RoundAbout San Diego

I had a staff retreat with my co-workers at the Del Mar Races. We worked all morning and closed the office at noon today.

Here we are on our way to early retirement



When choosing a horse we worked on our our team work - I thought we were motivated and worked well together



It was a beautiful sunny day with a ton of people there - were they all on vacation? Or, were they all on a staff retreat? I did notice a lot of conferring when examining the horses which indicated a fair amount of 'team work'.



I think we were having second thoughts on the horse(s) we had picked



Marine and Stacie were super sensible with their big-rimmed hats and I will definitely wear one next year - my skin was quite pink at the end of the day


Misuk enjoying her kettle corn



I arrived home a little less well off than I left this morning but I had a great day. Once home I wanted a simple dinner and an early night. We had mushroom and mascapone cheese ravioli with a sun-dried tomato cream sauce. I was too tired to prepare a salad so this was it

Stuart sent me a few random photos the other day and since I'm now posting family pics here they are.

This is the trellis that was just put in



The rains a few months ago flooded part of his backyard



He seemed most put out with the below freezing temperature earlier this month



Here are 2 photos he sent me a year or two ago of the front yard



Here are some photos we took of his house when we visited last year.

This is his newly built bar that he is so proud of. It used to be an outdoor patio and they enclosed it with huge windows. We had a great party here our first night with them



This is the bar from the back yard and a picture of the Jackalope we took over for him



And here are the two of us



Looking forward to posting more as they come in.

Janet and Klaus have been working hard on their yard and recently sent us these photos



The following are some pictures from their yard that we took when we visited in May.







Everything is so lush, green and thriving. Unlike our yard that is dry, almost brown, and barely alive. I guess we still have a lot to learn.

The Self-Bose Family are vacationing in Zanzibar, Tanzania, this week. They start the week today staying at the luxurious Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski Tanzania Hotel for some R&R. I can just imagine strolling along the pier, cocktail in hand, and enjoying the incredible scenery.

On Friday they move to the 236 Hurumzi which was formerly the Emerson & Green. This also looks like a beautiful place to stay but what really interested me was the link at the bottom of the page to some recipes. I can't wait to try the meat pilau - not sure if I can buy goat over here so will probably try with lamb.

We hope Ben, Kirsten, Astrid, & Pippa are having a fabulous time and look forward to seeing some photos.

Yesterday we bought the sink, sink cabinet, drawer cabinet, mirror, and medicine cabinet. Today we spent nearly 4 hours picking out our floor tile and bathtub surround tile. It was so hard to pick out something from the gazillion choices that Home Expo has. My sanity was at breaking point but Alex kept his cool and was very patient with me. We had to special order the tiles and they will arrive in about 2 weeks. We also started looking at toilets and fixtures like faucets, showers, towel rails, etc.

Unfortunately, no photos today.

Alex spent the morning installing a new circuit for the bathroom. This included a few trips in the attic and down in the crawl space. Most of the dirty work was done by lunch time and the little that's left will be completed tomorrow.

We had lunch at IKEA - broccoli cheese soup and garlic bread (not the healthiest of choices but Alex earned it) - before buying our bathroom furniture. We have decided on the Stenskar Cabinets (sink unit, drawer cabinet, mirror, and medicine cabinet) and the Hollviken sink.

Finished off our shopping spree with ice-cream from Cold Stone Creamery - what a treat.

I made some bread today in the bread making machine. I put it on the dough setting and when complete I put in the fridge until ready to bake. We had it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and some wine on the patio.

We've taken a few days off from the bathroom remodel to rest our weary bones. I went back to work on Monday and I LOVED it after my workation. After talking to Diana last night we decided to follow her advice and remove the tile floor of the bathroom.

While shopping at Home Depot for some new tools to make Alex happy we bumped into Ann and Diana. Diana lent us her hammer drill with special attachment just in case ours was a woosier version and not up to the job.

Alex got off to a slow start figuring out the best way to cut through the tile and 2 inches of concrete underneath, but once he got a grip on things everything went quite quickly. We did have a slight panic attack after all the clean up when we found a small patch of dry rot by the edge of the tub. This was underneath where the crack was (see Hallway Bathroom Remodel - Day 1).



