I've Been Here Before

6am - the pain throbbing at my temples, radiating down the back of my neck. Oh, it's late this morning, normally it happens around 3 or 4 am. The headache has returned. I drag myself out of bed and stumble in a pain filled haze to the bathroom and grab my pills. Swallow a couple and jump up and down hoping that they clear my esophagus before I lay down again.

Once, I woke up in Seattle with a blistering headache and took two Aleve and laid right back down. They apparently didn't make it all the way down to my stomach and I woke up an hour later with what felt like a hole burning through my chest. It turns out that is what was really happening. A trip to the emergency room and lesson learned, you must let any pill or food clear into your stomach, it's not instantaneous and gravity plays a role. Aleve is nasty stuff, I try to avoid it now. Tylenol with Codeine is much better.

8am - Frustration - just get up and do something, there is so much to do.

10am - Oh goodie, I can take another pill. The headache continues to throb and I'm driven back to bed. Dena gives my neck a little massage and tells me to stay put. I lay in bed for about 3 minutes my mind whirling with things I have to do and want to do. Paint my table, clean the garage, plant tomatoes, buy Vitamin B for root growth and on and on the list goes. I'm practically vibrating in the bed my mind is whirling so fast. I've almost leaped out of bed 3 times before it hits me.....I've been here before, many times. I'm not sure I could ever relax even in pain. It's a tension headache says the doctor and my chiropractor, yoga, relaxing would all help. I just can't help it and out of bed I go....

US Citizenship Update #2

Well, I believe the last time I spoke about this I had decided to go ahead with the whole US Citizenship thing. I've filed my request with the FOIA people (Freedom of Information Act) which is really just the USCIS (Immigration), so it makes no sense, but, hey, it's government. At first my request was 10,000 out of 12,763 on Track 2, which basically means, it will never happen. Since then two letters have arrived, the first requesting an affidavit of my signature and that the request was really mine, which I had provided via email and a notarized signature, but alas, it wasn't real paper.... The second letter was to inform me of the receipt of the notarized affidavit and they moved my Track to track 2. This is much speedier and as of yesterday I am 1157 out of 2211. There appears to be hope.

I think they just put you in track 1 until you provide all the paperwork they want. Once I get this all squared away I can move on to step one in the US Citizenship naturalization process. I've looked online and it appears that the wait period (aka back log) in Los Angeles right now is five months. Maybe this long term goal will be accomplished by Christmas 2010?

I Feel So Sorry for This Book

I admit it, I'm a book lover. I'm sure that it was my Mom that instilled this love of books, not sure how, maybe because she bought almost every Little Golden children's book out there or maybe because she read to me all the time. It could have been because I was an only child for 10 years so an escape into make believe was a good way to keep the loneliness at bay. One of my favorite things to do is wander around Barnes & Noble or Borders books and browse, imagine, touch and ultimately buy something new.

When I first started working at my new job I realized I was right across from the LA Central Public Library. I was very excited. An entire building full of books, the ultimate collection. The 2nd day I went over and signed up for a library card. I'd never had one in Los Angeles before. Hope sprang eternal of all the possibilities. These were soon dashed as I made several forays into the depths looking for this specific book or that. Being a geek, one has needs, very specific and timely needs for research and constant learning. I prefer getting that from an actual book rather than an e-book or PDF.

Each time I went to the library they were out of the book I wanted and the books they did have were very out of date. At one point I even donated some of my older technical books to augment their collection. Today I tried again and was thrilled they had the specific book I was looking for. I practically ran down 2 flights of stairs afraid someone would beat me to it. There it was, sitting on the shelf, the dirty old book in the picture. Dare I touch it? It was filthy and looked as if it was left in the rain for a week the pages were so curled. I did check it out but only after I made the librarian make a note of its condition. After reaching my office I clorox wiped the hard cover, twice and washed my hands several times. Black, each time. It's sad that a book be treated so unfairly but I suppose its nice that it has a home rather than being burned in some Fahrenheit 401 reincarnation.

The Republican View of the Unemployed

Here is an excerpt from a CNN news article regarding unemployment and why or why shouldn't this new jobless benefit bill be signed into law, taken from Matt Smith, CNN reporter's article listed below:

And former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, another Republican, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that keeping benefits coming "keeps people from going and finding jobs."
"There's some studies that have been done that shows that people stay on unemployment compensation and they don't look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out," said DeLay, who resigned from Congress in 2006 and is awaiting trial on a money-laundering charge in his home state of Texas.

That just pisses me off. For those of you that don't remember, Tom Delay is the Indicted ex-House Majority Leader (R), indicted for campaign finance fraud he was also accused of ethics violations in 2005. He solved that problem pretty quickly by making it the first order of business for the 109th Congress to gut the House Ethics Committee.

Again, I am amazed that politicians and Washington are so out of state with the actual public. yes, those of us who are middle class and losing ground on a constant basis. Are they not aware that unemployment is at an all time high in many states and frankly, under reported. When they say unemployment is at 12% that just means those that are still collecting. That doesn't mean the 1000's that have gone back to school, thus losing their benefits, or the 10's of 1,000's that can no longer collect because they were laid off at the beginning of this free fall. Some say it could and probably is double 12%. When companies pull an ad off the web after only 24 hours because they got 1000 resumes what does that tell you? When a company interviews candidates, even has second interviews, then decides that they are not going to fill that job after all, what does that tell you?

Do they really actually think that the unemployed are sitting around happy as clams for collecting a maximum of $475 a week? I got news for you, $475 a week in Los Angeles gets you NO WHERE. When car insurance is usually $2000 a year, plus food, mortgage or rent and you must have internet now or you can't shop for a job, that leaves you with nothing except to reach for your 401k provider phone # and cash in. I urge you to write your elected official, send them an email and set them on the right path. Tell them your story and tell them to get their heads out of their private jets, first class seats, limos and tuxedos and get down in the mud like the rest of us.

http://www.wibw.com/nationalnews/headlines/87466337.html

Life Just Gets So Busy

Sometimes I just get so focused on all my tasks that I don't even think beyond the daily and nightly list. This means there is no free thinking which means nothing to blog about. With Dena being out of work and the financial and emotional pressures that unemployment brings I've developed a new mantra. I say it every morning, "just keep moving". I know that if I just keep moving that eventually it will get better, right? Keep doing the list, keep brainstorming ideas, keep learning, keep moving forward, no matter how slowly and something will pop.

This reminds me of when I had finally had enough of the uncertainty at Mitel that I started my tree mantra. You start slowly by shaking trees, keep shaking and eventually the fruit will fall out in abundance. This bore out quite true with my landing at my current job. Shaking trees to me means touching base with all your contacts, researching and searching ideas, jobs and companies on the internet, developing new business ideas and basically just shaking trees.

So, for the past few months I've been living the "just keep moving" life.
Let's just keep moving and hope we move along to something better!

Left Brain vs Right Brain

I'm definitely a left brain and Dena is a right brain.

