As of 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, the San Diego Zoo's newest panda, born on August 5, 2009, has a name!
Say hello to
YUN ZI
Yun Zi means "Son of Cloud," which is logical since Yun Zi's mom was Bai Yun, White Cloud.
Baby pandas are about the size of a stick of butter, but Yun Zi now weighed in at a whopping 13.2 pounds for his naming ceremony.
Following Chinese tradition, cubs are given names after 100 days, and following San Diego Zoo tradition, the public got to suggest names and then vote on those names. Over 6,300 names were suggested, which were then whittled down by San Diego Zoo staff to just five names. The public weighed in with over 17,500 votes cast for the five names:
Yun Zi, 4,954 votes
Xioa Long, "Little Dragon," 4,481 votes
Xiong Wei, "Extraordinary Bear," 3,434 votes
Young Xiang, "Eternally Blessed," 2,522 votes
Fu Sheng, "Blissful San Diego," 2,135 votes
You can visit Yun Zi at the San Diego Zoo's panda cam.
There are only 14 pandas in Zoos outside of China, and the San Diego Zoo has five of them. Here is one of Yun Zi's two aunts yesterday:
Apparently, they are the only known animals that sleep more than Zoey the Cool Cat in those same strange positions and places.
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
I try to do business with companies that have a conscience when it comes to things like benefits for Domestic Partners, Civil Unions, and married gay employees, as well as those that care for our environment and the planet that we live on.
Of course, it also helps if the product they sell is great, and has a competitive price associated with it.
Such is the case with Esurance, a company I can highly recommend if you need car insurance.
Several years ago I made the mistake of trying to back down our porte-cochère and wound up backing into the brick planter, doing $1,500 of damage to the rear quarter panel of our car. Our insurance company paied the claim and promptly dropped us. All the insurance companies we applied with denied us coverage, until we found Esurance.
Not only did they accept us, but they were far less expensive than any of the other companies, which led us to compare their coverage to our previous carrier. Coverage appeared to be better, too.
I just received an email from Esurance telling me about their new plant-a-tree program:
"Esurance, in a partnership with HSG, has launched a new program to plant one tree for every windshield claim that results in repair instead of replacement.
"Windshield repair, in which trained technicians utilize special equipment and glass repair resin, is significantly more cost effective than replacement. It's also safe since the glass is never removed and the original factory seal isn't broken.
"If chips or cracks are smaller than a dollar bill, and aren't in the driver's direct line of sight, technicians can now fix them instead of replacing the entire windshield.
"Having a crack repaired is also more environmentally friendly, since it takes about 250,000 BTUs to manufacture a 30-pound windshield. To put that into perspective, the average U.S. home consumes that amount of energy per day!
"If you get a small crack or chip in your windshield, don't wait for it to get bigger (and more dangerous). Filing a windshield claim won't affect your insurance rates, so have it fixed right away and repair instead of replace. It's safe, fast, and good for the environment. Plus, when you do, we'll plant a tree in your honor. Get the whole story here."
Esurance! The coverage is great, the price is great, and their conscience is clear! If you're looking for good automobile coverage, give them a shot at your business.
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Possibly my all-time favorite rock song is "We Didn't Start the Fire," off of Billy Joel's Storm Front album.
The song has an upbeat, catchy rhythm that encourages one to get up and dance, or at least snap your fingers.
It mentions various historical events from 1949 to 1989, 1949 being the year Billy Joel was born, and 1989 being the year the album was released.
My mom just sent me an email with this cool video using "We Didn't Start the First" music and historical pictures. See how many pictures you recognize, how many events you remember.
My mom knows how much I love Christmas lights, but the January electricity bill always leaves a little to be desired.
She's always sending me emails with helpful information in them, and I thought I'd share this picture of how to keep up with the Joneses and their Christmas lighting while saving money at the same time:
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Although I understand the reason for using year over year statistics, I don't think they make much sense for us here in San Diego.
In northern areas, I suspect that not too many homes sell during the winter blizzards that leave ten feet of snow on the ground.
Now I'm cold. Maybe a warm piece of Julian cherry apple crumb pie would help -- LOL.
I consider last year's figures to be useless, about as useless as me doing comps that uses sales figures from last year. What purpose does that serve?
Here in San Diego, our home sales have been rising for fifteen consecutive months, and the median price (and that's a different story, too) has been rising or holding steady ever since President Obama took office in January.
The experts here (and I'm not sure I will ever trust experts again, other than myself, of course) say that San Diego real estate hit bottom in either December 2008, January 2009, or March 2009, depending on which expert you listen to. See what I mean about experts? They can't even agree!
Anyway, if you need help determining if now is a good time for you to sell — which means is it a good time for you to sell considering your own specific circumstances — please contact me and I'll get started on analyzing your situation.
If you need help finding just the right property for you and your family, I can help you there, too.
