Southern California Wizard

Small Pond

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:39:00 -0700

New doings around the Windy Mesa. We had a large frog plug up one of the spouts of the water barrel garden fountain a while back and we lost a lot of water. After I removed the frog and refilled the barrels all was well. At least I thought so. A week later we had hundreds of tadpoles swimming around all the barrels. We thought about how are the little guys going to survive? As you know, they grow up to be frogs and they won't survive in water, they'll drown if there is not a landing zone for them to crawl out once their lungs develop. I put in concrete blocks and other rocks, thinking well, the strong (and few) would survive. Once Kathy heard that, she lamented that she wanted to give them the best chance possible. They only way that could happen I said is if we had the pond that we were planning to do sometime next year or so. That's all she needed to hear. Out came the shovel and she started to dig the pond that weekend.

Well, here it is a week later and we now have a small pond for the pollywogs and fish, something we were planning for, just not now. Oh well, best laid plans and all that. You can find the pictures of our progress in the photo album. we learned a lot about building a pond. Things like what to do and more importantly not to do. This is our practise pond, in anticipation of creating our large pond later, but you never know. We could have turtles appear and force us to dig that sooner than we expect also.

Open House Party

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:35:00 -0700

Well, we had our open house party, finally. It was supposed to be a beautiful spring day. Birds chirping, bees buzzing and with the pool heated, hopefully people swimming. Since we had an open invitation for all, all day, lunch was served and a full dinner at night. It was all planned and everything was great. One thing we couldn't plan on, however, was the weather. It snowed! Yep, it started around noon and by the end of the day, we had 2-3 inches on the ground. We had a great time anyway. The kids got to have snowball fights, make snow wo/men, and snow angels. We moved the party inside, so it was a little cozy, with 30+ people in the house, but it worked out just fine. In a few days the weather turned warm again and Sheridan and her friend got to get into the water and had fun in the pool. We're gonna try again this summer for true BBQ and pool party this time around July/August when I think we can count on warmer weather, hope it doesn't rain!

A New Web Site

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:04:29 -0700

Well, according to a lot of people (read William), it was becoming hard to find my train photos and related information. So, to make it easier to find, I created another web site solely for the purpose of my Train Hobby. This will give me a separate forum for interaction between fellow railfans.

Click here to be directed to the Wizard Train web site

A New House

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 07:31:00 -0700

Wow! A lot has happen since I last wrote. But the biggest news of all is that I bought a new house! Kathy and I have been looking for a home for about the last two years but couldn't find one that met all our requirements. At one time we were going to move to her house in Boulder City, Nevada. In fact, we told her daughter who is living there with her husband and child that we would move in there this Spring. Well, that got changed due to Kathy having surgery in January. In fact, since she works for Kaiser Permanete and they did the operation she will need a followup surgery in about a year or two so that means we needed to change our plans on moving to Boulder City since Kaiser is not in Nevada.

We next started to look in California. We looked as far as Oxnard (Ox Nard) and as far south as Poway (San Diego). Oxnard and Camarillo area was nice. It provided an opportunity to be close to her mother who lives in Grover Beach, but it was further away from her children and grand children who live in the Vegas area. Not to mention it was going to be quite a stretch for me to get to my two major contracts, the City of Glendale and Salt Lake City. Maybe Glendale via Metrolink, but the nearest airport would have been Burbank about 2 hours away. We needed to stay in and around Orange County.

Her girlfriend who lived in Hesperia knew we were looking for a house and early last year told us of a house that was being built next door to her. We went and saw the house, and while it was large, I didn't like the layout of the house. I felt I would have to do too much to a brand new house to get it in the configuration that we required. Plus, it was expensive (over $500k) for Hesperia, I thought. I thought we could probably find a better deal if we looked around. We did some house hunting in Hesperia and came across a few new homes that could probably work for us, all in the $400k price range that I wanted to stay within. We did see one house under construction that had a lot of potential. It was on Halinor street and that street overlooks Hondo Valley so the view out the back yard was just awesome. Too beautiful for words. The house was a little large for us and quite expensive (over $500k) but I thought it was just a great setting. Also, as new construction it would need landscaping and more money invested so it became a dream house.

