Emeryville

This week was a long work week and it was the first time I had to work on the weekend in a really long time. Luckily, I only worked for 2 hours, but it could have taken a lot longer. Hopefully, I won't have to do that very often. I try really hard not to work weekends. I find that it is a really slippery slope. You do it once and people start to expect you to do it more often. Some people like to send out emails late at night or at odd hours so that people think that they are working extra hard, but I just don't want clients to think I will do that all the time. I may work odd hours, but that is my choice. Sometimes I'll hold on to my emails as drafts so that I can send them during normal business hours.

On Friday, we had a cookie baking session at our place for Jamie and Kaori's baby shower on Sunday. It was a group effort and we had 2 shifts going. We got to use one of our registry gifts- the KitchenAid mixer. Edwin, Matilde, and I had planned on making sugar cookies and gingersnaps. I had researched the recipe, however, I did not read the preparation as carefully as I should have. We discovered as we were making the first batch of sugar cookies that we needed to refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or overnight. Yikes! Matilde, Sujay, and Edwin were going snowboarding the next day in Tahoe and needed to go to bed early for a 6AM. Luckily, Michelle and Mike were on hand for the second shift. We decorated the cookies with gel icing. I didn't realize when we bought the icing that it was a gel icing. I thought it was like a frosting consistency. They turned out pretty well. We wrote Kai on some, had drawn baby-themed items (such as a rattle and bottle), and spelled out Kai and Maika on cookies with K, A, I, and M. It was a lot of fun, but a little exhausting. Here's a picture of the finished product (photo courtesy of Jamie and his cool new camera):
On Saturday, I ran some errands and also did some househunting. I looked at 2 condos in Emeryville. The first one was nice. I met a current resident who told me that he liked living there, but the 2 things he didn't like about it was the noise from a busy street (San Pablo) and that soot from outside would sometimes come in. It was a very nice 2 bedroom 2 bath. However, I really did not like the realtor that showed me the place. When I returned her call to make an appointment to see the condo, I told her who I was and that I was returning her call. Her response to me was, "Well, I make a lot of calls." OK- do you want my business or not? I wanted to see the place, so I ignored her comment and made plans to see it on Sat. Well, she told me that she would meet me at the Marina and email me directions. She emailed me at 9:45 on Saturday when our appointment was for 11:30AM asking me if we were still meeting at 11:30. HUH??? Why wouldn't you call someone if you weren't sure 2 hours before the meeting? I called her at 10AM without seeing the email that she sent (I hadn't checked email yet) to ask her if we could just meet at the condo since I knew where it was. Then, when I get there, she was 30 minutes late. Not a good impression. I had originally thought that she was the selling real estate agent, but I realized very quickly that the real estate company representing the seller had assigned me a random real estate agent so that I could view the property. Needless to say, I am never calling her again. The unit itself was very nice and I would definitely consider it, but Edwin hasn't seen it yet and we are still looking at our options. It was interesting to note that it had be on the market for over 65 days. That's promising. Maybe that means that they would be willing to lower the price.

The second condo I saw was a condo conversion. They had several condos available and I was shown the models of the different layouts available. As I was looking at the models, I was looking at the seams and ceilings to see if there were any cracks or water damage. I noticed that on the walls that were painted, they had not been very careful and painted the parts of the ceiling where the ceiling and the wall met. This was the model that everyone sees. You would think that they would be the most careful with the details of the model. If there are this careless with the model, how are they going to be with the rest of the construction details? Though they were offering some good incentives, like no HOAs for 2 years, I was not impressed.

I also have been looking at properties online. Sadly, there are only like 10 places in our price range that we would consider in Emeryville right now. Rockridge sounds pretty nice. I was able to find a few 2 bedroom 2 bath condos online within our price range, so we'll see. I'm told that the schools there are better than Emeryville, but the high school is not as good. However, I think that would mean a longer commute to work via BART. Any opinions?

This week, we'll be meeting with a mortgage broker to get preapproved. I have a feeling that he wants to convince us to go with an adjustable rate since we are looking shorter term, but we are pretty conservative and are thinking that we will go with the 30 year fixed.

Today was Kai's baby shower. We had a lot of fun, but I think that we were all exhausted by the end of it. It was definitely different that Maika's shower. At Maika's shower, there were only 2 kids. There were a lot more kids under age 3. We're getting outnumbered!

This past week, it was also Hannah's 3rd birthday this week. Yikes! Has it been that long? Happy birthday, Hannah!

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.