We're trying to decorate our new abode. In the hunt for cool decor, I've been scanning flash sale sites daily to see what they're selling. I figured I'd get a great deal - after all, isn't that the promise of the concept?

At first I would get upset if I missed a sale on a brand at, say, ideeli, but I quickly realized that usually the exact same sale would pop up at Rue La La or Gilt a few days later.

One of the things we're looking for is a coffee table/ottoman for our place, so it can be both a seat (for parties) and a coffee table. Preferably with storage.

A few weeks ago, one of my flash sale sites - I think it was Gilt - did a sale on furniture by a company called Safavieh that featured a storage ottoman, but it wasn't quite what we wanted.

Flash forward two weeks and:



Yup, modern design site Fab, arguably the coolest of the flash sales sites, is hosting a Safavieh sale this week. The sale includes many of the items that were in Gilt's Safavieh sale two weeks ago.

But there's one item that wasn't in the last sale:


This is exactly what we were looking for - black, with ample storage space and seating, plus each cushion flips over to reveal a tray. Retail price $810, knocked down to $350 ($385 with shipping and handling). What a deal, right?

Right?

Well, I decided to make like this XKCD comic and search the web a little bit. And the first thing I found:



Yup. It's exactly the same ottoman on HSN. Only difference: shipping and handling are included in the price, which makes the total purchase about $5 cheaper. And what do you know - HSN, which many people think of as un-cool (I know raqs can set them straight on that, but it's still the image) has all the same furniture from Safavieh that's in that Fab sale.

But it turns out HSN isn't the only one that has our target ottoman.



Yes, the ottoman is available from Lowe's. It's significantly cheaper and delivery's included in the price. I'll probably have to pay sales tax, but I'll still save money AND the state of California will get a few bucks (and let's face it, this state needs the dough).

Then I started doing searches and realized the "retail price" on most of these items is complete hooey, like the "retail" price on a sales tag at an outlet mall. It's a completely fabricated, ridiculously high price that no one would ever really pay. A marketer has invented it just so the buyer feels like she's getting a deal. But she's not; many of these are available at better prices somewhere else.

The other great marketing point on these flash sales sites is the "flash" nature of it. OMG! There's only 18 hours left to buy this! If I don't get it now I will NEVER SEE IT AGAIN! It is, of course, a completely false sense of urgency, because if you miss it at Rue La La you can always head over to ideeli or hautelook or one of the other sites; nine times out of ten it'll pop up.

I will say, after cruising all these flash sales sites, that Fab has a lot more unique items on their site. But you know what else is interesting?

I went to Unique LA two weeks ago. I thought it was local designers and artists, but it turns out they're from all over the country. And since the event? I've seen easily 10 of the participants (so far) pop up on flash sales sites, and 9 of those were on Fab. I know the designers may have gotten lucky and been found by a buyer at the event, but it still makes me wonder how much of it is truly unique and handcrafted, and how much is just a marketing ploy meant to repackage mass market items and sell them to wannabe downtown cool people like myself.

"...it’s not fair to ask the middle class to assume a disproportionate amount of the tax burden. Not fair? It’s un-fucking-American is what it is. I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share."

- Stephen King, Tax Me, For #$&%@'s Sake!

It's a great piece, well worth reading.

In Monterey I was getting migraines at least once a week. I haven't had a migraine since my first week in LA.

Smoggy air is the anti-migraine trigger? Perhaps.

On Friday I was finally healthy enough to realize how very sick I had been all week (in a word: very). I had a much more productive and positive day at work than I had for the two weeks prior. Saturday we even got some errands done, and I got to see a former mentor of mine from Monterey, which was lovely.

We also saw Cabin in the Woods, which I highly recommend. It would be a great double feature with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, actually.

Today I am feeling very fatigued. I think that yesterday I was so enthusiastic about feeling well enough to leave the house that I may have overdone it. I foresee an early bedtime to make sure I'm in tip-top shape for work tomorrow.

So as we said before, we wound up not taking our Dream Place because they were very slow to respond to our offer and when they did they came back with a rent price that was beyond our upper limit, plus asked us to provide 2 months' security.

Just poked around online and discovered it's still on the market and they lowered the rent to what we'd originally asked for.

Ah, well. I bet they're kicking themselves.

Sick, with that sore-throat-and-painful-ear thing that seems to be going around.

Just read this Metafilter thread on what's still going on in Fukushima.

I think I'm going to go hide under the bed with Cute Overload for a while.

For those who like to dine out, this take on a flash sales site may be up your alley. Savored gives 30% discounts on what seem like pretty high end restaurants. If you're interested, here's your invite.

Almost all of our stuff is here, except for the last carload of stuff emdiar is bringing down from Monterey and our entire wine collection, which has been staying with friends for the past week (we didn't want to leave it to the movers and wanted to make sure it was climate-controlled).

Cable guy came by today. He got the Internet working, then inserted the cable card into the TiVo. For an hour, he couldn't get a cable signal no matter how often he asked them to "hit" our place. Then I said, "Excuse me, but shouldn't you plug that wire at the back of the TiVo into the cable outlet in the wall?" The install was remarkably problem-free after that.

