Whale Watching

Today we decided to play hookey from church and get a little nature. It was a gorgeous day; sunny, no wind and 70-some degrees. What could we do, we wondered, that would be more exciting that sitting on the sand at the beach but just as close to home? Channel Islands Harbor is a mere stone's throw away (OK, more like 10 miles, but close enough), and in the four years I've lived in southern California, I've never even been to the Harbor, much less out on the water to the islands. So, away we went on a whale watching trip! Gray whales are migrating from Alaska during this season, apparently. I wouldn't know personally, as we never actually saw a whale. However, perhaps even cooler than a whale might've been, was the playful group of perhaps 1,000 or more dolphins that we trolled with for most of the afternoon. I've been on the water a lot and never have I seen more than 10 or 12 dolphins in one place. This was perhaps the most amazing aquatic thing I've ever seen. Hundreds and hundreds of them, as far as the eye could see, riding our wake, racing and jumping and criss-crossing back and forth. TOOOOOO cool. God is SO awesome.

Cool Slideshows

Jingle Bell Rock

Ken and his two best buddies, Dan (left) and Brendon (center), were part of the worship team this past Sabbath. Not sure what they were all looking at!

Christmas puppy

Holiday Party

Our Christmas party / house-warming was a success. We ate haystacks (taco salad, in layman's terms) and decorated cookies. Here's Dan, Tami and Donovan, showing off their creation. Yummy!

Family Photo

Most of you have seen this, as it's the photo from our Christmas cards. But I thought I'd post it here, too.

Reheating Pizza

I hate leftover pizza. I don't like it cold, I don't want to wait for the oven to heat up, and the microwave just ruins it. BUT, I read somewhere recently that reheating pizza in the skillet is the solution, and let me just say, YES! Finally, no more wasted pizza. The crust gets crispy, the cheese melts evenly, and it's quick and easy. Thank you!!

RSS Feed

For those who hadn't noticed before, you can subscribe to this blog via RSS feed (if you use that).

OOOWWW!

So Wednesday night Ken and I started hanging the curtains in our bedroom. But we only got the first of three brackets installed before we had to leave for dinner with a friend. After dinner, Ken went out to play music with Dan and I came home. I thought it would be nice of me to finish the curtain job so he'd have a nice surprise upon arriving home (I'm a sweet wife like that). So, I measured, leveled, marked, drilled and inserted the flush-mount pegs that support weight in drywall. As soon as I picked up the bracket, I realized I'd gone blonde for a moment and drilled/pounded in the spots where I wanted the top and bottom of the bracket to sit, not where the screw holes were. DANGIT! So, after a brief rant that would require editing for publication, I jumped into the truck and zoomed to Home Depot for putty, texture, etc., to fill my holes and repaint, which I did quite well. As I picked up the ladder to move it to the third bracket, it suddenly felt as if someone behind me had hit me on the top of my right shoulder with a bat. Jesus saved me from my own stupidity, because I'd left the drill, complete with three inches of drill bit attached, sitting on top of the 8-foot ladder, and it fell off when I moved it. Thank goodness it wasn't my HEAD (or the drill bit). Anyway, still sore from that. DO NOT leave stuff on top of ladders!! Overall, not a good night, though the curtains are lovely now!

Resonance Experiment

This is a WILD video of a sound resonance experiment. Makes you wanna run out and study geometry, huh? God is SO cool; www.upyourvideo.net.

Studio 60

I just wanted to say how much we enjoy "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" on NBC (Monday nights, 10 p.m. Pacific). It's an hour-long dramedy (drama/comedy) series with Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet as its most famous faces. This is a show for smart people with quick wit. The dialogue is smart and funny, quick and not trite. I like that it's about something different, not just some who's sleeping with whom this week "plot". Boring! Here's a very brief synopsis: the show covers the drama behind the humor of producing a popular, late-night comedy sketch show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Basically, it's a fictionalized look at the production of "Saturday Night Live." Start watching it! (You can even see entire episodes online at the above website.)

