It's not all bad

On one of our boat rides in Puget Sound, this was the view. Actually, everyday we can see Mt. Rainier towering over the area. It's been quite clear and rain free for most of my 3 week business trip from hell up here.

My big catch #1

This is my big starfish catch in Gig Harbor fishing. We had great fun on Sunday on the boat, cruising and fishing. I did catch a 2' shark.....which we let go and no one got a picture of. And that ain't no fish tale...........

Starting the backyard patio -- it's hard work but hopefully worth it. This is just lining them out and testing...... Did you know I have bricks from the 1900's and 1920's? Did you think bricks could be antiques?

26.99%

I admit, I'm often too busy to closely monitor my incoming bills. Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice...well, you know the rest (President Bush didn't) I looked at my Mileage Plus Visa bill closely a month ago and wondered why in the world was the interest charged on the balance so high? Then I examined the bill closer and discovered (after much searching) and much to my dismay, that the interest rate on the card had jumped to 26.99%. That's absurd! I looked back through my 2005 bills and in December of 2004 it was 10.85% and then somewhere in February it jumped to my new outlandish rate. What was the catalyst? I have no idea.

I know that credit card companies nowadays will raise interest rates if you're late on a payment, (even by a day), if some sort of promotional period has expired or if you go over your limit. None of these had happened to me, however, I did see that First USA Visa had merged with Chase Visa (the new owner of my Mileage Plus account). That is when the rate went up. Credit card companies don't want you to call or look at your bills. We owe it to ourselves to constantly monitor our credit card bills.

I called each of my credit cards, B of A, Chase and my Mileage Plus Visa. Each of them lowered my rate, one all the way down to 8% EXCEPT Mileage plus Visa, they kept the high rate. Needless to say I will not be using that card and will probably cancel it. They said to call back in 2 weeks. Yeah right. Take control of your finances, remain viligant!

Vancouver

Stepping off the plane and into the night air in Vancouver I could smell it. The wonderful, deep smell of wood. Visions of majestic redwoods and towering pines flashed through my head. It was a heady feeling and I felt the longing to come home to Canada. Days later, after spending time in Vancouver reality set in. It is really just another big city with the visual advantage of the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.

My final impressions of Vancouver is that it is a big city like so many others with its own set of problems and adventures to be had. It's a city without freeways or embedded highways. This is bizarre to me. This metropolis goes on as far as the eye to see - you actually just get around by driving through city streets with stop lights the whole way. How inefficient. Asians permeate Vancouver. Not that I'm prejudice or anything, but the whole city is almost exclusively Asian. Chinese people even own and run the sushi joints.

It strikes me that Vancouver is definitely a place to discover more, but probably more likely the outlying areas, like Victoria Island, Whistler, Goose Mountain, etc. Vancouver is just the endpoint for the airplane - the rest of British Columbia is out there to explore.

5 Tips to avoid viruses & deal w/ email attachments

Follow these basic guidelines when dealing with attachments in an e-mail message, no matter what e-mail program you're using:
1. Don't open any attachment unless you know whom it's from and you were expecting it.
2. If you receive an e-mail message with an attachment from someone you don't know, delete it immediately.
3. Use antivirus software and keep it updated.
4. If you need to send an e-mail attachment to someone, let them know you'll be sending it so they don't think it's a virus.
5. Use spam filters to help block unwanted e-mail, much of which contains dangerous attachments. For information on how to do this with Outlook, see Update junk e-mail filters for Outlook.

Garage Sale Madness -- even the tow truck driver was doing a good business on the double parked cars!

Fighting mediocrity

Do you ever find yourself mired in the mediocrity of life? I was driving around the other day in my vehicle and looked around the insides. When did all these stains on the floor mats happen? Shouldn't the vehicle get vacuumed out once every lifetime? Why did I let my backyard get to looking so sad? What about my appearance? My wardrobe? My daily dress? My relationship? My job? Have I slipped into a happy complacency going through my life settling for a continued decline in everything around me?

Fighting mediocrity is very difficult, since we are surrounded by increasing levels of mediocrity on TV, newspapers, magazines and movies. It affects not only our daily little lives, but on a broader scale; culture, politics and arts, and science. Yet, hope looms eternal. As I survey my surroundings I feel a renewed commitment to raising the bar on my existence. We must constantly strive to be better humans, push ourselves farther and fight this complacent existence. Push away the fog and fight through the tired feelings.
Renew your commitment to being better in whatever way is important to you!

There's no Aloha in Los Angeles

"Aloha" is more than a word of greeting or farewell or a salutation. "Aloha" means mutual regard and affection and extends warmth through caring with no obligation in return. There is NO ALOHA in Los Angeles, believe me! I notice this because I've spent a lot of time in the great state of Hawaii over the past decade and have had the pleasure of visiting there probably 5 weeks in the last 2 years. What a fortunate person I am.

Did you know that Aloha is a law in Hawaii? It should be law in every state of the union. Road rage is an ever increasing scourge in Southern California & who can blame us? I used to spend 4 - 5 hours a day on the freeway commuting from my home to my job and back. This was 10 years ago. I remember once sitting at the 10/57 interchange pounding my fist against the steering wheel in frustration and screaming. And even though some of you would beg to differ, I am not that different than your average SoCal commuter.

The latest April 2005 census shows that in a ranking of large cities (with populations of 250,000 or more) the average commute time was; New York (38.3 minutes), Chicago (33.2 minutes), Newark, N.J. (31.5 minutes), Riverside, Calif. (31.2 minutes), Philadelphia (29.4 minutes), and Los Angeles (29.0 minutes). Kay, first of all, this is bullshit. Maybe if they survey someone living in West LA that's driving to work in Santa Monica, but come on, how many of those people are there? What about some poor schmuck living in Pomona driving to downtown LA everyday. He's doing about 90 minutes each way. These stupid survey's are all skewed. You can read the article here.

This is the law in Los Angeles:

1. Don't signal cause we'll just speed up 'cause we sure as hell aren't going to let you in.
2. If you're going to drive in the carpool lane, you'd better be doing over 70 mph or we're gonna run your ass over.
3. Go with the flow of traffic, if traffic is doing 20 mph, don't be an ass & do 5 mph, if its doing 80 mph you'd better be in the slow lane or we'll run up your butt.
4. Know where you're going. If you realize you are in the wrong lane and you're offramps coming, tough shit. No one is going to let you in. Maybe we would if you didn't signal...
5. Driving with headlights on during the day because you don't have running lights indicates fear. You will be taken advantage of.
6. The speed limit on the toll road is 80 to 90, you're paying to go fast. If you're driving <>

Well, there are lots more rules.......send me some comments with your California "rules"

The office is done -- now I just have to move in :-( It'll take time to get everything running again, but it sure looks good....

Before the new office is installed......

Adware, spyware and Malware

The average person's computer is infected with > 30 adware programs. This is a statistics from Network World (April 5, 2005). Do you know what adware is? What's the difference between adware and spyware? What the hell is malware? How are you supposed to deal with all this crap on the computer and who really cares anyways?

adware:
(n.) (1) A form of spyware that collects information about the user in order to display advertisements in the Web browser based on the information it collects from the user's browsing patterns. Similar to spyware but it has legitimate purposes, for example, the ads on weather underground allow the provider to offer the service free to web surfers. All adware is not necessarily malicious nor is all adware innocent.
Unfortunately, some freeware applications which contain adware do track your surfing habits in order to serve ads related to you. When the adware becomes intrusive like this, then we move it in the spyware category and it then becomes something you should avoid for privacy and security reasons. Due to its invasive nature, spyware has really given adware a bad name as many people do not know the differences between the two, or use the the terms interchangeably.
spyware:
(n.) Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with spyware. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
malware:
(mal´wãr) (n.) Short for malicious software, software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse.
phishing:
(fish´ing) (n.) The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card #'s, social security & bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has.
Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on “fishing,” the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

Walter's Camera Shop

Every day can bring growth, warmth and friendship into our lives - we just have to be open to it. In Los Angeles we are normally so caught up in our hurried lives that momentary acts of kindness or humanity don't exist and are even frowned upon. We are too busy to be nice, right? Wrong. I've just come back from a week on Kauai and I still have that Aloha spirit. Aloha means more than hello and goodbye, it represents an attitude.

So off I hurry to Walter's Camera Shop to have the battery cover replaced on my digital camera. Funny thing is that I ordered a new battery cover from Kodak because I was going to put it on myself. I'm an engineer, how hard can it be? Well, 4 tiny screwdrivers, a magnifying glass and some time later I decided I had no idea how to take the old one off.

