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June 29, 2005
First Class Upgrade
Continental Airlines Elite Upgrade
I was in Boston this past weekend with my family for a good friends wedding. While we were eager to see our friend get married, we absolutely dreaded the thought of flying 2,700 miles with our two kids. When we moved to Los Angeles, our flight from Washington D.C. to L.A. was absolute hell. Our 2 year old cried almost the entire flight and the people sitting near us wanted to kill us. This was a little more than 3 months ago so there was no reason for Samantha to change her behavior in such a short period of time.
We decided to take Continental Airlines from L.A. to Boston with a connection in Cleveland. The reason we chose Continental was because I have Elite status which gives us the slight possibility of being upgraded to first class.
I don't necessarily fly a lot but I used to manage some large affiliate programs, of which, Continental was an affiliate. As a token of their appreciation they extended me Elite status and also gave me access to the President's Club which is their VIP lounge at the airport.
To make a long story short, the flight out was full so no upgrade for my family. Unfortunately, my kids acted exactly as we expected. My younger daughter didn't want to sit still for a minute and kept kicking the chair in front of us. I received a number of angry glares from the guy sitting there. The best is when the people around you tell you that your kids have strong lungs.
A strange thing happened on the flight back, however. We received two upgrades from Boston and Cleveland and one first class upgrade from Cleveland to L.A. Now for those of you familiar with this Continental route, it is virtually impossible to get bumped up to first class from Cleveland to L.A. because this is a very busy route. On this day, however, the frequent flyer gods were favoring us. Not only did we get to annoy the other people who were sitting in first class, but my kids actually behaved better. The seats are more comfortable and there is much more leg-room so my youngest daughter had more room to move. This got me to thinking, if I buy a nicer, bigger car, will they stop screaming while I'm driving? If I buy a bigger, nicer house, will they behave better at dinner? Good questions, unfortunately, no money to test out my theory. For now I'll have to stick to the first class upgrade on Continental Airlines.
Posted by Dogger at 09:28 PM | Comments (1)
The Green Card Lottery
Green Card Lotary
I was just looking for the Permanent Resident Alien Address Update Form for my wife when I came across some interesting info regarding the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program or Green Card Lotary. Apparently, each year the U.S. Government makes 50,000 permanent resident visas available to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. I'm not going to get into whether or not the Green Card Lotary is a good idea, I'm just going to present the facts.
The annual Green Card Lottery program makes permanent residence visas available to people who meet certain requirements. Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing. The Green Cards, however, are distributed among six geographic regions. The most visas go to regions with lower rates of immigration while no green cards are issued to citizens of countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the last five years. Within each geographic region, no single country can receive more than 7% of the available Green Cards for any given year.
For the 2006 Green Card Lotary, the following Countries were not allowed to participate (most of these are no-brainers):
Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.
The nice thing about this Green Card Lotary is the fact that it is free. You can apply at the official Diversity Lottery site, however, applications for 2006 are no longer being accepted.
From what I have read there are only 2 real requirements in order to participate in the Green Card Lotary. The first is that you come from a qualifying country and second is that meet either the education or training requirement. For the education requirement the person applying must have either a high school education or its equivalent. If you want to participate in the Green Card Lotary but you cannot meet the education requirment, you can apply using the training requirement. This calls for the person to have at least two years of work experience within an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience in order to perform the job (this is a little confusing if you ask me). The U.S. Department of Labor's O*Net database is used to determine qualifying work experience.
Posted by Dogger at 03:35 PM | Comments (6)
June 21, 2005
Game 6 Pistons - Spurs
It's Do or Die for the Pistons
Wow what a game! After a heartbreaking loss in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA championship, the Detroit Pistons were able to go into San Antonio and win a game. The amazing thing is that the Pistons had not won a game in San Antonio in almost ten years and the Spurs had only lost a few games at home all year.
The San Antonio Spurs didn't do themselves any favors by scheduling the victory parade for this coming Thursday. This was definitely locker room material and gave the Detroit Pistons some extra incentive to win.
The score was close the entire game with both teams going up by a few points throughout the first three quarters. The Detroit Pistons were in front for the majority of the final quarter going up by as many as 7 points with a few minutes left. San Antonio made a small run but Detroit was too much and wound up winning by 9 points. Rasheed Wallace and Richard Hamilton had huge games for the Pistons. Rasheed played the last 5 minutes with 5 fouls and he turned out to be the difference in the game.
Now its on to game 7 which I believe they said is the first game 7 in the NBA in 7 years and only the second game 7 in the last 17 years. Interesting note: The home team had won each of the first 4 games before the Spurs were able to break serve in Game 5.
Stay tuned for an exciting Game 7 between the Spurs and the Pistons. We'll see which team puts on the 2005 NBA Championship Hat.
Posted by Dogger at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 19, 2005
Pistons Spurs Game 5
Will the Home Team Prevail Again?
Game five of the 2005 NBA Championship between the Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs is underway. The two teams took Saturday off in order to have the showdown on Fathers Day. It will be interesting to see if the Spurs can be the first team in this series to win on the road.
San Antonio started strong and got off to a 4-0 lead but the Pistons scored 8 stright points to grab a 8-4. Detroit streched the lead to 7 points with 6 minutes left so the Spurs were forced to take a time out. Greg Popovich made some adjustments and with 4:28 left in the first quarter the Pistons lead is down to 4 points.
Oh the joy of Tivo, my wife insisted that I give my daughters a bath so I've been gone for 30 minutes but haven't missed a second of the game. I've actually had tivo for 5 years but have never really liked recording sports. I just feel that sports can only be watched live (if possible). Any way back to the game.
It's now the second quarter and the Pistons lead by 4 points with 11:18 left. You can tell the Spurs are a little uptight by the fact that Tim Duncan just received a technical foul. Another interesting tidbit is that Ben Wallace is 4 for 4 from the free throw line. Why is this intersting, simply because the guy shoots 48% from the line.
Well there is 8:29 left in the second quarter and the momentum has shifted. The San Antonio Spurs are now winning by 4 points. Actually, the lead is not at 9 point with 6:28 left, the Pistons can't buy a basket. Detroit has now gone on a 6 - 0 run and only trails by 3 points. The Spurs have called a timeout to kill the Pistons momentum. Let's see if it worked. Duncan just took an awful shot that resulted in an airball but the Pistons were called for an offensive foul so the score remains 38-35. Ben Wallace has come back down to earth after shooting an airball from the free throw line. Well, the first half just ended and we are all tied up at 42. Finally a game that will actually have an exciting second half. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to watch it live. Time to go back upstairs and read the kids a story.
Posted by Dogger at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2005
Redondo Beach Real Estate
Today we decided to venture south in our endless search to find some real estate we can call our own. We actually viewed six homes in North Redondo Beach which is part of the South Bay. The homes we looked at were actually right on the border of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. I would much prefer to live in either Manhattan or Hermosa Beach but unfortunately these areas are a little too rich for my blood.
Out of the six homes we saw, we actually liked three of them. The one we liked the most is brand new but it is out of our price range (well they are all pretty much out of our price range). It is a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath townhome selling for $967,000. The other two we liked are going for $849,900 and $849,000. They are actually within a block of each other and have the same floorplans. The big difference is that one has Brazilian hardwood floors and the other has wall-to-wall carpeting.
My wife really liked the one that had the hardwood floors and I think I am going to talk with my lender on Monday to see what type of loans are available. I also liked the house a lot, my only concern is the commute to and from work. I think I'm looking at a 45 minute ride both ways which really isn't that bad considering there are people who spend over 3 hours a day in their car in Los Angeles. At this point is a wait and see scenario. I don't want to overextend myself from a financial standpoint so our decision will be based on what my lender tells me next week. More to come....
Posted by Dogger at 08:50 PM | Comments (1)
June 16, 2005
Balding No Big Deal
Spray on Hair, What a Concept?
I have to admit that I am balding. I started losing my hair on top around 7 years ago. I'm fully aware that there are numerous treatments available, from laser hair replacement to Rogaine. I think these are good options for a lot of men and women who are losing their hair but I have never given them much thought. I guess my thinking is that I'm married with kids so I'm not really trying to impress anyone.
Lately, however, I've been noticing my hair loss a little more. That bald spot seems to be getting bigger and bigger each time I look. I still don't think that I'm at a point where I would actually be willing to spend the money on laser hair replacement and I definitely would never ever consider a hair peace, but I am starting to notice my problem a little bit more.
