alison the wilca

I've run a lot of yard sales and done pretty well.

Make big bins or tables were everything on the table is a certain price and/or buy x # of items for $x. That way, you can get rid of a bunch of stuff in groups.

I have never labeled my stuff with prices, things seem to go faster when they just ask or just offer. If they see something with a labeled price, it may turn them off from asking. That being said, make sure everyone working the sale knows your lowest threshhold for important items.

Remember that you don't want any of this stuff and that some dollars, however meager, are better than no dollars and having to drive everything over to Salvation Army.

Give good deals to small children whose parents have given them money to spend at the sale.

Do they not have those sinister all-powerful death machines known as "teachers' unions" in your states?

I have no clue... Louie would know.

I was a member of the California teacher's union and it sure was expensive.

And that is probably the reason why you have a major budget defecit in California.

Hey! That budget deficit isn't mine. I'm a clear and free Illinois resident!

Funny how states with higher property taxes also have budget deficits (IL)?

This is another discussion, but raising property taxes up the wazoo should not be the answer for budget shortfalls. Governments could really benefit from a few Six Sigma black belts coming in and leaning out their processes.

Actually property taxes are lower in the city than in most suburbs. Not to say they are low. I think five grand sounds high though. I don't believe I pay that much. Expect to spent several 100k for a house however.

 

LouieB

Yeah, the home price I've got a grasp on. I also was recently able to find a listing of property tax ranges for all of the suburbs. Some are extremely high (Skokie comes to mind) and others and pretty low (Niles, for example). Ive seen places in the city with fairly low recent tax year property tax payouts and other spots that were totally nuts. I'll just have to make sure I do my homework!

also, allison, you and tully should move out my way...there is a home for sale right across the street in fact. he and i can build a clubhouse in my backyard.

thanks for the idea. Is there a big tree that i can build a treehouse in? then i can throw fun things onto your clubhouse roof and shoot nerf arrows at you both from the sky.

Isn't the average value of a house in California like $700,000, though? So $7000 for an average place in an average community?

oh, no, not at all. Maybe it is that high in SF but my brother is about to buy a 3 bedroom home in northern San Diego county for under 300K. My parent's home in San Diego with 4 bedrooms, large property and view of the ocean (on a clear day!) is valued at under 600K. It really varies on the neighborhood/city.

WHAT?!?!?!? How in the world can that even be legal? How do all those little old ladies in their little houses pay property taxes like that from their social security checks?!

I come from California, where property taxes have been kept at a lower rate (not to exceed 1% of home's cash value) due to prop 13 since the late 70s.

I guess this is all just so shocking to me!

kris and i are planning on looking for a home late winter (feb/mar 09) here in chicago and the thing that freaks me out the most are the property taxes. holy crap... $5k/year for a modest home?! I can't imagine that much money going towards just property taxes every year. So I've been looking at neighborhoods in supposedly lower tax Niles. Niles also offers what looks like an awesome community gym for $29 bucks a month! I was hoping for Jefferson or Portage Park in the city, but I don't know if we'll be able to do it.

Anyone with recent Chicago home buying experience?

With the cool breeze blowing here in Chicago today, I'm reminded of the upcoming season!

This is a thread for your favorite scary stuff: movies, stories, books, places, etc.

my favorite scary book is:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26347953/

snoop! I thought she had died.

Damien Jurado -- Where Shall You Take Me?

Weird, I was just going to post this when I decided to read all the old posts. This is one of my favorite albums ever. Its super moody all the way from post-violence weirdness (Amateur Night) to the happiness of going to a movie (Matinee). Omaha is a stunningly beautiful road song. I can't recommend it highly enough and have never heard anyone (except you, Noah) talk about it.

why in the world is it still an entire dollar higher here in Chicago than other places in the country? that is a crazy differential.

i must have missed the chupacabras. if i hadn't, i would be totally freaking out.

it is still over $4 in Chicago.. I got $4.15 today and wasn't even in the city, where it is still around $4.35.

i used to love driving out to the country, laying on the hood of my car with my friends, and watching the perseids and, in november, the leonids. that was in california. the chicagoland area seems devoid of pitch black skies within 20-30 minutes of the city. ::sigh::

this movie would have been way better if there were no actual murder/big time crime. if maybe they had thought they had seen a crime committed and then were running around paranoid the whole time, i would have liked it a lot more. i hated how serious some of the stuff was and i really didn't like rosie perez's character. And what happened with the girlfriend and her family? they never really wrapped that up. plus, there was no heart in that story line. maybe more interaction between the family and seth rogen would have made for a more light hearted film.

there were some great funny things in this movie, but it was really missing something. as someone who can't even stand the smell of pot, i still find it quite funny to watch people be goofy. why couldn't it have been more goofy?! i did catch the anti-pot message as well, but i think those "above the influence" ads do a much better job.

oh yay! happy day to you!

i went. as a huge x-files fan, i did like it and loved seeing it anew. However, I did wish the story had been something spookier/paranormal. I think they could have easily done a stand-alone story with a weirder/creepier storyline.

he's been champing at the bit

Yay for the correct form of this phrase!

Congrats to Brendan... dang, in my head he is still a little kid.

aww.. i have always loved that show. i'm sad.

I was just thinking, what the heck, no Youth in Revolt?! THEN, I googled it.... it is being made into a movie with Micheal Cera, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, and Zach Galifianakis (and others, obviously). I am sooooo excited!

And, Judy, I agree... no Douglas Coupland? Weird. I loved Shampoo Planet.

Its not a documentary, but the new Ed Burns/David Simon (The Wire) mini-series starts Sunday night- its called Generation Kill. Having been a huge fan of The Wire , I'm guessing this will be filmed with just as much care taken to project real and interesting characters and places. There was an actual recent veteran of the Iraq war that assisted them on the accuracy and the characters are all based on real soldiers. Should be interesting.

this isn't a movie, but i just remembered that i tear up at every michigan.org tourism commerical, radio and tv. even the golfing one. i just watched a bunch of the autumn ones on their website and nealy cried again. i don't know why i torture myself.

wow, i loooove wall-e. what a beautiful and thoughtful movie. I can't fathom how the creators can make such lifelike scenes, especially the smoggy air on earth, or Wall-e's dinged up body. It was incredible.