I found Walter's on the internet. I met the nicest guy, the owner, Walter you'd think, right? Nah, his name is Sayed and he's from Egypt. He's been fixing cameras since 1952 & has a Master's in Political Science from Alexandria University. We had a rousing discussion on the price of gas and the power of OPEC as he did his thesis on Global Economy & its future relation to oil in Middle Eastern Countries. I thought that was fairly progressive for 1951. I won't go into all the details of our discussion but suffice it to say, it was interesting and he is definitely Anti-bush. Another interesting comment he made was the lack of political protests in America now, a cowed media and a "grin and bare it" attitude among America's citizens. I have to admit, I have to agree with him.

My camera repair was $5.

The new gutters are here! Now I dread not getting them in copper :-( They will be painted in a couple weeks, the same color as the house, which doesn't show up well on the pictures on the blog for some reason. But the 1/2 moon style and round down spots keep with the 1920's architecture of the home.

Eating our way through the North Shore

The north shore of Kauai continues to improve dramatically in its food selection and quality. We ate at many fine restaurants in Hanalei Bay and Princeville and wanted to share my report.

Postcards **** $$$$
-- a fairly recent edition to Hanalei Bay - exquisite vegetarian & seafood selection
-- wine and beer only, great service
-- Our favorite high end restaurant in the area

Hanalei Gourmet **** $$ - $$$
-- wonderful selection and excellent quality, certainly not "high end" but definitely great food!
-- Best mai tai's in my opinion on this side of the island

Bamboo Bamboo *** $$$$
-- Their Mai Tai's are a 2 on a scale of 10
-- The food is good, lots of variety, not exceptional, but good.
-- Service was great.

Bubba's hamburgers ** $
-- if you need a hamburger, maybe Hanalei Gourmet is the place to get it.
-- undercooked as usual, I've tried several times
-- I like my fries well done, there's were marginal cooked at all
-- service is not really their top priority
-- But if you need a burger and a Coke, this is the joint I suppose

Sabella's - Princeville * $$$$
-- Mai Tai's were a 5/10
-- Food was the worst I've ever had, over priced, nothing special, they have no clue what "piccatta" means and it's an Italian joint.
-- Size of the filet was a joke, especially at the price.
-- Bottom line, you want good food at a great price, try somewhere else
-- Island rumor has it the chef quit a few months ago and it's been downhill ever since.

Sushi Blues *** $$$
-- Wasn't there this trip but went last trip, remember the food was good, can't remember the Mai Tai's - perhaps that's a sign
-- Always live music so its a happening joint

Zelo's Beach House *** $$$
-- Mai Tai's a little sweet, fresh juice though -- 7/10
-- Suggest upgrading to the Iniki Mai Tai - basically a souped up version of the above.
-- The food is good

Wake up Cafe **** $
-- Best breakfast place in Hanalei - 'nuff said
-- Make sure to try the Portuguese Sweet bread cinnamon roll!

Learning to relax is an art

I truly believe that living in the US of A has caused me to forget how to relax. Americans take less vacations than any other country in the world. As I wake up each morning in the lush, tropical paradise that Kauai is, my mind tells my body, "jump up and do something!" My mind whirls with things to do, I must do SOMETHING, shouldn't I? No actually, I don't.

We must relearn how to relax. We must relearn how to lounge about, take life less seriously, stress about less things and stop to smell the papaya occassionally. Check out any of the links I've referenced for this blog and see what I'm talking about. Americans are being robbed of their right to proper holidays. It's important that we recharge. Wouldn't we be more productive if we did that? Something to think about.

Well, got to go, I hear my snorkel gear calling me.

Motivation in Hanalei Bay

Well, here I am in beautiful, idyllic Kauai - in Hanalei Bay wondering why I wake up each morning with absolutely no desire to do anything. All my motivation is gone. Dena says its because I'm on vacation and that's the way it's supposed to be. No wonder people get nothing done on the islands. When I go to Honolulu to work I have to plan extra days, about 50% more than normal to combat this island work mentality. As a mainlander it frustrates me, but spending any time here one comes to appreciate that kind of attitude.

I think today Dena and I are going shopping at a local craft fair in Kapa'a and then off to Poipu state beach for swimming and snorkeling. Maybe - sometimes we get sidetracked. Anyone that knows me, knows I have to have a plan. It's hard to have a plan in Hawaii. You just sort of hang loose and go with the flow and whatever happens, happens.

In a couple days I'll write about "eating our way through the north shore". A comprehensive restaurant review.

My kingdom for a screw

You know, you can never find the right screw when you need it. Today was just another sunny, beautiful day in Los Angeles, Dawn out searching for that one perfect screw. Mostly I find myself looking on the weekends but today I found myself in a weekday need. A quandry if you will. Could I find it and did I already have it? You see, you don't want to spend your time "shopping" for a screw if you've already got it the perfect one at home.

Some screws are a matter of taste, others are a matter of need. There are all types of screws after all; big, small, long, short, wide, skinny, pointy and blunt. Sometimes you need a special, one of a kind screw, but even if my need is a little unique - I can always find it somewhere. This is LA after all - you just need to know where to look. You can find ANYTHING in LA.

Today's need was a 2" flat topped #8 machine screw which I just didn't have. I have a garage full of screws, individually sorted into parts drawers and labelled. You'd think I'd have such a common screw. You did know I was talking about hardware didn't you?

Dena learns all about cement and gets her slippers dirty doing home improvement. What will she come up with next? Of course I had to do all the hard work mixing the cement and carrying the 60 lbs bags...... Here she is filling a tiny hole with 120 lbs of cement, one cupful at a time. Talk about patience.

Off comes the tile roof

Too busy to blog?

Am I really that busy that I can't blog? I'm feeling run down, overwhelmed and just plain out of time. When you feel like this you have to prioritize, right? And blogging tends to be at the bottom of the list. However, years ago (yeah right.....) when I was in therapy, all therapists usually tell you to journal. Dawn, you have to journal, explore your thoughts, blah, blah, blah.

Perhaps blogging is therapeutic to my pysche, perhaps it calms me, lets me dump random and/or obsessive thoughts onto the internet thus clearing my mind for more focused work, that is after all why I started it in the first place.

Well, since blogging is obviously good for me, I'd better continue. Let's see then, eating salads, drinking more water, eating more protein, eating before 6pm, exercising, etc, etc, etc, are all good for me. Do you think life is all about balance? Do we struggle our whole lives trying to find peace and harmony between our ying and yang? Is balance about happiness? Ah, the thoughts that plague the idle mind!!! BACK TO WORK!

Googlewhack

Dena & I had the good fortune to see Dave Gorman's googlewhack adventure Saturday night at the UCLA playhouse. What an amazingly hilarious story told by an exceptional storyteller. We were rolling in the aisles and the best part was, it was all true! They say truth is stranger than fiction and they are right! He is done with his run in Los Angeles I'm sorry to say, however, his book is available on his website and on Amazon . Apparently he is getting a 3 month run in New York, so if you get a chance to see him, I highly recommend it. Worth every single penny of admission. I cannot reveal details of his story or his adventure, cause well, he swore me to secrecy.

For those of you unaware of what a googlewhack is, its a game played on google. It is the challenge of entering two words into a google search that turn up one and one hit only. Google is the arbiter of a whack's uniqueness. Look to the right end of the blue bar atop your Google results. If you see "Results 1 - 1 of (any number),' you found exactly one hit = Googlewhack! There are many other rules, the single most important being that you cannot use quotation marks. For example, rabbits eggheadedness is a googlewhack. Try it yourself! To learn more about the rules and other whacks, check out the googlewhack webpage.

The animals are guilty

The infamous gang rape trial in Orange County, California is hopefully over, for good, although the appeal has been filed already. The 3 animals will be sentenced soon and we can stop hearing about their escapades and the blame put on the victim. See the story in the SF Chronicle . This was a brutal gang rape of a defenseless, albeit drunk, young woman by three teenage boys using their penises and then when they tired of that, other objects. The morons videotaped the events providing the key point of evidence for the prosecution. 22 minutes of it. I cannot imagine being a juror and having to watch that.

What's amazing to me is that it took 2 trials to get to this point. In both trials the young woman was presented as promiscuous and her character assassinated through out the trial. She must be a strong person to put up with such abuse. Why can't she sue for defamation of character? Why couldn't she sue the defense attorney's for saying all that stuff? Was she really the school slut? We all know that in school their are rumors and that teenagers blow this stuff out of proportion. And where are their parents? Not only the girls, but the boys? After all, this did happen one evening in the boys garage.

