Pinball Lineups?

Greeting True Believers. In an exhuastion-induced moment of weakness, I have allowed myself to consider gameroom arrangement in the ethereal Barbie Dream House.

So I ask you fellow pinheads, collectors, and devotees of the silver ball. What is the best way to arrange your lineup? The choices are limitless, but here are a few suggestions:

• You could go the straight and narrow, and arrange by the predictable production dates. This would give you a nice appreciation of your various machines' respective place in history.
• You could group by theme, placing blue box nature themes in one category, movie themes in another, and leave an empty splace next to your Attack from Mars for the eventual Revenge From Mars (oh it will be mine).
• You take the insider approach and arrange your machines by designer, revealing where you fall on the Lawlor / Ritchie debate. Or maybe you sort by programmer as we can all admit that the newer Sterns are all about the software.
• You could arrange by utility, spacing out the most popular players to maximize your playing comfort.

What say ye?

Lucky House

Yesterday, while walking Karma to Taco Bell for lunch, I found a Monopoly house on the sidewalk. Is this just random or is a lucky sign of things to come? Is it a message from the All Mighty telling me to stop being suck a killjoy? I don't know. As soon as I am out of the "quiet period", I'll have some crazy-assed stories to tell about my latest adventures in real estate. Finding a Monopoly house yesterday is too weird to be a coincidence.

Down the Hall and on the Left

Check out our Master Bathroom:


Yup. Its remodel time. Bob and his crew are demoing this week. Hopefully in a week or so, we will have our new master bath.  I don't mean to get off on a rant, but what is with the home construction industry always changing their standards? Back in the day, our bathroom was built around a standard 54" x 34" shower. Now the standards at 60". So this means I can either:

1. Move an entire wall to accommodate the new standard, or
2. Purchase a shower pan and shower doors at a specialty shop.

Either option is a hellava lot more expensive than Home Depot.  I went for option #2.  Look for before and after photos coming soon.

POD People

The POD people delivered our container storage this morning. On their website, Pod highlighted their patented lift loader mechanism as a significant differentiator because it doesn't tilt and abuse your stuff. What they should have said is "Just go with us because our remote control POD mover is awesome."

Witness the awesome:

On delivery, the remote controlled pod mover sits on the bed of the truck. The pod sits on top of the mover. The operator attaches chains to cradle the pod. Then he raises the pod off the truck. Each of the four post wheels can raise and lower independently.

Next he uses his remote to steer the pod onto the driveway. I noticed that each wheel appears to be able to spin independently as well.



When the pod is in position, he unchains the pod. Then he raises the front wheel posts so that the pod roller can back up over the pod. Then he sends it home to sit back on the truck bed and shortens the wheels so it sits on the truck.


How is that for a taste of awesome in the morning?

RIP Expo

With Home Depot Expo closing, I'm beginning to worry about my new neighborhood. Within one square mile, Mervyns has fallen and Circuit City is also going down like a clown. Last weekend, I was struck with the sudden urge to jump out of my car and network with the dudes holding the "going out of business" signs on Blossom Hill and Almaden Expressway as they prosper from the growing liquidation industry.

"Hi, I'm Marc. Here's my card. I've got no experience in the sign holding sciences. But I'm an enthusiastic hard worker. One day, I hope to learn the twirly move on the two-grip pointer."

One man's pain is another man's gain. Smelling blood in the water, Rebecca has fallen into the habit of slowly circling the Expo parking lot in her silver CRV like a great white shark patiently patrolling the waters around a sinking ship. With the jaws refrain silently playing in my head, I expect her to strike hard and fast when they shift discounts on the granite top bathroom vanities.

The other bright light in the neighborhood news is that Whole Foods is building the largest location west of the Mississippi on Blossom Hill. This store should put the one across the street from De Anza College to shame when it opens.

Down in the dumps

On Tuesday, I rented a cargo-van and filled it up with trash from the garage.



Rather than abusing Janna's dumpster rights, I took my refuse to the Allied Waste dump in San Carlos. The last time I went to a dump, it was a land-fill site where you pretty much throw your crap in a big hole. This dump was more like a cavernous warehouse serviced by huge bulldozers pushing together giant piles of rubbish. Here is a picture, but to be honest, this is only one of the little sub-piles. I couldn't get far enough away to get a mega-pile in view.



I really liked the dump. For one thing, everyone there was pretty happy. I think people enjoy working for Allied Waste. For another, I was in a place where I was allowed to throw stuff around and break things. I have been walking on eggshells staging the house for the last three weeks. Doing touchups on touchups is not my idea of fun. With the mountains of trash, machines of twisted metal, and crashing noise, I felt very manly with my garbage.

The guys in the slot to the right of me were unloading ceramics and tile out of a commercial truck from what looked like a commercial bathroom demo. They were obviously on the job and at the pinnacle of dudeness.

On my left, a GMC truck rolled in about the same time I did. Surveying the trash, I could tell it was residential house cleaning stuff. The guy who stepped out looked like an expired frat dude in his 30's. I commented "nice shoes", when I saw he was wearing basketball high-tops. That was a dead giveaway that he was really a button-down khakis guy like myself. He gave me the "what's up" nod, but I wasn't fooled.

