25 lbs of Candy

That is how much candy we gave away on Halloween. We gave away all 25 pounds. Kids coming almost non-stop from 6:30-8:30. We have never seen anything like it. Our favorite costume was a kid who dressed up like Napoleon Dynamite complete with walkman and a Vote for Pedro t-shirt. When we ran out of candy- we even gave away Sunsweet Ones that are individually wrapped prunes that I got for free from IRI and Corinne also gave us a box of nutritional bars from Abbott. Our neighbors warned us that you just give it away until you have no more and turn off all the lights and hide out in the back.









Our neighbors had a pumpkin carving potluck. As you can see, there were quite a few pumpkins. I did the "Welcome" pumpkin in the picture on the left and Edwin carved the witch on a broomstick on the righthand picture. It was a lot of fun and my first time carving.

Our favorite Halloween display was a house that used a sheet in front of a bay window with a projector and flash media. They projected images of bats flying, spiders crawling on a web, and skeletons walking back and forth on the sheet.

We had Jamie, Kaori, Sujay, Matilde, Nirav, Bhavana, Michelle, Mike, and Corinne over. It was lots of fun, but we did have a minor incident. Nirav and Bhavana left the stroller in front of our house and someone actually stole it. Up to this point, everything has been great in this house. It has been pretty much a utopia. Then something like this happens to wake you up. I have to believe that random petty theft happened (literally at our front door) because a lot people drive in from Oakland to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. While it was an exciting and fun night, it definitely has helped us to prepare for what is to come around Christmas.

We also hosted a little costume party last weekend. It really motivated us to finish painting the living room and entry. Here are some pics that Alfio took. I think that Jamie took some too from Halloween, but I have to ask him for it. Since we can't seem to upload our own photos, I don't feel like I should be asking for other people to send me their photos! We'll get them someday!

Happy Anniversary!

So Edwin and I went to New Orleans this past weekend to celebrate our one year anniversary. Can you believe it? It's already been a year. Time flies when you're having fun. To reflect on the past 365 days, we spent 24 days in Australia on our honeymoon, we have spent about 40 days in our new home, and we have both started new jobs within this year. (Technically, I have started 2 jobs within this one year of marriage!) Lots of changes!

New Orleans was fun. Though we only went for an extended weekend (Thur-Sun) it was just enough time to feel like we went on a vacation and the location was different enough that we felt like we were in a new place to explore. We arrived on Thursday around 2PM. We checked into the Sheraton where they put us in a room on the 47th floor. We didn't even tell them that we were celebrating our anniversary. I was surprised also because I got the reservation through a package on Orbitz and thought for sure that they would give us a room on the second floor next to the elevator. I don't know how high up you have to be to be invited to the executive club, but they informed us that we were at the club level and could use the amenities on the executive floor. Back in our consulting days, we used to get these things, but it has been a long time since we had any kind of status, so it was nice to get a free breakfast and afternoon snack. I think that they must have mistaken us for some kind of road warrior.

When we arrived on Thursday, it was raining and humid. Even through the inclement weather, we managed to have a good time and get some fun touristy activities checked off our list. We had lunch at Orleans Cafe based on the recommendation from the concierge. I was a bit skeptical at first because the concierge called ahead to inform the restaurant that we were coming. This generally means that it requires reservations and is going to cost a lot. However, the restaurant was really reasonably priced ($7-$12 for lunch) and it had the best jambalaya and red beans and rice we had during the entire trip. We also got some crab cakes for $5. I don't think that I have ever paid $5 for 2 crab cakes. They were good, but no match for Kian's gigantic and tasty crab cakes! (I have no problem admitting that I am mentioning his crab cakes in hopes for another invitation to eat them! You would too if you had tried them!) Anyway, after lunch we walked around the French Quarter to acclimate ourselves and wandered over towards Cafe du Monde, one of the most popular places to eat beignets. I think that anyone who has ever been to New Orleans knows what a beignet is, but for the 2 people out there who don't, it's basically fried dough squares covered in powdered sugar. Somewhat similar to a donut, but not round and elephant ears, but not in a waffle shape. As it rained outside, we enjoyed our beignets while listening to a live band (the first of many we would hear in New Orleans) perform and sipping our beverages (cafe au lait for Edwin and chocolate milk for me) during a lazy, rainy afternoon. I could get used to this! After our afternoon snack, we meandered back to the hotel to take a nice nap because we had woken up at 4:30AM to catch the 6AM flight.

When we awoke from our nap, it was already time for dinner. Yes, we are foodies at heart. A local saying that I may soon adopt for myself regarding NOLA (New Orleans, LA) "There are two times of day in Louisiana- mealtime and in between." To me, that is the sign of a good vacation- you eat and then plan your next meal while you are eating. (This also happened a lot while we were in Hong Kong.) Anyway, we went to the Acme Oyster Seafood House for dinner. We had a 1/2 and 1/2 po-boy (1/2 fried oysters and 1/2 fried shrimp), a dozen raw oysters, and a medley of jambalaya, red beans and rice, and gumbo. The fried stuff wasn't greasy or heavy and it was good, but I would say that it was not the best we had of anything while we were there. This restaurant is also well-known and was recommended by our tour book. After dinner, we went to see some live jazz at Donna's Bar & Grill . It's a well-known spot, but it was very casual and it seemed that most people were locals (one guy we met lived around the corner from it.) We were definitely one of the youngest people there (many of the patrons had grey hair or no hair!) The trio that played had a clarinet, piano, and sousaphone/doublebass. During one of the songs, the clarinet player kept removing sections of his clarinet until he only had the mouthpiece to play. It was very entertaining and I would definitely recommend going there if you get a chance even though we're not the biggest jazz fans.

