How to overcome jetlag in a jiffy

We've figured out the secret of how to jump back into a time-zone after flying across country...

Play Ghost Recon 2 from 9:30pm - 12:25am.

the adrenaline will keep you up for sure!

btw, we just completed the LAST map on GR2! (Badlands Fortress!)

San Francisco Restaurant Reviews

We just found this site today:

sfsurvey.com.

It seems like a great site so far, and could come in really handy in the future :)

"Go West"

sing it, just like the Village People. (or perhaps the Pet Shop Boys) You know you want to!

We've been in Chapel Hill, NC visiting with Dick's family since Christmas morning. We've had a very nice visit, and will be returning to CA this afternoon.

We took the red-eye flight out of SFO (around 11:00am) and landed in Charlotte, NC at 6:30am. Turns out that this is the way to fly around Xmas whenever possible. The flight was full, but we had the option to upgrade to First Class (The second Xmas miracle, according to Dick). There were lots of kids on the flight, which was interesting, but it seemed to work well for everyone. Most kids that I saw were dressed in their jammies, which was really cute, and made me wonder why I wasn't wearing mine.

Right around midnight, I glanced out the window, and I'm pretty certain that I saw a tiny red light off in the distance. (Rudolph, perhaps? Santa?) We both slept pretty well on the flight, although it was only 4.5 hours long, so we didn't have a solid night's sleep by any means. We arrived to Charlotte at 6:30 am, collected our baggage and rental car, and drove into Chapel Hill at 10:15am - just in time for Xmas breakfast.

We've spent some really nice quality time with Dick's family. Xmas morning and evening were especially fun with his nieces and nephew. While we were out here, we squeezed in a visit with our friend, Kristi, and her two little girls, saw a movie (The Chronicles of Narnia), walked around the UNC campus, and even saw a Tar Heel Basketball game! For those of you keeping track, and I'm proud to announce that "The Curse has been Reversed! That's right, we went to watch a UNC Basketball game LIVE, and they won! It was a landslide victory, which Dick was fairly confident about, but nonetheless, we were very happy that they won. Now perhaps Dick will let me watch the games on TV with him.

The weather here has been extraordinary, and it seems as if we've missed a bunch of rain in SF. We've had sunny skies, with temps in the high 50s to mid-60s out here.

This morning, we're meeting Dick's family for an early lunch before heading back out to Charlotte.

We've had a great time out here, but it'll be nice to be home, sleeping in our own bed, snuggling with our kitties.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! (and to all, a goodnight)

A Christmas Miracle

Dick and I are leaving on the red-eye flight tonight to go to North Carolina to spend the holidays with his family.

Today began with an amazing breakfast - gingerbread spice pancakes from a mix that Blane gave us last night, and Bacon that my sister bought for Dick. (YUM) Since we already celebrated Christmas early with my family, and we won't be home for Christmas tomorrow, we decided to open our gifts to/from each other (and Christopher, and the kitties) today.

After we opened gifts, we drank some nice mulled cider, and sat in the TV room.

That's when the Christmas Miracle happened.

Noe decided that after 5 months, she would hop onto Uncle Christopher's lap, and take a nap with him.

It surprised (shocked!) us all, and that's when we realized that it was Noe's Christmas present to Uncle Christopher.

Here's a picture I managed to take right before Noe curled up and fell asleep. (we didn't want to freak her out by taking too many pictures)

Look how sweet :)

Living in the Castro

I was buying a little gift for our niece this afternoon at Under One Roof on Castro Street. (great place for gifts, by the way, and all for a good cause!)

I was deciding between the flower-power rubber duckie, and the glow-in-the-dark duckie (Our niece loves rubber duckies), and turned to ask Dick for his opinion. I searched around the store twice, but he was nowhere to be found. One of the store volunteers noticed me, and asked if I needed assistance. I told him, "I think my husband left me."

He replied, "Yes, that happens a lot in this neighborhood."

I'm telling you, my life is a sitcom.

(What a pain in the...) Rear-Ended

Dick usually drives his Vespa to the CalTrain Station, but when it rains, I drop him off in the morning, and pick him up on the evening.

I picked him up this evening, driving his car. I didn't have my glasses (which I wear only for night-driving, and keep in my car) so I asked him to drive home.

It's been raining all day long here, and was still showering (lightly). We were driving westbound on Cesar Chavez Ave when the car in front of us stopped suddenly, we stopped, then...

BAM

Yep. Got rear-ended by the car behind us.

Here's where it gets good: we were rear-ended by an uninsured taxi driver.

Nice.

We got all the info we could (his name/address/license/phone, cab company & car license plate) then called our insurance agency when we got home.

There's a lot of things to sort out, but the places we need to bring the car to will be closed tomorrow (for Christmas), and we're leaving this weekend for North Carolina.

We'll just make due until then, and made appointments for when we return next week.

What a pain...

Care Not Cash

I am such a big fan of our mayor. (Go Gavin!)

Read this article about the success of Care Not Cash.

Check to see if you have unclaimed $$

I just read this article in sfgate.com in which the State Controller urges SF residents to check whether the state is holding any of their money in the form of unclaimed property.

I had received what looked like a piece of junk mail yesterday from a company who claimed the state owned me $$, and would charge me a $22 fee to go through them. It seemed suspicious, so I chose to ignore it.

Until I read the article today.

So, I clicked on this link, typed in my name, and voila! It turns out that the State of California really does owe me money! (It's from a gig I did with San Francisco State University years ago)

So, check it out. There may be some extra cash waiting around for you!

High-Five!

Doing the happy Snoopy dance

It's a week before Christmas.

I have completed and sent out:

115 Holiday Cards

and

80 Thank You cards (from the Wedding)

All Christmas Shopping, wrapping and sending is complete.

Whoo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cattle Call

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I spent the afternoon helping out at the gallery today.

I left at 6:00 - just in time for commuter time on MUNI.

I guess it's good that so many people are taking public transportation, but really, it was packed!

writer's cramp

I've been writing out our Thank You cards all day.

I'm so accustomed to typing, that I forget how easily my hands can cramp up from writing constantly.

I find it's helpful to take occasional breaks by typing on my computer. (hence this blog entry)

Makes me wonder how I ever wrote out school reports/papers before the age of word processing.

I think my hand is going to fall off soon.

Ew!!!!!!!!!

a.k.a. "More joys of city-living"

This morning I noticed an used condom, and condom wrapper on our front porch stairs.

Everyone say it with me now....

"EW!"

yep, that was a joy to pick up (with a plastic bag) and toss away.

again...

"EW!"

...and that's all I have to say about that.

Merry Christmas!

(read yesterday's post, and you'll understand why I'm 2 weeks early)

We had a really wonderful day.

Dick, Christopher and I spent the early afternoon preparing for dinner. We made Butternut Squash Soup, Prime Rib, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. It was all really yummy! It was my first time preparing a "family holiday meal" at our home, so it was really special.

The Christmas Spirit has kicked into high gear, and I'm feeling much better now!

We ate, hung around, opened gifts, ate some dessert, then Dick and Graham played Christmas Carols on piano (Dick) and bass (Graham). That was very cool. I told my sister several months ago that never in my wildest dreams as a kid did I ever think, "Someday, maybe my sister and I will both date musicians, and we'll listen to them play music together...."

This was such a nice kick-off to the Holiday Season.

Happy Holidays to All!

O (artificial) Christmas Tree, O (artificial) Christmas Tree

Christmas is coming early this year.

In fact, it's coming to our house tomorrow.

My parents are taking a 3-week Cruise (!) this month, and will be leaving before Christmas Day. This will be the first time in all my 35 years that I will not be with my parents on Christmas Day. Although I'm very excited for them (they are going to South America and Antartica!), I have to admit, that it's going to be weird not to have them here for Christmas.

Because of this, we (my immediate family - Mom, Dad, Sis, Graham (Sis' Boyfriend), Dick, me, and our Gay Boyfriend) will be getting together to celebrate tomorrow evening. We'll have a big dinner over here, listen to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and open gifts with each other.

Let me tell you, having Christmas 2 weeks early is a little stressful! It's no wonder I was a stress-monster all week.

The (artificial) tree is up and decorated, the gifts are all bought, wrapped, tagged, and sitting pretty underneath the (artificial) tree, the Holiday Cards are out, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, etc.,

We're all set!

I have to admit that for some unknown reason, I'm just not in the Christmas spirit yet. It's usually one of my favorite times of the year, but it seemed to have crept up on us unexpectedly this year, and I'm a little bit caught off-guard. Maybe it's because we were so busy with the wedding planning, and aftermath, maybe it's because we had to get everything ready early, maybe it's because I haven't been to Union Square since it's been decorated, maybe it's because we don't have a real honest-to-goodness Christmas Tree, maybe it's because the cats pee-ed underneath the (artificial) Christmas Tree...

*sigh*

oh well. I'm sure the Christmas Spirit will come flying in, full-force tomorrow! I'm sure we'll have a splendid time.

...and if all goes well, the cats won't pee under the (artificial) Christmas Tree again.

Christmas 2005 Revelation #1
Maybe I'm in a Christmas funk because we have an artificial Christmas Tree!

