Full Frontal
Click on the image to see and read about the changes we've made to the front of our house.
Minimalist, Not Asian
I'm not a self-hating Asian, though I've been accused of it countless times. I just don't like Asian-themed things. Bamboo, Shoji screens, paper lanterns, black lacquer furniture with storks carved in abalone shell, jade ... no thanks.
In fact, I only bought chopsticks a couple days ago, and only because Arnon insisted on it.
So if you come over to our house, you will see that the only Asian-y thing in the house (other than the new chopsticks) is me.
Or so I had hoped.
Recently, my mom came over and immediately commented that she loved the Asian-style dining stools. What?!? Those dining stools aren't Asian!
Then a neighbor asked me, after I gave her a tour of the house, if I was going for an Asian theme in the kitchen? Um, NO!
Then Richard came over for dinner a couple weeks ago and said that he liked the Asian feel of the plates and accessories I had set out for dinner.
Over the weekend, I had Richard and Jason over for dinner, and I was complaining to Jason about how people are misconstruing my stuff as being Asian. Jason politely pointed out to me that my stuff is in fact quite Asian-y.
How could this have happened? How could I hate Asian-themed things and yet spend my own money buying them? It's all so absurd.
I was definitely going for a look, but that look was minimalist, not Asian.
Gloomy Weekend
One weekend in February was particularly gloomy, in terms of weather, so we headed to the coast. You can't tell from the photos but it rained heavily that day. And the wind was crazy, which can be painful when you have long hair to whip yourself with.
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Still, I love being out by the coast when it's dark and gray and getting chilled to the bone, and then toasting up with a hot meal and a nice glass of wine.
A Place to Relax
I know this is quite silly, but I'm ecstatic about our new sectional. We ordered it about four weeks ago and it was finally delivered yesterday afternoon.
My happiness doesn't stem from how the sectional looks or even that it was finally delivered, thus allowing me to check off one item on the list of things I'm waiting on.
Rather, we finally have a place to relax. We haven't been watching TV or reading because there's been no place to do so comfortably.
We also ordered a large ottoman to put our feet up on but it wasn't delivered. But our dining chairs arrived so we can have more people over to eat.
My sister and her family were over recently but there weren't enough chairs for everyone. Sad.
Hello Kitty at Stanford Mall
In early May, my sister invited Arnon and me to join her and Haley at This Little Piggy Wears Cotton in the Stanford Shopping Center to meet Hello Kitty and have our picture taken with her. Our appointment was set for 10:12 a.m. Apparently, every minute counts for Miss Kitty.
Why didn't they have such events when I was a little girl? I would have loved to have met Kitty. I suppose it's better late than never. I was clearly more enthused to meet Kitty than my three-year-old niece was.
After we left the event, the store contacted my sister to inform her that Haley had won the drawing. The prize was a Hello Kitty DVD player. I was so jealous!
Night of Drinking
I've been a stress case for several months now (including during our month-long vacation) but two things really helped me relax and feel good. The first is something that happened at work that I'll share another time, and the second was last night.
Simply put, I drank a lot last night.
Well, I drank a lot on vacation, too, but instead of reducing my stress, I ended up stressed and drunk. It wasn't pretty.
Anyway, we started early with drinks at Vesuvio's in North Beach, followed by wine with dinner at Franchino's, cocktails at Tony and Nic's Cafe for dessert, and tequila at Marc's place.
Liquor aside, it was just wonderfully relaxing to share a nice meal with friends and laugh heartily for hours.
Tough Love vs. Spanking
Most of America's populace thinks it very improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control our kids when they have one of "those moments."
One that I found very effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. They usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our little car ride together.
I've included the photo below of one of my sessions, with our son, in case you would like to use the technique. It's very effective!
Credit: Lisa
Murray
Over the last year, we'd heard a lot about Murray, Wes' ex-boyfriend who lives in South Africa, so when he flew out to California last April, we were eager to meet him.
Murray turned out to be a really nice guy, although I was disappointed to discover that he's politically conservative.
Also, I was amused that he was so "insulted" by the current prime minister of the UK, Gordon Brown, being Scottish. I understand the whole commonwealth thing, but as a South African, isn't "insulted" a bit much?
We took him out to a fondue feast at the Melting Pot, where Richard, who was clearly quite smitten with Murray, flirted with him like a teenaged girl. Too cute.
Best "Out-of-Office" Automatic Email Replies
- I am currently out of the office at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Please be prepared for my mood.
