New Pool Equipment

We are in the midst of two projects in the backyard.
The first one involves replacing this pool equipment, which has been here since at least 1981.



Now we have a new heater, two new pump motors and a new filter.
Already, we have seen a dramatic improvement in the performance of the new equipment over the old stuff.
Hopefully we will see an improvement in our power bills since the new equipment is a lot more efficient than the old.


This area will be cleaned up and painted and a wooden enclosure is being built for it to hide it away a little bit and soften the noise from the motor.

Hiking in Calabasas

Here we are out for a walk a couple of Sundays ago in Calabasas, not too far from the house.

Rosebud had a good time but had to bushwhack her way through some of the over-grown parts of the trail.

Brian Kelly

SI.com has a feature story today on the changes taking place at Notre Dame under new football coach Brian Kelly.

Easter Quake

On Sunday there was a big earthquake south of the border and the epicenter was a good 300 miles from where we live.

At the time, I was taking a nap and felt the bed start rolling back and forth like someone was gently shaking it. I looked around and nobody was there so I went back to sleep and then the bed started moving again.

Aimee was on the couch in the living room and didn't feel it at all.

As usual, Rosebud slept through the whole thing.

Guru of Go

This Saturday April 3, ESPN will show a documentary on Loyola Marymount basketball and Hank Gathers. The film will air on ABC-TV in the afternoon before showing up a few times on ESPN. I have seen most of it and it is very good.

L.A. Marathon

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Marathon was run through the streets of L.A.

The runners started at Dodger Stadium and made their way through Downtown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West L.A. and finished at the Santa Monica Pier.

The course went right in front of the building where I was working on Sunday morning and I went outside to get a few pictures while I had time. Fortunately for me I was out there just minutes before the elite runners leading the field made their way by.

This point was at Mile 20 on the course and I was amazed to see, in person, just how fast these guys were running at this stage of the race.

L.A. Marathon (cont'd.)

After the top runners came by I saw these two guys who were participating in the handcrank division. That group starts out earlier in the morning and nearly all of them had made their way past this part of the route quite a bit earlier.

But the guy on the right in this picture was really struggling. It seemed like maybe he was having some doubts about his ability to go on. We could tell this by the encouragement the other guy was giving him as they were going.

His partner kept telling him to keep going, one stroke at a time, keep moving forward and other things to motivate him to continue. It seemed that without the encouragement and inspiration the guy would have no chance to finish the course.

Hopefully, he did.

Office Changes

Today, everyone at Aimee's firm was fired.

On Monday, everyone will be re-hired. This time, by the new firm that is taking over operations at WWCOT.

Initially, not much will change. Over the next several weeks and months we will get a better idea of how things might be different with the new company.

Aimee has been working at this office for just about six years. Fortunately, that time will carry over to the new company with respect to vacation time and other benefits.

Another change we just learned about is that Aimee's brother Nils is leaving his job in Binghamton, NY and heading back to his old company in Atlanta.

Apparently his job in NY was not proving enough of a challenge and he will begin working in Georgia in mid-March.

Aimee's Office

A couple of weeks ago we went to an Architectural Awards dinner where Aimee's firm was one of the companies being honored. Some of the award-winning projects were ones that Aimee was quite involved with and we were very proud to see her and her co-workers recognized for all of their hard work.

One of the speakers at the event was talking about how this economic recession was the worst since 1990 for the industry and maybe worse. He reminded the audience that, currently, as many as 50 percent of the architects in the area are out of work.

Aimee's firm has been through several rounds of lay-offs the last couple of years including just last Friday when they let some more people go.

Now, they have announced that the company has been bought by a larger, Midwest-based firm that is looking to expand its presence on the West Coast.

It will be interesting to see the changes that will take place as the merger goes through and the principal partners in Aimee's firm transition to officers in the new company.

Fortunately, Aimee still has a lot of work on her plate and is well-liked by everyone she works with.

