Harry Potter: Book VI !

The new Harry Potter book is being released tomorrow night at Midnight!

I was originally planning to check out the HP Party at Barnes & Noble in Union Square with my sister and our Mom.

However, I found out a couple of weeks ago that my long-lost friend, Christopher (aka "Spencer" - long story) is coming home tomorrow after spending the last 3 1/2 years studying in Australia! Christopher is going to stay with Dick and me for a week, maybe two, then he'll go stay with our mutual friend (and his old roommate) David.

I got a call from Christopher (who I actually call "Bro") a couple of weeks ago, and I tell him, "Do you realize that you're coming home the same weekend as the release of the new Harry Potter book?"

He said, "What?! I've been gone for 3 1/2 years, and you're talking about Harry Potter?"

"I'm sorry, Bro, but things have changed. You've been gone, and Harry Potter has entered my life...."

Christopher flies in tomorrow morning, so I figured we'd end up spending the whole day/night catching up. I plan to make a trip to Costco early Saturday morning to pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

BTW, here's a handy little article that summarizes the first 5 books.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas....

A GREAT time was had by all.

highlights:

• The Venetian Hotel
  
• Dinner at Delmonico (and did I mention the amazing dessert?)
  
• Breakfast at Denny's (yes, that Denny's) the next morning (Grand Slam breakfasts for all!)
  
• Having my dress fly up above my head while walking over a vent on the sidewalk (and having the people behind us clap, and say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!")
  
• The whole gang learning how to play "Craps" at the Venetian (and winning, then losing, then winning, then losing...)
  
• Me, putting in my last quarter into a slot machine, and winning $20! (I later lost $40 at Blackjack)
  
• Bloody Marys by the pool. (I swear, mine didn't have as much alcohol as the rest of yours!)
  
• Watching Bunny and Mike WIN at Blackjack at the Hilton (sounds like all we did was gamble!)
  
• hangin' out with our friends.

That was a ton of fun.
Dick is hooked on Vegas now. (yeah, who didn't know that was going to happen)
Happy Birthday to Mike!

Vegas, baby, Vegas!

We're off to Vegas today to celebrate Mike's 40th Birthday!!

Dick has never been before, and I've only been once. (six years ago with my family)
It should be a great time! We'll be staying at the Venetian Hotel and seeing Zumanity tonight.

And, no, we're not going to get married while we're in Vegas! ;)

Uncle Blane will be here to take care of the kitties. Thank you, Blane!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Planning...

moving right along....
which is also the name of the best road trip song ever! (sung by Kermit and Fozzie)

Today, I:

hired a new caterer (yay!)
fired the old caterer (even bigger yay!)
arranged for transportation
started to arrange the rehearsal dinner
tonight, we'll decide of which day-of coordinator we want to hire

good grief.
(but it's all good!)

A Moment of Silence

...for the victims and their families in London.

I woke up to the news, and immediately emailed my friend who lives just outside of London. He and his partner are both fine.
I love technology.

Uh oh.....

I just got an email that my Google AdSense account has been disabled.
I think i had too many consistent clicks from my loyal fan base.
too bad.

I feel like I've just been slapped on the wrist for cheating in school... except I didn't know that I was cheating.

:(

Zombie Day

I've been awake since 3:00, and I wasn't able to fall back asleep :(
i hate it when that happens.

"Hi Mom!"

"Happy Birthday" to my amazing Mom! :)

Stop pickin' through my frickin' TRASH!

It's really one of the annoyances of living in City. Does this happen to those of you in the 'burbs?

Thursday morning is trash day. I brought the cans out around 10:00pm last night. Sometime between 10:00pm and 7:00am some stupid soul decided it would be smart to dig through our trash again. That means taking the plastic trash bags out of the garbage can, and emptying the contents on the side walk. Which means that there are bags of used kitty litter and random trash spread along the sidewalk in front of our house. I mean really... what do they expect to find?

The surprising thing is that this time, they didn't touch the recycling bin. All of the aluminum cans and glass bottles were still in there. That's what's usually gone, and I don't care at all about that.

So, I guess this should be a lesson of protecting oneself against identity theft - never recycle or throw away any important documents without shredding them first. Which we do, but hey, you never know.

I really wonder what these people are thinking....

IDIOTS! (as Napoleon Dynamite would say...)

35 Years of Pride

This weekend is the 35-Annual Gay Pride event here in SF. We met up with Pete, Richard, Blane and Lorevic for drinks yesterday afternoon at the Metro for cocktails.

Seeing all of the rainbow flags up in the neighborhood (even more than usual, i should say) reminds me of a fun story from when i first moved to this neighborhood almost 7 years ago. My parents were driving my paternal grandparents (who live in Stockton) to SF to show them my new place. Once they reached the Castro, my Grandfather saw all of the flags and asked, "Oh, is there a parade?"

My Mom, in all her wisdom, answered, "Yes. Yes, it is a parade!"
LOL - I say, "It's a parade every day here in the Castro!".

Another thing that pride weekend reminds me is how thoroughly lucky we are to live in this neighborhood, in this city, and in the Bay Area in general. In this area, people are able have pride in their diversity, sexuality, individuality, equality and acceptance of all, and to celebrate these qualities with one another in public. I've lived in other parts of the country where men and women are not as fortunate, and they have to be much more aware and careful of what they may say and do in public.

This brings to mind one of the most relevant blog posts that I've ever put up, and the ironic thing is: it isn't even something that I wrote myself. It's a letter that was read at the Memorial Service of our friend, Al Nicols. The letter was written by the husband of one of his color guard students who grew up in Wisconsin. This young man wrote a letter that so eloquently explained how meeting Al changed his life. I read this letter every once in a while to remind myself that we can not take for granted that everyone is as open minded or as liberal as we are.

This was actually one of my earliest posts from when just I started to Blog almost two years ago. I wrote it before I had as many frequent visitors to my site as i do now, so I doubt that many of you have read it.

here's the link.

Best of Craigs List

Dick just found this hilarious post.
(and since he doesn't update his blog anymore, I'll put it on mine!)

"Save Mittens!"

Confession time....

Okay, I admit.
I've realized that i have a strange addiction that I can't fully explain or rationalize.

Whenever I stay at a cool hotel like the "W", they always have really nice, quality bath products. This time it was by "Bliss", and times that I've stayed before, they had products by "Aveda".

Well, this stuff is really nice! It smells yummy, and it feels nice to use.
...and I don't use it at home because it's pricey stuff, and I can't get it at Costco! ;)

So when I stay at places like this, I .... um.... well......OKAY, I admit it! I tuck the extra bottles away, and take them home with me!

ahhhh, it feels good to say it out loud.

"My name is Trina and I am a collector of nice hotel bath products."

I totally know where I get it from, too.
My parents have several shelves full of miniature bath goodies!
It's in the genes. I cannot deny it!

I keep these little bottles (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion) in my toiletry bag, so when I go on vacation to other hotels or friend's houses, I'll have my own stuff, and won't have to worry about using theirs. Plus, because I like these little goodies so much, and don't usually use them at home, it's a nice treat to have while on vacation! :) ... and I don't have to go to the Drug Barn or Target to buy overpriced travel-sized bottles before I leave! (...she said, rationalizing)

I also used to keep these little guys in our guest bathroom so that our guests could use them. I don't really do that now, because we don't exactly have a guest bathroom. We have a bathroom upstairs ("hers") and a bathroom downstairs ("his") so we keep full-sized products in each. Our guests can use either/both showers when they stay with us.

The best part of this story is that last year, my dear friend Sheri was up in Cupertino, on business from Southern Cal. We met at her swanky hotel, and went up to her room for a bit before I needed to leave. I noticed that she had some nice Aveda products in the bathroom, and said something like "Don't you love it when hotels have that stuff?". She said that she didn't even notice because she makes it a habit to travel with her own stuff. So she offered me her whole kit-and-caboodle. I thought that was really nice, and kind of funny all at the same time. That's a sign of a good friend: "Here Trina, have my complimentary hotel toiletries".

Even funnier is that Sheri went on a business trip either at the end of last year, or earlier this year. I don't know where she stayed, but it was somewhere that had Aveda products again. Long story short, one day, the postman delivered a fat envelope from Sheri. It was filled with a week's worth of hotel-sized Aveda products! (big smile!) She had sent me the mother load of hotel-sized bath products! What a friend!

sometimes, I can't believe what I spill on this blog....
how embarrassing.

I'm Batman.

Well, it rained all morning/afternoon here in Seattle, so I decided to take advantage of the weather, and became a hermit for the day.

I worked a little this morning, worked out for an hour in the late morning, (it's really cool when you're the only one using the excercise room!) chilled in the fab room, then walked to the mall to see a movie.

Not bad. It's nice to be on a mini-vacation!

So, I saw Batman Begins today.
I dug it! I think it's my favorite of all of the Batman movies so far.
It just occurred to me that I part of the reason why I enjoyed it so much was because they used a more obscure villian for this installment - The Scarecrow. For some reason, I always really liked this character. (from the old WB Batman: the Animated Series) I guess I didn't know much about this movie before I saw it today, because I had no idea which villian was going to be in it.
Anyway, if you like this kind of thing, go see it, you'll enjoy it!

Tonight, we're going to out to Wild Ginger with Omar and Aditya (and maybe Shan, I don't know exactly) I LOVE Wild Ginger! Mmmmmm. My sister will be jealous! ;)

Last night, we met up with Martin to see his new home. He took us out to Typhoon! for dinner. (Typhoon - get it? It's a Thai restaurant) He took Dick there last time he was here, and Dick hasn't stopped talking about it. It was delicious! Check it out if you're ever in the area.

Seattle - as advertised!

Here's the weather report from Seattle: Rain.

what'd you expect?

i just went out for a walk, had a cup of clam chowder and a shrimp cocktail for lunch, and strolled around. I hopped into a bookstore for a few minutes, came out, and heard thunder!

Luckily, I came prepared with an umbrella.

Greetings from Seattle

I'm in Seattle for a couple of days now. Dick has some business up here, and I'm tagging along for the ride. (ah, the joys of having a laptop computer. I love my Powerbook!)

We're staying at the "W" in downtown Seattle. I stayed here with Dick a couple of years ago. It's a pretty swanky place, although I can do without the loud club music on the lobby level in the evenings. bah humbug. I must be getting old. ;)

Whenever we've stayed at any of the W Hotels, it reminds me of Omar and Lora's place. Really, stepping out in the hallway from the elevator here is just like stepping out of the elevator in their place! (only, there's no Misha cat here)

a couple of things that I love about staying here at the "W":
All of their bath products are by Bliss They are all so yummy!
I also LOVE their bathrobes here. I think the style is called a spa robe. I've got to get one of these for home. Then again, if I did, I fear I may never change into "real" clothes. ;)
The bed here is so comfy - 350 thread count sheets with down pillows & comforters. I slept like a rock last night. (but I miss our kitties)

Speaking of kitties, I'm sure that our's are being well taken care of by Uncle Pete and Uncle Richard. Thank you, Pete & Richard!

The weather forecast calls for mid-70s with a chance of showers or thunderstorms today and tomorrow.
Imagine that: I'm in Seattle, and there's a chance of rain. go figure.

Scale highs and lows

As I've mentioned before, I hate scales. I think they are one of the life's unnecessary evils.

My hate from them goes way, way back to my color guard days. We used to get weighed-in weekly, and I admit that I developed an unhealthy relationships with scales ever since.

I even did a performance art piece about it in art school. I walked around in a white unitard, eating oreo cookes, and downing them with slim-fast. All the while, I quoted some of the lines seen here.

I've learned that the best solution to beat the scale is to stay away from them.
I didn't even keep one in the house for years.
I try to make sure that I lead an active, healthy life-style, and I gauge my weight on whether or not my clothes fit ;)

So, here's today's kicker:

We bought a scale last year to weigh our big cat, Marcel. The poor little guy has been on a diet the entire 5 years that we've had him. Anyway, the last time I weighed myself on this scale, it said I had gained over 6 lbs in under 4 weeks.

Evil.

But, I've been feeling pretty good lately: we've had a chance to do some really great urban hikes, and have gotten serious about working out with our new Elliptical Machine. So this morning, on a whim, I decided to take a peek at the scale just to see what was going on. I figured, it couldn't be any worse than last time!

Today the scale was kind and gracious, and showed me a number which, for the first time in several years, I was actually happy to see.

...and now I plan to stay off of it for another year or so ;)

Happy Birthday to Willo!

She turns the big 3-0 today!

It's Kazoo's Mama's Birthday today! I'm picking her up at Noon for a lunch-time adventure! Can't wait to help her celebrate!

Day Four

20 minutes!

Whoo Hoo!
Go Me!

...and I managed to do it without passing out ;)

Don't worry, someday soon I'll blog about something much more relevant and interesting :)

Progress! Day Three

Like anyone really cares....

this is more for my own personal tracking than anything else, so bear with me....

kept to the same settings as yesterday, but today I managed not to get a cramp in my side, and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out after 10 minutes.

now, that's progress!

I think I can shoot for 20 minutes next week (she said, optimistically)

Today's favorite song of the day:
Still off the The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor
Ah, yes. A classic.
But you've got to admit - it'll keep you going!

Finding Nerverland

We just watched Finding Neverland tonight.

What an enchanting movie. I really enjoyed it.
It made me feel warm, fuzzy, and sad - all at the same time.

You should rent it.

Kitten Games

This is hysterical.

Oh my.
Better not let Marcel & Noe see this.

Today's Work-Out Session

also known as: "Day Two with the Elliptical Machine that kicks my ass...."

Oh my.
This machine certainly performs as advertised! :)

I learned my lesson from yesterday and dialed down the workout today. I figure it's best to ease into this routine, rather than jump right in and kill myself in the process.

For the record:
Fat Burning Program
Level 4 (down from level 6 from yesterday)
15 minutes (down from an attempted 20 from yesterday)

Now, I do feel kind of wimpy doing a 15 minute session, but trust me, right now, that's the right thing to do. I'll see how this week goes, and will try to increase the time next week.

even more important workout information
Today's Workout Music: The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Nothing like a little gay-bar, 70s Disco music to get ya going!
I only made it through the first 3rd of the album today, so I'll continue with it tomorrow.
Today's personal favorite song (because it makes me laugh, and wonder if anyone ever took this song seriously):
I've Never Been to Me by Charlene. (Track 1)
Who writes this stuff?!

Rent The Movie

here's the trailer for the movie Rent. Looks like it's set for release in November of this year.

I know they've been doing a lot of filming for it here in San Francisco. Omar and Aditya both saw the filming in their neighborhoods.

At the risk of sounding too mainstream, I have to admit that Rent and Les Miserables are probably my two favorite Broadway Musicals.

Les Mis just started a run at the Curran Theater in San Francisco again. My sister said that this is a really strong production. (she has a lot of friends on the crew/cast). If you haven't seen it before (like Dick) you really should. It's probably one of the longest shows out there (which isn't good for those of us with increasingly short attention spans) but really, as Broadway Musicals go, this one is Epic. I've seen it more times than I can count since 1989, and it still gets me.

I first saw Rent in 1997 while it was touring in Washington D.C. My sister was touring with The Phantom of the Opera at the time, and I used to plan mini vacations around visiting her in different cities.

I have to admit that I really loved Rent when I first saw it. (Even though my Dad thought the music was "too loud" and told that to my sister's friend who was the Stage Manager of the show) It probably has something to do with the era in my life in which I saw it. I was just out of art school (and 12 years of color guard) and could honestly relate to the characters in the play. Dick always teases me about my "Bohemian Friends" - which I take as a compliment! :) It was also the time that I was dealing with the early stages of my neurological condition, and sadly, I had just begun to lose friends to AIDS. I think that's another reason why this play was so timely for me personally.

From what I can tell so far, the movie looks like it'll be great. I'm thrilled that the cast features many of the original Broadway Cast members who originated the roles in 1996. That's key. (Hello Jesse Martin!)

And really, who doesn't get a little choked up when they hear Seasons of Love?

Need Ink?

I have a couple of (almost) new Black ink cartridges from my old Epson Stylus C84 printer.

They are: T0431
good for: Epson Stylus C84/C86/CX6400 or CS6600

Anyone want 'em?

Think you're in shape? Think again!

We got our new Elliptical Machine delivered on Friday. I didn't have a chance to use it until this morning.

In short, this machine kicked. my. ass.

I barely lasted 20 minutes on it, and I was DONE!

I suppose it's the same sensation I had after the first morning that we worked out in Hawaii (also on Elliptical machines) but I managed to do better as each day progressed.

I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I need to build up my stamina and strength on this machine, too. Makes sense. Plus, I was sick after we came home from Hawaii, and haven't been able to work out at all since.

So, from my first experience, the machine is fantastic. We shopped online for a few days, and read all kinds of reviews on different machines before deciding on one. We also went to 3 different stores to actually try them out. This machine have a few important elements that helped us decide on buying this one. For starters, it has a large 19.75" stride length, which is important because of Dick's height. Some of the smaller (and less expensive) models that we looked at only had a stride length of maybe 15" or so. Those worked fine for me, and the machines were generally smaller. However, when Dick tried them out at the stores, we realized that he probably wouldn't benefit from them as much, and would be compromising his workout. That's when we focused on stride length as one of the most important factor. The other great feature that this model has is that it is foldable which is especially cool. The foot print of the machine is a whopping 79"L x 27" W x 69" high. However, it can fold down to 42"Long. That's cool. We're going to keep it in our guest bedroom/Raggedy Room since we have space in there, and we don't generally use the room. It'll be nice to be able to fold it up when we do have company.

That's the first work-out report from here. I'll keep you posted on our progress :)

The wonders of the Internet

a.k.a. The follow-up story of the lost amazon.com package

This is just amazing. I posted this blog last night at 10:17pm.

I recieved the following email this morning at 10:19am:

Trina:I have your package - my name is Bill xxxx and I live at xxxx 22nd St., between Noe and Sanchez. Amazon has your address on it, but UPS put my address on it and delivered it to me.The Wonders of Google. I entered your name and "San Francisco" and up pops your post, complaining of losing a package!I'm out with my young daughters around the neighborhood today, but you can call me on my cell at xxxxxxx to coordinate pickup. Bill

Okay, really. That's amazing.
It's my favorite "how the internet has helped me" story ever!

