Last weekend, we flew down to LA to pick up Edwin's old bed, dresser, and BBQ from his mom's house. At least that was the plan. We were going to pick them up from his mom's garage and then drive them back. The dresser and BBQ made it back, but the mattress is another story. The mattress has been in the garage for the last 5 years and while it was wrapped in plastic, a rat decided to make it his home. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get rid of an old mattress. The dump charges $70. I mean, shouldn't the dump accept everything for free? I mean, isn't that the definition of a dump? They receive all the junk that no one wants?
Well, I should start from the beginning of the weekend. We were flying on Southwest on Friday flight at 5:30PM. We're on the plane, but then for some reason we were sitting at the gate for an extended time. They finally made an announcement saying that someone on the plane was feeling ill and that they were waiting for a paramedic to determine if the passenger would be able to fly. Now, it's not that I didn't care about this passenger, but why didn't they just put this passenger on a later flight so that the rest of the passengers wouldn't be delayed? The person behind gave me one plausible answer, but I'm not sure that I liked their theory- maybe this person is contagious and they didn't want to risk exposing others beyond the people on the plane. So an hour and a half later, we are on our way to LA.
After we arrived, we had dinner with George and then went to see a movie called Cloverfield. It's a post-apocalyptic thriller that was directed by JJ Abrams. He's the same guy that created Alias and Heroes, so I thought it would be entertaining. Unfortunately, the cinematography was so shaky that I couldn't watch 90% of the film. I get motion sickness pretty easily. I just thought that it might be one of those films where it was shaky for part of the film, but it was literally the entire film. Don't they make videocameras with stabilizers nowadays? I managed to actually be in the theatre for most of the movie, but I did have to fight the nausea at the end. Note to self- no more movies that have crappy cinematography.
On Saturday, we had lunch with my grandparents, George, and Edwin's mom. We picked up the truck from Budget (since we hate U-Haul) and then packed the truck. We had dinner with Binh and then she took us to a new Indian ice cream place called Saffron Spot. Now, most of you know that I'm not a fan of Indian food, but she was also the one that introduced me to Pinkberry, so who am I to argue? It was in an Indian Plaza near Cerritos- Sujay's hometown. I still am not a fan of Indian food, but ice cream is hard to turn down.
On Sunday, we drove back in the rain. It was pretty uneventful, but we were happy that it only took about 6.5 hours given that the truck had a governor that basically capped our speed at 70mph. Monday morning, I flew up to Seattle for work. After my meetings, I stopped by Edwin's cousins' house in Issaquah. This house was huge. They just moved from San Bruno and they moved into a newly constructed house. It was about 5000 sq ft. 5000! That's like a mansion! Especially since our house is only 1237 sq ft. Their house is 4x the size of ours. I'm not saying that I want that much space, because my second thought is "how do you keep a house that big clean?" We have enough trouble cleaning our small house.
We had a maid service in the apartment right before we bought the house and I do miss it. The funny this is that I think it kept our apartment more clean because we would clean the apartment before the maid service would come because we didn't want them to think that we were slobs and because while they would clean, they wouldn't organize our things or put them back where they belonged. I used to think it was strange to hear about people cleaning before the maid service came, but I totally get it now.
Anyway, it was great to catch up with those guys. This weekend, we are attending a wedding and attending to house stuff.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Who Cares?
Here's a funny and recent article on a Microsoft product that I have been working on: MS OneCare article.
While the article does not bode well for the product that we are trying to promote, I found something else even more intriguing- the author's bio. I have never seen a bio like this before:
While the article does not bode well for the product that we are trying to promote, I found something else even more intriguing- the author's bio. I have never seen a bio like this before:
During her seven years at CNET News.com, Ina Fried has changed beats
several times, changed genders once and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days most of her attention is focused on Microsoft.
You gotta love the Bay Area. I can't think of any other place where you would see a bio like this. What ever happened to "don't ask, don't tell?"
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Time After Time
You never really mean to lose touch with your friends. I've always prided myself on keeping in touch with my friends. When you are young, you have all the time in the world. When you're single, you are busy, but you make the time. When you become a couple, your time gets split further into time with your significant other and both sets of friends. After you buy a house or have kids (I presume, since we are currently without!), that time dwindles so much that you're trying to plan things weeks sometimes months in advance. Heaven forbid you achieve the house and kids- does that mean that you no longer have any friends? Either because you don't have any more money to spend or you're too exhausted to hang out? Oh- and time for yourself? Is there any time left?
We keep telling ourselves that we'll have more time after XXX. First, it was planning the wedding, then it was buying a house, now it's the kitchen renovation. I think this is why we delayed starting the process for so long. We moved in 4 months ago. We probably could have started the kitchen about 2 months ago. Part of it was getting ourselves mentally prepared for the project. Now that we have started the timer, we find ourselves looking at flooring, counters, knobs, etc. during all of our free time. This is not necessarily something that you can do with your friends. Being single and a homeowner must be easier. There's no one to tell you you're spending too much and you don't have to agree on anything with anyone. You get everything that you want and you get to decorate it however you want. Cons- you got that big old mortgage to yourself too.
Edwin and I actually agree a lot- we estimate that we agree on 70% of what we both like in a kitchen. However, it's that last 30% that's hard. It's true what they saw about planning a wedding- if you can last through planning a wedding together, you should be able to withstand the challenges that come with being married. Decorating a home is a lot like planning a wedding. There's a lot of coordination required, both from an aesthetic perspective as well as a timing perspective. You may like this one tile and these other cabinets, but then they just don't look right together. I just have to keep on telling myself how awesome our wedding day was. It's also similar in that you're spending so much money at once and you don't want to make any mistakes. (I guess we could say the same thing about buying the house in the first place. And again, we're both pretty happy that we moved to Alameda.)
