Gorgeous Magnolia

Ahhh... I am so jealous of my neighbor's magnolia! I was just out on the balcony - apparently there was a bank robbery in the area (I do not live in a bad part of town!) and SD Police are flying over announcing it so I had to be nosy - and my favourite tree is totally blooming! Here's a photo:


Yes, I'm odd for taking photos of my neighbour's tree... but I have a macro setting on my camera! Not like I was on their property! And besides, it's on the "common ground" in the parking lot of the complex so technically it's not his anyway :) lol

Wish I could get up close enough to smell it - I've heard they smell amazing!

The gas/electric bill

Normally I have no complaints about the gas/electric company here in San Diego. Well, except that I'm a bit miffed that they are really the only one we have available to us so it's a bit of a monopoly but whatever...
Anyway, I'm the one who pays the electric bill in our house (we have separate accounts and split up the bills when we first got married/I write him a check for my portion of the mortgage). This month we got this weird bill - $13! I thought.. "dang! That's nice! It's like being back in my little one-bedroom apartment when I didn't have cable and was rarely home" (my electric bill was TINY!) I actually drew a big smiley face (can't help it - I'm a teacher!) on the bill and stuck it on the fridge... lol
I was all happy about my cute little $13 electric bill, even if there was a rather odd note attached to it. Here's the basics of what the "odd note" had to say:
Dear Customer:
"Occasionally, our meter readers are not able to read our customers' meters due to locked gates, unrestrained dogs, or other circumstances preventing access. When this happens, bills are processed using estimated meter readings that are verified when we are able to obtain actual meter readings."
It blabs on to say something along the lines of we have estimated your bill based on previous readings/bills and have adjusted it to reflect on recent energy use.. blah blah blah
So, yesterday I got another bill! This second one was much more like our usual bills! Guess they took care of those "unrestrained dogs and locked gates" (neither of which we have since this is a townhouse complex!)
Kind of stinks that I have to pay them again... :( Oh well, it's not very expensive since we don't use too much power (I'm working on "training" DH to be a bit more of a greenie!)

Venting about destroyed shrub

grrr...
OK, so I'll start with the positive - the HOA's sent over some painters to do the front doors (that was a week ago) and the trim on each condo or town-house in the complex. They were here at our house on Monday. Well, around lunch time I'm in the kitchen and I hear this sound like a ladder scraping along the stucco and then a huge crash (ie: ladder falling on the pavement)... I thought "Oh my God!" and dashed downstairs to be nosy and make sure nobody was hurt. Couldn't see anything or anyone and I didn't hear any screams or ambulance sirens so it must have been OK.

Well, about an hour and a half or two hours later I went out to go get the mail - a fairly large section of the bush/shrub thing which lines the walkway up to my front door is completely squashed! It can only have happened from the falling ladder. Those painting people knew I was home - I helped them earlier in the day when they were trying to place a ladder against our balcony/I moved the patio furniture for them... why would you destroy someone's shrub and then not say anything?! grrr... it's like those punks in parking lots who ding your car with a cart and just leave the cart there/no note! I could never do that....

Hubby told me I'd better email the HOA people and send a bunch of photos. Did that, they told me the landscapers would look at it and, if necessary, bill the painting company (it's on "common property" so we won't have to pay to have it fixed). I honestly don't care that it looks awful or whatever, it's just the whole not saying anything part that got to me! Oh well...

Hubby usually parks his truck in the open space next to the shrub on the left (you can see it in some photos - this shrub was un-damaged)... he said "so, if my truck had been there, would it be damaged, too?" like I'm supposed to know exactly the angle the ladder fell at! He did bring up a good point, though - what if it had fallen and hit someone's car?

Just in case you are wondering, here are the photos I took. I did try to "fix" it, but there are lots of broken branches so there wasn't much I could do. Oh, it looks worse in person, by the way! :(

Michele Coulon - Bakery Rave

I have had cake from this bakery twice now - it is probably the best cake I have ever eaten (and, believe me, I've had lots of good cake!) I think my favourite thing about this bakery is that they use as much locally-grown and organic produce as they can - something that is very important to me. The cake is quite pricey but, IMO, worth it - there is a piece in my fridge which is calling my name loud and clear!!
I have to start dropping hints to my hubby about my upcoming birthday!! lol

Here's the link: http://www.dessertier.com/index.shtml
I've never tried the "food" there, just the cake, but I have a friend coming into town this weekend so I think we might be making a trip to La Jolla!

The Barrel Room (Rancho Bernardo)

Saturday was a friend's bachelorette day (really, it was a whole day!) - for part of it we went to The Barrel Room in Rancho Bernardo for dinner and some wine. Since we'd had a huge lunch after girling it up at a spa, we just ordered "The Board" which was a perfect compliment to the two wine flights we ordered. For the wine we got the Xamine Your Zinfandel flight and the Filmmaker's Flight (there were only 4 of us and we'd just come from the Orfila Winery in Escondido where we'd also been tasting! The two flights were plenty).
For food/"The Board" we chose the turkey, applewood bacon, and the sopressata for the meats, and dill havarti, smoked gouda, and gorgonzola for the cheeses. Dipping sauces - garlic aioli, honey mustard, and a balsamic vinaigrette. The board also came with crusty bread (they will refill your bread for you). We also ordered the olive plate appetizer as an additional snack. I can't wait to go back and try the "real" food - ie: not just a plate of cheese and meat (not that there's anything wrong with that - it went beautifully with the wine!)
I highly recommend it if you will be in the north San Diego area!

http://www.thebarrelroomsandiego.com/

House Photos - After

Here are some recent photos that show some of the improvements we've made to the place. As you can see, there is still some work to be done, but it's getting there! Thank God we have a Home Depot right down the street...! lol

House details:
2-story town-home - 3 bedroom/2 full bathrooms. It has an attached one-car garage with enough space for a washer and dryer, a balcony, and a small backyard. I think it's about 1300-1350 square feet. The house was built in 1988.

