The Birthday Boys

We all got together Wednesday evening to celebrate Ron and David's Birthdays at the Northwood's Inn. We had a great time telling old stories from working at Piller's. Everyone ordered halibut which was delicious. Excuse these photos, my digital camera's batteries went out and I had to use my cell phone camera.

Our 26th Anniversary

It was our 26th wedding anniversary yesterday but first I had to pick up the faucet parts I ordered from George's Plumbing then finish installing them on my mom's unit.
We both got dressed up for dinner and went to Beckham Grill. Lynne looked beautiful in her new outfit. We had a great meal. I had braised short ribs and Lynne had filet of sole. We ended up with yogurt at 21 Choices then off to Terry's for a short visit before returning home.

Blog Day Afternoon...

Busy busy day...Out the door at 8:15 to take the Rav4 into the shop for a major service plus I had problems with idling on startup. I walked back to Hudson which took about an hour and a half to walk the almost 6 mile distance because I stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. When I got back to Hudson, I checked out the wall furnace in the front house for a reported gas smell which turned out to be false, then noticed that the front door wasn't locking. After fixing the door locking problem, I took the Zuumer and headed for the market to get some fruit and then to the video store for a movie. Craig was supposed to pick me up on Hudson at 12:30 to take me to get the Rav4. About a half hour earlier, Rose from Toyota called to tell me there were other problems they found and that if I wanted to do the timing belt and water pump and a bunch of other things, it would be ready at 4:00 instead of 12:30. I called Craig back and told him that I was going to take the bicycle back to get the Rav4 and that I didn't need him to take me. It took me a half hour to drive the bike there. Then I drove the Rav4 back to Hudson, got the truck, and drove back to Toyota to pick up the bike.
Today was also the first HOA meeting which we had at 7:00 PM at Jeannie's office. Only Mr. Hardiman and Inez showed up. It turned out successful because we passed the painting option. The whole complex will be painted by next spring.

Mike the Fireman

We got a surprise Saturday morning. There was a knock at the door and who was it? Mike, Diane's old boyfriend had juat come over to show us his new "wheels". It was quite a surprise considering we have not seen him at all for about 9 years. He purchased the old South Pasadena fire truck from a national auction for only $2000. It's in great shape and everything on it works. He ran the siren and horn which immediately brought out the neighbors with their kids to come over to see it. I told him if I have a fire, I'll call him first...he laughed.

Landlord's night out...

This is the first time we've ever been invited to dinner at one of our tenants apartments. They are a nice couple from Italy who just recently moved into one of the units on Hudson. He has a doctor's degree in computing and works at JPL. She is a biologist and works at Cal Tech.
We had a great dinner and great time. We told them we have to take them out to Buca di Beppo since they have never been there before. It was kind of strange but nice to be eating dinner in the front house apartment where I used to temporarily live back in the 70's.
I just have to mention how impressed we were at the way the table was set. It looked like the cover of Good Housekeeping Magazine. We started with appetizers: sliced zuchinni mixed with spices, olive oil, and capers. There were bowls with small slices of Italian cheese, olives, and small pieces of bread with tomatoes and spices on top.
The main entree was spinach pasta fettucini with marinara sauce. I had two helpings it was so good. After that came a plate of asperagus and cheese crepes and a romaine lettuce salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, and a wine vinegar and olive oil dressing. For desert there were slices of fresh pineaple topped with small dollups of whipping cream, a gillato vanilla fudge ice cream, and to finish everything off, a fresh home brewed espresso. All in all, one of the best dinners we have ever had. Thank you Giangi and Paola.

The Bludude

Wood came into town to show me his new Mini. It was great. I'm glad he got the "S" version. We went to the Apple store and walked around Old Town for a while.

My 60th

What a day...I started out working on one of the Hudson units because the tenant wanted the slow shower drain fixed, the air conditioner cord to be able to be plugged in without having to leave the door open, and to fix the shower room doors so they could be closed all the way. I had just started these tasks when David called to wish me "Happy Birthday". I put him on speaker phone and finished two of the problems while the conversation continued. I asked him if he wanted to go out with us (Diane, Loni, Terry, Lynne and me) to Beckham Grill for my 60th birthday. He said he would, but we all ended up at Houston's because Beckham Grill didn't have the fish that Lynne wanted. I had the rib eye steak that Loni recommended...it was great. We all had a great time at Houston's. After Diane and Loni left, the rest of us went to 31 Flavors for ice cream.

The 2 Nu Do's

I took Lynne and her mom to Glendale to get their hair done. The hairdresser did a great job.

Fire Fire!!!

A good thriller...

Four Stars**** from me!

Diane's sprinkler installation

These are the "before" photos. Four hose timers later the job is done. I had to take back the first three timers because of their limited watering options. At the time I thought each one was the right one for the job. The claims on the packaging are very misleading.

3000 Lbs. dripping wet

New washers and dryers

Yesterday we went to Sears to purchase a new washer and dryer. Diane met us at the store and Lynne and her ended up buying the same washer and dryer. It's a new model called the Oasis.

Here's some more movies I rented...
The animals were great...Three Stars***

This movie was pretty scary. Three 1/2 Stars***

Diane's Birthday

It was Diane's Birthday Tuesday although we celebrated it on Sunday which was Mother's day. We all went to a new restaurant in West Covina called Johnny Carino's.

Of Mice and Men

• My father always mentioned this movie, although he saw the 1939 version...This one was worth Three Stars***

The new tenant????

