Scrubya!

One of my childhood friends Kavita is now a small business owner who make politcal soaps. I used to go to her house almost weekly. If I wasn't at Kavita's house, I was at Priyanka's house. We lost touch after college. I'm not exactly sure why. I think part of it was the distance. She was in New England and I was in the Bay Area. She went into politics (volunteering for some presidential hopeful a few years ago) and I really don't know much about politics. I think it's great to see her be successful and still be able to voice her opinions. I haven't tried her soap yet, but I will be ordering some. If you know of any liberals who would get a kick out of soap with a political statement, I recommend it. http://scrubya.com/

What I think is even more remarkable is how I came to know about Kavita's business. My cousin Vivian was her first Canadian customer. Kavita was one of my closest friends in high school and we went to Toronto with Priyanka and Mariko and stayed with Vivian's family when I turned 19. Since Kavita's picture is on the website and she still looks like she did when we were in college, I'm sure that Vivian recognized it was her. It's such a small world.

Edwin left for Nicaragua yesterday on his surf trip/Tom's bachelor party. I am definitely jealous. I am not that jealous of Nicaragua because I have never really wanted to go there. What I am really jealous of is the travel. I want to go on vacation to another country, but I haven't even updated my passport. I get the travel bug every few years and it's definitely hitting me. I thought after Australia, I was done with travel. I remember being glad to be home after being gone for so long. I don't think that I need to go away for a month. I just get guilty about all the money I'm spending and all the food that I am eating. A nice long 10 day or 2 week vacation is what I would want. We were thinking about attending a wedding in Italy this summer. It would have been awesome, but the cost is just too great right now. $1500 per ticket and that's without food or lodging. I'm so glad that we went 5 years ago when the dollar was stronger.

I am also jealous because Edwin is on a trip with his guy friends. I used to travel with my girlfriends on trips. I went to Boston, Philly, Toronto, and Cancun in college with girlfriends. It just doesn't happen very often anymore. I don't know why. Maybe it's because people have kids or because many of us have coupled up and that changes the dynamics of things. We'll go on trips with couples, but not really all guys or all girls. Maybe it's because there's no one left to organize it. Maybe it's because I'm too lazy to do it and I had more time to plan when I was single. For whatever the reason, I don't get to go on trips with my girlfriends much anymore and I miss it. It just reminds me that I need to enjoy the moment because things can change very quickly.

Don't worry. I'm still going on a vacation to NYC. I'm leaving on Tuesday and will be staying there for almost a week which is still somehow not enough time. So much to do and so little time! I'm saying that a lot these days.

Long Time No See

What have we been up to? It has been a while. Well, my cousin Esther is staying with us for a few weeks. She is an intern at my company for the summer. It's been fun having her around. We are definitely cooking a lot more since her arrival. Since she's staying in the guest room, it did force us to clean a little more in the guest room. Will it ever be done? We have gotten inspired because Jon and Jeannette, who just moved into their house 2 weeks ago have completely unpacked and moved in. They even have pictures on the wall! We have been in this house for 9 monthes and we have not hung up one picture yet. Are we too slow? I think that they might be a little more motivated since their baby is due any day now. I was super impressed by how much they were able to do in just 2 weeks.

There's a lot that I would like to do in the house, but I don't feel like we have the time to do everything or have the right furniture yet. I feel like we should take a few days off just to get some of that stuff done around the house. Jon and Jeannette's house was previously owned by a gay man. I think that our next house should be owned by a gay man. It just makes decorating so much easier. We still need to find a rug for the living room. I think that we have found a couch and a chair for the living room, but we still to need make measurements to make sure that it will all fit. One reason I don't feel like we can unpack everything is that we don't have shelves yet- at least not the ones that are permanent. We are thinking of having custom built shelves flanking the fireplace. Many of the houses we looked at had them, but this house did not.

For the past few weekends, we have had a lot of people visiting. So 2 weeks ago, our friend Ashton came for work and so we had dinner with her. (She's the one that used to be in the FBI- crazy since she is like my size!) Anywho, we found out that she no longer works for the FBI, but still works for the government in Department of Transportation and carries a gun. We haven't seen Ashton in about 3 years when she walked Bay to Breakers with me, but it seems just like yesterday. I'll be seeing her again at the end of the week because I am going to Seattle for work on Thursday and Friday.

Tonight, we also had dinner with Santiney. She and Carlos are in town for work. We haven't seen those guys for over year now and it's like time has not passed. You know those friends who you don't talk to everyday, but it feels like you do talk to them everyday every time you see them? It's just always good times and laughter. That's Santiney to me. It's just so comfortable. I feel like I'm still in college when I'm with her. Doing all those goofy things that we used to do together. This girl does not age.

