Happy Bday, Blog!

So I'm a little late, but it's been a year since I started blogging. Can you believe it? A lot has happened in a year. Got engaged, married, changed jobs... and it's all been documented here. Geez, what am I gonna write about now? :)

I started last weekend with a happy hour to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It was rather crowded outside Harrington's and I left after 45 minutes. So I walked home and drove down to San Mateo to hang out with Maika and Kaori. Edwin had a poker night with the guys.

So I have started walking to and from work. Last week, it took me almost an hour to get to work and I was totally pissed because it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from my house. So, I have decided to walk in the direction of the bus until a bus shows up. If it does not show up, then I just walk to work. I figure that it will help me to get some exercise and now that daylight savings has hit, it is safer to walk. It's not a bad walk. I have my shuffle or I can also make phone calls while I walk.

We also went bike riding to the Ferry Building on Saturday. (Edwin went for a longer ride in the morning while I slept in.) Then, we did some housecleaning and went over to the Banerjees for some dinner and to watch 24 season 3 on DVD. On Sunday, we went to the East Bay again for some Thai food and Matilde and I went to look at some open houses in Emeryville. The houses we saw were very nice and new construction, but the neighborhood was not very good. I would prefer the worst house on the nicest street than the nicest house on a not-so-nice street. And, unfortunately, the houses surrounding the houses we saw were pretty rundown and I wouldn't feel safe walking around there at night. There is a lot of renovation going on there, but I think it will take some time before it gets nice enough.

For dinner, we went to Kian and Wendy's to meet their new baby Teague. It was fun, but we had to cut our visit short because I started to feel unwell. I think that I had a migraine because I became very sensitive to sound and light. I got home and went straight to bed at 10PM and slept for 10 hours. Felt a lot better this morning. Perhaps I was dehydrated as well, but I was trying to drink a lot of water.

Can you say ghetto?

So this is a picture of Matilde changing Kokomi. In a parking lot. On the pavement. Judge not lest ye be judged. This just totally cracked me up.

Moving Bodies

So has anyone seen this Hyundai commercial? I thought it was so cool!
I used to be pretty flexible, but I don't think that I could do this! They're a dance troupe called Pilobolus and they also did a little stint on the Oscars. They remind me a little of Cirque du Soleil.

So last weekend, we had a lovely weekend. It was like 75 degrees out. On Saturday, I had a Northwestern alumni event in San Mateo on Work/Life Balance, so Edwin went for a bike ride with Jamie while I attended the event and then we spent the rest of the day with the Schneiders. The seminar was pretty interesting in that she talked about how things have changed and how 13% of women are opting out of the workforce to stay home with kids. She also talked about how men are also staying home with kids. She mentioned that companies are now offering more paternity leave and flexible work options, but men are not using them- mainly because of the stigma that they will be seen as "soft" or not a teamplayer or not as dedicated to work. She said that they are starting to do more research on alternative families where gay couples are adopting. Frankly, I feel that they should be doing more research on families in general rather than focusing on such a small population. Like I want to know if children are happier/more successful when a parent stays home or when both parents work. Or if there are differences in parenting based on the age of the parents. Perhaps researchers are "bored" with the average family. Alternative familes are more of a "new ground" for them. So I guess I can understand why they might be looking for something new or different.

Jamie and Kaori helped us to do a little housing research on the peninsula. It was utterly depressing. However, it did spark some discussion between me and Edwin. We have always felt that we wanted to have one of us stay at home with the kids. (Which one of us will be staying home is still up for debate, but given that I'll probably be breastfeeding...) So given that, we started talking about how we don't think that we would be able to afford the house that we want without 2 incomes. So there's our conundrum. The areas that we were thinking of living, we can't afford on one income. So we are thinking of revising our strategy. We were hoping to get a 3 bedroom house in an area with good schools. However, we are now thinking of downgrading to a 2 bedroom in an area that may not have good schools, but has housing we can afford on one income with the intention of moving in the next 5-6 years to an area with better schools. The first thing we need to do is figure out how much we can afford for a house. Then we need to figure out which areas might fit our criteria. One potential area is Emeryville. We don't know which other areas might work. Any suggestions? Then, we will start looking at real houses. Maybe in the next month or so.

Spring Cleaning

So Edwin and I spent most of last weekend cleaning the apartment. We are now in an apartment that does not look like a tornado has come through. It's still not where we want it, but I say, close enough. We still want to clean out the closets and purge the things that we don't need or want anymore, but at least most things are put away. We still have to clear the dining room table and I would like to wash the floors, but it's a lot better than what it has been.

On Friday, we also celebrated Michelle H's bday at Koi Palace. We realized that it was almost a year ago that we went there with Mike and Michelle. The service this time was horrible. Poor Maika was starving because they wouldn't bring a bowl of white rice to the table and we kept having to ask for our food. However, the company was good and we had fun, so Happy Bday, Michelle.

On Saturday, we cleaned and then met up with Uncle Glenn who has just moved to SF and Billy and Maggie for dinner at San Tung. Good stuff as usual. On Sunday, we did some more cleaning, watched TV, and then took a nap. Not bad since this was the first weekend in a month that I have spent a full weekend home.

Yesterday, we helped Uncle Glenn paint a few bedrooms. Thursday, Bo is coming back into town for a business trip, so we get to have dinner with her. And then Friday, we're having dinner at Uncle Glenn's and Uncle Jason and Aunt Tung-Fan are cooking. They're staying for a month at Uncle Glenn's for a sabbatical and to help set-up the house. It's fun having more family around.

Weekend in Tahoe

So we had our annual Tahoe trip this weekend. It begin with 12 hours of travel for me and ended with a 15 hour drive home. But let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start...

So I started last Friday in Chicago and woke up at 7AM CST to finish my last day of training. I left at 12:30PM for O'Hare for a 3:30PM flight. I landed in SFO at 5:30 PST, took a taxi to Show's house where we left for Tahoe. We stopped for dinner for about an hour in El Cerrito around 7:30PM. Then, we continued on our merry way and reached our destination around 10PM. So, for all you out there who are time zone challenged, I essentially started traveling at 12:30PM CST and reached Tahoe at 12AM CST. Getting there wasn't so bad compared to the road home. Again, I get ahead of myself.