Getting there...

Our new bedroom set was delivered yesterday, so here I am, posing on the bed. You can't get much feel for the set from this pic, so I guess you'll just have to come visit to see it!

Snap, Crackle, Pop!

The humidity here today is TWO percent. How is that possible? When I took my socks off in the dark last night, I saw dozens of sparks. Poor dog; whenever he gets up from his blanket, he gets zapped with static sparks, and it scares him.

Speaking of Brady, we went to the vet this morning. They rehydrated him by injecting fluids under his skin, so he looked like a camel with a hump on this back. She also gave him an injection of a bowel sedative and a bottle of Flagyl. They didn't call me back with the results of the stool test, but I'm hoping that the antibiotics get whatever's got him going! He's much better this afternoon. The dehydration was getting so bad that his back legs were too weak to barely stand up if he was sitting or laying down. Sad little boy. :o( But, no diarrhea since 2 this morning, so, much progress.

Sorry to ramble so much about dog poo. Our new bedroom furniture came today, so when it's light tomorrow I'll take a pic to post. That'll be a diversion from the poo. :o)

Chillin'

Ken and I both worked from home today. I had a major deadline with the magazine, so I wanted to edit without all the distractions from the office. Ken had to study. But at some point, the dog had had enough of being ignored and demanded some attention. Ken broke down and handed out the daddy love. Good stuff.

On a more frustrating note, said dog is still spurting diarrhea, so we may have to visit the vet tomorrow to test for parasites. It's possible he picked something up last week while eating a pile of vomit and/or snacking on pug terds in the lawn. GRRRR.

I'm watching "Deal or No Deal" for the first time. It's pretty fun, but I doubt I'll ever be sad if I miss an episode. It's weird to see Howie Mandell bald.

The smoke mostly cleared today. Thank goodness.

Holiday Decorating ... Fun!

Tonight we did some holiday decorating; good stuff! I baked oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies while Ken wrestled the lights and garland onto the tree. Then we both hung the ornaments and I added a few other touches to the room. So, we're fully in festive cheer mode, and are about to settle in for some hot chocolate and a movie (even though it's now 10:15 p.m.). Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!

O, Tannenbaum!

Saturday night Ken and I went with our friends, Fred and Andrea (below), to pick out Christmas trees. Here it is! We had both our trees tied to the top of our 4-Runner, and I forgot they were up there and tried to go 75 on the freeway. "Why on earth can I not seem to go faster than 68?!" I lamented. Ken quickly reminded me that we had lots of extra drag because of the trees; duh!! When we got to their house, their tree had turned in the wind so far that it was half hanging off the truck. Yikes!

Smoke inhalation

We woke up this morning coughing and sputtering, our condo filled with smoke. One of the joys of living in California ... A brush fire started in west Moorpark at 2:30 a.m., which is, as the crow flies, about seven miles from here. It's spreading west toward Somis and the strong Santa Ana winds are blowing the smoke straight at us. Ug. We smell like a campfire after taking the dog out for his morning diarrhea. Fabulous.

Pumpkin sucks

I have to add an addendum to my previous post. Do NOT give your diarrhea-stricken dog pumpkin if you have new white carpet and no yard. Runny orange poo and vomit is VERY hard to get out of the carpet.

Squirt

We've had a nickname for Brady the past 48 hours ... Squirt. And it's not a term of endearment, but rather a description of his unfortunate bowel problem. Thursday evening he started with diarrhea, which, unfortunately, presented itself every two hours, all night long. As we live in a condo on the second floor, urgent dog poo requires a special regiment of slip-on shoes and sleeping in one's clothes. Not fun. Especially when it's 37 degrees with 50mph Santa Ana wind gusts. That was a LOOOOONG night. For supper last night, Brady enjoyed half a can of pumpkin with two Immodium tabs. Sweet relief. For all of us.

Thanksgiving Photos

CLICK HERE to go to our album of Thanksgiving photos at Shutterfly. There are also pics from my October Baltimore trip.

