Here and There Blog

I have never been so happy to cross an imaginary threshold like the passing of 2005. This was a bittersweet year as I came across both incredibly high and lowpoints of my life this year. I set a personal record for flight miles but I couldn't even begin to calculate how many. I was in Europe 3 times, Hawaii 3 times, the Middle East once, and then Samoa. There were numerous trips all over the continental US. I think I spent more nights in hotels than in my own home. In fact, I'm sure of it! The lowest point of the year was my father's death. It hit me much harder than I ever thought possible and even today, nearly 11 months later, I still am not 100% of my former self. I still have unresolved denial issues and at some point soon, I need to let go. I know that I owe a few people cards and letters and perhaps this weekend I may actually send them out. My friend Kelly died of Valley Fever and a recent episode of "Bones" featured Valley Fever, so it must truly be on t

People are finally looking at condos again! I had one realtor preview today and she's bringing by clients on Saturday. Someone else came by and showed the place to a client but I guess they had zero interest. They didn't leave a card but they ate a big handful of candy! The dreaded statistics problem was finally resolved and I have moved on to a new set of formulas. Now I just have to figure out how to use the Excel formulas because I am still using a pencil, paper, and simple calculator to do the math. So my plans for Saturday are to finish up the homework early, knock out a couple more math problems, and then find something entertaining to do for New Year's Eve!

A whole day has passed and I almost forgot to blog! In the last 24 hours I have bought my next ticket to Kuwait (Jan. 15-Feb.2) found out that my condo will be having an Open House on Jan. 8th, and that there really isn't a worse class to take than Statistics! When I wasn't focused on Kuwait today, I was busy worrying about frequency data and Excel spreadsheets. They were both equally annoying topics. As I never resolved the Statistics problem, I'm headed back to the class now to give it another shot. 2.5 weeks down. 7.5 to go. At least I can figure that math out pretty easily.

Narnia is the one movie out that almost everyone can go see and enjoy. You don't have to have read the books to understand the movie. The premise is simple: 4 children are sent away to the country to avoid the impact of WWII in London. In the manor there is a room which contains a coat wardrobe and through this wardrobe is the entrance to Narnia . In Narnia , the children find a world that is unlike their own and full of magical creatures. The only problem is that the White Witch has taken over and turned Narnia into a world of perpetual winter. With the help of the lion Aslan, the children set out to free Narnia from the White Witch. The movie is watchable, the special effects believable, and the children are not annoying. Tilda Swinton provides the most entertainment of the film as the White Witch. The worst that can be said about Narnia is that it's almost too pleasant and my attention wandered while I was waiting for some action to happen in the movie. Stay for the cr

Now I know why Spielberg had to make a ridiculous movie like War of the Worlds . It was his money ticket to be able to make Munich . At nearly 3 hours, Munich is about the retaliation assassinations of the Palestinians who may or may not have been involved in the murder of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team. The movie held my attention even with a nearly 3 hour running time. In fact, Munich might be the best movie that I've seen this year. This is the role that will make Eric Bana’s a star. His portrayal of the bodyguard turned assassin is amazing. Spielberg has gone above and beyond in his casting for Munich and the result is a group of believable characters that represent what might have happened in the lives of people who were hired killers. Munich does not pretend to be neutral but it isn't all one sided either. We watch everything through the eyes of the Israelis and how they responded to the murder of their athletics. Each decision was made for a reason and a single purpos

Syriana is the movie that will provide people with divided opinions about oil, terrorism, and the Middle East. The movie follows 4 central characters as they each grasp with their own beliefs and convictions about what is right and wrong. Syriana is a good idea in concept but the reality is that most people will never see this movie. That’s not a bad thing since the movie assumes a role of neutrality, we can see exactly who is bad and who is good, with one rare exception. Syriana is filmed "Traffic" style. Good is in Technicolor, bad is blurry and colorless. Good people take care of family. Bad people shoot zebras. Government in any form is bad. Oil men are bad. Rich Arabs are bad. Organized terrorists are bad. Matt Damon = good. George Clooney = good. In other words, the movie does take sides and it is pretty obvious what the writer and director believes. Through the use of filtered light, color, dress, and the sets, there are hints everywhere of what makes up the real wo

Merry Christmas! Surf's not up but it's still a great day at the beach. I hope Santa was good to everyone and that you all have a wonderful day!