This week just keeps on getting better

Remember the problems we had last year with the cats peeing under the Xmas tree?

We gave them the benefit of the doubt, and figured it was because we were bringing a live tree inside the house. The cats were marking their territory, probably because they smelled other animals on it. (even though we always rinsed the tree down before bringing it in the house.)

Once push came to shove, we realized we were in the situation of deciding between a) continue with the problem year after year, b) buy an artificial tree or c) no more Xmas trees. :(

It looked grim.

My Mom and Dad bought an artificial tree from Costco a few years ago. It's really nice - very realistic looking, and pre-lit.

So, this year, we bit the bullet, and went to Costco in early November to buy a tree before they ran out. (thanks much to Sherilyn and Grant, who gave us a Costco Gift Card as a wedding gift! Thank You note coming soon, Bear, I promise.)

We put the tree together on Sunday evening. It's very pretty. It's seven and a half feet tall, and covered with 1500 lights. pretty.

I thought we were doing well. I checked the tree a couple of times a day, and didn't find anything...

...until...

(you see where this is going, don't you?)

Yep, someone decided that they needed to mark the tree tonight. :(

This week is seriously getting on my last nerve, and it's only Tuesday.

Sour-Puss

Better steer clear of me today.
I am in a sour mood.

and it all revolves around photos, and stupid people.

(I realize there are much more important things in the world to worry about, but that's what's got me going at the moment)

On the plus side, Costco had 4 pints of yummy gelato/sorbet for $10 :)

Extreme Frustration with Kodak Easyshare Gallery

Since I'm on hold, waiting for a supervisor, I may as well blog about this experience, and get the word out...

This is extremely frustrating:

3-4 weeks ago, I placed an order with Kodak Easy Share Gallery (formerly oFoto) ordering some prints from our wedding, as well as our Thank You Cards. (the thank you cards will be a card printed with one of our photos on the cover)

I received the order within the next week or so. The photos came out fine, but the cards were quite bad. The color were off (we looked green - I call it our "amphibian photo") and the image quality was horrible (grainy).

I called Kodak customer service, explained the situation, and was told to return my order for a redo. It took two weeks for me to get my new order because they waited until the original order had been returned to them before they would submit the second order. Plus, they had it shipped via regular USPS, so it took 2 full weeks for me to receive the reorder.

Which would have been fine, except...

When i opened the box with the second order, the quality and color hadn't improved at all.

At this point, it's been 8 weeks since our wedding, and I'm getting really anxious to get these Thank You cards out. I doubt that any of our guests have said, "Hmmmm.... not Thank You Card from Trina and Dick yet..." but I'd really like to get this last task done, and let people know how much we appreciated having them come.

I thought I'd call Kodak back, just to let them know about my displeasure, and a very nice woman helps me who suggests that I give it one more shot - she says that the color should be fixed, and they would send it 2nd-day. I should receive the order within a week.

Okay, I've waited this long, I can wait another week. I doubt my friends and family will think ill of me they receive a Thank You Card a week later...

I figured I'd just wait another week, see how the next set turns out, compare the two (because I won't send back the second set until I get the third) and then sit down to write this the cards out.

Then the emails came.

2 emails - 2 different orders.

The first email states that my order for 97 4x6" prints has been shipped.

What?

I check out my order history, and it seems like my entire order (97 prints, and a large set of cards) was reordered. The cards have been ordered, but not sent. But the photos that I haven't ordered are on their way - Fed Ex 2nd day.

Dandy.

Whatever. I get extra prints. I'm sure I'll find something to do with them.

Then I get the 2nd email.

It seems as if they've placed the entire order TWICE! Only on this one, they cancelled the card order (presumably to place the order yet again) but check it out they're sending me yet another set of the 97 4x6" prints (that I didn't ever reorder) again and this time, I'm getting charged $10.99 for Fed Ex 2nd day shipping!

WTF

So now, I'm getting two sets of prints I didn't order, I'm paying for the shipping, and the card order which I'm anxious to get has been received, but not processed yet. Oh - and it shows the shipping method as USPS.

First thing I do this morning is call the lovely people at Kodak EasyShare Gallery.

The first person I speak with (because she's never heard of the person whose name I wrote down from Saturday) is very nice, and understanding. Unfortunately, she tells me that reversing the charge is above what she can do, but that she'd transfer me to another department to speak with someone there. She warns me that I'll have to be on hold again, and oh yes, when I ask, there are no direct lines that anyone can give me, so I have to walk through the annoying automated service process each time I call, which takes at least 3 minutes before I can be connected with a live person.

She transfers my call. I'm on hold for 5 minutes. I get disconnected.

What the Frack?

So then I have to go through the heinous ordeal of the automated system again, and finally get yet another agent.

I explain the entire situation (again) and am now getting quite frustrated. (Getting disconnected on a Monday morning with do that to you.)

Again, this woman is nice enough, but apparently, there's not much she can do.

Here's what she offers:

She can't reverse the Shipping Charge ($10.99) for the first set of 97 prints that I never ordered, but she *can* credit my account for $10.99 that I can use for shipping on my next order

Um, ex-squeeze me?

I've been a customer of oFoto for at least 5 years, this is my 3rd time resubmitting an order that your company keeps screwing up, you're sending me prints that I didn't order - twice, and let's not forget, you're charging me for 2nd-Day shipping for the prints that I didn't order.

and you expect me to be happy that you're crediting me $10.99 to my account that I can use for shipping on my next order?

Do you really think that after this experience, there will actually BE another order?

Yep, that's when I lost it.

This was after i asked, "Couldn't you at least credit my account with a buttload of free prints, or something?"

She tried to pacify me with a credit for 50 free 4x6" prints.

Okay, that's better, but funny, at 15 cents a print, that still doesn't cover the $10.99 that you've charged me in error!

Ring
Clue phone.

That's when I take out the big guns.
That's when I say, "I need to speak to a supervisor. And don't you dare transfer me - I've already been disconnected once this morning".

The supervisor comes on.
I explain the situation again. I'm sick of hearing it myself. It's so ludicrous.

She explains that there's nothing more they can do, offers her apology, then pulls another $10.00 credit out of her ass.

Oh, and I can also keep the extra sets of prints.
That's nice. I can keep the two extra sets of prints that I didn't order, and you won't have to pay the shipping charges for me sending them back to you.

sigh.

I give up.

Okay - I'll take the $10.99 shipping credit. And the 50 free prints, and the extra $10.00 credit.

Just send me my Thank You Cards.

Now, of course, I'll probably get the cards sometime next week, and they'll probably be the exact same as the other two orders.

Bah.

So, for those of you who came to our wedding two months ago I send my huge apologies that you haven't yet received a Thank You Card. Hopefully, it'll be on it's way sometime this month.

Please don't think ill of me.

Blame it on Kodak's Not-So-Easy-Share Gallery.
(grumble, grumble)

Going to the airport

Gettin' ready to drive to the airport to pick up my hubby!

I missed him

:)

A Day at the Circus!

Wednesday evening, I got a call from my sister offering me last-minute comp tickets to the new Cirque du Soleil show, "Corteo". The tickets were for Thursday's 4:00pm show here in San Francisco. My sister also had the idea to offer tickets to my cousin Bruce and his family, so I gave him a call.

Bruce and his wife couldn't make it, and we decided that a Cirque show may be a little scary for Abigail, but my 9-year old neice Evelyn could make it :)

Surprisingly, Evie has never been to a circus before, so this was a big treat for both of us. I explained to her that Cirque du Soleil is a French Circus, and not a "traditional" circus with animals and clowns. Personally, I'm not a fan of a traditional circus anyway. It probably has something to do with my family witnessing an acrobat fall to her death during a circus when I was in second grade. (don't worry Mom and Dad - no scars here! ;) )

Bruce and Robin dropped Evie off at my house after school, and we drove to the Big Top! Once we got there, we loaded up on popcorn, cotton candy and soda, then headed into the tent.

We had a lot of fun, and we both enjoyed the show. I thought was a good Cirque show - I'm lucky enough to have been to several, and I thought that this one offered a lot of new ideas and acts. I especially enjoyed the acts with the trampoline beds, and the jugglers. (gotta love a good juggler!)

Evie and I took a few pictures of our adventure. This is my favorite one. Check out that stash of sweets that she's holding onto! I asked her if we would get in trouble for getting all this candy - she assured me that it would be okay! What kind of Auntie would I be if I didn't spoil her a little and load her up on sweets at the circus?

Quote of the Day

I just got off the phone with my friend, Tammy, who lives outside of Chicago.

She just got back from visiting a mutual old friend of our's (Bill), who I haven't seen in several years. (He currently lives in Virginia)

Tammy was updating him on my life, and told him about my husband and our gay boyfriend.

Bill told her, "Tell her that she isn't allowed to have two, until the rest of us have at least one!"

:)

What can I say? I'm a spoiled, and lucky girl! ;)

They're Baaaaaaaaack!

Remember that hysterical video of the two guys lip-synching to The Backstreet Boys?

Well, apparently they had some more free times on their hands, and they've done another round.

(Thanks to Reeves for the update!)



A few notes:

• It's not nearly as funny as the first video, but still good for a laugh. (sometimes, you just can't recreate an classic)
  
• The guy on the left is out of the cast!
  
