2017 Holiday Newsletter and 2016 Year in Review

Aloha and Happy Holidays!

2017 Harvazinski-Overman Holiday Newsletter

It is beginning to look like a tradition to publish these every other year.

We shall resist the temptation to do so and hopefully be back on track next year.

So we will have to start with...

2016 Year in Review

Well let's see, we started off the year with preparing for and having open heart surgery. The bad news Les was in a "little bit of heart failure" due to a mitral valve prolapse. The good news is that it was entirely and permanently fixable.  Problem was fixed and, eventually, back to normal.  Many thanks to Les’s brother Bob who took off from work and traveled down to San Diego to help during recovery after the surgery.

Oh yeah, the remodel.  
So in our last episode we had just received the cabinets for the kitchen. 2016 saw the kitchen (mostly) completed. Dee is very proud of the spring hinges on the door to the pantry, kindly installed by our friend Ron (still need to finish the door frame, though).

Vinyl plank flooring

Cabinets, appliances and granite installed

Pantry door

Range hood with custom chimney

We also got waterproof vinyl flooring that looks like wood – the waterproof nature has come in very handy.

We had to fashion our own stainless steel chimney for the hood from a sheet of stainless.  Again, thanks to Ron for the precise cutting and installation, as well as his neighbor Roy for the bending expertise.

Rooftop deck

We also tiled the pantry with help from our friend Rochelle - which convinced us to pay someone else to tile the family room as well as the backsplash in our kitchen. 

So Phase I of the indoor remodel was (mostly) complete.  We installed glass panels around the rooftop deck, making it a little safer to hang out there.

Dee continued to work as a relief veterinarian and at Weight Watchers. She continued her service on the board for the San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association as Secretary and Treasurer.  

Les continued his solo patent lawyer practice.  He was President of the San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association (and kept monthly meetings going despite the medical interruption).  He was also Vice Chair of USE Credit Union board of directors.  He was finally able to get brewing again now that the house was no longer a continuous dust storm.  He judged several beer competitions.

We went to a Billy Joel concert in May (anniversary) and it was surprisingly great.

Elena and Alex pose on a concrete hippo

We had some visitors during the year.  Dee’s sister Rita and her daughters, Elena and Alex, visited during July. Dee also went with them for a few days in L.A.  Nephew George was briefly in town on business and also visited us at the same time.

Our friend Barbara visited end of April and Dee returned the visit later.

We saw Bob several times: in addition to helping out in January, he also visited us for the 4^th of July and Thanksgiving weekends.

Our friend from back when we were grad students, Kathy Beifuss, visited in June to run the Rock and Roll Marathon.  We joined her by dropping her off at the start and meeting her at the finish line.

In December we had a working vacation in Maui.  Hard work! 

Pangolin

Here is a picture of Dee’s latest favorite odd animal, a pangolin.  The zoo has one of the very few in captivity.  Dee has visited the zoo several times just to see it up close when the keeper has a show and tell. Weird little dude (the pangolin, not the keeper).

In late October we noticed that our dog Freddie Mac was having a hard time getting up on the furniture, and he was drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot.  Also, he had started eating voraciously and gained weight.  Dee tested his glucose and it was fine – no diabetes. Turns out he has Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS).  He had gone blind in a matter of weeks.  We got his weight under control.  Then checking his glucose again found he was now diabetic also.

Because of all of Fred’s health problems…

2017 – The Year of Fred

Freddie Mac

We were of course concerned that Freddie’s SARDS and diabetes issues would shorten his life.  This concern was underlined when in March he was diagnosed with “a little bit of heart failure” –which in his case is not correctable.  So Dee announced that 2017 would be “The Year of Fred” and that we would accommodate him due to his time being short.  Now we let him sleep in bed with us – which he shows his gratitude by growling at you if you sidle up too close to him.  We would give him any food he wants, but his diabetes limits him to a specific dog food.

We put a water dish in the master bath tub so he can get water at night.  Amazingly, he figured out himself that he could pee in tub drain if he could not go outside.  Dee was very proud.