So here comes the inspiration behind this post. I was at the barber yesterday for my $25 haircut (which is $15 more than I ever had to spend on a haircut before I moved to Santa Monica) when my barber asked me a question. He asked if I wanted him to use some spray on hair on me. I guess I have been living in a shell because I had no clue what he meant. He showed me the can and explained how it works. I came to the conclusion that it is spray paint for your head. I politely declined and proudly said that my bald spot doesn't bother me. Well him being the intelligent barber he is, said "yeh, right". I'm sure he's heard that response thousands of times before. He said, come one try it, you won't regret it. At this point I felt like Mikey and remembered back to my childhood how Mikey actually did like the cereal after he tried it. He explained that it would wash off with my next shower so I said, ok, go ahead. He sprayed it on and pointed the mirror at the top of my head. To my disbelief the bald spot was gone. I thought, wow, thats really cool. It's instant hair in a can.
I paid the barber and thanked him. As I walked out the door he said just make sure you don't touch your head too much because you will get the spray on your hands. I said don't worry and left. The true test was about to happen, would anybody notice the difference. I'll make a long story short by saying that the only person that did notice only did so after I told her what had happened, and that person happened to be my wife. Now I am a cynical person so if a friend of mine sprayed hair on his head I would give him an earful. I work with cynical people and I didn't receive one comment. This makes me assume that nobody even noticed that I had suddenly "grown" hair. Everyone is used to the bald spot so why should they look and see if anything is suddenly different. I mean if my own wife didn't notice then why would I do this again. Even worse, can you imagine spraying this stuff on your head, going out to a bar and picking up a girl, only to have your "hair" stain her pillow.
I guess what I'm getting at is hair in a can is not for me. I can live with my bald spot and the day I can no longer deal with it, I'll spend the money on laser hair replacement or some other treatment. And yes, my shower water turned black.
Posted by Dogger at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
NBA Home Court Advantage
I'm sitting here watching game four of the NBA championship between the Pistons and the Spurs and I can't believe what I'm seeing. There are about 8 minutes left in the game and the Piston are up by 24 points. At this point the game is all but over. I mean, I know it's the NBA, but 24 nobody loses a 24 point lead with 8 minutes left. San Antonio is still playing their starters (which I think is stupid because of the risk of injury in a game that is out of reach) probably because it is the finals and not just another game. Update --- the lead is down to 20 with 6:56 left.
I think it is amazing how much the home court means in the NBA. If you look at games 1 and 2, the Spurs pretty much blew Detroit out. Games 3 and 4 have had the same result, except, Detroit has been the beneficiary of playing at home. How can it be that the home court advantage means so much to professional athletes. I mean these guys are getting paid millions of dollars to perform at their best level night after night, regardless of where the game is being played. How can the San Antonio Spurs play so well at home and so lousy on the road? The same goes for the Detroit Pistons. Update --- the lead is back up to 24 with 3:20 left and the Pistons have begun to empty their bench.
Game five of the NBA championship is in Detroit so according to this trend, Detroit should win. The bad news for Detroit fans is that if they are going to repeat as NBA champions, they need to win one on the road because games 6 and 7 (if necessary)are in San Antonio. The Pistons proved last year they can win on the road when they need to. They didn't have the advantage last year but it didn't seem to matter. Hopefully for them, they will be able to steal one on the road and repeat as champions although I wouldn't put my order in quite yet for my Pistons championship jersey. Final update --- Detroit Pistons 102, San Antonio Spurs 71.... that my friends is what you call a blow out.
Posted by Dogger at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)
California Housing Bubble
I'm starting to get really worried about the real estate situation in California. Prices are out of control, yet people continue to buy. Many are predicting that the real estate bubble is about to burst, especially in Calfornia. My goal to find a place close to work is pretty much unattainable. Unfortunately, my office is in Santa Monica, which happens to be one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States.
We decided to look in both West L.A. and the South Bay but as in Santa Monica, you don't get much house for your money. It's a sad state of affairs when $700,000 gets you a fixer-upper at best. Even at $700,000 financing is tight. All these no-interest loans and other creative financing is great when the market is hot, but what happens when the California real estate market implodes? What happens when tens of thousands of people owe more on their home then what its worth? I think I know what happens, the bubble bursts, prices decline rapidly and foreclosures go through the roof. The question on everyone's mind is when will this happen and how do I avoid becoming a victim.