• I miss the headband (on the guy on the right)
  
• Yep, the guy in the background is still playing "Doom" on his computer - completely ignoring the camera.
  
• I think it's kind of funny that I've been completely unfamiliar with these songs (which I assume are quite popular) until I see these videos. (I think I'm showing my age, or at least my un-hipness!)
  

Tales of the Cartoon Squash Baby - Part II"The Delicious Demise"

Alas, all good things must come to and end....

After a couple of happy, and memorable weeks with the Cartoon Squash Baby (which included an angel-hair pasta hair make-over), it was time for the little Cartoon Sqaush Baby to fulfill its Butternut Squash Destiny.

Christopher and I had Pete, Richard and Lora over for dinner last night. I made Butternut Squash Baby Soup, and Christopher made an amazing roast with rosemary potatoes and carrots. He also whipped up an amazing English-style chocolate pudding for dessert.

In the end, the Cartoon Squash Baby made an excellent soup.

We did, of course, take photos to document the historic event.

Warning
This Blog Post contains images that may be disturbing to younger viewers. Parental discretion is advised:

Just me and my Gay Boyfriend

Everyone should have one!

I dropped Dick off at the airport this morning. He's on his way to Shanghai for the week on business.
It sounds like he should have a great time. He's traveling with Omar, and meeting up with a whole bunch of people from his group.

I felt a little silly this morning, but I was actually kind of sad and sappy when I dropped him off. I realize that a week isn't a long time at all, but I honestly can't remember the last time he went away for a week without me. (I'm a lucky and spoiled girl)

Noe was unusually clingy with Dick all weekend - I think she knew he was going somewhere. She definately knew something was up when she saw the suitcase come out. When I came back from the airport this morning, Christopher said that Noe had been grumpy all morning since we left.

I'm so happy that my Bro is here with me. It'll make the week a lot less lonely :)

For the Record....

Dick, Christopher and I (finally) just beat "Government District" on Ghost Recon 2!
That was a first for the 3 of us.

We played until 2:30am last night, and wrapped up just before midnight tonight.

Now that's what I call a healthy addiction.

:)

♥ 7 Years ♥

Hey, I just remembered:

7 Years! (as Pete would say)

What am I talking about?

:)

The Tale of the Cartoon Squash Baby

(Because absurd humor runs amuck here in His 'n Her Condos)

This may be one of my strangest stories ever.
But, you know what they say, "I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!"

Our tale begins sometime early last week, when I had a seasonal craving for Butternut Squash Soup. (Mmmmm, Soup!) I went to the Grocery store, and bought a lovely butternut squash.

It's been unseasonably warm all week. Too warm for soup, so the little butternut squash has been sitting on the counter.

The other night, after dinner, I excused myself to the bathroom while Christopher and Dick were cleaning up in the kitchen. I swear, I was out of the room for less than 30 seconds.

When I stepped out, I walked into the kitchen and what did my eyes see:

Dick, cradling the butternut squash (like a baby) and mimicking baby cries!

Ummmmmmmmm, what did I miss?

Well, it turns out that the boys noticed the butternut squash laying there, and Christopher commented that it looked like a baby. That's when Dick picked it up, and started to cradle it.

But wait! It gets even better than that!

Next step: he drew a face on the Butternut Squash!

Yep, our little butternut squash has a face now: two eyes, and a mouth, complete with one front tooth!

I swear it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! I laughed, and guffawed, and even snorted!

Dick has since affectionately named the Butternut Squash "Cartoon Squash Baby".

We introduced Pete and Richard to our Cartoon Squash Baby last night, and we even had our first photo shoot.

How am I ever going to cook this thing now?

Chicken & Waffles?

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie this morning with my Mom, Dad, Sister, her boyfriend, Graham, Uncle Bill, and my friend, Andrew. Don't any of these people work? ;)

The movie was GREAT! We all really enjoyed it.

As always, we met at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. I love this theater. If you haven't been, you should really check it out. It's gorgeous - like The Castro Theater. We have seen all the Harry Potter films, and the new Star Wars films here - all on opening day. They sell tickets in advanced, but really, the crowd isn't very large, and the theater is HUGE. Extra bonus: I read on their website that they were closed Monday through Thursday of this week to install new chairs in all of their theaters. We had the first showing today at 11:30am, so I do believe that we sat in brand-spankin'-new theater seats.

Sweet!

After the movie, we went down towards Jack London Square to a place that my sister had turned my parents on to:
House of Chicken and Waffles.

That's right. Fried Chicken and Waffles - served together on one plate.

A little bit of sweet and crispy, and a little bit of fried and savory.

They also had all the other Southern Standards: grits, greens, mac 'n cheese, sweet tea, etc.,

But how could you pass up the opportunity to eat 3 fried chicken wings served with a waffle?

I made the assumption that this must be a Southern thing.
I was mistaken.
Dick, Pete & Richard (all from the South) had never heard of such a combo.

Christopher said he'd seen it before in the Mid-West.

Who knew?

Harry Potter Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(hmmmm.... seems as if I've used that blog title before...)

Tomorrow, Friday, November 18th, 2005.

11:30am.

(matinee pricing, even!)

Been awhile since your read Book IV? Need a refresher course before seeing the film?
Here's a cool article.

Think you know all that is Harry Potter?
Take this Harry Potter Quiz!

For the record, I got 85%. One I knew I didn't remember, and the other one acknowledges that it's a trick question!

Be nice to me...

What I'll do for a free donut...

I donated blood for the first time today! I'm embarrassed that I've never done it before - I tried a few times, but each time I had a different reason why I couldn't do it.

I've thought for a long time that I'd be an ideal blood-donor candidate. Mostly because I have no qualms with blood, needles, etc., Actually, I'm always kind of fascinated whenever I have blood tests done, and I enjoy watching the little viles fill up.

So, today's donation was a success, and I hope to make a habit out of it.

I feel like it's just a little something I can do to hopefully make a difference.

One of those weeks...

Why didn't anyone warn me that this week is: "All of your electronics will cause you problems" week?

Yesterday, it was my computer. (which seems to be working itself out)

Today, it's problems with the automatic litter box.

Oy.

What a pain.

On the whole, I'm still pretty happy with our Litter Robot. It works as advertised. The problems that we have with it have more to do with the size of our cats (Marcel is a BIG cat). If it were just Noe using it, we'd probably be fine.

But I digress...

Today, I thought I was being the responsible cat owner by washing down the litter box. It is truly my least favorite chore around the house. I got everything all cleaned up, but then noticed that the power lights were all blinking wildly. When I put the globe back on, it just kept on spinning.

Luckily, the Litter Robot comes with an 18 month warranty, which we're still covered by. I called the help line, and a very nice lady explained that it was probably a problem with the circuit board. She's sending me a new one, and claims it's easy to replace.

In the meantime, went down into the basement looking for the old, standard litter box. For the life of me, I couldn't find it. Instead, I found the old Litter Maid that my Mom gave us when she decided to switch Claude back to his regular box. Noe and Marcel used one for years, but when it died, I decided to give the Litter Robot a whirl (so to speak). I had to reassemble the darned thing, but finally got it back together. We'll use it until we see if the new circuit board does the trick.

...and here I thought I was just going to spend a half an hour or so cleaning the first litter box.

Those kitties should just learn how to use the toilet already!

Mac Problems

Oy. I hate it when this happens.

Last Friday, I got my weekly notice that Apple had some system updates for me to download. I usually look through the list, see if it's important, and if it's anything significant, I'll click download. One of the downloads was a security update, so yeah, I clicked the button.

As it was downloading, I switched my 17" monitor over to my PC. Next thing I knew, my Mac's monitor was telling me that it needed to be restarted - but not in the good way. It was in that way that my computer crashed, and I had to force a restart.

Okay, that's alright. I hold down the power button, give it a single click, and it restarts. No dead Mac icon, so that's a good thing. It starts to restart, and eventually gets to the blue screen, then....nothing.

uh oh.

I tried a disk utility, and it repairs the disk, which usually does the job.

Not this time.

So i reinstall Operating System - I knew this was risky, but hey, I back up, so what's the worst that could happen?

The reinstall went well, and it all seemed to be in working order. I was able to restart, get to all of my files, and do a back-up of all important files.

cool..

So, I went along my way, and had a nice weekend. I only needed my computer for IM'ing, email, web, etc,.

Last night, I opened up a Photoshop file that I was working on for a client.

That's when I found out that some of my fonts aren't in my system anymore.

Crap.

Okay - that's okay. I actually still have my 6+ year old Powerbook, that has most of my fonts as well. This morning, I managed to boot it up, found the fonts, and Dick and I managed to remember how to add it to the network.

So, this should be simple now, right?

My old computer is hooked up to my current one, and I should be able to just copy the font files over.

wrong

Whenever I try to copy any font files over, I'm told that I don't have "sufficient privileges".

Okay - tech gurus, what's up with this? I feel like I'm one step away from making this all work again.

any advice?

update

All fixed!
(I love my hubby!)

Buy a House, get a Bride!

Hmmmm, I think this is actually for real.

For a mere $600,000, you too can buy a lovely house in Denver, CO, complete with a Bride!

here's the article from sfgate.com

Is it me, or is that just a little crazy?

