Halloween at home

Since we moved here in 1998 and lived in our condo, I've always scuttled the girls across the street to an adjacent neighborhood with "real houses" so they could enjoy a conventional trick or treating experience. And every year, I felt like some skulking hobo, pretending to be just another family from the block. It was really getting to bother me the older the girls got.

From the day we first committed to buying this house in April, we've been waiting for this night. Our first Halloween in our OWN neighborhood. Tonight was about as fun for Lori and I as it was for the girls. Lori manned the house while I took the girls around. We met many neighbors, all of whom were very outgoing and amiable. A sense of newness and optimism abounds, like everyone feels invested in the community. It's very refreshing and helps nurture our new roots to go even deeper.

I'm in love with my car

Gotta feel for my automobile...

With 24 hours of ownership behind me, I can say without reservation that this CX-9 is the best car I've ever had. Certainly from a driving experience perspective, but definitely from a gadget/feature point of view. Pulling out of the garage this morning and setting off to work, I admittedly had a little wave of anxiety -- bordering on being overwhelmed. There are so many digital functions and buttons that it's a bit intimidating.

I decided to take baby steps to mastery today and focused solely on understanding the radio. I seem to have that down. Tonight, I programmed the HomeLink buttons so it opens the garage door for me. I'm feeling pretty accomplished.

I've decided to tackle the voice activated GPS this weekend.

I need to buy a Bluetooth phone before I can delve into the whole hands-free thing.

The car has a backup camera so that every time you put the car in reverse, you get a fisheye view that fills the GPS screen. Pretty wild.

The weirdest thing to adjust to is the whole keyless entry and ignition. You don't really need a key to drive this car. There's a credit card FOB that you keep in your pocket. As long as you have it on your person, you can just hit a button to unlock the doors and there's a simple knob for the ignition...no more dangling keys jing-jangling. Very strange, albeit cool.

Moonroof...everything I hoped it would be.

A red, non-silver/gray car. What a concept!

The brightest halogen lights I've ever seen.

20-inch chrome wheels.

All wheel drive.

The most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in. Really nice leather with these wicked, detailed strips of grabby rubber material that sort of contours between your spine and shoulder blades. Hard to explain, but friggin' cozy.

Blue UFO lights on the dash panel at night.

Friday, I get dual DVD players installed behind the front seat headrests. It's an alternative to the standard center unit drop down style. As with many cars, you either have to choose between the DVD OR the moonroof. I found a way to get both. The girls could frankly care less about the car. To them, it's a moving couch with DVD screens. They were a little crestfallen when I told them I still need to have those installed. We just need somewhere to go this weekend so they can sit back there and mouth breathe with wireless headphones on. "Hey, Syd this is cool." "What?!" "I said this is COOL!" "WHAT?!"

Now, off to bed. Then it's time to wake up and smell the new car smell.

The path found has ended

Just a quick message tonight to share that we bought a new car. Yes, our beloved Pathfinder, the first car I ever bought solo and an 11-year veteran of the Mehl Lifestyle, was traded in prior to its imminent, fluid-leaking death. Combined with year-end tax planning, the time to move was now. After a weekend of intense research and test driving, the crossover shortlist went from the Nissan Murano, Ford Edge, Land Rover LR2, Volvo CX90 and Mazda CX-9 to a clear and convincing winner:

The New Car

If you feel like dinking around at that site, we got the Copper Red paint with Sand Leather interior. It looks really sharp. The SUV of the Year, you know? My first non-gray (or white) car ever. I'm not sure I've been as excited about a new car. Could be all the gadgets packed into it. GPS, moonroof, DVD entertainment center, Bluetooth hands-free, iPod jack...ahh. All those new buttons to learn.

The Durango goes to Lori for whom, I swear, I will get a new car as soon as it makes financial sense. It has a few good years left in it, I hope. It's a 2000. To be honest, I'm a little jittery about getting this car now while still adjusting to having a mortgage, but it was either that or start plunking money down on repairs for a dying vehicle. We'll be fine.

We all went to pick the car up tonight and Emelie, bless her sentimental heart, wept quietly in the back seat after coming to the realization that we traded away the Pathfinder. It was quite sweet.

I'll try and get some pictures of the actual car posted soon.

Zoom-zoom.

