Front Yard

We have been working on some plans for the back yard but decided to start with the front yard first.

 A few months ago we had an ash tree removed that was growing very close to the house and had already caused us some plumbing problems with its roots.

Then, in this job, we removed another small tree and had the slope terraced with railroad ties and gravel.

After this picture was taken we planted a manzanita tree in the space above and hope to see that grow in front of the house over the years. Now it's on to the back!

Orange Season

We cut down several trees in the yard a few months ago and left only a few. The orange tree made the cut.

It has a brief season but produces large, juicy, sweet oranges. This is about the time of year when the season winds down for this particular tree. I'd say another two weeks worth of oranges left.

Lucky for us, Rosebud is not a huge orange fan.  More for us.

Asphalt Crew

Back in December, not long after they finished paving our street, we had the lip of our driveway smoothed out by an asphalt crew. Previously, there was a little bit of a 'bump' getting from the street onto the driveway, but now it is a much smoother transition.

Magic Castle

 

One of the things we got to do over the Christmas break was to pay a visit to the Magic Castle in Hollywood. We had attended a dinner party at Thanksgiving and one of the other guests turned out to be a comedian/magician who performs at the Magic Castle and is a member.

 

He said he was booked to perform the last week of December and to call him if we'd like to go. Of course, we took him up on it.

 

There were several different rooms with magicians performing throughout the night. All of them were top-notch and highly entertaining. We had a very good dinner and enjoyed the whole night.

Happy New Year

Here's Rosebud last week anticipating her traditional New Year's bath.

It came on the weekend a couple of days after the 1st. She was probably wondering what was taking so long.

We were just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit so she could enjoy her post-bath nap lying in the warm sun.



New Year's Day was a good one here. We were in bed early the night before and well rested to start the new year.

We spent the afternoon watching the Rose Bowl and enjoying the day.

Getty Villa

 

We had a nice visit to the Getty Villa while our visitors were here.

 

We got lucky with very nice weather the day we were there and it wasn't too crowded.

 

 

The pools have been empty this year due to the ongoing drought.but the grounds were in beautiful condition. In addition to viewing the collection, we took guided tours of the on-site architecture and gardens.

 

Houseguests





We had a full house last week with Maggie, mom, dad, Kristen and Jim staying with us for a long weekend.

This guy pictured above was one of the creatures we saw on our Safari Wine Tasting Tour at Malibu Family Wine's Saddlerock Ranch. We piled onto an open truck with 8 other people while a couple of guides led us on a tour of the property and an introduction to some of the animals there. We stopped a couple of times to feed them some carrots and take some pictures.

We also made a couple of stops to taste some of the label's wines. The weather was very nice, after some heavy rains, and we all had a good time.

Aimee met up with us a few minutes after this picture was taken. She didn't think riding on the safari truck was going to work out for her. We all spent an hour or so at the outdoor tasting room enjoying some snacks and live music with some more wine.

Tree Removal

After the big tree fell in the backyard we had some guys come to clean it up and haul it away. While they were here we had them cut down and haul away a number of other trees in the yard also.

We were planning on getting that work done in a few months anyway but we went ahead and got it all done at once.

We are planning on putting a deck in the backyard and some of these trees were either going to be in the way or were not the type of tree we want to have. There were also a couple of trees, like the one above, that were deemed too close to the house and so they had to come down also. One of those was right in front of the house and its absence gives the front a very different look.

Tricks But No Treats

This Happened

Yesterday we woke up to find that a large tree had fallen in our backyard.

This tree was located between our house and the neighbor's house. Fortunately it fell away from both houses and damaged only part of the fence between the two yards.

We had been planning on cutting down this tree in a couple of months anyway because it has been dying for years and needed to go. Since we have some other tree removal work pending, we were waiting to get everything done at once. No more waiting for this one.

This tree had been choked by a bougainvillea tree over the years that slowly did it in (before we moved in) and then termites are what finished it off.

Luckily, we were able to get a tree removal guy out here on Sunday. The street repairs would have prevented anyone from doing the work during the week.

Road Repair

We got some good news from the city that they are finally coming out to re-pave our street.

Some of our neighbors have lived here for decades and say that the street has been crumbling for many years. They thought this day would never come.

