1. Raised the block wall in the back yard, added stucco, and painted it white.
2. Raised height of gate.
3. Filled in sunken living room with concrete.
4. Wood floors in the living room and dining room.
5. New baseboard in living room and dining room.
6. New carpet in entire house.
7. Painted entire house.
8. Cleaned, then painted garage floor blue.
9. Fixed sprinkler system.
10. New toilets.
11. New sink / cabinet in half bath.
12. Repairs to kitchen cabinetry.
13. New stucco on indoor fireplace and new paint.
14. Installed crown molding in living room.
15. Repairs to sprinkler system and pool backwash piping.
16. Installed recessed lights in foyer.
17. New knobs on kitchen cabinets.

Besides all of that, I bought a lot of new and used furniture and my mom and dad helped me decorate and set everything up. They’re a big reason that list above is so big. Without their help I would have never accomplished so much in just one year.

What’s next? I need to get some additional artwork on the walls and get busy finding me a wife!

In case you wish to see photos, you can browse my Flickr gallery.

Sometime down the road, I plan to do more videos showing the rest of the house.

I took a video of the experience, and a few photos. Enjoy!

On Saturday, we looked at 7 or 8 houses and the last one was a house in Scottsdale near Shea that turned out to be pretty cool. It’s cool enough that I decided to put in an offer (watch the video of the house). I won’t know for 10+ days whether I have it (because it’s a “short sale”) but it sounds like my offer was “in the drivers seat” according to the broker.

I was wearing my Superman t-shirt and he kept saying how awesome it was to meet Superman.

As a core belief, it is also something that I strive to persuade my friends into achieving.

I think that most people in this world go about their lives content to earn a salary. They might earn $30,000 a year, or maybe a lot more, like $85,000 (insert your salary here). They spend a good portion of their lives going about this, but probably around 2,000 hours each year.

I haven’t been able to create many streams of residual income yet in my life, but I’m working on a web application that could become my primary means of income if it is popular.

The point of this post is really an observation: If you typically spend about 2,000 hours in a year generating a paycheck, what would happen if you devoted 10% of that time to building something that you could sell over and over again?

Let’s imagine you put 200 hours into building a widget. Let’s imagine that your widget can be reasonably sold to 1,000 people over the course of 5 years. If your widget made you $100 each time you sold it, you would have made an extra $100,000. Not a bad return on investment for 200 hours.

Taking this one step further, for all of you people who are stuck in jobs doing things for other people. Isn’t it about time that you stopped and invested some time back into a project of your own? People have GREAT ideas every single day yet they never invest the time to actually make them a reality.

I’m more than guilty of doing this myself. I get stuck in the middle of projects for clients (and don’t get me wrong, I love it! I get to learn about all kinds of businesses, and expand both my business acumen as well as my technical skills making web sites). But I never forget that I’m building their business. Not mine.

Who’s business are you building?

Superman 80% Robin 57% Green Lantern 55% Supergirl 52% Spider-Man 50% Iron Man 45% The Flash 45% Hulk 40% Wonder Woman 37% Catwoman 30% Batman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Oh, I already have a Journal. Got that, too. It’s got a thousand pages in it that are empty. Just crying to be filled up with my thoughts. Ooops, I have about 6 blogs for that.

Maybe I’ll use it to draw designs.

The things that I haven’t received yet but am expecting: a small assortment of hot sauces. Another lighthouse calendar. And lastly, but not to be forgotten, socks.

Seasons greetings!

I’ve discovered that I am an introvert. I took a personality test which pretty much defined me as such (the opposite is an extrovert, so you’re either one or the other), and I’m in agreement. I never thought of myself as an introvert before now. It’s something I actually looked down upon as a weakness.

Observations:

1. I tend to dislike social situations, unless I know most of the people and have known them for a long time.
2. I’m in a sales position, and cannot for the life of me figure out how that happened considering my personality.
3. This may explain why I’m not that excited about sites like MySpace.com and Facebook. Plus, it explains why I have so few friends on there.
4. I hold a lot in.

