Wedding on the Brain

So we've been doing a lot of wedding stuff lately and I haven't been very good at updating. Edwin has picked out his groomsmens' tuxes, I have purchased my wedding jewelry, we have hired a chair cover vendor (this took a lot longer and was harder than you think,) had my hair and make-up trial, drafted the reception timeline, created the flower list, finalized the ceremony music, drafted the programs, wrote tea ceremony instructions for Edwin's family, purchased wedding materials (unity candle, cake cutting set, etc.) and lined up babysitters for the reception. We have 27 children who will be attending the wedding, so we thought that we should help make the wedding fun for them too so that they will be happy and so that parents can stay to celebrate. Wow- when you list it out like that, it looks like we have done a lot. However, it always feels like there is so much left to do.

Next on the To Do list, we're trying to get additional chairs for the rehearsal dinner, line up the caterers for the rehearsal dinner, ordering favors, purchasing gifts for the wedding party, and getting my reception dress altered (again!)

Example of bad customer service we experienced this week: we were in Macy's and noticed that there is a rebate for our china placesettings. You get a free soup bowl for every placesetting purchase. We have already received 2 placesettings, so I went to the cashier to ask about the offer. I asked her if the soup bowls would be sent automatically or if there was some kind of form I would need to complete since these were purchased off of our registry. At first she implied that we would only receive the rebate if we purchased them in store. So I asked if we could return the ones that we have and "re-purchase" them so that we could receive the rebate. She says, "You could, but it is kind of unethical." Unethical? I nearly lost it, but I replied, "Unethical? If we're talking about ethics here, Macy's would have sent that soup bowl to me without me even having to ask about it." She goes on to say that the reason is that sales from the Internet are not the same as ones made in store. That's when I really went off, "I don't care if your sales are from the Internet or the store. I am the customer- it should be seamless." She said something about having to get manager approval for a transaction like this and I told her that I had no issues with it because it seems pretty straight forward to me. What is really dumb about her insult to me is that she knew that we had a registry there- why would you want to piss someone off like that who is bringing in customers? Crazy. She needs to get some training in customer service.

Example of good customer service: Edwin wrote in to LeCreuset asking them how he could obtain a replacement whistle. They wrote back saying that they will send him a replacement for free- no questions asked.

Chronic (What!)cles of Narnia from SNL

Here's funny skit I saw recently from SNL.
Mr. Pibb + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious!

Alterations Part Deux

Is 5/9 considered good? So between me and Nikki, we had 9 articles of clothing that we had dropped off at this seamstress in Chinatown. We should know that we get what we pay for. At $2 per pair of pants hemmed, we shouldn't expect much. I had 2 dresses altered- one for the rehearsal dinner which needed only the shoulder straps shortened and my reception dress (cheung sam.) The rehearsal dinner dress came out fine- no complaints. However, my reception dress was not to my liking. They altered the waist down fine, but then they also altered the bust which did not need alterations, so now it's tighter than it needs to be. They did not mark it as needing alterations and she even remarked that it did not need to be altered when I brought the dress in and tried it on. So now, I am considering buying the dress again and having someone else do the alterations. I can still sell the old dress on ebay, but it's more of a hassle factor at this point because I will still need to get it altered. Since the cost of the alterations was $5 for this dress, I blame myself because I should have known better. Lesson learned. As for my pants, I got 2 pair of pants hemmed which came out fine and one pair needed repair because the belt loop broke. The pants with the broken belt loop got returned in the same condition that I gave it to them which means that nothing was done.

Nikki, on the other hand, her bridesmaids dress did not look altered to me. It still had the chalk marks along the zipper. However, they assured me that they did alter the dress, just not in the zipper like they thought they would. If that was the case, they should have at least removed the chalk marks!!! So now I have to wait until Nikki returns from her vacation in Hawaii and hope that it fits. As for Nikki's pants, she received one pair hemmed as specified and the other 2 were supposed to have a double stitched hem (which they charged her an extra $1 for) and they only had a single stitch. Since they don't write anything down, I guess that we shouldn't be surprised that they got it wrong.

Moral of the story- you get what you pay for. A place like this is fine if you really only need a $2 pair of pants hemmed and you better not need it right the first time. So, the seamstress comes with mixed reviews. Dresses, not so good. Pants fine as long as it's not too complex and you don't mind making multiple trips.

White and Nerdy

You guys gotta check this out. It's hilarious! Remember Weird Al Yankovic from the 80's? Same guy. Looks like he's still got it. I think I know a few guys who fit this description....

America's Next Top Model

OK- I have to admit that I never thought I would watch this show. But they had a marathon on VH-1 and I got hooked. It is very entertaining to watch. It's interesting to see how a look or expression can affect so much. I never really paid attention to how I look, but I it's made me think that I should be more cognizant of what I may be conveying to others. It's really easy for people to read something that you don't intend. I never put much effort into thinking about that, but this show has made me more aware of it. So, yes, it's a guilty pleasure, but it's actually been educating for me too.

Pirates Unite!

