Stop and smell the flowers

Its now the third day of the time change and even though its been difficult getting up in the mornings, its really great to have that extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Let's face it, most of us are working until 5 or 6pm and to go home while its still light out is a big motivator to get outside and enjoy the outdoors a bit during the week and not just saving that for the weekend.

One thing that I've noticed this week, and maybe its all the sunlight I'm being exposed to, but Pasadena smells just like a fresh dryer sheet. In other words, you get the aroma of flowers every where, just as if it were the first day of Spring. If you haven't stopped to take a deep breath this week, go ahead and take a moment and it shouldn't be very hard to smell those flowers. I'm not sure what kind they are, but its been very, very nice waking up to that and going home to it in the evenings.

Pasadena is very characteristic of a lot of Los Angeles in that we are exposed to a lot of sunshine, however we build our lives around it and appreciate it. We're not like a New York or a Boston, but seem to have a little more landscape instead of being a concrete jungle. Maybe that's the reason public transportation isn't the greatest here and we Southern Californians will drive to get down the block since we all have cars to get around, but you know what...I'll take it.
Give me a bunch of different cultures, lots of great restaurants, taco trucks a-plenty and as much sunshine and flowers as I can stand.
I love LA...Pasadena to be more specific. :)

Don't you just hate it when...

Don't you just hate it when someone comes up with a catchy phrase that the general population decides to use, but you don't care for it. You obviously would fit into the category of it, but do not like being classified that way. I have a friend from Australia whom I used to make fun of on a regular basis by using the term, 'krikey'. She would always respond with, "We don't say that and I hate it." Which of course this made me want to say it all the more often.

I've come into contact with a term that I don't care for, however it would seem that it will be applying to me soon. The term is 'man cave'. There's not really anything that is wrong with this term, however I get the image of some guy in Malibu, living in a mansion, that has purposely decorated a room or building to have 'man' stuff that he never uses; he just figures that its a macho image and plays with the fact that he's not supposed to have this stuff around women.

So back to, what is essentially, 'my room'. Its not that the rest of the room don't belong to my wife and I, however as she is ruler over the kitchen, I am becoming ruler over the garage. We've established that this is mine to decorate and utilize as I see fit.

My first order of business was to take care of the floor. I don't have to have things to be spic and span, however I'm a big believer in a quote by George Carlin that goes something like make your home comfortable and peaceful because its the place you go to to get away from the world. There are a lot of great George Carlin quotes.

So, at any rate, I decided to put a nice epoxy coat on the floor and start building my room from the ground up. I'm not sure if I'll share pictures of the absolute completed product, however I will share pictures of the floor. You can use your imagination for the rest.

Oh, and if you live in Malibu and just spent a lot of money on 'man-looking' stuff, can I have your old stuff?

Rain, rain, rain...

Day 5 of the rains:
Today is supposed to be the last day of the rains in Southern California, or at least of major rains. Its supposed to do a little something through the weekend, but hopefully we've made it through the worst part. Our local neighbors of La Canada, Lacrescenta and those areas had some evacuations which I can only imagine is heart wrenching and very difficult. My home was only about a 1/2 mile from an evacuation area back in September with the Station Fire. And we all knew that when the rains came, we would be back to possible evacuations.
We are in hopes that all of those folks are able to get back into their 'untouched' homes and go back to living normal lives at some point this weekend. The good part of the rain is that we are supposed to be slightly ahead of pace for rain this year, but I'm sure our good news media will find something negative to say and we'll be right back into drought conditions come next week. If you can't find anything bad to say, then you're not going on the air.

With the rain comes possible challenges in the homefront. I have a skylight at home, which was actually part of what made our home so attractive when we purchased it. Well...those things leak. The first time it leaked, which was from just a small amount of rain, I attempted to repair it. I caulked it, caulked it and then caulked it some more. With the second round of rain, I watched in anticipation to see what would happen. Drip, drip, drip.
Back up on the roof, I noticed some loose shingles, so I got a lesson from the internet on how to install shingles. Well, with this last rain, I headed up to the attic and wouldn't you know it...drip, drip, drip. But the drips were not caused by me and my roofing skills, so I got a great lesson in how to install a tarp. And that has fixed the leak. And it only took me about 20 minutes to install it.
But my wife informed me that we are not in Southern Virginia and will not be living in a house with a permanent tarp installed on it. So I will be right back at it when the sun comes out again...you know, when the sun comes out and there's a forecast for rain. But I don't feel too bad about this as my dad told me its a trial and error process. I think I can live with that. Otherwise, I have my tarp on standby.