On Friday, we had brunch at Cafe Amelie which we just found as we were walking around the French Quarter. The food was very good, but we unfortunately were seated next to a really loud crowd instead of in the nice outdoor courtyard. I had the gumbo and BLT while Edwin had the pulled pork sandwich. I had originally ordered the muffaletta, but alas, they had run out, so I ended up with the BLT. Everything was very tasty. After brunch, we went on a tour of a house in the French Quarter called the Hermann-Grima House. It was a house owned by some affluent familes pre-Civil War that they have restored. We thought it was well worth the $5 admission for an hour long tour. They happened to have a "mourning" exhibit where they displayed items related to a funeral where they would cover mirrors with black cloth and clothes that they would where for the 4-6 months of mourning. There was a similar house tour of another home (Gallier House) for a middle-class family that we tried to get to on Sunday only to discover that they only do tours on weekdays. After the tour, we went to the Garden District to explore another section of town. It had some cute stores and was a lively neighborhood. We then went back to the hotel for another nap before heading to dinner. Naps are good. For dinner, we had reservations at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen which is a contemporary New Orleans-style restaurant. This was supposed to be in contrast to the dinner we were having at the Commander's Palace the next night which is old school New Orleans cuisine. It was not bad, but we definitely enjoyed our experience at Commander's Palace more. At KP's, we shared an oyster appetizer, munched of 4 types of bread, Edwin had the beef medallions while I ordered the fish with scallops and shrimp in a cream sauce. At CP, Edwin ordered the 3 course meal (turtle soup, softshell crab entree, and bread pudding souffle) while I had the gumbo (yes, again!) and pecan crusted fish with crab in a cream sauce. Edwin's favorite was the turtle soup which I liked, but was too spicy for me. His softshell crab was probably one of the best dishes we had and it did make me regret ordering the fish since I was attracted to the softshell crab as well. My fish was good, but the sauce was a bit heavy even though it was tasty.

On Saturday, we went on 2 tours. The first was a free tour offered by the National Park Service. It was by far the best value and very informative. (Can you really beat free?) Our tour guide was entertaining and seemed to really like his job. The 90-minute tour is only offered once a day at 9:30 on a first come-first served basis. We highly recommend it. You know I wouldn't get out of bed that early for something that wasn't good! We had muffulettas at Central Grocery Company for lunch. We then took the Cemetary/VooDoo tour for $15. The cemetary tour would have been good if we hadn't already had the National Park Service tour in the morning. A lot of the historical information was the same, though more interesting the first time you hear it and the cemetary information was more about who the people were who were buried there. The VooDoo portion was a joke. I was expecting information about the culture and history like where it originated or why it seems so popular there. However, they took us to this "temple" which was basically a room in this voodoo priestess's house that had a lot of dolls and incense. We had to listen to this woman for 15-20 minutes talk stream of consciousness- she wasn't even talking about voodoo. There were about 10 people from CA in the crowd and she proceeded to lecture us on how we were too liberal. I find that truly ironic given that she is the voodoo priestess- you would think that she would be liberal or at least open-minded, but I guess maybe her "southern" side makes her more of a conservative. She kept talking in circles and asking the 25 of us if she was making sense- not really! It really was bizarre. Our tour guide wouldn't even go in with us and warned us about the 20 minute lecture we would have to endure. I would not recommend this tour given that you can get a better tour for free! (Did I mention it was FREE?) The best part of this tour is that it started at Cafe Beignet which meant that we got to try out the beignets here. These were Edwin's favorites, but I liked the ones at Cafe du Monde better because they were less doughy.

On our last day, we had breakfast at Coffee Pot Restaurant where Edwin had the Cala Cakes with grits and I had the gumbo (what can I say- I love gumbo!) Cala Cakes are deep-fried goodness made of long grain rice and herbs. The waitstaff broke into a capellla song during the middle of our meal, so it was nice to be serenaded. (They weren't singing to us, but near us.) After breakfast, we headed back to the Garden District for a self-guided walking tour to look at the big, fancy houses. These houses were huge. Or maybe they just seem huge to us since a million dollars in the Bay Area buys you a 3 bedroom 1700 square foot house if you are lucky! We headed back to Vioux Carre (another name for the French Quarter) and had lunch at Napoleon House Bar & Cafe where Edwin had the jambalaya (dry) and I had the red beans and rice. (Not bad, but I preferred the ones from Orleans Cafe.) We headed to the French Market for a little shopping and then took the streetcar to Riverwalk (a mall.) The streetcar was fun, but since I used to take one to work everyday, the novelty just wasn't there for me. No need to go to the French Market unless you want to buy souvenirs. (We don't really buy that many souvenirs anymore because it just ends up as clutter for us.) The good thing about Riverwalk is that we got one last chance to have some beignets at another Cafe du Monde before heading to the airport.

Pros for New Orleans- food (gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etouffee, cala cakes, beignets) and a different culture even though it's US
Cons for New Orleans- smoking (it's unavoidable) and no Asian food (we saw mostly sushi places, one Chinese , one Thai, no Korean, and no Vietnamese)

We would definitely go back and next time we would like to do a plantation tour and have more po-boys. It was fun and relaxing. I also was happy that I was able to finish reading a book called "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I haven't read a book since our honeymoon- "In a Sunburnt Country." Funny how I like to read travel books while I am travelling. I guess it kind of gets me in the mood. I would like to at least read another book before our next anniversary. Such a sad little goal, but I guess that's what happens when you are time-starved. Pictures will be posted when I get around to it.

Our House- In the Middle of our Street...

Here's an article we found about our street and the lighting extravaganza we expect to see during the Christmas holidays. Bernie Roberts, who is quoted, is our next door neighbor. The couple that moved from NJ, the Kennedys, live 3 doors down from us. Can't wait to see all the excitement though I'm not looking forward to the traffic.

What day is it?