This weekend, Edwin leaves for his trip to Nicaragua. I'm going to a free concert in Golden Gate Park with friends on Sunday, so that should be fun. Then, I'll be going to NYC on Tuesday for my vacation. When we get back, we'll be hosting a BBQ for 4th of July. Should be a hoot. Summer is just flying by!

Birthdays & Weddings

Last weekend was busy. On Saturday, we attended Alfio and Michelle's wedding in Piedmont. The weather was a little cold, but the location was very nice. Here are my pictures:
And here are more pictures from their wedding: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alfio/pics/2008-05-31/

On Sunday, we celebrated Sujay's 35th birthday by hosting a BBQ in our backyard. Here are more pictures:

It was a good time with good friends. Happy bday, Sujay and happy belated birthday to Matilde.

My cousin Esther will be coming to stay with us this weekend. She's an intern at my company for the summer.

Sex in the City

So last Friday, we had a girls night to celebrate the premiere of the Sex in the City movie. Michelle, JoJo, Nikki, Matilde, Jeannette and I headed over to Bay Street in Emeryville for a little shopping, a little dinner, and then the movie. We had dinner at PF Changs. The funniest part was that the entire restaurant was all women. Guess that we weren't the only ones with that idea. I had originally tried to get us tickets at the Metreon, but they had sold out weeks in advance. Even on Bay Street, the 7:30 showing had sold out, so we got tickets for the 10:30 show.

As with most premieres, we had to wait in line for seats. Matilde and I got in line while the rest of the women went to get their parking validated. We had a close call when they started letting us in and everyone hadn't arrived in line yet, but then they got to us just as we were entering the theatre. When we got to our theatre, there was pandomonium. Everyone was trying to save seats. We didn't get seats in the back half of the theatre, so we headed to the furthest aisle we could get from the front which turned out to be the 4th row. As we got in our aisle, pregnant Jeannette gets body checked by another woman trying to get into a seat. (Picture grown women playing musical chairs...) Then, we realize that we only have 4 seats and we need 6, so we ask politely to the woman who had rammed into Jeannette to move over 2 seats. (There were 2 empty seats next them.) Her reply to us was, "No, I'm not moving. I actually like this seat."

WHAT???? Who does that? I was in shock. I said to her out loud, "I don't think that I have ever met anyone so rude in my life! Yes, I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU!" as I pointed to her. "First, you ram yourself into a pregnant woman." So she replies, "I didn't know she was pregnant. I'm sorry." Um, DOES IT MATTER if she's pregnant or not? Jeannette graciously says, "That's fine, but that's not the only reason why we think you're rude." Rude woman then has the nerve to say, "Well, I'm just trying to enjoy what is supposed to be a fun night and I can't help it if you have 20 people with you." I had to bite my tongue from telling her how selfish she was (and how I know that she can't count to 6 but...) so I just tell her "I'm trying to have fun as well, but you're preventing that. We have 6 people, not 20."

My friends call me fiesty- I say I'm just fiercely loyal. Maybe I am, but I get really upset when I feel like my friends have been offended. I think that I might get more upset when it happens to my friends than when it happens to me. I don't normally think of myself as a violent person, but I could have seen myself throwing things at this woman.

I remember in Hong Kong when we saw a movie that you got a seat number when you purchase your ticket. I think that it would help in situations like these. I don't know why we don't do that here. Then we wouldn't have to wait in line either.

The movie itself was good. Has all the components of a good chick flick- you laugh, you cry. The only storyline I didn't really buy was Samantha's. She just seemed out of character in this movie. All in all, it was like seeing an old friend- so familiar, so comfortable, and you can never spend enough time with them.

Housekeeping Camping in Yosemite

For Memorial Day weekend, we went camping in Yosemite. This was my second trip to Yosemite. We were originally going to stay the entire weekend, but we came back early on Sunday night because of the rain and cold weather. We still managed to do quite a bit of hiking. Jimbo, our wedding DJ and friend, organized the trip.

We stayed at Housekeeping Camp which is slightly better accommodations than sleeping in a tent. It was made of 3 cement walls and a canvas wall. We got to sleep on mattresses and rented sheets and blankets. Here's a hilarious Yosemite video that they show to campers when they check in which I like to call Bears Gone Wild.

Jeannette (Edwin's sister) and Jon also went. They kicked off their move to the Bay Area by going with us to Yosemite. On Saturday, we started off easy and hiked to see Yosemite Falls and Mirror Lake. Both of those hikes were relatively flat. If I had known how difficult hiking to Nevada Falls was going to be, I probably would have not gone. When we came to Yosemite the last time, we had also hiked Vernal Falls, so I knew that was something I could do even though it was steep. I remembered seeing old people and people with strollers do that hike.