Special thanks to Bill for taking the time to track me down!

another lost amazon.com package

Looks like I have another lost package sent by amazon.com.

Didn't this just happen about a month ago with another package?

This is getting very frustrating.

(by the way, they did send a replacement package for the last one that was lost)

This one is not a big deal - it's an ink cartridge refill for the new printer I ordered - but still, I'd like to have it.
The printer was also supposed to be delivered today, but I wasn't home to recieve it. At least I know that it was sent to the correct address!

The other package, with the extra ink cartridge, was sent to another address in our neighborhood. Like last time, the tracking number showed it was delivered to a different address, and that the sender wasn't amazon.com. So, what happened to my package?

At least I knew what to do this time. I scoured the amazon.com site to find the email link, and sent them an email again. Hopefully, it'll all get sorted out soon.

again.

More about Kenneth's Treasure Hunt

As I just mentioned, my 25-year old cousin Kenneth, is on a treasure hunt.

He came over this morning (to borrow my cell phone with a nation-wide plan) and gave me a brief explanation of what he's doing.

It's all part of a book called A Treasure's Trove. Apparently, it's a big deal. It came out last fall, and is a nationwide best seller. The website says it is "America's first ever Nationwide Treasure Hunt for $1,000.000 in jewels".

There are real treasures to be found - 12 in all. Kenneth said that the first 8 were recently found within the last couple of months. (none have been found on the West Coast yet)

here's a brief description of the book that I just lifted from amazon.com:

Treasure Trove is a fairy tale about real treasure for parents and children of all ages. The book is fully illustrated. This Fairy Tale takes place in a Great Forest and tells a sweet (and sometimes sad) story about friendship and greed, Good Fairies and Evil Fairies and how love is greater than fear. Also, concealed in the pages of this story, are the clues to twelve very real and very valuable treasures that are hidden around the continental United States for you to find and keep ...treasures similar to the jeweled Forest Creatures in the Fairy Tale. The treasures are not hidden in remote locations but rather in places accessible to everyone. You might even find one by accident, as you walk across a field or down a street. But none are on private property, and none are buried. Nothing needs to be lifted or moved for you to find them. But they are hidden well. The simple clues do not need any special knowledge to find or decipher. Anyone who can read can discover the exact location of each treasure --just the way one of the characters does in the story. This book is more than a treasure hunt. Enjoy reading it and take time to read it to a child. It will remind you and the child that we have to take care of each other, and take care of the earth. Oh yes --and not to be afraid of the dark. So, as you read and look carefully at the illustrations, if you believe in Fairies, you may find the clues that will lead you to the treasure.

Kenneth has been working on this for quite some time, and he's off to a location (that I will not disclose) to find a treasure! He returns tomorrow night. I'm anxious to see what happens next!

Swapping Phones for a day

In a series of weird (but not unfortunate) events, I'm swapping my cell phone with my cousin Kenneth for 48 hours. Kenneth is going on a Treasure Hunt (seriously, and literally) for a couple of days, and he needed a cell phone with a national plan (his is for the West Coast only).

I don't usually receive many calls on my cell phone, but I thought it was worth mentioning. If you need to get a hold of me over the next 24 hours, call me at home, or at the gallery.

Busy, busy

I've been really busy the last few days working full time at Kristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream Foundation. Our big fund raising event is this Saturday, and I've been helping to get things ready. Among other projects, I'm on the auction committee. We've doubled the amount of silent auction items from last year, so there's been a lot going on to get it all ready.

I'm already mentally prepared to know that I'm going to be wiped out after this weekend. Saturday is the big event, so we'll be getting everything set up during the afternoon, and working all night. Sunday is full of fun stuff, but we'll be one the go the whole time. We have a tasting with our caterer on Sunday afternoon. That'll be fun. I'm able to bring my Mom and Dad to this one. It'll be at the venue this time, which my parents haven't seen yet, so it'll be cool to show them around. (hopefully, they'll like it!) That evening, we'll be going out to see Company Chaddick's 20th Anniversary Performance. That's the dance company that our friends Pete and Blane (and many other friends and acquaintances) dance in.

Up in the middle of the night...

...for no apparent reason, I've been up since 4:00am.

My body is going to hate me for this in the morning.

...and probably for the rest of the day.

oy.

Good Grief

MISSING: One round-headed kid.

Who would kidnap Charlie Brown?

update
Just saw on the news that Charlie Brown has been returned! :)

spell with flickr

got this from Willo.

so cool.

check it out for yourself!

I hab a stuffy nobe

I'm feeling much better, but still have some symptoms that just won't go away.

my nose is all stuffed up now.

I can't breath.

It's like scuba-diving all over again.

iSick

Wow.
I don't know what just hit me.

When I went to be last night, I thought I was experiencing a bad allergy attack. (sneezing, runny nose)
This morning when i woke up, I had flu-like symptoms, and a 101 degree fever!

How'd that happen?

This is the first time that I've mustered up enough energy to get out of bed.

Luckily, Dick is feeling fine.
We had a very nice evening and dinner at Paula & Reeve's house last night. I hope that everyone else is feeling okay today!

Great Urban Hiking

Today we took a really great spontaneous urban hike.

We took Muni down to the Montgomery Street Station to go to a fitness store that carried the Elliptical Machine that we're considering buying. (we had been talking for a couple of months about excercise plans, and got inspired by our work-outs in Maui)

We left the store around 1:00, and it was just a gorgeous day, so we decided to take a nice walk and soak in the sunshine.

First, we went to the Ferry Building. We walked around, grabbed a sandwich, and watched the ferrys come in and out. Then we walked all along the Embarcadero for a while. We passed Pier 39, and continued on to Geary Street.
From there, we thought it would be nice to walk through North Beach and Chinatown. Once we made our way to Chinatown, we figured we may as well go all the way through Union Square, and catch the MUNI train back home to the Castro Street Station.

The whole walk took less than 2 hours, which is pretty amazing considering the ground that we covered. When we stopped to think about it, it seemed much further than it felt at the time. Too bad I didn't wear a pedometer ;)
I think it felt like it was less because the majority of the walk was fairly flat until we reach Nob Hill. Either that, or we really got in shape while we were in Hawaii!

Dork that I am, I decided to map it out for all of you to see:

Home Sweet Home

We're back!

Our flight left Maui last night at 10:45pm, and we arrived to SFO at 6:15am this morning.

I love taking the red-eye back from Hawaii.
Take one Dramamine, fall asleep instantly after take off.
Wake up about 15 minutes before landing.
It rocks.

We grabbed a cab at the airport, and made it home around 7:00. The kitties were very happy to see us!

We walked down to Castro Street and got bagels for breakfast. Castro Street is really quiet at 7:30am on a Saturday morning! No one is awake yet!

We came back home, ate breakfast, watched a little TV, then took a much needed nap.
All better now!

As much as I love vacationing in Hawaii, it's so nice to know that we still love coming home to San Francisco!

Overcoming Phobias!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wooo Hooooo!
We just came back from an hour of snorkeling in the Ocean!
We had so much fun the first time, that we went back for a second round!

Our scuba instructor from the other day gave us the suggestion that we should start at one end of the beach, swim out about a hundred yards (where there was a green marker) then let the current take you slowly across the way for about 150 yards or so. He told us that it would be less work than fighting the current back, and best of all, we'd be able to see the SEA TURTLES!! We saw about a dozen sea turtles in all - all different sizes. Some of them were Ginormous! The tricky thing was on our way back to the shore, we had to find a narrow strip of sand about 25 feet wide. Otherwise, we'd end up coming into the rocks. That was pretty tough the first time, but the second time we managed much better.

I'm all stoked now! :)

Dick was laughing at me because my "little Chow legs" kept propelling me quickly past him ;)

This was my third time snokeling, and definately the best experience I've had yet.
Dick has been several times, and also said that this was his best experience.

So cool.

Okay, now we've gotta check out of this lovely hotel room. We're going to spend the day lounging by the pool, have a nice little dinner, then take off for the airport.

See you all back in SF!

Aloha!

Maui Wowie

ahhhhh............. It's been a wonderful week here in Paradise!

I just love coming to Hawaii on vacation. It's so relaxing. It's so beautiful. And all we do is lay around in the sun, and play in the water. It just doesn't get better than this.

Turns out, the weather was absolutely gorgeous all week. We had a few minor sprinkles on Sunday, but other than that, It's been sunny and warm/hot all week! We were very pleased with this, as we had read weather reports before we left and the forecast called for rain all week!

Surprisingly enough, we've managed to wake up between 7:00 - 7:30 all week, and have made our way down to the gym each morning to work out! Whoa! What a great way to start the day. There's something about wearing a bikini all day that gives you incentive to work out in the morning.

I think one of Dick's favorite parts of the resort has been the water slide. It's pretty cool. It took me a long time to muster up the guts to try it out, but once I did, I have to admit that I enjoyed it, too. Reminds me of being a kid, and growing up in Fresno when we used to go to the waterslide park.

I also managed to overcome some of my fears of the ocean yesterday, and swam out to snorkle in the coral reef near the hotel. It wasn't terribly far out, but it was a pretty big deal that I went out at all! The snorkle conditions were really great - the best I've seen so far. (we had snorkled in a cove on the Big Island last year, and also snorkled from a boat in Kauai. Yesterday was the first time that I walked out into the ocean, and swam out to snorkle. Anyhow, the visibility was really good, and we saw some very nice coral reefs and colorful fish. No sea turtles, though. We might go out again this morning to see if we can find any.

(edit)I just remembered that I have a photo of what I believe is my first encounter with the ocean in 1971. My parents took my sister and I to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I had just told Dick about this photo when he was trying to get me into the ocean this week. See that look of terror on my face? Some things never change ;)

We did leave the resort and drove around the island a bit earlier this week. We didn't go far, but we did drive to the north-west part of the island, which was gorgeous. I have some great photos, but I'm afraid that I can't share them yet. I gave my sister the adapter cable to our camera, so I don't have it with me. We also made our way to Lahaina. It was fun, because we got to see the annual canoe festival.

Did I mention that our resort has Penguins? Who knew? Okay, my Mom knew. :)

Our resort is situated along the beach. We can walk along a 1-mile path that connects about 5 other resorts, as well as the Whaler's Village Shopping Center. We've been strolling along the path almost every day, as it's a beautiful walk. When we first past Whaler's Village, it reminded me that I had come here years ago with my parents, on my very first trip to Hawaii. I think I was 11 years old. I was also reminded that my Dad and I had taken a very sweet photo there that I've always loved. And wouldn't you know it, I have it on my computer to share with you:


Me and my Dad. circa 1981 ("hi, dad!")

So, today is our last day here. We leave on the red-eye flight tonight, which will get us home early tomorrow morning.
It's been a wonderful trip, but I have to admit that I'll be happy to be home with our kitties again!

Technological Thoughts

I just had a thought... (imagine that)

Given today's technology, I'm much more likely to remember someone's email address off the top of my head than I am to remember their phone number.

...and I used to be pretty good at remembering phone numbers.

I don't even know Pete's phone number off-hand.
For Pete's Sake! ;)

I guess that's what I get for living with the convenience of programmable phones, and digital address books.

X-Wing MINI

...and you all thought I was crazy.
Even I wouldn't go this far. (But I do think it's really cool!)
Kudos to this guy for creativity.

I found this on my MINI Forum.

...and the name of the car is the best part:

"Red Five" (I love that)

Aloooooooooooooha!

Aloha from Maui! We arrived yesterday afternoon, and we're having a wonderful time so far.

We're staying at the beauitful Hyatt Regency which is just amazing. One of the funnier ammenities that it has is a Macy's within the property! This was funny to us because as we were packing, Dick mentioned that he needed to buy a pair of shorts once we get to Hawaii. Little did we know that we'd have the convenience of a Macy's between the check-in desk and our room!

The weather was beautiful today. We're relieved, because the forecast (from last week) predicted rain all week. (knock wood). It was very warm, a little humid, but gorgeous today.

Today's big adventure was taking scuba lessons in the pool! Dick is already a certified diver, although he hasn't gone on any dives in over 6 years. I'm a lot more reluctant of water (especially the ocean) but I realized that learning in a swimming pool would be totally fine. It was pretty cool. At first, it was a little freaky to find yourself breathing under water. I mean, it's just not natural! After I got used to that, it was pretty cool. I learned all of my safey things, and was able to perform them all on the first try. We had the option of trying this out in the ocean, but (for now) that may be a little much for me. We'll see how the week pans out.

We have wi-fi in our room! It costs a bundle, but you know, what are you gonna do?
Originally, neither of us were planning on bringing our laptops. It was supposed to be a computer-free vacation! However, after we saw the weather forecast last week, we both caved it and each decided to bring our laptops. We figured we could both get some work done if we were stuck inside. what geeks.

....which means I'll be sure to check-in again sometime during the week.

until then..... :)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Okay - here's my review....

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It was good - for a Star Wars movie ;) I wasn't expecting it to be the most brilliant movie ever made, but it did live up to my expectations of it being the best movie of the 3 prequels.

Things I really liked:

Ewan McGregor: he really did an amazing job over the course of the 3 prequels transforming Obi-Wan Kenobi from the young apprentice in Episode I to the oh-so-close-to-becoming-Alec-Guiness from Episode IV. For a Star Wars movie, I thought it was really good acting. (for whatever that's worth - plus, I just really like Ewan McGregor)

I love some of the tie-ins that they subtlety made:
The ship that Senator Organa brought Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi on was the same ship that his adopted daughter, Leia would be captured from in the beginning of Episode IV. That was one of my favorite parts!

I love that C3PO and R2 D2 were given to Captain Antiles. (who C3P0 tell Luke is his rightful owner in Episode IV). I'm also glad that they mentioned that they wiped C3P0's memory after Episode III, but not R2D2s. Hey Mom - Captain Antiles really is related to Wedge! (Wedge's last name is also Antiles, just like we thought!)

I LOVED the reference to Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) at the end of the movie when the Emperor was showing Darth Vader the beginnings of the Death Star. They had a CGI (although a good one) character of Grand Moff Tarkin standing next to the Emperor, then walking away when Darth Vader entered. Very clever, and subtle.

oh - i also liked the physical transformation of Palpatine to The Emperor (as we know him) when he is battling with Mace Windu. I thought that was a pretty cool transition that actually made sense.

Questions or holes in the plot:

Okay - remember how when Luke asked Leia if she remembered her mother in Episode VI? She replied that she did, but they were only vague memories, and that she was very sad. Well.......... according to this, Leia never knew her mother at all, just as Luke never knew her since she died in childbirth.

I also thought it was kind of lame when they were deciding what to do with the babies: Senator Organa piped in saying he and his wife would take the Leia and love her like their own because they always wanted a little girl. Okay, fine. Take the girl. Let's then ship the boy off to live with his Uncle and Aunt on Tantooine.

Speaking of which: if they were really trying to hide Luke and Leia from Darth Vader (Anakin) then WHY would they send Luke off to live with his relatives on Tantooine? Any WHY would they keep his last name? Actually, wasn't his Aunt & Uncle's last name "Lars"? Shouldn't he have been named "Luke Lars" and had them raise him as a son?

And I really wonder whey they had Padme die of...what...a broken heart? She no longer had a will to live? WHAT?! Shouldn't she want to live for her children? I think it would have been much more convincing if she had died by Anakin's hand. Would have been much more dramatic, and actually be a reasonable cause for her death.

..and was it me, or was her whole character really "fluff" in this movie?

Why didn't Chewbacca ever mention his past with helping out Yoda/jedis after Episode III?

Things that just made me laugh (as all Star Wars bad dialog should)

When Padme was dying in childbirth, and just announces the name of each baby as they were born. Ummmm.... shouldn't there be some interesting reason why she chose those names?

Darth Vader standing up, and screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It was reminiscent of Captain Kirk in the Wrath of Khan. :)

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure there's more, but I wanted to make sure to get this down while I'm thinking about it. Perhaps I'll write more later.

Overall, I really enjoyed it! It was a nice bridge between the prequels, and the original series. (as it should be!)

Star Wars: Episode III !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is opening day of Star Wars: Episode III.

I'm a tiny bit bummed because today is my last full day on my yoblette, so I couldn't see the movie today.

Which is really fine, because I have tickets to see it tomorrow afternoon with my family a the beauitful Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. This is the theater where my sister and I have gone to see the opening day of all of the new Star Wars and Harry Potter films.

I'll be there for the 3:30 pm showing on Friday.

I'm a little envious of Dick today because he and his entire group at work is seeing the 2:00 show. How cool. I made him promise not to talk to me about it until tomorrow evening!

Hope you all enjoy the show!

"May the Force be with You" :)

Find Cheap Gas in your area

This could be helpful:

http://www.ahding.com/cheapgas/

Rain, rain, go away.....

Is everyone as tired of the rain as I am?
You'd never know that it is the middle of May!

"Gosh!" (as Napoleon Dynamite would say)

We're leaving for Maui this weekend. Wouldn't you know it - San Francisco is supposed to be sunny, and in the 70s once we leave ;)

New Software!!

I've been spending lots of dough on new software lately.
It feels good to know that I'm up-to-date on all of the programs that I use daily.

Here's a list of the latest:

Quickbooks 2005 (PC)
First of all, I bought Quickbooks 2002 3 years ago to use on my PC.
Why the PC version?
At the time, Intuit wasn't making any updates to their Mac version. (they just came out with an update for the Mac last year)
I only use Quickbooks to create/send invoices, and receive payments for my clients. I do all of my personal finance stuff in Quicken on my Mac.
The main reason why I wanted to get Quickbooks on the PC was because (at the time) you could write up and invoice, and send it to your client via email. It was very cool - they would receive an email from you with the Invoice right inside the email. No need to open up any additional documents.

Okay, here's the lame part:
When I started sending out invoices around March of this year, Intuit informs me that in order to coninue to email invoices after April, 2005, that I'll have to upgrade to Quickbooks 2005.

WTF?!