I can't remember the last time I posted. It's been a long time. Well, a lot has happened since my last post. I finished working at my old job at IRI. I had a week off in between jobs, but unfortunately, I didn't have a computer, so I couldn't connect to the internet. We have had a busy month because Jeannette came in for a whirlwind visit at the end of Sept. She came on my last day at work, so we went to the spa together to celebrate. Then, on 9/29, we participated on a float in Love Fest, a house music parade. I'll get around to posting pictures someday... We also got to take her out for an early birthday dinner. We're hoping that she and John move the the Bay Area, so it was a big sell weekend. Her bday is the same as Alex's. Happy belated, guys!

My mom also came to visit the week after from 10/2-10/6. It was nice and relaxing and I got to show my mom around Alameda while running some errands during my week off. Then, we got to celebrate Kaori's birthday in Central Park in San Mateo. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with friends, enjoying the nice weather, and chatting all day. It seems to be getting harder and harder to schedule things.

I started my new job last week and I am loving it. The people are really great. I'm excited about the project that I am working on. I feel like it's been a while since I have been this excited or happy about my job. Maybe it's still the honeymoon phase, but I really have no regrets at this point and I know that it was the right decision.

Speaking of honeymoon, we are already nearing our one year anniversary. Can you believe it? This week is going to be a short work week because we are taking off Thursday and Friday to go to New Orleans to celebrate. I'm so excited for some gumbo, jambalaya, and beignets!

House update- so we have removed the wallpaper from the second bedroom. It only took us about 4 sessions. The first session of course was the longest, but it really wasn't that bad and we finished on Sat. Next up is painting. We've been struggling with paint colors, but we are thinking a reddish/burnt sienna color for the entry. For the living room/dining room, we'll probably do a tan/beige color. For the guest bedroom, we are thinking of a sage color. We know we want a light blue for the bathroom, but we are waiting until the renovations are done before we paint it. We have some really cool renovations plans, but I'll tell you more about it at another time. We're not starting until Jan anyway, so I'll have plenty of time to talk about those details.

So Many Changes!

So I quit my job last Friday because I accepted a new one at McCann. I can never seem to just tackle one major life change at a time. I get married, I get a new job. I buy a new house and move, I get a new job. I'm really excited about my new job. The people seem really great and excited to be there. An increase in pay is always welcome, particularly when you have a new mortgage and renovation expenses looming in the distance. Decrease in frustration with current job- priceless. I do feel like I'm leaving my teammates in a lurch, but they need to fix the problems and it doesn't seem like they are going to do that any time soon, so the company will just keep losing people.

This past weekend, we went shopping a bought a big dining room table that seats 10. It's massive. We weren't planning on buying a new table, but Renovation Hardware had a really good sale, so we bought it. Kind of a big impulse purchase, I know. We also ended up going to the annual Alameda Peanut Butter Jam. It's a local music festival that had a women's Japanese Taiko Drum troupe, so we invited Show and the Schneiders to join along. We made it for the end of the performance and then Maika and Kaori demonstrated their skills on the Taiko. What was kind of funny is that none of the drummers were Japanese- they were all caucasian. It was still an enjoyable afternoon outside in Alameda hanging out with friends.

Since moving, I am noticing a few things that are different living in Alameda vs. SF. Living in SF, I used to see maybe 4 or 5 kids a day. Living in Alameda, I see dozens of kids everyday. Using public transportation in SF, you never knew when the bus was going to come. I have used the transbay bus 7 times now and it was only late once- 6 minutes. Every other time, it's been like clockwork. Also, I am writing this post as I am on the bus. How cool is that? Internet on a bus? For $3.50 per ride, I can get free internet vs. going to a internet cafe for $10 a day. Living in Alameda, I feel like I have more time after work. Living in SF, I felt like I had no time after work. Now, you might ask, if you have so much more time, then how come you aren't blogging more? Well, I guess that is because we have been doing a lot more stuff for the house. We refinished the hardwood floors, we got a new refrigerator, got internet, got cable, etc. All the things that come with moving. I expect that I'll have a little more time once we settle in a little more. Please ask me if I miss living in SF, but I don't really feel like I have left. I still go in almost everyday for work. I can stay in SF after work if I want to hang out. The bus home can be a little more cumbersome. We went home after dinner on Friday with Michelle and Mike at 9:30 instead of hanging out which is what I think we would have done in the old days. I'm going to bed earlier because I get tired from all the moving stuff and so I am also waking up a little earlier. I guess that's what happens when you move to suburbia.

We have met a few of our neighbors and they all seem to be SO nice. They have come over to introduce themselves and while we knew about Christmas being a big holiday. We were told that Halloween is also big. Apparently, since the street is known for being safe/nice, they bus kids in- so they told us that they ran out of 24 lbs. of candy last year. That's a lot of candy. We still have candy leftover from last year because only 3 kids showed up at our door in SF. They also told us that we have a reputation to live up to- the previous owner used to decorate the house like a haunted house with a spider coming out of the tree! So we have Jamie heading up our planning committee and Show as creative director- should be fun!

Home Sweet Home

So it's been a while since my last posting. As you can probably imagine, we were busy packing. It's been crazy busy. So I had an interview on Friday. I have not been looking for a job, but I have been pretty unhappy at work lately. It's been really frustrating because there is a lot of inefficiency and I have had to work a lot of long hours and weekends lately. Anyway, Nikki invited me to dinner with a few of her old work friends and I met this woman who told me that her client was Microsoft. I told her that I used to work with Microsoft and so she asked me what I did and asked me if I had consulting experience (which I did.) She said that she was looking for 2 people to hire and that she thought that my experiences might be what they were looking for. She sent me a job description and asked me to come meet with a few people in her office.