Almost Champs

Well, we almost became the 'B' league champs for LA City Valley's Wednesday night co-rec softball. We will have to settle for second place this year. At least the trophy is nice and large!

Under the Weather

We went to a Super Bowl party at a friend's house on Sunday.
There were maybe about 15 people there including several little kids.

Apparently, one of the kids had a pretty nasty stomach virus that hadn't kicked into full gear yet. It did that night when they got home.

The next day several of the adults and a few of the kids were very sick as well, missing school and work.

Fortunately, Aimee and I were spared and we went to bed on Monday night feeling fine.
Well, Aimee was very sick by the next morning. She tried to make it to work but had to turn right around and come home to spend the entire day in bed. She was miserable all day and couldn't keep anything down.

Today (Wednesday) she felt a little better and went to work with some saltines and ginger-ale.

We think that as many as 12 of the 15 people there for the game got sick over the next couple of days.

Good game though.

Makin' Some Funny

We saw this spot during the football playoffs.

Lots of Rain

Today is another wet day for us.

It has rained here six days in a row.

Poor Rosebud has been stuck in the house with nothing to do for an entire week.

She's barely even gotten out of bed this whole time.

Hopefully, we'll get a little break this weekend.

It's supposed to rain some more next week.

Christmas Morning

Our day on Friday was a peaceful one.

The stockings were stuffed and ready to be opened first thing in the morning. Even Rosebud had plenty of treats waiting for her in her stocking.

I think the biggest treat she's had is having both of us around the house all day for so many days in a row. That's very unusual.

We took advantage of another beautiful day with a noon-time hike in the hills.

Christmas Eve Day

Today was a beautiful day, so we decided to take a morning walk at the nearby duck pond. Actually, we started out at a duck pond that we knew of near the house but hadn't been to. It was smaller than we thought it would be so we moved on to the larger duck pond we go to frequently.

There were not many people there but the geese were making quite a ruckus when Rosebud would walk by. When they are all squawking it can get pretty loud.

We are enjoying our time off. Aimee has 16 days away from work and she's happy to be around the house.

Of course, this means fewer naps during the day for Rosebud.

Squirrel Update

The one thing Rosebud seems to be crazy about is squirrels. She goes nuts when they are running around on the tree right outside the front door.

When we let her out there she tries jumping up as high as she can as if she's going to climb up into the tree to get those squirrels. It's very funny to see.

When we are at the park to play frisbee, the only thing that can distract her from the frisbee is if she spots a squirrel somewhere in the park. She is obsessed with them.

In our backyard, as she lies by the pool, they go past her on the power lines and taunt her from a safe distance. You can tell she is thinking about them all the time. When she sleeps, she twitches and chirps sometimes and we figure she's chasing squirrels in her dreams.

I've always told Aimee that, as fast as Rosebud is, she'll never actually catch a squirrel and that even if she did, she wouldn't know what to do with it. It would probably just get away.

Well, today she finally caught one. Right in the backyard. And she didn't let it get away.

R.I.P. poor squirrel.

I happened to be home and had all the windows open and heard her make a little noise out there. I came out to find her "playing" with the squirrel the same way she "plays" with her stuffed squirrel. Only this one didn't make the same squeaking noises her toy does.

The little guy still had a little bit of life left in him, but not much.
I brought Rosebud inside and she was able to watch me dispose of her catch into the black bin with a shovel. Fortunately, the trash pickup is today and they should be here anytime.

Now Rosebud is searching and sniffing all over the backyard, either looking for that same squirrel, or trying to track down a new one.

Chilly

It's been a bit chilly here the last few days.
Some rain we received brought snow to the local mountains.

We are expecting more rain this week and more snow in the hills.
But if the softball field is dry enough, the games go on, no matter how cold it is.

Rosebud is no fan of cold, wet weather. She spends most of her time curled up next to her personal heater by her bed.

Winners

The other night Aimee's softball team had a bye week so they got together at a local bar that sponsors the team.
Apparently it was Bingo night at this bar so we all had some cards placed in front of us.