We keep telling ourselves that we'll have more time after XXX. First, it was planning the wedding, then it was buying a house, now it's the kitchen renovation. I think this is why we delayed starting the process for so long. We moved in 4 months ago. We probably could have started the kitchen about 2 months ago. Part of it was getting ourselves mentally prepared for the project. Now that we have started the timer, we find ourselves looking at flooring, counters, knobs, etc. during all of our free time. This is not necessarily something that you can do with your friends. Being single and a homeowner must be easier. There's no one to tell you you're spending too much and you don't have to agree on anything with anyone. You get everything that you want and you get to decorate it however you want. Cons- you got that big old mortgage to yourself too.
Edwin and I actually agree a lot- we estimate that we agree on 70% of what we both like in a kitchen. However, it's that last 30% that's hard. It's true what they saw about planning a wedding- if you can last through planning a wedding together, you should be able to withstand the challenges that come with being married. Decorating a home is a lot like planning a wedding. There's a lot of coordination required, both from an aesthetic perspective as well as a timing perspective. You may like this one tile and these other cabinets, but then they just don't look right together. I just have to keep on telling myself how awesome our wedding day was. It's also similar in that you're spending so much money at once and you don't want to make any mistakes. (I guess we could say the same thing about buying the house in the first place. And again, we're both pretty happy that we moved to Alameda.)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Money Pit
We spent this weekend split between hanging out with friends and family and shopping for house stuff. On Friday, we went to dinner at the Park Chalet and to listen to the Pimento Project again. This is the same band we saw a few weeks ago at the tiki bar in Alameda. On Saturday, Edwin went snowboarding while I ran errands and shopped with Matilde. Jon and Jeannette were also visiting here this weekend, so I met up with them for a Cambodian dinner in the Mission. It was my first time eating Cambodian food. It seemed a lot like other Asian food. A cross between Thai and Vietnamese. Not bad, but I'm not sure that I would seek it out again. After dinner, we went to this dive bar to hang out. It was really loud and it would not have been much fun had I not been with good company. Jeannette and I chatted for hours until the wee hours of the morning- 3AM. I can't do that stuff anymore- I'm way too old. It hurts too much the next day. Anyway, it would be really cool if they moved here so that I can stop losing so much sleep!
We also did a lot of research for the house this week. We have been looking for flooring for the kitchen and we think that we have found it. It's a porcelain tile that is made to look like slate: Edilcuoghi Rocks. We are getting the blank for the floor, but the actual tile looks more black than this photo. The photo makes it look like a tan color. We're also going to be using this type of tile for the backsplash as well. We also decided to buy the same dishwasher that Laura and Alex have at their house. It had some cool functionality in that it has 3 racks and 1 of them being adjustable and the price was pretty reasonable. We haven't ordered it yet because we're waiting for it to go on sale at Lowes. It's the Maytag MDB8601AWS. Am I boring you all yet? If not, keep reading. That movie Old School really wasn't that far off when Will Farrell's character said that he was going to the Home Depot as his "plans for the weekend." You can spend a LOT of time looking at this stuff. We're thinking about painting the kitchen walls yellow. I kind of like the idea of having a sunny kitchen. Kind of a Meyer lemon yellow. We have been looking at granite counter tops and will probably go with one called China Black which doesn't really have a lot of specs in it. Wonder why they call it China Black since the granite looks all black- thought the stereotype was that Chinese looked yellow. Sinks, door pulls, and recessed lighting- oh my! It's funny, I feel like we keep going to the same 4 stores- Home Depot, Lowes, Sincere Hardware, and Home Expo. If you don't have these stores in your area, where do you look for this stuff? There's a few stores here that specialize like Lamps Plus and some kind of supply shop in Oakland Chinatown, but then is that it? I can't wait until the remodel begins so that it can end! It's funny, Laura and Alex will be here to help us clear out the kitchen since demolition begins on 2/13 and my parents will be here when they complete a month later.
We also got our washer fixed this week. A few weeks ago, our washer started flooding the kitchen floor with water. It was just spilling out of the detergent drawer like the water was plugged up from the inside. We were lucky on 2 fronts. First, we haven't started our kitchen renovations yet, so I don't care so much if we flood the kitchen. Second, since the washer is still brand new, it was still under warranty, so we called and they came out to fix it without any cost to us. The issue? Edwin's sock got stuck and was blocking the hole where the water fills into the washer. You know how everyone eventually loses a sock in the washer? Well, now we know where to look!
More house stuff- I was dismayed to find that in 2 of the corners of the living room we have these small cracks forming. It's not like we didn't know that they would return, but I just thought it would be longer than 2 months after we just finished painting it! To our friends that are looking for housing right now- we can't wait until you all experience the joys of home ownership! Though maybe they'll be smarter than us and just buy something that is move-in ready rather than a fixer upper.
We also did a lot of research for the house this week. We have been looking for flooring for the kitchen and we think that we have found it. It's a porcelain tile that is made to look like slate: Edilcuoghi Rocks. We are getting the blank for the floor, but the actual tile looks more black than this photo. The photo makes it look like a tan color. We're also going to be using this type of tile for the backsplash as well. We also decided to buy the same dishwasher that Laura and Alex have at their house. It had some cool functionality in that it has 3 racks and 1 of them being adjustable and the price was pretty reasonable. We haven't ordered it yet because we're waiting for it to go on sale at Lowes. It's the Maytag MDB8601AWS. Am I boring you all yet? If not, keep reading. That movie Old School really wasn't that far off when Will Farrell's character said that he was going to the Home Depot as his "plans for the weekend." You can spend a LOT of time looking at this stuff. We're thinking about painting the kitchen walls yellow. I kind of like the idea of having a sunny kitchen. Kind of a Meyer lemon yellow. We have been looking at granite counter tops and will probably go with one called China Black which doesn't really have a lot of specs in it. Wonder why they call it China Black since the granite looks all black- thought the stereotype was that Chinese looked yellow. Sinks, door pulls, and recessed lighting- oh my! It's funny, I feel like we keep going to the same 4 stores- Home Depot, Lowes, Sincere Hardware, and Home Expo. If you don't have these stores in your area, where do you look for this stuff? There's a few stores here that specialize like Lamps Plus and some kind of supply shop in Oakland Chinatown, but then is that it? I can't wait until the remodel begins so that it can end! It's funny, Laura and Alex will be here to help us clear out the kitchen since demolition begins on 2/13 and my parents will be here when they complete a month later.
