The "BUZZ" w/ Stinger

Starbucks OB#1 The Baristas all yell out "good morning" to every person that enters through the doors.  It's nice and it makes for a more intimate experience.  Well done! OB#2  The music is terrible, some type of electronic funk music (Pep Rally: Missy Elliott).   I wonder how far along this set is?  Should I wait for the next set?  Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be 70's or 80's classics.   OB#2  I've notice that in a number SB remodels they are using long tables and removing many of the 4 seat tables.  What is purpose, most people don't want to sit next to people that they don't know and if they are forced to they will always leave a empty seat or two between them so the seating efficiency is lost.  Also in a covid world are long tables better or worse?  I like my smaller tables. OB#3 The lights above the long table shine directly in your eyes, just a slight tilt will help.  OB#4  Dare I talk about a home...

 I love great concepts, ideas that are so simple that we all ask ourselves, "Why didn't I think of that"?  Ideas like the YouTube web series  HOT ONES.  Hot Ones is a simple premise, take 10 bottles of hot sauce, mild to lava hot and using the Scoville heat units (SHU) order the bottles 1-10.  Apply from each bottle a generous  amount of hot sauce onto an individual chicken wing. Lights, camera, action.  Now invite the biggest "A List Celebrities" to eat these hot wings (1-10), while answering questions about their lives and careers.  It's amazing, the world's most famous people are lining up to participate in this exercise in pain.  They have body sweats, nose draining like a downspout, bloodshot eyes that water like a Spring rain, lips on fire. Their stomachs make sounds that scare small children.  All of this as they are trying to answer questions on camera.  The tension builds as they eat their way up the wings of death.  Y...

 REAL ESTATE 🏡 December 2021's numbers are in! Again we saw a very low inventory of homes (.6 months of inventory). A balanced market is somewhere between 4 to 6 months of inventory. The median home sale price was 362K with sellers receiving (on average) over 100% of listed price. In 2021 we had a strong year in real estate with home prices averaging a 17% increase from 2020.  All indications say we're on track for another strong seller's market in 2022!

Recently, I wanted a new pair of Jeans.  So I started looking online.  Big mistake, because as soon as I started browsing, ad, after ad, after ad "Spywared" onto my screen.  Ads for every variety of jeans known and unknown to mankind.  Ads for Slim jean, Skinny jeans (like there is a difference?) and Athletic jeans. Hello, just cut to the chase, "FAT guy jeans", "Dad jeans".   Athletic cut, a kind (yet cruel) way of saying your plump, stout, heavy, solid, meaty and my Grandma's favorite for me as a young growing into myself young boy, Husky.  Over time this barrage of denim derailed my appetite for jeans.  I stopped looking,  I think I'll just continue to wear my favorite Khakis. (you know the ones with the hidden elastic in the waist brand) or as I like to now call them "Athletic Cut" with comfort stretch.

The Old West Side is one of the most historic neighborhoods in the Longview/Kelso area. This area was all part of Robert A Long's, president of the Long-Bell Lumber Company, vision to create a planned city. Most of the houses in the Old West Side are built in the 1920's. Each house is unique & very few look the same. Follow along as we drive through the historic streets alongside beautiful Lake Sacajawea. We even caught Longview Community Church bells ringing at the 1 o' clock hour. Click to watch a driving tour of the Old West Side

 So here are a few strange thoughts from a strange man (ME).  I now and again make my Grandma's recipe for Chicken N Dumplins.  A group of our friends meet each Friday night for food and fun.  We call ourselves the Friday Night Fun Group.   I will not go into details because more detail could get us arrested (but I digress).  We have food theme nights and one night I brought a pot of Grandma's Chicken N Dumplins and it was a huge hit.  It got me thinking about my Grandma.  Edna was from Oklahoma and she grow up in a time when a chicken dinner required you to go outside selected a chicken (perhaps a laying hen that was not producing) wring its neck, plunged it into a hot water bath for 1 minute, which allowed the fat around the pin features to soften making it easier to pluck the features.  All this work and you have not even started cooking the bird yet.  Can you imagine!  Let bring this to modern day.  "Hey kids what do y...

 "REAL RELATIONSHIPS"  One of my business goals this year is to create a weekly 1 minute video called, "Hey, got a minute?".  The video will deal with a variety of topics that follow my core values (I call them my 4 Reals).  Real Relationships, Real Learning, Real Faith, Real Estate.  These are quick hits, informative and fun. In the real estate business video is becoming the industry standard for communicating. To be relevant, you need video playing on social media.  Knowing this, my team and I are ready to produce these videos, but I keep dragging my feet.  The reason?  I don't like how I look on video.  I'm not bashful and I have no problem with public speaking.  I like the energy, laughter and wit of me.   I just don't like the 60 yrs old, overweight bald guy that is starting back at me from the camera.  How do I get over this hurdle?  Other then lose weight and wear a hat, give me your advice on how to power thro...

 "REAL LEARNING"  Less than 3% of Americans set annual goals and only 1% write them down.   We all want more focus in our lives yet without purpose we wander from shiny penny to shiny penny.  A goal is a declaration of where you want to place your efforts; a map that shows a desired destination.  Goals are important yet in themselves they are simply words on paper.  Accomplishing goals requires a plan "System" that gives legs to ideas.  Example of a Goal: I want have better better muscle mass.  Good goal but not measurable enough.  Instead of pie in the sky define your goal.  Something like, improve my overall muscle mass by 10% by 12/31/2022.  Start this goal by having a lean muscle mass test, this is your starting point.  Now create your system(s) that lead to accomplishing your goal.  Example;  Get a gym membership, hire a coach to set up a lifting program, find days and times to work out,  place the...