It was a really great meeting. I liked everyone that I met and the SVP that I met with is friends with 2 of my old coworkers from KSA. What a crazy small world. He seemed really smart and I had a great time talking with him. I spoke with 4 people and none of them had been with the company for more than 9 months. They all sounded really excited to be there.

So, we also moved this weekend. We are officially Alameda residents. The move was so painful. I'll have to tell you about it another time because we're still reeling from all the chaos. We were just lucky to have some good friends helping us. We are currently sleeping on the kitchen floor on our futon while we refinish the hardwood floors. Let the renovations begin!









We also have a little video that Edwin shot the night before our move. Enjoy!

Sincerely Yours

So we spent a lot of time this weekend looking at more kitchens. My cousin Billy told us about a Chinese hardware store called Sincere Hardware. What's really great about this place is that they have a lot of the same brands that we saw at Home Depot/Home Expo. The difference is that they charge about 30% less- literally. I was asking the salesperson about a pot filler faucet and he pulls out the catalog and then reduces that price by 30% right in front of me. I'm having them give me an estimate of how much cabinets would cost because we were able to find the exact cabinets that we liked from Home Expo there. We're going to have our general contractor install them, but we'll probably purchase the materials from Sincere.

We're still trying to decide if we should knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and replace it with a peninsula or keep the wall. Pros- a more open layout, more seating, more counterspace. Cons- less cabinet space, no more cool swinging door, no pot filler faucet (probably), less wall space in dining room, and no formal dining area. Decisions, decisions...

We're also trying to figure out what kind of sink to put in. I think a stainless steel sink should be fine, but Edwin really likes the farmhouse style porcelain sinks. I like them too, but the price is a little higher than I want to spend on a sink. If we can find one that isn't too expensive, maybe I can be convinced. Only 4 more days until we are officially homeowners!

Moving Sucks

I hate packing. It's making this place a mess. There are boxes everywhere. It makes things stressful because there's this impending deadline. We have 2 weeks until we move. We've been furiously studying cabinets and tiles. We went to Home Depot and Home Expo last weekend. It was good that we went to Home Expo first. They had a very large showroom that had a lot of full kitchens to explore and for renovation ideas vs. Home Depot which just has a cabinet door in one section and tiles in another. Home Depot doesn't really "put it together." You basically have to know what you're looking for and hope that it will match.

What I found is that we may like a light fixture or a set of cabinets, but the styles don't necessarily go together. Designers on HGTV make it look easy. It reminds me of when we were planning the wedding as well. You may like individual pieces, but if they don't work together, you can't use it. I guess you can say the same thing for furniture in general. You might have a chair that you like, but it doesn't match the couch or the wall paint color.

And of course, Edwin and I each have our favorite styles. Edwin likes oak with the wood grain that you find in older houses- very classic and goes well with Craftsman style homes like ours. I like things a little more modern with cherry cabinets and a smooth finish. The model kitchen we saw looked very nice, but I wonder if it will look "old." I mean, that is kind of the point, but I don't want to spend all this money on a renovation to have people think that it wasn't renovated when we sell it and not get our money back. We will probably end up with with the oak because I think that it goes better with style of the house. I'll have my cherry cabinets in our next house. LOL.

We have also been looking at refrigerators. We're considering buying a refrigerator using craislist. In my mind, I have always had a "used" refrigerator in any apartment that I have ever lived in. I have seen a lot of listings where people are renovating their houses and have to get rid of their appliances. Now, that being said, I don't want anyone's cruddy 10 year old refrigerator either. The one that I am interested in is a stainless steel counter depth refrigerator that has only been used for 6 months. They are selling it for half the price that they paid for it because they bought a new house and don't need it. For half price, I can deal with a slightly used refrigerator. It's probably a much nicer refrigerator than we would ever buy otherwise. We're going to try and look at it tomorrow. I bought my wedding dress on ebay. Why not a refrigerator? I think that you can get some pretty good deals that way.

We also signed our loan docs this week. It was pretty painless. I really like our mortgage broker Rosemary Gee. She's been very good at explaining things and being responsive. I got very frustrated with another broker because he kept giving me the run around. I would ask questions and not get very clear answers. I asked for example rates and loan options and I never got anything on paper. During our first and last meeting, I had to write everything down because he didn't give us examples on paper. I think it was because he didn't want to commit to anything. When I told him the loans that Rosemary got us, he said that it didn't exist and that we should go with him. I asked him on 3 separate occasions to email me with loan rates and options and he never did. I went to my bank and asked for rates and they never got back to me either. They just told me that mortgage brokers were blood suckers. The most ironic thing is that our first loan is with my bank. Dumb. The second loan is a line of credit. What's nice about the line of credit is that we can pay it off faster if we want to and we can also take any of the principal we pay back out if we need it. It means that we don't need to have our cash reserves sitting in a bank gaining less than 5% interest when we are going to have to pay more than 5% in interest. Therefore, we get to pay off our debt faster and have access to emergency money if we need it. It's nice flexibility that we did not expect. Have I bored you yet? We hand over the big check this week and we close escrow on August 30, so T minus 6 days until we are officially homeowners.

We're Movin' on Up... to the East Side (Bay)!

Sujay has started calling us the Jeffersons. Remember the theme song? It does seem to fit. I've started packing. We still have all the boxes from when we moved in. I think we moved in with about 65 boxes, so I'm thinking that we'll have about 80 boxes when we move out. I'm aiming to pack at least 2 boxes per day. I know that only means 60 boxes until moving day, but I figure Edwin should pack at least 20, right? :) So I've packed 4 boxes so far- only 56 more to go.

We went back to the house last night to measure all the rooms. We've been thinking a lot about all the renovations that need to get done and the first step is to figure out how much room we have to play with. It seems so hard to figure out what to do first and whether or not we should refinish the floors before we move in since we don't want them to get them all messed up with the kitchen renovations. What to do? We're headed to Home Depot for some ideas this weekend.