The weekend went by quickly. I went ice skating with Maika and Kaori (no, she did not skate in her pregnant state) at the top of Squaw in an outdoor rink. When we got there, the weather was perfect and it was sunny and beautiful. By the time the skates were on, the winds had started up and it made for some unpleasant skating conditions. But that Maika was a little trooper- she got on the ice twice.

Leaving the condo was an ordeal itself. We were busy loading the cars when Tom locked his keys in his car. While the car was running. So, we had to wait for AAA to come and unlock his door. They said that they would be an hour because it had already begun to storm. So while we waited, we called the 2 cars that had already left to check out visibility and road conditions and tried to decide whether we were going to stay another night or just try and get home. The vote was to try and get home.

We left the condo after AAA came around 12PM. We spent the next 4.5 hours on the 89 and traveled about 10 miles. We were mostly stopped with the occasional movement of 20 yds. It got so bad that Edwin and I both peed in someone's driveway. However, we were not the first ones to pee in that driveway and we were not the last. Someone said something about the awful sight of yellow snow... When the car behind me saw me, they pulled over so that the female passenger could do the same. We witnessed many males using their car doors as make-shift stalls to shield them from the public eye. There was also a male behind us who knelt to below eye-level in between our cars to pee. I even heard about people knocking on the doors of buses to use their bathrooms. What to do? When you gotta go, you gotta go. It was calamity.

During this drive, Nirav had been turning his ignition on and off which resulted in draining his battery. That was actually not a bad problem. There were 4 cars caravaning at this time and we were the last in line with Pete driving and Nirav in front of us. We call Jamie who is about 10-15 cars in front of us to being over his jumper cables. We pull up and jumpstart Nirav's car using the jumper cables that Jamie brought to us. (Read: he got out of his car, walked back the 10 cars to us, jumped the car, and then walked back with the jumper cables while his car did not move!) Insanity. I think that Jamie was happy to get out of the car for a few minutes and for the distraction.

So, we finally get into Truckee around 4:30. So we stopped for chains for Jamie and Nirav and to get some grubbs. We ended up at the KFC and below is a pic of Bhavana, the vegetarian, enjoying her corn, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and biscuits. This photo alone was worth stopping. Would you be nervous if the restaurant closed while you were in it? While we were eating, KFC locked all of its doors and wouldn't let anyone in. They were letting people out, but only serving the people that were already inside. How weird. They could have made so much more money. They didn't seem to be running out of chicken and they were serving people the entire time we were there. That's just the business side of me.

So we get back on the rode and try to go to the gas station because Jamie's gas light came on. When we got to the Shell station, we discovered that they were closed because they ran out of gas! When we finally got to another station, it took another 1.5 to get gas because of the lines and the utter stupidity of people. Tom got out of his car when 2 cars tried to snake in front of him by turning left in the on-coming traffic lane (which was empty because everyone was trying to get into the gas station.) I thought for sure a brawl was about to begin. However, there was a cop there who restored peace.

Then, after we got gas, there was this idiot who was trying to put on his chains blocking our way out. First of all, there are a ton of people waiting to get gas and he's blocking a gas pump and preventing us from getting out. Edwin had to direct traffic so that we could get out because cars had started coming in both directions and we would have been boxed in if he didn't tell the on-coming traffic to let us out.

When we finally got on the 80, it was still quite stormy and we had a couple of short stops because Nirav's chains had become loose and then to remove them when we (finally) reached dry land. I don't remember much about the drive home after that because I fell asleep somewhere around midnight and we reached home a little before 3. Needless to say, I don't need to go up to Tahoe for while... it actually was that bad. I think that our car was just more amused. However, we do recognize that we were the only car in the caravan that did not have a baby in it, so it was more a fight against boredom and road rage than trying to keep a baby calm in a storm. Pretty funny though- everyone on the trip didn't seem to mind that much either because everyone said that they still want to go up again next year!

Back to School in Chicago

I think that education will always be linked to Chicago for me. Though it seems so long ago that I was at Northwestern. It's just funny because now that I am here for IRI training/orientation, it still feels like I have to walk to my classes in freezing weather and study. If you're wondering why I haven't been blogging, it's because I have had virtually no access to the internet. We only have sporadic access during the day for work and then our corporate apartments don't have access. Also, I've been going out almost every night which doesn't leave a whole lot of time to blog or email.

I was a little nervous coming to training. No particular reason except that I have been feeling like I don't seem to be learning these reports fast enough and I thought that I would be behind. I like a lot of the people here and I was pleasantly surprised that most of the people that are here are experienced hires. No one is straight out of undergrad which was nice. Last week, they had a "reception" for us at the IRI headquarters which was a catered dinner at the office. Then, we went out for Lou Malnotti's pizza on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I organized a group to go to Second City and we had a happy hour on Thursday. I was out until 11 every night and in classes all day. It's been pretty exhausting, so when Friday rolled around, I was pretty wiped. I had dinner at my parents, met up with Xochitl for some girl talk since she lives by Midway, and then picked up Edwin at Midway when his flight landed around midnight. On Saturday, we met up with George and the parents for dim sum in Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. Then, we took a quick cat nap and then went to Santiney and Carlos's reception at the 7 10 Lounge for some bowling. We met up with Xochitl, Eddie, and Christopher for some Mexican and then headed out to Howl at the Moon (a dueling piano bar) with my new coworkers.

Sunday would have been more relaxed except that we discovered that our car had been towed. I was feeling really bummed when I found out that my coworker's friend also got towed. Basically, the sign was unclear. I'm gonna need to take photographic proof for you all. It basically says that they will tow your car if there is more than 2 inches of snow between 3AM-7AM. There was no snow, so we thought that we were OK. There was an article posted at the impound lot stating it doesn't matter if there is snow or not. You will get towed. So, basically, the sign should say "No parking 3AM-7AM." It's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Then, we found out that the impound lot is 20 miles away. Luckily, we were meeting Stacy and Ryan for brunch and they offered to give us a ride. Otherwise, we would have had to take a bus and then cabbed it. It probably would have taken all day. So anyway, I didn't feel quite as dumb since it didn't happen to just me. Morale of the story- don't park anywhere that states that they will tow (especially if there is a condition.)