Each December I end up at Turf Supper Club to have a holiday get-together with a few friends. It's a place where you cook your own dinner and raise a pint to the New Year and friendship. One can never go wrong with Guiness and the 3 beer drinkers look happy. Mondo decided to experiment with Martini's and by the look on her face, you can see that on this drink, she choose poorly.

The rooftop snow-globe of snowmen.

Ocean Beach, December 23, 4:00 pm. A Christmas Tree decorated in beach balls can only be found here!

The window of opportunity to sell the condo while it was nice and quiet is over. The rental family from next door just returned from their vacation and we are back to chaos as usual. Bummer....

The first day of winter was more in sync with a mid-summer's today. The air was warm and the clouds were high. Some people dream of a white Christmas. I am not one of them. The chaos of the year continues. While I am happily home for the holidays, the usual craziness with work and life continues. I think that it is safe to say that no one will be house hunting in the next 5 days so I can relax in the home for a bit. There is a hint of change in the air so I am waiting on the edge of my seat for the next phone call. I want to take a moment to express my sympathy to Mark G. and his family. Mark's father passed away earlier this week and I know that this will be a sad Christmas for them. A long-time family friend is in the hospital for double pneumonia. I'd like to take another moment to send good thoughts his way. Spend this Christmas with your family and friends and make the memories that will last forever. Take the holiday spirit as a time to reconnect with those around

It's that December crunch time! I only had one present to mail and I decided that it was worth the big bucks to mail it UPS next day air, just to get it under the tree in time for Sunday! Christmas cards - well I struck out there. I managed to write and post 6 cards from Samoa and now I think I'll have to check out New Year's Cards instead. One good sign is that there were no presents of the mice kind at my doorstep this morning. Of course there were no potential homebuyers at the doorstep either. The condo has now been on the market for 21 days. The last one took 53 to sell so I guess I only have 31 more to go before I start to worry. Tomorrow is the offical first day of winter. I'm glad that I get to welcome it in, California style!

Each day there is another sign that it's time to sell the condo. Yesterday, it was the dead mouse at my doorstep, courtesy of the local mouser. Normally I am happy to see another one gone but trails of blood are not exactly the signal to potential buyers to come on in! This morning, no mouse but there was guts. I scrubbed up the doorstep again and then crushed in some of the herbal cat repellent into the concrete. Hopefully tomorrow, I won't be greeted by the spoils of the overnight hunt. Then I realized that I could see into my neighbor's garage this morning via the common wall. The new renters have either been hammering nails into the wall or have found new ways to destroy something just because it exists. Luckily they seem to have packed up for a road trip for hopefully the entire week. The person who lives in the property next to the condos was spouting nonsense about suing us because the pine tree needles from our trees are about to cause his roof to cave in. That

Let's get right to it! King Kong is a massive 3 hour remake that is faithful to the intent of the original 1933 movie. If you are a fan of that movie then you will probably love this version. If you are new to Kong and are only going because it's "the thing," then you might be bored at times, and find your suspension of disbelief constantly challenged. Peter Jackson's King Kong is not an A+ movie by any means. It's over 3 hours long and the pacing is slow. There are extended scenes of Skull Island and it's creatures that start of lose their impact over a period of repetition. One or two giant centipedes, disgusting. Add in another dozen and it's overkill. Same for the giant mosquitos and all the other insectiods. There is something missing from a movie when you find yourself rooting for the dinosaurs over Kong . So much time was spent on the dinosaurs I started to think that Peter Jackson remade the wrong movie. While the visuals were cool, Kong wa