What a rip-off. I'm only using the program for what I bought it for, and I don't need any of the fancy scmancy updates. Of course, since I bought the program to email invoices in the first place, I had to buy the upgrade to continue to do so.

So that's $150.00.

Which I'm dealing with, and it's all fine until I find out that the new version of Quickbooks converts your invoices into PDF files and attaches them to email files! This blows, because that's not what I want. I want my clients to be able to see their invoice in their email window. Now, they have to download a PDF file, and open it with whatever program (outside of their email program).

What bites even more is that this is the exact reason why I didn't buy Quickin for Mac when the new version came out last year. They also convert your invoices to PDFs. I suppose this is fine, because it enables the invoice to look exactly how it should, and not have the potential to have the formatting messed up in email.

So anyway, there's my rant about Quickbooks, and how Intuit made me upgrade.

(end rant)

Next up: Macromedia (soon to be Adobe) Dreamweaver!

I LOVE Dreamweaver so far. I can't believe that it took me so long to buy it.
I'm created 3 seperate sites with it so far, ALL with CSS (yeah, Baby!).
So far, the tools in Dreamweaver are far superior to the last version of Adobe GoLive that I had been using.
Dreamweaver rocks. Two thumbs up.

Apple OS 10.4 (Tiger)
Well, after amazon.com lost my first order, I finally got my copy of Tiger last night.
I loaded it up, and so far, so good.
It took about 1 1/2 hours to load, which seemed like a long time.
I haven't had much time to check out all of the new stuff yet, but so far, I think I like the Dashboard stuff. Kinda cool.

I also got Adobe Photoshop CS2 and GoLive CS2.
Sweet!
I have the boxes on my desk, but haven't had a chance to install them yet.
(see what happens when I have a 10-6 job?! It's crazy!)

I'll try to install them within the next couple of days to check 'em out.

stay tuned....

That's Ginormous!

"Ginormous"

My sister got a real kick when I used this word sometime in the last couple of years. I think I picked it up from Dick.

Apparently, we're not the only ones who use it.

Boba Fett

This may be a week of Star Wars-related posts!

This is a cool article about the popularity of Boba Fett

Personally, I don't remember having any particular fascination with the character when I first saw The Empire Strikes Back but in hindsight, I guess I can understand why this bounty hunter's character is so popular. He's pretty cool looking, is a man of few words, and was the mysterious evil guy.

My first memory of Boba Fett was actually slightly before The Empire Strikes Back came out. I was such a huge fan of the original Star Wars movie (at age 7) that I collected all of the action figures from Episode IV. (which, mind you, back then, was simply called Star Wars).

As you probably know, Star Wars was the first movie to build such a successful merchandise franchise - especially in the toy market. Kenner Toys did such of good job of promoting their merchandise.

If you collected the first, orginal 12 action figures, saved the Proof of Purchase from the back of the blister cards, and mailed them in, they sent you a special stand that you could display them all on. (I thought it was pretty cool)

The next promotion (that I remember at least) was to collect a certain amount of Proof of Purchase seals from any Star Wars toy merchandise, and they would send you a special Boba Fett Action Figure. At the time, it was the only way that you could get it. I'm not entirely sure if you could buy it in stores later or not, but I remember thinking that this figure was really special.

Originally, the Boba Fett figure was advertised to have a rocket that actually launched from his backpack. I guess before they shipped the figure, they figured out that it was a choking hazard, so they made the rocket a permanent fixure in his pack.

Anyhow, I'm happy to say that I'm a proud owner of the original Boba Fett action figure. According to this article it's the most valuable (to collectors anyway) of all of the action figures.

All of my Star Wars toys are boxed in a couple of boxes at my parent's house.

I took them all out to look at them when Episode I was released a few years back.
I should really take them out again.

The inner Star Wars geek in me is re-emerging!

Postal Guidelines

Today I only worked at the theater for a couple of hours, then had to make my way to Downtown Oakland where I had promised to help stuff envelopes for the Foundation that I work/volunteer for. They have a big event coming up next month, just had the invitations printed, and I was going in today to get them ready to be sent out.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the invitations were square in shape, and they had already placed 37 cent postage on most of them. I mentioned to my friend, Jim (the boss) that square shape envelopes require extra postage. I learned when I had bought square shaped gift cards a few years ago. We looked it up on usps.com and found out that it required an extra $.12 cents. So Jim went to the post office (with a sample invitation to show a postal worker, just to make sure) and came back with a few rolls of $.23 cent stamps. (he got extra, in case the invitations weighed more)

Mind you, we're working with over 300 invitations here.

So, we began putting the extra stamps on every envelope.

Then, another thought occurs to me: The RSVP cards (which will also be used to send in donations) were also square in shape. They weren't planning on putting postage on these envelopes until I brought up the point that most people who send these in will only use $.37 cent stamps, and they may not be delivered correctly.

It was a good point, and in the end, we decided it best to go out and buy more stamps to put on all of the RSVP envelopes.

Back to the post office!

When Jim came back, he was sorry to say that the only $.50 cent stamps that they had were in sheets that were not self-adhesive.

WHAT?!

I'd like to know WHY it is that in this day and age they still sell sheets of stamps that you have to tear aparts, and *lick*. I'm sure it's much most cost effective to produce, but.... let me tell you.... I spent hours tearing apart, licking and affixing stamps this afternoon.

BLECH

Self-sticking stamps are the way to go.

So that's your postage lesson of the day: square envelopes require extra postage, and beware of non-self-adhesive stamps.

First Day on the Yob

Ahhhh... temp jobs.... :)

As temp jobs go, this one is pretty great. Very nice people, nice office. It's all good.
The big difference between this job, and all of the many temp jobs that I've had in the past (which was well over 12 years ago) is the invention of the internet! :) I spent the day cleaning out my hotmail inbox..... because I could ;)

Since I haven't had a temp position for such a long time, it made me reflect back to the many, many jobs/temp jobs that I've had over the years.

An author that I used to read once said something along the lines of, "Do as many jobs as you can before you're 24. That way, you'll know what kind of jobs you *don't* want to do."

During my years of moving around the country to do color guard, I made a living by working through temp agencies.

I just remembered that when I built my first home page in 1996, I wrote out a list of all of the jobs I had up until then. (I just found the file) I'm glad that I wrote it way back then, because there's no way I'd remember all of those jobs now!

Here's the list.

In case you're interested, here's what I've been up to since 1996: Trina's Resume

Star Wars 101

Do your homework before you see the last installment.

This seems like a pretty good guide.

Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, anyone?

anyone?

New Harry Potter Movie Trailer

COOL!

Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire

Store Wars

This just in from my friend, Andrew:

Store Wars

It's pretty funny.

With the release of the new (and final) Star Wars movie coming out late next week, I'm sure we'll see a lot more spoofs like this.

my "yob-lette"

I start a 2-week temporary job this week, which I'm fondly referring to my "yoblette".

I'm filling in for the office assistant of The Post Street Theater where my sister is generally the Company Manager for the various shows playing here. The regular office assistant is going on vacation, that the person who would usually cover for her was unable to. They were in a little bind, so my sister called to see if I would could be available to fill in.

So, I'll be a 10-6 girl for a couple of weeks. I think it'll go well. The people there are very nice, and it might be a good (temporary) change of pace :)

Little Earthquakes

....which is also the title of my favorite Tori Amos CD

Am I the only one who woke up from the two little earthquakes last night? I woke up from both of them. They were actually pretty jolty, but were very short. Dick didn't feel either of them. I also checked with everyone in my family today when we had a Mother's Day BBQ. No one there had even heard about them.

Amazon.com follow-up

Okay - So far, I'm impressed.

This just in:
Thanks for contacting us at Amazon.com.
Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.

I am sorry that you have not received this order #xxxxxxxxx
; it appears the package may be lost. Please accept our
sincere apologies for this inconvenience.

I have placed a new order for the item "Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger."
There will be no charge for this
replacement. Here are the details of the new order:

Order Number : xxxxxxxxx
Shipping Speed : Two-day domestic
Estimated Delivery Date: May 11, 2005.

It hasn't shipped yet, but it all looks good so far...

problems with amazon.com

This is a first.....

I placed an order with amazon.com a couple of weeks ago to take advantage of an offer for ordering Mac OSX "Tiger" early, and having it shipped at the end of April.

According to amazon's "where's my stuff" tracking system, delivery of the item was attempted yesterday afternoon, but I wasn't home. I thought it was odd that I didn't have a UPS slip on my door yesterday though.

I was also out working this afternoon. When I came home, I checked my shipping status on amazon, and it said that the package was delivered and signed for this afternoon. I didn't recognize the name of the person who signed for it.

So, I called UPS to get the skivvy.

I gave them the tracking number (originally given to me by amazon, since I never actually got a Yellow UPS slip), and they saw the same info that it had been delivered. They asked for my name and address, and here is where the problem lies: The name of the recipient, and the address weren't mine. In fact, the package wasn't even one that was sent by amazon.com.

Hmmmm....

I just went to amazon's site to try to sort this out. There's a "contact us" page, but you can't call to talk to a live person. You can only send an email. So I sent an email explaining the whole sitation, and basically asked, "Where's my Tiger?"

