http://Ekhardt.com All Things Liam, Indigo, Asher, Tracy and Bill http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/2FaIQ1a21pk/1062 Google recently improved their real estate mapping services. In my first ten minutes checking it out I found a staggering graphic truth. In California, the number of houses for sale in foreclosure vastly outnumbers the number not in foreclosure. I encourage you to check any city in California on the google page. You can select foreclosures, non-foreclosures or both. For your comparison, here is the Fresno map with foreclosures: View Larger Map Here is the Fresno map without foreclosures: View Larger Map Lest you think Google has an odd bias for only picking up foreclosures, see these two maps for Des Moines. First with foreclosures: View Larger Map And then without: View Larger Map In this Midwestern town, there is a noticeable number of foreclosure sales. It looks like about 1 foreclosure for every 8 non-foreclosures. In contrast, in California, just eyeballing it, there appears to be somewhere between 6 and 9 foreclosures for every one non-foreclosure sale. I had no idea idea the market was this bad. [note: the google maps above post real time data, if you are viewing this post at a substantially later date, it will show you data for the day you are reading rather than the day I posted this.] http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1062 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/Z4clhx6HbBs/1061 http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1061 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/2nMbBac7DRU/1060 Notice how Asher has transfered most of his behaviors from Third Pooh to Fluffy Bear, whom he picked out at Target two days after he left Third Pooh on the plane. Fluffy Bear 6-26-2009 from Bill Ekhardt on Vimeo. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1060 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/hkD5xyFJDd0/1059 http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1059 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/ZkiP6d988gc/1058 #flickr_badge_source_txt {padding:0; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif; color:#666666;} #flickr_badge_icon {display:block !important; margin:0 !important; border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0) !important;} #flickr_icon_td {padding:0 5px 0 0 !important;} .flickr_badge_image {text-align:center !important;} .flickr_badge_image img {border: 1px solid black !important;} #flickr_www {display:block; padding:0 10px 0 10px !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif !important; color:#3993ff !important;} #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:hover, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:link, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:active, #flickr_badge_uber_wrapper a:visited {text-decoration:none !important; background:inherit !important;color:#3993ff;} #flickr_badge_wrapper {background-color:#ffffff;border: solid 1px #000000} #flickr_badge_source {padding:0 !important; font: 11px Arial, Helvetica, Sans serif !important; color:#666666 !important;} www.flickr.com http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1058 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/P8JWvNEwrcM/1057 We are packing up the family to head out to my graduation in Pasadena. Flying with the family is definitely running the gantlet. We keep surviving it, but It makes me anxious. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1057 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/vUqEVBWP4w4/1056 3:30am - Haven't gotten any sleep yet. Liam will be awake in 2 1/2 hours. This is going to be brutal. 5:30am - Got to sleep from 4am to 5:15am. 6:15am - Liam's awake and the day begins. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1056 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/6pP6gCWH_ZY/1055 For Tracy who is in Australia for a four day trip. Asher's Piano Recital from Bill Ekhardt on Vimeo. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1055 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/FL6OfIGpC7Y/1054 Sleep deprivation affects me dramatically. Tracy can function remarkably well with two hours of sleep when she is on call. In contrast, when I am sleep deprived I can't perform simple tasks. I got up this morning and tried to focus my attention on drinking the cold coffee I made yesterday so I could turn on my brain. It took me about 10 minutes to find a cup, mix in the cream and equal and start to drink it. In my defense I was simultaneously working on the heroic task of making toast for Asher. When Tracy came downstairs from her shower I had successfully cajoled Asher into putting most of his clothes on (he wouldn't put his shoes on because he didn't want to stop wearing his fire boots) and I was finishing up Indy's clothes. Tracy asked, "Have you fed Indy?" Me, "[mumble mumble] uh... no." Tracy walks up to the sink and holds up the empty formula container, "Did you throw it out?" "No," I said, puzzled. I sat frowning at Indy for a few seconds. I must have fed you. A murky image of sitting at the table with her G-Tube comes to my mind. Was that today, I wondered, baffled? After another hour of being awake I can now fairly clearly recall feeding Indy. Some mornings I feel as if I've had a stroke, as if really helpful portions of my brain are completely unavailable to me. Coffee, apparently, is capable of kicking these areas back online. Useful. Creepy, but useful. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1054 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Ekhardt/~3/sPZe_YOWx5s/1053 Tracy has been back to work for two weeks now. This week she is on service, so she is working every day. We keeping figuring this out one day at a time. It is fun having a newborn. The other three are very interested in Miles. Sleep is a challenge. I either stay up with him until 2, or I get up the first time he needs to eat. Tracy is usually up with him by 5:30. We sleep in the afternoons when Sam comes. Miles is most often asleep. I can usually keep him in the bjorn when I need to get things done. He usually doesn't hinder the daily logistics of getting kids dressed, making meals and putting kids to bed, unless he's upset. Then he takes an adult out of commission for a while. If there is only one adult, everything else gets set aside. Asher, Liam and Indy have become very interested in helping when I cook. They get things for me, take things to the trash, and I hand them things and they put them on the counter or the table. I let them open cans and stir things. They all get pretty excited about this and it occupies them so they aren't otherwise acting out and pulling me away from cooking. TV is a fixed part of our day. We didn't let any of our kids watch TV before they were two years old. Now that they're all two, they often watch one or two Tivo'd shows in the morning and two more in the afternoons after nap time. Fixed blocks of time with all three kids attending to something are very useful in keeping up with our four under five. As to going places, Miles is content in the car more often than he is not. We still have a variety of morning activities. The other adult helpers are still very significant. Tracy, Martha and Ivy's mom Colleen do a lot of the morning transportation and add outings for the kids. Parenting, for us, is an extemporaneous activity. We make each day up as we go. For the most part, we have been successful in surfing our family chaos. http://ekhardt.com/home/article/1053