After the towing fiasco, we went out to a brunch place called Hashbrowns near University Village that was tasty, but had bad service. I asked for ketchup twice and never received it, Edwin had to ask for his toast which was supposed to come with his meal, and Stacy asked for ranch dressing that never came. Then, we did a little shopping on Michigan Avenue and went out to Bolingbrook to meet Ryan and Limanna for dinner. It was a busy weekend in Chicago as usual trying to visit everyone. While I'm here, I'm still trying to meet up with Vicki and Santiney again. Time is just flying by. However, I do have a test on Friday and have to fly back to SFO so that I can drive up to Tahoe with Show for the weekend. Yikes, it's gonna be a busy weekend too. Anyway, I'm glad I got the chance to visit and stay in Chicago for an extended period of time. Now if I could only find some time to finish those Thank You cards...

Oh, and I forgot Happy Belated Valentines Day!

Family Reunion Pictures

Here is the link for the pics from the family reunion this past weekend:

Family Reunion

Chicago is My Kind of Town

So I am gearing up for a 2 week trip to Chicago. I leave on Sunday 2/12 and return on Friday 2/23. Edwin will be coming for part of it as well from 2/16-2/19 since he has President's Day off and we will be attending Santiney and Carlo's wedding reception on 2/17. (We missed their beautiful wedding in Turks & Caicos, but you can see their pics here http://www.tropicalimaging.com/eos/ortiznov06/) So pretty! Anywho, I'm hoping to get to visit some friends and family while I am out there. Should be fun, but COLD! I was told that it was below zero. I've done it before, but it's been a while... guess I should pack some long underwear!

I am kind of dreading it too. I'm not dreading it because of the cold, but it's just that I don't feel that I have had much time at home for the past few weeks. We have spent one weekend in LA each month since December and when I get back, I am heading straight to Tahoe for our annual trip. I would like to have a little more time at home is all. There's so much I want/need to do like writing Thank You cards, putting together the wedding album, going to the post office (don't ask!), cleaning out the closets, and organizing stuff. I guess that I can at least write Thank You cards in Chicago. (We're really good at doing them on planes and while we're waiting for the laundry.) Maybe this is what it means to be married? You just want to be at home all the time. When I was young and single I didn't mind the travel every week for work. Guess I'm used to the comforts of home.

Happy birthday to Jamie! I think that it's actually on the 4th, but we're going to their house for dinner tonight to celebrate. Also, congrats to Crystal and Jeff on their baby Mia.

We are Family!

So we were in LA this weekend for a family reunion. I think it was the first time I remember seeing all of my aunts and uncles in one place. It was fun, but also sad. The family reunion was supposed to happen in July, but it got moved because my grandma has to start more chemo for her cancer. It sounds like she doesn't have much more time left with us. I don't really like to think about it. I used to laugh at my grandma doing her "nightly exercises" which consisted of some squats and stretches. But now I realize that at least it made her stronger and active. Kind of like tai chi, I guess. It's hard to see her fluctuating in weight and losing her hair. Sometimes she's normal and other days she just seems out of it. She seemed to enjoy the festivities, but I wonder what is going through her mind. Is she scared? Is she just happy to see everyone? Here's a big group photo and I'll post the link once I have time to upload the rest.

And we swear that we're not going to do those early Monday morning flights from LA anymore. We're getting too old and it hurts too much!

Do you have a million dollars to spare?

So we have started looking at houses in the Bay Area. We're not seriously looking yet because we don't know what we can afford, but we're just looking to see what is out there. The first house we looked at was in Berkeley Hills and Edwin looked at a house in the Sunset tonight. The prices really make us question living in the Bay Area. However, we can't think of anywhere else we could live.

Take a breath!

So if you're wondering why I haven't posted for the last 2 weeks it is because I have been suffering from bronchitis. So, last Monday, I woke up in the middle of the night at 4AM and I was coughing uncontrollably. I couldn't breathe laying down so I had to sleep the restof the night sitting up. It was miserable.

So I decided to see a doctor the next day. I was delaying going to see the doctor because we hadn't finished signing up for medical coverage yet. So I miraculously was able to get an appointment the same day. Then, when I got to the doctor, they were giving me such grief over the insurance. It was dumb because they kept threatening that the visit would not be covered and we would have to pay out of pocket. I finally got an estimate of $65-85. That totally pissed me off because I was like, "That's it? You're giving me grief over that?"

She thought it was either walking pneumonia or bronchitis, so she had me get a chest x-ray. I went to Mt. Zion where Edwin works to get it. Right before I walked-in, I vomitted which really sucked. Then I was feeling really light-headed and weak. The radiologist kept thinking that I was pregnant (I'm not!) because I told her that I had just vomitted.

Anyway, I had to call in sick 4 days last week. I'm thankful that I get 10 days of sick leave per year, but it kind of sucks that I have already used 6 of them and it's the first month of the year! So take a deep breath for me and remember how nice it is to be able to breathe easily. You don't realize how important that is until you're wheezing at night fighting your own lungs to get some oxygen.

Last weekend, we went to LA again. We went because I had a work meeting in LA on Monday, so we decided to go for the weekend. We left on Friday and it took most of my energy just to get there. I hadn't even started eating normally again. Luckily, we got there without any issues and I was able to enjoy most of the weekend.

Wedding Photos Unveiled!

So it's taken me a while, but I finally got around to organizing some of the wedding photos. I'm still messing with it, but it's finally good enough to share. I have about 175 "favorite" photos in the first link on the right. I also have a link to the photos that were taken by the wedding cameras on the tables. Feel free to download the photos. They are all full size and can be uploaded to your favorite place to be ordered and developed. Since this is picasa, you can also add your comments as well. Please tell us which are your favorites. Here is a preview:



I finally started writing thank you notes. Only 3 so far, but it's a start! We've given ourselves a goal of 2 a day and so far it's been kind of a slow start.

So I have to go to LA for work on the 22nd, so we'll be going next weekend for a short visit. We need to setup Edwin's mom's computer and I want to visit my grandma since she just got out of surgery. We missed seeing a bunch of friends during our last visit, so we'll be trying to catch up with some of them as well. Work so far has been good. I'm still getting used to how to do things and meeting clients, but everyone has been very nice. It is definitely going to be different though.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot- I also installed odeo on the right hand links. This allows me to receive voicemails from you all. If you leave me one, it will send it to my email. It is designed by the guy that created blogger. Does anyone use google talk? If so, my new chat address is michelle.lager. Original, huh? :)

Congrats Michelle and Mike!

