Glue Troubles

This weekend we were cleaning the garage and transfering some of the things we have in cardboard boxes into plastic containers. While going through the boxes we found that a few had been dripped on by a type of glue that had been stored above the boxes. The pictures I've included give a small taste of what everything looked like. The main box that was affected had our dishes in it. Thank goodness the glue came off after being washed in warm water. The tuperware we just threw away.

Below is the plate that was on the bottom of the box. In this picture I've almost got the cardboard box off.


In the picture below, I've finally got the box off. I then brought it into the house where some warm water helped me get the rest of the mess off the plate.


In this picture is some of the stuff that couldn't be saved.


This is where the boxes had been stored. You can still see some of the glue on the ground with bits of cardboard still attached.

Emilio's Bike Broke

On Sunday we went on a bike ride and saw a really big bob cat. It was really cool. :)

What wasn't so cool is that Emilio's whole pedal fell off. I think that Jake called it the crank shaft. This is not just the pedal, but the whole arm also. It happened when we had gone quite a ways and had no way to make a repair.

Now think about it, how do you make the bike move without a pedal on one side? Luckily, Jake fits on Emilio's bike and he has shoes that lock in. So he locked in and did a push/pull type of thing all the way back to the car, and went just as fast as we usually do. It was quite impressive. So now we've got the get Emilio's new bike fixed. Poor Emilio was not very happy about the whole thing. And after having to wait three weeks to ride his new bike! What a let down. :(

But we had fun anyway, and next week we'll have to go on a longer ride.

Flooded Garage

This morning I went to the garage to move my stuff into the dryer and saw that the floor was flooded. The drain on the washer wasn't in the correct spot. :(

The only thing that was really damaged is our Cal King Bed that we had stored away. We had two sheets of plastic on it and it still got wet. I'm not sure if we are going to be able to salvage it. Looks like $1000 down the drain.

Jake pointed out that maybe we just weren't meant to have that particular bed. It's the same one that Seven peed on when she accidentally got locked in the house.

So we had a fun morning of trying to clean out the garage. Ya right.

Burned Truck

This lovely truck was parked at the end of our street for about a week before it was finally taken away.

Seven's Accomplishments

Seven has started killing lots of mice lately.

Poor Little Baby Bunny

Today as I was driving into work I saw a baby bunny sitting in the street not moving as cars drove by, so I parked the car and walked back to it. It actually seemed to be somewhat OK, so I put it in the grass and it didn't really move much. I took it to the grass where all the bunnies seem to live and it didn't really move and kind of fell over at some point. I thought maybe it's leg wasn't doing very well so I packed him up and took him to my office thinking about how a could find a box and give him water and food.

On the way to my office he started to gasp for air. I set down my stuff and ran for the outdoors, but just as I was getting outside he seemed to have a bit of a seizure and then didn't move again. :( I put him in the trash and that was it.

Poor little bunny. I wish I could have done more.

Offer on our House

We actually got an offer on our house yesterday and sent back a counter offer today. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Wendy's Visit and Grandma's Get-Together

I feel very guilty for going so long without mentioning Wendy's visit. I think she stole all of the good pictures anyway. And from my camera! We had a really good time. I wish she could visit more often. I'll have to see if she left me with anything original to post.

Grandma's get-together was fun. I hadn't seen most of my family in years, so it was fun and interesting to catch up on what everyone is doing. We were at my mom and Jim's house so all the kids had a blast in the pool. They kept asking when they could next come back. I only vaguely remember having that much energy when I was younger.

WLAC Incident

Last week, there was a strange incident at West Los Angeles Community College. A student signed in to talk to a counselor and when I called her name she let me know that she didn't need any counseling but was trying to get away from a guy who had been following her since she arrived on campus. She had completed everything that she needed to do and wanted to go home, but he was still following her, talking to her and touching her. She was scared that he was going to do something bad to her and even started crying. Poor thing!

