The big news is…

Ladies and gentlemen, with no further adieus, the big news is, cue drum roll, I bought a house! And not just any house, it was the earlier described avocado house. Through twists and turns, it looks as though I will be moving in by the month’s end, around the time of my upcoming birthday. No doubt this milestone will be a topic of many, many blogs.

Immediately I am painfully aware that homeowners ought to have buckets. What I mean by that and/or where I am going with the bucket line is there are a lot of little to medium size items (for example buckets) that you just have to have when you own a house. In an apartment they are impractical and unnecessary, but in a house, well, you have to have a bucket. You never know when you will wash your car, pick avocados, need to wash out something – you get the point. With all of these little looming things on the horizon, I am starting to feel like any left over money I have will be spent on buckets and so forth.

And still no NL West Champs.

Magic Number: 2!

2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2! 2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2! 2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2!2! Of course, my excitement with 2 revolves around the Dodger’s magic number as of approximately nine o’clock PST. One Dodger win + one Rocky loss opens the door to the possibility of clinching the NL West tomorrow if today’s trend of Dodger win/Rocky loss continues. Indeed, it is the most wonderful time of the year! Keep an eye on those box scores, and no, this is not my good news, stay tuned.

Travels

Last weekend I flew into Denver, Colorado just in time to see my beloved Trojans fall to last year’s winless Washington Huskies. Gone are any BCS hopes USC might have had in a way all too familiar to the last few seasons. But otherwise, my time there was amazing! Including a visit to the biggest REI Store I have ever seen, much good beer, Jason Mraz @ Red Rocks, quality time with friends, two wonderful days in Boulder and a comprehensive training to coordinate a mentoring program that I am completely excited about it. Big news around the corner ladies and gentlemen – stay tuned!

David and Goliath

Tonight I am packing for yet another trip to Colorado. I should be excited – and I suppose there are pieces of this trip I am looking forward to Jason Mraz at Red Rocks, catching up with dear friends, and being trained to lead a mentoring program that I think is amazing – I am sort of tired of traveling. I never thought I would get to this point and I suppose it doesn’t help that very recently I traveled to the Rocky Mountain State, but I am dragging my feet in packing.

I am also totally worried our beloved Trojans might lose tomorrow. I know the Huskies are a nothing team, but wasn’t it about this time last year they were able to beat Ohio State only to fall to Oregon State? Please never schedule a Thursday game again Mike Garrett (or whoever decides these matters). But consider our past few regular season losses – obviously Oregon State ’08, Stanford ’07 and Oregon State again in ’06 and lastly and perhaps most painfully UCLA ’06. Rankings or not, USC has a Goliath complex and we all know how that story ends.

And of all people, I believe Steve Sarkisian (who I was happy to see go last year) would love to beat his former boss tomorrow. He knows this team; he knows these players and this win would make his season. All other eyes might be on the swamp or such places but I hope Goliath keeps an eye out for small boys with slingshots (aka Steve Sarkisian’s Washington Huskies).

Central Park

One theme (for me at least) of The fab four take Manhattan was to attempt to have a non-tourist bona fide New Yorker experience. And save for visiting Times Square and Rockefeller Center, catching a Broadway Show and taking pictures on the Subway (which I just learned is one of the most vulnerable targets to the ever looming threat of terrorists attacks – guess we were really rolling the dice on that) I think we did just that.

High on the list of the “we’re not tourists week” was the glorious Saturday we spent in Central Park. The magnitude of the park was more than I expected. It was bustling with people but still did not seem crowded. I loved that there seemed to be all walks of life there – races, ages, socioeconomic class (OK, I couldn’t really tell that, but in My Saturday Afternoon in Central Park it would be so) and a healthy showing of pets. On a side note, I was very surprised the number of New Yorkers with dogs which as much as I love dogs; it does seem like a difficult place to be a dog owner.

But back to the park, how do I even begin to explain the street performers? Remind me to do a whole separate blog on them; I have a good Rob Bell idea. And the make-shift roller rink that included guy thigh and dancing – I would never have imagined. The grandeur of the views – absolutely amazing. The water? I had no idea. The architecture – splendid.

The best Southern California Summer Saturday equivalent I can think of is perhaps a jaunt to the beach but minus the crowds, lifeguards and herculean task of parking. Or maybe five free slightly less manicured/beautiful Huntington Gardens rolled into one.

New York, New York!

Please play Frank Sinatra while viewing this post. But I was spiraling the other night, all is fixed and things are looking up. More to come up our fabulous time in NYC, but some previews.

The death of my computer and other dreadful developments

After more than an hour and a half on the phone with tech support, it appears as though very little hope remains। I was directed to back-up all of my files, but even that is not working। BLAST! My Indian call center rep who I spent all of this frantic time with, is going to call back any minute and my only response will be – I couldn’t do it. I have left THREE frantic messages with tech savvy friends, but apparently Thursday 7:30 is a tough time.

This comes on the heels of a visit to the pharmacy to pick up (remind me to blog about the averted skin cancer scare that preempted the meds) what I thought would be a routine prescription that cost me nearly $300!!! What the heck? Bring on universal health care, my taxes are already unbearably high.

This comes on the heels of (okay, I might be using “on the heels” of loosely) paying over $1000 in TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS. Yes, you read that right, and yes I have a pending court date where it is quite possible not only will my license suspended but there will be more fines. And to boot, the state of California recently informed me I didn’t pay enough and there is an over due balance for my 2008 return.

When will this end? I think the only hope I can safely cling to at this point is the RAPTURE.

The fabulous four take Manhattan

Move over Muppets, a new foursome has taken over Manhattan। I will post more thoroughly when I solve my computer problems (maybe I should have bought a Mac after all, urgh!), but from 8/31-YESTERDAY (I know you are all jealous) I was in New York City with three of my closest friends on the planet। We had adventures of all sorts, some of which I will post but my apologies for the gap in posts। More to come, more to come indeed. And no new house, but my avocado house still hasn’t sold – pray friends, pray