So today was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Did you know that? I didn't know that. However, when I got to work, my boss was wearing pirate hat and sent us this link for further pirate booty. Ha ha! It's just so fun! http://www.talklikeapirateday.com/wordpress/

Top Ten Pickup lines for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day
10 . Avast, me proud beauty! Wanna know why my Roger is so Jolly?
9. Have ya ever met a man with a real yardarm?
8. Come on up and see me urchins.
7. Yes, that is a hornpipe in my pocket and I am happy to see you.
6. I'd love to drop anchor in your lagoon.
5. Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole?
4. How'd you like to scrape the barnacles off of me rudder?
3. Ya know, darlin', I'm 97 percent chum free.
2. Well blow me down?
And the number one pickup line for use on International Talk Like a Pirate Day is ...
1. Prepare to be boarded.

Bonus pickup lines (when the ones above don't work, as they often won't)
They don't call me Long John because my head is so big.
You're drinking a Salty Dog? How'd you like to try the real thing?
Wanna shiver me timbers?
I've sailed the seven seas, and you're the sleekest schooner I've ever sighted.
Brwaack! Polly want a cracker? ... Oh, wait. That's for Talk Like a PARROT Day.
That's the finest pirate booty I've ever laid eyes on.
Let's get together and haul some keel.
That's some treasure chest you've got there.

Top Ten Pickup Lines for the Lady Pirates
By popular demand ...
10. What are YOU doing here?
9. Is that a belayin' pin in yer britches, or are ye ... (this one is never completed)
8. Come show me how ye bury yer treasure, lad!
7. So, tell me, why do they call ye, "Cap'n Feathersword?"
6. That's quite a cutlass ye got thar, what ye need is a good scabbard!
5. Aye, I guarantee ye, I've had a twenty percent decrease in me "lice ratio!"
4. I've crushed seventeen men's skulls between me thighs!
3. C'mon, lad, shiver me timbers!
2. RAMMING SPEED!
...and the number one Female Pirate Pick-up Line:
1. You. Pants Off. Now!

Since we are getting married on Treasure Island, we have to celebrate this international holiday. That's right, this is not just a US holiday, it's celebrated around the world. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Find or fiasco?

So is there something to the question- how cheap is too cheap? Or in other words, you get what you pay for. We went to dim sum with Nikki and Ed this afternoon. Afterwards, Nikki brought me to this place that does alterations in Chinatown that she had heard about from a friend. $2 for hemming a pair of pants. What??? Sign me up! Now, I also need to alter a dress that I have for the rehearsal dinner (the straps are a little long) and my cheung sam for the reception. This is in addition to the 2 pairs of pants I bought months ago that I planned to hem myself when I could borrow Show's sewing machine. (For $2, why would I bother?) I also had a pair of pants that had a small rip on the side. How much do you think it would cost for all these alterations? $50? $30? How about $15!!!! How crazy is that? Nikki had her bridesmaids dress altered for $10 and 3 pairs of pants for a total of $21. I know that all of our friends are using us as guinea pigs to see how it all comes out before they bring in their bags of cloths.

So that brings me to my next point. How is the quality going to come out? For a pair of pants, I don't think that you can screw it up unless you take off too much. The dresses, on the other hand, are bigger investments. So here's the setup. You walk into this basement that has bags and clothes all over the place. Inside, there are 3 older Chinese ladies sitting around and talking and you don't know who you should talk to. I did have to break out the Cantonese, so I don't know if this option is going to work as well for anyone that doesn't speak Cantonese. There a little closet that has a fabric "door" with no light to try on the clothes. I did not see one pin the whole time we were there. All they did was chalk each piece. Here's the real kicker though. How do they keep up with all the inventory since I told you that they had all these plastic bags and clothes all over? A sophisticated ticketing and inventory system? Oh no! She pulls out a used business card and puts a white sticker (over 3 other stickers) to cover up the old information from previous "receipts" and hand writes in Chinese 3 pants, 2 dresses, and $15. Classic.

That's my receipt. On the bag which I brought in to carry the clothes, she writes down the same information and asks for my name Fong. That's it. How many Fongs do you think live in the Bay Area? I hope I get my clothes back. I may end up with some other Fong's clothes. Stay tuned next week when I pick it up on Saturday.

Tomorrow will be another day of wedding preparations. We have an appointment to meet with the chair cover person tomorrow. I'm pretty sure we'll go with them. They were reasonable priced and they have already done events at the Empress of China. After that, we have an appointment with the organist to go over the music during the ceremony. On Monday, we will be picking up our marriage license and I have a check-up with the hand surgeon. Last night, we spent the night doing "fun" wedding preparations. Edwin prepared another batch of wedding beer and I started embossing the Thank You cards. This is less laborious than the invitation-making and something I haven't tried before. Basically, you have to stamp an image using pigment ink (doesn't dry as fast) and then pour embossing powder over the stamp. Shake off the excess like you would with glitter and then heat it with the embossing gun (which I bought off of ebay for about $15.) I think most people would think I was insane for doing this, but I'm having fun. I also may have found a hair person- hooray! That's been something that has taken me a lot longer than I expected as well. We also are almost finished with the kiddie bags. A couple of things that we are still working on- the programs, transportation (though I think that we will probably just caravan unless Greg's contact makes us an offer we can't refuse,) and the flower list. I'm feeling really good with all that we've done. We still have a month. That's what I keep telling myself and then I go "Oh my gosh- we only have a month!"

