Real Estate in No. California is Out of Control. Maybe It's Time to Consider ARIZONA!!

Everyone in Northern California is talking about Arizona real estate. And there is a very good reason why. It’s affordable! Homes in the Bay Area have skyrocketed to the point where no one can afford to buy a house here. And to top it off – they just announced recently that rentals are going up, especially in places like SF and Silicon Valley. It’s just crazy. So, a lot of folks are making the move to Arizona – where it’s less crowded, the air is cleaner and it hardly ever rains. Whether you’re talking about Phoenix, or Tempe, or Tucson, or even Scottsdale – maybe now is the time for you to start considering Arizona real estate!

DeGeneres Caught in Canine Adoption Caper

Why do people get so weird and militant when it comes to their pets? This is a ridiculous situation that has escalated into a really volatile one, polarizing dog owners and pitting a celebrity against the entire pet adoption industry.

In case you haven't heard, comedienne/talk show host Ellen DeGeneres adopted a dog from an adpotion agency. When the mutt didn't work out for her, she gave it to a friend. When the adoption agency found out about it, they were uspset, claiming that Ellen had no right to give away the pooch and had violated their rules. So, they went to the new dog owner's house and retrieved the dog.

I can see this issue from both sides. On one hand, I think the adoption agency is being way too heavy-handed. Ellen is obviously a dog lover and I don’t believe that she would give this mutt to anyone who couldn’t provide a good home for the dog. To send the police into someone’s home to retrieve a dog is just crazy.

On the other hand, rules are rules. Adoption agencies have to be careful where adopted dogs go. Part of their job is to make sure these animals are given to responsible people who will provide a safe environment for them.

Most adoption organizations are run by volunteers, so these people are obviously passionate about what they do. But, like anyone else, they can get carried away when it involves pets.

I have experienced this first-hand. When I tried to adopt a dog from the Humane Society, they questioned me for close to an hour. And I was working there as a volunteer at the time. I got so fed up at one point, during the interrogation that I said to them – “What do you care what I do with the dog? You’re just going to kill it?”

One of the things these adoption groups have to be wary of is what’s called “Batchers.” I call them bastards.

“Batchers” are unscrupulous idiots who adopt dogs and then sell them to testing laboratories. They usually target individuals who advertise that they want to give their dog away, and then go to their house and con them into thinking that they’ll provide a good home for the dog. Then, they sell it for a tidy profit so that labs can do these cruel tests on them and eventually destroy them. Some of these “Batchers” have been known to bring children with them, so that they can pose as a family in need of a pet.

That’s why you should always give your dog to a rescue or adoption agency is you have to give the animal away. They will spend the time to make sure that it goes to a good home.

Associated Press published this online yesterday:
Ellen DeGeneres' doggie dilemma took a nasty turn, with the operator of the animal rescue organization that took the pooch away saying she has been deluged with threatening e-mails and phone calls.

The calls got so bad that Marina Batkis said she had to close her business and stay home Wednesday, a day after DeGeneres broadcast a tearful, televised plea for the dog to be returned to her hairdresser and the woman's daughters.

"My life is being threatened. This is horrible," a tearful Batkis said outside her home.
B
atkis and Vanessa Chekroun co-own Mutts and Moms, the nonprofit dog-rescue organization that gave the dog to DeGeneres and her partner, actress Portia de Rossi.

"They have gotten thousands of e-mails," attorney Keith Fink told the television program "Inside Edition." "Most of them are hate e-mails threatening them with lynchings, bombings of their home."

One recording "Inside Edition" played had a male voice saying, "You Nazi, scum-sucking pigs. You're gonna pay dearly for stealing this dog from those little girls."

The twisted dog tale began last month when DeGeneres and de Rossi adopted a cute, black Brussels Griffon mix terrier named Iggy. When Iggy was not able to get along with DeGeneres' cats, the couple gave the dog to DeGeneres' hairdresser.

