Ahhhhh...
'ello all!

• First off, a shout out to Jay, and welcome! It has been quite a long time since I've seen you, probably about 15 years or so... wow, time does fly. Which grad school is Hattie going to in Chicago? If it is Columbia, I can give some recommendations on who is a good teacher and who to avoid. Also, don't forget to have her look up some of the other cousins in chi-town... since we left, I think the only ones left that still live in the actual city are Melissa & Renee, Rich & Kim, and Linda & Jack.


• Secondly, passing along some virtual sunblock lotion to my older bro, living up the life in frigid Kuwait. Keep wearing that tin helmet.


• Thirdly, a happy ol' b-day to the middle brother, Christopher tomorrow (the 6th). I fully expect Jen to make him cook all day on Labor Day to make him feel loved. Sorry we can't be there in person, bro! Cresencia says to give yourself a pinch on the ass (your OWN ass). Feel free to send him some email love, peeps! You can even send a virtual e-card from here...


• Fourthly, me mumsie's b-day is next week. For modesty's sake, I'll refrain posting which b-day it is (but needless to say, she's really really old! =;-) Happy early b-day mum, we'll send you a telegram (her preferred method communication). You can send her some email love too if you want... or an e-card. Hope your pad in Florida is oaky. For that matter, I hope Tom and Laurie's new place is okay too (that's a hint to let us know, Laurie)!

So, yes, we have arrived safely in San Diego, and loving every bit of it. We made good time, and made over 700 miles on the first day, even with a 2-hour layover in Des Moines to see an old friend (note to mom: that means we followed the speed limit the entire way and drove until 11:30 pm... to everyone else reading this: it means we hauled ass!). It was surprisingly easier to find hotels/motels that would take us and the dogs than I expected. The hardest town was Vegas, believe it or not.

Iowa and Nebraska both lived up to reputation... incredibly boring to drive through. Colorado was boring too, up until Denver. Then, the mountains were nice, but not spectacular. Maybe I was a bit numb though, since our family had driven through them a few times already. Surprisingly, Utah was my favorite part of the trip... lots of canyons, gorges, hill and mountains. Our SUV (a 2003 Mazda Tribute, love the thing and highly recommend it!) didn't even break a sweat, and it was kinda funny to throw it in neutral going down a 6% grade and see it continue to accelerate to over 90mph (note to mom: ignore that last number... it was a typo... we steadfastly and purposefully stayed under the speed limit the entire trip. Yep.). Nevada was also nice, in a flatter way... lots of open streches. We only clipped Arizona, so not fair to comment. California was cool, but by then we could taste the new home smell, and plowed on in anticipation.

I now have a new admiration for my father driving all those hours on all those vacations we drove to. He never once even let his wife drive (not that we blame him, mind you)... I also have a strong appreciation for what cousin Dan does for a living! Driving is exhausting, and I even had Cres to take the middle shifts... dunno how you truck drivers do it, Dan, lemme tell ya.

The movers finally showed up a week late, but we managed to unpack everything fairly quickly. We're about 95% unpacked, and what remains is either books or photos and artwork. Bought a new mattress, outdoor grill, 15" Powerbook and iPod (it is good to have an educator's discount!), computer desk and chair... and after 10 years, Cresencia finally got herself a brand new couch (was delivered yesterday, in fact). Now if I can only get Cres to let me buy that bigscreen HDTV... mmm...! Qwest screwed up our long distance transfer, and Earthlink even screwed up our DSL transfer, so we were stuck on dial-up for awhile... for those of you who use said dial-up: I have NO idea how you can put up with it. We only had it for about 2 weeks, and it drove me insane!. Gah! Never again!

The weather here has been every bit as gorgeous as advertised, which is obscenely perfect. The running joke is that the weatherman's job in Southern California is the easiest job in the world (today: beautiful outside; tomorrow: the same; the next day: the same; et al). It is also kinda weird, as there are 4 different micro-climate forecasts during the news (from west to east): Coastal, Inland, Mountains and Desert. Inland is about 10 degrees warmer than coastal, mountains about 5 degress warmer, and desert seems to always be about 105-110 (yeesh!). We're about 10 minutes in off the coast, so we're about halfway between the coastal and inland temps (which means we're usually about 5 degrees warmer than any temp you might see on the news). Only a few scattered clouds most of the time, and there is always a gentle cooling breeze blowing from the west. We have A/C, but never need to use it... the window and patio door are open all day and night. Ahh... Yes, I know Chicago has had about the best August ever, but imagine that weather about 350 days a year, heh heh...

We seemingly have lucked out in our choice of living quarters, not only in terms of apartment complexes, but also neighborhood location. San Diego seems to be a decent amount much like Chicago, only on a smaller scale, and with much better expressways (both in upkeep AND design). We live in the Tierrasanta neighborhood ("The Island in the Hills") on the northeast side of SD, right by 2 major highways, the 15 and 52, so it ends feeling like we are about only 5 to 15 minutes away from everything. We live just 3 miles from a plaza that has IKEA, Costco (which also sells discount gas too, unlike Chicagoland stores... Sweet!), and Lowe's! Very convenient so far. Only the 5 and 8 get jammed during rush hour (and san diego rush hour only seems to last around an hour or so, unlike the Kennedy's, which seems to last about 4 hours), and we don't really use them that much.

There is also a public park about a block from our apartment, and alot of the area residents take their dogs there every evening to run around off their leashes. So Wiley and Blue have been having a ball! Cres says that Blue has lost weight since we've been here, I say she has just finally gotten in shape =;-) We've met alot of neighbors this way already, but, of course, only know most of them by their dog's names, not their names. It is amazing how many people we have met that moved here from Chicago! One couple we've become friends with just moved here from the Universtiy of Chicago 3 months ago... she's a newly-graduated doctor and he's an IT guy working for the PS2 division of Sony Entertainment.

So are there any downsides here? Well, I still have resigned myself to only seeing half the usual Cubs games (and, of course, none in person at Wrigley anymore.... sigh...) since we do get WGN out here, but not FoxSports Chicago (obviously). I also won't be able to watch the Bears games either... ARGH! Of course, watching games at 10am here will be weird anyway.

That is about it for now. Of course Sandi (#2) and all others are more than welcome to visit and stay here, anytime! As for Scotland, Cres and I did spend our second anniversary there. We spent almost 3 weeks driving everyhwere, so I do have some info and suggestions, but no people info, sorry. Let me get some of my thoughts together and I'll post about it in a week or so, otay?
- posted by haydesigner in SD @ 9/05/2004 11:19:00 PM