Fun with the Hartmans

Our dear friends, Tammy and Dan (and baby Donovan), invited us over for a post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast on Sunday. We were so excited to go because (1) we enjoy these people, and (2) one can never have too much Thanksgiving food. So, after a lengthy computer armoire assembly project on Sunday, we cleaned up and headed over for some great food. The boys were stumped over how to best carve a tender turkey, but we soon decided that it doesn't really matter how you carve it because it's going to end up chewed anyway!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 381 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Painting

We're trying to think of (or create) positives out of the hellish week we've had. One is that now that I'm not pregnant, we can paint the house and not worry about the fumes. So yesterday, on impulse, we stopped by Home Depot to look at paint swatches. We ended up with one called Camel, which is the greenish, yellowish beige you see above (that's our bedroom, above).It goes perfectly with the bed set we ordered from JCPenney's (above). Together with the furniture mom bought us from Costco (Kona; below), we should be living in style once it all arrives (which should be soon!).Then today, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got the window coverings (Versailles by Arley, below). We need to let the hems out a couple of inches before we can actually hang them, but I think they're going to be beautiful. I'm so proud of us for being productive! On the other hand, domestic productivity has left Ken behind with his classwork, so that's not good. We can't win!

On the how we're doing front, time is helping to lessen the sting. I've gotten a lot of comfort from the Grief & Loss message boards at BabyCenter.com. Miscarriage is such a common thing, but it's a downer and often very private, so people don't really talk about it in "regular life." So having people to communicate with who are experiencing the same thing, or have in the past and have gone on to have healthy babies, is very helpful. In fact, I really don't like talking about it with people who haven't gone thru it. Grief is universal and we've all felt that, but beyond that, the connection stops ... unless you've been there. Been here. Funny how things happen in life that, unexpected moments, that change you forever. For better or worse. Not sure which this is yet. Maybe both.

Thank you!

Thanks to those who sent beautiful flowers. The bouquet on the left is from the Hogan Foundation (thanks for the poem, Mr. Hogan; such a literary talent!). And the planter box below is from my work. For those who are following, we're doing OK. I haven't felt much like chatting, so I've mostly been ignoring the phone, but we appreciate your emails and prayers. We'll be 'round again soon.

It's Over

Well, unfortunately, our pregnancy is over. We went for our 11/12-week OB appointment this morning, and the baby apparently stopped growing about a month ago (a few days after the last appointment) and there was no heartbeat. I'm scheduled for a D&C this afternoon. So, the baby news will be on hold for a while...

Borat

We saw the new movie "Borat" as a screening before it was released, and we were absolutely horrified with it. Ken, who, like most men, retains a bit of teenage boy in his soul, liked it more than I did, but he was nonetheless horrified by its crassness. Now to learn that it was more of a fake documentary than a scripted movie, and that most of the participants were unaware that Borat was a fictional character, makes me absolutely sick to my stomach. Especially disgusting is the way people in other countries who are poor and have less experience and knowledge about slimy Hollywood antics were taken advantage of. I mean, paying a poverty-stricken Romanian villager $4 to let a cow use their already-modest living room as a toilet is outrageous. I hope somebody comes up with a way to gut 20th Century Fox for this. People are going to see the movie just to see what all the hype is about, but I hope a greater sense of decency creates a painful backlash for them. Comedian or not, Cohen is just as guilty, if not more so, than anyone else. Hurting people is NOT funny. We're supposed to look out for widows, children and the poor, not use them for our selfish gain. The whole thing is so disgusting that I feel physically sick. Sooner or later, they will be punished, I believe God's punishment will be the most fair, whatever He may choose.

Phoenix

Somehow we managed to leave Phoenix with no actual pictures of US after our weekend visit with Kent and Pam. They took a couple on their camera, so we're looking forward to getting copies of those. However, I did manage to get a surprisingly good shot of the gorgeous sunset (view from their back yard). Nice, huh?