Saturday night has come around and I'm back to my homework routine. It was only a week since Santa and the foam party but it seems like that was a year ago. Today was about homework and more homework. Someone is coming by to look at the condo tomorrow so that will give me a good reason to see a movie. It's either Kong or Narnia and maybe if enough home shoppers stop by, I can just spend the day at the theater! There was a potential buyer that tried to look at the place while I was gone. It turns out that he was in a wheelchair and was under the impression that my home had an elevator. That must have been a bad moment for both him and his realtor. Today's photo is from Barcelona, courtesy of Homer. It's our only group family photo of the trip and it was taken at Park Guell.

Home at last! I've been up for 34 hours now and this blog is the last thing for tonight! Samoa had non-stop rain except for the night that I left. I wouldn't call it gloomy because the greens were so bright and the flowers vivid red, and everyone was friendly. When you stay and work on a small island, you tend to forget how small it really is because it is your entire world. Everything that I did was so critical for work (and school when I went back to the hotel) that I never thought of the island in term of size. But this morning as the airplane flew over Oahu in the pre-dawn hour, I was struck by the sheer immense size of the island! I had never considered Oahu big before but after a week in Pago Pago, everything takes on a new meaning. American Samoa is not a tourist paradise. The economy depends on the canneries and seafood shipping. It was hot and humid but at least in my area, it was mosquito free. The chickens and dogs really did run free. The dogs can expect a short lif

It rained all night and it's still raining this morning. The upside is that the backdrop of rain makes for a good night's sleep. So yes, I do sleep but the last 4 nights of sleep have been the first time that I've had that luxury in months! All I want to do is sleep. Luckily there's nothing to do at night and it rains and the television doens't have a lot to offer. Now my big hope is that tonight's flight out isn't delayed too much because of the rain.

More rain today. It's the reason Samoa is so green. I was able to be outside during a ten minute break in the rain and I can finally show some pictures of the island. Driving along the coast there is nothing but water on one side and the mountains on the other side. I have never seen so many dense ranges of palm trees, not even in Hawaii. Below is the US National Park. It's one long hiking range with a muddy trail that leads through the rain forest and goes only to the end of the rain forest. There is no beautiful beach at the end, just steep cliffs that drop down with the water below.

It's been raining a lot in Samoa. I wanted to get some scenery shots but the weather didn't cooperate with my blogging needs. I rolled down the window and got hit with the raindrops to get this photo and then I gave up for the day.

The now traditional view from the balcony. Tradewinds Hotel, Pago Pago.

I'm at the Honolulu airport and happily wired on Java Chip Frap! Last night I went to the Dragonfly club for a party and ended up experiencing the world of foam, or in this case, substitute snow. A friend of a friend had a small gathering for 800 people and put on a great stage show complete with Santa and friends, break dancers, strange mime-ish people and a full on gospel choir to put us in Christmas cheer. I left with soap bubbles soaked in my clothes and glitter in my hair. I'm fairly certain that I might still have a few random glitter sparkles still in my hair but oh well. I started with an early morning at LAX and I did not want to get up. Luckily the flight starts out with hangover fixers and the first glass of champagne was served before we left. I'm now chilling at HNL while I wait for the flight to Pago Pago. Tomorrow's blog will come from American Samoa!

This is why I live in Carlsbad. Taken today at 10:00 am, 70 degrees and sunny!

A strange thing happens when you have no television - homework gets done early! Normally I spend Friday nights and all day Saturday doing papers and quizes. This week I have 5 projects due by the end of the weekend. Team paper - done! Team presentation - done! Research paper - done! Only a test and one more paper to write! The downside is I've been sitting in front of this computer for over 12 hours. A full day of work, followed by school. I am so looking forward to the one week break in class. I have to admit I'm motivated to get the homework down now. I've got a Christmas party to go to on Friday, another one on Saturday, and I leave for Samoa on Sunday. There's no time to spare!