This past weekend was such a blur. Michelle and Mike had such a beautiful wedding this past weekend and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid. For those of you who don't know, Michelle and Mike met, fell in love, got engaged and married within on year. That is definitely one of the shortest courtships I know of. Though I still had my cold, I was determined to have a good time. Here are some pics (that Michelle's friend Kevin took) that show off how elegant this affair was.









Here's a pic of the happy couple who is now is Thailand on their honeymoon:

If you want to see more pics that Michelle's brother David took, click here. Be forewarned, there's over 1000 of them!

Friday of course they had a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at Bocce Cafe. We got to catch up with Nancy over dinner who wasn't able to make it to our wedding, so that was really cool. The wedding day was a cold, but beautiful day. We started the day with having our hair done and then got ready at the hotel. We took pictures by the Ferry Building which was cool, but the walk back to the hotel was a bit brutal for some of the other bridesmaids who were not wearing confortable shoes. I was luckily in my sneakers. It was funny because it was like re-living some of our wedding as well since they had used our cake vendor and also our friend/florist Cesar. It's amazing how Cesar did both of our weddings, but they had completely different flowers and different looks and they both looked amazing. At both weddings, I kept hearing the guests rave about the flowers and decorations.

On Sunday, we stopped by their wedding brunch and then went on the South Bay food tour with Jinn and Show. We ate at a Taiwanese place in Santa Clara called Southland and a Korean restaurant somewhere down there. I think I liked the Korean better than the Taiwanese. Also this week, we got to meet Show's friend Derek from NYC. We hope that we get to see him again soon. No pics yet, but maybe next time. :)

Happy New Year!

So I've been trying to recover from this nasty cold. It's really embarassing to have to call in sick on your second day of work. I slept in today until 2:30. Guess I must have really needed it because I slept without drugs. I was up a few times last night because of my coughing. We ended up spending New Years Eve at home this year. (Are we now officially a married couple or what?) We were supposed to spend it at a wine party at Chris and Corinne's, but I just wasn't feeling well enough. I didn't think that I could stand for hours on end and I knew I couldn't talk without hacking over someone.

Edwin and I have delayed exchanging Christmas gifts this year. We didn't really have time to shop for each other after the honeymoon. We're still trying to get out those Christmas cards. We are only sending them to the people that sent us ones this year. Edwin thinks that there is a date in which it's not worth sending anymore. What do you think? I don't disagree, but I feel if someone else made the effort... I have 2 I still need to mail in my purse because I need to get more stamps.

We've also tried to give ourselves a goal of writing 2 Thank You cards each per day. So far, I haven't written any and I don't think Edwin has either. So much to do and so little time!

This weekend is also Michelle and Mike's wedding. I just picked up the bridesmaid dress from the seamstress and I should be good to go. I hope that they get more sleep than we did the week before our wedding. Such a blur. Looking forward to it, but it should be another busy weekend, so I hope I kick this cold before then!

After Christmas

Tomorrow is my last day at MarketTools. It's a little sad, but I'm glad to be leaving. I spent today trying to change my name. I went to the DMV this morning- I hate them. I had an appointment and it still took almost an hour. Things are so incredibly inefficient. If there's any pro bono consultant work that should be done, it's that. Unfortunately, I was told that it would take 2 weeks before I would receive my new license in the mail. I hope that I get it before next week when I have to start my new job. I don't know what I'll do because I can't prove my identity otherwise.

I also cleaned out my cube and then went to change my bank to change my bank info. I feel like every time I make one change, I find out I have to make 3 more for this name change thing. I changed the info at my bank, but now I have to order new checks and will need to change my credit cards. I am told that this name change thing takes about a year. I believe it, but I keep thinking that I can try and beat it.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas in LA

This year, we're spending Christmas in LA. My grandparents moved to LA this year and since Edwin's mom also lives in LA, I asked my parents to spend Christmas in LA. Australia kind of wiped out my PTO, so the shorter flight was also an attraction. It still feels weird for it to be Christmas and like 70 degrees outside. I know, I can hear those of you in the Midwest and East Coast groaning "cry my a river..." However, I miss the cold. Christmas is never the same without the snow. And since we got such a late start this year since we got back from Australia on the 11th (I know, I know, I still need to post all the activities from our trip), everything just feels so rushed. Luckily, we got most of our Christmas shopping done today. However, I think that Edwin and I will be getting each other late gifts this year.

We're spending most of our stay at Edwin's mom's house. My parents are coming on Christmas day and we'll go watch a movie together and have dinner together. Don't think it gets that much better than that. Reminds me of when we were kids and we would to Lisa's or Al's house and go watch a movie. Remember when we took up the first 2 rows watching "Scrooged?"

So I have been working hard at uploading the wedding photos. I am almost done. I uploaded the photographer's photos and I am almost done with the table photos. Still need to upload the honeymoon photos. Geez!

The good news is that we have written most of the Christmas cards on the flight over. We still need to write Thank You cards and clean the apartment. I can't wait until we have a garage sale so that we can get rid of some of the old stuff. We definitely have too much stuff right now.

What time is it? What day is it?

So I'm sure that some of you are wondering if I have quit the blog. No, I know that it's been a while since my last update, but it's just been kind of a whirlwind since we returned. We got back last Monday, on December 11th. I decided to accept the new offer and put in my notice. My last day at MarketTools will be December 29th. I didn't know this at the time, but that's very good for taxes. I get to start at my new job with IRI on Tuesday, December 2nd. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm taking any time off. I probably should, but I don't want to push it with my new employer. I don't think that after returning from a month-long vacation I should ask for yet another week off when they have told me that they would like me to start right away. Something about first impressions...

Since we have returned, Edwin started his new job at UCSF hospital. He's still trying to figure out the best public transportation route, but so far, so good. We also started some Christmas shopping last weekend. I think that tomorrow is the deadline for mailing gifts and we are going to be severely late this year. Oh well. Christmas cards have also been on the to do list. I think this year we are only sending them to people that have sent us one. We haven't even started on the thank you notes. Guess those will have to wait.

