Simple. 

Big Beers = Awesome Establishment

If you are ever in Midland, TX - be sure to stop in at Murray’s Deli.  Not only do they have great food (awesome burgers), they also have HUGE beers.  I like, I like.

Tags: Big Beers, Food, Reviews by James
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As a lot of you know that read us on a daily basis… or weekly, or whenever you have a minute - you know we just went through the process of selling our home and buying another.  This was very unexpected (you know the story), and honestly we were worried if we were going to be able to survive it all.

We did.

In fact, in the last few days we closed on both the selling of our house and the buying of our new one.  So with it being fresh and our worry finally subsiding - we felt it was important for us to pass on the word to those that are local to the Midland/Odessa or The Permian Basin about how great our realtor was/is.

Believe us when we say we had lots of choices for a realtor.  One of our good friends… his mother is one of the bigger realtors in Midland, I used to work at Coldwell Banker before it spread all its realtors around Midland to all the other agencies - so it is safe to say… I know a crapload of realtors.

Not to mention everyone and their mother refers their realtor - which is cool and so we had plenty to choose from.

We did have someone in our extended family that is a realtor, and her associate in the Midland office would be happy to work with us.  We weren’t sure at first, since this gal was new at being a realtor - but family is family… so we trusted in our fam and went with it.

The realtor in question… Lydia Scudder @ Legacy Real Estate.

I guess I shouldn’t say “in question”, because there is no question about her at all.  Lydia was awesome from the moment go.

The funny part about this… wait, it wasn’t funny while it was going on, but now it is.  The funny part was that we have had the pleasure of dealing with Lydia twice in the last year and in some situations that I’m sure all of us grew from and I cannot think of a better person to have done it all with. 

Of course a year ago (next week) we closed on our house on Culver, and it was our first home - so what an experience to share with Lydia.  We thought it was the house of our dreams and up until 5 or 6 months ago… it was the house we planned to raise our kids in, build our family in and grow old together in.  I know, I know, we probably would have sold it before we got to the grow old part, but still - wishful thinking.

Lydia Scudder was awesome throughout the process, us being first time buyers - we had no FREAKING clue on what to do.  We had no clue what we wanted.  We had no clue how to go about it.  To say we leaned on Lydia was an understatement to say the least.  We hopped on her back and she carried us through the whole process… yeah, that would be more accurate.

I’m a needy person.  My wife tells me all the time.  Not needy like I whine all the time about stuff - but I need answers and I need the absolute answers.  I don’t want anything getting missed, being winged at the last minute or anything even close.  I want it well planned, I want it clear and concise and I wanted it done as soon as possible.  I’m not overbearing I don’t believe (Lydia & Shala both would probably love to argue that point - but I won’t let them), however I do want things done in order and things thought out well ahead of time.  Call me crazy.  I can say though with confidence that very seldom do we get caught off guard, and if we do - it is easily remedied.

That being said…  Lydia had to put up with a lot of emails… lots of phone calls and lots of !@#$ in general.  She handled it like a champ.  CHAMP!

After finding our dream house last year and getting it all done - we were so happy to have had Lydia as our realtor.  After 6 or 8 months in the house we were pleased but all good things must come to an end and sure enough it came via a knock on the door.  In a matter of minutes our lives were turned upside down and shook frantically. 

I really didn’t know what to do, it isn’t every day that someone knocks on your door and says that a school is expanding and they want your house.  We were in shock to say the least.  Part of us just wanted to go and lock our doors and cry.  Ok - maybe we did that too - but the big boy in me said…

“Get up, and pull up your drawers and get to work.”

So we did.

Lydia was one of the first people we called, she said she would investigate and get back to us.  Which she did, and at first we all thought it wasn’t a big deal.  However as we began to dig a bit further, we realized it was something we likely couldn’t shake and would eventually have to deal with.  So instead of putting if off, we decided to go ahead and start looking at our options and go from there.

Once again we leaned on Lydia in this situation as we didn’t have a clue on how to handle or go about it.  She was green in terms of this situation, but used her resources to figure it all out.  One thing I learned long ago is it is ok to not have all the answers, but you should rely on those that do - and find those answers any way you can.  Lydia did exactly that, and before long we had a good idea of what our house was worth, what we could do in terms of negotiations and we were ready to look for houses.

You have to understand something with Lydia.  If you have ever been with a realtor and went looking at houses… you know that sometimes they are trying to sell EVERYTHING to you.  “Oh, you can fix that.” or “That would be perfect for you!” - even though the house smells of cat piss and hasn’t been updated since 1958.  Lydia never forced anything on us.  In fact we had more fun laughing and making fun of some houses each time we got together to look at houses.  The overall feel was relaxed and the minute we were turned off on a house - it was over… moving on.

We liked that A LOT.  I HATE the run-of-the-mill realtor that is so fake and tries their hardest to sell houses.  Lydia is not run-of-the-mill.  Not at all.