Simi School Fair

The day after our costume party at The Place, the band headed over to entertain fair-goers at the Simi school harvest fair. Fun was had by all, Ken reports.

Harvest Fun

The annual harvest party at The Place this year was a '70s theme (Ken went as a '70s rocker and I went as someone in her 70s who'd misinterpreted the invitation, thinking it was a shindig for seniors in their 70s). Ken had some funky teeth he'd make when he worked at the dental lab, which made it look like he'd been doing too many drugs and not flossing. I had biker shorts stuffed with every pair of pantyhose I own, plus a few bathing suits and even a nightgown. Made for a convincing spare tire. Both outfits were a hit. Ken also played in the band; they've been practicing classic 70s rock tunes for a couple of months now, and were fantastic. I'll try to post video when I figure out how to make it a reasonable size.

Wow

This site knows some really important stuff about people. Scary and amazing.

Baby Blog

For the latest on the baby stuff, visit The Littlest Adams. Though I probably should just include it on this blog, because we probably won't talk about much else. But I'll try. :o) Things are going good at the new place. I say good vs. great, only because we're still living amongst boxes and have no time to unpack. We have one more small load to pick up from the old house, too. Seems like it takes so bloody long to get every last crumb, lamp, shoebox and bottle of Soft Scrub out. But, on the other hand, they've approved demo on the place, so at least I don't have to clean it!

We Passed the Test!

In hopes of finding out who actually reads our blog, we thought we would post some major news and wait for the response. The rest of the slackers who don't bother to keep up will just be out of the loop for a while! (Yes, we have told our parents...)

Final Walk-Thru at Brookshire

We did our final official walk-through at Brookshire today. We were surprised to find a white kitchen sink. It was never presented as an upgrade option, but we just sorta figured it'd be stainless with the stainless kitchen package. Not so. Upgrading to the SS sink is an additional $1,150, so I think we're going to make do with white for now and change it later ourselves. Cheaper, plus I can pick what kind of sink I want, rather than accepting the single model the design center makes available (a 50/50 split one, which isn't my favorite anyway). Other than that, we LOVE how the tile, granite and cabinets flow together, and the "rain" glass in the doors is really pretty. Now we just have to decide what to put up there that looks nice ... boxes of Rice-a-Roni and cans of Vegeburger just don't seem like display items.

So that's it. We pick up the keys Wednesday. Gosh, it's been forever, and yet it went by so fast. Weird. Just like life. We were planning to paint this weekend before we move in, but because there are a lot of drywall things that have to be fixed, we need to hold off on painting til they're done. That could take up to 30 days. So, we'll finish packing this week and plan to have the movers come either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday next week. Our friend Chad is going to go in with us for the move since he lives close to us and is in the unit below at Brookshire. Convenient. It won't be a 50/50 split because he has less stuff, but every bit helps (both of us!).

The master bathroom vanity. We're really pleased with the way the marble, cabinets and tile flow together. I can't wait to start moving things in; it's like the first day of school � exciting!

The "Great Room." Can't wait to get the furniture in here to see how it works! The carpet is whiter than I remember, so we'll have to get a really colorful ottoman and some fabulous window coverings, then decide what color to paint the walls. Those elements will totally change the room.

Michael and MeeRa

Michael and MeeRa came over Sabbath so we zipped over to Malibu for some beach time. The weather was perfect and the dolphins were feeding near the shore, so it was a delightful afternoon (followed by a gluttenous supper at our favorite local Mexican restaurant...yum).

Wonder who lives in those houses?

Light as a feather...

Giddy-up!

The Most Recent

Seems like I haven't posted in a long time, but not because things aren't happening. I guess I associate posting with photos, which I haven't had many of lately. We've been shut out of the condo until the final walk-thru, so I don't have any new pics of that.