It's both a great time to buy and a great time to sell, as long as you pay attention to your own situation and not what the experts are saying.
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
According to the Treasury Department, only 650,000 borrowers have signed up for the mortgage relief program that reduces mortgage payments to affordable levels.
Apparently that is only 20% of those home owners who are eligible.
Part of the problem might be that the program begins with a five-month trial, and in order to move from a trial period to permanent relief, owners have to complete paperwork and prove that they can make their new payments on time.
I don't know what paperwork is involved, but the fact that it involves our wonderful banks that are too big to fail, and our government which might be getting too big to fail, might be a clue.
The Treasury Department reports that only about 1,700 permanent modifications have been made.
If you're in a less-than-desirable situation with your mortgage, contact your mortgage lender sooner rather than later. Being proactive usually is much better than having to be reactive or defensive.
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Ralph Gorgoglionecommented on my recent post about lighting and silhouettes where I had used the photogenic Zoey the Cool Cat (picture at right) as my assistant.
He thought that my first attempt at playing with light was a "great start," but that maybe I could "move on to non-cat related subject matter."
I'm always hoping to please those around me -- Clients, ActiveRain members, co-workers, etc. -- so herewith is my attempt to play with lighting on non-cat related subject matter.
The following pictures were taken on the grounds of the Sheraton Hotel on Harbor Island, just across from the airport for those of you flying in and out of San Diego for the NAR Convention this weekend.
I was going for Halloween spooky while exploring different settings and just how far the light from the flash will be effective.
Now that I think about it, though, even trees are cat-related material since cats like to climb trees. Hmmm. ☺ LOL ☺
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
I was over in National City last week showing a couple of properties to some Clients when I discovered the National City Depot Museum.
I didn't know about it, and my Clients wanted to stop, so we took a 20-minute self-guided tour since it was FREE!
When I mentioned the Museum to my marketing guru, he was "flabbergasted" (one of his words) because he didn't know about it either, and he knows everything there is to know about trains, railroads, etc.
I have lots of pictures of the museum, but, of course, they were not good enough for my marketing guru, so I think he's going there tomorrow to see for himself.
I'll let him do a blog about the railroad stuff and I'll stick to restaurants and television shows. Meanwhile, here is an old car -- at least, I think it's a car -- that was on the grounds. I couldn't decide if it previously belonged to the Munsters of the Bevely Hillbillies. What do you think?
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
I've been exploring some of the more esoteric settings on our Canon Rebel XSi, especially those settings that allow me to adjust for poor lighting conditions, either because the main part of the picture is either overexposed or underexposed.
Eventually, of course, I'll have to start using some of this cool software that is available to help with bracketing, extended dynamic range, stitching, etc., with my goal being to be able to take better real estate pictures with windows that show something other than a bright spot in the picture. ☺ LOL ☺
Meanwhile, though, Zoey the Cool Cat is always a willing subject for our photojournal exploits, and I particularly liked this one:
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Don't think that I haven't been noticing that many of our Northern and Eastern folk have been proudly showing off their Fall colors.
After all, it is Fall.
I'm here to tell you that we, too, have Fall colors, just of a slightly different type.
So not to be outdone by the Appalachians, the New Englanders, the Canadians, the Rocky Mountaineers, or anyone else, I present for your viewing pleasure just some of the Fall colors in San Diego. All pictures were taken this past week, even the pictures of the flowers that "only" bloom in the Spring.
If the slide show here doesn't work on your computer, simply click in "View All Images" to watch it at slide.com.
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If you're looking for a great condominium in Mission Valley, the heart and soul of San Diego, please give me a call.
I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
Several years ago I made the mistake of trying to back down our porte-cochère and wound up backing into the brick planter, doing $1,500 of damage to the rear quarter panel of our car. Our insurance company paied the claim and promptly dropped us. All the insurance companies we applied with denied us coverage, until we found Esurance.
Not only did they accept us, but they were far less expensive than any of the other companies, which led us to compare their coverage to our previous carrier. Coverage appeared to be better, too.
Possibly my all-time favorite rock song is "We Didn't Start the Fire," off of Billy Joel's Storm Front album.
Here in San Diego, our home sales have been rising for fifteen consecutive months, and the median price (and that's a different story, too) has been rising or holding steady ever since President Obama took office in January.
Anyway, if you need help determining if now is a good time for you to sell — which means is it a good time for you to sell considering your own specific circumstances — please contact me and I'll get started on analyzing your situation.
I don't know what paperwork is involved, but the fact that it involves our wonderful banks that are too big to fail, and our government which might be getting too big to fail, might be a clue.
Ralph Gorgoglione
I've been exploring some of the more esoteric settings on our Canon Rebel XSi, especially those settings that allow me to adjust for poor lighting conditions, either because the main part of the picture is either overexposed or underexposed.
;)
;)
