JenLeoLIVE!

House Update: The counter offer...

John's inspection of the house was a roller coaster. He went through the house pointing at everything that needed to be replaced—which was EVERYTHING. I followed him defending the cost of EVERYTHING and tried to show him a little HGTV vision. Jason wouldn't get in the middle at all, but thankfully he did measure every single room. Even when he didn't want to. The master bathroom is embarrassingly small—so much so Jason didn't want to tell me how small. Through it all - John did like the house, a lot. He knew the potential.

Carlsbad is the most affluent neighborhood in North County. Or so Wikipedia says. John could hear the baseball playing at the high school from the front yard and he loved that. I'm going to drive up and down Carlsbad Village taking the minute count of how far we are from the beach, from our next favorite local restaurant, from my next favorite coffee house, from the Oceanside Metrolink, from Encinitas.

I don't think it had been an hour after we left the house that the bank called with a counter. We accepted but the agent couldn't get the paperwork through to us before the bank (in Denver) left for the week. So, it's not ours yet. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that nobody comes in over the weekend and makes a higher offer before the listing agent can pick our paperwork out of the fax and call it into the bank.

I'm very excited. I pour through design books and mags. I bought a new folder to hold my plans and inspirations (like the books told me). I'm scouring Craigslist and eBay for good finds.

Nothing is set until the River.  I am fully aware I need to use my inside voice for much of my designer dream-talk.

We wait......

CURRENT: San Diego
NEXT: Los Angeles (Sat)
NEXT NEXT: Las Vegas (Sun)

We could buy a house any day now

Well, we could get an offer approved. But it's a step in the right direction. As you know, I jetted down to San Diego at the last minute to check out the rooftop deck house. My brother Jason met me to look at the house with the agent. It wasn't the lemon of all lemons, but it'll be interesting to see who moves in there. The place was littered with crap. Stuff was everywhere and people were sleeping on mattresses in the front room. I told myself - imagine it empty, imagine it empty. Long story short, the house was the rooftop deck. My HGTV mind was trying to figure out how I could fix it up while Jason walked through pointing out hack job craftsmanship on the add ons. But...no buts, Jason was out of there. He's our handyman and he did not want to work on that house. He said you'd be trying to fix other people's mistakes.

However, the house two doors down on the corner of the cul de sac was for sale. And it was vacant, we could have a look. Jason was't even in the house yet and he already loved it. It is a 9,300 sq ft corner lot with a big yard. That's big for this area and price range. Yvonne opened the door and WHOA. Cat piss? Dog piss? Jason had rushed ahead of me while I pushed my two fingers up my nostrils. I couldn't see anything, I could only smell. Jason and Yvonne explored while I trailed behind them. (Note: I don't think the left tree in the picture is there anymore)

Happy Easter!; house sitch; free Wi-Fi at Starbucks?

Happy Easter everyone! I hope your kids are having fun with easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies. There's very little spirit of Easter in these them thar parts. I got John some Easter jelly-bellies. I suppose I'll pick myself up some Cadbury eggs or Sees jellies sometime this week. Those are the only Easter basket goodies I like. 

What can you do? No kids, no church - no Easter. Hopefully this time next year I'll be knocked up and we'll be settled in a town where we can start thinking about a church. At least I'd like to. I didn't grow up with church and therefore wanted to be every denomination my friends were from Catholicism to Judaism. Didn't matter, sign me up. But with John's family history, I'm happy to go to a  Southern Baptist church.

I'm a bit of a news junkie these days. My brain has been in 5th gear. I check Google.com/trends several times a day now and am watching the development of Guy Kawasaki's AllTop via Twitter. If you have any great social media Twitter pals that you can recommend besides Jowyang and Guy Kawasaki - let me know. They keep my phone pretty busy, but I'm open to following any exceptional thought leaders that use Twitter. I love it. Of course, I love Otis' tweets and I'm still waiting for Pauly and Iggy to kick in with their genius on Twitter.

Happy St. Patty's Day! Video of Chicago river turning green

I'm having a much needed super fun time with great friends. Came out to meet Dan and Jen's new baby girl Allegra Jane and got lucky with having our good friends Heather and Mark out here at the same time. You'd think it was just one big crawl between changing diapers and downing beers at a long list of Irish pubs, but it's more than that—really. Heather managed to wake up in time and watch the Chicago River turn green on Saturday, so I did a post around it for St Patty's Day today >> St. Paddy’s Day video – Chicago River goes green

Chicago stats:
Diapers changed: 4-5
Kisses given to Allegra: 20+
Best percentage on first time playing Guitar Hero: 76%
People that beat me at Scene It! 2, twice
Americanos consumed: 2
Best dish at Japonais: The Rock, cook your own steak on steaming hot rock
Best bar I went to: The Motel Bar
Other bars I went to: Tavern on Rush, The Grafton
What to do before coming home: Hop on Hop off bus & See Trump towers

CURRENT: Chicago, IL

NEXT: Las Vegas, NV (tonight!)

