Oahu Day 1

We're in Hawaii! Our friend, Vivian, is getting married in Honolulu this weekend.

We weren't planning on renting a car, but Dick had a change of heart once we landed. ;) As luck would have it, for the days that we needed a car, the cost of a convertible was less than the price of a compact. Convertible? On Hawaii? Yes, Please!



Our flight landed right before Noon, and we knew we probably wouldn't be able to check-in to our hotel until 3:00ish, so we figured we should stop somewhere for lunch along the way.

Vivian and her fiance had put together a long list of all of their favorite local places to eat on Oahu. As it turned out, Viv's favorite sushi bar (one that we've heard about for a long time) just happened to be right on the way. We had the best sushi I've ever had (really, that's saying something) at Kinchan Sushi on Ala Moana.



After our fantastic lunch, we turned the corner in the little shopping center, and what do you know? A cupcake place! Nice. I had a red velvet cupcake, of course. :)



After all of that eating, we checked into our hotel: the Halekulani, in Waikiki. Our room has an amazing Ocean View, and the hotel is lovely, to say the least.


Here we are on our balcony

We strolled around the area for a bit, and had some fish tacos for dinner at a local joint. When we came back to our room, we were surprised by a complimentary bottle of wine, some fresh fruit, and chocolate! I'm loving this place. :)



Many, many thanks to my Mom and Dad who decided to have a get-away vacation in the City, and are staying at our house, and taking care of Noe for us. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

At Last!!

Yes, I am finally a proud owner of a new iPhone. :)

In case you're wondering, I stood in the line outside of the mall for about 4 hours before being escorted through the mall to a short line (2 people in front of us) at the Apple Store.

Overall, the experience was fine. It's funny, because I realized this morning that I have (surprisingly) never done anything like this. I've never waited in line for hours for a new product release. The closest thing I can think of was maybe when we used to wait in line for hours to see "The Empire Strikes Back" Or "Return of the Jedi" way back when. But, with those, you were waiting with a large group of people, and you would all file into the theater together.

This was kind of like waiting in a really long line at an amusement park. The Great America kind - not the Disneyland kind. Nothing interesting along the way to keep you entertained. Just the people around you who you invariably end up talking to quite a lot along the way.

In the little fantasy that played through my head, I was thinking I was being smart by choosing a lesser-known store (should be much quieter than the Downtown SF Flagship Store, right) in a mall. I figured that they would let us in the mall, even if stores weren't open. I pictured myself sitting on the floor somewhere, parked with my kindle, a bottle of water and the apple fritter I bought yesterday for the occasion.

Instead, we were outside in the cold (foggy/misty), standing the entire time. Once you made it to the front of the line, you were escorted in small groups (6, 8 or 10 people) through the mall to the (shorter) line at the Apple Store. Once you saw the inside of the mall, you were golden. Until then, you were freezing.

All-in-all, it was a fine experience. Kind of a fun story, and not too bad. Sure, it's 5 hours of my life I'll never get back, but I do have a new phone and a good story. :)

I heard from my friend, Mike, who had a phone reserved at the downtown store. He started waiting in line around 10:00am, and waited 5 hours total. I guess I did okay after all.

Once I was in the store, they confirmed my order, brought out my phone, and updated my AT&T account (data plan/text message plan). I came home, plugged my new phone into my computer and all of the content that I had in my new phone downloaded fairly quickly and problem free. That was a good experience.

Not-so-good-experience: remember that AT&T 3G Microcell that I bought last month? I expected it would work seamlessly right away. I was wrong.

I spent an hour and a half on the phone with the Microcell guy troubleshooting. We had tried rebooting the Microcell and my phone several times (which, yes, I had already tried on my own, too). In the end. we had to disconnect my phone number from the Microcell account, then add it again. This was followed up by another reboot of the Microcell and the iPhone. That did the trick. I now have full bars and that all-important (in our house, anyway) M-Cell showing on my phone.

At last - I can use my cell phone in my house, and in my backyard!!
Yay!

Oh - I almost forgot.

I also came up with a name for my new iPhone today.

I'm going to call it: Steve Austin

Yes, after the Six Million Dollar Man. (a.k.a. The Bionic Man)

I figured my new iPhone 4 is "Better. Stronger. Faster."

Just like the Bionic Man!

Compared to my 3 year-old trusty, rusty, First Gen iPhone, this new one is practically bionic!

Plus, Steve Austin had a Bionic Eye. (Thanks, Bonnie, for the reminder!)

The iPhone 4 has a 5-Megapixel Camera with LED Flash. It has its own Bionic Eye!

:)

Apparently, I really am a Fan Boy...

I think this may be the longest line I've ever been in...

Here I am waiting outside the Stonestown Mall, along with hundreds of
other geeks. We're all waiting for the Apple Store to open.

The store opens at 7:00am. I got here at 6:30. I woke up (on my own)
at 5:45. I kept having a recurring dream last night that I woke up
early, drove to the store, sat in line, and eventually got my phone...
and then I would wake up, look at the time, fall back asleep, and have
the same dream all over again. It's a real-life Groundshog Day
experience.

Dialogue in our House this morning

(as we're looking at open houses online)

Dick: "Look at this house"

Trina: "Ugh. Too pompous looking..."

Dick: "Um....if by Pompous, you mean Fabulous!"

:)

Midnight Escapades in the Backyard

...or "Things that happen outside while you're sleeping"

The raccoons are at it again.

I've always known we've had raccoons in our backyard. I'm pretty sure they were living out there before we had our backyard redone last year. Now that it's done, and there's no where for them to burrow and hide, I think they like coming out when it's dark to play around in our yard.

