Christmas Lights

Last night we had a couple over for dinner. If you remember from previous posts we have had some DIY help from a friend who is a visiting professor from Japan. Her husband is in for the holidays and we invited them for dinner. Dinner consisted of our world famous marinated beef, shrimp scampi, scallops grilled with bacon, olives and peppers marinated in Napa Valley wine, roasted vegetables, and dinner rolls. After dinner we went to see Christmas lights.

A neighborhood across the canyon, Kensington, is our sister neighborhood and has wonderful light displays. I was driving and did not get any pictures of Kensington, maybe next time. We also went to Coronado, and took some pictures of downtown San Diego. From there we went to a Starbucks for the ladies to get their Cafe Mochas and then proceeded to the Hotel Del Coronado. The Del has an ice skating rink they set up near the beach. I attempted to get some ice cream at MOOTIME but was thwarted by a long line and only one server :(

After touring the Del we had one more stop, a neighborhood in Clairemont that goes all out for Christmas. This is the kind of place where you get out of your car and walk around, so I was able to get many photos. Unfortunately I don't have a stellar camera and it does not take real good photos at night without a flash. And flash photos at night of Christmas light just doesn't do the trick. So please bear with the blurred photos, I'm sure you get the point. :)

BEST OF ALL IT WAS ALL FREE!!!!

USS Midway

San Diego from Coronado Island

The Del

The Ice Skating rink in the foreground

This guy was driving around. He said that he had been working on the car since May but apologized because not all the lights were working.

Yes, that is a horse drawn cart. Crazy Californians

And yes that is Santa in one basketball net and his Reindeer in another. Maybe Santa had a few too many before getting behind the reindeer. Maybe Rudolph had some too.

If you know me you will know why I posted the video of Tigger and Pooh. Sorry it is sideways but I did not know it would be difficult to rotate the video 90 degrees. (Please tilt your head to the right)

Moon Set

I got up this morning, made my coffee, got the paper and I looked out the window and saw the moon setting and just had to share it (I know it is a run on sentence). It was quite a sight and I just had to share it.

Rainy Saturday

After 164 days we finally got rain. This was the third or fourth longest dry spell. It was not a lot but it was something. We have a resident Red Tail Hawk in the canyon and I guess he liked the rain too. I have included a photo of him (sorry it is blurred) and a video I took with my camera. I don't have a good zoom and the video is small. Also the camera does not have sound.
You can check the post dated October 11, 2009 for a better picture of our Hawk.

Red Tail Hawk in the rain

Just a rainy road with cars. I'm actually surprised that they didn't wreck. California drivers and rain do not mix.

Another Room Done

I know that you all love looking at me in an Afro wig, awesome mustache/soul patch and funky sunglasses, but alas I must eventually make another post. The week before Halloween my wall on the north side partially "fell down". I don't believe for a second that if fell down by its self, something helped it. Anyway I recruited my friend Ron last weekend and we rebuilt the part that had been knocked down. I also found several other places that were actually in danger of coming down as well. We did a pretty good job since neither one of us has actually done any masonry work before.

Also as we were repairing the wall we found newspaper that were stuffed in the top blocks when they put the caps on the wall. The newspaper was used to plug the holes in the bricks and keep the mortar from falling through when the caps were attached. The paper was dated March 16, 1951. Pretty cool!!!!! I plan on trying to open and save some pages, nice time capsule.

That weekend my wife and I also finished our new office and laid a floor in the main bathroom. We got help from another friend to complete the office and I finished the bathroom floor myself. All in all it was an extremely productive weekend. I needed that since I have been sick for the last week and have not been able to do much at all.

"Previously on my blog" Before the big demo

"Previously on my blog" Demo in progress

This is where we started last weekend by removing the rest of the cabinets.

My patching job, I am getting really good at patching walls

All cabinets removed and walls patched

The "new" office with temporary carpet

Before this we had pieces of remnant carpet that did not even cover the floor.

When we got the carpet for the office the place threw in the this vinyl we liked. Again it is temporary until we remodel the bathroom.

This is the section that "fell down" and started it.


This is the part that was ready to come down if a strong breeze picked up.


Work in progress

Friday March 16, 1951

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

This year we had a party and gave out treats. I dressed up as a 70s pimp and A went as a Devil. I am waiting to get the group photo e-mailed but as soon as I get it I will post.

This is A and I before the party.

Love the shades

Being as cheap as we are, we decided to make a spider. The body is a garbage bag stuffed with newspaper with a fur fabric. The legs are coat hangers wrapped with news paper/wrapped with garbage bags/wrapped with fabric. We used electrical tape to hold it together.

It looked better at night. In the daylight it looks kinda like an octopus. And yes we do know that a spider has eight legs. We wanted it to look like it was crawling out of his web with half his body hidden. Like I said it looked better at night :)

As you can see Kuuipo was not very impressed!

Houston, we have mold

This morning the plumber came to bury the pipes into the wall. That went pretty smooth and it took him only 1 hour to finish. If it had been me, probably 8 hours and 4 trips to Home Depot. So emboldened by the progress, we decided to do a little demo with the help from one of our friends. That went easy until we took off the 2nd wall cabinet and discovered (gasp!!) mold. I don't think it is too bad, but the problem is now the entire floor must come up because we do not know how far it has spread. To make matters worse, the 1st layer of linoleum is at least 40 years old and the backing is a type of burlap. So of course that compounds the mold problem. On the other side of the wall is a shower, so now this gives us something else to do, like we really need that.

Payback

A few months ago I went to visit my brother. If you remember he came out here in July and helped out tiling my kitchen and a few other projects. Below are the pictures of what we did to his kitchen. We tiled his back-splash and gave the tired cabinets a face-lift. We went non-stop for three days from 8 am to 9pm to finish before I had to leave. In the end it looks really great.

I could not leave out the photos I took of his dogs.

This is Bella and Abby in the background. Bella carries big sticks around and wants you to throw them. Yes, that is a 3 foot long 4x4 she carries around.

This is Abby, she has diabetes and requires daily shots. She is also blind due to the diabetes.

Tonka, the golden that must have narcolepsy. I have never seen a dog that is more relaxed than her.
Nan (short for Nantucket) she is a 150lbs Newfoundland.