A couple of months ago, we started looking again. Why the rush? Beause our rent was increased again on the home we live in Tustin. I was getting tired of paying the mortgage of someone else's property and giving way too much of my money to Uncle Sam in taxes. In fact, my accountant said I needed to buy a house to help with my taxes, since I'm self employed and work from home. A house would be the perfect answer since Kathy already had her house and rental property to help with her taxes and I needed something. So we started looking again in April.

We looked in and around Orange County. If you know anything about Orange County you know it can be quite expensive to live here. The median price for a home is over $700k and that won't buy much in terms of a house and property. My minimum parameters for a house were 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage and over 1500 sqft since that was what we were living in presently and we felt it was a bit cramped. It would be nice to have separate quarters for guests since it may be probable that her mother may live with us in the future. Didn't need a formal lving or dining, but I would like to have a bonus room for my pool table and model train layout. All on one floor, if possible, since I'm so done with climbing stairs everyday. It seems like whatever you want is always on the other floor and you have to go up or downstairs to get it. Plus, it would need RV parking for my toy hauler that I use to transport my model trains and modules to train shows. Currently I store it at a RV storage lot for $150 month.

We started looking again, going to open houses, looking around the neighborhood at houses for sale. We did see a few around $500k in Orange County that might work. One in particular in Santa Ana, that was quite nice. Santa Fe style, arched windows, adobe walls, corner lot. While it did have the minimum requirements, the TH would have to be parked in the back yard off the side street and it would be in plain view from the house. Another house we saw, was next door to a house I lived in Orange, but it was two stories and would need a lot of work, plus the TH would be parked in the back yard also. While looking at an open house I met an agent (Lane Moore agent with Seven Gables Real Estate) who was quite personable, honest and very eager to help in any way, showing a house that was in the $675k - $725K range. We hit it off well and I engaged him to help look for a house. Coincidently, he grew up within a few blocks of my house in Tustin and knew the area well. Even my neighbor Cliff (how ya doin?) remembered him from when he lived here as a child. He got me pre-approved with a mortgage broker so I could see how much house I could get and we were off, looking more in earnest.

I finally settled on three areas. Temacula, Lake Elsinore and Hesperia. Here you could find a house in the $400k range with some land. All the houses we saw in Orange County were on postage size properties that didn't offer much in terms of space and future remodeling (unless you went up, quite expensive). Kathy and I went looking in Lake Elsinore area and were disappointed with the houses that we saw there. Only new constuction offered any value in a house, however it came with no land. The homes that offered what we wanted would be in pretty bad areas, both in terms of neighborhood and condition. Lake Elsinore is somewhere you want to visit but not live. Lane and I went looking in Temacula and found a few homes that were very nice. Good size, right price, plently of land and Pechanga right down the street! The only problem, while it could work for Kathy (Kaiser in the area), the nearest airport would be Ontario (2 hours away) or San Diego (also 2 hours away).

Hesperia it was. Lane sent me listings all the time via email and one night I was looking through the listings when something caught my eye. Halinor street. I remembered this street from when Kathy and I looked last year and the home under construction with the view. The listing was a few houses down the street from that house so I looked it up on the internet. True enough, it was on the view side of the street and met all my parameters. Three bedrooms, 2 baths, 3 car garage and 2100 sqft. Lane and I went the next day to look at the house. Once I got close to the area I told Lane when he sees this house he'll know why I wanted this on my short list. The view would seal the deal. When we got there, not only was it what I expected with the house and view, but it was fully landscaped front and back and the bonus was that there was a pool in the back yard. Sitting on nearly one acre of land it offered plenty of possibilities and room to grow. The back yard overlooked Hondo Valley and the last fourth of the yard was undeveloped about 100 feet that sloped down to the desert floor and beyond. The beyond is owned by BLM and will not be developed any time soon, if ever. It was listed at under $400k but I offered less than that and the owner took it since he needed to leave cause he already had another house that he bought and didin't like paying for two houses. A win-win situation for all. The mortgage turns out to be less than what I was paying in rent in Tustin, so I am quite pleased with everything. It is an older home, built in 1990 so you can imagine that there are a few things that needs to be repaired, but the home inspection turned up very minor things and those were taken care of before I closed escrow, so all I need to do is a few remodeling projects (kitchen, fireplace and master bath) but those will come in time.

For now I will concentrate on the move in items, like painting and flooring before I tackle those jobs. We have scheduled movers for the 21st of July so by the begining of August we should be in the new house. If you would like to help, come on by, there will be plenty to do and cause it's the desert it will be warm, but there's a pool to take a cooling dip. See you on the 21st.