I have to say that Jeannette has got to be one of the strongest women I have every met. She was 8 months pregnant and hiked both the Misty trail and John Muir trail to see both the Vernal Falls and the Nevada Falls. According to the Yosemite website, these trails are moderate and strenuous. We hiked for about 7 hours on Sunday. It was one of the longest hikes I have ever done. It's hard to complain when you have a woman who is 8 months pregnant hiking in front of you. Everyone who passed by us was amazed how Jeannette was climbing these steep trails. Here are some pictures from our trip.

More pictures from Jimbo: http://www.elphotoloco.org/gallery.php?gallery=16&photo=1

We also finally finished painting the bedroom. It seemed to take forever. We took a lot longer because we also painted both the ceiling and the trim which we haven't done in any other room. There were also more crack repairs that were required in this room as well. It seemed to take us even longer than the guest bedroom which had wallpaper removal. I'm loving the color- Bali Blue. We still need to do some touch up and paint the trim in the hallway and guest room, but it will probably be a little while before we get to it. I'll post pics a little later.

Bay to Breakers Among Sounds of Silence

Weekends go by way too fast. We just had a great and sunny weekend here in the Bay Area. On Friday, I kicked off the weekend with a little after work shopping with Matilde. Then, I met up with Michelle, Mike, and Show for dinner at Fuzio's at their outdoor patio. Edwin went after work surfing with Tom and Marty and then met us at Michelle and Mike's. We watched a horrible Jet Li movie called Kiss of the Dragon. It was so bad that we were laughing at the dialogue and talked during most of the movie which Jet Li had written himself. There's definitely a reason he's a action movie actor rather than a writer. He should stick to his day job.

On Saturday, Edwin attended a bachelor party for Alfio while I cleaned the house and attended Byron and Eliza's housewarming party in Glen Park with Mike. (Michelle was in San Diego for a conference.) It was kind of funny because we had to keep explaining to new people that though we had come together, we were not married and that Mike's wife's name is also Michelle. Byron is my friend Abby's brother who I knew from my old church in Cleveland. Small world. Abby's moving out here in a few months as well. I haven't seen her in years. After the party, we met up with Show for dinner at a Korean noodle restaurant called Za Zang. Very tasty, but I had snacked quite a bit at the party and could only eat half of my food. On our way back to Show's apartment, we were driving my Nikki's place. Who do we see standing in front of her building? Nikki. She was trying to hail a cab to go meet other friends, so we picked her up and dropped her off since it was close to Show's. San Francisco is small enough where you run into people you know. We watched another movie at Show's called Lars and the Real Girl. It was an Indie film and much better than Jet Li's movie.

Today was Bay to Breakers. I feel like it's been a few years since we have participated. In past years, I have always walked the 7.5 mile race. This time, we started in the middle near the beginning of Golden Gate Park. We walked to the end with Show and the Schneiders. Bay to Breakers is always great for people watching. We saw about a dozen naked men (this is not uncommon in any SF parade/event!) walking/running the race and plenty of people in costumes. My favorite quote from this year's race "Does running late count as exercise?" In my book, it does!

Edwin painted the bedroom this weekend. It had been a long process. Longer than even the guest bedroom which included wallpaper removal. Why? Well, the master bedroom had several large cracks which needed to be filled and he also painted the ceiling and trim which we have not done in any other room in the house. Painting the trim also required sanding the trim to rough up the surface so that the paint would stay. He then also painted primer in the room. The entryway which is small and painted red and one of the dining room walls which is painted blue were the only primed surfaces in the house. We did not use primer in any other rooms because they didn't need it. All of this adds up to a lot of extra time. We're almost done. All we need is for the walls to be painted Bali Blue. Then we can finally move back into our bedroom. We kind of gave ourselves a deadline because Jeannette and Jon are staying with us on Thursday before we all leave for Yosemite for Memorial Day weekend. This week is going to fly by.

While Edwin painted, I attended a surprise birthday/baby shower for Bhavana in Fremont. It was fun to hang out with all the girls. My contribution to the house this weekend, in addition to cleaning, was installing a new toilet seat. It's surprising how something so simple can make such a difference. The old seat was made of a particle board material, so it was getting warped from moisture. The seat also seemed to have mind of its own because it would often come slamming down on unwitting male guests who would probably prefer to keep their private parts from its snapping jaws. Now, we have a seat that comes with an anti-slamming mechanism. All's quiet in the Lager household. Ahhhhhh.....

Happy Mothers Day!

Here's a little video we put together for Mothers Day.

