2 Weeks Away

With the exception of the deck, all of the mason work is done and we are quite pleased. The patio is being poured this week. I am off to Detroit for 8 days tomorrow and my contractor says that the pool will be almost done when I get back.









Reminder: ORDER GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. LAST DAY IS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH!

It's That Time of Year Again

Girls Scout Cookies are in the air. Can you smell them? Can you taste them? You really should and this year Kylie is selling them for the unbelievably absurd price of four dollars per box! Follow the link below to see the heavenly goodness that is Girl Scout Cookies and then e-mail me with the quantity and type of cookies you want. Payment is due when I deliver your cookies in late February/early March. Thanks for your support.

Little Brownie Bakers - Girl Scout Cookies, Yummmm

Rock and Roll

For the last four days the mason has been installing our flagstone and boulders along the edge of the pool. Last Friday we picked out our colors, material and tile. Tuesday hazardous trenches were filled in and Wednesday the first of the flag went in. There is more to do up by the hot tub including the two steps up, plus the steps coming off the house. Our contractors have been very good at suggesting changes and design elements when we have concerns or indecision.













We are pretty thrilled with the look of the river rock and the spillway coming off the hot tub that will create a waterfall into the pool. This is fun!

It Was Fun While it Lasted

"ESPN Hollywood," ESPN2's daily news and entertainment show, will cease production effective Thursday, Jan. 26. The LA-based half-hour show, hosted by Thea Andrews and Mario Lopez, debuted August 15, 2005.

"We were pleased with ESPN Hollywood's ability to capture the cross currents of sports and entertainment but our research and the ratings clearly suggest that a daily show may have been too much," said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content.

The company will devote production resources as necessary to provide continuing content and reports to many of the network's existing shows including Cold Pizza and SportsCenter.

Starting Monday, Jan. 30, a 30-minute Best of Mike and Mike daily show will debut in the 6-6:30 p.m. ET time slot on ESPN2. Also on that day, Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith will move from 6:30 p.m. to its new late-night time period of 11 p.m.

This was announced in person yesterday by John Skipper and I can't say that it was a surprise. I could see this on the horizon in the last few weeks but it was still hard to hear. The good news is that I will still have a job with ESPN supporting other Los Angeles area offices and productions. Sadly, a great group of folks are now scrambling to find something else. The show itself was good on a technical level but the content was locked into the genre of sports intersecting entertainment and in my estimation there was just not enough stories out there to sustain the show. I am very conflicted over my good fortune versus most everyone's impending unemployment. Many on the show have been thru this before and are upbeat about their future but it really sucks to watch a new group of friends grapple with this stinging reality.

We Have Ourselves a Pool

I will let this picture speak for itself.

Best Tardy Excuse, Evar!

Sorry I was late for work this morning, I had to water my pool.

Yesterday was gunite day for the pool. After about 6 noisy hours of high pressure concrete spraying we now have the rough body of the pool completed. I'll post pictures this weekend, but needless to say its great to see the pool taking shape. Part of the stage that we are in now is that for the gunite to set correctly it needs to be hosed down with water thoroughly twice a day. So this morning I was out hosing it down standing on the edge trying not to loose my footing and falling in. It's really impressive but I will need to remind the kids to be very careful around it. Makes you wonder which is more dangerous, an empty swimming pool or filled swimming pool. What do you think?