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September 11th, 2007

Upscale Mailboxes

When thinking of all the improvements you can make to your home and yard, upgrading your mailbox is probably pretty low on your list. But the truth of the matter is that mailboxes are very important because they’re often the first impression that visitors get of your place. Think about it: these days most residential mailboxes are out by the curb and they have street addresses plastered right on them. So when someone’s looking for your house, they confirm the address by looking at the mailbox!

What message are you sending visitors? Do you have the cheapest, most basic aluminum model out there, one that says you don’t care what kind of image your project? Or do you have a beautifully ornate mailbox that puts all others on your block to shame?

I have to admit that we have a cheapo mailbox at our house, but believe me, we’re working on correcting the situation. We’ve made several improvements to our yard this summer, and the mailbox is next on our list of upgrades.

Over the past few months, I’ve been looking through the huge selection of high-quality residential and commercial mailboxes at www.mailboxixchange.com for inspiration. They have more choices than I know what to do with, really, so it has taken me quite a while to browse through everything. Even so, I have found a couple of mailboxes that I think would look very nice in front of our home, and am excited about the impending upgrade!

September 11th, 2007

The O.C. 2×09-2×13

Seth Summer My last post about Josh Schwartz’s new series Gossip Girl inspired me to write this O.C. post as well. I’ve reeled off four more episodes since my last O.C. recap, and I have to wonder what’s going on here. This isn’t the same show, aren’t the same characters that I became so attached to in Season 1. Everyone’s behaving so differently from just a year ago — and that’s not necessarily a good thing. I mean, wow…. Just… wow. I hope the show returns to form pretty soon.

Here are some random thoughts from “The Ex-Factor,” “The Accomplice,” “The Second Chance,” and “The Lonely Hearts Club.”

– Is it possible for me to care any less about whether or not Caleb is actually Lindsay’s father? Put me out of my misery with a definitive answer, please!

– Praise the Lord, Julie Cooper is back in town! I never realized how much Melinda Clarke adds to this show until her extended absence here in Season Two. I hope she sticks around from here on out.

– Poor Ryan can’t win with anyone. No matter how much he tries to help others, he always ends up losing out.

– Usually I love Seth Cohen’s utter dorkiness on this show, but I have to say that I couldn’t freakin’ stand him during “The Lonely Hearts Club.” His meltdown in San Diego was way over the top. He should have just owned up and confessed his true feelings for Summer instead of making a complete ass of himself during the entire trip. My God. His actions were truly cringe-worthy (though I do have to say I liked the parallels between Seth hanging in Zach and Summer’s room to watch TV and Summer doing the same thing to Seth and Anna in Season 1).

– Summer has officially surpassed Seth as my favorite character on The O.C.. Rachel Bilson is all kinds of awesome!! I loved it when she discovered Seth’s drawings of her and realized that he really does still have deep feelings for her.

– I do not like where the Sandy/Rebecca storyline is headed. There’s no way in hell Sandy Cohen would ever consider cheating on Kirsten, nor would he put himself into a position where that would even be a possibility. See? This is what I mean about acting way, way, WAY out of character.

– Marissa and Alex… yawn. As if anyone thinks this is something more than an effort to piss Julie off. It’s basically just Marissa being selfish (again) and not thinking about the long-term consequences for Alex. What a surprise.

On the whole, I wasn’t overly impressed with this batch of eps. Hopefully the next few can turn things around for the second season!

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