I laughed, said "race you" and the game was on. We furiously started throwing out our shit as fast as we could. Midway through unloading, the dude started berating me based on my empty boxes. "Oh chocolate fountain, how sweet... you pussy." I couldn't stop laughing. We had about equal loads, but the old frat dude beat me by a mile and drove off. His advantage was that he could just stand in the truck bed throwing stuff out while I had to hobble in and out of my cargo van. So overall the competition wasn't very fair.

It cost me $62.50 to unload my crap and I had a lot of fun. I'm getting more intimate with my rubbish on an ongoing basis. Maybe the next time I see that dude at the dumps, I'll be the winner.

Oh, for the Love of Mulch!

The gardeners came on Saturday to perform the "buy my frakin' house" staging special. For those of you who haven't been to dozens of open houses, this consists of removing weeds, trimming plants, putting down plastic, and shoveling in ass-loads of mulch. With my home's fat-ass, this means nine yards.

Here is the front of the house:



Who knew my side yard was terraced? Rebecca means to add some flowers prior to listing the house.



The mountainous backyard



I couldn't get back far enough to show the size of the mountain so here is another view:



Now in landscaping terms, a yard is a cubic yard. In "bigger than a breadbox" parlance, if we assume a breadbox is one cubic foot, then a cubic yard is twenty-seven breadboxes. A more practical definition is that a pickup truck with an eight-foot bed can barely hold 3 yards if you mound up the dirt above the bed and throw a tarp on it. So the afore mentioned "ass-load" equates to three heaping trucks full of mulch.

Three is an interesting number today because my gardener underestimated the amount of mulch and mulch shoveling he needed by a factor of three when he bid the job. The good news for him is that I paid for time plus materials. The bad news is that his crew of 5 was working until sundown and he had to come back this morning to finish the job himself. The really sad thing is that the cost of materials turned out to be the same as the labor, so you could say that the gardeners' skills were valued at dirt (or the cheapest mulch as the case may be).

Note to self: Do not start a new career apprenticing in the art of gardening.

Art imitates Life

I enjoy the best views in Belmont from my living room and balcony. Panning 270 degrees, I can see the lush green nature of Belmont Canyon to the fireworks of Oakland Coliseum far across the bay. In between, I look down upon most of downtown San Mateo, San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, Coyote Point, and Foster City.

On clear days, the view is really spectacular. I am going to miss them and I encourage everyone to swing by and take a look before we sell the joint. Here is a glimpse of Belmont Canyon:



Unfortunately, if I turn my head to the left I see a dated '70's fireplace. Last Sunday, we hunted down some cheap art to minimize the dated architecture. I am happy with our purchase because it pairs well with the canyon views:



If I get too bent out of shape about losing my home, maybe I'll take this cheap painting with me on the way out.

Oh the colors the colors

Rebecca and I painted two bedrooms, the family room, and three bathrooms. We were doing a great job, but I thought it was time to get some help for the outside.

I hired Painter Tom to finish up. Tom is going to do the dining/living room, the last bedroom, and all the exterior touch ups. Contrasting Tom's technique with our own, he cuts in without tape so he has very little prep work. Tom also uses a larger nape on a telescoping roller that he adjusts often to paint entire verticals of wall. I noticed that Tom measures his pace and seems to keep splattering and spills to a minimum.

Covering up the vibrant colors that Patrick and I selected with conservative shades of tans and off-whites saddens me, but depersonalizing the house is essential to the marketing plan.

On the right is my beloved mustard. On the left is the boring consumer friendly neutral color

Home Improvement : Does it ever end?

As the fence guys were finishing my Great Wall of China, I decided to repair the outside stairway. I also replaced the landing and various other nicks and knacks, but this is the sexy part:



Okay so it doesn't look like much but it was 2 days of work. Here's what we did:

• measured the steps
  
• bought the wood and nails from home depot
  
• paid home depot for cuts
  
• primed the new planks in the garage
  
• slipped the fence guys a couple of $20's to remove the old steps and haul them away
  
• returned to home depot to buy some steel braces
  
• laid the new primed planks
  
• realized that I somehow measured them wrong
  
• cut one of the planks... poorly... with a reciprocal saw
  
• sanded, and primed the cut plank
  
• braced weaker steps with steel braces and spare wood
  
• broke 4 drill bits drilling pilot holes
  
• secured planks with one hundred #10 1.5 inch wood screws
  
• returned to home depot a third time to purchase more screws, drill bits, and batteries for head lamp
  
• finished the job in the dark
  
• went next door and played with Duke the Boxer who was upset with the drilling and shocked himself on the electric fence.
  

The new TV room

In between the holidays, We've spent the past weeks making the Belmont house market-worthy. Because it involves packing and organizing as well as HGTV stuff, this is taking far longer than I planned. The most dramatic change has been the TV room. Here we have:

• Replaced doors to washer / dryer
  
• Knocked out wall to the kitchen
  
• Titled floor to kitchen
  
• Knocked down wooden beams
  
• Patched and textured ceiling
  
• Painted wall and ceiling
  
• Rearranged furniture
  

I really wish I had a "before" picture. If anyone has a photo of the purple TV den, please send it to me so I can post it. Here is an "after" picture