The American justice system seems slanted towards the rich, famous and influential. Case in point, Kobe Bryant, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, and by the way, one of the boys in the above case was the son of OC ex - sherriff. Money baby, that's what it takes in the USA, money!

Dawn's rain gauge for Thursday's torrential rain. 1.6 inches in a matter of a few hours. A rock & rollin' storm with Dena, that's right folks, Dena out in my pink booties on sump pump duty!

Pink?? Is the guest house really going to be that ugly pink with light green trim? No, our painter just tints his primer.

The long awaited Westin heavenly bed is being delivered Friday - I can't tell you how excited I am. The thought of sleeping on such a wonderful mattress just makes me all giddy. I'll let you know how it goes. These beds are custom made by Simmons ONLY for the Westin and its guests. They can be purchased only thru Westin and are custom made to order. This means a long delivery time, but worth it. You will all be drooling at the relaxing, marvelous sleep I'll be getting. It will be a joy not to wake up with a backache every morning.

10" rare shiplap redwood ---- $ 1,200.00 50 -- man/woman hours ---- $ 2,000.00 the perfect compound angle cut ---- PRICELESS

Front of the house with some trim! I love it!

Jaded?

Perhaps living in Los Angeles, a stone's throw from the beach, Hollywood and other famous spots makes you jaded. Yesterday we decided to take our niece and nephew to see The Pacifier (a rental for sure) and the most convenient spot and showtime was at the El Capitan on Hollywood Blvd. This is an amazing venue from the old Hollywood days with gorgeous ceilings and plaster reliefs. This theatre is across from the Grauman's Chinese, another Hollywood landmark and the new Kodak Theatre center, the site of the recent Oscar's.

After purchasing tickets we had an hour to kill in this area before the show - and I'm thinking what the hell are we going to do on Hollywood Blvd with all these bloody tourists! As I glanced across the street I could see the Hollywood sign perfectly framed by the walkways in the Kodak center. What a beautiful site. Not to mention the history and awe attached to the view in general. Then I glanced down at the stars on the boulevard. We had to explain to Jack & Ruby that these people were not necessarily dead and that they certainly weren't buried beneath the star. They were unaware of the significance of the whole thing. We spent the next little while educating the kids on the history and putting our feet in the footprints at the Grauman's Chinese. Some of it was lost on the kids but not on me. I will endeavor not to take such things for granted.

We are fortunate to live in a city with such history, stories to tell, things to do, and year round beauty to behold. We should never take for granted what we have in life. You never know when it may be taken away.
Seize every opportunity and live each day with wonder in your eyes!

One side done -- with all the rain, it may be awhile til anything else is painted

The minimalist look -- I suppose if you can afford a 42" plasma panel TV ou should be able to afford the furniture for it.....saw horses worked fine....

Restoring the columns and other intricate plaster reliefs on the front of the house takes tender loving care and money.

Dena & I were busy this weekend, we demo'd the West side of the guest house. The boards were all rotten and termite ridden. Now, we just have to put it all back

It's so green!

The money pit

It's been an exciting few weeks in the remodel business of our house. The original remodel project is essentially finished with only a few little items on the hit list and a bid completion meeting remaining. The exterior painting job is continuing nicely, despite the setbacks because of the rain. Tomorrow I'll post a picture of our lovingly restored, green spanish bungalow.

The rains, ah how they have changed people's lives in sunny southern california. Economists talk about how the rain has cost the Los Angeles basin economy 500 million dollars. How in the world is that possible you ask? Well you take the .01 % of people that lost their homes, the 20% that had some sort of other major damage from water and then there is probably another 50% of people that have minor damage/leaks/etc. We are one of the 50%. The money we might have spent in our area now goes to repairs. We are getting a new tile roof (or at least the underlay for the roof and the old tile will be salvaged and put back) and we are getting new gutters. I suppose you could argue that the money we are spending is really going back into the California economy because we are paying So. Cal companies to do it. But its just not as much fun because I can't buy anything enjoyable......I'm buying a roof.

Another part of our exterior repairs/restoration is the guest house. Long neglected and the west side is severely water and sun damaged so this must be repaired. Pictures will be up on the blog of what Dena and I had fun doing Saturday afternoon.

What I learned in college

stupidity --- there are lots of stupid people in this world and some of them are even going to college! In my computer security class the other night, the fellow sitting beside me was dumb as a doornail. You would think, oh, these people are in computer security, they should have some basic knowledge of editing text files, booting off CD, installing software, hmmm even navigating with a mouse! But NO!!!!! I had to help him the whole way through. I know, you optimists our there are thinking, well at least he's going to class, that's what he's there for, to learn. Well, I got news for you bloody optimists, he should be in a BASIC computer class, not a class on computer security. I'm sure he has no clue what encryption is, why you would want it, what malware, spyware or anything else is let alone anything else.

There are some laws of human stupidity, were you aware of these?

The first basic law of human stupidity asserts without ambiguity that:
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

The second law of human stupidity is:
The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

Well, I will let you ponder those 2 laws and we'll discuss some others at a later time. Oh, and to add to the stupidity factor, our street has a closed sign at one end (road construction) all day long for 2 days people drive down our street anyway, get to where the bloody street is actually closed, and in their little minds probably say, "oh, its really closed?" and make a U-turn.
I'm thinking of handing out signs on the street where they make the U-turn that says, "I'm stupid, stay away from me."

My rain gauge runneth over! @ 5.5 inches, I think I should empty it. Hopefully the rain is done til next week!

Rain Gauge 2-21-05 Only 40 hours after I installed it -- 4.3 inches of rain had fallen. Amazing....

Dawn's new rain guage -- 2.3 inches of rain in 18 hours, that's alot. 2/19 3:00p - 2/20 7:00a

Sad state of community colleges

I'm taking a Security course at the local community college, West LA community - and its sad. I took one last year and then a public speaking course a couple years before. You'd think that over these last few years, since fees have increased double that things would be better. They are not, they are worse.

In my public speaking course, you basically got up and spoke, no projector for a laptop to do powerpoint, you could use an old overhead transparency projector though. How archaic. For one speech I wanted to use a powerpoint slide show because that is how most presentations are done in business. I had to go get the projector and it was so old and the lens so damaged that it was useless. This was one of 2 projectors the entire school had for transient use. Totally sad.

The computer courses are popular but they are in small classrooms that are crammed with computer gear (very old stuff) and very old, uncomfortable, gross chairs. About 6 or more classes share a hard drive and with 20 gig drives, each class gets about 3 gig. That is insane since Server 2003 takes about that.

Its just such horseshit what the US government (both state and federal) does to our education system. Educated should be a very high priority, This ensures that tomorrow's workers are prepared for the job markets of the future. If you are charging the lower and middle classes more and more money for their secondary education you will eventually price them out. This is the beginning of the extinction of the middle class. Thanks President Bush. Oh and by the way, that 40 million $ that he spent on his second inauguration could have been used for something of more value.

What color should we paint?

Aren't we lucky?

In my short lifetime I have seen many things. The world has changed so dramatically and at such an exponential rate its hard to imagine the future. When I was a baby a man was walking on the moon and now there's a space station orbiting earth. We don't even really think about that anymore its so commonplace. The other day a spacecraft dropped a CD of some band (I can't remember who) on one of Saturn's moons. Who would have ever imagined. The Berlin wall has come down, china is fast become a world power, America is the world's police and the other day there were free elections in Iraq. Who would have ever thought.

I'm 41 years old and am bombarded by information 24 x 7. Somedays its just overwhelming. Can you imagine being 7 years old in this new world? What will it be like 10 years from now? 20? The kids of today have to cope with so much information/knowledge and stress that I'm not surprised that they are put on drugs to control their behavior problems.

Do I really need to know minute by minute what Michael Jackson is wearing to the jury selection hearings? Please, don't tell me! Don't tell me what time he got out of the limo and what he did when he got out.

Are we lucky? Or, as Dena would say, luck has nothing to do with it. You make your own luck. I know I am lucky. I am lucky to have Dena, my family, a roof over my head and enough disposable income to be totally lazy and eat out 3-5 times a week. Can I be a better person? I'm sure I could be. Could I go farther in life? I'm sure I could. What is life all about anyways? There was a joke on the internet a while back that happiness would be sliding into the St. Peter's gates with a martini in one hand and chocolate in the other. I think life is about happiness. You must find your place in life and be happy in it, no matter what that is.

Well, that's deep enough for now.......