Boys on Film

Our professional photos won't be ready for a couple of more weeks still, so my photographer sent me a few "teaser" photos to pacify me.

Dick and a bunch of his buddies met up with our photographer in Union Square early in the afternoon.

Take a look at these stud muffins!

Creep-O-Rama 2005!

A fun night was had by all! Great friends, great costumes, drinks, food, and a Bass-Playing Lobster to boot!

Thanks to all who came.

The photos are up!

Happy Halloween!

My MINI has been violated! :(

Crap!

I woke up this morning, walked downstairs, looked out the front door, and noticed that the passenger seat to my MINI had been pushed back 45 degrees or more.

huh?

uh oh.

I threw on some clothes, and went out to check it out.

My poor MINI was broken into last night!

Now, I'll say this first: it could have been much worse.

Luckily, I don't keep much in my car.

Here's what was taken:

Belken auto charger kit (connects my iPod to my Aux input)
iPod remote
cellphone headset
FastMap of San Francisco (which is my favorite kind of map, and they don't make them anymore!)
a bag of 5 mix CDs that a friend had burned for me
the cigarette lighter (which I have literally never used)
jumper cables (which I haven't had to use since Dick sold his Honda)

Okay - so, all-in-all, it's not bad. They didn't damage the car, as far as I can see. They were thorough enough - checked under the seats, in the glove compartment, and in the trunk. They even removed the covers in the side of the trunk to see if I had anything in there. (I didn't)

I guess I'll call my insurance guy to see if this is worth reporting or not. (I assume it won't be)

I realize that this could have been much worse, but I have to admit, I'm feeling a little violated. My poor little MINI. :(

update
So, the more I think about it, I realize that I must have accidentally left my doors unlocked, and that's how they got it. It's the only thing that makes sense, although I hate to admit it. I know that I'm always very good about locking my car - I live in a big city, for goodness sake. But there's always the slight possibility that I got out of my routine and forgot to lock it.

There's no damage to the car, inside or out, and for that I'm very thankful. Since there's no damage, I can't figure out how else they would have been able to get in.

So now I'm beating myself up over it, and I keep apologizing to my MINI - she hasn't confirmed my suspicions one way or another ;)

This is Frickin' Hysterical!

She must be back from vacation - she's blogging an awful lot today...



This is so odd, but hysterical.

You must watch it.
Now.
Do it.
You will laugh.
Out loud.

I guarantee it.

It seriously reminds me of a couple of guys who I used to teach. They cracked me up on a daily basis.

warning you need to have a high speed connection for this one.
It played better on Dick's PC than on my Mac (running Safari).
Be sure to let it buffer first.

Where have all the split peas gone?

One of the benefits of living in a big city is that you can usually walk to all of your errands: the grocery store, the post office, the bank, etc,.

Today I went to the grocery store (a nice sized Calla-Bell Market) that I always go to. I was collecting ingredients to use for our favorite split pea soup.

bread: check
onion: check
garlic: check
herbs: check
green split peas....

um, where did all the green split peas go?
the shelf where they should be was totally empty.

is there some run on split peas that I'm unaware of?

So then I walked to the corner market.

No split peas there, either.

This means that I had to hop into my car, and drive down to 24th Street to the Bell Market there.

Split Peas: check
at last!

BTW: I also found out today that my local market has stopped carrying brown sugar.
WTH?

Happy Birthday, Marcel!

Our "Big Cat" turns 10 today!

Happy 10th Birthday, Marcel!

We adopted Marcel 5 1/2 years ago from the San Francisco SPCA. He was about 4 1/2 at the time. We also received papers from Marcel's first owner, which had his birthdate.

Marcel has a big day planned to celebrate - mostly eating, sleeping, eating, cuddling, and a little more eating.

It’s like being a contestant on the $10,000.00 Pyramid...

clues:

walk through Golden Gate Park
visit the new DeYoung Museum
walk the Golden Gate Bridge
visit Fisherman’s Wharf
walk around North Beach
spend a couple of nights at the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square
ride a cable car
catch a show
take some golf lessons
dine at fantastic restaurants

answer: "Things you do while you’re honeymooning in San Francisco!"

The honeymoon is almost over, but we’ve had a wonderful (and relaxing) time!

Wedding photos

I've had a few friends who couldn't make it to the wedding ask if I had any photos yet. We don't have our professional picts yet, but we've been getting some great photos from friends.

Have I mentioned how much I love digital cameras? Thanks to everyone for sending/sharing your photos!

Here are a few of my favorites so far. Enjoy!

Still "Just Married"

Technically, Dick and I are still on Honeymoon Mode.


We spent two nights at the lovely Ritz Carlton Resort in Half Moon Bay.
On our way home, we drove down highway 1 and went bowling at Seabowl!
We squeezed in 3 games in an hour, which was great fun! (check out the final score of the last game)


While we were there, I talked Dick into squeezing into this photo booth with me to take the "just married" photo stickers. (how often can you do that?!)

And finally, here's a photo of me with Mr. Seabowl. :)

Just Married!

I can sincerely say that it was probably the best day of my life (so far!).

What an amazing day.

As far as I know (perhaps I didn't hear of some things) everything was perfect, and went smoothly.

It was the perfect day. We had the perfect weather, the perfect sunset, the perfect view.

A roomful of people who we love, who came from all parts of the country, because they love us.

What can be be better than that?

I married the man that I love.

Great food, great music.

Beautiful flowers. Fantastic Cake.

I didn't know whether or not it was possible, but it truly was the perfect day.

Many thanks to all who came, who made the day that much more special.

I can't wait to see the pictures!

Going to the Chapel, and we're.....

Okay, we're not actually getting married in a Chapel, but you get the idea.

:)!

It's a glorious day in SF! We couldn't ask for a more perfect day!

Very exciting!

It's the 10th Annual...

Okay - wedding things aside.

Ten years ago, on this weekend (Fleet Week/Columbus Day) Christopher and David (who was visiting from San Antonio then, but moved to SF the next year) were hanging out in my apartment on Leavenworth Street. I was out in Chinatown for Dim Sum with my friend, Alice.

Christopher and David were unfamiliar with Fleet Week, and they didn't know about the Blue Angels. They were taking a nap in the early afternoon, and were startled awake by the sounds of the jets. Of course, they didn't that they were jets - they thought we were getting bombed!

I eventually came home, they relayed the story, I explained the situation, and we all had a good laugh.

We immediately dubbed the weekend : "F*ck it, Life's too short" Weekend, and we've been celebrating it every year since.

It's a bit ironic that Dick and I got engaged on that weekend last year, and that we're getting married on it this year :)

The weekend has a whole new meaning now :)

Happy F*ck It, Life's Too Short Weekend, everyone!

Luxuriously Pampered

Oh my goodness.

Dick and I just had the most pampered experience ever.

My parents surprised with a treat about a month ago. They got us gift certificates for a salon/spa in Union Square called77 Maiden Lane. We were treated to spa packages that included a salon pedicure, manicure, full body massage and hair styling. I also threw in a waxing appointment to boot (hello!).

We were there for a total of 4 hours. It was simply amazing. I felt so pampered.

It was so cosmopolitan-chick. So urban-hip. So very Sex in the City. ;)

When we arrived, they printed out our schedules and gave them to us. They each listed the type of treatment, the name of person performing the treatment, and the time of each appointment. I had flashbacks to when you used to get your new class schedule each semester at school. Only, this was SO much better! We went directly from one appointment to the next. It was so cool.

I've only had one manicure and pedicure before, and this was Dick's first. The last time I had it done was 3 years ago when I was in a friend's wedding. That was at a nail salon in an outdoor mall in Monterey. I have to say that this experience was about 5000 times better (it was also a lot more expensive, but hey...).

That was such a generous and thoughtful gift from my parents. I know that it's something that Dick and I would not have thought to do for ourselves, and I'm so glad that we were able to do it.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Enjoying the moment

I'm having a moment.

right now.

Dick and I had a really nice day today. It's a glorious day here in SF - warm, without being hot, and crystal clear. We had a meeting with our Day-Of Coordinator at the venue this morning. It went very well, and although I was already confident and organized, I'm feeling all-the-more confident that things will go well because we hired this woman. This week I have quite literally handed everythign over to her, and I'm loving that.

On the way home, we drove through the Presidio, then picked up Dick's shirt from the cleaners, and my gown from the alterations store.

After we came home, we took a nice, long walk through our neighborhood and down to Delores Park.

We're getting ready to head out to meet Dick's family for drinks.

What a nice day.

What a nice time in our lives.

What a good life.

I'm a very lucky girl.

It just hit me...

We're getting married soon.

Why did it *just* hit me?

Because Christopher, our gay boyfriend, just left to stay with our friend David for a week. Today was Dick's last day at work until after the wedding, so Christopher wanted to be sure that we had enough alone time by ourselves before the wedding.

I have to say: it's kind of weird.

I got a little sad watching him pack, and seeing him drive away. It's silly, because he's coming back again next week, and he's just going across town. I think I must have had flashbacks to when we he left for Australia 3 1/2 years ago, and we had to say goodbye.

"Bye, Bro! See you on Sunday!"

