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Can You Put Bananas in the Refrigerator?
If you think you cannot put bananas in the refrigerator, there is a way to do it. Who knew? Certainly not me. In fact, when I was at our neighbor’s house in Hawaii during my last visit, my neighbor dumped a bunch of ripe bananas in my arms. How she thought I would be able to eat them any faster than she could is beyond me. Although, I probably could have made banana bread. Yum, nothing like Tutu’s Hawaiian banana bread.
The main reason I have all of this fruit is because we have company coming. Josh Amolsch, my exclusive buyer’s agent extraordinaire on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team, is arriving in Kona this week with his fiancé. For some reason, I did not check my calendar and thought Josh would arrive on Monday but he’s not. Naturally, before I realized this, I bought a lot of fruit on Saturday at Safeway in Kona.
Then yesterday, during a conversation with my sister, I bemoaned the fact the apple bananas might be too ripe by the time Josh gets here. Papayas and mangoes will hold a few days but the bananas will be tricky. My sister said I should put bananas in the refrigerator only when they turn ripe. If you do it before the bananas are ripe, they will rot in the refrigerator.
But if the fruit is ripe, and you put bananas in the refrigerator, they might turn brown a little bit, but the interiors will be sweet, firm and yellow.
So go ahead and put bananas in the refrigerator after they have fully ripened. OK, I might have to eat one just to make sure.
The Difference Between Real News or a Con Job
Do you know the difference between real news or a con job? Are you being solicited as a consumer or are you receiving important information? In our Sacramento Bee on Sunday, my eyes fell on an article about 5 things that make you money when selling a home. None of the things in that article made any sense. Five bullet points and the middle point talked about a new roof, naming a certain roofing company. A new roof won’t make a seller more money. It’s a maintenance item not an improvement. A few more paragraphs down, the roofing company website was noted. This was not an article. The piece was an advertisement.
They are getting so clever and slick with this stuff. OK, says I, instead I will read my new RisMedia magazine. Except half of the articles in that magazine are written by third-party vendors who would LOVE to do business with Realtors. In fact, the entire slant of many so-called informational articles are about why the reader should purchase the author’s service or product. Makes me wonder if the magazine charges the vendors who supply it with content.
It’s bad enough there are news stations in this country where you can’t get the news. You would think it would be news because they call themselves a news station. But it’s not. You know how you can tell whether it is real news or a con job? If it is real news, the reporter will give you the facts without personal commentary. If it is not real news, the reporter will share what the reporter thinks about it. This is not real news because reporters are independent third parties reporting the hard, cold facts. Not opinions.
When they share opinions, they are no longer reporters. They are television personalities with commentary. Like Geraldo.
I have a strong aversion to being sold stuff and having it disguised as real news. I like to tell myself that I know the difference between real news and a con job, but that line is constantly blurring. Makes me wonder if children today will know the difference when they become adults. They don’t read newspapers. Only skim headlines now.
Common nature for many people to have an agenda. Just saying, I’m not gonna go into what you should think about the news, but at least try to get your factual news from a reputable source. If you hear a talking-head on television sharing an opinion, flip the channel until you find a real news station. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite inserting his own thoughts into a news story? That would be ludicrous.
Similarly, if you’re looking for an agent to help you buy a home in Sacramento, do not ask the listing agent to represent you. Hire an exclusive buyer’s agent who will represent only your interests and not that of the seller. Don’t get ripped off. You owe it yourself to hire your own buyer’s agent. It costs the same, and the specialty services offered by a real-life buyer’s agent will blow you away. We have expert buyer’s agents on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team waiting to hear from you. Call 916.233.6759.
Perfect Spot for a Marriage Proposal at Half Dome Summit in Yosemite
This is not where the marriage proposal at Half Dome summit occurred (that photo is below) but it’s the only horizontal photo I have from Josh, and it’s too beautiful not to include in my blog today. What you see before you is Bridalveil Fall, and if you look closely, you can spot the rainbow at the bottom of the fall. It’s a short hike, relatively speaking, maybe a half hour at most, and it’s very wet along the way. Spray and mist feel great when it’s hot in the summer, in the spring I imagine it’s a bit chilly.
