A Few Pictures From the Neighborhood

I think the title says it all … let’s go!

Carter being tired. Why? A neighbor on the third floor puts their dog on the balcony the last two mornings where the puppy barks, cries and yelps.

This is as close as we got to the Emmy Awards on Sunday – a sign in the middle of Flower Street.

This is the billboard in our parking lot right now. I can’t complain about Heidi being there every day. Have you seen the new season? I have to imagine applications to FIDM are up because their name appears in the show at least every 30 seconds – a shot outside, painted on a wall, spoken by Tim …

Building on Flower Street is still not finished – and the developer filed for bankruptcy.

My favorite downtown project: Concerto. What does it have in common with the building across the street? Yep, bankruptcy.

I suppose this person is “expressing their feelings”.

The corner of Flower and 9th in downtown Los Angeles. Our parking lot is on the right, the tall building on the right is SkyLofts. The US Bank building is in the back on the left – it’s always in movies and commercials and was a target of terrorists back in the day.

You know who on the elevator ride back upstairs from our walk.

Remember Fall, the Season?

Fall used to be my favorite season. Why do I say it used to be?

It doesn’t exist here in Los Angeles.

I like fall for the same reasons I like Spring. It’s cooler and there is sometimes a great breeze. Grayish skies with thunderstorms here and there.

Chicago and Canadian falls have the leaves turning color and falling off the trees.

Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and beginning of fall – a signal that winter is around the corner but not before some nice weather tailor made for an evening walk outside.

So what’s fall like here in Los Angeles?

Here ya go!

Phrases not traditionally associate with fall:

• Scorching sunshine
• Extreme heat
• Hot
• Sizzling

Ugh, everyone has said it takes 12-18 months to acclimate and ‘fall in love’ with Southern California. I’m working on a post about that topic but in the mean time neighbors … enjoy the fall weather here.

Goodbye Credit Card Debt

… and with a few clicks of the mouse, *poof* it was gone.

At one point close to $10,000 – most of it accumulated just before and right after getting married. We have not added anything to the card in the last 2-3 years while we kept chipping away at it.

A large payment last year and one more this past Tuesday has made us credit card debt free … and we’re not going back!

Pictures From the San Diego Zoo

Not many words today, just pictures.

Yes that is a wolf and a dog hanging out together.

Three-hundred pound panda bear sleeping on a branch.

Bad little kids whose family kept following us. They were in planters, talking back to their parents and then decided to wrestle in front of everyone near the koala exhibit.

A Few Pictures From Here and There

Well I uploaded our San Diego Zoo pictures and found a couple others I thought we’d share first. So here we go!

Last week we strip the bed to swap out the sheets and comforter. I take everything off, lay a clean sheet before heading into the other room to get something to drink. I return and find this guy has set up shop on the clean bed.

Remember the Station Fire from a few weeks ago? Yeah well that isn’t your traditional cloud back there behind the buildings – that’s a smoke cloud. This was taken downtown and the fires were at least 10-15 miles away.

Last week we found ourselves in Lake Elsinore to hit up the Pottery Barn Outlet. After getting off the highway we’re waiting at a light to see these two signs. The top one is a little harsh isn’t it? However, once you get past the fact you are going to hell if you don’t believe … the girls softball sign-up is coming up.

After shopping we came out to the car to find this temperature. It was actually 107 when we got in but the A/C blew things down a whopping one degree by the time I got the camera out.

So we’ve just pulled into the parking lot at PetCo when a woman pulls into the spot in front of us. This is how she pulled in … and this is how she left it.

We will leave you with this tease from our San Diego Zoo trip. One of the polar bears was hanging out on a rock and laying on his back.

Remind you of anyone?

I Messed Up – Carter’s Fault

So I bring my camera and laptop to work today, thinking I can steal a few minutes and share some pictures from our trip to the San Diego Zoo … except I forgot to bring the USB cord to connect the camera to the computer!

Argh, you know why this is right? Because Carter has taken up a new eating schedule.
You see he generally eats (a) only when we’re home, and (b) only after we’re done having dinner.

Lately however he’s taken to eating either late at night or first thing in the morning. For example, some time around 1:30 am this morning he decides it’s time to chomp his hard kibble while we’re sleeping. He loves to dig his nose around the bowl, making all kinds of noise while scooping up the food and then chews with his mouth wide open for maximum noise.

Last week he decided on early morning breakfast a few times, sitting down to eat around 4:30-5:30 a.m.

So I blame my grumpiness and lack of attention to detail on Carter.

Pictures tomorrow!