New Roof and Updated DVR Software

Yes, once again a post with two unrelated topics. First, my condo is finally getting a new roof! My building is the last to be re-roofed in this cycle. They just started today, and so far it looks like they are doing a good job. They have removed the old wooden shingles that were left under the roof from the previous re-roofing. Hopefully they'll have the roof ready before any rain this week. I called the roofing company to make sure there would be no problem with my air conditioner. The homeowners association makes a big deal about how the roofers are not responsible for any damage to the AC units and it is the homeowners responsibility to either remove them before or pay for any damages. The roofers said they have never had a problem with the ACs before so not to worry. I'll inspect the AC after they are done.

A few weeks ago Time Warner Cable updated by cable box, digital video recorder (DVR), with new software. The menus all look different and the "A", "B" and "C" buttons now work. One of the new features is that if you have digital telephone, when someone calls, their number and name appear on the TV! I think that is really neat. No longer do I have to turn my head around and look at the phone sitting right next to me to see who is calling.

Earth Hour

I guess I need to darken my house at 8PM tonight in honor of Earth Hour. I do keep lights off in rooms I'm not in, and most of my lights are fluorescent, but sometimes I keep my LCD TV on in the living room while I'm here in my computer room. So I'll go make sure that TV is off.

Recovery Day and Waffles

I slept in until 7:30 and actually felt refreshed and ambitious this morning. I took care of many my weekend chores, including laundry, sorting through mail, grocery shopping and a trip to the gym. Yes, I took the normal afternoon nap somewhere in there.

As you might have noticed, I updated a few of the photos I took with my cell phone in Key West. None turned out great, but they do look better once I upload the full-sized, Photoshopped version.

I forgot to talk about my waffle experience at the hotel. I stayed at a Fairfield Inn for the first time. The hotel was nice, the room was adequate, but I had a problem with the self-service waffle makers they provide at their free breakfast. There were "waffle maker hogs" at the hotel. Two mornings in a row I was unable to make a waffle because all three waffle makers were being used, even though there were only a few people eating breakfast at the time. I guess people feel obligated to use all three given the opportunity. So I said to my self, "there will be blood if I can't make a waffle may last day there!". Actually, I didn't really say that, neither did I see the movie that I borrowed that quote from. Luckily, there was one waffle maker available on Thursday morning. But I must admit, my waffle came out kind of pathetic. It was incomplete, due to not using enough batter, and it stuck to the grill due to not using enough Pan. But it did taste good.

Home Again

It was a long day but all flights were on time! I got home by 8pm. Three day weekend starts now except for a possible quick trip to work to turn in my expense report.

Kelly's Restaurant

Me drinking a beer at Kelly's in Key West. They brew their own beer. This was the red. I liked the golden ale better and the wheat the least. Food was very good.

Goats.

They use goats to keep the brush down. This guy stopped to look at me. He (or she?) is standing in an old bunker near Fort Taylor in Key West.

Hotel Pool

Hotel Pool looks nice, however, I didn't go swimming in it. I ordered one beer from the pool bar and then had time for one more, which was a good thing because it was happy hour and the beer was buy one get one free! The bartender didn't tell me that when I ordered the first one. I finish up my work today and fly home tomorrow morning.

Art.

Junk art is popping up around Key West. This one is just outside the gate to the base. Weather here in KW is quite cold. First Phoenix and now Key West. However, I refuse to wear a jacket, even with 20mph winds and 60 degree temps. I just took a walk to the beach and touched the water. It was not as warm as I expected.

Flight delay.

Flight delay. My flight leaving LA was delayed one hour due to a water leak in the bathrooms. Then bad weather in Miami delayed our landing. So I missed my connecting flight and ended up arriving in Key West four hours late. But not too late to go out for an Easter dinner with beer. I was really surprised how busy all the airports were. Every flight was full, and the weather delays didn't help matter, with very irate people trying to book flights home on Easter.