I ended up taking her out of the back of the building and walked her to her car. On the way there we saw the guy and had to detour to stay away from him. I finished walking her to her car and waited until she'd driven away. I then kept a very close eye out to make sure he didn't come back to me mad that I'd gotten her away from him.

When I got back to the office I called the police to let them know but they said they couldn't do anything since nothing had really happened.

What's interesting is that the next day I got an e-mail at Cal Poly that was sent to the entire campus saying that if we see anybody suspicious or who doesn't belong or is doing anything odd, let them know immediately. I think this came about because of the Virginia shootings. But what a difference between WLAC and Cal Poly. Kind of interesting.

Yikes

This morning I was in auto mode and almost ran into the neighbors car. I'm going to blame it on the pouring rain since I should not have been so oblivious. It's been two days and the car pictured below is still there. I reversed down the driveway, looked to the left and YIKES, the side of my car was about an inch from the other car's bumper. Like Melissa said in her comment, I really do need to go talk to them.

My iPod is Broken

Lately I've been exercising a lot more. I've probably been exercising an hour about four days a week. So far I haven't really noticed a change in my weight, but I suppose I feel a bit more healthy. I don't know how long this is going to last. It takes a really long time to get ready, go, and then take a shower and change afterwards. I'm also going through a lot more clothes and doing a lot more laudry than I used to. I'm hoping I will continue, but I guess I'll see. So far it's been about three weeks.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to need a new music player. My ipod isn't really working anymore. It will start to work, and then not work suddenly, and then work, and then not work... you get the picture. Anyway, I can't figure out what I want to do. I really need some form of player, because to me exercise sucks if I don't have a book on tape or music to keep me entertained.

I spoke to someone who knows about these things and he said that I might want to get an ipod mini I think their called? He said that they don't have hard drives and are made for more athletic people because they won't break as easily. The biggest I've seen is 8GB at just over $200. But the problem is that I don't really want to get an ipod. I'd like to get something that doesn't require you to put music into their format. But I don't know of any other really good MP3 players. Anyone have any good ideas? I'd better start doing some research.

Neighbors Blocking Driveway

The neighbors have gotten really bad about blocking our driveway. It's happened too often lately. Last night I got home and was able to squeeze in and this morning I was able to squeeze out, but still, come on. Are they really that oblivious? Do they really not understand neighbor etiquette? It's really not that hard.... Thou shalt not block your neighbor's driveway!

Bike Riding

Last week West Los Angeles College was on spring break so I went on a bike ride on that black top trail in the foothills. This time I went up to that really steep part at the end and it wasn't as bad as I remembered. It turns out that there is a helicopter pad at the top of the hill which was pretty cool. I've never had the opportunity to see one up close before - although really it was just black top.

After the ride I was driving back down the hill and had an opportunity to do a good deed. It's a really windy downhills road for about 15 miles and I passed a van with a person inside holding a sign that said "out of gas". I think I'd seen the same van at 4:30pm when I went up the hill and it was now about 7:00pm so I decided to see if I could help. I stopped by the gas station at the bottom of the hill, filled up one of their containers and brought it back for them. They were very grateful for the help and called me an angel. :)

It was a good bike riding day.

Jake's B-Day

Tonight we are going to see an Angel's baseball game. It's Jake's birthday and that's what he wanted to do tonight. We are going out with Alan and Emilio. We are currently sitting in Alan's apartment having some drinks. It is 7:52 and the game started about an hour ago, but we are waiting for Jake to get off the phone. People have been calling him nonstop to wish him a happy birthday. We are HUNGRY and are missing the game - not that I should be complaining since I don't really like baseball anyway. So, we continue to wait.