Arsonists are a bunch of flamers

Tuesday evening finds the OC Mehls alive and raw (as in uncooked). For all of you who have inquired via email and voicemail, thanks for your concern. We've gotten by unscathed. Aside from the scorched open foothill areas and some equally fried nerves over the past 48 hours, most of Orange County has so far. Last I checked, no homes have been lost or even damaged in the OC. Just some nursery outbuildings.

The past two and a half days have been downright surreal with the entire state, it seems, up in flames. San Diego is really getting it bad. I have several clients there who are among the 500,000 (yes, 500,000) people who have been evacuated. They definitely got the worst end of the fire stick. 500 homes gone.

Around here, everything smells like a fireplace. Ash swirls along the ground everywhere and the hot Santa Ana winds give everyone dry eyes and headaches. The power went out at work on Monday for about 30 minutes, succumbing to the intermittent power grid failures as electrical lines go down to the wind.

One of my employees went home early on Monday as her neighborhood was notified of voluntary evacuations. Flames got to within a few blocks of her home, but turned mercilessly away.

The only thing that burns stronger than the fires is the rage stemming from the knowledge that the OC fires were started by an arsonist(s). It frankly makes me sick, and it's the attitude shared by most of the OC. I hope they find the responsible f*#%ers and burn them at the stake. Aside from the Malibu fires which were apparently sparked by a down power line, the rest of the SoCal conflagration seems conspicuously conspicuous. It's like someone just drove down the freeway from LA to San Diego with a blow torch out their window. The fact that it progressed so sequentially from north to south pushes the plausible limits of coincidence, in my opinion.

They say that embers from these fires can travel up to two miles and still be potent. It definitely enables these bizarre highway-jumping, neighborhood-leaping spot fires you see on the news that then merge to form mega-fires. It frankly keeps everyone on edge, wondering what danger will blow our way. Literally.

I pondered the naming of the fires last night. While watching a newscast, the reporter said "fire officials have now called this the Running Springs fire." Ours is the "Santiago Canyon event." While these names are all connected to the geographic point of origin, I just envisioned the naming process getting a bit more heated over time. "Firefighters dubbed this newest flare up the "I Can't Believe It's Another Fire". Winds threaten to direct it to join the "Gee, Your Hair Smells Like Mesquite" Fire. In San Diego County, reports are coming in about the "I'm Going To Kill The Asshole Who Started This Fire."

The weather is supposed to take a turn for the cooler on Thursday, giving us one more day of this exceptional dry, windy heat. On one local station, I saw a forecast say there was a 10% chance of rain on Saturday, but it was so out of place amidst the other channels that I think it was one meterologist trying to psychically will it to happen. We'll see. I could go for a few days of rain. Then we can have the mudslides start.

Personally, I'm just glad we're not talking about an earthquake. As opposed to fire, you just never see those coming.

Family, friends and firestorm

Greetings, Blogmerica. I bring you greetings from Southern California, otherwise known as Dante's Inferno. I returned earlier this evening from a fantastic weekend visit to Phoenix for Karl Kuo's "surprise" 40th birthday party. It provided a much-needed recharge with friends and family, catching up on new developments and immersing in old memories. Not that I needed it, but this weekend also provided a distinct reminder of just how much I miss all of those cherished friendships and bonds. Still, it takes only minutes to drop back into a comfort zone and it seems like no time has gone by. That's the ultimate testament to the strength of those lifelong connections.

Flying home tonight, I was prepared for the "hurricane-force" winds that have been tormenting SoCal. In fact, they were strong in Phoenix when I took off. The flight wasn't as bad as I feared, but there were definitely some white knuckle moments.

After retrieving my bag and proceeding to the roof of the parking structure where my car was parked, I was a little dismayed to see a gigantic black cloud rapidly filling the sky. It was clearly emanating from a place on the near horizon along the mountains not far from our house. The plumes were blowing toward the ocean, turning the 6:00 moon blood red. Quite ominous and distressing.

I called Lori to see if I mistakenly bought tickets to the Apocalypse instead of John Wayne. It seems not 15 minutes prior, a wildfire broke out in the foothills some 10 miles from our home. This fire joined the 11 other fires burning across SoCal, fueled by a record-low annual rainfall and fierce Santa Ana winds. About a mile from home, I came over the crest of a road that affords an elevated view of the foothills and I could see enormous towers of orange flame ascending the hillsides.