Has anyone been reading all of the news about how bad the mortgage industry is doing lately? We read this article about how hard it is now to get a loan. We're thankful that we locked in a loan 2 weeks ago. We're going to sign the papers on Tuesday. Yikes. I guess I'll be glad to have this part over with and being another step close to home ownership.

All By Myself

So this past weekend, Edwin was off on his annual surfing surfari and so I was left to my own devices. What does that mean? I got to leave my clothes out for a few days, not make the bed if I didn't want to, and get some girly stuff done like go to JoAnn Fabrics without being timed in the store.

On Friday, I worked from home. I was meeting Matilde, Sujay, Chris, Corinne, Greg, and Cary for dinner in East Bay, so I met up with Matilde a little earlier to do some Friday shopping at the Embarcadero Center. Then, we went to Coriya for some hot pot after sitting in traffic for like an hour. Good thing I had Chris and Matilde to keep me company. There was a big debate about where to go for dinner since there was a possibility of going to hot pot on Sat night as well with Show and Derek. Anyway, we stayed until closing and I ate until I could eat no more. I couldn't believe how much I ate though I like to think that most of it was liquid because I drank a lot of the soup!

On Saturday, I volunteered to help remove graffiti in SF through my church. Though it was publicized in the church bulletin, it was actually organized by another volunteer group. I get myself out of bed and arrive by 9AM in the Sunset as requested. I was a little grumpy because when I got there, I waited around for a few minutes before someone came up to me and told me that they had moved the meeting location. Then, they didn't have any designated parking and we were told that we would get light refreshments, so I didn't eat any breakfast. When you say light refreshment, I think of food. (The last time I volunteered for something like Habitat for Humanity, they gave us muffins and juice.) All we got that day was water.

There were about 3 people from church, about 5 more from different organizations, and then 8 more from SWAT. I thought it might be some kind of police force team. So I started talking to one of them. His name was Junior and he lives in Bayview/Hunters Point. He was really friendly and revealed that he had to do 90 days of community service. So I asked him why and he tells me that he was caught with 5 oz. 5 oz. of what? No idea and I didn't ask! I did ask him if it was for posession and his response to me was, "Hell no! I don't smoke that stuff!" Sorry- did not mean to offend! JK! Anyway, he told me that he had to do the community service on the weekends and pay $150 each day because he couldn't do it during the week since he had a job. I asked him what his job was and he told me that he was a security guard at a jewerly store. Interesting. Though it was a little scary to be working with these guys, they were all very nice. I guess that I never realize that people that are so different live so close. I usually feel the same way after I have been to the DMV or in traffic school. Actually, meeting this guy Junior was kind of the highlight of the day.

We started walking from 19th and Noriega and headed west towards the ocean. It was a total pain in the butt because we had to carry these buckets of paint and wear latex gloves. I was hoping to get some practice painting for the house, but we were mostly painting mailboxes, garbage cans, and utility boxes. Believe me, the city is very picky and they get quite upset if you confuse garbage can green with mailbox green. This definitely was not as fun as the last time when I helped to paint an elderly woman's house. I was told by one of the coordinators that they are out there repainting these mailboxes and garbage cans every week. Every week they get spray painted and every week, they repaint them. How senseless. I don't even understand why someone would pay for the spraypaint to do it. Such a waste. That's why I probably won't volunteer for them again. That, and I couldn't stand how disorganized they were. I really have no patience for that. When I volunteered last time, they were super organized in the list of tasks that needed to be done and had the supplies ready to go. We didn't even get started for like half an hour because they weren't prepared. At the end, I didn't have the patience for them to drive us back to our origination. Since we were at 47th and Noriega (that's right, I walked almost 30 blocks with a bucket of paint.) I decided to walk over to my Uncle Glenn's house which was another 5 blocks away on 47th and Irving. Good thing I did too, because when I arrived, they were having a BBQ and since I hadn't eaten anything that day, I was starving!

For dinner, we went to San Tung again and then over to Chris and Corinne's house to watch Hot Fuzz. I feel asleep within 20 minutes, but I am proud to say that I was not the first to fall asleep. Matilde beat me by 5 minutes.

On Sunday, we had dim sum and then I dropped off Show and Derek at the airport. On my way home, I did some window shopping and "research." I was thinking about what colors we might want for each of the rooms, maybe buying a new kitchen table, window treatments, and trying to decide if I should make or just purchase the cushions of the banquette that we are going to have in the kitchen. I think that it might be easier and maybe even cheaper just to buy cushions from Pier One. I'm looking forward to building it. I think it will be fun. We still have to think about what renovations will be done when and start planning the move. I guess we should start packing. We're planning on moving out on Saturday, September 8. Anyone want to help us move to the East Bay? :) We're very lucky that we have some good friends and family that have already said that they can help. I can't wait. It should be fun. I'm really looking forward to it. Part of me wishes that we could move in sooner, but part of me is relieved that we have some time to set things up.

2 Days Left

So we have 2 more days until the contingency period is over for the house. It basically means that we are locked in at that point. Until that point, we can still get out of it. So we spent 3.5 more hours at the house last night with our real estate agent. So now we are thinking that we may change our original plans. Instead of having a bathroom in the basement, we are thinking that maybe we will try to convert the current bathroom into a master bath and then convert the hallway and linen closet into a second bathroom off of the kitchen. According to Kian, he recommends doing remodeling before we move in or at least before we unpack. We're leaning towards this option as well. I like the idea of having it done earlier so that we can enjoy the changes longer. Why pay for changes for the next owner to enjoy? This plan requires that we do the kitchen remodel with the bathroom addition. That's just a lot of money up front. No problem, right? JK!

