Preparations for Things to Come

This past weekend was nice and relaxing. We watched I am Legend on Friday. All of our friends who are parents keep telling us that if we want to watch any movies that we should watch it now.

On Saturday, we spent the day with Jeannette, Freeman, and some of her out-of-town friends. We started by hanging out in Golden Gate Park since it was nice and warm outside. I heard that the weather is supposed to get a lot cooler this week so I guess maybe our Indian Summer is over. We also went to see the Conservatory of Flowers which was nice. They had a cool butterfly exhibit and it was a nice little touristy thing to do that was not too expensive and didn't take very long. Then, we had a "snack" at the Beach Chalet to watch the sunset. Finally, we went to my coworker Kim's birthday party in SF. It was a busy day, but still pretty relaxing.

Today, we spent most of the day cleaning and preparing for next week's Halloween party. We haven't really done much to prepare the nursery yet. It still looks the same and we need to clear out a lot of stuff that just doesn't need to be there. Edwin's mom is coming next weekend as well, so it was just motivation to get started clearing out the unnecessary clutter. Of course we're not done, but it was a start. I also want to get rid of all the boxes in the dining room. I realize that I've probably been saying that for the last 9 months. Well, it starts with one box, right? I got rid of one box.

I wish that I had some remodel news. Nothing has really changed. We're still waiting for the shower enclosure and vanity to come in. Unfortunately, the bathroom will probably not be done for the Halloween party or for Edwin's mom's visit. I never thought when we started this project that we would still not be done 2 months later. I can't wait until it's all over. How many times have I said that?

SNAFU!

So I'll start with the snafu that I am in because of work. I have been working like crazy lately and a majority of my time has been spent on the campaign that Apple is making fun of below. The ad is dead on. I have complained myself about why they don't improve the products to make it easier for us to help them advertise.


To be fair, I guess I need to provide a link to the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads that are part of the campaign that I work on. I won't go into the gory details about why things at work are a snafu since it is pretty boring.

The other snafu has to do with our basement. So we've been having trouble finding a shower enclosure. It still hasn't been resolved, but we're about to give up and just get the basic chrome enclosure with frosted glass. We really wanted the brushed nickel finish with clear glass. Do most people even know the difference? Probably not, but we've been watching too many HGTV shows, so we now care. But the amount of time we have spent looking for something in our price range is outweighing our desire to get exactly what we want. This reminds me of when I was looking for a specific ribbon for the wedding invitations. I spent 3 weeks looking for a ribbon because I didn't want to pay $80 for it. In the end, I ended up buying that expensive ribbon and I'm sure that NO ONE noticed this ribbon except me.

Anyway, back to the basement, the newest issue that came up today is that our contractor said that the vanity we ordered has drawers that will block the plumbing, so we have to re-order the vanity with the drawers on the other side. In the whole scheme of things, this isn't that bad, it's just a hassle because now we had to order another vanity and wait another 3 weeks for it to come in which of course means that the bathroom won't be finished for probably another month. Argh! When will we be done? The toilet is installed, but there's no water in it. (I'm told that it will get turned on tomorrow.) That is just indicative of this remodel. I'll believe it when I see it.

Dinner at Water Bar was really great. I had the oven-roasted dungeness crab while Edwin had the ono. We had the baked oysters which were really tasty and had a sardine appetizer and seafood soup. The dessert was probably the biggest surprise with a pear poached in white wine with a yellow cake, roasted hazelnuts, and maple ice cream. It was a nice way to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

Baby R Us

This weekend was pretty chill. On Friday, we went out to dinner with the Banerjees for some Vietnamese pho. I was little nervous that I wouldn't be able to eat it because of my meat aversion. I was able to eat most of it luckily.

On Saturday, Edwin went biking and surfing while I went shopping for maternity clothes. I never really considered how I would feel about being pregnant. I always thought that I would just love being a mom. It's not that I don't yet. It's just that I'm not a mom yet. So I'm just kind of shopping for a fatter me in stores where they charge a lot for clothes that are not very cute. I tried looking in Mimi Maternity, but I just couldn't find anything that I really wanted. I then went to Old Navy where I found a few tops, but still just basics. I also tried to look for some "normal" clothes with empire waists so that I could still wear it after pregnancy and look cute at BR and H&M. Unfortunately, I still didn't find anything that I wanted in my price range.

A funny thing happened to me while I was in Old Navy. It was the first time that I bought clothes for our baby boy. Edwin and I have already received a lot of clothes from friends who just had a baby boy or finished some spring cleaning. From what I hear, a lot of people buy clothes for you, so Edwin and I had agreed that we shouldn't buy any. But I just couldn't help myself. They were so cute. They had a surfing theme and most of the shirts were less than $1. How could I resist? When Edwin saw them, neither could he. I spent less than $10.

We also started the baby registry this weekend. It's so overwhelming. The room is already painted green because I thought that we could decorate with yellow and blue if we had a boy and pink and purple if we had a girl. However, we actually ended up with green, white, and brown. We were going to decorate the guest room in green and brown anyway.

Remodel news- the floor got tiled this past weekend, but we still don't have a toilet, sink, or shower installed. Grouting and sealing of the time has to happen before we can install the rest. The bathroom also got painted and the heater got installed. That's great, but I want a working bathroom! As my contractor keeps telling me, "It should just be a few more days!" Can you tell I'm frustrated?

Tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary. Can you believe it? We're going out to dinner to celebrate at Water Bar. I'll let you know how it is.

Tension

This past weekend, my cousin George came up for a visit from LA. We met up with him for a family dinner on Friday with my uncle's family and my cousin Billy and his wife Maggie. Good food at Au's Kitchen in San Bruno. So good that I ate too much. Here's the thing about pregnancy. You think that you can eat all you want, but really you can't. In fact, you have to eat less. Here's why- there is less room in your belly. Your stomach is sharing space with the baby. I've found that if I eat too much, there is no room for expansion. My belly feels like it's so stretched that it will explode. It just gets hard. It's not like belly fat that is soft that you can poke your finger and it sinks it. (Believe me, I know what that feels like!) If you poke your finger, it's like pushing the outside of a balloon. There is tension.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping and then headed out to watch the Blue Angels for Fleet Week. It was a nice day to be outside watching the plane acrobatics. Getting to Chrissy Field was not bad. We parked near my work at Levi's Plaza and then took a cab. After the show, we decided to walk back towards the car and take public transportation. If moving out to Alameda made us forget how bad public transportation can be in SF, Saturday was a reminder. We walked about 15 blocks to the bus stop near Ghiradelli Square. Since we were in the area, we decided to rest and get some ice cream. We lived 4 blocks from there and I think that we only ever went there 4 times when people were visiting from out of town. After we spent $8 on a sundae, we continued on our walk because the traffic was so heavy that no cars were moving and therefore, no buses were coming. We then changed course and took the F street car since it had its own dedicated lane that would take us back to Levi's Plaza. Little did we know that when we boarded the bus that appeared (instead of the street car) that it would hold us hostage. We basically wanted to exit at Pier 23, but when the bus finally got out of traffic, it wasn't letting anyone off until the Ferry Building. When we finally got out, I waited for Edwin at the Hyatt hotel on Market while Edwin had to walk another 10-15 blocks back to the car. It took us almost 3 hours to get back to our car in what should have taken about 30 minutes tops. Tension.

On Sunday, we were going to have a Michelle and Mike come over for dinner. Since we were going to cook anyway, we invited the Banerjees who then invited the Schneiders since they were going to be househunting in the East Bay. It was an impromptu dinner party. I actually like having people over because it forces us to clean the house. The house has been a mess lately because of all the construction in the basement. Did I say that we can't wait until it's done? We had a great time and celebrated Kokomi's 2nd birthday. I was also able to eat beef for the first time in months! Short ribs from Costco- Harris Ranch. Yum.

On the basement, we are so close. This week, the room got carpet. However, the bathroom is still not done. It won't even be worked on until next weekend. We were able to order a shower enclosure so that it doesn't have to be custom, but our contractor waited a full week before ordering and we are told that it wouldn't come in for 14 days. Still, I would just love an extra working toilet. Tiling began last week, however, they are still not done. They have laid most of the floor tile, but they still need to finish and after they finish, they still have to grout. That is 2 days minimum before they can install the toilet. It would be a great anniversary gift. (shhh... don't tell Edwin I said that- I still want a present!) So what's the problem? The problem is that our contractor started some other rush job and says that he won't be able to come to work until Saturday. I've heard of this happening to other people, but this really sucks. I guess it could be worse because I hear some contractors don't even tell you and just don't show up. It's just that we will have to live with the dirt and dust for another week. So this has caused a little bit of tension with our contractor, but what can you do? Guess it will be another 3 days- at least we're not paying anymore.

Food and lots of it

Last weekend, we had a night out with the Banerjees in the East Bay. We went to dinner at a great Italian restaurant called Dopo. Food was very good. My faves were the scallops in a tomato sauce and Matilde's tagliatelle in pheasant ragu. We will have to go back. Then, we went to Fenton's Creamery across the street for some ice cream. Pregnancy does have it's perks.

On Saturday, we went to San Mateo to celebrate Kaori's birthday. Jamie planned a surprise lunch for her and as usual, we spent the rest of the day hanging out. We ended the evening with a Chicago-style hotdog dinner with various hot dog preparations. We of course had the classic hot dog on a bun as well as franks and beans, jambalaya/gumbo, and Asian favorite ramen with sliced hot dog.

On Sunday, we had more good food. We went to Mountain View to my cousin's house for a BBQ. Still can't eat steak, but I had plenty to eat. We were able to sell our blue couch, so now we just need to sell the chaise.

Update on the basement- we have about a week to go. After the they finished smoothing the walls, we discovered that they had sealed our glasses behind the wall. When the framing was put up, we noticed that the contractors had used a few of our drinking glasses and placed on the ledge underneath the framing. We thought that they were using the glasses to test the new pipes for the bathroom. After they sealed the wall, we realized that we hadn't seen those glasses back in the cabinets, so we asked the contractor about it. Apparently, the glasses were left inadvertantly behind the sealed wall. I equate this situation with how a surgeon forgets a scalpel or gauze inside a patient. Luckily, these were just some old glasses that we didn't really care about. Though the contractor offered to open up the wall to retrieve them, we opted to just leave them there. They started tiling the shower and have painted the wall of the family room. We discovered this week that the shower doors that we purchased were too tall for the space, so we thought we might need to purchase custom shower doors. Luckily, we discovered that Jon and Jeannette had used shorter doors and so we're hoping to be able to purchase the same shower enclosure. We cannot wait until this construction is done.

Here are the photos from Tom and Debbie's wedding: