not much to report… still getting geared up for the NY trip and that includes some serious poring over maps.

Spent some time this weekend cruising the depths of Southeast Dago, looking for reasonable alternatives to Condo living.

Interestingly enough there are some very killer neighborhoods in south-east-side Dago… you just have to look to find them. Ever been to Darnall? El Cerritos? How about the ‘Wine Glass’?

Realtors have started calling the area between the 805 and 15, south of Landis in North Park, the ‘Wine Glass’ (see a map for the reason… it looks like a wine glass, I guess). Anyway, this is also a canyoned area, a bit more run down than North Park proper but a very quiet area with some great blocks and some not so great blocks. Unfortunately the presence of the ubiquitous 1BR “TJ Shack” kinda ruins some of the aesthetic.

South of City Heights is the Canyoned neighborhoods of Azalea / Hollywood / park. A very secluded area with twisty, hilly dead-ended roads. Lotsa gays and lesbians hiding out back there… but the housing stock is not the best.

Continuing south we headed into Oak Park, east of 54th to College. This neighborhood is very quiet and the lots are large. But it’s truly awful housing stock – 50’s tract homes with very low-slung cielings.

Crossing College and heading East from Streamview gets you into a neighborhood which I will call South Rolando. It’s still south of University and it’s eastern border
is La Mesa. This is a truly nice area with some great homes… you just have to find them.

Finally, El Cerritos is a great little hood which is directly east of Horace Mann Middle / Crawford, East of 54th and south of El Cajn Blvd. Some killer homes in the canyons through here.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050624-1118-bn24wisdom.html

NPR’s San Diego Business correspondent, Gabriel Wisdom has been shitcanned for plagarism! Can I just say “I told you so”?

And what the hell was this guy’s obsession with shitty companies like NTN? They make stupid 16-bit video trivia games for bars?

So, the weather has helped out and the fires are being contained.

Interesting to note that Simi Valley, with it’s stringent fire codes (no wood roofing, greenways, and fire-retardent plaster), suffered only 4 lost structures, while Scripps Ranch lost over 300 homes done by Excavation Contractors Near Me that you want to find to do it for you.

Wake-up call to builders and homebuyers in SoCal: Fire is the enemy- protect yoself before you wreck yoself. Cheap construction is cheap construction.

Sorrento Valley and Mission Valley socked in with an ashy cloud. Low-lying valleys are pretty bad for the most part.

The temperature has dropped and the humidity has increased slightly- just enough to make things tolerable.

Thankfully the major fires have retreated to more remote areas of the county and out fo the City.

The office stinks like a campfire.

Fires still burnin’. They told us to stay home. No problem there. You think I’m gonna travel TOWARDS the blazing inferno?

This year I was lucky enough to get some free tickets to the San Diego County Fair. Last night, we trekked up to Del Mar to check out “Commotion by the Ocean”.

The Del Mar Fair (DMF) is your basic county fair, with rides, bad food, lousy music, and a flea market stretching across several massive hangar-style buildings. Parking is in a massive dirt lot, and everything is designed to make you broke as quickly as possible.

My Wife-to-be exclaimed “This is just a glorified Adams Avenue Street Fair”, and I tended to agree. The Fair is certainly under-whelming. Given the ticket price (we didn’t pay), plus $7 parking, plus overpriced food, plus any rides (we only hit the ferris wheel), midway games at $3 a pop, you’re lucky to get out of there without breaking the bank.

Despite the high prices ($9 for 2 ribs and some fries), the fair features a crap-tacular atmosphere that can only be described as “Dirt-Farmer Chic”.

There are a few high points, however. The fine display of Flowers is pretty great, as are the sows, cows, goats and sheeps.

So, another week of gloom for us San Diegans. Depression is setting in for most.

This weekend, In an effort to thwart the growth of my ever-expanding waistline, I took a few extra trips to the Pit for some hot skate action.

On Sunday, I showed up to find that some concerned citizen had poured sand on the runway and ledges. No worries, I just ran home and grabbed my trusty pushbroom and began cleaning up.

Just as I finished, a posse of “hardcore” kids from points unknown unloaded from their Jettas. 15 or 20 kids deep, they looked ready to rip.

After summing up the spot, they prompty decided that this spot was “shit”, mostly due to the lack of a landing on the ‘big three’.

Despite the numerous fun lines to be had otherwise, said crew departed as quickly as they came, without so much as a kickflip on the flat, exclaiming “Let’s go to Poway”.

Just as they left, I had finished sweeping up the sand and was just about to get down to biz. Alas, SDPD was nearby, shaking down a Mexican guy selling ice cream without a permit in the park.

It took *two* officers over 30 minutes to ticket this guy, and then they hung about and yapped for another half hour.

Finally, I started my session, proceeding with my typical line:
Ollie gap, 50-50 ledge, ollie up curb, ollie over small gap, etc…

Soon enough I had ass-checked due to the tremendous overwaxing. Today, I’m limping around on a swollen butt-cheek.