The Weekend

Last Thursday I stayed home because I had a sore throat. Since Friday was a holiday, I had a straight four days off this weekend. That was kind of nice. The only negative is that I didn't see my calendar for the weekend since my Thursday off was unexpected and I forgot about Melissa's sister's baby shower. I felt really bad. I remembered sometime on Saturday afternoon and called Melissa to apologize and she didn't call back. I'm hoping that she's not mad. Hint, hint Melissa. Sorry I forgot. :(

Anyway, besides going to the Ritz on Saturday night and bike riding on Sunday, Alex and I also went on a hike when I picked him up from work on Friday. We went to a place that we went to a few times when we were kids. It turns out that it's only about one exit away from our place in Pasadena. Things have changed a little bit on the hike, but it was still a good little bit of exercise.

My Day Off

On Tuesday I took a day off from work to get some stuff done.

First, I went to have my passport taken care of since there is a possibility that we might be going to Singapore this summer. It ended up costing about $200! Thank goodness I only need to do that every 10 years. Jake and I want to go to Hawaii and Canada as well this summer, but it sounds expensive to go running around the world for three weeks, so I'm not positive we'll be able to afford all three places. I do know that I will be going to Hawaii for at least a few days for a conference. And for those of you who might be thinking about our last trip to Hawaii, yes, that also was for a conference. And yes, I have also gone to Florida and Canada on conferences. Now everyone is going to think my job is easy with vacation/conferences galore. I guess it's not a bad deal when I think about it.

The second thing I did yesterday was go to the assessor to get a floor plan for our property. The icky inspector who I had mentioned in a previous blog has struck again. By the way, his name is Richard - very appropriate if you think of the nickname. Anyway, he made a comment in our records which reads "Bootlegged house behind main house built 2005 - no permits". Now, the thing is, our property is and has always been a duplex. It's on all the records everywhere (inspectors office and assessor). It's even in their own office. So now I have to go back to Richard's office with the plans for the second house that date back to the 1950s and try to get this taken care of. I might just have to kill somebody.

The third thing I did was go on a bike ride. I was rather proud of myself that I went out by myself and went. It took some motivation. Mom and Wendy will probably remember that black top trail in the foothills that we used to visit with the stream by the trail. It was just as nice as I remembered, and although not challenging (which is good since I was by myself and wouldn't want to be hurt in the wilderness with no one around and a cell phone out of service range), it was still good exercise and felt good.

Lastly, we went to see the movie 300 in an IMAX theater. It was good, and I'm glad that we went. For some reason the goriness didn't bother me very much and it wasn't scary either, but it had a neat look to it.

So that was my day off. We don't have students this week since we are in between quarters, so I feel like I've been on vacation. It feels good.

Just Random Stuff

I don't have much to say, except that I've been pretty busy lately. We've had members of Jake's family staying over the last two weekends, which is fun, but takes up a lot of time.

We also had an open house last weekend. I think the house is finally at a good price. We were above what we should have been at before. Too bad we didn't try to sell a few months earlier. Oh well.

I haven't done a whole lot with my new job yet. I'm still doing a lot of the old stuff, but things are slowly sliding my way that deal with the new position. It's actually felt like a pretty good transition.

We haven't been mountain biking in about three weeks which is quite depressing, but between jobs and family, it's hard to find the time. :(

Mostly I've been reading like crazy - I'm in one of my phases right now and cleaning off my book shelves. I've always just thrown a book on the shelf when it was done, so I'm trying to read through them all. Once I'm done reading I mark it either as a "Keep" or a "Donate". So far it's working very well, and I feel like I'm making good progress getting rid of some that I wouldn't really want to read again. Pretty interesting to actually feel like I'm accomplishing something while reading, since usually I feel a bit guilty since I could be doing something else.

Not much else to report, and I'd better go since I've got a student I need to help.

San Jose - February 2007

I can't believe how few pictures I got last weekend. These are the only ones that I could find that were good enough to post. I'm seriously lagging in my picture taking. I think I've come to depend too much on Emilio doing the picture taking for me. I wonder if he got any good shots?

