How to Sell a Sofa Couch on Craiglist

I love Craigslist. It's a great place to get rid of stuff quick and a haven for bargain hunters. Of the two dozen or so times we've sold stuff on it, we've only ever had 1 deal fall through, and that was early on before we learned the value of good copy.

We even use Craigslist when we move; we find used boxes for free, then put them back up when we're done (it's called freecycling). On the down side, we've also learned it also brings out all the crazies. And desperates. And cheapwads. So rather than beat around the bush, I just laid it all out below in our latest post to sell our couch.

In order to write a good Craigslist ad:

1. Keep the headline short and to the point.
2. Make sure your value prop is placed high in your first paragraph to aid in scanability.
3. Don't make it sound too sales-y, and be genuine.
4. Say whether your item is new or old, and give its age when possible.
5. Keep crazy in mind, because potentially crazy is who will contact you.
6. Always accept cash only. Trust me.
7. Take a good, quality picture of the item you're selling, with good lighting.

To see the above in action, take a look at our ad below. I dare you to tell me I'm wrong about any of it. (Even the hookers.)

---

Red striped couch / sofa / where hubby sleeps when he ticks you off - $50

At $50, this couch is a steal. Don't act like a missing back
cushion is a big deal, you college students who are going to
buy it and ruin it. (Our dogs ate the cushion during a storm.)

3 years old. Comfy. Missing 1 back cushion, so that's why it's so cheap.

Here's the hard part (we don't think it's hard, but from the responses we've received when we've posted other things on Craigslist, it appears that it is indeed hard because we get stared at like we have three heads when we say this):

1. Must pick up. No, we won't deliver it to you. (Do we look like we run a furniture warehouse?)

2. We can't help you move it. My husband has a bad back and I recently had a hysterectomy. There's one flight of stairs to bring it down, so buck up and bring the neighborhood kid with you to help. And don't be THAT guy -- buy him pizza or slip him a twenty for his troubles.

3. Cash only. No Nigerian scams or promises of bank transfers please. Or hookers. We won't take hookers in exchange for the couch. Just $50 in greenbacks. Thanks.

Full List of 2011 Oscar Nominees

The King’s Speech led the nominees with 12 nods, followed by The Social Network and -- in a big surprise -- Inception each garnering eight nods. Very excited to see Aaron Sorkin nominated for his writing in The Social Network.

Here's the full list of 2011 Academy Award nominees:

Best Picture
Black Swan, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
The Fighter, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
Inception, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
The Kids Are All Right, Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
The King’s Speech, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
127 Hours, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
The Social Network, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceàn Chaffin, Producers
Toy Story 3, Darla K. Anderson, Producer
True Grit Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
Winter’s Bone, Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in Biutiful
Jeff Bridges in True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network
Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
James Franco in 127 Hours

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in The Fighter
John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner in The Town
Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman in Black Swan
Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo in The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom

Animated Feature Film
How to Train Your Dragon Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Cinematography
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins

Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beavan
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres

Directing
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter, David O. Russell
The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper
The Social Network, David Fincher
True Grit, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)
Exit through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Film Editing
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

Foreign Language Film
Biutiful, Mexico
Dogtooth, Greece
In a Better World, Denmark
Incendies, Canada
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi), Algeria

Makeup
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)
Coming Home from Country Strong, Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light from Tangled, Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours, Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Short Film (Animated)
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing
Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing
Inception, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
Salt, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
The Social Network, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
True Grit, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Another Year, Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler

And the Golden Globe Goes To... (2011 Snarky Edition)

Looking for a fair share of snark with your awards show commentary? Rather than a whole post on my thoughts on tonight's Golden Globes, here's a mash-up of my Facebook and Twitter feeds. (I started early with the Red Carpet -- couldn't help myself! All times PT.) Enjoy!

12:55 p.m. Stretching and carb-loading to get ready for my annual awards show social thrashing. Tonight: Golden Globes.

3:04 p.m. Ryan Seacrest after Guliani gets "leid": "Maybe she'll finally loosen up now." #rrrowr

3:15 p.m. It's Mila Kunis' long lost little sister...is there Black Swan action on the red carpet? No, it's just the Modern Family girl.

3:25 p.m. By all accounts Julie Bowen's dress shouldn't work. But it does. Behold the power of the Golden Globes.

3:45 p.m. Oh, you hot, drunk mess known as Helena Bonham Carter. You never disappoint.

4:05 p.m. Ryan Seacrest: Congratulations, homewrecker! Natalie: I'm really bad about accepting congratulations for being a homewrecker.

4:15 p.m. Is that Nicole Kidman looking like she just came out of ER triage? No, it's January Jones, no it's Kidman. Bloody mess, either way.

4:19 p.m. OMG...Scarlett Johansson...it's Bride of Frankestein...dude.