The quest for architectural integrity

Keeping the integrity of a 1924 house can be challenging and daunting, especially financially. We felt strongly about keeping that 1924 imported from England pink tile in tact throughout the bathroom. It cost us more money than I care to admit and more time than was anywhere near reasonable and caused me to wish on many an occasion that I had a prescription with unlimited refills for xanax. All of this I rationalize, has been worth it. We are so close to finishing I can taste it. We're down to the nitty gritty now, but I draw the line at $68 double hung window thumb latches. This price was courtesy of Liz's Hardware on La Brea. These $68 window locks are antique of course, I've found a picture of them here. They are East Lake Victorian latches. They are obviously much cheaper on Ebay than @ Liz's. Although, Liz's is great for looking at stuff. Come to think of it, so is eBay.

We also are thinking of replacing our 1950's style drawer pulls in the infamous pink bathroom with something more "period". We were thinking glass, similar to these. These are $18 each @ Liz's. I suppose there is something to be said for patience and shopping to find a bargain. If you want something NOW, you're just going to have to pay for it.

Oh goody gumdrops, maybe eBay will come thru. I'll let you all know....

Dena hugging Toby with her baby (Maggie) in the background on the left

Someday........

• - there won't be dirt in the house right after its cleaned.
• - I might be able to sleep in without fear of some workman walking in on me
• - I'll be able to pee in peace
• - I can close the windows and doors all day long
• - there won't be bugs flying around constantly cause all the doors and windows were off
• - I won't have a hit list
• - I can put away all the cartons of stuff we've moved from room to room
• - I can put away my "contractors book of spanish"
• - I can actually put things in my brand new medicine chests
• - I'll be able to find my hairbrush, electric toothbrush & all the other things that have been misplaced over the last 8 months
• - I won't have to make 10 design/color decisions a day
• - there won't be some snafu to write about
• - over the rainbow.......

Dena and I with Toby the bottlenose dolphin

A major milestone reached!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to report that as of 1/27/2005 we are showering in our own home again! I honestly thought this day would never come. I began this blog 6 months ago to vent my frustration at the seemingly insane litany of mishaps, screw-ups and SNAFUs at our home remodel. Many of you and your friends have written to tell me that this is par for the course. While my faith in humanity is shaken that still cannot lessen the joy I feel at finally showering in the comfort of my own home.
Now, if I could only get the painters out of the bathroom.......

There's a lot going on here

Can anything else go wrong?

I suppose you are not supposed to ask that kind of question. I may anger the Gods. There seem to be many Gods conspiring against me, the weather god is one of them. Today was just another day at the insane house I call home. Let's see, there were 4 painters, 1 gardener, 3 plumbers (yes, again) and well, almost an ambulance.

So, this morning the anal painter, Brian says that the toilet in the guest house is backed up. If you'll recall the painters have pretty much moved in. The guest house now contains their coffee maker, water and soda stash, their toilet and wash facilities, snacks and pastries for coffee breaks. Its also their changing area. Well, to minimize the interruptions to my work day (boy is that a laugh) I call a roto rooter type service, but not Roto Rooter. After all, they were here last week working on the other drain, the "area" drain its called. For those of you uneducated in these matters, an area drain drains the backyard or what have you. Its for outside stuff. That was a $500 adventure to learn that the area drain (terra cotta, very old) is broken not 15' from where it starts.

Back to where I was, the new plumbing/rooter company arrives. I'm on a very important and expensive conference call with my life coach, and the timing couldn't be worse. It's $500 (1) to hydro flush the drain, another $250 (2) or something to put a camera down it and (3) another $600 or something to put in a proper clean out, bringing it to code and preventing future need for items 1) and 2). I was in shock after 1). I opted for 1) So on the nextel he goes calling in reinforcements. What arrives but the biggest bloody plumbers truck I've ever seen. This thing was huge. It pumps some huge volume of water and more importantly major pressure thru the pipe and cleans it out. This works almost instantly. It was a soft matter clog. (yuck, I told the painters no more tamales) Sal (plumber #1) then spots my new red pipe locator tool. This is just a large red T shaped metal rod with a pointy end an ergonomic handles used to push into the ground to hopefully hit a pipe. I suppose besides dowsing this would be how to locate pipe sans modern technology.

I could tell Sal wanted my newly acquired metal pointy thing. You see, the Roto Rooter fellows left it. I was quite happy to have a new tool so I squirreled it away. Sal wanted it. I traded him camera/video surveillance on my pipe & pipe locating for the rod. I believe they are expensive rods. He was salivating as was I. Isnt' it odd what makes two people happy? I now know where the guest house sewer drain goes and at what depth. hehe and $500 poorer, not $1,000.

As for the painters, the forecast is rain and the house is done up like a huge cocoon. Its so bizarre its almost funny. If the windows get wet the painter cannot work for a week. Self preservation I guess. Oh, right, the ambulance. Well Brian wanted to cut these 3 little stub outs from the side of the house. On these old 1920's houses there can be several of these as the power is fed from poles. These get moved along the years and old metal stubs on the side of a house remain. He's anal remember so it looks bad. They have to go. So Brian goes up the ladder with his cordless reciprocating saw and starts cutting close to the stucco. One down, two down and ZAAAAPPPPPP!!! One was hot. He got quite a jolt and the curse words were flying. There was no way to tell that there was even wires in there. I've called an electrician...........

The surreal environment that has become our backyard

7 months later, the tile in the Pink Shower is done. That doesn't mean we can use it yet.

Anticipation....

Today is grout day people. Yes, Eric got paid for the ceiling yesterday and has enough money to buy grout. A small part of me is saying, well if I gave him $200 yesterday will he even show up today? How the hell was he going to buy grout if I hadn't given him the $ anyways?? OMG we could be doing grout today!!! There's that hope thing again. Will Dawn's hopes be dashed today or will the Gods of favor shine upon her? The shower is completely tiled and looks awesome. Each time I enter the bathroom I shiver with anticipation that soon I could shower in my own house again. Since July 6th we have not showered in our house. We've bathed mind you but not showered. Oh how I long for a home based shower. I'm so excited.

I've made a deal with the devil

Brian my anal painter has started with his crew on the house exterior. He is also responsible for painting the interior parts that have been destroyed by Gene ( my GC ). So, while reviewing the pink bathroom painting he mentioned that we should tile the ceiling of the shower. This made sense to me. Its an enclosed shower only area that gets quite misty, so ceiling and arch maintenance is an issue. This is why Eric the tile guy tiled the arch, cause the paint peels.

I approached Eric the tile guy with this new little project (fully understanding it was out of the scope of work) and he just went ballistic. Nattering on about how he only has $43 in his wallet and is living on noodles until he can finish this job. Adding a ceiling would add another day (of eating noodles) and blah, blah, blah. He says he'll have to wait til Gene gives him a few hundred dollars to continue the job. Now Gene is so busy that I never hear from him. So, I'm thinking if I pay him on the side to do the ceiling then he gets $ and I don't impede the project time wise. Its amazing how industrious Eric can be when cash money is sitting on the table... So that's my deal with the devil. Gene cannot know because paying a sub behind the contractors back is not kosher. There's a little bit more to it than I describe here, but suffice it to say that I am highly motivated to get this project done and all these people the hell out of my house!

Another fun filled day @ the house

Busy, busy, busy. Yes, how does one get any real work done? I've been asking myself that question for 2 days. Eric the tile guy is here. Brian the painter convinced me (and rightly so) to tile the ceiling of the shower for plain white tile for maintenance reasons. We have an enclosed shower so even with the exhaust fan it gets quite damp. The shower door guy was here. They measured and of course, its extra to notch around our decorative accents for the flush mount door (that means no metal strip all the way around the shower to get all moldy). Its going to be an expensive door. The bombshell today was what handle do you want on the shower door? OMG! I never even thought of this. So tonight its off to the Shower Door Doctor to figure that one out.

Also the painters are here. They are scraping and chiseling and removing windows and otherwise driving me insane. How the hell can I work with all this distraction?? I'm not complaining, at least progress is occurring. There's only been 6 guys at my house today, so I suppose its improving, yesterday was 7. You'd think we were building a mansion. How in the world do those people do it in those 7 day makeover shows? Dena says they have 150 workers and all the work is shitty. Makes sense to me.

Christmas in Los Angeles....

Remodel Update for 1/17/2005

Hard to believe its 2005, eh? Today there were 7 guys in the backyard, 3 from Roto Rooter and 4 of the painters. The painters have started on the house today. I'm so excited. It'll take them about 6 weeks to finish the external of the house and perhaps, if we're really, really, really lucky, by then the pink bathroom should be ready to paint. Because you see, Eric the tile guy didn't show up today. It's really hard to finish in any kind of timely manner when you only work Tues., Wed and Thurs. and then only from 11:00a to 3:00p.

