amarante
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Everything posted by amarante
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Maybe Pompeo didn't want to come back to the set unless everyone she came into contact with was wearing PPE or the scenes were shot outdoors. I find all of the halfway to heaven meeting your loved ones puerile - but then I don't believe in any kind of ridiculous afterlife populated by people who either age or have found a heavenly source for Botox :-)
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Watching an episode that was so unmemorable I can’t remember anything except that the couple kept saying that if they didn’t spend up to their budget they would have the money for renovations. This is often stated on the show ajd I don’t understand the economics. Where are they getting the extra money. Generally you are not saving that much of what you need for the down payment by spending $40,000 or even $100,000 less. What you can purchase is generally what the lender feels you can afford in terms of mortgage payments. But if I am approved for $600,000 and purchase a house for $500,000 that doesn’t give me spare money generally. I recognize there might be unusual circumstances where one has a huge amount of cash which can be used because one isn’t getting a high mortgage. But in the standard HH scenario, the buyers generally don’t have that kind of cash and are relying in the mortgage. It is as if they are assuming there is that amount of money for them to use whatever the price of the house versus the realty of the lender providing mortgage amount based on price of the house. So I don’t get it. Again there might be circumstances where people have a separate budget for renovations saved but the HH don’t seem to be the type who have $200,000 in the bank and so if there mortgage payments are lower, they will then dip into their assets to find renovations. I realize there are HELOC. Ur these are taken out after one has lived in a home for awhile and built equity. And there are construction loans but the HH scenario isn’t that. It is as if magically if they spend $200,000 instead of $225,000 they will have an extra $25,000 immediately available.
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Closed captions said his name was Jedson
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I don't understand since you would still have whatever you need for the downpayment and rent would be in lieu of the monthly mortgage expenses. If anything the amount paid for rent would be less than a house would be when taxes, maintenance and mortgage are added up. And you could rent something less expensive knowing that it was just a temporary fix.
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The first home for the Inglewood couple made more sense because it was a better location. It was small but it was perfect for their current needs. Many people choose to live in a better location versus out in the boonies to get a larger home. When they want to sell the home, it is going to hold its value and probably appreciate as well. This is especially true in terms of the neighborhood they are buying into because property values are really going to soar with the kind of new development going in. What I don't understand is why people moving to a new city feel compelled to purchase a home under severe time pressure. I know that it is a made up story line but I still don't understand why people don't rent for a year and really get a sense of where they want to live .
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It's not Dodger Stadium. Dodger Stadium is north of downtown Los Angeles. Inglewood and Gramercy Park where they bought is South Central Los Angeles. The stadium is now being built in Inglewood - It is the SoFi Stadium. There used to be a stadium there called The Forum but that closed down and is is the replacement.
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I think the letters are stupid for a variety of reasons but I have no sentimentality and would nit be moved by that kind of letter. I might even suspect the buyer was playing me and attempting to lowball. There would be no risk of a black couple being discriminated against in Gramercy Park as it has either the first or second highest percentage of black residents in Los Angeles County - approximately 85%. If anything there is a lot of resentment of white folks discovering the traditionally black neighborhoods of Los Angeles and gentrifying them and thus pushing the original occupants out.
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What was even more ridiculous was that he was calling a regular single bowl sink a "farmhouse" sink. A farmhouse sink is one that has the "apron" front and it can actually be a single bowl, double bowl or even triple bowl. The farmhouse sink is somewhat of an aesthetic choice but it also is a bit more functional because you can get closer to the basin of the sink which makes a difference in terms of comfort to some people. I have a *real* farmhouse sink which is also copper. And a single bowl single is MUCH more functional than a double bowl sink because when I had the two bowls I would wind up splashing myself if I had to wash anything large since large items couldn't lay flat on the bottom. Since the homes were being flipped, I have no idea why the flipper didn't install the more popular and functional single bowl sink but then - having finished a gut remodel of my home - I know exactly how a builder or flipper cheaped out - like not having lower cabinets be deep drawers since drawers are more expensive but way more functional.
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RH of Dallas in the media
amarante replied to Meredith Quill's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
While she wasn't a "favorite" of mine, I do think she added something to the mix. She was genuinely wealthy and her twins were adorable. I also thought she was beautiful and loved her clothing and hair choices. A bit much on the plastic surgery to be sure but it was nice to get a break from Kary's short shorts and rompers. I enjoyed her in the same way that I enjoyed Kat - I like seeing what clothing she is wearing. I don't know that she added less than Stephanie whose chief point of interest is that she is so blandly nice. In the first season she was a bit trashy and there was the cotentiousness with Leanne over how they acted at the "high society" events. How ironic that is looking back in terms of how their arcs developed over the seasons. I might have low standards though as I can't think of any housewives on any franchise that I "admire" although there are housewives like Kary or Leah (from NY) that I actively want off my screen because their behavior is so appalling. -
RH of Dallas in the media
amarante replied to Meredith Quill's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
So Tiffany Moon is officially gone and is a one season housewife. She doesn't need the money so she could be walking away because it isn't worth it. I don't see why she would be fired. She wasn't boring - at least to me and she wasn't a liability like some of the wives who were fired. -
Did the Gorgas have significant income prior to being on the show? The Guidices had the house of cards fraud going but was Gorga even faking financial success?