We also got our washer fixed this week. A few weeks ago, our washer started flooding the kitchen floor with water. It was just spilling out of the detergent drawer like the water was plugged up from the inside. We were lucky on 2 fronts. First, we haven't started our kitchen renovations yet, so I don't care so much if we flood the kitchen. Second, since the washer is still brand new, it was still under warranty, so we called and they came out to fix it without any cost to us. The issue? Edwin's sock got stuck and was blocking the hole where the water fills into the washer. You know how everyone eventually loses a sock in the washer? Well, now we know where to look!
More house stuff- I was dismayed to find that in 2 of the corners of the living room we have these small cracks forming. It's not like we didn't know that they would return, but I just thought it would be longer than 2 months after we just finished painting it! To our friends that are looking for housing right now- we can't wait until you all experience the joys of home ownership! Though maybe they'll be smarter than us and just buy something that is move-in ready rather than a fixer upper.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
It's Raining, It's Pouring!
Last weekend, we had a bad storm out here in the Bay Area. Some of you may have heard about it, but it was our first bad storm in the house. It has rained before, but this was the worst by far. We didn't really have any damage, but our neighbor told us that a tree in his backyard broke. A few of my coworkers didn't fare so well- one had a portion of his fence broken and was without electricity for a day and another had a broken window. In the past, we haven't had any water seepage, but this storm caused a little bit of water to pool up in the basement. The sump pump doesn't seem to be working and probably needs to be replaced, but at least we didn't have any real damage. The weather has been pretty bad lately, so I'm looking forward to a nice, sunny day soon. Guess I shouldn't complain since most of you out there are battling the snow. How soon we forget...
Since the weather was so bad, we didn't really want to go out too much. We ended up spending Saturday night at Sujay and Matilde's for an impromptu sleepover. We also got a chance to hang out with the Schneiders there which was nice. It's been a while since all of us have been able to hang out. Time passes by quickly in the company of good friends.
The next few weeks are going to be busy for us. This weekend, Jeannette and Jon are going to be visiting us because Jon has interviews for residency. The following weekend we have plans for a friend's birthday. The weekend after that, we are going to LA to pick up Edwin's old bed and dresser for the guest room and the BBQ for the backyard. The weekend after that we have a wedding. And then Laura and Alex might come for a visit the weekend after that. Not to mention that we need to pick out all of the stuff that we will need for the kitchen renovation during this time since we are hoping to start construction in mid-February. I really thought that things would slow down after the holidays. I guess maybe in the spring???
Since the weather was so bad, we didn't really want to go out too much. We ended up spending Saturday night at Sujay and Matilde's for an impromptu sleepover. We also got a chance to hang out with the Schneiders there which was nice. It's been a while since all of us have been able to hang out. Time passes by quickly in the company of good friends.
The next few weeks are going to be busy for us. This weekend, Jeannette and Jon are going to be visiting us because Jon has interviews for residency. The following weekend we have plans for a friend's birthday. The weekend after that, we are going to LA to pick up Edwin's old bed and dresser for the guest room and the BBQ for the backyard. The weekend after that we have a wedding. And then Laura and Alex might come for a visit the weekend after that. Not to mention that we need to pick out all of the stuff that we will need for the kitchen renovation during this time since we are hoping to start construction in mid-February. I really thought that things would slow down after the holidays. I guess maybe in the spring???
Friday, January 04, 2008
Happy New Year!
Hope everyone had a good holiday. You would think that since I had 10 days off of work, I would have more time to update the blog. It's been so nice to have the time off. We had a great time in LA with the families. We got to see Grandma and she was looking great. It seems that they will be taking her off of chemo now, so it shouldn't be much longer. It would be easy to be sad about her leaving us, but we've known about her cancer for a year now and I'm thankful that she has not been in any pain. She's been with us longer than we had expected and we have had some time to mentally prepare ourselves for the inevitable. Still, we will probably be going back to LA next month to see her when we go to pick up some furniture from Edwin's mom's house.
While we were in LA we got to spend time with both sides of the family. Unfortunately, Laura, Alex, and Hannah all got sick with some kind of virus. We stayed in a house in Culver City and had some great fried chicken at a local restaurant called Honey's Kettle. It had great fried chicken, but the service was horrible. It was supposed to open at 10:30 AM and I was at the door at 11 which was locked. There were 3 people working inside and they all looked up and then kept working. After about 5 minutes, one of them decided to let me in. If the chicken weren't so tasty, I would probably not recommend it. We took out from there twice and I would go back and recommend it as long as you have the time to wait for it.
We did a lot of stuff around the house this week. We put a deposit for our cabinets which we will receive in mid-February. It's the first step in the kitchen renovations. We also bought a Viking stove off of craigslist. It's now sitting in our garage. We had to unpack some more to make room in the garage to store it and the cabinets that will be coming. We also painted the dining room, hallway, and bathroom closets with some help from my aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was nice to have the time to devote to it. Our bedroom is going to be the last room that gets painted and we still need to paint the trim, but then we should be done with painting. We also took down the Christmas decorations. It took a lot less time to take them down than it did to put them up.
We also hosted a New Years Eve Game Night & Potluck. Show & Derek made a seafood stew (yum!) and the Benerjees made apps, Alfio & Michelle brought pizza, the Tachikis brought a salad, and Michelle brought hummus & veggies, we provided the dessert, lemonade, and cheese. It was a good time. With the new year, it made me think about resolutions. I didn't make any this year. I don't like committing to exercising more or losing weight because I just know I'll break them.
While we were in LA we got to spend time with both sides of the family. Unfortunately, Laura, Alex, and Hannah all got sick with some kind of virus. We stayed in a house in Culver City and had some great fried chicken at a local restaurant called Honey's Kettle. It had great fried chicken, but the service was horrible. It was supposed to open at 10:30 AM and I was at the door at 11 which was locked. There were 3 people working inside and they all looked up and then kept working. After about 5 minutes, one of them decided to let me in. If the chicken weren't so tasty, I would probably not recommend it. We took out from there twice and I would go back and recommend it as long as you have the time to wait for it.
We did a lot of stuff around the house this week. We put a deposit for our cabinets which we will receive in mid-February. It's the first step in the kitchen renovations. We also bought a Viking stove off of craigslist. It's now sitting in our garage. We had to unpack some more to make room in the garage to store it and the cabinets that will be coming. We also painted the dining room, hallway, and bathroom closets with some help from my aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was nice to have the time to devote to it. Our bedroom is going to be the last room that gets painted and we still need to paint the trim, but then we should be done with painting. We also took down the Christmas decorations. It took a lot less time to take them down than it did to put them up.
We also hosted a New Years Eve Game Night & Potluck. Show & Derek made a seafood stew (yum!) and the Benerjees made apps, Alfio & Michelle brought pizza, the Tachikis brought a salad, and Michelle brought hummus & veggies, we provided the dessert, lemonade, and cheese. It was a good time. With the new year, it made me think about resolutions. I didn't make any this year. I don't like committing to exercising more or losing weight because I just know I'll break them.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas from LA!
Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We're here in LA to celebrate with my parents, Edwin's mom, my sister, and Edwin's sister. It was a lot of family time. I'll post pictures soon, but in the meantime, here are the pics from our anniversary trip to New Orleans. I finally had some time to finish them!
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| New Orleans Anniversar |
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Who's that in the big, red suit?
Last week was super busy. On Monday, Edwin was Santa Claus. On our street, the men take turns being Santa Claus until December 23rd in the evenings 6:30-8PM. Edwin, I mean Santa, sat in the sleigh while kids came up to him. There was a steady stream of kids. Some of the kids were pretty docile. Most gave him their Christmas list while their parents watched, listened, and sometimes laughed at their requests. I overheard that Hannah Montana products were very popular for the girls and video games were popular with the boys. Who is this Hannah Montana? Anyway, we had a great time. I also participated in a gingerbread house making contest at work. It definitely makes work a lot more fun. There were 10 teams of 2-3 people. We had kits with prebaked houses that we had to decorate within one hour. My coworker Renee and I created a replica of our 2 work buildings. Here's a few pics...
I also previously posted a few pics of the decorations from our house, but here are some updated ones.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
Though each holiday season brings a lot of celebration and festivity, it also can be very busy. In years past, I feel like I have enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. This year, I'm going to try and relax a little more. Most of the time, I am the person that is constantly making lists and checking things off. I enjoy buying gifts for other people. However, lately, I have been reminded more and more that Christmas shouldn't be a time where I have to do stuff like buy a gift or write Christmas cards (or decorate our house!) It should be a time to reflect on God and family. Since we moved this year and we are hoping to remodel the kitchen, we still have many of our things in boxes. There are still a few things that I would love to find (like our can openner!) but for the most part, do we really need those things? Not really. I find myself looking every quarter for things that we don't need and being able to find a lot of stuff that we can give away- yet our house is still full! And of course, we are also buying a lot of new things for the house. Though it's still tough to get rid of something that is perfectly new and nice, but we never use.
On Friday, we attended my company's holiday party. It was held at a club called Mezzanine. It was fun, but I realized that there are still a lot of people that I don't know. It was pretty posh with open bar and lots of appetizers. They even had a photographer there who would take pictures of you "prom-style." There was also dancing, so it did feel a bit like high school. There were people dancing on the stage and I kept thinking to myself, "I like dancing onstage like the next person, but these are people that I work with. I just don't want to make a fool of myself and then have to explain it on Monday."
On Saturday, Show and I baked Christmas cookies. We made sugar cookies, cupcakes, and snickerdoodles. It's funny- I don't particularly like eating Christmas cookies. Chocolate is usually my dessert of choice, but I do like to make Christmas cookies. I don't really bake very often, but I do like doing it around Christmas. I think that we end up giving away 90% of what we make so that we don't become complete gluttons.
Today, we also went to see a really cool band in Alameda. That's right- I said Alameda! The band was playing in a tiki bar called Forbidden Island. The bar itself was pretty cool, but the live music was really great. It was pretty crowded for 4PM in Alameda. The music was kind of bossa nova/ Jazz/ 60 style. One of the guys was playing a thermidor. I have no idea if I spelled that correctly. It's this really cool instrument that works based on 2 antennas and the left hand controls volume while the right hand controls pitch. If you have ever heard the theme song to Star Trek, then you know what this thing sounds like. It's a little twangy and kind of electrica. I wish that I could remember the name of the band. I also found it very amusing that the lead singer was pregnant. It was unexpected how cool this experience was. The music was great and Edwin really liked the bar.
On Friday, we attended my company's holiday party. It was held at a club called Mezzanine. It was fun, but I realized that there are still a lot of people that I don't know. It was pretty posh with open bar and lots of appetizers. They even had a photographer there who would take pictures of you "prom-style." There was also dancing, so it did feel a bit like high school. There were people dancing on the stage and I kept thinking to myself, "I like dancing onstage like the next person, but these are people that I work with. I just don't want to make a fool of myself and then have to explain it on Monday."
On Saturday, Show and I baked Christmas cookies. We made sugar cookies, cupcakes, and snickerdoodles. It's funny- I don't particularly like eating Christmas cookies. Chocolate is usually my dessert of choice, but I do like to make Christmas cookies. I don't really bake very often, but I do like doing it around Christmas. I think that we end up giving away 90% of what we make so that we don't become complete gluttons.
Today, we also went to see a really cool band in Alameda. That's right- I said Alameda! The band was playing in a tiki bar called Forbidden Island. The bar itself was pretty cool, but the live music was really great. It was pretty crowded for 4PM in Alameda. The music was kind of bossa nova/ Jazz/ 60 style. One of the guys was playing a thermidor. I have no idea if I spelled that correctly. It's this really cool instrument that works based on 2 antennas and the left hand controls volume while the right hand controls pitch. If you have ever heard the theme song to Star Trek, then you know what this thing sounds like. It's a little twangy and kind of electrica. I wish that I could remember the name of the band. I also found it very amusing that the lead singer was pregnant. It was unexpected how cool this experience was. The music was great and Edwin really liked the bar.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Redo!
Tonight I went out with the girls to watch the Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular at Pac Bell Park or whatever they're calling it these days. I think that most of you know that I used to skate in my younger days. My parents also used to take us to the ice capades a lot too. I didn't realize how much I missed it. For some reason, Edwin didn't want to go see the show... totally his loss. Though we were one of the youngest people in the audience, we had a blast. The added bonus is that the show had Barry Manilow singing live. Though they advertised that it would be set to Barry Manilow music, I just figured that they would play his music, not have him singing it. So, we got a 2-for-1. Now, I can say that I have seen Barry Manilow in concert. I went with Michelle, Monica, and Jen. None of them knew each other, but they all knew me. Surprisingly, there were 4 guys sitting in front of us who also went together (and they weren't even gay!)
I really enjoyed it. I forgot how much I admired the people that could do that and make it look so easy. I had fun skating, but I never thought it was easy. Dorothy Hamill was so graceful and I have always really liked Yuka Sato- she's just such a great jumper. Viktor Petrenko was another highlight. All of them were former Olympic skaters. There were also these 2 Russian skaters who were just amazing. It was like watching Cirque du Soleil on ice. They were doing one-armed handstands while skating. I've never been a huge pairs fan, but I think that it's just crazy that someone can carry another person with one hand and make it seem so easy.
We might also be on TV because they were broadcasting the show and the cameraman sat next to Michelle to get some close-ups of us watching the show. (Like I said, we were one of the youngest people in the stadium.) Here's what we didn't know before the show: after they tape the whole show, the skaters got to redo parts of their routines in case they didn't do a jump well or if they flubbed something in the routine. I guess that since these guys are getting older and not training everyday, they make more mistakes than they did for the Olympics. The jumps definitely did not seem as big until they got to do the redo. Made me suspect that Barry Manilow was lip- syncing too.
It made me think about being able to redo things in my life. Some would say that's like admitting a regret, but I disagree. Redoing doesn't mean not doing something that you have done, but I think of it as just being able to improve upon something that you did, not replacing it with another experience. What are some things I would re-do? I would have purchased things that I like that are girly. It's a lot harder when you have to share a bank account to make big purchseses. There's not too much that I can think of that I want to do again. Maybe our wedding day, but I don't want to actually change it, I just want to do it again.
I'll be posting up photos when Michelle sends me copy.
I really enjoyed it. I forgot how much I admired the people that could do that and make it look so easy. I had fun skating, but I never thought it was easy. Dorothy Hamill was so graceful and I have always really liked Yuka Sato- she's just such a great jumper. Viktor Petrenko was another highlight. All of them were former Olympic skaters. There were also these 2 Russian skaters who were just amazing. It was like watching Cirque du Soleil on ice. They were doing one-armed handstands while skating. I've never been a huge pairs fan, but I think that it's just crazy that someone can carry another person with one hand and make it seem so easy.
We might also be on TV because they were broadcasting the show and the cameraman sat next to Michelle to get some close-ups of us watching the show. (Like I said, we were one of the youngest people in the stadium.) Here's what we didn't know before the show: after they tape the whole show, the skaters got to redo parts of their routines in case they didn't do a jump well or if they flubbed something in the routine. I guess that since these guys are getting older and not training everyday, they make more mistakes than they did for the Olympics. The jumps definitely did not seem as big until they got to do the redo. Made me suspect that Barry Manilow was lip- syncing too.
It made me think about being able to redo things in my life. Some would say that's like admitting a regret, but I disagree. Redoing doesn't mean not doing something that you have done, but I think of it as just being able to improve upon something that you did, not replacing it with another experience. What are some things I would re-do? I would have purchased things that I like that are girly. It's a lot harder when you have to share a bank account to make big purchseses. There's not too much that I can think of that I want to do again. Maybe our wedding day, but I don't want to actually change it, I just want to do it again.
I'll be posting up photos when Michelle sends me copy.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Lights Up!
Some of you may be wondering why it's been a while since my last posting. Both Edwin and I got colds last week. I found out that Laura, Alex, and my dad all got colds. I guess that at least it did not ruin our holiday. I just uploaded some photos from our Thanksgiving in Cincinnati.
This past weekend, we put up the Christmas lights on our house. We spent most of the weekend shopping for lights and then putting them up. Everyone on our block was supposed to have decorations up by December 2. It was quite the experience. We have a theme, but I didn't realize how much work it would be. We're not quite done yet, but here are some photos of what we have so far. Edwin is in all black on the picture to the left and the right picture is a close up of our surfing Santa. He's going to get a surfboard and we'll be making a wave, but that's still in production.
This past weekend, we put up the Christmas lights on our house. We spent most of the weekend shopping for lights and then putting them up. Everyone on our block was supposed to have decorations up by December 2. It was quite the experience. We have a theme, but I didn't realize how much work it would be. We're not quite done yet, but here are some photos of what we have so far. Edwin is in all black on the picture to the left and the right picture is a close up of our surfing Santa. He's going to get a surfboard and we'll be making a wave, but that's still in production.