My husband and I have visited Yosemite National Park a couple of times, and we really should go there more often. But I can honestly say I have never received a marriage proposal at Half Dome summit, and it’s too late to start now. I’ve been proposed to instead in all sorts of weird places, won’t bore you with the details. Generally ended up getting married, too, except for one engagement when I finally wised up and started saying no. I mean, really, how many times can one person say yes?
Vika Gerassimenko and Josh Amolsch, engaged at Half Dome Summit.
When my husband and I decided to get married in the last year of the last century, it came about at the county courthouse in Minneapolis. We were there to get fishing licenses. Hey, I pointed at the posted sign for license fees, it’s cheaper to get a fishing license if you’re married. And look, right over there, we can get a marriage license! How convenient.
Not Josh. The invincible Josh Amolsch from the Elizabeth Weintraub Team. He has been talking about a marriage proposal at Half Dome Summit for a long time. Obviously played it over and over in his head, what he would say, how he would surprise his girlfriend, Victoria. Such a stand-up guy, a gentleman, he took Victoria’s parents out for lunch last week to ask for their daughter’s hand. Everybody on the Elizabeth Weintraub Team was sworn to secrecy. He brought the ring to the office to show all of us, which was only fair since we all gave our valuable input on the selection.
So, this weekend, on May 26th of the year 2018, Josh and Victoria hiked Half Dome. Josh got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. From the photo, she obviously said yes because it’s hard not to spot that gorgeous ring on her hand. This is a fairly treacherous trail, especially when it’s raining. Just last week a hiker fell off and died. Josh said if they hadn’t rented harnesses, they would undoubtedly be dead. That was the last thing I said to him: Do.not.fall.
Congratulations Josh and Victoria, wishing you a lifetime of much love, happiness and laughter.
A Glimpse Into the Life of a Married Real Estate Agent
Married real estate agents seem to be far more productive than single agents. It’s not like I have any statistics to throw at you; just my observations. I suspect it’s because we get to a point in our lives where we have fewer activities to keep in checks and balances. For me, it’s pretty much: job, husband, cats and Elizabeth Weintraub Team members. Not always in that order but not a lot of distractions. However, last week I seemed to have caused a big ol’ ruckus with one of my banks, and not sure how it happened.
It began when I could not download transactions. A few days earlier, the bank had called to say it had forgotten to make a large deposit for me. I don’t know how the bank forgot. The manager apologized. When I signed in online to check my account, the bank showed zero accounts. Nothing. The possibility I was hacked crossed my mind. I called tech support. Dude said I had not authorized my new debit card (although I had) so they removed all of my accounts from online access. Bit extreme, I thought.
Without going into boring details, although I woke the dead in the Land Park Cemetery yelling for a representative, the bank sent a new card but no PIN. After much screaming, I got the bank to set up a new PIN for me over the phone. But to get that PIN number, they asked a whole bunch of personal questions. Some of which the correct answer was none of the selections. One of the questions was do I know a, let’s say, Bernardo Telephone . I said no. The tech support sputtered under his breath. Seemed like a wrong answer.
OK, hmmm . . . I was married once to a man with the last name of Telephone, I offered. But Bernardo was not his name. Oh, wait, he went by a nickname. So I guess Bernardo could have been his first name. I revised my answer. Yes, he was probably an ex-husband. Hey, it’s not my fault, I’ve had 6 weddings. Can’t keep ’em all straight. Too long ago.
I guess I floored the tech guy on the phone. He didn’t want to ask. I could tell he didn’t want to ask. But he couldn’t help himself. You know, when you’re in your mid 60’s, you don’t remember with great clarity all of your ex-husbands from 30 or 40 years ago. I’m not just one of those married real estate agents, I’ve been married to my last husband — I hate to say final because what if he died — for almost several decades.
Tech guy then had another question. How old was Bernardo? I barely recall being married to him, do you think I know his age? Holy moly. But when he gave me the category of 80, I suddenly recalled he was a lot older than me. Gosh, I’m so glad I’m not married to him now. That’s pretty old, LOL. Fortunately, I picked the right answer, but it was a bit of a long shot.
When I shared that story with my husband, he could not believe it. But he is a different sort of character. I’ll give you an example. After he walked in the door last week carrying bags of take-out food for dinner, he called me into the kitchen.