Too much Sci-Fi

Last night, we played Ghost Recon on our Xbox(s)

Now, everyone knows that I suffer from a severe case of "Xbox Mouth": that means that I curse like a sailer whenever we play - much to everyone's delight.

Well, last night, I was killed fairly early on in a very stupid way.

Without even thinking, I yelled, "FRACK".

I totally laughed at myself afterwards.
Clearly, I'm watching too much sci-fi.

If you've watched the new Battlestar Galactica Series, you know what I mean... :)

Enjoy the Silence

For those of you who don't know, Dick and I are getting married this Sunday (!).

This last week has oddly calm which came as quite a surprise. I thought that last week would be the toughest: it was my last "official" week of work before taking time off, and it was also the week when we'd be finishing up the last of the big projects. We tackled the remaining projects (ie: writing our vows - or in our case, cutting and pasting our vows, picking ceremony music, finalizing the photography schedule) in the evenings early last week, and got it all taken care of. That was a good thing, because I was hit hard by lots of last minute work from a few different clients which kept me working into the night on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Add onto that working at the Gallery Reception on Saturday, and it was quite a load.

But I'm happy to report that it was all handled in stride - must be some kind of secret wedding zen that no one tells you about. :)

I should mention here that I realize how very fortunate I am to run my own business, make my own hours, and work from home. I can't imagine that all of this planning could have gone as well and smoothly if I had a traditional "job-job".

This week is reserved for last-minute tasks, meetings and cleaning of the house. Not so bad.

I'm amazed at how many fewer email messages come through my inbox when I'm "on vacation".

Nice.

Entourage Calendar

Is anyone out there still using Entourage?? (Rob?)

My Mac just updated all my Microsoft Software, including Entourage. I noticed one big change in my calendar: there used to be a small pane that showed thumb versions of entire months (along the side of the large calandar). I can't find it anymore. It would allow me to "glance" at a month (other than the current one) or I could switch months easily by clicking on those.

Is that an option somewhere that I haven't found yet?

Happy Girl

DIck has an amazing talent in being able to listen to a song, sit down at his piano (or drums) and start playing it. I realize that this is a talent that many muscians have, but it still boggles my mind. I always marvel at him when it does this with a song that he's never played before.

Right now, I can't decide what makes me happier: that he can do this, and does do it regularly, or that right now he's playing a Green Day song! (and trying to teach me the drum parts!)

It's just another Saturday morning at "His 'n Hers Condos". :)

The day it snowed in San Francisco

For the record, today was just gorgeous, with temps in the 70s and 80s.

I didn't go across town to see it, but I've been reading about this controversial event for the past month. I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing (sounds like a logistical nightmare), but I will say that it makes for some interesting photos!

Still don't know what I'm talking about?

read all about it here!

Cutest Dog Ever?

Dick's Uncle Gilbert just sent a photo of his new puppy: "Pompi Von Trixie"

We both think she may be the cutest pup we've ever seen.

You be the judge :)

A little punk rock, and a whole lotta leather...

Okay, first things first: the Green Day Concert ROCKED! (Hi, I'm 15 again) My sister and I had SO MUCH FUN! It had been 11 years since the Dookie Tour - when we saw Green Day 3 times in 1 year. I have to admit that I thought my concert-going days were over. I had all but hung up my concert-going hat. But when my sister called me in January telling me about the "American Idiot Tour", how could I say no?

A lot has changed over the past 11 years - including my wardrobe. 11 years ago, I was still in art school. I was certainly more conservative than most, but I still sported my Doc Martins, black tights, cut-off shorts and long shirts almost daily. Saturday's concert was outdoors at SBC Park. It had been a gorgeous day, but I figured it would be smart to do the San Francisco layer thing. My first instinct was to wear my light-weight down jacket. Until I realized that it's Pink. I can't wear pink to a Green Day concert! They wouldn't even let me through the gates! (I later found out that my sister had the same realization when she considered wearing a pink shirt). I eventually came to my senses, and threw on a black, long sleeved t-shirts, dug out one of my favorite old shirts (brown plaid) and strung up my old faithful Doc Martin boots. Now I was concert ready! ;)

This photo was taken at the Xbox Booth at the concert. Apparently, Xbox is Green Day Central - whatever that means. Anyhow, they had a photo booth to have your photo taken at the concert, and they'd post it up on the web for you within the next couple of days. I figured, "Xbox? Green Day? Photo from the concert? Why Not?!"

Our timing was impeccable. (well, impeccable if you're a mid-30's fan, who doesn't really have any interest in seeing the 2 opening bands) We were about 5 rows from our seats, when the lights went down, and Green Day started to blare through the speakers. The concert itself was very cool - especially since Green Day is a local band, and this was their homecoming show. The first few sets were off of American Idiot then they sprinkled through some older stuff from Dookie, Kerplunk, and Insomniac.

Some random thoughts about how concerts have changed since I've last been:

• It's been at least 8 years since I've been to a big-arena concert. People used to bring lighters, and hold them up and sway them during ballads. The lighters are still there, but now, people are also holding up their cell phones (glowing).
  
• Security checked our bags upon entering: no water bottles, outside food, or cameras. That certainly doesn't stop people from taking photos with their camera phones, though!
  
• As I said before, it's been 11 years since I last went to a Green Day concert. Back then, my sister and I noticed that they drew a very diverse crowd: families with small children, teens, 20-somethings, 30-somethings, and older. This year, I noticed the same thing - only we were "elevated" the to 30-something crowd that we used to talk about! (!)
  

So, that was Saturday night.

Yesterday (Sunday) we decided to get out and enjoy the sun, and trekked over to The Folsom Street Fair. It was a gorgeous day - mid to high 70s, and just perfect weather for walking around naked. (don't worry, Mom & Dad, I was not walking around naked) :)

We go to the Folsom Street Fair nearly every year, so I'd guess I've been at least 6-8 times by now. You know you've been too many times when nothing that you see phases you at all. Fully naked people, people performing sexual acts in public, "shocking" outfits, etc., whatever It's the Folsom Street Fair! What do you expect?

You also know that you've been too many times when Pete points out "masturbation man" and notices, "Oh- he's lost weight since last year".

And on that note, I'll leave you with a photo that I took yesterday, and one of Dick's favorite lines that he says every year at The Folsom Street Fair:

"Not a real cop."

Thanks, I needed that...

Okay, I admit it. I've been a little stressed lately, and feeling slightly overwhelmed by this wedding planning stuff. It's all good, and certainly all under control, but every once in a while I'm on edge more than I'd like to admit. We essentially have two weeks to go, and we're down to the nitty-gritty details. I'm very happy with all that we've done so far, and how organized it's all been, but now I find myself thinking about small details which I know in the end, won't matter at all. Let's face it: the important thing to remember is that a) we're getting married (yay), b) we'll be surrounded by most of our closest friends and families (who are coming from near and far!) and c) I'm absolutely positive that everyone, including Dick and me, will have a great day.

With that said, we took a HUGE walk this afternoon - we got out and enjoyed the sunshine, and got some great exercise. Today was another one of those perfect San Francisco Days (which we haven't had enough of lately - especially for this time of the year). It was crystal clear, and in the mid-70s. We walked from our house in the Castro, over 17th Street, up the Vulcan Steps, to the top of Buena Vista Park (gorgeous) down to Haight Street, had a slice of pizza at Escape from New York, then headed into Golden Gate Park, all the way to the Conservatory of Flowers. We admired the view there for a while, then walked back up Stanyon to Cole Street, and caught the N Judah train back to Dubuce and Noe. We actually had an SF Celebrity Sighting while waiting for the N Judah: A gentleman walked passed us, and Dick asked me "Do you know who that guy was?" I answered, "Was that Craig Newmark?". He was pretty impressed that I guessed correctly. I guess that was more of a "Geek Celebrity Sighting". :)

So we were out and about enjoying the fresh air and beautiful weather for about 4 hours today. I think I really needed that - I'm feeling much better now :)

Oh, and BTW, I'm going to the Green Day Concert tonight with my sister! Oh Yeah, baby!

Teeth Whitening Strips

Okay - here's my handy tip of the day:

Teeth Whitening Made Easy! :D

I had a routine dentist appintment earlier this month (cleaning) and they suggested that I try out teeth whitening strips before the wedding next month. Okay - why not? Over the last 3 weeks, I used two different teeth whitening products: Crest White Strips and Oral-B Rembrandt Whitening Strips. For the record, my dentist and her staff insisted that it was perfectly safe and fine to whiten your teeth (using strips) more than once within consecutive weeks.

I used the Crest Strips first. It was my first experience with whitening strips, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. You have to apply their strips twice a day for 30 minutes at a time. I found that it was a tiny bit of a hassle to do it twice a day, and that the strips were thin, and moved around in my mouth easily.

Next up was the Oral B Strips. I had actually bought a set from my dentist for Dick to use first, then bought another for myself. I was most impressed that you only had to apply them for 30 minutes once a day - that made a huge difference. I also much preferred the thickness and sturdyness of the Oral-B Rembrandt strips over the Crest Strips. They felt much more secure and it wasn't a bother at all to keep them in my mouth for more than 30 minutes.

And does it work?

Yes! I believe it does! Dick, Christopher and I all whitened our teeth last week, and we all saw good results. The house that whitens thier teeth together... My teeth are noticably whiter now. All-in-all, a great experience.

Watch for my dazzling smile to blind you the next time you see me :)

Houston, We Have LAUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!

At Last! We've launched the New Adler Gallery Site!

I'm thrilled that it can finally see the light of day. It's been more than 6 months in the making. Most of which was just little tweaks, here and there.

As I've mentioned before, I'm especially proud of the structure of the site, and how it was built. It's very, very cool. All formatting is done in CSS. That was a whole new thing to me a year ago, so I'm very proud of how elaborate the styling is. BTW, this could not have been accomplished without a whole lot of help, time and patience by my extraordinary boyfriend/fiance. He's the bomb, baby. There's also some nifty JavaScript that Dick wrote to do things like the roll-overs and non-refreshing windows.

We're still making changes here and there, and there's still more info/artists to be added. But it was about time that it got out to meet the world.

Check it out.

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Happy Birthday to my good friend, Andrew :)

Andrew and I have a really neat and interesting history. Technically, we met in 1989. He is a HUGE Collector and Historian of Raggedy Ann and Andy. (You think I have a big Raggedy Ann collection? You should check out Andrew's Collection!) In 1989, Andrew currated a museum exhibit in honor of Raggedy Ann's 75 Birthday at the Oakland Museum. I was 18 or 19 at the time, and it was the first time I had ever heard of or seen anyone else's collection of Raggedy Ann & Andy. It had quite an impact on me. One weekend, during the exhibit, Andrew and the Museum hosted a "Sharing" Session in a theater for people to share their stories and dolls. I went, of course, and Andrew would tell me years later that he remembered me because: a) I was significantly younger than anyone else there (most people were adults/seniors) and b) I'm Chinese (Raggedy Ann is so very Americana..)

Anyhow, when I moved to San Francisco 10 years ago, Andrew had just published his first book about the history of Raggedy Ann & Andy and their Creator, Johnny Gruelle. He had advertised the book in "Rags Magazine, which I of course subscribed to. Because I was a "starving student" at the time, I asked if it would be possible for me to meet him somewhere to buy the book from him directly, rather than paying for shipping. As we spoke over the phone, I think he remembered me from the Museum Exhibit, and offered to have me meet him at his house. We got along so well immediately, and have been great friends ever since.

here's some neat "Trina Chow Trivia": My family and I bought "My Condo" from Andrew 7 years ago! He lived her for 10 years prior to selling it to us. The neighbors joked that as he moved his dolls out, I moved mine in :)

Do you know the Muffin Man?

It turns out that I *DO* Know the Muffin Man!

Christopher has been making banana nut muffins and bread all day!
The house smells amazing!

...and the best part?

He used the new heart-shaped muffin pans that we just received as a (early) wedding gift!

SO Cute! :)

Happy Birthday, Dick!

Today is Dick's Birthday!

A whole bunch of us are going out for a HUGE meal at The House of Prime Rib tonight to celebrate! Yum!

Pet Penguin, anyone?

My friend, Sheri, knows that my Mom has a penguin obsession.

She just sent this link to me.

It's pretty funny.

I sent it to my Mom, but I had to warn her that I didn't think it was real! ;)
I don't want for her to get her hopes up too high. Few things would make her happier than having a penguin of her own to take around for walks everyday on it's penguin leash!

SAK Warehouse Relief Effort Follow up

This is so cool.
Sometimes, the power of the web amazes me. The fact that random people can find seemingly random posts on my blog amazes me, and creeps me out.... all at the same time.

Remember this post?

Here's the follow-up.

I just received this email this afternoon:

Subject: I saw your website
Hi Trina,
We ended up raising $50,000 from our Warehouse Sale. Thanks for sharing us on your website!!!

Thank you,
Rachel Alegria
Director, Human Resources
& Organizational Development

THE SAK
Corporate Headquarters
400 Alabama Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
www.thesak.com

$50,000! That's amazing! Good for them.

Which Napoleon Dynamite Character are You?

Oh goodness. I think this officially makes me a geek...


You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.

Which Napoleon Dynamite Character are You?

A little food, a little drink...

Today is one of those rare San Francisco perfect weather days. What a welcome surprise after a week of overcast skies and chances of rain.

We decided to take advantage of the weather, and went for a beautiful hike from The Cliff House around the bay, over to Sea Cliff. We had so many spectacular views along the way - it was a reminder of how much we love living in this city.

After our 2-hour hike, we went back to the Cliff House and indulged in Bloody Marys and The Cliff House's famous Pop-Overs! If you haven't been to the newly renovated Cliff House, you should check it out. Great views, interesting history, and most importantly, Pop-Overs.

After we left the Cliff House, and I was sufficiently intoxicated by my one cocktail, we took a drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect day to drive around in the convertible! We went up through the Marin Headlands, and took in the view looking across the Bay, into the City. Spectacular, Spectacular!

We payed our $5.00 entrance fee back into San Francico (also known as the toll), and drove around to the Palace of Fine Arts. Looks like they're doing some construction there- the whole thing was surrounded by wire fences. Not so pretty.

We drove around the City a bit more, and just came home.

another beautiful day in San Francisco. :)

Donate by Shopping

OMG. I'm such a sucker for a bargain.

This afternoon, just after Noon, I received an email from The Sak Warehouse. The Sak is a handbag company whose Warehouse is on Harrison Street in San Francisco.

Twice a year, the warehouse has a HUGE sale - 50-70% off regular prices. They have them in May and November (or something like that).

Anyhow, the email that I received today announced that The Sak Warehouse was having a one-day Sale to benefit the hurricane relief effort. 100% of sales would be donated to the American Red Cros Hurricane Katrina relief effort. 100%. That's impressive.

The sale is today only from 1:00-8:00pm.

I had a 2:00 meeting with one of my clients in Union Square today. I got out around 3:30, and drove over the Sak to look for some bargains.

...and many a bargain was found.

I found a few bags for myself, a few for my sister, and a few for gifts.

It's pretty hard to feel guilty about shopping when:

a) It's a warehouse sale, and purses start at $7.00
b) I'm getting a head-start on Xmas pressies
c) 100% of the sales go directly to the hurricane relief effort.

When I left around 5:00pm, I think they had already raised something like $12,000. I can't imagine how much they'll raise by the end of the sale tonight.

Happy Birthday, Raggedy Ann!

Today is Raggedy Ann's 90th Birthday!
(it's the anniversary of her patent date)

90 years! I think this makes her my "oldest friend" :)

Here's more information about Raggedy Ann's Birthday. Here's a little something on the History of Raggedy Ann & Andy, and their creator, Johnny Gruelle.

And finally, in case you haven't seen it already, here's my own Raggedy Ann Collection.

Happy Birthday, Raggedy Ann!

South Park Trina

This is so funny!
(Just got this off Willo's Blog - Thanks Willo!)

I guess this is what I would like as a South Park character.



This makes me laugh, because I think it actually kind of looks like me during my "art student" phase.
Dick has been teasing me lately that I don't wear black anymore.

I used to only wear black.
Black with Doc Martins.
Black with black tights with Doc Martins.

It's no wonder he misses that! :)

something you won't see at our wedding

Okay, I'm a fan of Raggedy Ann and all, and admittedly have more Raggedy Ann stuff than the next person...

But, I'd like to think that I know where to draw the line.
(even though some of you, including Dick, may beg to differ....)

My sister found this on the web.
Here's something you won't see at our wedding.
I promise.

If you do, feel free to shoot me.

Egads.
That's scary.

Five years of NOE!!!!!!!!

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day that we found Noe in our backyard on 23rd street!

As the story goes....

On the early morning of Sunday, September 3, 2000, there was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near Napa. It jolted us both awake. After the earthquake subsided, we heard a little chirping noise outside the house. We figured it was a bird.

The next morning, Dick went into the backyard to investigate the chirping. At the time, the backyard was completely overgrown. Dick found a tiny baby kitten tucked away within some bushes. We now fondly refer to that bush as "the kitten bush". :) We decided to leave the baby kitten in the backyard, hoping that her momma cat would come back for her. We went out for the day to enjoy the Ala Carte Ala Park festival in Golden Gate Park (which used to be a Labor Day tradition with our friends)

When we came home, the tiny kitten was still there, and mewing her little head off. Poor little thing.

We realized that she probably wouldn't survive another night by herself, and decided to take her in. We brought her to a 24-hour vet on Fillmore Street. They gave her a quick physical, said she "should survive" and taught us how to feed her kitten milk-replacement (by bottle) every 4 hours.

The tiny kitten didn't have a name for her first few days with us. I later found out it was because Dick didn't think she would survive, and he was afraid that we would get too attached to her if we named her, and she didn't make it.

After we had her for a few days, Dick walked downstairs, and told me that he had thought of the perfect name for the kitten. He said, "Let's name her Noe. "

Dick used to live on Noe Street, in Noe Valley (he had just moved to 23rd in April 2000). I thought it was the perfect name!