Click here for more pictures of the house.

Lakewood Workshop

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:19:19 -0700

This past weekend we had an open house in Palms Park. This was the last time we will get together to work on our modules as a group before the big show in Fullerton in May. With this showing I think I can finally bring to closure my working on these modules now that I have added lights and permanent trees. The only work I will do on them is minor adding of details at shows. For other pictures, click here.

On to my next modules, "Pacific Coast Shoreline, Surfliner"

Christmas Tequila Cookies

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 13:41:08 -0700

I added a new top secret tamale recipe (tried and true). Contact me if you want the password. Gina made me guard it. In the meantime, try my recipe for cookies. It's guaranteed to please.

Christmas Tequila Cookies

1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (two sticks) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit (dried cranberries or raisins)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
2 cups all purpose flour
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila (silver or gold, as desired)

First, sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl.

Check the Cuervo to be sure it is of the highest quality.

Pour another 4 ounces in a measuring cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of the butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon sugar. Beat again.

At this point, it is best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK.

Try another 4 ounces, just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break two eggs and add to the bowl and chunck in the cup of dried fruit, picking the frigging fruit off the floor.

Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a screwdriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift 2 cups of salt or something.

Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your Walnuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas.

Wish Lists

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 09:32:30 -0700

Well how do you like that. It seems like "the girls" as Gerard put it, have gone and decided things for us guys once again. Apparently we are now going to draw names for the Christmas exchange this year. This could be a good thing, providing we let each one of us know what we want. I have provided a way to store, view and update our lists through this web site so hopefully we can have a Merry Christmas. If you use My Document Management System located on the link on the left then you can use this repository to store the lists. This is a secure system, allowing for private files and public files through either anonymous access as well as login credentials. You can use this system for storing any type of file, as long as it doesn't exceed 50Mb. For now we can use it to put our "wish lists" on it so that throughout the year we can have a place that we can go to to see what each of wants for Christmas, birthdays, etc... Just click on the anonymous access for now and you should find a quick user guide on how to use the system. The guide is not fully developed, but it should get you going for now. If I find that people are using the system more I will most likely expand the guide to cover other topics.

Model Train News...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 09:15:22 -0700

Progress on my modules. I started back to work on them. Had to take a break for a while. I am now finishing the restaurant/station area. I think I'm gonna call the restaurant either Nacho Mamma's or Chew Chew Mamma's. Probably the latter for obvious reasons. I got three new engines within the last month. A replacement for the damaged George Washington engine came from Bachmann. Since the train is no longer in production they sent me a USRA Light 2-10-2 that I ordered unlettered. It will be the engine for my fantasy train, the SoCalWizard Railway. It is DCC but no sound. I will be coming up with a paint scheme soon. I like the colors of my logo, so that will be featured in the scheme and road name. I got from eBay the actual replacement, the 4-8-2 C&O Heavy Mountain that I will use for the Geo. Washington train. I had Bachmann send back the pieces of the engine that are particular to the engine and I will attach them to this new engine. Also from eBay I got an actual advertisment from the 1930's about the train that I'm gonna frame to help explain the train. It was very special in that it was the first air-conditioned train, very luxurious. I also got from a local hobby store an EMD F3 both A&B unit painted in the D&RG colors. Both units A&B are powered and they are DC/DCC with sound! They are a new run from Athern and I got them for a steal, less than half price! They were running a special for the weekend, and I've been looking for this particular engine for quite some time now, just didn't want to pay full price. I needed a diesel and I like the Rio Grande, so it was fate that I walked into the store looking for glue and came away with a new engine set. I'm gonna try to model the Ski Train, a modern day passenger train. The engine and cars are not available, the engine being a F9 and the cars the come close are by Con Cor. But with a few modifications I can make them look ok.

Durango...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:26:00 -0700

Came back from Durango yesterday. Using the remote office in Durango to test remote resource manager for URMCC. It didn't work out. On a bright note, the testing of Citrix connections worked very well. What was taking about 4 minutes dropped to less than 30 seconds.

Also it was Miguel's birthday and we had a party for him. Diane wrote this song for him.

