Catch The Magic!!!

To all my friends who are living in the past.... (that's all of you in the US who will read this "Wednesday morning"). Wednesday morning is SOOOOOOO 12 hours ago! I love having the power to talk to people in the past - makes me feel powerful or like a magician or something. I can also tell you the future... Wednesday is a good day!

Tuesday was "House Hunting Day" here in Taipei. In the course of 6 hours, I looked at 12 apartments. My criteria? Here's what I went with:

1) Location - stuff to do close by? Shopping areas? As part of this is transportation - MRC (train) and bus close by? Very good public transportation here!
2) Size (some were smaller than my townhouse back home, some much larger). If the place is too small in size, experiencing living with Sarah for the first time could have a negative outcome... the whole Cabin Fever thing!
3) "Newness" - don't want to live in something old that needs repairs and multiple calls to a landlord that doesn't speak English. My negotiation skills are limited to folks that can understand English. Hard to get my way when I have to only rely on my size as intimidation.
4) Security - wasn't as big of an issue as I was expecting... every place was secure enough - some overkill but it's still important!
5) Hot neighbors? Not as big of a criteria for Sarah for some reason....

I've narrowed it down to 4 options as of Tuesday night. And talking through them with Sarah, I think I've ruled 1 of them out - it was really cute and in the "artsy" district next to the Puppetry Art Center (yeah - you read correctly... puppet art!) and a grocery store about a block away. Very new furniture, but next to a very busy road and construction of the new above ground train so lots of "excess noise". Currently a 15 min walk from the train stop:(

As for the "final 3"? More on those tomorrow as I try to make this decision!

Funniest parts of the day looking at apartments:

• Finding a German brewpub downtown for lunch. Great food, pretty good beer, and Taiwanese servers wearing Lederhosen!!
• Having to parallel park the company car for the house tour lady... it was a nice Lexus car (complete with proximity beeps when you back up) and the spot was big enough for a 747. It was the only spot and she tried once before I offered for her and we swapped. So yes, I've "driven a car" in Taiwan!
• Most of the gas stations (all 3 of them... not very many as you drive around) are full service (as in they pump gas... nothing sexual in "full service" for you perverts!). Well the lane she chose was self serve... I helped out and got the gas in the car so we weren't stranded! She wasn't sure how to put the credit card in, select the grade, and then put the nozzle in the tank to get some fuel. No, I haven't converted the price here yet to know what gas runs here. I'll do that sometime for a comparison.
  

The biggest news of the day though... I stumbled across this headline:

Stone Temple Pilots get back to work
‘I felt like the story’s not finished,’ says Scott Weiland

Holy crap - I just shit my pants!!! Did I read that correctly? I read on...

The quartet — singer Scott Weiland, guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz — each took on solo projects during the band’s split. Weiland’s group, Velvet Revolver, was arguably the most successful. That group, which includes former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, announced on April 1 that Weiland was no longer a member: Slash claimed Weiland’s “increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on.”

Wow!! So the most underrated and talented group of ALL time is back together to do some damage! More interesting to note is Slash saying that Weiland's "erratic" behavior was a problem... have you ever seen Weiland live? And this was new to you??? The bad news of this new tour this summer is that Taipei is not on the list:( BUT the hope of a new album (and a NEW tour to follow) is now at an all time high after being non-existant for the past 5 years. My hope is the album comes out summer of 2009 so I can see them in the Fall of 2009 when I return;) Best line from the MSNBC interview is Weiland claiming "I think I have the world record for detoxes though." Hillarious! Anyone goes to the June 6 concert in St. Paul, let me know so I can call your cell phone and listen in!!!

Yeah, the little things in life excite me.