Hopefully, this will all get sorted out soon.

Big Coincidence in the City

Yesterday I had 3 meetings in Union Square starting at Noon.
I would usually take MUNI, but since it was raining I took Dick to the Caltrain station, and needed to pick him up after my meetings would over at 6:30.

I parked at the Stockton/Sutter Street Garage on the 4th floor. (where the secret Bat Exit is) I waited for the elevator, which was fairly full once it arrived and opened. I managed to squeeze my way in, and a woman standing next to me asked, "Where are you going?" I responded, "Level 2 please"

Then I looked over at her.

It was my friend, Alice!

LOL. what are the chances?

She was in Union Square for a dentist apointment.

We laughed and laughed all the way down.

I love it when you realize that the big city that you live in really isn't all that big at all.

05/05/05

Cool! I just realized that today is May 5, 2005.

05/05/05

it's too bad that I didn't think of this at 5:55.

Oh - and Happy Cinco de Mayo! :)

Geek Communication

Dick has been under the weather, and worked from home the past two days.

He knew that I had been on the phone with Epson yesterday trying to fix the printer. (he and I had been trying to fix it all weekend before I decided to call Epson)

Once I was off the phone, he came upstairs, and asked what happened. I had just finished Blogging about it so I merely pointed to my computer screen, and he read the blog entry.

It occured to me later that it was very funny that I told him to read my blog, rather than tell him what happened myself.
...and come to think of it, he didnt' seem to think anything of it either. ;)

I'm done with Epson Printers.

Looks like I'm not the only one who had problems with the Epson C84. Read this list of reviews from other customers. That pretty much sums it up. Looks like several other people also had problems with the C84 soon after the 1-year warrantee expired. I also know that it's not worth me lugging this thing across the bay to get fixed. I'd rather put the $$ into getting a new, better printer.

I've had 2 Epson printers over the past 5 years. The first one (a 900G model) lasted for four years. That's pretty good. This last one bit the dust after 14 months. I didn't even use it very often. I don't print photos very often - it consumes a lot of ink, so I'd rather take my digital prints to Costco or Ofoto to be printed. I also make a habit of printing plain text in draft mode to conserve black ink. None of this really made a difference in hindsight: I still went through at least 3 large black ink cartridges, and 2 of each color. Plus, I have 2 extra black ink cartridges that I installed, trying to get the printer to work again. That's 50 bucks down the drain. I also have a box with 3 new color cartridges. I wonder if I can exchange that somewhere?

So now, we're looking at getting this HP PhotoSmart 8450 Inkjet Printer. It looks like a good printer - all of the reviews are quite favorable. It's also a good price ($199 - almost 30% off), without being "cheap" (the Epson C84 was only $99 when I bought it last year, so perhaps you get what you pay for.) One of the features that we're excited about it that it has a an ethernet port so we can easily share it on our network (wireless, even). I know I just said that I don't often print digital photos, but it is cool that it has a little LCD screen, and slots for memory cards. I know that my Mom has been using her HP Printer for a while now, and she's been very happy with it. She prints a lot of photos on it, and I don't think she's had any problems.

Any opinions out there?

Happy MINI

What's the fable about the Lion who has a thorn stuck in it's paw?

My poor little MINI had a nail stuck in it's tire.

All in all, not a bad experience.

I brought it in this morning to the local Firestone. They took my car in, and told me it would be 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Not bad. I also asked them to rotate and balance my tires while I was there, since I just passed 10,000 miles last week.

I brought my computer and cell phone with me, so I was plenty busy. I found a local coffee shop nearby, and hung out there for an hour.

When I checked back, my car was almost done. They said my tire had a nail in it, which they were able to take out and patch up. Yay!

$65.00 later (not bad, considering...) and I have a Happy MINI again.

Printer Lameness

Remember that new Epson C84 printer that I bought last year?! Well, looks like it may be kerbusted.

A couple of days ago, it told me that I needed to replace my black ink cartridge.
No Problem.
Being the ultra-prepared person that I am (anal?) I have extra ink cartridges ready to go.

So, I popped it in, and......................

nothing.

no black ink where there should be black ink.

The other colors work fine.

After cleaning the heads, and performing the nozzle check a couple of dozen times from both my Mac and my PC, I thought perhaps I had a bum ink cartridge. (Which is a huge bummer, because the things cost some serious dough).

So today I went to Office Max, and bought another cartridge.

I shook it, as instructed, and popped it in..... still nothing.

That's when I called technical support.

First of all, since it's just out of its one-year warranty, they said they'd have to charge me $9.95 for my call. whatever Then they asked me to do all of the steps that I'd already done to trouble-shoot. Which I told them I had done several times.

Ultimately, since I was on my second cartridge, and I had done a very thorough job of troubleshooting on my own, they said it is a hardware problem, and I'd have to take it to a shop. Well, that wasn't terribly helpful!

One nice thing: since I had already bought two cartridges, and done thorough trouble-shooting on my own, they said they would not charge me the $9.95 for the call.

Thank you.

So now I have to call these places (in Emeryville, or Fremont!) and see if it's worth bringing in or not.

This blows.

$.50 for air??!!

Sometimes, living in the city is such a rip-off.

Looks like one of my tires has a small leak happening. Last Tuesday, as Dick and I were driving down to the South Bay, we noticed that my tire pressure warning came on. I checked my tire pressure at a gas station in Milpitas, and one of my tires was down about 10 (points?) from the others. I filled it up, and watched it throughout the day. By the end of the day, it still seemed fine.

This morning, when I was taking off last year's parking permit, I noticed that the air level seemed to be low again. I checked it with with my handy dandy tire pressure gauge, and discovered that it was down 20 (points, or whatever the measurement is. lbs.?)

So, I made my way to a gas station on my way out. I stopped by the Chevron station at 23rd x Valencia, right next to our old house. I pulled up to the air machine that had a sign that said, "Free air and water for our customers!". Cool. When I tried to pump the air, nothing happened. That's when I noticed another small machine that said .50 cents for air/water.

What?!

So I went in and asked the attendant: "which one is it? Free or 50 cents?"

she replied, "50 cents".

(roll of eyes here)

I suppose I could have shopped around for another station, but I was concerned about my tire pressure being so low.

Next I drove to Colma to get gas from Costco. I thought I'd check with the tire service department there. (I usually get my new tires installed at Costco) They said that they can't check tires, only install them.

Hmmmm....

So, I guess I have to find a tire shop in San Francisco that will evaluate and maybe rotate my tires (while I'm at it). I know of a place that I went to years ago on Geary around 10th Ave. Does anyone know of anywhere else that they'd recommend?

SF Residential Parking Permits

Why do companies make it so impossibly hard to remove parking permits from our car's bumpers?

I appreciate that I live in a neighborhood that requires a residential parking permit for all resident cars. It prevents the neighborhood from being flooded by cars from out of our area from parking in our neighborhood for an extended amount of time. This is helpful in popular shopping/eating neighborhoods (like Castro Street) and also for neighborhoods that are located near public transportation centers. (again, the MUNI line at Castro x Market Street)

San Francisco requires that we place our parking permits on the bottom left bumper of our car.
That's fine, although not terribly attractive on any car that I've ever seen.

They also make it impossible to peel the permit off in any less than 20 pieces. (and really, you're lucky if you can manage to get it off in 20 pieces!) I suppose It's designed this way so that bad people cannot swipe your permit off of your car.

This is all fine and dandy, but it's a pain in my tuckuss when it comes time to renew the permit each year.

I just spent the last hour painstakingly peeling off the permit from last year from my bumper. I used the old technique of a razor blade, and Goo-Off. It worked fine, in the end, but really, what a pain! (and I was pretty upset when my razor blade slipped and scratched the paint in my bumper) I could have just stuck this year's permit on top of last year's (as Dick did) but I don't like the idea of years and years of permit build-up on my little car's rear end. I plan to have my car for several years, so I know that eventually I'll be stuck peeling off years of sticker build-up.

So now that my bumper is nice and clean, I've decided to live on the edge:
I've taped my permit to the back window of my car, on the bottom left side. I've seen several cars throughout the city that have done the same thing, so I'm going to give it a shot. Technically, I could totally get ticketed for this because I haven't put the permit in the proper place. I have a hatch-back car though, so it would be hard for the meter-reader person to not notice it. That's not to say that they won't still issue me a ticket, though.

anyone out there have any experience with this?
I just might cave within the first few hours and put the permit permanently on my car's rear bumper again.

update
I just spoke with one of my friendly neighborhood meter-readers, and she said that as long as the parking permit is visible, then it should be okay. :)

35!

This picture was taken 32 years ago. I'm the one on the left, with the "3" sticker on my dress. My sister is sitting next to me (doesn't she look exactly the same?!) You can see that my love for Raggedy Ann & Andy had already begun!

D'oh!

I hate it when I do things that are simply stupid.

Without going into the details of how or why, I managed to lock myself out of the house today.

I was bringing the garbage cans out from the backyard to the front sidewalk. It was 5:45pm.