Sleeping since we returned has been somewhat of a challenge for me. Even if I go to bed at midnight, I'll lie awake in bed for 1-2 hours. I don't know why. Waking up is always a struggle for me, but it's been after Australia. My eating schedule is OK, just sleeping is not like it used to be.

So I started organizing the wedding photos from the photographers. Yikes. There's just so many of them! There are about 1000, but I am trying to upload only about 250 so that it's a little more manageable. I have been experimenting with a bunch of the new photo sites like flickr and picasa. I chose picasa because they gave me more memory. I think that I still will need to purchase memory because these photos are just so big. But I wanted people to be able to download the actual photos that were decent quality.

We leave on Friday for LA where we will stay with Edwin's mom. My parents are flying there too since my grandparents moved to San Gabriel earlier this year. Here's a cute pic with my grandparents from the wedding. I can't remember the last time I took a picture with them. Probably Laura's wedding.

Greetings from Down Under!

Hi Everyone!
I can't believe that we've already been here for almost 2 weeks now. Having a fun and relaxing time, but Edwin is now fighting a cold. We are in Melbourne now and will be leaving for Ayers Rock tomorrow. It's been really crazy. Some of you may know, but some may not. The day before we left, Edwin accepted a new job at UCSF. We are both very excited to have him start working again. I'll let him tell you about the job, but all I know is he's getting 5 weeks of PTO. How does he do it???

On other news, I actually got a job offer as well. I'm still trying to decide what to do, but I got a job offer from IRI as a Research Manager and MarketTools is now trying to keep me. It's a good position to be in, but it is rather stressful trying to do this on the other side of the world. I'm leaning towards staying at MarketTools. The reason is that I am finally going to be able to do what I have wanted to do and that is writing surveys and doing the analysis. I also will be getting 3 more days of PTO in 6 months because I will have been there for 3 years. So, if they are willing to match IRI, I will probably stay.

So here's what we've been up to on our trip:
Sat. 11/18
We arrive in Sydney and took the Airport Link which is like taking a Caltrain for A$12.50/person or $10 US. After we checked-in, we went shopping at the Paddington Market and meandered around the area. We then walked around Circular Quay (that's pronounced like "key") which is basically the Sydney Harbour and walked to The Rocks area. It's all a tourist trap, but still very picturesque. We had drinks at the Harbor View Hotel which seemed very LA to me. Then we had German food at a restaurant called Lowenbrau to celebrate Edwin's birthday. (His birthday was actually skipped this year because we got on the plane on 11/16 and got off the plane on 11/18, so because we crossed the international dateline, his birthday didn't happen. Cool, huh?) It was this great meat platter with sausages, pork knuckle, pork belly, something that tasted like bologna, and a ham. My favorite was the pork belly. This dish was not for the faint of heart and any vegan would probably need to stay at least 10 feet away to not gag.
PS- We were able to use a Citibank at the Sydney airport (yeah!), but unfortunately, it didn't allow me to access all of my Citibank accounts and I had only $200 in my savings because I get a higher interest rate in my e-savings account (boo!) However, I actually had the foresight to transfer some money into my checking account just in case. (Really glad I did that!) So, we should be fine since I'll also get paid while we are gone and that goes into my checking account too.

Sun 11/19
We took the 10AM 1-hour Harbour Cruise which was really nice. All the guidebooks said that we should take the afternoon ferry which was like 2 hours, but I actually was fine with the morning one. I tend to fall asleep on these things anyways! It was a good intro to Sydney and Australia. Then, we went back to the Rocks Market and had a fisherman's platter (fried fish, calamari, shrimp, etc. ) at Costi's. For the afternoon, we took a bus to Bondi Beach. It was not the warmest day to go but it was still very pleasant. We had soft serve ice cream (me with a choc top which just means chocolate dipped and Edwin had a choc with nuts.) It was cold, but we both managed to get a little burned. Nothing serious, but just enough to be a little red. They also had some kind of art exhibit along the beach which was really nice. It made us seem more cultured, but I have never been to an art museum in a bathing suit before. There were close to 100 sculptures. Then,we met up with some old family friends, Philip and his wife Charlie. I haven't seen Philip for almost 15 years (we think the last time was in 1990 or 1991.) He is a friend of my Uncle Glenn's and he used to spend the holidays with my family. He's always very funny. I had never met his wife before, but she was really, really nice as well. They took us to a sushi boat restaurant that is owned by one of their friends. Really yummy. We had oysters and pipi hot pot which were these really sweet clams in a sake broth. It was really good catching up with them and they gave us some recommendations for the rest of our trip.

Well, I guess I'll have to write more about our adventures the next time because my time is almost up! See you all in another 10 days!

Ellen and ShiGoSan

This past weekend our Ellen returned home to us not to stay, but for a visit. On Friday, we had dinner at San Tung with Greg, Sin Yen, Matilde, Show, Kaori, Maika, Debbie, and her friend Caroline. It was a fun time and we ended the evening with karaoke at Kaleho for old times sake.

On Saturday, we went to Macy's to complete our registry. I'm still trying to figure out what the saleswoman did, but I'm pretty sure that it was in our favor. Then, we went to hang out with Ellen in her hotel room. Guess we're getting old because we considered that a night out.

On Sunday, we helped to celebrate Maika's ShiGoSan (7-5-3.) It's a Japanese children's celebration. Though Maika is not yet 3, I guess she's 3 by the lunar calendar. I guess the girls get to celebrate being 7 and 3 and the boys celebrate being 5. I don't really understand the significance, but I enjoyed seeing all the little girls wearing their little kimonos. When I was in Japan last year, I accidentally witnessed the same event at the Meiji Shrine. I have all these photos of little kids in their kimonos. They were just so cute. Maika was getting lots of attention in Japantown too. Poor little thing got nervous in the room full of kids and adults, but calmed down once the ceremony started. Of course, I think that candy helped too. :) We took about a hundred photos and we'll post a few. We're still getting the used to the new camera that we just bought- Canon SD800. Love it. The old camera worked fine, but we wanted more megapixels and the ability to create videos that were longer than 4 seconds.