Many so called experts are predicting that the California real estate market is close to bursting, but then again, they've been saying this for years. To be honest with you, this whole situation has me very concerned. I make good money and I can't afford a home. The homes I can afford are questionable at best and no where near my office. If I want to buy a home I have no choice but to use "creative financing" which probably means a five-year, interest only loan. Then, to cap it all off, I run the likely risk of owing more on my home then the home is actually worth. All of a sudden, renting doesn't seem like such a bad option. Stay tuned.
Posted by Dogger at 09:32 PM | Comments (1)
June 15, 2005
Home Protection
Is a Taser Really Safer?
Let me start off by saying that I do not own a weapon. I have young children and the thought of an accident scares me to death. My house does have a somewhat primative security system but I have always been somewhat hesitant about the effectiveness of home security systems. After all, once the robber is in the house, the beeping security system won't stop him from harming your family. I heard about tasers a while back and thought that purchasing one may be a good way to have a little peace-of-mind. After all, I do live in Los Angeles, ok Santa Monica, but you never know. Most tasers cost between $400 to $1000 and deliver about 50,000 volts. A taser works by temporarily screwing up the electrical signals that help the brain communicate with the rest of the body. After all, if your brain cannot tell your legs that you want to run, you can't run.
Because I had not heard a lot of negative things regarding tasers, I just assumed it was a much safer alternative. Lately, however, there have been a number of news segments and newspaper articles talking about how these stun guns are either causing deaths or have been a contributing factor in a number of deaths. I guess this got me thinking about the viability of the taser versus a conventional weapon. Is a taser any safer? It probably depends on the situation. I don't think there have been a lot of studies done on the effects of 50,000 volts on young children and I can't recall hearing about any taser accidents involving young kids but I'm sure most parents would not volunteer their kids to partake in this kind of a study. At the same time, who hasn't heard about some poor child who happened to come across a loaded weapon and started playing with it like a toy.
I think the safety issue boils down to personal preferences and beliefs. I have always feared firearms and therefore would never think of purchasing one. At the same time I don't have any preconceived beliefs or biases against a stun gun because there isn't a lot of negative hype surrounding them. If the taser continues to receive bad press, whether justified or not, I will probably end up having the same bias against them as I do for firearms. Until that happens, however, I might give the taser a try. I think the home security system along with an air taser might do the trick. If I hear the security system alarm go off I can boldly tell the intruder that I am armed. I hope I never have to use it but at least I know that I have the taser and this gives me the peace-of-mind I need.
Posted by Dogger at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2005
L.A. Real Estate Search - Day 1
Ok, after 3 hours I'm tired and frusterated. We actually wound up going to 4 homes; one in Santa Monica and 3 in Mar Vista which I guess is considered West L.A.
The nice thing about looking for a home in L.A. is that there is so much real estate available that you go out with the intention of looking at one place and you end up finding other homes on the way. The place in Santa Monica which is only a few blocks from where we live was definitely nice and somewhat affordable considering it is in Santa Monica. It was a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath built in 1940 for $875,000. The problem with the house was that it was only 1200 sq. feet which is way too small for 2 kids and a dog.
Next, we went to look at our second option in Mar Vista. The house was in a nice neighborhood and was in relatively good condition. It also had 4 bedrooms which is something we could definitely use. All of the homes we have lived in (at least homes we have purchased and not rented) have had 4 bedrooms. This is nice because it allows us to use the fourth room as an extra bedroom and computer room.
The only problem with the house was the price. The asking price is $915,000 but the real estate agent was quick to point out that the sellers we anxious and would probably be willing to come down a couple thousand dollars if we were serious. I felt much better after this comment, yeh right.....on to the next home.
On our way to what was supposed to be the third and final house of the day we came across an open house sign. We followed the signs until we came upon a very big house. The funny thing was it was by far the biggest home on the block. In fact, it was probably 1500 square feet bigger than the next closest home. I told my wife she could go in if she wanted to but that I wasn't even going to waste my time. I bet her it cost around $1.4 million. She said she wanted to go in so I told her I would wait in the car with the kids. She was gone for about 10 minutes and as she was approaching the car she just grinned. My guesstimate was actually low. The house was going for $1.8 million. Considering the neighborhood, I thought the price was high even by L.A. standards. I mean the house was 3600 square feet but $1.8 million, come on.....Well at least my wife was able to get 2 tootsie rolls from inside for my kids.
