Reality my foot!!! I call it Blurred...

It’s become ‘real’ to us who work in the housing related industry as well as those who have bought houses with ‘unreal’ mortgages or those trying to buy houses…we now live in more difficult times…it’s hard to forget the 6 day work week we’ve had for the past seven or eight years…now I find myself working four or five days a week instead of six, coming in later in the morning and leaving earlier than ever before…and enjoying work less and less…

It’s common now for me to get home at 5:30 instead of 7:00, eat dinner and watch a few TV shows, all the time reading a good book and trying to find a new program…the writers’ strike has put a halt to almost all good shows…

’reality’ shows have popped up and for the hell of it we watched “Bruno vs. Carrie Ann – The Dance Wars” last night…I’m almost ashamed to admit we watched it for fifteen minutes…what a bunch of crapola…a few nights before we watched American Gladiator, men and women, trying to maim each other…and it all sucks big time! I’ve been reading more and going to bed earlier and earlier…
During lunch today I went to Barnes and Noble at the Galleria in Riverside, not exactly a real galleria, but nice for the 951’ers and it’s close to my office …I bought a few new best sellers to read this week…
But talk about real luck… I’ll have to put a new book aside for a while tonight to watch one of our favorite shows and it’s a NEW episode of ’House’. Call me old…call me simple…

Golfin’ pneumonia and the playing hookie flu…

The Lakes Course

The Desert Course

At our office we have cable TV and a huge computer screen gizmo in our conference room where we make presentations to clients (when we’re not watching the Golf Channel)…some clients like to come in on golf tournament days…I call it playing hookie with clients…

Big golf tournament this weekend…starts on Thursday…
Tiger and Phil Mikkelson will play in their first tourneys this year…it just isn’t as much fun when these two guys are not playing…

Then on Super Bowl Sunday morning I’ll be playing in an annual golf tournament with a group of landscape architects, contractors and suppliers…I should get home by 2:00 to watch the game…
Donas may watch TV and shop that day…and, if she’s gone when I get home, she will have chips, chili, hot dogs, Sam Adams, additional munchies and dessert for me…life is great…she is great…

And then…For the past 15 years one of my long time home building clients has had an annual golf tournament at Primm Valley Golf Courses at Stateline, Nevada... there’s usually a group of 16 or 20 golfers invited, made up of some of their consultants and key employees for two days of splendor, like hitting balls out of sand bunkers and retrieving balls from the water at two courses fittingly named the Desert and the Lakes Courses…it’s sometimes cold and windy but I bring along a flask or two of warm sipping stuff…
In the past I’ve gone alone with the guys, most of them loving to gamble, which isn’t in my blood… This time I’ll be going to Las Vegas with Donas and her sister Kathy…Donas and Kathy will do a little shopping and visiting a niece and nephew living in town…. Kathy gambles and may spend two days and nights at the same table …we don’t gamble and will spend time eating at excellent eateries in the hotels and shopping at the upscale outlet mall next door to our hotel… I shop for neat golf stuff I know I need…the gals shop for stuff they didn’t know they needed…

JUST FOR "SUNNY"

When Sunny was 3, with cousins Logan and Thatcher...was she cute or what? and the boys too...

WOW...Can you believe Sunny will be 8 years old tomorrow?

Bum and I send our best wishes to you for this HAPPY day...we all miss you and wish we could be with you to celebrate...

We hope you get lots of presents, not clothes, but fun stuff to play with...

but most of all I hope Bum didn't forget to mail you a present!!!

Love you a lot...Papa

timeanddate.com

Some of you genius types have probably already found this site but,

For the correct time make this a favorite and just click...it's way faster than when we had to dial a phone number...

Alpha numeric soup

Numbers are taking precedence over old conventional names. Carmakers say they sound classier.
Last November, Mark Fields, Ford Motor Co.'s executive vice president, took the stage at the L.A. Auto Show "to show the new flagship sedan, the Lincoln MKX." Oops. Fields quickly corrected himself because he wasn't introducing the MKX, a luxury sport utility vehicle, but the MKS, a luxury sedan that will come out this summer. The gaffe wasn't surprising, considering that Lincoln also produces the MKZ, has a concept car called the MKR and is set to debut the MKT, another concept car, in Detroit this month.

If a guy like Fields can trip up, one can only imagine what could happen to the ordinary motorist who is checking out the 2008 models from Cadillac -- CTS, DTS, XLR, STS, XRS, XLR, ESV and EXT -- or Lexus -- LS, GS, ES, IS, SC, LX, GX and RX -- or Volvo -- S40, S60, S80, V50, V70, XC70, XC90, C30 and C70.Where are the Gremlins of yesteryear? Or the El Dorados, for that matter? They are history."Blame BMW and Mercedes, which set the bar for naming luxury cars with their decades-old alphanumeric nameplates -- BMW with the 3 Series, 5 Series and 7 Series; Mercedes with the C-, E- and S-


How do you like alphanumeric car names?

I'm sure alpha numeric cars will be forgotten and cars with names will be remembered.

Hawaiian Happy Holidays

I finally had time to transfer photos to computer...

Photos are of Sunny and Thea happily playing chess right before the fight broke out...

others are of them in pool at the fantastic house we rented...

and a photo of a rainbow...taken looking at the Pacific from the Big Island...

Mahalo

2008 New Year’s resolutions…

I wish you all a Happy New Year…

Resolutions or delusions?

Stay up past midnight new year’s eve 2008
Stop watching old John Wayne movies on TV
Play with my kids more…
Have my wife take a pottery class
Split more dinners with her
Change my negative aspects and be kind
Read at least 24 books
Try to drive past a gym at least once a week
When house guests stay late tell them we’re going to bed and to tidy up the kitchen on their way out
Lose 15 pounds…walk after dinner as much as I can…especially when it gets warmer
Read manuals for old and new electronic stuff I have or will buy
Get my photos organized
Play more golf and walk instead of riding a cart…once in a while…
I will blog more (or less)…I haven’t decided yet…probably less…
I will quit being so serious