I called Roto Rooter because of the 6" of water in the backyard last week. We have a drain back there but it wasn't draining. Jerry showed up and it was fairly obvious that while conscientious and definitely not a talker he was a little green. He managed to get his huge roto rooter end stuck somewhere in my "area pipe". That sounds a little sexual doesn't it? Hmmm...... Anyways, back to plumbing.... He had to call a supervisor and soon the street was full of Roto Rooter trucks and painter trucks. I'm not complaining, at least someone is working on the house. The pipe turns out that it is broken not 20' from where it starts in the backyard. It's a clay pipe and probably has been there since the 20's or perhaps the 1950's. It also heads toward the back fence. Why doesn't it head toward the street to drain? No one seems to know. So, we're not getting it fixed because there could be another break a little further down the line and it would be cost prohibitive to continue this game.

A busy day @ the Armstrong/Schwimmer household

Now that's pink! I can feel the spray of that $300 shower head now...

Remodel and Rain Update

Rain, rain go away
Come again another day....

Los Angeles has had probably 15 inches of rain since Christmas. That's a lot of rain for a place that is really desert like. We've had significant water in our back yard and a big surprise yesterday was when my painter ( the most excellent and anal painter in the world ) stopped by to check on us. Now a good painter cannot paint interiors in this weather, as the paint doesn't dry properly so I suppose Brian was just out checking on his clients. He immediately ordered me to get another pump as the water around the garage was undermining the foundation. It was up the sides about 3" and inside quite a bit, too. Also he climbed onto the roof and cleaned all the neighbors rubber tree leaves from our back gutter, repaired another gutter and then moved to the front of the house.

At this point I left for Koontz Hardware in WeHo and Dena helped/watched him clean all the gutters at the front of the house then they covered the front door with plastic. Ever since we lost our front awning that front door has taken a weather beating for sure. Well, have you ever heard of a painter doing all this? And for free???? I should marry the guy!

Meanwhile at Koontz Hardware I'm buying our second pump and looking quite snazzy in my pink rain boots and yellow rain slicker ( see pix below). Then this gay fellow walks up to me and puts his hand over his mouth as only a flame can do and says, "those are the cutest boots!" hehe Hey, they were all K-mart had left!

Isn't she lovely?

How one event can change your life

The end of 2004 has spawned speculation and memories from me that I haven't had in awhile. Perhaps its because I'm another year older, perhaps not, but whatever the reason, I thought I'd share a little story with all of you to begin the year of blogging.

Years ago when I was young and drinking a big gulp for breakfast I used to stop faithfully every morning at my local 7-11. During that time a young black fellow was there each morning and he would clean my windshield. In return I'd buy him a pastry for breakfast. This went on for some time and we became good "acquaintances". Each morning I'd drive off and wonder why he was there & why was he homeless.

One day, I felt we'd known each other long enough that I could ask him. He said that he used to be a cable TV installer, had an apartment and a car and life was good. One night he went to a party and elected to drive home drunk. He was caught, lost his license which meant that the cable TV company fired him. Without a license, a job, and looming DUI fines he lost his apartment. You see, in Los Angeles, it almost imperative that to work you be able to drive as public transportation is not great. He eventually lost it all and then to put the nail in the coffin so to speak, he was diagnosed with HIV. With no medical insurance it developed quickly into aids and somewhere in that downward spiral is when I met him.

Eventually he disappeared from my 7-11 and I always wonder what has become of him. I fear the worst. So to all my faithful readers, friends, family and scrapbookers I wish you all a happy, healthy, thoughtful, and prosperous New Year. And remember, every day brings change and opportunity, seize the day and enjoy life.

The long way home

We flew home December 29th and were supposed to arrive @ LAX @ 11:49am PST. Even though we were leaving @ 0 dark 30 Wednesday morning, at least we would be home early. Ah, but all the Gods were against us. Our 6:40 am flight from Edmonton to Denver was maintenance delayed until 8:30 which meant we'd miss our connection in Denver. All the other Denver/LAX flights were sold out. So, we were routed through Chicago on the 8:00 am flight. Then from Chicago to LAX, but we didn't have seats on the Chicago/LAX leg. That's bad you see. Even though you are confirmed on the flight, if you don't have a seat and its oversold then you could possibly not get on. Then it becomes all about status and hierarchy. Our trip to Chicago was uneventful and we even got the exit row but of course, we were anxious about ORD. Upon arrival to ORD we did the mad dash from terminal F to terminal C for our flight. We had 90 minutes but the sooner you get on the list, the better for seats, so off we ran.

Upon arrival at C19 the line for that poor customer service agent was about 30 deep. We were depressed. Finally, we got up to the front and I asked her where we were in the pecking order. Thanks to my status with United Airlines, we were 10 & 11 of 128 people. Don't let anyone ever tell you that status doesn't matter. We could have walked up 21 minutes before take off and still jumped to #10 & 11. That's the way the cookie crumbles. I sweet talked Elaine (the customer service agent), didn't get all uppity and pissy and magically we got on (even though the rumor in the boarding area was that there were only 9 seats to be had) and we were sitting together in FIRST CLASS. Yes that's right baby, first class all the way.

My faith in United Airlines was restored even though we didn't get home until 7:00 pm. At least we were home and we even received all our luggage.

and here come the fuzz

We received a call from the alarm company last night. Out side door was open. Now since we've had contractors in and out of the house for 6 months I'd normally think nothing of it, but it was 10:30 pm. Who would be in our house that late. I called a neighbor and had him look over into the driveway. 2 LAPD officers were talking to a fellow with a toolbelt, and a grey pick up was in our driveway. That would be Gene then. I guess he convinced the LAPD that he was legit and they drove away sans Gene.

Gene was over working late on our heater vent cover in the new bathroom. He's a great guy to be doing this before Christmas. And we appreciate it.

Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas. Its snowing outside right now here in Edmonton. A white, blustery Christmas is always nice.

Another setback looms its ugly head

We just found out that we didn't order the matte or non-slip pink custom color floor tile for the bottom of the shower. I had great hopes that the shower would be usable sometime during our friend Arlene's visit from New Jersey. But alas, she will have to learn to bathe, as we have. Even with paying the extra overnighting charges it appears the pink shower floor tile will be another 2 weeks. I suppose when you think about how much time we've spent without a shower, another 2 weeks is immaterial.

On the bright side of life, its wonderful and white up here in Edmonton. It'll be a white Christmas and it was snowing this morning. When it snows the cloud cover keeps the heat close to the earth and its quite nice and warm during the day. Of course, this is all relative. Its 70 above in Los Angeles.....

The Ralph Lauren adventure

My sister calls me on the phone to pick up something for her husband that cannot be obtained in Canada for Christmas. A pair of jeans from Ralph Lauren. Ah, a quick visit to the RL web site shows that there is a store in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive. Of course, why wouldn't there be? Now, to go shopping in Beverly Hills one cannot wear their Sunday sweats even if it is Sunday. You must dress up because if you look like a homeless person no one will pay attention to you.

So, off I go with my best jeans and t-shirt to Rodeo drive. I park my mommy mobile, minivan in amongst all the Mercedes, BMW's and Rolls Royces and trot over to Ralph Lauren. I turn the corner into the store and the entry way is bizarre. I stopped dead in my tracks. Stepped back a few steps to make sure I turned into the right store. Yes, it says Ralph Lauren on the awning. I bravely venture ahead through what can only be called a jungle/arboretim tunnelway and eventually come upon the actual store. The store is divided into rooms as if you were in a very large home that sold RL. Its very confusing. I staggered around all the finely coiffed shoppers and wondered who worked here. None of the people were wearing name tags. I suppose that must be tacky.

"Oh, there's someone with a name tag", I say to myself. I approach this hispanic woman cleaning a counter top and ask her wear the jeans are. Because I've been walking around this bizarre store for 10 minutes and cannot find any jeans. In her broken english this nice cleaning lady (as it turns out) points me to a sales associate. I'm sure I looked like I walked right out of Alabama, but she helped me anyway. I asked for the jeans section and she calmly says, "they are not displayed, what size would you like I will go get them." Why wouldn't they display them? Probably beneath the store to display them? Who knows, I thought they'd fit in perfectly with all the bright pink, yellow, orange and other loud colors that I cannot believe a man would wear. Matter of fact, my sister asked me that same question the other day. She said, "do alot of gay men shop at Ralph Lauren?" When I was walking around there were 3 guys standing around feeling boxer shorts and commenting on their softness. I looked and listened trying hard to determine if they were straight or gay. I couldn't figure it out. Perhaps the male Ralph Lauren shopper is a breed unto their own.