I thought you'd get a kick out a few interesting traits about left brained people:
Left brains are seen as "smarter" and tend to be:
- analytical,
- logical,
- sequential
They do things in the "proper" order and feel there is a proper order.
They tend to do well in reading, writing, speech and math. These subject areas have "sequential rules" and they respond to this. Lefts also naturally evaluate what's wrong and why it won't work. They are sensitive to flaws of self and others almost to the point of not being able to accept a person because of their flaws. They tend to not see the whole person but the flaw(s). The world is linear to them. The left-brained person doesn't see the end result and needs to go through the steps, one-by-one and sees the big picture when all the little steps are completed.

Right Brain Traits
Right brains are honored in eastern cultures more than western. They are seen as less smart because of the manner in which they process information. Rights don't go from Point A to Point B. Right brains don't like to listen to directions and don't like to read them. They scan quickly and figure out what to do without reading details. Reading directions carefully is a detailed activity for the left-brain.

How Rights Learn
Rights think and learn in visual, kinesthetic and audio images. They don't memorize well and need to visualize a picture so they can recall the facts. Abstract math is often not brain compatible. Their thoughts are frequently in code and they may have bizarre images in night dreams leaving them confused as to what they mean. When right brains talk to you, they look at you while listening and look away to the left when answering a question. This is a brain shift from one side to another. This is not a sign of fabrication. They are listening with one side and now switch over for the response. They are not creating an answer in an attempt to deceive.

Word Association
On a spelling test, a right brain hears the word "dog." Their mind wanders to the thought of the neighbor's dog which barked most of the night, that reminds them of the fact that the neighbors are in the Bahamas, which takes them to an island with palm trees and sandy beaches, which reminds them that they need a bathing suit for this weekend, which reminds them that they will need to take spending money... Teacher says, "Word #7 is house." Student raises hand and asks what word #6 was. They've checked out for a while.

Which brain are you?

To My Sister

We have something special
that belongs to you and me--
A deeper understanding
that we share instinctively,
A trusting kind of friendship
other people rarely share,
A way of always knowing
when the other needs us there...

We have something special,
and no matter what we do,
whether talking, lunching, shopping,
something wonderful shines through--
It's a special kind of love
on which the two of us depend,
It's the love between two sisters
who've become the best of friends.

Happy Birthday Sis

The Senate

Yesterday I was off my nut. I was listening to the 11 second sound bite about how Senator Jim Bunning from Kentucky was able to successfully hold off the 30 day extension of the Stimulus bill that extends unemployment benefits to Americans out of work as well as a few other programs. I had never emailed a Senator before but I did yesterday. Matter of fact, I emailed a bunch of them, every one I could think of. It was actually quite simple, you type into Google the Senators name and email, for example, Jim Bunning email address and pretty much the top hit is the .gov contact page for that person. You then fill in the email form and Bam, the email is done.

I told them to get off their collective asses and do something. I also told them that they are completely out of touch with the American people. Senator Bunning is a hall of fame MLB player and then was elected to the Senate. So, let me get this straight, he collects a pension and medical from the MLB Players Association, has his investments from his MLB career days, gets lifetime medical and a government pension forever as a senator, it seems to me that health care, retirement, and a steady income are not things that Senator Bunning has ever been concerned with. This is certainly true of all our elected Washington officials. Do you wonder why they are out of touch with our needs?

Did you know that a letter written to your govenor or other elected official represents 10,000 people aka opinions aka votes. An email represents 5,000. Be heard! And be heard loudly. How will they know what you want and how you feel about what they are doing if you don't tell them? You are a vote and let's face it, that's the most important thing to them. Just remember, there is a large percentage of Senators up for re-election in 2011 and they care about all those perks, limo to work, free lodging, food, money, power......all those things we don't have.

Here are some valuable links:
Contacting Congress, what is there name and what's their address? --> http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Senators and an interesting look at Classes --> http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
How to Email your Governor --> http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Governors.shtml
How much does your senator make not including perks?
Members of the U.S. Senate in 2009 receive a salary of $174,000 per year. Those who are leaders in the Senate (majority and minority leaders, and the president pro tempore) earn more; in 2009 they earn $193,400. For an official document on senators' salaries since the beginning of Congress, follow this link:
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/senate_salaries.htm

What other perks do they get after they leave? Here is an interesting article about a former Republican Speaker of the House.
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=LatestNews.NewsStories&ContentRecord_id=fd2b3d27-802a-23ad-4f15-0bc3d6299d6c

Canadian Rapper Classified Does O Canada

Makes Me So Proud

I've Decided to Do It

Despite the economy or because of it, I've finally decided to move forward and file for my American Citizenship, I've been eligible for years but have dragged my feet for a variety of reasons, one of them being jury duty. Who wants to do that? The second reason was the $795 filing fee but the main reason was this section on the form that I couldn't imagine how I could get right.

The section of the citizenship form I'm referring to is where you have to fill in the # of days you have been out of the US of A since you received your green card and what day you exited and re-entered. Well, for somebody who stays home and watches soap operas all day this is very simple, but for a world traveller like me, it's rather challenging, especially considering those bastards at United Mileage Plus do not offer records past one year old online. I called them today asking for the last 10 years. I got some chick in India who told me to send a letter to Rapid City Iowa. I'm sure that letter would be filed in the trash.

In steps Google. You gotta love the internet and Google. Up popped a helpful little government website with information regarding the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). I filled in a form (G-639 ) that allows you to request this of the USCIS (basically Homeland Security aka US Citizenship and Immigration Services). Sort of ironic don't you think? That I have to request my exit and entry dates from the same agency that needs them to process my citizenship papers.

So, I just emailed them a notarized G-639 form. Can you imagine, you can email the US government? I'll keep you posted on how this moves along. I cannot file my N400 form (Application for Naturalization) until I get this form back but at least I've made a step. I'm excited now actually, because rumor on the forums is that the current wait time for citizenship is down to 3 months. This is an incredibly short period in the history of the process so the time is now. Rumor has it that applications are down because the economy sucks and the filing fee is so high, no one can afford it.

Happy Anniversary

Five continents and 19 years of adventure mark this day, February 16th, Dena and I's anniversary. As my mind cruises over the memories I cannot help but smile. We've journeyed across oceans and continents, through hardship and joy and with family and friends while our love has continued to grow. Sure there have been tough times, one of those times being now, but these blips in our history only serve to strengthen our love and commitment to each other.

I knew when I first saw you standing on the stairway landing in Mammoth Lakes that you were the one. I was excited, nervous and terrified. It's surreal to think that we've moved through our thirties and forties together. What will our remaining decades hold? Truth be told it doesn't really matter as there is no one I'd rather live life with except you my love.

Ode to our Lovebird

Coming into our lives in 1992, Ginghi was just a fledgling from her parents, Herbie and Vanna. Dena named her Ginghi as it means red head in Hebrew. She was our first bird and we were probably bad parents, feeding her only seed her entire life. That never stopped her however, and Avian vets, bird stores, the birdie hotel and other birders always remarked that she was the oldest lovebird they had ever seen.