Derby Days and Days Gone By

It seems like a long time since I last posted. Last week was a really busy week at work and I was working at home a few nights to complete a deliverable I had due. Now that is over and I can return to my normal schedule. Jeannette also came to visit and so we were busy hanging out with her. We visited her new house a few times this weekend and attended my first Derby party. Who knew the Kentucky Derby was this weekend? I knew Cinco de Mayo was coming up, but who really follows the Kentucky Derby unless you're in Kentucky?

We also helped celebrate Kai's first birthday. It was so cute to see him so excited about the balloons and toys. Like Maika, I think that he did realize that it was his day. That kid is too cute. Pictures to be posted later.

While we have completed our remodel, we are still doing a few things around the house. We have started preparing our bedroom to paint it. It is the last room to be painted and rivals the guest bedroom in difficulty which had the wallpaper. Our bedroom doesn't have wallpaper, but it does have quite a few cracks that need repair. It is also more a pain because we had to move out all of the furniture, so our house is again a mess. We have decided with this room that going forward, we will be paying someone else to paint. We know it's not a question of ability or even money, it's the cost of our time and energy. There are some people out there who enjoy this stuff. It's not that we don't enjoy it, it's just that it takes us so long to figure out how to do something that we have never done before that we get frustrated.

I also ran into an old friend from NYC this past weekend. She was someone that I lost touch with and it was a little awkward. I don't know why we stopped being friends, but neither of us made the comment that we should keep in touch. I was in shock that she recognized me after 8 years because I don't know that I would have recognized her. I was also shocked that she approached me because we didn't end on the best of terms. We didn't have a fight, but she stopped talking to me one day. We had the equivalent of a friend break-up and she left me. I'm not sure how this might be different from running into an old boyfriend who dumped you (since that never happened to me before), but it made me think about all the good times we had. It made me wonder why she even acknowledged me when she saw me this weekend. Jeannette thought it was her way of apologizing, but I'm not so sure. If she wanted to renew our friendship, wouldn't she have offered to keep in touch? From my brief conversation with her, it sounded like she was in town on a project at Safeway and that she was in town quite often. She also mentioned hanging out 2 weeks ago with my cousin Amy who I introduced to her. Any thoughts from you all on why she might have approached me after all this time?

My 2 favorite things- Babies and Food

We had a great and beautiful weekend. On Friday, we tried a new Cuban restaurant in Alameda called Havana. It was very tasty and our favorite dishes were the paella, the mango gazpacho, (sorry Jamie!) and skirt steak. It was nice to catch up with the Banerjees who had just returned from a 2 week vacation in Hawaii.

On Saturday, we visited the Tachikis who just had baby boy Tyler. Corinne was a real trooper who went through 50 hours of labor. I was amazed by how alert he was. I guess it was probably one of his first parties since the Banerjees and Show were also there besides us.
We also had some friends from Santa Cruz (Dana & Chris) over for dinner. Somehow these things always get bigger and we ended up with 10 people over. Since they go surfing with Edwin, we decided to invite Tom and Debbie and Marty and Joanna. And since they also know Show and the Banerjees, it became a dinner party. Edwin cooked up a storm with 3 different pasta dishes and when it was over, we were cleaning for days. No joke- we have never used so many pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and utensils in one day. Here are some pics.



We also took a leisurely bike ride in Alameda. It was a great day to take a ride. Here is a map of the pedestrian bridge we crossed into Bay Farm.

Happy House Hunting

Congratulations to Ellen and Mustafa who just bought a house in DC. Congrats also to Jeannette and Jon who also just bought a house in the Bay Area. You hear about how housing sales are slumping, but people still need to buy houses. Hopefully, this means that the Banerjees and Schneiders will soon be homeowners too.

Now that we have finished the kitchen remodel. A lot of people keep asking us, "So what's next?" I would like to know "Is it ever done?" Haven't we done enough? I guess I do keep a mental list of stuff I want to do to the house, but do all homeowners do that? I can completely understand why people would call a house the money pit. There's no limit to the amount of money you could spend on a house. When we were in the apartment, I remember wishing that we could do stuff, but now I think that there's so much stuff to do!

Box Steps

Weekends are too short. You have the best of intentions to get all these things done and it's tough when you can only get a few of the things on your list. In case you didn't realize this about me, I'm a list person. Most of the time, I write down all the things I want to do. Some people might think that I write them down because I might forget them if I don't write it down. That's part of the reason, but the real reason is that my mind will be constantly thinking about it if I don't. Most guys have wives that nag them to do stuff. I think that most wives must have an internal nagging mechanism in their brains. Husbands, if you only knew... we only nag you about half the time that we nag ourselves.