RL had the size I needed but she convinced me to go to the mall to look at the department stores. You see my sister wanted a specific style # which the saleswoman felt was at a department store. I'm not sure if she was just trying to get rid of me or if she was convinced of this. So off to Century City Mall I go, hitting 2 department stores, which had the same damn jeans they had in Beverly Hills but of course, not the size needed. So in a huff (as only I can do) I go driving back to the Beverly Hills store. I can't find parking anywhere! So screw it, I went home figuring I'd go back Monday morning.

Then I got this bright idea to look on ebay. Guess what I found! The exact jeans needed, perfect, with the tags and everything right on them, for 1/4 the price! Woohoo! I bought them this morning and they will be here tomorrow. Screw Beverly Hills baby! Online shopping rules!

Disappointment rules the day

I have literally been waiting almost 6 months to post something that says, "the color match tile is here!" Yesterday, I received the long awaited, official call, the tile is in. This is the pink and blue custom color matched tile we ordered 7/6/04 from Mission Tile West. We had to use B&W bisque with a Pratt & Larson color to get it right. And it took forever. Does it sound complicated? You'd think it was rocket science.

Incompetence reigns supreme as they would say on the Iron Chef. Some moron @ Pratt & Larson didn't read properly, or perhaps they cannot read, and glazed (?) our quarter rounds with the wrong color. Not a little off, glazed it blue instead of pink. I mean, come on.

So I have to admit something to all of you. When I was @ Mission Tile I was angry, thinking of where I put my Uzi and other such mundane thoughts while the stupid bitch salesperson who cost us 4 weeks called Pratt & Larson to see what could be done, so I was holding it together. But after she promised to overnight the B&W bisque to P&L and they would run it and ship it back direct to our house 12/28 I left, with this slight glimmer of hope. There's that friggin' word again. Hope.
Well, screw hope. All of a sudden as I drove down the street a monumentous sadness/frustration/anger came over me. I had to pull over. And I know this is going to surprise alot of you, I cried. Yes, me. I cried like a baby. Sobbed really. Uncontrollably. I felt a little better after that. Resigned I suppose you would call it.

I called Dena and told her the news. She asked me if I knew what we were supposed to learn from all this. You see, she believes that from adversity you are supposed to learn something. All these "tests" are to teach us lowly humans some lesson.

I threw a few lessons out there:

• - Patience - the obvious
• - Preserving the past is painful
• - Preserving the past requires patience
• - Preserving the past is not worth it, throw out the old and bring in the new <-- my favorite

What do you think? Is there a lesson here? And if so, what the HELL is it?

Its here! - except not all of it

Life Coaching - here we go....

I have bit the bullet, siezed the day, broke the nut, grabbed the bull by the horns, I've done it. I've signed up for Life Coaching. How freaked am I? Very freaked. I met with my life coach and we've defined 3 major goals. Should I share them with you? Naw, not right now. You see, I have to mull over them, dwell on them, grind my teeth about them & most importantly, worry about them.

We do this thing when we meet, its called "clearing the space", which is kind of good, gets you focused and the big thing I was feeling when we "cleared the space" was fear. Fear of failure, fear that I wouldn't accomplish these goals. What is that all about? Why am I afraid? I've accomplished lots in my life, why do I think I'm going to fail? Do I have a self esteem problem? Is that it?

Oops, mind/time warp -- wouldn't it be cool to run a marathon. Now there would be a goal! Wow, I've always wanted to do that. Except my knees hurt when I jog. Hmm. Perhaps a marathon wouldn't be good for me, but then maybe it would. Wouldn't a marathon in Hawaii be even better? That would be so cool, running across the black beach of the big island, over the black barren landscape, across the plains into the rain forest and up to Mauna Loa, well, hmmm, maybe not. That uphill part kind of sucked, maybe if it was on Maui! Yeah. That would work. Hey, a girl has to dream. What would life be like if we couldn't or didn't dream? Think of how boring it would be. Maybe that's my problem, I don't daydream enough. Maybe I should take up meditating.

Wow, am I scattered today. Whew, I guess that's why this blog is called Dawn's scary thoughts. Well, Dena's on her way home for the last night of Hanakah. I think I'll make potato latkes.

Hope cometh and hope goeth

We left Sunday morning with the hope that the contractor would show up and get the bathtub piping fixed. We returned Sunday night with our hopes dashed. Alas, another disappointment. Frankly, what is so difficult about hooking up hot and cold water? I mean, come on, it's either hot or cold! Apparently, the "diverter" that diverts water from the faucet to the hand spray is complicated in some way. I don't know. Why did we need a hand spray anyways? We could have been using the damn tub by now.

I've just spoken with Eric, our brilliant yet phenomenally flaky tile guy. He was supposed to be here all day. Guess what.....he wasn't. He now cannot start until Thursday. I suppose that is ok since the tile is probably not even in the state of California yet, but it's on a truck somewhere!! Woohoo! See, hope.........hope is so important. Isn't it amazing how we cling to it and resurrect it even when it keeps getting squashed? Ah, humanity, so resilient. Not as resilient as cockroaches though. A cockroach can live a week without its head. The roach only dies because without a mouth, it can't drink water and dies of thirst. But I digress....she stumbles away from the keyboard muttering, "hope, hope, water, water......I'm dying of thirst. I thirst for hope...."

Reclaiming our lives

Friday I'd had it. We were having the Chanakah party at our house Saturday night and with butcher paper still all over the floors (protecting from contractor boots and the like) and with plywood on the new tub the house just wasn't inviting. It was becoming tough to live here. If you play Sims or Sims 2, my "room environment" variable was in the red. I couldn't take it anymore. I ripped up the butcher paper and was thrilled that there was beautiful hardwood floor beneath it. Where had this been for the past 5 months? After cleaning (ok, well maybe not me but the cleaning ladies...) it looked marvelous.

Our contractor was over Saturday (and has just arrived today (sunday), and has removed the plywood from the tub and affixed the fixtures (teehee). I'm practically giddy. Soon I muttered to myself. Soon I'll be able to take a luxurious bath in the that deep, inviting, yummy tub! There are so many things to do yet and we are "not on the schedule". I mean WTF! How can we not be on the schedule? Apparently with so many delays we got off the "schedule" and never put back on. Well fuck that!

Amazing Race 6 - interesting show

Last night was the Amazing Race, my favorite reality TV show. I love this show. I'm normally against reality TV, but there are a couple shows that are entertianing and this is one of them. Rarely is there coniving or lying to people, mostly it is centered around adventure, travelling, and dealing with your travel partner. The long days and jet lag on Amazing Race make for interesting mental challenges between the partners.

The reason for my blog topic today is the place they visited yesterday, Senegal in West Africa. What an intriguing place. Unfortunately, the "ugly American" in a log of contestants reared its ugly head. Senegal is a poor country and quite dirty with probably raw sewage in some of the streets but the reaction from most of the contestants was one of distain. Its a shame these people don't learn to appreciate other cultures and ways of life. About a 1/3 of the contestants appreciated the experience. These are the people who I envy, they are exploring new places at CBS's expense and having fun doing it. The others are just ugly americans trampling over their own closed minds. The pit stop for this leg of the race was Isla Goree, the slave island.

The last to arrive was the old couple and they were allowed to stay in the race but all there money was taken away. How the hell are they going to get a cab to the airport and pay for the ferry with no cash in a poor country? Should be interesting.

It's truly mind numbing

The closet factory "senior" designer (and I use that term loosely and sarcastically all in the same breath) just left. I mean, here's my office, a huge 10' X 15' room with a few little architectual challenges but all in all a dream to design an office in, for someone with half a brain. She was here for 3 hours and I'm exhausted. It took me probably 10 minutes to tell her how I envisioned the return on my desk and then she drew/designed it wrong anyways. My mind has that numbed out exhausted, "get the fuck out of my house" feeling right now.

Last week the Closet World designer was over here. She was here 4 or 5 hours the first day, then came back the next for another 3 hours. She was thorough and not quite as stupid as the first one. Where the hell do they get these people? She was the best of the two though.

Feng Shui? What's that! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

what remains?

Some of you may be thinking, wow, they have a sink and toilet, soon to be tub, what could be left? Well, jeesh, maybe the other bathroom. The one with the shower in it. So our modernistic new bathroom is so close I can feel the 32" deep tub with the lovely airbath now on my tootsies, but alas, it has no shower. I had a shower on July 6th. This year mind you, one must look at the bright side of things. But today is December 6th you see and that adds up to 5 months. That's way too long to be happy about showering at the gym. Do you know the disgusting things that float in the clogged up bottoms of the gym shower? Well I won't go into it. The only saving grace to this whole mess is that Muscle Under where I go on Tuesday's and Thursday's have beautiful showers that no one uses.