Blink

So I started reading this book called Blink. It's pretty interesting. I don't normally read non-fiction books, but I'm enjoying this one because it kind of talks about the first impressions and how we process things instantaneously. I do believe in intuition and gut feelings. I believe my instincts are pretty good when I first meet people. The book cited a study in which students were asked to assess their opinion of a new professor in 10 sec, 5 sec, and 2 sec. All the results were consistent with those that gave assessments at the end of the year. How weird is that?

It also talks about what happens to us when we don't trust that inner voice. This usually happens when you don't want to believe it. I'm looking forward to reading more on during my commute on the F- Market. That brings me to my next topic. I just discovered the coolest thing called Next Bus. It shows you where the bus is and how long until the next one. I just wish that they had this for all the bus lines!

Camping in Pinecrest

This past weekend, we went camping with Maika, Kaori, Jamie, Debbie, and Tom. We left Friday after work and got their around midnight. On Saturday, we went for a short hike and then rented a party boat. It was a pretty pleasant ride around the lake and the boys went for a short dip. It was a little too cold for the ladies. There was also a little fishing. Maika caught the most fish with her little Barbie fishing pole. Edwin was second with a little 10-inch fish.

It was quite cold in the evenings, but the days were nice and warm. We had fun around the campfire and ate lots of sausage.

Wedding RSVPs- we have 100 people attending the wedding so far. There are about 200 outstanding invitations, so if you're one of those people, please RSVP! I think we have a chair cover vendor, but I'm still looking for a hair person. Just got my altered wedding dress back. I can't try it on yet because I can't put it on by myself. We also have an appointment for getting our marriage license. So many little details, but time is going by fast. We only have about 40 days left! Next on my list- alterations!

Happy Labor Day!

This Labor Day we took a short trip to San Luis Obispo and Hearst Castle.
It was a pretty spontaneous trip because we didn't decide to go until Friday morning when the Banerjees invited us. We left on Saturday morning without reservations and headed down Highway 1. It was a fun trip filled with adventures.

We ended up being able to find a hotel/motel which was good, but it ended being burglarized which was bad. While we were sleeping, I heard someone jiggle the doorknob, but thought it was someone who was drunk that was at the wrong door. I remembered hearing people talk and it sounded like people were moving luggage outside. Edwin had gotten up and then came back to bed. I discovered in the morning that the police had been outside knocking on people's doors because there was a burglary.
(Edwin's note: I don't think an actual burglary occurred, but there seemed to be a loud and sloppy attempt(s). The screen was off of the window of the room below us, a car door was open and there was a lot of banging around out there. Still not a pleasant experience.

As a side note, I did get to eat my favorite carrot cake that night. It is at a cafe I would sometimes study at. Nice and chunky with walnuts, carrot shreds and some non-standard ingredients like pineapple. Nice cream cheesy frosting too.)

What was interesting to me is that there were at least 3 other hotels next to ours, and Edwin had just told us the night before that San Luis Obispo was very safe. The hotel itself seemed nice on the outside and it was not in a bad part of town, so I guess you always have to be careful. While it was a bit unnerving, we did not let this incident dampen our weekend.

We continued on to Hearst castle- summer home of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. There are 4 tours and many of them were sold out, so we ended up taking Tour 3 which does not take you to the main castle, but tours the guest houses and pools. What I remembered about half way through the tour is that we did Tour 3 the last time we went to Hearst Castle. Must remember for the next time I visit because these tours are rather pricey at $24 per tour. Another interesting tidbit is that the architect that designed the castle was Julia Morgan. Michelle and Mike are going to be getting married in January in the Julia Morgan ballroom here in SF. She was a pioneer among women as the first woman to graduate from Berkeley in architecture. She was also the first with a architecture license in San Francisco. She opened her own firm when she was 32. Not bad, huh? It's funny, in all the references to her, they called her Miss Morgan so I wonder if she ever married. Even back in the early 1900's, there seemed to be a struggle between a career woman and personal life. Anyway, it was a fun tour and obviously, I would go back and even take the same tour twice!

We came back through Milpitas and stopped for dinner at a Muslim Chinese restaurant called Darda. It was really tasty. We had a crab and corn soup, tendon in brown sauce, sesame onion cake, homemade noodles, and a spicy shrimp. The only thing that I wouldn't order again was the spicy shrimp. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't worth the value compared to the other things we ordered. Will definitely be going back.

Today, we went and picked up supplies for our tea ceremony. We also went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I thought it was good, but Edwin was disappointed by the ending which basically ended abruptly because Disney wants you to go to Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I still enjoyed it and will probably go see 3. As my Labor Day ends, I wish that I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow, but at least it's a shorter work week!