We also attended our first block party on Sunday night. There were over 100 people that showed up for the potluck. It was fun and very interesting. We got to meet a lot of our new neighbors. I think that the remarkable part is that the party started at 6 and promptly ended by 8PM. We weren't even finished eating and they started taking down the tables.
So the Christmas decorations have been a little distracting from the home renovations, but this week we had a contractor install a new furnace. We're still getting used to it, but it's louder than the old one because it has a blower. However, we're hoping that it's going to be more efficient. This nice thing is that we got all new ducts and they moved the furnace to the crawl space, so now we technically have more room in our unfinished basement in case we want to finish it.
So the parade of cars has already started. They come to see all the lights. It was so embarassing to be one of only 3 houses on the block to not have their lights on Saturday night. Though we were told that we should have lights on by Sunday, there were a lot of people that had their lights up by Saturday. Note for next year. If anyone wants to visit Santa this year, Edwin will be making an appearance as Santa on our street this year on Monday, December 10th. I'll be the elf beside him.
This video was something that made me laugh. It really does describe some of the experiences I've had getting my nails done. Michelle- remember in San Diego? They kept trying to upsell me all these services and I would say yes, then they would tell me the price and I would say no. Funny how that works.
By the way, most of you were right on the poll- Edwin is 36 this year.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
This year, we flew to Cincinnati to celebrate Thanksgiving. We flew in last night on the red-eye. It's been a while since we have flown on the red-eye, but every time we do, we vow that it's the last time. This was no exception. You walk off the plane all bleary-eyed and it just wrecks you for the whole day. We flew Delta and while the seats looked comfy, they were so NOT.
We arrived in at the same time as Edwin's mom. Everyone else was already back at the house- Grace and CiCi and my parents. Grace made a 22 lb turkey with Chinese style stuffing AKA rice with Chinese sausage. It was delicious! We had so much food that when we finished the table was still full of food. We took a lot of pics, so I'll add them when I can. As with most Thanksgivings, there was a lot of eating and a lot of sleeping though I think that the red-eye caused us to sleep more than usual. Here are the before and after shots of the turkey.
I was trying to remember what we did for Thanksgiving last year and I realized that we were in Australia on our honeymoon, so we didn't actually celebrate Thanksgiving. I was also really looking forward to it because we were at Jamie and Kaori's place before we left for the airport and they were cooking up a storm in preparation for the big day.
I finally sent out the notice that we moved. I realize that it's been almost 2 months since we moved, but time has just flown by. I guess with all the home renovations and projects, it has just usurped a lot of our free time. Anyway, Happy Turkey Day and hope everyone gets a bargain shopping on Black Friday.
Here are some more pics of the spread that we had and Hannah and Edwin playing Chutes & Ladders. I guess Hannah is at that stage when she poses for all her pictures with her tongue sticking out and making a face. I think that maybe I'll tell her about Santiney and how difficult she found it to be to find a picture of herself without making a face from ages 6-10. Not sure that she'll grasp that what she's doing now- she may regret later when she needs pictures of herself when she's younger and she's got all these photos with her making a face.
We arrived in at the same time as Edwin's mom. Everyone else was already back at the house- Grace and CiCi and my parents. Grace made a 22 lb turkey with Chinese style stuffing AKA rice with Chinese sausage. It was delicious! We had so much food that when we finished the table was still full of food. We took a lot of pics, so I'll add them when I can. As with most Thanksgivings, there was a lot of eating and a lot of sleeping though I think that the red-eye caused us to sleep more than usual. Here are the before and after shots of the turkey.
I was trying to remember what we did for Thanksgiving last year and I realized that we were in Australia on our honeymoon, so we didn't actually celebrate Thanksgiving. I was also really looking forward to it because we were at Jamie and Kaori's place before we left for the airport and they were cooking up a storm in preparation for the big day.
I finally sent out the notice that we moved. I realize that it's been almost 2 months since we moved, but time has just flown by. I guess with all the home renovations and projects, it has just usurped a lot of our free time. Anyway, Happy Turkey Day and hope everyone gets a bargain shopping on Black Friday.
Here are some more pics of the spread that we had and Hannah and Edwin playing Chutes & Ladders. I guess Hannah is at that stage when she poses for all her pictures with her tongue sticking out and making a face. I think that maybe I'll tell her about Santiney and how difficult she found it to be to find a picture of herself without making a face from ages 6-10. Not sure that she'll grasp that what she's doing now- she may regret later when she needs pictures of herself when she's younger and she's got all these photos with her making a face.
Monday, November 19, 2007
How Old is Edwin?
Last weekend, we celebrated Edwin's birthday by going out to dinner in Alameda at a restaurant called Asena. It forced me to try and remember how old Edwin was. I didn't know. I had to calculate it based on his birth year. Do you know? Prove it by taking my little poll to the right. I'm just curious to know how many people know. Sometimes I have to think for a while before I remember how old I am. Remember how when we were young we could remember how old we were to the month? I'm 3 1/2. Nobody says I'm 32 1/2.
We also painted the guest bedroom. We were going for a sage green color (you know, the kind of green you see at weddings), but it turned out a little more celery than I wanted. I think it will look fine once we get some furniture in there, but it's just a little different than what I imagined. However, the thought of the time and effort required to repaint the room makes me think that I like that color more and more. Though I think to myself, "Are we just being lazy?" Chris and Corinne advised us to get the rooms painted before we unpacked because waiting has left them with white walls 4 years later. I have a tendency to agree with them in that if we don't paint these walls now, they won't ever get painted. Still, that doesn't mean that I'm not anxious to get it done so that we can really begin to unpack our things.