Freddie Mac’s health seems to have stabilized and we celebrated his 11^th Birthday on July 4.

It is beginning to look like 2018 will also be The Year of Fred.  Maybe he is trying to milk this thing.

New steps

Phase 2

While Phase 1 of the remodel is not entirely complete, we proceeded to Phase 2 – the front of the house.  The steps to the house were always a concern because they were an odd depth (more than a full step, but less than two steps). The planters were not attractive.  The dirt patch abutting the house had some sort of Roman aqueduct arrangement to divert storm waters to the back yard and was an eyesore and a trip hazard.  We got Dan, Gerald and Ricky back to demo the concrete steps, the aqueduct, some of the planters, dig up the vegetation in the rest of the planters, and install a respectable drain system.  Then we got a ton of concrete to make new, less awkward steps, expand the driveway, and a new walkway against the house.

Kale and swiss chard in lower tier, citrus trees in the higher tier

The plants in the front of the house are still a work in progress: the top tier is succulents, the middle is dwarf citrus trees (lemon, lime, orange), and the bottom tier is vegetables that do not require full sun (kale, swiss chard, lettuce, herbs, cucumber). We have had some success with tomato plants and eggplant.  We just ripped the vegetable plants out in December to start new plantings soon.

Speaking of the planters, Les was pulling weeds from said planters and miss-stepped.  On his birthday.  Assuming a sprain he ignored his foot hurting until Dee pointed out that the line of black and blue across his toes may indicate something else.  Sure enough, he broke his foot and had to wear a very fetching sandal for a couple of months. 

Not having enough hobbies (sarcasm), Dee took classes in woodworking and ceramics.  The woodworking class was OK and Dee made a beautiful bench, but the instructor was not a lot of help and she felt like she was not getting adequate instruction.  The ceramics class, on the other hand, is taught by someone we know from a drawing class we took together decades ago.  In addition, she is taking the class with her friend Donna, a high school classmate of hers.  (No admission to the number of decades ago.)  They reconnected just a few years ago not realizing we lived in the same neighborhood until there was a reunion in town.  Dee is having a great time in that class and has made many ceramic pieces.

Dee still makes time for work (more sarcasm).  Still working at Weight Watchers, but less so, and was fortunate to find at least one vet client that is very close to the house – so at least it is an easy commute.

Having a shortened commute for at least some of her work days has been very fortunate.  In September, Dee was driving our truck when stopped in traffic on the freeway.  A car rear-ended her at full speed.  No air bags deployed and her seat belt did not prevent her from doing a face plant on the steering wheel, rearranging her nose.  It was very scary and she was lucky to be driving the truck to absorb more of the impact, buckling the frame and bed (things may have been much worse in the sedan).  Her nose has since been realigned (mostly) but she is still very nervous about driving, especially on the freeway.  The truck is still awaiting repair.  Parts had to be ordered from Toyota and they won’t arrive until the end of December.

At the end of October, Les joined a global law firm (CKR Law LLP) as partner in the new San Diego office.  The head office is in NYC and in stereotypical New York style, they made him an offer he could not refuse. The transition is continuing, but we are hopeful that this will be a very beneficial move.  And, yay, we now do not have to purchase health insurance off the Covered California exchange.  He is also now Chair of the board of directors for the credit union.
Les is still brewing and judging beer.  He and brew buddy Jonathan have made several hazy IPAs lately (all the hipsters are drinking this) and made an excellent coffee porter using Kona coffee Jonathan brought back from Hawaii.  

For our anniversary we saw a local production of Jersey Boys.  In August we received comped tickets to see Ira Glass in a show “Seven Things I’ve Learned.”  Les and Ira went to the same schools growing up.  Ira admitted he did not remember Les from way back.  Les reminded Ira that Les did not have a nationally syndicated radio show, nor did Ira’s mother keep him up to date on Les’s career since high school.   

Stanley Park

In September we went to Vancouver for a conference and extended our stay.  Vancouver has some beautiful parks and botanical gardens, aquarium and an excellent “first peoples” museum.  Of course, we had to sample beer, and on recommendation from beer club peeps, found Storm Brewing – a tiny little brewery in a dingy industrial area where you can only buy growlers, but can taste several of their beers.  They have many rotating taps where they change the beers every week and will try just about anything in beer.  We tasted chicken wing IPA, lavender lemonade pilsner, mint julep ale and more. 

Brother Bob visited 10 days in January during a respite between jobs.  We had a great time and he spent a good amount of time helping to organize the garage and other stuff. We now need him back.

Allison and Ginnie Mae

Niece Allison visited in February while working at a conference.  We had her over for dinner and Ginnie Mae could not have been more excited.  Dee showed Allison Ginnie Mae’s clothes closet while they discussed the importance of a well-outfitted dog and sent Allison home with a strand of pearls for her own dog, Gracie.

Lifeguard freeing Willy

Brother Larry, sister-in-law Mary and nephew Andy visited us in May, before going on to visit nephew Matt. We were walking on the pier in Pacific Beach and saw a lifeguard rescue an endangered black sea bass tangled in fishing line ($10,000 fine if you kill that fish). We also went to the Zoo Safari park (no lifeguards to free anything there). We had lunch on the patio at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, which overlooks the famed Torrey Pines golf course. Larry would occasionally glance back at the course with a sigh and pine for his golf clubs. Maybe next time we can arrange a foursome.

Our friend Barbara visited in June.  In August, Dee and Barbara went for a short vacation in Monterey and visited the aquarium and Carmel By The Sea.

Warning for the unannounced

Nephew Matt visited us for Thanksgiving weekend.  We are always happy when he has time to break away from rocket science to join us.

We hope you aim to visit us too.  Just remember to call first!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Another sunset from the back porch

2015 Holiday Newsletter

Happy Holidays!

Finally! A Holiday Newsletter again.  We never got around to sending one out last year due to last minute “excitement” preventing us from getting around to it until it was… February (i.e. too late).

2014 in a Nutshell

Here is the Reader’s Digest version of the highlights of 2014. 

Our friends Leah & Jonathan got married in April and we attended their wedding on a cruise ship to the Caribbean.  They had a reception at a local brewpub for the many local friends that could not attend the wedding.  Their golden retriever (Elvis) and our yorkie-chihuahua (Ginnie Mae) were the junior bride and groom.  A photo of Ginnie and the newlyweds was also on the label of the bottles of wine Jonathan made for the wedding.

Ginnie Mae is available to make your next ceremony a success.

Dee with Kenny & friend with shells

We stayed a little longer in Florida and visited with our friend Ken Needle in Clearwater, who graciously put us up at his house.  Dee was over the moon at the seashell-encrusted beaches, particularly San Ybel Island.  Dee had stuffed so many shells into our suitcase that it was over the weight limit for the flight back!  (We obtained a (clean) plastic garbage bag and carried on a bunch of clothes.)  We also visited the (rather smallish) aquarium that has Winter, the dolphin with a prosthetic tail, upon which the kids’ movie “Dolphin Tale” is based.  It was an interesting story about a dolphin that lost its tail after being tangled in a crab trap. Without a tail the dolphin would have died and so began the making of a prosthetic one that now benefits many people with prosthetic limbs.  Also interesting is the story of the dolphin saved the aquarium from insolvency.

Because he is a volunteer director of a credit union, Les is encouraged to partake of relevant conferences for training. We therefore spent a few days in Palm Springs in December courtesy of the credit union.  It was a nice relaxing time at a beautiful resort (and Les also learned some things).

 

Barbara Sandberg visited in July and came back in September with her friend Jackie.  Bob (Les’s brother) visited in December. 

Melon enjoying some WeightWatchers oatmeal

On a very sad note, Melon (our cat) died suddenly in August from anaphylaxis, cause unknown.  We, of course, miss her, but the surprise was that Freddie Mac, her nemesis, searched for her everywhere for months.