Ginghi was full of piss and vinegar right from the beginning and her first adventure was while her mom's were away vacationing in Hawaii. She was entrusted to the care of a dear friend and Ginghi bit her. Our friend freaked out, screamed and her big rottweiler picked Ginghi right out of mid air. Fortunately, the rottweiler was trained and a quick drop command and Ginghi was summarily spit out. Ginghi never missed a beat recovering quickly and none the worse for wear.

Several years ago she started to grow a tumor near her groin area. The tumor quickly got larger and grew to the size of a golf ball. Off to the Avian vet we went and the first vet said that since she was 16 years old she probably wouldn't live too much longer and we should put her down. Undaunted and unconvinced we got a second opinion and soon we were examining her x-rays. There is nothing funnier than seeing your little bird splayed out on film as the Avian vet says it took 4 vet techs to hold her down. The tumor was surgically removed and she didn't even need a cone. I was sort of looking forward to photographing my little cone head but the vet said she wasn't picking at it and was up and running around biting the vet tech minutes after the anesthesia wore off. Powerful females run in our family.

Ginghi had the personality the size of a Macaw, greeting us every morning with her whistles, guarding the house at night being a good watch birdie, she missed absolutely nothing. She enjoyed swinging in the sunlight during the warm summer days and the joy she brought to us will be sorely missed. She went out in a big way giving her mom Dena a last good hard love bite to remember her by.

Garbage Disposals

I have a real problem with garbage disposals. We've had nothing but issues with our garbage disposal and pipes in the kitchen since we moved in 16 years ago to our house. Before that, I seem to remember issues with the condo surrounding the garbage disposal. I hate them.

Where I grew up in Canada we never had a garbage disposal. We put the egg shells and coffee grounds in the vegetable garden, left over meat products went to the fox, veggie waste to the raccoons and bears and fat was either saved for frying later or put out for the chickadees in winter. They need fat to keep warm in those 40 below temperatures.

Why would I write to you now about garbage disposals? Dena loves garbage disposals. She seems to believe that everything should go down them. One time she put about 2 pounds of left over cooked halibut down our disposal. Sure, it ground it up fine but it glued itself to the pipes requiring an emergency plumbing call. You have never smelt anything so nasty as halibut that's been sitting in the pipes for over 30 hours. It came out looking like a granite mining core but smelling much worse.

I discovered our latest incident when the washer drain started overflowing onto our new kitchen floor. Since we recently had our kitchen redone all the old corroded galvanized pipes were replaced with nice new wide PVC with our contractor routing them for optimum slideage of sludge. I thought our (aka my) problems were over. Being that we're saving every penny I bought a drain router kit in lieu of calling a plumber. What a filthy job that was. After much rootering I pulled out about two cups of....wait for it.......................................brussel sprouts.

My dear readers, do not put lettuce, onions, or any skins down your garbage disposal because all these leafy type things do is stick to the side of your pipes like the cholesterol in your arteries clogging and narrowing the flow. Just don't do it.

Below are a couple websites to encourage you to find other ways of disposing of waste:
Being green
proper care and feeding

My Eyeballs....

Back in 2001 when I had my laser eye surgery I was 20/2000. Basically, I couldn't see shit, near or far. It was a problem and an inconvenience in so many ways and having the surgery changed my life. As I left the doctor's office that fateful day I was told that this is not a cure for what surely will come in your 40's, reading glasses. I put that out of my mind and revelled in my new freedom.

The inevitable has been approaching faster than I'd like to admit. I don't know if it's constantly staring at the computer, just age or if it's hereditary but it's here. I cannot see anything up close without reading glasses. In 2009 I tried "cheaters". 3 for $20 at Costco. But alas they just gave me a headache. A trip to the eye doctor and two pairs of reading glasses later I suppose I'm better off. But to what end?

This morning as I stared at my face wondering what facial creme would stop the progress of wrinkles I realized that I couldn't read the ingredients and instructions on the lotion bottle. I grabbed a bottle of advil in desperation, I couldn't read that either. Flashes of having to wear my reading glasses on a string around my neck went through my brain. Then more flashes of having to put reading glasses in every room.

This all came on the heels of going out for dinner last Saturday night and having to put the menu down and saying, "you order". My mom does that. Now I know why. It's because she cannot read the damn menu! I'm depressed....

It's the Little Things

Often it's the little things that affect our moods, or at least that affect mine. The examples can be endless.

This morning I could not find my keys. I'm a very organized person and I put my keys in the same place each night. I find that consistency is the precursor to organization. I was getting more and more upset as I turned the house upside down looking for them. I was mad at myself for obviously absentmindedly setting them somewhere and I was starting to wonder about my sanity. Finally, in frustration I grabbed my spare set and drove off.

When I arrived at work and started to come out of the elevator some woman just about ran me over in the elevator door. She wanted to go down and I wasn't even out of the elevator yet! This is one of my pet peeves, I hate it when people jump in elevators that aren't empty yet. I find it very rude. 25 steps later I open the lobby doors and some other inconsiderate woman jumps through my open door. Rude! It's one thing if I open it and allow you to go through out of courtesy, it's quite another for someone to bump me aside and squeeze through my door.

By the time I got up into our suite I was in a foul mood and cursing humanity, Los Angeles and its inconsideate population. It was the little things that ruined it for me. 30 minutes later Dena called me and told me she found my keys. They were sitting on top of my tupperware container in the fridge containing my mango so I wouldn't forget to take it to work. That worked out well. We both laughed at the irony and my day turned around.

Practice random acts of kindness today. You never know whose mood you will positively affect! Just because we live in this hectic, self-centered world shouldn't mean that we cannot be considerate to each other.

Augmented Reality - For iPhone Uses

In order to get the significance of this blog one must first understand the concept of "easter eggs". Wikipedia describes them as "A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, web page or video game. The term was coined – according to Warren Robinett – by Atari after they were pointed to the secret message left by Robinett in the game Adventure.[1] ".

Easter eggs are in most computer games, software, operating systems, etc. There are entire websites dedicated to finding and exposting easter eggs. The easter egg that Yelp has put in there new iPhone app is mind blowing and it's social implications are endless. This takes the power of the people to a whole new level. Restaurants beware, if you get a bad review on Yelp, you're dead.

So check out this video on Monocle - Yelps hidden app (aka easter egg) underneath their iPhone app. It uses the camera in the iphone in combination with the GPS to determine your location then overlays that with reviews of the businesses in the immediate vicinity and direction you are pointing the camera. Like I said, mind blowing. Requires 3Gs iphone with latest software.



Check out the Mashable web site for more details and explanation of how to activate the easter egg.

The Technology Future......Hold On To Your Hats!

I thought portions of this story were so thought provoking that I wanted to share them with my readers. Enjoy and just consider the possibilities. These are predictions for somewhere around 2020. I suspect it will be a little sooner.

Taken from Jason Hiner's TechRepublic blog:

One of the biggest false trends of CES 2010 was 3DTV. The problem: Users don’t want to wear those goofy 3D glasses when they’re sitting on the couch or laying in bed to watch TV or a movie. However, people don’t mind wearing glasses when they are out in public. That’s why we’re likely to see a new generation of technology that will put computer displays into glasses and give users a visual layer of information about the world around them, offer customized alerts, and interact with their digital devices.
These glasses, which will integrate with prescription glasses or sunglasses in many cases, will be able to discreetly do things such as provide additional information about real-world locations (similar to Yelp Monocle), do facial recognition on people you meet and search your social network contact list to find them and display their name, grab the name of the song that’s currently playing on your iPod, and show caller ID and text messages coming in from your mobile phone.