So this weekend, we really wanted to unpack the remaining boxes that we pulled out of the garage last week. I would say that we are about half way done thanks to Edwin. I just couldn't do it this weekend. I feel like I've been the one to go through most of the boxes- it's probably not true, but that's how I felt. Most of the boxes are out of the kitchen and dining room now, but there are still 5 or 6 in the guest room. Given that we want to paint our bedroom next, we'll need to get those boxes out so that we can live there while we paint. The one thing that I wish that we could find that we still have not found are the placemats. We didn't use them that much in the apartment, but it would be nice to use them now that we have a dining room.

I did get to hang out with Michelle and Mike on Saturday for dinner. Though Mike had to go down 5 flights of stairs in his crutches to get to the car, he was a real trooper. Mike just had knee surgery and is recovering. The reason he had to go down the stairs is that the electricity went out on their entire block because of all the wind.

We also had the Schneiders over for a BBQ. Here are some pictures:


Having people really forces us to clean the house, especially when we know babies are coming over. Gearing up for the week, it's nice to have the house without boxes to trip over. I wonder if that's how they invented the box step- it was just a couple trying to avoid bumping into the boxes in their home as they unpacked and without stepping on each other's toes.

High Priced Travel and Low Cost Shopping

Last Friday, I had a girls night clothing exchange with some friends. It's always a good time and I was glad to be able to get rid of some more stuff. My goal at these things is to always go home with less than what I brought and I think that I achieved that! Even in Lei's way pregnant state, she's still able to organize and plan. It's always fun to meet new people too. Edwin, on the other hand, got some much needed alone time on the couch.

On Saturday, we had brunch with the Banerjees before they left for their vacation to Hawaii. It made me think that we need to plan a vacation. We've been talking about trying to go to Italy in August. We were invited to a wedding there. We love Italy. With all the craziness happening in the airline industry and the poor exchange rate, it is really making me think that it might not be a good idea. Not to mention that most of Europe, including many Italians, will also be on vacation in August. Edwin is going to Nicaragua in July for a bachelor party/surfing trip. I'll be going to NYC at the same time.

We're also planning on going to DC at the end of July for Ellen and Mustafa's wedding. That's a lot of travel. I've been looking for tickets online and I can't seem to find anything for under $400. Are the prices high because of gas prices, speculation that there will be increased demand due to competitive airlines going bankrupt, or just plain greed?

We also hung out with the Schneiders this weekend. We had a great dinner at a new Mongolian restaurant in San Mateo called Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. It had this really tasty broth. Most hot pot places give you either chicken broth or just water. This one had a lot of spices like burdock root, lotus seeds, and some other stuff I don't know. We'll definitely be going back.

On Sunday, we took everything out of the garage to clean it and to bring in the rest of the boxes that have not been unpacked since we moved in. I was working almost continuously from 11AM-2AM and I'm still nowhere near done. Hopefully, we'll be able to hang the old kitchen cabinets in the garage this weekend. We're still trying to unpack, sort, and organize everything. We want to have a garage sale next month so that we can get rid of more stuff. It's really funny to me how everyone always wants to join a garage sale, but no one really wants to plan for it. Maybe we should invite more people over this weekend so that we'll motivate to clean.

Free Tibet! No Torch(ure)!

So the Olympic torch was in SF this week. It was supposed to run down the Embarcadero according to this map. However, because there were so many protesters against China, they re-routed the path at the last minute along Van Ness. It was kind of absurd. I heard that someone in Paris grabbed the torch from the runner. I just don't feel like people should use the Olympics as this platform. Countries have been doing it for a long time, but I just feel like it's supposed to be about sportsmanship and the athletes. This is the time that we are supposed to lay down the arms and forget about the things that countries disagree on.

Here's a hilarious newclip from CBS about how some of these protesters for "Free Tibet" don't even know where Tibet is:

Anyway, here are some pictures I took with my coworker Renee. Note the police squad ready for a battle. I'm surprised they didn't have shields. People in SF love to protest. Free Tibet. Free Burma. Free Turkistan. What would people here do without the protests?

Olympic Torch 2008

Buy George- I Think We've Got It!

This past weekend, Jeannette came to visit and look for houses. We were so excited to help her look for a house. They'll be moving here in May and their baby boy will be due in June. I can't imagine being able to find a house in a weekend. I guess it's not that uncommon. Laura and Alex did it last year too. I think that maybe if we were looking a house in another city we would be able to do it too, but it does seem quite stressful.

