chocolate roulette

Spent the day house hunting. Ran out of batteries, digital card space, and energy.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars that separate some of these homes in the land of blue skies and sunshine, there seems to be a couple of leveling-off points. At first the houses get progressively nicer; then you start paying for more subtle differences like square inches on the master bathroom floor. Do I really need a bathroom so huge that you can--never mind.

My favorite amenity was at a house well beyond even our dream price range. The entryway patio was centered around a stand-alone fireplace. This is SoCal! Hmm, does that make the gratuitous outdoor fireplace even more ridiculous or simply explain it?

After a long day, I came to the conclusion that the rest of the country has long known: Housing in this region is insane. We need a Cesar Chavez of real estate to help us middle class folk rebel against megalomaniac developers and their master-planned communities.

In other news, I think I found my little brother a birthday present.