The next interesting prediction is the one cm thick TV. This is inevitable.

Currently, the biggest spectacle of CES is the flat-panel TVs. The biggest booths — Samsung, LG, Sony, etc. — are overloaded with massive numbers of high definition TV panels. At CES 2020, there will be no TVs on display.
Instead, these TVs will be replaced by OLED panels that are roughly the thickness of a sheet of vellum. The screen will be virtually transparent and will have a miniature chip in one corner that wirelessly connects to any nearby peripherals and content sources in a process similar to paring a bluetooth headset.

The Digital Generation

Someone threw out a term to me the other day that I found very interesting: digital immigrant. Apparently I am a digital immigrant. There are also conversely "digital natives". These young children are typically born in the 21st century and have grown up with nothing but digital technology. One can argue back and forth that if you were born in the 1990's then you must also be a digital native but I'm convinced it's only 21st century children.

First, let me define the terms for you:

A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3s.

A digital immigrant is a person for whom digital technologies did not exist or were in their infancy when they were born and growing up. This would be most of us.

These 2 terms were coined by Marc Prensky and he uses them to discuss his opinions on why our educational system is failing. It's actually a very interesting article and speaks to us digital immigrants (who are largely ignorant in the technology) teaching these digital natives. I'll make the analogy of how poignant this is by relating the story of my little niece Sienna who is an excellent Wii bowler. She had never played nor was she cognizant of real bowling and only knew of it virtually. She was quite thrilled when she was just recently introduced to the "analog" style of bowling, aka reality. Sienna is a digital native through and through.

These digital natives are more commonly referred to as Gen Z. Gen Z as lined out in the whole Gen X and Y thing span the birth years of 1995-2010, give or take. They are children of the Gen Xers and they are highly connected, most having lifelong use of all the digital gear (MP3, internet, IM, etc, etc).

An interesting topic for a cocktail party...

Job Satisfaction Plummets

The breaking news today was that American job satisfaction is the lowest it's ever been. Well, no shit. The people who still have jobs are being asked to do more with less like never before and for less pay. This does not breed happiness but instead breeds a low level of resentment that festers especially in larger companies. This phenomena eventually leads to a type of burn out or a better way of putting that is a lack of enthusiasm to work like a dog for less pay thus driving productivity down. It's a vicious cycle.

I have friends that are on 13% pay cuts, some of those people not only have a pay cut but also must take one week off a quarter or in one case one week off (without pay of course) a month. That translates into quite a heavy financial loss in the paycheck. How can you be satisfied at work when you're salary is eroded by a pay cut as well as paying more for your benefits, like health and dental. Companies are also cutting perks in all sorts of ways, even stooping as low as foregoing filling the monthly coffee supply. How the hell can a worker be happy and/or productive without caffeine?

It's also no news that laid off workers returning to work have to accept lower paying jobs. Some of these are probably people that have exhausted their unemployment benefits. I find it quite amusing in a sad way that our government is telling us that the economy is slowly recovering. What planet do they live on? Because jobless claims dropped? Well, there aren't that many people left to lay off. If the unemployment number reported is ~ 12% then you know it is significantly higher than that. That number is only calculated based on those people still on the books. Workers who haven't bothered to file, have exhausted their benefits and graduates who cannot find work are not counted. I suspect this number is close to 20%. I know more unemployed people now than I do employed. That is sad.

Frankly, I could rant on and on about this, health care and the state of our economy, but I'll leave you now, looking on the bright side, IT jobs are still in demand and still interesting for those computer geeks that like this kind of stuff.

A Look Ahead

I cannot help as the year draws to a close to reflect on the future. I've done blogs before on hope, an emotion and quality that is possibly humanity's most important. We need to hope as without it life would be unbearable. The march into 2010 is proceeded by a particularly difficult year for Americans and others abroad. Financially speaking, never has the middle class fell so far, so fast. Perhaps we will learn to apply the advice of Henry David Thoreau urging us to set priorities, warning that “Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplify, simplify.” These words ring true as people struggle to pay their mortgages and learn to save while cutting their thirst for material wealth.

As I look ahead at my upcoming year I think of Lincoln's poignant words: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” He also said, “A person is generally as happy as they are willing to be.” I personally am moving into 2010 in a mental state better than I moved into 2009. I am happier and at peace despite Dena's lack of employment. Could this be the simplification that Thoreau talks about? We have slowed down our lives and this brings peace.

But, as I always do, restlessness will probably set in. I'm never very good with too much quiet. I've been thinking lately of getting back in to mentoring a teen. This will make my life busier but will hopefully provide some benefit to someone less fortunate. I am lucky to have two families that love me just the whacky way I am and some do not have that luxury. I am rich beyond belief. John Greenleaf Whittier reminded us that our future is often the harvest of our actions: “The tissue of the life to be, we weave with colors all our own. And in the field of destiny, we reap as we have sown.”

So with those words of wisdom from others far more thoughtful than I, I ask you to take a quiet moment and take stock of your past and think about how 2010 can be so much more rewarding for you.

A Wii Bowling Professional....

This is Sienna (3 years old) doing Wii bowling. Notice the signature leg kick. She kicks the butt of everyone, mom, dad and aunties alike. Her mom and daddy took her real life bowling for her birthday on December 1st and she was shocked that you could bowl, in real life. Amazing how kids today are growing up virtually.....so to speak. By the way, she loves real life bowling too!

Dena Sandwich

Snuggies

So I want a Snuggie for Christmas. Dena says she'll divorce me if I get one, however, Santa does what Santa wants... One would keep me so warm on the couch in our chilly house. Just think of it, all bundled up with fleecy covering your arms, legs and all the way up your neck and your hands poking out. One hand to hold the remote and one to hold the glass of wine. Life would be perfect.

I wish I invented the Snuggie. I'd be a multi millionaire to be sure. The inventor of snuggie was on Oprah the other day. Now I'm not sure if that's a testimony to how great a product it is or how desperate Oprah is for something to talk about that isn't the depressing American economy. I've also read that some people, when calling the TV ad Snuggie 800# they get caught in endless promo loops, get overcharged for shipping and handling and don't really get what they thought. So, as in all cases, buyer beware. Buy from a brick and mortar store where you can touch and feel your snuggie and pick the color. Still, I think it's a great idea although the guy below doesn't think so. See below for youtube video.

Neti Pots & Vicks Vapor Rub

As I'm sure some of you are aware I've had a nasty cold and cough, twice now. I think I relapsed a week after the first cold. Everyone says this cough/cold thing that is going around is primed for relapsing. The second time around I find myself with severe sinus congestion. I don't know about you, but I cannot sleep when I can't breathe through my nose.

