A couple trips out West

When last I popped in, I was winding down my work contracts and getting ready for six weeks off. Ah, summer, it certainly makes being a teacher lovely to have summers free. As I said last month, the house is up for sale but we have only had one visit so far so either the price is too high or everyone else is enjoying summer too.

In July, I took off for two and a half weeks to California. First I went to San Francisco to visit our new friends that we made on the family cruise and also to hang out with my brother.

I was delighted to meet Dexter, the boys' dog who like Georgie is a beagle and he warmed to me straight away. The boys live in a charming apartment building in Russian Hill and it was a great little neighborhood full of cute shops and eateries. My absolute favorite restaurant in SF is closed on Sunday (what restaurant closes on Sunday!?) so I couldn't go as I didn't know this salient fact until it was too late.

We caroused most of the weekend and enjoyed what makes San Francisco so great - FOOD. I also got to meet up with my bestie in high school for drinks in a speakeasy. The pics came out lousy but don't want him to feel slighted by omitting that. Thanks Dave for the drink, I owe you one.

Enjoyed hanging out with baby bro and the weather was perfect. We walked all around and drank and ate and drank some more.

I guess this place thinks they are taking coffee to the next level. All I could think was, you know there are machines that do the same thing. Coffee theater.

After that rather debauched weekend, I headed down to M's house to begin an enormous project. I was so happy to see Bear again, what a great dog. She also warmed to me after the initial growling and barking.

And then we began the enormous project of life, stripping and painting the exterior of her house. I agreed to come and help and at the same time used that time to process and heal over some unmentioned events. Don't worry Serge and I are fine, there just aren't any roads without a few potholes, you know? Have you ever scraped paint off of wood? It is a grueling task and it took us six full days of hard labor to do it.

In the evenings I got to meet up with friends that I usually don't have enough time to spend quality time with so that was an added bonus. Bob and I used to work together oh so long ago, but we keep in touch. We went to my old watering hole in Long Beach and I said that if John was there he would call me "Tiger" and sure enough that's what happened. And I haven't been there for 10 years. I guess I make an impression.

There's M and her son N as we were waiting for mom to arrive at the Aquarium of the Pacific. It had stormed in the night and the air was definitely tropical. I had hoped for more thunderstorms but alas, my wish was not granted.

Mommy and I at the aquarium. It was really great to spend time with her and her two visitors for the summer. They hosted two Spanish girls for six weeks. The girls' dad stayed with me one summer when I was a teenager and now he has seven, gasp, children. Lovely girls.

It was great seeing D and N for our 10 mile bike ride on the beach path in Long Beach. That shirt was a gift for Serge but since it hadn't been washed yet, the medium sized garment fit me. Once it was washed it was definitely Serge sized.

The next day was my birthday (Yes the same shirt but only in the morning). I have never been so happy to turn a year older. 47 will go down as one of the worst years so turning 48 came with lots of positives. M took me down to the beach where we did a little ceremony to let things go and to start anew. Something changed in me that day and I am filled with gratitude for that.

Then we went down to mommy's for the rest of the day. Here she is making my favorite birthday cake in the world and one I haven't had in thirteen years. Confetti angel food cake with strawberry frosting. It brought back the kid in me.

Mom also invited people to my party. What an unexpected treat. Got to hang out with the cuz, the niece, the aunt etc. There was far too much free flowing champagne as evidenced by the next morning's headache.

Cake! The tan was courtesy of house scraping. Ooh and I was sporting my new Birkenstocks. My old ones lasted 13 years so even though they are expensive, they really aren't when you consider the longevity.

The next day (a tad hungover but I don't look it) I hung out with Dad and his girlfriend and grandma. We had Mexican food (I ate Mexican food for 8 straight days once I got there - yum) and then went on a hike.

M and I lived together about 25 years ago but it felt like it was just yesterday. Even though we worked our asses off, I really enjoyed all the time we got to spend together.

Finally we finished the immense project of doom. Serge says it doesn't count since we didn't do the trim. Bite me! The trim is a much smaller, manageable project. It was cool how this pic got 60 likes on FB.

Met up with some other old friends to go to the Crayfish Festival. Although the Crayfish Etoufée was delightful, watching the murder of hundreds of thousands of these creatures was a little hard to take. Seriously there was an enormous contraption with a crane that lowered them into the boiling water. I refused to take a picture of it.

When I got home, Serge had a surprise waiting for me. What a sweetie. I really missed him too even though we Facetimed almost every day.

Here is my honey in his preshrunk (and worn by me) shirt. My little stud puffin.