Our mortgage broker also told us that the appraiser said that we got a good deal on the house, so that makes me feel more confident that we are making a good decision. She also has been telling us that the lenders are definitely getting more stringent. She said that the day after they approved our loan, they stopped accepting applications. I didn't think that all the activity around sub-prime lending would affect us, but I guess that it could have even though we have great credit.

At this point, Edwin and I are pretty sure that we are going to go through with the offer. I feel like we know what the issues are and what we have to do and how much it will cost. It's more a question of when we can tackle each of these projects. We should be busy for years! JK! I think that it will be hard work, but it will be worth it. Given that it's one of the cheapest houses on the block, the value can only go up, right?

We also met one of our neighbors who is an elderly gentleman who has lived in his house for over 40 years and prior to that he lived across the street where his daughter lives now. I guess he must like the street. He did say that Christmas time is very busy because it is known as Christmas Tree Lane since Alameda decorates the entire street. I have never heard of it, but I am looking forward to it.

We also found a really great Hawaiian restaurant called Hawaiian Drive Inn. I had the saimin and a spam musubi while Edwin had the garlic shrimp. Each of the entrees was like $4 and the bill came to $12 without tip. The place is a family run establishment and we were served by the dad and his son who was probably around 12 years old. It was so tasty- we will definitely be back.

Happy Birthday to me!

Wow! What a busy weekend. I can't believe that it already over. On Friday, we went to a dinner/performance art event called Supper Club with Steve and Pablo. It has been compared to Cirque du Soleil, and I could see why they would say that, but I don't think that it was quite the same. They basically have all these beds that you can lounge on and eat your dinner. In the middle of the floor they have some random performances and a really great DJ so you can actually do a little clubbing as well. (They open the doors to the general public around 11:30 and it becomes a dance club.) Our favorites were the scallops and the tomato and crouton salad.

On Saturday, we went waterskiing, wake boarding, and inner tubing at Lake Berryessa. We rented a boat and also had a picnic area set up with a BBQ. It was a very warm day and it was nice to be in the water. This is my second time waterskiing and it was not much better than my first attempt at Corrine's bachelorette. Edwin, of course, was one of the better waterskiiers. (Naturally.) I heard that Jamie was probably the best. Matilde, Show, and Tom were able to try the wakeboard. I stuck to the inner tube. I'll post some pics soon.

We also went to the house today to inspect it with another general contractor and also our architect friend Bhavana. We didn't find any surprises, but we spent about 4 hours there looking around and talking about it. We're not quite done and will probably look at it again, but so far, I don't see anything that would make me think twice about buying it. It was more about trying to figure out what we want to do with it and the order of priority for all of the projects that we will inevitably have to tackle. (Where to begin when there is so much to do?) Part of me thinks that this may be fun. Part of it will be shear torture. It's hard to justify things like bolting down the foundation, adding insulation, doing a sewer later, or changing the furnace when nobody ever sees that stuff- especially when there is so much cosmetically that could be improved. We're still thinking that we will refinish the hardwood floors, buy a refrigerator, and paint. But now we are thinking that we may finish the basement sooner rather than later so that we have more living space and add a 3/4 bath. In order to do that, we will need to replace the furnace, move the sump pump (like I even know what that is!), put flooring down, and drywall up. Then maybe we could redo the upstairs bath because then we would have another bathroom to use. I'm still thinking about applying to HGTV so that they could redo our kitchen...

So today is my birthday. I told Edwin that I thought it might be fun to have some people over to the apartment because we haven't had people over in a while. I can't even remember the last time. So we sent out an evite last minute last weekend and I didn't think that many people would come since it was a Sunday and with less than a week's notice. But we ended up cramming 25 people into our apartment plus 3 babies and a toddler. I wonder if that is some kind of record for this place. I was afraid that we might run out of food, but I think that there was enough for everyone. We were able to use a lot of the leftovers from yesterday's BBQ. And then we started cleaning out our cupboards. (After all, we're probably moving in about a month, so the more people eat, the less we have to move, right?) We still have a lot of leftovers. It was a fun time and a good way to tell people that we were going to be moving (for the people who are not loyal blog readers like yourself! :) ) We broke out some of the platters and dishes that we had received as wedding gifts, so it was cool to be able to use it. I was dismayed to see one of my favorite platters got chipped when I pulled it out of the cupboard. I didn't chip it, but it had been chipped probably because we have a bunch of platters stacked on top of each other. We ended the evening playing Set and Cranium. Now I know why we are all friends- we are all geeks! All in all, it was a great way to celebrate my 32nd birthday. It was just great to be able to hang out with people.

Cramming for Finals

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! It's so nice just to hear from you all. Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this blog and now I know you do. The last few days have flown by in a haze. We're going to inspect the house on Sunday (my birthday!) with our realtor and our architect friend Bhavana. We are also hoping to have a general contractor take a look as well. Does anyone have a general contractor that they would like to recommend in the Bay Area? We have a lead, but we don't have anyone scheduled yet.

So I have spent the last few days trying to get smart and learn about mortgages. Remember in college how you had to cram for finals? That is kinda how I am feeling right now. Does anyone know what a LIBOR is? How about negative amortization? I don't know what that is, but I know I don't want it! Mortgage rates seem to be on the rise, so I think we were pretty lucky to lock in our first mortgage yesterday. We have been checking rates online and trying to decide if we should go to multiple brokers. I have heard of going to multiple lenders, but we are using a broker that was recommended to us by our friend Steve. We started with another mortgage broker who was also recommended by an old coworker, but I wasn't really as comfortable with him. I didn't like that he didn't give me any paperwork from our discussion. He kept telling me how things were going to change anyway. I don't care that it's going to change, I want something on a paper to look at, not just my scribbled notes.

If you went to school with me, you will know that I took horrible notes (even when I didn't fall asleep during lectures). I always had to borrow Santiney's notes to make any sense of my own notes. She had the nicest notes- she would even re-copy them if she thought that they were not up to her standard. But I digress...