She arrived on Friday night and we picked her up from the airport and had dinner in San Mateo. She told us that she had already looked at some houses online and had a favorite. On Saturday, I had a baby shower to attend, but saw the first house with her in SF. This is the second weekend in a row that I attended a baby shower and with Jeannette being pregnant, I feel like I've been surrounded by pregnant people the past month. I really wanted to buy Corinne the hooter hider off her registry just so that I could say that I bought one. I guess it's used for breast feeding, but I just thought the name was so funny. I was telling another guy friend about it and he said that he wanted to buy a "hooter finder" instead of a hooter hider. Apparently, it is made by "bebe au lait." It sounds French. I've seen other women just use a blanket.

After the baby shower, I went home and cleaned the house a bit. We're still not done unpacking, but the house is finally at a stage where we aren't tripping over boxes and covered in dust. We still haven't organized everything either and our bedroom still needs to be painted, but the rest of the house is in decent shape. After we cleaned a little, we met up with Jeannette and her friend and had dinner in Oakland.

Today, we went to the Alameda antique fair again. They only have them once a month and this is the third time we have gone. We still haven't bought anything yet, but I guess it's only a matter of time. The thing about these things is that they are huge. We still have not been able to go through the whole thing.

After the fair, we went house hunting again with Jeannette and her realtor. Everyone knows how crazy the SF housing market is. It's a lot of money, but even a lot of money doesn't buy you everything you want. We saw 6 houses with her today and we all agreed on which one was the best (according to what they needed) and luckily it wasn't the most expensive. They're making an offer, but we don't think that they will be the only ones.

Seeing these houses, it also reminded me how SF is not the most kid-friendly place on earth. There were several houses that we saw that had beautifully landscaped backyards for entertaining, but no grass for kids to play in. More than that, it would be dangerous for kids because of all the rocks, cement, or steep hills. Though I miss the ability to walk to great restaurants, that's one thing I don't really miss about SF. We have a small backyard, but it's a backyard that could be kid-friendly. I say "could be" because we need to fix a few things like the overhang next to the garage and fix the gate a little, but it has the potential. We now live in suburbia, but we love it.

We're also just so thrilled to have more family around. We definitely enjoy having my uncle and cousin here. Since we're not able to convince Laura and Alex to join us in the insanity and move into a much smaller house for a lot more money, we're glad that we will have Jeannette and Jon around. Matilde was telling me how it was just so much easier to have family around with kids- especially ones with kids. Everyone cross your fingers and pray that they get the house that they want. Even if it doesn't work out with this house, I just know that they will find something that suits them. Everything happens for a reason. It would just be more convenient for them if this house worked out.

I was exhausted after looking at houses this afternoon. By the end, I could not remember what we had looked at and had to take a nap. The only thing that I do remember is that many of the houses we saw had the same stove that we have. I really did not realize how popular our stove is. After running some errands, we met up with the Banerjees for some Zachary's pizza and went home to relax. One week before taxes are due. Guess I need to get around and send those in... :)

Surprises

So we've had a few surprises lately. No, not that kind. Still not pregnant. I'm not that unoriginal that I would announce a pregancy 2 years in a row on April Fools Day. Though wouldn't that have been cool if it were true? As I was saying, we've had quite a few surprises lately. Some good and some not so good.

We got a surprise visit from Laura, Alex, Hannah, Timothy, Grace, and CiCi last night. They were flying back from Taiwan and there was a delay which caused them to have to spend the night in SF. It was great to see them all even if it was only for a few hours. That was the good surprise. The bad surprise I got yesterday was that I got a parking ticket. I drove in to work because I thought that I was going to pick them up at the airport around noon and I parked it at a meter. It cost $.25 for 6 minutes or $2.50 per hour. The car was there for about 6 hours. I didn't end up picking them up from the airport and I got a $40 ticket because I ran out of change. I know I spent at least $7 feeding the meter. I also got another nasty surprise when I filled up my gas tank. With gas selling at $3.90 per gallon, it was the first time that my fill-up topped $50. Ouch. I remember in college filling up my Escort for $10. It wasn't that long ago! I even remember when gas was under $1 per gallon. The good surprise still outweighs the bad ones.

Last weekend was nice and relaxing. On Friday, I stayed in to unpack the more kitchen stuff while Edwin had a guys night out. On Saturday, I went to Corinne's baby shower which had a beautiful brunch while Edwin cleaned the house. We also had a Pablo and Monica over for dinner. On Sunday, I had dim sum with Show, Greg, Carey, Matilde, and Sujay. Show then helped me to make some cookies. We made chocolate chip cookies and rochers. It made me so happy that I am no longer burning things in the oven. I don't know what was wrong with the old stove, but I burned a lot of food using it. I knew it wasn't me!