We just rented the studio at 181 over a month before the present tenant is planning on vacating, a first ever for us. It was Lynne's idea to place the ad so early. I thought it would just be a waste of time. The problem is that his application wasn't filled out completely so we couldn't verify his employment. He passed the credit check with a very high score and we're sure everything's going to be OK, but the problem is we can't find him. He has no cell phone or local phone number and he lives in Illinois. We even tried emailing him but so far he has not responded. We have turned away two other interested people and now we are trying to contact them back again. The crazy thing about this is that he gave us a $300 deposit.

• UPDATE! The tenant finally called and everything's OK...

• I fell asleep and missed 45 minutes of the movie. It was just OK, and kind of hard to follow...Three stars***
  

• I fell asleep in this movie too. I couldn't stand the intense music at times and I felt it was about camera shots and images more than substance...Two stars**

• Not bad...A good twist ending...Three stars***

Outbid...

Today we found out that we were outbid in purchasing the new home. We're used to this so we'll just have to keep on trying.
I got the truck and came down to Glenarm to fix and relocate a rainbird sprinkler. It was a dirty job.

Then I went back up to Hudson and trimmed the vines and sawed out the plant next to the front porch of the front house. It was always tacky looking at best. I started to do the usual trimming of the plant and then finally I just had to remove it. I think the porch area looks so much better now.

The competition

We made an offer on the San Miguel house and had to wait till after five o'clock to find out the results. They had seven offers but two were dropped due to contingencies. The remaining five, of which we are one, have to do the following things to stay in the bidding. First, they have to make one final increased bid, then they have to let the sellers live rent free in the house for one month after escrow closes, and, lastly, they have to pay any difference in the appraisal of the house not included in the loan. After careful consideration, we have decided to push onward and make a final bid. We really don't think our chances are good because we're not going to bid as high as we think it will finally sell for....but who really knows?

Great movie...Four stars from me

Buca's for lunch

We ended up at Buca's for lunch yesterday, just me, Lynne, and Terry. We had a $25 gift card from the restaurant we got for credit card points. We had a 45 minute wait...no more Buca's on the weekend.

I really liked this movie and gave it four stars****

The Family Stone

Thumbs up for me...

Finally...a plumbing problem

It's been awhile, but I new it was due...
1262 informed me that the bathroom faucets and shower were very slow running so I went in to check it out. The faucet aerator was full of rocks so I cleaned it out. The shower had other problems besides being slow. Both packing nuts were loose causing water to run down from the handles, creating a stream of rust on the tile in the process. I got the cold handle off and tightened the packing nut but the other two handles will have to be drilled out because the screws are rusted too badly to unscrew. When I tried to put the cold handle back it wouldn't hold the stem, I guess I must have accidently stipped the threads of the handle, so I stuck a Vise-Grip on the stem so the tenant would be able to temporarilly take a shower. Today I will get new handles, but first I'll have to remove at least one stem to take it to the hardware store to find the correct handles. Taking in a stripped old handle to match will not work.
The problem with the slow running shower, I concluded, was the fault of the shower massage unit that the tenant had installed. I unscrewed the handle and the water came out very strong. Not immediately finding a way to clean out the shower head and not wanting to damage it, I left it for the tenant to try. Maybe today I will be able to figure it out.

Here's the way it looked before...

I started trying to remove the rusted handle with a drill. When that didn't work I used a hacksaw which didn't work either. I ended up with a sharper drill bit which did the job.
I should have taken a photo of that, it was a real mess too.

Here's the after...

Crown City Hardware was surprised that the stem that I brought in fit their sample shank but did not fit the new handles they had. It's a good thing anyway because I forgot to bring my wallet and had no I.D., money, or credit cards with me. The next place I went was True Value Hardware where they concluded I had cheap import valves and sold me two new
Price Pfister ones to replace them and also two new handles. The prices here were about half of what they were at Crown City...I'll make a note to remember that the next time.

I have to finish by 1 p.m. because there is a house we want to look at and maybe purchase. Here's a picture...

Another lousy movie

I gave this movie only two stars. Even though it had a bunch of great actors, I wasn't entertained at all.

Under the weather

I finally caught a cold that seems to be going around so I'm just taking it easy for a while. Luckily, no tenants are complaining about anything lately. This is the latest movie I rented. I gave it two stars because, like me, it also was a bit under the weather.

More movies

Rally's Hamburgers

Yesterday I took the Zuumer to Rally's Hamburgers in Glendale. I've only been there once before. The hamburgers there are GREAT!
Afterwards I did some gardening at 1266.

I would give this movie 3 stars.

Today we gave away one of the kittens to a girl named Tracie who coincidenly lives in the Chapman Manor.

My pick for Idol

That was the best results show ever. Especially when Taylor was given the tough choice of choosing which set of three contestants of the remaining six he was supposed to stand by that were not in the "bottom three". He purposely started to choose the three with Ace, Chris, and Paris but at the last second, turned around and chose to stand with Katherine, Kelly, and Elliot. He made the right choice and the audience went wild. It was one of the best Idol moments ever.

Katherine blew everyone away including all three judges with this song. Simon said she made the other contestants look like "good amateurs".

Monday again

Today I thought I'd take down a rather large tree branch on Hudson. I started using the chain saw and a ladder but ended up, for safety sake, using the pole saw. The new gutters on 1266 had to be cleaned. I'm going to buy a special pole hose to do the job in the future.

Because of your request, Jonnie, I'm going to start posting the movies I see and give them a rating.

Easter at Diane's

We had a really good time at Diane's today. Loni made a fabulous dinner that looked and tasted like it was professionally catered. If one picture is worth a thousand words then here's seven thousand words.