Years ago at my old job at marchFIRST we were all ushered into a small conference room one busy morning and it was announced that we would soon have a new boss. Since our current boss was also in the meeting it made for an awkward moment. And then we found out that our current boss would be staying, too.

“Oh great, now I have two bosses!” all of us were thinking.

Our new boss was named Jon.

Jon started a little less than a week later and on his first day he made the rounds in our small cubicle farm (the creative department consisted at that time of about 7-8 people). When he approached my desk I said hello and then he pointed at a CD on my desk and said “I designed that CD cover.”

The CD in question was “Repeat the Sounding Joy” which is a Christmas track. You could call it a classic or an annoyance depending on how many times you’ve listened to it. I still like it.

Now here’s where it gets awkward because instead of having the actual CD with me I had an inkjet print of the original cover and a CD I had burned. My original was at home.

“Oh, well, this is just a copy I made from my other disk” I explained.

“Oh, sure” he replied.

Great way to meet a new boss.

I decided that as often as I can when I order a coffee I would order a doppio macchiato. For a couple of reasons: Firstly, because I feel like that’s how a true coffee professional would test a coffee shops aptitude for coffee preparation. The second is because I’m a growing fan of that drink which is two shots of espresso with a dollop of foam.

One thing about the word doppio. It means double in Italian, but nobody even knows the term except Starbucks baristas. I may have to revert to saying double macchiato, instead.

So the coffee was fine and I went to Cousins next door to make my sandwich. They’ve got a different business model than Subway. They don’t prepare your sandwich in front of you, instead they prepare it back in the kitchen area. The other thing is that the sandwiches are 7 and a half inches long (Subways’ are six inches).

By mid-afternoon I was starved for food again and glanced to my left.”

“Hey Tom, you know what sounds good right now?” I asked. “Some pizza!”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing” he said.

We were in the car within a minute and headed over to this little pizza joint called Mama Mias Pizza (40th & Indian School). It was my first time there and just for kicks I decided to try some anchovies on my pizza. I’ve seen anchovies on the menu my entire life and never tried them.

I couldn’t convince Tom to even take a taste.

Anchovies are hugely overrated. But then again, I haven’t seen any ratings. They tasted like fishy little slugs with a lot of salt. Well, it wasn’t that bad! But I wouldn’t say they are amazing.

Since there were only a few places to sit we ended up sitting with this UPS delivery guy. He was telling us about how he drives around for 12 hours a day in his 1985 UPS Truck. There’s no air conditioning and no power stearing. Talk about a great way to strengthen your arm muscles!

We asked him if he listened to the radio much in the car and he said no. At least not since his radio fell out of the car when he made a sharp turn. He said that the truck comes with no accessories. Not even a radio.

It occured to me that more restaurants should have community tables where you get a chance to sit with new people. It’s such fun. You get a chance to ask them about their job and what they do.

Plus it was fun to tell him how the anchovies were all gooey inside.

Five years ago when I had a real job I woke up early one morning and came into the office. I had prepared a couple of fun April Fools pranks which I had for some reason decided to pull in the middle of winter. Those who know me probably have figured out that this is not abnormal. Hey, I’ll do an April Fools prank every day of the year if I knew I could get a laugh out of it.

So I show up to work at 6 am and bring my materials to pull my pranks. I say pranks because I actually had two that day. I’m there early because I don’t want anyone to know who did it. In fact, nobody ever did find out.

I have printed signs I am going to place outside each elevator door on all levels including the parking garage.

The signs say “We have just completed our Winter cleaning. Please remove your shoes before entering.” They were signed The Management.

It was perfect. You should have heard the complaints. I hid in my cubicle listening to the receptionist and HR manager. Since they got in early I could hear them in the kitchen.

“Gosh, I just can’t believe the building management. They’re getting worse and worse.”

Other people complained and refused while others calmly complied with the written request.

That is, until all of the signs came down around noon. The building management took them all down — however the damage was already done and I had conned many people into removing their shoes.

Fun times. I need to pick a building and try that again.

