Been taking lots of walks this spring and decided to share some of the beauty with everyone. Enjoy the slide show below - We're positively bloomin' in Arizona!
Have a great spring!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The Marvels of Computer Communication
Technology is an amazing thing. Overwhelming, in fact. When we think back to what didn't exist just a few short years ago to now, and imagine what might be ahead...it's mind boggling.
I have to say, the best thing about technology to me is the way you can stay in touch with family and friends now. Texting, skype, email, ipod, iphone, computers, youtube, twitter, cell phones...the list seems endless.
One of my sons is getting his master's in Technology. He's currently a special education teacher now in Wisconsin. (Yes, there's a fancier name - ED/LD or something...) and he's enjoyed dabbling in technology more and more over the years.
Since Christmas, we've been enjoying face to face visits on something called SKYPE.
It's free - and I recommend it to anyone who has a microphone and camera on their phone. Or...you can buy one on EBAY for less than ten bucks.
Check out this link to see a funny short on communicating with your grandchildren across the miles. It shows us visiting from Tucson, AZ, with our son and his family in Green Bay, WI. The clip is extra interesting because it incorporates computer, SKYPE, video camera, and iphone - all within the context of a family good-night bedtime story.
Let me end with this - circulates around in an email now and then, but if you're new to email...it's fresh to you:
You know you are in 2010 when....
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7 Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.
Have a great week!
I have to say, the best thing about technology to me is the way you can stay in touch with family and friends now. Texting, skype, email, ipod, iphone, computers, youtube, twitter, cell phones...the list seems endless.
One of my sons is getting his master's in Technology. He's currently a special education teacher now in Wisconsin. (Yes, there's a fancier name - ED/LD or something...) and he's enjoyed dabbling in technology more and more over the years.
Since Christmas, we've been enjoying face to face visits on something called SKYPE.
It's free - and I recommend it to anyone who has a microphone and camera on their phone. Or...you can buy one on EBAY for less than ten bucks.
Check out this link to see a funny short on communicating with your grandchildren across the miles. It shows us visiting from Tucson, AZ, with our son and his family in Green Bay, WI. The clip is extra interesting because it incorporates computer, SKYPE, video camera, and iphone - all within the context of a family good-night bedtime story.
Let me end with this - circulates around in an email now and then, but if you're new to email...it's fresh to you:
You know you are in 2010 when....
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7 Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.
Have a great week!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
FHA 90 Day Flip Rule Is Waived for 1 Year
Good news for investors in Tucson Real Estate!
Effective February 1st 2010, FHA/ HUD will not require that a seller of a property be on title for 90 days or more in order to sell the property to a borrower acquiring FHA financing. This is an incredible opportunity for the majority of buyers & sellers in today’s market.
This news is an important decision handed down by HUD as it proposed to dramatically assist the real estate market recovery.
Prior to HUD’s decision, HUD required that a seller had to hold onto the title of the property for a period of 90 days after settlement date. This has always affected an investor’s decision in accepting an offer made on the investment property by a FHA Approved Buyer. This will all change on February 1st for a temporary period of 1 year.
Below is an excerpt from the HUD website:
“In today’s market, FHA research finds that acquiring, rehabilitating and the reselling these properties to prospective homeowners often takes less than 90 days. Prohibiting the use of FHA mortgage insurance for a subsequent resale within 90 days of acquisition adversely impacts the willingness of sellers to allow contracts from potential FHA buyers because they must consider holding costs and the risk of vandalism associated with allowing a property to sit vacant over a 90-day period of time.
The policy change will permit buyers to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.”
This great news obviously comes with some restrictions. However, they are minimal but important when looking at the new rule. REMEMBER, THIS IS FOR ONE (1) YEAR ONLY!!
The New FHA 90 Day Flip Rules
The waiver will take effect on February 1, 2010 and is effective for one year, unless otherwise extended or withdrawn by the FHA Commissioner. To protect FHA borrowers against predatory practices of “flipping” where properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers, this waiver is limited to those sales meeting the following general conditions:
•All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.
•In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions.
•The waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.
Effective February 1st 2010, FHA/ HUD will not require that a seller of a property be on title for 90 days or more in order to sell the property to a borrower acquiring FHA financing. This is an incredible opportunity for the majority of buyers & sellers in today’s market.
This news is an important decision handed down by HUD as it proposed to dramatically assist the real estate market recovery.
Prior to HUD’s decision, HUD required that a seller had to hold onto the title of the property for a period of 90 days after settlement date. This has always affected an investor’s decision in accepting an offer made on the investment property by a FHA Approved Buyer. This will all change on February 1st for a temporary period of 1 year.
Below is an excerpt from the HUD website:
“In today’s market, FHA research finds that acquiring, rehabilitating and the reselling these properties to prospective homeowners often takes less than 90 days. Prohibiting the use of FHA mortgage insurance for a subsequent resale within 90 days of acquisition adversely impacts the willingness of sellers to allow contracts from potential FHA buyers because they must consider holding costs and the risk of vandalism associated with allowing a property to sit vacant over a 90-day period of time.
