Susan Manning

Dear Buyer:

I know you have been just as excited as I am about how prices have come down into "affordable" range in Temecula Valley. Did you get your pre-qualification completed with the lender? I'm touching base to see if we are still on to look at property this weekend. Better yet, can you take a day off during the week so we can look at homes? Retail prices are on the weekend and wholesale prices during the week. This is because most buyers are out on the weekends and your offer gets stacked on top of everyone else's. And more than likely you're going to be purchasing a bank owned property, and they don't work or accept offers until Monday morning.

Check this out!!! I had an interesting scenario today that was pretty incredible. I was out today with a buyer in your price range- up to $250K maximum, they preferred even lower price if possible. We wrote an offer on a house I thought was nice, but certainly not extremely desireable only to find out another offer had just been accepted on the property which only was listed for seven days!!

Well, not wanting this to dampen our mood, I decided to call on their second and third choices. Second choice had three offers in on it already and third choice had five offers in already. I only want to let you know this so that you realize we need to be ready to write an offer if we find "the one". Be sure to bring your checkbook with you over the weekend!

A lot of press has been splashed across the pages of our papers regarding the apparently controversial Vagina Monologues. (Yes, I wrote vagina.) The play which has been in production for ten years now is based on true interviews with all types of women all over the country. Black, White, Japanese, Islamic, gay, straight, old, young, Jewish, Hispanic, married, single and just about any variety of which you can think.

The show is based on these interviews and is in a series of vignettes. The sets and costumes are simple which have added to the success of playing off-Broadway types of venues. I must tell you that some of the vignettes are shocking, powerful, and amazingly poignant. Knowing that the content has been written from actual fellow female voices makes the pieces even more amazingly important.

Did I mention that I am in the show? I think I may have skipped that part. The scene that I am in is very powerful. It is about the Japanese Comfort Women of WWII. I had never heard their story until I auditioned for the show. These women were taken from their homes as young girls with promises of being able to have jobs with wages and bring their families honor. And in return they had their self respect stripped from their souls in addition to many other horrors detailed in the show. This scene ends with a simple request. For the Japanese government to tell these women they are sorry before the comfort women die. (Most of the women still alive are 70-90 years old now.) I don't want to give the scene's essence away too much, but this is powerful stuff!

My scene is just a sample of what the entire show is about. Yes, its a show about women. What is wrong with that? A wise man recently told me that you can turn on the television and see stuff MUCH worse than the content of this play. I certainly can't argue with that. I really feel the show empowers women to feel okay about being a woman and all that it entails. What does it truly mean to be a woman? How many men or women can honestly say they've delved into the matter? I feel the show has been enlightening for me personally and I would love to share the experience with you.

VDay.org is a national movement supported by the Vagina Monologues on Valentines Day to benefit women's causes across the world. Not only will you be supporting family violence prevention in our valley by coming to see the show, perhaps you will open your mind just a little bit more about what it truly means to be a woman.

I have to let you know that I feel so "lucky" to live here in Temecula. I visited two museums both in one week. And both in two, separate major metropolitan cities.

Last Saturday my son's grandfather was in San Diego for a convention and was staying downtown, so I decided to make arrangements to see The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park in San Diego. It was the perfect diversion for a Saturday afternoon and my father who also went with us had been wanting to see the exhibit which was closing for good the following day.

The exhibit was incredible and super packed. I think because there were only a couple of days left, everyone and their mother came to see the famous sea scrolls. The exhibit was very interesting and I think it is going to be very cool for my son to be able to say that he saw the exhibit at some point in his life. It may not have been the best thing for a 13 year old to do on an empty stomach though. (He told me about two hours after we got there that he didn't eat much other than a few snacks that morning.) All in all, I was excited to see the exhibit and go to the museum and experience beautiful Balboa Park in San Diego. Later that evening we made our way into the Gaslamp District and had dinner at Rockbottom Brewery and was able to watch the Steelers get beat by Jacksonville in the wildcard playoff game. It was a great way to spend time with my son's relative. Heck, I'd definitely do it again.

This week I also met up with some friends who off work for a few days to go the Getty Center. It was awesome and cold! 58 degrees is not warm to me, but I didn't think I would need my coat at a museum. Wrong! We decided to take the architectual tour which of course was mainly outside. It was an incredible tour and I'm sure I saw parts of the museum that I would not have ever looked at without it. My very thin shirt was not much comfort without the warm sunshine though. I was able to find the sunny spots quickly though. I was very excited to see one of my favorite VanGogh paintings the Irises, and several other awesome DeGas paintings. Pretty amazing that these incredible works are right there in front of your nose! I may attend a Friday's off the 405 event this summer where they feature live music and refreshments out on the patio. Sounds like fun to me.

If someone asked you where you could live that was affordable, close to major cities and entertainment, and be in beautiful, mountainous wine country surroundings, where else can you think of besides Temecula? I think you will love it here too!!

This winter has been a doozy so far as far as California standards go. Last night I went to a late movie and came out to torrential downpours and had to cross a lake also known as the parking lot. Needless to say, my shoes and pants were drenched!! Yikes!!

Unfortunately my father has been experiencing some negative side effects of all the rain at his house through a strange leak that just recently started. Dripping no where else but through the kitchen pantry cabinets on the first floor of two floors created an enigma for us roofing novices. How could it get to the middle of the house without showing any signs of a leak in the second floor above the pantry where the water was coming out? Strange.

What to do? Start calling the roofers one finds in local yellow pages advertising and possibly Penny Saver ads? After calling several companies, leaving messages, and getting no response, my father got in touch with Temecula Roofing Co. The company is obviously locally based and answered the phone when he called. Both very good signs, right? The receptionist/wife of the roofer offered to have the roofing technician/her husband out the next day. Perfect. Rain was forcasted in a few days and if he could come out and find the problem, they might be able to fix the problem before the next rain.

The roof technician came over the next day sometime close to the end of the time range he was supposed to arrive. He took a look around and came to the conclusion that he needed a taller ladder to get to the roof. Interesting. Would you think that someone who works for Temecula Roofing Co. would have a ladder on hand that was tall enough to reach the top of a typical two story home in Temecula? The technician told my father he would be back that afternoon.

The afternoon came an went. There were no phone calls from Temecula Roofing Co. It was Friday so my father had to wait until Monday to call to see what happened. No answer from Temecula Roofing Co. He left a message. Guess what? They never bothered to call him back. EVER! Is that crazy? The company obviously had the order. Had the address. But just dropped the ball right in the middle of a service deal.

Fortunately my father was able to get someone else out to give an estimate. I believe the job is about $1600. I wondered initially if Temecula Roofing Co. didn't return the calls because the job was too small and possibly "not worth their time"? I'm no roofer, but a $1600, local job seems like a decent job to me.

If you are looking for a roofer, I would not recommend Temecula Roofing Co. and I would certainly make sure that if you do find yourself working with them, not to pay them before the job is finished. If they would flake out on this job, what would they do in other situations?