I love my new phone - BlackJack II

Goodbye Palm Treo! And good riddance!

I got the BlackJack II this weekend and I couldn't be happier (unless I could figure out how to blog on Word Press with it). I downloaded the Opera.mini - but just like with my Palm - the WP admin to the LAT Travel Blog is all squished to the left and you have to scroll FOREVER down the screen to get to a text body area. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong...I don't think I can use TypePad on it either. It's got Windows Mobile 6 - so maybe. It would be so great if I could mo-blog. There's got to be a way - there just has to!

However, I bought the BlackJack II because my boss at MobiTV just got it and raved about it. The engineers (and the AT&T customer service guy) recommended it over the AT&T Tilt. Whatever phone I get has to be able to show off MobiTV - and the Blackjack II does for sure. My MobiTV is jamming! There's very little "stop and reload" time like my last phone had. I can't wait to brag to my uncles about it because you can get ESPN and watch live pro and college basketball on it. They will be so jealous.

I can check my email on it much easier too. Texting so far is easy peasy. I just wish I had a cheat sheet for how to work everything else. I took some pics, but then couldn't find them. And I haven't figured out the one click way to turn it to vibrate.
AT&T was not able to transfer over my contacts though and told me to do it through my computer. There's no way I'll be doing that extra step as I would have to install two different cds. So, if you call me, and I act like I don't know who it is - don't worry, I just have to store your number. Start calling me already - I need your number in the new phone!

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Chicago (March 13-17)

Dreaming about Pauly and the Tao of Poker

Last night I had a dream about Pauly. I haven't seen him or Change in ages. Ages! I can't even remember the month and have no intention of thinking that hard. We were supposed to have a few days together in Australia, but then I went home early. Anyway....Pauly. In real life he's off enjoying friends and the now at the Langerado music festival in Florida. But last night, last night he was in my head and in my dreams.

I know you're panting and waiting for the juicy sex details, but dream analysts might say that this dream was more about me being in love with me. We'll see - you tell me what it meant. Pauly and I were in a mix of friends, not quite working, but not at the Tilted Kilt—R.I.P.—either. There was no stress and pressure of the WSOP - but I think we were at our laptops with non working folks around. Pauly mentioned something about me and made a reference to his blog, Tao of Poker. I hadn't read it in a while and clicked over. To my surprise, the whole banner had changed to include several pictures of me and me and Pauly. That's weird. Pauly has a gazillion friends, why me? I clicked on the header and it turned into a video montage - short videos began to play of Pauly (and me in the background). Like a video account of lots of times that we'd been in the same place at the same time. There was a slight infatuation element to the videos. The way they were shot, sometimes I was dancing, one time I was lying on a towel at the beach in the sun. Every video short showed us at the same place at the same time, even if we weren't there together - and many times it was from many years ago. Needless to say, I loved it. Apparently the header had been up for at least four days before I found it. I asked Pauly how he did it - where he had the secret satellite camcorder - but of course he wouldn't reveal his secrets. Just a wicked smile. And he had others...There were three or four more montages to make their appearance as the header of Tao or Poker. The question was, who was next....My vote was for Otis.

I think the dream is about blogging. I'm working on a new website - completely different from anything I've ever done, but something I know I'm confident I can do. And Pauly has been my blogging inspiration for far longer than I've known him in poker writing circles. I actually found Tao of Poker and Truckin when I blogged for Written Road.  I just love the way he blogs - magnanimously.

Anyway Pauly - hope you're having a blast out there. I'd love to talk with you sometime. As always, you make me want to be a better writer.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Chicago (March 13-17)

Osaka for dinner, Looking for Las Vegas rentals

So, we're back in Vegas.  As much as the apartment has become affectionately nicknamed "Satan's Ass" - I'm happy to be in it. Happy to be on my own schedule again. Now we're looking at getting a house to get us through the WSOP. Yesterday we looked at a big house out near Sahara and Rainbow where the edge of Vegas housing used to be. Back in the day. The house was nice, but I'm hoping for one with a pool. We'll look some more this weekend. The real estate agent that showed us the property yesterday had gone to a big real estate agent meeting and said the banks are expecting the market to go down another 10% within the next year. He recommended waiting to buy a house  at least six months if not a year in either California or Nevada.

