In all things, there is good and bad. Some call this the silver lining, but I’ve never seen, with these two eyes, an actual silver lining on anything. Like if I see a green bush against a blue lake, I don’t see any silver between the blue and the green. If I see a cloud in an otherwise cloudless sky, do I see a silver lining around that cloud, between said cloud and so much sky? Not really. I mean, I suppose I could see it, but I’d rather just see the cloud and the sky, with no lining involved. That’s why I think it’s best to just see good and bad in each thing.

For instance, I recently saw the spring issue of a Lake Geneva real estate publication. The magazine is pretty nice, for once. It’s sort of all around better than it was before. This could bother me, but it doesn’t. Instead, I’ll just applaud the improved look and feel somewhat flattered that the new look is the same as my publication’s old look. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I’m blushing.

And about that blushing, I’ve been doing slightly less of it lately. The good news is that I’ve successfully lost 35 pounds. This is good, it’s really quite good. I’m pretty happy about it, but there’s on small catch to the whole thing. I’m still awfully fat, which is bad, though I am less fat, which is good. It’s like having to eat the ol’ 96er and feeling great after having eaten all of it. Then the chef tells you that you must eat the gristle, too. I’ll just keep at it, and hopefully once I lose another 20 pounds I’ll only then be mostly fat, not entirely so.

I have some new listings, which is really great. I have those two new condominiums for sale, which is cool. I also have a new lakefront listing on Bonnie Brae for $3.39MM. I’m happier still to have a different new lakefront listing that’s only available directly to my clients (you should be one), and I have another lakefront coming to market next week. I also have a lakefront deal pending that should close in the next 6 weeks, barring any intervention from non-local appraisers. I have a closing coming up in Country Club Estates, so I’m pleased with that and pleased for the buyers. But for those good things, I also see that I have many lakefront homes for sale and very few under contract. That means I have lots of work to do, and it means I’ll be fired en masse if I don’t get to selling some of these.

My house, it’s really pretty neat. I’m more happy about it now than I have been before, and that’s because I’m finally finishing those unfinished bits. For instance, the living room is pretty big, and it’s cavernous and somewhat annoying. One wall, in particular, is really pretty stark. It’s disappointing, that wall. I either needed to buy a piece of art the size of the American flag that flies outside of any Perkins restaurant, or I needed to build something to make the wall less obvious. So build something I did, and now that there’s something built on that wall, it’s pretty good. But the down side to that upside is that there’s a new television in that thing I built, so now TV noise comes from the main television location and now again from this new television location. This is less than ideal.

The ice, it’s almost gone. This is terrific! But the ice, it’s still there. It’s dying, but it’s been dying for so long that it’s getting annoying. It’s like being called in to see your grandmother because she’s dying. This is horrible, and so you say goodbye. Then, later, at Thanksgiving, your grandma is still alive, and she’s eating most of the green jello, the one with the pineapple bits in it. Later, around Christmas, your grandmother is dying again. So you go see her, and this is again sad. But later, at Easter, your grandmother is there, and she eats not one, but two Cadberry cream eggs and you’re like, what’s with grandma, she’s not even supposed to be here.

Then this morning, my dog came running to the door when I opened it, and he ate a treat and then stretched his big, gangly legs out in front of him so that he might take a nap. This was really a great thing, and a napping dog is a good dog. But the previous two hours where spent with me yelling out the front door, then yelling out the back door, then opening the garage door and yelling out of that door, too. Then, I got in the car and drove away, thinking the dog might follow me and then I could apprehend him. Later, I threw treats out the window, like Napoleon Dynamite feeding Tina. I cursed quite a surprising bit. I paced the house, the long hall suitable for such frustration. Later, after some of these hours had gone by, I called my wife to scold her for being gone visiting her family and making me suffer with this stubborn dog like I was. Then, I thought about shooting a shotgun into the air, thinking the dog might take this as a sign that I was, after all, dead serious. Now, I’m at the office and I’m writing this really pedestrian post, but the good news is that the dog is inside. Gnawing on the corner of the couch.