We signed our loan paperwork today. I can see how, for people who don't regularly deal with loan documents, it would be a really intimidating process. But since I see many loan packages as a notary signing agent, this deal was old hat. I knew where to look in the fine print to see what I wanted, where to sign this and that document, etc. Very easy. So, we'll find out our walk-thru date when we stop by the sales office Sunday; we are scheduled to "close" on Wednesday, Sept. 27. WOW.

We successfully completed day 1 of our yard sale. Sunday will be the big day, I'm sure. We sold a bunch of the big stuff (laundry machines, elliptical machine, BBQ and patio furniture) to friends, which is great, because we can keep using them until we move and not have to handwash clothes for three weeks. That would suck.

The bad thing is that since we paid 1.25 points on our loan to buy down the rate, we're getting back about $4K less at closing that I originally calculated. Bummer. But so goes it.

In other news, Ken is doing great in school and enjoying it. Even a shock to him! I still love my job and Brady is doing great. In fact, he just did a "poopy dance" and sang a song with daddy. Good times.

We just got back from a big meat supper at Bandits. I had prime rib and can now feel my arteries hardening as I type. And all my energy has gone to my gut to process this gluttonous meal, so I'm ready for bed and it's only 8:25. Oh well, I got up two hours earlier than usual this morning, so my body thinks it's 10:25. Sure. That sounds good. OK. Goodnight, then.

It's been a year since I worked with the 15 Hands Rescue Sanctuary and its associated projects, so it was a treat today to get out to their new facility. I did a trail-by-fire orientation to working with one of the groups from Casa Pacifica. It was a lot of fun, despite the freakish heat. So I think I'll be going out on Friday afternoons for the next eight weeks to help with this series of groups. This photo is the view from the barn area overlooking the Conejo Valley. Our (current) house is almost smack dab in the middle of this photo at the bottom of that hill in the distance. Cool; kinda like being in an airplane.

Went to visit Michael and MeeRa at their new house in Loma Linda last weekend. The house is really cute and in a nice neighborhood, so I'm sure they'll be really happy there. It was wonderful to see them again (I think we haven't seen them since the wedding May 28). Ken ended up getting sick, so he didn't go over with me. He's looking forward to a visit sometime soon.

Wasting time...

A) Four jobs I have had in my life
1. waitress at a steak house in Destin, Florida
2. secretary in the journalism dept at Southern Adventist University
3. magazine editor (one in Sacramento in the late 90s; one in LA area now)
4. in-house graphic designer at a copy shop in Sacramento

B) Name 4 movies you would watch over again
1. Liar, Liar
2. Bruce Almighty
3. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective
4. Mrs. Doubtfire

C) Four other places I have lived:
1. Niceville, Florida
2. Collegedale, Tennessee
3. Pohnpei, Micronesia
4. Sacramento, California

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy (ask again next month after the season starts)
2. Prison Break (though it's getting pretty far-fetched this season)
3. Bringing Home Baby (pretty much everything on TLC)
4. Oprah/Dr. Phil

E) Four places I have been on vacation
1. Hawaii
2. Germany (young, so I don't remember much)
3. Nebraska
4. Guam

F) Websites I visit daily:
1. Google.com/iWon.com personalized homepages
2. Yahoo! Answers
3. Craigslist.com
4. CostCo.com (I'm addicted!)

G) My favorite foods (in no particular order):
1. Thai (massaman curry, anything with rice noodles)
2. Italian (all of it!)
3. Chinese (spicy eggplant, curry tofu)
4. Everything else (I'm a pretty easy eater, unfortunately)

H) Four places I would like to be right now:
1. Nebraska (haven't seen my best friend in TOO long!)
2. Florida (haven't seen my other best friends in TOO long!)
3. Scuba diving someplace tropical (Pohnpei, Caribbean, Fiji, etc.)
4. Exploring someplace I've never been (Australia? Asia?)

We went to the condo for a quick looksie this evening. We're 30 days from closing, so things are really moving along. Here's the outside as of today. We're excited about the two palm trees in front of our windows. It's really going to be a nice-looking place.

