The last weekend of summer tourist season has arrived! In a few more days we can travel up and down the 5 without worry of Del Mar traffic. Now the drive can be back to merely bad instead of horrible! In three more days I can go back to the beach and get a parking spot at any time of day. Small good that does me because in four more days I'll find myself in Mexico City. That's how it goes sometimes. I'm devoting this weekend to homework and relaxation. The relaxation part comes in because I'm not planning to drive anywhere unless I have to. I saw the traffic today and it was not good. So it will be Carlsbad living for the weekend.
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I know I have pictures to download. I am behind. Last night was the night of the great baseball seats thanks to Homer's boss and we were right there at the grass level and watching the game up close. Actually, it was too close to watch the umpire spitting. That was kind of gross. But the game was fun and those were seats that force you to stay in the game. Maybe I'll get the pictures up tomorrow. Work was crazy today with an early wake-up, a quick (no meals) trip to Tijuana and then a late evening of catch-up.
The weekend (one day as it turned out) was much too short! I did survive my first week back at school and have started the countdown to the end. One week down, 59 to go! Sunday was supposed to be a simple day of beer at the new Irish pub but it turned into a count of how much could go wrong to one waitress. The place was decently full but mainly of beer drinkers. We were the only table that came in for food. It must have taken 20 minutes to get a beer order in. In the meantime, the other table was 3 dads, and about 6 unattended children who were jumping on the pool table, on the bar, running outside, and running amok. The only time a dad every came after a child was when the little one broke free and came toddling to me. Twice. Then LJ sent her Costco card flying and it managed to go under the booth seat. The four of us started trying to rescue it and the waitress seemed far more upset over this, than the out of control children. As she cleared our table, we heard the crash of glass a...
The story behind this bottle of wine is that on Friday night, a group of us went to an Italian restaurant in St. Louis. There were several bottles that we tasted. One was a light Pinot Grigio from Venice (Santa Margarita) and then a full bodied red that I can't remember the name of but I didn't like at all. One of the people in the group wanted Pinot Noir and there were no offerings except for this one from Newberg, Oregon in Yamhill County. I had to laugh because we'd been sampling wines from Italy, in St. Louis, trying to find a California Pinot on the menu and the best wine of the night came from Mrs. H's neighborhood. I had to take a picture of the label so I would remember what it was that I liked. Pinot Fans, I'd suggest giving this one a try.
Friday at last! I've been sucked into the vortex that happens to me each time I come to St. Louis. I'm overscheduled and always tired from getting up at 4:00 am California time. So far the first 4 days of school have been a breeze. It's always nice having the first class as a way to ease back into the routine. I go home Saturday and plan to spend Saturday night doing homework so that I can relax on Sunday. I only have 5 more weeks of the easy class before it all goes back to normal craziness. The crime capital of the US had a cop killing by a 15 year old recently and the news attention is on East St. Louis right now and it ever downward trend into self destruction. It's like in the Simpsons movie where Springfield is covered by a bubble as a solution. The area has finally realized that the invisible bubble over East St. Louis is going to crack and the crime is about to escalate to the other side of the river. This is the most bizarre place of racial and cultural divi...
After last night's baseball game, I returned to the hotel totally tired. As usual, as soon as I was in bed my brain decided to reactivate. At first, I started thinking about the movie 1408 and hotel ghosts. So for a while, all the city lights, ventalition noises, and bedsheets were bothering me more than usual. After I decided that my room was not haunted, I started to think about how really good my life is and how other people would perceive it. I work hard and I have stress. That is true and real. I also have unique opportunities to go to a free baseball game, stay in a nice hotel, and splurge on a better beer when I deem the free beer to be not to my liking. St. Louis downtown is really a depressing place to be. Leaving the baseball game last night, we had to run the gauntlet of people begging for money. Some may have been truly needy, others were simply slackers who choose the easy way out. While my life is built on long hours and a bizarre work ethic, I know that my choices ha...
St. Louis ballpark! I was able to get tickets to tonights game vs. the Florida Marlins and in the air-conditioned suite! I left the camera in the hotel but this photo captures the essense of baseball in St. Louis. You have the Arch and you have Bud. It was a great game and the Cardinals won, so the crowd was happy.
So here it is, a beautiful Saturday! There's a family concert going on in the park by my house, so I've been rocking to band music for last hour. It's always fun to be able to jam to live music while blogging! Being a family park, it's been the Beach Boys and the Eagles for most of the morning. Right now "Take it Easy" just started. The sky is clear so I can see the ocean in the distance behind the park. Maybe this is because I know this is my last weekend of homework freedom, or maybe it's just because Southern California beach life on a warm sunny is the best ever! Later today it's swimming and Oggi's so the day will be totally complete!
On this happy Friday at 5:40 am, I'm off to build plastic food kits that are used for training employees on how to make burgers. This sounds simple but putting these kits together is the same type of workout that you would get from doing squats and lifting weights for hours at a time. All my muscles will be in pain later today but there is a perfect cure waiting at the end of the day! It's Mondo's birthday and we're having pizza and the Brazilian drinks and hanging out at home! All relaxing and fun!
School is set to start August 21! Whoo-Hoo! This has been a take charge sort of a week. The trees are trimmed, the Subaru got taken to the dealer today for the 30K check, I called the recycle people again to complain that the yard waste truck skips our neighborhood (as did many of the neighbors) and finally after 2 months the yard waste was picked up! That will teach me for daring to garden. There's still more errands lurking about but that was plenty for one week.
The tree in the middle is the banana tree. You can't tell from the photo but there is another part of the tree that has collapsed and fallen over the fence. The tree guys were able to chop it down and remove the stump in minutes. They were not expecting the banana tree to explode and they both got covered in tree gunk. I felt bad for them but this was the last stop of the day. Here's the after shot. No banana and the palms are healthy and happy again after all the dead fronds were removed!
