Awesome Night Sky

Ok...this is something I doubt we could see in Los Angeles. I'm not sure I ever saw so many stars - even when I was out to sea.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0804/flagstaffsky_usno_big.jpg

Goodbye, Old Friend

Well, tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to my old and trusty steed, my 1994 Ford Mustang GT. Here's a representative picture:



My Mustang hasn't been driven in 5 years, and needs some engine work and new tires. My daughter was quite distraught that she never got to ride in it :(

We only got $1,200.00 for it...less than we wanted, but better than nothing.

The last relic of my well misspent youth.

Maybe in the future I can get one of the Shelby Cobra Mustangs:



Hey...I can dream, can't I? :)

Our New Place

In order to assist my wife with her interior decorating desires, I've created floor plans of our place in LA. They're as close to scale as I could manage with a tape measure and Paint Shop Pro.

First Floor
Second Floor

What I Did Today

So it's Saturday. I've been enjoying Digital Cable, something we don't have at home. I don't have to go online anymore to see what's on TV :)

This morning I was a little concerned because there was no water. It worked when I went to bed, but it didn't work when I got up.

I couldn't find any notices about water repair, so I called the landlady. She wasn't aware either, but said they often slip notices under the garage door....so I went to the garage and sure enough, there was a notice. 8 AM to 11 AM.

It was 11 AM. No water.

11:30 AM. No water.

Noon. No water.

Water finally came back about 12:30. A little late, but better late than never (as I needed to do laundry today).

I took a trip to the local (by local, I mean the LA definition of local) Barnes & Noble to pick up some books that have been placed on my recommended reading list this week, and then picked up some highlighters (since these are not leisure reading books). Between these books, my ongoing Bible study, and another workbook I'm doing, I think I won't need to worry about getting bored :)

Made a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up hangars so I can actually hang my clothes in my closet (now there's a novel idea :)), but forgot to get toothpaste, so I'll need to do that at some point tonight (he writes as the clock approaches 9 PM).

Other than that, I've mostly been relaxing. Got to do a fair deal of programming today to, of a personal rather than work-related nature.

One of these days I'll have to blog about how much I love my job and how much fun it is.

Last Weekend's Adventure

Last weekend the family came into town. Well, actually they flew into Las Vegas.

The plan was that Annette and the kids would fly into Las Vegas Thursday night. On Friday, Annette would rent a car (one-way) and drive her and the kids down to LA. We would have a dinner party that night with several of Annette's high school friends.

On Saturday, we would go up to her mom's in Lancaster to see her mom, sister and her sister's new baby.

On Sunday, we would go to church at Calvary Chapel Downey, and then take the kids back up to her dad's in Las Vegas and then return to LA.

On Monday, we'd do some furniture shopping at Ikea, and then she would fly home.

As they say, the best laid plans of men and mice....

Somewhere on the flight from Portland to Las Vegas, Annette lost her driver's license. Which of course meant she couldn't rent a car (and caused some worry as to how to get on her return flight).

So after several phone calls to the airline and the airport, with nobody having seen her license, I left LA at 3 PM to pick them up.

Now, I still haven't quite adjusted to LA traffic. I didn't get to Las Vegas until 9:45 or so. According to Google, it's supposed to be a 4 hour drive. Clearly that estimate is based on no traffic :)

There was a bad 3 car accident on the 605 N, just before the 10. That's where I lost the most time. Then the 15 from LA to near Victorville was slow. After that it was smooth sailing.

Annette was eager to see our new place, and I was pretty awake (having gotten a good night's sleep before), and happy to see my family again. So we headed back to LA about 11 PM. Got home about 3:30 AM. (No traffic this time :)).

We got home and crashed, though the family was not pleased with the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of the new place.

Truthfully, when I rented this place I was so tired of living out of a suitcase and/or driving 3+ hours each way to work that I just wanted a place to crash, a place to eat, and a place with an address I could call my own.

So yeah..I'm a typical male and didn't take a good look at the overall cleanliness of the place. I felt bad, because I was eager to show the family the cool place I had got for us, but hadn't done a thorough enough walk through.

Saturday we went up to Annette's mom's place and spent the afternoon there (after stopping in Pasadena to pick up a cheesecake from one of Annette's friends who has, as she says, "cheesecake to die for"). We got home around 10, after stopping at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things.