The policy change will permit buyers to use FHA-insured financing to purchase HUD-owned properties, bank-owned properties, or properties resold through private sales. This will allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping to stabilize real estate prices and to revitalize neighborhoods and communities.”
This great news obviously comes with some restrictions. However, they are minimal but important when looking at the new rule. REMEMBER, THIS IS FOR ONE (1) YEAR ONLY!!
The New FHA 90 Day Flip Rules
The waiver will take effect on February 1, 2010 and is effective for one year, unless otherwise extended or withdrawn by the FHA Commissioner. To protect FHA borrowers against predatory practices of “flipping” where properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers, this waiver is limited to those sales meeting the following general conditions:
•All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.
•In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller’s acquisition cost, the waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions.
•The waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Top Ten Place to Live!
How about this!!!
Tucson was on the list of the Top 10 cities to find the best home! Check out the link below to the video from the Today Show on NBC.
By the way, it's been in the 70's all this week! January!! What a place to live!
The Today Show
Tucson was on the list of the Top 10 cities to find the best home! Check out the link below to the video from the Today Show on NBC.
By the way, it's been in the 70's all this week! January!! What a place to live!
The Today Show
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Hospital and Emergency Care in Tucson AZ
My mother recently took two unexpected trips to the emergency room at St. Joseph's hospital here in Tucson, AZ. She had never been admitted in emergency care before and was a bit scare, bewildered, and worried, not to mention - in health crises.
The local papers sometimes feature stories on the poor health care and worse customer service one receives in Tucson medical care. For those of you who read my blog, you know I'll often comment on restaurant service, so I felt "duty-bound" to share a bit of my mother's experience. For the sake of brevity, I'll leave out most details of her illness. (She is under medication and recovering nicely, thank you!)
During trip #1 - We encountered a young man who took her immediate vitals, etc. in emergency entrance lobby. Polite, funny, looked my mother in the eye. Wow. She was given a room in less than 20 minutes at a time many were suffering from swine flu. The doctor himself came and got me out of waiting after she was situated and assured me she was being taken care of. She went through a battery of tests and every clerk, assistant, technician, etc. was kind, thoughtful, and unhurried. I especially remember one wheeling her down for a CatSkan singing..."Money, money money money...Muh...neee (Pink Floyd)
Ten days later she was re-admitted again with immediate entrance and was situated in a ward room until admittance. During her initial ward visit she was seen by the general hospitalist doctor, the pulmanary specialist, an internist, a respiratory specialist, and her cardiologist from the previous visit was notified. All were polite, kind, thoughtful, unhurried, and many showed a nice sense of humor trying to help my elderly mother relax and recover. During her stay of two days the nurses were kind and quick to answer pages, cleaning staff hummed and talked to the patients politely, and medical staff explained things to my mother, complete with written instructions.
Sure, there were a few glitches and incorrectly written precriptions, etc. but for the sake of the overall experience, I choose to disregard those things right now. I am glad I was with my mother to figure out all the medications, etc. afterwards, for sure.
Bottom line?? Hats off to the staff of St. Joseph's hospital here in Tucson. Thank you for your bedside manner and humane demeanor. It's what hospital and health care SHOULD be, and for my mother's two experiences - was. May all of you experience the same care should you find yourselves in a similar situation some day. Thank you.
The local papers sometimes feature stories on the poor health care and worse customer service one receives in Tucson medical care. For those of you who read my blog, you know I'll often comment on restaurant service, so I felt "duty-bound" to share a bit of my mother's experience. For the sake of brevity, I'll leave out most details of her illness. (She is under medication and recovering nicely, thank you!)
During trip #1 - We encountered a young man who took her immediate vitals, etc. in emergency entrance lobby. Polite, funny, looked my mother in the eye. Wow. She was given a room in less than 20 minutes at a time many were suffering from swine flu. The doctor himself came and got me out of waiting after she was situated and assured me she was being taken care of. She went through a battery of tests and every clerk, assistant, technician, etc. was kind, thoughtful, and unhurried. I especially remember one wheeling her down for a CatSkan singing..."Money, money money money...Muh...neee (Pink Floyd)
Ten days later she was re-admitted again with immediate entrance and was situated in a ward room until admittance. During her initial ward visit she was seen by the general hospitalist doctor, the pulmanary specialist, an internist, a respiratory specialist, and her cardiologist from the previous visit was notified. All were polite, kind, thoughtful, unhurried, and many showed a nice sense of humor trying to help my elderly mother relax and recover. During her stay of two days the nurses were kind and quick to answer pages, cleaning staff hummed and talked to the patients politely, and medical staff explained things to my mother, complete with written instructions.
Sure, there were a few glitches and incorrectly written precriptions, etc. but for the sake of the overall experience, I choose to disregard those things right now. I am glad I was with my mother to figure out all the medications, etc. afterwards, for sure.