Now comes a bit of irony: For those of you who don't know, Dick almost always comes home at 6:00 sharp. (one of the benefits of riding the Caltrain is knowing exactly what your schedule is!) However, every once in a while, he does this thing at work called "Workaholic Wednesdays" where he orders in dinner and encourages people in his team to stay late. It figures that I would lock myself out of the house on the one day that he won't come home for several more hours!

So, how'd I manage to get back in?

I knocked on my next-door neighbor's door. Luckily she was home, but she did mention that she wasn't feeling well today. I asked if I could borrow her phone. Pete & Richard have a key to our house, so I figured I would try to call them first.

Then, it occurred to me: All of my phones have my friend's numbers programmed into them, so I hardly ever dial anyone's numbers, so I don't have many phone numbers committed to memory anymore. Luckily, I do know Dick's cell phone number. I call him at work, tell him what's happening, and he tries to call Pete on his other line. No luck. I think Pete has dance class on Wednesday. Dick says he can call Richard, but he doesn't have his number memorized, so he'll have to hang up with me to call Richard from his cell phone. We hang up, Dick calls Richard, then calls me back at our neighbor's house. Neither Pete nor Richard are answering their phones at home, or their cell.

Hmmmmm..... what to do now....

Dick asks if my sister has a key.

"YES!"

My sister just started working on a new show in Union Square this week, so I know she's there, but I also know that they have a very busy day today, and she wasn't sure what her schedule would be like today. I call her cell phone. Luckily, she answers. She says she doesn't have time to come all the way over, but she could deliver my extra key to the Adlers at their gallery.

GREAT! Jim and Cynde were supposed to drive over to my house tonight to deliver a piece anyway.

So I call Cynde. She said that Jim is running late from his other job in Oakland, and that he probably won't be to the gallery until 7:00 or so.

Time check: 6:15. Okay. that's an hour. No Problem.

I let Cynde know that my sister is coming over with the key, and I'll be waiting for them on my front porch at 7:15 or so.

I didn't want to disrupt my neighbor any longer. She was super nice about everything, but I felt bad because she was sick, and trying to work, too. So I told her that since the weather had cleared up, I'd take advantage of it and take a nice walk around the neighborhood.

I should mention that although I was without my purse, my cell phone, or a jacket, I was still feeling pretty good that I was looking decent in a pair of jeans, and long sleeved shirt and tennis shoes. This all would have been much worse if I locked myself out wearing my bum-around-the-house-and-I-don't-plan-to-see-anyone-clothes, which I would never walk around the neighborhood in. ;)

I walked down to Castro Street, along Market, and made my way over to Church Street. While I was over there, I decided I may as well check out a florist on Church street that was recommended to me. I perused through a great book store on my way back, and picked up a copy of the Bay Guardian to read while I wait for Jim and Cynde.

I made it back home by 7:15, and took a seat on our lovely little porch. It started to get a little chilly, but I thought I could hold out for another 1/2 hour or so.

Jim & Cynde pulled up around 7:50 in their brand new spankin' car. Jim laughed, telling me that he had left me a phone message saying they probably wouldn't make it over tonight because he was leaving Oakland so much later than expected. Of course, when Cynde told him what was going on, he was happy to drive over here.

All is well now. I'm nice and warm in our cozy little home.

As Dick would say, "That's 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back". :)

Tomorrow I'm going to make a few duplicate keys to give to my neighbors and friends.

Of course it's raining....

... I just washed my car yesterday late afternoon! ;)

Actually, I knew it was forecasted to rain when I washed my car. I just couldn't let it go another day. It was really, really dirty!

Safari Snafus

Yesterday evening, I installed the Mac OSX update (10.3.9) and the Security Update via my Mac's automatic Software Update.

Among many other things, the OS update included an updated version of Safari. (1.3 v 312).

right after I updated my computer, and restarted it, Dick and I went back to work on our big CSS web project.

Well, it turns out that the new Safari bites, and it broke a few things in my site.
It's really frustrating, because it's the only browser that these problems are happening in, and they didn't happen at all before I updated my OS. Dick managed to construct a hack to get around the problem, but we were both pretty frustrated by it.

Has anyone else out there noticed any Safari problems after the new update? Mine seems to be running slower as well. I can't imagine that I'm the only one experiencing problems.

It may be time to make the permanent move over to Firefox.

Another Dick Craddock?!

I was just doing a search on A9.com for "Dick Craddock" to see what sites would pop up.

To my surprise, an image popped up in the images section - and it didn't look a thing like the Dick Craddock that I know and love.

You may remember my story about the other Trina Chow.

Well, as it turns out, there's another Dick Craddock out there, too!

For the record: this is cracking me up to no end! :)

Wedding Check List

venue: check
caterer: check
dress: check
photographer: check
cake: check
band: check

sanity: check :)

San Francisco Earthquake Trivia

Today is the 99th anniversary of the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

This morning, during my daily walk, I walked by the intersections of 20th and Church Street in Noe Valley. There is a fire hydrant on that corner that is painted gold. I read a story several years ago that explained the significance of this hydrant. This single, lone fire hydrant saved Noe Valley from the fires following the earthquake. It is given a fresh coat of golden paint every year to commemorate the anniversary, and to acknowledge "the little hydrant that could".

A Perfect Sunday

Yesterday, Dick and I had what I consider to be one of those "perfect days".

First, we made our weekly pancake breakfast, which is always a treat.

The day looked clear and beautiful out, so we made it out by 11:00 to go for a nice, long urban hike.
We decided head out towards The Haight, which means that we have to make our way over "the hill" of Cole Valley. It's quite a hike, with lots of long stairways, but it's a really gorgeous neighborhood to walk around. We eventually made our way to Haight Street, and did a little window and clothes shopping. After a quick lunch, we decided to head into Golden Gate Park. We saw some very interesting sites along the way: the group that holds swing dance lessons in the park every week, the Golden Gate Band giving a concert, etc., We also walked near the construction of the new DeYoung Museum. We were fully aware of the work being done on the DeYoung (which opens this fall, I believe) but we weren't aware that the California Academy of Sciences has also been torn down, with plans of reopening in 2008. That was a great surprise to both of us!

We made our way over to 9th and Irving, and grabbed a Jamba Juice (Yum!). By this time, we were pretty tired, and decided to catch the N-Judah train from Irving Street and took it over to Noe Street in our neighborhood. We stopped in to our local Tower Records, where Dick bought the ultimate in geeky magazines: Make: technology on your time.

As we were walking home on Castro Street, I noticed that our local Ben & Jerry's Scoop Store has closed! Oh no! I guess I didn't really go there all that often, but I have to admit, and I really liked knowing that it was there :) Plus, I read yesterday that tomorrow is Free Cone Day! Bummer!

Once we were home, Dick and I dove back into our new CSS project. Dick has been an incredible help for me in developing this new site via CSS. We've made great progress, and honestly, have really enjoyed working on it together!

It should be noted that yesterday was the day that I "saw the light". That light would be Macromedia Dreamweaver, versus Adobe GoLive. I had used Dreamweaver several years ago when I worked with Abbe Don, and was always impressed with it. However, I bought a copy of Adobe GoLive for my business several years ago because I was able to get a hefty discount from the good folks at Adobe.

Yesterday afternoon, Dick and I downloaded the 30-day trial version of Dreamweaver, and I have to say: I'm sold. It really is a superior product. So, for all of you folks who have been using Dreamweaver all of these years, wondering why I use GoLive, please know that I'm joining you now. :)

Ironically, Adobe & Macromedia just announced this morning that Adobe will be acquiring Macromedia.

Anyhow, Dick and I spent the entire late afternoon and evening geeking out with Dreamweaver and CSS. I'm very pleased with how well our project is turning out, plus we've really enjoyed the endless hours of geeky fun that we've been able to share with each other!

What happens when you mix Craig's List and Google Maps?

This is so frickin' cool:
http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/

It's an amazing resource for finding housing listings!

I'm baaaack!

Oh my.
Where to start.....

My vacation was absolutely incredible. A fun, fun time was had by all.
Here now is my attempt to actually capture a small amount of the fun and craziness in one consolidated write-up.

Thusday: I flew out of SFO and arrived in Chicago around 5:30 pm. My friend, Tammy met me at the airport. It should be noted here that Tammy had just returned very early that morning from a 6 day trip to Costa Rica. She arrived at 2:00am, managed to get a couple of hours of sleep, went to work early, left work, and drove directly to the airport to pick me up. Poor thing. She was exhausted. We drove to her Mom's house (where Tammy had slept the night before) to pick up Tammy's car, and had a nice dinner together. We got to Tammy's house around 9:00, and even though we were both wiped out, we managed to stay up past midnight catching up. (After all, I had to see her photos from Costa Rica!)

Note: Time change: I had to set my watch ahead 2 hours. Tammy had to remember to set all of her clocks ahead 1 hour since she hadn't been home since Daylight Savings started.