Driving on some parts of it is like off-roading. It's going to be great to have a 'new' street. The only thing some are worried about is people driving too fast now that the ride will be much smoother.

New Project

 

Aimee has spent the last year and a half or so working on a project in El Segundo. Her company was working with Chevron as they remodeled their refinery there. It was a different type of experience for Aimee and she enjoyed the challenge and everybody at Chevron loved working with her.

 

Now she has begun work on a new project in Orange County. A major tech firm is expanding their campus and Aimee is helping to manage that project. It is an important job for her company and they were eager to have her work on it.

 

It's too far to drive there and back each day so they pay for her to stay in a hotel a couple of nights each week. Fortunately she is able to work from home frequently and still gets every other Friday off.

This allows her to continue an ambitious softball schedule and the trips down to Orange County won't be required forever.

 

In the meantime, her company, URS, is in the process of being acquired by a similar firm AECOM. The combined company will be massive, the largest public company in Los Angeles. Hard to say how the merger will change things but, for now, Aimee is enjoying her work and doing a good job, as usual.

Champion Again

Here's Aimee with yet another championship trophy to add to her collection.

This was a very successful season for Aimee and her teams.  Her Monday night team won the championship for their league. Every player on the team gets a t-shirt for being on the winning team. One time Aimee counted up how many different t-shirts she had won and it was well over thirty.

Her Thursday night team won the playoffs and championship for their league. I also play on this team so we both picked up a shirt for that one. It's the same shirt for each league.

Yesterday her Sunday morning team wrapped up an undefeated season and won the championship without needing to win any playoff games. That meant yet another shirt.  Good thing both Lars and Mims are having a birthday this week. Each just got himself a new t-shirt.

Aimee also plays on a Sunday afternoon team in Burbank and that league wraps their season in two weeks. That team is also in first place and will be playing for a championship. If they win it will be a different t-shirt because it's a different city league.

The trophies go home with the manager of each team. That's good because we would never have room for all of that hardware.

Tee Time!

 

Here's Aimee refining her swing at the home of Ben Hogan Wine in Paso Robles. We were in the area recently with a small group that makes an annual weekend trip to several wineries there.

 

We always stop at this particular tasting room and try to blast a few golf balls into the vineyard.

 

New Pipe

When we bought our house we knew that the sewer line between the house and the street had some problems with tree roots. We ran a camera through it during the inspection process and discovered that the pipe had been infiltrated by roots and was starting to back up. 

Shortly after moving in we had the line blasted clean with high-pressure water (hydro-jet). It seems that this is a good way to clean the pipe, but only temporarily. The roots eventually grow back and the pipe gets backed up again. We had the pipe hydro-jetted again a little over a year later.

This year, the pipe was getting affected by roots again so we decided to do something about it once and for all. We had it cleaned out and then the rooter company shot a synthetic liner through the length of the pipe.  That is the white material you see above.

The result is like having a brand new pipe. The fiberglass liner hardens inside the old clay pipe and has no joints or seams that would allow roots to get back in. It comes with a 25 year warranty and will hopefully keep us from having to deal with this mess anymore.

Above, you can see the new connection and a new upright clean-out. We're glad we thought to have the sewer line inspected before we moved in. We didn't suspect there was a problem, I just wanted to have a camera inspection done so I could see it for myself. Forunately we were able to get some consideration from the sellers when the issue was brought to their attention.

Tire Trouble

 

Recently I had to get a new tire because the one in the picture above blew out on me while I was driving on the freeway. 

 

I was in the fast lane when it happened and had to make it all the way over to the right shoulder amid some fast moving traffic.  By the time I could safely get over there the tire was pretty well shredded.

 

Fortunately there was a shoulder to pull onto.  Many spots on this freeway don't have much room to pull over.  The guy from AAA appreciated a little bit of room to put on the spare.

 

That's one job I'd rather leave to someone else.

 

Aimee's Trip

Aimee is down South this week.

She went to visit with her mom and dad and Nils in Mableton. Her brother Lars also made the trip. They went to help out around the house while her mom had some doctors visits and a day in the hospital.

Sook apparently doesn't need a whole lot of help because as soon as she got home from the hospital she was back to her routine and trying to take care of a family of five again.