We did find our dream house again.  After looking for a few weeks and finalizing the offer with the school’s representative - we were ready and started the process of buying our second home in a year.  Lydia once again got leaned on - since this was the first time we had sold a house.  And once again she held us together answering 9 MILLION questions over email and phone calls.  I can’t tell you how thankful we were for that.

My plea to you (our local readers), is if you need a realtor in the Permian Basin (Midland/Odessa/Andrews & anywhere else) - be sure to give Lydia Scudder a call, she works for Legacy and she is top notch.  She is still green enough in the business to not be corrupted by the money and “fakeness” - however she is well-equipped in handling even the off-the-wall situations in real estate. 

We don’t really do a lot of promotion on this website.  Maybe some software here and there.  Maybe some “Green” products or some plants here now and again… but this time it is from the heart.

Lydia Scudder has been a blessing to us.  She is fun-loving, smart - feisty - a go-getter and will do whatever it takes to get the job done for her clients.  We have made a true friend in Lydia and hope that anyone needing a realtor will give her a chance.

Thanks Lydia.

If you are looking for a real estate agent (realtor) in Midland Texas, Odessa Texas, Andrews Texas and the surrounding areas - be sure to give Lydia Scudder a call at Legacy Real Estate in Midland: (432) 687-6500, Ext: 228.  You can contact her via email as well: lscudder [at] legacyrealestate [dot] com.  You can also contact us here at Double Danger and we will get you in touch with Lydia - no worries.

Tags: Personal, Reviews by James
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A boring one if you ask us.  We have been shopping for an outdoor fountain recently and you know how it is…  spend your day looking through sites that just do not cut it… until you finally find a place that has your style.

Well we found it, Ethan Paul Outdoor - home of some killer Gas grills, Outdoor fountains and Garden fountains.

You can see right off the bat that this site has some awesome stuff for your patio & garden areas, and immediately we were hooked.  We are semi-addicted to firepits and so seeing a whole section dedicated to them had us saying…

“Where’s my checkbook?”

Also… a section dedicated to barbecues… I have been telling Shala that I needed a gas grill.  They had it covered.  TONS of gas grills and not your run of the mill ones either… we are talking HIGH END Napoleon Gas Grills.  You know those stainless steel ones that you dream about when you sleep… or is that just me?

If you can’t afford to spend the money on the super high end ones, they do have a few of the lower end (bust still super nice Napoleon gas grills) ones as well.  So you don’t have to spend 2 grand to get an awesome gas grill.

Ethan Paul does have a nice selection of fountains, which is something we have been trying to find a place for in the backyard.  Since we have a veggie garden, we were thinking we could put it in our pool area.  We have a few spots in mind, but seeing some of these fountains… you could practically build a spot dedicated just for them.  They are THAT… NICE.

The Terracotta Cascade Fountain had us hooked, since we went with terracotta pots for most of our potted plants.  This one would fit in nicely and at a good price.  140$????  Are you kidding me, sign us up.

Even if you wanted something more fancy than a terracotta pot fountain, they have TONS of outdoor & garden fountains to purchase.  We looked for about an hour dreaming and trying to figure out how we could work some of these awesome fountains in… however the Terracotta has to be the best one in our case.

Check out all the Garden & Outdoor Fountains at Ethan Paul Outdoor.

Go check some out, whether you are in the market for a new gas grill, outdoor fountain, firepit or anything dealing with outdoor entertaining or patio fun - you will be loving this site.  Ethan Paul Outdoor kills it when it comes to outdoor goodies.  Hope you can find something worth taking home… if not, maybe you can purchase something and send it ourway.  ;)  Enjoy.

Tags: Design, Gardening, Link'age, Reviews by James
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Anyone else watch Primetime: The Outsiders last night?  I don’t normally get into TV, Shala can vouch for that fact… but this show the minute I saw the previews had me mesmerized.  The whole point of this show is to show stories of situations that “normal” people could not relate to - or maybe to us… seem crazy.

By getting an inside look, we move from being an “outsider” to being an “insider”.  Or some crap like that.

That is what I got from it anyhow.

So this first one was about a man that lived in Alaska and had created a sanctuary for bears at his home.  Now this isn’t the same as someone creating a place where you cannot hunt or something… it was actually a guy rolling around in the grass with “wild” bear and becoming friends.

Now before we get too far into this, I do not want this to get mixed up with the story from a few years back about Timothy Treadwell.  You remember the guy who went out into the wild of Alaska and “lived” with bear, along with his girlfriend.  They video taped it all and were eventually killed and eaten by a grizzly bear on October 5th of 2003.

Later a documentary was made using the footage acquired by Treadwell & his girlfriend Amie Huguenard.  Grizzly Man was released in 2005 and out of respect the audio portion of the actual attack was not used in the documentary.