Friday: slept in a little bit, packed our weekend bags, and headed out for a big breakfast before the big road trip. We had a nice, leisurely drive from the suburbs of Chicago, through Indiana and eventually to Ohio. Along the way, we stopped off at some random truck stop in Indiana that had a Dairy Queen inside! We were drawn to this particular truck stop because of all of the billboards along the way announcing their Log Rolls, and their collection of souvenirs from all 50 states! What a hoot that was. One Dairy Queen Chocolate Covered Cherry Blizzard later, and we were back on the road. We usually stay in the Miamisburg/Dayton Mall area (where I lived in 1989/1990) but the hotels that I liked were sold out this year. Instead, we stayed at The Courtyard Marriott in Beavercreek. Tammy used to live in that area, but we were amazed to see how much it has changed in the last 15 years. (Imagine that) Turns out there's a NEW Mall in this area, and every chain restaurant you could possibly imagine. We check in to our hotel around 9:00pm then head out to a local Chili's for dinner.

Time change #2: set watches ahead another hour. this is getting confusing!

By this time, Tammy and I are remembering that of the best things we can remember about our years of living in Ohio is how nice everyone who lives there is. We had very nice service and help at our hotel, and all of the restaurants that we went to. Another thing I had to get used to was that smoking is still allowed in restaurants/bars. Sitting in the non-smoking section of a restaurant really doesn't do much good.

Saturday: Wake up at 9:00am to meet my friend Rob for breakfast. Rob is my friend from the UK that I've known through color guard since 1988. We've been fortunate enough to see each other almost once a year at WGI. Last September, Dick and I traveled to Spain and spent some good, quality time with Rob, and his (ex) Partner, Andrew. When we picked up Rob from his hotel in Miamisburg, I reminded him that the last time we saw each other was in Spain.... and now here we were in Dayton, OH. Go figure.

We were going to eat at the local Bob Evans, but poor Rob was needing a break from the whole color guard thing, and the restaurant was simply swarming with color guard people. Instead, we decide to get off the beaten track, and we found a lovely mom-and-pop diner in downtown Miamisburg called "Happy Days".

Side note: There's something in water in Miamisburg. It's BIG Hair central. When I lived there, I had the biggest hair ever.

After we eat breakfast, Rob mentions that he doesn't have any afternoon plans, so Tammy and I invite him along to our big Saturday afternoon event: Drive to Kentucky to the GAP Clearance Center!

The Gap Clearance Center was all we remembered it to be: jeans for $9.99 or less, shirts/skirts/sweaters for $7.99. It was great shopping! If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it! :)

We drove the hour route back to Dayton, had a quick dinner at a TGI Fridays (I'm telling you, it's all about the chain restaurants in Ohio!) then we made our way to World Class Finals at the UD Arena.

Finals started at 6:00, but we got in a little late - 7:30. We made it in for top 4 of Scholastic World, and for all of Independent World. That's 19 guards in all, plus a couple of exhibitions, so it turned out to be PLENTY!

side note: what's in these days in the color guard world? Apparently, straight, long hair is in (and I thought perms were making a comeback!), variety in themes again (thank goodness! no more guard-after-guard of classical music!) crushed velvet is in again? who knew? Oh - really cool, intricate floor designs. Floors have come a long way, baby.

But really, it's no longer about the show for me. I enjoy watching still, but I don't really want to watch more than 20 guards at a time. This must mean that we're getting old, but it's really all about going to Headquarters after the show to socialize and have our annual reunion with friends.

True to form, we stayed at Headquarters until 4:00am this year. You gotta love that. I really love seeing everyone, and feel fortunate that we have a date and venue that we're all at each year.

Sunday: we set our alarm for 11:00am, since check-out is at Noon. One quick big breakfast at the local Bob Evans, and we're off again! We made very good time on the trip home, and made it back to the 'burbs of Chicago by 6:00. We had a wonderful dinner with Eileen and her family at their home. It was the perfect way to end the WGI weekend. (Thanks Eileen!)

Monday: We hooked up with my friend Jason, who had just moved back from 3 months in Australia. We also had dinner with Tammy's new friend who she met on the Costa Rica trip. Jason brought us to a fantastic little Italian restaurant in The Heart of Italy.

Tuesday: We spent the afternoon at one of the coolest museum exhibits I've ever seen:
Body Worlds.
It was fascinating. So well presented, and so educational.
I know that there's a simliar exhibit being presented in San Francisco, and I really can't recommend it enough.

So, that's the very long scoop. Can you tell that I put less and less detail in each day as I wrote? ;) Good to get it all out, though.

Longest. Blog. Post. Ever.
:)

Here are some photos from the trip!

Mid-West Vacation

I'm heading out tomorrow for my semi-annual trek to the mid west.

I'll be flying into Chicago, and staying with my good friend, Tammy.
We'll be driving to Dayton, OH on Friday to attend WGI - Winter Guard International over the weekend. It'll be my 18th trip to the competition since 1986. Egads!

While we're in Dayton, we're going to take a sidetrip to Kentucky. The Gap Clearance Center is there (not to be confused with the Gap Outlet at Outlet Malls). This is very, very exciting. We always find loads of great buys there.

We'll head back to Chicago on Sunday, and will have dinner at our friend, Eileen's house.

I'll be in Chicago for 2 full days - Monday and Tuesday. On one of these days, we'll also have a chance to catch up with Jason, who just returned from 3 months in Austalia. Jason writes travel books and articles for travel magazines. His first book was recently released, and he's starting a whole new series now.

I'm really looking forward to this vacation. It's my chance to see so many old friends, all at the same time. Most of my color guard friends still attend WGI each year, and I'm so happy that we get to spend time with each other year-after-year.

Dick will be staying at home all of this time, of course. For some reason, he doesn't seem to be very interested in coming to Ohio with me to watch color guards! ;) I'm sure he'll be up for some Xbox Live if anyone is interested!

Google Maps

This is so cool!

Type in your address, and see your house via satellite maps!
Cruise around the city, county, state, or country!

GO HEELS!

Horray!

Tar Heels win first national title since 1993

Yes, I stayed out of the room the entire time.
It was stressful enough just waiting in anticipation, and hearing Dick yell from downstairs!

Dick is very happy now, and that makes me happy, too :)

Perhaps now, we can put that whole Santa Clara incident to rest ;)

My boyfriend is a CSS GOD!

We spent a large part of the day yesterday working on a big CSS project together. It was SO helpful for me, and we had loads of fun, too. (isnt' this what most couples do for fun on the weekend?)

I'll just add it to the long list of qualities that I love about him. :)

Spring Forward

Did you set your clocks?

In 1990 my sister and I were living in Dayton, OH for color guard. Our big competition of the year fell on the weekend with the daylight savings time change. Since we were gone all weekend, and other people were in charge of our schedule, we didn't really think about the time change at all. The competition was in Buffalo, NY, so we took a bus, and didn't get home until Monday night.

We completely forgot about the time change.

That Tuesday or Wednesday, we had to return the U-Haul truck (we were moving back to CA) that we had used to bring some of our furniture to a friend's house.

About an hour before the truck was due, we realized that we had totally spaced on the time change, and we only had about 5 minutes to get the truck back, or we'd be charged for an entire extra day!

So we rushed over there, made it just in time, and felt like complete dorks that we had gone a whole 2-3 days without remembering about the time change.

Puttin' in time at 251 Post Street

I've been spending a lot of time at the building on 251 Post Street lately.

The Adler's Gallery is on the 5th floor. We're working on redesigning their 8-year-old site right now, so we've had several meetings lately.

This Wednesday, I spent a few hours at Takada Gallery on the 6th floor. Takada recently had a nice site designed for the gallery, but needed some one-on-one tutorials on Photoshop and Dreamweaver so he can do his own updates. It was a very productive meeting, and he plans to hire me a few more times until he feels more confident.

After my meeting, I walked down to the 5th floor to check-in with Cynde. She suggested that we should try to set up an appointment with the Bridal Salon on the 2nd floor while we had some time. When she called over, they were already booked for the rest of the day, but they suggested that we make an appointment for Friday when they start their 2-day trunk show.

Cynde and I went in yesterday afternoon. I liked many of the designs that they have (which hasn't really happened in any of the stores that I've gone to so far) but I especially liked the designer who they were featuring in their trunk show. We selected about 6 dresses to try on, but I put my favorite one on first. That was it - I found "the dress" :)

Let's hear it for Serendipity!

It's funny, because I thought we have been doing really well with this whole wedding-planning-timeline so far: we've booked our venue, the caterer, the photographer and the band. I figured 6 months was plenty early to start looking for a dress. Well, what do I know! The employees at the Bridal Store said that they'd have to pull some strings and put my order through as a rush to have it made in time. They said they like to plan on 6-9 months to have a dress made and delivered! That's crazy!

There's a really funny story about the style name of the dress that I really want to share. However, if I put it up on my Blog, Dick will know the style name (he already knows the designer) and he'll be able to see what the dress looks like. Oh well, too bad. Remind me, after the wedding, to tell you what the funny style-name story is.

Napolean Dynamite

Just got this off of Bruce's Blog:

Napoleon Dynamite on Letterman

That is just too funny.

If you haven't seen the movie, you really must.
If you're like me, you'll sit there the entire time thinking "this is really odd". Then, you'll start to laugh. Then, you'll wonder if it's okay to laugh. Then you'll remember that you really knew someone like that in high school. And possibly, you may even recognize that there's a little bit of Napoleon Dynamite in each of us.....

Seriously, the movie is even more funny after you've watched then entire thing, and think about it over and over in your head.