Here are the two solutions I'm trying. Vicks Vapor Rub. I remember when I was a kid my mom used to rub Vicks all over my chest and just under my nose. She'd safety pin a washcloth or piece of flannel to my jammies where the Vicks was. I never really thought about why. So, the other night I gave this a shot. I spread Vicks all over my chest. Something became immediately apparent. I didn't have breasts when I was 9 so the "chest" was definitely differently defined. The second thing did not become apparent until the next morning. While I certainly felt better and definitely breathed better during the night, my pajama top was now ruined. No amount of washing was going to get that petroleum based Vicks stain out of them. Now I know why my Mom put a washcloth there.

The second remedy I'm trying is this Neti Pot thing. Apparently some old school nasal cleanser that Oprah re-introduced to the world. When I'm congested it's like cement up there. I was hoping this would loosen things up. I can assure you it did. It was the wierdest feeling. I was quite terrified I'd drown or something but it actually feels good when you're done. Similar to hitting yourself over the head I suppose.

The verdict? Vicks rocks. Definitely good for the chest and nose. Neti pot.....the jury is still out but I think it's helping.

Followers

I added a "followers" tab on the right hand side bar, near the bottom of the blog. Whether we all like it or not, the world has changed and it will continue to do so. Most of our reading content is now online. We get news, weather, playoff schedules and tickets all online. We want to read a book and we can get a Sony reader, a Kindle, download it as a PDF or read an actual paper book.

The Internet is no longer just somewhere to get info on something, it has long past that goal. It already has become a social networking world tied into your smart phone. I'm speaking about facebook (mobile and otherwise), myspace, twitter, etc. Now as we rapidly move into 2010 that will also evolve into an even more tightly integrated world where combining phone GPS's, mobile blogging and facebook, google friends and the myriad of other apps we will know where everyone is at any given moment.

An example of this would be I'm standing in the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl, I have 4 terrace box seats but one couple just cancelled last minute. Using my iPhone or other smart device I can advertise these 2 extra tickets for sale with my exact location with alerts going out to other users looking for Bowl tickets for that event. Scary? Yes. Useful? Sure.

Another example of this would be an iPhone app recently written where users can post using the iPhone GPS their celebrity sightings. I saw Tracey Ullman at such and such a place at 2:52 pm today. Other obsessed fans would get an alert of where Tracey is and can run to her and mob her. Scary? Hell yes.... Aren't you glad you're not a celebrity?

So, I got off on a tangent there but the gist of all this is that I've added "followers" on my blog. Feel free to sign up, I'd love to have you!

What is this Nutcracker thing?

Every year they seem to proliferate more and more in my field of vision during the holiday season. These strange wooden soldiers that people call nutcrackers. Why in the world are they associated with Christmas? Why are they called nutcrackers? Do they really crack nuts?

Well, they do crack nuts and apparently nut crackers have been around since at least the Greeks and Aristotle, at least in a decorative/functional form. England’s King Henry VIII gave second wife Anne Boleyn a decorative wooden nutcracker as a gift in the 1500s. But, the colorful nutcrackers we now associate with Christmas didn’t exist until the 18th century, and were the product of German craftsmen.

In Germany, nutcrackers weren’t just practical tools, they were totems said to protect families from danger. Their big wooden teeth were designed to scare away evil spirits, and their ability to crack nuts symbolized the circle of life: A tree drops a seed (nut), which becomes a tree and from the tree the wooden nutcracker is born. The nutcracker, by design, also was a form of satirical political commentary. Nutcrackers made in the image of high-ranking officials, kings and soldiers were a way to force high-status men to “serve” the people. For example, Napoleon may have won battles in Germany, but he was helpless in the hands of the German people, who made the little general’s likeness the most popular nutcracker design of its time.

In the 19th century, nutcrackers began being sold as children’s toys for Christmas. The most popular designs during this time were harlequins and soldiers. One of these soldier nutcrackers became the protagonist of E.T.A. Hoffman’s novel The Nutcracker and the King of Mice , which subsequently inspired Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suit e and The Nutcracker ballet. In America, the nutcracker as a collector’s item first gained popularity in the 1950s, when American GIs returning from Germany brought the colorful nutcrackers home with them. During the same period, The Nutcracker ballet’s popular success also sparked interest in the colorful wooden toy.

More Random Thoughts

From about 1996 to April 2008 I flew on a regular basis. Too regular for my personal health and the health of my relationship frankly, but alas, that is another blog for another day. During this time bookstores and I were regular friends especially being that this was the time before the Kindle and certainly pre-ipod. I had to have something to do in all those airports and on all those airplanes. I was never really one for magazines unless they involved computers or computer gaming so books it was.

In a recent but short burst of energy I attempted a cleaning out of my nightstand. This serves as a small bookcase of sorts, the kind I had envisioned would hold books in the "waiting to be read" stage. I found some old titles from those bygone flying years. I was a big W.E.B Griffin, Stephen Coonts and Tom Clancy reader. I read everything they wrote and they wrote in the military science/espionage genres. I spent a few minutes reading a chapter out of a book I wasn't sure I had read yet. These guys are such formula writers. You just keep moving the characters from one war or conflict to the next and viola, another book is written. I suppose I enjoyed them because they were mindless reading or perhaps because I was young. Who knows. Anyone want to buy any? I have all of them to sell.....

I also have some small 5x5 books of positive thoughts, uplifting quotes and that sort of crap. These are the kind of books you get someone when you have no idea what to buy them. Gift books. I have no time for uplifting positive crap, I'm a hard working American (well sort of American...) who is busy watching her dollar erode before her very eyes while keeping an eye on her backside so she can see the lay off axe coming. Such is the state of the US of A today, so no time for uplifting, spiritual crap! These books are for sale too....

Random Thoughts....

I'm caught in between that weird limbo of being too sick to go to work and not sick enough to lay in bed for too long. It's driving me insane. I've gone in to work for 4 hours these last two days leaving exhausted with the icing on cake today being yelled out of my office by four of my co-workers. They were yelling, "get yourself to a doctor", while one of them fetched water in hopes of saving my sorry soul from an early demise. They had to yell, I was coughing so much and so loud there was no other choice.

So here I am, at home itching to go to work and going bonkers at home because I feel time is a wasting. I lay propped up in bed thinking of all the home projects that I could be doing with this cool time at home and then as I start to formulate a plan to do something I'm wracked with a coughing fit that reminds me why I am here.

My trip to the doctor today was predictable but had slight educational benefits. I'm frustrated as every time I get a cold it rapidly moves into my chest and bronchitis is quick to follow. This is a common issue with asthmatics. When I broached this frustration with the doctor she devised a possible prevention plan that involves immediate application of a steriod inhaler Advair upon inception of the cold. Might work, it's worth a shot. In the meantime I suck up Albuterol and Advair regularly and patiently await the filling of my cough medicine with codiene prescription. I chant, "The coughing shall subside, I am healthy, The coughing will subside", hack, hack, hack

Dishwashers....