After we adopted Noe, we found several more kittens in the backyard - (hence, "the kitten bush"). Noe's half-brother, Kazoo, lives with our friend Willo! We were eventually able to help our neighbor trap Noe's Mamma (the source of all of these kittens, of course) and she had her spayed at the San Francisco SPCA. After our neighbor brought her home after being spayed, Noe's poor Momma cat ran away, probably terrified. We never saw her again.

But then again, we never discovered any more kittens in the kitten bush, either.

It happened again!

I had just hopped in the shower (about 1:30), and started to wash my hair, when...

BUZZZZ!!!!!!!

Doorbell.

Delivery.

mailman.

Oy.

I had to quickly rinse out my hair, dry off, put on my robe, and run to answer the door.

How is it that this always happens?

MUNI fare increase

SF MUNI fares jump up to $1.50 today.

Here's a link showing all of the fare changes.
$5.00 to ride a cable car! Egads.

start saving those quarters.

Please donate

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of devestation, destruction and loss of lives caused by Hurricane Katrina.

I don't have any personal ties to anyone affected, but I do have several close friends with family in the South. As far as I know, they are all safe, but have all been evacuated.

Here's a link to the American Red Cross' Hurricane Relief donation page.

Today is Noe's 5th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our "kitten"!

Today is the day that we celebrate Noe's birthday. We don't know the exact date for certain, because we didn't find her until she was 4-5 days old. Come flip through some of Noe's baby photos, and see how adorable she was!

It's so hard to believe that we've had Noe for 5 years already. It seems like yesterday that we picked her from the "kitten bush".

Five Years old.

Noe is excited about starting Kindergarten this year. ;)
I sure hope she learns how to "play well with others". :)

Happy Birthday, Noe!

What happens in San Francisco, stays in San Francisco....

What a very, very fun (and mostly wedding-related) weekend!

First of all, Dick and all of his entourage flew off to Vegas for his Bachelor Party. They were gone from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. From what I understand, they all had a great time, and Dick is ready to go back again!

My Mom and I had a really nice mother/daughter day on Friday. We went to both of my first dress fittings - one for my wedding dress, the another for my cheongsam (Chinese Dress). I was reminded of how short I am - the only alterations that my wedding dress needed was about 6 inches off the bottom! :)

My Mom spent the night with me Friday night (which is always fun). We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, then went to a meeting with our caterer in South San Francisco. We had to pick out the linens and china for the wedding. (ah - the details)

I had a spectacular Saturday night with my friends Lora and Paula. Since the guys were in Vegas all weekend, Lora and Paula through together a very spontaneous Bachlorette Party for me! I had told Lora months and months ago that I really didn't want to typical Bachelorette party - bar hopping, game-playing, penis-sippy-cup-toting, etc., Just not in to it. Instead, I'd told her that I'd love a girls night in - fun dinner, movies, jammies, chatting.... and that's exactly what we did! Lora had us over for a fabulous dinner of many cheeses, fruits, salamis, and white wine. Paula brought over a bottle of pink sparkling wine, and made her famous chocolate fondue - with strawberries, bananas and apples. YUM It was really fun, and perfect, and just my speed.

The highlight of the night was when Lora gave me my present. She had trekked over to the Castro that afternoon, and bought a bag full of bachelorette-party-style gag gifts. But the best part of a t-shirt that she had found way back in February. (I need to take a photo of it) It's a black t-shirt that has Big Block lettering that says "I ♥ Dick". This is, of course, the perfect bachelorette party gift, and was completely hysterical.

But, that wasn't the best part....

The best part was when the three of us when downstairs to the front lobby of Lora's building. We were all wearing pajamas/sweats, and asked the security guard to take a photos of all of us, with me wearing my new t-shirt. If that wasn't funny enough, we took one photo with Lora's camera phone, and sent the photo to the guys in Vegas. We knew they would be sitting down to dinner around that time, and they would all be together. They got a good laugh out of it.

That's about when Lora sent Dick a text-message on his phone stating, "What happens in San Francisco, stays in San Francisco...." :)

Sunday was another terrific day. My wonderful sister threw me a "high tea" bridal shower today :) We had it at my parents house in Milpitas. My amazing Uncle Bill, who works in the food-service industry, catered the entire event, and it was truly spectacular. The food was amazing, and was simply beautiful! We had a house full of people - about 30 women, both family and close friends. I had a wonderful time, and send out huge "thank yous" and love to my sister, my parents, and everyone else who helped put it all together. Thanks to all who came as well - I think everyone had a good time.

One would think that I'd be exhausted after all of this.... I did get to bed at a decent time Sunday night, but found myself wide awake again by 3:30am. So, what do I do when I'm up in the middle of the night? I get up and blog!

The most amazing return policy ever

I just had the most amazing shopping experience!

My friend, Vivian, gave me a very nice birthday gift a couple of months ago. It was some products from a local Castro store called Nancy Boy. The store is on Market, between Castro and Noe. Dick and I have passed it often and looked inside the windows, but never went it. They have a catchy phrase on their window that I always remember: Tested on boyfriends, not animals. cute.

Vivian gave me some really nice items, but I was afraid they were things that I wouldn't actually use ( Linen water- which I think I would like, but I don't think Dick would enjoy sleeping in lavender-scented sheets). I thought I'd go check out the store, and exchange my gifts for products that I know I'd use (salt scrub and body wash - for those of you keeping track).

I walked into the store, and the very nice sales person saidt he exchange would be no problem at all - he told me to go ahead, walk around the store, and find something that I would like. He told me that my store credit was around $36.00.

So I walked around, found the items that I wanted (totalling $30) and came back to the register. He exchanged my products, and gave me the difference in cash. (always nice)

Now, here's the really amazing part:

He asked me, "Do you have any friends or family who you think would enjoy these products that you're returning?"

I answered, "Yes - a friend of mine actually gave them to me. I'm sure a lot of my friends would enjoy it"

Then he told me to please take the original items back, and share them with friends who will enjoy them.

That's their return policy!

(shakes head in disbelief)

Really?

So, that's the amazing return policy store.

Now I feel it is my duty to share the story with all of you, and recommend this great, neighborhood store:

Nancy Boy
2319 Market Street
SF, CA 94114

I suppose I should atually *use* the products first, but I've gotta say - so far they smell really great!

Take a shower = UPS delivery

How does that happen?

I was expecting a UPS delivery on Monday (my aeron chair ) and I waited around all day until they delivered it. (about 4:30pm) They usually come around 12:30, so I was waiting longer than I expected.

I knew another package was being delivered today. Again, I waited all morning, then I thought, "Well, the UPS guy on Monday was new - maybe they have a new schedule". I have some errands I need to run this afternoon, and thought it would be best to take a shower, and get going with my day.

I finally hopped into the shower around 12:30, and wouldn't you know it: the buzz of the front door bell.

How do they do that?

So. yeah, I was the crazy looking woman opening the front door wearing a robe with wet hair.

nice.

E-babe

I've been a member of ebay since January, 1998. I was a big fan early on. My family tagged me with the nickname of "E-babe" after Christmas 1998. Most of the Christmas gifts that I bought that year were great ebay finds. They kept asking me "Where did you find this?" and I kept replying "Ebay". :)

I'm very excited about my latest ebay deal. My business has been doing quite well lately, so I decided to treat myself to a new office chair! My old chair is at least 8 years old, and was a bargain buy from an office discount store. Dick suggested that I look into an Aeron Chair - he has one at work, and I've heard such great things about this chair.

We hunted on ebay and craigslist and were amazed at how well these chairs keep their resale value. We eventually found a deal on ebay on a slightly-used Aeron Chair in the size and specs that I wanted. It had a buy-it-now price, which was a great deal, plus I didn't have to bid against anyone else to "win" it.

The chair came in yesterday, and I am SO Happy with it! It is so comfortable! It doesn't have the optional lumbar support on it, but so far, I don't think I need it. It's so much more comfortable than my old chair.

Anniversaries Galore!

I just realized that today is my Bloggiversary. Two years of blogging. Who would have thought that I'd have so much to say, while, in fact, saying so little?

I believe that this week is also my 10-year Anniversary of being a City Girl. I moved into my cute little apartment on Leavenworth Street in late August, 1995, to attend The San Francisco Art Institute. oh my. So much has happened over the past 10 years. I think I'm officially a San Franciscan Native now.

..and while we're on it...

I think I moved into my condo (the first time around) 7 years ago this week. It's close to it, anyway.

It seems that August has been a notoriously busy month for me. :)

The House of Nap

Early this afternoon, I realized that everyone in the house (except for me) was taking a nap:

My boyfriend/fiance was taking a nap.
My gay-boyfriend was taking a nap.
Both cats were taking a nap.

It's as if someone sprinkled fairy dust around the house.
(which, given the fact that we live in the Castro, sounds really funny)

...and speaking of things that are gay

A while ago, I noticed that our local bagel store (on Castro Street) was selling a drink called "Gay Fuel".

I'm sorry, but what does that mean?

A drink that makes you gay?
You may not drink this beverage unless you are gay?
If you're already gay, it'll pump up your gayness?

WTH?

I recently noticed that the bagel store has pulled it off the shelves.

Maybe the Castro was already gay enough without drinking Gay Fuel.

Fruits

We were making breakfast (Pancakes!) this morning, when Christopher started to explain to us how Australians tend to make up a plural form of a word for words that don't actually have a plural form.

