santa barbara, ca

the royal people bought a house here. cannot wait to see them in line at the tri-tip hole.

What royal people?

harry and meghan. they are out in the montecito wilderness, looking down on us, watching over us like oprah before them.

saying things like "the santa barbaran knows the tri tip is a cheaper cut of beef, undesirable to most, but the santa barbaran wants it anyway. what a curious people." Btw it is hot out here this weekend.

Which means a high of 85, but we are all freaking out about it.

oh I should have known it would be M&H. I wonder if they want to half-lease a pony for their (not?) royal spawn. I will share him for hmmm let's say $10,000 a month.

I will in all seriousness happily perform hard outdoor manual labor in 85 and not even complain.

It is 79 rn and feels cold when clouds cover the sun. I was checking out some ocean weather bc of this sweltering heatwave, and I now want to make a sequel to Twister called Waterspout.

It’s 106 in Pasadena right now and a mere 103 in Altadena so I retract my Altadena suggestion

we had Jerry Jones' yacht hanging out yesterday. starting to worry about this place.

Our latest plan is to live in H&M's servant quarters in exchange for pony rides.

Can do same for Jerry Jones but not sure how to get pony on a boat.

Where should I seek out meats to cook at home/airbnb? Also, how insane is the SB farmer's market on the weekends, and are there alternative places to for good produce?

- the weekend farmer's markets are good. It can be crowded, but I wouldn't skip them. The farmer's markets seem to be important to you, and you should see them for yourself. I love them, but I'd imagine there are better. The farmer's markets usually also have a small selection of meat/fish.
- There's a decent produce market on Milpas called Tri-County Produce.
- Shalhoob is the standard local butcher, but we don't buy much from there.
- You can get local black cod, halibut, rockfish, and uni at the SB Fish Market. There's also a small fish market with local stuff on the harbor on Saturdays from 7:30-11am.
- If you want to buy good produce and meats on any day and at one place (and don't mind paying more compared to Vons/Ralph's/etc.), I'd check out Lazy Acres on the Mesa. They have the best meat counter in a grocery store. A bigger store owned by the same company, Bristol Farms, is also opening on upper State next week. I believe these are common in LA, but I am excited to check it out and hope it's as good as Lazy Acres.
- I am not a Gelson's fan, but that's another probably fine grocery option, and it's next to Chaucer's.

Can do same for Jerry Jones but not sure how to get pony on a boat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpM8FjO4Vko

quincie, unfortunately you could be catching a minor heat wave along with some summer fire air quality issues.

I'm old enough to remember when fire season was when the Santa Anas picked up during Indian Summer... rather than just plain old summer.

That’s OK, I am pretty used to crap weather and air quality. I will comfort myself with tacos.

Oh and thanks to whoever made the Cold Spring Tavern (Grill?) rec; made a reservation for lunch next Fri since we’ll be heading out that way to visit a couple of barns.

That will be fun! Glad you're seeing the other side of the mountain. Haven't been in a long while. Would usually go in grad school for tri tip sandwiches and music on the weekends.

Oh hi it is not even 9am and we have hot coffee at handlebar, pastry at Renaud’s, now headed to farmers market, all the while wondering why we have wasted half our lives in the wrong coast.

Quite right.

awesome morning!

Drove around the stoodent slum of IV, cracking up all the while. Second coffee at Caje. Did a drive by of the barns in Galeta, now lunching at Super Cucas. Not bad for a Saturday morning, huh? Many thanks for recs, so helpful for getting a grip.

Any sushi recs? Any price point.

arigato is the old sb favorite, but i like oku better these days. They have outdoor seating on cabrillo.

lol @ poor college students, they probably eat low price point sushi and their horses come from disreputable breeders

I’ve been to teri a couple of times and liked it but I eat spicy salmon rolls and drink beer.

many good places for that experience

trip to farmacy followed by dinner from Corazon at the Public Market.

How are ppl here so skinny, is there like a widespread coke scene I don't know about

Also had a very promising visit to one of the two barns up the San Marcos Pass. We will go back again on Friday.

get any ceviche at corazon?

Yes! Delicious, some amazing dressing wanted to drink straight.

Ummmm so any thoughts on a realtor? We bought our current house sans the 6% but we don’t know the market here at all, plus apparently open houses are a thing of the past.

My financial advisor who helped with our purchase is a big fan of openlistings, which saves a lot of money. Redfin has the best UI but saves less money. We chickened our and went with a local realtor and she was very good and held our hands more which we needed because it was our first time and we had to move very fast on a specific house. I’m not sure if covid makes the argument for a local well paid expert stronger or weaker. And I’m not sure if the situation is different in SB. But generally speaking if you know what you’re doing and have spare time then I would at least look into openlistings and friends.

it's only right that this ends with quincie outbidding us on a house. we chose our realtor based on loving her as a person, which is probably the wrong thing to do for saving money. she is also responsive and knowledgeable, though. can ilxmail you if interested.

My ilxmail died long ago, does yours work?

no lol

Are you on the ilx slack

today I ate my 4th McConnells ice cream and toured a $2M 1br condo lolololol

hell yeah!

nice! Our realtor wasn't responding so I cooled on recommending her. But it turns out she is out of the country for awhile, so wouldn't be a great choice at the moment.

Our airbnb host recommended a guy, he seems fine. It ain’t exactly rocket science.

Narrowed it down to two horsey homes. Prob back in Sept/Oct to work on more logistics and eat more tacos.

And more ice cream. I adore the churros con leche! With hot fudge!

Didn’t make it to SY valley this trip; will hit it up next time around.

Agree that you will be fine with anyone that knows the area and you can handle dealing with. Think clients moving into sb are getting attention rn. Still we are looking at a home tomorrow. Would require some reno, but hopeful some jerk with a briefcase of cash won't win it to sell again in a month or rent.

Did I mention that the $2M one bedroom had a $700 monthly fee

I mean $900, not $700. If you have to ask. . .

just a little 108 grand per year for insurance and to keep those hedges looking nice

Just acknowledging that i was hungover this morning, did 9*12, and obv misplaced a decimal bc i was confused by the idea of 108 hundred.

Oops I am accidentally moving to Montecito to live in the guest suite of a 5M house lollll. I am the Kato Kaelin of Santa Barbara.

lol