Bike Ride and First Class

I felt like I needed to get caught up on my exercise after a week of slacking off (except of the hike). I rode my bike 12 miles on mostly flat road. Along the stretch of Kearney Villa Road, I must have been passed by 50 bicyclists and they were all traveling twice my pace. Of course, they all had fancy racing bikes and I have a kludgy hybrid, which is good for neither street or mountain biking, but still gets me around. The photo is of the intersection where I stopped to stretch my legs. It has no particular meaning.

My upgrade request was granted, so on the LA to Miami flight tomorrow, I will be sitting in the first row of first class! Traveling in style, I'll be.

Easter on an Airplane

I hope this is not a start of a new tradition. I will be spending most of my Easter in the air with strangers. However, I get to my destination, Key West, before sundown, and will have my Easter meal with a beer at Finnigan's Wake - with more strangers. I actually volunteered to fly Sunday instead of Monday, because I had nothing else to do on Sunday and all the flights were booked on Monday. I'll be in Key West until Thursday and will be working three full days, but I will have the evenings free to hang out with the Spring breakers.

More Arizona 2008 Photos

Looking at the photos I took, I realized I really didn't take very many. I guess after all these years (since 1993 minus three missed trips), I have run out new scenery to photograph.

This photo was taken near the start of the trail up Camelback Mountain. There is a photo of Mike Steve and I at the top, but Mark did make it. After we started heading back down, we ran into him and he was only about five minutes from the peak. I don't have a copy of the group photo at the top, yet.

I hope the smokers in this photograph don't mind me posting it. The picture was taken outside The Library. Last year we had more fun there. This year we didn't get to see the waitresses dance, but we each got one free appetizer with our baseball ticket stub, two days in a row!

It is funny. Near the top of Camelback, the "trail" is hard to find. It is easy to make wrong turns and end up backtracking or climbing on precious rocks. But on the way down, the trail is easier to see and you say to yourself, "That would have been a much easier path to take.".

Spring Training Baseball 2008

The full group on Sunday outside Ho Ho Kam park in Mesa, Az. We saw the Angels play the Cubs on this very cold, but not raining, day. The other games we watched were A's at Padres in Peoria, Royals at A's in Phoenix and Brewers at Angels in Tempe.

We saw the Padres that didn't go to China play. We drove around in a 12 passenger van which had only 70 miles on it when we picked it up. After less than a day it started to make a strange sound. The sound turned into a loud sound coming from a bad transmission. We were lucky to get back to the hotel one day. The rental car agency brought us a new van that shifted much better. They just don't make cars the way they used to (it was a Chevy).

Four of us hiked up Camelback Mountain from the eastern side this year. This is the fourth year in a row I've hike this "hill", and each year I forget how steep it is at the top. The temperature was cool which helped make the hike less exhausting. Congragulations to the two first-timers who made it all the way!

Just to do something different this year, four of us went to a concert to see Alanis Morissette and Matchbox Twenty. It was an outdoor venue and we just bought lawn seat at the pavilion. Alanis Morisette was the opener, which is kind of sad because she used to be a headliner. She put on a good show, even though I could barely see her on the stage from our seats. When Matchbox Twenty came on stage, everybody in the park stood up and remained standing for the whole concert. I had no idea they were so popular. However, they did sound good and I enjoyed the show.

Vacation Has Ended

I just got home from Arizona and I am exhausted. I feel like all the energy was drained from me, but in a good way. My trip included four baseball games, a hike up Camelback Mountain and a concert! It was load of fun and I'll have some photos to post tomorrow after work.

On Vacation

I'm off work for five days! Tomorrow evening I fly to Phoenix with five other people. We will be joined in Arizona by people from Denver, Sacramento, Hemet and Las Vegas. It's going to be a party in Tempe once all us 'old' guys hit the college bars near ASU. I won't have Internet access, but I might upload some cell phone photos during the trip. The only downside I see this year is they are predicting rain and cold weather on Sunday. I don't want to spend time in the desert just to wear a jacket! At least we won't get so hot sitting in the baseball stadium stands. We, thanks to Steve, always get good, meaning seats close to the field at these games. However, these seats are never in the shade. A hat and good sunglasses are a necessity every year.