They have the marble on the bathroom counters now. Also hard to see because of the protective covering and lack of light, but you get the idea.

Here's the chandelier that will hang over the dining table. That's the plan, anyway. We didn't have a choice of fixtures, but we like this one, so that's good.

Here's the corner of the granite. Using flash makes it look brighter than it really is, so I used natural light for this, which caused the blur. But you get the idea of the color, anyway. Lots of gold and green with flecks of black, gray and off-white. Everything will look different once the carpet and lights are installed. They have the tile down in the kitchen, entry and baths now, but it's covered with corrogated paper to protect it so it's hard to see.

I went for an official visit to our condo today. The cabinets are installed, as you can see. But the granite isn't in yet, which is what we're really excited about. They also put the wrong glass in the two cabinets (it should have a "water" texture). But they'll fix that. Our closing has been moved to end of September, so they're really moving along fast. I imagine they'll have the granite in by the end of the week. We can't do another walk-thru next Sunday because we'll be in Ontario for union constituency meetings, and starting in September they're locked up (to protect the floors). We'll have our offical final walk-thru a week before closing. Once we close, we'll probably spend a few days painting before we move in. I just bought four books from Home Depot (painting, decorating, windows, coloring) to give us some good ideas. I am currently being oppressed by allergies or a gross head cold, which is quite miserable, so I may just curl up with these books and a stack of sticky notes. We also learned where our assigned garage will be; it's just around the corner and it's on a wing where one car can park directly in front of the garage door, so that will be wonderful for visitors. We're getting excited!

Here's the outside of our unit as of this evening. It's getting there! Our cabinets are sitting in the unit in their boxes, so the next time we visit (a week or 10 days, at least), they should be installed; maybe with the granite. Yay! Our closing date has tentatively been moved up to end of September, so we may be in sooner than we thought. Exciting ... and SCARY! But mostly exciting. Can't wait!

Here's Ken standing amongst the cabinetry. :o)

Mr. Picassohead

Mr. Picassohead is by far the coolest website I have seen in a very long time. Create your own painting!

Brick-layer

Construction worker isn't my best look, but I had some nice biceps by the end of the week in Mexico!

Not much news to report on our condo this week. They finished the special concrete flooring (sound-muffling), so now they'll be able to move in cabinets and such. No new pics, because there wasn't anything to see. That unit we'd been posting pics from in building one is now off limits. They have the doors on and carpet in, so everything is locked up tight to keep people from messing up the flooring. Sad not to be able to go through it, but I'm glad, too, because I wouldn't want people with dirty feet tromping through on my new carpet, either. From now on, we'll be posting pics from our own unit anyway. I'm also thrilled that we can't see the ugly industrial plant (just SW of the development) from our windows/balcony because the YMCA blocks it. Yay.

Chad (my co-worker, who is the one who introduced us to this development in the first place and will be in the unit below us and over one) already has his cabinets and granite in place. Can't wait to go peek at that! Now that we have hardhats, we look more official on the property, so "trespassing" is easier. But once they lock the place up, we won't be able to get in without an appointment anyway, so it'll be a limited engagement.

Mexico pics

I've posted photos from our Maranatha church-building trip to Mexico on my old website because I wanted others to be able to download high-rez versions for their own presentations and such. So, if you're looking for pics from Otay, CLICK HERE.

It's been a crazy month for me. Working day and night on the constituency session report/August issue of the magazine, then my mom arrived from Mississippi for our Mexico trip, then sick for a few days, then jury duty, etc. I need a vacation! But no such luck. I'm into the September issue now, then to Nashville for the NAD teachers' convention next weekend.

Looks like our closing date at Brookshire could move up as much as two months, too, which is really exciting, and yet scary, because that's two fewer months during which to save money. Yikes! Either way, we'll be delighted to get into OUR place -- finally!

Hot

We will be so glad to spend next summer in our new place that has air-conditioning. It has been SO bloody hot in this house. Ick.