As most of you know we are 99% done with the kitchen. I thought I would share some thoughts regarding all the research I've done for our dishwasher purchase. I had certain criteria, some just my fetishes, some very logical criteria and some selfish. My criteria is listed below. Some interesting things to note. There are rebates for almost every appliance right now. Check google and your local power and electric company's website, make sure you get your rebate money! One of the things that make dishwashers really quiet now is the lack of a built in little garbage disposal. Most have this basket you have to clean out every couple weeks depending on if or how much you rinse your plates.
My criteria:

• Quiet - ultra quiet
• wine glass holders in top shelf
• adjustable top shelf to accommodate large platters in bottom drawer
• heating element (more on that later)
• delay start
• no stupid little drawer for silver ware (see picture)

Heating element, why was that a criteria? Well, some dishwashers, like the Bosch do not come with a heating element inside anymore. This saves energy. It makes the Bosch the most energy efficient dishwasher out there, but do you really want wet dishes? I like my dishes nice and warm and DRY when I pull them out of the dishwasher. Quiet? Why did I want a quiet one, well we run our dishwasher at around 2 am usually and I don't want to hear it spraying and clunking away in the kitchen. So delay start and quiet go hand in hand. Our new Kenmore Elite is so quiet it's a little hard to tell it's on.

Adjustable top shelf. Some of these are cheap and just scream, "I'm going to break soon!" so try it out over and over again. I think it's a great feature as Dena and I entertain frequently and use large platters to serve food. It would be nice not to have the middle swinging spray arm hit all the plates and pots on the lower level. Bad for the arm and bad for the dishes.

Silverware - there is nothing I hate more than having to work hard to put dishes and silverware in the dishwasher. Isn't a dishwasher supposed to save time? This new feature of having a silverware drawer is the stupidest thing I ever saw. It takes too much time. Who has time to place every single knife and fork in its own little slot. Just throw them all in a basket and be done with it. For those of you that say they don't get clean, well, if you don't wipe the peanut butter off the knife and leave it sit for 4 days then no, it probably won't get clean.

Other things we learned - positioning and understanding of your controls. Dishwashers nowadays in order to qualify for energy star compliance have certain features that you must turn on when you wash. We have to push the Hot Dry button to get it. Where are your controls? Are they on the front? Do you want to see that or do you want them hidden in the door? We have this turbo wash thing in the back. If you put dirty pots in there like a roast pan, you can pick the turbo wash cycle and they'll blast the pan. Pretty cool.

So, do your homework and you'll be happy. We consulted consumer reports and all sorts of online reviews before our purchase. The nice lady at Sears was extremely helpful and we learned a ton.

Black Friday is Changing

I'm pretty proud of myself this morning. I have been looking at flyers and doing some online shopping for a good quality, inexpensive camera for Chanukah for my niece. I found one, Fuji with free 2 Gig memory card and case. $79.99, free shipping and no 10% California sales tax, final price = $ 79.99! W00t!

How has Black Friday changed? Instead of getting up at 4am (not that I ever did this) and running down to Best Buy, Walmart and/or Target for "door crasher" specials there are now "lightning" online only Black Friday week specials. I love it. I can sit in the comfort of my own home and shop and the stuff magically appears on my doorstep. Sometimes change is good. Now, buyer beware. You have to know what you are buying. Don't forget to check out the reviews since you cannot touch and feel these items like in a traditional brick & mortar store.

So the moral of the story. Comparison shopping pays as does doing your homework. I feel like I won the lottery today, I got a good quality camera for an excellent price. There are cheaper point and shoots out there but the reviews hammer them.

Train Notes

I'm on the Amtrak train to San Luis Obispo. I've not been on a passenger train since I was about 12. That's 35 years ago or so. Currently, I'm sitting in the Sightseeing car's upper deck going through Simi Valley. We've had one train malfunction and 4 stops already and we've been travelling for almost 2 hours. Surely we will be late. Apparently, you get what you pay for. No WiFi, no power outlets, no nothing. I'm pretty sure this train car was around 35 years ago the last time I was riding the rails....

Just up from me in the car is an older white guy wearing all black, a red tie and wearing aviators. He's with his African American girlfriend. He apparently only dates black women and they've been drinking since the train started rolling. First beer, now they've switched to wine. Does that set the stage for you? He was complaining that this bottle of wine was $13 because normally he brings his own bottle (probably jack LOL). He's already made the couple across from me uncomfortable because of the F bombs but he's a G-D fearing man as is his squeeze. He's been a limousine driver, had offers to swing with another couple in a sleeper car on a previous train, is currently pulling unemployment and has an opinion about everything. Do I know too much about the guy....yes. Where is my Ipod????!!!

On the train we have young college kids going up UCSB, Cal Poly SLO and the like, retirees just travelling about and a strange mixed bag of riff raff that obviously don't drive because they either cannot afford a car or have long ago lost their driver's licenses. I worry about the conductors and what they probably have to put up when the bar closes. All this and I have just made it out of LA County. What is to come?

Scroll down for my blog about my mom.....

A tribute to my Mom

I spoke with my mom last night. She informed me that she couldn't talk too long on the phone because she had 20 boxes of Avon she had to process. My mom has been an Avon lady for as long as I can remember. She always makes President's club for her region for highest sales. Her 20 boxes consisted of these Angel fundraising gift sets. If you sell an angel christmas set, Avon will donate 5 dollars to your local food bank. My mom had raised $500 for the Edmonton food bank which means she sold 100 Angel gift sets. That also means that she has to deliver them and collect the money, all on her own time and her own dime.

This type of selfless giving is something that is hard to find nowadays. Mom, I'm proud of you. Your energy, drive, compassion and selflessness inspire me. That picture above is one I've posted before of her, but is one of my favorites. It was taken this April in chinatown in San Francisco.

I miss you mom.

I Had a Dream

You ever have a weird dream where your spouse pissed you off and you wake up really mad at them? I have. I've also been on the other end of it. It is a little bizarre how it's difficult to get over it. Your anger is real as if your dream was just as real. The brain is an amazing thing.

I woke up this morning very anger and disturbed at my current employer. I am so angry I don't want to go to work. I had this bizarre dream that when I came in Monday morning the entire place was changed. They had sold a 9% stake in the company to a big high pressure sales company. I cannot remember the name now. I walked into the executive area and all the lights were off and there were many, many people milling about moving into their new desks. Most of the offices were gone, the desks were all very open and quite tiny. There was a brand new red Maserati sitting there, I assume some sales incentive. People were loud and horsing around and I was wondering how any actual work was going to get done.

My server room was gone, my locked storage closet was gone and we had all new computers with Windows 7 on them. As an IT person that is the biggest insult of all. To have your organization change all the computers out and not clue you in. They had hired some simple techs to do it. I cannot name the name of the company here but I was stunned and very hurt. I will probably be in a funk all day. Oh, and by the way. I no longer had an office, I had a little desk across from some sales manager that played the radio all the time and loved shaving creme jokes.

Is that a Halloween Chicken?

Advertising to the nth degree

This is a picture taken in the Century City mall bathrooms. This is taking advertising to the nth degree. The stall was completely done up like something out of pottery barn. It was advertising for Charmin. Very well done actually. I felt right at home.....

