Personal

R.I.P Uncle Jim

in ,

My Uncle Jim passed away today in Boston Mass..  He will be sorely missed by everyone that knew him.  He was a great person and wonderful father and grandfather and Uncle.  And a friend to everyone who knew him, as no one had anything bad to say about Jim Perry.

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 I took my mom out to Boston for the funeral, and we got to spend some time with Marguerite.  Marguerite is the oldest sister and oldest sibling, and is in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimers.   She was so happy to see us and recognized my mom right off, which was wonderful (for both of them).

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Janis's cousin Linda passed away : (

in ,

Janis’ cousin Linda passed away tonite during surgery. After her sister passed away last year after my brother Steve, Eliot said everyone is getting a full medical. Linda came diagnosed with diabetes and started treating that. She came out here for a Dodger game in July and looked great! She was discovered with pancreatic cancer, and during surgery they tried removing it and they cut the artery.   She was such a beautiful upbeat person.   Here she is at Dodger/Rockies game on July 28th of this year.  She's in the blue Dodger jersey.  

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Patrick, Kelsay, Linda, Drew, Michelle, Raye, Eliot, and Janis at the Dodgers/Rockies game July 28th

Eliot, Raye, Michelle, Robby,  and all of Linda’s family, we are so sorry for your loss.    

xo  Tom and Janis

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Happy Memorial Day!

in

Happy Memorial Day!    Isn't it sad that we have to celebrate this day?  Isn't it more sad that its not because of wars 100 years ago and 'remember when we used to be at war" as opposed to opening up the front page of the newspaper every day and read about "10 US Soldiers died today" or more?

Last year I was in Santa Barbara and took a pretty sad picture..  Here it is -

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This was taken 6/4/2006    the count as of today is 3455 per this website

American Military Casualties in Iraq

Date

Total

In Combat

.

American Deaths

Since war began (3/19/03):

3455

2844

Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (

the list

)

3316

2736

Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03):

2994

2538

Since Handover (6/29/04):

2596

2211

Since Election (1/31/05):

2018

1948

American Wounded

Official

Estimated

Total Wounded

:

25549

23000 -

100000

Awesome clouds!

in ,

Well we're moved in the house - as of Friday.  Been very busy unpacking and trying to get the computers up and stuff, and when I tried to put the qwest DSL modem on my computer it said I had to defrag, and I did and now my computer doesn't work.   Can't find my dang Win XP disk either.

This is the sunset - looking east - they said thunderstorms possible but they didn't materialize, but there sure are some nice clouds out here..

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Moving Saga

in ,

Well who said it was going to be easy. We had to move prior to our house closing in Colorado, as we had a 30 day escrow in Hawthorne. So it gave us a couple weeks to see some sights (Bryce/Zion/Arches National Parks, etc. We had to go to a Residence Inn in Thornton, CO for almost 2 weeks while the house was still in escrow. Luckily, the Residence Inn was next to a Chili’s and Hooters, so we were able to watch the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sure got sick of Hooters hot wings though, and if this is the type of women they have working there, I’m not too impressed with Colorado. I thought there were a lot of mountains here!

The escrow ALMOST didn’t close on the house in Hawthorne. They had changed the regulations for buying houses, and they were more stringent on residency and employment requirements. The people in Hawthorne were hispanic, and they were getting a 100% loan (which they stopped allowing about an hour after our house finally closed. So it made for some stressful times. At the Colorado escrow office, they were about ready to close, and the paperwork still wasn’t coming through for finalization of the Hawthorne house, and being a Friday, they said that they would have to wait till MONDAY to close.

That wasn’t going to work, as the 3 pods and 3 helpers who were going to unload the pods were arriving tomorrow at 10 a.m.! We asked them to look one more time, so they went to the fax machine and the paperwork was there, so we were able to close on the house, and take key possession!!

We slept on the floor of the new house bedroom on the mattress pads and covers that we had bought as the beds in the Residence Inn were HORRIBLE. Made for a nice padding though for our first night in the house.

Around 3:30 AM we were awakened by a very loud train horn. I mean, it felt like it was in our back yard, and I asked Janis when did they put in the rail road tracks in our backyard? With all the times that I came out to see the house progress, I NEVER heard a whistle. I talked to one of the neighbors who said “oh it’s great, you don’t even hear them, and it makes you fall asleep.” SORRY but it doesn’t!!

Goodbye Nevada, hello Utah..

in

We got thru Nevada without doing any gambling. The rooms were too darn much $$ to stay there and we both were too tired to gamble, so we stopped off and saw Bonnie and visited for an hour at her work and then drove to St George, Utah.    We thought we could stop early, get to watch the hockey games, and relax..    BUT  Utah Jazz is playing tonite and there is no way they'd change the channel for a hockey game.  I called one restaurant and the waitress answered that yes, they do have 2 hockey games on TV..   I said 'are you sure"?  and she called over to the bartender "who's playing"  and I hear in the background    MIAMI HEAT and the JAZZ."