That, Batkis pointed out, violated a written agreement de Rossi signed in which she agreed to return the dog to Mutts and Moms if the adoption did not work out.

DeGeneres acknowledged she erred but said her hairdresser and her family should not be punished.

"This is so insane," a calmer DeGeneres said on her talk show Wednesday. "It's just the dog needs to go to the family."

Batkis has refused to back down.

"If Ellen wants to place dogs and decide what's a good home, then she should start her own rescue group," she told "Inside Edition." "But I'm the one doing this and I know what I'm doing."

Meanwhile, the dispute has become a hot topic on news and talk shows.

"There's got to be some sort of rational compromise," ABC's Diane Sawyer said on "Good Morning America."

My Interview with Ed Mayer, the Other "Mr. Cub"

Ed Mayer played for the Chicago Cubs for two years, in 1957 and 1958. A San Francisco native and a Lowell High School graduate, he won the MVP award in a high-school all-star game played at Seals Stadium and received the trophy from none other than Babe Ruth himself. Mayer made his pitching debut against the New York Giants and gave up two home runs – one to Willie Mays and the other to Hank Sauer. They were the only dingers he would ever surrender. After playing for the University of California, Mayer played in the minors with the Cardinals, Red Sox and Cubs, with stops in C, B, A, AA, AAA, Mexico and Cuba before making it to the major leagues. After his baseball career came to and end, Mayer worked for 25 years as a teacher. He currently lives in San Anselmo, California and enjoys playing the piano, traveling throughout the world and designing crossword puzzles. (This interview took place on July 24, 2007)

A UFO sighting in the minor leagues: “This is a great incident, and don’t think I’m crazy, because I am not crazy, believe me, and it’s been verified by so many people. We were in Class B ball, or C ball, in Georgia in either ’54 or ’55, I forget which. And it’s a night game, and I’m in the third base dugout. And we’re just watching a guy on the other team warming up. And, all of a sudden, this round disc comes over the stadium – silent, about 200 feet up maybe, spinning slowly, red, white and blue lights. And I said to the guy next to me – do you see what I see? He said, “Yeah! Holy cow! What is it?” We were just enthralled looking at it, and it stayed there silently for about 10 or 15 seconds, looking down, obviously – because they were right above the pitcher’s mound. And then all of a sudden, it went out of sight in about 3 seconds. With no sound, just pfffft…just like that! And right now today, we don’t have the capability of doing what that thing did. That was a UFO. It was absolutely unbelievable. In fact, after it happened, I even went over to the left field corner and asked somebody, “Did you see that?” and they said “Yeah.” Then, I went over to the right field corner and asked somebody else, and they said, “Yeah.” It was for sure. So, I am a believer now. That made me a believer.”

A HR to Willie Mays: “I gave up just two home runs in my career – to Willie Mays and Hank Sauer, both in my very first game against the Giants. And when they hit them, I said to myself – that’s it; nobody else is going to hit a home run off me. And nobody did. I remember the Mays home run like it was yesterday. It was the first inning and I got the first two guys out and Mays stepped up to the plate. I said to myself, I know who Willie Mays is, I’ve heard of him, but so what? So, I threw the ball, and he hit a line drive which I thought would either be caught by the center fielder or hit the wall, but it went straight up into the stands – a rope. The guy’s a great hitter. The best hitter I ever played against, that’s for sure. Frank Robinson, Stan Musial – they were good. But, Mays is the best I ever saw.”