Diana stopped by on her way home from a job and assured us that it was a small patch and we could clean it up without removing the whole foundation. Our house has a crawl space beneath it and the floor joists and sub floor are so thick and in such good condition that the small dry rot was a tiny glitch in our remodel - or so she told us.

Clean up at the end of the day left us with this

I'm playing hide-and-seek with Boo

Ann and Diana came over late this afternoon - we hadn't seen them in quite a while. The evening started with happy hour on our patio to give us time to catch up. I served carmelized cipollini onion bread from Vons with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, some tortilla chips and guacamole, a mix of olives, and a nicely chilled chardonnay (love that Yellowtail from Australia). Ended up at Mario's De La Mesa - one of our favorite local restaurants. Unfortunately, no web page to show. I had the pork tamale which was very good.

Diana is our DIY expert and comes over constantly to consult and advise - I really don't know what we would do without her. So when she saw what we had done with our hallway bathroom and heard our plans she put a complete stop to everything. She couldn't understand why we had stopped at the floor and recommended we remove it. We told her about the pain we (Alex) went through to remove the tiles around the tub and she said "pfft" or something to that effect. I guess she doesn't believe in a job half done just because of some pain. Because of the cracks in our floor she thinks we need to know if the floor underneath is damaged enough that additional work might be needed.

After some thought and discussion Alex and I have agreed with Diana. Tomorrow we (Alex) are going to remove the tiles on the floor of the bathroom.

I can't believe we're going to do this! When the men in the white coats come to get me I'll go quietly.

This is one of my favorite frittata recipes. It can be a dish in a brunch menu and it makes for an easy dinner with a big salad. I always double the recipe so we can have leftovers the next day. Tonight I served it with a Caesar Salad and a chilled glass of chardonnay.



Southwest Corn Frittata

4 large eggs
1 cup fresh corn kernels (from about 2 ears of corn) or frozen, thawed
1/2 cup (packed) grated Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeños
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 6-inch-diameter corn tortillas, cut into small wedges
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onion

Preheat broiler. Whisk eggs in medium bowl to blend. Mix in corn, cheese and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix in tortillas.
Heat oil in heavy medium broilerproof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until just tender, about 5 minutes. Pour egg mixture into skillet and stir to blend. Cover skillet. Cook frittata over low heat until eggs are almost set, about 8 minutes. Uncover skillet; broil frittata until top is set and starting to brown, about 1 minute. Slide frittata onto plate. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro. Cut into wedges and serve.

All we did today was clean up the dust. We cleaned almost the whole house, all the tools, the patio - anywhere we could see dust we did what we could to get rid of it.

I go back to work tomorrow and believe me, I need the rest.

We are now done with removing all the walls from the bathroom and all we're left with is the studs





I have to tell you, I thought this process would never end. 4 days feels like forever when you're not having fun. Happy hour today was really happy hours.

It was so hard getting up this morning - Boo didn't want me go get up and my muscles were yelling at me to stay in bed but the thought of coffee on the patio spurred me on.



The new blade that Alex bought yesterday was helpful in removing the tiles around the tub but unfortunately it was incredibly hard work for him. I think I heard him muttering something about it being 'hell on earth'. Removal created a huge amount of dust that is now coating everything in our home - can you see Alex?



He spent about 5 minutes cutting the tile and then came out for air and to let the dust settle. Then he went back in to continue.



At the end of the day all the tile has been removed but it took an awful lot of back and forth to the back driveway to clean up.





All that's left to do is remove the wall around the toilet and we're done with the hard part.

Today was a little harder than yesterday. The blades we were using with the reciprocal saw were no match against the tile around the tub. The bathroom walls start at the studs. On top of the studs is a thick metal mesh that is covered with 1 1/4" of concrete. On top of the concrete are the tiles which totals about 1 1/2" that we have to cut through to pull away from the studs.

After much consultation with Klaus, Alex finally went down to Home Depot and bought a new diamond cut blade for the circular saw. This worked perfectly but created so much dust I barely recognized Alex when he came out of the bathroom.



So, we didn't do as much as we did yesterday but we are now well on our way.



I now need to go and take a couple of motrin to ease my aches and pains.