Kitchen Remodel - And We Wait

The kitchen remodel has come to a screeching halt. It seems that someone used our stool to reach high places and put half moon type divots all over our brand new oak floor. It will all have to be resanded and refinished. The careless idiot is not fessing up to it. Everyone says it was everyone else's fault. I supposed it is immaterial although it would be nice to have one neck to choke. Since resanding is required, moving in is out of the question. That fine wood dust will be everywhere so there is not much point.

We are also waiting on Tino the cabinet guy to finish. Over 50% of the doors are unbalanced or have some issue with them, the other 50% the self closing mechanism is too tight or too loose or too something. Then there are a few doors he forgot or were the wrong size.

We are also waiting on Sears to deliver our replacement fridge. We purchased a top of the line Kenmore Elite french door, bottom freezer fridge. Nice unit. too bad it has so many issue that I had to demand a whole new fridge. It sits in our kitchen making ice in places where ice should not be. We have to wait for November 7th for that. I'm sure they'll scratch the floor all up.

It's so frustrating as we are almost done. Absolutely nothing happened all last week. The kitchen beckoned to us, calling.... cook with me, saute with me.....but alas, we could not.

Kitchen Remodel - And on and on it goes.....

I think it looks spectacular. The handles that I stressed over go very well with all the colors, the stain is a good match for the granite and tile and the lights that seemed like a difficult choice, go perfectly. However, and isn't there always something?? Our cabinet guy has a long way to go to be finished. There are obviously a few doors missing and almost half the doors have some issue or another. Saturday is another day. Sears will be here to take another crack at fixing the fridge. I'm happy to report however, that all the crap is out of our backyard.

Words to Live By

This poem was read this morning on Michael Josephson's Character Counts segment on KNX1070. His segments get me thinking, perhaps too much at 6:45 am but I suppose a little self examination is never a bad thing. I am very guilty of rushing through life and it's only been in the last six months that I've slowed down some. Perhaps that is just age or perhaps I've realized that I'm half way through my life (hopefully) and I need to start smelling the roses a little more. Dena will probably disagree about my slowing down but I have. I used to be at a social event and be thinking about when it was over so I could get to the next event or task. That is definitely not living in the moment, that is just racing through life and not experiencing it.

So here is the poem from this morning,

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
or listened to rain slapping the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,
or gazed at the sun fading into the night?

You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly,
when you ask "How are you?", do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,
with the next hundred chores running through your head?

You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.

Ever told your child, we'll do it tomorrow,
and in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a friendship die,
'cause you never had time to call and say hi?

You better slow down, don't dance so fast,
time is short, the music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere,
you miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
it's like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life isn't a race, so take it slower,
hear the music before your song is over.

About the Author
David L. Weatherford is a child psychologist with published poems in "Chicken Soup for the Soul". If you want to enjoy more of David's beautiful writings, please visit www.davidlweatherford.com

Kitchen Remodel - Almost there

Kitchen Remodel - End of Week 9

I know you were all expecting some exciting pictures today....but alas, the kitchen is covered in tarp, paper and the new stove and hood is all covered over by a "bridge" that they made out of wood for installing the new hood. I can tell you that it looks fantastic though.

Sears repair is here today to fix the new fridge. Yes, it was installed improperly. Now he's blaming my contractor for not clearing the water line for the ice maker and that the filter is clogged. Filters are not covered - $ 50 down the drain, literally. The freezer has frozen condensation in it because the door doesn't seal properly on the left side and they neglected to drop the feet down, so every time I pull open the french doors the fridge slides out 12". Nothing irritates me more than incompetence.

They are finishing the grout, moving in the washer/dryer, finishing the plumbing, installing the under cabinet water filter, and the list goes on. I have high hopes that I'll be making dinner Friday on our new stove, washing dishes in our new dishwasher and drinking a bottle of wine chilled in our new wine cooler. Hope springs eternal....

Kitchen Remodel - Day 4 Week 9 or something...

An Exciting statement emanated from the mouth of our contractor today..... he proclaimed he would be done with the kitchen Tuesday October 13th. Perhaps he should have picked a better day. In true Dawn (reads....pessimistic) fashion it will probably be more like Friday the 16th, but hey, that means one week from now we'll have our kitchen back. That has got me all whipped up into a frenzy for sure.

Kitchen Remodel - The Lizard

This is the behind the stove back splash. It's done in a herring bone pattern and has taken our contractor 4 days to complete. It is quite a detailed pattern, especially using smaller 1" x 4" Japanese tiles. As you can see the cuts on the sides are quite small, combine that with the fact that the cabinets are not perfectly straight or the wall or something is not straight, perhaps the owners, and you get minute differences in lots of cuts. It's a shame really that the hood will cover a portion of this pattern. Our contractor has taken to calling this the "lizard". It fits.

We look forward to tomorrow which will hopefully mark the end of the tile as Thursday is granite repair day and Friday the stove arrives.

Kitchen Remodel - Delays and More Delays....

No project is immune from delays. The current delay is that the floor has been re-sanded and the second and third coats of varnish put on but it will take 48 hours to cure. This was unexpected as we were originally told that it would be available after 24 hours. This has the effect of pushing all the trades out. Granite repair had to be moved from today until next Thursday, tile will hopefully begin today, appliances are still being delivered Friday but the stove was pushed out until Friday the 9th.

Oh well, I suppose after 9 weeks of no sink and living in a state of chaos, what's one more week? I vacillate from complete frustration (which normally occurs when I have to kneel in front of the bathtub and wash dishes) to just surrendering to it all. Dena and I both wander the house each day looking for something that we've moved and can no longer find. Nothing is where it was or where it should be. At various times throughout these 9 weeks we've even had to change doors we come in and out of.

Humans are creatures of habit and I find great comfort in my habits. Think about it. How lost would you be if you had to put your keys, cell phone, garage door opener, etc in a completely different spot every other day. You wouldn't be able to find anything. It puts a small but constant level of stress on your mind. We rely on these small but very consistent habits so that we can function at our higher human level. Please......give me my consistency back!!!!

Assholes and Range Rovers

I've long held the belief that if you're driving a range rover, you're probably an asshole. It's about a 90% certainty. Call it a personal stereotype if you will but it is so true. Think of the type of person that could afford to buy one of these vehicles. The cheapest Range Rover is $80,000. So to buy or lease one you have to be upper middle class bordering on leaping over that glass wall to rich. If they had already leaped over the wall, they wouldn't be driving a range rover, they'd be driving Porsche Cayenne. After all, the British Made Range Rover since its resurgence 5 - 7 years ago as a status vehicle does not have a great service record. It is notoriously finicky, not being able to put up with any climate change, dirt, dust or hard driving. It certainly is a distant relative to it's inspiration, the original Range Rover that conquered Africa from a tourist perspective.

Male drivers of Range Rovers are the worst assholes of the species. That deep feeling of entitlement and right of way. I am everything to everyone, the world revolves around me, get out of my way - sound familiar? Just this morning myself and 3 other drivers were cut off by an entitled black Range Rover whose life was obviously more important than ours.

Take your own poll. For the next month, watch all the range rover drivers. How many times do you see a range rover and not say, "asshole". Seriously, try it.

