to such a considerable year over year increase. The average price of homes sold in November … (0 comments)

Ever Heard of the Lazarus Effect? - 12/01/09 12:07 PM
 
I thought about writing a post myself to raise awareness on World AIDS Day, but decided that there was no way I could top this post from Julia Odom.
 
Via Julia Odom, Chattanooga Real Estate (Select Realty Professionals):
The Lazarus Effect is what happens when a person with full blown AIDS is given Anti-Retrovirals (ARV's). In as little as a month, that person can go from knocking on death's door to healthy and thriving. It is truly miraculous. This video is only one minute long. In honor of World AIDS Day, please watch it and do what you can to … (1 comments)