Bottom line?? Hats off to the staff of St. Joseph's hospital here in Tucson. Thank you for your bedside manner and humane demeanor. It's what hospital and health care SHOULD be, and for my mother's two experiences - was. May all of you experience the same care should you find yourselves in a similar situation some day. Thank you.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Kitchen Nightmares
I watch a lot of resturant/cooking shows on tv. I admit it. Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Iron Chef, Next Iron Chef, Top Chef, etc. It's amazing sometimes what people will serve. I actually saw a contestant pick something out of the garbage and put it on a plate to serve to the public. (They were quickly eliminated) There's a quote out there I'm going to paraphrase from Jackson Browne, "Character is what you are when nobody is looking". I think this is really true in the kitchen!
So on with my story. My mother, a Tucson/Washington State snowbird, is down for the winter and on our first day together I invite her out to breakfast to a place we've been many times. We notice upon entering through the attached gift shop that it is now 50% in size, and many tables have been added in the back. The place just has a few late breakfast diners this mid-morning.
They seat us in the main isle across from the door, and being that it's a 50 degree "cold snap" here in Tucson, my mother asks for another table not so cold. We are seated at the booth closest to the kitchen. "Uh, oh, they're mad at me," my mother jokes.
Presently, we are served drinks and our order is taken. The place begins to fill with early lunchers as we visit and catch up on news. After awhile, it occurs to me that everyone who filed in after us is eating; I contact the waitress. I put on my nicest voice and ask if perhaps our ticket got lost. She jumps to the defense, although I am trying to calm her that we are not angry, we just hope we get our food eventually, and she shows us the ticket and says there was a computer malfunction. The ticket had indeed been submitted 25 minutes ago. We assure her it's okay...we just want to be sure it's coming.
We hear her yelling at the chefs in the back and soon have our meal. The plates are cold, the bacon is cold and chewy, the eggs are still raw in the middle (ordered scrambled and over medium) etc. We're hungry and decide to just eat anyway, mostly because the waitress looks beleaguered. I finish most of it and excuse myself to the restroom.
Well, if I'd have entered the restroom before our food arrived, we'd have left. The filth, the compounded dirt in the grout and corners and walls -- needless to say, my half raw scrambled eggs were no longer sitting easy in my stomach. A cursory check at things as I left the restroom had me wondering what happened to kitchen cleanliness. I began to visualize the Kitchen Nightmares discovered by Chef Ramsey in the tv shows....
Our meal was only a grand total of $8.99. We told the waitress about the poor quality food at the end, just to let her know, and we said we were going to pay anyway. And I left her a tip over 15%. But we won't be back. We're telling our friends. We're disappointed that another locally owned Tucsonan resturant bites the dust that previously sat high on our "list".
My children said - (because I have a history of receiving poor service) - why do I even go out?
I guess I'm just looking for characters....
So on with my story. My mother, a Tucson/Washington State snowbird, is down for the winter and on our first day together I invite her out to breakfast to a place we've been many times. We notice upon entering through the attached gift shop that it is now 50% in size, and many tables have been added in the back. The place just has a few late breakfast diners this mid-morning.
They seat us in the main isle across from the door, and being that it's a 50 degree "cold snap" here in Tucson, my mother asks for another table not so cold. We are seated at the booth closest to the kitchen. "Uh, oh, they're mad at me," my mother jokes.
Presently, we are served drinks and our order is taken. The place begins to fill with early lunchers as we visit and catch up on news. After awhile, it occurs to me that everyone who filed in after us is eating; I contact the waitress. I put on my nicest voice and ask if perhaps our ticket got lost. She jumps to the defense, although I am trying to calm her that we are not angry, we just hope we get our food eventually, and she shows us the ticket and says there was a computer malfunction. The ticket had indeed been submitted 25 minutes ago. We assure her it's okay...we just want to be sure it's coming.
We hear her yelling at the chefs in the back and soon have our meal. The plates are cold, the bacon is cold and chewy, the eggs are still raw in the middle (ordered scrambled and over medium) etc. We're hungry and decide to just eat anyway, mostly because the waitress looks beleaguered. I finish most of it and excuse myself to the restroom.
Well, if I'd have entered the restroom before our food arrived, we'd have left. The filth, the compounded dirt in the grout and corners and walls -- needless to say, my half raw scrambled eggs were no longer sitting easy in my stomach. A cursory check at things as I left the restroom had me wondering what happened to kitchen cleanliness. I began to visualize the Kitchen Nightmares discovered by Chef Ramsey in the tv shows....
Our meal was only a grand total of $8.99. We told the waitress about the poor quality food at the end, just to let her know, and we said we were going to pay anyway. And I left her a tip over 15%. But we won't be back. We're telling our friends. We're disappointed that another locally owned Tucsonan resturant bites the dust that previously sat high on our "list".
My children said - (because I have a history of receiving poor service) - why do I even go out?
I guess I'm just looking for characters....
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