Then, we got to catch up with old Cleveland acquaintances. Michelle and Mike had us over at their new apartment- which is HUGE! They invited us to dinner because Michelle discovered that Byron from CCCC (the church that I grew up in Cleveland) is now going to her church. We got to meet his wife Liza and found out that they moved out to the Bay Area in September. It made me feel so old because when I left Cleveland for college, I think that he was still in junior high. He's now a lawyer. I was closer to his sister Abby who I found out is also moving out to the Bay Area in a few months. See- more surprises.

According to my work personality, I don't really like surprises. I'm in Strategy and Analytics which means that I like process and structure. I don't like changes and things that I don't anticipate. In my personal life, I think I like them a little more. Another happy surprise is this weekend. Jeannette is coming out to SF to look for a house. Can't wait to hang out with her again. I'm also going to another baby shower this weekend. (I feel like there are lot of babies lately.) I got another email this morning announcing Ryan and Limanna's new baby. This is after I spent over $100 last weekend at BabiesR Us. What???

Spring Cleaning

With all the construction in the house, we've been living with a layer of dust over everything. Without a functioning kitchen sink has made it pretty difficult to clean. Now that the kitchen remodel is done, we're trying to unpack everything, which is causing more dust. We also had 2 big dinners this weekend. On Friday, we had Sujay, Matilde, Michelle, Mike, Show, Pete, and Corinne over for dinner. Mom cooked up a storm and left a trail of dirty dishes, pots, and counters in her wake. We hadn't even finished cleaning the wreakage from last night (including 2 dishwasher runs) before she started cooking again tonight. We had more family over tonight with my uncle and his family and my cousins. It's nice to have some home cooked meals after a month of eating meals using only our microwave. I'm looking forward to having some time to really unpack and clean.

Another note of good news. We just found out that Edwin's sister Jeannette and bro-in-law Jon are going to be moving to the Bay Area in May. YAY!!! She's also preggers and they are expecting a boy in June, so we'll be around to see the baby when he's born. It will be nice to have more family around. Now if we could only convince Laura and Alex to leave those harsh Cincinnati winters for some Bay Area sunshine...

The Long Road to Tahoe

Last weekend, we went up to Tahoe for our annual trip. We rented a house and 15 of us stayed there. Surprisingly, there were enough beds, sofas, and futons to accommodate. The trip was was pretty painful. I left with Show and Derek after Derek's flight came in from NYC. The normal 3 hour drive took us 8 hours. Now, it wasn't that painful for me since I wasn't driving and slept most of the way there- hey, I get carsick! However, this week has been rough because my back started hurting really badly on Monday. Like I could barely walk painful. I worked from home on Tuesday and Wednesday to give my back a rest because I'm normally running back and forth between buildings. Don't worry though- I'm all back to normal again now.

The rest of the trip went fine. I slept in on Saturday since we didn't arrive until 4AM. There were a few of us hanging out at the house this year- Debbie, Bhavana, and Sujay/Kokomi. We chatted and hung out while the others snowboarded. Unfortunately, we missed the karaoke that Pete had brought up because it took us so long to get to the house on Friday. And on Saturday, everyone was beat from either the drive up or the snowboarding that everyone was in bed by midnight. Alas, we are getting old.

We finally have completed the kitchen renovation. We're still unpacking our things, but the contractor is done. I'm pretty happy with the way everything came out. The color seems a little bright to me right now, but maybe it will grow on my like the green guest room did or it will seem less bright once we put the furniture in. Here are some pictures of the finished product.



My parents came in last night and so we're going to take the new kitchen out for a spin this weekend. We'll be having a few friends over on Friday night and then family on Saturday night.

Tight Squeeze

So we had a little remodel scare this week. When we arrived home on Tuesday, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had installed the faucet (a functioning sink!), the dishwasher, and the washer. However, we also noticed that the stove was sitting in the middle of the kitchen in front of the area where it should be. Why? Because the counters were just a smidge too long. We're talking like an 1/8 inch. The contractor was very precise about the location of the cabinets, so we could see that the stove would fit between the 2 cabinets. However, the countertop was hanging slightly over the cabinet and plywood template. Here's the thing about remodel errors- you never really know what to freak out about when things go wrong. How bad is it really? We were afraid that it was going to take a lot of time/effort to fix- we didn't even want to think about the blame game- who's fault is it and will there be additional cost? Luckily, we made a call to the granite people the next day and they came out and had it fixed the next day by the time we got home. It just looked so scary because things are glued, grouted, sealed, and seemed so final. We've been really lucky because the hiccups that we have experienced are all pretty minor. We've been talking to our neighbor who started their remodel a week or 2 after us and it looks like their remodel is going a lot slower. Granted, they are also remodelling 2 bathrooms at the same time, but they have had more frustrations than we have had.