Of the first four games played, I won twice and Aimee won once. This is with the entire bar of about 25-30 people participating. Not sure why we had such good luck.

The only bad part was that there were no extraordinary prizes for the winners. We each collected a Jose Cuervo t-shirt and a shot of tequila.

The third time we won we let somebody else at our table go up and collect.

Slide gone

This weekend we dismantled the slide for the pool.

We never used it and it seemed like it was just taking up a lot of space.

Sure enough, after we took it down, it made the backyard seem a lot bigger.
We trimmed back the lemon tree in that corner too and now we like the
way it looks there.

Now we're shopping around to replace the filter, pump and heater. The
original equipment has been in use since 1981.

Falling Back

On Halloween night we had our usual low turnout of trick-or-treaters.

Only four groups showed up during the night.

That was fine. We were busy eating dinner and changing the channel

on the t.v.

We watched ND get an easy win over WSU, and USC get clobbered by Oregon.

We were also switching over to the World Series to see the Yankees beat the Phillies.

Our clocks were already set back and Aimee went to bed after the 8th inning.

Our final trick-or-treaters came in the 7th inning.

I stayed up to see the end of the game and was in bed by 9 o'clock (or 8 PST).

The time change doesn't seem to faze Rosebud at all. She has no trouble falling

asleep at any time of the day or night.

Irish Pumpkins

Halloween

We don't have any big plans for this weekend.

We have both had a very busy month and we'll be looking forward to sitting at home

watching the baseball and football on t.v.

Typically, we get very few visitors at the door on Halloween.

Maybe only three or four groups.

The Zoo

Aimee has been extremely busy at work lately. She has been bringing work home with her to do at night and on weekends, as well as getting up early to get into the office early.

Today, she took the day off to get a little rest.

But it was such a nice day that we went to the L.A. Zoo to spend a few hours there. The creature pictured here is a 350 pound tortoise. We got lucky because there were not a lot of people at the zoo today and the animals were a little livlier than we've seen them on previous visits. Even the tortoises were moving around on this hot and sunny day.

After we left the zoo, we had some food and a beer at a sports bar near our house and watched the last few innings of the Dodgers/Phillies game #2. (This bar is called Soup's Grill. It is owned by major league pitcher Jeff Suppan [pronounced soup-on] who grew up in the area).

After that we came home to watch the Yankees-Angels game #1. The game was over by 8:25 and Aimee was in bed by 8:30.

Saturday we will be home to watch the USC/ND game.

Gamewatch

Last Saturday, Aimee and I went to a Gamewatch.

The Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles sponsors two Gamewatch gatherings for every ND football game.

We saw the ND-Purdue game with about 50 or so Irish fans at a bar in Hollywood. It was a lot of fun, especially when ND pulled out the win at the end of the game. People in the place were so excited it was almost like being at the game.

This weekend, we'll probably watch the Washington game at home so Rosebud can join in.
Besides, I thought that place was way over-priced. Maybe next time we'll go to the other Gamewatch location near the beach.

Irish Loss

We watched the ND-Michigan game on Saturday and enjoyed an entertaining game until the end.
It seemed that ND was outcoached and the Irish gave away the game to a team they should have beaten.
Afterward, Charlie Weis blamed the refs for the loss even though he seemed to be doing all he could to make sure Michigan would win.

His players:
took unsportsmanlike conduct penalties
didn't know to let the last kickoff roll into the end zone
didn't know to kill the clock or call timeout on the last play of the game

That's all coaching.

Charlie:
failed to run out the clock with running plays toward the end
allowed Michigan to save their timeouts for the winning drive
gave them the ball with plenty of time on the clock
allowed the officials to take a second off the clock after the last kickoff
finished the game with an unused timeout

At halftime we thought the Irish were in control of the game.
The second half belonged completely to Michigan. Obviously,
the coaching adjustments made by Michigan were far better
than those made by the Irish.

It's too bad a great game was ruined by horrendous ND coaching.