Down the street at La Grande Orange grocery store they have these wonderfal Spanish Latte’s that I love to get however I have one slight dilemma when I order my drink…

“What’s your name?”

“Chris”

“Last initial?”

“T”

Several minutes go by as I wait for my drink to be prepared and then I hear it.

“Spanish Latte for Chris T.”

Except instead of sounding like it should, the words blend together. So it sounds like a drink for Christy. As far as I know I’m the only name that has this type of problem. Drives me nuts.

So what did I do to resolve this problem? I started using different last initials. Like I’d say “M” or “W” or “P” and that would solve the problem.

Until…

I walk in last week and I order a Spanish Latte and apparently I’ve ordered from this woman before and she’s learned my name.

Yeah, you guessed it.

She says “It’s Chris, right? Chris M., or W??”

Not much you can say than “Um, yeah, M” and that’s the end of the story.

I suppose it’s not half as bad as the day I ordered coffee with shaving cream all over my face. Yeah, I’ll have to tell that story again sometime.

So this morning I wake up and do my normal routine before heading in to the office. On the way to work I say to myself “you know, a nice cafe vanilla would be a great way to start the day.” So I stop at a Coffee Bean (one of my favorite places) to get my coffee.

So I go in and I order my drink and all the while the barista is looking at me like I just walked out of a snowstorm. I didn’t think anything of it at the time thinking she was just odd. So then minutes later I see my reflection in a mirror and low and behold I have dried shaving cream all over my chin. Ugh.

I’m just glad I noticed it before walking into a meeting with a client. Can you imagine the horror? I suppose, if anything, it would be a nice icebreaker.

It’s about 4 o’clock and I’ve just stopped for gas. As soon as I enter the convenience store the hot dogs catch my eye. Begging me from across the room to dare try one. The store clerk knows it. I know it. I have to have one.

These aren’t any ordinary hot dogs though — they’re chili dogs. I’m in a penny pinching mood aand pass on the chili part saving all of a dollar.

After adding ketchup, I walk over to pay. The clerk looks at my hot dog for a long while without saying anything. I’m about to say something when he looks at me again, and then at the hot dog just to be sure. Yup, it’s a hot dog without the chili.

“Dude, you can have the hot dog. I feel sorry for you.”

And that is how you get a free hot dog.

Afterwards on my way back to my car I stumbled right through a crime scene. Before I knew it I was walking past a good dozen cops all eyeing this one person and cleaning up a mess of blood he had left on the sidewalk. I literally had to watch my step that I didn’t walk in the area they hadn’t yet cleaned up.

Right as I passed I observed one police officer taking photos of the criminal. He had blood covering the entire right side of his face. I can only presume he had somehow been slammed to the ground at some point — where the blood was on the sidewalk.

What didn’t make sense was who had injured him. The cops were interviewing a lady and from the look on her face — stunned — I think she must have been a victim in some way or another.

And then I realized that there were 5 or 6 television cameras pointed at the criminal. My thought was: oh great, now I’ll be on the evening news. The tourist that walked through a crime scene this afternoon completely oblivious to his surroundings!

About halfway through this scene as I will call it I realized I probably should get out of there and mumbled to myself that I should never leave home without my camera. Ahghgrr! That would have been a really cool photo.

I never heard what the guy did. I searched all of the news web sites and didn’t find a trace of the story anywhere. Who knows? Maybe he was a terrorist.

1. You might feel better but you look awful and you’re contagious like a bacteria culture. Translation: Don’t come to church. It won’t impress me.
2. If you do come to church, don’t shake my hand. Thank you.
3. Don’t sit next to me or for that matter anywhere in the vicinity.
4. Please leave right away so that I don’t get whatever it is that you have.
5. If you don’t, I will.

It’s not that I want to snub you, it’s just that you’ve just gotten me sick and likely ruined my whole next week. I’ve been through this scenario far to many times to count and have learned to wash my hands with anti-bacterial soap immediately after (and sometimes while at) church.

Thank you.