Kitchen Remodel - Monday - 9th Week

The tile layout begins. It should be fascinating and interesting. Only a special contractor could put up with our design demands. Wes is patient and creative which is quite conducive to progress occurring. Here Dena is approving a tricky tile layout with these small, Japanese 1" x 4" tiles. You have to give her credit, who else could pull off a mission style kitchen with cherry cabinets, green tile, granite with a millions shades of green and some white and rust quartz thrown in, and yellow walls...

Kitchen Remodel - 8 weeks

The granite has arrived. It truly was like Christmas. There were 6 guys working in the house that day and it was about 100 degrees outside. So I suppose it wasn't much like Christmas... The granite is beautiful but apparently nothing can be accomplished without problems and drama. There was a large scratch on one of the pieces and the installer decided to attempt to fix it even though he told me he wasn't the specialist at this. What resulted was that the scratch is gone but the polish is gone as well. So, we will wait and see what Monday brings, and it had better bring the specialist over and it had better magically be fixed when I come home from work. These are all the photos Dena got before I came home and freaked out that it wasn't covered. That's all I need are more scratches! It's covered now!

Our new iMac

We have recently purchased a new Apple iMac. At first I was pretty cool to the idea and had a mindset that this was going to be Dena's computer and I could just use it for doing videos. Now that I've had a chance to play on it a little I'm getting quite excited. Using iPhoto for sorting pictures seems pretty cool, especially using the facial recognition. I'm starting on a couple hard cover photo books as well and hope to move into digital scrapbooking in a couple weeks.

We purchased this Apple One to One package , $ 99 for one year of basically personal one on one training. I think that is pretty cool. My first class is this Saturday at 8am. What can I say, I'm a morning person. I need to be trained as there is no right click in the Mac world. What is up with that? And sometimes windows move around and blur out and it's confusing. I'm sure I must be doing something but I have no idea what. I'm also sure that all the shortcuts I know on the PC are somewhere on the Mac but I need to be trained on what they are.

After only 2 weeks of using the Mac on a cursory basis I have to say that I would strongly recommend it to anyone needing a new computer. The AppleCare package and the One to One package allowed us to drag Dena's old desktop into the Apple store and they magically transferred all folders, documents, calendar and contacts over to the Mac. There was some cleanup to do but that was inevitable. The computer is 7 years old for crying out loud. All in all, I'm very happy with our new purchase, especially since it was 12 months, no interest financing :-)

Update On Life

We have a pause in the kitchen remodel. Hopefully just a couple days but now it's really all about the granite. The granite fabrication is being done right now at SMG Stone's shop out in Sun Valley. We are scheduled for installation this Friday. That will be incredibly exciting. Maybe I'll have to take the day off or maybe I should work and just be surprised when I come home. Much needs to be done in preparation to drive for completion next week, finalizing flooring, some cabinet tweaking, baseboards, molding and the list goes on and on and on. The devil is truly in the details when dealing with all of this but we are now looking toward the future and the eventuality of a house re-warming party.

Appliances are scheduled for Friday October 2nd delivery. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Kitchen Remodel - Week 7 Cabinets Stained

The cabinets are stained and apparently we will have two days of peace and quiet. That will be nice. Everyone now waits for the granite.

Kitchen Remodel - Start of Week 7

This day was about as exciting as Christmas for me. I was awake at 4:19 am, my mind awash with anticipation, worry, excitement and fear. A day we've anticipated for almost a year was here, new cabinets. I was worried that something wouldn't fit. I was excited that a major milestone was getting wiped off my schedule and afraid it would look terrible, shrinking the kitchen to a tiny footprint. Almost all my freaking out was for naught. Almost.....there was a little moment of hissy fit between the contractor and the cabinet guy, but once over that it all moved along fairly well. A couple little tweaks here and there that our wonderful contractor will have to be made but all in all, it went well and more importantly, it looks FABULOUS!

Tomorrow the stainer will be here to mask for staining and the granite tech will be here to measure. Whew. Projected completion date.....October 3rd.

This Says It All

This really says it all. This guy was spotted at lunch in downtown Los Angeles yesterday. Job sites say you need to be creative in finding a job in this economy. Yes, you do, but if no one is hiring your creativity will get you blogged about perhaps, but not get you a paying gig.

8 Years Later

A day that touched everyone

A moment that endures year after year

A vision etched into our memory

An act that changed the world

And the lives of so many

Such is the legacy of September 11th

May we never forget

the loss of so much

and so many

of innocence

of lives

of peace

-- Dawn Armstrong 9-11-2009

Kitchen Remodel - The Other Shoe

In true pessimistic fashion I knew we were moving along too well, even despite the fire and flood. No remodel or contractor/sub-contractor experience is complete without some bullshit. I had a feeling it would be with the flooring guy. As you can see by the picture he laid flooring underneath most of the cabinets. That's bad if you have a leak because you now need to replace wood flooring that disappears under cabinets that you don't really want to move. After all, there will be granite on top of them! Also, what you don't see is that he neglected to put down a vapor barrier between the wood sub floor and the red oak. While it is not absolutely necessary in the Los Angeles climate it was part of the quote to my knowledge and I feel ripped off. I had a feeling about this guy even though I'd never met him. You should trust your intuition I guess.

As Dena would say, look at the bright side....the floor looks good.

Kitchen Remodel - 36 days

Saturday - what a day. Our Saturdays have been jam packed every weekend for the last 3 months. Always one or more things to research, price, shop for, measure, or buy for the kitchen. Today was no exception. We were at Mission Tile in South Pasadena at 9am when they were supposed to open to order all our tile. They apparently decided to close down shop for the entire Labor Day weekend. That was a drag. Then it was off to Crown City Hardware to return a handle (an expensive one), then off to Woodland Hills to the Ferguson Lighting Showroom to look at LED under cabinet lighting. We have finally made a decision on the under cabinet lighting deciding on the direct wire CounterMax LED strip. Apparently, you practically need to be an electrical engineer to figure it all out. I think I've rambled on in previous posts enough about all the challenges of it. They are, of course, back ordered until October 1st.

It is now just after noon, we're home already and discovered a coat of primer had been applied to the kitchen and our new unfinished red oak flooring delivered. That funny little "window" in the wall above Dena's head is our new built in spice rack. We added that at the last minute last week.

Kitchen Remodel - 35 days

Amazing progress has occurred I have to say. The drywall is done and tomorrow, on day 36, they will prime it all up to prepare for painting. Also tomorrow, our flooring guy will drop off our oak flooring and plywood covering. Today we lined out tile design and nailed down how many square feet of each tile type will be required.

Kitchen Remodel - Cabinets....

We went out looking at our new cabinets today and we liked them. More decisions had to be made and new things were discovered. We only have 1.25" for the valance for under cabinet lighting. This will further restrict our choices. Under cabinet lighting is in my humble opinion akin to rocket science. There are a vast number of choices, each of them with pros and cons and everyone has an opinion.

Kitchen Remodel - The New Panel!

Remember when remodelling to document everything especially when the walls are open. You want to know where every pipe, cable and vent is.