So I just found out my Dad's Hawaii house is back on the market AGAIN

I don't know what's going on here, but after my Dad's old house in Kailua-Kona sold for $1.3 million in August of 2024 (after being listed for nearly $1.6 million), last night I discovered that it went back on the market in December for just under $1.5 million. 

 

2024's drama:

 

 Surprise! It's baaaaack!

 

A couple weeks ago they reduced the price to $1.45 million, which means even if they get that, they make $150k profit? Is it worth flipping a house like this for that amount of money? It doesn't seem like it. And that doesn't take into consideration what they spent on it since August of 2024.

 

I had no idea it was purchased as a flip, but that's what it looks like. From the pictures, they made two major changes: they removed the carpet and replaced it with wood floors, and painted the interior a very blah shade of tan. I don't know who thought that was a good idea - if I bought the house, the first thing I'd do is paint the walls white again. This does the exact opposite of brightening the place up. I think the place looked a lot better when my Dad had it.

 

 

Bleah. Now to see what they manage to get for it. Kona House Watch 2026, baby!

 

Update 3/21/26: It's under contract (as opposed to sold). I wonder what the offer is. I also bet the neighbors are getting sick of the constant turnover. And I still can't get over how crappy the beigey floors and ceiling are. Someone actually thought that was a good idea. Ick.

 

Updated 5/6/26: Sold. $1,400,000. They made $100,000 after all the "upgrades" and a year and nine months of paying for it. Hope it was worth it. Hope it finally has owners who want to live in it, love it, and not flip it in another year and a half. Aloha.

 

That's so Kings

 

The Los Angeles Kings have been flailing and the fans have been begging for a coaching change for most of the season (and even last season). Last night the Kings smacked the Calgary Flames 2-0 for their first win since before the Olympics and what does the team do? They fire head coach Jim Hiller. After they finally won a game, in a shutout no less.

 

I know nothing about interim coach D.J. Smith other than he was previously bounced out of Ottawa and what little I've seen online this morning Sens fans have nothing good to say about him. But at this point the team had to do something, anything, and they finally did it. They're three points out of a playoff spot and even if they do squeak in, we're probably looking at yet another first round exit. Hopefully there will be at least one competent coach available this summer who can turn this team around.

 

The Kings have other issues. There's injuries (including the loss of Kevin Fiala, who suffered a season-ending injury in the Olympics) and next season they will be without retiring captain Anze Kopitar for the first time in twenty years. They did pull off a good move acquiring Artemi Panarin a few weeks ago, so at least we've got that going for us. But I have a feeling we're looking at a long rebuilding unless they find a head coach who can really light a fire under these guys. 

 

Solid Gold

HUGE congratulations to the men's and women's USA hockey teams on their gold medals at Milano Cortina! Hard earned and well-deserved. And because Blogger in their infinite wisdom has apparently just made it impossible to choose a video on YouTube to link to and now we have to choose from their suggestions (which, oddly, don't even begin to match up with what I'm looking for) I can't post the vids I want. So here are some lame links to the awesome game winners. 

 

First up - da ladeez: Megan Keller's game-winning goal.

 

And the gents: Jack Hughes pots it for the win. 

 

Props to Keller and Hughes for the winning goals we'll all be watching for years to come. 

 

Also kudos to the inclusion of Johnny Hockey and his kids. He probably would have been on the ice as a member of the team.

 

And because Blogger made this post boringly image-free, here's a thing of beauty to pretty things up:

 

Team USA, heading to the ice.

 CUE FREE BIRD!!!

I do like this take on it

I'm fond of saying that I don't believe in karma, but I know it when I see it, and yes it can be a real (and often well-deserved) biatch. But I do think this is an interesting concept of karma:

 

 

This one hurts: RIP Robert Duvall

Prolific Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall has died at the age of 95. 