Las Vegas and the 80s Party

Last weekend we went to Las Vegas for Diane's brother-in-laws 40th Birthday. We had a great, relaxing time. When we got there someone mentioned what they were wearing to the party that night and I belatedly remembered that it was supposed to be an 80s party and that we were supposed to wear 80s clothing and hair styles, so I ran to the store and bought an outfit at ROSS. It wasn't the best look, and I really wish I'd had more time because it was so fun trying to figure out what to wear. I ended up with a jean skirt, white lace stockings, an off the shoulder shirt with sequins, big earrings, and crimped, heavily hair sprayed hair. It sounds better when I'm typing it than what I actually ended up looking like. So of course I didn't end up getting a picture but will post one when I can borrow one from someone else.

Diane's sister bought lots of 80s candy also, and Boones Farm alcohol (typical alcohol drink of young people at that time). She had dip sticks - remember using the white stick, licking it and dipping in the powder that would then stick to the stick? She had pop rocks, candy cigarettes, and those wax bottles with a bit of Koolade type liquid inside. She also had those papers that have the candies stuck to them - some pink, yellow, and blue that you peel off to eat. It really brought back some memories. And of course the music was 80s all night long. Good times.

So that was my great weekend, and next weekend we're going up to San Jose. I can't wait!

Night Mountain Biking

Tonight we went mountain biking. I'm hoping that it will make me a better rider during the day. I'm usually super cautious thinking that I might hit a hole and fall when we go out riding, but tonight I couldn't see very well at all and I never even felt a little bit like I might fall. Jake went through a mud puddle and almost went down, but that was it. So that leaves me thinking, maybe I'm too cautious during the day. Maybe I don't have to be so concerned about falling.

The reason we decided to go is that we've only been going on weekends, but we're busy for 2 weekends in a row and can't go. So if we really want to keep up our endurance, we've got to make time during the week, even if it means riding in the dark.

To sum it all up, we had a good time. :)

I Got the Job!

Some good news! I finally heard from Human Resources with an offer for the new College Advising Center Coordinator position. I'm still not exactly sure what I will be doing since this is a completely new position, but I'm just hoping that it will be different enough to keep me interested for at least another couple of years. So I'm kind of excited and nervous all at the same time. Wish me luck!

Another good thing that happened yesterday (besides the job offer) is that I received a carpool sticker. I had always assumed that I couldn't have one since Jake and I don't arrive on campus together, but it turns out that since we drive over 51% of the way together, I can still have a sticker. Now, this might not seem like a big deal to everyone, but it will probably cut off almost 5 minutes from my walk to my office. It's too bad that I won't get as much exercise, but I'm usually carrying a lot of heavy stuff, including my lunch and lap top. It's also going to be nice if it's too hot or cold outside since I won't be exposed to the elements as long.

So those were a couple of good things from as extremely busy and stressful week. Luckily, I have Monday and Tuesday off. Jake has a conference in San Diego so I'm going to go stay at the hotel with him. I'm envisioning days of sleeping in, reading lazily in bed while Jake is at the conference, and then hitting the town at night. Good times!

My Interview #2 and Warm Weather

I found out today that I have to go back for a second interview next week. I guess that me and one other person are both possibilities for the job. Last time this same thing happened, I didn't get the position, so I'm a little bit unhappy that I have to go back.

Too bad I'm not fantastic at interviews. It would be great if I could shine just a little bit more, but woe is me, I guess they just aren't one of my strengths. So wish me luck, even though I don't go back until next Wednesday. Yuck!

By the way, today I got into my car at 3pm and it was 87 degrees outside. I was sweating and had to keep my air on as low as possible for the first 15 minutes of the drive. Kind of strange compared to Sarah with snow falling at her house in Oregon. Of course, we've been thoroughly enjoying the great weather. Jake and I have gone bike riding the last two weekends with our friends, Alan and Emilio. It's been great fun and exercise all rolled into one. I'm really going to be sad when it starts to rain more. Maybe we can just ride in the rain?