She said "oh I thought it was hockey on TV..

She must have been blonde. 

Goodbye Los Angeles, Goodbye Milt.

in ,

Goodbye Los Angeles, is that the sequel to Goodbye Columbus??     We packed up the 2 houses, we're in our car and driving to Colorado.  We're staying overnight in beautiful (NOT) downtown Hesperia - just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore - Janis is already asleep,  Tomorrow is Vegas,   The granite still hasn’t been resolved, but they are working on it..  (uugh)  That sounds so promising.    We're going to Vegas tomorrow and then on Sat/Sun go to Bryce and Zion..

I broke my little toe, I was moving  a bike that was blocking the pod over at my moms place and the owner had a 5 or 10 lb wt on the bike cover to hold it down or whatever, and when I picked up the bike the weight fell on my little toe of the right foot. It is all bloody and swollen...  OUCH..   That will screw up the golf game!   Not to mention walking all over Bryce and Zion should be loads of fun..

We had stopped in Palm Springs on the way out of California, as our Friend Milt is in the hospital and declining, so we wanted to see him again before he passes. Was a nice visit and he was lucid and seemed appreciative of us coming over. Here’s a picture of him taken at his 91st birthday party last year.

 

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The granite is in!

in ,

The granite countertops were put in this week -  Only got 1 picture from the sales rep, but it kind of shows the movement in it -

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They fixed the floor by the back door too - and stained the flooring.  It doesn't look that much different and they say it gets darker (richer) with sunlight,

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This is what it is supposed to look like eventually,

Whale in Redondo Beach

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We went over to look for dolphins on Saturday and saw a few of them over in Redondo, but over by Knob Hill there was a whale that was caught in the surf line.  We thought it was distressed and trying to beach itself but after about 45 min playing just outside the waves it went out into deeper water.   I had a lousy lens on my camera so didn’t get a good picture of it.  That is what happens when you only leave the house with only one lens..  :(

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The house carpeting was put in this past week, and they fixed and stained the hardwood flooring.  We asked for pictures from the salesman but of course he didn't come through with any.   He's totally useless in that department.  When we first bought the house he said that they would take weekly pictures and when they did anything noteworthy they'd take pictures for us.  Well that happened TWICE without asking for them.  Now we have to beg for a friggin picture and then its only 1 picture.  I could see if there was 5' of snow on the ground and 15 out but its nice weather now.   

Back from Colorado

in ,

A beautiful weekend in Colorado - stayed at the Cherry Creek Marriot, very nice hotel right across the street from the Cherry Creek Mall - Had a great steak dinner at Elways which is a restaurant a cross the street from the hotel.   (I guess he was some sort of athlete in Colorado??    : )

The weather was awesome, so many people out riding bicycles, having a great springtime day, playing golf at the golf courses..  They sure do take advantage of nice weather.   We drove by the Rocky Mtn Arsenal on Saturday afternoon and actually saw 2 of the bison that had been released early Saturday Morning (http://www.fws.gov/rockymountainarsenal/   )   but unfortunately we were on a very busy road and there was no place to stop to try to get a picture of them.    They released 16 bison into the reserve to re-establish bison in Colorado.  I can't wait to get out there and be able to tour the facility and get some real pictures of them, but then again, I can just go about 200 miles North and take them out in the wild ..   :)

The cabinets look great!!

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and the backyard deck looks great too!

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 Supposedly this week they are installing the carpet, the sinks, faucets, etc and the granite countertops!

See more pictures here -   http://picasaweb.google.com/MullenPhotography/Construction/photo#5041204362980844242

Finally! We're in Escrow

in

We finally sold our house in Hawthorne.  They say the market is slow but we had a lot of people go thru the house.  Towards the last month it was down to about 5 people a week but before then it was 1-2 a day.   It was listed Dec 18th which is an awful time to list a house - we didn’t get a lot of action until after the first of the year anyway.   It is on a 30 day escrow and that will be great to coincide with the other house being finished.. 

Amy Hackman did a great job pushing the house on the market.

Happy Birthday Milt!

in ,

Today we went down to Chula Vista to Janis family friend Milt Grossman's 90th birthday party.  lt was supposed to be a surprise party but there were way too many people there to keep it a surprise.   It was a great time, the weather was great, and everyone was so nice and friendly.  I'm glad that I got to be a part of Milt and Ceil's extended family, even if I didn't show up until the last couple of years.

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New house pictures!

in , ,

Our salesman sent pictures of the house yesterday -  they finished the driveway and they painted the outside of the house!!  The deck in the backyard is already finished - I thought they were just going to do the cement footing this week but they already built the deck too!!

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I like the color - they stones all finished in the front also -   they sure are quick to do things - they also finished the grouting in the tile and put in the shower door in the master bath - They also swapped out the tile that we didnt like in the fireplace and put in the fireplace insert and gas logs.   NICE!

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