 

The man's resume is just staggering. Here's just a few:

• To Kill a Mockingbird (as Boo Radley) 
• M*A*S*H (as Frank Burns)
• THX 1138 (pre-American Graffiti and pre-Star Wars George Lucas film)
• The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (as Tom Hagen)
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (as Dr. Watson)
• Network (as ruthless executive Frank Hackett)
• Apocalypse Now (as Lt. Colonel Kilgore, who brought us the famous line, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning.")
• The Great Santini (Oscar nominated)
• Tender Mercies (for which he won the Best Actor Oscar)
• Lonesome Dove (miniseries, as aging Texas Ranger Gus McCrae) 
• Sling Blade (Karl's father)
• The Apostle (Oscar nominated for the title role)
• A number of television guest spots early in his career, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Naked City (4 episodes), The Untouchables, Route 66, The Outer Limits (3 episodes), The Wild Wild West, Mod Squad, and one of the more popular episodes of The Twilight Zone ("Miniature")  

To Kill a Mockingbird

Duvall was nominated for the Academy Award seven times (winning once), three BAFTA's (winning once), five Emmys (winning twice) and seven Golden Globes (winning four times).  

 

The Twilight Zone

One one hand when someone has had such full life and lives to such a ripe old age passes, it's hard to feel like we should ask for more. But Duvall was gifted and unique, and both the entertainment industry and the world has suffered a great loss. A great life and a great body of work. RIP, sir.

 

Lonesome Dove

RIP Bud Cort, and a rough couple of weeks for Hollywood

Bud Cort, immortalized as the death-obsessed Harold Chasen in the classic Harold and Maude, passed away today at the age of 77. This longtime cult classic has been a favorite of mine forever. Cort wasn't the last remaining of the three main stars: the wonderful Ruth Gordon (Maude) passed away in 1985, but the hilarious Vivian Pickles (Harold's deadpan mother) is still with us at 94.

 

 

According to imdb's trivia page, Cort ad-libbed both this fourth wall-breaking side eye, as well as the ferocious middle finger he gave his mother after her reaction to his hybrid Jaguar/hearse.

 

Earlier today the death of Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek was announced. Van Der Beek, only 48, had been battling colorectal cancer.

 

In addition, beloved comedy star Catherine O'Hara passed away on January 30. She had also been suffering from rectal cancer, although the primary cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.

 

There's the idea that in Hollywood they die in threes, and after O'Hara, I wondered who was going to be numbers two and three. Today brought that sad answer.

 

RIP everyone. 

 

Recent reading: EQMM and AHMM

The new publisher is still behind (I don't have the Jan/Feb issues yet) but I'm also behind on reading, so I guess that makes us even.

 

 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (September/October 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "The Corpse Collector" by David Morrell: A dental assistant moonlights as a pickup driver for a funeral director for extra money and uses her day job skills to determine that the seemingly accidental death of an old man was actually murder.
• "Where the Good Dogs Go" by Kai Lovelace: A dog's sickness pits his owners against each other - Rose, who wants to sink money they don't have into his treatment, and Brad, the husband she feels increasingly distant from and who she suspects of having the dog euthanized. Rose gets a rude surprise when she decides to take revenge on Brad. Great twist ending.
• "The Book of Dead Cats" by Sue Parman: A mysterious death of a professor at a prep school, eccentric characters, family drama, and cats.  

 

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (November/December 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "Doctor Morbilius" by Gary Phillips: Set in the 1960's, this story sees a Los Angeles PI and his estranged father caught up in a scam perpetrated by a charismatic conman.
• "Fursona Non Grata" by Richard Helms: A fun story about a supposedly psychic eccentric who assists a detective in solving a murder of a furry (a guy in a dog costume). 
• "Halloween Party" by David Dean: A young woman wants to get to know her new neighbors and neighborhood, only to get more information than she bargained for in this tale of infidelity, scandal, and murder. 

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (November/December 2025)

 

Favorites from this issue:

• "Circumstantial Evidence" by Eric B. Ruark: A bicyclist discovers a murder victim in a small town and is pressed to stick around because he's a potential suspect. When local troublemakers are arrested for the crime, the cyclist is free to leave...only to reveal that he's a contract killer and the murder was, in fact, his doing. Terrific use of an unreliable narrator. I did not see that ending coming AT ALL.
• "Take Me for a Ride" by Michael Mallory: Set in post-WWII Los Angeles, this is the story of a private eye who takes on the case of a valuable stolen car for an old war buddy, only to have it turn into an increasingly complicated murder case.
• "The Other Side of the Window" by Adrian McKinty: One of my favorite stories of the year. It's Hitchcock's Rear Window from the POV of Lars Thorwald, the killer played by Raymond Burr in the film. We learn how he reached the point of killing his wife (accidentally) after meeting another woman, who wants them to run off to California, and who enthusiastically helps Thorwald dispose of the wife's body and establish his alibi. An interesting aspect is how much the characters of Jefferies (James Stewart) and Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) were minimalized. The character of Helen, Thorwald's paramour, doesn't appear in the film and is a device created to explain how and why Thorwald's wife ended up dead. Just a really great alternative take on a classic.
• "A New Life" by LaToya Jovena: A man seeks sole ownership of his late mother's twenty acre property with plans to turn it into a multi-million dollar development scheme, but his estranged daughter has other ideas. Great double-cross at the end.  

Not gonna lie, this sounds tempting

 

I remember reading something where the question of why not convert abandoned malls into housing, and a lot of it had to do with plumbing not being in place, because the places were set up as stores, not homes with sinks, showers, and toilets.

 

Having said that, I still think this is a cool idea, especially with the classic films and food courts. I'd consider it.

 

Via Remembering the Goold Ole Days on FB.

 

Oh, so it's not just me

Forget karma, procrastination is the real bitch. And yet, I've had this experience before and I will have this experience again and no, I will not learn. I will probably never learn. I'll do the same damn thing the next time.

 

I admire and envy efficient people who just seem to have the ability to effortlessly get stuff done. I really do. But some of us have the gift of making everything more difficult than it needs to be. Yes we do.

 

Joy to the soul

The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination 

and brings eternal joy to the soul.

(Robert Wyland) 

Recent Reading: "Riding for the Blue: A Celebration of Horse Shows"

 

Riding for the Blue: A Celebration of Horse Shows

By Cindy Hale

Photographs by Sharon P. Fibelkorn

 

I've had this book for years stashed in the old horse crazy girl stack that seemed more and more a thing of the past, books that seemed like an indulgence that I probably needed to leave behind. But I've had some recent revelations about what was really important in my life and I realized how much I've missed being around horses. Getting back into the saddle has always been something I thought was increasingly unreachable for a number of reasons (for one, the sheer cost of it in L.A.) so that particular realization that I've spent years away from the one thing that was always most important to me growing up was a jolt, hence the refocus.

 

Riding for the Blue is one part gorgeous picture book, and for me, one part nostalgia-fest of the shows I rode in during my younger years. Nothing major, just local stuff, but I still have my ribbons and some horse equipment that I've been unable to part with. Too bad I didn't take the hint sooner, I might be riding right now instead of typing a blog post. This book was published in 2003 and I'm sure shows have changed a lot since then, but even dated, Hale imbues the show life with a love of horses and everything about them, and I got caught up immediately and devoured this in one sitting.

 

Although it's a pretty quick read, Hale covers a lot of ground regarding various types of horses, riders, shows, and everybody involved with them: hunters, jumpers, dressage, western, breed shows, rookie riders, green horses, trainers, judges, show moms, sportsmanship and character building, and much more. Even though showing wasn't a big part of my riding life, it did bring back memories of early mornings, performance jitters, and just the sheer joy of partnering up with a beloved half-ton animal. I also got a kick out of the fact that Hale mentions that over time, blue first-place ribbons will fade to purple, which is ironic because in horse shows purple ribbons denote a seventh-place finish.

 

Cindy Hale is (was?) a long-time contributor to Horse Illustrated magazine (which I recently resubscribed to) and they published the first chapter as an excerpt, which you can read here. 

 

Some of the gorgeous images from the book:

 

 

Class move by the Quacks, I guess

Los Angeles Kings legend Anze Kopitar is calling it a career after this season and although he's currently injured and not playing (which is making the Kings worse than usual, they just dropped two in a row to Anaheim) the Ducks organization presented him with this honor:

 

I thought it was nice of them, although no matter how long this team is in existence apparently they'll never learn that Mickey Mouse ears just don't go with hockey. But it's the thought that counts and Kopi is (and always has been) a class act, so they got that part right.

 

I'm sure he'll treasure it always.