Racism in the minor leagues: “We were going through Georgia on a bus, and we pulled over to get some gas. I was in the low minors – “A” ball. So the whole team gets out of the bus, and we walk up to a Coke machine. We line up, and everyone was getting sodas, and Earl Wilson, one of our black players, was in line right in front of me, just waiting his turn. He went to put his nickel in – it was a nickel back then – and the gas station attendant came out and pointed a gun at Wilson, and said, “No n—r is going to buy a Coke out of my machine.” And Wilson wasn’t used to this kind of treatment, because he was from San Diego. And I sure wasn’t used to it being from San Francisco. I mean, we had black players in high school and we never thought about it. It was never a big deal. And so I grabbed Wilson by the shoulders, and I turned him around and pushed him back on that bus. I told him that I would buy him the Coke. And I bought two Cokes and gave him one. The sad thing is that that guy with the rifle probably could have gotten away with shooting him and then said that he had done something to him, because that’s what was going on down in the South back then. I saw racism a lot in baseball, even against me, because I’m Jewish. When I was at spring training with the Cubs, I was told that I couldn’t go into a place called the Olympic Club in Phoenix, because I was Jewish. They told me I couldn’t go in there. In AAA, when I was with Omaha in 1956, a fan yelled a bunch of racist stuff at me while I was pitching, calling me “Jew Boy” and things like that.”

When the game was pure: “I played in an era when nobody was taking anything. I never saw one pill or anything. Never saw anyone ever taking any pills. The players looked normal back then. You look at Ernie Banks. You look at Stan Musial – any of the old guys – they looked normal. Their arms and their bodies looked normal. Not all beefed up like they are today, like Sammy Sosa. There’s no doubt these guys are doing something. It’s bad for baseball, because it’s illegal, it’s no good, it’s not fair and I believe that when Bonds breaks the record it will be tainted. It’s a shame. No one was cheating when I played. I never looked at anyone back then and thought, ‘Wow, he looks different.’”

The Return Phone Call: When Did It Die?

Why don’t people call each other back anymore? What is the psychology behind not returning phone calls? Do you have a group of friends in your life who will NEVER call you back no matter what? The sad fact is that most of us do.

Not returning phone calls has become an integral part of our society – a trademark of our times. And with all of the new technologies out there -- like VOIP, e-mail and text messaging -- people have more ways than ever to not get back to you. And I believe that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

In an attempt to analyze this phenomenon, I have talked to a wide range of people about the subject. I have discussed it with those individuals who make a point of returning phone calls religiously, and I have talked at length (not on the phone, of course) to folks who have made the activity of not returning calls into an art form.

This is what I have learned. Most people tell me that the anonymous nature of a phone call or phone message makes it very easy to disregard. Their attitude is, “If the caller wants to speak to me that badly, they’ll call back.”

Many other individuals think that they are on the phone too much as it is and will only return those calls that they believe are absolutely necessary to reply to.

“I spend an inordinate amount of time on the telephone and I just don’t have time to call everyone back,” one person explained.

“A lot of people call me for no reason,” another person stated. “They’re bored and like to blab on the phone. I hate it when people say that they’re calling just to see how I’m doing. I’m doing fine, thank you. When I die, someone will contact you. That’s why they have obituaries in the newspaper.”

Other people say that they fall into a mode of not calling certain people back, while at the same time looking forward to responding quickly to others people’s calls.

“Some of my friends are easy to talk to on the phone, while others are boring and waste my time,” one source said. “If you can’t keep the conversation interesting and upbeat, don’t call me.”
“
I have a group of friends who call me all the time to complain about every little thing,” one source exclaimed. “They want to talk about how their wife or husband or kids or boss is making their lives miserable. Hey, I have my own problems, okay? If I want to be depressed, I’ll watch soap operas. Spare me!”

With these individuals, it has to do with the quality and substance of the conversation. So, if you give “bad phone”, so to speak, you can be sure that these people will not be calling you back anytime soon.

When it comes to business, people have an entirely different theory about returning phone calls. If a salesman calls them, for instance, they will almost never call them back.

“It’s their job to get a hold of me,” one source said. “If they’re selling something, they had better adapt to my schedule.”

Other people disagree with that theory. One very successful business owner told me that he returns every single phone call he receives, as a rule. It’s very unprofessional to do otherwise, he said.
“I have made some awesome contacts and profited greatly by returning every phone call I get. If someone takes the time to call me, no matter who it is, I feel getting back to them is the right thing to do. So many people in the business world do not return calls that you can stand out by returning them. The caller will appreciate it and try to reciprocate any way they can. If nothing else, you have made a friend in the business world. And we can all use more friends.”