Ring Around the Rosy

So what does a nervous bride do while she's waiting to walk down the aisle? In my case, I played Ring Around the Rosy with Hannah.

Ring around the Rosy!
Pocket full of posies!
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall DOWN!

If you ever have a lot of nervous energy, running after a 2 year-old will definitely help. I loved these photos that Binh took of us. I'll add them to one of my photo links eventually, but here they are for now. So I was wondering what a posey was, maybe I shouldn't have asked...

Honeymoon update: We now have all of our plane tickets purchased and most of the hotels. Still need hotels for Darwin, Tasmania, and Cairns. Anyone have any recommendations? Also, if anyone has any recommendations for food in any of the places we are going to visit, let me know so that we can bring that list with us.

Got Wedding Photos?

So I've been trying to figure out how to display all the photos in one place. I wanted to be able to allow people to download their photos in jpg format. I've been furiously trying to research all the different possibilities like picasa, flickr, photobucket, SendPhotos, Kodak photo gallery, shutterfly, and snapfish. I thought I would try flickr, but I just don't have the time to learn how to do it in time. So here is my compromise. I am going to post all the photolinks that you all send me.

I'm going to upload our photos and put them into yahoo or flickr once I figure out what to do. Flickr is a yahoo product and picasa is a google product. I like flickr so far because it is in gamma while picasa is in beta. I suspect that picasa will become the better product over time, but currently, flickr has more functionality. I'll be updating the side bar with photos from everyone, so please send me links to your photos if you have them. I'll also post the photos from the photographers once we get them.

Even if you send me a link to your photos, please send me a CD with the full files so that I can print them out and send them in case anyone requests one of your beautiful wedding photos. If you don't have that many, you can send them to my email mfong8@yahoo.com.

This past weekend, we spent Friday returning/exchanging wedding gifts. We're realizing that we have more gifts than space, so we'll probably be holding a garage sale early next year. We also saw the movie "The Departed" which is based on the HK film "Infernal Affairs." I have to say that the acting and dialogue were great. However, I didn't like how they changed the ending in the US version. I really like how they adapted it to the Boston dynamics, but I didn't like how they had Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon's characters going after the same woman. It just added something that didn't seem plausible. Jack Nicholson was really good and I loved Mark Walhberg's character- he was hilarious.

On Saturday, I went to Greg's housewarming party while Edwin went to the Cal-UCLA game for an impromptu guy's drinking afternoon. I also spent some time planning our honeymoon since it is next week. Ha ha! Here's our preliminary itinerery:

11/18-11/22 Sydney
11/22-11/28 Tasmania
11/28-12/1 Melbourne
12/1-12/4 Alice Springs/Uluru (Ayer's Rock)
12/4-12/6 Darwin
12/6-12/9 Port Douglas
12/9-12/10 Cairns
12/11 Auckland/SF

So it looks like a lot for 24 days. We have 2/5 flights purchased and 2 hotel reservations (Sydney & Melbourne.) I know the rest of the 3 flights and I have another hotel reservation (Port Douglas) that I am about to make. So now I have about a week to plan the rest. Ha ha!

On Sunday, we went to Mike and Michelle's tasting dinner. Had to help Michelle with her invitations since she spent so many hours helping us with ours. Here are some cool photos that Michelle's bro David took of the event. http://poeticdream.com/tastetesting Gotta love that photojournalism. My recommendations for dinner- steak or chicken. Loved the apps.

Honeymoon- what honeymoon?

So we are leaving for our honeymoon to Australia in 2 weeks. We have always said that we were going to plan the honeymoon after the wedding. We had a month, right? Well, it is now almost 2 weeks after the wedding and we still have yet to make any hotel reservations or purchase any other plane tickets. So what have we been doing? Paying bills from the wedding, opening gifts, trying to get over a cold, and celebrating Halloween.

The day of the wedding, I was feeling something in my throat that I was trying to ignore. After all the festivities, my body wouldn't let me deny it anymore. I had a cold. Hannah and Timothy came to SF with a cold and something was going around the office. I think I was bound to get something. So I worked from home for 2 days and it still wouldn't go away. I'm in Seattle right now for work and I still am coughing. It sucks having to travel and being sick.

This past week, we went to see Robin Williams at Bimbo's for a live show. Since he lives in SF, he likes to test his material in front of live audiences at Bimbo's before he does it on HBO or Comedy Central. He was funny, but he just got out of rehab and so a lot of his jokes were about drugs and alcohol. I saw him once before at Bimbo's and I thought he was funnier last time, but it could also be that I wasn't sick the last time either. It was hard getting tickets because they limited you to 2 tickets per person and there were 5 of us trying to get them off the website and I was the only one able to get through and buy the tickets.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Edwin and I found out costumes last weekend. I was a princess and Edwin was my knight in shining armor. We went out clubbing with Tom and Debbie and I realized that my costume was definitely not hoochie enough. Debbie was Chung Li from Street Fighter and Tom was Clark Kent. On Halloween, we had Sin Yen, Show, Kian, and Wendy over for a small get together. Show dressed up as a paper dress up doll and Wendy wore a beautiful cloak. We helped to celebrate Sin Yen's annual 30th birthday (which was officially the day before) and ate some leftover wedding cake. We had 2 layers left- the chocolate and carrot cake. I would say that the white cake with apricot filling was my favorite and then carrot cake and then chocolate which is surprising because most of the time, chocolate is my favorite. However, this chocolate cake is pretty mild, so I think that's why I prefer the other flavors. Don't get me wrong, I still like them all, but that's my order of preferance.

Remember that show Doogie Howser? Who knew that Doogie was the first blogger? If you need a refresher, here's the theme song. Don't you just love YouTube?

We're Married!

Wow, it's been a while since we posted. It's been about 2 weeks and boy did they fly by. We're still trying to recover from all of the events. The week before the wedding, we printed produced all of the tablecards, bagged the favors, tied ribbons on the bubbles, sent out the final schedule to the wedding party, bought gift for our parents, and finalized the music. I don't think that I went to bed before 3:30AM the week before the wedding. It definitely went by fast. Thank God we had some help from our friends. Matilde wrapped the gifts for us and Show decorated the gift box. Jinn gave us a guest book as part of our wedding gift which was great because we didn't have one.