I ran across this photo today which must be from the mid 80s. That’s me in the middle with my dad and sister. I’m pretty sure we’re at Lake Pleasant in AZ.

This weekend while sailing at the lake I was reminded of the Tron movie when I watched how the boats crossed paths like they do in the Tron race scene. Everything happens at sharp angles in sailing as you have to work your way at a beat, a reach, or a run to wherever you want to go. In this case, it was a race, so we all had the same goal — to get to the finish line!

All of the boats pretty much go in the same direction except when one boat wants to cut across and get to another part of the lake. Often to find better wind or to see if their path is faster.

In sailing you can’t sail directly into the wind, and just like in Tron you have to make multiple criss crossing paths until you reach your next waypoint. When two boats intersect it can be an interesting situation and you can have some close calls. Unlike Tron, there are rules that govern these situations and nobody dies. Whoever is on “starboard” has the right of way in sailing (and that’s always one boat, never two).

So there you go. A scientific analysis of the similarities between Tron and sailing!

I was specifically thinking of food you ate at restaurants, but if you cooked your favorite meal at home then more power to you.

Best Dinner - Not surprisingly, most of mine were times we ate out in Vancouver (my only vacation last year). I voted for my best dinner at The Sandbar Restaurant as the best of the year. We had a really great view of the bay and the food was just terrific. I had this seafood bouillabaisse with all kinds of tasty ingredients in a sort of soup with curry. The menu describes it like this: Sandbar Hot Pot seasonal fish, thai curry, coconut milk. Mmmmmm, it was really good.

Best Lunch - Then for best lunch I voted for this one lunch we had about an hour north of Seattle (I can’t remember where exactly). We were waiting to get on the ferry and we had an hour to burn and we were hungry. We were sitting by the window overlooking Puget Sound and we could see cars waiting to load on the ferry. Since we had just flown out from Phoenix we were enjoying the great weather (think 30 degree difference).

My lunch consisted of this shrimp and artichoke sandwich and a tasty bowl of chowder. It doesn’t sound too interesting and maybe it wasn’t but the fact that I was starving, the great view overlooking the bay, and the food was really good made it my favorite lunch of the year.

Best Breakfast - This is easy because I’m a horrible breakfast eater. As a result I’ve eaten less breakfasts, so less to weed out. We ate at this one place in Anacortes, Washington called Calico Cupboard Old Town Cafe. Perhaps the food was good because we had been sailing for a few days prior and we were hungry. But it was really quite good. We later learned that the cafe is actually a chain but you would never guess. I’d call it a cross between a Mimi’s Cafe and The Breakfast Club in Scottsdale — but with much less sophistication. All good stuff.

There were a number of memorable meals at home and especially on holidays. I think the reason meals out are sometimes more interesting is because the ingredients are different from what you would typically have in your own home (who has curry or coconut milk?).

Hmmm, now I need to think about the best cup of coffee. That will be a difficult one.

Predictions for 2006 - I’m betting that I’ll enjoy some great food in Brazil this May. I’ve already enjoyed a few good meals out this year including one good dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse called Rio Sabor Brazil in Scottsdale where we had 11 different kinds of meat and some fish and shrimp all in one sitting.

Occasionally I find myself at a party without my external flash and I just know my pictures will be less dynamic and lack that great lighting I like to capture. With the external flash however. I can turn ordinary pictures into great pictures.

You want to know one of the biggest secrets to taking great photos? Use an external flash and get a good camera. Beyond that it’s just taking a lot of photos and not showing people all of the bad ones. Of course, when you’re like me all of your shots are great. Except the ones of my lens cap.

Speaking of activities. Just the other day I pulled out some home videos and had a grand time watching them. Remember the day that evil villan pulled a comet from its axis and pulled it towards Earth? Yeah. That was great how I saved the day. It was totally awesome. Oh! Then there was that time the train was about to go over a cliff because the bridge was down and I kind of just *caugh* saved the day.

His expertise lies in Ancient Egypt. Specifically he has amassed a wealth of knowledge about Ancient Egyptian Monarchies (just in case he’s ever asked to be on Jeopardy).