I’ve got something to show you from this morning, he mentioned, there is a spot of cat puke on the floor over here. At least it looks like cat puke, not sure.
I bent over to see what he was pointing to.
That could be a spot over here, he continued, and pointed to another area. But this spot right here definitely looks like cat puke.
I could not believe what I was hearing. The tone of his voice sounded as though he thought I should clean it up.
Leaning even closer, I prodded him, “Are you sure?”
I was waiting for him to say he would clean it up, but those words never left his lips. Sometimes, ya gotta take the direct route.
Do you think I am the cat puke cleaner upper?
Well, he just got home from work, and he brought dinner, and who brought all of these cats into the house in the first place? He is a smart man. Not a person to dig himself a bigger hole. He loves those cats just as much as I do.
Finally he grabbed paper towels, the Resolve and cleaned up the cat puke.
And that’s why I am still a married real estate agent and not married to some doofus whose name I can’t even recall when asked a bunch of security questions.
Elizabeth Weintraub Wins #2 at Lyon Real Estate Awards 2018
Elizabeth Weintraub wins #2 at Lyon Real Estate Awards: Amy McMullan, Elizabeth Weintraub, Josh Amolsch, Dan Tharp, Shaundra Bradley and . . . Barbara Dow.
Seems once I made it into the top 1% at Lyon Real Estate, I end up ranking every year either as #2 or #3 in the company. We have about 1,000 agents at Lyon, so it’s not an insignificant accomplishment to make into the top 1% at the Lyon Real Estate Awards. Only nine agents achieve that milestone every year. Although, we used to win better prizes. Over the last 5 years or so, we just get a huge honkin’ vase, and now I have too many of those.
Honestly, I have too many awards, period. What do you do with them? I suppose they could be used as flower vases, but I don’t know if you’d want your name on them. I spotted a few awards our relocation department won, and those were pretty cool. From where we sat, they resembled figurines with a globe on top. Like a Golden Globe. You could use them to clobber an intruder.
Thankfully, Friday night, my entire team showed up for the Lyon Real Estate Awards. Usually somebody is out of town, but we were all present. I had been thinking about them as I pulled my beaded earrings from Mallorca and a tie-dyed poncho out of the closet. Hmmm . . . disco night. Well, originally I had received an email about the Awards being a 1970’s theme. I didn’t pay much attention to the flyer. Then, our marketing department sent an email to say the event was Studio 54, to come dressed ready to disco.
Well, having lived through the 1970s, I whipped off an email to our marketing department explaining that only a few years were disco years and the rest of the 1970s was definitely not disco. Therefore, since I had nothing to wear, my team and I were coming as vampires.
Our managing broker had to assure the marketing department I was just messing with them.
The good thing about the evening was I had completely forgotten how to do The Hustle. I recall taking lessons, but the rest of that is a blur in my rear view mirror.
Back to getting dressed in my tie-dyed poncho . . . What I realized when dressing for this event was every year I get up on stage by myself. But every year my team grows stronger, like AlphaBears. We operate as a finely tuned machine. They should get recognition, too. I did not get there all by myself. So, this year I dragged them all up on stage with me. I’d like to introduce you to my amazing team of truly incredible individuals.
Elizabeth Weintraub Team at Lyon Agent Awards 2018 Won #2.
Clockwise from the top, Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Josh Amolsch; Transaction Coordinator Shaundra Bradley; Mortgage Loan Officer at Guild Mortgage Dan Tharp; Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Barbara Dow; Listing Agent and Team Lead Elizabeth Weintraub; Exclusive Buyer’s Agent Amy McMullan.
Nobody is an island and nobody gets where she is in Sacramento real estate without the support of others. In my situation, I rely heavily on my team for support. We have each other’s backs. We pitch in when needed. And I could not possibly provide the type of superior service I strive to achieve for my clients nor handle the volume of listings that I sell if I focused on buyers. My TC Shaundra is like my right-hand person. Our loan guy Dan Tharp is brilliant and treats every client like they are the only client he has.
We share the same values and principles. And above all, we always put our client’s interests first. Over our own. That’s our secret for success. I am incredibly honored and proud to share the stage with my team at the Lyon Real Estate awards for 2018. Can’t say it any louder, I love these guys!