How small is San Francisco? On a whim this weekend, we went into the city to run some errands. One of our errands was to visit the custom cabinet makers to look at the different finishes and ask some questions about a plan that they had created for us. We knew that they were located on Minnesota in Potrero, but I couldn't remember the address. We decided to stop and ask for directions at the Whole Foods. They didn't know, so I suggested that we stop by Chris and Corinne's or Nikki and Ed's since they live in the neighborhood. He didn't want to bother them, so we started to walk back towards our car when who do we see but Chris and Corinne taking an afternoon stroll? Now if that wasn't crazy enough, while we are talking to them, we spot Sin Yen walking across the street on her way to Whole Foods. We haven't seen her in months because of scheduling conflicts, but on a random, unplanned day, here we are. Coincidence? Maybe. I tend to think that these things are part of a bigger plan. In science, we're taught to believe that life stems from chaos (Big Bang Theory, for instance) but things like this make me think otherwise. It's just like beautiful things that happen naturally that we can't explain such as sunsets, Uluru (a big rock in the middle of the desert in Australia), etc. All these things happened by accident? Why is it more acceptable to think that they resulted from complete disorder rather than orchestrated by a higher being? Just something to think about.
I love that this is going to be a short work week. Only 1.5 more days and tomorrow should go by pretty fast. What I am not looking forward to is the red-eye flight that we will be taking on Wednesday night for our trip to Cincinnati during the busiest day of the year for air travel. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with the family. Though it makes me think that I should start planning Christmas card lists and gifts for the family. I guess Christmas really is around the corner. We have started planning our outdoor decorations. We attended the neighborhood planning committee for Christmas. Edwin signed up to be Santa Claus for a night. I'll take pictures- I promise!
We also painted the guest bedroom. We were going for a sage green color (you know, the kind of green you see at weddings), but it turned out a little more celery than I wanted. I think it will look fine once we get some furniture in there, but it's just a little different than what I imagined. However, the thought of the time and effort required to repaint the room makes me think that I like that color more and more. Though I think to myself, "Are we just being lazy?" Chris and Corinne advised us to get the rooms painted before we unpacked because waiting has left them with white walls 4 years later. I have a tendency to agree with them in that if we don't paint these walls now, they won't ever get painted. Still, that doesn't mean that I'm not anxious to get it done so that we can really begin to unpack our things.
How small is San Francisco? On a whim this weekend, we went into the city to run some errands. One of our errands was to visit the custom cabinet makers to look at the different finishes and ask some questions about a plan that they had created for us. We knew that they were located on Minnesota in Potrero, but I couldn't remember the address. We decided to stop and ask for directions at the Whole Foods. They didn't know, so I suggested that we stop by Chris and Corinne's or Nikki and Ed's since they live in the neighborhood. He didn't want to bother them, so we started to walk back towards our car when who do we see but Chris and Corinne taking an afternoon stroll? Now if that wasn't crazy enough, while we are talking to them, we spot Sin Yen walking across the street on her way to Whole Foods. We haven't seen her in months because of scheduling conflicts, but on a random, unplanned day, here we are. Coincidence? Maybe. I tend to think that these things are part of a bigger plan. In science, we're taught to believe that life stems from chaos (Big Bang Theory, for instance) but things like this make me think otherwise. It's just like beautiful things that happen naturally that we can't explain such as sunsets, Uluru (a big rock in the middle of the desert in Australia), etc. All these things happened by accident? Why is it more acceptable to think that they resulted from complete disorder rather than orchestrated by a higher being? Just something to think about.
I love that this is going to be a short work week. Only 1.5 more days and tomorrow should go by pretty fast. What I am not looking forward to is the red-eye flight that we will be taking on Wednesday night for our trip to Cincinnati during the busiest day of the year for air travel. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with the family. Though it makes me think that I should start planning Christmas card lists and gifts for the family. I guess Christmas really is around the corner. We have started planning our outdoor decorations. We attended the neighborhood planning committee for Christmas. Edwin signed up to be Santa Claus for a night. I'll take pictures- I promise!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Heading into the Holidays
I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week. Edwin's birthday is this Saturday. Last year at this time, we were preparing for our honeymoon in Australia. 2 years ago, I had just gotten back from Tokyo while I was rehabilitating from my hand surgery. I feel like there is so much that has happened this past year. I think that a lot of people reflect on the year on New Years, but for me, that generally happens right before the holidays. I think it's because I know that the next few weeks are going to rush by with holiday activities. So I figure that it's my way of preparing for the fun and for the excitement.
Last weekend, we had a 2 sets of visitors from out of town. First, we saw Janet who came from Hawaii for work. She came over for the Pre-Thanksgiving dinner and we had dinner with her on Sunday. She's always so much fun and so sweet. We also had a visit from our friends Char and Tom and their 2 kids Annette and William. They were on their way back to LA from a trip to Sacramento. It was great to catch up and hang out. I've been fighting a cold and I think that friends always make you feel better when you're not feeling well.
Our sidewalk is finally been paved. When I got home yesterday, it had finally been done. I'm just glad that we don't have to walk over the lawn anymore. It's still drying, but I'm guessing that it will be done tomorrow. Hopefully, that's another thing done with the house that we don't have to worry about.
We've also started thinking about what to do for Christmas decorations. We have a planning meeting tomorrow for the block. We were informed that lights should be completed by December 2 and that cars will be coming through December 2-December 31. Edwin is thinking about volunteering for Santa duty. (The men on the street take turns being Santa during the holidays.) I guess we better go buy some lights!
Last weekend, we had a 2 sets of visitors from out of town. First, we saw Janet who came from Hawaii for work. She came over for the Pre-Thanksgiving dinner and we had dinner with her on Sunday. She's always so much fun and so sweet. We also had a visit from our friends Char and Tom and their 2 kids Annette and William. They were on their way back to LA from a trip to Sacramento. It was great to catch up and hang out. I've been fighting a cold and I think that friends always make you feel better when you're not feeling well.
Our sidewalk is finally been paved. When I got home yesterday, it had finally been done. I'm just glad that we don't have to walk over the lawn anymore. It's still drying, but I'm guessing that it will be done tomorrow. Hopefully, that's another thing done with the house that we don't have to worry about.
