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 Four
years ago, I posted an
article announcing that we'd decided to move. We needed space
to grow, and we had this crazy idea about doing a major relocation
as part of the process of moving to a bigger place. We thought
seriously about moving as far away as Canada,
and we've spent a lot of time traveling to candidate cities and
pondering
all the possibilities. But although we find a lot to like
about a lot of places near and far, none has yet stood out above
all others as the place for us to choose.
Meanwhile, despite all our talk of moving away, we've become
yet more entrenched. Of particular note here is Robin, who joined
our team a couple of years ago and quickly became a vital
and critical part of the Looney
Labs team. Much as I love the idea of living in another part
of the world, I'd rather stay here than lose Robin, and she doesn't
want to move. And of course, Robin is just the prime example...
we have many friends & family members in the area who don't
want us to leave. (Plus we've just been joined by Nikki!)
Lastly, we've watched as the housing market has gone from
bubble to bust. There was a time when we'd have made a lot of
money by selling our house; now we'd have a hard time selling
it at all. We're surrounded by houses being offered for sale,
at increasingly bargain prices.
So, with all of these factors in mind, we started looking
at the houses for sale on the streets in our neighborhood...
and quickly fell in love with this big old place just a few doors
down from us!
And so, long story short (I know, too late) we just bought
a house which is so close to Wunderland you can actually see
it (from the right window). Or to be more specific, Alison
just bought a house (with a little help from her family). Kristin
& I will continue
to own our original house for the foreseeable future, but we'll
also be hanging out a lot at Alison's new house, particularly
since that's where the new Looney Labs Offices will be. As you
can imagine from watching the video
tour of our current office space, our company needs more
room, and a lot of why we liked this new house so much was how
the basement was set up in ways well-suited for us to use as
the new Looney Labs HQ.
So, that's the scoop. After years of talk, we've decided to
just stay put, and expand into a house nearby, rather than moving
everything into a whole new space. This decision is very exciting,
since it means we can finally move forward with long incomplete
relocation efforts, and it's going to be great fun setting up
the spaces at the new house. But of course, it's also bittersweet
decision for me, having never lived anywhere else but always
wanted to. It's also ironic, since I've long been describing
these feelings as GeorgeBailyitis, an imaginary medical condition
named for the main character of It's a Wonderful Life. Like George,
I've pined for the adventure of a life lived somewhere other
than the town I grew up in, yet circumstances have always kept
me tethered here. And now, once again, I'm not leaving Bedford
Falls. But hey, I do have a wonderful life here.
But enough about why we decided to stay, let's hear more about
the new house! It's a really cool old place, built around the
same time as Wunderland (i.e. the mid-thirties) but more heavily
renovated over the years. (For instance, it has central air!)
And it's HUGE! It's a barn-shaped building with 3 levels divided
up into 4 distinct zones. Since we live next to the University
of Maryland, a lot of houses around here are broken up into small
units which can be rented by students. This is perfect for us,
since the entire basement (which has its own entrance right on
the street) is to be the new Looney
Labs HQ. As for all those upstairs rooms -- well, all I can
say right now is, Alison has some pretty elaborate redecorating
ideas in mind. If you know Alison, you can imagine what I mean
by "pretty elaborate."
Anyway, it's all very exciting. Even though it's not at all
what we were imagining, we're finally moving forward with moving!
Yay!
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A topic of great debate this week has been the name to use
for the dead parrot card. Monty
Python Fluxx will include a Keeper with a picture of an undeniably
dead parrot; however, in the spirit of the pet store clerk, the
title of the card will refuse to acknowledge the deceased nature
of the bird in question. Up until now I've been calling it the
Sleeping Parrot, a title which I think best sums up the situation,
but since purists will complain that the sketch doesn't use that
exact phrase, I've decided instead to call it the Resting Parrot. |
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"The idea that a man returning to his home and moving
a package from his porch to his hallway, should trigger a SWAT
raid, by a team that had literally been waiting in hiding to
see him move the package, is criminally insane. They didn't wait
for the package to go inside because of any tactical purpose.
They waited because they wanted to use the action of bringing
the package inside as evidence. They had literally all day to
figure out some way of being able to search the home without
murdering their dogs! They didn't even have to bring the package
to the house -- they already had the address with which it had
been marked. They could have simply called the individuals in
for questioning, or conducted an ordinary search or arrest warrant,
waited for Mayor Calvo or his wife to walk up and approach them
on the street, almost anything other than what they did. And
as evidence goes, moving the package inside the doorway is worthless
anyway, or should be. Would you bring a package that arrived
in your mail inside, maybe even open it to see what it contains?
Doing so would prove nothing about your knowledge of the contents.
So even that weak rationale falls to pieces." --
David Borden, "Two
Dogs Dead, a Family Traumatized, Another Day in the Drug War" |
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I think what happened in the Calvo case is that drug smuggling
has merged with identity theft. Mayor Calvo and his wife were
obviously innocent victims -- someone else was clearly supposed
to intercept that package of weed before it ever reached the
Calvo's front door. Perhaps the real recipient was staked out
watching the Calvo household as well, intending to swipe the
package from the doorstep, or maybe it was someone who works
at the post office, who was supposed to watch for the package
and steal it from within the system. No complaint would ever
be made about the package having disappeared, since the Calvos
didn't even know it was coming, and who better to choose as your
hapless fall guy than someone nice and respectable, like the
mayor's wife? In any event, the plan obviously went awry when
a drug dog in Arizona detected the box, causing the cops to take
over the delivery as undercover package carriers. [After writing
this, I read
that some arrests have been made, including of a FedEx employee,
and that the Calvos have been officially exonerated.] |
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