2015 Year in Review

The biggest news is that we started the remodel of our house this year (yay!).  The bad news is that it is not done yet.  The boring details are saved to the end of this newsletter because there are probably some dear readers that do not care – even though we have talked about hardly anything else for 4+ years.

Les has grown his solo practice not only by increasing his client base, but he is also Of Counsel (i.e. is an independent contractor) to another small law firm and therefore enjoys steady work. 

After a fairly quiet period, Dee’s vet work also picked up substantially from spring right up to November. 

Fred and Les using the brewkit

On the craft beer front, Les judged at the America’s Finest City Homebrew Competition and at the International Beer Festival at the San Diego County Fair.  Jonathan (the recent newlywed) bought a beer kit system that can brew up to 15 gallons of beer at the time.  Because he lives in a condo, the system is stored in our garage and Les and Jonathan brew together.  We even included this in the remodeling plans by installing a larger door between garage and backyard.  We could only roll out the brew sculpture to the front of the house so that is where we were brewing – and all the neighbors walking/driving by would gawk or ask what we were doing.   Dee was not amused (“There go the Clampett’s again!”).  As a concession to propriety, we will be able to brew in the backyard in the future.  However, after making a few batches, the system had to be put on storage status due to the remodeling activity (too much dust and too little room to work).  Hopefully, we will bring the beer kit out of storage soon and start brewing again.

Dee with the grad and one of the professors that Dee also had in vet school

We traveled to Texas in May.  One for the purpose of attending the graduation of Elise Jemmot from Vet school at Dee’s own alma mater, Texas A&M (Dee was as proud as Deb, the mom).  The campus was barely recognizable from when we graduated 26 years earlier.  We had a great time hanging out with the family, eating barbecue and drinking beer.  It rained almost the entire time.  The severe flooding did not occur until a week after we had left.

The other purpose for visiting College Station was that it was nearly 30 years from the day we got married in that town – a return to the scene of the crime.  We visited the church where we married and drove past the houses we lived in (or, in some cases, where the house used to be).  Several of our old haunts were still there and barely changed – the chicken fried steak sandwich at the Dixie Chicken was still as good as we remember it and Duddley’s Draw was still as grungy.  But all the surrounding businesses were new and very different.  Our friend Kathy Beifuss graciously put us up at her house.  It was great to catch up with her after a couple of decades.  Kathy plans to stay with us next year when she runs in the San Diego Rock & Roll Marathon.  We will watch from the sidelines.

Dee went to Catalina for a veterinary business conference with Sandra in September.  They got to travel to the island in a helicopter!  They had a great time and Dee is always grateful when Sandra invites her to one of these conferences.

Dee went to Vegas and the Grand Canyon with Barbara in September, and another helicopter ride.  No big casino winnings.  Can’t retire yet.

We traveled to Albany (and nearby Schenectady) in October for Dee’s nephew’s (Andrew) wedding.  We had a great time catching up with the family and the ceremony and reception were terrific. 

The happy couple, Andy & Allie

Matt, the brest man.

We went to our cardiologist’s Apple Days celebration in October at his ranch in Julian where we usually come home with enough apples to make apple crisp, apple pie, etc.  This year, because of the drought, we came back with about 11 teeny-tiny apples.  Probably only suitable for a dried flower display.  Fresh apple pies will have to wait until rain returns.

We made a rare visit to SeaWorld in October, courtesy of our friends Ron & Judith.  There were some nice exhibits: shark, octopus, and penguin displays stand out.  We saw what was alleged to be one of the last Shamu shows in San Diego (due to “Blackfish” pressure – and low park revenues).  Frankly, we have no desire to be in the splash zone, but because we enjoy their fireworks displays all summer we want the park to continue operating in the black!