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I don't know why his having given the guy excessive amounts of morphine to snow him is in question since that is absolutely what he did.. Showing him with the two bottles to dispose of was just to use an anvil at the end to underscore that in the event that there was any doubt. Of course my understanding is that morphine is a closely tracked substance in any hospital and so someone can't just throw out two bottles and that is the end of the story. Of course this is Chicago Med so either they don't track narcotics or this signals some kind of discovery of proof of his having overdosed (snowed) the delusional patient. Is there any doctor or nurse except Crockett and Dr. Charles left who has any shred of medical or other ethics left?
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I also had pneumonia and it is no way a walk in the park. But compared to lingering maladies of old age, it is relatively quick and painless. Remember this was pre WW II - antibiotics weren't available until the late 1940's/early 1950's. Many older people I know well don't fear death but are afraid of lingering suffering and succumbing to diseases that leave than less than like Alzheimer or an incapacitating stroke.
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In the days before antibiotics, pneumonia was sometimes referred to as the old person's friend because it killed someone relatively quickly and painlessly and spared them from dying of a more painful illness like cancer.
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S05.E17: Reunion Part 1
amarante replied to PrincessPurrsALot's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
There is a difference between mispronouncing a somewhat tongue twisting word and not knowing the meaning of fairly basic vocabulary words and misusing them. Andy was laughing at himself because he realized he was mispronouncing something - I typically tongue twist with endodontist and feel no shame. Exhibiting a lack of understanding of a word by not using it appropriately is in another category - I am a "high achiever" like Tiffany and I would feel mortified if I exhibited my ignorance of a word's meaning by using it improperly. I actually would want someone to let me know in the same way that I would want to know about spinach on the teeth so that I didn't continue to put myself in a position where people were laughing at me behind my back. -
S05.E17: Reunion Part 1
amarante replied to PrincessPurrsALot's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
Could someone explain how Kary's jewelry is any kind of a viable business model? She is buying costume jewelry findings and having them linked together with beads she purchases. My mother made this kind of jewelry in her senior citizens' craft group. -
This is good in theory but I know almost no people who would work if they didn't need the money. I have "enjoyed" my jobs but I certainly wouldn't work on them if I didn't have to. There are some jobs that people might do even if they didn't need the money because they are getting some form of emotional satisfaction but - at least in my experience - those types of jobs either aren't 24/7 positions where most of your time is spent working or is at such a high level that you are wielding enormous power and influence. Or is the kind of job like tenured college professor where you don't have enormous stress and the hours are great.
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S05.E17: Reunion Part 1
amarante replied to PrincessPurrsALot's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
I don't understand why it is okay for Andy to make fun of Kam's illiteracy on WWHL but having a reaction to Kam's stupidity is somehow mean. -
S05.E17: Reunion Part 1
amarante replied to PrincessPurrsALot's topic in The Real Housewives Of Dallas
I have such a shriveled black heart that I took enormous pleasure in realizing that Kary had lost her gravy train. How far she has fallen from the woman who showed off her husband's wealth but forced the women to sleep with each other when there were sufficient rooms for privacy. I could never be a housewife because the thought of sharing a room - let alone a bed - with someone I am not having sex with is off the table. I only wonder how airtight her prenup is and how little it provides her. She had no children with him and theoretically she is earning a decent salary. Of course the jewelry business is a joke but the money from BRAVO plus the promotional money she makes on the side plus whatever the prenup pay out would provide a decent living for any middle or even fairly upper middle class style. I wonder if her first husband pays child support since she seems to have provided them with a fairly lavish life style. D'Andra's face looked beautiful but she certainly made an odd sartorial choice with the blazer, pants and platform wedgies. She and Tiffany definitely were the ones who actually used their brains and came out reasonably well in terms of the back and forth. Stephanie and Brandi might as well have been out of action and Kary's choice defense was to bring on the histrionic fake tears - using the divorce as an excuse for her really reprehensible behavior - like excusing being mean on being drunk, many people go through even more stressful situations without turning into bullies - there I've said it. And it is amazing what good makeup will do to turn an average woman into someone good looking. Both Brandi and Kary really looked awful. Kary looked every bit of her 50 years and Brandi's makeup choices were beyond bizarre. -
I think the Grace dynamic is interesting because it seems at one point she and Siobhan's mother were similarly situated but Siobhan's mother chose to get out of the ghetto - and so her daughter had the advantage of growing up in a relatively privileged environment. When Kelvin said they wanted to use the money to get the mother out of Roxbury, the mother said she had the choice but had chosen to stay. So on some level, she was responsible for what happened to her kids. Bad influences all around and the reality of their being inferior schools. Obviously not every kid grows up to become a criminal but the pressures are really difficult to overcome. The season of The Wire which dealt with the school system in Baltimore showed how so many of the kids were victims of the environment in one way or another. That was a heartbreaking season.