His example: "Would you like some fruits?"

"fruit" is one of those words that is the same in single or plural form.

"Fruits" isn't really a word.

Then Dick came up with the exception:

"Unless you're talking about gays, that is."

"Look at all of those FRUITS!"

Launched!

I just launched a new client site:

unveiledeventsandgifts.com

This was a fairly quick project - we launched it within 3 weeks of our first meeting. Not bad.
I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and (more importantly) so is the client!

It was my first all-CSS site that I've done without Dick's help, so I am pleased that I've learned so much about it over the past few months. My favorite part of the design is how the text wraps around the cake image at the bottom. :)

You've gotta love CSS.

Noe goes to the v-e-t

Poor Noe.

She's having one of those very few bad cat days.

I had to bring her to the vet today. We had to get something specific checked out, plus I realized that it's been over 1 3/4 years since her last "annual" check-up.

We used to take our kitties to a local vet here in SF. Years ago, we realized that it was nearly impossible to take her. As she grew up from a kitten to an adult she became more and more agitated at the vet. For anyone who has come over and met Noe, you've seen that she can be very sweet to Dick and me (especially when we're the only people home) but she DOES NOT like for anyone else to touch her. Imagine how much worse she is when we take her to the vet! Truly, she turns into an untamable little beast when we go. The last time I tried to take her to the local vet, she was so crazed that they simply couldn't do anything with her at all, and had to send us home..

I started taking her to my family vet way down in Milpitas a couple of years ago - we've been taking our pets to our favorite vet down there for more than 20 years. Before our first appointment, they gave me a sedative to give Noe before the drive down. She's pretty drugged by the time we get there, but she's still too freaked out to get a full check-up. So then, they put her in "the tank". (a small acrylic box, about the size of two shoe boxes stacked) Yep, pop my little baby in there, and gas her up. Once she's out, they put a little mask over her nose and mouth to keep her out while they complete her physical. It's horrible to watch, but I know it's the best thing for everyone involved. The way I see it, after I give her the sedative, everything must be a blur to her, and she surely doesn't remember as much, or isn't as traumatized by it if she hadn't been drugged.! I tell her it was all a bad dream. :)

We just came home from Milpitas, and poor little Noe is in a bad state. She's still all "drunk" (as my vet says) from the drugs, so she can't walk a straight line. Her rump is sore from having 4 shots (vaccination, plus a cortisone) so she's walking with a stiff limp. Her eyes are completely unfocused, and she's totally disoriented.

I'm so thankful that we all only have to go through this once every couple of years. It's just a bad situation for everyone involved.

Coincidentally, Noe's half brother (same feral Momma kitty), Kazoo (check out his web site had a trip to the vet yesterday. Apparently, the accute dislike for the vet runs in the family. Must be genetic. Read about Kazoo's trip to the vet on Willo's Blog.

I'm such an old fogey

The only time I ever listen to the radio is in my car, so I kind of enjoy it.

I usually listen to KFOG 104.9FM. It's a nice blend of "classic rock" - 60s through today. It's a decent amount of variety, and I usually like what's playing. Plus, with my cool radio that came in my MINI, I'm able to see the name of the song, and the name of the artist!

My sister has recently turned me on to another local station: 95.7. They play 70s, 80s, through now. Their claim is that they will never play the same song twice in one day. I have to say that it's a fairly impressive claim. Although I don't listen to the radio much these days, I remember when I used to listen to the radio at work (at one of my old "job-jobs") and I would get so tired of hearing the same songs over and over again.

So the new station has been quite enjoyable so far.
Here's a sampling:

As I was driving home this morning, they played "Purple Rain" by Prince, followed by "Come Sail Away" by Styx.
Now seriously, when's the last time you heard either of those songs on the radio?
...and is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Last week, they played "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls.
oh, Yeah, baby!

On the "I'm so old and unhip" note, while I was skimming around the pre-programmed radio stations in my car when I was leaving Costco today, I stopped at 105.3 - LIVE 105. (my primary station in the 1990s). They were playing a song by "Hot Hot Heat", which, by the way, the only reason I know of this band is because I keep up with my ultra-cool friend, Willo's on her blog. So I hear the name of the band, and I listen to the song thinking, "So, this what the hipsters are listening to these days..."

I'm such an old music fogey.

All by myself

Dick left for a 2-day business trip up in Redmond this morning.
I made him coffee, kept him company while he ate breakfast, gave him a kiss, and sent him on his way.
He left at 7:30am.

Christopher started a temp job earlier this week.
I made him coffee, kept him company while he ate breakfast, gave him a hug, and sent him on his way.
He left at 8:15am.

I've been in my office, catching up on emails and phone calls all morning.
It's oddly quiet in the house.

Dick has been home sick for the last few days, and I've grown accustomed to having Christopher in the house all day, too.

Where's my boyfriend?
Where's my gay boyfriend?

My life is so weird.
Funny, but weird.

"The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."

- Mark Twain

Is it me, or does today feel like a Winter's day?

Ah, San Francisco Summers.

It's been cloudy, foggy and chilly all day.
Dick isn't feeling very well, so he, Christopher and I have all kind of holed up in the house all day.

..and we all know what that means...

Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike!

We picked up our (2) copies yesterday.

So far, it's wicked hard, but it rocks!
(hi, I'm a twelve-year-old boy)

Slurpee!

Dick and I went to Union Square this afternoon. I was a little thirsty, and I noticed a 7-11 across the street!

SLURPEE!

It was the first time I had ever been to the 7-11 around Union Square, and it kind of cracked me up. I went right to the Slurpee machine, and poured myself a Coke Slurpee. Yum!

A little caffine, and little sugar, a little brainfreeze. It's all good!

I have such fond childhood memories of getting Slurpees. My Grandparents (on my Mom's side) live a 1/2 block away from a 7-11. My Grandfather used to walk us down to the 7-11 and buy us Slurpees whenever we would visit. Here's a piture that I found from 1971 that was taken in front of my Grandparent's house in Stockton. I'm on the left, my sister is in the middle, and that's my cousin, Bruce on the right. Cute, huh?


Come to think of it, my sister and I stopped by the 7-11 on the way to their house a couple of months ago, and brought a Slurpee to my Grandfather! It still makes him happy. :)
Here's another Slurpee related photo from 1997. (random!) That's my Mom and her Dad. My Mom is showing off the Star Trek Lotto cards that we brought back for her :)

Anyhow, I had a Slurpee today, and it was good!

Gay Boyfriend

As you may know, my "Bro", Christopher, has been staying with us for almost a month now. He was only going to stay a week or so at first, then move in with one of our mutual friends, David, However, we've all been having such a good time, and it's working out so well, that we've decided to extend his stay here for a while longer.

I have to say, we all benefit from having Christopher here with us. He and I have been great friends for 12 years, so I love having him around. We generally hang out in the office together in the morning/early afternoons. I'll be doing my web design work, and he'll be on Dick's PC, applying for jobs, etc., Sometimes, we run errands in the afternoons. BONUS: Christopher got his undergrad degree at a hospitality school in Sydney. Apparently, he has always enjoyed cooking, but he also took a cooking course in school! All of that translates into Christopher cooking many, many delicious meals for Dick and I! YUM! Dick and Christopher have always gotten along very well - I've always said that the two of them would have been close friends even without me in the picture. In Christopher, Dick has found a new Xbox buddy. We've taught him Halo, GR2, and most recently DOA. Many, many nights of good entertainment! We've also managed to get him hooked on the new Battlestar Galactica Series.

Last week, I was IM'ing Dick while he was at work. I was going out for the evening, and Christopher was planning dinner for he and Dick. I told Dick what the plan was, and he said, "My very own Gay Boyfriend!".

This is hysterical, of course, and now we call Christopher "Our Gay Boyfriend".

We saw a lot of friends at two different events this past weekend. We kept singing the praises our gay boyfriend, and tried to convince everyone that they should have one, too!

What does a gay boyfriend do?

(Now, granted, I think I have an exceptional "model" :) )
My gay boyfriend cooks, cleans, and goes shopping with me. Actually, on his first week here with us, my gay boyfriend helped me finalize my wedding cake order, and helped me pick out wedding shoes. He keeps us company, helps around the house, makes us laugh, comes out to parties with us, and he calls me "Doll". :)

LOL.

Christopher and I have joked about writing a sitcom pilot about our current living situation.... The straight couple who lives in San Francisco's Castro District, who has a gay friend who comes to live with them. We'll throw in tidbits like "His 'n Her Condos", the Gay Boyfriend idea, and crazy cat stories. We even have ideas for the crazy neighbors! We figured that the pilot episode can follow the actual first day that Christopher came in from Sydney: you know - the day I picked him up from the airport, we were supposed to have dinner with Dick and my parents, but ended up having to go to the ER because he had a 3rd nostril growing.

NBC, here we come! Watch out "Will & Grace" it's the premiere of "Gay Boyfriend"!

One last thing, if you've never seen the Gay Boyfriend Video, you really must. It's hysterical. Maybe we can buy the rights to it, and use it as our sitcom's theme song!

PS: The people who made the Gay Boyfriend Video used some of Pete's Company's Software to make it!