After looking at this topic from several different angles, I have come to the conclusion that you should not take it personally if someone does not return your phone calls. It does not mean they don’t want to talk to you, at least not in all cases. And if you work on your phone skills and become more pleasurable to talk to, you’ll find that more of your friends will call you back.

I wish I could have done a more thorough study of this subject, but most of the people I called to interview never got back to me.

Cufflinks Are Back in a BIG WAY!!

There’s a great web site called http://www.cuff-daddy.com/. They have more cufflinks than you could ever imagine. Cufflinks are very cool and are making a big comeback. They make a great groomsmen gift. http://www.cuff-daddy.com/ has more than just cufflinks too – they sell key chains, fancy pens, money clips, wallets, cufflink boxes, ties – they even have cufflinks for women. Their site is really cool. They have a lot of great gift ideas and even have an article that explains how to wear cufflinks.

World Series Time: I Love It!

It’s almost World Series time! This is the most exciting time of the entire baseball season. After 162 games, the playoffs and the championship series, the moment every baseball fan is anticipating is almost upon us. Whenever I think about the World Series, I think about 1988, when Kirk Gibson hit a HR against the Oakland A’s with two outs in the ninth inning. What an incredible thrill that was!! We already know that the exciting young upstart Colorado Rockies will be playing in the World Series. They’ll be going up against the yet-to-be-determined AL Champs, either the Boston Red Sox or the Cleveland Indians. Have you thought about where you might be buying your world series tickets? The Fall Classic is almost here.

Spare Us the Britney Breakdown

Is there anybody out there (other than that strange kid crying on Youtube.com) who gives a damn about Britney Spears anymore? Watching her self-destruct was interesting for a short while – kind of like seeing a spider eating a fly – but now it’s getting old.

Britney is yesterday’s news – just another sad example of what is happening to young people throughout this country. Spears has alienated her friends, her parents and most of her fans – and should be grateful that the paparazzi even care about her anymore. She is a tragic character and we love personal tragedies in this country. It makes us feel better about our lives, which must seem problem-free when compared to Britney’s daily drama.

Spears is arrogant and thinks that she can do whatever she wants. She obviously feels that people should just adapt to her boorish and out-of-control behavior. The only problem is that judges, publicists, drug counselors and record companies refuse to go with her program.

Britney is a major accident waiting to happen and if she does not wake up, she’ll end up just like Janis Joplin did. The only difference is that Joplin was talented.

This appeared this morning on TMZ:

TMZ has confirmed Britney Spears booked herself with the LAPD Monday night on misdemeanor charges of hit and run.Wearing a black mini dress, black leather jacket and sporting silver chains around her neck, she walked into the Van Nuys jail last night and did the deed.LAPD told us "at approximately 9:25 PM Miss Britney Spears checked into the Van Nuys County Jail for a court ordered booking. She was put through standard booking procedures which included booking photographs, fingerprinting and collection of information. Britney was at all time cooperative in the process. She was there approximately 45 minutes."

We're also told she was never put in a holding cell, and she was polite and courteous to the officers. We're also told cops offered her the back entrance -- but she declined, opting to go in the front door. FOX 11 Los Angeles caught Brit on her way in and out of the jail. The L.A. City Attorney charged Spears in September with one count of hit and run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid California license.

Both charges are misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum of 6 months in jail. The charges stem from an August 6 incident in L.A. where Spears was in a private parking lot in the San Fernando Valley and rammed into a parked car.