The last house we saw isn't even worth mentioning. It was old, dirty, on a busy street and over priced. One word can sum up our day; FRUSTRATING. The LA housing market is so out of touch with reality that I really don't know what we are going to do. Well, actually I do know, we will go back out next weekend and continue our real estate search.
Posted by Dogger at 09:51 PM | Comments (1)
June 12, 2005
L.A. House Search
Los Angeles Real Estate
When we moved to Santa Monica we decided it would be a good idea to rent for a year instead of purchasing real estate right from the start. This decision was based on the fact that we aren't familiar with Southern California and didn't want to rush into making a bad real estate decision. We are now 3 months into our lease and are starting to regret the decision to rent. This series of entries will cover our quest to purchase a home in the greater Los Angeles area.
Our desire to purchase a home sooner rather than later is based on our fear that we are being priced out of the market. I was somewhat aware of the astronomical housing prices in Los Angeles but even I was surprised when I started taking a closer look. I saw a segment on the local news last week that stated that only 17% of Californian's can afford to purchase an average home. An average home is defined as costing $550,000. Boy I would like to find me an average priced home. We haven't seen anything below $750,000. The funny thing is that $700,000 doesn't get you much real estate in Southern California. In other states this amount will get you the house of your dreams. In California you'll get a 1500 hundred square feet home with 2 or 3 bedrooms that was built somewhere between 1940 and 1980. I guess what I'm trying to say is you won't get much. This is a pretty hard concept to grasp considering that this is a ridiculous amount of money.
Any way, to get back on topic, I'm going to blog about my house hunting experience in order to let other people who might be getting into the same situation what to expect. Today we are off to 3 homes. One is in Santa Monica and the other to are in West Los Angeles. Our real estate agent sent us info on all three and they range from $800,000 to $875,000. I'll let you know how it goes.
Posted by Dogger at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2005
Hotel Fun - Part II
Hotels have Thin Walls - Part II
Well it happened again! It seems as if I have no luck when it comes to picking hotels. After my family and I returned from dinner (we couldn't deal with the Sizzler for a second night so we found a Chinese restaurant), we gave the kids a bath and got them ready for bed. I anticipated us all turning in early because everybody seemed tired out from a long day. My kids spent the entire day in the hotel pool and my wife spent the whole chasing my daughters around the hotel pool. I didn't have a particularly hard day but I was exhausted from not getting any sleep the night before due to the fireworks in the adjacent room. We put the kids down and I finished watching the end of a program on the Discover Channel called "Deadly Catch" which was about the dangers surrounding the crabbing season.
Not being interested in the show, my wife quickly went to sleep, which left me amazed by the fact that these guys make over $100,000 in a few weeks. Any way, about 30 minutes before the show ended, I heard the hotel door close at the room next to me. Next, I heard the TV go on and the volume was turned all the way up. This by itself was enough to annoy the hell out of me, but of course it didn't stop there. If you read my entry from yesterday (Hotel Fun), I think you know what happened next.
The squeaking started out slowly; I guess you could say almost gently. I jokingly thought to myself that they might be taking it easy tonight. I was wrong. After a few minutes the pace picked up until I heard banging on the hotel wall. Just like the night before, the quick pace was accompanied by moans, or should I say acts of encouragement. I looked over at my wife and to my disbelief she was sleeping which meant she would again miss the show. The banging continued for a few more minutes until they ran out of gas. The couple must have had a long day because the hotel show didn't last quite as long and there wasn't a second act so I wasn't nearly as impressed as the night before.
The moaning and groaning was over but they forgot to turn off the TV. This kept me up for about another 15 minutes until I finally fell asleep. I guess I must have been tired because I didn't wake up until this morning, I didn't even hear my daughter who apparently got up around 3:00 am. My wife will be checking out of the hotel today as our townhouse has been deemed safe again after the fumigation. My only question is what will I do tonight without the moaning?
Posted by Dogger at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2005
Hotel Fun
Hotel Walls are Thin!
