So This is Christmas?

I must admit that its hard to feel Christmas-y living out here. No threat of snow, beach and sand everywhere I look, it just doesn't feel like mid-December. I think it is going to be a brown Christmas! But, some people do have decorations and lights and some people get really creative to make the time more festive. Here was one of my favorites. (I tried to get the string of sailboats in the upper right hand corner of the pictures.)


When I was running yesterday I noticed a sculpture making a snow, umm, I guess that would be sand-man. When I went back there today with my camera I was saddened to see that he had lost his head. The note on the front described that the neighboring community center had the sand-snow-man put up for people to enjoy but on the first night, vandals had knocked it over. So, that is sad but I'm including the photos anyway. (I didn't want to have walked 2 miles for nothing!)

Never miss a sunset

Actually I've seen some out here but I've missed quite a few. (The days are too short to see the sun set during the workweek.) The times I have seen the sun set over the ocean, I haven't had my camera with me. I've either been running or biking or didn't plan ahead. But on Friday I was out of work early enough and made a point to walk over to the ocean side of the peninsula with my camera and get some sunset photos to post on the blog. So, here you are, my overdue pictures of the sun setting over the ocean, as seen from south Mission Beach. (I was able to get some reflection shots of the sun off the retreating surf...so that made the pictures a little more fun than they would have been.)








When I'm home around sunset time, I'm going to keep walking over to the ocean, in the hopes of getting some classic sunset pictures as well as with the hope of seeing the legendary green flash.

The further you go away from it, the more you learn about home

So, I was sitting at work on Friday afternoon and two work neighbors were talking about Oregon and retirement. The one guy who is retiring soon, was talking about the place in Oregon where he has bought a house where him and his wife will spend their retirement years. He described things like how the people at the bank, the store, his insurance, etc all know him by name. And how he didn't really have to wait in line at the DMV. And how cheap things were. And how friendly people were. And the lack of traffic. And what a sense of community he felt there compared to San Diego. The guy listening to the story was completely and totally amazed by all this and how different it was from California and said that he had found "Mayberry". Seriously, the younger guy could not have been more blown away by all the simple things described about this place. (He was like an audience member in an infomercial -- except he didn't clap. I thought he was going to though.)

Even though I didn't want to hear the whole story...couldn't really help it. (The guy telling the story is a very loud talker.) And I also couldn't help but think - "It doesn't sound all that impressive to me. It sounds a lot like the Croghan/Lowville area of New York where I grew up."

I left work Friday afternoon kind of chuckling to myself. I'm 2500 miles away from my hometown, in what most people consider a perfect place to live and what happens -- I hear people describing and blown away by a description of a country lifestyle. In fact, the one guy can't wait to retire, get out of San Diego and live in paradise. Funny! I guess maybe there really is no place like home?

My New Home

I've decided that its about time that I settle down. (No, not like that Catherine! Didn't mean to get your hopes up. Sorry. And Krista -- that means that theoretically you still have a chance! Keep those fingers crossed.) I meant that its time to settle down in a more permanent place in San Diego. After sleeping in four different places during my first tour of duty out here (and that is just locations -- to mention nothing about partners, which was much, much, higher than four. Ok, much, much, lower than four. But same difference), I have a long term rental in place for the next three months. And people say that I'm afraid of commitment. Ha! Three months! That is commitment right there!!!

The place is a vacation rental and is the upper half of a house in south Mission Beach.


The house is a little old and certainly not immaculate, but it has a large screen TV, direct TV service, wireless internet and indoor plumbing, so it's pretty sweet. Ok, not really...but the location is very nice. I paced it out and from the gate off the patio, it takes 80 steps to get to the boardwalk on the bay side,



and 200 steps (counting crossing a street) to get to the boardwalk on the ocean side of the penninsula.




It would be awesome in the summer time when it is more beach season, but it would also be a lot more expensive (I'm getting a huge offseason discount). So, hopefully I get some nice weekend days to take advantage of the surroundings.

The owners have provided bikes, kayaks, boogieboards, beach chairs...now I just need God to provide a couple really warm weekends. Average temperatures through the winter are in the mid-to-high 60s. Which, while being great for winter, would be a little to chilly to take full advantage of the beach and water.

But it does have a large, sun-lit patio which will get sunlight all winter

...so even if I don't do much beach or water stuff, I'll be able to grill out, read outside, bike, etc. I'm hoping its a fun little place to live. It seems like I'm surrounded by college girls, so that is going to get annoying. Several have already stopped by to borrow a cup of sugar. They must do a lot of baking! Because I've already had to go back to the store twice to restock my sugar supply. I guess they must be doing Christmas cookies already? Who knows.? Oh, here comes another one...looks like she must have fallen into a hot tub when she stepped out of her kitchen? Because her white t-shirt is soaked through...pity that.

Rental Car #2

The good news about turning in my rental car every month, is that I get to try a new one the next time. This time I went the practical route and asked for a compact car instead of an intermediate. I figured this would almost allow for me to fit into the ridiculously small parking spots in most parking lots here in San Diego.

So, no more sporty looking red Mitsubishi's for me...instead I got a white Chevy Cobalt.



Since it's December and I miss the New York snow, I decided to name it Snowbalt. What do you think?

The Mandatory Trip to the Zoo

And of course, we went to the zoo. It was a chilly day, actually, so I needed a windbreaker! I know I'm really suffering here. I need to keep this quick, since I should be getting to work, but I don't want to keep my 2 blog fans waiting any longer! The San Diego zoo is cool. It's big, it's hilly, it's got some unique animals locked up. And its actually considered an animal refuge and a botanical garden...so it seems like they do a good job with it. But the best part is that in addition to all the animal jokes you can make at any zoo -- you get to add on Anchorman jokes as well. So, it really is the gift that keeps on giving. The highlights:

An elephant bush! What are the odds of this growing right next to a zoo?


Why does that baby giraffe look so familiar? It's kinda cute!


I'm telling you, it was cold for San Diego...barely in the 60s.


Bear fight.


Oh no, you woke the momma.



Have you heard my koala meets a prostitute joke?



And I can never get enough Panda Watch references in. Panda Watch! Day 9:


I don't like the way he's looking at me. Stupid Panda jerk!


Seriously, its a panda watchers paradise.


Hey buddy, why the long face?


Hey mister, why the long...ummm, nevermind. I see you have other things on your mind.


What do you do to a rhinocerous with three balls?


You walk him and pitch to the giraffe! (Ok, that's old and I changed it. Sue me.)


You've seen my meerkat joke and the polar bear joke, so I'm pretty much out of zoo pictures/animal jokes. And, lets face it, there is only so much zoo that you can take until you want to find yourself a cave to hide/rest in.



I think the only thing that did more walking that day was this peacock. The thing was everywhere! Unless it had a stunt double? Here we caught it cleaning up the seating bowl after the sea lion show.



Alright, I think that catches me up on my fun photos. I've got more stories, but nothing exciting. Maybe I'll post a little on that in the next day or two but its not as funny as the koala and the prostitute.

Stay classy!

Oops, I almost forgot my picture feeding the giraffe:


Look at the tongue on that thing! It must be one heck of a french kisser.

The Lost Weekend

Ok, I suppose it wasn't lost, but it has taken me over a week to write about it. Two weekends ago I got visited by my special friend. No, not my period, silly -- Catherine.


Since she was out visiting for a few days I splurged and upgraded my housing to an ocean front condo. It was pretty sweet, I must admit. And since it is the off-season for travel I got a great deal on it -- paid less than I have for a normal hotel room in other places. So, picture this - 9th floor of a high-rise, 2 ocean front "decks", plus one side deck with ocean views.

The decks were very small, ridiculous small actually -- think less than a foot deep, but the ceiling to floor sliding glass doors gave amazing views of the pacific ocean.


You could watch the surfers, the sun-bathers, the boogie-boarders, etc. And one of the mornings was really windy so I woke up to views of para-sailors. Now that looked awesome! Surfing, smurfing...I want to learn para-sailing instead. Except I don't know how they didn't kill each other. There were a dozen out there at one point and yet somehow they managed to zig and zag and turn back and forth and not run into themselves. Seems complicated but must be a huge thrill. They could go with the surf, or against it and leap into the air for seconds at a time....crazy fun.

Two Tickets to (Birds of) Paradise

Are You Sure I'm 100% Polar Bear?

Son, why do you keep asking me that? I'm a polar bear and your father is a polar bear, so yes, you are 100% polar bear.



Are you sure?



Yes, I'm sure. Your grand parents were polar bears and their parents and their parents were polar bears. I guarantee you are 100% polar bear. Why do you keep asking such a silly question?



Well. For one thing, I'm eating carrots. For another thing, I'm brown and not white. And lastly, but most importantly, I'm freaking freezing!

Meerkat Manor (Playboy Channel Edition)

Hey Honey! Some tourist just threw me a little blue pill and I ate it and look! I got my mojo back. Get over here!




Oooohhhh. Yeahhhhh. Thank goodness for the little blue pill! Mmmmmm. I feel like a teenage meerkat again!




Uh-oh. My red rocket has been up for over four hours. What do I do now? I think I'm in trouble. Call the zoo keeper! We need to beat this thing down before I pass out.