We've also started thinking about what to do for Christmas decorations. We have a planning meeting tomorrow for the block. We were informed that lights should be completed by December 2 and that cars will be coming through December 2-December 31. Edwin is thinking about volunteering for Santa duty. (The men on the street take turns being Santa during the holidays.) I guess we better go buy some lights!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Where the Sidewalk Ends- 3279 Thompson
So there have been a few stories that I have been meaning to tell about the house. Some of them have just been too long and involved and I just didn't have the energy at the time to talk about it. Others are just too frustrating to talk about until you have had a period of time to digest was has happened.
Water Heater
On the first day of being in our "new" house, we had a little incident with the water heater. It was moving day and Edwin had scheduled for PG&E to come turn on the gas. They told him that someone had to be at the house from 8AM-5PM. The cable company actually is better because they it's at least only 4 hour time windows! Given that Edwin could probably lift more than me, he got to move our furniture while I waited at the house. This is after we had about 3 hours of sleep each because we were packing until the wee hours of the morning. Though we had started packing a month before, we were unable to have everything packed when the movers arrived at 10AM the next morning. Back to my original story, I'm waiting at the house for PG&E. What time do you think they showed up? That's right, 4:45PM.
The guy goes to look at the gasline and then returns saying that he was able to turn on the furnace, but not the water heater. He said that there was a leak in the water heater assembly because the screw is stripped. (???) Translated- that means that we will have no hot water. He says that we need to have a water heater technician to come and repair it before we PG&E can turn on the water heater. Edwin calls PG&E to schedule another visit and they tell him that the first appointment they have available is Thursday. (It was Saturday.) I tell PG&E guy that Edwin is pretty handy, so I asked him if the repair was something that we could do ourselves. He tells me that we could just purchase a pilot assembly from Home Depot and do it ourselves for about $100. (Imagine how much it would have cost us if we needed to pay for labor in additional to the materials.) I remember that we have a home warranty, so I called our real estate agent Tony to ask him if this qualifies.
Tony is out at a construction job (he is a construction contractor by day.) He offers to come over to take a look at the water heater when I tell him what PG&E had said to me. He takes out some plumbers tape and repairs the stripped screw, connects the gas to the water heater, lights the pilot light, and checks for leaks by spraying the line with soapy water. (I had seen this done many times in HGTV, so I know that this is good.) He does this in less than an hour. Have we told you all how much we love our real estate agent? How many agents do you know who could and would do this for you? So if you're looking for an AWESOME agent in the East Bay, let us know...
Sidewalk
About 2 weeks after we had moved in, the city of Alameda started repaving the sidewalks on our street. We were pretty happy that they were going to do this because the sidewalk in front of our house was very uneven and we didn't want to have to do that ourselves. After they removed the sidewalk, we discovered a leak in the main water line coming into our house. The city came out to take a look at it and patched the leak. However, we decided that since the pipe was old and they had already removed the sidewalk, it would be a good time to replace the galvanized steel pipe with a copper one. Since it had already leaked and we were seeing signs of corrosion, there was a good chance that it would leak again, but then we would have to dig up the pipe and sidewalk again and on our dime. To save some money, Edwin decided to dig up the ditch himself on our front lawn (with some advice from our man Tony.) Edwin met a plumber friend of the guy that we bought our refrigerator from who happened to live in Alameda. So we called him up and he gave us an estimate and told us that he could finish replacing the pipe in about 6 hours. He works for a plumbing company, but this was a side job for him and his brother, so that he could help pay for his upcoming wedding. Given that we just finished paying for a wedding ourselves, we were eager to help someone else out (and his pricing was very reasonable.) All of this happened while Jeannette was in town, so we were relieved that this did not monopolize our entire weekend. Afterwards, the water pressure to the bathroom sink improved significantly, so we were happy with our decision.
It is now 6 weeks later and the sidewalk has still not been replaced. The city noticed that there was a sinkhole next to the manhole on our property. They said that they could not repair the sidewalk until the sewer people came to repair the sewer which had a crack in the main. We were worried that someone would fall or get injured on the missing sidewalk because we were expecting so many kids. Friends we told joked about telling the city that someone had fallen in and they wanted to know who in the city their lawyer should contact. We were prepared to put in a cardboard coffin with signs saying "Fresh graves- Keep out!" in an attempt to use it as a decoration so that people wouldn't walk into it. Someone must have said something to the city because on Halloween, the city came in and filled in the sidewalk with gravel so that people wouldn't fall in. The sewer has been repaired, but the sidewalk still is still not paved.
Painting
So we have completed painting the living room, entryway, and bathroom. We find that having people come over to the house really motivates us to finish painting and to clean the house. For Halloween, we had just completed painting the living room and entryway. For the entry, we chose a High Society reddish-orange color and for the living room, we chose a tan color called Spanish Sand. You can use this link to search for those colors on the Kelly-Moore website. This past Friday, we painted our bathroom a sky blue (the top half.) We didn't get that one from Kelly-Moore, so you won't be able to look that one up.
This past weekend, we had friends over for an early Thanksgiving. Matilde and Greg came up with the idea to deep fry a turkey and we volunteered to host. People brought over side dishes and desserts, so we had salad, stuffing, corn relish, mac 'n cheese, scalloped potatoes, homemade apple pie, panne cotta, and fruit tart. It was a good time and good food and good friends. We used our new table for the first time and we were able to fit 14 people around it without the leaf! It was a good thing we just got some new chairs. Though we weren't able to deep fry the turkey because it was raining outside, it still tasted really good because Matilde and Janet rubbed it with salt & pepper and marinated it the night before. Since baking a turkey would have taken hours, Greg had the great idea to cut up the 12 lb turkey and bake it for an hour. Everything turned out great. We'll have to do this again.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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!
Monday, October 22, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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!
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!
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