Sunday we didn't make it to church :(

We left for Las Vegas about 11:30 or so (I think).

We stopped in Barstow for lunch at Baja Fresh....slightly disappointed that they didn't have the Dos Manos I like, and they served Coke products (yuk!) instead of Pepsi....but it was still good food :)

We made it to Las Vegas around 5, spent some time visiting, and then headed back to LA, making it home around 12:30 AM.

Monday morning we finished making a list of all the problems in the townhome, along with taking photographs so we can send the list to the landlady and ask her to fix them.

Then we stopped by my work to meet most of my co-workers, and then spent about 90 minutes browsing Ikea. I think I know Annette's new favorite furniture store.

Then it was time to take my wife to the airport for her flight home :(

Fortunately she was able to board without too many problems, and made it home safe and sound.

It was a good weekend, all things considered, even if we did a lot more driving than originally planned (about 30 hours between 3 PM Friday and 3 PM Monday).

Weekend Adventures

Another weekend comes to a close in Los Angeles. Friday night I took a nap as I didn't sleep much Thursday night.

Saturday I went off in search of a model to build, and wound up not from home in Lakewood at Hobby Warehouse USA. I found a very appealing model of an F4U-4 Corsair (complete with folding wings, retractable landing gear and a pilot figure), but while the model itself was reasonably priced ($12.75), I estimated I'd spend $30 or more in paints and supplies. I just couldn't justify spending that much money for stuff that I already have, albeit back home with the family. I should have brought it down with me. Oh well.

I also went to Target and got some cheap dishes/silverware and some curtain panels for the front window. Then I spent the majority of the rest of the day watching Jericho on CBS' website.

I did laundry in my new place for the first time Saturday night. That was...interesting. Pretty straight-forward, except for the fact that I had to run the washer on rinse the first time to get rid of the dirt in the bottom.

And I found the garage door openers, so now I can open/close the garage door from my car. Always a plus, in my book :)

Sunday I went to church, and then went grocery shopping, so now I have food again - yay!

After grocery shopping I typed up the uniform regulations for the kids' new school and sent them to my wife. So much for saving on the big Target sale on jeans and khakis this weekend. And I'm pretty sure that our son isn't all that thrilled about having to wear a uniform.

Next up was watching some more Jericho, followed by another nap.

Now it's night, and time to get ready for the work week.

Good Year Blimp

There's a Good Year blimp in Los Angeles! It's based not far from where I work.

There's three of them - one here in LA (Redondo Beach), one in Akron, Ohio and the third in Pompano Beach, Florida.

When I was a kid, I built a motorized model of the Good Year blimp. You could make your own designs, then open it up, put the paper with your design on the roller thing, and turn it on and watch your design light up. It was pretty sweet :)

Unfortunately, rides are not available to the general public. Pity that. I think it would have been a blast to take a ride in a blimp.

For more information, go to Good Year Blimps.

Living Large In LA

I moved into the new place yesterday :)

My landlady is a tad disorganized (I'm still waiting on the garage door opener), but she did leave me some barstools and a sleeper couch, so I'm not stuck sleeping on the floor for the next 3 or so months in a sleeping bag.

She also left me her Cable internet box, so I can get online. Our cable and internet will be switched on around August 1, but at least I'll have internet access for a while. Of course, it'd really help if I could figure out what I did with the power cable for our Linksys router....

The new place is nice. Quiet, cool, with a good number of trees. 1800 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath. Nice patio, large kitchen with gas stove and double oven, lots of pantry space, and a nice sized dining room. There's also a semi-attached (as in the patio is between the townhome and the garage) 2 car garage, with a good deal of storage space (once the landlady gets her car out), and a washer and dryer.

Yay! No more trips to the laundromat on weekends for me. Let me tell you, that was the highlight of my week...not :)

I Have An Address (Almost)!

Well, after nearly 2 months in LA, I will finally be moving into a townhome tomorrow morning :)

It will be so nice to have a place with a real address. I can go to the library down here....I can have stuff mailed to me....I'll have a place to store stuff besides boxes.

I can hardly wait. :)

Of course, it'll be a bit empty and lonely until the rest of the clan joins me, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

For those who actually read my blog and want the address, drop me a line and I'll get it out to you.