New bathroom punch list:

1. -- install toilet paper holder
2. -- grout remaining little areas around window and moulding - 12/11/04
3. -- install bathtub fixtures for the 30th time - done 12/11/04
4. -- fix cold/hot flex pipe cross causing backflow of cold water to other fixtures
5. -- install handles or door pulls as some people call them on vanity
6. -- install heating vent cover
7. -- install threshold
8. -- fix white grout areas
9. -- cut access panels under house for future maintenance access - 12/11/04

A usable sink & toilet!!

It's a sink!!

Life Coaching

Have you heard of life coaching? I first found out about it while watching Nip/Tuck, that awesomely disgusting little drama when one of the characters was one. I found the entire concept fascinating and perhaps a way to focus and improve myself. I have always felt that personal improvement is or should be one of the prime directives of a human on this planet.

Why hire a life coach? You hire a coach to achieve your personal, spiritual, family and business goals much more effectively, more efficiently, more completely, with more fun, and in less time than any other human improvement process.

Life coaches assist you to:

• overcome obstacles and fears
• focus on solutions
• have someone to bounce ideas off,
• no matter how silly they may seem
• discover truths about you
• and how you can improve
• accomplish more than you thought possible
• achieve balance in your personal, work and family lives

I'll let you know how it goes.....

Remodel Update

Its so depressing. Some days you have to laugh because the progress and news is so bad but some days you have to cry. Do all remodels take this long? Why oh why????? I spoke with the assholes at Mission Tile West yesterday. I wanted to know EXACTLY where in the western US my tile was since it supposedly shipped on 11/29. Well, 5 hours later I find out it hasn't shipped yet, the tile is having "quality control issues". Now, in laymen's just tell me the truth words, that means that the fucking color doesn't match.

As some of you may remember this is custom color matched tile. This tile is being specially matched to match 1924 Blue and 1924 pink tile imported from England. Back then they used to use lead and other terrible, cancer causing chemicals in tile. These things cannot be used now, especially in California. You see, we're more environmentally conscience out here but don't get me on THAT soapbox. So, on the one hand I'm happy that they are being so conscientious in matching our special tile but on the other hand, all I want are all the contractors the fuck out of my house and me to be able to take an endless hot water shower. Is that too much to ask? I'm not bitter.

Long way round

My favourite TV show right now is Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round on Bravo. This is an absolutely fantastic series on Ewan and his friend's trip around the world on 2 BMW motorbikes. They are not doing it for money, not for being the "sole survivor", not to quit smoking or land a handsome bachelor, they are doing it for the journey. A good analogy perhaps would be Amelia Earhart, she did it because it hadn't been done before. Of course, she didn't have a TV show, web site, support and camera crew with her, but nevertheless....... Dena and I were fortunate to Tivo two episodes thus far, one in Russia & the other in Mongolia. Breathtaking scenery, seemingly insurmountable obstacles both mental and physical and just the wise cracks alone were worth watching. Hopefully we'll be able to find the previous two episodes that I think we missed.

On a different note, blogging can be for profit. The author of a blog was just offered a book contract based on her blog, breakup babe. Check it out.

Remodel update

I had hope. It was dashed a little, but alas, hope springs eternal. The GC (Gene) was here today along with Simon. Simon (the electrician) is awesome. He's efficient and works quickly. I love that. He installed our new light fixtures in the new bathroom and the pink bathroom. He tested/labeled all the circuits on our new panel. I'm so happy. He also showed me something new in our house. Don't you love when something new and exciting is presented to you? Something cool that makes your life easy? Something you didn't know. Ah, life. Oops, back to the remodel. Jeesh, have you noticed I've been awfully reflective lately? What is up with that? Do you think its because my birthday is coming? Maybe I'm PMS. That's what Dena will say.

Okay, focus! The cool thing Simon showed me was the 3rd light switch in our service porch, which I haven't know what the hell its for during the 10 years we've lived here, turns on and off the light in front of the guest house. Isn't that cool! Here I thought all this time I had to run all the way out there. Over the last few years I just said, "fuck it" and didn't bother turning it on. I mean, if a thief wants to come in the dark so be it, I'm not going outside. Now I can turn it on and off from the comfort of the service porch. HOW COOL IS THAT!!

Anyways, Gene's small contribution was to install the medicine cabinet in the new bathroom. A Robern, top of the line model. He also gave me the song and dance about our new heating vent cover? Is that what you call it. Dena and I went to Liz's Hardware and she made me root around in the back room thru all this rusty salvage crap until we found this totally cool, awesome, rockin' vent cover. I mean WOW. But he gave me the oh, its gonna be hard, and take a long time, but I suppose if you really want it song and dance. Just fuckin' do it. Its takin' you 5 months to get this far, what's another 2 weeks of listening to you stall? Ooooo a little vindictive you think?

On the downward slide....

This long weekend several things kept reverberating in my head. I'm getting old. I investigated Crestor for my mom while worrying about my own cholesterol levels. While standing outside the trendiest, hippest Los Angeles breakfast place, Toast, a group of 20 somethings were saying they found out their friend was 31 and "my God that's old!" Dena and I wanted to turn around and say, WTF?? We're 40 something..... OMG. That's hurts just to type 40 something. Old people have doctor appointments, cancer screenings, portfolios and mortgages. I'm on the short side of my life now. If I live to be 80, my life is half over. Wow. That's a bummer. Just when I'm really starting to appreciate my life.

Hope springs eternal

The contractor has promised that the "new" bathroom will be finished by this Friday the 3rd. The color match tile for the "pink" bathroom should be delivered on the 3rd. My hope meter is rising. Someone stop it!! Oh please let it all be true! Could we really get to take a jacuzzi bath on Saturday? This reminds me of Pandora's box.

You see, Pandora was just a nosy cleaning lady. She was told to stay out of a room and of course, had to go in. Us humans being curious as kittens. Pandora peered into the room, but it was totally empty with the exception of a box in the middle of it. Pandora's curiosity knew no bounds as she opened the box and out came hundreds of creatures looking like insects. The insect like creatures bit and stung Pandora all over her body. They flew up and spread out into the room. Quickly, Pandora shut the lid and sat on it. While sitting there on the box she heard knocking coming from inside it. Now she was reluctant to open the box again thinking that she had already done enough harm. "Let me out", said a tiny voice, "and maybe I can help you". Pandora thought about it and decided to take one more chance. She opened the box and out came a tiny fairy .

"I am Hope" ,said the fairy, "Pandora due to your curiosity you have let out all possible troubles for mankind. There will be no peace of mind for humans from this day forth. There will be greed and jealousy, insanity and lust, there will be plague and hatred, men will fight each other, wives will be set against husbands, sons against fathers, brother againgst brother, there will be famine, pestilence,vice and destruction. The world will know great sorrow."

Hearing this Pandora started to cry and sob terribly, for the great harm she had brought upon herself and her fellow humans. "Do not cry so much Pandora," said the fairy, "yes it is true that you have unleashed all manner of afflictions upon the world , but you have also let me out. I will always be there to bring hope to humans, whenever they are in trouble. I will always be there as the promise of Hope!"

Croppin' on the Coast

Despite the fact that I was ill, I had a great weekend. I escaped off to Oxnard this weekend to a scrapbooking weekend hosted by Scrapbook Safari. What a blast. There were a number of giveaways, a zany group of women and lots of creative ideas floating around. I worked on our Africa scrapbook and got a lot done. Working with creative people allows you to expand your own creativity. I believe we all have to step beyond our comfort zones in order to grow. This being true for all of life's pursuits, not just creative ones. Sometimes we get in a rut and just want to stay within our comfortable realm of knowledge but its good to stretch the brain a little and take it out for a walk. Variety is the spice of life and keeps us young.

There were some "monkey" adventures in Oxnard and I'll blog about those later.........

Scrapbooking rocks!

Puppetry of the Penis

My office was painted Thursday and Friday therefore all the computers were off, so I apologize for my absence. What a busy and eventful time I've had since we've last met.