How do I know this?

There are a few pieces of evidence: the most noticeable ones being the huge claw scratches on some parts of our fence, but the dead giveaway are the huge paw prints that are imprinted on the inside of our (shallow) water feature when the algae grows a bit. There's no mistaking in - those huge paw prints came from our (not-so-friendly) neighborhood raccoons.

Their latest recreational sport: they've been pulling the flags out of the putting green holes, and trying to drag them around.

It's pretty hilarious. This only started a few weeks ago. First it was only the back flag, but now they've played with two. There are big teeth marks (holes) in the flags. I think they are trying to drag them off, but I assume the poles are too long and tedious for them.

I'm pretty sure I'll wake up one morning to discover that they've found the golf clubs in the storage shed, and they will have made themselves at home in my Cabana.



The Morning After

And while I'm on the topic of our backyard, spring has spring (finally!) and we've had some really beautiful flowers bloom! I know these won't last more than a few weeks, so I'm enjoying them while I can. :)


Two Birds of Paradise that bloomed over the past two days


Pretty Irises!

We've crossed the $4,000 mark!

Goal: $4,000.00
Achieved: $4,055.00

We did it!

Today, with the support of all of my sponsors, we surpassed my second fund-raising goal of $4,000.00!!!

As of this moment, we've raised $4,055.00 so far.

The walk is the first weekend of October, so we still have 3-1/2 months to raise more money. I'm going to raise my fund-raising goal, again. I'll set it at $5,000.00, which would be amazing to reach! I still can't believe how quickly we reached $4,000.00.

I confess that I haven't trained in a couple of weeks. I came down with either a bad cold or allergies a couple of weeks ago, and am only now getting back into my regular work out routine. I plan to join a team-training either this weekend, or next, depending on how I feel tomorrow night/Saturday morning. It'll be a 12-mile training walk, so I want to make sure I'm in good enough condition to take it on.

I did attend the "Get Started" meeting for the walk on Tuesday down in Sunnyvale. Unfortunately, I had missed all of the meetings that had previously been held in San Francisco. It was a good thing to go to. They talked about the event, the history of it, as well as the Susan G. Komen Foundation. They gave tips on how to fund raise, how to train, and what to expect during the event.

They also showed a very powerful DVD about the event.

Here's a clip of the video:


I was able to talk with some people who had been through the event before, which was very helpful. There's a lot of planning that goes into getting ready for the event - both in training, as well as getting the right supplies and being mentally ready. It's a lot to do, and a lot to get prepared for! I'm thrilled that we've already raised so much money! It's one big thing that I can check-off my list of things to worry about. :)

Thank you all again for your generosity and support!
I'm keeping all of you with me as I continue this journey.

New iPhone Ordered

I bought my iPhone on July 7, 2007.

Since then, most of my friends have upgraded to newer versions, but I stuck with my trusty-rusty original for almost 3 years. I bought it a week after it was released, when the cost was still a whopping $600.00. I wasn't going to spend any more money on a new phone until I felt like I really got my money's worth out of it! :)

So, three years later, and I'm ready to make the leap.

It's time to upgrade.

Thankfully, the price of the new iPhones are significantly lower than they were 3 years ago!

I placed my reservation this morning. I'll be able to pick up my new phone from my local Apple Store next Thursday.

Originally, I tried to buy/reserve my phone online on the apple.com site. That didn't go well. It kept timing out and having errors.

I then followed Omar's advice, and downloaded the Apple Store App onto my iPhone and was able to complete my reservation process smoothly within a minute or two. Good tip, Omar!

I just got my email confirmation from Apple.

It all looks good.... except... well, look at the price!



$699.99?

Um, that's supposed to be $299.99.

LOL.

I'm sure it'll be fine, but what an odd little bug!

The CA Snoopy License Plate

I put this up on Facebook last week, but figured I should write a blog post about it, too.

Sign up here to register your support.

Here's some info about the plate:

If we can get 7,500 Snoopy lovers to raise their hands for a Snoopy license plate, we can be the first state in the union to feature Snoopy on an official license plate. Note that you are simply registering interest at this point. Then, once we have enough interested people, the state will collect a $50 fee from anyone who wants to get their own Snoopy plate - or a bit more if you would like it personalized. When we reach the magic number of 7,500 folks willing to complete an application and pay the fee, the plates will go into production, and voilà, Snoopy is yours.

Registration proceeds from the plate will help our state’s great museums.

Hey! I got an email from my husband!

Oh, wait, so did hundreds of millions of other people...

I checked my (hotmail) email this evening, and lo and behold - an email from my hubby!

But, not just any email. This one was actually addressed to (and sent to) all Hotmail account users. It's an email letting users know that a new version of Hotmail is being rolled out soon, with an explanation of some of the new features.

Dick is the Program Manager of the Hotmail Group, so the email begins with this letter written and signed by him - complete with a photo and all.

Proud wife here. Had to share with my blogosphere. :)

Congrats to everyone on the Hotmail team on the latest release! I know a lot of time and hard work was put into it.

Star Wars Funny

We've crossed the $3,000 mark!

Goal: $4,000.00
Achieved: $3,075.00

This morning, thanks to the matching gift program at Microsoft, we crossed over the $3,000.00 threshold for my fund-raising campaign!

That's terrific!



I just checked the3day.org site, and see that I now qualify for the 3K Legacy Pin. I'll receive this pin on the first day of the event, and will wear it proudly! :)

Thank you again to all of my sponsors!

Remember, please check with your employer to see if they will double your donation with a matching gift.

If you haven't already done so, please consider sponsoring me for the 3-Day for the Cure.

http://www.the3day.org/goto/trinachow