Catalina Islanta is a quaint little island off the coast of Los Angeles near Long Beach. It is home to year-around tourist’ing and even many permanent residents. It is a great place to take friends visiting from out of town who want to see laid back southern California life with a cosmo feel. The best way to get there if you don’t own your own boat:Catalina Express

Now I’ve been a tech person for all my adult life and even a little before, but I have to say that some of this upgrading is hard to make work simply because many different developers create the application, the application’s plug-ins, and others design/build other widgets to extend the base function of the blog. I just updated a particular plug-in and when it is activated it goes complete ape-shit. Then when I look around, it is starting to look like I never had it installed correctly in the first case. I didn’t really use it. It was one of […]

It seems that the last two weeks have shown us that anything is possible in the US. How we can go from being the best of the best to the cream of the shit in such a short time. It guess it happens to all the great societies that rise quickly and descend into ruin almost like no one ever was the wiser. Greece, Rome, England, China, the Ottoman Empire, Holland — all great empires in their day that shed off most of their power — and for the Ottoman Empire completely gone and the Roman Empire all but withered […]

Since I moved into the house a little over a month ago I’ve been batting around the washer and dryer I want to buy. I started out thinking about the front-loading units. I quickly came to the realization that spending $2000 on a washer/dryer combo to wash clothes generally once or twice a month was major overkill — with a capital O. Then I came across Azuma leasing and found an economical choice around $35/month for both. This is not a permanent solution for me, probably only until Christmas, but it is really handy and the units are outstanding for […]

When I moved I added myself to the “Do Not Call” list and thought that would stop some of these telemarketing calls that we all seem to get all day long. The worst part of it is the telemarketers don’t even have people working there anymore. They have computer generated scripts that can do this all-day long and with cheap voice over IP technology, it has gotten to the point where their costs are so low they can take the risk. It started a few years back that there was going to be some major overhaul of these telemarketers and […]

Of course the travel didn’t stop, but I was a little lax in posting to the ye’old blog-big things have occurred and I’m trying to get used to being a owner of a home and get used to All the bills and costs associated with being a home owner. But it still feels great to be away and return to my homestead! Oh what a great feeling.

I finally am a certified home owner! I have bought into the dream and am wollowing in the endless possibilities that the dream affords. But if only I could resolve in my head why after putting so much into buying the home you then have to spend so much on the little things inside it. I have spent hundreds on wall coverings, nick-nacks and stuff. Taken things back that looked great in the store only to look…uh… so-so in the house. I’ve come to the realization that I’ll be buying stuff for the house for a long time, so I […]

I know leasing is the worst sham around, but I’m starting to wonder if buying a car is the way to go either. I’m looking at a $15K car and it may cost me $300/mo. That seems a little high for such a cheaper car. I’m not thinking about a Mercedes Benz or the venerable Bavarian Motor Works, otherwise known as BMW, so what gives on these high payment rates? And I’m even putting down a couple grand to boot. I guess financing was better in my youth.

It has been a couple months in the making, but I’m so close to finalizing the home purchase. Just a week away and I get my keys. I hate the waiting and tracking down paperwork…but that’s the way it goes.