Georgie was really happy to see me too. We took a video of it but it's too big to upload, but he just went nuts shrieking when I arrived. It sounded like he was in pain, but they were shrieks of joy. Love the little guy.

I wasn't home for long though, as five days later was my annual junket to Las Vegas with B. We took this pic because this Denny's has a full bar. Unfortunately our heads blocked this part of the sign. We ate there but didn't drink since the drinkies are free while gambling. We love gambling, it's part of why we go.

We also went back to Downtown, this great speakeasy type place where the mixologist really knows his craft. I had two of those before we had the best Thai food I have ever eaten. Then we went to the El Cortez and I won some money on the Kitty Glitter machine. Yay!

I just love being goofy with my friends. The last night we went to the strip and saw Ka, the Cirque du Soleil show where someone was killed during a performance a couple months ago. It was good but I've seen better.

So now the blog is caught up again. We are not finished with the traveling yet though. Tomorrow we are headed to Maine for a week at Camp Camp. It's an all gay camp that recreates the summer camps of our youth replete with tons of activities to keep everyone entertained. Perhaps there will be another blog post after that. This will be the end of travel until the holidays. My bank account is not only bruised, it is bleeding. Thanks for stopping by!

Sliding into Summer

I know, I've been neglecting the blog. Just too much going on plus that dang Facebook to find time to write. Looking at the last post makes me sad as we have had a falling out of sorts with our longtime friends and now it seems we are no longer on speaking terms. Sad. I take such things particularly badly since I don't have very many friends and the ones I do have I keep forever. Not gonna go into details as it's neither here nor there, but maybe too that's why I've been absent for a while. I'm still hoping we can mend fences, optimistic pollyanna that I am. Now onto something more fun.

Cruising with the family! Yes, all my hard work organizing the family cruise vacation paid off and we all had a wonderful time aboard the Carnival Inspiration.

 

Fist though, I got to meet my dad's new dog whose name is escaping me, though I do know it starts with an L. It's an English Pointer mixed with something. Sweet dog. We all gathered at dad's house for pizza night and for me to go over important points for cruise embarkation. Many family members had never been on a cruise before, so there was a lot of excitement in the air. 

This was our 7th cruise. I can't believe it. Our first was on our honeymoon in January 2005, the year I started this blog. We boarded in no time and had our welcome aboard drink and then walked around the ship getting a feel for it.

The dining room was all ready for us and all 13 of us were able to sit together each night for dinner at a big round table. It was a great way to talk about our day and discuss the next day's possible activities. One thing I hadn't counted on was seasickness. Serge and I have never gotten queasy on a cruise ship even though we have been in very rough seas, but several family members battled nausea during the cruise. And there was only very gentle rocking motion.

One great thing was the first night we went to the Friends of Dorothy meet and greet at the atrium bar and met these handsome lads. We hit it off right away and talked for hours and ended up spending every evening carousing with them. I couldn't help wondering if the universe was sending in replacements for our lost friends. They live in San Francisco and I am going to visit them in a couple weeks. Bonus, my brother lives there so I get to hang out with him too.

The first stop was Catalina Island. It took the ship 16 hours to get there even though it's barely a two hour sail. The ship just hung out in the international waters so the passengers could get their gambling on. Your frugal host spent a whole twenty dollars in the casino during the cruise, even though we played every day. Ha! The photo above is of the casino building on Catalina. The family walked around town and visited the museum there. It was once THE place for the rich and famous.

Then dad, the cousin, Serge and I took a Segway tour around town. It was fun and although Serge and I had done it in Washington DC, it was a new experience for dad and cousin. The one hard part of it is that you are standing the whole time.

The next day we stopped in Ensenada, Mexico. This is the only picture I have of us from this day because I accidentally deleted ALL the pictures in the camera. I wasn't paying attention and poof, all gone. It was a fun day and we took a tour to see the blowhole, a natural phenomenon where the sea creates a geyser when the conditions are right, and for us they were! Very impressive. Less impressive was buying sleeping pills at the pharmacy only to get home and find that they were fakes. Yes, I know, buyer beware, especially in Mexico.



That's a video I took at our last dinner together. What a great vacation with a wonderful family. We definitely missed those who could not attend.

The last day in California we went to the IRS to get Serge a taxpayer number since he will now have to file US taxes since we now own rental property in Florida. (Except for an air conditioner that needs to be replace, all is going well with that.) But since Serge already had a social security number from 20 years ago, we learned we were in the wrong place. We had long forgotten his SS number so we had to go to the social security office to try to get one. It was a bit combative at first with the agent insisting that Serge have the legal right to reside in the states, but finally we worked it out. See we kept saying he needed a social security card, but all we needed was the number. Once that became clear, it was easy peasy. She printed that number right up for us.