Let's start off with Thursday night(the 18th), Puppetry of the Penis night. Pete & Tony got us seats to the "show" here in Los Angeles for a graduation present. They seem to feel I have a fascination with the male "member". But (or should I say butt) regardless of their obvious misconceptions of my interests Dena and I went to the show. Well 2 people have to go right?! They got us front row seats. Oh my. Now these two fellows or puppet masters are not the original "inventors" of Penis Puppetry but they appear well trained. They are not unusually well endowed and seem of normal size to me, not that I have a vast experience in this matter. The show was hilarious and even Dena was laughing. Apparently Tony, Dena and Peter had conspired to ensure I was the "volunteer" for the audience participation part of the show. Fortunately I have fast hands and grabbed Dena's arm down so I was not picked. What a nasty view that would have been although you do get a polaroid of your experience and that would have looked good in the scrapbook. I won't spoil the show for you and give you details. Suffice it to say, it is the FULL MONTY! The warm up comedian is absolutely hilarious.

The end of an era

I spent most of the last 2 days doing 2 things, cleaning my office for the painters and studying for my HP Exam. I've filled our huge blue recycle bin to the max, filled Gail's across the street, and dumped some in Roxannes. Then, tonight, when it was apparent that wasn't enough, I asked Matt if I could just have his. I completely filled that one so I could hardly move it onto the street. With what you ask? Paper, floppies, CDs, you name it. Mostly paper. You just don't need paper manuals anymore. I have 3 1/2 bookcases in my office, overflowing with manuals. Not anymore. Its kind of a cleansing I think. Out with the old, in with the new. As of 8am this morning I wanted to tell the painter to forget it, forget the office. Tonight I'm saying, "Bring it on!"

I also ventured out to the guest house and started in there. It was scary. You just get on a roll and everything goes in the garbage. Who needs all that old crap. Its a new era and a new Dawn. You know what I found in the guest house? The painters have REALLY moved in, there was a coffee maker (percolating with a fresh brew), cookies, cups, creamer, etc, etc. They just crack me up.

The painters are here and they have completely moved in. There is now a microwave in my garage, suitcases and everything else you can imagine. I think the suitcases are full of tools? I hope

Another busy remodel day

Did I mention that yesterday was awesome, so much being done, however, when things are being done on the remodel, nothing gets done in my life and this includes work and studying for my HP Exam. Today was another busy day, there are no fewer than 5 painters here. The head honcho Brian, is a very detailed, anal kind of guy, my kind of painter. He's on his guys constantly. This is a good quality in a painter. The bad news. They are going to paint my office? Remember a week ago when I cleaned my office for my boss's boss who came over? Well, now I have to clean even more because everything has to be moved. The blue recycle bin (the huge one) is almost full again.

I've basically run out of patience. The trades that are coming in as the last are enjoying the wrath of Dawn. I am so sick of every day being interupted by some construction task. The constant pitter patter of work boots, scrapers on wood, compressors running, spanish gossiping and other noises destroy any concentration I might have been able to muster. Either I have to drink more alcohol and start earlier in the day, or I just need to move out for awhile.

Its 7:40p here in Los Angeles and Gene (my GC) is still here. He's hanging a door in the new bathroom. The door isn't new of course, its moved from another location in the house. These doors are original and you cannot find them. Lots of details and they are no longer made in this way. I WANT SOME PEACE AND QUIET!

A poem

Here is a rose
i give it to you
to watch as it grows
up to the sky so blue

Here is a prayer
offered by me
to show that i care
and to set you free

Here I bare dreams
i do all that I can
believe in me
and all that i am

Here is a poem
written only for you
these secrets i own
but to you i am true

for my love.....

Remodel Update

Today was a busy day in the Armstrong/Schwimmer household. I put my name first because I am the caretaker of the household. Ever notice how things go in cycles in life. This is my cycle to take care of the house, the bills, the this, the that....

Oh yeah, remodel:

• Gas company - fixed the stove, did I mention they did this for free!
• Hardwood Floor guy - 3 guys for 10 square feet of flooring
• Tile guy -- no show, surprise surprise
• Gene, my GC -- all the moulding is up

Busy day, lots got done on the house, nothing in my life 'cause I cannot deal with so many distractions. I have to check things, make sure the birds aren't freaking out, answer questions, answer the door, and then check things again.....AAARRGGGHHH!

Graduation Nov 13th, 2004 WOOHOO! That's my mom.... I'm on the right

Wine provides clarity

Who says that alcohol is bad? Well, let me clarify this. I believe that a small amount of alcholol, preferrably wine, can allow someone to let their inhibitions down and just be. Just being seems to be fairly difficult for the regular human. We are so concerned for how others think, their feelings, their feelings toward us, our preconceived notions for ourselves and others, our expectations and on and on it goes. But with a little wine, we seem to let these things go, and just be ourselves, and most importantly, things become clear. When I've had a good glass of wine, I am have the utmost clarity on issues, whether they be political, religious, personal or private, they are clear! Its amazing. We should walk around in this state, constantly.

But imbider beware! Too much, and you slip into a state that moves from clear to fuzzy. Each person's state is different at this stage, but it usually ends up bad. Sometimes too much truth, sometimes too much anger comes out, and sometimes too much sadness. So basically there is a fine line. You ever notice how there is a fine line drawn everywhere? Cross it and beware the consequences, never come near it and live a boring, malcontent life, walk it and experience life as it should be experienced.

Ah life, may all the wonders it brings bless you everyday.....

And I'll leave you with this "Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life." (George Bernard Shaw) "

Take a look at the french paradox to discover medical sciences views of red wine. Don't just take my word for it.

It looks SO good with the grout!

Funny thing happened today...

Well, here I am sitting (working) in my house, and my boss's boss calls (Rafic). Now, Rafic is out of our corporate office in Ottawa, Canada. I never see him. Last time I saw him was in Dallas in June 2004? Anyways, he's in town and the conversation goes like this: "do I want to have lunch." "Well, I'd love to have lunch but I just took my van in for service." "Oh, well I have to drive to the valley anyway, where are you located." Well, as some of you know we have an office in Orange county, which thankfully I only have to go to occasionally. So, unfortunately, I am on the way to the valley. Dawn says, "well I'm right on the way, so why don't you stop by and pick me up" OMG! Did I just say that??!! The house is a construction zone, my office looks like a bomb went off, several times. Those of you who know me and love me and have been in my office, know what I'm talking about. Rafic says, " That sounds perfect, I'll leave the office about 12:30 then" OMG! Its 11:30 now. How the hell am I going to clean everything in the hour and a half its going to take him to drive here?! Dawn says, "ok, see you then"

What ensued later was the most amazing cleaning frenzy you have ever seen. I filled the entire blue recycle bin with stuff from my office, papers mostly. Below are the before and after pictures. They truly do not do the effort justice. And of course, this doesn't even touch on all the other stuff I did around the house, including making the bed. I mean, making the bed??!! WHY?

Why is this all amusing you ask? Because he never made it past the front door, either coming or going. He was hungry, we left right away and when he dropped me off he never got out of the car. You just have to laugh you know. Well, on the bright side, my office is clean. I mean, I even scrubbed the damn floors.

My office after my frenzied cleanup!

Before - please notice the complete lack of desk space visible

Tile before grouting - Slowly but surely we will get there.

I can't VOTE!!!!

I have never voted in my life. I left Canada when I was, oh, 20 or so, there hadn't been an election yet after I turned 18, and then, in the USA I wasn't allowed to vote. So, here I am, 25 months away from getting citizenship and possibly the biggest (aka most important) election in the free world is happening. But, hey, I'm having fun figuring out how in the world Kerry is going to win. There is a very cool interactive map @ MSNBC that you can click on each state and change who wins and it counts the electoral votes. I'm so confused about this electoral vote thing. Makes no bloody sense to me, I mean if candidate X gets 2,000,001 votes and candidate Y gets 1,999,999 votes, then why wouldn't candidate X win? Americans.... always being difficult.

Remodel update:
That little pissant Eric (the tile guy) didn't show up Friday (Oct 29 - tooth ache was the excuse du jour), showed up Monday (yesterday) while I was at work and didn't really get much done. I'm not sure how long he was here, but his modus operandi is to come around 10:30a and leave between 2:30p and 3. Wouldn't you like that job? How the hell does he make a living? Well, today, he didn't show up either. I'll post a pix later of the measly little tile he put on the wall yesterday.

Well, I'm back to the TV to pray over it. It may be for naught. Kerry would be good for the economy and my job, Bush is good for people who like to go to war and for the rich. I'm not rich, but I'd like to be. I'll never be rich if Bush gets elected. Do you want your banking information and accountant to be overseas? Check out this article here. Or, if you'd like to save my job, hope Kerry wins, here's an excerpt on a Kerry promise:

Kerry says, "I will close the tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas. Instead, we're going to use that revenue to reward companies that create and keep good jobs here in the United States of America. Under my plan, we'll cut the corporate tax rate by 5 percent, giving 99 percent of businesses a tax break."