Upon getting here, the news channels were just catching up to the late-breaking story, and by 7:30, the fire had blown into Irvine proper. Thankfully, it appears to be moving south, away from our house. But, ironically, dangerously close to Portola Springs, the runner-up neighborhood to where we finally bought our house. Interestingly, our realtor raised the specter of fire danger after we visited Portola Springs back in March. The hills around there, while panoramic and inspiring, are crispy and brown and have been all year. I can only imagine how freaked out we would be if we had bought there.

As it is, Lori has packed evacuation bags for us and we're watching the news vigilantly. No reason not to be cautious. The house reeks of a campfire now as the winds push smoky air across the neighborhood. To be clear, the fire seems to be no closer than 10 miles away and moving the opposite direction. It would have to get really bad before we were threatened. But seeing the way the LA area fires are skipping around neighborhoods and towns, whipped by unpredictable winds, I will be happy when these are totally extinguished.

Tomorrow promises more wind and heat, so keep your fingers crossed and pray for rain.

Peace and Harmony

Just a quick Sunday evening nightcap to share my peace of mind resulting from a weekend visit by the parents. I took off Friday and enjoyed a nice visit, reveling in our first opportunity to share the new house and bask in the oohs, aahs and attaboys. A visit to the Huntington, a few nice meals and plenty of quiet family time was just what the doctor ordered.

And if peace wasn't enough, I also got some harmony...err Harmony. As in the Logitech Harmony 720 universal remote. I just spent about 2 hours in techno-dweeb, gearlust heaven programming our new digital remote that replaces all five of our other remotes -- including the Apple TV, which I doubted was possible.

I have to tell you, our previous universal remote experience (some 8 years ago) was positively prehistoric compared to the slick factor of today's generation of remotes. All the programming is done via an online application. You tell it what devices you have, what you want them to do, and it sends grouped applications via USB cable to the remote. Now eight thousand optional buttons spread across five remotes are neatly replaced by four commands: "Watch Movies, Watch TV, Digital Music, and Listen to CDs". Hit a button, and all the appropriate devices turn on, input settings switch and I automatically start to giggle like a little girl. Find a command that the remote miraculously doesn't know? Customize a button in the software app, point the old remote at the universal remote, hit the corresponding button, and the new remote "learns" the function and maps it to the button of your choice. This was especially useful in turning on and off our Zone 2 ceiling speakers. Now, whole house music is at my fingertips.

I suppose I should be concerned that I wrote twice as much about a universal remote than I did about my own parents. Kind of pathetic, I know. But you gotta SEE this friggin' remote!!!

7th heaven

Today, I have a seven-year old daughter to go with my nine-year old. Emelie's official seventh birthday was today, following her unofficial party day on Saturday. She claims to feel "bigger" today. I'm working to get photos up on the main site, so stay tuned for those.

Now it's the long, short march to Sydney's birthday in February, after which I get to state that I have a TEN-YEAR OLD.

Lord, help me.

Brad Garrett, Woody Harrelson and Dave Matthews

What do these three people have in common? I saw them all at the Dave Matthews concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Monday.

Yes, I was the fortunate recipient of an invite from one of our most important clients...a consultant partner responsible for bringing us a lot of business. They were entertaining clients of theirs and had a cancellation, and who got invited? Moi, of course. Box seats, just right of center, about 30 yards from the stage. Very nice. My second concert this year (and ever) at the legendary Bowl.

Dave Matthews definitely validated his reputation as a tremendous live show. Passion. Integrity. Improvisation. Well worth seeing.

And, oh yes, I sat three boxes in front of Brad and one box in front of Woody. (That sound you hear is names dropping.) Brad looked like a normal enough guy. Woody looked like a crack addict. But it strained my neck to look behind me too frequently, so I only got a few peeks. That's because Binary Pulse has apparently reached the upper echelons of Hollywood society as metered by box seat ascendancy. I didn't check, was I on TMZ yesterday?

Say my name, Woody!

The only thing that left a sour taste on the whole evening (or bitter smell) was the two thousand cubic feet of pot set alight in the venue. I'm sure Dave has his share of weed heads who follow him, but Stephen Marley (son of the famous Bob Marley) was the opening act, meaning that the ganja factor was about three magnitudes higher. I went home with a banging headache. I'm getting kind of old to do that on a Monday night.

Anyway, that's it. See Dave Matthews if you have the chance. Just bring a gas mask.