OK, I have added some kitchen photos! I was going to clean out the garage and take some photos of that today but the painting company was here painting the garage door so I haven't been able to open it (good thing I noticed them earlier and parked my car outside!) I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Entryway/Foyer

Things in the entry way just as you walk in the front door. These were some of our wedding flowers that my parents took and pressed/framed for us. They gave them to us as a Christmas present for our first married Christmas.

Stairs leading down to the garage (on right) and scrapbook room/wine cellar (!) on the left. Huge improvement from the urine-yellow and painted-over outlets! :)

Entry way with my fake tree thing. The blue colour is Behr's Blue Agave. The off-white is Glidden's Soft Ecru that we had mixed with Behr paint. We called it French Vanilla since it looks like the colour of vanilla ice cream. :) yum... We had quite a few Coldstone Creamery runs during our painting sessions! lol

Real plant at the bottom of the stairs!

More of the entry way - my overly superstitious mom always told me elephants should face the door, hence the elephant mirror facing the front door! That stick is one of hubby's kung fu spears... terrible feng shui having weapons by the door but whenever I move them he complains so I'll just have to deal!

Kitchen


The wall colour in the kitchen is the Soft Ecru that is in some of the other rooms in the house.




Dining Room


The dining room. We just got the new table as a 2nd anniversary present to ourselves ;) It's a bar-height table - we love it! The red paint (isn't that awesome? PITA to paint, though!) is Glidden's Drum Beat mixed with Behr paint.


Living Room


Living room. Again, a big improvement from the green/yellow/whatever nasty colour this was before we got our paws on the house!


Hubby's favourite toy :) We got ourselves a 40" Sony Bravia LCD TV (the full HD 1080P or whatever it is one...) I'm not much of a TV person, but I have to say, this was worth the money! It was our Christmas present to ourselves since hubby got a bit of a bonus at work.


Living room paint colours - the main walls are Behr's Brown Bread, the accent wall (the one with all those windows behind the big blue/white chair) is Blue Agave. All these colours look even prettier in person!


Bookcase thing we got at Ikea... I love the vaulted ceilings we have throughout this house!

Second Bedroom/Guest Room


Guest bedroom. You can't really tell, but the back wall (with the windows) is now a really pretty gray-blue colour. It's called Silent Tide (Behr). Goes really well with that comforter!


Master Bedroom


Master Bedroom. This was the only room which was a decent colour when we moved in so we haven't painted in here.


Third Bedroom/Office


Home office - this is my side of the office. Very cluttery! lol


Hubby's side of the office... I love his green computer! How fun is that thing?! :) Not so cluttery, but a bit of a mess.. lol ;)


We used our office closet to store office-related stuff. There's my little white MacBook :) I'd like to get a Mac desktop when my current computer bites the dust. The current one is hubby's and he's a PC guy so I'll have to see about that... he did buy me the laptop, though!


More office supplies on the other side of the closet (mostly my teacher/work junk!)

Backyard


Some photos of my hibiscus. I was going to cut this back, but it has been doing so well this year! I'll probably just trim it a bit when these latest flowers die.


Random purple plant. We have no idea what this is but it's so pretty. This also needs to be cut back quite a bit!




Some pretty pink lilies (I think...) right outside one of our bedroom windows. The one in the front (to the right of the photo) is as tall as I am - and I'm 5'7"!!

House Photos - Before

These are some photos I took of the house before we moved in. I was so irked that day - we had gotten both sets of parents together to come see our house and there was a freaking open house going on! WTH?! We had closed on the house, etc. but the seller (do not get me started on him!) decided he felt the need to have another open house.. ugh! oh well... here you go :) Obviously we got the house so I'm over it now... just nice to vent about every now and then ;) lol


Garage/front of house - stupid Open House sign! Grrrr... ;)

Entry way from front door - the steps you can see go up to the main part of the house. Notice the painted-over outlets.. who the heck paints over outlets?! Losers...


Yes, the disgusting urine-yellow walls (and their matching outlets!) were the first things to go!
This is the rest of the entry way from the front door. These stairs go down to the garage on the right (door that propped open a bit) and a large closet on the left - door that is completely open. The closet is where I store my scrapbook stuff (it's like a small room, really), wine/beer, coke/Dr Pepper, all our board games, school books, brooms/swiffer stuff, coats.


Kitchen with the dining room in the background - those people were the sellers' agents... my dad let them have it! lol ;) That dishwasher was so gross. I swear, the dirtiest people on the planet lived in our house before us! I made the seller pay for a new dishwasher for us. Well, look at that thing! It's older than I am!


Don't you love the green walls?! I won't tell you what we nicknamed them... Painting was one of the first things we did after we got the keys!


Ooh look, another painted-over outlet!


Hall bathroom/hubby's bathroom.


2nd bedroom - I LOVE the plantation shutters (even though one section is a bit broken.. lol) This room was also that attractive "green" colour... Over that fence that you can see through the window is our back yard.


Really dark.. sorry! This is the 3rd bedroom (front of the house) - we transformed it into a home office. The balcony is also out there in the front.


My huge walk-in closet :) Yes, those shelves are now full of my shoes...! lol


Rest of the closet.

Master bathroom/my bathroom.

More of the master bathroom.

Balcony and my neighbor's magnolia... so jealous! lol ;)