That backstory was mearly to help you distinquish the difference in the two.  The man featured in Primetime: The Outsiders goes by the name of Charlie Vandergaw.  Charlie is a 70 year old former science teacher that as spent the last 20 years in a remote bush area where he has befriended bears.

Charlie is admittedly a bit crazy, since he does spend lots of time with his furry friends - but it is obvious he has something that most of us do not have.  Almost as if he can “speak” bear.  His actions are insane to the outsider’s eye.  Quickly you realize just exactly what I am talking about when he swats a 300 pound black bear on his nose because he was messing with his window.  It helps you to realize just what I am talking about when I say “speak” bear.

Even though Charlie is crazy in most folks eyes… you will be amazed at how special his relationship with these bears is.  You can see his love and respect for these awesome animals and quickly you are pulled in and thinking you want to pet a bear.  Really.  To see him with a 400 pound bear laying its head on his stomach while he pets its ears… you wonder if these “beasts” are really “beasts” at all.

I know a lot of people will be mad at this guy and saying he is teaching folks to go out and pet bears.  I don’t think that is the point of this show though.  People are going to gripe about how he is training these bears by feeding them (which is illegal), but once again… I don’t think this is the point of the show.  I think we are shown this to help realize that bears & humans can live around each other - respect each other and possibly interact in some levels… whichout there being a SUPER HIGH sense of danger.  Do I think everyone should be feeding bears in their front yard, No.  Do I think that we should live amongst them and invite them in our kitchens… no.  But having a bear roam through town or pass 400 yards away shouldn’t be that big of a deal if you don’t provoke them and vice versa.

Just like any animal, there are bad seeds amongst bears.  There are blood thirsty bears that have tasted flesh and crave it… but that percentage is low and unless you plan on camping in their hunting trails and such… you will likely never encounter them. 

I hope that most people will take this show for what it is.  No, you shouldn’t be snuggling up with a grizzly after watching it, nor should you move to Alaska and decide to start hand-feeding black bears either.  But understand that Charlie chooses to do this and respects the bear and the land - he knows with one slap of a bear’s claws he can be finished… but he also feels a connection that he believes keeps this from happening. 

All in all… I don’t think that connection is one sided either.

I am excited to see the next special, not sure what it is about just yet, but I am sure it will open my eyes a bit more on life, this crazy world and maybe a group of people I have no clue about.  I hope you will do the same.

Tags: Personal, Reviews by James
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We have been having issues with our old camera (lens errors) and it was taking some of the crappiest pictures ever lately.  Not good for some folks that need their camera to keep posting great content for the masses… right?

We didn’t really shop for long for one, as it seems like the unless you want to spend $800 on a camera - most in our range of 200 bucks are about the same.  If you are some kind of camera freak… don’t start preaching to us about how they aren’t all the same… because I don’t care to listen.  ;)  At least not today, try back next week.

We opted for the FujiFilm FinePix Z.  Sounds fancy huh.  Not really, seems kinda cheap compared to our last one (it was a Canon) as far as weight and feel… this one seems light and cheaply constructed.  Oh well… you get what you pay for eh?

It was about 170 bucks with tax and all.  So we can’t complain that much.  10 Megapixels, which after a certain point… does it really matter?  I mean who needs more than 7 or 8?  Unless your some pro getting money for your shots.  And please believe it that no one has sent us a check yet.  ;)  Not yet anyhow.

So we were excited to try our new toy out yesterday and ran around like lil kiddos snapping pics and going oooooh and ahhhhh.  Pretty easy to use and overall great picture quality.  We shall see over the next week if we are still hi-5′n each other over our latest purchase.  So stay tuned for that.

Let’s get on with some pics taken by our newest member of the family… PIX-Z 

I have to put a vote in for Izzy being the most beautiful dog on the planet.  Nice quality with the camera as well, was surprised, it trumps our old one in that respect.

She has that permanent look on her face.  You know the look - “Do you have a ball, stick, sock, rock, peach, camera that I can play with?”  Again, great quality - seemed to get both her and the grass with pretty nice detail.

A nice closeup and once again it trumps our old camera - because it actually focuses on what you want to focus on.  Our old camera always seemed to focus on the background or some odd something in the picture.  Not cool.  PIX-Z wins this one.

Not sure how many times we tried to take this picture only to find it white washed or with NO DETAIL at all with our old camera.  You can really see the hardiness in the leaves and the detail that our old camera lacked.  PIX-Z wins again.

Our Vinca are doing their best impression of healthy plants for ya?  Suprising what a little water can do eh?  Who would have thought.  I think they have doubled in size the last week - maybe I’m crazy though.

Not completely happy with this pic, this was done in lower light than they others - which has me worried that our old camera did a better job in those cases.  Oh well - PIX-Z 3, Canon 1.  Pix still winning overall - big time.

Tags: Gardening, Personal, Pictures, Reviews by James
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