I took Thursday and Friday off. On Thursday morning, Edwin and I went to decorate the rehearsal dinner location. It took us a bit longer than anticipated and Edwin ended up getting a $30 parking ticket. Since we were unloading to bring stuff into the clubhouse, we thought it would be OK to leave the car there. We waited for over half an hour for the concierge and they didn't say anything about needing to move the car. Oh well, the cost of parking the day before a wedding. I didn't escape from the parking nazis either. I got a $50 parking ticket because I forgot to display our parking sticker. Anyway, Edwin dropped off the liquor and reception items (signing cloth, favors, placecards, tablecards, etc.) and picked up Andrew while I had my mani/pedi with Laura and Ellen. I was so sleep deprived that I fell asleep for half an hour during the mani/pedi! We hardly got to eat anything that day. Then, we were off to the rehearsal.

Rehearsal started at 4PM. Edwin's entire family was there at 4PM. Where was my family? At my apartment. I couldn't believe that they were half an hour late. The officiant, the wedding coordinator, and my parents were all late. My dad didn't have directions and then missed the exit even though Nikki gave him step by step directions as she caravanned with them. I was definitely freaking out. If I was a bridezilla at any time during this engagement, it was this day at this time. We only had an hour and we didn't get started until 4:30. I definitely had my doubts that things were going to go smoothly the next day.

As we headed to the rehearsal dinner, we realized that the directions that we had given to our family were wrong. The signs had changed since we created the directions and the exits from the Bay Bridge were no longer correct. Nevertheless, we arrived at the clubhouse and had a very enjoyable evening with our wedding party, sponsors, and family. We finished surprisingly early around 9:30 so we were able to go home and practice the rhumba routine a few more times. Nikki had choreographed a really cool routine for our first dance song by Bebel Gilberto called "So Nice." However, we were having trouble remembering the entire routine. We finally got to bed around 12:30AM which was really good since I hadn't been sleeping before 3:30AM.

The next morning started while we were sleeping. Ellen let herself and the make-up artist into the apartment to get her hair and make-up done while I got an extra hour of sleep. I woke up at 7AM to shower and then had myself a small breakfast of mixed fruit from Berkeley Bowl. It was nice and leisurely as I sat down to get my hair and make-up done around 8AM. The rest of the bridesmaids arrived around 8AM as well. Priyanka was so thoughtful and brought breakfast for everyone. It was great. I even got to have muffin and some orange juice. I have to admit that I was starting to feel a tickle in my throat that morning, but I was not going to let myself get sick that day. Char came in to help fix the bustle because 2 of the loops had broken because the dress was so heavy. I got the dress on with the help of 4 bridesmaids because Laura was getting her hair done. Everyone looked so cute in those bridesmaid dresses. I loved them! I just wish that I had time to write a note to each of my bridesmaids to let them know how much I appreciated them.

We left for the pictures a little after 10:30 and a little behind schedule. We decided to go the the Legion of Honor and the weather was perfect. It was 79 degrees and sunny. We couldn't have asked for better weather. I was going to bring my green parasol from Dave and Ashley's wedding, but in the hustle and bustle, I forgot to take it with me. I haven't seen any of the photos yet, so I hope that they came out well. There were more posed shots than I would have liked, but maybe the photographers were being more stealthy and I just didn't know that they were taking the pictures. We were supposed to go to the Palace of Fine Arts for a second location, but there wasn't enough time and so we headed straight to the chapel.

At the chapel, I was in the back waiting. To keep my nerves down, I did ring around the rosie with Hannah a few times. Matilde had a small leak from her breastfeeding, but luckily, we caught it in time. It's funny the things you hear after the wedding about what happened during the wedding. Jeannette later told me that she didn't have a copy of the poem she was supposed to read in remembrance of their dad, so she quickly googled it on her cell phone and wrote it out. How funny! I probably would not have thought it was that funny while it was happening so I am relieved that they told me afterwards. I wouldn't have even known if she didn't confess to me later. I love having her as a sister now. She's such a great friend and now we get to be sisters! There was a slight delay to the beginning of the ceremony, but everything went very smoothly. I think that I was on cloud nine and I don't really remember too much except that I was happy that it was happening. I didn't cry at all and everything just seemed so surreal.

As I was walking down the aisle, I saw so many faces smiling at me that all I could do was small back. It was the happiest day of my life. There were a couple of little hiccups, but the funniest thing was when Jamie and Kaori forgot to take the cord off of us. They didn't completely forget, but they did hesitate just long enough for us to notice. After the ceremony, we took photos outside. I know that the photographers wanted to take photos in the church, but I wanted them outside because of the view of the city. That is the one thing that I had done a better job with- list of photographs that I wanted. I did put one together, but I have a feeling that it was not used because I didn't see them refer to it at all. Also, our family photos were not as organized as I would have liked. I think that we might have missed some pictures that we should have gotten.

After the pictures, we went to Twin Peaks for the tea ceremony. There were more people than we had planned at the tea ceremony, but it turned out really nice. We made it back to the Empress of China with time to spare. We actually had time to check in at the Hilton across the street. The night before, we decided to get a hotel room for the wedding night. We were able to get a 4 star room for $140 with taxes. I booked it and found out that was the hotel across the street from the reception. Kismet! Then, the security guard let us out on the walking bridge over Kearny so that we could get some shots with the city background. That was really cool. Then, we went to the reception and had a blast. I took a picture of the view from our room which I'll upload later.

The entire day went at a pretty good pace, but the reception just went by SO FAST. I surprised, but we actually got to eat some of the food. All our hard work practicing the rhumba and we forgot the routine a couple bars in. It was OK though because we still had fun. We also played some Chinese wedding games which I think was a big highlight. First, I had trouble with the egg up the pantleg game. I'm sure that we'll have video to post soon. Then, Sujay straddled Edwin during the guess which kisser is the bride game. I hope someone got video of that too. Vic and Jeannette did a great job emceeing. We were able to get a big group shot that I had wanted on the reception dance floor and DJ Jimbo was smart enough to start the dancing while everyone was still on the dancefloor.