4:23 p.m. There's a change: an Asian adopting a white child. #justinbieber #johnchu

4:30 p.m. Who knew a side effect of Botox was stringy, dry hair? Nicole Kidman, that's who.

4:32 p.m. I didn't realize synthetic turf came out with a line of awards show dresses. Rock it Catherine Zeta Jones.

4:37 p.m. NEWSIES alert! Christian Bale awkwardly trying to avoid Carson asking, "Going for the Johnny Depp look?"

4:57 p.m. Oh my god, the British chick is my new favorite host after her "Cubans under a dress" comment.

4:59 p.m. Dear Twitter followers: The next 3 hours will be a barrage of snarky Golden Globes commentary. You've been warned.

5:00 p.m. Beer on the dais FTW!

5:01 p.m. Really? The 10 second delay on "Christ" - oh, you've got your work cut out for you, NBC.

5:02 p.m. First of what will surely be many Charlie Sheen jokes for the night.

5:02 p.m. *snarf* Mel Gibson joke? Expected, Ricky Gervais. That's what opening bit should be: cutting, funny, and most of all: short.

5:07 p.m. I do declare: Scarlett J's dress is just Judi Dench's from a few awards seasons ago, with sleeves.

5:11 p.m. When the hell did it become "Piper Pear-a-boh" instead of "Pear-a-boo"?

5:12 p.m. In the Battle of the Bundy's, Peg just won.

5:13 p.m. Is Julianne Moore's arm broken? Why is she wearing a sling-dress?

5:21 p.m. OMFG...I just spit sweet and sour chicken on my computer screen: "Please welcome Ashton Kutcher's Dad, Bruce Willis!"

5:22 p.m. Dear Neil Patrick Harris: Please don't hate me, but Ricky Gervais has replaced you as the guy who I want to host every. Awards. Show.

5:25 p.m. Love. Love. Love. Glee! Go Chris Colfer! I've got tears in my eyes. What a lovely speech. :)

5:38 p.m. Really? We're shaping up to be a Boardwalk Empire night? It's not that good, sorry.

5:42 p.m. The new Spiderman can't speak American English. Poor guy.

5:44 p.m. Heather Mills joke - bwahahaha!

5:47 p.m. Dear J-Lo: This is the Golden Globes, not your quinceanera. Apparently no one told your stylist.

5:50 p.m. Dude, what's Obama doing in a prostate cancer commercial coaching t-ball?

5:55 p.m. Damn it! The Toy Story 3 director beat me to the punch! The presenters weren't even born when TS1 came out.

6:00 p.m. Best. Awards. Show. Intro. Ever: Ricky Gervais intro'ing Robert Downey, Jr.

6:13 p.m. Wow. Pacino looks bat-shit crazy.

6:15 p.m. Come on orchestra! Grow some balls and play Pacino off.

6:15 p.m. Tilda-Bot: Pillaaaaahhhs uff theee Uuuuurth.

6:16 p.m. Husband chimes in: Is Claire sporting those eyelashes she grew in that commercial?

6:17 p.m. My So-Called Life gets revenge over Party of Five, as #ClaireDanes beats #JenniferLoveHewitt. /via Television Without Pity

6:25 p.m. Ricky: "The ungrateful Steve Carrell!" Bwahahahaha!

6:27 p.m. You go with your mushroom-eating-blow-doing-President-Barlet-Social-Networking ass, Aaron Sorkin.

6:30 p.m. Jane! "I am nothing if not falsely humble."

6:34 p.m. Dude, straight or not, Olivia Wilde's effing HOT.

6:35 p.m. Michelle Pfeiffer looks pissed. Or maybe she's just hungry.

6:40 p.m. That Vanessa Williams blip? Ladies and Gentlemen, we've hit the "Oh crap we're running long moment" - they've begun cutting nom packages.

6:47 p.m. Dear Kaley Cuoco: I love you, but your ponytail length (position & fakeness) make it look like a horse highjacked the back of your head.

6:50 p.m. My list of actresses who haven't fallen from grace yet (yes, I'm looking at you, Claire Danes and Natalie Portman): Julia Stiles, Amy Adams...who am I missing?

6:58 p.m. I'm going to go take the dogs out for a potty break. This part of the Golden Globes feels so...Oscar-ish.

7:06 p.m. Can we play DeNiro off now? What about now? Now? How about now?

7:13 p.m. Jem and the Holograms get in a catfight with My Little Pony. The result? Megan Fox's dress.

7:17 p.m. January is 2 drops of sweat away from losing the double-sided tape that's holding her dress on her boobs.

7:19 p.m. SHUT UP. Glee beat Modern Family? Squeeeeeee!

7:19 p.m. MotherEFFERS you did NOT just play off Glee but you let that idiot actress earlier talk for 3 minutes?

7:35 p.m. And the pre-Oscar goes to...Natalie Portman! (Just watched her this afternoon in Beautiful Girls.)

7:36 p.m. Really Natalie, the #GoldenGlobe is the most wonderful thing you'll take from this post-movie experience? What about your baby?

7:39 p.m. Yay! The Kids Are Alright wins! Now maybe Julianne Moore can afford her other sleeve.

10:48 p.m. Mr. Darcy FTW!

7:52 p.m. Ooh, a surprise guest is going to announce Best Picture? Unless it's Steve Jobs, or George Bush, color me not "surprised.

7:57 p.m. Hey! Look at me! I'm tweeting about how The Social Network won #gg Best Picture! How very meta of me. Be the first of your friends to "like" this.

8:00 p.m. Ladies and Gentleman, it's been a pleasure live-snarking the Golden Globes. See you all in 41 days for the Oscars!

Those are my thoughts...what did you think of the show?

Review: Cups Cooking Class in La Jolla

Would you drink hot chocolate made with butternut squash? How about chocolate cake whose main ingredient is prunes? While healthy desserts may sound like an oxymoron, Chef Jesus Gonzalez at Cups La Jolla prides himself on helping people eat better—and healthier.

Orange chocolate mousse (the orange
 color comes from carrots!).

Located in La Jolla Village, Cups is the brainchild of Michelle Ciccarelli Lerach, who set out to put her own twist on the cupcake craze: organic. The shop does more than just sell heavenly bites of sugary goodness, though. They also offer cooking classes that range from desserts to duck, and more. Lerach's vision paid off, which shows in the Guilt-Free Desserts class taught by Gonzales.

Upon arriving at San Diego's only 3-Star Green Certified® Bakery, you walk past the front counter (stopping for the to-die-for strawberry infused organic milk), through the actual kitchen, and into the teaching kitchen in the back of the shop. Eight excited students sit around a large square table, with their aprons, recipe book, and notebook laid out in front of them. Gonzales begins by telling students why he teaches.

Berries, pistachios, carrots and prunes
contributed as the surprise secret
healthy ingredients.

As a young man, Gonzales learned how to cook from his mother, who told him, "You need to learn how to cook because you never know what's going to happen."

Meaning, he couldn't count on finding a wife to cook for him. His culinary career took him to such famed locales as the famed Rancho La Puerta and Golden Door Spa.

After the pleasantries, he instructs his class to get up and so begins the three-hour class. There's definitely a focus on the healthy: goat cheese instead of cream cheese (healthy because the former's easier to digest and also okay for many lactose-intolerant folks); agave nectar instead of sugar (healthy: 1 cup of sugar = 1/3 cup agave); and 2-egg flan.

The desserts reflect Gonzales' edict: "When I create a recipe, I want to make sure it's simple and easy." By the end of the class, students agreed wholeheartedly with both.

Here's a visual tour of the evening's delectable delights:

Semi-sweet chocolate chips and other fresh ingredients.

Avocado sherbert in mango shell.

Minted chocolate mousse.

Student Dano showing off his mad reduction skillz.

Granola nestled below mango and berries.

Chef Jesus on fire! Banana Flambe with Chocolate and Pistachios.

Wheaty-chocolatey cookie goodness.

Chef Juan talks to students while they enjoy the fruits of their labor.

A few days later, I attended the Pasta Rustica Toscana, featuring Guest Chef Ryan Johnston (Executive Cher of Whisknladle and formerly of The French Laundry). He took students from flour and eggs to completed pasta dishes in just under three hours, inciting laughter with such quips as, "The difference between a good chef and a great chef? A pound of butter."

Chef Ryan Johnston talks to the class about how to cook butternut squash.

Students made pasta from scratch, which required lots of eggs and flour.

The genesis of pasta: make flour into a mound,
then scoop out a well for the eggs.

Chef Ryan adds more flour to the pasta for students Jean and John.

Rollers and the chitarra, or pasta guitar, used to cut pasta into noodles.

One of the near-finished products: ravioli right before it gets cooked.

That elusive bear known as gnocchi; not many places make this well.

Fresh and at its finest, only takes a minute or so to cook.

Chef Ryan showing the spaghetti carbonara to students.

I'd sell my first child for the bolognese he made, pictured here with gnocchi.

Pancetta and fresh sage, meet butternut squash ravioli, your new BFF.

At a mere $70 each, these classes were great value for the time and the amount of food you get to eat (the desserts class had a ton of leftovers, so there were many goodies to bring home). They were fun, moved along quickly, and the people who came were a lot of fun! To book your cooking class, visit the Cups website, or call 858.459.CUPS (2877).


Note: All photos shot by me with the Hipstamatic App for the iPhone.

Beyonce's Single Ladies Leads to Toddler Devestation

Behold the People's Choice Awards winner for Best Viral Video of 2010.

While the little boy can be seen dancing along as the beginning of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song, note his face as soon as his father innocently tells him, "You're not a single lady."

The best part? The father's last line to the camera in the waning seconds. Enjoy!