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we went to Las Vegas where Diane's parents live. We went out to the strip one of the nights before New Years. We usually only hang out at the strip one night when we go to Vegas; the rest of the time we stay home and relax, play games, watch movies, or play disc golf.

On New Years Eve we all hung out at the house. There is a fantastic view of the stip from their balcony.

Christmas Party Pictures

Around Christmas time we had a party at our place. Everyone seemed to have a really good time. Wendy and Jeff posted a few pictures on their blog since they were able to make it to the party during the early hours. We also had a stocking decorating contest so I've included a picture of some of the stockings as well.

My Interview

Today I got to work thinking that I had my interview for the new College Advising Center Coordinator tomorrow. Sometime in the morning I walked into the Dean's office and found out that it was actually today.... Good thing I wasn't dressed too badly.

Anyway, it went pretty much as well as it could have, so I'm pretty happy about the whole thing. Usually I feel like I'd rather have a root canal than go to an interview and I was really nervous the whole morning, but thank goodness it's over and I can only wait now to see what happens.

I'll keep you posted once I find out if I got the new position.

Man Changing His Last Name After Marriage

For goodness sake, maybe I am a feminist, because this type of stuff really pisses me off. A man should be able to choose his wife's last name just as easily as the wife would be able to change hers. This is absolutely wrong!

Twin Video

Interesting video about twins.

Alex as an Alter Boy

Alex's mother and grandparents are very religious Catholics and Alex attends church every Saturday and Sunday. We went to his church on Saturday night to see Alex as an alter boy for the first time. We also went to his church a year or two ago when he took his first communion. It's kind of interesting to see how things are a little bit different than what I am used to from the churchs I've attended.

The two pictures below were taken after the service.

A Couple Christmas Pictures

I've gotten some complaints about the length of time since my last post, and for that I apologize. It also turns out that today is the first moment I've had to post and I don't have my pictures with me today. Jake is switching out my hard drive and they've been stored on our external hard drive. I hope to have them within the next few days. This means that most Christmas pictures will be posted at a later date.

I do happen to have just a couple taken on my camera at Christmas which I have posted below.

Jake and Grandma Sara


Micah

Jeff

Melissa

A New Battery - Hooray

Jake and I actived our cell phones (different types) on Jan. 29th, 2006 and my phone is still within warranty, but lately it had been working horribly. It has slowly over the last few months held a charge for less and less time. By this week it would last maybe an hour after saying it was fully charged - if I didn't use it. It would only last about 1-2 minutes if I was talking on the phone. There were quite a few times that I would sit in my car with the phone plugged into the charger just so that I could talk to people. Pathetic. And it happened so gradually that I kept thinking it must be my imagination and that really I wasn't keeping track properly. Or maybe it was because I leave my phone on in the daytime when I'm at work where I don't get service. I didn't know.

So finally I realized that I had to do something. It just wasn't working. And for those of you who might wonder why this is a big deal, I don't have a home phone, and even if I did, I'm never home - so this is basically my only way to communicate with others.

Anyway, I called the phone manufacturer (LG) and explained the situation. They said it would take about three weeks to diagnose the problem. They told me to mail them my phone, but sorry, they can't give me a replacement during that time. They suggested that I ask Verizon if they could provide a replacement. There is NO WAY that I could lose my phone for what would likely be a month, so I decided to go into Verizon so they could verify whether the problem is the battery. If it was, I would buy a new battery, send LG the old one to get it fixed, and then I would have two batteries.

I took the phone in to Verizon, and the girl immediately told me that the battery had been recalled, showed me that it was bulging, and gave me a new battery IMMEDIATELY right then! I can't even explain how happy that made me. I just don't have time in life to deal with crap like that and I appreciated Verizon making the switch so easy. I know, I know, I'm much too busy if I almost told the Verizon employee that I loved her just because she gave me a new battery, but I really was thrilled.

My phone is now back to normal, lasting a really long time, not requiring itself to be plugged in constantly. Hooray for new batteries!