Back home, Rosebud and I are stuck with each other. I'm sure she's wondering when (if) Aimee will ever return. It's not nearly as fun or interesting for her with just me here. Fortunately, Aimee will be back on Saturday and the dog and I will both be thrilled to see her again.

Aimee's Awards

Last month Aimee was pleasntly surprised to receive an invitation to a company awards ceremony at which she was one of the honorees.

Aimee was being recognized for the outstanding work she has done in the last year while working on-site at a major project for Chevron.

She has represented the company very well and the client has been very happy to be working with Aimee. While this is typical for Aimee, she was still quite surprised to find out that she had been nominated for any awards and even more surprised to find out she won any awards

I wasn't surprised at all because I see how hard she works and I know that people always like working on projects with her. 

Unfortunately she was a little under the weather the day of the awards ceremony and was unable to attend.  They gave her a trophy, a medallion, a windbreaker, a Kindle Fire, a water bottle and a certificate.  Curiously, the certificate was dated January 2013 (we never quite figured out what happened there.)

 

A few days after she brought home the awards we had a pretty significant earthquake.  Not too many things moved around inside the house but the trophy did fall off a shelf onto a hardwood floor. It, and the floor, survived with no damage.

Shaker

We had a pretty good wakeup blast this morning. Both of us happened to already be out of bed (and out of the house) when it happened.

Normally when you are driving during an earthquake you don't feel it, but Aimee just happened to be driving (very slowly) on the freeway right near the epicenter of this quake. It was a shallow quake and Aimee felt her car get pushed around by the force.

Back at the house, I came home later to find only a couple of things had fallen down and no visible damage. I imagine it was a pretty good bump here and Rosebud was probably not too cool with that interrupting her morning nap.

New Year

Sorry it's been awhile since we last posted. We are still here and still doing well.

Both of us have been very busy so far this new year. We've also been going to bed very early in order to get enough sleep.

Aimee did have time to work on a couple of projects around the house.


Here is a coffee table she made for the living room.  She got the idea from seeing one in a magazine and she was able to make one herself.  The table is made from assembling four crates.

Merry Christmas

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.  We did.

We have been enjoying some time off and looking forward to Aimee being home all of next week.
She has been busy with some projects around the house and expects to be wrapping up some of that work during her break.

The weather here has been summer-like and Rosebud and I enjoyed a lengthy Christmas day hike.
She slept well that night.  Actually, she sleeps well all the time.

Christmas Time

Here is the lovely wreath that has been hanging on our front door the last couple of weeks.  It was a gift from the Deaks and gives a nice smell every time we enter or exit the house.

Aimee has a few days off this week and she is taking off all of next week.  We are looking forward to the downtime and are ready to relax and enjoy the nice weather.

A few of the neighbors are coming over for a bit on Sunday evening.  We are lucky to have some very nice people on our street and we have become friends with many of them.

Hopefully you have a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.  Aimee and I are very grateful for continued good health and good luck.  Rosebud feels the same way I'm sure. 

Bird Day

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  It was just the two of us and instead of cooking a turkey like we did last year when we had three guests we roasted a 5 lb. chicken.

It took a lot less cooking time and tasted great!  We're still finishing off the leftovers.

Rosebud loved the smell filling the house and she got to enjoy the giblets added to her food bowl.
Thanksgiving is Rosebud's anniversary with us.  We picked her up the day after Thanksgiving in 2006 when she was just over a year old.  We're strongly considering keeping her.

Game Night

Last Friday night Aimee and I went to a UCLA game at the Rose Bowl.

We met with six other people before the game for some tail-gating.  At the Rose Bowl they park all the cars on the golf course that is adjacent to the stadium.  This makes for a good tail-gating experience for the fans (probably not so great for the fairways).

It was a 6pm kickoff and we got there around 3.  We enjoyed some food and beverages on the golf course for a couple of hours before the game.  Aimee grabbed a football and showed everybody how to throw a tight spiral.

UCLA defeated Washington and all of the Bruin fans were very happy.  Aimee and I are not UCLA fans but we wanted to go to a game and we had a great time.

A Trick - No Treats!

As usual our Halloween was a quiet one.  We didn't even bother getting anything to hand out this year since we don't expect trick-or-treaters on our street.  It's too dark and hilly for little kids.

I did enjoy this video from last year's Halloween, though.  And this video from two years ago.

And the one from this year.