We went to another credit union director conference, this time in Orlando in December.  The weather was nice, we stayed at the Disney Swan and Dolphin Resort (nice resort, horrible housekeeping and room services).  Due to a bout of stomach flu, we missed going to Epcot Center, but we did go to a great museum in Winter Park prior to that fateful day.  The Charles Hosner Morse Museum has a great collection of Tiffany art including glass (windows, lamps, etc.), painting, sculpture, etc. – much that was salvaged from the derelict Tiffany mansion when it burned down in the 50’s.  Dee was just mesmerized with all the art. 

We had some visitors to San Diego during the year.  (Dee’s) Mom & Mary (Dee’s sister-in-law) visited in January.  We had great fun taking them to the zoo and Balboa Park.  We also had a take-no-prisoners competition of UpWords (sort of a 3-D scrabble game).  Les crushed it.

Matt, Dee’s nephew, visited for July 4^th.  We enjoyed having him as always and he lead us further into the money pit (see below).

Barbara visited in August.  We also visited the zoo (and many restaurants she has come to know and love).

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

After four years we finally pulled the trigger on remodeling our house.  No more putting out pots and pans to collect water in the dining room!  No more covering our roof with tarps!  Our friends and former neighbors, Dan and Gerald, were going to do the majority of the building.  But first, we had to draw up plans and get permits.  We interviewed several architects – all said it was an “easy” job – then quoted a substantial fee.  Fortunately, our friend Ron felt he could make suitable drawings for the permitting process and did so.  Thank you Ron!  After many aggravating visits to the city for permits, we were finally ready to get started by the end of April.   

Before vacation - note the fine selection of roof tarps

Dan and Gerald were ready to go - right when we went for the vacation to Texas (see above).  They brought their friend Ricky to help.  He is shorter than Dee but can pick up a 12 foot 2x10 pretty much by himself.  We were gone a week and by the time we got back the garage was empty (all the contents of which were in the house), the roof was off the garage and the concrete in front was poured.  And it rained 2 inches right after they poured the concrete.  Fortunately, they were able to cover the area with tarps.

After vacation - no tarps - no roof

In pretty short order, they framed the new roof and built out the altered exterior front of the house.


They then demoed the now interior front door, window and part of the kitchen to form a large foyer (still trying to decide what we are going to do with the space – but it sure makes the house look bigger). The stucco was just finished hours before our guests started to arrive for our 4th of July party (the fireworks were great).

We have a great electrician, Mark, to do all things electrical. He put in a bigger electrical panel, removed the old subpanel, and generally brought things up to code. He wired lights and outlets everywhere inside and out. He solved many of the electrical mysteries that came with the house (lights without switches – we would just unscrew the light bulb, switches for lights and outlets at the other end of the house, etc.) and noted that we were pretty lucky that the house had not burned down in the time we had been living there. Many lights and outlets were connected through the walls and ceiling using extension cord wire and plugged into multi-strips in the attic. Yikes! Most of the copper wire in our house is now new.

Mark just loves lights.  Dee had to constantly remind him that she did not need to perform surgery in every room of the house. 

At our 4^th of July party, Matt (Dee’s nephew) was watching our discussions about how the kitchen was much smaller due to the creation of the foyer and suggested that we could extend the kitchen into what was a sun room and make part of the room a pantry.  And that is what we did.  The guys demoed the kitchen in September.  We have been camping in the house ever since.

Anyone who has remodeled a house will tell you that there is a dizzying number of decisions you have to make along the way.  We had not prepared well for this, including not having a clue about what kind of kitchen cabinets we wanted. We started thinking about it in July, but we did not even order them until September.  They were delivered on December 21.  We have cabinets for Christmas – but no counter, back splash, most appliances, etc. 

Still we are getting there.

Lots of things are still in the works.  We have a plan for flooring – but not yet.  We still are awaiting rain gutters.  Because of El Nino, everyone in California is freaking out.  You have to wait a month just to get an estimate and several months after that to schedule installation.  We will likely get them installed at the end of January.

Hopefully, we will be (mostly) done with the remodel before the next newsletter.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and a prosperous New Year.  We invite you to visit – wear closed-toe shoes and have a current tetanus shot.

Love,

Les & Dee

Freddie Mac & Ginnie Mae

Harvey