Wow! Three full days without a blog! I went to Disneyland on Sunday and I could not find my camera anywhere. That was a bummer because the park is decorated for Christmas and it looks great. Out of town friends were visiting so it was a full day at the park. I finally made it on to Buzz Lightyear and now I'm hooked on that ride. I have to get my shooting score up though but L3 for the first time wasn't too bad. I thought I would get sick at the IMAX California Soaring, but the ride really doesn't take up you and drop you down, so it was a lot of fun. Everyone needs to check out that ride. We did some silly stuff and I was rated as the Evil Queen from Snow White in the animation studios, and we even sang Heigh Ho as a group to mixed results in the recording studio. Sadly, no pictures. Monday, Tuesday, and today have been all work. The dreaded Statistics class began yesterday and my brain can't compute the reality of it. No one has come to look at the condo. This keepin

Another first Friday, another Firkin! Homer, LJ, and I enjoyed the benefits of another dark beer fest in Carlsbad and the free beer benefits by having a fun waitress! Over the course of the evening we decided that I am a great still beer photographer but my video skills are seriously lacking on all counts! Therefore, we won't see any of the videos and once again, here's to the beer!

The Goblet of Fire has been my favorite book in the Harry Potter series so far. The most in-depth and plot filled of the series at the time, I thought that this would make the best movie of the four. As it turns out, the movie is more of the middle sequence of a trilogy, such as Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers . Goblet of Fire is the darkest movie yet but lacks an emotional connection to the gravity of the situation. The director chose to focus on one story arc; the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Throughout the tournament, we get glimpses into how Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s lives have changed since they first arrived at Hogwarts. What made the book so rich was the growth of the characters as they hit their teenage years and suddenly had to grow up to face a new darkness, while at the same time deal with the crushes and conflicts of dating and dances. This choice in some ways hampered the true heart of the story, the return of Lord Voldemort. While the intent was to build up suspense t

I went all the way to Barcelona just to write my name in the sand! More of Park Guell. And a totally cool building that was way up in the hills.

More Barcelona Photos! First up, Park Guell, where Gaudi designed an outdoor market, park, and his home. The market never took off and became a school but the park is great on a sunny day. Then there's the Barcelona Beach which looks a lot like Carlsbad only cleaner. And Homer, Lorie, and Brad on the bus.

The last 48 hours have gone by so fast! I spent Sunday cleaning and packing the condo to get it buyer ready. This morning I still have to tidy up the office to have everything ready for today's photo session. Homer took one of the keyboards to his house and now my downstairs looks huge! I did make time to go see "Goblet of Fire" and I liked it but that review will have to wait another day. I still have to download the rest of the Barcelona pictures sometime this week. December is almost here and event season has started! The big kickoff is this Friday for the Firkin at KS Carlsbad, followed by a scrapbook day, LJ gets her TV, and then Disney! Next weekend is more of the same with a LA holiday party and then in the way that my life goes, I fly to Pago Pago on the 11th for work.

Brad and Lorie at the Catalonia National Museum.

We spent Thanksgiving Day finally relaxing…sort of. Instead of walking for miles to see the sights, we took the hop-on-hop-off bus around the outskirts of Barcelona. The first stop was to Park Guell where Gaudi had built his home in a large park setting full of steep stairs and walking trails. We immediately started up the stairs to reach the top of the park. So much for relaxing. After wandering around for an hour or so it was back to the bus to go to the mountain tram. The tram was offline for the season so we wandered around another hill taking in the views of the coast of Barcelona. This is where the rich people live. Next stop was at the monastery which closed at 2:00 pm for tours and it was 1:57. Oh well, we found some trusty stairs and walked some more before taking a quick look inside the cathedral. We’d now been in Barcelona for 5 days and still hadn’t officially gone to the beach so we hopped onto another bus and did the official beach walk. Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete

Here is Barcelona's Arc d'Triomf. I'm on my way back home so no more pictures until Saturday.