It turns out that the pod-like tree that collasped is a banana tree. I only knew that it was not a palm and not a tree. The weight of the banana-less pod was so heavy that the top half bent but didn't break, but the weight of it pulled the base of the tree out from the soil. So tomorrow is bye-bye to the banana tree. The arborist that came over to look at it was surprised to see it. I guess banana trees in San Diego are not that common. I'm also getting the two small dead fruit trees removed as a freebie tomorrow. I also learned how to clear a clogged sprinkler and part of my dead yard is getting water again at last! The gopher also returned after a 6 week break. Time for more kitty litter!
I've gone and done it again. In fact, I have to pre-apologize to everyone because you're all about to have to endure another 18 months of me complaining about...beer? No......work? well that's a given.....Bad movies? No......I won't have time to see movies anymore - because? I re-enrolled in UOP for the Master's of Management program. The next 16 months of so of my life has been turned back into a world of online school and frustration with the Learning Teams and class structure. However, I have searched and searched for another online program that would fit in with my unpredictable work and life schedule and UOP was the only one. What was the motivating factor? After all, I've enjoyed weekends free to blog, see movies, and hang out with friends. It's been the best. The truth is, Friday night's Mexico work dinner finally put me over the edge. It's 11:00 pm or so at night and I'm sitting next to my co-worker and we've both been taking th...
Another Tijuana work dinner has come and gone. We got out by 1:00 am and the night was subdued which is rare for a Mexico dinner. That worked out well for us. The hotels in Tijuana are pretty crappy so we always stay in San Diego. This time, the good US hotel failed us. About 10 minutes before we had to leave, I hear a dripping sound in my bathroom. I go in to see two holes in the ceiling and water coming from the room above. I called the front desk and within 60 seconds a repair guy was in my room. He took one look at that and ran to the room upstairs and started pounding on the door. The person upstairs was my co-worker and there wasn't much we could do. We told the hotel not to worry about us since we were leaving. I didn't want to change rooms and figures my clothes were safe and dry and if the worst happened, I was only a short drive from home in the morning. When I got back to my room last night, there were many towels on the floor and the trashcan was there with a f...
I think that I should also give a big shout out to Audrey since it's her birthday! Those who know her realize that there is zero chance she'll ever read this online and that if you even mention Internet to her, she runs screaming. Anyhow, for Audrey fans, I spoke with her today and she seemed in pretty good spirits for turning 120 and all. ( Her words, not mine.)
My body has decided to rebel against any more leafy greens and organic brown rice this week. After a cheese enchilada binge on Sunday, I decided to go all healthy. I've been eating greens and brown rice 3 times a day with the occasional strawberry or nectarine supplement and I am done. I'm craving things I don't even like such as Butterfinger Blizzards at DQ or M&M's. Luckily for me, none of these items are in the house so I'm safe from myself. Tomorrow is a Mexico work function so that means at 2:00 am on Saturday, I'll be at a Jack in the Box near the border scarfing down on 2 tacos for 99 cents!
It's a big shout out (not they will ever read my blog) to the crew of the Endeavour. The shuttle launched a few minutes ago and they're off! As always, I hope they have a safe return to Earth. Back here on planet Carlsbad, I almost feel that life is back to normal. I never found the water leak in the kitchen so I have to think it was some random dishwasher thing. I've run all sorts of water tests and nothing so I'll relax on that. The gopher has been awol for a month and the grass sort of is recovering. That's also bad because now I need more Round-Up. All the money that I saved by being gone is about to disappear next week when I take the Subaru in for it's 30K service. I thought maybe I'd work in Portugal in September but it seems as though work is shipping me off to Mexico instead. I'm okay with it though, I've never been to Veracruz and I only spent 4 hours in Mexico City at the airport hotel when a flight was delayed last year.
When I have a group from another country that's in town for business I usually take them either to Downtown Disney or Hollywood for lunch. I prefer Disney since it's easy but if they've been there then it's off to Hollywood and Highland we go. The Singapore group got H&H. At least there have been some new additions since I was there last. Above - for Harry Potter fans and below - for Mondo. There was even an event going on. Janice Dickinson was doing casting for her model reality show. Wannabes had to walk over semi-warm hot coals and keep a smile on their face and pose. Most failed. Janice was there and entertaining enough otherwise it was a bland TV event.
Due to an intense work week, I've actually run out of words. I've saved this picture of a friend's ferret for a slow blog day and this seems to be it. This is Bandit and he lives in St. Louis. Not sure of his personality but all the ferrets I've met are friendly and curious so I'm willing to believe that Bandit is the same!
This has been such a busy week that I'm ready to get back on a 17 hour flight if only to get some down time! I can't believe that here it is, a Firkin Friday and I'm not going out. I have to work tomorrow so I'd rather not be tired when the alarm goes off in the morning. I say this every single week and every single week I'm wrong but I'll try it again. Next week should be easier.
How on earth did it get to be Wednesday night? It has been one big Tuesday blur to me. I got up early on Tuesday and worked a bit from home and then drove to Anaheim for stop #1. 45 mintues later I was done at that office and headed north for a tough 3 hours of LA traffic. After an afternoon of meetings at the next office it was into a hotel where I had the task of deleting e-mail file since I had gone way over the limit allowed on Outlook. Then I know I slept but it was work-sleep where all your dreams are about work. Up early this morning, back to the office until 3:00 and then the 3 hour drive back to Anaheim. A quick 30 minute meeting with the Singapore guys assured me that they were okay after their 22 hour flight and I'm now in the second hotel of the week. Wow! Tomorrow, I'm sort of repeating the last two days but I get to go home at the end.