Happy birthday to Joe. He came out for work this week, so we had a mini Ford reunion tonight at a Chinese Muslim restaurant called Old Mandarin. It was kind of funny because I think that we have been to this restaurant before, but we had a bad experience. This time, it was MUCH better- maybe because someone else ordered. The lamb stew was tasty and my fave was the tendon. I wasn't a big fan of the lamb dumplings. (This place is known for lamb dishes.) Nevertheless, we were all full when we left. I would definitely go back now that I know what to order.

This weekend is going to be busy, but fun. We're having dinner with Steve and Pablo tomorrow night. On Saturday, we are going to Lake Berryessa for some BBQing and some waterskiing. On Sunday, we are going to the house and then we're having friends over for my birthday. Lots to do and so little time! I need a vacation!

We are Homeowners! (Almost!)

It's official. We are in contract. They accepted our offer. We are on our way to becoming homeowners. We still can't believe it. I spent most of the day on cloud 9. Things going wrong at work? OK! No problem! I wonder how long this high will last. Here's a link to a virtual tour of the house.

We're starting to put together many lists. Things we have to do (schedule meetings, give landlord notice, move money to get the down payment liquid, schedule a move, pack, etc.), things we want to do before moving into the house (refinish floors, buy a refrigerator, paint, etc.), and updating our estimated costs template (mortgage costs, renovation costs, closing costs.) I think that the next 30 days are going to fly by.

Today is a good day to buy a house. Laura and Alex put in an offer and got their offer accepted today on a house in Cincinnati. Pretty funny coincidence. We knew that they were househunting last weekend, but we didn't know that they had made an offer. They didn't know we made one either.

We Won the Lottery!

Just kidding! Though we feel like we won the lottery. We went to see another house this past weekend and made an offer today. They countered on some of the terms (10 days instead of 14, etc.), but it looks like we are probably going to accept because nothing in the counter mentioned anything about changing the price. Yikes! We're not quite homeowners yet, but it does feel good to not be rejected- again.

We are definitely in the shocked, OMG-what-did-we-just-do phase. We didn't think that we would get accepted or even countered. Though we have started offering closer to the asking price versus some of our previous verbal offers were way below asking. There's still a lot that could go wrong, but so far, so good. We're hoping that the interest rate remains the same or lowers for us.

The house is a 2 bedroom 1 bath fixer. Most of the fixes are cosmetic- removing wall paper, refinishing the hardwood floors, and painting. But we will be renovating the kitchen and probably the bathroom at some point. The kitchen is currently useable, but we'll probably want to update it relatively soon. We have to buy a refrigerator, but that's pretty much the only appliance we will need to buy right away. The bathroom they just updated, but I almost wish that they hadn't because they used the cheapest materials and I want to update it sooner rather than later. We need to replace the furnace as well. Those are probably the biggest costs that we will have when we move in. Wish us luck!

Still Homeless

We didn't get the house. Apparently one of the other offers decided to offer over asking. We offered asking. It's disappointing, but that's just how it goes. My coworker was telling me that he made 9 offers before he got one accepted in LA. Crazy. Guess that means that we just get to save more money.

The Suspense is Killing Me!

So we went house hunting yesterday. We found a few houses that we were interested in. We actually made our frst official offer tonight. This house is in Alameda and is near one of the best schools in Alameda. It's a bedroom 1.5 bath with a big deck off the back. The biggest drawback is that it is on a busy street. The noise is not really that bad and they have double-paned windows on the only bedroom facing the street. We wouldn't really need to do too many renovations and it has an extra "room" in the basement with a half bath. Most of the places we have seen only have 1 bath and we would need to do a lot of extra renovations. I'm really nervous. We were told when we saw the house yesterday that they already received an offer from someone on Friday that had just lost a bidding war on another house. We found out today that they received another offer today, so the seller has 3 offers on a house that went on the market less than a week ago.

This is the first time that a buyer has ever written a letter about themselves and it sounded like the owner is a single mom with daughter who is moving out of California. Since she wrote a letter about her experience living in the house, I wrote one about us. I basically told her that we just got married in October and that we have lived in our apartment for over 5 years (longer than she's owned her home.) If this works, I'll let you know. So we left a message with the selling agent that we would send the preapproval letter tomorrow morning and send a deposit check. She confirmed that she received our offer and asked that we send in the preapproval letter and check in the morning. I'm taking that as good news because if our offer was too low, they would have said, "Don't bother," right? We think that the other offers might be higher, but I'm hoping the fact that we don't have a contingency to sell a current house will help our offer. I guess you never know around here. If we get this house, it will be a small miracle. Guess we'll find out in the next 48 hours.

I have so much nervous energy! I was talking to my coworker and he said that the house hunting is the fun part. He said that selling the house is the worst because you are just waiting for someone else to make an offer. Well, the owner of the house we just made an offer on doesn't seem to have too much trouble... 3 offers in less than 4 days. Please pray for us and cross your fingers! And if you know of a woman who lives in Alameda with her daughter who is moving out of state, please put in a good word for us!

More Important Things than Work

So work lately has been a drag. I've been working at night and I worked last weekend. I'm not working this weekend. I'm on strike. Don't know what we're doing this weekend, but I'm not working!

So we have been watching HGTV everyday for the past few months because our Tivo hard drive died. We have even talked about applying to be on one of the shows when we finally buy a house. Well, imagine my surprise when I started watching "Get it Together" and I recognize one of the people on the show. I used to work with this guy named Dylan at GlobalNetXchange and he and his wife were getting their house renovated on TV. What a small world. I'll have to see if I can find his contact information...