I have officially hit art overload. At the Catalonia museum, there were so many images of an anorexic Jesus at the cross and the torture of Saints, that I could see why the Spanish Inquisition formed. In early centuries people were just obsessed with pain and suffering and body mutilation. Yesterday started out easy enough. We went to the Roman ruins and wandered around underground. When we resurfaced, we ended up in a Barcelona photography exhibit that went on for an hour before we popped out of there. The focus was how war was caught on film. More bloodshed! Then we went to the Picasso museum and that was just the last straw of brain stimulation. Too much art! And lots of words on the walls to explain the art. We ended up at the chocolate museum where we could deal with that type of art. Even at the chocolate museum, there was Jesus suffering away. I had to do it. This is all made of chocolate. The port view provides a nice break in the day.

On the coastal side of Barcelona is the highpoint of the city limits and contains an old fort, the Olympic Park, and the Catalonia Museum. We saw all of them but the best pictures were at the fort.

Barcelona continues to be sunny and if not quite warm, at least it's not freezing. Yesterday we walked what seemed for miles around an old fort and the Olympic Park area. Then we spent what seemed like hours inside the Catalonia National Museum. It was the 1000 years of art from this region, which was really fascinating and unique until I hit hour 3 and then my brain just said No. I tried an Iberian beer - Estrella Damm. It wasn't that good so I switched to Spanish wine which was a huge improvement.

Before I forget, this one's for Mondo. We're sitting at Starbucks yesterday and having the morning coffee when suddenly, on the radio, is Al singing Mr. Lear. Go figure.

It's everyone's favorite Europe sight! The city wall and city arch!

Lorie and I at Sagrada Familia. Gaudi's unfinished catherdral and building in process for 100 years. Brad in the Gothic Quarter. Lunch at a streetside cafe.

Barcelona is a city of art. There are sculptures everywhere. Some are of famous people, some are animals, and some are whimsical. The lobster has been my favorite so far. Our hotel is unbelievably great and in a perfect location on La Rambla. All we have to do is walk out the lobby door and we're in the center of action. Above is Homer next to some famous guy. Brad and Lorie, Harborside.

I arrived in Barcelona and decided that I under packed warm clothes. 60f sounds all well in good from my living room in Carlsbad but the reality of 50f, clouds, and a wind just shows how little So Cal clothes hold up in Europe in the winter. I didn’t sleep on the flight. Too many people were working and the airplane was lit up. I’ve now been awake 22 hours and I’m at the airport waiting for everyone else to arrive. I fly UA and they are on AA so I’ve got two hours to entertain myself. Logically, I am having a beer. It’s a Belgium beer, nice and light for almost 11:00 am. The Spanish beers were just to heavy to deal with on a tired mind. I did 2 out of 3 papers for school last night and took the test. I just could not concentrate to do the other paper so now I know how I’ll be spending tonight. Well I have time to hang out and I just bought an hour of wireless, so I’ll probably have to have a second beer! OH, I never made it to see Harry Potter before I left so I hope it’s playing in Ba

I'm off to Barcelona!

After 4 intense work days and 3 hotel nights I'm back home for a day. I have Friday to write 2 papers again, take a test, and format the rest of the school topics. There's a ton of job work to do and Harry Potter starts! I have an 8:30 am flight to Spain on Saturday so Friday will be the longest day ever. At least good blogging starts again in Barcelona!

This has been a work intense week with a couple of fun moments. I'm hosting a business visit with a guy from the Ukraine, who now works for a Russian company. Since his home was -40 F. when he left, he is really enjoying our warm November weather. It's kind of fun seeing the So Cal lifestyle through his eyes. At this time of year, there really is no better place to be. After work today I took him to Rodeo Drive so he could take pictures and see the Hollywood style. Then there was a challenge issued that could not be ignored....His misguided belief that all US beer was water! We ended up at Alcatraz Brewing Company where a Double Bock changed his mind. Yes, we have good beer here too.