Guns Are Scary

Early this week I was almost to my workplace when I saw a cop speading by with it's lights on. It slowed down and looked at two guys standing at the bus stop and then sped away again. The guys looked confused about what had just happened. I was curious also.

Up ahead was another cop car with police out standing next to some people. The first car I mention sped toward them, then stopped suddenly and the guys got out and went toward some thick bushes. By the time I reached the scene up close (that's where I turn right), I could clearly see what they were doing from about 15-20 feet away from me. One cop grabbed a guy who appeared to be hiding in the bushes and pushed him to ground. They must have told him to put his hands behind his back because that's what he did. The second cop drew his gun and had it pointed at the guy on the ground.

It was very strange and somewhat surreal to see all this before I turned the corner. By the way, it's the corner that leads directly onto our campus. I have a hunch that maybe he was trying to break into the cars in that area since students park along that street when they don't want to pay for a parking permit.

Anyway, kind of a strange thing to see on my way to work.

Elvis Sighting

We saw Elvis on Wednesday night and he was awesome. Looked JUST like him (haha). Seriously, this guy loved entertaining. He took a long break today the middle of the night and walked around the place visiting and taking pictures. I'm pretty sure everyone he talked to bought him a drink, because he was pretty happy by the second time he took the stage.

Assisted Suicide

Let's say that you are in extreme pain and agony. Life has become torture and all you can think about every waking moment is putting an end to all. Then the government steps in and says you can't help yourself to die early. We want you to extend your pain and suffering as long as possible. And no one better help you to die early, to help end your suffering, or we'll put them in jail.

I think Oregon sets a good example on how this could be handled. Here are the requirements to participate in their Death with dignity act. "The patient must meet certain criteria to be able to request to participate in the Act. Then, the following steps must be fulfilled: 1) the patient must make two oral requests to the attending physician, separated by at least 15 days; 2) the patient must provide a written request to the attending physician, signed in the presence of two witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to the patient; 3) the attending physician and a consulting physician must confirm the patient's diagnosis and prognosis; 4) the attending physician and a consulting physician must determine whether the patient is capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him/herself; 5) if either physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired by a psychiatric or psychological disorder (such as depression), the patient must be referred for a psychological examination; 6) the attending physician must inform the patient of feasible alternatives to the Act including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control; 7) the attending physician must request, but may not require, the patient to notify their next-of-kin of the prescription request. A patient can rescind a request at any time and in any manner. The attending physician will also offer the patient an opportunity to rescind his/her request at the end of the 15-day waiting period following the initial request to participate."

Also, they must meet these criteria, "The law states that, in order to participate, a patient must be: 1) 18 years of age or older, 2) a resident of Oregon, 3) capable of making and communicating health care decisions for him/herself, and 4) diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six (6) months. It is up to the attending physician to determine whether these criteria have been met."

This isn't a new issue, but one that I was reminded of lately. Oregon obviously has this well thought out and it's a solid way to make sure people are of sound mind and have made a choice that they really believe in. What I don't understand is why people would force their own beliefs on someone else. A person doesn't have to think that it's something they would do themselves, but why stand in the way of someone who wants to end their suffering? I just don't get it.

Diane's Story About a Speeding Santa Float

My friend, Diane, told me that last week she was on the phone when she suddenly heard sirens and lots of noise. She is on the second floor of her apartment complex and has a great view of the street, so she went to look out the window and what did she see?

A Santa's float speeding by with cop cars chasing behind. There was also a firetruck and ambulance that went by afterward. And to top it all off, there was a helicopter in on the action as well.

Now I'm not one for watching pursuits on TV, but this is one that would have been hilarious to watch. Who in their right mind runs from the cops in a Santa float? This scene could have been taken from a good comedy. Too bad there wasn't time to get a picture. :)

At Family Feud

This was us outside the Family Fued building waiting to get in.

This is a picture that I took of the set on the way out.