Are These Really Their Names?

During our first month in Los Angeles we have been watching all the nightly news stations, ABC, NBC and CBS (I don’t count Fox News) trying to find out who we like best so we can become regular viewers.

Back in Chicago we were loyal CBS local news watchers until Diann Burns became unbearable. We then switched to NBC which was fine and all, but I always felt that Warner Saunders was angry and giving me the news with an attitude. None the less, our last two years in Chicago were spent watching NBC at ten o’clock.

Well here in L.A. we have yet to come up with our favourite news cast but we have stumbled upon an interesting observation.

KABC - the local ABC news affiliate:

• Dallas Raines - chief meteorologist/weeknights

KCBS - the local CBS affiliate

• Johnny Mountain - Weather Anchor for CBS 2 News At 5 pm, 6 pm And 11pm

Seriously? Dallas Raines and Johnny Mountain?

How in the world am I supposed to take the weather seriously when it comes from these two guys?

DirecTV Upgrade Today

In just a few short minutes a technician is set to arrive and install our DirecTV upgrade. As you may or may not know, DirecTV currently hosts a ton of HD channels. Apparently when they put satellite dishes on top of our building they were not ready to receive all the extra channels (the building is less than a year old, I didn’t ask). So they have done all the re-wiring and now can offer a plethora of HD.

There’s nothing wrong with watching programs in regular digital format, but you have to admit that everything looks better in HD.

Our Realtor Is a Pain In the You Know What

I can’t stand our realtor.

It takes a lot to get me mad or upset, I am usually pretty good at rolling with the punches and dealing with things as they come my way. But I am now at the point where I can’t stand this guy.

I was debating on writing a long post detailing our experience with Bad Realtor (BR) but I decided that people probably didn’t care that much about it all.

So the short story is this - it has come to the point where he is calling us out.

He sent us an e-mail the other day wanting us to drop our price again. We sent an e-mail back talking about our margins and how tight they are in terms of sale price and we also shared our position that price alone isn’t going to sell our place. You see BR is never at any showings, he just lets the potential buyers and their agent grab the key from the lockbox and look around. So we called him out on it, in part saying …

“…Our biggest concern is the comment that the only thing that will sell our house is a ’sharper price’. We believe that someone has to sell our house, in addition to the price. A concern we brought up at
our meeting with you in February is that nobody represents us at showings/visits. Therefore, benefits of the area, the building and our unit are not being explained. When the size of the bedrooms comes up
someone isn’t there to spin how the space could be used effectively (office, nursery, non-traditional bedroom for occasional guests). A buyer and their agent come in, do a walk-through and form their
opinion without hearing an different spin or thoughts on the unit. Bottom line is the unit isn’t going to sell itself and someone should be there to sell it, and with all do respect not your administrative
assistant. So while we believe price may be an important factor it is not the only factor. All other families relocating from H’s work have had their agents present at each and every showing.”

That isn’t too harsh, is it? The first part of the e-mail talked about price and then we mentioned the part above regarding the actually selling of our place. The dig about his administrative assistant is because he had her host an open house and show the place another day.

Below are excerpts from his response:

“I’m disappointed to read your recent response, I’m a veteran in this business of many years, and know the signs of concern when they occur and always advise clients immediately … Other owners would be ecstatic to have the kind of 1st rate internet presence, 350 hits to date, and 45+ visitors to their door …”

Am I over-reacting to his tone and words? This isn’t new as he has a tendency to talk down to us for one reason or another. For the longest time we blew it off saying it’s just him and if he sells our house I don’t care. But now it has gotten to the point where he is just being a jerk.

I haven’t sent a response yet, I was wondering if we are jumping the gun here or if he really is being an ass.

What do you think?

Fires in Sierre Madre

You may have seen in the news that wild fires are making their way through the Los Angeles area. Here is the AP story.

On Saturday we took Carter to a dog park in Pasadena. He had a great time, running around from one side of the park to the other. H and I had the chance to meet some nice people and it is definitely a place we will visit in the future.

While standing in the park we could see the fires moving across the hills. At one point you could see the flames, helicopters dumping water and planes dropping that pink substance. On the way home we drove a mile or so away from the park and sat at the side of the road - it was pretty amazing to sit there and see fire making its way across the hills. Here are a few pictures …

What Is New With Us - Round-Up

Today I thought I would make mention of a number of things that we have done recently, what is on tap and some general thoughts and observations that I might elaborate on later.

• We purchased a new computer - Our old Sony VAIO desktop still works, but it has seen better days. We also wanted to purchase a laptop in an effort to maximize space in our new living area. So last Saturday we purchased our first Mac - a baseline Macbook from the Apple store in Pasadena. There was a rebate for a printer as well, nothing fancy, just a normal every day printer. We haven’t had a printer in our home for the last four years but there is the odd occasion when we wish a copy could be made or something printed off for reference. Now if my eBay seller would send me my cable I ordered …
• Moving making in downtown Los Angeles - It is always interesting to see something being filmed and in downtown L.A. there is no shortage of that. When my dad was in last week we stood around for half an hour and watched CSI: New York being filmed. H had to stop on her way home last night (literally stop, they weren’t letting people through) while they filmed a VISA commercial. This morning Carter and I ran into a Nissan commercial out in front of the Met Lofts and we saw signs for Criminal Minds the other day as well.
• Everything is in storage - Everything that needed to be put in storage is in storage. It took me three separate trips by myself one day last week but everything is where it needs to be. I still am not thrilled with the idea of paying $80 a month to store stuff but it is what it is.
• Condo sale - Our place in Chicago still has not sold. Our Realtor is suggesting a price drop and we might follow through on it. We have talked him into dropping his commission 0.5% to begin with but it still isn’t enough. I know the market it tough but I also think he is doing a lousy job in all honesty. Our contract with him is up at the end of May and I think we are through with him.
• L.A. Weather - Something I am still not used to. I love the fact that every day it is warm and sunny, it really is quite fascinating to be honest. At the same time I love the rain, especially a thunderstorm every once in a while and neither of those things happen here very often. On the flip side, it is nice to know that whenever you take Carter out there isn’t a battle with the rain, wind or snow.

New Photos Up

I finally got around to posting a few photos from our trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.

You can check them out here.