We did our weekly trespass this afternoon and, for the first time, climbed up into OUR unit. Fun! They don't have the staircase in yet, but they have a wooden ladder built in. It felt stable, so we went on up ... carefully. Most of the drywall is yet to be hung, so it didn't feel homey yet, but we saw where they'd installed some of our upgraded electrical, extra TV outlets and phone lines, etc.

We checked out the view from our great room and balcony, which is really decent. The YMCA hides the view of the ugly industrial building to the southwest, so that's a blessing. Our windows face west, so we'll get afternoon sun, which is nice for light but sucks for cooling. Might have to get some UV window treatments to keep our stuff from bleaching in the sun.

We walked through several of the other units in the first building where they're further along than ours. One had the Shaker-style cabinets that we'd wanted (though in a different color), but really, I'm just as happy with the ones we got. The Shakers are prettier in small doors like in the showroom samples, but in life-size cabinets, I think they're too stark and cool. And that same unit had the granite countertops installed, which was cool to see. It was a Plan 4, which has a larger kitchen than ours (but the unit itself has much less personality and only one window in the great room). They'd gotten square edges on the granite, and we ordered bullnose, which I think will be much better.

So, I'm getting more and more excited about our choices. We have a 6-inch granite backsplash; I wonder if putting mirror from the top of the splash to the bottom of the cabinets would look nice, reflect light and make the kitchen look bigger -- or would it just look cheesey?

I'm a little concerned about having only two bedrooms, because we fully utilize three now. Once we eventually need to make the second bedroom into a nursery, we're really going to have to be creative with storage. The biggest issue is the computers (and desks). I may have to get a notebook computer to save space (I was planning to get a new system as soon as Vista comes out anyway, because my computer will be 4 years old then), but we still have the huge multifunction printer that I use for the notary business. I'd like to get a nice computer armoire, but we would really each need one; so, where to put two huge pieces of furniture? Maybe if I get a notebook, we can get away with one computer armoire. The filing cabinet is big and not particularly pretty, but that can probably go in the closet of the second bedroom, even if it's a nursery. No other options, really.

I think we'll get rid of most of our books, the second bed, the elliptical machine, etc., and we'll probably put one of those garage organizers above the garage door to store seasonal and holiday stuff. From what we can tell, the garages are fairly deep, so if we just park the Civic in there, we'll have quite a bit of room in front of it.

Guess I've been rambling more to myself than anything else, so I guess I'll quit now. :o)

Low white count

So in some annual bloodwork I had done a couple of weeks ago, the doctor found that my white cell count is low and she wants to retest in a month. So I got on the web to see what I could find about white cell counts. Turns out, one of the primary causes can be B-12 deficiency (Pernicious Anemia). Last summer my bloodwork showed that my B-12 was on the very low end of normal, and that doctor prescribed a prescription B-12 supplement (inhaled through the nose). Because my insurance doesn't cover a lot of things, I wanted to get the Rx approved before I filled it, so I held the script and planned to call them. But instead I managed to forget and eventally lost the script and never followed up. So, I suspect that my B-12 has dipped too low and is causing the low count. However, when you're taking high doses of Folic Acid, Pernicious Anemia can be obscured in bloodwork. Not sure how they determine what reality is. Anyway, I had the doctor add a separate B-12 test to my retest lab order, so we'll see if that shows anything interesting. She also said the low count could be caused by the body fighting infection (like a cold or whatever). I'll keep you posted.

Today's progress on the condo; they took down the green construction fence so it's easier to see now. Doesn't look much different from the outside than last time, but I see that all the drywall is up now. I'm sure anxious for them to put the staircase in so I can get up to our unit!

Here's how our cabinets will look; same floorplan and everything, except we have the granite counters. We also have glass inserts in the two doors you see above the counterstops there. We'll definitely be shorter on cupboard space than we are now. Time to trim the fat from kitchen gadgets!