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In terms of the specific couples, Jen's parents have started living alone very recently. Dolores' father had a separate home in Patterson from the time he was working as a police officer. It appears that Jackie's parents have been living apart for at least a decade since Jackie mentioned it as being something they had been doing for awhile and the family had evolved around the separate living. Many married people stay together ONLY because of finances because they can't afford two households. However, for the three Jersey parent, finances are irrelevant so why shouldn't they have two separate residences. People often have two separate homes - one being a vacation home and it isn't considered to be odd or outside the financial abilities of a moderately prosperous couple. At any rate Jackie's parents are wealthy and can afford whatever the fuck they want. Dolores' parents set themselves up years ago and judging by her mother's home, they live fairly modestly. It doesn't seem as though upkeep on the houses would be that much more so it's not more expensive than just living in one house. Everything else would be the same more or less - Dolores would have the same pension benefits and Social Security benefits as though they lived together. Dolores' father was unfaithful all during their marriage. I doubt whether Dolores' mother particularly wants a male relationship either or to live with someone. I would imagine Jackie's father has had lady friends during the years. Her mother may or may not. At least in my parents' circle, the "single" men generally do find new girlfriends but most of the women - BY CHOICE - are happy to live the single live and aren't actively looking for a new relationship. Maybe it's because there are fewer benefits to being the female in a relationship although I am probably stereotyping because they wind up pulling more of their weight in turns of running the household and being a caretaker. They have their kids; their friends and the freedom to do exactly what they want. If money is not an issue, most of them thrive being single and "retired". Jen's parents don't have separate homes and I suspect that they are probably subsidized by the family whether in one home or living in Jen's home.
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I don’t think they do it consciously but reality sets in and then they realize it is extremely hard to combine a high powered career and family life - so why do it if you don’t need the money.
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My friends and I joked that our mothers gave us the wrong advice - We were supposed to marry lawyers and not become lawyers :-). Just kidding. I don't regret getting the degree but it is a really common phenomenon that many professional women married to high earners drop out of the work force. I have a friend with a JD degree who has an extremely large trust fund and she doesn't work. She has taken jobs that are satisfying to her and works on a lot of causes now. But realistically why should she put up with the crap that almost every job has when she has better more fulfilling ways to spend time other than making more money for a corporation.
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Actually many woman with degrees and professional credentials stop working if there is really no financial need to do so. I have many friends with JD's or MBA's who decided to be stay at home mothers because there was absolutely no financial reason for them to work and they wanted to have lots of time with their children. Even with lots of money for household help and nannies, running a household PLUS having a career that brings in major money is extremely taxing. And you then feel torn because you aren't there for a lot of parenting stuff. Not that it's easier if you don't have money but I am just discussing why people who don't have financial need to work choose to stop working. Honestly most people I know - even those with professional degrees like me - work because we need the money. Honestly the only people I know personally who continued working without financial need to do so were a few college professors. Job was very satisfying; hours were good and there really isn't much stress once you are tenured and have been at the same institution for a number of years. If I were married to someone who is probably bringing in more than $1 million per year plus I had significant assets why would I want to deal with difficult clients and boring real estate transactions for $150,000 or so annually.
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I don't think they are pretending the parents are happily married. They are stating the reality that the parents are content with the present arrangement and they seem to have no desire to either live together or get formally divorced. I don't think that is that odd actually. While not all extremely wealthy people hide their wealth, there are in fact many extremely wealthy people who are the proverbial millionaires next door - or actually in today's economic world, the multi-millionaires next door because having a million or even two million isn't really that rich. It's just comfortable. My best friend is a multi-millionaire and she lives very much like Jackie. If anything her life style is even more modest because a lot of flaunting wealth takes work :-). But if you examine her lifestyle, you realize how much wealth it takes to support it - kids all in private school with no worries about any kind of college or grad school costs; kids all have houses and/or expensive apartments; lots of travel and large comfortable house in one of the most expensive areas in my city as well as buying the house next door when it came on the market because they didn't want to deal with having construction and a McMansion built next to them.