Miguel

(tune of Michelle by the Beatles)

Miguel, you smell... very good
when you've been cooking well, mmm Miguel.
Miguel, you're swell. Hang out with us
and you'll end up in jail, jail-bird Miguel.

We want you, We want you, We want you,
I think you know by now
We've worked with you so long
That if one day you run away,
we won't understand.

Miguel, do tell, when you drive back
ho's do you pay them well? Huh, Miguel.

We need to, We need to, We need to
We need to make a fuss
Oh, what you mean to us.
Caro, Cabron, Cabrito, I hope you
know what I mean!

Miguel, barbell isn't what you lift,
but beers do just as well, beer-bell Miguel.

We love you, We love you, We love you
That's all I have to say
Other than of course
The most important words to hear: that's
Happy Birthday, Ma-Miguel!

Open House...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 09:25:25 -0700

Just came back from my Aunt's house last night. She had the entire house repainted, both inside and out. Beautiful colors, muted orange, reds and browns with a touch of creme (no blues) spread throughout. She and her decorator hit upon a winning combination and she couldn't be more happy. If you know my Aunt, then you know that she is a bookaholic, and because of the repainting she has had to move her many thousands of books and magazines elsewhere while she painted. The result is spacious home with new furniture and a remodeled kitchen that couldn't be more beautiful. She has promised that she would only bring back a few of her babies (cherised books) and we are going to hold her to that statement. If not, she promised for every new book she brings into the house, she will donate 3 to charity.

You can view photos of her house, along with family and friends in My Photo Albums.

Update...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Well, a lot of thigs have been going since I last wrote. My divorce is finalized and all is well with Kathy and I. In fact we have been talking a lot about making it more permanent and possibly next year we will be in back in Page, AZ where it all started. I have been quite busy with SoCal Consultants, both in Salt Lake City (Bureau of Reclamation and Utah Reclamation Mitigation Conservation Commision) and City of Glendale. I am in SLC twice a month and the remaining time in Glendale or just chillin' at home.

Speaking of home, Kathy and I are looking for a house to buy, but around Tustin homes go for around 800k and up, so we are looking elsewhere. Possibly Hesperia or Nipomo. I read in the paper today where house prices are dropping so we might start looking soon.

I've been quite busy with the train club also, having finished (well sorta) my modules and am now in the finishing touches. Pictures of them are in My Photo Albums if you want to see. Plus the best news of all... I finaly was able to get my new car, a Mazda RX8 and you can find pictures there as well.

Back in Salt Lake...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:22:54 -0700

Spending this week in my favorite city again. I'm now implementing a IBM Content Manager with Oracle, WebSphere and Document Manager. It's going fairly well, and I'm getting excellent help from the IBM tech support for all my questions. Hope to finish by end of the week. Kathy and I will be going to Vegas next week. Her daughter is getting married, and I'm the "Mother Usher" I started work on the SoCal Consultants web site, it's a definite work in progress.

Today is the first day...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 14:59:00 -0700

Well today is the first day of the rest of my life. I finally have my divorce finalized and my ex should sign the final papers this week. We'll see what happens. I know I haven't written in a while, but a lot has happened. After 16 years my company, where I was a partner, is closing it's doors as of end of March and I decided to open another business venture. I will be doing the same thing I always have, but now it's just me (and a few sub contractors) but it should be fine. My new business is SoCal Consultants and I should have a web site up and running soon. I'm also starting a new HO model train club in Irvine, the Streamliner Model Train Club, with a few other people and we should begin building a permanent layout soon. We are still debating the layout but should be voting on final trackplans this Tuesday. Also, the Pacific Coast Modular Club, of which I'm a member, is wanting my modules by May, so I have to get to work on finalizing them. I have already built the benchwork and I started laying the track so it should be ok.

Whew! You can see why I haven't written, who has the time!

Flying Fish...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 12:12:58 -0700

This interesting way of fishing came to me by Favi. Click here to view the movie.

Good Eating...

nospam@example.com (Wizard) — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 22:12:09 -0700

It occured to me that I needed to write down and have a place for the many foods that I had over the past few months, what with Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. So here, in my blog, you'll find some of my favorite recipes that I enjoy.

If you have any you would like to submit, please drop me a line and I'll add them.This list should continue to grow as I get them, or remember them. Some I got by asking people how they made the meal, some I got by watching (and writing down what I saw them add) and others I just made up.

Good eats!