My wife and I decided to go to the Four Points Sheraton hotel at the Los Angeles Airport for the two nights we had to be out of our townhouse due to the fumigation. We chose this hotel for two reasons. Number one was that it is one of the few hotels that will accept a dog over 70 pounds and number two because they have a heated pool where my kids can play.
Now to be honest with you, I didn't really have high expectations of the Hotel considering it was costing me $189 for two nights. We booked the room using Hotels.com and I think we got a pretty decent rate. My wife checked in while I was at work and called me to tell me that the place wasn't all that bad. The room was clean and she said the swimming pool was really warm (hopefully from a heater and not from all the kids swimming in it). This was a nice surprise considering the fact she usually hates going to hotels.
When I got to the hotel, it looked nice enough. After all, I'm not really picky and the room did have ESPN and ESPN 2 so I was happy. We went out for dinner to the Sizzler, yes I said Sizzler (it was the only place that was close to the hotel). This by itself was enough to make my day. I hadn't eaten at the Sizzler in probably 25 years. Where else is the menu on the wall in huge letters. We had a "nice" dinner and then went back to the hotel to get some rest. This is where the fun started. I don't know if you have ever stayed in a small hotel room with two young kids and a large dog but if you haven't, let me tell you it isn't easy. We finally got the kids cleaned up and into bed so I figured I would watch the end of the Pistons - Heat game and relax for a bit. My wife and kids quickly fell asleep and this is when the noise began. It started with the airplanes. The hotel is literally a mile from the Los Angeles Airport so you can hear every plane that lands and takes off. During the day you block the noise out because you are busy. At night, however, the noise become amplified.
If the only thing that kept me up were the airplanes, however, I would have been happy. Around 11:30 just as I was slipping into never never land, I heard the door close at the room next to us. About 15 minutes later a heard some squeaking, kind of like a headboard hitting a wall. I think you see where I am going with this one. The squeaking noise sped up to a rapid pace and was then accompanied by a women screaming catchy phrases like "come on baby" and "give it to me". Now under normal circumstances this would be pretty funny but considering my wife and 2 kids were in the room, I was kind of upset. I mean the couple had to be aware that everyone on the 3rd floor could hear them. They kept at it for about 15 minutes and then ran out of gas. I was relieved because I figured I could finally get some sleep. Wrong... About 10 minutes later I heard the squeaking noise again. Same routine. It started out slow, quickly sped up and was then followed by the same sweet voice telling her partner how much she appreciated his work. After about another 10 minutes it finally came to an end.
I figured that if they started up again, the guy should win a gold medal for hotel olympics. I think I fell asleep around 1:00 but was then woken up by my wife because I was snoring too loud. I asked here if she heard the fireworks and she innocently said no. Now whether I believe her or not is a different story, but she is a heavy sleeper. I still have one more night to go at the hotel so I will write back tomorrow if I have another interesting experience. I guess you really do get what you pay for.
Posted by Dogger at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2005
Termite Fumigation - To Bag or Not to Bag
Termite Fumigation Checklist
Here is a list of items we were told needed to be sealed in Nylofume bags prior to the termite fumigation:
1. Pretzels and other foods packaged in plastic bags.
2. Animal feed.
3. Foods packaged in cardboard boxes, like cereal.
4. Spices without their original manufacturer's airtight seal intact.
5. Eggs
6. Aspirin and other similar ingestible medicines.
7. Ice cubes should be discarded before fumigation and the icemaker should be turned off.
8. All plants need to be removed.
9. The gas has to be turned off. This is usually arranged by the company doing the fumigation. You do, however, need to make arrangements with the gas company to have the gas turned back on.
We were advised that we do not need to worry about clothing, dishes and utensils.
Posted by Dogger at 06:08 PM | Comments (0)
Fumigating your Home
Termite Fumigation
After we sold our home FSBO in Virginia, we moved to Santa Monica, California and decided it would be best to rent for a year. We moved into a very nice townhome about a mile from the beach. Before we signed the lease, we were informed that the townhomes were going to be fumigated in June. This didn't seem like a big deal at the time but as the date grew nearer, some papers were dropped off at our door stating we had to abandone the property for 3 days. I've had exterminators spray my home before but I had no idea what a termite fumigation involved.
The gas which is used is called Vikane Gas or Sulfuryl Fluoride and is produced by Dow AgroSciences. This stuff is so strong that the entire complex is going to be sealed off so the gas can penetrate the wood throughly and kill the termites. The complex will be sealed for up to 72 hours before they start the aeration process.