Our contractor said that he should be done on Friday. I can't believe it. We're going up to Tahoe this weekend, so we'll need to clean next week before the parents come, but there's nothing like company coming over to give you a deadline to clean up fast. I don't know if our house would ever get clean if we didn't have people coming over.

This triggers a memory of the conversation we had with the Schneiders a few weeks ago. You know that you are good friends when:

• You don't feel like you need to clean the house because it's just XXX coming over.
• You can fall asleep while you're hanging out with XXX.
• You can bring over half of a cake to share (instead of a whole cake.)
• You can take your socks off at their house.
• Your kid pees, pukes, etc. on the rug and you know where to get the cleaning products in their home.
• You clean their house for them. (I really like this one- thanks Ellen!)
• You bring your own slippers or have a toothbrush at their house.
• You bring your laptop over to their house and you can access the internet via their wireless connection.
• You do your laundry at their house when you come over to hang out.
• You can talk about the fight you just had with your spouse, in-laws, etc.
• You help them move all their crap even though you know it's going to be a pain.

Looking forward to fun with friends this weekend.

Nooks and Crannies

It looks like we are on the home stretch of our kitchen remodel. We got our granite counters this week. Just like a wedding, things don't always happen perfectly. This time, it wasn't our contractors. Apparently, when you replace counters, they use a plywood template to support the granite countertops. The contractors had routed out grooves underneath the peninsula lip so that it could be supported with metal L supports. It turns out that the plywood was a little wider than the counter guys needed it, so they shortened from 36 inches to 33. That would be OK except that they shortened the side with the grooves which meant that the grooves were now too short. So now, our contractor has to fix that because otherwise, the plywood rests on top of the metal instead of the metal being flush with the rest of the plywood. Also, when they screwed the pylwood back over the counters, they screwed it too close to the edge and now there are 2 spots where the wood is "bubbling" under the counter. It's nothing that anyone will see, but you just hate knowing that it is there.

They also finished tiling the backsplash and started painting. We're told that they should be finished this week. I'm looking forward to it just so that we can clean the house from all the dust. It definitely seems closed to being finished. One of the things the contractor is waiting for us is to decide where the light over the breakfast nook goes. We're having a tough time deciding because we've been waiting to get one of those L shaped benches with a round table, but we're not sure if we have enough room. Ideally, we would want to have the light fixture over the center of the table, but that means that we have to figure out what size table goes there. Geez, what am I going to talk about once the remodel is done?

This weekend was pretty relaxing. We went out to dinner with Show on Friday. On Saturday, I volunteered with the Princess Project while Edwin went surfing. This is the third time I have volunteered with Princess Project and it was fun. It's not the most altuistic- we're giving away gently used bridesmaids dresses to high school girls to wear to the prom, but it's fun. On Sunday, Edwin went surfing again and then we pruned the lemon tree in the backyard and used the BBQ in the backyard for some burgers for the first time. Next weekend, we're heading up for our annual Tahoe trip. Should be fun as always.

Little by Little

This weekend, I went on a booze cruise for work on Friday. I've been on cruises like this before in NYC, but not in SF. It was fun, but I'm glad that I didn't have to pay for it!

We also had a nice weekend hanging out with friends. The Schneiders stopped by on Saturday and we got sandwiches and ate in the park here in Alameda. Then, we had dinner with the Banerjees at Ruth's Chris in Walnut Creek. Good stuff- all that butter... but it tasted really good going down. I had the Cowboy Ribeye which is just a ribeye with the bone in. Very tasty. I still say that prime rib is my favorite cut of meat, but a ribeye is pretty good too. It's funny, with the remodel, we've been doing some extreme eating. One night, we're eating ramen and the next night we're eating steak. I thought we would be using our grill more often, but we haven't used it at all yet. 2 weeks without a kitchen hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I hate not being able to wash dishes, but we've been eating pretty well.

Today, we had brunch at the Thai temple and then went to the Alameda antique fair with Monica. We're not really into antiques, but it really interesting and there was just so much stuff. Our next door neighbors offered to have us over for dinner since they knew that we were without a kitchen tonight. It turned into an impromptu neighborhood BBQ with 5 couples from the block. We've been really fortunate to have such nice neighbors. I can't wait to return the favor once the kitchen is done.

Speaking of the kitchen, they completed the cabinet installation this week. Now we're just waiting for the counter, sink, and faucet to be installed. There are still a lot of little details, but we can really start to visualize what the kitchen will look like. We're still deciding on wall colors, but we're leaning towards a yellow or orange. I can't believe that the remodel is already half over.