Back to Work

Progress continues to be made on the backyard deck.

The framing is pretty much done and now the boards are being cut to size and laid in place. There are some steps here and there so we're making sure to have those areas well-lit. An electrician has been running lights throughout the deck area and installing those as the framing job was being finished.

Shouldn't be too much longer now (hopefully). Rosebud will be glad to have peaceful naps again without all the activity outside her window.

Taking a Break

 

We took a break from deck-building to spend a few days camping at Bass Lake.

 

As you can see from these pictures, the water level at the lake is way down these days and there are quite a few thirsty trees that are turning brown and dying off.

 

 

This 'beach' is normally underwater. Now it just makes it a longer walk for us when we want to go swimming.

In past years, the water would come right up to the base of these trees where we spend our afternoons.

The water level is down more than 20 feet since our first visit here in 2006. These boat docks are now nowhere near the water. This has become a familiar image throughout the state.

Fortunately, we could be headed for a wet winter and a break from the drought - or maybe not.

Backyard

Our long-awaited backyard renovation is finally underway.

We had been thinking for some time about building a deck in the back and last summer we spent a lot of time and effort working on a plan to build one. We worked with a landscape designer who helped us come up with some ideas on making over the whole backyard.

A month or two into the project the woman we hired left the country to go take care of her ailing mother in Germany. We continued to work with her partner on the plan but as the weeks went on it seemed the design was getting a little bit away from what we had in mind and it was also going to be pretty costly. So we made the decision to shelve the project until the spring and then manage it ourselves.

 

Over the fall and winter we had a bunch of trees removed and fixed up the front yard. The same crew who did those jobs came back this summer to build us a couple of retaining walls in the backyard. These guys did a great job in the heat moving almost 800 sixty pound blocks down from street level to build these walls.

 

There is another crew hard at work on building the deck. Aimee spent a lot of time working on drawings for the deck and it looks like it's going to be really nice.

Wine Trip

In May we made another trek up to the Central Coast for our now-annual wine tasting trip. The trip was originally planned to coincide with the birthday of one of the group. It also happens to fall on our wedding anniversary weekend. This year we were there on our tenth anniversary and it was a fun celebration.

We stopped at one winery mid-day for a picnic lunch and enjoyed some live music and barrel tastings of upcoming releases. Aimee had no trouble putting away that last chicken wing.

One winery let us check out the behind-the-scenes action and allowed us to sample some of their reserve vintages not yet available to the general public.

The Ranch

Here's Aimee meeting a good friend recently at Saddlerock Ranch. This is the place at Malibu Wines we went to last December for a Safari/Wine tasting tour.

I don't have a picture of Aimee and Stanley the giraffe unfortunately but he was the friendliest giraffe we have had the pleasure of meeting. He was more than happy to lower his head to allow us to pet him and say hi.

The winery had their annual members party at the ranch and we went and had a great time with good food, wine, live music and meeting some neat animals up close.

We have been very busy the last few months and look forward to sharing some of what we've been up to lately.

Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day for the spring/summer softball season. Aimee's Monday night team came up a little bit short in their first game. They are the defending champs in their league and they are the only team in the league that is not all-male. Her team got moved out of a co-ed league into a men's league before last season and they ended up winning the league!

In fact, three of Aimee's teams made it to the championship and two teams won the trophy. Her Friday night team (I'm also on the team) won the league by going undefeated. That's the one she is celebrating in these pictures.

Aimee also got invited to join a Sunday morning organized pickup game that has been going on for several years. Apparently they are very selective about who they let join their game and now Aimee is the only female player in the group.

 

One of the guys shoots video during the game and puts together a highlight reel each week. Here is the video from the first time that both Aimee and I played. You will see Aimee throw out a batter at first base from right field and she also makes a nice catch out there to end the game. I made a tagout on one of my teammates at home plate (each team provides the catcher while batting.)

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.