We did a massive purge of stuff before we left, and we still have too much stuff. At this point, unpacking is a game of House Tetris: unpack box, put contents in a spot that is Good Enough For Now But Will Suck In the Long Run, collapse box, create enough space to unpack next box.

The kitchen has way more counter space and much better counters than the old kitchen. Unfortunately, it also has less cabinet space. And the cabinets aren't deep enough for our dinner plates. We're going to have to come up with some crafty solution.

The cabinet immediately to the right of the stove has a smell of cooking gas when I open it. I hope this doesn't mean the apartment will explode. It hasn't yet, so I'm hopeful.

I think the realtor who showed us this unit opened the windows before he showed it to us. When the windows are closed, the smell of stale cigarette smoke is noticeable. Yuck. Cleaning the curtains should help, but it seems to have sunk into the walls. Fingers crossed that repainting will cut down on that somewhat.

I have heard horror stories about combo washer-dryer units but ours seems to work just fine. In fact, it's better than the units we have in Monterey. This could because the units in Monterey were only four years younger than I am. (No joke. They were the same model that my mom taught me to do laundry on.)

My feet are not thrilled about the idea of standing up and doing more unpacking. I'd give them something squishy to stand on, but I haven't unpacked that box yet...

As of tomorrow I will be an Angeleno again. That's just WEIRD.

My coworker Richard gave me the following hilarious goodbye note.

Psst...here are some of the real reasons why Nicole is leaving.

• Invited to attend the inaugural "Burning Mate" in Alice Springs
• Tired of working in an office full of pedantic Yalies
• 3 words: vegemite, vegemite, vegemite
• Simply could not turn down the 25-year $25 million contract offer
• Once in a lifetime opportunity to become fluent in Australian
• She will finally, finally, finally be able to use the knowledge she acquired as an undergraduate at Harvard where the topic of her senior thesis was "The History of Australian Rules Football and Its Influence on Keynsian Economic Theory."
• She received a "Big Brain" signing bonus which included a free lifetime supply of Australian beer and wine
• Heard that corn syrup is banned in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane
• She fell in love with the acoustics in the Opera House when she received a standing ovation for her presentation, "Sydney: So Much to Discover."
• She is fulfilling her childhood dream of living and working in Vienna

I am not going to sign a lease that has some random guy's name listed as the only tenant.

I am also not going to sign a lease that you sent me at 10:07pm on March 19 if it says that I must submit the deposit by 11:59pm on March 19 or the lease is forfeit, ESPECIALLY when the lease includes no bloody information on how to get the money to the dang landlord.

I understand that you are working late, but can you at least do a once-over before you send the dang thing?

No love,

Me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! WE'RE NEVER GOING TO FIND A PLACE TO LIVE AND WE'LL NEVER BE PACKED IN TIME!!!!!!

Huh. Not sure I feel much better.

Several months ago, I learned about an amazing career opportunity, promoting a destination that I'm in love with and have raved about to everyone I know. It was a very difficult decision to leave Monterey, but it was an opportunity too amazing to pass up. Starting on March 26, I will be working for Tourism Australia in their Los Angeles office as the Digital Marketing Manager for the Americas.

Yes, this means we'll be moving back to LA! Though we've loved the bucolic country lifestyle we've had here in Monterey, we've missed our friends in Los Angeles terribly. We're currently focusing our housing hunt on Downtown and Culver City; if you have any tips for either we're all ears.

I love the team at the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the many wonderful people I've met in the destination. I have learned more during my tenure at the MCCVB then I ever imagined I could. It's been an honor to represent the area. I'm looking forward to coming back frequently and experiencing it as a tourist.

Have you ever wondered what happens to those big, expensive beach resorts if no one visits them?

Well, there's no need to wonder. I just spent a week at one – the Sanctuary Resort in Marbella, Costa Rica – and I'm here to tell you all about it.

( Pictures of abandoned seven-story buildings and villas ahoy! )

The folks who still work at Sanctuary are doing their best to make sure the visitors have an enjoyable time, but they don't have a lot of tools to work with. It's hard for a tourist to feel anything but disappointed when they've been promised a lot of amenities that no longer exist.

The enforced solitude and tranquility definitely taught me a lot about myself and what I look for in a vacation. It took me very far out of my comfort zone. I think the location - a quiet building on a beautiful beach, far away from everything, where even the noise of vehicles rarely intrudes - would be perfect for some travelers. While I can appreciate that calm tranquility, this trip showed me that enforced 24-hour-a-day peacefulness is not necessarily the best way for me to relax. I've fantasized about beach vacations in Bali, but after this experience I've learned that a week in total solitude at the beach may not be for me.

I'm going off the grid for about 10 days. Try not to break North America while I'm gone!

Burning Man 2012, here we come! Still no idea what to do with the theme.

Anyone else out there going?

We're going to Costa Rica in February - specifically, to the Nicoya Peninsula, on the Pacific side. Anyone been? Any recommendations or tips?

Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil is an inside-out horror film wrapped around an awesome romantic comedy. Tyler Labine and Katrina Bowden were hilarious and sweet, and Alan Tudyk was just flat-out hilarious. You could take the way they twisted the concept and play it for serious, but I'm glad they played it the way they did. I didn't expect to feel all heart-warmed at the end! Yay.