Colorado Rocks Baseball World

The Colorado Rockies are the big story of baseball’s postseason. If you would have told me a month ago that this team would win 20 of 21 games and be one win away from playing in the World Series at this point, I would have checked to see what you were smoking.
I cannot remember the last time a team has done what the Rockies have accomplished. They’re a shoo-in for the World Series at this point. I just cannot see them losing four straight to an embattled and obviously very tired Arizona Diamondback’s team.
Colorado has a perfect mix of seasoned vets and young, hungry players. They’re not hitting the cover off the baseball, but they are doing just enough to win ballgames. They are not great, but they’re good enough – and that’s all that matters.
One thing they do have is team chemistry – something the Yankees, Mets and Cubs lacked. The Rockies enjoy just being around each other and play like a team. You won’t find any selfish, self-centered, big-headed guys on this team.
And now that it appears as though the American League Championship Series could go 6 or 7 games, the Rockies look even stronger. If they can sweep the D-Backs or win it in 5 games, they’ll be able to rest all their starting pitchers and won’t have to change their rotation one iota.
It will be tough to beat either Boston or Cleveland – but, if any team can do it, my money is on the red-hot Colorado Rockies.
(This appeared on http://www.cbssportsline.com/ last night:)
DENVER -- The Colorado Rockies were one strike away from not even making the playoffs. Now, they're one win away from their first World Series. With a cold rain falling, Josh Fogg shut down Arizona's bats in his first postseason start and Yorvit Torrealba hit a tiebreaking three-run homer to fuel the Rockies' 4-1 victory Sunday night in Game 3 of the NL Championship Series.
MVP hopeful Matt Holliday also homered as the wild-card Rockies took a 3-0 lead with their 20th win in 21 games, a streak that has taken Colorado from afterthoughts to the buzz of baseball.
"Tomorrow we're going to come here just like we have been doing," Torrealba said. "We're going to relax, watch TV, and when it's time to play, we're going to try to get one more win."
And not think about their first World Series until then. "No, no, no, no, I'm not thinking about that," insisted the face of the franchise, Todd Helton, whose decade of disappointment has disappeared in one of the most incredible winning streaks in baseball history.
"We're still focused on the task at hand." About two weeks ago, the Rockies had no control over whether they'd even make the playoffs.
The San Diego Padres could've eliminated Colorado on the final Saturday of the regular season. But Milwaukee's Tony Gwynn Jr. hit a tying, two-out, two-strike triple off San Diego's Trevor Hoffman that gave the Rockies a chance.
The next day, Colorado caught the Padres. The night after that, the Rockies beat San Diego in a 13-inning, NL wild-card tiebreaker.
Since then, the Rockies have been unbeatable.
Arizona, which has scored just four runs in the series so far, must win four consecutive times against a Rockies team that is the first since the 1935 Chicago Cubs to win at least 20 of 21 games after Sept. 1, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
They haven't looked back, sweeping past Philadelphia and taking the first three against Arizona.
They will try to sweep the Diamondbacks on Monday night when Franklin Morales faces Arizona's Micah Owings in a matchup of rookies who have never faced each other's teams.
The Rockies, who this season set a major league record for fielding percentage, turned three double plays in the first three innings.
"When you can take the sting out of them early ... I think it helped our confidence," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
The 2004 Boston Red Sox are the only team to overcome a 3-0 hole to win a best-of-7 postseason series. Boston did it in the ALCS against the Yankees.
"Until they win four and we can't win four at once. We've just got to get one on the board first," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "That's what we've been trying to do all year."
Torrealba connected in the sixth inning, three pitches after watching one of Livan Hernandez's trademark "eephus" offerings poke across the plate for a strike -- so slow it didn't register on the stadium scoreboard radar.
Hernandez said he knew better than to throw an inside fastball to his buddy that he played with in San Francisco, but he had used all the pitches in his bag of tricks.