Can I tell you something...again

Today is the big day of the BCS National Championship where Alabama and Texas will square off against each other and try to remain undefeated on the season. The hotel, coincidentally, is filled with Burnt Orange and Crimson colors every where and just like last week, there's a great air of excitement all over.
With there not being a parade for this game, people aren't staying quite as long and so our raffle drive for the commemorative football was a lot shorter timespan as well. We had about 24 hours to try and earn as much money for the Pasadena Humane Society, whereas when our good friends from Ohio State and Oregon were with us, we had twice as much time. Well....
our friends from Alabama and Texas didn't let our community down. The drawing was yesterday at 6pm and at about 5:40pm we had a mad rush for tickets and to put their names in for the football. Even with half the amount of time the folks from both teams responded like champions and once again helped raise almost $400. Please keep in mind that this is with one raffle ticket per dollar, so over 400 individual entries.

So with both raffle drawings complete, we were able to raise $800 for the Pasadena Humane Society. We didn't expect that there would be this kind of response to a local organization, however the fans and alumni for all four of these schools should be extremely proud. They are only visiting for a few days, but have helped leave a positive, lasting impression.
To our friends from Alabama, Ohio, Oregon and Texas: Thank You!

Can I tell you something...

I have a friend who lives here in LA, however hails from Boston, Mass. One of my favorite phrases that he uses is to start off a statement or story with, "Hey, can I tell you something." That statement may be groundbreaking and it could be as simple as what a nice day it is outside. I guess I like having something to look forward to and that statement lets me know that something good is coming. So...can I tell you something.
I love the people from Ohio State and University of Oregon. We asked them to open their hearts (which is an indirect way of asking to open your pocketbook) to our local humane society here in Pasadena. We hoped to create a little extra buzz around the Rose Bowl festivities and maybe raise a little money in the process, however the response we received was anything but little. We witnessed people buying 20 tickets at a time to win a pretty great football, however were more interested in helping out an organization which in turn helps out animals who can't help themselves. Even with having to spend a lot of hard-earned money on Rose Bowl tickets, travel to get to Pasadena and entertainment during their trip, they still gave without hesitation.

We ended up raising over $400 for the Humane Society, which might not seem like a lot, but please take note that our hotel only has 314 guest rooms and each raffle ticket was only $1. So this means that we had 400 separate entries that came together.
It is our hope that Oregon and Ohio State return to Pasadena again. These have been wonderful people who both deserve to have their team win today. I hope they know what a difference they have helped make to a community that is their's for only a few days, but that will remember them fondly always.

Go Buckeyes and Go Ducks! The best of luck to you both today.

Rose Bowl Commemorative Football

Just a quick update to yesterday's posting. Here is the football that the winner of our contest will receive.

It only costs $1 to enter, however you can enter as many times as you like and at the end of the day, all proceeds go to the Pasadena Humane Society.

We promise you that you'll not find another football like this one.

Good luck!

Rose Parade, Rose Bowl & BCS Championship

January is set to be a very busy month in Pasadena, CA. And that's just taking into account the first 7 days of the month. The annual Tournament of Roses Parade will take place on schedule at 8am on January 1st with the Rose Bowl taking place in the early afternoon. Everyone is super excited to have Captain Sullenberger in town as our Grand Marshal of the parade, and this year's theme, 'A Cut Above'. And then to have Ohio State and Oregon in town, should cap off a wonderful day.

To make sure we stay grounded at the hotel, we're making sure that we keep an emphasis on our hometown of Pasadena and getting things off to a good start in the new year. We will be offering a commemorative football for the Rose Bowl and the two teams playing that is decorated with pictures of Pasadena that will hopefully be a wonderful keepsake of this year's Rose Bowl. To enter, they simply need to donate a dollar to the Pasadena Humane Society, and they'll be all set. They can even enter multiple times to increase their chances.

We'll post a picture of the ball soon to hopefully help get the word out.

As far as the homeowner front, I'm afraid I've been slacking. With posting blogs that is. I finished up the wooden gate, but didn't have the before and after pictures, so as far as everyone knows, I could have been taking a picture of a neighbor's gate; I wouldn't want to risk any scandal with this. Also, I had my first stab at roofing this past weekend and trying to fix a leak that is coming in over my skylight. Its really a never-ending process, but so far as I keep learning, and can keep fixing things, I guess it must be okay. I'm not sure what the next project is going to be, however if we can get some money raised for the Humane Society, then that will be a good enough start to the new year. That and my roof not leaking any more.

Until next time...