- You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.
- Sorry to have missed you, but I'm at the doctor's having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
- I will be unable to delete all the emails you send me until I return from vacation. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order in which it was received.
- Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5 for the first words and $1 for each additional word in your message.
- The email server is unable to verify your server connection. Your message has not been delivered. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
[The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see who did this over and over and over...] - Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately nine weeks.
- Hi, I'm thinking about what you've just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
- I've run away to join a different circus.
Credit: Sean
Photos
I mentioned yesterday that I had a lot of photos to share, but when I looked in the "TO POST" folder on my computer, I was surprised to see that I had photos dating back to fall 2007.
Man, I'm such a procrastinator.
Anyway, I'm going to try to get them all posted in the coming weeks, so don't be surprised to see posts about things that happened last year.
When I'm all caught up, I will start organizing the photos I took in Greece and Turkey and I'll share them with you. It may take a while, though, since I took over 4200 photos. Oy vay.
Turkish Barber
While on our tour of Turkey, our guide suggested that Arnon hold off on shaving for a while so he could visit a traditional Turkish barber shop. By the time we got to Antalya in early June, Arnon was ready.
Here's a short video of his visit to the barber shop:
Arnon and Haley
I have lots of photos to share so I'll start with these of Arnon and my niece Haley from last April.
Running around the house during renovation:
Playing on the front lawn:
Bullshit Bingo — How to Stay Awake in Meetings
Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Here's a way to change all of that.
- Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or conference call, prepare yourself by drawing a square. I find that 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns — five across and five down. That will give you 25 one-inch blocks.
- Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
synergy revisit benchmark fast track touch base strategic fit expeditious value-added result-driven mindset core competencies to tell you the truth (or "the truth is") proactive empower (or empowerment) client focus(ed) best practice 24/7 win-win knowledge base paradigm bottom line out of the loop think outside the box at the end of the day game plan - Check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.
- When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, stand up and shout BULLSHIT!
Testimonials from satisfied "Bull shit Bingo" players:
- "I had been in the meeting for only five minutes when I won." - Adam, Atlanta
- "My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically." - David, Florida
- "What a gas! Meetings will never be the same for me after my first win." - Dan, New York City
- "The atmosphere was tense in the last process meeting as 14 of us waited for the fifth box." - Ben, Denver
- "The speaker was stunned as eight of us screamed 'BULLSHIT!' for the third time in two hours." - Paul, Cleveland
Enjoy your meetings!
Credit: Anuj
Fourth of July in Santa Clara
I love the new community we live in. Once it got dark on the fourth of July, everyone walked over to Central Park, located next to the local library, for fireworks. We picked a nice spot by the lake and had a good view of the spot the fireworks were launched from.
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As we walked back to our place, we passed the house that we had bid on but lost. Thank goodness we did. It didn't occur to us until after we lost the bid that the house is only two doors down from Taco Bell.
Murder on My Mind
I am so frustrated with my general contractor that I could strangle him with my bare hands. Not only is he over nine weeks behind schedule, but every time he completes one thing, he ruins something else in the house.
The installation of kitchen shelves resulted in a part of the kitchen floor catching on fire. Work on the laundry room resulted in large gashes in the new hardwood flooring.
The list of things he ruined that he has to fix is now longer than the original list of projects he was contracted to do.
The kitchen is incomplete. The bathroom is incomplete. The living room is incomplete. The bedrooms are incomplete. The hot water works ... sometimes. Door handles turn ... sometimes. There are gas and electricity issues.
ARGH!
Michelangelo
Michelangelo's famous statue, David, returns to Italy this week after a successful 12 week, 20 city U.S. tour.
Credit: Sean
Rest in Peace, Miserable Compaq Laptop
A couple of weeks ago, the motherboard in my laptop finally gave out. Not surprisingly, the damn thing died as I booted it up to backup my files.
I harvested the hard drive the very next day, hoping the data on it was salvagable, and while I was at it, tore apart the entire laptop — payback for the grief it gave me over the last year.
I also ordered a new laptop (finally!) but when it was delivered, I only received one of the two pieces necessary for the power cord. When I contacted Dell about the missing power cord, the rep asked me to email him a photo of the missing piece.
Last I checked, it's not possible to photograph something that doesn't exist, but hey, what do I know?
A few days later, another rep informed me that Dell was going to make an exception in my case and mail me the missing half of the power cord. How magnanimous of Dell.
In any case, I'm happy to be up and running again. I have much to share with you all in the coming days.