The trip home was awful. Late planes and flat tires and a car breakdown meant we didn't get home until 4am, just as the first light was appearing in the sky.

Since then, I've been finishing up my contracts, just a couple classes to go until I'm off for the rest of the summer. Last weekend another cousin came up for a quick visit during the Canada day weekend.

They were totally enchanted with Montreal in the summer. It was fun showing them around because they so appreciated the architecture and the jazz festival and all the hordes of people filling the city. I tell you, early July is THE best time to visit this city, it will knock your socks off.

Finally, we decided to sell our place! The building went on the market Friday and while we would like to stay and continue renting our unit from the new owners, in all likelihood, we will have to move. Not looking forward to that, but we are downsizing as much as possible so we will have less to move when it comes time. Serge is having fun scoping out possible places to live, but I want to wait until we have interested buyers.

So now the blog is up to date. I've got another trip to California in a couple weeks and then a junket (my annual) to Vegas. I may shop for property while I'm there since we are going to reinvest in the states again with the (if it sells) proceeds. So in all honesty, I will probably be back here in mid-august. Until then, MWAH!

Oh wait almost forgot, Georgie is doing better. He's a sloth in the summer so that's probably helping him heal. Here's a shot of the little guy for you.

Real estate adventures, visits, Georgie

Oops I let almost a month go by again. So many things have happened in that time. It is busy and interesting in our lives. Thank god for vodka. First off, we sold our triplex! It's been on the market since late November and we had it fall out of escrow twice. Third time was the charm and we got our hands on the biggest check I've ever had in my hands day before yesterday. I'd show you a picture, but don't want to gloat. Let's just say it was big enough to want to take a picture of.

Here she is. She was very good to us and we took good care of her over the years. Replaced the roof, balconies, facade, doors and renovated the bottom floor completely. She gave us back our down payment tenfold. Yay!

Two weekends ago our good friends came up for a visit. They came a weekend too soon as all the summery and touristy things started this last weekend. The pink balls went up in the village (confused? click here) and they closed the street again for the summer. Such fun to have outdoor patios at all the restaurants and bars. Despite the crummy weather we managed to have a great time together going to the top of Mont Royal, visiting the planetarium, eating poutine in the old city and drinking and playing Uno Blast.

My fave pic of the weekend.

And this was Serge's favorite. Thanks for a great time David and Bryan.

Since we knew we were selling our building for the purpose of investing elsewhere, Serge started sleuthing about the internet to find markets with good numbers for rental properties. He ended up finding a property in Florida that got my mind racing. When we moved here back in 2000, Montreal was just starting to recover from a housing slump that lasted through the '90s. I remember being shocked that one could buy a brand new condo for $59K. Well, over the last 13 years, that has changed dramatically. You have to pay triple that now for a new condo. But Florida is just now starting to recover from the crash. So we decided to fly down and shop for real estate. Flights were half the price from Burlington, Vermont so we drove down last Friday and stayed at the Best Western.

It was packed because it was graduation weekend at the University of Vermont. Serge got the prime rib and I went for nachos. I really regretted chowing down on those jalapenos the next day. Ouch!

Then Saturday was kind of a lost day. Our flight wasn't until 1pm so we went to Famous Footwear (I think that's what it's called) and got shoes! I got a new pair of Birkenstocks, my last pair lasted me 13 summers. They are pricey but when they last that long, they really aren't that expensive. We flew down, changed planes in Newark, rented a car and drove to the hotel in downtown Tampa. I got the hotel for $45 a night on Priceline. Dang, that is a good price. Okay so it was Howard Johnson's but the location was perfect.

The next day we started driving around with our list of properties to do drive bys. After about a dozen or so properties, we realized that the GPS was not being charged by the cigarette lighter in the car. Shit! What are we gonna do now? We decided to turn it off, go back to the hotel and then use Google to get to the real estate investment guy's office. He took us around to see properties in his car and we charged our GPS at the same time. By the end of that day, we decided to meet the next day at 2pm so we could purchase two properties.

A property with two duplexes on it.

And this house. We could buy them both for cash and net over two grand a month from the rents. But then the next morning we drove out to Clearwater to look at the first property that Serge found that got us interested in Florida real estate. And we kinda fell in love with it.

