Separated at Birth?

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Since it's just the two of us, we didn't see any sense of cooking a big meal and decided to go out for  Christmas brunch. We didn't want to go to a buffet and instead opted for a nice sit down meal. Our choice this year was Bertrands at Mr. A's, I'm not sure who Mr. A or Bertrand are but they have a really nice view from the restaurant. This place even has a dress code, oooohhh fancy!

It is on the 12th floor in the Banker's Hill area with a fantastic view of downtown, the harbor and the airport. This was a three course meal where you choose from an appetizer, main course and desert. After brunch we drove to seaport village and walked off the food.  The weather today was fantastic!

Appetizer:

• "A" had the  Hearts of bibb lettuce without the blue cheese.
• I had the lobster bisque.

Main Course:

• "A" had the sauteed diver sea scallops.
• I had the 48 hour cabernet braised prime beef.

Dessert:

• "A" had pumpkin bread pudding.
• I had the Tahitian vanilla scented creme brulee.

Overall the food was OK, by main course was basically pot roast, but I could cut it with a fork.

View from the table

My Appetizer

"A's" Appetizer

My Main Course

"A's" Main Course

My Dessert

"A's" Dessert

Panoramic from the patio (click to enlarge)

Panoramic #2 from the patio (click to enlarge)

Beautiful weather today.

Dentist visit

So about three weeks ago I was flossing and a piece of something came off my tooth. About a week later another piece came off. I had been meaning to make an appointment and finally did for yesterday. My tooth didn't hurt but after eating I would end up with a half a chicken up there or so it seemed.

What happened was an old filling shrank and came out taking a little of the tooth. Plus the shrinking allowed decay to produce. So they shot me up and replaced the filling. Good as new!!

Rental property part 2, DENIED!

We got word that a higher offer was accepted. Oh well I guess we will just wait for it to fall out of escrow for a fourth time :)

Rental Property part 2

So we finally decided to start looking for another condo.  The prices seem to have stabilized but we are finding that lower end property is still generating multiple offers.

We found another unit for sale in the same complex as our other condo but with a different HOA. The funny thing is that this HOA is less than the other one. The unit also has a different layout but still 2 bedrooms and 2 baths with just over 1,000 sqft and this one really does have a garage.

This place has fallen out of escrow three times and we are not completely sure why. We do know that the first time it went into escrow "mold" was found in every room. Now keep in mind that we live in California and it seems that any thing you can think of is "Found by the state of California to be harmful to your health."  Whatever!!!!

So this time we decided to take a look at it and I have no idea where this "mold" is. I am thinking that some first time home buyer drank the kool-aid and wanted to do all kinds of tests and miraculously they found "mold". I was thinking that the stuff was growing all along the walls. I didn't even smell mildew and it was raining that day.  But if we get the property we will now have to run our own test and probably have someone come out and "remove" 5 mold spores at a cost of $1K.

We placed an offer, below asking of course, and the bank notified us that there were 3 other offers and to come back at best and final. We went back with the same price. Then two days later our agent said that two more offers came in and the bank kicked all offers back AGAIN for best and final. We then went up $2,500 more to make it look like we were trying. So right now we are waiting but we don't think that we have a chance, so we are not holding our breath.

L.A. part 2

Last Saturday, 23 November, we made another trek to LA in search of a great deal at a estate sale and the elusive Eames chair. We began our quest early that morning without breakfast but plenty of coffee. Our first way point was at the home of Michael Jackson's dermatologist, Dr. Klein. Apparently he was bankrupt, his home sold at auction and the estate sale held to pay his creditors. The home was built in 1914, about 11,000sqft and ended up selling for around $4 million and according to one of the workers the new buyer planned to put in another $2 million to fix it up and it really needs it. I guess Michael Jackson actually lived at the house for a period of time and they really played it up with identifying his room/bathroom/patio.

View down the street

Michael Jackson's bathroom

We arrived on the last day of the sale and most everything had been sold but I guess there was a boatload of Michael Jackson stuff. It wasn't cheap either, there was a fedora that he wore in a concert that was going for $5,000 and a picture on the stairs that was listed at $55,000(see picture). Needless to say we didn't purchase anything.

Yes that is really listed at $55,000

The other estate sale we went was a short distance away and this treasure trove featured a lot of rugs which is why we wanted to go. Of course we also wanted to see the house, and what a house it was. It sat on almost an acre in the middle of LA with a pool (of course) and a 4 car garage (of course). the house was smaller than Dr. Klein's at only 8,000sqft built in 1924 but was in almost pristine condition. It sold for over $8 million. The rugs were beautiful but really overpriced. Of course they were saying to make an offer but when they have the tagged prices between $6,000 to $20,000 I don't think they would like my offers. Besides most of the rugs were way too large, we need them around 8'x10'.

The Driveway

"A" really likes steel frame windows and this place had an entire wall of steel framed windows (see photos). We would have liked to get them for our house but unfortunately I am sure they would have been way too expensive.

From there we decided to eat before the final journey to our Eames chair was completed. After lunch we proceeded to Burbank where the chair located and got to see a really neat site. Once we parked I looked over and saw a doe come out of the bushes as I told "A" another doe came out followed by a really nice looking buck. In the end 4 does and 1 buck came out to feed on the apartments landscaping. I asked the owner of the chair and he said they came all the time but usually in the morning. It was quite a site in the middle of LA to see a family of deer.

Our quest ended with the capture of the chair and an uneventful drive back to San Diego.

Museum day

"A" received some free passes to the Mingei Museum at Balboa Park. I'm not much into museums, usually after 10 minutes I'm ready to stab myself in the eye with a spoon, but one of the displays consisted of furniture. I know what you are thinking, booorrrringggg, but a lot of this was mid-century and that just happens to be what we are looking for.

There were other displays of "art" and I have to tell you some of it was crap. I can't believe what people pass off as art.

Anyway here are some pictures of the stuff that we were interested in.