"It's the last pitch I want to throw," Hernandez said. "Yorvit is one of my best friends in baseball and I know he can handle the fastball inside very good. It's just the situation. I'd thrown everything: foul, foul. I know he can hit the fastball inside. Trust me, and he hit it out."
After a 60 mph bender that he fought off for a foul, Torrealba hit a fastball 402 feet into the left-field seats, then raced around the bases pumping his fists and hooting and hollering.
"He worked me really well all season long. He tried to throw me a fastball inside, and it stayed over the plate and I hit it really good," Torrealba said.
Torrealba, who is 8-for-21 in the playoffs with seven RBI, nearly had a home run in the third when he doubled off the center-field wall. The stadium's pyrotechnics operator thought it was gone and set off some fireworks as Torrealba pulled into second base.
The real fireworks came three innings later from Torrealba, who had just eight home runs in the regular season.
"One pitch, one bad pitch all night," lamented D-Backs catcher Miguel Montero.
"That's kind of been the theme of this series so far. They've gotten that one big hit where we haven't," Melvin said.
Holliday's homer in the first inning was the first by either team in this series. Hernandez fell to 7-3 lifetime in the playoffs, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Fogg, who won Game 2 of the division series over Philadelphia in relief of Morales, scattered seven hits, including rookie Mark Reynolds' solo home run in the fourth, in six stellar innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out three.
With the game time temperature hovering at 43 degrees -- and quickly dipping into the 30s -- and a light drizzle falling, the crowd showed up wearing fleece jackets, gloves, wool caps and scarves, looking like they were headed for the ski slopes west of Denver, where it was indeed snowing.
Even Montero wore a ski cap beneath his catcher's helmet. It was only fitting that the Rockies sent a pitcher named Fogg to the mound to deal with the elements in the first NLCS game in Denver in franchise history. The Rockies have not lost since Sept. 16, and this win at Coors Field was their ninth consecutive victory overall.
A cool drizzle fell all day and continued into the evening. The grounds crew didn't even remove the tarp until an hour before the game. In between innings, they brought out bags of dry dirt to keep the infield from getting too slick. In the fifth, the crews poured a wheelbarrow full of "diamond dust" around home plate.
The TV broadcast mentioned how the grounds crew ran out of the quick-dry dirt and started calling around. They said they found some in a warehouse and showed a truck rolling up to the stadium with extra bags.
Holliday, with only two other hits in this series, neither of which left the infield, put Colorado ahead 1-0 in the first inning with a high drive. Left fielder Eric Byrnes crashed into the wall chasing the ball, much to the delight of the crowd that razzed him every chance they got.
Forty-eight hours earlier, Byrnes suggested the Rockies were a lucky bunch who had actually been outplayed by the Diamondbacks in this series.
Although that drew the ire of the fans, Rockies rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said there was some truth to Byrnes' comments "and they can outplay us all four games.
If we end up winning the series, I'll be fine with that." Reynolds hit a 422-foot solo shot in the fourth to tie it at 1-all, sending a first-pitch breaking ball from Fogg halfway up into the left-field seats to quiet the sellout crowd of 50,137.
Jeremy Affeldt threw the seventh, Brian Fuentes the eighth and Manny Corpas the ninth for his fourth save of the playoffs. In Game 2 at Arizona, Corpas blew a save chance in the ninth inning.
The Rockies are trying for their first NL pennant in the franchise's 15-year history, and history appears solidly on their side.
"Nothing has gone our way so far," Byrnes said. "For whatever reason, that's the way it's been."

Stereo Cabinets

If you have a high-end stereo system or TV, you want the very best cabinet or mounting system you can possibly get. Why spend the big-time dinero on your electronics and then buy a cheap, little K-Mart cabinet or mounting system. I found a great place where you can get a top-notch stereo cabinet or TV stand at a great place. They have Premier Mounts, Peerless, Tech Craft, LOVAN, VTI, Vogels, and Walker Edison. And the best thing, is they will give you FREE SHIPPING on everything!

The Crazy Weather of The City by the Bay

Today the weather was absolutely miserable...very wet and cold. It's hard to believe that last weekend it was warm and beautiful (see photos). It's like they say...if you don't like the weather in San Francisco, just wait an hour and it will change!