Happy belated birthday to Dad. (It was yesterday.) Their anniversary is om Monday, so I guess my parents will be celebrating this weekend. Speaking of anniversaries, we've been thinking about how to celebrate our first anniversary in October. I think that we will be traveling, but where? We're toying with the idea of going on a cruise to Mexico. We'll see.

I just heard that my grandmother had surgery today. Some of you may know that my grandmother has cancer and has been in chemo since February. She's been doing really well, so we thought that the worst was over. Because she was doing well, they decided to try and remove more of the cancer, but when they openned her up, they saw that the cancer had spread to her liver. They are going to give her more chemo, but it looks like they can't get rid of it and it won't prolong her life. Since my grandparents moved to LA last year, I've had the chance to visit my grandmother at least 5 times this year. I'm really glad that I have had the extra time to spend with her. I'll probably be going to LA a few more times this year. Please pray for grandma to enjoy the rest of her time and that she still doesn't have any side effects to the new chemotherapy. It just reminds me that there are so many more important things than work.

Bowling for Dollars

So I am totally excited to use the new polling function in Blogger. I know, I'm a geek. I haven't decided what I want to poll on yet, but as a market researcher, it's kind of fun.

This weekend, we went bowling at Sea Bowl with some friends. It was fun, but my bowling is terribly inconsistent. In my first game, I had 3 strikes. Unfortunately, every time I got a strike, I got a gutter ball (and a second ball that wasn't much better) which gave me a score of 81. How do you have 3 strikes and only a score of 81? A lot of gutter balls, that's how. My second game I had only 2 strikes, but I managed to not gutter all my other frames, so I ended with a 88. Edwin got the high score of the night with 153.

Today, we had brunch at Ella's with Mike, Michelle, Chris, and Corinne. It was fun catching up with our newlywed friends. Good food, good friends, what more can you ask for? Maybe a longer weekend? This weekend went by too fast. Probably because I also spent it working on both days. I try my best not to work at all on the weekend, so when I have to work both days, I get a little cranky. I think that I will be ending work a little early this week to reward myself.

Not too much to report on the housing front. It's actually been kind of quiet lately. Not too many houses coming onto the market. So we are kind of just waiting. We've seen a couple of houses, but nothing too interesting, so we're just saving our pennies for that down payment...

Perfectly Portland

So I am in Portland right now for work. Work this week is sucking, but being in Portland is making things a lot better. We came out here last year with the Banerjees and the Schneiders for vacation. I kept seeing the areas that we visited and it made me nostalgic. My flight was delayed an hour and I got a seat in the back of the plane in the middle seat. (I always request the front of the plane by the window.) Our crackerjack travel agents didn't provide my membership numbers for my car or hotel (even though it's on file.) I guess I shouldn't complain since they "forgot" to purchase my plane ticket on a previous trip which caused me to receive "extra" security screening since I was purchasing my ticket the same day. I can't believe that there are people out there who still use travel agents.

Anyway, even they can't ruin my experience out here in Portland. When I arrived at the Marriot, they put me on the 19th floor (it's a 20 floor building) and gave me access to the concierge floor. I think that they must have confused me with someone with status or something. I went up to the concierge floor to print out my boarding ticket for the next day and it was so nice. They had out desserts and water bottles with a view overlooking downtown Portland. Very nice. For dinner, I asked the front desk for sushi recommendations and they pointed me to a place around the block. It was the best sushi that I have had since I ate at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. I loved it. It's called Koji. When I walked in, I got seated at the sushi bar.

I was sitting by myself and I noticed that there were 3 other people seated around me who were eating by themselves. It reminded me of grade school when you never wanted to sit alone in the cafeteria. I wonder when we decide that it's OK to eat by ourselves. I didn't bring any reading material and though I usually talk on the phone when I am eating alone, I was just happy to relax and ponder my thoughts as I sat by myself. I ordered the Deluxe Assorted Sushi and the quality was just phenomenal for the price. The fish was so fresh and tasty. I wanted more when I finished. I wish that they were in CA, but alas, they are only in OR and Seattle. My bill was $24 and I gave them a $6 tip because I was so happy. (I figured I am expensing it anyway, so why not reward someone else when I can?) I'm thinking about coming back to pick up some food for lunch tomorrow before my flight...

After dinner, I decided to walk a block to the Pioneer Square which is essentially downtown Portland. I sat in the public open space and just people watched for a while. The weather is a nice and warm 80 degrees and it was still light out at 8:30PM and there were people everywhere. It made me think about impressions of a city. You know- when you visit a city, it evokes emotions about how you feel about that city. There's usually nothing specific- just a lot of little things that add to your overall experience. For instance, Portland will always be one of the cities that I can go back to. I will always enjoy being in Portland. It's just so pleasant. You can walk around, the weather is nice, the views are great and hilly, and the people are so friendly. (I am visiting 2 clients here and they both independently offered to pick me up from the airport. Who does that?) I feel that way about Chicago, Boston, parts of Italy, Seattle- these are just places I love to visit. I think that most people know how I feel about NYC- fun to visit, but dirty and too expensive. LA is too spread out. Atlanta is too hot. Portland is just great. I kept remembering little things like how I was chasing Maika up and down the escalators by the rental car counters, walking into the Nordstroms and buying the shoes I wore during the wedding (tax free!), walking by the Rite-Aid where Kaori and Jamie bought Pooh-San (a stuffed Winne-the-Pooh since they forgot to bring Usachan- Maika's stuffed rabbit that she sleeps with every night), driving by the Four Points hotel where we stayed, and the Jessica McClintock store that Matilde and I went to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses. (Binh, you're just going to say I told you so because you always told me how great it is.)

Alrighty, got to get to bed, but before I go, I gotta give a shout out to Kathy- Happy Birthday, girlfriend. So when you take a break from chasing Owen to read this, I was thinking of you even though we haven't talked/emailed in a while.