We were supposed to go to Bubble Lounge for the after party, but we bailed after it looked like most of the guests were too tired to go and since we also had the BBQ in the park on Saturday. The BBQ was another blur. We had to pick up a few things from Costco and so I went to the partk early to greet guests while Edwin went to Costco. It was yet another beautiful day for an outdoor picnic. We were next to the carousel and it was more fun in the sun and I definitely felt like we got to spend more quality time with our guests. We forgot the plates and we ran out of water, but we had a great time.

Saturday night, we got another Chinese banquet dinner. This time, it was at Koi Palace with my family. It was a fun time and then we met up with Jinn, Show, Bo, Ellen, Mustafa, Andrew, and Gen at Ghirardelli for dessert. Sunday, we had brunch with Tita Gallette and Uncle Benny at Cityscape in the Hilton on the 46th floor. Then, we met up with Mom, Dad, Andrew, and Gen and made a short trip to the Palace of Fine Arts. Then, Edwin dropped off Andrew and Gen at the airport while I went back to the apartment to meet up with Joe and Nemora and wait for Janice to arrive. We didn't get too much time to hang out with Joe and Nemora, but it was good to see them anyways. Janice got to stay with us overnight before her interview at Cal-Pacific. I took Mom and Dad to the airport while Edwin took Janice shopping. Janice had a dinner event that night and so we met up with Xochitl, Eddie, Jinn, Show, Chris, and Corinne for a light dinner at Il Luna Basque. It was great to be able to hang out with them.

Then we got to have a sleepover with Janice. She had her interview the next day, so it had to be short, but then we got to have dinner with her on Monday night before we dropped her off at the airport. On Tuesday, Edwin went to pick up his mom and Tita Angie from Sacramento. We had a quiet dinner in and then realized that they had taken Tita Dori's luggage from Sac by accident. While Edwin dropped off the luggage at a relative's to be returned, I went to Sin Yen's to pick up the leftover cake. We had 2 layers left over, so we get to enjoy the chocolate and the carrot cake. Since Halloween is next week, we'll celebrate some more and finish off the cake. So yummy. OK, that's enough for tonight. We'll post pictures once we have them. Speaking of which, does anyone have any suggestions for where we should post them? I've heard of flickr and picasa and I used to use shutterfly, but I don't like how these photo sites now don't allow people to download my photos as .jpg files.

One Week Left!

So one week from now, we will be married! Wow. Crazy. So this week a lot happened. Matilde and Sujay had their baby girl Kokomi Ashima. She's totally cute and very light. Parents seem very happy and relaxed. We'll probably post some pics later unless Matilde and Sujay want to keep her a secret Suri. You know how they hate the paparazzi. We went to visit the new addition to the family on Wednesday. I can't believe that Matilde had the baby on Tuesday and was home by Wednesday. Good news- I won the pot. We (Kaori, Jamie, Edwin, and me) had a wager on what day the baby was going to be born and the winner gets a free dinner paid for by the losers. Woo hoo! I said Tuesday, Edwin said Thursday, Jamie said Saturday, and Kaori said next Monday.

This week, we finished the seating chart, picked out the music, met with Cesar about the flowers, practiced the rhumba, and printed out the placecards. We still need to print out the table cards and menu cards, prepare for the BBQ, and tie ribbons on the programs and bubbles.

This weekend is also Edwin's bachelor party in San Luis Obispo. Sounds like he's going to be doing a lot of surfing, biking, and drinking. Doesn't sound like a bad weekend. It's been a pretty stressful week, so hopefully, this will be relaxing for him.

10 DAYS!

How can that be? 10 more days until the wedding? We have a list of 50 things to do. That is 5 things we need to accomplish per day. I'm a little scared. The apartment is a mess with all the preparations and we still need to learn how to dance. I hope that I don't trip.

This past weekend, we went to go see the fireworks for Fleet Week on Friday with the Schneiders. On Saturday, we went to Billy and Maggie's for BBQ'd oysters. Yum! Then, we ran some more wedding errands before we went to see a Smiths/Morrisey cover band called This Charming Band. It was pretty cool. Then on Sunday, we finished the photos for the slideshow and watched season 3 of 24 with the Banerjees. Still no baby yet. We have a pool going.... :)

Where's the baby?

So I forgot to mention that we went to Matilde and Sujay's baby shower on the 23rd. It was a lot of fun and we'll include some pics when we have the time! All I have to say is that Sujay needs a lot of practice with the diapers!

Matilde's due date was yesterday and still no baby. The woman is still working so hard that she can't even meet me for lunch. Don't these people know that she could have the baby at any time? That's probably why they are working her to the bone until she delivers. Kind of reminds me of that Pearl Buck novel called "The Good Earth" where the woman is out picking fruit (I think she's some kind of farm laborer) and stops for a minute to deliver the baby only to return to picking fruit as soon as she's done. I think that I had to read that book in junior high and didn't understand why this woman didn't want to take a break. Geez, I still don't understand. Right now, we have a wager on when the baby will be born. I'm hoping that it's not too close to the wedding so that she has time to recover.

Wedding update- this week, we finalized all the details of the rehearsal dinner, scanned in all the photos for the slideshow, printed the programs, and started purchasing gifts for the wedding party. We still have about 60 things left to do in 14 days. Yikes! That means that we have to complete 5 tasks per day. My next big project is seating charts and printing out the placecards. I am very relieved that we don't have to worry about the honeymoon for a month. All we have are plane tickets now. I suppose I'll start doing more on that front after the wedding.

October Birthday Shout-outs!

There are so many people with October birthdays. Happy birthday to Alex, Jeannette, Todd, Sin Yen, and Kaori. Last week, it was also Santiney, Nikki, and Leland's birthday. In September, there was George's and Greg's bdays too. Time just flies.

Last weekend, we spent most of the weekend doing wedding stuff. We determined which Hawaiian BBQ caterers to use, decorations for the rehearsal dinner, bought some of the bridal party gifts, and shopping for little things like ribbon and unity candle holders.

A lot of people have been asking me if I am nervous about the wedding. I think that I am too busy to be nervous. Besides, we've waited 7 years, what is there left to be nervous about? I'm more apprehensive that we will have everything finished in time. This week, we are trying to print out the programs, get chairs for the rehearsal dinner, meet with the florist, and figure out logistics.

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!