After we received the notice we decided to make a reservation at a nearby Travel Lodge. Not the best accomidations but it is a block from our house. The next thing we had to do is bag up all our food, spices and drugs in Nylofume bags. This has truely turned out to be a pain in the ass. Anything that does not have an airtight seal has to be bagged. Because we have young kids my wife has decided to put all their clothes and toys in large plastic bags as well. We are going to put the bags in the minivan just to be safe.
We are almost done putting everything in the Nylofume bags and packing up our suitcases. We have to be out of the house in two days so I will write an update as soon as we move back in the house.
Posted by Dogger at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2005
Verizon DSL Problem - No IP Address
Verizon DSL Problem - No IP Address
I recently woke up one day to find out that my Verizon DSL service was not working. Nothing had changed on my computer that I was aware of and I ran both a virus and spyware scan and both came up negative. The problem I was having was that my DSL modem (Westell Versalink)was not able to resolve an IP adress. It was simply 0.0.0.0.
I'll be the first to admit that I am not technically gifted, however, I am pretty good at troubleshooting a problem. You may ask why not just call Verizon technical support, but I will get to that in a second. I could list all the things I tried but I don't want to bore you. Trust me when I tell you that I tried all the tricks in the book (except for the one that actually fixed the issue). It was becoming obvious that I wasn't going to be able to fix the problem myself so I had no choice but to call the dreaded technical support.
First, you have to deal with the annoying automated voice system. I realize that companies save money using these systems but do they understand how much people hate using these...... Next, you have to go through the usual bs of repeating your information to a live person (when you finally get one) even though you have already entered it using your phone. Once you finally get somebody to help you they ask if you tried turning off your modem, blah blah blah. To make a long story short (after a 45 minute call), the first person I spoke with wasn't able to resolve my problem so they told me they would run a few tests on my line and get back to me.
The next day I when I get home there is an automated message on my answering machine telling me that the problem has been resolved and that the ticket has been closed. I think to myself, wow, they fixed the IP problem within a day. I go upstairs, turn on the computer, and guess what, same problem. I call back Verizon DSL support and go through the same routine to get to a live person. They basically tell me to try the same things the first person told me to do (check the filters, disconnect the modem, turn off the computer) and then ask me to go into the command prompt and run ipconfig/all, ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew. I plead with the women telling her I tried this before and that it isn't going to help. Sure enough, I run the tests just to humor her and I continue to have the same problem. After about an hour, she recommneds that I go out and buy a new ethernet card because it is definitely a hardware problem and that this will solve my problem.
I was sure that a new card wasn't going to fix the IP issue but I was desperate. I went to Circuit City after work and picked up a new ethernet card making sure it was a different brand then my original one in order to ensure that I wouldn't have any driver conflicts. Guess what happened? I installed the new card and continued to have the same issue. I called back Verizon DSL support (now I'm mad because I have no internet connection plus I just spent $30 on a card I didn't need) to vent my frustration. After an hour on the phone, the technical support person told me there was nothing further they could do and that my only option would be to cancel my DSL service.
After I hung up the phone (a total of over 4 hours if you add up all the calls to Verizon DSL support) the dim lightbulb in my head finally went off. I thought to myself that I couldn't have been the only person to have had this problem. I would turn to Google for my answer. I typed in "no ip problem verizon dsl" and quickly realized that there were others who have had the same problem. After clicking on a few posts, I finally found my answer. Here is the solution in case you suffer from the same problem, by the way, I am running XP.
Go to start, control panel, adminitrative tools and services. Now, find the DHCP Client option. Right click on it and hit Properties. You can select start under Service Status and that should get you on the internet. It is important to remember that you need to have this going when you turn your computer on the next time so go to "startup type" and select "Automatic". The last thing you need to do is restart your box.
The solution seemed so easy and commonsense (granted I would not have thought of it but as I said, I'm not technically literate) that I have no idea why the people over at Verizon DSL did not suggest doing this. I definitely learned my lesson when it comes to technical phone support. Instead of spending hours upon hours on the phone, try searching for the problem first. In 9.9 out of ten cases I think you will find your solution.
Posted by Dogger at 02:59 PM | Comments (1)