Today we went to Import Stone in Van Nuys to pick out our granite and marble slabs. Here's the marble we chose for the bathroom counters. It's a lot darker than the sample in the showroom, but that's the nature of natural stone. It varies. The other pieces of this were too pink with no green, so this one was better. I'm sure it'll be beautiful installed.

We couldn't get a photo of our exact slab of granite because of where it was located in the rack. But it looks exactly like this one, but with less color veining. Nice, huh?

Yay! They replaced the windows the the ones that open and are making fantastic progress on everything. I sure wish they'd build the staircase so we could go into our unit. They're working on stucco on the first building now. Cabinets are next.

View from the parking lot of the YMCA. Our unit is right above the white van/trailer.

One more comment about the ads...

I should mention that the referral buttons below the ads in the left column are for Google products that I personally use and enjoy, especially Firefox (a web broswer that I like better than Explorer) and Picasa (free image editing/organizing software). Picasa is really functional and easy to use; for the basic home editor, it does just as well as Adobe Photoshop Elements and doesn't come with a price tag. At all. And free is the new cheap, in my opinion. Firefox handles most websites as well as Explorer and I LOVE the tabs feature. It keeps your bottom status bar from filling up with all those windows that insist on tiling. I hate that. Anyway, just wanted to say that I'm actually endorsing services that I totally dig. :o)

As of this afternoon. Progress, though I'm curious why our unit still doesn't have the correct windows in the great room. The unit below us has the right ones (two outers that open). Anyway, it's getting there!

Google Ads

I've finally sold out to the lure of advertising revenue and added Google AdSense to my page. So, visitors, please click the links if you see something that remotely interests you! All the links to our favorite pages, previous posts, etc., are just further down the page (under the ad boxes). I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

D.R.Horton - America's Builder

OK, I have to say, I'm really impressed with D.R.Horton - America's Builder. I am genetically predisposed to distrusting corporate entities, assuming that they're all out to make a buck by screwing the consumer at every turn (I get that from my dad). Anyway, over the past couple of weeks, I've had a couple of interactions that make me think DR Horton is one of the good guys. As you know, we're buying a condo from them. It's still under construction and due to be finished in November.

In my weekly unofficial walk-throughs, I've noticed a couple of things that really bothered me. First, the triple windows in the great room were fixed (don't open). So, I called the sales office to complain, called the city planner to find out why it is the way it is, then emailed the corporate office to explain my unhappiness. This past week, I got an email from a VP at corporate and a call from the sales office to let me know that they analyzed the window situation and are going to replace the two outer windows with openable ones (and the middle will remain fixed). Wow!

Then I measured the laundry closet and found that there's no way under the sun that even an apartment-size stackable unit would fit in a 27" deep closet. So again, call sales office, email corporate. Lo and behold, yesterday, the sales office called to report that they'd analyzed the situation and will be moving the door frame forward three inches (to a total of 30") which should accomodate quite a few models of front-loading stackables. That's going to be a pretty major project, and I really respect them for wanting to please their homeowners.

In addition, I'm using the builder's lender, DHI Mortgage, and my loan officer, Dina, has been a real gem. Helpful, nice to work with, etc. All the crew at the sales office are delightful; Susan, Michael and Jeff are the ones I've dealt with. Then, their design center staff are all really sweet, too. The whole process has been painless.

So, there you go.

Shoes at Zappos.com

Apparently my husband knew all about Zappos.com, but either didn't tell me, or didn't sell it properly so that I would remember. Either way, I'm just learning about the coolest way to buy shoes. Shop online from a zillion options, search by color, size, price, width, etc. They ship free, and if they don't fit, return shipping is free, too! They also have handbags and other stuff, but primarily shoes. Plus, there's a 110% price guarantee, so if you find it cheaper elsewhere, they'll refund the difference plus 10%. Nice. Perfect for Jennifer, who's out in the country and it'd be a pain in the butt to haul three kids into every shoe store in town!

Upgrades ... Done!

We've finally finished all the paperwork on our upgrades and are ready to go. Our design consultant, Sharon, is on the right. She was really great to work with.