Susan and Jeff Brady & Sean Keener are in town independent of one another. It's Jeff's birthday and we went  to Osaka to celebrate. It was a fun restaurant where you sit on pillows and take off your shoes to eat. The food was good, and perfect for a birthday dinner. John and I are such Nobu snobs that it was hard not to compare. The Osaka waitress rushed us a bit, bringing out nearly all the food at once, instead of in the set order that Nobu does. This was a little annoying - but luckily the food was great so there was little to complain about.

Click Here for the Best Las Vegas Hotel Deals!

Today I'm thinking about going to Morel's at the Palazzo. I've been wanting to try their Parmesan truffle fries. Susan and Jeff and Sean can be my guinea pigs. I was shocked that Susan hadn't even heard of the Palazzo. That's how fast Vegas is growing. If you live here, the eye sore of a building going up seems to take forever, but when you're a visitor coming once or twice a year, it's easy to miss the additions. Just for that I drove them through the Town Square.

CURRENT: Las Vegas

NEXT: Chicago (Mar 13-17)

Leaving San Diego, Poker home game, virtual assistants

Leaving San Diego: I woke up exhausted. That rarely happens. Usually I wake up happy and ready to be in a Sprite TV commercial. But I am - I'm tired and ready to take a break from all of this. This emotional beating. I'm so sick of being upset every day. Jason and I are so blessed that our family is being supportive. My Uncle Jon has helped us every day we were working on cleaning my dad's condo. My grandparents are letting us use their garage for things we want to keep (so I don't have to get a third storage unit). And my other aunts and uncles have helped us with the bill. I am thankful at the exact same time I can't wait to get out of here. I leave today on Amtrak out of Oceanside and will cruise north county looking at Encinitas and Cardiff by the Sea on my way out.

Poker home game: Amtrak? Yes, I'm meeting our ole gang in L.A. for a poker home game. A tinge of fun before heading back to Vegas. It'll be great. Friends, fun, poker - what's that? I haven't played in months.

 

InsideTrip, saving furniture, virtual assistant

Doing: Jason, Uncle Jon and I have been cleaning my dad's place this week. It's slow, miserable work but I think we've turned the corner. John will hate that I'm doing this - but I'm saving my dad's dresser and nightstands. I've been watching a lot of HGTV and I know all it needs is a new coat of paint. It's the perfect size to put a changing pad on, so I have plans to make it white, do up the hardware and put it in the someday baby's room in the someday house. Well, hire someone else to do all that— you know what I mean. I just can't decide on whether or not I should save two matching lamps from the Salvation Army pile. I know all they need is a coat of paint. And new lamp shades...

From the Desk: Speaking of hiring other people. I paid a friend to find me a virtual assistant. It was terrific that he could write the ad, put it up, go through all the crap responses and weed out the finalists. It sounds like online dating and that could've taken me forever.  Instead of using just one of the three finalists, I'm going to divey up the work between two people. For starters, telling me which phone to buy, giving me the hand-held cliff notes to Commission Junction University and a little bit of web research. Maybe coding too. I'm excited about it. The going rate is around $20/hour.

Travel Website you have to check out: There's a new travel website that's hitting the Internet today. InsideTrip.com. In addition to just searching flights and prices, you can compare legroom, the age of the plane, gate connections, and more. It doesn't quite address my "pain point" of a decent entertainment system - but so what. I'm excited about this site and can totally geek out on it. Here's my full preview of InsideTrip.com.

CURRENT: SAN DIEGO
NEXT: L.A. (Wednesday night)

NBC Heads-up news is more interesting than WPT L.A. Poker Classic

I really wanted to go up to Los Angeles for the WPT L.A. Poker Classic because my friends at Wicked Chops Poker were there, but I've been tethered to San Diego trying to clean out my dad's place. It turns out, the best place to be was in Vegas. The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship sounded like a lot more fun. (Even if Phil Ivey won his first WPT)

NBC in Vegas: As if you can feel sorry for an 11-bracelet winner, poor Phil Hellmuth had a good start with everyone on the red carpet [VIDEO] saying they wanted to play him - only to be eliminated in 3-hands by a not-so-famous online player. In the end Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson beat Andy Bloch to win the title and the $500,000. I guess we could say good for him because he's come close the past two years - but I wanted Gavin to win and of course it was great to see Orel Hershiser in the running.