The beauty of not being a cook, is that when you pack up your kitchen, there's not much work to do. Even though the condo isn't getting listed until the end of the month, I'm packing up as much as possible. The scrapbook stuff has taken twice as many boxes as the kitchen stuff. I've tossed out 3 big bags of just junk and useless items and it never seems to be enough. This week I move back into the hotel life so nothing more will get done on the house until Friday. Then on Saturday, I'm off to Spain. This month is just racing by!

Brad's mustang rebuild continues on. The last time I saw the car it was all in pieces and scattered throughout the garage. Last week there was a frame and now there are even wheels!

The process of selling and moving continues on. The formal loan approval came through today and with it, the giant packet of legal documents to sign and return. I went to one bank to close an account and put the money into another bank which holds the future house account. Mrs. Kaz gave me a big stack of boxes which are already quickly getting full and I haven't even made a dent in all of my stuff! And for some reason, tonights school topics of compensatory and punitive damages just aren't inspiring me to write up my thoughts. Luckily, that can wait until the morning. I think I'll study food safety and prepare for Friday's test and wait for Survivor to start. My brain can't take much more complexity today.

The Hardee's employees in Amman, Jordan. I hope they're all safe tonight.

Today has been something else. On a sad note of terrorism, Amman, Jordan had three simultaneous explosions hit downtown hotels. Many people have died and many more are injured. What makes today different for me is that one of hotels, the Hyatt, was where I stayed back in October. Now, I can visualize the location and the employees of a Middle East terrorist attack and it is a different view than I would have had four months ago. Will this keep me from returning to Jordan? No. I am looking forward to my next trip and reconnecting with friends. I have work to do there and I like the country. As I tell people, I could get hit by a stray bullet in San Diego or LA at any given time. The other thing that happened is the 1-800-got-junk? truck arrived today and took junk off my hands. The upstairs office has become a big room again and downstairs, what is now unofficially LJ's television sits on the floor. The selling and moving process is in motion and I think it will only pick up in spe

There's been a whole 24 hours without neighbor drama! Around here, that's always a good thing. I met with the loan officer today and it took all of 15 minutes for him to qualify me for a loan. The process is a lot easier these days. I only needed 2 paycheck stubs, recent bank statements, and W-2 forms for the last two years. On my first home loan I needed a full three months documentation of my life. I now have 10 days to clean the house for Max to check it out. I guess it's time to call 800-got-junk!

Today's the official announcement - I'm selling my condo and buying a home! This has been 18 months in the making but the final straw was when I came home from the Middle East and saw the beautiful fence had been broken. Having 7 people and a dog next door didn't help either. The new neighbors's fixed the fence and then proceeded to spill oil in the driveway. That got cleaned up but then I came home to a big mess of wood, pencils, and pens in my frontyard. I tossed that out and this morning there was an empty cigarette carton stuck in the branched of the little tree by my door. Now that's just plain insulting and disrepectful. I was so annoyed that I spent the last 30 minutes being visible. I swept up the tree leaves, cleaned out the garage cobwebs, made several trash runs just to be seen. I'm home and don't mess with my yard. I'd already been in touch with Max, our family realtor and started the process a few weeks ago. I meet with the loan guy tomorro

I'm back from St. Louis and I get to live the next 13 days without being on an airplane. Last night I had a strange dream where I was flying United and the upgrades were all coming through to first class. Hopefully that's a sign of things to come but then again, it was just a dream! Today it's back to the Saturday routine of study and do homework. Luckily the current batch of movies have all gotten less than stellar reviews so I don't have any "must see" events today.

Even I have to admit that today was a beautiful day in St. Louis. The sky was sunny and clear and the trees were showing the last of their fall colors. This was taken at twilight as I walked back to the hotel.

The hotel life on the road....Not all was lost though. My hotel serves a local microbrew Schlafly that makes a tasty Pale Ale. Who knew that such a thing was possible in the land of Busch beer?