Coffee, Crusing, XM, Nap and Bike Ride

That just about sums up my Sunday. It started with some coffee with breakfast. Then Iwent for a cruise in the Mustang and along the way I bought a new XM satellite receiver because my current one was ready to over heat and burn up. I got a Audiovox Xpress this time. It is just slightly bigger than my Delphi Roady XT, but has five lines of display instead of just two, so now I can see the station, artist and song title all at once. After making my purchase, I drove over to Del Sur just to check on how the neighborhood was being developed. I saw a few new houses being built and lots of graded but empty lots. There were few for sale signs, but not as many as one would expect, as I pointed out in my previous post. From there I headed to Westwood and saw some of the empty lots where houses once stood before being destroyed by the fire in October. A few homes were already being re-built, which was nice to see.

After lunch at Wendy's, I headed home and fell asleep while watching College basketball. So as to not waste the day away, I rode my bike to and around Miramar Lake. There were more people out walking, jogging, rollerblading and biking than I had seen in a long time. My ride became an obstacle course due to people not reading the many signs that say "Stay to your right, pass on the left". I only scared a few dogs and hit nothing along the way. So now the weekend is winding down and work looms in the future.

More on the Housing Bubble

Like I've said before, I stopped looking to buy a house and instead have decided to do some remodeling on my condo (although I have yet to start). I'm still keeping my eye on the housing market and watching home prices fall, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. An article on this blog show a few examples of condos in Little Italy, in a complex that I looked at several, have fallen in price over $200,000 in the past two years. I am so glad I didn't buy back then. Another problem they are having in some downtown condos is that due to so many foreclosures, HOA fees are not being paid. If someone can't afford their mortgage, they certainly can't afford their homeowners dues. This affects the other owners, and will likely cause the already high fees to go higher.

Del Sur, another development in San Diego that I almost bought a new home at, seems to be holding out. It looks like the developers are not building until they have a sale. The particular subdivision that I was interested in by Shea Homes has sold out. I know they had to reduce prices and and offer incentives, but I'm still surprised all the homes sold. And I'm not seen them on the market, probably because if the homes were bought by flipper's, they don't want to sell at a loss.

One of the blogs I read daily, Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking, which you can find a link to on the right side of this blog, had to have a post removed because the blog writer was threatened with a lawsuit. Apparently the owner of the house being reported on was not happy that people were talking about him. All the information on the blog was publicly available. Even thought the post is gone, many other bloggers, including this one, posted the same story. The owner of the house in Poway was facing foreclosure, owed $20,000 in property taxes, and to boot, he is the CEO of some company. You can see the listing of his home on Redfid, a site I have found very useful for looking at properties for sale. The listing includes the Parcel Number, which can be entered in the San Diego County Treasurer site where you can get tax information on any house, including your own. This site will list the owner of the home. Then do a Google search of the owner and you will find out all sorts of information about him, including the fact that he owns 11 ponies. Maybe he could sell a few to pay his property taxes. So I guess the moral of this story is bloggers unite - we are not going away any time soon!

After Work Bike Ride

I just couldn't get going today at work. I wanted to write a test plan, and I spent most of the day staring at my computer screen with writers block. So when 2:30 finally arrived, I ditched work so I could get home in time for a bike ride. I took my standard Saturday morning, 8 mile ride, and I feel much better. The only part of the bike ride I didn't like was the path took me past the scene of a head-on car accident that happened last Friday, so I was constantly look back as I approached every intersection. With daylight savings time starting this Sunday, it will stay light later, providing more opportunities for after-work bike rides and even hikes! I'm also counting down the days to my annual trip to Arizona to watch Spring Training baseball. In exactly one week I'll be a the airport getting ready to board the Southwest plane, that has hopefully been inspected for safety.

Nothing to Report

Sorry, I've done nothing blog-worthy for weeks. That is all.