It's an 8plex. Numbers here. So we ran over to a different investment broker and made an offer. Problem is, someone else offered too on the same day. We accepted the counter but the seller will decide at 5pm Friday. The other offer is all cash and ours includes some financing. Whatever will be will be. We will go to plan B which is to buy the other two properties instead if we don't get this one.

In the evenings we walked around downtown Tampa and enjoyed the sights.

It reminded us of Long Beach California, only more humid. We walked the river walk which was delightfully uncrowded.

See? Long Beach esque. Great shot of my honey except for the cigarette in his hand.

Sadly, the last day we were there, we got a call from Julie, Serge's cousin who was watching the dog. Seems Georgie hurt himself and herniated a disc in his neck. Poor little guy can't run or jump or play for a month. No more choke chain for the rest of his life, harness only.

He's acting like nothing's wrong, but after talking with Rox yesterday (not linking unless you want me too Rox) and how she had to put two of her dogs down after their herniated discs ruptured, I am being extra careful not to let Georgie get excited. It is an enormous challenge. He doesn't understand why we've stopped our walking routine, poor thing. Oh well, it's for his own good. I'll try to pop in more often, but it will probably be after the upcoming cruise we are going on June 17th. Don't roll your eyes, it will have been over two months since the last cruise. Grin.

For you, Rox

Okay, so I admit it, I actually enjoyed posting all the trip posts. And I can't believe I didn't blog the road trip I took in February. Well, I can actually as it kinda ended on a sour note, and now so much time has passed, it doesn't seem worth it. Sean blogged a bit of my visit with him and Jeffrey and the pups. That night was big fun.

This weekend has been so nice weather-wise. Serge and I walked 9 kilometers yesterday. Serge likes to go onto Google maps and see how far we walk. As you may know, I love me an hours long walk. It's so great in a city like Montreal where at this first sign of beautiful weather, simply everyone is outside, on the balcony, in the yard or out and about. You would too if you were shut in for the last seven months.

It was so nice, we spent half the afternoon sipping wheat beer on our patio with our shirts off. Yes we got sunburned, but it is a small price to pay for WARMTH from the glorious sun, our friend.

Yesterday wasn't quite as warm as today is but still the sunshine beckoned. We walked over to the Montreal Pool Room to get our fix of the best dogs in town. Incidentally, they also have the best poutine in town but after the weight gain from the cruise, I gotta hunker down on that. We each had one hot dog and split an order of fries. Perfect!

There are two of these restaurants and we are so lucky to have one just a couple blocks away.

Spring is late this year. Nothing has popped yet. No green. The magnolias will pop this week though and the tulips next. Then we will have a couple weeks of that intense florescent green that makes me go wild. Probably gonna get that annual spring horniness too. Hey Serge, come over here for a sec will ya? ; )

The terraces were open too! Serge proclaimed at the start of our walk that they would not be. Ha! We got a prime people watching spot on St. Denis street and enjoyed insanely overpriced pints. We were out the door for $25. Money well spent.

I wish every day could be like this. Well maybe it can one day. We are in the middle of selling one of our buildings for a decent gain and are planning to purchase rental property in the states. The returns in some places are at 15%. I keep fantasizing about liquidating our assets and buying those kinds of deals. Then we could run away to Mexico and lie on a beach and while away the days in paradise.

On our way back home, we passed through the famous Park Lafontaine and were surprised to see that the lakes had been drained. It was weird looking. I wonder if they do this every year and we have never gone to the park at this time of year before.

I had been hankering for Japanese food, so we went to our fave Montreal Japanese joint, Kazu, where we arrived twenty minutes before they opened to a huge line. We were one of the last tables in for the first seating. They don't take reservations so the people behind us waited over an hour to get in. It is so worth it though. We had okonomiyaki, gyoza, carpaccio, tuna and salmon tartare bowl and pork neck paté.

The Japanese know how to do sauce man. So interesting and bursting with flavor. Makes ketchup and mayonnaise seem boring.

That is one happy camper. We had sake too. Yum. I bought a T-shirt on the way out. Their t-shirt had a Japanese flag on it. I looked for a t-shirt with the Japanese flag on it the whole time I was in Japan and never found one. Problem solved now.

After dinner, we walked from Guy-Concordia metro to Papineau metro. Serge says 3 kilometers. The setting sun made some nice picture taking ops.

This is our place des arts, and also place des festivals. All the big public events take place here over the summer. After this we stopped at Sky in the village for a drink and then took the metro home. A nice relaxing weekend. Looking forward to the next. They are calling for these wonderful temperatures (around 70F) all week so that should really jump start the foliage. Until then my friends. Mwah!